To the Editor:

I am very happy that I no longer live in Ogdensburg. Their recent attempt to raise taxes by so much and to borrow so many millions of dollars had finally bit them on the arse, I'm afraid.

I still have a serious fondness for my birth-city and great memories of growing up on Ford Avenue; it was a good place to raise kids at that time.

But, they are now suffering the pangs of the worst planning and implementations of the last couple decades and not a single person there was able to stop it. A few tried and were pushed aside in favor of the old timers and those willing to play the games with the current people.

I would consider this final insult to be adding to the good people's well being and even their own futures and that of their children. Most everyone in the city is so poor they couldn't move out of the city if they wanted to, and I've talked to many who do wish they could leave.

The loans have to go: period.

And the increases of the last few and the coming years need to go: period.

Regardless of their age now, everyone with any power in the city operates like a bunch of "old women" as my mother called them in the 50's, and are still too ignorant to see the writing on the wall.

Until the city decides to do away with that tax increase for this and the coming years, nothing will get any better either. The city should be made to face up to facts and realize what needs to be done. And that's to operate within budget, decrease the budget until no tax increases are needed on the good citizens, and to put a positive in plan to live within that budget for the next decade.

Like the T-Rump, Rain, and many others, they still foolishly allow others to control and drive them in the wrong directions. I don't even see any oversight of the money the city does stand to spend. The city is run by a bunch of technophobes that wouldn't know an opportunity was a good one if it ran up and bit them on the butt.

But they won't listen: they won't be satisfied until the current terrible credit rating goes to zero and the worst of all scenarios plays itself out there.

Tom Rivet

Heuvelton