In response to the July 6-12 article “Potsdam Trustees Consider Building Permit Cost,” I want to state the obvious. Mr. Rosenthal has already depreciated the tax base in Potsdam by his actions. If Mr. Rosenthal can afford buy and raze a perfectly livable home on Drumlin Drive, thus wasting in excess of $100,000, then he can afford to pay the building permit fees on a new house costing over $1,000,000, that he plans to build to replace the one destroyed. Potsdam has a bloated code enforcement office, so someone else will be stuck ponying up the money that Mr. Rosenthal is attempting to save with reduced fees. Backroom, good-ole-boy politics are alive and well in Potsdam, which ironically is in a financial crisis already.