N. Hempstead battery storage plant, pensions, SSI, NYS taxes, biased reporting

Fear climate change more than batteries

I urge the North Hempstead Town board to follow Brookhaven’s lead and approve the battery storage plant [“Revisiting battery storage plant ban,” Our Towns, Sept. 19]. I fear the effects of climate change more than I fear a battery plant fire. Such fires are frightening but rare, and they actually don’t do any ground harm outside their own perimeters.

Climate change, though, causes harm that we feel locally and globally: extended heat waves, choking smoke from massive wildfires hundreds of miles away, drenching downpours and floods.

New York needs to do its part by reducing fossil fuel use and moving to clean energy, which requires battery storage — already in use in 39 states. We need to overcome our fears of this new technology.

— Star Anthony, Port Washington

Worry only about your own backyard

It is ironic that Legis. Robert Trotta of Fort Salonga is going after nonprofit CEOs when Suffolk County has so many pension double-dippers working for the county [“My visit to Hicksville clinic was uneventful,” Letters, Sept. 20].

More than 39,000 retired workers in Suffolk County were receiving a combined $1.5 billion in annual pension payments as of March 2023 — the most of any county in the state — according to a September report from the state comptroller’s office. Perhaps Trotta is purposely ignoring his own backyard. In fact, Trotta is one of the double-dippers.

He should be asked how he feels that Suffolk County Supervisor Ed Romaine collects a $116,000 pension plus his supervisor’s salary of $241,000.

Suffolk’s justification for hiring retirees was due to their experience and knowledge. CEOs of nonprofits would need experience and knowledge to run a nonprofit effectively and efficiently. As a result, there must be adequate compensation.

— Pete Scott, Centerport

SSI act would help low-income disabled

I heartily agree with Mark X. Cronin, co-founder of John’s Crazy Socks with his son John [“Need fair support for disabled people,” Opinion, Sept. 17]. Supplemental Security Income asset and income limits need to be raised.

While working at the Suffolk County Office for the Aging for 20 years, I saw firsthand the severe challenges that disabled and low-income seniors on SSI faced to survive. Many needed the services but did not meet the overly strict financial criteria.

Hopefully, the House and Senate can come together to pass the bipartisan SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act to help low-income disabled folks of all ages.

— Eileen Bruning, Huntington

Tell people to leave and they just may go

Here is another reason why people are moving out of this state [“New Yorkers on the move,” News, Sept. 22]. In August 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul told state Republicans to “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK? . . . You are not New Yorkers.”

Could it be that some of those people took this advice and went to a state that was more welcoming to their values and beliefs and where their tax dollars are more appreciated?

— George Repetti, Wantagh

Technology can help alert our firefighters

I am sure there are more high-tech solutions than a beeper or a text alert to let firefighters know about sudden calls [“Night sirens draw fire,” News, Sept. 9]. After all, Alexa on my Amazon Echo Dot lets me know when I need to reorder coffee filters.

I imagine that until all the current department volunteers retire, I’ll have to put up with my dog’s howls as he sings along with the Wantagh Fire Department’s sirens.

— Robert Cheeseman, Wantagh

Three little words can make a big difference

The article “Driving teacher charged with touching student” [Our Towns, Sept. 16] ends with a line nearly identical to the adjacent article, “Fatal bicycle crash on Mastic Road Saturday.” But the article on the teacher adds words that can be seen as prejudicial against the driving instructor.

Both articles ask anyone with information to call the police, but the driving instructor article adds “or other victims.”

Those three words imply that the teacher is guilty and there are other victims out there. While that may be true, that is for the justice system to decide. It seems a better way to put it might have been to say, “or anyone else who might have been victimized.”

Our judicial system is built around the foundation of one is innocent until proven guilty. Even in the case of heinous crimes, a defendant deserves a presumption of innocence.

— Bill Ciesla, Northport