School district seeks to raise budget by $11 million

Since April 27, copies of the Liverpool Central School District 2023-24 budget have been available at each of the district’s school buildings as well as the Liverpool Public Library.

The district wants to spend an additional $11 million dollars over and above the $173,451,163 they spent this year.

There’s a public hearing about the proposed $184 million spending plan set for 6 p.m. Thursday, May 4, at the district office board room, 195 Blackberry Road, in Bayberry.

Heated discussions about the district’s finances have recently lit up the local nextdoor.co m app where several posters complained that certain school administrators were being granted outrageous raises by the proposed budget. Maybe they’ll find out more about it at Thursday’s public hearing.

Another bridge strike

Another truck hit the railroad bridge over Onondaga Lake Parkway on Monday morning, April 24. So far, five bridge strikes have occurred over the first four months of 2023.

Funny thing is that it was a truck operated by a state Department of

Transportation contractor. Anthony Nordland, 54, of Wyoming, New York, was driving a box truck while setting up cones in a work zone along the parkway when his truck struck the bridge at 4 to 6 mph, according to Undersheriff Jeffery Passino.

In an April 7, “Newsmakers” interview with WSYR-TV’s Andrew Donovan, state DOT Regional Director Dave Smith outlined his best advice about ending the bridge strikes. “I would advise the drivers of these vehicles to get commercial global positioning systems,” Smith said.

Last year, eight trucks taller than 10’9” crashed into the infamous bridge. Good chance we’re going to top that single digit during this calendar year.

Spring Bazaar Saturday

The first bazaar of the season is slated for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, at Johnson Park.

“We are still working on the entire season, but we anticipate we’ll have great turnouts this year,” said organizer Jessica Mosley, who presents the bazaars along with her husband, Jeremy Mosley.

“This first one on Saturday, our Spring Bazaar, will be smaller as it usually is at the beginning of the season,” Jessica said. “But as we progress they will get bigger

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Cozmic Cauldron

The Mosleys operate two businesses – Mosley Mercantile in Liverpool and the Cozmic Cauldron in downtown Syracuse. Both the Mercantile and the Cauldron will have booths set up at Johnson Park on Saturday along with many other hand-crafted vendors. Smackers Snacks will sell snacks and drinks as well.

“We’re hoping for good weather,” Jessica said, “but we’ll be there rain or shine.”

Future park bazaars are slated for May 27, June 10 and 24, July 8 and 22, Aug. 5 and 26, Sept. 9 and 23 and Oct. 14 and 28 village-wide sale May 12-14 last word

The annual village-wide garage sale will take place, as always, on Mother’s Day weekend, May 12-14. If you are having a sale, email your street address to deputyclerk@villageofliverpool.or g and Deputy Village Clerk Sandy Callahan will post the addresses of participating houses as the weekend approaches.

“I would advise the drivers of these vehicles to get commercial global positioning systems.”

–State DOT Regional Director Dave Smith.

Offer solutions

To the editor:

I read Ann Ferro’s column about school shootings. I totally agree with almost everything she wrote, but apparently chose not to think about or offer any solutions. I am a believer in “if you don’t offer any solutions to a problem, then your part of the problem.”

Here are three things that I believe should be done to help solve the problem of gun violence in our schools and communities.

1. Prosecute criminals for using and carrying concealed handguns. This is not being done in the majority of large cities in America. Especially those cities that are controlled by Democrats elected to represent people in their communities.

2. Put together police task forces that investigate how people are obtaining illegal hand guns. Then arrest and prosecute those who break the law. Don’t condemn those people who go through the arduous task of legally obtaining a permit to own and carry a hand gun.

3. Organize members of local communities and help them to change the “gun culture” that exists there. Cultures have to salaries.

Mr. Samuelson didn’t write a witty, literate book, but right now, his explanation of the role of supply and demand is as cogent and as applicable as ever, generating the possibility of a be changed by the people that live within them. Cultures cannot be changed by those that are not part of the community culture.

FreD STODDArD liverpool

Look for the cause

To the editor:

When there is a problem, look for the cause, not the symptom. School shootings are a symptom and the cause is not gun ownership. True, if there were no guns there would be no shootings just as no cars, no automobile deaths, but too simplistic and unworkable. I grew up in a time when you could purchase almost any type of firearm through the mail. No school shootings… Since the 1960s automatic firearms have been virtually banned, so why reference them?

So what has changed since my childhood when teens used to take rifles to school so they could do some hunting on the way home and there were no school shootings?

We have had semi-automatic guns for over 100 years. The styles have changed but does that cause school shootings?

When I was a kid 1 in every 5 kids were in the Scouts (boy or girl), today maybe 1 in waking nightmare for a lot more than myself.

Ann Ferro is a mother, a grandmother and a retired social studies teacher. While still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, she lives in Marcellus with lots of books, a spouse and a large orange cat.

100. Most families were intact; dads were present in their children’s lives. Families went to church, did things together and maybe a few kids did get bullied but nothing like today. Entertainment was devoid of brutal, graphic violence even though cap guns and air rifles were the toys of choice for boys. GI Joe was huge and westerns with heroes like the Lone Ranger were a staple.

How about today? Kids’ video games (which we didn’t have) are often violent and many have an anti social theme. Music, TV shows and movies are often filled with extreme and highly graphic violence. Proficiency scores in our schools have slipped (city schools about 25%, suburban about 50%). Too many young people do not have the most basic tools for success. Because of single parent households more kids are growing up in poverty than ever. The internet has ushered in a whole new era of exposure to bullying, exploitation, pornography and negative behaviors and parents mostly don’t supervise their kids’ use of the web. In an age of more communication opportunities than ever, kids and many people actually feel more connected to their phones than to actual human beings. Toss in drugs along with depression and isolation and you have a mix for many of the social ills of today.

Shootings are a symptom of a social order that is falling apart. Guns are not the problem and banning them is not a solution. While I do support limited access for some firearms and high capacity magazines, handguns are used in far more crimes and kill far more people. Personally, I do not see any honest attempt to address the real causes of violence in our society. It is easier and more popular to just scream that we need to ban guns.

JOhn WhiTFOrD liverpool

BPL budget passes

The Baldwinsville Public Library operating budget for 2023-2024 passed 169 to 19. Congratulations to Pam Fallesen and Mary Anne Williams who were elected to the library board.

MArGArET (MEG) vAN PATTEN direCtor, baldWinSville publiC library

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