leTTerS

To the editor:

Gun violence takes the lives of too many New Yorkers, and it is taking more and more each year. When elected to the Assembly I will work to make our gun laws fairer and more effective. I will not take weapons away from lawabiding citizens, but will work to take them away from criminals. And I will do this with input from gun violence experts – law enforcement professionals.

In 2014, gun-related deaths in the U.S. numbered 33,508, but by 2020 that had risen to 45,055. Nearly every state has experienced an increase. New York rose 26% - almost 200 more people each year by 2020 than in 2014. Something must be done about it. Our state legislature passed several laws focused on guns in 2022. The new laws include limits on where guns can be carried, added background checks for ammunition purchases, mandated annual handgun training, and even required applicants for concealed carry permits to provide character references and social media accounts. Some of these actions were in response to the Supreme Court’s decision eliminating New York’s long-standing concealed carry permit application requirements, and others were in response to the supermarket attack in Buffalo.

I am thankful our legislature is willing to act quickly, but I fear the resultant legislative actions will not have the potent effect on gun violence our legislators envisioned. Good ideas are the product of an inclusive process that considers many possibilities. However, the process of enacting these new gun laws did not include adequate input from law enforcement. The New York Sheriff’s Association said, “If we had been consulted before passage of these laws, we could have helped the legislators […] and the result would have been better, more workable licensing provisions that respect the rights of our law-abiding citizens and punish the lawbreakers.”

I believe that law enforcement and their expertise should be carefully considered when debating new action to address gun violence. The recent set of gun laws passed the Senate along party lines, but in the Assembly, three Democratic members from Central New York voted against them. They expressed concern that the process was rushed. If elected in November, I will carefully work with my colleagues from both parties to address gun violence, and will work specifically on supporting legislation that keeps guns away from domestic abusers and others who have shown a propensity to violence. Finally, I will ensure that we support and include our police agencies, who must do the hard work of enforcing the laws.

DAn buTTeRmAn

CanDiDate nyS aSSembley DiStriCt 122 Thanks to the school district

To the editor:

The Cazenovia Central School District (CCSD) recently passed its budget which included the purchase of three new gas-powered school buses. As Our Climate Smart Community is very attuned to the environmental crisis and New York State has mandated that all school buses bought after 2027 be electric, efforts were undertaken to address this issue for future purchases. After investigation the CCSD realized that the transition to electric buses is complicated and requires significant infrastructure to store and charge these vehicles. It is a very costly endeavor which would be considerable for our district. The CCSD conceived of a possible solution involving shared responsibility between CCSD, The Town and Village of Cazenovia and the Town of Nelson. The garage and charging stations could be jointly purchased and used by all involved. On behalf of the CCSD, Lauren Lines ((the Executive Director of Cazenovia Area Community Development Association) (CACDA)) wrote a grant to pay for a consultant to evaluate the feasibility of this resource sharing which was subsequently submitted by the CCSD.

The United Climate Action Network (UCAN) is committed to moving us away from fossil fuels and toward more energy efficient sources of power. The members of UCAN fully and enthusiastically support the efforts of the CCSD and wish to express our sincere thanks for their dedication, creativity, vision, and hard work.

uCAn STeeRing CommiTTee

Cazenovia

My plan

To the editor:

Gun violence is on the rise, and regardless of who you wish to blame for it, as Onondaga County sheriff, it will be my duty to lead the effort to apprehend violent criminals so they cannot hurt anyone again. As a nearly 30-year law enforcement veteran, I have the knowledge and ability to uphold public safety and rule of law while maintaining respect for our rights.

My top priority as sheriff will be to get illegal guns off the streets, not punish those who legally and responsibly carry firearms. Illegal gun removal details need to increase, as does our collaboration with the Syracuse Police Department and other municipal Police Departments countywide. Public safety requires that we go beyond confiscation of illegal firearms. I will work closely with District Attorney Fitzpatrick to take that next step after illegal gun confiscations to dig deeper and uncover where they are coming from. We must find and stop criminals who are bringing dangerous, illegal weapons into our community, putting lives at risk.

Proactive, community-based policing will be the lynchpin of my efforts as sheriff. I will create a civilian and law enforcement steering committee that I will meet with regularly to discuss community issues impacting law enforcement and the community alike and find grassroots solutions to stymie violence and crime before it crops up. This will be a diverse group, made up of representatives from across the county and City of Syracuse. For our community to rise above crime, we need residents who live where the crimes occur to be part of the solution, and I am excited for these community partnerships to grow.

There can be no public safety without the help of the public. Together, we can keep our neighborhoods and communities safe rather than divide ourselves with volatile political rhetoric. I am running for sheriff on my merits and my experience as a soldier, a chief deputy, and as a father with deep roots in Onondaga County. This race is personal, not because I am on the ballot, but because our families deserve to feel safe in the community we share.

eSTebAn gonzALez

CanDiDate for Sheriff of ononDaga County North Syracuse square off in cross country. State individual Class A champion Izzie Sullivan and Hannah Kaercher are on one side, multiple state indoor and outdoor champions Kate Putman nad Hannah Boyle are on the other side. They go head-to-head on Oct. 4.

Of course football draws the most attention, and again there are plenty of changes among the classes.

CBA got promoted to Class AA and will directly challenge C-NS’s half-decade reign. Oh yeah, and Liverpool brought on Joe Sindoni to try to push the Warriors to the top after years of frustration, mostly at the Northstars’ expense.

With the Brothers gone and Indian River now in Class B, it’s difficult to predict where Class A will go, though the newcomers, Corcoran and New Hartford, might really flourish.

Indian River could easily ascend to the top of Class B if Homer isn’t ready to stop them. And no game in Class C will top, in terms of intrigue, the opener where Skaneateles meets Cazenovia – and Jay Steinhorst, who coached so long for one set of Lakers and won a state title with them, now leads the other side.

They’ll play it out not just on Friday nights, either. A shortage of officials means there’s plenty of Thursday-night games on the docket, which is a good place to remind everyone that, if you love sports, they would all appreciate the help in order to have officials on hand for every contest.

Aside from the usual sites for most state tournaments, VernonVerona-Sherrill will host the state cross country championships in November. Many local teams will run an invitational meet there Sept. 10, though of course the conditions will be far different two months down the road.

These, of course, are the prominent headlines. Rest assured, more will surface over the course of September and October. With so many sports, the difficult part is keeping up with the furious activity, all of it compacted over a calendar far shorter than the winter season.

Twelve months ago, we were still tiptoeing out of the worst of a pandemic, wondering how it would go. Now most of the restrictions are gone (though it could always flare up again), and the focus can truly center on the sports, and not whether they will take place at all.

So even with the new coaches on hand and new stories to follow, the same unique thrill of high school sports remains, drawing us back in for another fall, winter and spring full of magic and memories.

Phil Blackwell is sports editor at Eagle News. He can be reached at pblackwell@ eaglenewsonline.com.

Once and for all… Flag stick “in”… or flag stick “out”?

On January 1, 2019, the most extensive revisions over the past several decades to the Rules of Golf o cially went into e ect. e new rules impacted golfers of all skill levels. e premise guiding the o cials from the USGA and the R&A was to make the rules easier to understand and apply. e relaxing of certain rules, where the punishment was perhaps more severe than warranted, helped to make golf simpler to play and more enjoyable. I believe they have essentially accomplished all of the above…don’t you? You need to look no further to bene t from the new rules, than on the greens. For example: * Rule 13.1D says…If you accidentally hit your ball with your backswing, move your ball while marking it, even mistakenly kick your ball, there is no penalty so long as you return the ball to its original spot. * Rule 13.1C(2) says…You are allowed to repair almost any damage on the green, including spike marks, shoe damage, indentations from a club or agstick and animal damage. e exceptions that remain are aeration holes, natural surface imperfections and natural wear of a hole. You can even touch the line of your putt (within reason). Caddies can now use the agstick to gently touch the putting surface to help you with your read and line of the putt. And how about the BIG ONE, “YOU CAN LEAVE THE FLAGSTICK IN THE HOLE WHILE PUTTING ON THE GREEN WITHOUT FEAR OF A PENALTY”. e o cials making the nal recommendation to the new rules didn’t believe allowing the agstick in the hole while putting was going to be an advantage. ey believed leaving the agstick “IN”, would speed up play. PGA Tour players are divided on this subject. If you watch the tournaments on TV, it appears about 50% want the agstick “OUT”. e other 50% want the agstick le “IN”. It took me several weeks to get used to putting with the agstick “IN” the hole during the mandatory…“don’t touch the agstick” Covid Rule but currently, I prefer to leave the agstick “IN” the hole all of the time. Several years ago I wrote an article about Dave Plez, the Short Game Guru, who claimed leaving the agstick in the hole while putting from o the green, would result in making 33% more of your putts. A bold claim back then but he backed up his claim with a study he conducted analyzing 25,000 putts. I have been leaving the agstick “IN”, from o the green, ever since. Is it best to leave the agstick “IN” or “OUT” of the hole when you putt? One of my favorite golf research companies is My Golf Spy. ey just conducted a test of this polarizing question in controlled conditions both inside their lab and outside on an actual putting green. ey conducted their test using a Perfect Putter(stimpmeter), a lot of golf balls and two agsticks (one rigid…one whippy). e research was well thought out and thorough. For: Intro, A-Ha Moment, Testing Parameters, Data, Summary and Conclusion see…mygolfspy. com/ agstick-in- agstick-out-2019… It is well worth the 8 minutes and 2 seconds of your time to watch this video on y-tube.

MY GOLF SPY FINAL OBSERVATIONS…

Perry Noun is the former executive director of the Northeastern NY PGA as well as a competitive amateur golfer and winner of the New York State Super Senior Amateur Championship. Perry Noun can be heard on “Tee Time With The Pronoun” on... News Radio 570 WSYR and 106.9FM.

1. LEAVING THE FLAGSTICK IN THE CUP, IS ALWAYS (100% OF THE TIME), AN ADVANTAGE VS. TAKING THE FLAGSTICK OUT. 2. LEAVING THE FLAGSTICK IN, ALSO KEEPS THE BALL CLOSER TO THE HOLE ON MISSES. 3. THE LESS RIGID FLAGSTICK HAS THE HIGHEST MAKE PERCENTAGE AND LEAST DISTANCE TO THE HOLE AFTER A MISS. 4. THE MOST RIDIG FLAGSTICK IS STILL AN ADVANTAGE FOR BOTH MAKES AND MISSES VS. FLAGSTICK OUT. 5. DEAD CENTER STRIKES ON THE FLAGSTICK PROVIDED THE BEST MAKE PERCENTAGE VS. FLAGSTICK OUT. 6. OFF-CENTER STRIKES ON THE FLAGSTICK STILL PROVIDED A HIGHER MAKE PERCENTAGE VS. FLAGSTICK OUT. 7. WHILE THE ADVANTAGE IS NOT AS SIGNIFICANT WHEN THE FLAGSTICK IS LEANING FORWARD (TOWARD THE GOLFER), IT IS STILL AN ADVANTAGE VS. TAKING THE FLAGSTICK OUT. eir is no scienti c evidence that proves taking the agstick “OUT”, is better than leaving it “IN”. ere is scienti c evidence that proves leaving the agstick “IN”, is better than taking it “Out”. Save strokes “on or o ” the green when you are putting… leave the agstick “IN”.

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