Rebuilding dams, tax cuts, inflation
An aerial photo taken in January shows the Nissequogue River flowing through the breach in the dam that once held back the waters of Stump Pond at Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Rebuilt dams aren’t worth the price tag
Reporting on the rebuilding of the Blydenburgh County Park dam got me thinking again about our Long Island’s geological history [“Group sues over dam plan,” Long Island, July 13].
As a bayman here for more than 55 years, I have seen the consequences of ill-advised planning. Rebuilding dams for relatively frivolous reasons will likely lead again to their failure and destroy the natural flow and drainage of our few natural rivers and streams.
The Stony Brook Grist Mill and dam were built in an age when they might have been a necessity. It was a more rural farming community without the current sources of power we have today. How much wheat does Long Island produce today?
Indigenous flora and fauna have returned to these areas, and there will be more disastrous consequences of a failed dam if we are shortsighted.
Both the Nissequogue River and Stony Brook dams should not be rebuilt at such a tremendous cost in today’s dollars. Both of these ponds are not geologically natural — streams and rivers are.
We must learn to let nature take its course.
— Peter A. Rogers, Miller Place
Tax cuts don’t ease our rising costs
Rep. Nick LaLota says this tax season for Long Island residents “hurts a lot less” because of the tax cuts that were enacted [“$1 million to reach LI constituents,” News, July 12]. He failed to address how this small tax cut has been outweighed by the rising cost of everything else in our daily lives.
My healthcare premium went up 10% and my copay went up 50%. Food prices have gone way up. Gas prices have gone up. My car and condo insurance premiums have gone up. Utilities have gone up. All because of the economic policies enacted by Congress that he supports.
I am also tired of members of Congress saying that Social Security and Medicare are “entitlements.” My husband and I and the companies we worked for contributed to these programs. We contributed for more than 75 years during our working lives. This is our money, not an entitlement.
— Peggy Fallon, Port Washington
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