Mohawk Valley Targeted By Major Solar Energy Investors

Hits: 364

Elon Musk Targets Mohawk ValleyWhy has Elon Musk, environmentalist, survivalist, billionaire and chairman of Solar City decided to invest his money in Upstate New York?

Musk’s goal is to create state-of-the-art solar panels that beat the competition (dirty energy) hands down, with added features such as easy of configuration and a streamlined, attractive appearance. A new manufacturing plant being built in Buffalo plans on adding 1,460 new jobs for its huge operations. Hiring has already begun.

SUNY has suffered from high energy costs ranging up to 50% more than those of the rest of the country. Enter the solution: Technology experts.

SUNY’s Green Incubator will develop an integrated network of energy specialists from academia, industry, government, and the public policy arena who will fast-track our strategies, putting us on the leading edge of opportunities. And we will tap into more and different kinds of financing— including venture capital and angel investment funding—to place New York at the forefront of the clean energy economy.”

Elon Musk isn’t just any billionaire. He has a PhD from Stanford in physics, is the CEO of Tesla Motors and a co-founder of PayPal and SpaceX. As both a scientist and an astute investor, he knows how vital green energy is to our survival and has been investing in solar related products throughout the Mohawk Valley. Not coincidentally, Musk believes climate change will unleash massive migrations of displaced populations into global warming survival belts, such as New York’s Mohawk Valley.

Solar City is shifting its production base to Buffalo to improve control over supply. Their goal is to become a fully integrated residential and commercial provider.

Solar City Herkimer

New York State has expanded the growth of solar energy, which tripled between 2011 and 2014, bringing lower energy costs for both commercial and residential applications. Solar City will be constructing two solar arrays on 10 acres of land adjacent to Herkimer Community College. On June 24, 2015, the Herkimer County Industrial Development Agency passed a resolution to allow the $3.5 million project to move forward. Already been approved by the Herkimer County Legislature, the solar arrays are expected to save the Herkimer County and SUNY Herkimer $80,000 each per year.
New York’s focus on technology is realized in local programs. $191 million Zero Energy Nanotechnology (ZEN) building in Albany is a world-class laboratory for clean and renewable energy technologies. The result of New York’s visionary investment of billions of dollars in this green technology will be thousands of jobs, groundbreaking programs and research, and the capacity to train and create a skilled local workforce.

New York is fast becoming a green energy leader, pulling way ahead of most other states. And much of that innovation will come from here in Upstate New York and the Mohawk Valley.

Herkimers empty pockets – New County Attorney takes all

Hits: 278

monopoly
Herkimer County has recently budgeted $134,661 for its first full time attorney, Robert J. Malone. In a county with a population as small as ours and with one of the lowest median incomes in NY (ranking 50/62) this seems more than a little bit excessive.
Do Herkimer demographics support this expenditure?
How many people live in Herkimer? According to the US Census Herkimer County has a population of 64,519. The median household income is $45,000. With tax burdens in NY already nearly 50% higher than US average, Herkimer’s expenditure on a full time county attorney is simply an extravagance that we cannot afford.
What does $200,000 buy?
Supporting the College Now Program, the Herkimer County Legislature approved a $200,000 appropriation that allows high school students to enroll tuition-free in Herkimer College. What essential program won’t come about because of our new investment in a full time county attorney?
Appointee Robert J. Malone will be going from a part-time to a full-time position, with a salary of $134,661 and benefits. Savings from creating one full-time position would be approximately $1,500, according to county officials.
What are typical County Attorney salaries?
According to current statistics, an average county attorney salary is $53,000 and the maximum is $105,000. However, a NY county with a similar population, Columbia County, has a senior attorney and support staff with a budget as high as $425,395 in salary, plus pension and health benefits in 2012.
Small counties need to be especially thrifty when making spending choices. Easy-come Easy-go will not work for us. Civil servants shouldn’t get a bonus for serving the public good.

Rights of Photographers: Herkimer’s Melodie Schulze Cusses Out Old Bag

Hits: 438

 

The rights of photographers are clear, no matter how much this may upset criminals and the ignorant. (But  I repeat myself) Here’s a classic example. (Parents strongly cautioned.)

On September 5, 2015 we heard a knock on our door here in Herkimer. Michelle Schulze, two young female members of her household and a child in a stroller visited our home to urge us to restrain from taking photographs of children in a public area. They reside at 321 Pleasant Ave in Herkimer.

They refused to understand that NY State Law, backed by the 1st Amendment, says it’s OK to take photographs in public places. They think the law of their asphalt jungle is what goes. They were very concerned about a photo taken by my husband of the rather nice pub up the street. Within 2 minutes of his snapping the camera, they were upon us, with accusations of endangering children with our photos and hinted that we were child molesters. It’s important to note that taking photos in public places is a US Constitutional right.

Melodie Schulze Cusses Out Old Bag

Melodie Schulze, the young mom who’d brought her own young child in a stroller and stood under our security cameras, screamed that we had “touched children!” in an obscenity-laced tirade of abuse. Her first concern was obviously her child being photographed, as she brought the child with her to be photographed and recorded during her visit. 

Melodie  Schulze’s harassment had nothing to do with kids, but with our surveillance cameras recording Pleasant Avenue Herkimer’s drug trafficking and her own part in it.

Drug dealers don’t make laws. Legislators do. For those who find slander and menacing a neat way to threaten their foes, time is not on their side. Patterns of previous behavior, facial recognition databases, criminal background checks, security clearances and work histories all tell a story. That story is loud and clear. Conspiring to make up heinous lies about your neighbors to suit your criminal convenience, even as a gang, is dumb.

As is our right, we will continue to take pictures in public and semi-public areas without consulting drug dealers or dubious neighbors. Please conduct private business in private. We’re not criminals, we have no criminal history. US law applies to ALL of us and the rights of photographers are clear.

Just to be clear, you don’t get to create special purpose laws that go against legitimate US laws in our country!

Herkimer Malicious Trespassing – More Ball Games [VIDEOS]

Hits: 305

Herkimer Malicious Trespassing
In Herkimer, group vandalism helps build team spirit and fill pockets.


Herkimer, Where Criminal Trespass is a Team Sport

Just when you thought it was safe to go out in your driveway again, the team sport of Herkimer malicious trespassing takes the field again.
If you read my previous post about The Ball, you’ll know that earlier this summer my neighbors called the police on me when I refused to return a ball deliberately kicked at me with great precision from across the street. It was kicked by a beefy teen, striking me on the back of my legs.
The responding Herkimer Village Police Officer, the pseudonymous Officer Heist, threatened to arrest me for Petit Larceny, duped by this very old scam. He accused me of intending to steal the worthless ball used to assault me, the one I’d already tossed into the neighborhood’s adjacent playing area. It was outrageous!

Ball Harassment Continues
Malicious trespassing in Herkimer is  a popular team sport. The innocent children whose ball the Herkimer Police leaped to defend have taken to vandalizing our car under the pretext of retrieving their (new) ball. The ball rolls into our driveway frequently, although the street is perpendicular to the driveway. A baller retrieves the ball, off camera. During his or her stay, our car is scratched or sprayed with acid. Repeat. Repeat. Obviously it’s at their parents’ instigation. These kids are probably paid in cash or drugs. The State Police appear to have clamped down on their parents following their abusive mob interaction with us in the street. (Herkimer’s Pleasant Avenue is a quietly sanctioned haven of drug trafficking, its workers flush with drug money.  There are signs that things far more heinous go on here, also involving children. )
I ordered one girl from my driveway the other day, telling her she was trespassing and not to return. She screamed “Don’t you ever talk to me that way!” As you’ll note from the video clip of her departure, she was quite indignant and circled her hand about her head, indicating that any defiance to her outrageous behavior was insane.  Politeness and respect are obviously strangers in her family. Sadly there is an arrogant expectation that my home is a public way to be used however and whenever my neighbors see fit.
Additional cameras have been brought on line. More are coming. We live as I did in Cote D’Ivoire West Africa, where each home’s a fortress, and anarchy prevails.

What I’ve Learned from Herkimer’s Officer Heist and the Pleasant Avenue Ball Harassment
Shrugging our shoulders in helplessness because, Hey! It’s just Pleasant Avenue, ill-serves us all. There are two underlying problems here. The most important is attitude. As a community, we must provide basic services, or we’re not a community. If we can’t do this alone, we have to ask for help. To be a successful community rather than one in name only, we have to change to an “I think I can and I will try” attitude. Too often when problems are discussed here, even the best of Herkimer’s people sigh, shrug their shoulders and say, “It’s Herkimer.” (At some point, perhaps the citizens of Gomorrah probably did the same.)

Herkimer is crime-ridden and  plagued by poverty. Many of the children on our street are very intelligent, but they are not engaging intellectually – their education is pathetically inadequate. Some are reading grade levels below what they should.  It’s obvious the school system treats them as pariahs and tracks them as such. At least one middle school student didn’t know what the Atlantic Ocean is. One doesn’t know what an ocean is. A very bright and likable neighboring 9th grader  is periodically made campfires from his homework assignments.  He correctly determined that Herkimer considers him social junk that his school’s job is keep him off the streets during the day. Like many kids in Herkimer, he’s filled with rage and hopelessness.

We can do better than this, Herkimer. If not now, when?

Linda Kaidan