To the Editor:

I assume most of our community does not know that the St. Lawrence County Legislature has cut all funding to the Canton Public Library and others, while spending in excess of $100,000, to promote the mythical rooftop highway.

The proponents of this absurd daydream cannot seem to grasp the reality. No amount of lobbying will convince the heads of government and interstate highway officials to build a “field of dreams” road through one the most lightly populated, remote, cold, wet, impoverished regions in the State of New York if not the Northeast.

Such roads are built to service existing population needs not to promote “development.”

There are already over 30 in the carious planning stages and it takes decades to bring about the actual construction phase.

Meanwhile, our dollars are being spent to promote this dead issue at the expense of local institutions, such as libraries. Please call or write your representative in the legislature and express your outrage at their irresponsible behavior.

We must cut local spending, not waste money on pie in the sky daydreams that could not even be built for many years, if ever. Since we are not on the Star Ship Enterprise, we can’t just “beam up” a four-lane super highway.

Trim County Department spending, examine productivity, encourage retirement, re-negotiate benefit packages, hold of on capital expenditures, save fuel and heat, consolidate departments, encourage the state to raise the minim wage and put more money into circulation, Do not continue to do business as usual. The good old days are gone forever. Face it and move on.

Increasing the sales tax is regressive and only further impoverishes a poor local population.

I encourage citizens of the county to pay attention and get involved in local policy making now.

Elia Filippi

Richville