• Editors note -- North Country Now acknowledges the headline to the story mentioned in this letter was incorrect. The headline has since been fixed to accurately reflect the story. North Country Now apologizes for this error.

To the Editor:

The headline "County Farm Bureau throws support behind Rooftop Highway" emblazoned last Saturday on North Country Now homepage is either a gross example of poor editing skills, or worse, a less than subtle method to twist words to promote the Rooftop Highway.

In the link to the original YNN article, Jon Greenwood from the St. Lawrence County Farm Bureau talks of supporting upgrading Route 11, not building the Rooftop Highway. If your publication seeks to retain its journalistic integrity, it should immediately post a retraction and correction to the headline, lest it be mistaken for a propaganda mouthpiece for Jason Clark's Rooftop highway faction.

I chuckled at Mr. Clark's response to Mr.Greenwoods concerns:

..."the Farm Bureau's concerns will be discussed, but now isn't the time. No specific route has been designated to this point, so to say that farm land will be split up or you'll have all these issues, that's irresponsible at this point because it's simply not understood yet,"

"Now isn't the time" before they lay the concrete, Mr. Clark? "Irresponsible" to weight the pros and cons of such a massive environmental impact on the North County, Mr. Clark? It seems instead that Mr. Clark does not want any troubling questions to get in the way from getting a slice of the big Federal money at stake. It reeks of desperation.

Mr. Clark, if the Rooftop highway will be such a wonderful boon to the North Country, what have you to hide by dismissing such inquiries? Since you freely admitted that all the ratifications of a Rooftop highway are not, in your words, "simply not understood yet," then why should we not talk about them?

Ron Shirtz, Rensselaer Falls