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NCCC hosts its 18th annual Tech Wars Competition Veterans in Pendleton speak out
By Rebecca Gunning THE STAR EDITOR
On Wednesday, Jan. 14, Niagara County Community College hosted its 18th annual Tech Wars Competition. Nearly 30 school districts from all over Western New York visited the campus to compete in 21 different engineering and technology events, with Cleveland Hill High School being crowned the 2015 Tech War Champions. The event was open to students in grades 6 through 12, with middle school and high school divisions in many of the competitions. Eighteen years ago when Tech Wars first began, there was one event with students from three schools. This year’s competition had around 700 students registered. There is a wide array of events, ranging from the amount of weight a wooden bridge can hold to robots building towers to windmill construction. One of the most anticipated ones is the Sumo Bot competition, which high school students build 20-pound robots to face off against each other. “These things are built from scratch by the students,” explained Mark Voisinet, an instructor at NCCC who has been involved with Tech Wars since 2000. “They’re starting with raw materials and doing everything from mechanical con-
By Rachel Fuerschbach THE STAR CORRESPONDENT
REBECCA GUNNING
Roy-Hart sophomores Tanner Balmer (left) and Jon Porth placed first in the high school division for KidWind. struction of it to all of the mounting of electronic components to all the programing and wiring that needs to be done in order to run the robots.” Another event that saw many participants was the Cardboard Boat Regatta. In this competition, students must construct a boat using only broken down card-
board, tape, glue and paint. They then must be able to row it from one end of NCCC’s pool to the other and back. The oars also can only be created with cardboard and duct tape. “That’s one of the competitions where you see a wide array of very well done and thought-out projects as compared to the occasional
refrigerator box with some duct tape holding it together,” said Voisinet with a laugh. One of the teams that participated in the regatta was a team of four girls from Sweet Home High School, who wore squid hats and made a boat that looked like a whale. The girls’ team is made up of senior Allie
Perfetto, freshman Alyssa Duffy, junior Madeline Bell, and her sister Alison, a freshman, and wound up finishing in third place. Voisinet found the all-girl team to be encouraging and follows the trend of more
See “Tech Wars”, Page 3
Town of Wilson residents finally receive tax bills, no solid answers on delay By Rebecca Gunning THE STAR EDITOR
Residents in the Town of Wilson saw a delay in receiving their tax bills this year after the United States Postal Service seemingly lost or misplaced the 2,000 some pieces of mail. The town mailed out the bills via first class mail on Dec. 30, expecting residents to receive them no later than a couple days after the New Year. Supervisor Joseph A. Jastrzemski said they became aware that residents had not received them after a number of phone calls to the clerk’s office. “We were notified because we started getting phone calls from residents saying they hadn’t gotten their tax bills yet. That was about Jan. 4 or so,” he explained. “What we did was we started to investigate, and then we found out the post office hadn’t delivered
[them].” Jastrzemski said people finally began to receive their bills on Monday, Jan. 12, nearly two weeks after they were mailed. There is still no solid answer of what caused the lag in delivery. “We don’t know exactly where they went,” the supervisor said. “They left the Ransomville Post Office, they went to Buffalo, and from there we have not been given any answers as to where they were sent.” Karen Mazurkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the Western New York District’s Postal Service, offered speculation on what happened, but again nothing is confirmed. “We never truly uncovered why they were delayed. I can speak just from experience and suppose what happened,” she said. “Obviously, they either got put to the side, or they got misrouted and went to the wrong area for processing
and it took them a little while to come back.” Mazurkiewicz says this is not a common occurrence and locals should not worry in the future. “That’s an anomaly,” she said. “Generally, we don’t have pieces of mail that just go missing for days, but in this case we are really glad that they did show up, and we were able to deliver them.” The delay has caused some frustration for the town. Town tax collector Julie Godfrey was swamped, taking in over $200,000 worth of money in just one day this week, not to mention plenty of phone calls to the clerk’s office. “How could you expect to lose 2,000 pieces of mail that were mailed first class?” Jaztrzemski questioned. “It was ludicrous. We were stunned to be honest with you.” Because of the delay, the supervisor said he would
be seeking a full refund for the postage and is currently in the process of drafting a letter to send. However, Mazurkiewicz says the post office is not required to give one in this case. “For first class mail, generally it should be delivered within a couple days, and obviously we didn’t meet that standard,” she explained. “However, the pieces were delivered. If the town wants to request that refund, it certainly would be considered, but again there is no guarantee [here].” Had the town sent the bills via express mail, delivery is guaranteed, but it also is more expensive. Despite the tax bills being received later than normal, there will not be an extension on the due date of Feb. 2. “It really is important that people get in and get their bills paid on time because there won’t be
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an extension guaranteed,” Jaztrzemski said. “There won’t be an extension for this mishap because of the law.” The town is actually not required to send its residents tax bills in the mail, but they do so as a courtesy. Jaztrzemski said in the future the town might start reaching out to residents a couple days after sending out the bills in order to ensure delivery. At this time, residents of the Town of Wilson should have received their lost tax bills. If you have not, you can get yours by visiting the town hall at 375 Lake St. Or you can also visit www.wilsonnewyork.com, and click “view and pay town/county tax bills”. For additional questions, please contact the tax collector at 751-9531 or the town clerk at 751-6704 ext. 10.
Budwey’s
For months the controversy over whether or not the school board should pass the tax exemption for veterans in the district has been on going and will finally be put to a vote at the next board meeting Jan. 26. The veteran’s tax exemption law was put into effect by the state Dec. 18, 2013 and a decision is to be made by the board on whether or not to pass the tax exemption policy by March 1, 2015. The exemption will exempt any veteran and veteran’s spouse, if the veteran is deceased, a tax exemption for schools in the district. There are three levels of exemption: war-time vet who was in a non-combat zone; $6,000, war-time vet in a combat zone; $4,000, and disabled wartime vet; $20,000. All exemptions are accumulative from the bottom up. “For those who did not serve in the armed forces that was your privilege and your choice, but someone in this community took their place [in the military] …these are the men and women who preserve our rights and beliefs,” said veteran Gordon Bellinger. Although many are thankful for the sacrifices that our veterans have given in order to defend our country and have no issue paying the tax increase some wonder when those who chose not to defend our country will stop being penalized and the “handouts” for veterans will stop. “Men and women walked up and took the oath [to serve and protect this country], just a little consideration as we get old and grey and slower is all we ask for,” said Pat McMan, a Marine Corp veteran. Non-veterans of the Pendleton area will face a tax increase of $17 per year on average for a $150,000 assessment. However many veterans aren’t concerned with themselves pertaining to the tax exemption but rather are concerned with honoring those who have fallen and helping their families as well as the helping veterans who are living on a fixed income.
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