Letters to the Editor 1-29-15

Future job opportunities for young people?

Practically every Salisbury restaurant, school, real estate agency, inn and business has a website. Salisbury has at least three computer consulting and maintenance businesses; there are innumerable web entrepreneurs developing websites and providing web marketing services. Thanks to the Internet, there are countless independent entrepreneurs scattered throughout Salisbury earning a living running full- and part-time Internet businesses from their homes. This website is a) based in NJ, and b) shut down. I wonder how many businesses — dependent upon the Internet — are hidden in these hills?

Of course we all shop locally, but for both buying and selling products and services, the Internet reaches customers globally. This is one reason local retailers often struggle. There is almost nothing you can’t buy on Amazon.com, and Amazon Prime shipping is free. More appealing, sales tax on Internet sales is often not required.

So let’s create a FREE Salisbury-Lakeville Website Business Directory for all of the town’s existing businesses with websites. This could be accommodated on the town website with little to no cost. Such a registry would assist not only Internet businesses, but potential clients. 

While one of Salisbury’s main assets to attract future residents is its beauty and quality of life, it is the Internet which allows “tech business” people to live and work here. Of course, there are the traditional local jobs for young people (i.e. schools, local businesses and support services for weekenders). Yet my kids, nieces and nephews all departed for NYC, Washington, D.C., and NJ to pursue careers, expressing little to no interest in living in the “boonies.” Nonetheless, Salisbury still attracts people, often graduates of our local schools, who appreciate the quality of life in Salisbury. But one has to be able to afford to live here, and that is the hitch. Is “affordable workforce housing” the solution for attracting and retaining young people? Will Salisbury’s younger workforce use this housing as it is being proposed? Time will tell.

In my opinion, to attract and retain young people, Salisbury must have a “business development strategy” which incorporates and leverages the Internet while supporting organizations and businesses that depend upon the Internet. These are the businesses that will both be started by and employ younger people who are more focused on technology and its integration into all facets of life. Whether in finance, healthcare or commerce, the Internet must be a primary focus for any Salisbury business development strategy.

The Center for Canine Behavior Studies (.org), based in Salisbury, is an “Internet enabled” global animal welfare collaboration driven by Tufts and UPenn researchers. Currently, it provides employment for several young local programmers. If it is successful, it could potentially provide many more jobs, thus helping to retain and even attract young people to our town. 

Without incorporating an Internet strategy into the town’s business development plan, the future for young people will remain bleak, and Salisbury will continue to become an aging “retirement” community. I would look forward to the new Salisbury-Lakeville Website Business Directory while embracing our younger generation and technological advances. 

Chris P. Janelli

Executive Director

Center for Canine 

Behavior Studies

Salisbury

Global climate change is no joke

The new Republican leadership of the U.S. Senate has made a pact with the devil — sort of.

Sen. Mitch McConnell and his colleagues plan to undo the little the U.S. has done so far to counteract global climate change. They want to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, approve the Keystone XL pipeline, cancel the proposed but not yet implemented rules on carbon dioxide emissions and undo the historic climate accord with China. They have appointed Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, author of “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming  Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. All this is a payoff to continue getting big campaign money from Big Oil and the Koch Brothers. It might be laughable if the future of the planet were not at stake.

Human-caused climate change is a fact. The evidence has been creeping up on us for more than a century. In 1827, the French scientist Joseph Fourier identified the warming effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. John Tyndall, an Englishman, measured the absorption of infrared energy by carbon dioxide in 1860. Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius calculated the effect of an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases on the earth’s temperature. Later, our own Scripps Institute of Oceanography published a paper which pointed out that with the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, human beings were carrying out a great experiment. (Look it up on Wikipedia.) In recent times, thousands of scientists have added to our knowledge, yet we keep dumping vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.  

Is the global future dependent on a Republican leadership? Is that what the people voted for, a pact with big money?

Jack Ritchie

Salisbury

Please don’t erase my stars

These are my concerns about the proposed 30 housing units off Railroad Street in Salisbury. 

I am worried about the hundreds of walkers, bikers, children and pets who use the rail trail each year. 

I am angry that the lighting at this project would erase the night stars from the sky that I have been enjoying for almost 45 years.

I estimate that at least 50 percent of the people in favor of this project have no idea of its location. And, since it’s not in their backyard, don’t care. This also means they have no consideration or concern for the abutting property owners who purchased their homes years ago and have lived in sylvan peace. Now this area could become building and living chaos. Cars will be driving by their bedrooms. Doesn’t anyone have compassion for them?

I cringe at the thought of increased vehicles on Academy and Library streets, which are already overly congested — especially in the summer.

Just because the land has been donated doesn’t mean it has to be developed. There are other places to build.

Jane McGarry

Salisbury