Who will fill the Valley void left by the helpful Traficant?

Who will fill the Valley voidleft by the helpful Traficant?
EDITOR:
I think it is time our elected officials quit back stabbing one another and start taking care of business. Actually representing the public that voted for them would be great! Here are a couple of things that need attention now.
My 53-year-old son-in-law died Sept. 19, 2003, after being on 100 percent disability for 10 years from armed-service related reasons. Now, nearly five months later, his widow has received not one cent of the income she is entitled from the VA. She's about to lose her home and car. Some of her utilities have already been shut off. When she calls about this matter, she is told "these things take time." What if her husband and others like him had taken their good old time when it came to defending this country? Probably a lot of us would be dead today or at least living in different circumstances.
Why didn't they have mortgage insurance? Because apparently the disabled are second-class citizens, they're not supposed to plan like the rest of us (the ones they gave their lives for, the ones they fought for).
These individuals, my son-in-law included, became disabled only because they were protecting the rights of all the politicians and insurance company CEOs that have now so conveniently forgotten them and their families. I cannot blame any man who would refuse to fight for a country that treats him or his widow is such a disrespectful manner.
If there is anyone out there with one-tenth the guts of Jim Traficant (who always helped the little individual), I'm hoping you will do something about the atrocious treatment ASAP. Our present representatives (and I use the term loosely) have been contacted twice and NOTHING.
LOIS BATTISON
Girard
It's time for the county to doaway with patronage system
EDITOR:
It appears as if many department heads, including Judge Dellick, are out of sync with a large number of community leaders in the Mahoning Valley. These bosses justify hefty raises and providing premium health coverage by saying it is to keep highly qualified people on the job. When other community leaders and promoters espouse the virtues of the area, the main claim is a large group of highly qualified people just sitting around the Valley waiting to fill any job that outside employers can bring here.
It is quite apparent that these well or often overpaid employers are just a part of the patronage system that has existed in the Valley since before my 67-year-old memory. It is a reward for helping keep their bosses' snout in the taxpayer-filled trough.
One solution would be for county, city or any other body of government to have a uniform schedule of worker classes. County Worker, County Worker 2, etc. Pay and benefits would be set and standard. Longevity pay and other perks could also be standardized. No judge or department head would be able to devastate the budget to pay off their own group of employees.
ROBERT J. HUSTED
New Springfield
For some, closing librariesis like closing off the world
EDITOR:
I am appalled! Libraries closing! We need our libraries, large and small. Here we have adventure, poetry, science, sports, government. Also papers, magazines, talking books, computers.
Many of us are older and will be unable to get to another library.
Are we to be denied all the services we've come to enjoy and depend upon? And they have now been taken for granted. Thank you.
HELEN OLSEN
New Springfield