Oshkosh letters address fireworks and building 'resilient infrastructure'

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Here are this week's letters to the editor of the Oshkosh Northwestern. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.
Editor's note: The following letter is in response to the article 'Oshkosh residents are advised to buy only legal fireworks. What to know ahead of July 4.'
It is something else we are worried about: citizens lighting fireworks for our nation's birthday. This is not a new idea! The EAA goes on for a week with loud airplanes. The tornado siren blares every Saturday at noon. Seemingly, motorcycles have no laws for their loud exhaust, which starts happening every spring, and we must put up with it all summer. Thunderstorms — where are those complaints?
Animal PTSD, right? I'll hear every argument, but I have one, too: leave people alone. I have animals, too; they're fine for a night. Leave people alone and let them celebrate the birthday of our beautiful country. How do the retailers of fireworks get permits from the city/county to sell illegal items to the city residents?
Mark Dante
Oshkosh
This past month, we saw roads buckle across Oshkosh during the extreme heatwave from June 21-23. It's not the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last.
Whether you're liberal, conservative or somewhere in between, one thing is clear: the weather is getting stranger. Summers are hotter and wetter, winters are shorter and more unpredictable, and heavy storms are hitting harder. We can feel it. And our roads, sewers and homes are feeling it, too.
No one wants flooded basements, cracked sidewalks or damaged roads. We need to be proactive and start planning for a future with more extreme weather events.
That starts here in Oshkosh. Local government can lead the way by investing in resilient infrastructure: stronger stormwater systems, sustainable road repairs and planning that accounts for the reality of our changing climate.
I encourage residents to contact their council members and our representatives in the state legislature. Ask them what they're doing to make our infrastructure more resilient.
This is our city. Let's build it to last.
Alec Lefeber
Oshkosh
Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to [e-mail] and Editor Brandon Reid at [e-mail]. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh letters on fireworks and building 'resilient infrastructure'