Town Board needs more Republicans
Democratic Saugerties Town Board members Greg Helsmoortel, Fred Costello and LeAnn Thorton are busy attending yard sales, barbeques and bed races. This, no doubt, is more fun than trying to explain their horrible performance in office.
During their time in the majority, annual property taxes have increased by nearly four times the rate of inflation, and the town’s credit rating was lowered. Unfair property tax assessments have many Saugerties residents struggling to stay in their homes.
Under Helsmoortel, Costello and Thornton, town government operates in the shadows. Over $12,000 was spent on Opus 40 without a Town Board vote. Worse, Helsmoortel claimed the money came from a discretionary fund that doesn’t exist. The bungled suspension of the former police chief cost the town over $100,000. They broke a long-standing precedent by allowing a part-time town justice to receive $18,000 in health benefits without a public vote/discussion. They also tried to pay four times more for a carousel than it was worth.
Serious change is needed on the Saugerties Town Board. It’s time to end the Helsmoortel regime and return our town government to the people. For positive change in Saugerties, elect Kelly Myers town supervisor and Joe Roberti Sr. and Pam Riggins to the Town Board.
Joe Roberti Jr.
Chairman
Saugerties GOP
Time is up on fracking
The following quote from “Response and Clean-up Technology Research and Development and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill” in the Encyclopedia of Earth sums up the lack of commitment of the oil and gas industry to be prepared with state-of-the art equipment in the event of a spill: “we believe the facts illustrate that neither industry nor government has dedicated appropriate resources to clean-up technology since the Exxon Valdez spill, and that the BP Deepwater Horizon spill response suffered as a result.”
The Exxon Valdez spill was in 1989. The BP spill was in 2010. Cited below are two very recent spills as the gas and oil industry continue to hydraulically fracture hard-to-reach shale rock which is considered an unconventional source of energy production.
This past April, workers stopped the flow of drilling fluids from an out-of-control Chesapeake Energy Corporation natural gas well in Bradford County in rural Pennsylvania that leaked chemical-laced water for two days following an equipment problem. Thousands of gallons of frack fluid spilled over containment walls and through farms and fields where cattle continue to graze.
Then last month CNN reported that Montana’s governor declared a state of emergency related to a ruptured pipeline that caused tens of thousands of gallons of oil to gush into the Yellowstone River. The governor also criticized the pipeline’s owner, ExxonMobil, for the inadequate speed and comprehensiveness of the response. A second smaller spill was not reported by FX Drilling Co. for a whole month!
How many more spills do we need? The oil and gas companies have not researched and developed state-of-the-art technology to clean up these spills. Nor have they invested in finding a safe way to handle the toxic and radioactive waste water from a fracked well. Nor have they figured a way pipelines will not burst. How can the people of New York State trust the oil and gas industry with our clean water? We can’t.
No amount of regulations and DEC oversight can prevent that one accident that has the potential to poison our water, air and land. Is the risk worth the low paying and temporary jobs that fracking brings to an area? We have a right to deny corporations coming to our state to not only take our natural resources (including the tons of gallons of water needed for each frack) but destroy the environment and our way of life in the process. The only safe alternative is to ban fracking in New York. Call Governor Andrew Cuomo at 518-474-8390 and add your voice to the many others asking for a state-wide ban to protect our communities, public health, environment and safety.
Rosalyn Cherry
New Paltz
Join the family! 
