Barringer for School Board
As a 2014 Saugerties School Board candidate, I am excited for the ability to serve on behalf of parents and students in the district. I am a wife and mother to three children in the Saugerties Central School District. We are active members of the Mt. Marion Elementary, Junior High and Senior High School communities. With sports, theater, and numerous afterschool activities, the family participates in much of what the school district has to offer.
When school is not in session, the family can often be found at community events with our scouting friends, catching a movie at the Orpheum Theatre, enjoying a game of chess with a frozen concoction at Inquiring Minds or at Cantine Field taking a break from an AYSO soccer game, wrestling practice or simply enjoying the various playgrounds.
In my professional role, I have been a deputy clerk for the Ulster County Legislature since 2012. This position has been a culmination of a career path that began at my college studies at Wheelock College in Boston. After receiving a bachelor’s of social work with a concentration in children and families, I graduated in Cleveland, Ohio from Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences with a master’s in science in social administration, having concentrated in community organizing. I remained in Ohio long enough to start a therapeutic foster care network and meet my future husband, Ross.
Bringing Ross back to New York and continuing to work in the development of programs for children and families, I developed the first respite program at the Mental Health Association in Ulster County. I bounced over the river to the Mental Health Association in Dutchess County to supervise five separate programs in their support services division and when the opportunity presented, I returned to Ulster County to accept the role of Youth Bureau director, a management position I held for ten years. In this role, I funded and monitored youth development and delinquency prevention programs throughout the county. The evaluation, cost-effectiveness and proven success of youth programs were ever in my focus. As a voice for over 50,000 children residing in Ulster County, I worked to ensure increased, improved and accessible programs for all. My written skills were put to use annually with the development of a county comprehensive plan for youth and families.
After accepting the position of Ulster County community liaison for New York State Sen. John Bonacic, I began the experience that expanded my knowledge of governmental resources, constituent assistance and love of policy development. The enjoyment of review and analysis of policy, regulation, and local laws has been put to use for the 23 members of the Ulster County Legislature and with hope, will also be put to use for the residents of the Saugerties School District with my election to the School Board in 2014.
Please vote for me on the second line of candidates on this year’s school ballot.
Krista J. Barringer
Saugerties
Preserve the bluestone sidewalks
Each time there is an improvement project in the village of Saugerties, more of the local bluestone is removed, such as the “new” sidewalks on Montross St. that needed replacement only a few years later. Where does all the original bluestone go? Did the trucks coming through and jumping the curbs just chip away at it and carry it off?
Ulster County bluestone is unique in its beauty and usefulness and can last forever unlike man-made stone. Hopefully, any future “improvements,” such as the tree replacement project, will incorporate any local bluestone remaining in the village and the politicians will not lose such a valuable heritage in their haste to grab some outside funding.
A.E. Wasserbach
Saugerties
Autism awareness
As we enter the month of May, we should not forget that April was Autism Awareness Month. Recently, comedian Bill Maher made fun of how many causes are collated within a particular month for awareness status, but with this in mind, autism clearly deserves at least one month of recognition and perhaps one of the calendar’s longer months instead of April. According to a recent CNN report, the 2012 estimated figure of children afflicted with autism was 1 in 68 and this represents a sharp increase from the previous estimates of 1 in 125 in 2004, 1 in 110 in 2006 and 1 in 88 in 2008.
And these recent estimates may not even reflect the actual number of people afflicted with autism as some states like Alabama have lower estimated numbers (1 in 175) than states like New Jersey (1 in 45). Behind the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) methodology for calculating the estimated number of children with autism there lays some dispute as to whether these figures are an accurate representation of the population parameter. The CDC bases its estimates on the thorough examination of medical and school records of eight-year-olds from 11 states nationwide. This statistical methodology may be flawed for several reasons, as the rates of autism may be higher for newborns and children under eight, and some states like Alabama may be underreporting the number of eight-year-olds with autism.
Whatever the actual number is, one thing is clear: Women are less affected by the disease, as 1 in 189 girls are estimated to have autism compared to 1 in 42 boys. In addition, the actual classification of autism as a disease also presents problems for its perceived level of urgency as a societal problem, as many people do not perceive autism to be a disease but rather a behavioral abnormality. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines disease as “a condition of the living animal or plant body of one or more of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms.” Based upon this definition, autism clearly is a disease, and now that we know it is a disease, the causational factors need to be determined.
One theory on the cause of autism is that it is an autoimmune disease whereby the body’s immune system attacks itself. In conjunction with this theory, many people suspect that thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative in the mumps/measles/rubella vaccine, causes an immunological response in some children which causes the immune system to attack itself and cause autism. In 2009, this theory was ruled out in three court cases in which the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that there is no link between autism and thimerosal. Whether or not this is true, more research needs to be conducted in order to determine what causes autism and how to potentially prevent and/or cure it.
Chris Allen
Ulster County Legislature
Join the family! 
