Signs on the road
The U.S. Department of Transportation will be doing us a great favor in getting rid of Governor Cuomo’s ugly and illegible promotional signs littering our landscape. Mayor Bill Murphy of Saugerties recently followed the governor’s thumb-on-the-nose direct action and simply removed the state’s ugly signs from his village.
State highway directional signs have but one purpose, to direct drivers to their destinations. Advertising is a dangerous distraction to drivers. If the state wants to promote tourism, it should landscape its barren highways, enlarge their scenic beauty and invest in the historic and cultural assets of New York as destinations for travelers.
Barry Benepe
Saugerties
Yes vote for Special Investigator
As the lone Saugerties-member of the Ways and Means Committee within the Ulster County Legislature, there are added responsibilities associated with making decisions on budgetary issues that affect the residents/taxpayers of Saugerties and all of Ulster County. During the months of November and December, the Ways and Means Committee listens to presenters who lobby on behalf of legislators and/or Governmental Departments who request additional funding which adds amended spending in addition to the budget that was presented to the legislature. In November, Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright made a plea for additional funding in order to facilitate the incorporation of a Special Investigator who would specifically target Opiate-based drug trafficking within Ulster County. The new Special Investigator would work as an undercover law enforcement officer who reports to the DA’s Office on the details and findings associated with their investigations. With the usage of Heroin and opiate-based pain pills proliferating throughout Ulster County, I believe that this new Special Investigator will be beneficial towards the effort to minimize and (ideally) eradicate heroin and opiate-based pills within Ulster County.
During the presentation, DA Carnright informed our committee that his office does not seek to punitively prosecute opiate-based users, as it (rather) seeks to facilitate their placement into addiction treatment programs. Carnright’s office does; however, go after heroin and pill dealers and punitively seek prosecutions! I believe that the additional Special Investigator will assist DA Carnright and other law enforcement agencies to battle the opiate crisis that afflicts Ulster County which is why I am voting yes to fund DA Cartright’s request.
During my interactions with constituents throughout Saugerties, I am often asked to do something about the Heroin and opiate-based epidemic that plagues our area. Some requests express the concern about the need for more psychological counselors, self-help groups and addiction treatment programs while other constituents express profound sorrow from the loss of loved ones who died from opiate-based overdoses. On the grass-roots level, one local self-help group, the Route 212 Coalition has targeted opiate addition head-on with a program that allows users to turn in their unused drugs to participating law enforcement agencies and immediately enter into an addiction treatment program. Within the Route 212 Coalition, recovered addicts serve as counselors and mentors in order to help struggling addicts realize that there is a path to sobriety and control over their addictions. On the County-level in order to combat the addiction epidemic, I believe that more integrated approaches towards co-opting the resources of our mental health department, our courts and probation/parole departments will be introduced in the near future.
Chris Allen, Ulster County Legislature
Saugerties
Taxes are too high
I hope that those who are employed will be able to afford the property tax increase. Those on fixed incomes cannot!
Property taxes are particularly hard on retirees…so many Ulster county towns offer low- income seniors a partial tax exemption [including Saugerties].
However Saugerties does not follow the guidelines used by most towns in Ulster county [including our near neighbor, Woodstock].
For instance, many towns in Ulster County exempt 50% of property assessment from taxation for a se)ior whose income is $29,000 or less. But if that property was in Saugerties the exemption would be only 5%!
If you were to “Google” Ulster County property taxes you would find that the average rate is 2.204 %. The new rate in Saugerties will be 5.25%!
Recently I received a check in the mail from New York State, it was labeled: “because your property is in a school district…that complies with the state’s property tax cap…”
Next year we can kiss these checks goodbye (as can the local businesses where we would be spending them) since our new rate will not be in compliance with the guidelines.
Seniors in need of property tax relief should write to the members of the Town Board, the School Board and Supervisor Helmsmoortel.
Taxes are too high and relief is not sufficient!
Saugerties tax policy toward seniors needs to be brought into line with other towns in our county.
Norma Zotos
Saugerties
No Peace With Sirens
Christmas in the Village is a wonderful time! A big thank you to all that make this very special day happen. However, I have one question — why do we end a fun filled day with deafening fire engine sirens? I immediately become agitated when I hear the alarms and rightly so it’s the sound of crisis.
How about music being played from the trucks? Or volunteers can shout out a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” to all who watch the parade? We have a newly formed Saugerties High School marching band; they could lead the parade doing a New Orleans style second line? Or a group singing Christmas carols down Main Street picking up people along the way to have a sing along?
Truly anything would be better than the deafening alarms — can we please rethink it? Sirens fail to usher in feelings of peace, love and joy that this season is supposed to symbolize.
Katie Cokinos
Saugerties
Home gallery
I want to thank the ten artists and artisans who will be showing their art, handmade products and natural produce in my home this coming Saturday. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., my old home (406 Mossy Hill Road, Catskill, c. 1832) will be transformed into an art gallery and holiday marketplace. An eclectic collection — from landscape paintings, depression glass and pottery to ‘Laughing Ladies’ herbs, garlic, fruit leather and even demonstrations and alternative health practices. This event will be an aperitivo (so to speak) preceding the great diversity of people joining the Million Women March January 21st in DC, NY, Boston and throughout the country. There are many ways to stand up for what is right and good and beautiful. Margo Pelletier, friend, film-maker, director of Silvia Baraldini and Thirsty, (screened at the Woodstock Film Festival as well as internationally) recently shared this thought with me in her last days: “Fight for Joy!” We are trying to do that, Margo.
Jane Toby
Catskill
Saugerties Dems stand with Standing Rock
The Saugerties Democratic Committee will be holding a demonstration of support for the people at Standing Rock on the corner of Main and Market St. in Saugerties, Saturday December 18, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. All are welcome to express their solidarity with the Native American encampment.
The Protectors of water at the Standing Rock Peace Camp is a history-shaping moment, and a call to all of us to protect our own water sources. It is a call for vindication for Native Americans who have been dislodged from their native lands and their culture during the life of this country. The protest has been a triumph of environmental justice and preservation of our natural resources over corporate greed. The power of the people is expressed by their assembly at Standing Rock, and by the thousands, perhaps millions, around our country and the world, who are standing with them. In Saugerties we also stand against the Pilgrim Pipeline which threatens to pollute the Hudson River and our local streams and water sources.
Please join us.
Lanny E. Walter, Chair
Saugerties Democratic Committee
Join the family! 
