The views and opinions expressed in our letters section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hudson Valley One. You can submit a letter to the editor here.
A drop in the bucket
My “bucket list” consists of 75 haikus.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Chill
Learn to sit back and observe. Not everything needs a reaction.
This is a 2022 New Year’s Resolution! I’m going to get better at this…need to be better at this. Oh, I’m working hard on this one.
That is the most difficult thing to do…I mean to “not do.”
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
True horror of proposed Winston Farm project
The time has come to gather ourselves together and realize the true costs to Saugerties and our entire local area should these three guys “who are locals” get to destroy Winston Farm.
The reality of what will happen is: destruction, pollution, environmental, water sources – all because these “locals” want to make lots of money without any consideration of their vision’s impact.
Reading Fred Costello’s “looking forward to” this development is pretty horrifying. It matters not that Mullens, Montano and Richlers live locally; their only aim is making money. And that will come with destruction of this property, surrounding area and even across the Hudson River, where the people over there could hear, loud and clear, the Woodstock Festival.
Now imagine what thousands of idling cars will add to our going-green approach to our environment: noise, all day every day that they operate.
Water supply, as this area sits atop our aquifer. Are you ready to pay – at taxpayers’ expense – any remediations? This isn’t someone’s bathtub; it is the source of clean water.
Destroying woods, inhabited by all the creatures who have survived there since, well, forever. Trees that help keep our air quality.
I could go on and on; the negative impacts are unending.
Oh yes, one more thing: Who do you believe will buy houses, the rich or not so, and live within an amusement park, water park, amphitheater? Were it you, how’d ya feel with thousands of people gathering in your front/back yards?
There is nothing positive this project will bring.
Time to wake up to reality before it is too late.
Marjory Vaughn
Saugerties
Lucky 3
In the last edition of Hudson Valley One of 2021, we read how Kingston “spreads out” to Lucky 27, a fellow resident of mine on the east side of Energy Square in Midtown Kingston. Lucky regales us with some of the many joys of our community: shops, buildings (the library, cemetery and the Midtown Art District). Many thanks to her/his descriptions of favorite Midtown sites and views!
In January 2020, I became Lucky 3, also the beneficiary of the RUPCO lottery, and would like to offer some additional perspectives about my “hometown,” having been a longtime resident of Kingston who was able to return here after helping my family for a few years in another county. My apartment is on the west side of the building, the living room looking out over the roof of UPAC, rows of stores and eateries (there are 12 in the space of three blocks!) and distant, long curving lines of trees and fabulous mountains. My kitten Poppy grew up here and loves sitting on the windowsill enjoying the amazing view!
Here in the building, with all new neighbors initially behind their COVID doors, we have slowly begun to meet in the lobby, hopefully masked in the elevator, laundry room and parking lot. And while walking (which I call “counting steps”), I discover much about the new exciting Midtown: the Empire Trail for walking and biking along Greenkill Avenue. It also runs down all the way from East Chester (behind Walgreen’s) to the Rondout – a great walk or bike ride!
The YMCA is fabulous, offering a farm and market, free bicycles to residents, a pool, gyms and even pickleball! The Hodge Center has a variety of activities, as well as a place for my neighbors to vote on Election Day, where I work as an election inspector.
It’s wonderful to slowly be meeting the wide variety of tenants in our building: people and pets of all ages and backgrounds. Perhaps I’ll even meet Lucky 27 one of these days at a book/magazine exchange that a committee of residents hopes to establish in our community room!
Living in Midtown with so many cultural and commercial opportunities has made Midtown the new go-to neighborhood in Kingston. Come and visit us: Take a walk from People’s Place at the roundabout all the way through our neighborhood past our beautiful City Hall, high school and the hospital, all the way down to the Rondout! Hope to see you soon!
Barbara Sarah
Kingston
Pro-Israel policies not the work of ZOG
The Jewish Federation of Ulster County agrees with Fred Nagel that it’s wrong for religious extremists to “inject their holy directives into all our lives.” (Our Founders did not favor religious extremism, December 24.) But Nagel further proclaims a theocratic element has “taken over our (US) foreign policy,” they declare “Israel has the right to steal land in Palestine,” and Israel commits “genocidal attacks in Gaza.” It’s not true, and it cannot be sourced except in anti-Semitic propaganda.
The claim references the most pernicious anti-Semitic trope: Pro-Israel US policies are the work of “ZOG.” ZOG is a white-supremacist acronym for “Zionist Occupied Government,” which reflects the belief the US government is controlled by Jews. This has resulted in slogans such as “Smash ZOG” or “Death to ZOG.” That’s simply loathsome hate speech, and it should be shunned by civilized society.
Israel does not steal land in Palestine. If Nagel means Judea and Samaria, often called the West Bank, it’s “disputed territory” under international law, annexed illegally by Jordan after the 1948 War with Israel. When the entire Arab world again attacked in June 1967, and Israel emerged victorious just six days later, Israel seized control of those “disputed” areas for security purposes. Subsequently, Israel has provided security, water and utilities and has supplemented food and health care on a massive scale for the benefit of area residents, even during armed conflict.
Israel has offered to support the creation of an independent state there no less than three times. Those offers have been rebuffed by Arab governments seeking to benefit politically from keeping the Palestinians trapped in permanent refugee status.
There is no “genocide” of Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis. Israel has every right to protect itself from violence at the hands of Palestinian entities which divert funds to build terror tunnels, fire rockets at residential Jewish neighborhoods and pay stipends to the families of terrorists who kill Israelis. Look no farther than the streets and football stadiums named after convicted terrorists to prove the truth of that.
Israel wants nothing more than to be at peace, and it’s willing to help build and assure the prosperity of an independent Palestinian state to see that dream come to fruition. The rest of the region is waking up to it, too. Israel is in varying stages of negotiations to normalize relations with the greater Arab world, primarily due to their common security interests. They all see Iran – the largest state exporter of international terrorism in the world – as a looming threat to peace. But Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist faction ruled by a dictator who refuses to call elections in violation of its own Constitution, is supplied with money, arms and rockets by Iran. A permanent peace remains elusive.
Nagel’s opinions are based on hyperbole and easily dismissed, but he is shockingly inappropriate in embracing the most sinister of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
David Drimer
Executive director, The Jewish Federation of Ulster County
Kingston
Rondavid Gold
President, The Jewish Federation of Ulster County
Woodstock
A New Year
If only this dawn of
A New Year
Might mean the dawn of
A New Beginning:
Might mean a melting
Of frozen hearts –
A New Compassion;
Might mean a broadening
Of narrow minds –
A New Enlightenment;
Might mean an embrace
Of different ways –
A New Tolerance;
Might mean a loosening
Of old strictures,
Old scriptures –
A New Faith.
Someone once pled
“Father, forgive them,”
And was crucified;
Someone once said
“I Have a Dream,”
And was crucified;
Someone once begged
“Imagine,”
And was crucified.
Haven’t we done enough harm?
We’ve no time left to crucify.
It is time, at long last, to sanctify:
To sing a psalm in unison,
In an all-encompassing embrace,
In this holy chapel of Earth –
In consecration not of the One,
But of all: our full congregation;
To gather close in welcome
Of our glorious differences,
Knowing that differences
Serve only to deepen us,
Merely to diversify us,
To weave of us all
A coat of many colors,
Stitched together as one:
Myriad beautiful tones,
All harmonizing, all blending,
All dazzling, all holy.
And all of one lining.
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Biden’s “monumental victories”
Mr. Rothberg’s reference of Biden’s American Rescue Plan of 2021 (a/k/a the COVID-19 Stimulus Package) to LBJ’s Great Society legislation is a classic example of an apples-to-oranges comparison. Biden’s Rescue Plan would have been carried out by any president, Democrat or Republican, based upon the obvious need dictated by the financial crippling effect of COVID-19 on all citizens and businesses. It was hardly an “outside-the-box” brilliant move by Biden. It was merely a routine necessity and could hardly be included in the category of a “monumental victory.” LBJ’s Great Society legislation, on the other hand, was, indeed, a real monumental victory.
As we’ve always understood infrastructure to be, it basically refers to all the physical needs to upgrade roads, bridges, tunnels, electrical grids et cetera, as well as even broadband expansions to guarantee access to 21st-century communications for people in areas that don’t currently have these abilities. It would not be difficult to expect bipartisan agreement on these types of real infrastructure measures. But the problems start when many other partisan measures are attempted to be included or even hidden in a bill and which have absolutely nothing to do with physical infrastructure.
Just as we’ve all received contradictory and conflicting medical opinions from alleged experts, both liberal and conservative, throughout the entire pandemic up to the present, we’ve also been receiving conflicting opinions as to the economic impact of Biden’s outlandish spending proposals on inflation and our national debt, all the way from “It will be free and paid for” to near-economic devastation for our kids and grandkids, paving the way towards a socialistic, dependent and entitled nation. With experts being so diametrically opposed on several critical fronts, finding the truth becomes a needle-in-a-haystack exercise. No wonder there is no bipartisan agreement on these extremely nebulous and sometimes deceitful bills and proposals.
But one thing is for sure regarding clear Democratic strategy involving the ongoing fiasco at our southern border: It’s all part of both a short- and long-term plan to bolster their future voting base. Up to now, the only people in our country illegally and who deserve legal citizenship would be the DACA children who have long since become adults, and most of whom have contributed to and continue to contribute to our society and economy. But with the Biden administration’s obvious and intentional rolling out of the unimpeded red carpet to poorly vetted illegals from 150 different countries, it’s no mystery that the Democrats want to press for the millions of illegals admitted since Biden’s inauguration to get driver’s licenses, various measures of welfare and assistance, even possible undeserved legal citizenship among other perks, which would guarantee massive Democratic votes for years and years to come. It’s funny how the Democrats think they’re pulling the wool over Americans’ eyes and that no one sees through their game.
Oh, and I think that Mr. Rothberg’s keyboard had a momentary hiccup. When he was exalting Jill Biden, he said, “She was intelligent and competent, unlike her ‘pathetic predecessor.’” I thought, for sure, Mr. Rothberg meant to type the obvious: “unlike her ‘pathetic husband.’” Jill Biden, obviously, could run circles around her husband’s mental acuity. What president has anyone ever seen who couldn’t even read from a teleprompter without a gaffe in every third sentence? And what president has anyone ever seen who has hidden from many press conferences and, when he finally makes a rare appearance, he doesn’t field any questions as he leaves a cloud of dust while running off into the sunset? And when he does field questions, even a rare hardball question from one of his own preselected mainstream buddies, he pauses, laughs at them and walks away without answering the question, because spontaneity, honesty and quickness are definitely not in his DNA.
John Butz
Modena
Hypocrisy?
From the Town Board meeting agenda, put together by Supervisor McKenna, the resolution read, “Trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and colling [cooling] costs on average $39 per tree per year, remove 261 pounds of pollutants each year per tree, produce life-giving oxygen, remove 24 tons of carbon dioxide each year per tree and provide habitat for wildlife.” Yet it appears that he budgeted no money for the Tree Committee to plant trees in town, despite their formal request for $1,000.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Governor’s budget must address home healthcare crisis
Ask almost anyone in New York who needs healthcare support at home and they will tell you there’s a crisis. Governor Hochul’s recent State of the State speech seemed to recognize that, but fell short of full-throated support for a solution already at hand.
Home care workers are grossly underpaid, averaging about $13 an hour under Medicaid. This has led to shortages, with workers leaving the field while demand keeps rising. In fact, one out of four people who need such care can’t find any. At the same time, 76 percent of people who have care workers struggle to retain them.
This shortage of workers forces our elders and people with disabilities into nursing homes, with exorbitant costs, variable care, not to mention the continuing threat of COVID.
The solution is the Fair Pay for Home Care Act, a bill with impressive levels of bipartisan support in the State Senate and Assembly. It would raise worker pay to 150 percent of the state minimum wage, turning a poverty wage into a living wage, retain workers in this crucial field and attract desperately needed new workers. A CUNY study last year showed that Fair Pay would even be a net positive for the economy.
In short, Fair Pay for Home Care is a jobs bill, a humanitarian bill and an economic development bill in one package. To raise your voice in favor of this measure, call Governor Hochul’s office today at (518) 474-8390 and tell her to include Fair Pay for Home Care in the executive budget.
Michael Solow
Kingston
Protect our democracy
One year ago, we witnessed an attack on our country: an insurrection by political extremists at the US Capitol.
A mob of violent rioters defaced the Capitol Building and threatened the lives of the elected officials and staff working there: the core of American democracy. This was a pivotal moment for America and our fundamental promise of free and fair elections.
One year out from that horrible day, Congress has yet to secure the right to vote and the integrity of our elections – while state and county governments are passing laws to make it harder to vote. Hours-long lines and oppressive ID requirements are only the beginning, unless Congress acts.
The Senate must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act; both bills are essential to the survival of the American experiment. The House of Representatives has already passed them. We can’t let made-up Senate rules stand in the way of protecting our democracy.
Fighting for our democracy by passing voting rights legislation is one of the most important actions we can take as we commemorate this attack on our country.
Megan Ferguson
Tillson
New effort to resettle Afghani families
I am writing to you about an important endeavor starting up in the Hudson Valley, called a “Welcome or Sponsor Center.” As of this note, 29,000 Afghani refugees are being temporarily housed in US Army bases across the nation, with some 10,000 refugees living in tents and barracks at Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New Jersey. As we enter a cold winter, these families need to leave the base and get resettled into American life. The bases are to be emptied by March 1, and these people as yet have no place to go.
Although Albany and New York City both have the infrastructure and support NGOs to welcome and resettle Afghani immigrants, there are very few agencies or community groups doing so in the Hudson Valley. So far, over 50,000 Afghanis have been successfully resettled throughout America in cities, towns and small hamlets by welcoming agencies, veterans, community groups, families and “Welcome Circles” since September 2021. It’s been a monumental patriotic and humanitarian effort. I believe that the Hudson Valley has the capacity to welcome and resettle at least one Afghani refugee family here, if not 100 families.
Over the past few days I have been in contact with several immigrant-service NGOs to get information and their support in starting up a Welcome Circle here, including HIAS (one of the nine Federally designated NGOs charged with the resettlement effort), Welcome.US (the White House entity coordinating the NGOs), the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), Women for Afghan Women (a New York City resettlement-based NGO also doing direct work in Afghanistan) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC/Rescue.org) et cetera.
They all said that to start, we need a circle of supporters who can together welcome at least one Afghani family, identify temporary (at least three-month) housing, secure basic home furnishings and clothing, introduce them to community organizations and businesses, social services and agencies, introduce their children to the school system and begin to assist them to find employment. With the local schools losing population every year and the need for workforce at all levels, the outlook for resettlement is good, but the challenge will be housing.
If you or your organization want to be even a small part of this effort or can assist in any way, as a Welcome Circle supporter, participant, volunteer, employer, property-owner or sponsor, please reach back to me for more info.
Now it’s the Hudson Valley’s turn to:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
– Emma Lazarus, 1883
Harv Hilowitz
Stone Ridge
Afghan100 Welcome Circle
afghan100harv@gmail.com
(845) 590-0925)
Affordable housing
The Housing Committee of Ulster Activists (U-Act) has been watching the development of affordable housing in New Paltz, our intent being to learn how it comes into being, barriers to creation of affordable housing and what it takes for a municipality to foster the conditions for it to occur.
Housing touches everything. Knowing you have an enduring home gives you optimism and confidence. If you have a reliable home, you probably don’t think about it a lot. But if your home has become precarious, you can barely think about anything else. Presently, we need many more units of housing if we are all to be safe.
“The lack of stable affordable housing is the foundation of many of America’s social problems, including poverty, homelessness, educational disparities and health care…. Most poor renting families spend at least half of their income on housing costs.”
Creating housing is hard work. It can take three years or more for a housing project to be completed, even if there are no missteps or surprises. State and federal funds are competitive and metropolitan counties are allotted more funding than rural counties. Rural counties such as Ulster are competing for funds against urban counties such as Dutchess. The difference is population size.
Turnaround time for review of a project is long. Many investors seek a shorter return on their contributions. Some funding agencies don’t understand the differences of scale between rural projects and urban projects.
New Paltz(s) has worked to make itself a more inclusive place to live by approving a range of tactics to improve the development of housing, so that it should be a community that welcomes and retains some of its residents.
What helps?
1. Dedicated public funds help and strengthen the project by rigorous review before a large amount of money is spent.
2. The Village has improved housing by granting zoning density bonuses and other tools to make projects work.
3. A logical, step-by-step system of preapplication and historic review make projects better by asking for refinements up front.
4. New thinking, such as zoning for residential units on the second or third floor of new business construction, makes wonderful sense from a community vitality standpoint. This increases units but doesn’t change the size of the footprint.
We all must have housing that we can afford if we are not going to be demolished by that one budget category. Housing should cost no more than 30 percent of gross income. The 30 percent includes all utilities. We must seriously aim for that to make our community thrive.
With the appreciation of the complexities involved, I want to take the opportunity to thank the Village of New Paltz and Town of New Paltz’s effort to make conditions right for the creation of more lower-cost housing units.
Susan Denton
Plutarch
Stand up for freedom to choose or decline COVID vaccinations
The Putnam County Legislature recently passed a resolution which states: 1. Its opposition to mandated COVID vaccinations for anyone. 2. Support for a parent’s right to choose to vaccinate (or not) their own children. 3. Support for anyone who wants to get vaccinated.
A similar resolution received six votes in the Ulster County Legislature. Thank you to the six legislators who stood up for the right of Ulster residents not to be forced to be injected with experimental genetic material (a/k/a COVID vaccination). Thank you for upholding the concept of “my body, my choice.” Thank you for standing up to the increasing pressures to mandate jabs and “vaccine passports.”
Sadly, it appears the jabs are not working; nearly everyone I know who is fully vaxxed is sick, and many of them have tested positive for COVID. This COVID horror has been going on for nearly two years. Businesses have closed, jobs have been lost, people have been fired for refusing the jab, young schoolchildren are masked (and now jabbed). A resolution opposing mandated vaccinations has been presented to the Dutchess County Legislature; hopefully, they will join with Putnam County and stand up for the freedom to choose or decline COVID vaccinations.
Eli Kassirer
New Paltz
Happy New Year?
Aware that there is always a method to POTUS Joe Biden’s madness, former POTUS Trump nevertheless offered a magnanimous response to POTUS Biden’s recent “Insurrection Day” speech which attacked the previous POTUS. The following, “And So It’s a New Year” (based on John Lennon’s “So This is Christmas”) is an account of the previous president’s response to Joe’s address. It recalls the first year of the subsequent president’s record.
And so it’s a New Year
And what have you done?
Attacked a past POTUS
And I guess you had fun
You’ve blamed me for COVID
And for all those who died
You said you’d shut down the virus
But it seems that you lied
The virus still rages
Despite the vaccines you had
And virus tests are still lacking
And your excuses are bad
(bridge)
And so it’s a New Year
Nancy’s looking so sad
She regrets you’re the POTUS
‘Cos it turned out so bad
Your friends in the media
Stopped their daily death count
Though the count during your first year
Was a greater amount
You ended wall-building
And stopped my border decrees
Now the border seems open
‘Cos of your policies
Did I mention Afghanistan?
And this may seem unkind
But it was a disaster
Soldiers died, citizens left behind
Inflation is raging
Because of all you have done
The Senate is deadlocked
Though the majority you won
A very happy New Year
To one and to all
Joe will still be your POTUS
This coming fall
And so it’s a New Year
Let’s all sing a new tune
Durham’s report is coming
Let’s hope it comes soon
(bridge)
A very happy New Year
To the middle, the left and the right
Joe’s poll numbers are falling
With no upturn in sight
And so it’s a New Year
There’s much more I should say
‘Cos Joe’s hurting our country
But instead, I’ll just pray
Lord, help Joe do better
A house divided can’t stand
You told Israel to seek you
And you’d heal their land
Though America’s not Israel
You’re the God over all
If we repent and are humble
Perhaps our nation won’t fall
(bridge)
And so it’s a New Year
Nancy’s looking so sad
She regrets her impeachment
‘Cos it turned out so bad
Now that it’s over
What comes next is the trial
But the Senate’s still waiting
For dear Nancy to file
Yes it’s a New Year
Nancy’s holding on tight
She won’t file her papers
And she thinks that’s all right
(bridge)
She said I’m a big threat
Of the existential kind
But now she’s in no rush
It seems she’s changed her mind
A very happy New Year
To one and to all
I’ll still be your POTUS
This coming fall
And so it’s a New Year
We’ve so much to learn
From Barr and from Durham
‘Cos now it’s my turn
(bridge)
A very Happy New Year
to the Middle, the Left and the Right
I’ll be working for both sides
With all of my might
(chorus: repeat and repeat often)
No-vem-ber 3rd will be here soon
Keep America great!
No-vem-ber 3rd will be here soon
Keep America great!
George Civile
Gardiner
Accusations unmerited
Ms. Nadia Steinzor, author of the 1/6/22 letter “Corruption Under The Radar in Woodstock,” apparently is unaware of how the situation developed that led to procuring Attorney Andrew Campanelli’s legal services. A volunteer group of “committed citizens” in the spirit of Margaret Mead (“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”), collected over 500 signatures on a petition to the Woodstock Town Board (“Board”) regarding the forced deployment of 5G. Action was sought because the Telecom Industry had not sponsored or undertaken any medical studies to show 5G is biologically safe for the public as Senator Blumenthal revealed in a Senate Committee Hearing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekNC0J3xx1w&t=2s). The Board had a public hearing on the 5G issue at the Mescal Hornbeck Community Center, where the public let it be known they wanted appropriate actions be taken to protect citizens regarding 5G’s documented adverse biological effects. It was suggested by different people that Andrew Campanelli Esq., the leading expert in the country on zoning laws regarding Telecom issues, be hired to draft Woodstock’s modified zoning law. Upon further research by the Board it was verified that Campanelli, was who he said he was, as far as being an expert on Telecom issues and actually did training seminars at the Association of Towns of the State of New York, of which Woodstock is a member. The Board seeing the public outcry and Campanelli’s expert qualifications, decided to hire him, with the Zoning Revision Committee’s approval and the generous help from a donor. Hiring Mr. Campanelli was a community effort that developed from a long sequence of events over a couple of years. Abundant facts were provided and considered as Ms. Steinzor recommends and the Board’s meeting minutes document. “Strong opinions” had nothing to do with it. Furthermore, extrapolating from an outdated website and disregarding Campanelli’s current website (http://www.campanellipc.com) is disingenuous. Finally to imply all of this is “corruption under the radar” is a callous remark and very unfair to the Board. Maybe Ms. Steinzor should consult with all those people moving to Woodstock, and fleeing NYC, to be free from the adverse effects of its intense 5G infrastructure. The act of strengthening Woodstock’s zoning laws by Mr. Campanelli will benefit everyone who values preserving our natural environment and our public health, not just a select few (https://www.saferemr.com/2020/12/national-academy-of-sciences-report-on.html).
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Hurley needs a plan for its hundred-acre wood
There are two Town of Hurley issues that have arisen and require attention. The first is the siting of a new highway garage and the second is the ongoing conditions at the transfer station. Before the Town moves to site any new improvement to the highway garage, or begins making attempts to remedy issues at the transfer station would it not be prudent to open a detailed discussion for noting the specific requirements of each issue?
Hurley would greatly benefit from researching and adopting the best practices and operations from the most sustainably operated transfer stations and highway garages throughout the country (and world). We would do well to plan for a phased change over to a highway department fleet that embraces electric vehicles and ecologically sound maintenance practices and their maintenance as soon as possible. Any new highway garage should be designed for the next 20 to 50 years and to not simply “upgrade” under pressure the way we have operated in the past. The same could be said for the transfer station.
Once a list of requirements for improvements and upgrades are memorialized and there is a solid idea in place regarding what the upgrades will be, we can move on to taking a deeper look at the 100-acre parcel in general where the highway department, the town park and transfer station are situated. These three town operations share the 100 acres with woods, water and wildlife. Forming a possible plan for all these entities at this juncture seems to be the perfect time to plan for our future. This is likely to be the most expensive undertaking in Hurley’s recent history.
We respectfully suggest that the Town Board undertake a detailed look at the entire Town-owned parcel and consider specific planning for the best use of the property before committing to any new building or major upgrade to the highway garage or transfer station so that the facilities sustain durability in tandem with projected growth.
Once specific improvements are noted and decided upon, professional engineers and planners should be engaged to help shape the best use of our Town’s assets. Perhaps the sharing of detailed maps of the area and an inventory of assets at the property could also be presented to residents for an opportunity to discuss and better understand the issues and ideas the land may offer. Residents could be invited to share their ideas and visions for use of the land once a sketch plan is created and after knowing what we need, and professional planners have given their input.
Community engagement and careful planning could greatly improve these facilities. Working conditions for Town employees will be improved and residents will gain from better services and increased recreational opportunities through a well thought-out plan.
Beyond the immediate needs at the transfer station and the fixes required at the highway garage to stay in operation, long-term plans that meets Hurley’s future needs at these facilities must be developed before any site development or major work is undertaken.
Tobe Carey
Frank Spinelli
Glenford
Where is the love
A big lie circulating now tells us we are against each other, that the person standing in front of you is your enemy. As long as we believe that we can’t come together to fight the real adversaries, greed, excess power and selfishness and fear as the vector to meet those ends. We need to break free from corporatocracy. We need climate action. We need each other. We need love.
To say people have legitimate reasons for not being vaccinated is to invite a tsunami of criticism. The unvaccinated are being verbally assaulted, ostracized, accused of not caring about others and blamed for perpetuating the pandemic. They are experiencing isolation, facing threats of job loss (including our healthcare and other essential workers who risked their lives) and travel restrictions (which often means not being able to see family). All this from our government, the “Leaders of the Free World” mandating a vaccine that doesn’t appear to stop the spread of the virus and perpetuating a narrative that tell us the unvaccinated need not be respected, cared about or protected by the vaccinated, that the unvaccinated should be marginalized and stripped of work (and meaning in their lives). A disease in itself. Where is the love?
Many vaccinated people I talk with are okay with excluding the unvaccinated from our free society, or punishing them. The vaccine being pushed as a moral decision for the “protection of the public” has helped it slip under the radar of the social justice movement. Meanwhile, our civil liberties are being tried by mandates and removal of freedom of speech. Vaccine mandates and censorship are hand in hand now. Income disparity grows as the rich get richer from the pandemic and the poor get poorer, while the middle class is disappearing.
The vaccine lessens the symptoms of Covid, but vaccinated people get the disease, carry it and spread it. The vaccine wears off. We need how many boosters? Vaccinated people who have pre-existing health conditions are still dying from Covid. Two vaccinated people I know have died from Covid. To encourage people to get vaccinated the CDC offered a perk; we don’t have to wear masks. Has that become a super-spreader? We continue to see notices barring only the unvaccinated from entry in public places even though it is becoming self-evident that the unvaccinated are not more dangerous than the vaccinated. The discrimination continues with no penalties for people who refuse to wear masks indoors in public places putting others at risk, only penalties on those who are unvaccinated.
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some but for everyone”
–B Bacharach
Let’s superspread love, kindness and compassion to strengthen our world.
If you get vaccinated, it is and should continue to be your personal decision. Wear a mask, keep six-feet apart. Perhaps omicron is the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
PW Higgins
Shokan
Join the family! 
