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.
Revised letter guidelines:
Hudson Valley One welcomes letters from its readers. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and submitted by noon on Monday. Our policy is to print as many letters to the editor as possible. As with all print publications, available space is determined by ads sold. If there is insufficient space in a given issue, letters will be approved based on established content standards. Points of View will also run at our discretion.
Although Hudson Valley One does not specifically limit the number of letters a reader can submit per month, the publication of letters written by frequent correspondents may be delayed to make room for less-often-heard voices, but they will all appear on our website at hudsonvalleyone.com. All letters should be signed and include the author’s address and telephone number.
Thank you Hudson Valley One
I would like to thank HV1 for revising its letter guidelines. Months ago, I wrote a letter to the editor lamenting the plethora of very long diatribes surrounding opposing national political views. It was often a tit for tit, by the same writers, repeating their positions every week. I indicated that I would welcome some changes, so that the letters were more local in scope and of interest to Ulster County residents. The editors listened. Letters are now limited to 300, words and limits are placed on frequent correspondents to make room for “less-often-heard-voices.” To my count there were 15 letters in the last week’s edition, all of reasonable length, with letters of local interest out pacing others by a count of 13-2. All letters were to be given space on the paper’s website. A very fair solution.
Mike Harkavy
Saugerties
Will you consider running for Village Board?
Hello, New Paltz! After much consideration, I have decided not to run for re-election. I’ve held the position of trustee since 2019 and my term has been filled with a lot of learning, insight, challenges and accomplishments. I’m so thankful to the community for giving me this opportunity. I still have the rest of the year to complete my term, however, I’d love you (yes, you) to consider running for Village Board. The village needs you. The village needs all of us.
A healthy democracy is one where people feel compelled to step in and help our community. It relies on participation and open discourse, without devolving into unhealthy conversations. This, of course, is the challenge. I do my best to truly hear community members even if they have a different view than me and if I’ve failed to listen, I’ve tried to rectify that. Communication is so important. I also enjoy finding ways to make the Village of New Paltz safer in every way, with more opportunities for our youth.
Being part of the team of folks who organized and built the playground will be the brightest highlight of my term. And I’m thrilled that ideas I championed when I was running (skatepark, safer streets and sidewalks, and being a resilient community in the face of climate change, among others) are in the works — even though it seems that nearly everything in government takes so much time to accomplish. That has been the greatest challenge — learning the cost, the often long approval process with the proper entities, the many hoops that we often must go through to make even what seems like the most simple change to happen. But change can happen. We just need dedicated individuals to help make it happen.
With this, I believe that one of the best qualities for a trustee is patience — but with a large dose of kindness. We are a community. We are each other’s neighbors. We see each other on Main Street or at school pick-up. And being kind is always the best way to be. We can accomplish so much more when we are kind and listen to each other and find ways to make our community better. So, dear neighbor, if you possess these qualities and you are interested in running for village trustee, I’m here to discuss any details about the responsibility with you as we lead up to election day in November. You can email me at mzipp@villageofnewpaltz.org. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Michele Zipp
Village of New Paltz Trustee
We are the T-cells of the world
Wealth holds vast potential to cure, feed and improve humanity. But, unfortunately, the fastest way to gather wealth in the World today is by going into and supporting wars. Wars are like the gold rush of eighteen hundred in America.
Unbeknownst to many veterans, going to war was an education in understanding the job of living human T-cells. The abandonment of moral support from your country, choosing power and wealth over human life, including yours, is a complex learning to confront when you come home.
Unfortunately, politicians recognize what our veterans have learned in war and see it as dangerous. Thus, the unexpected delays in passing burn-pit compensation for veterans take years of deliberation as they die. Add to that the Phillips CPAP debacle, where their machines were found to cause cancer. Phillips told vets they could get cancer, and the Veterans Administration told their patients they should use the devices. Additionally, 80% of Vietnam veterans’ patients are on CPAP machines. Yet, this CPAP issue lasted over a year before Phillips replaced them, keeping their contract. If a senator or congressperson had this happen, would their medical plan have found a safe alternative CPAP?
Instead of dealing with veterans’ medical issues and taking responsibility for them, politicians focus on making stockholders money by supporting manufacturers selling weapons of war. Politicians perform a dance move that looks like they are helping soldiers but are not. They support drone manufacturers and other unmanned killing machines to replace ground troops. Politicians know that drones have no souls but have forgotten that their joystick operators do. This is like pharmaceutical companies attempting to provide medication that will do the job of our body’s T-Cells; cash is made, but there is little comparison to the human immune system. No politician or medicine will stop the illness of making wars. Only self-awareness that we as humans are the T-cells of the world.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Coincidence or…
According to Hudson Valley One, “[When] high winds cut power to the pump houses at the town water supply, rather than call water and sewer superintendent Larry Allen in from the other side of the county, McKenna checked on the backup generator himself. He contacted a company to repair the power lines when Central Hudson told him they are the customer’s responsibility.”
On February 9 I wrote, “Great job in running Woodstock, Bill.” Was it that the water and sewer department was staffed in such a manner that there was no one else that could have been called upon to correct this issue? If you were not around, what would have been done? A good leader would have had a second in command deputy in place in every department they oversaw for just these types of situations. Stop patting yourself on your shoulder.”
On February 21, Town Supervisor Bill McKenna appointed a town deputy supervisor. What do you think?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Pesky ninety-nine luftballons
A German woman claims she tried
warning the USA about Chinese balloons
40 years ago. I believe it was artist Jeff
Koons who observed: “se non è vero,
è molto ben trovato … So, we need to
be on the lookout because she clearly
said “Neunundneunzig” — spy balloons,
And…
“RED” to boot!
“I hate it when China spies on me!”… You
can’t be too careful with all these floating
up high [at 60,000 feet] balloons around,
right? Arizona’s un-elected Kari Lake said
“If given the opportunity, she’d shoot
down a Chinese spy balloon with a
shotgun…” She knows a lot about guns,
doesn’t she?
An adversarial spy balloon: “So … the
decision to shoot down the thing was
done on a Wednesday. We monitored it,
jammed its sensors, gained Intel on
its capabilities, waited until it was out of
range where a crash could cause civilian
harm, only then did they shoot it down,
and this is what is causing a million MAGAts
to lose it.” — Rick Wilson [former important
Republican influencer].
“A million MAGAts” deliberately are in
permanent, “lost it” mode; they merely
stand by waiting for each fake crisis to
activate their outrage.
These MAGAts are the true crisis actors,
and … trying to use logic is futile.
“They know more than the generals!
They are the best generals!”
Kevin McCarthy – “First Biden refused to
defend our borders. Now he won’t
defend our skies.”
Neil Jarmel — “Hey asshole ‘Speaker of
the House’ … He shot it down when it was
safe to do so. Your boss President Trump
refused to defend our own Capitol!”
China can deduct the cost of the downed
balloon from Trump’s bank account.
Three down, 96 to go. You couldn’t pay
me enough money right now to fly
anywhere in a hot air balloon — jus’
sayin’.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
We need heroes in Washington
It seems frightfully obvious that there is a new Axis of Evil composed of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea! None of these nations have a history of developing or building on a historical moral and human rights base. I am fully aware of the USA’s history of being an international bully, of brutalizing minorities, of supporting brutal dictatorships, of stealing natural resources, of slaughtering innocents, etc. Yes, that is the sad part of the reality of American history!
Many on the left only focus and many on the right never focus on that verifiable bad part of our history. Unlike the Axis of Evil, but similar to Great Britain, France and other western democracies, there is also in those histories the development and strengthening of a moral and rights based society. Although America’s progress has been ongoing, albeit often sluggish and painful, our basic improvements in and protections of human rights have no comparison to most nations, especially historically autocratic ones! The main autocratic Axis Powers are colluding to sap our finances, challenge us militarily and, ultimately, weaken us and other democracies to the point that we are ineffectual and unable to respond to their brazen behaviors.
Our severely divisive political and social reality plays into a best-case scenario for our enemies. Make no mistake, autocracies are the enemy of democracies. Additionally and sadly, our politicians are no longer our best and brightest, which further undermines our image in the world. We are the only nation capable of leading the fight against these evil powers and we need better politics and better leaders. We need people able to articulate, to expound and advocate for what is morally right for our country and the world. The light is dimming, the winter of our discontent is nigh … we need a hero, better yet, heroes in every community, and especially in Washington!
Ron Stonitsch
New Paltz
In support of a Democratic vice presidential primary
The New York Times just published an opinion by Greg Craig in support of a Democratic vice presidential primary and some history behind it.
I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of opening up the vice presidential contest to a primary. I called Senator Schumer to express that same opinion about two weeks ago.
Doing this would create real interest in the Democratic slate. Those who are worried about age should know we have a very competent and able successor. We would, in effect, be voting for the next president if President Biden could not complete his term in office.
His choice of Kamala Harris seemed like a great one when he made it and I still respect her. But somewhere along the line she has disappeared from view and from most of the administration’s key priorities. There are lots of possible reasons. First, she had to be available for votes in an evenly divided Senate. Also, she was given the impossible job of dealing with immigration and the border (a job only Congress can really fix). Whatever the reasons are or were, she has not shown as brightly as is necessary to add real spark to another Biden victory. If she were to win the primary, then it is a confirmation and she has a real mandate.
We have a large and exciting bench. And given the anxiety some have over age, why not open up the choice to the people. Having a real primary will also not allow the Republicans to control the primary time and the whole narrative.
In the end, we have nothing to lose. The people have a chance to really vote. Something that we Democrats enshrine and we should not be afraid of what our party has to say.
Paul Tomasko
Saugerties
Cool play
Ungolf is the opposite of golf — you attempt to get a small ball out of a hole.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
A good-natured parody
At a recent press conference, the World Health Organization, the CDC and the FSA announced the creation of a new Fundamentalist religion. It has been named “Faucism” as inspired by the faithful followers of saint Fauci.
The Faucists are initiated and baptized en masse with the Jab. The zealots are regarded highly depending on how many of these Jabs they submit to.
In Saint Fauci’s Sermon on the Dismount, he proclaimed the following sacred Tenets, which are the foundation and back-bone of his followers belief system:
1. “If you question me, you are questioning Science.”
2. Thou shall believe no science, facts or information other than mine.
3. Thou shall not exhibit any critical thinking.
4. Thou shall do no independent research.
5. Thou shall not read or listen to any studies or reports published by any medical experts or journals.
6. Thou shall refrain from any open-minded discourse with doctors, medical or health experts no matter how much scientific credibility they may possess.
7. And finally, thou shall condemn, demonize and cancel anyone who disagrees with my dogmas.
Donzello Berelli
New Paltz
For your awareness
I have mentioned previously in past articles, the organizations I donate money to are the AARP (American Association for Retired Persons) and the NCPSSM (National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare). These two organizations are focused for the protection of these two social programs (Social Security and Medicare), which we have paid into for years.
Just recently, I received a newsletter from the President and CEO of the NCPSSM and I quote: “Yet Republicans in Congress are gearing up to try and scale back your Medicare benefits, reverse critical legislation that reduces the price of certain high prescription drugs and expand the privatization of traditional Medicare, which would make it more difficult for you to choose your own doctor.”
I quote from the newsletter again: “The truth is that without Medicare, America’s seniors would lack insurance coverage due to high costs. In fact, before Medicare, more than half of seniors lacked hospital insurance. Today, virtually all people ages 65 and over are covered by Medicare.
From the AARP (American Association Retired Persons), another quote: “There is nothing we should trust about the TRUST ACT, which would allow a small number of politicians to propose benefit cuts “behind closed doors,” with little transparency or oversight from the voters. “This is wrong. This is not fair.” In a previous letter I mentioned eight different attacks the GOP has focused on to address the two programs mentioned above. (Trust Act is one of them). They are:
Privatization: Here FICA is eliminated and it is your money to save that is if you indeed need to do so. There are always the emergencies arising, necessitating the need to spend money preventing this investment.
2. Reach: Funds allocated by Medicare for a person’s medical expenses will be subject to corporate middlemen who allocate a defined portion of each senior’s medical expenses. What they don’t pay for these, they keep for themselves!
3. BBA (Balanced Budget Amendment): This is where the federal budget is addressed by a percentage of benefit money being cut.
4. FIX (Fix the Debt): Corporate CEOs, in order to balance the budget, have their sights on slashing our benefits.
5. Business Roundtable: A powerful group leading the charge for deep cuts in our benefits. Average retirement for these men is $14.5 million.
6. COLA (cost of living adjustment): The elimination or cutting the cost-of-living to our benefits.
7. Rescue America: This is an amendment by Senator Rick Scott that looks at our benefits every five years to determine if they are worth financing for another five years! Wow!
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
Patricia strays a little
In response to Patricia Porter’s letter of March 1 entitled “Here is what I said,” she left me no choice but to “read into” what she said, or more aptly DIDN’T say, in her very brief prior letter.
Patricia did say that the positives of “yesterday” that I pointed out which we all used to enjoy may be true. However, she offered no evaluations or criticisms of Biden for his removal of all those positives which he replaced with countless negative realities presently saddling all of us. So, her avoidance of the obvious need for criticisms of Biden is, in a way, putting Biden on a pedestal.
Patricia says the “Trump crew” is always accusing the left of hate when it’s the right who is actually peddling the hate. Even though one of Biden’s empty campaign promises from his basement was that he would be our great Uniter-in-Chief, bringing us all together, his rhetoric tells us a vastly different story, even far worse than Hillary’s “deplorables.” Biden is, by far, the most divisive President we’ve ever seen.
When I hear the term “Progressive,” I think of positive movement towards a positive goal. As Patricia states, the Suffragettes and Martin Luther King, Jr. were certainly excellent examples. However, today’s radical “Progressives” are throwing a huge monkey wrench into REAL positive progress. Patricia is right that we’ve improved as a country but it has taken decades to do so. Yet, in the past two years, progress in our economy, energy independence, field of education, legal immigration, out-of-control spending, etc. has come to a grinding and screeching halt.
I’m not sure I get Patricia’s comment about my not understanding the 1st Amendment. She, George Civile, myself, the “talking heads” on the right AND the left, and even Neil Jarmel are exercising our 1st Amendment rights each time we write a letter or speak out. But then, Patricia makes a very puzzling connection that our 1st Amendment letters carry a guarantee that they must be printed in the HV1 newspaper. Whoever said that our 1st Amendment rights force HV1 to print our letters? Of course, HV1 is the entity that has the ultimate right to print or not to print any or all of our letters.
Finally, Patricia didn’t even try to address her inability to separate her strong distaste of Trump’s personality and arrogance from his obvious progressive achievements mentioned in my previous letter. She condemns Trump as if he accomplished nothing. This was the pervasive attitude and disability exhibited in voters choosing Biden over Trump. No one really voted FOR Biden or anything he pretended to stand for, they simply voted AGAINST Trump.
John N. Butz
Modena
Commodity or community?
Woodstock is being threatened by out-of-town developers who are changing the character of our community. Residential neighborhoods around Woodstock have seen developers propose everything from glamping to motels including the Montana-based KOA Terramor and the NYC developers’ proposal to build a seven-unit motel on Calamar Lane. Developers who see our community as a commodity are attempting to transform Woodstock into a place exclusively for tourists, while depleting the services and homes for our residents. My husband bemoans the idea that he could purchase a two-headed-camel-lamp but it’s hard to find a container of milk in our tourist-driven economy.
When tourism overwhelms a community, some of the impacts are obvious and immediate, like traffic, loss of parking and litter at Big Deep. Other impacts are insidious and may take awhile to recognize. The loss of affordable and available housing has forced residents out of their homes. Another devastating impact is the threat to our school population. The Onteora District is exploring options to deal with declining enrollment, with one proposal, the possible closing of the Woodstock Elementary School. The loss to young children is immeasurable. Brown University has done extensive research on the importance of children being “known” via small classes and as importantly, through small schools. Young children need to spend time playing rather than riding on long bus trips to a larger, consolidated school.
While serving as the president of Citizens Against Terramor I recognized that many small Woodstock neighborhoods are fighting similar battles in their own backyards. These small battalions need to join forces and work together. A group of citizens is exploring the creation of a non-profit group that will help local citizens strategize on ways to support more appropriate development and keep our community from becoming a commodity for out-of-town developers. The non-profit proposal will be unveiled at the Celebration of Community Activism at 5 p.m. on March 9 at the Millstream.
Susan Paynter
Woodstock
Structural inequality and SUNY impact aid
It’s the time of year when we have asked Senator Hinchey and Assemblymember Shrestha to try to get SUNY Impact Aid included in the State budget. We hope this assistance will be restored. New Paltz has only ever received it previously in fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021. (Thank you former Senators Metzger and Bonacic and Assemblymember Cahill.)
Each year the village elected to share $50,000 with the townwide A-fund for police expenses and then apply $150,000 towards New Paltz’s volunteer fire department’s reserve fund for future expenses to benefit townwide taxpayers.
It would make sense and be more equitable if SUNY Impact Aid in NYS was tied to whether a SUNY host municipality was a city and how their county’s sales tax sharing agreement works. In the NYS Comptroller report “Understanding Local Government Sales Tax in New York State,” it says that 25 counties in NYS, including Ulster County, either:
• shares a portion of its sales tax; allocation of sales tax to cities and area of county outside cities is based on population
OR
• shares a portion of its sales tax; allocation to cities and area of county outside cities is based on other factors, as established in a Sharing Agreement
In Ulster County’s Sales Tax Sharing Agreement, 23 Ulster County towns and villages share 3% based upon assessed property values. And then the City of Kingston receives the other 11.5% and the county retains the remaining 85.5% of the local share not received by NYS.
The Town of New Paltz, including the village, is the second most populous town in the county with 14,407 residents, after the Town and Village of Saugerties’ 19,038 residents. The third most populous is the Town of Wawarsing, which includes the Village of Ellenville, with 12,771. However, the Towns of New Paltz and Wawarsing receive the second and third least amount of sales tax revenue per capita, respectively. Plattekill receives the least per capita of all towns in Ulster County.
Another problem with using assessed property values to share sales tax instead of population is that it excludes the assessed values for exempt properties, particularly SUNY New Paltz. The State Comptroller’s office came up with its curious opinion in 1968 (24 Op. State Compt. 653) about the term “full valuation of real property,” as used in Tax Law §1262(d), with respect to the formula for distributing county sales tax revenues. This harms our community as the assessed value of SUNY New Paltz is significantly greater than the entire rest of the Village of New Paltz with its taxable value of $316 million. The university alone is assessed at $399 million with a Full Market Value of $525 million.
New Paltz has to pay for police and our DPW overtime on weekends to clean up after New Paltz’s sales tax generating nightlife and sales tax generating university. Fire department calls to the SUNY New Paltz campus account for up to 20% of our all-volunteer New Paltz Fire Department’s total call volume.
Sharing sales tax revenues based on assessed values instead of population, especially after exempt properties are excluded, is a prime example of structural inequality. Perhaps Ulster County could change and use population but also share a minimum amount based on whatever a town is receiving now?
Until that is fixed to more fairly represent people v. property values, we’ll keep our fingers crossed Governor Hochul’s budget includes SUNY Impact Aid for New Paltz.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Observations
It seems frightfully obvious that there is a new Axis of Evil composed of Russia, China, Iran and N Korea! None of these nations have a history of developing or building on a historical moral and human rights base. I am fully aware of the USA’s history of being an international bully, of brutalizing minorities, of supporting brutal dictatorships, of stealing natural resources, of slaughtering innocents, etc: Yes, that is the sad part of the reality of American history!
Many on the left only focus and many on the right never focus on that verifiable bad part of our history. Unlike the Axis of Evil but similar to Great Britain, France and other western democracies there is also, in those histories, the development and strengthening of a moral and rights-based society. Although America’s progress has been ongoing, albeit often sluggish and painful, our basic improvements in and protections of human rights have no comparison to most nations, especially historically autocratic ones! The main autocratic Axis Powers are colluding to sap our finances, challenge us militarily and, ultimately, weaken us and other democracies to the point that we are ineffectual and unable to respond to their brazen behaviors.
Our severely divisive political and social reality plays into a best-case scenario for our enemies. Make no mistake, autocracies are the enemy of democracies. Additionally and sadly, our politicians are no longer our best and brightest, which further undermines our image in the world.
We are the only nation capable of leading the fight against these evil powers and we need better politics and better leaders. We need people able to articulate, to expound and advocate for what is morally right for our country and the world. The light is dimming, the winter of our discontent is nigh — we need a hero, better yet, heroes in every community and especially in Washington!
Ron Stonitsch
New Paltz
Join the family! 
