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Save our bluestone sidewalks!
One of the many pleasures of walking in the Village of New Paltz is coming across history underfoot in the form of our remaining repository of bluestone sidewalks. There are some in the Huguenot Street Historic District of course, where they are protected, but there are plenty more scattered around the village. These sidewalks provide character and beauty to our village, contributing to New Paltz’s unique charm.
A recent social media post by Mayor Tim Rogers alerted some of us (though, confusingly, the accompanying photo was of Huguenot Street) to a plan, in fact an accepted bid, to create asphalt sidewalks with concrete curbs on the west side of Prospect Street, a bid that includes paving over a long stretch of historic bluestone sidewalk on that side of the street. There have been no public proposals via workshops or special meetings detailing those specific plans or any future actions for review, as have taken place recently in nearby communities with stretches of bluestone such as Stone Ridge and Kingston. Of course, it’s reasonable to assume that the public is generally supportive of new sidewalks or maintenance of existing ones — unless the plan is to replace existing historic bluestone sidewalks with asphalt, as does the bid the New Paltz Village Board voted to accept on 4/24 (minus trustee William Wheeler-Murray, who would have been in opposition but who was absent for health reasons).
We, the undersigned, are unhappy that there has been no significant public notification of this plan, specifically the replacement of bluestone with asphalt, especially given bluestone’s beauty, durability and historic significance. No neighborhood meetings were conducted, or any outreach at all. We agree completely with fixing broken sidewalks or creating new sidewalks and making them accessible to all, and we recognize the extreme disrepair of some of the sidewalks on Prospect Street. Our objection is that there are sections of bluestone sidewalk on Prospect Street that don’t need any repair, and other sections where repair or replacement of damaged pavers would save the village money over the long term, not to mention retaining the historic character of an eminently walkable street for future generations. We suggest using those saved dollars towards more necessary repairs desperately needed in the Village.
The property owners in New Paltz who have sidewalks are essentially community hosts. Those people are responsible for shoveling, cleaning and maintaining their walks, and property owners who are not good stewards can be fined. Property owners lucky enough to have bluestone to care for are proud of its longevity as well as the fact that people enjoy walking on it, dogs don’t burn their paws on it in the summer, neighborhood children love making chalk drawings on it. Shouldn’t the stewards as well as the community have a say in whether their historic sidewalks should continue to exist? It’s true that on Prospect and in other areas of the village where there’s no buffer between street and sidewalk, cars and trucks occasionally override or even park on the sidewalk, which has had a serious, deleterious effect on some of the bluestone. An ideal solution to the asphalt versus bluestone question, therefore, might be to extend the proposed concrete curbing alongside the intact bluestone stretches to protect them.
Our existing bluestone sidewalks have served New Paltz for over a hundred years. On the other hand, we doubt there’s an asphalt sidewalk in the Village that’s over 20 years old that hasn’t needed repairs or that doesn’t look unsightly. We urge Mayor Rogers not to move forward with the portion of his plan that would destroy a valuable community asset, and to discuss this plan and any future sidewalk plans involving bluestone publicly to seek preservation-minded solutions.
Kara Belinsky
Jerry Benjamin
Neil Bettez
Nora Brown
George F. Brown
Stephen Cook
Caren and Peter Fairweather
Rachelle Gibson
Claudia Goldstein and Charles Fetherolf
Julee Guillemot
Eugene Heath
Richard Heyl de Ortiz
Noelle Kimble McEntee
Zelig Kurland
Rachel Markowitz
MaryJo Martin
Amber Merkins
Bob Miller
Kamilla Nagy
Alison Nash
Anthony Ortiz
Helen Prior-Nist
Sara Solomon
Martha Tait-Watkins
Jason Vandermer
Oscar Vandermer
Dominic Volante
Christopher Watkins
Caitlin Welles
Linda Welles
Emilyn Wheeler
Henry Wheeler
June O. Wheeler
Kira Wheeler
William Wheeler-Murray
Reva Wolf
New Paltz
Trump v. United States
On April 25, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump v. United States, a case whose name aptly sums up the state of affairs we’re confronting.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, “If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military to assassinate him, is that within his official acts to which he has immunity?” Mr. Sauer replied, “That could well be an official act [and therefore immune from prosecution].” Mr. Sauer sees his client as a would-be king, a mantle that George Washington expressly refused to wear, thus assuring the new nation that democracy would be its polestar.
From the other side of the mirror, darkly, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., “in an inversion of the conventional understanding of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said that a ruling for Mr. Trump could enhance democratic values [New York Times].” He continued, ““A stable, democratic society requires that a candidate who loses an election, even a close one, even a hotly contested one, leave office peacefully … The prospect of criminal prosecution would make that less likely. Will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?”
In the world according to Alito, upholding the idea that no person is above the law, the bedrock principle of democracy, means choosing to embrace anarchy. This is through-the-looking-glass thinking. We must fear justice, lest justice be served.
Two of the justices, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, are tainted by what we now know as a McConnell Rule, in which Mitch McConnell nullified the right of Democratic presidents to appoint justices to the court. The unrecusable Justice Thomas, whose wife helped to orchestrate the January 6 violence at the Capitol, is also tainted. The court is illegitimate, and in its illegitimacy is poised to anoint Trump king.
If this does not set off the claxons of alarm, what will? If you’re not voting with this in mind, what are you voting for?
It’s time to increase the number of justices on the court and bring the reign of the Chinese-Russian- Federalist Society-Republican Party to an end. We can do this with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a Democrat in the Oval Office.
Vote Blue in December.
William Weinstein
New Paltz
Earth Day is – now — everyday
The 21st annual Earth Day fair in New Paltz on April 20 was described as one of the best ever.
What a day! Hundreds attended, flags were flying, great music filled the air, tasty vegan food was cooking and then came the sunshine. As wonderful as all of that was, the heart and soul of the near zero waste event was the high quality environmental groups that presented educational information about the environment and what we can do to protect it. There was a palpable buzz of positive energy between the presenters and the visitors. It was a good feeling.
Yeah, we know, the climate crisis is real. It’s here. It’s upon us and its trajectory is still going in the wrong direction. Yet, there are these glimmers of encouragement provided by so many people of good will that was witnessed at an event like our Earth Day fair. So many people who are working away and struggling to make positive change.
Whether we’re encouraged or discouraged, or maybe both, we need to please get involved. It’s time for all hands on deck. It will take a struggle but out of that struggle can emerge a new sense of purpose and even the joy and fun of working together on something as important as maintaining a habitable world in which our children’s children can live. Denial and withdrawal are not healthy options for people or the planet.
Earth Day is – now – everyday.
Jim O’Dowd
New Paltz
We love walking on sidewalks
At our April 24 Village of New Paltz Board of Trustees meeting, our board gulped and accepted the bid recommendation to replace a 912 linear foot section of sidewalk on Prospect Street using “asphaltic concrete” with a “concrete curb.” This is the same specification for sidewalks used by SUNY New Paltz.
The low bid, including driveway entrances, was $191,483.60, or $210/LF. Bluestone instead of “asphaltic concrete” would cost double at $420/ LF. Engineering and inspections for this 912 linear foot project will cost approximately $42,000, another $46/LF. So we compared $256 to $466.
The Village of New Paltz has a population of 8,000 and we host SUNY New Paltz, the region’s only public residential university with its overall campus population of more than 7,000 students.
There are approximately 11 miles of streets but we should round up to 14 miles to include NYS highways like Main Street, North and South Chestnut and South Manheim. Additionally, our Main Street serves as the pedestrian portion for the Empire State Trail through New Paltz.
Streets are best enjoyed by pedestrians when they have sidewalks on each side. With 5,280 feet in a mile and sidewalks on both sides: (14 miles * 5,280 feet) * 2 = 147,840 feet.
Replacing sidewalks across our village at $256/LF with “asphaltic concrete” and a “concrete curb” would cost about $38 million. Bluestone at $466/LF would cost a whopping $69 million.
Is running a local government sustainable? Is a pedestrian friendly community realistic?
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
There are not enough old-timers left in Woodstock
Recently Trish Lease-Way wrote an essay about discovering the Hudson Valley. She found quiet, beautiful skies with clouds and peace.
The thing is this: Trish found something she sought.
The pandemic brought many people to our area who found what they sought while they also escaped crowds, 18-wheelers filled with cadavers and fear.
Coming up to today, we have a situation where our community is not what it was — not even a little bit. It may look like the old place it was, but it’s not that old place at all.
There are not enough bathrooms, parking spaces, places to live or sidewalks.
We could have saved the old place, maybe, if our community had formed an association about a hundred years or so ago, like they did in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the summer of 1853. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the Woodstock way. What we always did in the past was scream, argue, squabble, yell and sometimes march until the changes we didn’t like stopped. That’s why the original Woodstock Music Festival was held 80 miles away and we still have a noise ordinance.
And, we don’t have a McDonald’s or a motel.
But, that old way which worked so well in the past is no longer effective. Some people who came from Brooklyn bought some of the local businesses and set about creating the new reality.
Never mind we don’t have the infrastructure to support the growth.
The old way isn’t working anymore because those buying the businesses and homes are still here, creating new dreams of Westchester North. And, those who sold the businesses and homes took the money and ran. They scattered far and wide, building new homes, businesses and dreams with their new money.
The people who took the money and ran are no longer here to do the screaming and yelling to preserve the status quo. Bluntly put: there are just not enough old-timers left.
We are at a crossroads. What do we do? I can think of one thing.
We can graciously turn over the reins to the new people. They are here. Let them decide how they want their community to look. They are younger, more energetic and have new ideas and attitudes.
They are backing up their dreams with money.
Let them have the reins.
Frankly, that’s how gentrification works. Beyond a certain point, there is no going back.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
Brain-freeze
In response to a picture that I put on Facebook, showing an electric meter installed in the middle of a lawn some distance from the new addition to the Comeau building, “Perfect location for the electric meter; it complements the addition to the Comeau building in the same way the addition complements the Comeau Building.”
McKenna commented with: “Had someone taken the time to ask, they would have discovered this meter is temporary. The permanent meter will be on the building.” His wife Hillery wrote: “My goodness, people. FACTS MATTER. This is temporary” and “This mess of a thread is what happens when you believe the uninformed.”
And then there was an exchange between Shelle Shakerdge and Bill McKenna. “Bill, “it’s harder to cause trouble if you know the facts first,” which Bill acknowledged with “true.” Shelle then continued with “or care about facts. I’m assuming some people know the facts but don’t care about the facts. They are bored and need drama in their life.”
This exchange took place last December, which was about five months ago. The addition is currently occupied, yet the meter is still in the same place. And that is a FACT.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
A poem about spring
In response to last week’s essay by Sparrow in Hudson Valley One’s magazine Explore: Spring in the Valley entitled, “How to write a poem about spring,” I wrote this response:
Blazing Umbrellas
No quibble:
spring is here.
Its arrival still
magical, automatic,
fantastic.
A fallow patch
fills with color:
Snow Bells, Bluebells,
Lilies of the Valley,
Crocus — so much to pick.
All under
a blazing umbrella
of fierce, fiery
Forsythia and satiny,
if short-lived, Magnolia.
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Medicine is in flux
If you have easy access to your doctors and have consistently good insurance coverage, count yourself among the fortunate. Medicine is in flux; big business has invaded the profession and profits have become more important than patient care. Long waits on the phone, long waits to see the doctor, prior authorizations, cheaper meds rather than the best and many more cost saving interferences are the new norm.
There is hope on the horizon. The New York Health Act, a government-run program much like Medicare, will refocus on patient care as the main point. It is a bold plan that provides coverage for every New Yorker. It is being worked on by our legislators and a feasible budget has been formulated. Patient fees would be reasonable and scaled to your income.
The plan is ready for implementation and requires getting more organizations on board. The boldness and size of the undertaking make it hard to digest. Several other states are working on a similar plan. Google New York Health Act to get more information.
Hal Chorny
Gardiner
The perpetraitor is losing his ability to dominate
The oxygen he once sucked is going away.
Now slipping through his grasp…
His dominance is dwindling day by day,
That control is now becoming a mere gasp.
Perhaps he’ll face jail time.
Or financial ruination galore…
Or maybe he’ll face a sudden decline.
And his reign of terror will be no more.
Karma may catch up at last.
It’s a reckoning he can’t avoid.
His past escapes are fading fast.
His fate is now finally being deployed…
Yes, the black swan always lurks,
Unpredictable and sly…
The perpetraitor’s luck may have run out.
His downfall will be a final exclamation of “oh-my!”
I think we, as a nation, are experiencing such a shift. The perpetraitor is losing his ability to dominate the national conversation. Well, he’s evaded real punishment for a long time. There’s certainly the possibility his luck will continue, though criminal indictments are more than he’s previously evaded. I don’t have a clue how this is going to work itself out; it’s of course life, and not a three-act structure, where grief is purged and the ‘Fates’ are satisfied.
But if you believe in karma, then you can see all those earlier scrapes and escapes leading Don Snoreleone to his penultimate reckoning in at least one of the four prosecutions ahead of him. And that’s comforting to me, at least.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Police assistance requested
There is hardly an occasion on my commute to Poughkeepsie a couple of times per week that I am not bullied on the road. It’s almost always in the form of another driver riding so closely behind me that it’s as if we’re parallel parked while moving at a speed of 45mph+. I drive the speed limit. But as soon as someone engages in this behavior, I immediately slow down, so that in the event I have to stop abruptly, I allow more time and space to not be rear-ended, thereby likely totaling my 12-year-old car that I happen to adore. My impetus for (finally) posting this follows yesterday when I drove 299 West home from Poughkeepsie while being followed very closely behind by a rude male driver who kept gesturing for me to speed up. When I finally saw a trooper up ahead at the barracks, I breathed a sigh of relief believing that not only would this driver back off, but the trooper would see him and pull him over. Sadly, neither event occurred.
It seems like most people I talk to agree that since the pandemic, driving has become much more dangerous in large part due to the hurriedness and discourteousness of other drivers, to put it mildly. Therefore, it is in that vein that I implore the police to please observe this behavior and help put a stop to it. Because apart from some other major societal shift, I’m not sure how this is remedied.
Chrissy Roth
New Paltz
A recapping
Many of you have read my letters to the editor down through the years. I stopped doing this, the last 16 months due to my wife and my sister passing away, October 22, 2022 and my wife December 3, 2022. But I am resuming my articles.
By now, everyone is pretty much saturated with the shenanigans going on in the political system we call a ‘republic.’ But whatever our feelings, or lack of, we are part and parcel of this republic, regardless of the shenanigans.
I could care less if you are for Biden, Kennedy, Trump or Joe Blow. None of my business. I am not going to get dragged into this emotional ‘free-for-all’, ‘tit for tat’, that goes on between those holding hard beliefs about our presidents, senators or congressmen and women.
Instead, I am going to pick up where I left off and where my true feelings lie: my benefits. Benefits meaning my Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ not just my benefits but millions of us ‘ole prunes’ out there collecting these benefits that we have paid for, that’s right, we have paid for since Social Security was implemented in 1935.
These benefits are under attack and they have been for years, but in the last number of years they are threatened more so than they have ever been.
And that is what we are going to explore. I will be going back into history to allow the reader to understand today’s background of the attack on our benefits. Rather than shrug your shoulders, and say, ‘what the hell difference does it make, the corporations run everything’. Wrong! When the populace becomes involved over an issue, changes occur. For example, the Vietnam War was stopped because of the college kids revolting against the inequities of the draft and loss of life. Inequities in that there were draft dodgers, exemptions for farmers. (I knew teachers in the NYS Department of Correctional Services who were there because they were exempt due to the classification: teaching inmates was ‘essential services’.)
So, this letter is like a ‘prologue’, a ‘setting of the stage’, so to speak. I will be coming out with an agenda to allow the reader to fully understand the background to this attack on our benefits and the ramifications of such. Until then.
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
Gaza
My congratulations to Tom Cherwin for writing a letter addressing the war in Gaza without mentioning Hamas or the hostages they have held for more than six months, raping and, likely, killing many of them. Hamas could have released these men, women and children months ago and gotten the cease fire agreement that many have been demanding. However, Hamas chose the certain death of thousands of Gazans over releasing these hostages.
I support a cease fire so as to get Israel out of the position that Hamas has manipulated it into so that these demands and demonstrations can focus on the release of those remaining, still alive, hostages, however few they may be. And the return of the bodies of the dead.
Meyer Rothberg
Saugerties
The U.S. is an accomplice
The war goes on. Not really a war, of course. This is a widely admitted genocide, and its targets have been tens of thousands of civilians, almost half of them children.
The genocide has links to the one country still sending weapons and financial aid to Israel, our very own land of the free, home of the brave. The U.S. is the accomplice to the worst slaughter of the 21st century.
We can talk about the Israel Lobby, as well as the Christian Zionists, two groups that put Old Testament ravings above their basic humanity. “Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
But the butchery in Gaza can’t all be blamed on religious psychopaths. There is something disturbing about our two war parties. Congress and our main presidential candidates are stumbling over each other for more bloodshed. 13,000 children aren’t enough. Who could their God be?
Maybe it is Allen Ginsberg’s Molech, the God that destroys children though materialism and war. Molech in the 21st century is wearing an IDF uniform as he shoots starving Palestinians. He is also Congressman Pat Ryan, whose “top contributor” for 2024 is AIPAC at $39,900, and “top industry” is Pro-Israel at $159,000 (data from OpenSecrets.org). He talks about ceasefires, but always votes to send more bombs and bullets to Israel.
And will this carnage we watch every night eventually be called the American Genocide? We know that it will.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Shame of all shame
Regarding John Butz’s letter in last weeks’ issue of HV1, these are my rebuttals: First, Mr. Butz sets himself up as though he is an expert on genocide making statements that are not true, nor are they backed up with any references from expert sources.
Contrary to Mr. Butz erroneous assertions, genocide is clearly defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. For Mr. Butz to say the convention “had no clear definition of genocide” is foolishness. How then could the international Court of Justice prosecute without a clear definition, and they do prosecute. Genocide has been codified in International Law by a treaty from the Genocide Convention that criminalizes genocide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_Convention).
Second Mr. Butz, citing no qualifications of his own, has the audacity to declare that the 800 international legal experts on genocide (https://www.commondreams.org/news/legalscholars-israel-genocide), who are all very qualified to declare Israel is committing genocide, are allegedly “expanding the definition of genocide.” Israeli Holocaust scholar professor Raz Segal, one of those experts decries Israel’s assault on Gaza as clearly a “Textbook Case of Genocide” (https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-ofgenocide) as do all human rights groups.
Third, Mr Butz inserts his own unsupported made up criteria that genocide has to be the “Only goal.” Nowhere in the definitions of the Genocide Convention is that alleged criteria stated (https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml).
Fourth, Mr Butz, while conceding my experts include “some Jews”, conveniently omits that I also included 300 Jewish holocaust survivors and their families calling what is happening in Gaza “genocide.” Mr. Butz’s statements are insulting to those survivors who obviously know what genocide is, having learned it from direct experience and felt its pain and suffering (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28916761).
Fifth, Mr. Butz also fails to understand that Israel’s military agenda of destroying Hamas, does not supersede international laws against genocide, meaning that in its quest to be the final victor in that military struggle, it can’t commit genocide to get there. Israel will have to find another way besides slaughtering and starving innocent Palestinians, mostly women and children (https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6279/Gaza:-Amidst-Israel%E2%80%99s-genocide,-Palestinian-civilians-face-an-unparalleled-health-andenvironmental-crisis).
Sixth, while Mr. Butz references “other writers disagreeing with Steve” on this issue, he fails to inform the readership that none of them have been able to rebut my letters with documented facts or references, like I always provide, but only attempt with their biased, unsupported opinions, and that includes Mr. Butz. Those supporting and committing genocide will have no excuses at their end on Judgment Day, including Hamas, the IDF, Netanyahu or the president of the USA, whom the latter supplies most of the weapons and bombs to horribly decimate 38,061 innocent human beings so far (euromedmonitor.org/en). Shame of all shame on anyone supporting the most serious crime on earth, genocide.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Where have all those peace symbols gone
As I traverse the labyrinth of my thoughts, a place where shadow and light warp the walls of emotional intelligence, I speak to you. Not as the holder of truths but as a raconteur whose memories flutter like leaves in an unreliable wind. In this inner sanctum, I wrestle with the specters of a bygone era — an epoch when peace symbols were more than ornaments; they were the talismans warding off the night terrors of war.
In this soliloquy, I ask, where have all those peace symbols gone — the harbingers of a quieter world? Their absence reminds me of those chilling exhibits of war’s actual toll: the personal artifacts left in death’s wake. This comparison might be imperfect, yet it captures the gravitas of what we’ve lost — the crux of existence itself.
The peace movement once stretched across our culture like a vibrant tapestry, threads of defiance and hope interwoven into its fabric. But now, this tapestry seems to fade in the dim light of collective memory. Where once those symbols hung around necks and adorned walls as marks of resistance, they now languish in the territory of vogue, bereft of their once potent charge. As a Marine, I once glimpsed hope amidst war’s pandemonium. What extinguished the fiery spirit of those protestors from decades past?
Perhaps the lack of a draft has softened the edge of fear, as the sword of personal loss no longer hangs above our heads. Or maybe today’s wars, veiled in justifications and mediated by screens, feel less visceral, less muddy than the quagmires of Vietnam. The ceaseless violence and corruption we’re bathed in daily may have corroded our foundations of hope, making our struggle for peace appear as futile as Sisyphus’s eternal labor.
Wading through these questions, I’m haunted by a sense of loss. The peace symbol, once a potent sign of defiance and a clarion call for change, now seems but an echo from an old world drowned out by the cacophony of the new. It serves as a stark reminder that history’s lessons are prone to fading, and the fervor of one age can become the footnote of another, destined to be relearned by a future generation in a different guise.
In this narrative I craft, reliability is not in the tale itself but in the constancy of the human spirit. Dare we believe that the symbols of peace might rise again, rekindled by a refusal to submit to complacency and indifference? Or is our fate to chase the phantasm of peace in a world increasingly resigned to conflict?
I, a poet and a playwright, a seeker of the soul’s depths, walk these paths, weaving a tale from my own tapestry of experience and the collective saga of our time. It’s a journey without signposts, where the only compass is the resilience of the human spirit in its quest for understanding and peace.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Planet vs. plastics
This year’s Earth Day theme was Planet vs. Plastics. We are drowning in plastic. The amount of plastic being produced is creating massive amounts of pollution — on land, in the air and in rivers and oceans across the globe. Most of this plastic is single-use. Most of it cannot be recycled. Overwhelming amounts of it become litter, which eventually ends up in our waterways. The rest gets added to the waste stream, filling up our landfills or incinerated, releasing toxins into the air.
Packaging makes up 40 percent of the waste in NY State and costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
New York can address the plastic pollution crisis and lead the country with a critical bill that is currently stalled in the NY State Legislature. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA), is a comprehensive bill that establishes environmental standards for packaging. It will require a 50% reduction in single-use plastic over 12 years. It will hold companies responsible for the packaging waste, not taxpayers. It will ban 15 of the most toxic chemicals in packaging. This bill will reduce the amount of waste generated, create jobs, reduce toxicity in products, reduce greenhouse gases and save millions of dollars every year.
Local governments across the state have signed resolutions supporting the PRRIA: Seven counties, including Albany, Ulster, Sullivan and Westchester; four cities, including NYC, Rochester, Hudson and New Rochelle; and 17 towns, including Saugerties, Woodstock and Poughkeepsie..
Assembly speaker Carl Heastie and Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins need to lead the way in passing the PRRIA. Contact the speaker (518-455-3791) and majority leader’s (518-455-2715) offices and urge them to bring this bill to the floor for a vote ASAP. The legislative session ends in a few weeks. We need this bill passed now.
Lisa Montanus
Woodstock
Young at heart
Thank you to the Woodstock Youth Center and all the volunteers who collaborated to “clean up” the town’s trails, streets, parking lots and other environs on April 20. Once again, the youth of Woodstock (of all ages) brought their energy, concern, cooperation and enthusiasm to the fore. Let us always, in turn, do our best to genuinely support efforts that may be needed to support their needs. A town task force is now doing this formally. May this spread into/be maintained in the daily lives and interactions of all community members. A smile, a word of encouragement, an ear to listen, a word of advice, a please-thank you-well done-you’re welcome, or some other common courtesy validates the young person’s sense of their value. In so many subtle ways we all can be positive role models for our youth and one another. And, think of all that we can learn from our younger contacts!
Thank you to the town’s tree committee, Woodstock Elementary School and the Christafora family for making possible Friday’s Arbor Day planting of a tree on Mill Hill Road. The knowledge and enthusiasm of the third graders flowed directly from their hearts into the roots of the newly planted tree. And, many thanks to the guidance of their teachers!
As our town continues to evolve, it is inevitable that there will be “growing pains.” What is it that each of us is looking for in life? In our hearts? What is it that can give you hope that this can be achieved? After all, we do have a larger common origin and a future to be shared within our community and on planet Earth. Indigenous people can teach us to proactively respect and interact with the land, air and water of which we are now the stewards. Whether locally or globally, how can each person (young or not-so-young) contribute their unique talents to make movement in a positive, ever-evolving direction a reality?
Terence Lover
Woodstock
Music should not cause harm
Regarding the proposal for adjustments to Woodstock’s sound ordinance: The amount of outrage being stoked by complete falsehoods is extremely upsetting. People need to know that nothing in the proposal is going to stop music in Woodstock. Let me repeat. Nothing in the proposal is going to stop music in Woodstock. Indoor music would not be affected in any way whatsoever. Outdoor music — like busking and quieter acoustic music would be allowed any day of the week into the evening. Only loud outdoor music would have some defined allowable days and times in order to stop negative impacts on local, long-term residents. If people would actually read the proposal instead of fear mongering and spreading misinformation, we might be able to live in a community that not only values the arts but also values the truth and how we treat each other. If you have been stoked into outrage by posts on social media, I encourage you to rethink your assumptions and look deeper at the facts and whole picture. No one on either side is likely to get everything they want, but the proposed ordinance is a good compromise that will allow plenty of outdoor music while still allowing our neighbors to enjoy some measure of peace in this beautiful place.
Julie Last
Bearsville
Israel: An easy scapegoat
Fred Nagel makes a lame comparison between Biden and Trump saying that they are both old men, as if that’s all that needs to be said. He totally ignores the fact that, cognitively, they are on different planets and that’s why Trump would do a whole lot better for our economy and national security (as he’s already proven) than Biden could ever dream of doing. Of course, being the cognitive mess Biden consistently proves himself to be, we all know that his strings have been pulled all along by Obama, the Clintons, George Soros, Bill Gates and other rich and powerful players. And, Fred’s comments about the Palestinian situation would lead anyone to assume that Fred doesn’t believe Israel has a right to exist.
And, contrary to Chris Finlay’s assertions, we are NOT sending money to Israel for the purpose of killing Palestinian children but, instead, to help Israel in the pursuit and destruction of the Hamas animals.
It is apparent that Fred, Chris, Steve Romine and the rest of the ceasefire advocates never acknowledge and address Hamas’s responsibility in all the bloodshed and loss of Palestinian lives. In 2006, the Palestinians voted in Hamas to run their territorial government. The duties of any elected faction, including Hamas, were to protect its constituents and provide them good and positive leadership. They were to do their best to make sure the Palestinians had an efficient economy and a tight knit self-sufficient community. Did Hamas do ANYTHING positive for the Palestinians? Hardly! Instead, besides being intimidating and corrupt, they exposed the Palestinians to all kinds of dangers by making their sole focus the never ending bombardments upon Israel, leaving Palestinians wide open and vulnerable to any actions of Israel as it defended itself and began pursuit of Hamas. Hamas NEVER protected Palestinians by making sure they always had food and safe places to hunker down. Hamas used its elaborate tunnel systems ONLY for themselves. Then, to add insult to injury … and death … Hamas intentionally mingled among the Palestinians using them as human shields, showing ZERO concerns for the well being and safety of the Palestinians who put Hamas in power.
So, Fred, Chris, Steve and all their ceasefire comrades will continue to remain silent on Hamas’s responsibility for any of this, while remaining content to blame EVERYTHING on Israel.
John N. Butz
Modena
The name game
I pity people whose names came from baby-naming books.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Americano
Research links PFAS otherwise known as Forever Chemicals in our drinking water with diseases including kidney and testicular cancer, liver and thyroid problems, reproductive problems, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, low birth weight and increased risk of birth defects.
The present standard in New York for PFAS in our drinking water is set by the EPA at 4ng/l (parts per trillion). In California it is set at 1ng/l (parts per trillion). Last year, Woodstock’s public water tested at 3.48ng/l (see town website for more info). The recent Woodstock test result were a sudden and sharp rise in PFOS from the previous year’s test result of our drinking water. At the present rate of increase, your morning coffee at present is near and will soon be above the New York toxic limit for PFAS and at present is almost four times above the toxic limit set in California. USEPA has stated that there is no safe level of PFOS in drinking water.
Going forward, the Woodstock Town Board should now insure that PFAS tests are done more regularly instead of waiting another year when the level of PFAS will almost certainly be above the present New York EPA standard. In the meantime, the residents of Woodstock should be informed immediately by the town board that their water is close to the toxic limit set by the EPA. But of course this will probably not happen because the quality of your drinking water in Woodstock has become a political baseball bat with one side of the Woodstock Town Board shouting from the rooftops that our drinking water is genuinely in danger whilst the other side insists that all is fine and we have nothing to fear.
Just as when ancient Rome burned and Nero played his fiddle, our local town board politicians haggle amongst themselves whilst our water becomes more toxic and less drinkable. It seems that the public have a very clear choice either say goodbye to our present town board or say goodbye to drinking water in Woodstock. Mark Twain summed it up perfectly when he said: “Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently and for the same reasons.”
Enjoy your Americano.
Chris Finlay
Woodstock
Pride march and festival on Saturday, June 1
You are invited to the 20th annual New Paltz Pride March & Festival on Saturday, June 1!
The march will kick-off at noon from the New Paltz Middle School, followed by a festival in Hasbrouck Park until 5 p.m. The after party will be hosted by local drag queens Katarina Mirage and Veela Peculiar at Snug’s, beginning at 5 p.m.
It is up to all of us to make our local pride march & festival as awesome as can be. We are seeking more vendors, volunteers, groups planning to march together and sponsors to ensure the festival’s permits get covered. More information: www.hvpride.org/.
This year’s festivities are being organized by a new coalition: The newly formed non-profit New Paltz Pride Coalition, whose goal is to build a pride center in New Paltz, is taking the lead on the festival in the park; the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center is helping with the march lineup; Katarina Mirage, Veela Peculiar and DJ Xeon are curating the performances; I’m serving once again as the resident Faerie of Pride.
With LGBTQ+ rights under attack, and trans life in particular in imminent danger on the national level, it’s more imperative than ever we come together this pride month — what better place to do so than where same-sex marriage was first catapulted into the spotlight and history was made 20 years ago?
Mark your calendars, and join us in any capacity you can, on Saturday, June 1 in New Paltz.
Alex Wojcik, Deputy Mayor
New Paltz
A life-altering experience
At intermission during last Saturday night’s woefully under-attended performance of EQUUS at the Mescal Hornbeck Community center in Woodstock, I spoke with a stranger who’d seen 30 Broadway productions of the play with the lead performed consecutively by Richard Burton, Tony Perkins and Anthony Hopkins, and who was mightily impressed with John Remington’s performance. (With an astounding Jacob Cote as Alan Strang, a remarkable assisting cast, and inexplicably directed by Michael Juzwak.) I don’t understand the arrangement that “Troup Enigma” and “Concord Theatricals” has made with performing arts of Woodstock, but I will never forget the result. May 3, 4, and 5 are the last performances. If you want to be entertained, don’t go to this show. If you believe that theater can and should be life-altering: do.
Tad Wise
Woodstock
Just the truth
In his letter “Truth and faith” in last week’s HV1 responding to my letter of the previous week, Steve Romine makes several misleading claims. Contrary to what he believes, there were no Palestinians living in ancient Israel 3,600 years ago. Palestinians are Arabs whose ancestors immigrated to Palestine, many arriving from Egypt only in the late 18th and early 19th century. In a futile effort to establish the antiquity of their connection to Palestine, the Palestinians claim to be descendants of the ancient Canaanites, whose real descendants, however, are to be found among the present-day Lebanese, as determined by a genetic study published in 2017.
While Steve correctly notes that the Balfour Declaration preserved the “civil and religious rights” of non-Jews, he fails to add that the Palestine Mandate — one of three class A mandates — was unique in reserving political rights, not for all the inhabitants but solely for the Jews, both those already there and those who might join them in the future.
My expression “perceived injustices,” which Steve regards as “dishonest,” was shorthand for the usual aspersions, most recently, of course, the charge of Israeli genocide, despite the fact that it was Hamas who sadistically butchered 1,200 civilians, raping and mutilating women and girls, and taking 240 hostages. And it is Hamas that is using civilians in Gaza as human shields, and that locates command centers and munitions in schools, hospitals and mosques. As John N. Butz explained in his eloquent letter, also in last week’s HV1, if the IDF’s goal was genocide, they would have acted very differently.
Instead, in the words of John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at West Point, “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm [in Gaza] than any military in history.” Discussion of other claimed Israeli injustices — notably, the spurious charges of illegal occupation, illegal settlements and apartheid — will need to be addressed another time.
Rowan Dordick
Woodstock
Join the family! 
