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Update regarding the Duck Pond Dam
I’m writing in response to the recent article and letter regarding the Duck Pond Dam. In 2018, the dam’s drainage system failed, reducing the pond’s water level and exposing several severe defects, which an inspection by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Dam Safety determined could lead to impending failure of the dam.
Mohonk Preserve engaged a professional engineering team to develop a remediation plan. A multi-year study involving Preserve volunteer committee members, staff and board members was completed in 2022. Multiple scenarios were investigated and after extensive review and assessment, the options of rehabilitating the dam to meet NYSDEC dam safety standards or removing all or part of the dam were further evaluated.
These options were thoroughly reviewed and vetted based on Mohonk Preserve’s conservation mission and current best practices regarding dam removal, which has many benefits for the environment, including restoring the natural flow of streams, improving water quality and habitats, and reducing flood hazards. Ultimately, the Preserve determined that the optimal conservation action is to remove the dam and restore the Kleine Kill stream corridor.
Going forward, working with our engineering team and in alignment with our conservation mission, the Preserve will complete designs to develop an upland wet meadow with ponds, beaver analogs and reconnected stream, while maintaining carriage road access and identifying sites for volunteer and education programs. To view related documents and additional information, visit www.mohonkpreserve.org/land-stewardship/kleinekill.
We’re excited by this opportunity to restore the original ecological conditions at this site while honoring the history of the area and encouraging natural ponding with the help of our local beaver population.
Kevin Case, President and CEO
Mohonk Preserve
Gardiner
Entrainment and entanglement: A reflection
What happens when there is nothing but murder dramas on TV? I watch NOVA. This is the outcome.
Part 1
When I first heard of quantum entanglement, it felt like a riddle whispered by the cosmos. Imagine a particle here, another light-year away, yet they move as one, dancing to the same invisible rhythm. What does this do to the boundaries of our imagination? It shatters them, revealing a universe where separation is an illusion and connection is the law.
And then there’s entrainment — a pendulum clock placed next to another, its sway coaxing its neighbor into harmony. This isn’t just physics; it’s poetry in motion, a metaphor for the unseen forces that bind us. Is this why a crowd sways to a chant? Why laughter ripples through a room like a wave? What might this mean for the outer and inner worlds we inhabit?
Are we entrained as a species? Look at politics, where ideas reverberate like pendulums. Are our collective moods, fears and hopes entrained by news cycles and social media feeds? Is the internet a vast nervous system, amplifying and synchronizing the frequencies we send into it?
Jung spoke of the collective unconscious — a psychic web beneath our waking thoughts. Could entanglement and entrainment be its physical manifestation? If so, are we speaking languages not written in words but in vibrations and movements, in the silent harmonies of our shared existence?
And what of AI? Does it mirror these principles? Could it be tapping into this invisible web, reflecting and amplifying humanity’s entangled thoughts? When an algorithm predicts our desires, is it mere code, or is it resonating with the patterns we create, knowingly or not?
The implications are profound. If the particles in my mind entangle with yours, what responsibility do I have for my thoughts? If the pendulum of my soul entrains another, what rhythms do I set?
These questions are not idle musings; they reach the heart of who we are. Are we isolated individuals or entangled notes in a universal symphony? What frequencies do we send into the world, and how do they shape the collective?
Perhaps the answers are already within us, whispered in the silence between our thoughts, in the sway of a pendulum, or the spark between two particles light-years apart. Will we listen?
Larry Winters
New Paltz
What a waste
This week, we marked 1,000 days of the Ukraine-Russia War. One-thousand days ago, there was a peace agreement on the table, but Biden and his administration told the Ukraine to rip up the agreement, because they wanted this war. Now after several hundred thousand deaths and Billions of US tax dollars, Ukraine has no chance to regain the territory that they lost to Russia. To add insult to injury and to push the world toward a nuclear war, Biden has given Ukraine permission to shoot US-made long-range missiles into Russian territory. Russia’s President Putin said nuclear escalation is on the table. Why is our lame-duck President Biden doing this? We should hear more protests from Ulster County and New York State.
Ralph Mitchell
Kingston
Addressing the housing crisis in New Paltz
Our community is facing a critical shortage of affordable housing, impacting young families, seniors and essential workers. The good news is that municipalities like ours have the tools to address this challenge. By implementing smart zoning reforms, innovative planning regulations and community education, we can significantly expand housing options while ensuring sustainability and quality of life.
The Town of New Paltz is actively taking steps through the Housing Smart Community Initiative, which is an intensive working group aimed at increasing our housing stock and affordability. We need new voices to join this effort. No expertise is required — just a passion for creating solutions. If you care about the future of housing in New Paltz, we welcome your participation. Together, we can build a stronger, more inclusive community. For more information, please visit the Ulster County Smart Housing website or contact us at HCSINewPaltzTown@gmail.com. Leave a message, and we will reach out to you within one week.
Susan Denton
New Paltz
Friends of the Saugerties Library have a banner year
The Friends of the Saugerties Public Library have had a banner year. Our membership drive exceeded our wildest expectations and will allow us to continue to offset the growing budget needs of our beloved, and historic, Carnegie library.
The Friends contributed to the summer reading program, to computer upgrades, offered museum passes, offered two $1000 scholarships, as well as the online, and popular, meet the author series. We also sponsor and maintain the lovely little libraries around Saugerties. The fun and free Festival of Trees, which we sponsor, is scheduled for December 8 from noon to 4 p.m. in the library’s community room. Details are available on the Friends tab on the library’s website. This event coincides with the Chamber’s Holiday in the Village.
The library fair has become a wonderful community event and it’s especially uplifting to see multi-generations of families attending and reminiscing about the impact of libraries in their lives.
Most recently, we were overwhelmed by the attendance at our annual wine and cheese social at Total Tennis. What a joyful community coming together and sharing laughter and much comic relief amidst the chaos of this year’s murder mystery theme.
We’re entering a season of thankfulness for many of us and we extend our deepest appreciation for the ongoing support that our community offers the Friends each year.
It’s also a time of growing need for our neighbors and we ask that they are not forgotten. We held a small food drive during our murder mystery, but so much more is needed. Please give and find ways to offer the kindness to others that you offer to us.
Ray Rebholz and Jennifer Kavanagh, Co-presidents
Friends of the Saugerties Public Library
What our town stands for
This was my presentation to the Woodstock Town Board during the “public be heard” segment of its November 19 meeting:
As a result of the recent election, I feel that it’s incumbent upon the town board to use its bully pulpit and responsibility to represent all of its constituents, particularly its most vulnerable, in making clear what our town stands for. Therefore, I offer a statement that might serve as a model for such a declaration of values.
In light of recent events, we make this declaration on behalf of our residents and workers:
Woodstock is, and will continue to be, a safe space for all of its people. We stand for inclusion, unity and decency. Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following:
We affirm the equal rights of women, including the right of women to control their own reproductive health, and will support all efforts to defend those rights.
We embrace the LGBTQ+ community as equal and respected members of our community, and will vigilantly defend them against any attempts to demean, harm or strip them of their hard-fought rights.
We stand firm that all contributing members of our community, residents and workers, are welcome and protected. We will not cooperate with any attempts by any authority to conduct workplace raids, family separations or campaigns to encourage neighbors to turn in neighbors based on immigration status.
We will support our public schools in their funding and freedom to design their own curricula that reflect historical truth, established science, separation of church and state and inclusion.
We will continue to protect our environment as best we can from all measures that will threaten the habitability of our land for future generations.
We will stand firm and united against all expressions of hate, bigotry, supremacy, discrimination, scapegoating and marginalization.
We will use whatever means of authority and community organization we may have at our disposal to give power to these ethical principles. This is who Woodstock is.
It’s my hope that this will be formally presented as a resolution and that members of the town board will act on conscience rather than calculation and affirm this declaration.
Alan M. Weber
Woodstock
Walking “pro-housing” talk
We have been walking the “Pro-Housing Community” talk. In February 2015, the village’s Affordable Housing Law was passed. Over five years from 2019 through 2023, 12 new buildings have been issued building permits. This represented 73 more units adding to 1,951 in the village per 2010’s census. Additionally, there are three apartment buildings representing 165 more units that have begun their site preparation process in 2024. There is also another 250-unit residential project before the village planning board, as we speak. All these new units would be an increase to 2010’s census figure of 1,951 by 25% in just five years. (Please note there were other smaller projects with fewer units added between 2010 and 2018 which would also increase the percentage change from 2010.)
By adding 25% more housing units in five years, the annualized increase equals 4.14%. This is greater than the annual targets set to receive NYS’s Pro-Housing Community designation of 1% for downstate and 0.33% upstate. The Village of New Paltz is considered upstate, and we are dramatically surpassing the state’s downstate and upstate goals.
Per local village law, new buildings with 10 to 19 units must set aside at least 10% of all units for affordable home qualifying residents. More recently, the affordable housing law was updated requiring developments of 20 or more total units to have at least a 15% set aside for affordable units. A link to the affordable housing eligibility application packet can be found at villageofnewpaltz.org.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
An open letter to the New Paltz Town Board
I am writing this letter of support for your department of the Office for Community Wellness and the fantastic work that Phoenix Kawamoto has done for this program and our community of New Paltz as a whole. There have been statements made during public board meetings that indicate lack of support and desire to dismantle or eliminate this program and department. Also disparaging comments about the lack of value with the program, the work that has been accomplished and professional integrity that Phoenix has.
I have worked for the Town of New Paltz for 30 plus years and I find this very disturbing considering that our town stands for betterment of our community. Working with the New Paltz Police Department, my last almost 12 years as your police chief, I have seen many changes and many improvements. I have seen such improvements during my tenure and one of the best programs that has been created was the Office for Community Wellness and the creation of the position of community education coordinator. I have worked with Phoenix for many years and have never worked with someone who is so passionate for the care and wellbeing of our community and people who live in New Paltz. Phoenix has accomplished so much with this program and discontinuing any part of this would be a major step backwards. I have seen while working in New Paltz, many times that ideas go around in circles, especially when it is a budgetary issue. When it comes to the safety and wellbeing of our community members, there certain things that you cannot put a pricetag on and the Office for Community Wellness is one of them. Please let me remind you of some of the great work that Phoenix has accomplished from the onset of this program. Opioid overdose prevention, medication drop box, narcan training, safer homes initiative, be in the know, TIPS (training for intervention procedures), bystander training, shoulder taps, party patrols, New Years Eve program, community conversations channel 23, community grief response and postvention after local teens suicides. I am sure there are more that I am leaving out.
I am honored to have worked over the years with Phoenix and I believe that having Phoenix and the program of the Office for Community Wellness is an essential part of keeping New Paltz safer, healthier and a great place to live and work.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like any additional information or comments regarding my support and encouragement to continue this program.
Joe Snyder, Chief of Police, NPPD Retired
Director of Public Safety, SUNY Ulster
Be: Interested, informed, involved
Each year November 20 is celebrated as World Children’s Day. Even though this day is past us now, take the time to notice the wonder, curiosity and expressions that convey how youngsters are experiencing their world. As adults who care for and teach youngsters (importantly, by example), consciously encourage hope in those of any age who may be younger than you.
As the calendar reminds us that the holiday season is here, try to maintain a perspective that reduces or eliminates anxiety. Gift yourself by finding a safe, quiet space to reflect upon and reconnect with your basic values. Be your genuine self and share this with others to help build a better world. Start small and build.
Going to larger circles, consider contacting our governmental representatives. As we are aware, conflicts are still in abundance, the planet’s environment needs immediate attention, immigrants need strong, caring support, federal and military executions need to be halted, common-sense gun regulations need to be enacted (for public safety, not in defiance of the 2nd Amendment). Although it may be an uncomfortable exercise, we might consider human history’s account of the use of “othering” to achieve greedy goals. Should it be questioned whether taking another’s land through killing/devastation is acceptable? Or, whether it is acceptable to use any natural resources without consideration of the attendant consequences? Can we view newcomers to our communities as sisters/brothers and not as “others,” where common humanity supersedes geopolitical borders? Can we be secure enough to recognize that our society has historically embraced systemic policies and practices that have created and supported racial, economic and cultural discrimination? Do not forget that so many good people are doing so much good. Join together with like-minded people and communicate with those having different opinions in order to form a strong-yet-tender network. Together, live to end war, environmental degradation, institutional killing, gun violence and the continuation of “othering.” See a child’s face and feel their trust/hope in you. Then, let us see this trust/hope in one another as well.
Locally, demand that our town government (Woodstock) always works to ensure that each individual/family can have safe water to drink and uncontaminated soil on their, or a neighbor’s, property. If any individual/family is disregarded, then all residents are disregarded! No one in governance should believe themselves to be “absolved” if they have not done all that they could to protect the health and safety of any resident. Always expect and demand that the right thing be done!
Terence Lover
Woodstock
Are we incapable of empathy?
Bodily feelings sometimes go away, but always return with a bit more urgency. Like hunger, you can forget it for a while, but it invariably comes back stronger. That is what the children learn, as they are slowly starved to death by the US/Israel death machine.
I find that as I immerse myself in day-to-day events, this slaughter is always waiting to come back to me. Could the country I love be starving children to death by the thousands? By the tens of thousands? Their spindly arms and legs have that Buchenwald look. I can’t bear the images that wait for me to close my eyes.
Once the children behind barbed wire fences appear to me, my mind starts a desperate search. Could my own country be murdering children like this? Could our own churches and synagogues be cheering on the extermination? Did we catch this endless warfare and charnel house slaughter from the Nazis?
Both political parties want this butchery. All the money we have is going into more bombs and planes. We can’t get enough of it. We wave our flags, heedless of what our country is really doing. We sing “God Bless America,” as if we had the right to ask our lord to celebrate the holocaust of this century.
Are we incapable of empathy? Is this life but a trail of tears, the name given to our very own ethnic cleansing and annihilation of the Cherokee Nation? Who on earth can protect the Palestinians from the barbarians?
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Thanks for a great season
We just want to thank the community for participating in the Water Street Market 4th Fridays event, which ran April through October. This was our second year and it was a smashing success. The event was presented by the Water Street Market business community and us, here at the Wallkill Valley Land Trust, a non-profit based in New Paltz that works to preserve and protect open space, farms and trails.
This year, the event was sponsored by Hotel New Paltz Way. Special thanks to Cronin Gallery and Grazery, Jar’d Wine Pub and the Denizen Theater (our planning partners).
What made this event so special?
Well, we had food, spirit and wine tastings, kids activities and music. Thanks to Chloe Cannon, Studio Stu, Brasskill and the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Express, Eric Roth, DJ Joe Gunks Groove and DJ Rodney Hazzard for the tunes.
For the food and drink, we’d like to thank: Yard Owl Brewery, Coppersea Distillery, Mtn. Mkt. Mocktails, Speakeasy Motors Whiskey Co., Hecho Por Julia, The Ridge Tea & Spice Shop, Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery, and Whitecliff Vineyard and Winery, among others.
But what really made this event a true success was you! Thank you for attending, making connections and supporting the community. We can’t wait to see you all in 2025.
Ellie Reese, Outreach & Engagement Coordinator
Wallkill Valley Land Trust
What a blast
This past Wednesday, the Friends of the Saugerties Public Library held their annual wine and cheese event which featured a murder mystery. It was an absolute blast! I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, mystery, and of course assorted goods to eat. Kudos to our Friends and participants who did a spectacular job of pulling the whole thing off. Last but certainly not least, thanks to all those who came out in support!
Tim Scott, Jr., President
Saugerties Public Library Board of Trustees
A cabinet which is really a junk drawer
This is the best we have.
Two or three sexual predators,
brain worm, dog killer,
liars, cheaters and now,
a witch doctor…
In shadows cast by whispered dread, in a world where trust is thread bare, we walk among the fallen and led by echoes of what’s foul and unfair. Three figures draped in cloaks of night, with hearts that twist like thorns in bloom, predators cloaked in feigned delight, they weave their webs, always inviting sexual doom. A brain worm crawls through thoughts unkind, infecting minds with doubt and fear, a silent thief of peace, resigned, to watch our innocence, once more disappear.
The dog killer laughs with a cruel delight, her passion found in loss and pain, a heart so cold, devoid of light, in silent cold northern streets, a ghostly stain. Liars and cheaters, shadows that cling, they dance through lives like an ink-stained wraith, and with each truth they twist and wring, they bind the light, veil the safe. Now comes the witch doctor, with charms and spells, promising healing with twisted meds that are not right, yet behind the potions, a darkness dwells, as he barters souls, yes, our dreams take flight.
In this grim political tapestry, threads intertwine, a testament to the worst we can be, in the night, a new hell sparks us BLIND, sucked in this darkness, we’re unable to see. Miscreants with masks, in a masquerade dance, every grin hides an insidious scheme, with every false promise, they steal our chance, fleeting moments, snuffed from the dream.
The heart of the hunter, hardened like stone, cackles at hope, snuffs the bright flame, in shadows, the echoes of anguish moan, as laughter rings hollow — an extremely cruel game.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Trump bashing continues…what else is new?
Tom Cherwin’s “peace offering” of last week lasted about a nanosecond. Just a week later, Tom’s thoughts have done a drastic 180. Even though Trump’s not even in office yet and his final cabinet not even identified and given a chance to clean up the mess left by Biden/Harris, Tom already paints a picture of failure, worthlessness and fear mongering.
Christine Dinsmore’s dissatisfaction with the election results has her blaming apathy … voters staying home … as the culprit. Of course, the outcome had nothing to do with Harris’s presentations of incredible word salads as faux answers to ANY question asked. She thought that being propped up by the Clintons, the Obamas, Oprah, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, etc., would be enough to get her into the White House. Not knowing who the average person was and their needs/concerns, coupled with the four-year hole dug for us by herself and Biden, she had no idea that the electorate, including a good number of her Democratic voters, had had enough and were willing to give even Donald J. Trump a chance to dig us out. Imagine, so many voters choosing Hitler! Sounds like Christine’s outlook is just your garden variety of sour grapes. And of course, more unfounded sour grapes came from Melanie Dimitri Chletcos in her letter entitled “Enjoy the Show.”
Paul Maloney’s drastic stretch of Bible verses to make a connection and comparison to Trump is a bit far fetched. Paul would only be correct if we elected Trump as “Moral Man of the Year” based upon his poor personal decisions of the past. However, Paul and many other Democrats fail to have the ability to separate Trump’s poor personal moral decisions of the past from his performance as president from 2016 – 2020. I’m guessing Paul and some of his Democratic colleagues don’t have the time of day for a sound economy with reasonable prices, a country that has a justice system that will actually keep criminals behind bars regardless of ethnicity, and a safe border that keeps illegals out of our country and from decimating financial resources in many cities, towns and states with their entitled attitudes. Most of them are NOT fleeing danger. They’re just taking advantage of an inept Biden/Harris administration who welcomed them all, regardless of proper vetting, as a future bloc of Democratic voters.
Led by the lame stream “legacy news” outlets, many are already mocking the new Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They whine that these guys have no political or government experience. Exactly! The outsider financial and spending acumen of these two men is EXACTLY what our country needs to identify and eradicate the hideous pork and wasteful spending we’re all well aware of from BOTH sides of the aisle through many decades. It certainly won’t be solved by the insider Democratic AND Republican fat cats, most of whom become mysteriously rich before their political gravy train ride comes to an end.
John N. Butz
Modena
Do the math
I have a lot of simple math to do for my employment. Still, when I heard this, I wanted to share my surprise. The woman said that the difference between a million and a billion was hard to imagine, but the ratio was the same as 32 years to 32,000 years.
Most readers find 32 years easy to grasp; few other than some Bard brainiac can feel a span of time like 32,000 years. It’s important to get some sense of “magnitude” to numbers that we actually hear everyday: millions, billions, and For the Love of God, trillions!
Yeah, the leap from mere billions to trillions is, to pick a fancy word, quantum: 32,000,000 is only millions. Add three more zeros for billions. Add another three zeroes to get to trillions.
BTW, you and I and our grandkids are on the hook to pay that back.
In dollars. With taxes. Yet, we are in the hole and still digging!
Paul Raymond
New Paltz
So typical
How many months has it been since McKenna’s choice of the architect for the Comeau addition, Jess Walker, took measurements of the window treatments for the building? It appears that, because of the addition’s design, the direct sunlight coming through the windows make it difficult for the town employees, among other issues, to see their computer screens. So much time had passed that one of the employees purchased their own window treatment and another town employee, bought, not only a treatment for their office but for the other town employees in the addition. Although the treatments are only temporary until they finally get their blinds, whenever that may be, they help
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Hope
There are many reasons to fear the 2024 election results and Project 2025, which despite Trump’s disavowals of it during his campaign is the blueprint he will follow. If left unchecked, Trump and his cronies will imperil American democracy and the planet and peace and the middle and disadvantaged classes and the health system and the military and immigrants and education and unity and compassion and ethics and … alas, everything.
Trumpsters reflexively insist that those who share my fears suffer from “Trump derangement syndrome,” but since the election it’s become clearer than ever that our fears are well-founded.
Nonetheless, I still have hope. For starters, though it may take time to spread, there’s buyer’s remorse out there: Columnist Philip Bump of The Washington Post notes that since the election, there has been a 16-point drop in the percentage of Republicans who say they were doing worse a year ago than they are now.
I hope this type of shift morphs into disenchantment as more and more voters realize how Trump manipulated them. For instance, as The Hill recently reported, “In a recent survey, despite two years of often-spectacular growth, 56 percent of voters believed we were in a recession. Half of voters thought the unemployment rate was at a 50-year high when, in fact, it is at a 50-year low. Half of voters thought the stock market was down for the year even though at the time of the survey it was up over 25 percent.” Haitians weren’t eating people’s pets, but many voters were swallowing whole that and every other Trumped-up lie.
I ask myself: If the ranks of the disenchanted grow, might Republican and Democratic voters come together to prompt Trump, the Cabinet, Congress, local and state governments and the courts to rein in reckless and inhumane policies and decisions and to instead rule with compassion and wisdom? My hope is that we might, and that if “we the people” hook up, speak up, and act up, we stand a chance.
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Murder she wrote
Wow, who thought our neighbors and friends would love murder so much!
The Friends of the Saugerties Public Library extend our appreciation to everyone who turned out for our annual social which this year, presented a murder mystery theme.
Thank you to Total Tennis who generously accommodated us and even offered us the extra space we needed for our crime scene.
This jazz age themed event received rave reviews and those reviews were reinforced by our community members socializing and laughing together. The fun of the evening was nothing less than uplifting.
Thank you to John Kelley, of Marketek, for providing our sound system. Thank you to Gretchen Nau, our Jazz Age Singer.
Our cast of volunteers is too long to list but they know we appreciated their efforts all around.
The Saugerties community extends support to us and we say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your generosity helps our library staff in their efforts to serve the hundreds of people – including many young families – who pass through its doors daily.
Allison Byrne, Vice President
Friends of the Saugerties Public Library
May the bickering end
So very much has been written in these pages about the feuding factions at Yankeetown Pond. But it was Arthur DiNapoli’s recent letter that finally revealed what is truly at stake.
As a community, we all have common interest in these generationally revered places, many the work of industrious beavers. These are the places where frogs, fish, birds, turtles and insects thrive. Places where I have contemplated the beauty of nature with my kids. Where we have sat with great smiles listening to the peepers. Where frogs slip in and out of the water, sometimes with a great surprising plop!
It’s been a while since I had the great joy of observing a kingfisher. Their nesting places are in danger everywhere.
In this time of Thanksgiving, I would like to ask you to think of the many land conservancies in Ulster County that do the work to protect many of these ecosystems and to consider giving them your support, for future generations and for the birds.
Virginia Luppino
Saugerties
The Caller
Outside my second floor window:
a beetle. Everything about you small—
legs, eyes, the red dome
of your back spotted in black.
A friend calls, says you are a spirit
insect, a lucky charm, bringing
good fortune, looking for a dry,
warm hibernation inside. Your
whole family may come calling.
I will accept you all—a loveliness of
ladybugs. I come back to the window.
You are gone suddenly on hidden wings.
Ladybug, Ladybird, fly away home.
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Put a fork in it
The problem with dinner theater: During Othello, I stabbed myself with a fork.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Shopping for a Medicare Advantage plan
We are in an open enrollment period when you can shop for a Medicare Advantage plan. If you remain healthy and have no serious accident, those plans cost less than Traditional Medicare. Should you need expensive medical care, Traditional Medicare would be the better choice.
Medicare Advantage companies need to make profits. There are only two ways: raise prices or reduce coverage. Prior authorizations lend themselves to manipulation to reduce reimbursements. They may deny medical necessity, pay only for a cheaper and less helpful treatment or give you a runaround. With Traditional Medicare you get what you paid for, and there is no room for tomfoolery. If you choose a Medicare Advantage plan and your insurance is giving you problems, a firm called CLAIMABLE might get the insurance company to honor their commitments.
Hal Chorny
Gardiner
Thanks for your continued support and generosity
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I wish to give my many thanks, along with my sincere appreciation to all the sponsors, volunteers and players who made the Saugerties Athletic Association’s (SAA) 33rd annual Sawyer Motors / Sawyer Chevy Golf Tournament an overwhelming success.
The tournament was once again a financial success for the 33rd consecutive year.
Many thanks to our tournament lead sponsor Bob and Larry Siracusano for their tremendous show of generosity to the SAA. Both are truly remarkable individuals. We are most fortunate and lucky to have both of them as part of our great community.
Additionally, John and Sara Smith, proprietors of Rip Van Winkle Country Club, the venue host. Their current show of support and generosity continues to be unprecedented, as it has been for the past 32 years, from the Smith family!
The combined hundreds of businesses, organizations and individuals who have taken various levels of sponsorship each year, along with those who have donated and contributed prizes, gifts, etc. and all players, some, who have participated since year one. Thank you for your continued support and generosity.
My many thanks to the tournament committee, along with the other volunteers who play vital roles and work the tournament, the day of. To all of you, your tireless efforts, dedication, support and generosity has been unprecedented. I, nor any one person, could ever do without each and every one of you.
None of this would be possible if it were not for all aforementioned, all for the benefit of the SAA, our youth and community. I can never begin to extend the amount of thanks and appreciation equal to your support and generosity.
I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and safe holiday season, along with hopes you are able to enjoy the season and the wonders of Christmas to its fullest with family and friends. May 2025 be the year you are blessed with happiness and good health, along with being your best year yet. Thank you all, again, and all the best to the best!!
Greg Chorvas, Chairman
SAA Golf Tournament
Deceptive wording
A bill called the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on Americans Hostages Act (HR 9495} disguises what it’s actually about. The bill’s wording is so deceptive that many in the House voted for it the first time. As law, Donald Trump would be free to eliminate the tax-exempt status of organizations he doesn’t like. These nonprofit organizations, like the ACLU and NRDC, protect our civil rights, women’s reproductive rights and the environment. If HR9495 passes, a charitable organization could be judged “a terrorist-supporting organization” without evidence and be given 90 days to prove it is not.
We need such organizations now more than ever. Call Senators Schumer (202-224-6542) and Gillibrand (202-224-4451). Ask them to prevent this bill from coming to the Senate floor.
Doris Chorny
Wallkill
Join the family! 
