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. Submit a letter to the editor at deb@hudsonvalleyone.com.
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.
The important role of a local newspaper
Huh? That’s my reaction to a letter-writer’s lambasting of HV1 who she held personally responsible for the Dems presidential loss.
This letter-writer apparently hasn’t any knowledge of the important role of a local newspaper and its impact on the communities it serves. The-then Woodstock Times was founded through the sweat equity and financial support of visionary, Geddy Sveikauskas as an alternative to a daily newspaper which had a one-lane political focus and no challengers.
Since that time, through thick and thin, this engine that did, would provide local activists with the coverage they needed to seed support for change. Ulster County has gone from deep red to deep blue. This very past election, our Congressman Pat Ryan conquered a district gerrymandered against him. We were successful in regaining another congressional seat kicking a Trumper to the curb. Our progressive state senator handily won reelection as did our assembly person.
Due in large part to outstanding local reporting, a glamping development was halted. Activists against two other large-scale pending developments have gained financial and volunteer support due to the coverage provided by HV1.
Over the decades, reporting of local news has stopped the construction of a nuclear power plant ON the Hudson River frontage; halted the development of a honky-tonk along the most-fertile farmland in our county; stopped the development of a casino, a garbage dump, an environmentally disastrous brick-making plant, among others I’m overlooking.
HV1 also championed coverage of the founding of the Esopus Creek and Woodstock Land Conservancy’s which have preserved hundreds of acres of woodlands. It provides coverage about our school systems and shines spotlights on the inner workings of the numerous local governments and medical institutions. The list goes on and on.
All politics are local as the saying goes. It’s in our hometowns where people learn how the government impacts them. And it’s where local coverage is most meaningful.
Many of HV1’s readers are also political activists who’ve worked hard to attain progressive changes throughout our region. They’ve rolled up their sleeves and worked in campaigns and have written numerous letters to the editor of local media.
So a question I pose to this particular letter writer is what have you done in your lifetime to help us gain ground. We are licking our wounds, as widely reported by HV1 and preparing for The Resistance. Be glad you’ll know what to do by reading about it in Geddy’s paper.
(For national news, renew your subscription to those other publications accordingly.)
Jo Galante Cicale
Saugerties
What you won’t read in the papers
Interesting article by Nick Henderson of HV1 last week regarding the Town of Woodstock along with its supervisor being dropped from the lawsuit against it regarding the Shady dump.
The lawsuit was taken against the town by Frank Eighmey who lives next door to the 10 Church Road Shady property, otherwise known as the Shady dump, that sits atop of our drinking water aquifer. The Eighmey’s, a working-class family, have spent the best part of a quarter-million dollars on legal fees trying to have the contaminated fill removed.
The Town of Woodstock have laws on the books stating that nobody is allowed to dump even one truck full of this type of material anywhere within its boundaries, yet at least 200 truckloads were officially allowed by our town to be dumped and also allowed to remain in place to this day.
Well, the bottom line is that the court decided it can’t make a town enforce its own laws, and I get that. So the question still remains as to why the town would not enforce its own laws, especially when it comes to something this important?
What do I mean by ‘so important?’ The 200 truckloads of fill contained all sorts of nasty chemicals, according to four professional hydrologists. Also according to those same professionals, the waste put our drinking water in serious danger of contamination because of those chemicals.
Add to this the fact that several years ago, after the dumping ended, the Town of Woodstock filed lawsuits against the person who dumped the contaminated waste at the Shady site, along with a lawsuit against the property owner who accepted the material. The town was successful in both lawsuits and according to Supervisor McKenna, this success gave the town the right to go in and fully remove all the contaminated waste. But this cleanup never happened and Frank Eighmey of Shady was left out to dry and to solve a problem that our town could have solved itself. And according to our latest drinking water test results, the people of Woodstock are today drinking contaminated drink water as four hydrologists with over 100 years of experience predicted we would if the waste wasn’t removed.
Chris Finlay
Woodstock
Don’t buy into the proposed $19.2 million aquatic center
I am urging voters in the New Paltz Central School District not buy into the proposed $19.2 million pool (aquatic center) that will be on the ballot on January 16th.
In a time of decreasing enrollment in the district, coupled with continual sticker shock at the grocery store, this luxury is a “ bridge too far.”
I attended the November 20th info session that the board of education held on this matter. It was revealed the $19.2 million estimated pricetag does not include additional hiring and ongoing maintenance of such a facility . Moreover, it was stated that reimbursement support from NYS for the pool will be minimal.
And, the superintendent, on November 26, sent out a message to his email list detailing math errors that were made in the calculations of the financial impact of all the propositions that will appear on the ballot.
Perhaps the district might consider cancelling the vote until such time as they are certain that we taxpayers have accurate information.
Perhaps such an important vote should not take place in January when the chance of difficult weather may serve to discourage senior citizens from getting out to vote.
Taxpayers in the New Paltz Central School District, please pay attention to this issue and vote NO on Proposition #3 on January 16th.
Glenn Gidaly
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 2
Entangled politics: A nation out of sync
The pendulum of America is out of rhythm. Half its population swings one way, the other half in the opposite direction, their motions no longer entrained by shared ideals or mutual respect. The ticking of the nation’s clock, once steady with the heartbeat of democracy, now stutters, irregular and fragmented.
Politics has become where this dissonance plays out, but the roots stretch deeper. In a world where a handful of dominant leaders and corporations control economies and ecosystems, the imbalance in America is mirrored everywhere. Wars rage like wildfires, ignited by power’s need to consume, leaving scorched earth in their wake. These wars aren’t just fought with weapons but with narratives and technologies that mold thought.
Isn’t this political discord a form of entanglement? Every policy, soundbite and tweet ripples worldwide, finding resonance in distant hearts and minds. Leaders, like pendulum clocks, sync not with the pulse of their people but with the rhythms of power and profit. How else can we explain a world where nature’s health is subordinated to economic spreadsheets, where the air and water are commodities, not lifelines?
This lack of harmony isn’t confined to nations. It reverberates globally, a discordant symphony conducted by the few who hold the baton. When a war erupts in one corner of the world, its vibrations are felt everywhere. Refugees cross borders, economies buckle and entire ecosystems are collateral damage. The powerful tighten their grip, manipulating these crises to consolidate control, their actions entangling billions in webs of suffering and despair.
And yet, even in this chaos, the principles of entrainment and entanglement persist. The question is, who sets the rhythm? When algorithms predict our votes or amplify our fears when media cycles magnify division, are we not being entrained to rhythms chosen for us? In such a world, what chance does harmony have?
But here lies the paradox: just as pendulums out of sync can find their way back, so can we. It begins with recognizing the invisible threads that connect us all. Politics isn’t just policy; it’s the collective expression of our entangled lives. How might we act differently if we could see this — genuinely see it?
The stakes are monumental. If half a nation remains in dissonance with the other, the pendulum will break and the clock will stop. But perhaps we can reset the clock if we entrain ourselves to a new rhythm — not imposed by the powerful but one born of mutual respect and shared purpose.
The question remains: do we have the courage to listen to the faint, persistent rhythm of connection beneath the noise of division? Or will we allow the few who dominate to dictate the beat, dragging us further into discord?
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Astronomy meets pathology
An astrophysical pathologist studies diseased galaxies.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Hudson Valley’s health divide: Challenges in our community
The new Surgeon General’s report highlights disparities in tobacco use, an issue relevant to the Hudson Valley. While New York has reduced smoking rates to 11.3% statewide, tobacco use is still related to 30,000 deaths per year in New York, and certain groups in our community are facing bigger challenges when it comes to tobacco use.
In New York:
18.4% of adults earning less than $25,000 a year smoke, 18.4% of adults with a mental health diagnosis smoke, 18% of adults who didn’t finish high school smoke and 17.5% of adults on Medicaid smoke.
These statistics reveal the connection between tobacco use and income, education and healthcare access. The tobacco industry’s targeted marketing, especially of menthol cigarettes, contributes to these disparities. The tobacco industry aggressively markets its deadly products to specific people, including members of the black community, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) communities, women, youth and people living in urban and lower-income communities. The Hudson Valley faces slightly higher smoking rates compared to New York City. Menthol cigarette use is particularly concerning, with 49% of adults who smoke in New York State using them. Usage is highest among black or African American (88%) and Hispanic (70%) adults who smoke.
This means our friends, family and neighbors are at greater risk for smoking-related health problems. Other communities have addressed these issues by: Creating tailored cessation programs, making sure help to quit is easy to find and protecting people against secondhand smoke.
Every Hudson Valley resident deserves a chance to live a healthy life, free from tobacco’s harms. Let’s use this information to build a healthier community for all.
If you or a person you know wants to quit smoking, call: 1-866-NY QUITS (1-866-697-8487) or visit www.NYSmokefree.com.
Khushbu Upadhyay, Manager, Health Promotions
Center for a Tobacco-Free Hudson Valley
Bad form
Doing away with vetting of cabinet level candidates for security clearance is troubling in so many ways. First it indicates the complete distrust of our system, which although flawed, has kept us relatively safe at home for over 200 years.
Second, it allows people to lead us, several of whom, at face value, are at best unqualified, and at worst, have documented histories of unethical, illegal and/or sexually assaultive behaviors.
Third, it enhances the possibility of foreign actors- countries or entities with a grudge against America to interact with and manipulate soon to be cabinet members totally under the radar. This will NOT make America safe again.
Not following traditional administration transition procedures means not having to show where the transition money comes from. This means billionaires get to buy in and they’ll be able to get self-serving policies in place: will they benefit citizens? And these billionaires will be owed favors.
This is the definition of crony capitalism, which is favored by fascist leaders.
As John Fetterman says: “Buckle up and pack a lunch, it’s gonna be four years of this.”
Robert Wallace
Saugerties
It never ends
As I stated previously, because of the court’s finding that McKenna’s boy, Gordon Wemp, “demonstrated a clear intention to deliberate and make decisions outside the public’s eye” and his decision for the case was “arbitrary and capricious,” Woodstock had to pay not only the town attorney, but also the plaintiff’s attorney fees. And now, according to recently viewed court papers, it appears Woodstock is paying the Town’s attorney to object to paying the “plaintiff’s attorney.”
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Offered by me as an individual
While I thank Nick Henderson for his article on my proposal that the Woodstock Town Board take a firm stand on human and environmental rights in these threatening times, I have to correct an assumption he made. I didn’t offer this in the name of my group, Woodstockers United for Change (WUC), but as an individual. While I have no doubt that every member of WUC is fully supportive of the human rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community and our immigrant brothers and sisters, our mission statement focuses on non-partisan local issues like the PFOS crisis and the Shady dump scandal, and I intentionally didn’t ask them to endorse something that could be construed as partisan. Sadly, in these times, even basic rights and decency do often divide along party lines.
Having said that, this is an opportunity to address the responses Nick elicited from board members. To be frank, I wasn’t counting on the support of Supervisor McKenna, though I’d welcome being surprised. It’s just that I suspect he never really abandoned his Republican roots. My hopes lay with board members Ricci and Courtis. But Ms. Courtis’ response, as relayed in the article, seemed pure political speak. It’s clear that “the steps made by the board and the HRC in prior years” do NOT directly and adequately address the current potential threats to our most vulnerable populations. But it’s common knowledge that Ms. Courtis has her eye on the supervisor position, and I’m concerned that, as I wrote in my letter in last week’s edition, political calculation may override personal conscience.
I was, however, heartened by the words of Ms. Ricci. It was apparent that she is searching her heart. As Nick pointed out, this would be a “memorializing resolution,” with no legal authority, so her concern about breaking any laws shouldn’t stop her from voting affirmatively. But this is not an ordinary time; rather, it’s a time to exercise courage and conscience, not shrink from them. I imagine, though, that the section on refusing to cooperate with authorities over mass roundups and family separations due to immigration status could be slightly reworded if that’s the only thing that would defeat a proposed resolution. I urge the board majority to consider how it would look, on the heels of having voted against cleaning up Shady dump, to now vote against supporting the human rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community and our immigrant neighbors, along with teaching truth in our schools, protecting our environment and expressing zero tolerance for hate.
Alan M. Weber
Woodstock
Trying to hit the bull’s-eye a few more times
Sad, we must do this all over again, but damn it I will. All you old hippies, and seniors, start getting up and moving around, we may have to march again!
If you can’t stand on the front line, standing in the back still gets counted. If you can’t stand, sitting nearby still counts, if you chant with the crowd. If you can’t show up, talking to friends and talking online is still helping. The best way to stop a right-wing mob is to outnumber them. Some people donate money or make signs. Pick a cause that matters and work with people for a cause.
I’m ready to do whatever — I remain physically capable in saving my country from the administrative cancer currently metastasizing. There’s a song I heard Peter, Paul and Mary sing called “Have You Been to Jail for Justice?” Music can lift our spirits, but we must move our own feet. I will be there. I will bring a bottle of Advil.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Do not cave to special interests
Whitestone Acquisitions LLC, would like to create a 297-unit luxury housing complex on 1530 Ulster Avenue, Lake Katrine (currently owned by Corey Halwick, a former wastewater superintendent for the Town of Ulster). Mr. Halwick and Whitestone Acquisitions apparently are not aware (perhaps willfully so), of a 2023 Ulster County rental housing survey conducted by the county planning department. Roughly half of renters are cost-burdened (spending 30% or more of income on rent), and 26 percent of renters are severely cost burdened (spending 50% or more) with additional info available on the county government website. It is my sincere hope that they come to their senses and withdraw their special permit application. There is no demand nor need for upscale housing here. There is demand and need for housing from the average person who cannot afford to pay $1,500+/month. The Town of Ulster knows this and must not cave to special interests who wish to bury those pesky facts with disinformation and bigoted commentary.
Tim Scott, Jr.
Saugerties
Can two men come to an understanding?
John (N. Butz), I question your characterization of my recent poem in Hudson Valley One as “a drastic 180” from my letter of a week earlier.
That letter was an appeal to Trump voters, not to the incoming Trump administration. My opening statement spelled that out (“This is a peace offering, and a prayer, to Donald Trump’s supporters”), as did my closing paragraph (“You elected him; now elevate him. Elevate his character. Find the best in yourselves and then make him worthy of you, and of those of us, fellow Americans, who today are heartbroken and frightened”).
Though it was shaken on November 5, my faith in the American people is not broken. But I have less faith in Trump, his cabinet and other nominees, or any of the lockstepping lackeys of today’s “Grand Old Party.” And I believe that, as a result of either personal suffering or plain decency or both, Republican voters will have their faith in this regime shaken, then act and vote accordingly.
John: In last week’s letter, you wrote: “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 question the phrase “Trump’s poor personal moral decisions of the past.” His immoral and irresponsible vow to “drill, baby, drill” is of the present and future, and is personal to all of us. So are his nominations of fellow climate change deniers — and of vaccine skeptics, especially considering the rising threat of bird flu (and recalling Trump’s handling of the pandemic).
You wrote, about immigrants: “Most are NOT fleeing danger.” Perhaps, but so, so many are. In the spirit of our country’s “melting pot” tradition, and to address one of Trump’s recurring themes, I ask you to investigate the statistics of crimes committed by immigrants versus those committed by Americans. To look into predictions of the effects on the economy Trump’s mass-deportation plan would have. To visit the Facebook page of Witness at the Border and/or other immigrant-sympathetic sites. And I invite you to direct me to your sources.
John, our differences are a microcosm of half the country’s misunderstanding of the other half. Let’s see what kind of understanding two ordinary men can come to.
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Ornament
All this week
since the end
of Thanksgiving
a Christmas ball
has appeared
on my front lawn.
Has it fallen from
the sky from angels,
or placed there by
some insistent
travelers? Each
ovoid-shaped,
all silvery-sparkling.
I bring each one in
for a tree I’ve yet
to get. The next
morning another
ornament sits
shimmering, even
if the day itself is
apathetically grey.
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Cold
Meteorological winter starts today, December 1. Unsurprisingly, it was cold. Climate deniers believe these patterns are going to get all messed up and ruin everything. Not me, but I do worry that with or without our “help” the weather will get mean. Deadly even. None of the political leaders seem to care. My sister acts as her efforts to become a Viking by taking every trip they offer has no impact on the rain that may not fall in New Paltz.
Same for people who fly to Hawaii to sit in the sun. Fly to cool parts of Italy to eat great food. Everybody’s doing it.
And a lot of my neighbors say they believe we are doomed unless we all drive EVs. They even force me to help them buy one, using my tax dollars.
Still, I say let ’em. Not the part about telling me what I have to drive, but their fire pits in the patio, plane rides, vacation houses. F ’it! Let ’em do it!
Just let’s get going on preparing for the existential threats so that when they arrive, our grandkids don’t look to the sky and cry out, “Why, Grandpa? Why didn’t you plan for this drought, this flood, this slowly rising sea level? All those years and you just played! Damn you, Grandpa”!
Paul Raymond
New Paltz
A disinformation campaign
In reading about the 10 Church Road dumping scandal in recent HV1 articles, it appears that Supervisor McKenna is still engaged in his disinformation campaign. Supervisor McKenna’s quoted statement, “I need somebody to say, you still got a problem,” is one of the more astounding ones he’s issued. Why has he chosen to ignore the reports and communications of the property owners’ own environmental professionals, or those of Pam and Frank Eighmey, which include four highly qualified hydrologists? Does the supervisor believe himself to have more environmental knowledge than this group of experts, or is McKenna’s motivation to dismiss significant professional opinions of a more nefarious nature?
On the one hand, the supervisor has claimed that the Woodstock site was remediated, referring to the town’s illegally permitted Plan E, which the Ulster County Supreme Court invalidated. On the other hand, his letter of July 12 to the attorney general, asking to be included in the settlement of an already adjudicated lawsuit that Woodstock failed to join, seeks the remediation he’s claimed he’s already done. According to the experts referred to above, the 10 Church Road site clearly contains toxic C&D debris, having come from the same source as those in Saugerties that the court ruled illegally contaminated and requiring complete remediation. As such, the Woodstock site is in violation of the Town of Woodstock Zoning Law and Solid Waste Law, which the supervisor has always had the authority to enforce and hasn’t.
In fairness, one shouldn’t blame Supervisor McKenna alone, as it was town board members Laura Ricci and Anula Courtis who voted with McKenna to defeat the September 2024 resolution presented by town board member Bennet Ratcliff and seconded by town board member Maria-Elena Conte, which called for settling the Eighmey’s suit against the Town of Woodstock, enforcing the strict town laws, and beginning the legal process to require the 10 Church Road property owners to remediate the site at their own expense.
With the recent judgement releasing the Town of Woodstock from liability in the Eighmeys’ suit, a devastating blow to them and all of the victims of this contamination, why don’t McKenna, Ricci and Courtis vote with Ratcliff and Conte to move forward with enforcing the Town of Woodstock’s laws to finally protect their constituents and the town’s aquifer?
Marcel Nagele
on behalf of Woodstockers United for Change
Woodstock
Neil continues to lose it!
Neil Jarmel’s letter entitled “A cabinet which is really a junk drawer” shows his great skills of sophisticated and dancing prose. However, it hardly hides his terminal TDS.
To open Neil’s mind so that he can see BOTH sides of ANY issue, we’d need several tons of dynamite to create such an opening. Just as his idols at CNN and MSNBC, Neil will not be affording credit to any accomplishments by Trump and his cabinet. Instead of giving them a chance while patiently waiting to see the accomplishments, he and his lame stream cohorts will be ever so closely watching every Trump breath as they eagerly wait to pounce on any and all negatives, no matter how small and whether real or, more likely, imaginary. With all the upheaval and potential house cleaning at CNN and MSNBC, I think Neil will be outlasting his idols, some of whom will be demoted or fired, because Neil is immune from any demotion or dismissal by our cherished HV1 feedback platform.
Tom Cherwin, on the other hand, does hold out hope, if only just a thread. However, Tom’s hope is not really for any successes by Trump and his cabinet but rather a hope that Republicans, in and out of government, become so disenchanted with their new leadership that, in time, they turn against the Trump administration. In his letter, Tom expresses hope that everyone comes together “to prompt Trump, the cabinet, Congress, local/state government and the courts to rein in reckless and inhumane policies and decisions and to, instead, rule with compassion and wisdom.” Well, that’s EXACTLY what the recent voter’s mandate is all about … to rein in the phenomenal reckless and inhumane policies and decisions of the Biden/Harris failures and to rule with intelligence, logic and common sense which seem to be characteristics of which Biden and Harris were and are not familiar. These characteristics would actually BE the definition of wisdom for which Tom and all of us is hoping.
I can’t pass up addressing Tom’s inclusion of the courts being part of “reining in Trump.” The courts themselves are the ones who need “reining in.” The courts need to get rid of this cashless bail nonsense and other measures that have allowed criminals, legal and illegal, to be processed back into the streets through a ridiculous revolving door. Criminals do not need to be treated softly so that they can go out and resume their terrorization of innocent citizens … if you believe in soft on crime, get a second opinion from the gold star families whose members have been robbed, raped and murdered. Crime is committed by people of all colors and nationalities. If you do the crime, you do the time … it’s that simple. To accomplish proper law and order, we need to get rid of ALL Soros backed liberal AG’s and DA’s, and even those judges who seem to struggle with being able to identify right from wrong and guilt from innocence and who continually release these predators back onto the streets, many of whom have arrest records longer than a giraffe’s neck.
Only time will tell. I, too, have hope but it’s a positive hope for our country’s financial success and for a much safer country, freeing itself of all illegal criminals, terrorists and anyone else identified as characters whose only ambition is to destroy our lives and our country.
John N. Butz
Modena
This is news!
On November 20, I attended an information session hosted by the New Paltz Central School District on three capital project propositions that will be voted on by the public on January 16. I was surprised to see nothing about this in last week’s HV1 except for a brief mention in an article about the district’s teachers’ long-term lack of a contract — even though, taken together, the proposed propositions would cost over $48 million dollars. State funding would pay for some of this, but the tax increase based on a house with a full assessed value of $400,000 would be $387 per year.
The presentation at the meeting and the discussion that followed were very informative. Obviously, some of the expenditures are required to make repairs and improvements needed to provide a safe and secure environment for our students and teachers. Other costs do not seem justifiable to me based on the number of students who would benefit from them and the increased tax burden they would impose.
Finally, the installation of LED lighting in all the schools would substantially decrease the district’s electricity demand while lowering our carbon footprint; this would be well worth the cost. However, other sustainable means of meeting the district’s energy needs — such as solar arrays and heat pumps — should be much more thoroughly investigated.
The district is having another public information session on these propositions on December 18. I urge everyone who can to attend this meeting. There is much at stake and much to learn about this project, and the date to vote on it — January 16 — will be here before we know it.
Miriam Varian
Gardiner
Another $1.5 million in sewer grants
We have focused on long-term capital planning here in the Village of New Paltz. One piece of the puzzle includes repairing sewer mains.
We are proud to report it was just announced that we have been awarded $1.5 million for our ninth sewer grant after applying in each of the last ten rounds. This grant assistance comes from the Federal government (HUD) via the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG).
In total, our village has secured $7.65 million in sewer grants since 2015.
Thank you Governor Hochul and Commissioner Visnauskas from NYS Homes & Community Renewal.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Join the family! 
