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We need a huge turnout on May 20 to save Woodstock Elementary School
I have lived in Woodstock for almost 40 years. When I drive in and out of town and see the Woodstock Elementary school and its iconic sign — Peace, love, learning. Welcome to Woodstock Elementary — I am flooded with memories and good feelings. My kids went to Woodstock Elementary, and I remember after dropping them off, I’d drive away with a sense of community and security, knowing they would be close by all day, with friends whose parents were my friends — the village it takes to raise your kids. In a world of so much unpredictability and lack of connection, how wonderful it was to have that school right here in town. How wonderful to give the kids that sense of safety and stability.
A vibrant elementary school is important to a town. It gives it an identity — it tells people that this is a good place to raise a family. It can be a beacon — a reason for new families to plant roots here in Woodstock. It makes no sense whatsoever to be so shortsighted at this important time when we want families to come here and live full time. We don’t want to encourage short-term rentals, more tourism, more second-homes. We don’t want the smallest children in our community to be on long bus rides when right down the road is our very own school.
According to the Onteora School District’s own data, kindergarten enrollment has stabilized and is projected to grow over the next five years. The trend we’ve all noticed — more young families moving in — is finally showing up in the numbers. Closing our elementary school now would undermine that progress and make things worse for the entire district. I sincerely doubt that any alleged savings by the Onteora administration will be as significant as the loss to our kids and community with the closing of the Woodstock school.
We need a huge turnout on May 20 to save Woodstock Elementary School. PLEASE vote no on Prop 2 ($70.5 million project and Woodstock closure) and vote yes on Prop 1 (annual school budget)
Elizabeth Lesser
Woodstock
Support Amanda Gotto for supervisor of the Town of New Paltz
I’m writing in support of Amanda Gotto for supervisor of the Town of New Paltz. I’ve worked alongside Amanda as a volunteer for a few environmental organizations over the last several years, most notably the New Paltz Climate Smart Task Force, on which she served for six years. Her work on the task force was outstanding. During that time, she spearheaded or worked with hired consultants, specific committees, or local volunteers in several projects that improved our community and resulted in awards and recognition from the state. These include planting a pollinator garden at the New Paltz community center four years ago that still flourishes; creating a public space for composting at the community center; drawing up a comprehensive and meticulously detailed Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) that serves as a guide to our local environment; and creating the original and updated Green House Gas Inventory, Climate Vulnerability Assessment, initial Climate Action Plan and the 100-year floodplain projection for the Town of New Paltz.
In the years I’ve known Amanda, I’ve observed a number of qualities that highlight her skills and integrity as a leader. To begin with, Amanda is very intelligent and articulate, she is honest and straightforward, she demonstrates patience for and tolerance of others, she has a strong sense of fairness and she shows an unwavering commitment to the well-being of our community.
Please vote for Amanda for supervisor of New Paltz in the primary on June 24.
Wendy Rudder
New Paltz
We need a qualified hydrologist now!
About four years after the C&D dump was created near the supervisor’s residence in Shady, on 10/14/2023 a letter was sent to Bill McKenna from some of the most eminent hydrogeologists in Ulster County. With test results from qualified labs and DEC themselves, the letter was intended to remove any doubt that the overburden of contaminated construction debris from Karolys’ Saugerties operation, placed directly above the only aquifer supplying our public wells, would eventually lead to an even greater disaster than the direct contamination of the private wells on Reynolds and Church roads that had already occurred.
Some of us may be familiar with various claims made by the supervisor in recent years about our water problems, like “maybe something was on the new pump that was installed a few years ago,” and now that the levels are increasing instead of decreasing, we hear, “nobody wants to say it out loud, but all the experts say it’s the private septic systems in Bearsville.” He has also said publicly that he has no idea what contaminant source tracing is, and yet, as you will hear, the letter not only describes where to begin testing but provides a map showing the most critical area to test, based on hydrogeological data, not guess work.
The potential for well contamination from the septic leach fields in Bearsville has been mentioned in every water quality report to the town for decades, nothing new there. But in 2021, there were no detectable levels of PFAS compounds, and now, after four years of contaminants migrating through the ground from Shady, the concentration of forever chemicals continues to increase.
We’re not sure if the supervisor actually read this letter, but we’re assuming he did, and had a responsibility to. Please refer to our Facebook page, Woodstockers United for Change, to read the actual and complete letter. It documents the exceedances of toxins at the dump site, explains the expected progression of water contamination, and outlines the necessary steps to begin managing the crisis and protect the citizens of Woodstock.
Clearly no one has been employed by the town to follow these very serious recommendations. The so-called “town engineer” was the same person who approved the illegal Plan E, which, if anything, only made the problem worse. Based on the most recent reports of PFAS levels, the town should be exploring the possibility of switching our water supply from the wells that show increased contamination to those reported as “undetected,” or other alternate water supplies. But to undertake any of this, the town should have had a qualified hydrologist engaged years ago. If our water is to remain even marginally drinkable, we need an independent and qualified hydrologist now!
Vince Mow
on behalf of Woodstockers United for Change
Open-minded police commission??
I think we all assume that the New Paltz Town Board wants a fair and open-minded police commission. If that is true, how can they appoint Edgar Rodriguez, a supporter of the “Defund the Police” movement, to the police commission? This man already has an agenda. Can he be fair? This doesn’t make sense to me. Does it make sense to you?
Stephen Ford
New Paltz
Trump attacks the arts
Ulster County is home to hundreds of artists and dozens of arts institutions who contribute to our prosperity, health, and culture and are a key driver for bringing in substantial tourist dollars. In our county, arts and culture contribute an estimated $814 million annually in total economic impact.
Recently, the county unveiled a thorough study of the arts’ impact here and has created a new position to lead to further growth in this vital sector. The contributions of artists and arts organizations certainly can be measured economically, but also much of the benefit we derive from them is incalculable.
So it is of grave concern that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a federal arts granting agency, has been threatened with elimination if the NEA does not abide by Trump edicts. I’ve worked in the arts my entire adult life, and this is much more of an attack on artists and freedom of expression than ever, considerably more than when the so-called NEA Four were under prolonged attack by Jesse Helms in the early 1990s.
The NEA was quick to change course now due to the threat, issuing this statement: “The N.E.A. is updating its grant making policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president,” in mass emails to artists and institutions, “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”
By denying funding to artists and programs here in our county, these cuts will affect us by constricting growth, threatening jobs and stunting our overall well being.
Disingenuous statements released by the White House stating the endowment was changing course to be more inclusive, while in fact canceling works that are exemplars of diversity and inclusion, is on track with this administration’s desire to catastrophically unravel our institutions, culture and democracy.
This chaos must come to an end.
William Wheeler Murray
New Paltz
No more “for the greater good” or “for the people;” only the coming chaos?
I was pleased to see in a local weekly paper last week the announcement that the federally-funded energy assistance program called HEAP was taking applications from qualified applicants. The next day I read that the entire department that handles the administration of this program in HHS was fired April 2; the department employed 26 people to supervise $4 billion worth of energy expense relief for poorer Americans. There is $368M still left of the congressional appropriation to be distributed for cooling relief in this year’s budget. The department is gone. How is that going to work? My bet is: It isn’t. This department was part of the 10,000 person reduction in workforce at HHS. Did you vote for this guy?
Federal student loan servicing, which had been taken care by Department of Education staff will now be serviced through Small Business Administration (SBA), which has seen a huge reduction to its own work force. Just who will answer a question about a student’s student loan in the federal government? Who will supervise and police the private loan servicers? Who is going to do the work? My bet: Nobody. Did you vote for this guy?
Social Security Administration is likewise seeing a huge reduction in work force. Who will answer a question from a Social Security beneficiary? Answer: Nobody. Did you vote for this guy?
Earlier this month, the governor of Arkansas asked for assistance from FEMA after a devastating weather event. It was denied since FEMA had determined that the weather event was not devastating enough; it all will have to be handled at a state and local level. You’re on your own. Did you vote for this guy?
Because of the new administration’s actions since January, there are dozens, probably hundreds, of examples like this that can be cited that paint a picture for us of how our federal government is going to work for us: Simply put, it isn’t going to work for us. Just wait a couple of months. Lord, lord, wait a couple of years. There will be no more ethos of “For the common good,” or “for the people. In all likelihood, there will simply be overwhelming chaos. Did you vote for this guy?
It is why each of us has to decide what we can do to fix this problem so the nation will survive. Seriously. Stand up! Speak out! Fight back!
Stephen F. Bangert
Clintondale
Erin Moran for Woodstock town supervisor
I am writing to endorse a remarkable and trustworthy candidate for Woodstock town supervisor: Erin Moran.
I’ve known Erin close to two decades and have always been impressed by her deep commitment to our community. Having grown up in Woodstock, Erin has a firsthand understanding of the town’s challenges and unique character. Her nearly decade-long service as a volunteer demonstrates her dedication to addressing the needs of our residents.
Erin’s passion is especially evident in her determination to resolve the Shady dump crisis — a problem that the current town board has mishandled. She stands out as the one candidate with the persistence, integrity, and leadership needed to navigate these tense and divisive times.
Her work with the Police Reimagination group shows not only her willingness to make tough, thoughtful decisions but also her ability to build trust and promote accountability within our police department.
And yes — Erin is also a fun and engaging person. Her energy and optimism are contagious. I urge all residents to support and vote for Erin Moran in the Democratic primary this June.
Meridith Hill
Woodstock
Ball court colors for New Paltz?
We are looking for input to determine color combinations for the new courts. Construction of the new basketball court and two pickleball courts at Hasbrouck Park on Elting Avenue in front of St. Joseph’s Church should be complete later this summer. However, we need help choosing paint colors.
We are forming a seven-person committee of New Paltz High School (NPHS) students who will decide on the final color combination. Consider questions like:
• Will the basketball and pickleball courts be the same color?
• Will the pickleball kitchen be a different color from the rest of its court?
• Will the basketball lane and center court circle be different colors?
• Should all three courts, and out of bounds areas, all be painted just one color like yellow or dove grey?
• Do we use a total of 1, 2, 3 or 4 colors?
Please send your design idea (description and illustration) to mayor@villageofnewpaltz.gov before midnight Saturday, May 10th for the NPHS student committee to review.
Visit villageofnewpaltz.gov to see images of the courts’ layout and sample colors.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Put an end to them
I am tired of hearing about Trump’s tariffs and Tump’s deportation abuses when the Republicans in Congress could easily put an end to them.
Frank Backus
Highland
Onteora — tough decisions for a positive future
Naturally closing beloved elementary schools brings out debate amongst passionate parents and community members. Let’s face it, no one likes being in the position to make these tough decisions. That’s where Onteora is right now — faced with two decades of declining enrollment and long overdue tough decisions. Next year, district-wide enrollment at Onteora will be less than 1,000 students spread across three buildings in two towns, across 300-square miles. District leaders have proposed consolidating to a central campus and with community input have designed a state-of-the-art campus for all the students to come together in 2028 in Boiceville. Through cost savings from consolidation, reserves and state building aid, the cost of the project will be paid for over time (through a bond) and will not raise taxes for residents.
It›s never easy to say goodbye to a community school, but we have gone far too long shuffling children around to balance class sizes in buildings that are half full, moving our educators from school to school and forcing our specialists to travel from school to school during the day. Our students and staff deserve better. The opportunity to optimize our resources at a central campus gives us the best opportunity to provide all students with a better education and also lessen the burden on taxpayers by cutting costs on transportation, building maintenance and duplication of services.
Vote yes on Prop 1 and 2 on May 20th — now is the time to make changes to ensure our children have what they need to succeed in the future.
Jennifer Fugel
Olivebridge
Bringing Woodstock back
Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s Earth Day celebration. There was a true feeling of true community in the air. Where else would you see the plastics group CCAPP, the PRIDE people and the American Legion tables right next to each other, but in Woodstock? Ellen from Ravensbeard had a barred owl and Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger rallied our youth to get involved and be proactive about plastics in our environment.
Could this be the rebirth of peace, love and community in Woodstock?
Erin Moran
Bearsville
Support for Amanda
Amanda Gotto is so committed to her work, her community and the environment. She is tireless!! I feel exhausted just hearing about her engagement with civic activities since she came to this area. She has worked for years as a volunteer on the Planning Board, which makes her extremely knowledgeable about town building and zoning code. She has shown her support of women’s rights in her support of Maggie Carpenter! Additionally she is the first supervisor to include acknowledgement of black labor.
Amanda has done a great job since she took the position of supervisor, addressing problems she inherited and would continue to do so if elected. I support Amanda and say you have simply Gotto do the same.
Lindsay DuBois
New Paltz
What Woodstock could buy with a $10M bond
I believe that we must, as individuals and a town, live within our means. It could be that the economy will decide for us whether a bond or the recreational project itself makes sense. Nonetheless, I feel grateful to the town for suggesting that a private recreation project be supported by a bond of $10M if approved by Woodstock voters.
However, I think we should consider prioritizing a different slate of improvement projects. Let’s take that $10M bond and target it to:
1. Install traffic lights at the corner of 375 and 212 and at the corner of Tinker Street and Rock City Road.
2. Create more off-street parking.
3. Replace the two bridge abutments at the corner of Tannery Brook Road.
4. Help build a temperature-controlled secure art storage building to aid the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild and WAAM.
5. Provide a bike lane through town.
6. Test and help install better soundproofing at all music venues.
7. Create an endowment to protect all town cemeteries.
8. Add more boardwalk sections to the Comeau property to make it more accessible.
9. Add trash receptacles and flower displays to improve the image of the town core.
10. Install a town-maintained head-end located water purifying toxin eliminating system serving all homes on town water.
The above may cost more than $10M. If so, let’s encourage the commercial businesses to share these costs.
Douglas Sheer
Woodstock
The library must meet its users halfway
I am dismayed by the news that the Woodstock Public Library is suspending its Hoopla service to make funds available for the Dixon Avenue project. But I am not in the least surprised. Indeed, I voted against the project because it seemed inevitable that valued library services would be curtailed in order to fund this poorly thought-out project. (A sprinkler/fire alarm system in a well-trafficked public space full of combustible material is an unexpected expense? Seriously?)
The Woodstock Library came late to Hoopla, which offers users at-home access to audiobooks, eBooks, TV, music and more. As a result, it has already failed its constituency once during the pandemic. At the very moment when people most needed access to the reliable information a public library is meant to supply, the Woodstock Library simply shut down. Hoopla was immediately available at the West Hurley Library, which still operates out of a modest building; curbside service followed as soon as it was allowed by law. In contrast, the Woodstock Library sent its users plaintive emails about how much they missed us.
It is pointless and destructive to fight the move to 10 Dixon. A $5 million white elephant benefits no-one. As a community, we must put our efforts into making this relocation work. But the library board must meet its users halfway. Instead of commissioning murals and accommodating named collections in the name of attracting some ideal population of young families with children, it needs to focus on having a functional space up and running with as little disruption possible to the services used by its actual community.
Erica Obey
Woodstock
What is up?
Some voters have been wondering what Anula Courtis, who was McKenna’s handpicked candidate for a previous vacancy on the town board and served under him, did that Bill is backing her opponent in the upcoming Democratic primary.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
We all have a role to play in resisting tyranny
Some of us were ready to jump into the resistance movement the night Trump was elected. Other people were so depressed and angry they wanted to crawl into a cave and stay there for the next four years. Initially, my 84-year-old mother was part of the latter group. But during the past few months, I have watched her become an activist. She is attending meetings and rallies and protests. She is writing postcards and letters and calling elected officials. And now she’s the one telling her friends, “You can’t just complain, you have to do something.” I couldn’t be prouder. We all have a role to play in resisting tyranny.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
The leaderless party
After Kamala Harris’s and Tim Walz’s shellacking last November, one would think that the Democratic party and their lame stream pocket buddies would go back to the drawing board and start over. After all, it was quite obvious that the party’s messages and their media’s cover ups and never-ending lies about the Biden/Harris train wreck were a colossal failure.
Kamala Harris recently made her first major speaking appearance and echoed her usual jibber jabber, showing that her word salads are still very much polished and in high gear. And Tim Walz, at a recent speaking engagement, incredibly stated that Kamala was “the most qualified person who ever ran for president in our country’s history and that, in and of itself, should have gotten this thing won.” Hello, Tim? Earth to Tim? You, Tim, are the only person on earth making such a farcical claim.
The Democratic party is in desperate need of new leadership. And not just fan club favorites like AOC, Cory Booker, Jasmine Crockett, Gavin Newsom, squad members, etc. but actual REAL intelligent and thoughtful men and women who have actually listened to the people so that a new message and game plan can be developed that will really help the people.
But, alas, neither the Democrats nor their lame streamers have learned a single lesson! Since January 20th, the lame stream coverage of ANYTHING Trump has been 92% negative. They refuse to acknowledge and report on ANY positive accomplishments by Trump that have reversed the myriad of Biden/Harris disasters.
And, what have the Democrats done to start fresh from their November embarrassment? Not a thing! Instead, they continue their TDS rhetoric without missing a beat. They, too, have acknowledged NONE of the actions taken and accomplishments for which the people strongly voted. Their sound strategy has been to spotlight the Sanders/AOC fighting oligarchy tour, praising Spartacus Booker’s meaningless 25-hour “depends” diatribe, a 12-hour sit-in on the Capitol steps singing middle-school-level songs while holding ineffective posters, and last but not least for standing behind and supporting illegal criminals while ignoring the people hurt and murdered by these same stalwarts of society.
By all means, PLEASE keep it up, Democrats and lame streamers, so you can continue putting nails in your future election coffins.
John N. Butz
Modena
Choices
Should I buy a car, or a really expensive hat?
Sparrow
Phoenicia
For the future of Woodstock: Vote no on Prop 2
Woodstock is building a future for families — let’s not close our school just as we’re getting started. Our town is actively working to become more welcoming and sustainable for year-round families:
1. The Woodstock Housing Committee is advancing affordable housing initiatives.
2. The Youth Center Task Force is reimagining Andy Lee Field into a vibrant hub with a new youth center, skate park, pool complex and more.
3. The Woodstock Library is planning a beautifully renovated space for our whole community, including a large new children’s wing.
We’re gaining real momentum — and now is the time to protect the assets that make family life here enticing! That includes keeping Woodstock Elementary open.
Here’s what else to know before May 20:
1. Enrollment is stabilizing. At the May 1 community meeting, even the superintendent said (in relation to kindergarten enrollment): “I think our numbers are going to be stabilizing.” Importantly, kindergarten enrollment is the most valuable statistic for predicting long-term trends.
2. This is not the economic moment to take on a $70.5M capital project — especially with rising interest rates and tariffs. Our existing $15M capital reserve fund could cover the proposed middle school/high school renovations entirely. More than half of the project’s price tag is allocated to expanding Bennett Elementary just to absorb WES students. Why spend millions to build new classrooms when we already have enough space between both schools?
3. Since 2019, the community has made it clear: Keep our community schools. Yet the district never seriously studied any other path.
It’s not too late to course-correct — but only if we vote NO on Prop 2. Let’s keep our school open, strengthen our community and invest in the future we’re building — together.
Cast your vote May 20 from 2 to 9 p.m. at either Woodstock Elementary or Bennett Elementary.
Tansy Michaud
Woodstock
Take to the streets
Ironically, given his extraordinary gift for assuming no ownership of any of his many misdeeds, Donald Trump is all about ownership, of whatever and whoever he can get his hands on. His father drilled into him the ins and outs of real estate ownership — mostly its outs, things like keeping blacks out of Trump housing and backing out of paying laborers for their work on that housing. But today the son could teach the father a thing or two about keeping and kicking immigrants out of not merely his buildings, but out of his country.
Trump recently told The Atlantic, “I run the country and the world.” We have smelled that outsized sense of ownership in his seeking to take control of the Panama Canal and to annex Greenland and Canada, whose newly elected prime minister Mark Carney lamented, “America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country … President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us.”
With no sympathy toward and no grasp of the complexities of the long, tragic history of Israelis and Palestinians, he has taken ownership of American universities and their brokenhearted students with his draconian punishments of those who speak out against the unspeakable human annihilation in Gaza, with few powerful dissenting voices joining the students’. And how could there be: Trump owns the Cabinet, both houses of Congress, a bunch of billionaires and, many fear, the Supreme Court.
Though Mr. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” may very well remain above the law, Donald Trump is a blot on our country and our humanity. We must continue to take to the streets, to shout “Out, damned blot!” before he and his enablers concoct a scheme to own America, and every last one of us.
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Vote No on Prop 2 to keep Woodstock Elementary open
I will be voting no on Prop 2 on Tuesday, May 20 to reject the consolidation plan that includes closing Woodstock Elementary that has been championed by Superintendent McLaren, and I urge all Onteora district voters to do the same.
Woodstock Elementary is a great school. I graduated from it in the 80’s and have fond memories of learning and playing there and of building the since-replaced Woodstock Wonderworks. The parents I know whose kids are there now or whose children went there recently, all seem extremely happy with it.
The Woodstock school’s location right in the village and its high ratings (rated #1 elementary school in Ulster County on Niche) are a significant draw for families with young children which is what both Woodstock and the entire district need more of, not less. Closing popular, well-located elementary schools like Phoenicia and Woodstock seems like an awfully counterintuitive way to combat declining enrollment in our public schools.
Many, if not most, parents moving to our area absolutely base their relocation decisions around the ratings and location of elementary schools. Due to its location, I find it difficult to believe that a consolidated elementary school in Boiceville, which will require a super long bus ride for many young children, will serve as a draw for families with young children to choose to move to the area in the way that Woodstock Elementary school currently does.
The elementary school is also essential to the health of Woodstock’s village and economy and we should do everything in our power to prevent it suffering the same fate as West Hurley Elementary School which was shuttered in 2004 only to sit empty and decaying in the center of that little hamlet for over two decades. Nobody wants the rotting hulk of a formerly thriving elementary school sitting empty right at the entrance to Woodstock, failing to refill the district’s coffers.
I’ve also heard talk that restrictions in the deed to Woodstock Elementary School may limit the property to educational usage only. If this is in fact the case, it would severely limit the property’s power to recoup some of the massive costs the district proposes to undertake in its consolidation plan. Given what’s occurred just down Route 375 in West Hurley, this is a factor that would be foolish for us Woodstock voters and business owners to ignore.
I also remain unconvinced about the financial benefits of consolidation and feel concerned that the school board’s refusal to separate the vote on closure/consolidation reflects its collective failure to make their case convincingly or fairly. Two years ago, former school board president, Emily Sherry took to social media to make it clear that voters would be given a chance to decide about consolidation by voting on the bond. However, voters were not given the option to reject the closure of Phoenicia Elementary school that occurred last summer. Now rumor has it that Superintendent McLaren claims she can act unilaterally to close Woodstock Elementary if she so chooses, regardless of the outcome of the May 20 vote on Prop 2. These conflicting statements and actions make it difficult for me to trust the word of the school board and the integrity of the superintendent.
Please join me in voting no on Prop 2 on Tuesday, May 20. You can cast your vote at Woodstock or Bennett Elementary schools between 2-9 p.m.
Eve Fox
Woodstock
Voting no on Prop 2 does not guarantee Woodstock Elementary remains open
Misinformation abounds calling for N0-votes on Onteora’s Proposition 2, the school district’s capital project bond vote to modernize and upgrade the Boiceville properties, with a beautiful central campus as the end goal.
One untruth being circulated is that voting no keeps Woodstock Elementary School open. Don’t be misinformed. Here’s what a NO-vote does guarantee if the bond fails: District lines will be redrawn between elementary buildings every year to balance class sizes, continuing to split neighborhoods. Students will experience less social diversity and fewer opportunities to be matched with just-right teachers, to learn, play, perform and sing with same-age peers. Continued loss of K-5 district-run afterschool opportunities with access to late buses. Students requiring special education services will continue to be bused from the westernmost reaches of the district to their programs in Woodstock; and if they require a program change midyear, they will be moved to Bennett for less-restrictive services. The fiscal burden of maintaining two sorely under-enrolled elementary schools will fall on our taxpayers, many of whom are aging with no children attending district schools. The district’s carbon footprint will continue to increase as we heat and cool aging buildings and drive buses thousands of miles every day. Rising costs as we delay construction.
Here’s what a YES-vote guarantees if the bond passes: Modern K-12 learning spaces that inspire creativity and growth. A healthy learning environment for a sustainable future, including new heating and cooling systems, replacing old windows and reducing numerous bus runs. Equitable learning experiences for all Onteora students on one Catskills-inspired K-12 campus. A tax neutral capital project. Inform yourself. Support better learning opportunities for ALL Onteora students, not just those who live close to one elementary school or another.
Cynthia Bishop
private citizen, West Hurley
Well, this should prove disastrous
Trump was proud to announce the formation of the FEMA Review Council recently. Yes, folks it is composed of top experts in their field and they are highly respected by their peers. Now who can that be, we wonder? Trump said it was his great honor to appoint to the council, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, governor Greg Abbott, governor Glen Youngkin, former governor Phil Bryant and several others who’d make this a better USA.
Now that’s a cluster “F.” Wait, it sounds like a who’s who of the minor players of Horton Hears a Who! So, this is a thinly disguised plan to make the Federal Emergency Management Agency into “name the state” Emergency Management Agency and then stop federal funding. Translation: per Project 2025, we’re eliminating federal disaster aid across the board. But I’m appointing the biggest idiots from my rogue’s gallery of sycophants to help me decide which red states that kiss my ass the best get the money.
Trump stated that “these new members will work hard to fix a terribly broken system like FEMA, and return power to state emergency managers, [in short, tell the states we don’t give federal relief anymore; it’s their problem] who will help make America safe again. Any state that suffers a natural disaster is screwed. It is a ghastly list. A storm will come through, they’ll put together a signal chat, they’ll decide the fate of thousands over drinks and jokes at the expense of those which they dislike intensely.
How can you NOT think this? The next natural disaster is going to be a disaster! He, Trump, is already not paying for state disasters that have happened. Ask Arkansas and the states hit by hurricanes. He stopped paying on the ones Biden approved.
Bottom-line: The idea that “whiskey breath” Hegseth is an expert at anything, but pub crawls already have stretched believability. Yeah, getting the bars open could come in handy after a disaster. However, I’m sure he has the inside track on plenty of disasters, like his last family holiday dinner and stuff like that.
FEMA was an effective agency. With Trump’s “Keystone Kops” in charge, you’d better hope there are no emergencies near you.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Support Proposition 2 in Woodstock on May 20
In 2019, Dr. Kevin Baughman, Ph.D. spent five months studying Onteora’s various configuration options. His evaluation of the then-current three elementary school Princeton Plan was that it was a triple threat: it “require[d] the most bus runs, provide[d] the least educational advantages, and generate[d] the greatest recurring costs of all scenarios.”
Let’s sit with that a moment. For twelve years, Onteora taxpayers funded the most expensive configuration with the worst environmental impacts and the fewest educational benefits. As enrollment further declined, educational compromises and inequities for students mounted and the educational “bang for buck” of taxpayer dollars fell.
In 2023, the school board passed a resolution to move away (over five years) from the educational and fiscal disadvantages of the Princeton Plan to the central campus that Proposition 2 on the May 20th ballot funds, which, per Baughman, “provides the greatest opportunity for cost savings, … offers greatest redirection of funding to program enhancement and most equitable distribution of resources and staffing”
Less tax burden, a more robust program for students, and the most equitable.
Proposition 2 modernizes and improves the campus for Onteora’s entire K-12 program, removes persistent structural educational impediments and inequities and transitions the district to a lower expense baseline for a sustainable future. The savings projected are so great that they more than cover the debt service required to finance the project.
Closing a local school is painful, no doubt, and understandably gives rise to opposition. You may remember OPEN, and see the giant signs Woodstock business interests have erected opposing the project. But given the current threats students face from state educational funding cuts and that residents face trying to afford to stay in their homes, even former OPEN parents are coming out in support of Proposition 2. I hope you will too.
Rick Knutsen
speaking only for himself
Woodstock
Perilous times rising
If we were not before, we certainly are now in “perilous times” with the many uncertainties we are facing. Without rehashing all the gory details of the ongoing horrendous genocidal plight of the Palestinian people at the hands of the alleged “most moral military in the world,” what can we expect from the current U.S administration that is supporting and supplying the weaponry to that army to carry out their sordid works of darkness. Now, in our own country under this new administration, we have teams of “ICE” agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves kidnapping people on the streets and shipping them to a mega prison in El Salvador. Our President is boldly lying on TV that one of the kidnapped people, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is an MS-13 gang member because of alleged gang tattoos on his fingers. In an interview on NBC, the president shows a photograph that appears to be photoshopped because previous El Salvadorian government and family photos showed no MS-13 tattoos on his hands. Mr. Garcia, who had legal status to be in the U.S., had no criminal record and received no due process when he was deported and sent to a mega prison in El Salvador. A U.S judge ordered that Garcia not be deported, but that judicial order was ignored by the Trump administration. This is not just happening to Garcia, but many people targeted by ICE agents who have no criminal record. Trump and company are refusing to return Garcia, which is a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution, the founding document of this nation. To now ignore U.S judges’ orders and constitutional due process, sets the stage for a constitutional crisis and the beginnings of tyrannical rule and unchecked government gone wild.
Besides the incredible cold-hearted escalating complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and many other worrying indicators, this new administration’s boldface aggressive lawlessness by those sworn with an oath to uphold and defend the dictates of the U.S. Constitution, signals that we as a country are indeed heading into deep “perilous times” [Mat. 2 Tim. 3-1].
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Dissolution to consolidation
Last week, Mayor Rogers and I attended a forum at which the mayor seemed to be considering abandoning dissolution and returning to the consolidation process. I will whole-heartedly support the only process – consolidation — that allows not just the village residents and board but equally the town residents and the town board to have a full say in the outcome of this important decision.
At a time when we are seeing more and more cracks in the foundations of our democracy, I cannot support a process that disenfranchises half the people it will affect.
I would be grateful for your vote in June. For the past year as town supervisor, it has been my honor to serve every resident of our town. When I take office in January of 2026, whether we are one government or two, we are one community who take care of each other.
Amanda Gotto
Town of New Paltz Supervisor
April 30 Never Ends
Here are a few insights to help you understand what war does to one’s soul.
• Some wounds don’t bleed. They guide.
• The war ended today. And also, it never did.
History writes its endings in ink. I carry mine in scar tissue.
They gave us medals. We gave back silence.
You don’t unlearn war. You walk with it quieter.
Today, the Vietnam War ends — at least, that’s what the calendar says. It’s April 30, the kind of day that walks in soft, wearing a headline but carrying ghosts under its coat.
Now, I know the war ended then — 1975 — on TV, in black and white, with that infamous helicopter lifting off a rooftop like some last breath. But it never really ended for me. Not in the marrow. Not in the dreamtime.
Maybe that’s the thing no one tells you: wars have paper endings and bone endings.
For me, it was a war that welded a compass inside my ribs. It’s not a directional tool, more like a magnetized shard of metal rattling every time I try to move forward. And yeah, I’ve tried to break it loose. Therapy. Writing. Silence. Rage. The gentle hands of love. But that weld — God, that weld — it holds.
I don’t blame the war for everything. No. Some of my detours, brutal honesty, mistakes in love and withdrawals from living came from me. But that compass? That disorients everything. It spins when a car backfires. When a news anchor says “troop surge,” it is like an economic term. When a grandchild asks me if war is always bad.
And what do I say?
I tell them that war is a teacher with a bloody pointer stick. It teaches the same lesson over and over: how easy it is to kill. How hard it is to come home. And how memory is a minefield disguised as a garden.
Nam — yeah, I call it that, like an old ghost roommate — didn’t just show me things. It ripped off the blindfold I didn’t even know I was wearing.
I had been taught — carefully, lovingly even — how to see the world through the lens of Sunday School, patriotic slogans and Walter Cronkite’s reassuring face. But over there, in that impossible heat and untranslatable terrain, I saw the real face of war. Not the noble death on a hill. But the trembling hand of a man realized he had just ended a life.
We did things, things that still echo. We were told we were defending freedom, but sometimes, we couldn’t even defend our own souls.
And back home — back here — there wasn’t any ticker tape. Just silence. Just the sense that people had changed the channel. And if they did talk about the war, it was either in hushed tones or loud, misinformed arguments. But never the middle place. Never the muddy, confusing, half-awake reality we carried.
History books? They keep trying. God bless ’em. They line up the battles, the treaties and the timelines. They try to make sense of it all. But war doesn’t make sense — it makes scars.
And I carry mine. Not as a badge. More like a whisper stitched under my skin.
So yes, today is the anniversary. And I’m sitting here — older, grayer, quieter — still trying to draw a straight line from before to after, still wondering if the weld will ever cool enough to crack.
But this much I know: The war ended today, and it never did.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Judgement
On April 15th, I went to my first Republican caucus meeting. I left the Democrat party in the summer of ’24. There are few nice things I can say about my experience behind the scenes. Everything that goes into the caucus’ ultimate trump card to let the legislator from District 2 speak on it for the full five minutes goes down exactly how one would expect.
Something I did not expect to see was the tremendous display of courage from deputy minority leader, Craig Lopez. He cared nothing for their obnoxious de facto leader’s vile, venomous attempts to humiliate and demean the message he carried for his constituents. I don’t spend all my time in the halls of power to highlight the incompetence of others or to take spicy bathroom selfies. I go to bear witness to the resolve of heroes like Lopez. I go because I know the people can make a consequential difference on the outside of power.
The sheriff, chair of the legislator, majority leader and county executive should evaluate if revoking my rights to the DMV, IDA, county clerk and other county services is a wise and just punishment for a social media post, posted when the session was over and I had left the building. A post that didn’t mention violence, the session or even a person, place or thing related to the county offices. I hope they evaluate who wins and who loses when I’m excluded.
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Port Ewen
Benefits under attack #2
Previously, I mentioned the various ways the GOP plan on addressing our benefit state, but postponed it until I addressed a concern of a reader. I will address the ways in this letter.
1. Payroll Executive Tax. This is the FICA tax (Federal Insurance Contribution Act). If this is placed into effect, all Social Security funding would come to a halt. Without this funding, there is no money for Social Security. This means the 7.65% matched by the employer, as well as by the employee, 7.65%, for a total of 15.3 %, is no more. There would be no money going into the Social Security fund. This would be your 7.65% to spend, invest, put under your mattress, whatever. Medicare, on the other hand, would not come to a halt. This 1.45% would just be paid by the employee, not employer. Right now, if FICA went under, the Social Security Reserve Fund would kick in for those who have paid.
AARP and the NCPSSM (National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare), both state money would be available to pay out Social Security until the year 2034, at which time all benefits would be reduced by 20%. So, someone, say at age 67, retired, drawing a monthly $1500 for an annual of $18,000, would be reduced to the amount of $300 per month, with an annual of $14,000 at age 76. This would be a large cut at age 76, particularly if they had no pension or other source of income or medical bills. Medicare though would still be there, although not contributed by the employer; we would still pay our 1.45%. (I made the mistake previously stating it would not be there.) However, if the fund did run out, there would be no money coming in to the fund for future generations, meaning our grandchildren.
(A major complaint of the AARP and the NCPSSM regards the cap on salary. Right now, it is $176,100 that everyone pays Social Security and Medicare on. Those making more than this amount, pay no tax. Both of those organizations would like to see the cap raised to a much higher amount, say to $600 or higher to address the deficit.)
Donald Trump attempted to eliminate this payroll tax, but I understand this is the ‘third rail’ of politics and therefore, it was defeated. (The third rail is the rail alongside of the train tracks which powers the train. It is very dangerous and can electrocute anyone coming into contact with it; this term applied to politicians touching our Social Security is the metaphor they can be and will be ‘electrocuted politically’, a death sentence.
This program contributes millions of dollars back into the states, communities, across America. People pay into it during their working years and upon receipt of these benefits, spent this money back into the community.
2. Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). This is an attempt to muster a constitutional amendment, the GOP has tried to pass in order to address fiscal spending aligned with revenues coming in. But in terms of economic turndowns, this amendment, if ever passed, can lead to cuts in our benefits, namely our Social Security. This amendment requires a 2/3 vote of both chambers of Congress, as well as a certain number of states to approve it before it becomes an amendment. I’m doubtful if it would ever pass, either Congress or the states not meeting the required votes. In my next letter I will bring to light the Trust Act.
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
The animal conservancy doctor pronouncement
Someone shot a Bald Eagle
On its Right wing.
The suspect claims to be protected from any punishment
Due to his official position.
An animal conservancy doctor declared,
“The Eagle will have to walk for the rest of its life”
He added, “The Left wing is useless as well.
It has no power to lift itself.”
Ze’ev Willy Neumann
Saugerties
Graceful aging: a ramble
What, some ask, does the word “graceful” bring to the condition of “aging?” The word has a very old-fashioned ring to it, evoking a world of manners, refinement, the gracefulness of a dancer or athlete. The word belongs to the courts, to the church, to the Europe of kings and popes: “Your Grace,” says the petitioner who kneels to kiss the ring.
And, of course, there is an even loftier sense of the word as an attribute of God, akin to mercy. That grace falls on the human being as a kind of gift beyond our deserving. We say “grace” before a meal in some traditions, after in others. In that acknowledgment, the word draws on its connection to “gratitude,” a connection both etymological and reverential. The word and its cognates speak to a kind of spiritual awareness in which there is gratitude and humility at the same time.
There is no doubt that aging humbles us. The word, in its Latin origins, derives from humus, the earth. To be humbled is to be brought to earth, dust to dust. The word human also derives from the same root. One can, as Dylan Thomas wrote, “Rage against the dying of the light,” or one can find the way to go “gentle into that good night.” Going “gentle” touches the quality of grace to which we are paying attention. Learning to be gentle with ourselves…this is part of the “how” of aging, for how we age is the only place where we have agency, and even there we are beholden to what spares us from a greater anguish.
The older I get, the less I take for granted. What I once took for granted now seems like a gift. Which is not for a moment to dismiss the pain, loss, confusion, sorrow and anxiety of aging, but I ask, as Robert Frost asked in his poem The Oven Bird, “what to make of a diminished thing.” For me and for others, the value of a group that shares the hodge-podge of our diminishment is that we also share our search for the beauty of what remains, the humbling gift.
What is the source of the gift? Well, I certainly can’t take any credit for it. A spontaneous gratitude wells up, and I can feel lucky, to be sure, but the feeling is deeper, a sense of a mystery, and with it comes a gratitude for the fact that there is one more day to love; one more day to be humbled to the earth and humbled by kindness; one more day to be inspired and to inspire one another to celebrate as well as mourn. I for one am grateful for what remains to me, what can still be known, cherished, seen as blessing, felt as grace.
Peter Pitzele
New Paltz
Graceful Aging meets on the first and third Wednesday of every month from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Elting Library in New Paltz. If you are interested in the group, please contact James Frauenberger at jfrauenberger@eltinglibrary.org .
Loving Rivals
They love each other
like blue jays and crows
like picking for worms
near early morning
roadside pools of rain.
They hate each other
like standing in cold rain
barefoot on slippery grass.
Like each other like
their pets like fresh meat
but turn if you get too close.
Love each other sometimes
despite little overlooked
things like unpaid bills,
car accidents, basement
floods, day old pasta left
in dirty containers, like
crucial dishes to the whole
Family Thanksgiving Diner,
or the whole magilla, just
forgotten in the oven while
watching the game. Found
spoiled like mold days later.
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Riley and Ryan Unplugged
The 1970 Clean Air Act gave California the right to set its own standards for car pollution emissions because Los Angeles had been battling smog since World War II, the worst the country. California had already enacted its own laws for car emissions by 1970 so the federal law let the state continue to do so, the toughest in the county. Now we jump ahead to California’s ambitious plan to phase out the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The Biden administration certified this plan. (Already, EVs make up 25% of new car sales in California.) Trump? Take a guess. The House of Representatives just voted to kill the plan. Do they even have the legal right to do so? Not clear, not clear at all. But what is the law to today’s GOP? Here’s what I don’t understand. Representatives Josh Riley and Pat Ryan both voted to support this Republican effort to kill California’s plan. As did 33 other Democrats. At least some of them come from oil and gas regions. But Riley and Ryan? Why? What do they have against EVs? What do they have against California? What do they have against breathing cleaner air?
Will Nixon
Kingston
Loud outdoor amplification in Woodstock: Part 2
Subject again to a very late change to the Woodstock Town Board agenda, as occurred for the April 22 town board meeting, the public hearing on Woodstock’s proposed new noise ordinance will be re-opened on Tuesday, May 13.
This is the second of our letters (please see HV1 published letters archives of April 16).
This new ordinance is not ready.
It claims an unsupported mandate for amplified outdoor concerts from the 2018 comprehensive plan, and it lacks two essential provisions, that will take proper account of our districts and our particular topography.
Five years ago, enormous industrial speakers exploded over our hills, under an emergency situation. Over two years ago, the supervisor called a task force to ”meet at the town offices here, spend a month or so and then present something at a public meeting.”
There is a reason why “a month or so ” is now running two years, with no peaceful end in sight. If you don’t start with sound facts, the outcome will never be sound.
After almost five years of trying to force a square peg (high decibel predatory commercial noise) into a round hole (long-standing laws and values), the outcome has been chaos, distrust, community polarization, disrupted municipal processes, tortured legal formulations, vandalized homes and lives, degraded property values.
Good laws don’t need five years.
Laws, precedents, facts: these matters and have not been given the light they needed.
We all want our venues to have happy outdoor settings, but not at the cost of our hard-worked Woodstock lives.
This Ordinance needs proper revisions.
Please consult our website keepwoodstockpeaceful.org, in particular, the resources section.
Thank you.
Claire Keith
Woodstock
Join the family! 
