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Seize the opportunity
I write to you with heartfelt urgency and deep respect to share a vision for Winston Farm — one that honors our natural heritage and embraces a long-term, holistic path toward sustainability, public health, and community well-being.
Learn from Native-American traditions that emphasize spiritual and ecological balance Recognize the interdependence between people and the Earth. Ground planning decisions in enduring values. Reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Support and incentivize renewable energy, electric and hybrid vehicles, solar infrastructure, wind, hydro, and geothermal energy. Prioritize long-term environmental health over short-term gains. Address the rise of chronic diseases: autoimmune disorders, cardiac and neurological conditions. Integrate health-focused, non-toxic, and nature-based development. Design environments that promote wellness and prevention.
Acknowledge the owners’ patience and vision. Promote long-term, values-driven planning. Attract eco-conscious residents and entrepreneurs. Collaborate with Ulster County Conservancy, DEI and Belonging advocates.
Local Saugerties stakeholders: Promote community education on sustainability’s benefits. Ensure broad and inclusive input. Prevent replication of profit-driven, extractive models. Preserve regional values and local agency. Make Winston Farm a model for ethical land stewardship.
Act now for future generations: Heed the warnings of climate scientists. Seize the opportunity to create lasting change. Build a legacy of responsibility, pride and resilience.
Let’s avoid repeating harmful patterns of the past. Lead with care, collaboration and foresight. Transform Winston Farm into a beacon of sustainability.
Victor McGregor
Saugerties
A Cooperstown dream
Thank you, New Paltz: A Cooperstown dream come true
After eight months of tireless fundraising, late nights, and communitywide support, our 12u New Paltz Knights baseball team made the journey to Cooperstown — an experience that will live in our hearts forever.
With 82 total teams competing this week, our boys played nine games over four unforgettable days. We played against teams from across the country and beyond — including California, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, and even Canada. With grit, heart, and determination, they battled their way to a 4-5 record, finishing in the top eihjt of their bracket.
This week was more than just baseball. It was memories made, friendships strengthened, and dreams realized. None of it would have been possible without the overwhelming generosity of our community. Your support lifted our team and brought this once-in-a-lifetime trip to life.
We offer a heartfelt thank-you to our community and a special shoutout to the generosity of the following local businesses: Fall Fittings, Willingham Engineering, Mohonk Mountain House, Garvan’s, Rino’s Pizza, Runa, Main Course, McGillicuddy’s, P&Gs, Apizza, Dutchess Beer, Mountain Brahaus, Lola’s, Zeus Brewing, and The Bagel Shop.
Thank you for believing in these boys and helping us give them a week they’ll never forget.
Jennifer Lafalce
The 12u New Paltz Knights
Baseball Family, New Paltz
A lot of fluff, not much stuff
As of December 31, 2024 there were about 700 immigration judges in the U.S. in 71 immigration courts in the U.S. These judges, who work for the U.S. attorney general, are the folks responsible for passing judgment on whether an illegal immigrant gets deported or not, fulfilling the U.S. Constitution’s due-process requirement under the law. With the advent of the new administration, the country is down about 100 of these judges, or 14 percent. Fifty-five of these departures were due to judges being dismissed, and most of the rest were due to judges taking the fork-in-the-road offer from the administration.
These judges are required to hear about 700 deportation cases per year (quotas set in 2018), or a total of 490,000 cases per year. With current staffing, and with no apparent plan to replace or increase the number of judges, the immigration courts will hear about 420,000 cases.
As I understand it, the current backlog of cases before these judges is at least two years long. With the approval of the recent federal budget bill, there will be a huge increase in the number of ICE agents in order to increase the number of immigrant pickups. Is there going to be an increase in the number of immigration judges so that these persons (as it says in the Constitution) can receive their constitutional right to due process? How long will the waiting process be? Or will there be a process at all?
I hear some whining down in Washington about it taking too long to process these persons — as it says in the Constitution — to get these folks deported. I know the president can be patient; we’ve seen it over the years, right? Is the Constitution important? There sure are plans to build new detention centers. What about the courts, Jack?
Incidentally, last year each deportation ended up costing about $14,000 each. Are we really considering converting Alcatraz back into a working prison? It sounds real expensive for about three hundred beds. What will our new deportations with all of these new hires cost? In fiscal year 2024, 278,000 immigrants were detained; in this fiscal year, about 45,000 have been detained. Doesn’t that number seem rather small for all of the hoopla? Must be optics — a lot of fluff, not much stuff.
And another incidentality: Each arrest by ICE is a civil matter, not a criminal matter. These immigrants are being sent to these crappy detention centers largely for civil matters.
Did you know that the U.S. crime rate among immigrants is lower than the crime rate among U.S. citizens? Did you know that the government has said that this year 71 percent of immigrants being picked up have no criminal record? That the other 29 percent with convictions include many who had been convicted only of traffic violations? Where are “the worst of the worst”?
Immigrants do the work Americans don’t want to do anymore. Who is going to do the work if they get deported? Did you know that on a national level immigrants actually contribute more to our government revenues than they cost the government?
Seems our government is in a more and more pitiful state. What a mess. Get Up, Stand Up, Speak Up!
Steve Bangert
Clintondale
Invisible
Will anyone figure
I have an ugly, scarred
old Dorian in my attic
while I pass every day:
ever-young, ever-kind,
ever-laughing, ever-young?
Can I conjure a black
cloak around me, hiding
my life-warts from others?
If I cover up my imperfections
like bandages wrapping
the Invisible Man, do I
and my misdeeds disappear?
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Made in America bloodbath
Does every global atrocity eventually become yesterday’s story? And from there do they shamefully creep into our history books? We are responsible for up to 17,000 children who have been slaughtered, bombed and starved to death by the best weaponry that the world has ever seen. Everyone has a role to play. The 2000-pound bombs are made by General Dynamics, and the drones are made by Northrop Grumman. In fact it’s a made-in-America bloodbath. How long can people bear keeping that in their minds?
Life is often hard in this land of the free, with the very rich gobbling up most of our country’s profits. The greedier the billionaires get, the more they plot to rob us of what we still have left: our healthcare, public education and Social Security. We got rid of the thieving Democrats, only to be plagued by the new fascist party led by a madman. It is no wonder so many of us are in the streets.
But our country is also remaking itself, from the defender of liberty to the merchant of genocide. What is worth saving when we are responsible for slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians? We are transforming ourselves into the apocalypse of death, and all the world is witness.
Almost every member of Congress gets piles of money from the Israel Lobby (opensecrets.org). Ask your House and Senate members just how much cash they are paid each year to look the other way. Our venal Congress is obsessed with blood money, and will never end the carnage on its own. That’s where you come in. Demand that Israel and the US end the holocaust of the Palestinian people.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Funny folly frolics
Wait, his delusion was a lie? Who knew that could happen? It is hard to defend the indefensible. Too funny. The folly of the White House.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Who are the boobs now?
We’ve come a long way since March 2023. In an email about the Shady dump to members of the town board, Alex Bolotow wrote, “We are not looking for vague assurances that the owner is expected to clean it up sometime in the spring. I expected to get boobs in the summer after eighth grade, and yet I am still waiting.”
The reference to her boobs was grounds for a disciplinary hearing later that month. According to Bolotow, town supervisor Bill McKenna and councilmember Laura Ricci said her “boobs” comment constituted sexual harassment, and Bolotow was fired as chair of the environmental commission because of that comment.
But last week, when three Woodstock town-board members voted to fire a Level 3 sex offender, McKenna and Ricci refused to support the resolution. The fired town employee had been convicted of “Sexual Abuse 1st: Person Incapable of Consent — Physically Helpless” and “Actual, Promoting/Possessing Sexual Performance by a Child.” He is subject to post-release supervision until December 10, 2034, and one condition of his supervision is “No contact with minors.”
This information was withheld from the town board. The fabricated charges of sexual harassment and firing of Alex Bolotow for a self-deprecating comment about her boobs stands in stark contrast to supervisor McKenna’s and councilmember Ricci’s support of the continued employment by the town of a Level 3 sex offender.
Ken Panza
Woodstock
Keep Saugerties friendly
The Saugerties Chamber of Commerce thanks the artists and sponsors who have enabled us to celebrate “The Dog Days of Summer” with our 2025 street-art e vent —Barkin’ Around Saugerties. The artists spend many, many hours planning and creating these wonderful works of art,
Unfortunately, there have been a few “accidents” which have caused damage to the dogs. We ask our community, “If you see something, say something.” Reach out to info@discoversaugerties.com or the Saugerties police. Let’s keep «Friendly Saugerties» friendly.
Mark Smith
Saugerties
The number if “honks”
If you’ve ever hung out in a women’s locker room, then you know how much some women like to talk. But it’s been a bit challenging in the locker room I frequent since Trump took office six months ago. Whenever I ask someone how she is, or someone asks how I am, we sigh first, our shoulders sag, and then we answer, “I’m fine, but everything else …” And then we go on to lament whatever nightmare scenario the Trump administration has foisted upon the American people that day or that hour.
It’s hard to keep track, isn’t it? Which is the point of an authoritarian regime, to overwhelm us. Even on days when the news is just plain insulting, like the recent Republican proposal to rename the opera house at the Kennedy Center after First Lady “I Really Don’t Care, Do You?” Melania Trump.
So, how do we not get crushed by the weight of all the cruelty and corruption and stupidity? We have to move our conversations out of the locker rooms. We have to push back, not just as individuals, but as a collective by building a broad coalition of people and creating a culture of non-violent resistance.
That’s what the rallies are all about. Not just the big ones, like No Kings. But every single week, good and caring people come together in Accord, Kingston, New Paltz, Red Hook, Saugerties, Shokan and Woodstock (and once a month in Ellenville) to stand with our signs and our voices and our musical instruments. Most of the drivers who pass give us honks and thumbs up. I have a friend who counts the number of “honks” as evidence that the resistance is larger than the handful of neighbors who gather faithfully each week at the end of her rural road. And when we leave our rallies, we feel not quite as burdened, because we know we are part of something bigger than ourselves, and this is what gives us hope. And hope, to paraphrase another activist, is an action.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
Return of the animal
I know something about hunger that doesn’t belong to metaphor.
What was left was not man or law or philosophy, but breath. An animal breathes. The kind that still curls inside my ribs when I wake from dreams where the world burns politely, and everyone’s too polite to scream.
There are mornings now when the silence doesn’t comfort — it watches. Not empty, but alert. Something beneath the headlines, beneath the speeches and their careful teeth. I feel it in my fingertips like a tremor before a storm: the return of the animal. Not newly arrived, but newly remembered.
I walked once through red-rock canyons in Arizona. The air there is different — less forgiving. The earth breathes slowly, and nothing lies. It was a place where I could feel the animal in me without shame. The pulse that keeps you alive when reason fails. The heat behind the eyes when something precious is threatened.
It’s not that I want to be ruled by it. But I’ve come to trust the animal more than the slogans that pretend it doesn’t exist.
The old myths had it right. Half-man, half-beast. Minotaurs in labyrinths. Tricksters in fur. We were never meant to banish the wild. Only to listen to it.
But we haven’t listened. We’ve tranquilized the wildness with screens, anesthetized it with convenience. And the animal waits, wounded, unseen.
“The soul that forgets its hunger begins to feed on illusions.” That’s mine. Write it down.
Because when the animal finally speaks — when it roars through the mouths of those who feel forgotten — don’t act surprised.
I remember watching the Capitol being stormed. A carnival of desperation and rage. Flags and fury and the smell of something ancient breaking open. A man defecated on a politician’s desk. Not out of strategy, out of instinct. Out of animal grief turned hostile.
No, I didn’t cheer. But I recognized it. That act wasn’t political at its core. It was territorial. A reclaiming. A feral demand to be seen.
A soul doesn’t vanish when you cage the body in bureaucracy. It festers. It paces. It learns the language of betrayal and waits for a moment to speak it. So let me say this clearly, before the memory is polished or discarded: “A soul untended will bite the hand that starved it.”
That’s what I saw that day. Not freedom. Not revolution. Not even rebellion. But the moment the animal soul said, Enough.
And if we’re wise, we’ll stop pointing fingers long enough to ask: Where is my wild soul starving? What has my hunger been fed?
Because the danger is not in being an animal, the threat is pretending we aren’t.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Zena Nature Poetry Circle
The Woodstock Land Conservancy poetry group has decided to change from an eventbrite ticketed WLC event into an independent Woodstock resident-curated event. Active WLC Nature Poetry member Will Nixon is co-pilot. So now a Nature Poetry Circle will form- that’s poetry in the round featuring a headliner who reads for 20 to 30 minutes depending. And then each person if they want can share some poetry of their own or a favorite.
We are happy to start with Ed Sanders on Saturday, August 9 at noon (rain date August 10) at the Zena Cornfield. Ed reminded me that this date is Nagasaki Day, which to me is a prompt!
Bring a chair or blanket/mat. No pets.
Please RSVP to stacyzfine@icloud.com. Parking is limited and we need everyone there as close to noon (especially if you are reading and want to get on the mailing list). Thanks to all, most of all to Ed and Miriam! We look forward to being in your company.
Stacy Fine Hager
John Ludwig
Woodstock
Dust off police reform report
In June 2020, then-governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 203, requiring every local government with a police agency to establish a community task force to review the local police force and come up with a plan to “reform and reimagine” the police department. This was not to be done in a vacuum but rather to include feedback, suggestions, concerns and ideas from the community.
We were members of the Saugerties Police Reform and Reinvention Committee (SPRRC) along with eleven other Saugerties residents — a diverse microcosm of our town that included all races, genders, ages and political party affiliations. We met weekly for six months, posted an anonymous English and Spanish police survey for the community online, in the local media and throughout the town, and held three community town halls to ensure a robust discussion and analysis of the Saugerties police department.
After this extensive process, the SPRRC issued a comprehensive report with specific recommendations. The report was divided into seven areas: 1) Data Analysis; 2) Alternative Policing; 3) Community Education & Outreach; 4) Racial Bias; 5) Training & Recruitment; 6) Accountability & Transparency; and 7) Reimaging Funding. Recommendations included a civilian police-community liaison, police cards with name, rank and contact information to be handed out during police encounters; de-escalation, mental-health crisis and implicit-bias training; ongoing town halls with law enforcement; and more. Since forming civilian police review boards can be arduous with legal constraints, training and additional funding, the SPRRC recommended that the town appoint a new committee to explore and implement a review board.
As per the governor’s executive order, all local governments were to adopt a policing reform plan by April 1, 2021. Saugerties’ town board approved the SPRRC final report and recommendations within that time frame, with each board member praising the work of our committee.
What became of the report and recommendations is anyone’s guess. We’re not sure if any local government implemented the plans they approved once Cuomo resigned. Who knows if fully implementing the recommendations would have prevented the latest Saugerties police department scandal? But we are frustrated that despite the long hours and intense work of the Saugerties Police Reform and Reinvention Committee, that report sits on someone’s shelf collecting dust. It’s time to dust it off and implement it.
Gilda Riccardi
Christine Dinsmore
Saugerties
Highway garage needed
Woodstock intends to spend $340,000 to establish a fund for improvements to the town’s highway garage in Bearsville. Highway superintendent [Donald] Allen described replacing the roof as “needed.”
This isn’t some fresh thought. It’s a rerun. In 2012, the entire highway department wrote to the town board urging them to “get serious” about the roof, warning that the $3.5-million facility was at risk of being destroyed by inaction by the town.
In 2013, then-highway superintendent Mike Reynolds publicly stated the roof had been leaking since the building opened — six years earlier.
In 2018, when a resident questioned the town’s ability to build and maintain public facilities — citing this very garage — [town supervisor Bill] McKenna downplayed it, saying, “The highway roof leaks on occasion. So does the firehouse. That happens with big commercial roofs. Compare what they work out of now to the dump they had before.”
Apparently, McKenna never noticed the fungus-like growth spreading around the heater and pipes near the ceiling in one bay — or the other bay, where some odd oatmeal-like substance clung to various supplies. Not to mention the extensive jerry-rigging rigmarole to safeguard electronic equipment.
So now in 2025, after years of delays and hand-waving, the town is ready to “get serious.” A decade late. With more tax dollars. To fix what never should’ve been neglected in the first place.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Time flies away
I wonder if I’m the only one who misses our downtown clock, formerly attached to the bank building.
David Nightingale
New Paltz
Winston Farm DGEIS supporters
Ulster Strong supports the continued application process for the establishment of a Planned Development District (PDD) for the Winston Farm initiative, as well as for the update of zoning created 60 years ago. A PDD provides a cohesive framework for future development of the site and takes into account extensive community feedback. Winston Farm’s owners, local Saugertiesians with excellent reputations, have proactively ensured that what happens at the site best reflects the community’s values and needs.
There are numerous compelling aspects of the initiative, including a commitment to leave half the property as open space — a huge win for environmental conservation and maintaining local character. The initiative also provides badly needed housing that will alleviate the lack of supply that contributes to high housing costs. The project will add hundreds of jobs, offering a range of employment opportunities for locals, both in the short term and long term.
Winston Farm will significantly add to the town and county’s tax revenues, ensuring adequate support for our local schools, emergency services, and infrastructure. As a planned development, Winston Farm will incorporate new amenities based on public input, promising a brighter future for our community.
The recently completed Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) helps shape development responsibly, and successfully addresses key issues, including water, traffic, wetlands, clean air and noise. The Winston Farm project is a unique, locally driven opportunity that will address several local issues and create exciting new possibilities. We strongly support the continued application process.
Tony Marmo
President, Ulster Strong
Kingston
I was blindsided twice
Our town board voted to initially hire an employee in March 2025, then permanently hire him in June, 2025. At the time of those votes, all four town council members, including me, were blindsided, unaware of his criminal past. Many Woodstock residents now know his worrisome criminal sex-offender designation, and are understandably speaking their dissatisfaction and fears having this person regularly in our town.
It would have been better if supervisor Bill McKenna had shared whatever he knew about this person’s criminal record with the town board prior to these votes so we could have investigated and discussed the issues and risks associated with this potential hire. We could have voted to hire or not with “eyes wide open.” I believe we would have declined to hire this individual, saving our townspeople the stress they feel today.
I was blindsided once again when Anula Courtis brought a resolution to our July 2025 town-board meeting, recommending we rescind the March and June resolutions where we hired this employee.
Her reading of the resolution, that I saw for the first time when she handed it to me right before she read it, appeared to be a well-orchestrated grandstand moment, with the room filled with people who agreed with her, cheering, and Bennet Ratcliff quick to second her motion.
I believe transparency in Woodstock government should begin with the leader communicating key details with others on the town board before critical resolutions are finalized. Just as Bill should have shared additional information, Anula should have shared additional information.
The “rescind” approach was a key detail. Had Anula taken the initiative to reach out to me to explain her plan for a “rescind resolution,” I could have asked questions such as “Is this a legal resolution”? The state page on this person’s criminal situation says this information cannot be used to harm this individual, and says this individual must seek, attain and maintain employment. Firing him will harm him. Are we causing ourselves a legal problem? This individual is a union employee and has been doing his job. Does his union status legally protect him from this action? These questions could have been discussed and resolved calmly and quietly in private.
People at our 7/22/25 meeting spoke courageously, passionately and accurately about their concerns with this employee regularly being on town property. I heard and share the concerns of everyone who spoke. I also know we have to follow the law and honor our contracts. I am not a kneejerk-reaction kind of person. This is a complex situation that we are now in. I believe Anula’s “rescind resolution” needs some legal investigation to confirm if it is a viable path forward.
I mentioned to Anula that I was blindsided by her proposed “rescind resolution.” She responded that she believed she didn’t have my support.
Just as I have never been supervisor McKenna’s rubber stamp, I won’t be supervisor Courtis’ rubber stamp either. Supervisor McKenna and I have frequent conversations where we respectfully discuss topics and reach agreement where we can. Where we disagree, we are open about our reasons, discuss further, and then often find a better solution that we both agree with.
This is collaboration. Our expected next supervisor Courtis chose to not reach out one-on-one to try to increase my understanding of her reasons or understand or work to resolve my legal questions. In my opinion, she did not work to understand all aspects of the current situation. She gathered enough town-board votes to do it her way and plowed forward. That is a steamroller. Not collaboration, not caring or resolving valid concerns that may be held by her colleagues, not open to finding a better solution.
I was a vocal supporter of Anula in the June 2025 Democratic primary. Of the three choices for supervisor, I continue to believe she was the best choice.
From both our current and future supervisor, I hope our future is strong on collaboration and avoids steamrolling and blindsides.
As I write this letter, town supervisor McKenna is reaching out as needed to our professional contacts to assess our legal options to move forward.
Laura Ricci
Woodstock
Laborious to read
What is the HV1’s policy about using profanity — specifically, the F bomb preceded by the word mother, which is crass but particularly offensive to women?
I ask because the word was used in a recent article about Joe’s Deli by Rokosz Most. Granted, it was a direct quote from the main source of his article, but most newspapers opt to bleep word with well-placed asterisks or, better yet, the reporter will have the good sense to paraphrase it. There are ways to capture a source’s colorful personality without offending readers.
I also left a comment on the article for your consideration. This article was wordy, overwritten and really laborious to read.
Joseph Feeks
Kingston
A pattern of autocratic rule
Woodstockers United for Change supports the efforts of the three town-board members, Anula Courtis, Bennet Ratcliff and Maria Elena Conte, in standing up for democracy and public safety. For those who are still unaware, the decision to hire a Level 3 sex offender, still on parole, for a town job that allows for interaction with the public, including children, was made unilaterally by supervisor [Bill] McKenna without informing the other board members or the public.
This is a violation of his ethical responsibilities as town supervisor — and deemed an “illegal” action by said board members — and moreover is a part of a pattern of autocratic rule by the supervisor, as we have seen throughout his term. This was exemplified by his self-appointed negligent handling of the sexual and racial harassment allegations in the police department, and specifically of the Sinagra case. It has also been demonstrated by his continued roadblocks to properly clean up the Shady dump, culminating in his most recent actions to block any potential future remediation, allowing for the likely further contamination of our town water supply.
In voting three to zero (with an abstention and a refusal to vote) to reverse the supervisor’s covert decision to employ this young man, the town-board majority effectively rescinded the appointment. However, it has come to our attention that in order to do so, there is a process of paperwork that requires the signature of the supervisor, and the supervisor has thus far refused to accede to the will of the majority and a concerned and vocal public.
This authoritarian behavior by the supervisor must stop. We urge our fellow Woodstockers to demand that the supervisor sign the papers required to rescind the improper and, by virtue of the hiree’s status, potentially endangering hiring decision. And given his continued disregard for both the democratic process and the health and safety of his constituents, we further urge the public to express “no confidence” in the supervisor’s leadership and demand his resignation.
Board members have expressed their frustration that they have regularly been shut out of information and communication vital to our community, so we support the idea that, in light of the untrustworthiness shown by the supervisor and the public’s right to transparency, all members of the board, not just supervisor McKenna, as our elected representatives should be included in all correspondence and official interactions with town committees and departments.
Woodstockers United for Change will continue to share information with our fellow citizens as it comes to us, and offer our support and assistance to a new board leadership and membership in fulfilling the campaign promises made by the de-facto supervisor-elect to protect the health and safety of our townspeople, heal the divisions that have impeded progress, and bring democracy back to our town government.
Alan M. Weber
Woodstockers United for Change
Woodstock
How do you define evil?
How about the destruction of 500 metric tons of high-energy biscuits intended to feed some 1.5 million children in Afghanistan and Pakistan? They were stored in the United Arab Emirates poised for shipment, but with the destruction of USAID (the US Agency for International Development) they were burned instead.
The previous administration spent $800,000 for the food, and the current administration spent $130,000 to destroy it.
Or do you prefer to define evil as putting thousands of people — 56,000, to be exact — in cages where they suffer from heat, mosquitoes, little to no food or medical treatment, and no hope for release?
All funded by U.S. tax dollars.
Vote.
Doris Chorny
Wallkill
Outsider humor
Sometimes I feel that daffodils are laughing at me.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Building a strong New Paltz
I want to thank the Ulster County Republican Committee for offering me the opportunity to run as a
Democrat on their ballot line for the Nov general election. To nominate me, a Democrat, as their
candidate for town supervisor is a shining example of how our local political scene can be so different
from the turmoil and dissension and extreme partisanship on display in D.C.
I’ve always said New Paltz is better than that. Here we care about our community and taking care of our New Paltz needs more than adhering to hard party politics of Washington. In New Paltz we strive to work for all residents of our town regardless of party. Together we can get things done!
Why am I choosing to take this path on the GOP ballot line? The next three years promise to be notable:
balancing the demand for housing, affordable housing, with the necessary infrastructure and employment base required to support it is critical; avoiding the unintended pitfalls of urbanization and gentrification in the process is equally critical; identifying meaningful efficiencies in government operations that do not unfairly or unequally impact any segment of our residents is an important goal; managing budgets as the fallout from cuts in federal funding becomes evident will no doubt be challenging; and striving to address current climate-related issues and planning for what may be a very different climate reality, one that impacts the economics for families, for the average farmer, for businesses.
None of this is going to be easy. But I guarantee you none of this will happen at all, much less successfully, unless you have a supervisor who is a doer, not a talker; who plans for and delivers actual fact-supported results, not vague suggestions of “promise less and deliver more,” and who recognizes and addresses the harsh reality of needed capital costs for maintenance and operations, rather than clinging to the hubris and inherent manipulation of “no increase in taxes.”
I am grateful to be given the opportunity to earn the vote of every resident of our community. To have a New Paltz that’s based on measured growth and sound economic development policy, a New Paltz where infrastructure is not only necessary but mandatory, where we are not building for additional revenue while the back of the house goes unattended. I will need your help. I would be honored with your vote and those of your friends and families in November, to help us build a strong New Paltz for oldtimers and newcomers alike.
Amanda Gotto
New Paltz
Governor Hochul, climate laggard
Once upon a time — wait, was it only 2019? — New York State passed what was proclaimed as the most ambitious climate law in the nation. Alas, passing a law isn’t the same as actually doing something. The Hochul administration has slow-walked implementation to the point of abandoning the ambitions of this law as unrealistic idealism. (Try telling that to China, which is doing for clean tech what we’re doing for AI. My goodness, if we don’t raise those tariffs, we could be driving EVs that recharge in five minutes.)
Enter Earthjustice, an environmental powerhouse from San Francisco, to file a lawsuit in the county courthouse in Kingston. They argue that the 2019 law wasn’t a wish list. To ignore it, to dismiss it, is to violate the law. Even the governor must abide.
You’ll recall how governor Hochul dithered and dawdled over implementing the congestion pricing program for lower Manhattan, which has proven to be a solid success, at least if you breathe and drive downtown. (Pat Ryan opposed this project.)
The heart of the 2019 law was to be a cap-and-invest carbon tax to support a green energy fund. The rules for this system were due in 2024. More dithering and dawdling? Or outright dumping? The latest state energy plan mentions this system “in passing,” according to New York Focus, as “an option the state should continue to evaluate.”
Another blow: the 2019 vision relied heavily on California’s plan to require all new cars to be EVs by 2035. Until now, California has had the right to set its own emissions rules to address the smog capital that is Los Angeles. New York has the option of adopting California’s standards. But Trump recently killed this plan, the first president ever to block California’s progress. (Pat Ryan voted with Republicans to kill this California EV plan.)
We know the Trump view of global warming: Bring It On! But governor Hochul? The best she can do is to propose a new nuclear power plant for upstate New York? (Thank goodness she persuaded global warming to pause for the next ten years.) Why not try what we already have? The 2019 law.
Where is the boldness in our political leadership? I fear that it has packed its bags and moved to China.
Will Nixon
Kingston
Dems dig their own grave
How is the ongoing and beaten-to-death mantra of “we hate the fascist dictator Trump” serving the Democrats in any positive fashion? Is it working for you yet, Dems?
If you don’t think Trump or the Republicans are serving you well, then what’s your clear and intelligent alternative message and game plan to show all voters that you understand and care about their everyday concerns and how you can help them succeed in a new and different direction? The answer of pushing AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Zohran Mamdani, and others with unrealistic platforms down everyone’s throat as your “new leaders” is political suicide — unless, of course, you think all Americans are in favor of communism and socialism.
Another issue the “proud” Democrats are on the wrong side of is deportation, most specifically regarding dangerous illegal criminals. In California, [L.A.] mayor Karen Bass and governor Gavin Newsom are making hideous statements that should incense the majority of their constituents. They are going out of their way to protect even criminals. Bass is now providing cash to illegals, yet can’t find the time of day or compassion for legal Californians in need of financial help and programs: the homeless, the drug-addicted, the mentally ill, the poverty-stricken, etc. Why bother with them, as we get no photo ops or press coverage for these most needy of our own? Our focus and protection regarding deportation and illegal criminals keep us constantly on news casts and front pages, which satisfies our attention-grabbing narcissistic desires.
This California rot is metastasizing to other blue dominions in our country. As a recent example, take Democratic progressive congressman Enrique Sanchez of Rhode Island, who recently got his 15 minutes of fame in the news by whaling and crying about ICE. He referred to them as “Nazi Gestapo thugs” who arrested “a neighbor,” with the obvious insinuation that this victim was an honest and innocent hardworking resident. Sanchez totally forgot to mention that this poor victim was a previously deported MS-13 gang member facing trafficking charges. This kind of misrepresentation is rampant among Democrats. Did we already forget Kilmar Abrego Gracia, another innocent hardworking Maryland father as Dems insisted? Let’s ignore the reality that Garcia, also an MS-13 gang member by his own admission, was involved in human trafficking and a wife beating as evidenced by her need to secure an order of protection.
Until enough Democrats start seeing the light and move on from Trump-bashing while finding a message and real leader, I guess we’ll have to keep watching them hang themselves with ineffective and absurd rhetoric.
John N. Butz
Modena
Magical vs. wishful thinking
I have attended the town board meetings in regards to Winston Farm and have spoken. I have studied and attempted to understand the first DGEIS and the subsequent one. At the last two meetings this is what I observed.
The arguments for re-zoning fall along these lines:
The three owners are local business persons that are “good guys.”
This is the best deal for the town because they are “good guys.”
Compared to other attempts to develop WF, this is great.
This is our last chance to have something good happen with the property.
The re-zoning will bring in developers that the three good guys will only sell to other “good guys.”
The new developers will only bring in the kinds of development we will all like.
The new development will create jobs for our young people that will keep them here.
The issues with the aquifer, traffic, environmental impacts, character change, quality of life, property devaluation, destruction of habitat, pollution of Beaver Kill, and so forth can be dealt with on a case-by-case assessment after there is a developer and a plan (what could go wrong with that?). We’re sympathetic to the concerns of the opposition, but we want to bypass all that regulation stuff for now so we can get on with it.
We can’t delay any longer because we are so tired of this process.
Whereas opposition to re-zoning has actually studied the DGEIS (Draft Generic Environmental Statement), has found inadequacies, issues of grave consequence, has presented substantive information and have asked for more time to study the proposal.
And finally, the last group spoke wistfully about the kind of development they would like to see.
I would characterize the thinking of the first group as magical thinking, the opposition: reality–based (albeit so boring), and the latter group as wishful thinking.
It is the job of the town-board members to say no to this obvious end run by the owners to circumvent the process. It’s their job to stay the course set by the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review). I would go so far as to say the town board should be bringing the sides together. At the last meetings, the stance in favor of re-zoning by the town board was unmistakable. Aren’t they supposed to be unbiased?
At the last two meetings, there was more opposition than those for the re-zoning, yet the board has limited input to July 28th. Opposition asked for more time and was ignored. And understandably, who wants to sit through another meeting where the decision to re-zone has already been made, where there is no format for Q&A, where the three “good guys” are shielded from questions by their attorney? Where success is measured by civility not by actual substantive discussion?
Could the town board delay this decision? Could there be a meeting that is mediated, where more individuals in the town have an unbiased report of long-term outcomes of the proposed re-zoning, real information, not the glossy pamphlet sent out by the Winston Farm owners? Many of us could not attend the informational meeting at the Orpheum as there was not room. If such a meeting were undertaken, the outcome might be more satisfying for all. Good process leads to more consensus. The town deserves much more conversation and understanding before a decision is made.
Michelle Trosclair
Saugerties
Paying the piper
Hi. Feel free to give me a call to discuss the various projects we have been pursuing over the last few years to address replacing decades-old (in many cases 100-plus years) drinking water and sewer conveyance infrastructure (a.k.a. pipes). Very old pipes were 100 percent cast iron, which are prone to rust, tuberculated blockages, and breaks. There was a period decades ago where cast-iron pipes with cement linings were used. Now, we use harder ductile iron with cement linings.
New Paltz faces significant differences and challenges versus larger communities with municipal water. In cities when work like this is being done, they can more easily reroute around work areas after fencing in the open holes. Our project on Route 32/ N. Chestnut Street has fewer options, which adds to our expense and the project’s timeline. Our collection of streets with dead ends and one-ways does not offer easy rerouting alternatives.
The current project runs from Southside to Sunset Ridge via S. and N. Chestnut Streets. Contractors bid on these jobs and TAM from Goshen was awarded this 1.3-mile project of eight-inch-diameter main that will cost $3.88 million including construction, engineering, and inspections. They are not paid by the hour, so the company is motivated to get this work done ASAP. But having replaced sewer mains on N. Chestnut a few years ago, when lots of rock was hit, we know how unexpected hiccups and delays can happen.
Condition of the trench crossings and blacktop over the new laterals is a function of being in the middle of the work. The road gets a final milling and application once the project is done — hopefully before 2025 ends.
I do not have a date for a giant project like this because I usually end up being wrong. I understand the frustration and apologize for the hassle. Again, feel free to call if you want to chat further.
Tim Rogers
Mayor, Village of New Paltz
What if the farm hosted farming?
Ten years ago I fell in love with the wonderful town of Saugerties and bought a house in the village. Over the past decade, the community’s welcoming warmth, depth of history and — especially — abundant natural beauty has sustained me and my neighbors. It’s a wonderful place to call home.
It’s also clear that we need new, robust job opportunities and additional affordable housing to accommodate current and new residents so they can continue to call it home. I applaud the effort of the three widely respected and longtime Saugerties residents who purchased Winston Farm, to do just that.
That said, it’s concerning that the town board is willing to compromise independently established environmental standards (which would protect everyone who lives here now and in the many years to come) in the process. Winston Farm is huge; as large as Manhattan’s Central Park. If the requirement to leave 73.5 percent of the property undeveloped were adhered to, the remaining acreage would be ample for a boutique hotel and housing. In fact, it could offer a unique opportunity for us all.
Here is a suggestion how: What if a portion of Winston Farm remained as a farm? What if a hybrid for-profit/non-profit,’ public/private partnership were created to support an organic farm? Hudson Valley has been central in the renewed agricultural movement for sustainable farming practices, restoring traditional methods bolstered by current innovations.
The resurgence of organic farms and farming collectives has propelled the farm-to-table cuisine and restaurant movement in which the Hudson Valley has been a leader. What if this non-profit farm also had a teaching function, with outreach programs to local schools? Joined forces with Boces, providing opportunities for agricultural education? Provided curricular and after-school opportunities for elementary, middle and high-school students, supplying food for their lunch programs?
Janet Grillo
Saugerties
Celebrate conservation
Today, when I am writing this letter, is World Conservation Day, and I hope that the Saugerties town board will be saying no to the proposed Planned Development District rezoning for Winston Farm, which would open up this beautiful 800 acres to undefined development and perhaps only the retaining half open space instead of the 73 percent currently called for.
Yet still I call upon the three developers and the town board to reverse course and to
preserve this perfect microcosm of habitats, from forest to meadows to wetlands, in its entirety for our planet, for our village, and for the children of the future.
Global change and warming is happening faster and faster. We desperately need to protect all the open space we can. Why do we want to urbanize our precious village, with increased traffic and developmental sprawl into our beautiful, leafy surroundings. Think of the children of the future. They could have a beautiful 800-acre nature preserve to explore, with meandering trails through all the different habitats with their varieties of wildlife.
Instead we are contemplating unneeded and destructive development. On this World Conservation Day I call upon everyone to become conservators of our ever more precious environment.
Arabella Colton
Saugerties
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