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It’s a tangled web
After reading Melanie’s op-ed, it’s sad that she didn’t see what the real issue was with this hiring procedure. By hiding Innello’s background info from the town board, the supervisor made things worse for this guy. Bill McKenna could have been honest and in the spirit of Woodstock and giving someone a chance to work, Maybe the board could have found a place that would be separate from contact with townspeople (mostly women and children).
Instead, Bill took it upon himself to make that decision, which was dishonest and illegal. That’s what this whole thing is about. McKenna always thinking he knows more than the rest of the board — or anyone else, for that matter. It gets him into trouble every time. It’s a shame some members of the town don’t see the real problem here. “It’s a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.”
Linda Lover
Woodstock
Goose-stepping in America
Might not the president’s taking over the DC police force and deploying the military be a first trial step in his taking over the federal government? Trump has painted a dystopian picture of Washington as he announced that he would temporarily place the Capital’s police under federal control, as well as mobilize hundreds of National Guard troops in the city. Mask up, boys, we ride at dawn! In portraying crime as out of control, will they start in the White House or the Republican side of the Capitol building?
Deploying military in response to what? Homeless people? And must homeless people move out? From what home? Affordable housing, accessible shelters, increased social and mental illness need investment, adequate veteran support should be a priority! Removing homeless people from DC is not a sustainable solution. They will still be homeless. He could not call out the National Guard on January 6, but now does it for the homeless problem. Crime is down in all categories in DC. Trump claims that the city is overrun by “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth.” A king needs to have a king’s army to protect his king’s palace. Isn’t this the same guy that sat back and watched an insurrection on the Capitol? No doubt! Next up, flying monkeys.
Urban policing involves a very particular skill set, which in turn requires considerable training and supervised experience. Most FBI agents and National Guard troops lack that skill set. It is irresponsible to turn such rank amateurs loose on city streets except under very close supervision of police officers.
How can such an egotistical monster have ever been elected by even a single person? He loves bragging about stopping wars all over the world, and yet he’ll start one against the citizenry at home. He’s going to cause civil unrest so he can initiate martial law.
When everything is in an emergency, there is no emergency. Distraction, deflection. Smoke. Mirrors. “Put criminals in jail.” Does this mean he will put himself in a jailhouse? Can we deploy the National Guard to help find the Epstein files?
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
We have left our bodies
That is the beginning — and the trouble.
We now live in the spaces between digits,float on electrons that leap through wires, and call it a connection. But something has gone missing in the translation. No eyes to meet. No hands to gesture. No breath to pause with. Only words, untethered, flickering like ghosts on a screen.
This work is a return, not to nostalgia, but to presence. Not to facts, but to form.
It’s for anyone who feels the ache of absence but still dares to ask something real into this echoing room we now call conversation. We are not merely asking questions, we are summoning constellations.
Each idea you offer is not just a sentence; it is a flare sent up from the dark sea of the self, a signal fire burning in the syntax of longing. In this disembodied world, your words must wear your presence like a second skin. A question becomes a spell. A sketch. A kind of soul-print made of light and risk.
Imagine standing at the edge of a forest where no map will help you. The path forward isn’t memorized, it’s made. And the only way to move is to listen to the rustle of your own leaves, the whisper of the wind between what you know and what you ache to remember.
To ask is to remember forward.
Like a potter beginning with shapeless clay, we reach into the muck of memory and curiosity, and build a vessel not just to hold an answer, but to contain the very act of wonder. Each metaphor is a mast. Each simile is a whisper from the unknown. Each allegory is a tide beneath the words pulling you somewhere older than language, but still yours.
So begin here, not with certainty but with scent. The scent of something burning faintly on the horizon. Begin with the wild permission to ask, not just what but who is asking, and why now?
Because asking is not a prelude to learning. Asking is the learning. And what follows is not abstraction. This is the laid-out work: a terrain of thought, a blueprint of imagination, a language woven from the body, the psyche, and the sacred.
Each section to come is a working map — not just a way to understand, But a way to begin.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Traffic-circle training
Local drivers could use some traffic-circle training. Please write an article on how to properly navigate our two traffic circles. This would be great.
Ryan Van Kleeck
Town of Ulster
Dealing with refugees
Tom McGee simplifies the challenge of refugees at our borders to a number- the lower the better. But he ignores our humanitarian responsibilities and treaty obligations. If a hungry and shivering waif knocked on your door one dark winter night, would it be morally defensible to refuse any help? How about a starving dog taking refuge on your porch?
There is a long history of widespread human suffering in Central America, much of it caused by U.S. corporate interests. During the Biden years, the flow of refugees to our southern border was constant. The Biden administration rose to the challenge but the number of people requesting asylum was overwhelming. A bipartisan bill was finally crafted in January 2024 to deal with the influx, but Trump, more interested in his own fate than solving the problem, told his party to vote it down. In June of last year, Biden set caps on daily and weekly asylum requests and the numbers of asylum applications was brought under control.
Biden could have slammed the door shut from the beginning, as Trump has done. That’s quick and easy, like locking out the waif or the starving dog, but for most of us, buttressed by international treaties, our humanity demands we do something to help.
Matt Frisch
Arkville
Thoughts on hash and karma
In the latest email HV1 offering, writer Marion Frances Platt refers to karma and various other similar catch phrases in an article about a painful sequence of events in Gabriela O’Shea’s life. Ms. Platt clearly knows nothing of substance about the principles of karma to make such ridiculous statements.
I will not go into any attempt to enlighten her on the topic. There is plenty of information easily at hand if she is interested in being well-informed before throwing out such hash.
Jac Conaway
Olivebridge
Detailed dental care
You should brush your teeth for one and a half minutes or three and a half minutes minutes, but never for an exact number of minutes.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Saugerties contributors
I am thrilled to share with you the remarkable success of this year’s Saugerties Artists’ Studio Tour, held on August 9-10. As we reflect on this event, I wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude and acknowledge the incredible contributions that made this year’s tour an unforgettable celebration of art and the Saugerties artist community.
Throughout the weekend art enthusiasts embarked on a journey to meet the artists behind their creations. Our town, Saugerties, was brimming with a sense of artistic camaraderie that can only be fostered by an event as engaging as this. On behalf of myself and all the participating artists, I extend our sincerest thanks to the entities and individuals who stood by us and ensured the tour’s success:
The Kiwanis Club of Saugerties, whose unwavering support showcased their dedication to the arts and community growth. Arts Mid-Hudson for their administering of grants and award to the tour to help us fulfill our goal. 98.1 KZE Radio, for amplifying our message and bringing attention to this cultural event. Marge Block and the Saugerties Historical Society, whose collaboration added a rich opportunity to show our creative expressions at their best. Saugerties Tourism, Saugerties Arts Commission and the Saugerties Chamber of Commerce, who played a role in connecting us with the wider community.
Our tour map sponsors, who not only financially supported us but also through their support enabled visitors to navigate throughout the town finding artistic treasures. The generous Saugerties village businesses that provided us with valuable window spaces to display our work, turning the village into an art gallery.
Most importantly, we extend our gratitude to our families, friends and supporters, whose tireless efforts behind the scenes shaped the tour’ success.
The Saugerties Artists’ Studio Tour is more than an event; it’s a testament to the power of creativity and community collaboration. It’s a celebration that bridges gaps, sparks conversations, and enriches lives. Thank you for being a part of this journey and for helping us realize our artistic dreams.
Barbara Bravo
Saugerties
Once again
Supervisor Bill McKenna tried to pull the wool over our eyes. In the July 30 issue of Hudson Valley One, he claimed that in 2014, the Woodstock town board embraced fair-chance legislation — also known as the “ban-the-box” movement — by removing questions about criminal records or time spent in prison from job applications. That statement, while technically true, was misleading.
What he failed to mention is the key detail: under fair-chance policies, employers are prohibited from asking about criminal history only during the initial application and interview stages. Once a conditional offer of employment is made, employers are absolutely allowed to inquire about an applicant’s arrest and conviction record.
By omitting this, the supervisor gave the impression that the town was somehow barred from vetting a candidate’s criminal background. That’s simply not the case. The legislation was designed to ensure fairness, not to excuse negligence.
Woodstock deserves better than selective transparency. We deserve the whole truth.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Misguided views
I don’t think that very many people are as concerned as Fred Nagel is about his overly complicated and “confused” interpretation of the word “antisemitism.” I think nearly everyone knows the intent and meaning behind the term antisemitism, especially as it’s been used in the past few years when it comes to the attacks, both verbal and physical, on the Jewish community. It clearly refers to the abuse, mistreatment, and harassment of Jewish people, most recently the heinous nonsense that’s been going on for the past couple years on college campuses.
And the worst campuses are quite disappointedly supposed to be the most elite. Most of them have been very slow to acknowledge and deal with the injustices being exhibited right under their own noses. This is why Trump had to step in and play hardball with their wallets to get their attention and have them begin to make sure their Jewish students, and all those supporting their fellow Jewish students, were not being abused any longer. It doesn’t matter if we call this unacceptable behavior antisemitism, anti-Jewish, or any other term. The bottom line is that it’s discriminatory, insensitive, and potentially physically dangerous.
In making sure there’s no antisemitism or discrimination against any other ethnicities doesn’t suddenly translate into “government-controlled universities” as David Rosenberger wrongly asserts.
Most bizarre and inexplicable is Fred Nagel’s conclusion that “antisemitism is the favorite tool of the ultra right.” Arresting students, firing professors, and “shaking down institutions” are done to those who carry out their anti-Jewish rhetoric and actions. It’s the right thing to do and is hardly referred to as a “tool.” The only “tools” are the ones carrying out this antisemitic hatred. I don’t think anyone sees a connection between antisemitism and the starving of two million Palestinian children, as Fred would want us to believe.
It seems very odd and confusing that Fred Nagel and David Rosenberger don’t seem to want to stand up against their own people’s discriminatory abuse, but instead are defending the people and institutions who carry out this discriminatory abuse.
John N. Butz
Modena
The mind’s eye
Tell me, please,
how can I see
the mind’s eye?
Is it something
organic like an organ
that we can x-ray,
remove, weigh?
I imagine
the mind’s eye
must be massive
but invisible. No one
has shown it to me
before. What a marvel
it must be: conjuring up
images, pictures real
and imagined, all day,
every day, and never
tiring of the job.
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
I’m for active resistance
I’m going to say something that will sound heretical for a retired school librarian who spent 18 years of her life trying to convince children to read. If you have been doing nothing but reading (or fretting or complaining) about the rapid-fire destruction of everything you value by Trump and his enablers, it’s not enough. While I still believe that an informed citizenry is the bedrock of a democracy, we are at an inflection point in our history where activism must take precedence. In other words, it’s time to stop doom-scrolling and start getting active in the resistance movement.
According to political scientists who study successful pushback against authoritarian regimes, it takes 3.5 percent of the population to consistently engage in collective acts of non-violent resistance. This means eleven million Americans need to show up and stand up. We’re not there yet. And even if we do get there, is this a guarantee that we’ll be able to stop the evil? I’m afraid not. There is no guarantee.
But here’s what I think about all the time: what if everyone who’d ever fought against injustice had given up because there was no guarantee of winning? No freedom from Great Britain. No abolition of slavery. No voting rights for women. No liberation of Europe and the death camps. No voting and civil-rights acts of the 1960s. No legally recognized same-sex marriages. The list goes on and on of all we would not have today if it weren’t for the courage of people who fought against the odds.
Active resistance to the corruption and cruelty of the Trump administration is the only hope we have, and I refuse to give up hope. Giving up is what authoritarian regimes count on. It makes their work so much easier. Let’s not make their work easier. Let’s make it hard as hell. And let’s be remembered as another generation of people in American history who refused to give up on our democratic values, even when there were no guarantees.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
Justifiable grounds
A probationary period allows an employer to assess a new employee’s performance and suitability in a job. The decision by Woodstock/s town board to recommend firing Michael Innello, a convicted Level-3 sex offender, seems well-founded and justified. The findings obtained during his probationary period allowed the town board to make an informed decision about the suitability of the Innello’s continued employment.
Because of the limitations imposed by the employee’s status as a Level-3 sex offender, he is unable to fulfill the requirements of the position. His special conditions of supervision include “no contact with minors,” but the ordinary operation of the maintenance department includes contact with minors. Innello’s inability to perform all the duties of the position is grounds for termination.
The town is unable to properly supervise a Level-3 sex offender. The police chief, department heads, town board, and those responsible for youth activities were not informed nor instructed about the sex offender. In the event of a recurring incident, the lack of responsible leadership exposed the town to serious legal liability, and for the offender the possibility of reincarceration. It was prudent for the town board to avoid liability and dismiss the employee.
Pool maintenance, an ordinary and necessary function of the maintenance department, was completed by Innello while the summer camp staff, mostly minors under the age of 18, was present. This was a serious violation of Innello’s conditions of supervision and a liability for the town. Those responsible for the summer camp were unaware of Innello’s status as a Level-3 sex offender.
Innello was no ordinary hire. To fill an open position, the town would advertise the opening and then interview the applicants. Not so in this case. Instead, it appears Innello was hired because of his long-term relationship with the supervisor’s confidential secretary, which she wrote about in Hudson Valley One.
The purpose of the probationary period is to assesses a new employee’s suitability in a job. Although the town board was unaware of the employee’s status as a level-3 sex offender and his long-term relationship with the supervisor’s secretary when hired, this information became available during his probationary period. The probationary period worked as intended, and the town board has justifiable grounds to terminate Innello’s employment.
Ken Panza
Woodstock
Undocumented immigrants
As an immigration attorney with over 45 years of experience, I must respond to the letter of John Butz who has the idea that becoming legal in the U.S. is simple and inexpensive. The reality is that most immigrants want to become lawful residents and citizens, but the process may be impossible. Where it is possible, it is costly and can take years.
In 1986, Congress passed an amnesty law that allowed many to legalize their status, but since 2001 legal pathways have become extremely limited. Today, few options exist for most immigrants, including families and workers, to obtain lawful residence.
Recent proposals in Congress, like the Dignity Act of 2025 and the American Dream and Promise Act of 2025, would offer some relief, but many are still left without hope for legal status. In addition, parents of adult U.S. citizens who entered unlawfully cannot apply for residence in the U.S. Those under the DACA (Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals) program since 2012 who arrived as children keep getting employment authorization renewals and have no way of getting their residence.
We now have a population of parents, grandparents and workers who may have been here for 20 or 30 years, pay their taxes, have no criminal records, and have no reasonable way to get their lawful residence and eventually become U.S. citizens. They are an important part of our community.
Carol Wolfenson
New Paltz
Light on the grammar, spelling
LightHouse Trail
Gallery in the Woods
“Eye Candy” Instal
Saturday 8/16 threw Sunday 8/31
Come and take a walk in the winding trail
of Beautiful Saugerties LightHouse
I’ll have some desert for yous.
Ze’ev Willy Neumann
Saugerties
Upgrade fatigue
About 15 years ago, when David Pogue was the tech editor at The New York Times, I wrote to ask if there would ever be an “off-ramp” where we could park ourselves while the virtual world sped on. I was feeling what I called “upgrade fatigue.” No off-ramp, he replied, and you will be lucky if your current computer will have the muscle for what is coming. That was four computers and three iPhones ago.
This “fatigue” comes from the necessity to manage my everyday life: to keep track of passwords, to be ever available for the messages from the doctor, the texts back and forth from a friend trying to settle on a date to meet, the unidentified callers who must not be answered, the increasing number of alerts for hacks, spam and frauds that fill the mailbox, and the security demands that require more forms of verification, password, fingerprint, or face recognition to protect me from identity theft.
Moreover, upgrade fatigue is compounded with downgrade frustration. Think of the time we spend and the cost to our nerves in navigating phone trees, in the long on-hold of our calls where the robo-voice assures us that “your call is very important to us.”
Websites can turn into culs de sac. The dehumanization of the “service culture” is a common complaint, but for those of us who are already exhausted by the switch-back learning curves that each new app or program demands, technology feels like a torment far more than a convenience. I am not alone in having a paradoxical sense of the disembodied process of my daily life when, at the same time, I am ever more in touch with my body in its aging.
Where to go for support? Well, I have found it in my public library. It is no small thing to be able to make an appointment with an expert and at no cost get some help. To interact with a person in real time feels astonishingly like a blessing where once it was a way of life.
Peter Pitzele
New Paltz
Innello should move on
I was surprised to learn that town supervisor Bill McKenna rehired Michael Innello. I thought the people spoke and it was over. In Melanie Marino’s August-six POV, she indicates the legal system did Innello wrong. I work in mental health and addiction. If I had a dollar for every person who told me they were done wrong, I could retire in a castle.
Why did Innello not appeal? I’ve seen successful appeals. I believe people do deserve a chance once their time is done. But when it comes to sex offenses, especially Levels two and three, some hirings should reserve caution.
Marino also asked the question, “Have you ever done anything you were ashamed of?” No. I’ve done stupid stuff such as public intoxication, graffiti, stealing the no-smoking sign on the top of the Chicago Tower just so I can use it as an ashtray, but sex offender was not on my stupid list.
I’ve trusted and voted for Bill since he ran for town board. What I cannot understand is why he is so adamant about keeping Innello? I also thought nepotism is wrong in the workplace. I know my workplace policy does not tolerate it. Maybe Bill wants to give this person a chance? So why not be transparent about it to the board? Did he think this would not come out?
Hiring a felon-versus-hiring a felon in addition to a sex offender are different. And, the Ulster Publishing title, “Love and compassion versus heedlessness and hate” is off the mark. It’s not about hate, but about transparency and trust. People rightfully become angry and afraid, because their fear stems from PTSD due to sexual assault, domestic violence and pedophilia. Where is the love for them? If Innello were really a man, he would quit, ask for a job reference, and move on.
Lisa Childers
Woodstock
New Paltz deserves better
Let’s be clear. I have been, am now, and always will be a Democrat. The decision to accept the Republican ballot line is not a betrayal of my Democratic values. My record speaks for itself: expanding senior tax relief, securing solar grants, protecting reproductive rights, and delivering transparent budgeting that earned New Paltz the state’s highest fiscal score.
This campaign is about competence, not culture wars. I am the only candidate in this race who has actually run town government. I am the only one who’s balanced the budget, managed municipal and emergency services, and delivered results for all of New Paltz, the town and the village. These aren’t partisan talking points, these are results — results that show I work for all residents of New Paltz every day regardless of party affiliation.
Neil Bettez attempts to nationalize a local race, painting my acceptance of a cross-party nomination as complicity in extremism. That’s not just unfair, it’s flat-out false. I did not seek out Republican support and certainly not MAGA support. I did not give up my Democratic Party registration or my Democratic values. I made no concessions whatsoever.
I did agonize over such a move, investigating whether there were other options to stay in the race, but found there were none. With that realization I did accept a nomination graciously offered from a small local caucus that included lifelong moderate Republicans, some of whom have supported Democrats for decades. I take it as a sign that local Republicans respect my record as an effective, ethical and experienced supervisor. They recognize my focus is not on facile slogans, but on delivering services and assuring the overall quality of life in our town. They, and I, want to give New Paltz a choice.
If we want to talk about values, let’s talk about equity, transparency, truthfulness and community care. These are the values of folks who live in New Paltz, whether they be Democrat, Republican, Green Party, Working Families, or choose no party at all. We are community.
I live those values, not just in speeches, but in policy and action. New Paltz deserves a supervisor who knows the job, respects the community, and refuses to let national toxicity infect and define our local choices.
Amanda Gotto
New Paltz
The whole Republican agenda
I want to express my wholehearted support for Neil Bettez’s letter in HV1 of August 13 and particularly his challenge of Amanda Gotto’s decision to run for town supervisor on a Republican ticket after having been defeated in the Democratic primary.
The letter is impressively written and goes to the heart of the issue. Such a decision in the current political climate, when democracy itself is unthinkably imperiled by the actions of the Republican establishment and its blinded followers, not only serves Amanda’s personal ambitions but serves to legitimize Republican re-entry into town civic life and to affirm the whole Republican agenda. Amanda.s claim to be a healer is specious. In fact, her decision exacerbates the conflict. The election is supposed to be about qualifications for managing the town, qualifications that in ten years of service Tim has visibly demonstrated, and that Amanda has not been able to challenge. But she has inserted into the contest the issue of the whole Republican program, giving reason to every Democrat to go to the polls to elect Tim and to express our disapproval of everything the present Republican Party stands for.
Lawrence Badendyck
New Paltz
Song to Donald Trump
We are searchlights, we can see in the dark
We are rockets, pointed up at the stars
We are billions of beautiful hearts
And you sold us down the river too far
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy-ever-afters?
What about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?
We are problems that need to be solved
We are children that need to be loved
We were willing, we came when you called
But man, you fooled us, enough is enough, oh
What about us?
What all the time you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy-ever-afters?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended as disasters?
Oh, what about love? What about trust?
What about us?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disasters?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?
Sticks and stone they may break these bones
But then I’ll be ready, are you ready?
It’s the start of us, waking up, come on
Are you ready? I’ll be ready
Cause now it’s time to let them know
We are ready
What about…
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
So what about us?
What about all the broken happy-ever-after?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
Oh, what about love? What about trust?
What about us?
Steve Bangert
Clintondale
Two Democrats running
Surprise! For most of the years he was supervisor, I disagreed with Neil Bettez. I still disagree.
Neil paints Democratic supervisor Amanda Gotto as complicit with MAGA. If he had joined me and Amanda in GOTV canvassing, post-card writing and petitioning for Democrats Dave Clegg, Jen Metzger, Sarahana Shrestha, Michelle Hinchey, Manny Nneji, Pat Ryan and yes, even for Neil, he would know that Amanda is one of the most loyal, hardest-working Democrats in town. She is also one of the hardest-working Democratic supervisors in New Paltz. She is doing an excellent job of cleaning up the chaos Neil left behind when he gave me and my colleagues on the town board one month’s notice before walking away.
Here are a few examples:
The town planning board attorney wrote an excellent brief dismissing the Trans Hudson (CVS) lawsuit against the planning board. Neil secretly blocked filing it. Our planning board had to review a plan under the threat of a lawsuit. This gift to the developers did not result in a better plan, as we can plainly see every time we drive past the “For Sale or Lease” sign on N. Putt today.
Neil blocked the environmental conservation board’s years-long effort to create Critical Environmental Areas, which, according to all the evidence presented, would have streamlined the approval process for developers.
Oy! Unfinished grants. Neil wanted to spend $1,500,000 to dig under the Thruway and pump town waste into the capacity-limited village treatment plant. Instead, Amanda is working on a much less expensive alternate plan to improve efficiency and even expand capacity for the town.
Oy again! The Henry W Dubois bike/ped design plan was approved by Neil without input from his highway department. Five minutes after becoming supervisor, Amanda had to coordinate construction of the flawed design adopted by Neil.
Oy, oy, oy! Neil never completed the application process to Ulster County’s affordable housing task force. Amanda completed the registration process, and the town will hold its first public hearing on the new affordable housing law on September 4.
This November, there will be two Democrats running for supervisor. Everyone already knows that I support Amanda. I hope in his new job as municipal coordinator with the climate resilience team at the NYSDEC Hudson River estuary program, Neil will put politics aside and work with whoever wins.
Kitty Brown
Deputy supervisor, New Paltz
Alone in the silence
I walked the dog through the Oak Rock Preserve, the recently opened protected area along Basin Road seven minutes from my house!
The sheer rock walls dangling on either side of us, feeling like we were walking through time, so silent and towering in their rough granite beauty
After the Spur, we did the Loop Trail, bypassing the vernal pool I saw on the trail map, but didn’t see it “in person”, so next visit for sure, but we did come to the Lookout Point, felt the early day’s sun bathing down, made the mile around, both she and I thirsty, only car in the lot on a mid-day in August, we then drove to Stewart’s, for gas, water, and coffee…
God bless The Woodstock Land Conservancy! which works to save, for all of us, the precious pieces of the region’s past, always threatened with the profit margin, opportunism, reminded of the ongoing battle with economic “progress”, as we read the signs that indicate where a town was before it was moved, or blotted out, by the “necessary” building of The Ashokan Reservoir!
We walk long summer days on trails to recapture the gone days, we stand in the early morning sunlight, alone in the silence, just a couple of hours from the honking, teeming city streets we were born to, feeling like a small marker on the trail map ourselves, that says, “You Are Here!”,
(And whispers in our minds: “Go forth, and discover the roots of your trees, the earth below your feet, and the sublime stone of your local land’s slot canyons!” )
Martin Haber
Woodstock
Becoming a citizen
I’m responding to John Butz’s ridiculously false information on Immigration. You have no clue what you’re talking about. First off, no one is illegal! Second, I know first-hand what it costs and what it takes to go through the Immigration process to become a citizen. My son-in-law just became a citizen last year after 17 years of Immigration BS. It cost my daughter and son-in-law thousands of dollars.
It is extremely advisable to have a lawyer. In my daughter’s case, starting in 2007 the first lawyer took their money and did absolutely nothing. They were lied to and were told he could go to NYC only to find out he had to go back to Mexico, which he did, came back, and got his residency. They had to get another lawyer to start the process all over again, which cost thousands. That dragged on for years until he was able to go through it with the help of his job union and take his citizenship test.
He passed on the first try, which I bet a lot of us wouldn’t be able to do, including you, John Butz. So don’t act like it’s so cheap and affordable to become a citizen because it isn’t. If that was the case, the majority of immigrants would easily become citizens.
This past election, my son-in-law was excited to be able to vote. My daughter and son-in-law along with their two youngest children went to early voting. While crossing the street to P&G’s to celebrate, a car drove into the crosswalk and cut my son-in-law off while he was carrying his then nine-month-old son, and screamed at him “to get the fuck out of my country!”
Disgusting! And it’s people like you spewing misinformation and hatred like your convicted felon so-called president! So if you don’t know the facts, shut the f**k up. People that voted for that lying piece of scum ruined this country and the future for all. Shame on you!
Stephanie Heaton
New Paltz
Good, decent people
Speaking with neighbors, Republican and Democrat, it seems that no one likes Trump. Democrats are outraged while the Republicans are just annoyed.
He is spending huge amounts of our money on the National Guard in Washington fighting a crime wave that does not exist. After pushing through a bill slashing healthcare and food for the needy, he gifts huge tax savings to those who need it least. He is trying to stay in power forever by making voting meaningless.
If Republicans get off their perches and find some outrage, we might move on. My Republican neighbors are good, decent people in every regard, and we need them to help us survive this fiasco.
Hal Chorny
Gardiner
Setting the record straight
At the August 12 Gardiner town board meeting, planning board chair Paul Colucci read a letter falsely claiming I said at a recent planning board meeting that I “was going to be the town’s next supervisor” and did so in a “potentially intimidating” manner. The public recording of that meeting proves this is untrue. It can be downloaded from the Gardiner website (https://www.townofgardiner.org/ (Go to Departments > Planning Board > Zoom Recordings > 2025 > 2025.07.22_PB Meeting, fast forward to the final 17 minutes).
Mr. Colucci was the chair of the very meeting where this exchange occurred. He had both the responsibility and the opportunity to know exactly what was said. By repeating a claim that the public record shows is false, he has misled the community. This raises serious concerns about why the head of our planning board would knowingly misrepresent events, especially when directed at a sitting councilmember who is running for town supervisor.
There was a time when our leaders stopped lies in their tracks. When a woman at a Minnesota town hall called Barack Obama “an Arab” who “cannot be trusted,” John McCain immediately grabbed her microphone and said, “No, ma’am.” Today, some officials not only fail to correct falsehoods, they amplify them.
As an elected official, I believe our residents deserve honesty, accuracy, and transparency from those in positions of leadership. My focus is on serving the people of Gardiner and supporting our town with clear, truthful information so that decisions are made in the best interest of the community.
Our community and our democracy cannot afford to let dishonesty become the norm.
Michael Hartner
Gardiner
An apologist’s screed
I am compelled to react to the full-page apologist’s screed written for this paper by Melanie Marino, Bill McKenna’s previous secretary. It was full of excuses for the Level 3 sex offender Bill hired without disclosing his status to the other board members. The article blamed the judge, the man’s lawyer, Woodstock’s power structure with a few exceptions, and Woodstock citizens who have concerns about a Level 3 sex offender being employed by the maintenance department.
We citizens should accept no guilt. We did not force sex on a 23-year-old woman unable to give consent (rape) and film it. We did not have an eleven-year-old engaging in a sex act on our computers (child pornography).
Yes, humans make mistakes, but these are not minor misdemeanors. These are major violent felonies. The facts of the case are not in dispute. The sex-offender registry is the guardrail we have to help keep our women and children safe. All of Melanie’s filler about her education, NAMBLA, and her Hudson Valley farming heritage has nothing to do with the situation.
Bill told the Freeman that the union grieved the firing of the Level 3 sex offender. However, he sent me the town policy that states employees on probation may not file grievances. So the Level 3 sex offender, who was still on probation, was appropriately terminated.
It’s hard to imagine what possessed Bill to do such an inappropriate thing.
Marcia Panza
Woodstock
Snide and condescending
At Gardiner’s August 12th town board meeting, planning board chair Colucci read a letter accusing town board member Hartner of threatening the planning board at its July 22nd meeting, alleging that he would soon be the next town-board supervisor.
Days before, Hartner had voted with the town board ‘s majority for the town board to be lead agency for SEQRA review of the Riverbend (aka Fall Park) subdivision. The vote shifted from the norm of planning board as lead agency due to the town board’s exasperation with prior insufficient SEQRA reviews that left environmental and community impacts in many developments’ wake. Notably, the town board had the lead-agency option dumped on them the Friday before its meeting, without any communication that the decision could be postponed. Now, Hartner dared to attend a planning board meeting.
To get the truth of the asserted “threat,” go to the planning board’s July 22, 2025 Zoom Tape (ZT) at 1:40. At privilege of the floor, Hartner introduces himself as a TB member, not speaking on behalf of the town board. He states that the two boards need to improve communication. Colucci fires a series of questions. Other members follow his lead. Colucci is snide and condescending. Hartner states that he’s not speaking for others and that he might “possibly be in the position of supervisor come January, just trying to express what better communication needs to happen.” (ZT at 1:45.) It›s absurd that Hartner’s words created an atmosphere of intimidation.
The bigger picture is worse. Colucci hasn’t recused himself from Riverbend although his Osprey Lane property abuts this proposed subdivision. Instead, Colucci opined on the project. (June 24, 2025 ZT at 1:17). Second, Colucci is fabricating Hartner’s words and using his position as planning board chair to publicly berate Hartner and spread malicious rumors against him in an election year.
Carol Richman
Gardiner
In response to op-ed submitted by the town supervisor’s secretary
I am writing in response to the recent op-ed submitted by the town supervisor’s secretary, in which she defends her romantic partner — a convicted Level 3 sex offender who was quietly and questionably hired into a public maintenance position. The man she is defending was convicted of drugging and raping an unconscious woman, caught in an FBI sting with child sexual abuse material on his devices, and is now serving a 10-year parole. His status as a Level 3 offender — the highest risk classification — is not an opinion, it’s a legal fact grounded in evidence and risk assessment.
Despite this, the secretary asks the people of Woodstock whether we’ve ever done something we’re ashamed of — as if her boyfriend’s criminal history belongs in the same moral category as an ordinary mistake.
Even more troubling is the way she frames public concern about his employment as “inhumane.” But what’s truly inhumane is asking victims, survivors, and concerned residents to look the other way while someone with a violent and exploitative history is quietly placed into a taxpayer-funded role — all because of who he’s dating.
This isn’t accountability. It’s cronyism.
The op-ed closes by referring to the town supervisor — who approved this hire and continues to stand by it — as a “brave warrior and shining star.” But true bravery in leadership doesn’t come from ignoring outrage, silencing opposition, or protecting convicted predators. It comes from putting public safety and transparency before personal loyalty and private relationships.
Woodstock deserves leaders who lead with integrity — not backroom deals, gaslighting op-eds, and empty flattery.
Lisa Vianello
Shady
New Paltz water report
In 2017, we drilled the first (of six) groundwater bedrock well next to our water filtration plant on Mountain Rest Road. Eight years later, four wells have been approved by the state health department and are finally ready. These wells will augment the water we buy from the NYC DEP via the Catskill aqueduct, plus the water we source from our surface water reservoirs on our filtration plant property contiguous with the Mohonk Preserve. Water quality in all four wells is excellent.
NYC DEP has been a supportive partner, helping fund a large portion of both the master meter project with SUNY New Paltz, as well as these four bedrock wells.
For years, we have averaged purchasing 60 percent of the water New Paltz consumes from the DEP. The other 40 percent has been drawn from the four surface water reservoirs. There are some months, depending on precipitation and decisions by the plant’s operations staff, when we buy all water from the DEP, when we buy some from the DEP, or when we buy none.
Increasing the amount of water sourced locally from the new wells should reduce our expenses. For the last 21 years, the cost to buy DEP water has risen 358 percent through 2024, or 7.5 percent annualized. So far this year through July 31st, we have consumed 525 gallons per minute. The new wells are expected to provide 20 percent of New Paltz’s municipal water consumption. The new wells were also designed to improve how we collect and use water from the surface water reservoirs.
Sourcing more water locally will help us offset some costs for capital projects to address our brown water and water main break challenges, plus debt service from 2019’s $5.5-million water filtration plant investment.
We set our eyes on this project years ago, and learned plenty along the way, including how important it is to just keep pushing year after year.
Tim Rogers
Mayor, Village of New Paltz
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