Dog Park Update
The Dog Park repairs are getting close to completion, thanks to the efforts of community volunteers, the highway department and members of our volunteer task force.
We’re hoping to be able to reopen it very soon. The trees that had come down during the hurricane have been cleared with the exception of one that’s in the small dog area.
The damaged fencing is being worked on and the mangled gate to the large dog area is about to be started. Once that’s done, we believe that we’ll be able to reopen the park.
Thank you for bearing with us as we make the needed repairs.
A reminder…donations to the park are used for these repairs and ongoing maintenance. Your donations are tax deductable.
If you would like to make a donation, please send a check made out to the Woodstock Dog Park to Woodstock Town Clerk, 45 Comeau Drive, Woodstock NY 12498.
Your donations are very much appreciated. If you would like to contact us, call the Town Clerk at 679 8672 X4. Thank you
Fran Breitkopf and all of us in
Your Woodstock Dog Park Task Force
Friendly Demons
A woman named Michelle R. has two pieces in the art show at the Colony Café. Both are unframed, small canvases. One is entitled “Your Friend Till the End”; the second is “Spitting.” They are simple paintings of demons. The first has a large grey hammer in the foreground, in front of a creature with creepy red eyes and a black hood. The second looks like magnified images of biological cells, all green. Amongst these cells, a mouth is spitting; above it are cruel black eyes.
For some complex reason, both of these are happy paintings. The demons are like masks worn by eight-year-olds on Halloween — reassuring, comic. Michelle R. is painting out of a sincere need to measure her fears. Once demons are visible, they begin to grow friendly.
The show should be up two more weeks.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Penny Social Success
Our recent Penny Social was a huge success thanks to the many neighbors who came out to support our fire company and participate in the festivities. A special thanks to Woodstock Times and Public Access TV for helping us get the message out to our community.
We’d also like to thank Woodstock Meats, Woodstock Hardware, Hurley Ridge Market, Shelter Stone Yard, Ulster Savings Bank, Lynch Auto Parts, Advanced Auto Parts, Route 375 Getty Station, Adams Fairacre Farms and Alfred Ostrander who all made generous donations to make the event a financial success.
We encourage you to support the merchants who support our volunteers.
As always, the fire department, the fire police and the ladies auxiliary are always looking for volunteers. All from ages 16 and above are always welcome. For information about becoming a volunteer, please call 845-679-6019. For information about the Woodstock Fire Department, please visit our website www.WoodstockFireDept.org.
Fire Company No. 1, Ladies Auxiliary is having a Penny Social on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 1 p.m. at the Woodstock Fire House on Tinker Street. We encourage all to support this event as well.
Again, many thanks.
Gail Dougherty, President
Woodstock Fire Company Three
Ladies Auxiliary
Pet Food Alert
Urgent alarms should be ringing over commercial brands of dog and cat food which are, again, sickening and killing pets in our area. FDA and industry tactics seem to have changed this time around in that public alerts are not being widely issued and only limited recalls seem to have been initiated. This has the appearance of a deliberate strategy to minimize public reaction.
Symptoms and brands can be matched to your pet by reviewing the reports at www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/index.html. Noteworthy comments on the situation are posted at www.truthaboutpetfood.com/pet-food-recall-first-alert.html which notes “Quietly, and under the direction of the FDA, Pet Food is being silently recalled from store shelves without public notice,” and dates the beginning of the current problem back to last year but reports of stricken pets have been increasing dramatically only recently, to judge by the Consumer Affairs log. There appears to be a cumulative factor of effect rather than immediate and the behavior of pets should be monitored and feeding of the brands implicated by the pet-owners in the log halted immediately.
Our household has already lost one beloved member and has another currently stricken. My report on the situation in 2007 for a now defunct local publication can be found online at https://landofpuregold.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/pet-food-and-secrecy/
This is neither the time nor place to elaborate and update. A detailed and sourced report will be forthcoming. Some related background information specific to my article cited above is available at https://www.enveurope.com/content/23/1/10. This is a statistical and biological meta-analysis of years of research into the effects of genetically modified foods on biological systems, including test results secured only by court order, that was published in Environmental Sciences Europe in March 2011 by a team of scientists affiliated with the Universities of Caen and Rouen in France and CRI-IGEN, an independent scientific committee in Paris investigating GMOs through a wider lens than the limited and market-oriented view afforded through experiments conducted by corporate science or the industry-guided oversight of compromised regulatory agencies.
But, please exercise the cautionary principle right away. For the moment, this is the time, if you love your pets, to check out the symptoms now being reported under the brand names you feed them and if you observe any stages of these warning signs in your animals, act accordingly.
Gary Alexander
Shokan
For more letters, see print edition.
Join the family! 
