Clearing up unfounded rumors and misinformation
The Kingston City School District (KCSD) would like to correct some misinformation that is circulating in our community and on social media.
It is being rumored that more than 100 teachers have applied for 12 weeks of EFMLA and there will be mass substitute teaching this fall. This is not only false but is an insult to the almost 700 dedicated members of the Kingston Teachers Federation who will be educating the students of this community. As of this morning, the first day of teacher attendance, the Kingston City School District has received and will grant Seven seven EFMLA requests this fall. This can be referenced in the September 2, 2020 board of education agenda that is posted publicly on the KCSD website.
It has also been rumored that the KCSD will not be providing meals for our students during the first five weeks of remote learning and not coordinating with the Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative (KEFC). The KCSD has provided approximately 10,000 meals in collaboration with the KEFC in April and May until the district was informed that they no longer had the capacity to receive and distribute these meals. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, KCSD has provided more than 60,000 meals to our families and has continued this service throughout the summer months. Beginning next week, KCSD will be providing meals at all seven elementary schools and at the Meagher building five days a week. We will also continue to make home deliveries to any family who cannot get to one of our locations. This can be arranged by calling our Food Hotline at (845) 943-3938. Furthermore, the KCSD is awaiting approval to provide additional hot meals in the evenings at our school buildings.
There has also been a call for small learning pods for students. The KCSD teachers will be delivering remote learning from their classrooms and unable to work in pods at the start of our remote learning. However, the KCSD is working with the YMCA, CCE, Family of Woodstock, Healthy Kids, The City of Kingston and Ulster County to provide high quality childcare for students. The KCSD will provide technology and instructional support to each of these programs.
Lastly, it has been stated that KCSD school buildings do not have the proper HVAC systems in place. The KCSD community has voted on and approved close to 200 million dollars in capital improvements over the last seven years. These improvements have included updating and fully replacing HVAC systems as to meet all State Education Department and Department of Health requirements. The KCSD has also committed to the regular testing of air quality in all school buildings during this State of Emergency.
This is a time for unity and collaboration. This is not time for divisive tactics, unfounded rumors and misinformation. We need to be in this together for the sake of the students and their education.
I encourage any family, parent or member of our community with questions to contact your building principal for the facts about your school building.
Dr. Paul J. Padalino, Superintendent of Schools
Kingston City School District
Library costs climbing
To me, the Woodstock Library Board’s resolution at its meeting of August 20 is a travesty and misuse of the community’s trust. In 2017, Woodstock’s citizens overwhelmingly expressed through a bonding survey that they wished for less expensive renovation options.
In spite of lack of public support, the board barged through on a plan for a complete tear-down of a cherished symbol of Woodstock’s charm. After the resulting referendum to dissolve their governance did not work, that small victory made the board grow even more tyrannical. It then diverted $125,000 of taxpayer funds, intended for maintaining the library and its programs. The funds were used to help pay a pricey architect who was hired without a formal bidding process.
Ethically if not legally, no large financial commitments or expenditures, especially using taxpayer funds, should have been made without the public’s approval through a bonding vote. Now, the board has finally resolved to bond for $5.8 million. At the same meeting, it resolved to proceed with building costs of up to $6.995 million. Again, the board is obligating funding which has not been secured or approved by taxpayers.
So, if the bond is approved, what will the board do about the shortfall? This feels like blackmail. It’s clear that our library won’t be maintained or have any of its issues addressed. It can only be supposed that we won’t have a proper, functional library until people fork over all the money.
I’m very disappointed with this library board. They have been tasked with simply running a good library as an amenity for a small town. Instead they have become self-absorbed, fiscally irresponsiblem and obsessed with delusions of grandeur, all while being deliberately deaf to the public and not keeping up what they have. I will be voting no on the bond.
Anne Carlton
Willow
At what cost?
On September 11, 2001, almost 3000 lives were lost during a vicious and brutal attack on our country. Since this tragic event, we have all had to sacrifice many of our rights. These include privacy, as various government agencies are allowed to monitor our phone, email, financial records and browser history without our consent or even a court order in many cases.
We have given up the right to carry a bottle of water from home onto an airline flight. Most of us have to limit our carry-on luggage, remove our shoes and submit to being x-rayed and in some cases patted down as if we were criminals. All of these restrictions on our personal freedom were put in place to ostensibly prevent further innocent deaths during the War on Terror.
Since March 2020, over 175,000 US lives have been lost to a vicious and brutal virus, Covid 19. In a little less than six months, this country has suffered the equivalent of 55 9/11 deaths. It’s as though there is another 9/11 attack every three days, with no end in sight.
But instead of passing laws to prevent further innocent deaths or even encouraging people in this country to simply wear a mask while outside their homes, Trump and Pence are busy herding people into the next skyscraper.
Phil Bishop
New Paltz
Cedar East project
I am a homeowner in the community of West Hurley. The recent proposed development of the old West Hurley Elementary School building has left our quiet little neighborhood community in a desperate situation.
The community is very tight, physically, with many houses spaced close along narrow streets. There are no sidewalks and all houses have wells and septics.
The proposed development of the West Hurley Elementary School violates zoning laws, which is the first in many issues.
Should this area be developed, as proposed, there will be a immense increase in vehicular traffic on the narrow streets to what I feel will be dangerous levels. Many older people walk the narrow streets for exercise. Others walk their dogs, children play and ride their bikes. Since there are no sidewalks, all this activity occurs on the narrow, quiet streets.
There is also an issue of water. All homes in the community have wells. There is no doubt that this proposed development will drain the aquifer upon which townspeople depend for their home water supplies. We also all have septic systems and issues with drainage during heavy rains. This will also be negatively impacted by this development.
This neighborhood consists mainly of small moderate-income homes. A development of a large multi-family complex in a single-family-home residential area such as ours will most certainly increase taxes as a result of this increased infrastructure.
Hopefully, this letter will bring our issues to your attention and perhaps find its way into your publication to alert others about our situation. With the push for more development throughout our area, we need to all move forward responsibly and grow in ways to provide housing for new residents while considering the situation of the current residents.
Jackie Oster
West Hurley
He is what he is
Despite its happening on their watch, and not Biden-Harris’s, the powers-that-be behind the 2020 Republican National Convention decided to focus on the lawless aspects of the Black Lives Matter protests — a lawlessness many say the Trump campaign not only focuses on, but foments and funds — and to cast the Democrats as the villains.
The Scapegoat Revue was the latest episode in the alternate-reality show Donald Trump has headlined since 2015, when he decided he needed more remuneration and ego-reinforcement than a grifter, even a glorified one, could ever hope to receive. When he won the election, most people were as shocked — and as unhappy — as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom were when “Springtime for Hitler” won audiences’ hearts.
Trump had always used scapegoats in his private and business lives, and he began right in: labeling the media “the enemy of the people,”;blaming crime on refugees, accusing climate and other regulations of killing jobs, declaring “You had very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville and refusing to assign blame to the alt-right motorist who plowed into and killed a young woman, instead demonizing the left.
Early this year, death made another appearance. Trump channeled his Inner John Wayne, appearing cockily unworried. Soon, this stance was attacked right and left. It became apparent that denial, a skill he’d always wielded on both the public and himself, might be no match against this adversary, that it posed a serious threat to civilization and, more important, his reelection. It was scapegoat time. Dredging up age-old biases against the “Yellow Peril,” he cast China as the villain, Sino-American relations be damned.
This war continues, but Trump has suffered collateral damage: His audience has shrunk by 183,000 and counting.
Before Trump, I’d never heard anyone refer to supremacists as “very fine people.” Meaning…what? Kind? Ethical? Reflective? Supremacists of any kind — Nazis, white nationalists, religious zealots, bullies, sexists — are none of these things.
But as the president’s niece Mary, his sister Maryanne and those who’ve broken away from the president repeatedly warn the reading public, Donald Trump has never been, or been interested in becoming, kind, ethical or reflective; to paraphrase his Covid-19 philosophy, “He is what he is.” Indeed. His policies reveal him to be exactly the unthinking, dishonest, cruel, narcissistic, dangerously dysfunctional person we see.
And, the RNC’s red-colored glasses notwithstanding, the events now being acted out on the streets of our cities, at maskless, socially clustered D.C. galas, in corporate boardrooms and all over America are mirror images of that dysfunction.
If you’re still, after everything, a Trump supporter, God help you — and, should Trump prevail, the rest of us. It’ll be “Springtime for Hitler,” but “Winter for America and Everywhere Else.”
If you’re still, after everything, undecided, ask yourself: “Am I prouder now to be an American than I was four years ago?”
And if you’re still, after everything, at all hopeful: VOTE! Shout the message from the rooftops as if your lives depend on it, because they do: VOTE!
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
No need to cut trees on Henry W. DuBois Drive in New Paltz
We can’t change the fact that Henry W. DuBois Drive is the “bypass” for getting around Main Street, New Paltz/Route 299. But we CAN change the bike trail and not cut trees on Henry W. DuBois Drive.
North Putt Corners Road has been labeled on Google-Zillow maps as “New Paltz Bypass,” and Henry W. DuBois Drive is the first road when going east and west off North Putt Corners Road to Route 32/North Chestnut Street.
Just north of Henry W. DuBois Drive is the Mill Brook Preserve, consisting of 126.9 acres at a cost to the taxpayers of the village and town of New Paltz of $1,200,000. There are now three trail heads (if you can find them) that have signs like a street sign that say “Mill Brook Preserve.”
I am proposing that bikes not be encouraged (by REMOVING the bike lane markings) to travel on Henry W. DuBois Drive and that sidewalks be built for pedestrian use without disturbing private property; that the existing bike trail can turn off North Putt Corners Road onto Henry W. DuBois Drive only a short distance to Waring Lane to the Mill Brook Preserve trail head at George Danskin Way. Better yet would be to avoid a residential area, continue on North Putt Corners Road and pass Henry W. DuBois Drive to Erman Lane (village/town will need to open up the existing lane) to the George Danskin Way trail head. Then the village/town will need to develop Preserve bike trails west to Sunset Ridge Road trail head and/or another trail that will take you to Route 32/North Chestnut and to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. This would be the perfect time for making these bike trails as the town supervisor has indicated that planning to upgrade Mill Brook Preserve trails is in the works.
The town supervisor in the 08/19/20 letter’s section of Hudson Valley One already outlined how dangerous it presently is to walk or ride a bike on Henry W. DuBois Drive, along with the accidents that have occurred there, the apartment complexes and their traffic, etc.
I must add to the supervisor’s concerns as I only see a much greater increase in traffic on Henry W. DuBois Drive coming with the eventual completion of Zero Place, the full opening of the Mohonk Preserve Gate House trail head and the proposed “Pit” development project of a 50-room hotel, conference center, spa, restaurant, office and retail spaces on three stories with underground parking lots. Add the Stewart’s at the corner of North Chestnut and Henry W. DuBois Drive, and you’ve got a very heavily-traveled dangerous “bypass” already, without encouraging biking on Henry W. DuBois Drive.
Lou Cariola
New Paltz
A misguided compromise for Henry W. DuBois Drive
The proposition to make parts of Henry DuBois one-way seems an utterly misguided compromise. Let’s come back to a bigger picture here please. I’m not for or against bike lanes, I can understand both sides. What seems clear though is that making even parts of Henry Dubois one-way creates more traffic for Main Street which it simply cannot handle. There are probably a thousand village residents impacted by what gets decided here, with three apartment complexes right on Henry DuBois and another one adjacent on Prospect Street. School buses run up and down Henry DuBois, and many of us drive to the high school this way as well due to congestion around the middle school. This street needs to remain an alternative to Main Street and the majority of users will always be locals. Slow the traffic down if you like, but don’t cut it off.
Sandra Capellaro
New Paltz
A simple tale of two men
These two YouTube vignettes tell Americans all they need to know about the characters of the two presidential candidates. The first, from 2015, showing Donald Trump mocking a disabled reporter, previewed the cruelty, bullying and theatrical narcissism that have defined his time in office. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9reO3QnUA.
The second, from the Democratic convention, records a brave, stuttering 13-year-old boy describing how Joe Biden befriended him and, drawing on his own experience as a lifelong stutterer, gave him tips on how to meet his challenges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S828vjO1m4g.
We American parents who have raised and protected our own 13-year-old children can ponder the importance of policies, judges, war, safety and justice as we measure where the character of one man has brought us after nearly four years. With which candidate would we entrust our children’s future?
Tom Denton
Highland
Sharing DuBois
My family and I are very excited about the plan to improve walkability and safety on DuBois Drive in New Paltz. I’ve been struck by how hard it is to see pedestrians at night on this road. I have walked my kids on DuBois a small number of times to get to Prospect Street, and it always felt dangerous. Mostly, I have avoided it.
With the new proposal soon to come out, I imagine it could be what I like. If it could become more of a shared residential road and less like a throughway for fast-moving cars and trucks, my kids and I would be walking and biking into town so much more. Maybe the car section could be narrowed to minimize the number of trees that would have to be removed.
I applaud the effort of the town in securing these grants and pressing on to make New Paltz substantially more pedestrian and bike friendly.
Joanna Dempsey
New Paltz
Shut it down again?
So Basement Joe Biden says if he’s elected and Covid 19 returns this winter, he’ll listen to the scientist and is willing to shut down the economy again. It’s evident that having spent the last 43 years in Washington working in government that he has no idea what working people are going through. He needs to stop hiding in the cellar and come out and see what’s been happening. Small businesses have closed, lost money and many will never reopen; employees have been laid off and for some it will be permanent; savings have been lost and thousands have been destroyed economically.
The closing of schools will result in many students in poor school districts, whether inner-city or rural, to fall so far behind they’ll never recover. It’ll take years or decades to fully measure the damage caused already. Imagine being 50 years old, lost your job, too young to retire and very difficult to start over. Had everything invested in your business that you won’t be able to reopen and no money to start over. Students from grammar school to college who don’t feel they can catch up and give up on education. As to the science, they were wrong from the time they told us the virus didn’t transfer human to human.
Do we have any idea if all the sacrifice really made any differencez/ We were going to shut down for a few weeks to flatten the curve. How’d that work, shelter in place, shut down the economy, close the schools, social distance, wear a mask, and of course all the disinfecting everything. Did all this actually save lives or did it just prolong the time the virus stayed?
I sure we’ll hear how many lives were saved, and since it’s impossible to quantify what didn’t happen they can pick any number. One more thing, where does Biden think he has the authority to mandate we all wear masks or to shut down the whole country?
This time the CDC made recommendations and the states made their own rules. Now hidden Biden thinks he can just mandate anything. Where in the Constitution does he think he gets the authority?
John Habersberger
New Paltz
Three ways to vote
Please share the information below with family, friends and neighbors. What follows are invaluable voting tips.
There are three ways to vote:
1. Absentee ballot application — vote by mail.
Call the Ulster County Board of Elections 334-5470 to send you an application for a ballot or download one directly online at https://elections.Ulstercountyny.Gov/absentee-ballots/ On the application, be sure to check the box “temporary illness,” which is how Covid 19 is classified. Include your mailing address if different than your residence. Don’t wait!! Do everything right away! Ballots will be mailed on September 18.
If you don’t want to mail your ballot, you can drop the completed and sealed ballot off at the Ulster County Board of Elections in Kingston on weekdays, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also give your ballot to a poll inspector at any of the early voting sites or at any poll site on election day.
Be sure to read all forms carefully and sign and date, including the oath envelope for your absentee ballot.
2. Early voting — Saturday, October 24 to Sunday, November 1.
For a list of early voting sites, days, dates and times go to: Vote ulster.Com and click on early voting. Voting by absentee ballot is a good back-up to early voting.
3. Voting on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3.
Election Day is likely to be the most crowded time, so voting on Election Day should be your last choice.
Remember, time is of the essence. Especially with the forced slowdown of the postal service. We must all act quickly and tell everyone we know to do the same.
Sandra Panman
New Paltz
How rich do you want to be?
Rich people have more houses than they have bodies.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Half-truths, deception, loopholes
I wish to respond to Mr. [Neil] Bettez’s letter in the August 19 issue of Hudson Valley One.
Referring to the grants received, no mention is made of the matching funds New Paltz provided or how these funds were raised. Mr. Bettez cited previous plans for Henry W. DuBois Drive. However, he fails to note the recommendations fell victim to an established law — the law of gravity. No matter which way you travel on Henry W. DuBois, you have to deal with a hill.
The 2019 study Mr. Bettez notes seems to be a better rationale to place this project on the Route 299 corridor where a greater number of accidents happened since 2014.
An increase in real-estate values is referenced. That will only raise our taxes and if we sell, the pending county and town transfer taxes will erode any increase.
Access to local attractions is cited. Not mentioned is the project will impede access to an attraction residents already enjoy. That’s called a yard.
If Alta Planning and Design has shown remarkable attention to detail, why is the “valley by Colonial Arms where all this water gathers” a concern? That complex has not been Colonial Arms for many years. If drainage is a problem, why was construction of a duplex allowed there?
Let me close by saying that half-truths, deception and legal loopholes may be a way to build a bike trail, yet such actions will not build your road to Paradise.
Paul Bishop
Rochelle A. Bush
New Paltz
Wear the mask
The information keeps growing. Wearing a mask makes a difference. If you are in a room with somebody who has the virus, you have a 17 percent chance of getting the virus. If you have a mask on, you have a three percent chance of getting the virus. Masks work. So then, why is there so much resistance to wearing a mask?
If the military required all soldiers to wear masks, they all would comply with the order. Soldiers were trained to follow orders. Right? Some might feel uncomfortable about wearing the mask, but they’d do it anyway if the order came down from the chain of command. And eventually the discomfort would go away. like it always does when we get used to anything that initially feels uncomfortable.
Wearing a mask has a message, too. If I wear a mask, I am letting you know that I care about your life as well as my life. It’s a good message. If I get the virus, I might handle it with no problem. But I have no idea how many people I could possibly make sick. And some of them could actually die from this virus.
I do not want to carry that burden for the rest of my life. Do you? At this point the numbers of dead United States citizens is up to 175,000 and counting. Is there any way your brain does not comprehend the real danger? Did you ever wander into a fire fight without being prepared? Not fun. Right? Then do the right thing. Wear the mask!
The other day I heard about a black journalist who was talking to a wealthy white man in his fifties or sixties. They were at a dock, with yachts as far as the eye could see. They were talking about the man’s yacht which was sitting in the water right behind the two men. The guy had a captain’s hat on and appeared to be a little chubby, but with a big smile on his face. The journalist asked if his boat was about 50 feet long. The man bragged that it was actually 70 feet long. And then he said that he was a simple man, just fortunate to be enjoying the life.
In my mind that’s a snapshot of the one percent in our country. Rich white men with their yachts, playing with their rich toys and enjoying their privileged life.
Whether it’s the ultra-rich one percent or the wealthy ten percent, they are clearly not my tribe. I’m part of the other 90 percent the people that make up our country. I’m proud to be a member of the majority in our country, good people who are doing their best to carve out a halfway decent life for themselves and their families.
I remember the scene in the movie Titanic. Upstairs the aristocrats were dining. They were all dressed beautifully and acting like they were raised with proper behavior for the wealthy. It appeared to me to be boring and incredibly pretentious.
Then the scene jumped to the belly of the big boat where all the workers were. There was joyful music and passionate dancing, and so much life and celebration was shown on the screen. They clearly were not the wealthy, but boy were they having a great time.
I’m pleased and delighted to be one of the 90 percent. How about you?
Marty Klein
Woodstock
Higher or lower education?
We once thought reading, writing and arithmetic was a proper education. That’s now the history of education. We’ve boxed, compartmentalized, categorized, microscoped and filed — what getting an education means today. Education theories abound, philosophies of the way to teach students are as prolific as emojis. This is how education was when we entered the Covid 19 epidemic. Six months into the epidemic the CDC says we have 5,598,547 Covid cases and 174,645 Covid deaths as of August 22, 2020.
To me, education today is sounding more like a fiscal issue than one concerning teaching our young. If you listen to the news, our government sees students’ lives are less important than keeping our economy afloat, making us think that if the wealthy have to help pay to keep American kids alive by keeping them from school, they’d rather let them die.
I live a few blocks away from SUNY New Paltz, and it directly affects me and my wife. I know if students are wearing masks or not, if parties happen or not, all are within my view and concern. It is not clear to me that the university sees itself as a major part of the New Paltz epidemic petri dish. It takes only a few minutes to sift through today’s news to find that several universities have been forced to quarantine and have reverted to online learning. The decision makers in our government and the universities seem not to be following the very science their schools teach us on how the virus spreads. Instead, leadership has determined capital is more important than life.
Talking heads tell us young students will suffer if they are unable to go back to school. I’ve watched the children living next to me have a playful rewarding summer with their folks working at home. They planted a sign in their yard saying how much black and all lives matter and the need for more kindness and love. What an education opportunity this had been for them.
The real reason we need kids back in school is so we can go back to work. If you are poor and still have a job, it means putting food on the table. Collage students in general have no skills with their hands. They live in a world where tech is stealing jobs by the millions. The value of their collage education that has been given to them by the pandemic is showing them this new reality.
When students return to SUNY New Paltz, they become biologically part of our community. We eat in the same restaurants, shop in the same stores, go to the same hospitals, walk our streets and breath the same air. Scientifically speaking, they become part of the same living social organism. It’s time we learn to think this way to survive. Old, young, healthy and sick, are affected, infected and unprotected. We must adjust our priorities and become educated by science taught in our universities.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Hypocrisy?
From Hudson Valley One: “Recognizing that such reform begins in our own backyard, this town board created the Woodstock Human Rights Commission,” [town supervisor Bill] McKenna said at a meeting of the town board. “We remain committed to their mission and the need to give voice to any individual who has felt discriminated against by town personnel.”
I wonder if “we” includes McKenna and, if so, when he decided “to give voice to any individual who has felt discriminated against by town personnel.”
Howard Harris
Woodstock
The grand old meltdown
And with bursts of insanity. “Only I can fix the problems that have occurred under my watch. But I can’t fix those problems now. I can only fix them after being re-elected and given the authority and powers I now have. So vote for me!” [President Donald] Trump is an insurgent and aggrieved outsider who happens to be the incumbent too for the past 3.7 years. Trump concedes that things are bad (his “American Carnage”) but his winning argument if the opposition candidate Joe Biden is elected to the presidency is, “things will be worse.”
Oh, really! Trump is not a confident incumbent and his disjointed Republican convention glaringly showed it.
My attempt to view the big four-day Republican convention was a failure. What a (G)ross (O)bscene (P)ack was at the parade last week ….. I knew the RNC would have a high bar to meet after seeing the DNC convention. Planning and effort are not the superpowers of this administration or the current RNC.
It was unbearable to watch. I tried in the spirit of openmindedness, but after maybe five minutes I was reaching for the barf bag — I mean the remote control. I had no choice but to change the channel — it is called “self-care,” folks!
No GOP platform, “just support for Trump” was the convention statement echoing incessantly at this prime-time televised affair. How does his reelection rhetoric,
“If you’re not for ‘me or us,’ then you’re against America” show anything but fearmongering? It wasn’t a national convention, it was just another one of his lie-filled and hate rallies that went on for way too long… The speakers talked of how horrible things are.
I agree. Don’t give Trump four more years. Vote blue all the way to end this madness.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Lower the speed limit
I was thrilled to see the short news note about the Town of Woodstock requesting that Ulster County lower the speed limit on Glasco Turnpike in last week’s paper. As a resident of Glasco, my family and friends and I all walk, run and bike on the road regularly (sometimes with dogs), and it is truly dangerous. There is no shoulder whatsoever. In many spots there is no visibility, and the vast majority of drivers exceed the already too-high 40 m.p.h. speed limit.
Five years ago, I petitioned the county to lower the speed limit on Glasco Turnpike, a process in which I was joined by more than 70 of my neighbors and Woodstock residents who drive and walk this stretch regularly and by the Town of Woodstock police and town board. Unfortunately, for no clear reason, the county declined to do anything at that time.
The entire length of Glasco Turnpike that passed through Woodstock out to Shady (not just the 1.4-mile stretch between Rock City Road and Upper Byrdcliffe) needs both a lower speed limit and better enforcement to help make it stick. Several precious lives (Allison Gold and Andrew Dean-Lipson) have been lost along this stretch of road in years past. This past year, the dog of a neighbor who was out walking on Glasco was hit by a car. And with more people living in their weekend homes due to Covid, there are more walkers (some with strollers — ack!), runners and bikers on Glasco Turnpike than I can remember ever seeing.
I hope the county will heed our calls this time to protect the lives of drivers, bikers, pedestrians and pets on this popular local road.
Eve Fox
Woodstock
Congratulations Jack
Last week I met local attorney Jack Zand for lunch as he prepares to finally retire from private practice at 82. His career included serving as Village of New Paltz attorney for 31 years through 2003.
I enjoy getting Jack’s take on municipal law and what’s going on in New Paltz now. But it is especially fun when he shares gems like “the SUNY New Paltz president is supposed to pick the color of our water tank.”
Of course, after we met he emailed me a copy of the deed from 1967 and told me which paragraph to review. It clearly states “…the President shall have the right to request a change of color at the time of any normal maintenance repainting after the initial application.”
Congratulations and thanks, Jack!
Mayor Tim Rogers
Village of New Paltz
Glasco Turnpike unsafe
My driveway goes up to Glasco Turnpike with a poor sightline to the west. People drive too fast on this curvy, no-shoulders, many-driveways road. It is simply not a safe road with a too-high speed limit that is largely ignored.
There have many accidents and some fatalities in the 50-years plus I have used this road. During these years the number of cars and trucks — some huge, have greatly increased. The Ulster County Highway Department in conjunction with the Woodstock town board must act together to provide the safety the citizens and taxpayers deserve.
Judith Chase
Woodstock
Local government
This kind of government…
1. Repairs to sewer mains on South Chestnut Street (Route 208) wrap up this week.
2. Mains on Hasbrouck Avenue are done now, too.
3. Sewer work on North Chestnut (Route 32) will begin next week.
4. Once all three sections are done, each will be milled and receive a new full-width topcoat of blacktop.
5. Then village board members will repaint the BLM and rainbow crosswalk at the new four-way stop at Tricor and Hasbrouck.
New sewer mains help minimize pollution in groundwater that can end up in the Wallkill River. Additionally, less inflow and infiltration (I&I) from stormwater into sewer mains helps reduce wear and tear at our $30-million sewer plant at Huguenot Street.
This work is being funded with $750,000 via the Community Development Block Grant program. For the last few years, the Village of New Paltz has repaired sections of our sanitary sewer system using Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds via the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. We have been addressing inflow and infiltration (I&I) problems caused by old failing sewer infrastructure that dates back to the late 1800s. Sections in the village’s system have had raw sewage flow from maintenance-hole covers during heavy rains.
Tim Rogers, Mayor
KT Tobin, Deputy Mayor
Alexandria Wojcik, Trustee
William Murray, Trustee
Michele Zipp, Trustee
Village of New Paltz
Grateful for Sally’s friendship
Sally Rhoads and I had a rough start to our relationship back in the late 1970s. At that time I was immersed in the Save the Mountain movement while the New Paltz school board was considering giving tax breaks to the Marriott Corporation in support of their massive development proposal for Lake Minnewaska. Sally was the president of the school board and therefore the recipient of letters against the tax break. The Save Minnewaska coalition began to attend meetings and write letters to and about the school board.
Sally did not like that. So much so, she wrote a letter to my mother complaining. I still have her letter.
In the intervening years the Minnewaska State Park was created. No tax break was required, and local businesses grew. So did my children and, in 1990, I ran for the school board and was elected. Sally was still president, but her term was set to expire and she to retire from her service.
The meeting after the election Sally, so very graciously, invited me to sit at the board table even though I had not yet been sworn in. Years later as a town supervisor, I replicated Sally’s example.
Decades intervene. I remain grateful for Sally’s friendship and leadership. We often saw each other in a variety of venues, greeting with a hug and genuine conversation not only about our families but also the goings-on in the community.
These recollections remind me how valuable it is that boards of education are non-partisan, with each board member bringing individual expertise and perspective to collective decision making. Sally and I could differ on matters of public service, yet still care for each other and find commonality.
I loved and will miss Sally Rhoads.
Laura Faye Walls
New Paltz
The fact is
Regarding the letter headlined, “Face masks ineffective,” by Emileine Mahoney (August 26), here is the CDC’s position as stated on its website in July:
“Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus — particularly when used universally within a community setting. All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families and their communities.”
And all newspapers have a responsibility to protect readers from assertions of fact that are not facts.
Steve MacDonald
Kingston
Mad scientist
As we walked out the door this morning, we stopped in our tracks to the sound of an angry (not crazy) voice of a climate scientist on the radio. He was railing against all of us for our lack of action, saying that we had known that this was going to happen for over 40 years, and chose to do nothing about it.
In the past week, we have seen some of the worst wildfires in California history, one of the worst hurricanes in Atlantic history, a devastating derecho (super wind/thunderstorm) in Iowa and an all-time, record-breaking heat in the Southwest (130 degrees in Death Valley). Because the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico was 90 degrees(!), hurricane Laura went from a tropical storm to a devastating Category Four hurricane in just 24 hours — this, on the 15th anniversary of the 125-billion-dollar Hurricane Katrina, 15 years ago.
Even we felt guilty for lack of action in this, the most seminal issue of our time. This crisis will not improve for 100 years. But if we all get mad, we can stop it from getting worse.
Dan and Ann Guenther
New Paltz
Proposed spot rezoning
The Laws & Rules Committee of the Kingston Common Council recently decided to postpone voting on the proposed spot re-zoning of the mostly wooded lot at 2-16 Montrepose Street from RRR (single residential) to RT (3-family residential with access to special permits to build higher density). The proposal had been backed by the city planning board, but the committee chose to delay to evaluate information raised during public comment.
We thank the committee for taking time to evaluate public concerns, as several important issues were raised during public comment and in a formal protest petition filed by several adjoining landowners.
First, there is a major flaw in the overall review process that cannot be ignored. There has been an attempt to segment the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process by evaluating the rezoning independently from the 14-unit apartment complex described in the Short Environmental Assessment Form (SEAF) attached to the zoning change request. A formal site plan was not included and the planning board indicated that a separate environmental review would be done after a site plan submission is made. Segmentation is contrary to the intent of SEQR, which requires that actions be evaluated as a whole to consider environmental impacts early in the planning stages. The holistic and early approach prescribed by SEQR allows for plans to be modified to avoid adverse environmental impacts.
It is not clear what level of detail was employed by the planning board when reviewing the rezoning application and attached SEAF. It is clear; however, that the applicant included some erroneous information within the SEAF. The lot contains a stream and is located within a New York State-mapped habitat for threatened or endangered species, but this information was not included in the required fields on the SEAF.
The proposed project claims to be consistent with Kingston’s comprehensive plan, but the residential lot in question is well outside the neighborhoods the plan targets for increasing density. Furthermore, the lot appears to be partially located on land noted as “physically constrained” by the comprehensive plan, for which it states the city should consider restricting development “and limit use to agriculture, open space, recreation and rural-density residential.” The SEAF also glossed over issues related to traffic at an already precarious intersection and neighborhood character.
Delaying their vote indicates an interest on the committee’s part to adhere to the state’s required review process. We sincerely hope that this nod of acknowledgement to appropriate review leads the committee to do the right thing and reject the rezoning application for its contradictions with the city’s own comprehensive plan and erroneous information provided by the applicant.
We would like to see this lot redeveloped and utilized in a manner fitting its specific environment. Although we recognize the City of Kingston’s need for more housing, subverting the New York State prescribed environmental review process is an unacceptable means to foster development.
Jennifer Armstrong
Hill Residents for Responsible Development
Kingston
Wearing a mask the right thing
In response to a letter last week (August 26) titled “Face masks ineffective,” this is not true, and this attitude is one of the reasons why the United States has the highest rate of Covid 19 cases in the world. There are plenty of scientific articles that I could reference that verify the effectiveness of wearing masks, but I will try to explain this in three simple steps.
1. Masks greatly reduce the number of airborne particles from a sneeze, cough or talking.
2. Masks minimize the chance of infected people transmitting Covid-19, flu or cold germs to others.
3. Since the incubation period for Covid 19 is two to seven days, no one really knows if they are infected or not. So wear a mask!
Do I think masks are 100 percent effective? No, certainly not, especially if you were treating a Covid 19 patient, but for our normal day-to-day lives, it will greatly minimize the spread of Covid 19. It is not asking too much of us to wear a mask when we are in public places close to other people. Wearing a mask is something we do for others, not for ourselves. Mandated or not, wearing a mask is the right thing to do if we care about our fellow citizens. Please don’t make this a political issue.
Gary Bischoff
Saugerties
School district inaction
The Y Academy program (https://ymcaulster.org/y-academy/) is a cynical failure of the Kingston school district to address the challenges of the pandemic.
The proposal by superintendent Dr. Padalino to return K-6 students to school buildings for socially-distanced education was met with well-founded health concerns by the teachers. No wonder. I’ve seen schools reopen in other parts of the country have to quickly shut down after Covid spikes.
Further, the Kingston plan was poorly communicated and not well-designed. A critical failure was that the plan did not include input from the teachers themselves, even though the superintendent claimed to defer specifics to the principals, who claimed to defer decisions to the teachers. The teachers I was in touch with had no sense of urgency in the matter.
When parents reached out to superintendent Dr. Padalino in the week before the plan was due at the state level, we found that he was away on vacation. Helpful suggestions and creative solutions like outdoor education (where air echange is the best) were dismissed.
Was Dr. Padalino’s plan designed to fail? It certainly did not meet with any confidence from the parents that I know. And now, those with means are organizing pods and other ad-hoc solutions to salvage their children’s education this year. Those who don’t have the means are left in limbo, at the whim of circumstance.
Currently, I understand that teachers are required to teach their remote classes from their regular classrooms in the school buildings, putting them in the dilemma of what to do with their own children who will learn from home. But even that arrangement won’t keep teachers safe. They and their assistants are not required to wear masks in the classrooms, and there are reports that the necessary infrastructure improvements, like HVAC ventilation, haven’t happened.
I am not surprised to learn that about 100 Kingston teachers have requested leaves of absence. I can’t blame them!
And now I hear that Ulster County has partnered up with the YMCA to offer day-time child care in the very same school buildings! So the health threats to teachers will be exchanged with health threats to the YMCA employees. Yes, this is the cynical failure of the reopening plan that was meant to fail.
The fact is that I have offered ideas to the superintendent and school board that I think are viable and could be modified to actually work. Besides using the abundant outdoor resources adjacent to schools in Kingston for classrooms under tents, the Kingston schools could work with community partners around the city to replicate the idea of small educational pods for all students. Get the children into safe spaces, and develop creative structures that would allow Kingston teachers (in their classrooms or from their homes) to guide instruction to small groups of students spread out across Kingston.
All the puzzle pieces have been there all along, waiting to be part of the solution.
Japheth Wood
Kingston
Hard times at Lydia’s
And just when things were going so well. Lydia’s Cafe’s “Music on the Patio” series was a rousing success. People were enjoying being out of the house, they felt safe, state and local guidelines were obeyed, musicians had a gig (first time in four months for most) and for the very first time in 14 years, Lydia’s wasn’t losing money.
So, naturally, a letter from the New York State Liquor Authority arrived proclaiming: “Currently, only incidental music performances are safe and permissible. Incidental music is non-ticketed, unadvertised performances that accompany and are incidental to a dining experience; i.e., patrons have come to dine and the music provided is incidental to the dining experience.”
Nuts, right? World-class musicians performing every Saturday (occasional Fridays), but the new directive forbids letting anyone know about it. Brilliant.
So in the interest of public safety and because there is enough division in our country right now, Lydia’s will make every effort to comply with any and all regulations, regardless of how ridiculous they may be.
If you (the public) care to avail yourselves of delicious, home-cooked food between now and when it gets too cold to be outside, there is a good chance that on any given Friday or Saturday night you may find a group of musicians inconspicuously performing on a socially distanced outdoor stage. It’ll be a surprise (unless you know someone, who knows someone). Sample dialogue: “Oh, there’s a band, and no cover charge?! How delightful, we really just came here because we’ve heard how good the food is.”
See, we can all get along.
Mark Usvolk, Lydia’s Café
Stone Ridge
Coping with reality
I think that there are two types of essential workers. One type is medical — the doctors, nurses, EMTs and other medical workers who signed up for exposure to sick people. They certainly didn’t sign up for the first epidemic of a novel virus in 100 years, for patients one after another dying on their shifts, of bodies stacked in refrigerated trucks, but they came to work. They are all heroes.
The other type of essential worker is also heroic because those people didn’t sign up for exposure to a deadly virus. Yet they went to work to keep us in food and other essentials (including toilet paper), help the disabled, clean facilities and administer workers. These include janitors, personal-care health workers, truckers and food store workers.
Teachers are also essential workers. Children need to come to school to free their parents/guardians to go to work. And children need to come to school for their mental health and equal education for all of them. Teachers do need to demand to be as safe as possible, which includes disinfecting infrastructure and proper ventilation. Ventilation is not widely discussed: Open windows, outdoor classes and not recirculating air are all possibilities to make rooms/buildings safer.
The Northeast has very low infection/hospitalization/death numbers. I doubt that there will be a safe and effective vaccine this year and maybe not during the school year, so this is the best possible reality for now. Without either a vaccine or herd immunity (which would break the chain of transmission) from significantly more people recuperating from Covid 19, we will have to go on with our lives, as cautiously as possible but also coping with the present reality.
Andi Weiss Bartczak
Gardiner
Join the family! 
