The views and opinions expressed in our letters section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hudson Valley One. Submit a letter to the editor at deb@hudsonvalleyone.com.
Letter guidelines:
Hudson Valley One welcomes letters from its readers. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and submitted by 9:00am on Monday. Our policy is to print as many letters to the editor as possible. As with all print publications, available space is determined by ads sold. If there is insufficient space in a given issue, letters will be approved based on established content standards. Points of View will also run at our discretion.
Although Hudson Valley One does not specifically limit the number of letters a reader can submit per month, the publication of letters written by frequent correspondents may be delayed to make room for less-often-heard voices, but they will all appear on our website at hudsonvalleyone.com. All letters should be signed and include the author’s address and telephone number.
What’s on people’s minds
Let me say I enjoy and look forward to your eclectic letters to the editor every week. It’s important to hear what’s on people’s minds. So I am not in favor of limiting the letters to only local events/news.
I also look forward to the letters from the same people every week whether it’s Larry Winters, Neil Jamel, Sparrow, Tim Rogers, John Butz or others. So please keep your format as is.
Donna Singer
Middletown
Turning myself in
I stand against fascism. According to the latest from the White House, this makes me a criminal. Where do I turn myself in?
Roger Cunningham
Saugerties
A half-century later
The New Paltz Class of 1975 reunion committee would like to thank Dave and Judy Roehrs and their awesome team at Apple Greens for their hospitality for our reunion dinner last Friday night. The service was wonderful and the accommodations were outstanding. Thank you all so much!
We also wish to thank those members of the New Paltz School District who helped us tour the high school on Saturday. Many of us had not walked those halls in 50 years. Oh, the memories! Finding the Section 9 baseball championship trophy and team photo was an added delight.
Also to the staff of the Rip Van Winkle tour boat, who led us on a beautiful Hudson River voyage, and to the members of the Tillson Fire Department who loaned us their firehouse, thank you!
Heidi Jewett
Cindy Terwilliger
Pete Ferrante
Karen Skillman
John Skillman
Carol Johnson
Deb Russ
Denise Van Aken
New Paltz
A model battery law
In January 2025, a fire erupted at the Moss Landing battery facility, causing the evacuation of approximately 1500 residents and the closure of California Highway 1. A month later, the fire reignited from smoldering lithium-ion batteries. Previously, the City of Morro Bay commissioned an offsite consequence analysis (OCA) to assess the risks associated with the proposed 600-megawatt battery storage system. Dated March 2024, the report stated, “This OCA is intended to aid the City of Morro Bay’s consideration of Vistra’s proposed BESS project and to provide information to the community.
As detailed in this OCA, Vistra’s proposed BESS does not present any significant health and safety risk to the public,.” and “In sum, we conclude the proposed BESS project poses no significant health and safety risk to the community during a maximum credible fire event under worst-case conditions.”
What went wrong? The Moss Landing facility was housed indoors and used a battery prone to thermal runaway. Investigators have not determined the cause, but the district fire chief said that a fire suppression system within one of the facility’s battery racks had failed, allowing the fire to spread.
The industry claims it has improved battery safety. Governor Kathy Hochul’s inter-agency fire safety working group increased requirements for fire suppression and training. Nyserda provided a model law for local governments, incorporating the measures recommended by the state task force to regulate the installation, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of battery systems.
The Town of Ulster has not adopted Nyserda’s model battery law, although it is considering a large-scale, lithium-ion battery storage facility within a largely residential neighborhood.
The residents deserve better. The town’s deliberations should incorporate the protections offered by the governor’s fire safety task force and Nyserda’s model battery law.
Ken Panza
Woodstock
Full of deviltry
Most people understand that God has no gender, but the Devil is still male.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Repeated rhythms
From Vietnam’s jungles to today’s democracy, the echoes remain.
In Vietnam, I once strained to hear beyond gunfire and jungle heat. Thousands of miles away, what reached me were the chants of young protestors who knew nothing of my face but everything of the war’s corruption. Their voices cut through the command to “kill anything that moves” and planted the seeds of doubt — and survival in me.
Now, decades later, I watch as the moral ground beneath our democracy erodes. The slogans of God and Country that once fueled enlistment are being replaced by drones and button-pushers. The promises from parents, teachers and generals that America was a moral lighthouse seem to have been sold to the highest bidder. Corruption spreads like smoke, thickening the air until it’s hard to breathe.
Mark Twain reminded us that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Today, the rhyme is bitter. Many who once filled the streets with protest are now baby boomers calculating their 401Ks. What was once fire has dimmed into embers, smothered by mortgages, prescriptions, and the struggle for survival.
Two landscapes still haunt me: the jungle of Vietnam and the hollowed agora of today’s America. Both demand reckoning. In one, young men were ordered to kill. On the other hand, citizens quietly barter away their consciences for comfort.
The question remains: what rises from such decay? A phoenix of renewal — or only drones, circling without memory, replacing resurrection with surveillance?
In the end, our battlefield is here. The voting booth is where a nation faces itself — where we must weigh life against capital, cons.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Housing financialization
The ability to buy and live in your own home has long been a dream in our nation. While the subject of housing costs has been extensively discussed, there’s another growing problem across the nation and potentially locally. It’s called the financialization of housing — the growing purchase by investment institutions of large numbers of single-family homes and converting them into rental properties.
Corporate consolidation of housing, driven by high returns over short timelines, is attractive to private equity firms. The investment strategy accelerated significantly following the 2008 financial crisis, enabled by technology. The post-recession market conditions created a unique opportunity for institutional investors to quickly expand and manage their holdings of single-family homes. Historically focused in areas with low housing prices, such as Florida and Texas, the practice is increasingly entering other markets, such as New York.
Corporate ownership and consolidation of housing adds to our housing pain. It’s often associated with increased housing costs, decreased housing quality, algorithm-driven pricing, and reduced homeownership. Investment groups and corporations can pay cash, outbidding first-time homebuyers. By reducing access to home ownership, it reduces the path to building wealth for middle-class families.
An upsurge of corporate purchases of single-family homes has sparked legislation in at least half a dozen states this year. Ulster Strong welcomes the recently announced plan by non-profit research group Pattern for Progress to conduct research on corporate housing ownership and consolidation in the mid-Hudson region. It’s essential we have a clear picture of our local housing market, and then determine if new regulations are warranted.
Tony Marmo
President, Ulster Strong
Esopus
I’m no elected official
In the letters-to-the-editor section posted online tonight, Kitty Brown, town board member, brings my name into her letter with incorrect facts, and the tone of her letter is clearly her attempt to attack me for some unknown reason. I am an employee, not an elected official of the village, and it is disappointing you would print such a letter without fact-checking first.
Mike Baden
Village of New Paltz
No longer just how
I wake up every morning and wonder how. How is it that masked men and women are allowed to show up in our communities and snatch our neighbors without due process? How is it that a right-wing media host can get away with saying we should use lethal injections to kill unhoused people? How is it that the Texas A&M president can be forced to step down because a professor at his college recognized that there are more than two genders? How is it that Jimmy Kimmel expressing his right to free speech, a right that belong to all of us, can be canceled on Trump’s say-so? How is it that law firms and universities and corporations and media companies are capitulating to Trump? How is it that Republican politicians are falling in line like brown shirts?
But maybe “how” is no longer the right question. Maybe the only questions to ask ourselves are who (all of us), when (now), and where (get involved with a pro-democracy organization like Indivisible).
The answer to why is obvious. Because it’s up to us, the people, to stand up against a would-be dictator.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
Back to one sentence
Sparrow is usually short, succinct, sometimes mildly amusing, at best, in his weekly “wisdom.” This one “The Towers are Ugly” was long, rambling, and senseless — 23,000 years, blah, blah, blah.
Please go back to one sentence. Time marches on.
Jerry Behrens
Old Tappan, NJ
Formerly Saugerties
A profitable career
Masks of truth worn thin, “Prove me wrong,” a cruel charade. Wisdom caught in nets. Puppets dance in jest, questions lead like sirens’ calls, traps dressed up as sport. spinning tales of pride, hate cloaked as a bold intent, divisive applause.
Clowns like Kirk in bright debates, logic bends beneath the weight, truth is a fleeting ghost, echoes of the loud, fans defend the reckless word.
“Not hate — it’s just real.” A show of shadows, rhetoric a stage of flames, burning the bridge to thought.
Charlie Kirk spent his life’s work and all his energy and time targeting all kinds of groups while arguing for a world in which gun massacres would be easy to enact, plentiful and inevitable. He became famous and wealthy doing it, and we’re now not supposed to mention that because it’s not polite. The fact is Kirk made a profitable career spreading hate toward his fellow Americans.
Spout dangerous rhetoric, win dangerous prizes. Charlie died by the sword that he’d been polishing for years.
You can’t yell fire in the crowded movie house. Kirk did nothing but that with two fists of iron. You must wonder where he learned his hate at such a young age.
Anyone dying from gun violence is a martyr. I do not agree with anything Charlie Kirk believed in, and the lies and hate that he professed to believe. He is now a martyr, which is unfortunate. It will only give Trump more reason for troops in the streets.
With that said, no one, and I repeat no one, should be assassinated for espousing their political belief regardless of how reprehensible those beliefs may be.
Does Kirk deserve to be exposed as a fright-wing, hateful fascist-like extremist or some other kind of awful hate-mongering miscreant? Absolutely!
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Just a little more
In Hudson Valley One’s Feedback section, Leslie Gerber wrote: “If Mr. Harris can’t afford the additional seven bucks and change a year that the [library] bond will cost taxpayers, I will gladly offer to pay it for him.” I accept Mr. Gerber’s offer.
And I have a follow-up: Will he also pay the seven dollars for others in town living on fixed incomes? And will he cover the “only dollars” from all the previously issued bonds — the ones that were each framed as minor, manageable costs, yet collectively add up to a significant burden?
While seven dollars may sound trivial in isolation, it’s part of a familiar pattern: a steady accumulation of “just a little more,” often framed as civic virtue, but rarely reckoned with in full. In Woodstock, the median annual property tax bill now, according to Ownwell’s Woodstock property-tax-bill calculator, exceeds $8000 — more than triple the national median. That figure reflects years of incremental borrowing layered into our tax base, each bond sold as modest, each cost absorbed without full accounting.
If we’re going to talk about affordability, let’s do so honestly — not just bond by bond, but in aggregate.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Ties to Donald Trump
On September 24th, the Daily Freeman contained information about the candidates in the race for Ulster County Legislature in District 2, a portion of Saugerties. Their article was so incomplete as to be misleading.
It described the Republican candidate as a teacher. I presume that is currently accurate. But it failed to mention his extensive professional work as a Republican campaign operative and his strong ties to Donald Trump.
In 2016, Mr. Polacco was employed as a member of Trump’s campaign in New Hampshire. Then he worked in the first Trump administration as an advance man, making arrangements for the president’s appearances out of town. He also was employed on Republican campaigns for Patrick Morrisey in West Virginia (2018), Ola Hawatmeh (2020 primary, NY district 19), and Lee Zeldin’s New York gubernatorial race (2022).
I trust your coverage of this important race will include this information so that voters have a more complete picture. It will make some voters support Mr. Polacco and others to oppose him. But voters deserve to know.
Kathy Gordon”
Saugerties
Profile
He loves watching light-
dappled trees swaying
in the breeze. Loves
the deep night with
its indigo mysteries.
Loves cloud-sky-sun,
how they play out daily.
But handle with care.
Subject, usually docile
and good-natured, may
bite if crossed. Righteous
Indignation is this Scorpio’s
middle name. Loquacious,
he will entertain you with
talk about Hollywood’s
Golden Era, Daytime Serials,
and anything to do with
Ancient Egypt. Cats, dogs,
chocolate, malt balls, whiskey,
and fresh cups of Joe are
always welcomed in his world.
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Library money pit
I quote Leslie Gerber’s letter, “…The library’s construction budget, which came about due to unforseen and unforseeable costs. The largest of these was the necessity to purchase and install a water pump to make up for insufficient pressure at the site to operate a sprinkler system.”
Yes, the library board and supporters of the 2022 bond had blinders on. I specifically wrote numerous letters in this paper and asked publicly, “Why hasn’t an inspection been completed of the building prior to purchasing?”
I constantly stressed how the bond vote was being pushed through too quickly, and numerous questions were not being answered. One of my letters was titled “Money Pit”
The outrageous wasteful spending is ongoing with no sense of fiscal management.
We the taxpayers have been paying J.C. Alten (construction manager) since August 2019 while he was on Tilly’s team for that debacle (vote failed). And he was paid through Covid. We have continued paying this man to date.
The Dixon Avenue building wasn’t purchased until June of 2022. Construction began in 2023. Think about it.
The fundraising was inadequate, and monies were transferred from the general fund to the capital fund to cover costs for the Dixon Avenue site. Those monies were from taxpayer-approved annual operating budgets not approved for this project.
I also stated the building was not to code for ADA and fire safety, and needed a sprinkler system. When Bearsville Theater needed water for their sprinkler system, they hooked up to town water and installed two hydrants to accommodate pressure requirements. Others wrote letters with concerns of the library board‘s ongoing mismanagement and outrageous spending. All went on deaf ears.
This sums up how the board manages the library on behalf of the community and taxpayers. Deaf and blind. Vote no on the upcoming library bond vote and budget on October 9!
Natalie Cyr
Woodstock
Treaty reaffirmation
The Nicolls Treaty re-signing ceremony took place Saturday morning (9/27) at Stone Mountain Farm in Tillson. Representatives from the Iroquois Nation, Munsee Turtle Clan and Ulster County.took part.
The re-signing has been taking place yearly since 2013, when after 368 years the Ulster County clerk, the late Nina Postupack, began the practice of reaffirming the document yearly. The ceremony was followed by the Standing Stone Peace Tree Unity gathering.
Glenn Kreisberg
Woodstock
Charlie Kirk misquotes
Three hundred words won’t even scratch the surface in thoroughly addressing the distorted quotes by Eric Glass and Will Nixon in their uninformed attacks of Charlie Kirk. Their quotes were either exaggerated, taken out of context, or even debunked.
Eric alleges Kirk said “black women do not have the brain processing to be taken seriously.” Kirk was speaking about four specific women, not the entire black female population, and said of these four women that they only attained their status because of quota/DEI processes and that they never would have risen to their status levels based solely upon their own merits. Not one of these four women perfectly fitting in the same category would be Kamala Harris, an obvious DEI choice of Biden. She was in over her head from day one, as evidenced by her endless word salads that never intelligently explained anything, regardless of the topic.
Will’s story of Kirk saying Paul Pelosi’s attacker needed to be bailed out by a “patriot” was taken out of context and ignored a point being made by Kirk about bail. Kirk said that if a murderer in Chicago could be out on bail the next day, then why couldn’t Pelosi’s attacker also be out on bail?
Movie mogul Stephen King said after Kirk’s assassination that Kirk said “gays should be stoned to death.” Once King found out that Kirk never made such a statement, King immediately deleted his post and apologized for his unvetted posted fiasco.
Again, I would like to have addressed several more of Eric’s and Will’s inaccurate allegations against Kirk, but 300 words stifles such an attempt.
Thanks to already proven examples of AI being abused by devious people, the challenge grows more difficult to find accurate and honest accounts of just about anything.
John N. Butz
Modena
Broken immigration system
Were you with us when Amnesty International’s Mid-Hudson chapter last year invited Sarah Towle to speak to us about “Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands”? Sarah spoke to a full house about how the U.S. immigration system evolved and how she personally went from outrage to activism to abolition.
Sarah will be presenting her very recent second edition with a new author forward and updated epilogue framed around the second Trump regime’s first 100 days.
Please join Amnesty Mid-Hudson and author Sarah Towle for an in-depth talk about immigration on Sunday, October 19th from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Elting Memorial Library, 93 Main Street in New Paltz. The second edition will be available for sale.
The event will be in person and on Zoom. For the Zoom link, register on the library’s online calendar. For more information go to https://eltinglibrary.libcal.com/event/15409557
Rosalyn Cherry
New Paltz
A new low in brutality
726 days have passed since the events of October 7, 2023 when Hamas orchestrated a plan to capture Israeli citizens to use as barter for thousands of Palestinian in Israeli prisons, many who are children. Israel’s superior military intelligence using covert means, found out about this invasion plan a year in advance and prepared a report called “Operation Jericho” detailing the exact Hamas plan, as reported in The New York Times.
Nothing was done to prevent it from happening. Not only that, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) moved its soldiers and tanks from the border wall where the invasion was to happen to the West Bank. To make matters much worse, the IDF took six hours to respond, allowing 1200 of its citizens to be murdered by Hamas terrorists minus the ones Israel killed following the Hannibal Directive. Meanwhile, according to the late Charlie Kirk, it only took 45 minutes to go from one end of Israel to the other by helicopter.
Now, 726 days later, a genocide of Palestinians has been officially declared by the U.N. to be happening, obviously at the behest of Zionists yearning for a “Greater Israel.” Israel is a signed member of the 1947 Genocide Convention to make sure that nothing of that sort would happen again. But it has, and Israel, the former victim, is now the perpetrator, systematically destroying every means by which the Palestinians can sustain life.
That’s called a prima-facie case of genocide. Hamas has shown on October 7th that it can be very brutal, but Israel, with its high-tech weapons incrementally decimating a defenseless civilian population and its infrastructure, has brought brutality to a new low. Where is the moral arc of the universe?
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Let’s do better
The series of continuing gun murders should be a clear indication that a change needs to be made in how Americans relate to one another when they disagree. Stronger federal regulations regarding background checks, mandated courses on gun safety practices, more effective monitoring of individuals with a history of psychological difficulties who seek or have access to a firearm, and a continuing conversation with youth about responsible gun ownership are just some suggestions to help remedy the current plague of tragedies.
September has been National Suicide Prevention Month. Young persons and military veterans are populations prone to this act — although a person of any age may contemplate or attempt suicide.
Helplessness and hopelessness are often factors in adolescent suicide attempts. This should challenge all of us to foster good relationships with young people by genuinely listening, showing an attempt to truly understand their opinions, assisting them in forming or maintaining a positive approach to life, and demonstrating that their life has value.
Whoever the person may be, don’t leave a person who is at high risk alone. It may be appropriate to call the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988), 911 or a hospital emergency room if someone appears to be in crisis.
Our American society is currently experiencing many difficulties. Some are directly manageable, others are not. What can be controlled is the value that we place on those we encounter in our everyday lives. Whether it be closer monitoring of firearm ownership or demonstrating to others that they matter, we should strive to Help One Person Everyday (HOPE) in order to improve the well-being of all.
We can and must do better. Just sayin’.
Terence Lover
Woodstock
Saugerties housing goals
I strongly support Stephanie Bassler for Saugerties town council. Stephanie is an architect and member of the town’s comprehensive planning committee, deeply knowledgeable in a top issue of our time: housing.
Recently, the county comptroller’s office released troubling data showing Saugerties has roughly 500 short-term rentals, representing five percent of our housing stock. Ulster County doesn’t recommend more than two percent. Stephanie understands and supports the need for a cap on these rentals. She pressed the current board to vote yes on NYS Pro-Housing Certification last year, a gateway to significant grant opportunities, and will fight for every available dollar for Saugerties.
Stephanie is a believer in making good on housing goals stated in our comprehensive plan, which makes clear: “Saugerties should maintain and encourage a variety and diversity in the housing stock – including the goal of maintaining affordability for home ownership and rental opportunities – in order to accommodate the preferences and needs of current and future residents consistent with the community’s character as expressed in this plan.”
To achieve this, the comp plan lays out recommendations which empower our elected officials to act (i.e. a cap on short-term rentals as listed earlier). Implementing an upzoning and inclusionary zoning change in our zoning law is quite appropriate and one such example. This would cut bureaucratic red tape, help reduce development costs, and encourage truly affordable projects preserving our character and promoting sustainability for years to come.
As one of many struggling to see an end to this dark housing crisis, this lifelong Saugertesian sees a bright light in Stephanie Bassler. Please join me in supporting Stephanie and her “Better Plan For Saugerties” in this upcoming election whether it be via early voting (October 25 to November 2), Election Day (November 4), or absentee ballot.
Tim Scott, Jr.
Saugerties
Don’t take it so seriously
Don’t take it so seriously
Silly reality actors
In the play
All is going to be ok
Evolutions art great actors star
We are living mind space time
I’m ok after sickness
Good meditation karma bliss
Heroes float
Hope sees
The ticket is for free
Try to be happy
Tom Zatar Kay
Woodstock
A fairer tax distribution
Where do different local governments with different responsibilities get their money from?
Sales tax as a percentage of total revenue (and total dollars): Ulster County: 49 percent ($173.0 million), City of Kingston: 33 percent ($19.8 million), and Village of New Paltz: two percent ($92,244).
Property tax as a percentage of total revenue (and total dollars): Ulster County: 12 percent ($43.8 million), City of Kingston: 28 percent ($17.3 million), and Village of New Paltz: 38 percent ($1.55 million)/
The combined sales-tax rate is eight percent (four percent state). Our board has proposed the four percent local Ulster County share be changed so that Kingston would keep 11.5 percent of the total, the 20 towns and three villages would share 4.5 percent, and Ulster County would keep 84 percent. Towns and villages don’t have a say under New York State law. The sharing agreement between Ulster County and Kingston ends in 2026.
Right now, sales tax is divided based on assessed property values. Tax-exempt properties and population aren’t considered. This system hurts the Town and Village of New Paltz.
SUNY New Paltz alone has a higher assessed value than the entire village combined, that’s $312.2 million. SUNY NP’s assessed value is $399.2 million, with an assessed market value of $688.3 million.
New Paltz town and village get less support, even though they host the region’s only public residential university, hundreds of acres of public and private protected open space, and public trails and the Empire State Trail bike and pedestrian sections
We enjoy being a university town and a destination for visitors. These bring in sales tax for the state and county, and enrich our culture. But we need fairer support to be a good host community and keep New Paltz livable for families, seniors, students and young professionals.
Tim Rogers
Mayor, Village of New Paltz
A vesuvian lecture
The possibility of a battery storage facility in the Town of Ulster is currently aflame with controversy. Supervisor James Quigley’s response at a board meeting on 9/25 to a reasoned statement by Laura Hartmann about his violations of the SEQR process was familiar — an unhinged, anger-laced, personal diatribe designed to overwhelm and diminish opposition. Similar to other punishing ‘woodshed’ lectures, this unmanaged rebuke was devoid of self-awareness and self-regulation expected of anyone in a leadership position.
If cuncilman Clayton VanKleeck hadn’t intervened with strident calls of “tone-it-down, tone-it-down-now,” the supervisor’s performance would have been even more shameful than it was. Related to the adage “the truth will out,” supervisor Quigley’s vesuvian lecture to a constituent released, willy-nilly, an important, new and disturbing truth; namely, Terra Gen’s full environmental assessment form (FEAF) is “incomplete.” If it is incomplete, he should have returned it to the developer, disallowed website publication of their FEAF, and refrained from calling for a vote to name the town board as lead agency over an incomplete proposal. The FEAF cannot be both incomplete and complete.
He further stated that the town board is months away from either a positive declaration (serious issues of concern) or negative declaration (no serious issues of concern). The obvious conclusion of this contradiction is that supervisor Quigley may be compromising the integrity of the SEQR process for purposes we can only guess at, such as, is this a done deal in search of a way to get it done without a long, involved public process?
Regis Obijiski
Town of Ulster
Village sues town
New Paltz’s town board, after thorough and diligent review of thousands of pages, found it did not agree on a number of points with the village board’s environmental findings, nor annexation findings for a large development project. The town board did not find that the annexation of 60 acres of land to the village for the housing project as proposed by Commercial Street Partners would be in the overall public interest.
A key point of the town board’s determination was that the project, designed to provide student housing as multiple single-bedroom and bathroom accommodations with shared common kitchen/living areas, would not meet the general housing needs that are so lacking in New Paltz at this time.
Since this project (a revised version of the prior Park Point-Wilmorite proposal) was initiated in 2020, the housing needs in New Paltz and Ulster County have become more drastically clear. For the current town board, to agree to annex 60 acres for a project that would meet the needs of a subset of the population but not all would not be in the overall public interest. The board’s hope was that the developer applicant would return to the table with a revised project that could better meet the housing needs of all of the New Paltz community.”
The fact that the village, rather than the developer, has now initiated a lawsuit to force annexation for the unchanged project says they are removing the opportunity for any negotiation on the plans. The fact that the village has initiated a lawsuit against the town with the developer’s money during a political campaign, says even more.
Amanda Gotto
Town supervisor, New Paltz
Marbletown candidates
I’m writing to invite Marbletown residents to meet our candidates running for public office on Saturday, October 11, 10 a.m. to noon at Wesley’s Way Cafe (inside Lydia’s Cafe). Grab yourself a complimentary coffee and greet the folks who are running to represent us. Early voting begins October 25 and the general election is November 4.
Lindsey Grossman is running for Ulster County Legislature (District 19), following an epic primary that generated record-breaking voter turnout. Lindsey would work to create more affordable housing and advance small-business growth and job creation.
Eric Stewart is running for re-election to the Ulster County Legislature (District 18), where he has focused on housing, public parks, water quality and other environmental issues.
There are two open seats on the Marbletown town board, and two candidates. Lisa Giannico is an experienced school administrator who serves on the environmental conservation commission. Max Stratton runs a successful construction company, grew up in Marbletown, and chairs the town planning board. Lisa and Max are both first-time candidates for public office.
Learn more about all four candidates at marbletowndemocraticcommittee.org. Many of us have felt discouraged by news headlines and partisan rancor, but this free, relaxed event might just help you feel hopeful. At the local level we can have more influence over who gets elected and what kinds of priorities and policies are adopted. These candidates are accessible and interested in connecting with you. I hope to see you on Saturday morning, October 11th!
Alice Varon
Stone Ridge
A Gardiner candidate
I urge you to vote for Mike Hartner for Gardiner town supervisor.
Mike balances common sense, leadership and listening to the will of the people.
He is dedicated to balancing the environment while simultaneously promoting growth compatible with property-tax reduction and the town’s long-term objectives.
Vote for Mike Hartner for Gardiner town supervisor during the early voting period at any approved Ulster County voting location, or vote for him for that position on Election Day at your designated polling location.
Charles R. Strugatz
New Paltz
A New Paltz candidate
On Election Day, November 4, vote for Tim Rogers for New Paltz town supervisor.
Tim has shown his commitment to our community over many years, as village mayor for over a decade and before that on the board of education and the town planning board. He knows the issues – climate change, support for police and other first-responders, affordable housing, sources of state and federal funding, among others – and has worked energetically for them. He’s put money on our municipal table.
Letters supporting Amanda Gotto say she’s a Democrat, yet she’s running on the Republican line. She lost the primary. She also lost my respect by not accepting the primary results, choosing instead to front for a party that became unmoored the moment its leader descended from a golden escalator and gave permission for hate and fear to fly freely in our nation.
The fish stinks from the head. There’s no escaping its stench once its lips touch each cheek. There is no middle ground for the party of January 6. There’s only revenge and retribution, personal lawyers masquerading as DOJ prosecutors. There are only demands for Democrats to capitulate.
Amanda proclaims her green credentials yet joins hands with a party that is opening our national parks to coal mining after shutting down offshore wind projects. She promises to keep families safe from ICE, but embraces the party that uses ICE as a method of domestic terror and deports immigrants to Tehran. She supports Maggie Carpenter but accepts support from a party working to undermine women’s reproductive freedom. By stepping forward on Line B, the Republican line, she has capitulated.
This flies in the face of everything Tim has demonstrated across years of public service. This is Republican divisiveness brought to our hometown lawns.
Tim Rogers for supervisor!
William Weinstein
New Paltz
Join the family! 
