Volunteers are needed for Woodstock's largest party - the 79th annual Library Fair, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, July 31.
We are in particular need of volunteers who can pick up food donated by area restaurants on Friday, July 30 and on Saturday, July 31 we need volunteers to help clean up after the fair closes at 5 p.m.
Help make Woodstock largest party a success by calling 657-6439 or stop by the library and offer your help.
Freya DeNitto, Fair Chair
Woodstock
BREAD INSTEAD OF CAKE? All 40 Republican senators and one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, used a filibuster to keep the unemployment extension bill from reaching a vote. The reason was that it would increase the federal deficit which is expected to soar to $1.4 trillion this year, according to DailyFinance.com.
What in the name of all that may be Holy and left in this world does this say about our government? A 33 billion dollar sum was recently asked to be voted on for the wars, the president and Mrs. spent 10 million on social functions this past year with Mrs. supporting a personal entourage of 25 people at the cost of over a million in combined salaries each month! I can readily see where cuts could be made, can you?
Congressmen voted themselves a raise this year, and Social Security recipients won't get the yearly cost of living allotment. Something is radically wrong! The consumer report says sales are down more than in seven months! How can sales increase if 10 million people can't buy anything? Shouldn't Congress have thought about the deficit when the new cabinet and president came on board?
Folks, we're at the bottom of the totem pole in the eyes of our government. It is shameful that unemployment extension is denied while billions/trillions are spent elsewhere and our leaders bask in luxury. An awful lot of folks will be eating bread instead of cake and you know where this could lead.
Joyce Benedict
Hyde Park
TURN IT DOWN
Take down your wind chimes they're really absurd
There's a Meadow Lark singing and he'd love to be heard
He'll sing for you free day after day
If you'd just get your ipod out of his way
Your walkman will play all your favorites for you
But there's a train at your back and you haven't a clue
Step out in your yard it's a beautiful day
And hang up your cell phone if you've nothing to say
So turn off the tv, turn down all the sound
Go out in your yard and listen around
There is no telling what you might hear
You might remember why you came here...
Lorin Rose
Bearsville
SURVIVORS, ALL
We want to express our warmest gratitude to all concerned for making our event, a dramatic reading/performance of our play The Bride of Auschwitz, at the library on Saturday June 19, such a fabulously successful event! The outpouring of support from the editors of Woodstock Times, from Come to Woodstock, from the library directors, from Michael Perkins, and especially from the community, blew us away!
In particular, we cherish the support, emotionally, spiritually, and politically, of the many survivors who attended...survivors of the Holocaust, survivors of abuse, survivors of all the hazards this world and this country have to throw at us. As we see weekly in these pages, Woodstock means many contradictory things. But we have often seen that it can mean an energized community dedicated to peace and justice, and it is that kind of community we always dreamed of living in. That's why we came back here, to the area of our childhood dreams.
And here we all are! Thank you!
Amber Rose, Barry Fruchter
Woodstock
SAVE THIS DATE
Thursday, July 15, 7:30 p.m. at the Woodstock Community Center. Meet and speak with our Ulster County Comptroller, Elliot Auerbach.
Elliot will bring us all up to date on the fiscal state of Ulster County and the changes he has made to create a more transparent and effective government.
This is a free event and Elliot will take your questions and discuss his vision for his second term as the most innovative and open comptroller that Ulster County has ever had! Join us July 15, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center.
Terrie Rosenblum, Woodstock Democratic Committee
Woodstock
THANKS AGAIN, WOODSTOCK
One of the nice things about living in Woodstock is that the residents know when to share. And share we do. The Good Neighbor Food Pantry is living proof. Just a short time ago, the pantry served about 20-25 people each week with fewer than 5 children in the mix. Well, things have changed...really changed. Just this last month we provided food to many more households and there were over 100 children in the mix.
Hunger is an issue for children in Ulster County which many do not want to think about or even admit. And, of course, hunger for seniors is a reality as well. And, when we say Ulster County, we have to include Woodstock. And, whether we want to admit it or not, there are hungry children and seniors in Woodstock.
For the tiny Good Neighbor Food Pantry to go from serving people in such small numbers to serving people in large numbers could never have happened without the help of individuals in Woodstock who are willing to give, and give generously, without every asking that their names be listed anywhere or that anyone even know that they are giving. Well, this giving is happening nearly every day in Woodstock.
So, to all the unnamed people who drop food off at 31 Tannery Brook or who drop food off at the door of the pantry or who bring food to their church or synagogue, we offer a sincere thank you.
And, to those of you who send checks to the Woodstock Reformed Church, we offer a thank you.
Those donations make a huge difference. The donations of food are invariably food products that we could not get otherwise. And the money allows us to purchase products that are just not in the budget any other way. Good Neighbor Food Pantry volunteers have been a presence one day each month at the Sunflower for several months now and people do not seem to be tiring of sharing money or groceries. Our commitment to providing nutritious food is serious. We cannot improve the quality of food served at the pantry without everyone's help.
And, of course, volunteers are quietly, with no desire of recognition, unloading the monthly food shipment at the Woodstock Reformed Church and then walking away without so much as a thank you. Then, they are returning again the next month to do it all again.
For years, the food pantry was maintained by a small, unsung group of people from Christ Lutheran Church, Shady Methodist Church, St. John's Catholic Church, Overlook Methodist Church, Woodstock Reformed Church, St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, and, more recently, Woodstock Jewish Congregation. These people have recently been supplemented with a small group of dedicated volunteers from the community. This dedication is essential. The pantry is now open on Wednesday evenings to serve the increased numbers. I do not see this number reducing anytime soon.
So, to everyone who has given of time, energy, money, or food, the Good Neighbor Food Pantry offers you a sincere thank you.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
LIFESPRING ADULT LEARNING
Woodstock and surrounding area retired, semi-retired and other adults are invited to join the Lifespring: Saugerties Adult Learning Community for our second year of operation, 2010-2011. Classes are held at the United Methodist Church, which is handicapped-accessible, on the corner of Post and Washington in the Village of Saugerties. Classes start September 21, meeting weekly on Tuesdays for six weeks.
The membership fee is $60 per year for two semesters, fall and spring. The fall schedule offers a total of 13 courses to choose from on a wide array of topics, including but not limited to Hudson Valley wildlife, biology, poetry, creating a handmade book, American democracy, and many more. Go to www.lifespringsaugerties.com for the complete catalog, or call 845 246-2800 Ext. 452 to request a printed catalog. Registration deadline is August 10.
Lifespring is a Town of Saugerties volunteer-run organization, supported by membership fees and volunteers who perform all necessary functions. There are many ways that Lifespring members help make the program successful, from serving on the curriculum committee, running AV equipment, being a class manager, or in short-term volunteer capacities. If you are seeking a way to share your energy, skills, and interests, we will welcome you and put you to work!
Course instructors are not paid, but volunteer to teach because they have strong interests that they love to share. If you are interested in teaching, please contact Lifespring as above.
Marvelene Beach
Woodstock
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
Recent efforts to impose a curfew in Woodstock, to prevent youth under age 17 from being out on the streets, illustrates the need for better solutions both locally and nationally. The risky behavior of youth is a direct result of the Disease of Meaninglessness. Adults, often unintentionally, contribute to the Disease in a variety of ways that include: failing to acknowledge effort, overprotecting, failing to impose boundaries and/or follow through with appropriate consequences based on Restorative Justice.
Children who grow up without clear boundaries (expectations that help us become good people) feel unloved and unsafe. Children who experience rules without consistent consequences learn to manipulate the system so as not to get caught. Each of these situations results in our youth feeling "entitled" to having anything and everything they want. Children who are overprotected grow up feeling as though their parent/guardian didn't trust them or have confidence in them and therefore have little confidence in themselves. Children whose efforts and gifts go unacknowledged grow up feeling worthless and invisible.
All of these ways of interacting with our youth is, quite literally, creating the very problems we seek to prevent because people who feel unloved, unimportant or entitled act out in a variety of ways.
Recent studies show that character is internalized through a process of Awareness, Understanding, Action and Reflection. This process is better at preventing risky behavior than any behavior based prevention program. So, you may ask, what can be done to encourage authentic self-esteem in our children? Speak mindfully. Be interested in them.
Set boundaries. Impose appropriate, restorative consequences. Change the measure of success from what we achieve to who we are.
The community, as a whole, could commit to creating a Culture of Character by providing a series of free training sessions for all adults in ways to use language and discipline as tools to shape character. The Youth Center could offer a free 10-week group for teens that would encourage mindfulness and build self-esteem through interactive activities. These strategies have been used successfully in other communities throughout the country, some in the aftermath of violence.
Within the past year, I have offered to provide training in internationally proven strategies in Onteora and Kingston Schools, in Woodstock, and elsewhere in the community for free. The lack of response has led me to question just how serious we are at wanting to solve the big problems we all face. In order for circumstances to change, we must do things differently. We must direct our resources where they will do the most good. Providing more activities may alleviate the symptom but only through more focused efforts on solving the cause of the problem will our community, and society, change for the better. The same tired solutions have not and will not fix the problem. It's time for a new approach.
Melinda McKnight
West Hurley
HIGH PITCHED VOICES
The "eunuchish" approach used by many in Town is to just shoot off their mouths instead of actually volunteering for one of the government boards (Planning, ZBA, WEC, etc.) or, gasp, run for elective office. Why don't they put their money where their mouth is? Could it be that being in the position of actually making a decision is too much for the talkers?
Howard Harris
Bearsville
NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS IN A NEIGHBORHOOD ZONE
I am writing this letter to correct any false impressions that may have been created by Paul Smart's article "What's in a Neighborhood?" where my plumbing office and garage was described as a "controversial plumbing parts warehouse."
This building houses a small, local, family owned and operated business that has been serving the local community for the last 15 years. We are a neighborhood commercial business that has built an office and garage in a neighborhood commercial zone.
Geoffrey Hanowitz
Woodstock
A POSITIVE BEHAVIOR VS. MISCHIEF MAKING
It's been at least three or four months since business and property owners complained of a rash of late night property damage incidents. We are headed into the second week of July and have begun a lively community debate about the up or down side of a curfew for youths 17 and under. And, as a community, we will now revisit the issue of whether or not we (the taxpayers) do enough for the youth of Woodstock. If I was one of our local mischief makers, I'd be LMAO right now. This is the unfortunate, convoluted manner by which Woodstock N.Y. governs itself.
We are going to have two different conversations this summer...curfew yes or no, and I vote no. The other ongoing conversation will revolve around how we spend tax dollars to entice Woodstock youth into positive behaviors vs. mischief making. In the mean time, I urge the town board to authorize the police chief to schedule the police out on the bike patrol at night now, and also authorize the use of plain clothes police, effective immediately. Let's catch the offenders in the act and let the court hand down, to the few, just consequences for their actions. Let the rest of our youth have freedom of movement. As a business owner and tax payer, this is how I would like to see my tax dollars spent.
If you agree with any or all of these statements, I urge you to call or email the Woodstock town board members ASAP and let them know.
Janine Fallon-Mower
Woodstock
METAPHYSICAL MERGE
Reading Bob Berman's "This conscious universe" reminds me that quantum physics has turned scientists into philosophers and metaphysicians. Not since the ancient Greeks has metaphysics and the science of physics been so intertwined. Before the development of modern science one could speculate almost endlessly on the nature of the universe. The scientific method separated metaphysics from physics as the telescope and microscope gave us an understanding of the very large and very small. Now, it seems, we have come full circle as physicists have pushed the bounds of our knowledge to the point where no one really can say what is real. Witness the theory of "Boicenterism" and the concept of the conscious universe as proposed by Bob Berman and Robert Lanza MD. If correct the universe is a single intelligent entity that made everything "just right" for beings like us. This is truly a "far out" theory that boggles the mind, but as Mr. Berman states we live in a very peculiar Cosmos.
Michael Norcia
Phoenicia
NO WATER FOR FOOD? You can imagine my dismay when I went to our plot at the Community Garden on Tuesday and found the water turned off. Unable to take care of our veggies I called the Water Superintendent's Office thinking there had been an inadvertent shut-off during work for the summer camp kids at Andy Lee Field.
Not so I was told, it was off on purpose. "We're preparing for an impending drought", I was told. "A notice went out to the papers." I said my research of various climate maps indicates no areas of drought, mild or severe in New York State. Is this County-wide? I asked. "No, just Woodstock."
Though my wife and I made some more calls, we basically were told, no water for the Community Garden. Of course such a drastic decision affects some 30 or so families who garden not only their own organic vegetables but also maintain a plot for Family of Woodstock, which then supplies many more families in the area with fresh clean food all season long - plus they receive donations of "surplus" from individual gardeners throughout the growing season, well into late fall.
It was suggested we carry in five gallon pails of water (do we go to Saugerties to get the water?) and by the by, five gallons of water at 8.3 pounds per adds up to a hefty 41.5 pounds. Sounds like a version of Iron Gardener. 'Carry these pails of water from the gate on Rock City Road to the community garden up by the tennis courts, if you stop to rest you are disqualified, if your back gives out tough! If you lack the strength, why are you here anyway ?
On Sunday, the Freeman had an article about Woodstock's "water advisory," however, there was no 'advisory', but rather a flat declaration of "no watering lawns or gardens, driveways or car washing" for the foreseeable future. Are our wells getting too low? Not according to supervisor Moran, rather he's being "proactive".
Do I believe for one moment that all those who have home gardens will now stop watering them at the height of the growing season during a heat wave? No, I don't think so. I agree we would all be best served if no "lawns, cars, or driveways" were watered. But our food gardens need care and protection. It doesn't even seem civilized to cut off water supplies to vegetable gardens. Historically that would've meant some pretty severe responses, no matter who you were or where.
For us at the Community Garden instead it means our officials take drastic action against us when even they aren't prepared to say there's an emergency and we see a Woodstock Fire Department Tanker truck being used to water the flowers on the Village Green! Of course we have not been offered something similar for our food.
True to form, our Town officials have seen fit to treat their constituency as if we're all ignorant children who need to be told what to do, when to do it, and no questions, do it because we told you to...To me the Moran administration regularly sinks to new lows in all they do...how deeply sad.
Joseph Trusso
Woodstock
FIX THE EXISTING PROBLEM
The Water District subscribers are penalized each year with "Water Restriction" because the management and local government have failed to fix the problem. The problem is not the lack of rain nor is it the lack of water in the aquifer.
The problem is that the water intakes at each of the seven wells is only ten to 15 feet below the surface of the ground and thus are only capable of pumping from the top ten feet of the plus-100 foot deep aquifer. There is an abundance of water in the aquifer to supply the district subscribers without restrictions. The casings need to be extended deeper into the aquifer so the intake units can be lowered deeper into the water source.
The Horsley & Witten report of April 1995, the New York Rural Water Association report of November 2003, combined with the U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey, Bulletin 65, in 1970 that contains Woodstock well logs, describe and illustrate the Woodstock water system.
The current and previous administrations have failed in their responsibility to properly care for our existing infrastructure and yet they encourage and recommend that we expand the sewer system and extend the water system to special projects.
As more homes, developments and users are added to the system, the problem will only get bigger with more frequent and prolonged restrictions and perhaps, with a lesser quality of domestic water.
Jerry Washington
Woodstock
STANDING UP FOR WOODSTOCK
Because of the following friends and neighbors, the Woodstock Volunteers' Day float was able to be a part of the Saugerties Independence Day Parade. We would like to thank Jeff Harringfeld, Irv Finkle, Jack Blackman, Michael Stock, Jr., Fred Nicolai, Gene Peterson, Neil and Forest Schaffer, Richard Wininger, Jean Michel Gal, Steve Proner, Dick Moore, Woodstock Councilman Bill McKenna and Zack Auer.
It was a good feeling to weave through the streets of Saugerties, playing music from many Woodstock musicians, honoring and thanking all of our community volunteers.
Sam Magarelli
Woodstock
THEATER ARTS PROGRAM AT PLAYHOUSE? Everyone seems to agree that there is not enough for teenagers to do in Woodstock.
How about a theater arts program at the Woodstock Playhouse? It could even be coordinated with UCCC and given for college credit.
Just saying.
Robin Kramer
Woodstock
INDEPENDENCE DAY
We missed it. Our opportunity to re-declare our independence from the British Empire (i.e. B.P.) It's interesting to re-read the first paragraph of the Declaration that we hold sacred, so here it is:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
Notice the 'separate and equal station to which the laws of nature - entitled them." So, we declared that back in 1776. Wow. It seems that we have not fulfilled our responsibility to the Laws of Nature. So, here we are, with British Petroleum still in charge of the effects on the wildlife of our southern coast line, and continuing to protect their profit making venture which was placed only 48 miles off of the U.S. shore line. Why didn't we re-declare our independence on this anniversary?
Well, it wasn't my fault. I had two friends pass away this week. One my sweet friend, Ray Tumbleson, who spent his life performing and teaching music, and who ended up spending his last years right here, singing in the Church Choir for as long as he could, and the other Bernie Wilens, whom I met when he was an agent at the William Morris agency, my first job of privilege, which I attained because I was the fastest typist of those that applied. Well, at least two people I know have declared their independence. For the rest of us, I suggest that we return to our obligation of protecting life on earth, or at least life in the United States of America.
Jill Paperno
Glenford
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