Dr. Leslie Goldring Ford resigned as Superintendent of the Onteora School District as of July 9, 2010. A press release has been issued to this effect and is available here on the district web site: onteora.schoolwires.com
Moving forward, Assistant Superintendent for Business Victoria McLaren has been appointed as Acting Superintendent, with Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Dr. Katie O’Brien standing in if Victoria is absent.
Both of these talented administrators will continue to serve the District well, as the Board begins its search for a new Superintendent of Schools. We value both our Assistant Superintendents equally and appreciate our strong working relationships with them. Victoria was chosen because she is the tenured employee. She will be assuming these additional duties without receiving additional compensation.
The Board has already started the Interim Superintendent interview process, and plans to announce the appointment of an Interim in the very near future.
The Board is also commencing a search for a new Superintendent of Schools. We are grateful to Ulster BOCES, who will be assisting us with this search, without charging a fee. (The District will pay advertising costs.)
We are forming a shared decision-making team to conduct candidate interviews, per our district procedure. This team will be comprised of representatives from the Board, Central Administration, the Onteora Administrators’ Association (OAA), the Onteora Teachers’ Association (OTA), the Onteora Non-Teaching Employees Association (ONTEA), students and one community member from each of our four towns.
While the Board will resume regular meetings in August, we would very much like to hear from the staff and community now as to what qualities they would like to see in our next Superintendent. To that end, please email us at onteoraboe@onteora.k12.ny.us, or call 845-657-2677 x 490.
The Board would like to thank our central office personnel, our administrators and our union leadership for the spirit of teamwork and community they have shown.
As we enjoy the summer and plan for the school year, we look forward to working with all of you, and dedicate ourselves to making Onteora the absolute best school district it can be.
Laurie Osmond
President, Onteora CSD Board of Education
EXIT AFGHANISTAN
I wonder if our leaders today read history and comprehend its meanings.
In Vietnam, some 58,000 Americans were killed and the maiming factor was some 150,000. America left Vietnam under less than victorious circumstances and the Country’s native leaders resumed authority. Between the Vietnam War and the Iraqi war, the military industrial complex made many technological advances. Better protective armaments for soldiers and enhanced battlefield treatment procedures held down the kill ratios but the maiming ratios left America with some 30,000 veterans who will be in V.A. hospitals and after care programs for many years. With new weapons techniques some 1 million Iraqis were killed. America is not out yet and the kill and maiming ratios continue to grow...
Once again America is exiting Iraq under less than victorious circumstances. Now we find America in Afghanistan and the kill ratio has exceeded 1,000 and the maiming ratio is growing. History demonstrates that Afghanistan has never been conquered. Alexander the Great Failed. Ghengas Khan failed, Brittan failed. Russia failed.
The Taliban and the tribal chiefs merely need to play the waiting game. Many Afghanis
Know how to wear the revolving turban.When receiving American aid, the turban shows
Allegiance to the Americans. After the American leave, the turban spins little and shows
Allegiance to the Taliban and the tribal chiefs. America is not constituted to be a long term occupier of foreign countries. When the body bags continue to arrive in Dover Delaware, America will exit and once Again on less than victorious circumstances.
Afghanistan is a costly war and the resources can be better used here in America
To create jobs for the unemployed, to improve education, and how about getting a sensible energy policy. What do you think America should do?
H. Clark Bell
Woodstock
DEVIL’S KITCHEN BIKE CLIMB
The Tour of the Catskills is back for a third year, and this year promises to be the most exciting one yet! This year’s finale race features a climb up Platte Clove, a.k.a. Devil’s Kitchen, for the first time in a bike race since the Tour de Trump race in the 1990’s. The Tour of the Catskills is a three-day pro/amateur bicycle race that starts Friday, July 30 in Tannersville, is in Windham on Saturday, July 31 and ends on Sunday, August 1 in Hunter.
We are looking for volunteers to help with registration on Friday and road marshals on Saturday and/or Sunday. Any and all volunteers will receive a commemorative t-shirt and lunch on Sunday with the racers. As an incentive, groups or clubs that bring 10 or more volunteers over the course of the weekend are eligible to receive a $100 donation for their organization. This incentive is open to any kind of group and is not exclusive to athletic organizations. There are three 4-hour shifts available for just one day or as many as you’d like over the weekend.
The Tour of the Catskills is going to be an exciting event and I encourage everyone to take time for a short drive that weekend to come watch some of the race, and please consider volunteering for a few hours. For more information about the race or to volunteer, go to www.tourofthecatskills.com or email volunteers@tourofthecatskills.com.
Carrie Gray
Gloversville
IF THE SHOE FITS…
From the Urban Dictionary:
Elitist: 1. A person who believes that he/she is superior to others. 2. A person who believes he/she has the right to look down upon others but often doesn’t for the sake of saving the time and effort needed to criticize those he/she believes are of lesser abilities. 3. A pretentious jerk who acts like he’s important to make himself feel better.
Egomaniac: A person whose ego exceeds both his intelligence and his capacity to see beyond his own personal interests.
Howard Harris
Bearsville
PS TO “A CURIOUS TALE” Chief of Police Clayton Keefe was good enough to phone me in response to my letter of last week. He explained that it wasn’t the decision of the officer who stopped me to run my license plate. He was driving the one vehicle in the Woodstock Constabulary’s fleet that is equipped to run automatically every license plate that comes within range of its cameras. This high-tech and very expensive vehicle, the Chief explained, was presented to the Woodstock Constabulary by the state, as part of a state-wide program. That is to say, drivers across the state are being randomly and automatically investigated for any information that is linked to their license plates. That seems something worth knowing, however one may feel about it.
Leo Treitler
Woodstock
WHY ISRAEL NEEDS WEAPONS Phil Sullivan of Woodstock wonders why the U.S. sends military weapons to Israel and not to Gaza (July 15). A similar question: Why does the town of Woodstock give money to its police and not to bank robbers, terrorists, axe murderers, rapists, burglars, and other assorted malefactors?
Warren Boroson
Woodstock
ILL-ADVISED DECISION
Not too many days ago, my wife and I went to tend our plot at the community garden. When I tried to turn on the main spigot, nothing happened: no water. Since we hadn’t heard anything from the garden organization, we assumed that it must have been due to some sort of temporary problem. A couple of days later, we went back to try again; still no water. This time, someone else was there who told us that it was not inadvertent, that our overlord Jeff Moran had unilaterally decided to shut off the water without giving anyone any advance notice, let alone an opportunity to debate the pros and cons of such a decision. For example, some might have argued that cutting the water supply to a garden that supplies people with food might not be the best way to save water. It’s kind of like throwing out the baby with the bath water. And talk about arrogance...
Fortunately, we have received regular rain showers this past week; but if the recent combination of high temperatures and no rain had continued much longer, the entire garden could have been decimated. Did our overlord consider the major investment in money and labor that the gardeners had made that could have been wiped out by his ill-advised decision?
Luke Hunsberger
Shady
A PRICE ON THE PRICELESS
Eden is behind us now
The memories faded and yellow with time drop from our consciousness
Like leaves in the fall
Humanity is an impediment
We hate each other for the property values
We have turned mother earth out on the street
And now we put a price on the priceless
And fence out those who walk in the grace we fell from
Lorin Rose
Bearsville
NO WINNING IN AFGHANISTAN
Each day we read about more teachers, policemen and firefighters being laid off. I’m sure we’re all aware of the disastrous effects these events have on our fragile economy and educational system.
If President Obama wants to regain the support of those people, like myself, who supported him during the last campaign, he must tell us why it is more important to send billions of dollars to Iraq, Afghanistan and to the hundreds of military bases around the world, rather than using these dollars to rebuild our own country.
How can we support the Democratic Party when it is leading us down the same path that destroyed the Soviet Union after their losses in Afghanistan?
I hope the President will address this situation. He tells us about many important subjects, but he never talks about the hundreds of billions going into the military budget instead of helping the American people.
If some of these policies are reversed, it may be the only way the Democratic party will be able to recover in the coming November elections.
Jerome Taub
Lake Hill
THE LAW IS THE LAW
The Woodstock curfew problem is moronically being treated as some kind of social problem. It is not a social problem; the basis is criminal infringement on existing laws. Shop people are business owners of property upon which they pay taxes. For those ignorant, twisted folks: criminals are those who willfully destroy, commit a crime against, and/or desecrate property. If some folks think crime is anything else, it is my opinion they definitely need to take a colon cleanser for their minds.
It’s all about lack of principles — about getting your values straight: criminal behavior is in the realm of law enforcement. Those who destroy the peaceful enjoyment, well being, and livelihood of a property or shop owner, should be punished. Better, they need to be prevented from committing such crimes in the first place. That’s why we have laws. The paper quotes ignorant fools saying irrelevant statements, such as: those who don’t have teens should not have an opinion, let alone give input about a curfew. Those who pay both school and general/town taxes to this village, whether they have children or not, have the most right to give their input about how local government is being run. It is a fact that teens are not adults. As the Times reports Mr. Moran’s factual words, teens may have certain responsibilities, but they are not yet self supporting adults/citizens of our society. I agree that, until they are, they need to learn they must respect laws and their elders, who we should well understand may not be law abiding, upstanding citizens. They may do drugs themselves — alcohol, hard drugs and pharmaceuticals, and even cigarettes. That could be a large percentage of the source of criminal behavior — that and the general lack of principles and proper values. The law is supposed to protect citizens. There is not enough money, therefore not enough police, to cover lawless territory. The law is the law. If you do the crime, you have to do the time. In deference to the “good” teens, they must be patient for they know by now that life teaches us the good have to suffer for the bad. We all want and need to live peaceful lives. Prevent teen irresponsibility/crime. Enforce the law by supporting the police so that they can do their job. Set the curfew now. It will only get worse over time. If the crime ever subsides, then maybe the curfew can be lifted. Oh yeah, and consider homeschooling your kids. This is an opinion.
Patience Kotorman,
Woodstock
MONDAY AT GOOD NEIGHBOR FOOD PANTRY
It’s food delivery time. And, this month was no exception. A small army of people worked for a little over three hours getting the food in Kingston, hauling it to the Woodstock Reformed Church, and putting it away. Paul Shultis led the caravan from the Hannaford’s in Kingston to the church. Al and Ann Abrams, Barry Greco, the team from Hudson Correctional followed. The total weight delivered was a little over 6100 pounds.
At the church pantry itself Jeff Muise, Lisa Calcagno, Steve Grenadier, Bobby Blitzer, Gwen Tapper, Greg Mapstone, Nathaniel Mapstone, Susan and Stuart Auchincloss, Miriam Sarsheen, Harriet Iles, Tatiana Light, Bridget Sweeney, Jeff Faulkner, Keith Williams, Steve Tomlin, Ronald Latham, and Wilfredo Rivera, sorted, hauled, and put away the food under the direction of Mike Laurenso.
Once again, the closet was totally stuffed. We will be opening the doors to that closet very carefully for a couple of weeks this month.
Jim Hanson hauled a pick-up load of empty cardboard boxes to the dump for recycle.
Each and every person was needed. I offer a sincere “thank you” to each and every person who made it to the pantry this month. We hope you will find time in your schedule to participate in the delivery in August on the 16th.
If you would like to help deliver the food to the church from Kingston, the appointment time is 9:15 a.m. in Kingston. If you would like to help put the food away, that process should start about 9:30 am in Woodstock. Your service to your community is necessary and appreciated. The Good Neighbor Food Pantry would not exist without the generosity of people in our community.
If you cannot participate on the third Monday in August (August 16), we invite you to drop by the tent outside the Sunflower on this Saturday, July 24, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and make a donation. Volunteers from the Reflexology Association of the Hudson Valley are offering reflexology sessions, Reiki sessions, and Tarot readings to thank you for your donation. You may give either food or money.
All money collected will be used to purchase organic food for the Good Neighbor Food Pantry — something we always need.
If dropping by the Sunflower for a reflexology session is not in your schedule, we will gratefully accept a check. Please send it to Good Neighbor Food Pantry, c/o Woodstock Reformed Church, 16 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY 12498.
Again, thank you to everyone. All of us are needed at the food pantry.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
CELEBRATING SUCCESS Eighteen months into his first term, Mike Hein and his administration have much to be proud of. Beyond the nuts-and-bolts success stories in numerous county departments, Mike’s key political achievement has been to provide leadership where before there was none. While it may be irksome to his political detractors, Mike’s omnipresence is exactly what the county’s voters demanded after decades of not knowing who should get the credit — or more often the blame — for Ulster County’s dysfunctional government. Now we know. And as a result of the significant improvements in the functionality of the County government, there is a lot more credit, and a lot less blame, than there used to be.
The impact of Mike’s leadership extends beyond the county’s borders: the ability of this county to negotiate and cooperate with our neighbors, with Albany and with New York City have all been dramatically improved by the reform of our government and by Mike’s proactive leadership and advocacy for our communities. It is to Mike’s great credit that he has filled this role so successfully with no predecessor to emulate, his never having held elected office before. It’s even more to his credit that he has managed the affairs of the county so successfully in a time of national economic turmoil.
It is a shame that rather than join in the celebration of the success of our new form of government — something that all the citizens of our county can and should be proud of — some on the other side of the aisle skip no opportunity to try to knock Mike down for their own partisan gain. I suppose they just want to go back to the days when they were in charge, back before we elected Mike and comptroller Elliott Auerbach. You know, the days of high taxes, wasteful spending, and no accountability. The good old days for them, perhaps, but not for the citizens of this county.
Julian Schreibman, chair
Ulster County Democratic Party
Kingston
Republican county chairman Mario Catalano recently chose to withdraw his letter to the editor regarding Hein’s tenure due to issues of “timeliness.”
WHAT MADE SCHOOL IMPORTANT TO YOU? When I see a friendly face from the past, hear concert music or see beautiful art, it always brings back wonderful memories. Things have happened recently that brings me back to memories of my experiences while attending school. I remember the fun I had on the trips our high school band took to Virginia and Florida, performing at Walt Disney World, Bush Gardens Virginia, the State Capitol, and the elementary schools. We had concerts at the schools for our parents and I was privileged to be able to be a part of All County Band and All County Chorus multiple years. I was also involved in the Arts. I took all the classes for art that our district had available. During that time in both art and music I developed life-long relationships with students that had the same passions I did. They are some of my dearest friends today. We still keep in contact, our children are friends and I have had reunion parties for the band, music and art students that I went to school with over 25 years ago. During these get-togethers it is always inevitable that conversations lead back to the wonderful memories we shared.
Everyone has that certain teacher that encourages you to be more than you ever thought imaginable or that librarian that gave you the right book to get you hooked on reading. I was a very shy child that loved to sing and play the flute. I was one who practiced every day, imagine that, but it’s true. In sixth grade, I was asked to play the flute to accompany the choir when they sang “Silent Night.” Mr. Jones, my band teacher, gave me, a very shy child, the encouragement I so desperately needed to perform for everyone’s parents, the whole student body and the faculty. Even though I was quaking in my shoes, I pulled it off. Many of the things I accomplish today, I strongly feel I can attribute to being involved in art and music in school and those who taught me. I was expected and encouraged to do the best I could in all that I did. A motto I live by, even today.
The school district that I grew up in and have chosen to raise my three children in has had drastic events recently. Currently the Saugerties School District has been hit hard with the devastating mistakes from the past administration and the worst State economy I have ever seen in my 45 years. Taxpayers are unable to afford to make up the difference of revenue that the State is no longer providing to our district. Current cut backs to our district have occurred and I find that I am unable to sit idle by and let them happen. Instrumental music to the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades have been eliminated, four crucial art electives as well music electives, have been dropped (making it difficult or nearly impossible to major in music or art), the library department was downsized from six librarians to three for the district (leaving the Jr/Sr High School with one librarian to teach 1,600 students the skills necessary research and source for a well-written paper for both high school and college). Additionally there is no longer funding for after school clubs in the arts.
The students and community of Saugerties need your help! We all shop in your towns and stores. We have gone to your concerts and plays at UPAC, the Woodstock Playhouse, the Maverick and the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie. We go to your movie theaters and dine in your restaurants. We, as a community, are reaching out for you to help our children for we have always supported your events, businesses and communities.
We need sponsors for events, items donated for raffles and auctions, volunteers to run events, talented performers for our concert series and people to join us at all our events to raise the needed funds to reinstate programs in our school district. To get involved and help please contact me at suesachar@gmail.com or contact us through our web site www.saugertiesslam.com, to be updated regularly on events and contacts for chairpersons for the Saugerties PTSA-Saugerties Saves Library, Arts, and Music 2010 Committee. All monetary donations can be made to Ulster County Community Fund/Slam and mailed to: Saugerties PTSA - Call Box A, Saugerties, NY 12477.
We need you! We’ve been there for you in our good times, now be there for us in our bad times. The students of Saugerties and my children deserve to be able to have the kind of memories I had growing up and the education they deserve to succeed in life.
Susan Sachar, Committee Chair
Help Saugerties Save Library, Arts, and Music
Saugerties
NO FRACKING WAY
Halliburton profits were up 83 percent in the second quarter, and their shares were up 5 percent. That’s enough for you that own this stock to take a deep breath...no...deeper, please. Halliburton has more than one reason to be relieved. First, there is a possibility that the catastrophe partially caused by them could be coming to an end, unless of course, a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, which it is known to do, before the relief wells are in place.
Still, they are hoping that the temporary cap, which seems to be working, may replace the necessity for the relief well(s) during the hurricane season. There is still no proof of it’s holding, since there have been no experiments on anything being tried in the recent catastrophe, since it’s never happened before. But fear not Halliburton stockholders, we’ve heard little of Halliburton during this three month catastrophe, so their PR seems to be holding up better than any wells in any ocean.
There are other reasons for Halliburton shares to be rising (along with everything else under land and sea). The biggest one is that Halliburton is involved in Hydraulic Fracturing, now, appropriately referred to as Fracking. In a Henry Waxman investigation, Halliburton admitted to using fluids containing diesel fuel from 2005-2007, to fracture oil and gas from underground in 15 states. Fracking — now coming to a field or farm in your neighborhood. Yes, these things go on behind our backs, and by the time it comes to our attention, it’s way too late to prevent catastrophic toxins from having been exhumed into our air and water.
You don’t have to believe me. If you have any sense of responsibility to your loved ones, particularly to your children and grandchildren, I can now state that it is your obligation to see the HBO movie called Gasland. It not only explains it all, but shows proof of what has already happened in our neighboring Pennsylvania and other states. In addition, if you get HBO in your home, I implore you to invite your friends that do not have HBO to come and share your screen with them. A vote for temporarily suspending fracking in New York State is presently on the table. If we don’t let our representatives know that we are passionate about this, they can just wait it out and then resume their business as usual, whatever that is. Please remember: Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Jill Paperno
Glenford
SUPPORT UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Losing your job is a very demoralizing experience. You can blame yourself, feeling like you did something wrong, when you had nothing to do with the economic circumstances surrounding the loss. The Republicans add insult to injury by insinuating that the jobless are slackers, responsible for their own circumstances. The Republicans continue their assault by denying the extension of unemployment benefits. We reject this characterization of American workers who have lost their jobs during this devastating recession. We support the continuation of unemployment benefits for our hard hit friends and neighbors who are going through hard times.
Mike Harkavy, Chair, for the
Saugerties Democratic Executive Committee
THE FUTURE OF WATER
It’s raining right now as I write this which is a good thing for us all, and for we members of the Woodstock Community Garden who had been watching our gardens suffer since the town of Woodstock shut off our water weeks ago.
Before the rains of this past week, I kept hearing folks around town refer to the severe drought we’re in, which I guess people are bound to think when a strict water restriction is issued, but facts are, we are not in a drought. Not according to any agency that measures such things. And not according to Jeff Moran who said in a recent Freeman article that we’re not in a drought, he is just being “pro-active” in his restriction which disallows the use of town water for any garden.
In light of the fact that there is no drought we’ve asked town board members to perhaps give us an hour or two a day of water, or every other day. They said no. During a dry spell is after all when a vegetable garden needs water most. Bill McKenna has suggested we pump from the “water source” at the garden. By that I assume he means the wetland next to us. I’d be loathe to do that without checking how ecologically sound that is, even if we had the connections and wherewithal to do it, as the town does when they recently used a tanker truck to pump from the creek to water the flowers on the Green. No one offered to give us some.
Turn to any “green” website or periodical and you’ll see discussions of, and instructions for, growing your own food, and calls for the return of the Victory Garden. The American Community Gardening Association has documented over and over that community gardens ease economic stress on families, improve nutrition especially for children, preserve green spaces and strengthen communities. The Woodstock Community Garden can’t accommodate all of the people interested in growing their own food. Woodstock needs more community gardens and a town board who supports them, doesn’t give them “non-essential” status during dry weather, and sees the writing on the wall that this is an important investment any town can make in its future — and stop acting so vaguely hostile toward the natural environment.
Debra Stasi
Woodstock
THE ISSUE WAS MORE THAN PHOENICIA
With the departure of Onteora School District’s superintendent Dr. Leslie Ford, there has been talk of how the current board got elected. To say the trustees won their seats “to keep Phoenicia Elementary open” is reductive. The current board was never focused solely on keeping open one local elementary school. The campaign to elect them also was directed at keeping class sizes small in all three elementary schools, bus rides short, and fifth graders off of buses with high school seniors. The current board has done all those things, passed several budgets in harsh economic times, and developed a more open relationship with the public.
The previous board, as has been stated in these pages, intended to close Phoenicia as part of their consolidation plan. But they also had Woodstock Elementary in their sights. In fact, a very vocal member of that past board only recently opined that Woodstock Elementary stands on “prime real estate” that should be sold to a hotel chain. This same philosophy was uttered by a member of the previous board’s budget advisory committee at a meeting where it was also stated that a child could very easily wander onto route 375 and incur for the district “the mother of all lawsuits.” Almost everyone I know in Woodstock who caught wind of this stuff got angry. And, contrary to what some people thought would happen, they voted, and those votes helped to elect the current board.
In addition to consolidation, the previous board’s long-range plan was a grade five-through-eight middle school, which would see, along with the busing issue, lots of kids crammed into the current middle school/high school while state funding to help taxpayers pay for enlargement of the facilities was pending. (Now we know that money would not have been there.) Lots of folks — not just those with interests in Phoenicia — did not want to see that happen, and they voted.
In spite of a dysfunctional relationship with the now-departed superintendent, the current board has worked very, very hard to make sure all Onteora kids get the best the community can give them. To view them merely as patrons of a village school isn’t accurate. I’m proud of them, pleased that they parted ways with Dr. Ford, and happy to live in a community that votes with an eye on the needs of the students, not the bottom line.
Robert Burke Warren
Phoenicia
CONTROLLING THE WATER
Coming back from our yearly trip to Cape Cod, a joyful escape we eagerly look forward to…there was some trepidation — we’d left our gardens to the hopes and prayers of providence, for a “water emergency” was in place and it was forbidden to water our vegetables at the Community Gardens for fear we would deplete the water resources of Woodstock. You will not slake the thirst of thy Kale nor Chard, nor Zucchini you vampirical lot…fie upon thee for such desire for only the flowers of the Green and Merchants shall reap of our Source of Life.
Yea, well, it rained a bunch while we were gone and I’m delighted about it. Those veggies that we’re all growing at the Community Gardens are doing OK, no thanks to our Water Superintendent Hunter and/or Supervisor Moran, who have decided that to water our Community Gardens was a violation, blah blah, and so turned off our water supply. Do you know anyone else that had their water turned off?
He/they “forsaw” (was that a Ouija board or ayahuasca?) a water crisis and even though the wells are not low (quote Mr. Moran, in the Daily Freeman), the level of the Sawkill is the lowest Moran’s seen in 15-17 years. What? Is that the criteria spelled out in the statutes — “Mr. Moran shall judge the water supply by eye-balling the Sawkill?” I’ve seen it much lower more recently than 15 years, after all, its summer in Woodstock and a hot one at that.
A quick survey of several surrounding States and their policy about Community Gardens showed that they do not turn off water to their community gardens under restricted water use…hmmm could it be that Mr. Moran has some other idea in mind, as he often seems to…? Well, look folks, he keeps telling us that he has better ideas than the rest of us, he says he likes the environment, but yet he cuts, chops, dices and ‘subdivises’ whenever possible, be it political opponents, agendas, or trees. Especially trees, forests, meadows...you know, the nice stuff.
Facts are, there is no drought, there is no dearth of water. Worse, Mr. Moran and Co. have been pumping water from the Sawkill (our Sawkill, yes?) for their friends. Mr. McKenna has a special interest in the Village Green Project, was that the Highway Dept. Water tanker watering the green this time? Hmmm…
Yet, we who have devoted years to improving the quality of soil, who labored to fence and protect, who provide members of our village less fortunate with fresh food, who fulfilled the state and town requirements for endorsement face the humiliation of no respect, no counsel, and no consideration in this most vital of our needs, water.
Control, control, control…that’s all Mr. Moran and team seem to desire. Control, control, control…pity.
Joseph Trusso
Woodstock
PROPOSED CURFEW
Now that the Town Board has dropped the idea of enacting a Town Law that would have established a night curfew for our youth, I wish to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of those 300-plus Woodstock residents who signed the petition against the curfew.
The Town Board in its wisdom chose to listen to legal advice that such a curfew would have been legally challenged and would most likely have been found to be unconstitutional, as was the most recent case in Rochester, NY.
Should a Town Board in the future resort to any proposals that infringe on our hard won freedoms then it will receive the same opposition as did this proposed curfew.
Alastair McLurg
Woodstock
WOODSTOCK ACTIVISTS HELP WITH U.S. BOAT TO GAZA
News Flash! Yesterday both The New York Times and Washington Post blogs carried news of activists raising money for a U.S. boat to sail to Gaza with the next international flotilla. I am proud to report as well that a number of those “activists” live right here in Woodstock and as part of the campaign are holding a U.S. Boat to Gaza Fundraiser Party complete with music and speakers at the Colony on Friday, July 30. The fundraising party at the Colony starts at 7 p.m. and people will hear how the idea for a U.S. boat came about. The headline in the Washington Post read “World news roundup: U.S. aid boat wants to sail to Gaza as ‘The Audacity of Hope.’ The name comes from the title of Obama’s second book. When asked by a reporter, one of the activists replied, “But if the name is a problem for the administration, it can simply insist publicly that Israel lift the siege: end of problem, end of embarrassment…”
Tarak Kauff
Woodstock
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