(letters from March 29, 2007)

Dear Editor,
This Thursday March 29, Onteora School District residents are being asked to vote on two proposals. Each proposal accomplishes high priority goals for the District without raising our local school taxes. The first proposal is to replace the 43-year-old boilers at Woodstock Elementary School, which have exceeded their useful life. The second priority is to renovate the aged auditorium at the Middle School/High School, offering students and community members a renewed forum for multiple uses.
So, why are no additional taxes needed? This work will be done by appropriating two different funds. The first funding can, with voter approval, come from a special state fund known as EXCEL (Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning) Aid. This money is a result of the court ruling in favor of the Governor’s Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and is available only once, upon voter approval.
The second source is the District’s existing Capital Reserve Fund, which was approved by voters in 2006. The total expenditures for both projects is $1,862,711.
Projects are completed in stages of a period of time, and don’t all get paid for at once. Since the State does not reimburse the District for the EXCEL Aid portion of the project until it is completed, the District will use money from the Capital Reserve Fund to cover the initial costs. Money will not have to be borrowed to cover expenses while waiting for State reimbursement, and no interest will be accrued. When the refund arrives, it will be used to replenish the Capital Reserve Fund, and used for the remaining project expenses.
This vote requires two propositions: one authorizing the District to expend funds in anticipation of the EXCEL funding (which will be reimbursed once the State verifies that the specific project is complete); a second proposition allows funds in the Capital Reserve to be accessed for the projects. The legal working required in the proposition states that the District may levy a tax to raise the funds in anticipation of a refund; however, in this case, Onteora Central School District is planning to use the Capital Reserve Fund to cover the initial expenses, so there should be no need to borrow funds or levy a tax.
Voter approval is required to make these vital repairs. Voting will take place from 2-9 PM on Thursday, March 29, at all of the district’s elementary schools, including West Hurley. A newsletter from the district explaining theses projects in detail has been sent to all residents. Should you have additional questions please contact my office at 657-6383. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Leslie Ford, Superintendent
Onteora School District

Dear Editor,
On behalf of the Bennett Elementary School PTA, I would like to encourage all voters in the Onteora School District to vote YES for the two items to be voted on the scheduled vote on Thursday March 29. If we do not approve the EXCEL funding we will not receive the funding from the state. We would be throwing away a state grant! The additional item will authorize the District to use Capital Reserve funds. These are funds the district already has and will not require any increase in taxes. These monies are to be used to make necessary repairs to our school buildings. Many of our school facilities are old and have not had the necessary upgrades that they should have had over the years. A yes vote would enable the District to start to make some of the renovations needed. Our children need a safe and modern school environment; these repairs will be a step in that direction. Please vote yes for BOTH items.
Mary Ann Shepard, Co-President
Bennett Elementary PTA

Dear Editor,
Forums are a good thing. They are informative, allow those present to respond to questions and engage in various conversations. But, are they always dependable. Do those that hold a forum actually receive the information that they are seeking. Can policies be made and decisions costing millions of dollars be decided using information from a forum. That depends.
On March 03, 2007 the Onteora School Board of Education held a community forum regarding the proposed District Master Plan Capital Projects. The purpose of the Forum was for the Board of Education to receive input from all district tax payers, groups and interested parties in order to develop a vision for the future of the District. There were two sessions one in the morning and one in the afternoon totaling about 80 people. According to the Ulster County Board of Election there are at least 11,234 eligible voters in the Onteora School District. The district even has a few eligible voters in Green County.
Participants were asked to write down which one of the three plans they preferred. That was an excellent request to those that were at the forum. Regardless of what their answers were it’s next to impossible to get the consensus of the entire district by receiving input from only 80 or so different views. There’s another important element of the Board of Education’s forum. Perhaps it’s a more important element than how many were at the forum. Was there a good mix of the participants at the forum? Were there more parents, more people that are involved in the school at the forum or were seniors that are struggling to pay their taxes largely out numbered?
Today we have a wonderful technology called the Internet. It’s a very powerful and reliable tool. The last I heard one out of every household has a computer. If the Onteora B.O.E. would think outside of the box and use a very popular feature on the Internet called a blog they would accomplish a much greater participation rate and a more accurate feeling of the entire community. Millions around the world use blogs as a way to communicate. Major Television Stations like CNN, ABC and many others have blogs on their Web Sites.
When requested that a blog be set up on the schools Web Site Superintendent Ford in an e mail said, we don't have the personnel to run a blog as you suggest. That’s not easy to understand because listed on the school’s Web Site there are a District Web Master and five other Web Masters. Setting up a blog is not a difficult thing to do and anyone knowing how to get on the Internet would not find it hard to participate in a blog. A blog is simply a fast an easy way to communicate. The person setting up the blog inputs a question or comment and, in this case, people in the district would respond. The question or comment can be changed at any time. Many boards’ members have said that they want to be open to the public and to hear the tax payer’s thoughts and comments. At the school board’s February meeting Superintendent Ford made several announcements’. One of those announcements was we will be hard on ideas and soft on people.
William Warnecke
Glenford, NY

Dear Editor,
In response to the recent Memorandum of Agreement of the parties to the Ulster County hospital affiliation the UCDW membership voted at the regular monthly meeting March 12, 2007 as follows:
We, the members of Ulster County Democratic Women, are concerned that the existing plans and Memorandum of Agreement between The Kingston Hospital and Benedictine Hospital have not adequately protected patients’ rights and community access to care. Because the Berger Commission timetable (end of 2007) is rapidly approaching, we formally ask the hospitals to publicly address these concerns:
Relocating women’s health services to a “proximate” location should not be approved. Reproductive health care is woven into the fabric of care throughout a non-religious hospital, and such a move would not further the public’s health because it would fragment and stigmatize reproductive health care. There is no practical or legal reason to segregate reproductive services if the hospital alliance is designed to protect the historic identities and missions of each hospital.
The MOA and subsequent documents should explicitly ensure that Kingston Hospital and Kingston Regional Healthcare System (consisting of Margaretville Memorial Hospital, the Kingston Continuing Care Retirement Community, and the Kingston Regional Health Care Foundation) will remain nonsectarian and will continue to provide a full range of reproductive health services, HIV/AIDS prevention information and end-of-life choices within the hospital.
The MOA and subsequent documents should not endanger the ability of Kingston Hospital and its affiliates to continue to provide a full range of health care services and research.
Create a formal, ongoing opportunity for public participation—the first of which should be held before May 31st.
Adopted by vote March 12, 2007.
Julie McQuain, President
Ulster County Democratic Women

Dear Editor,
My family and I live within the Catskills State Park, on a tiny rural road just off State Rt. 28--the already dangerous, busy two-lane corridor that leads out to Belleayre Ski Resort. To say that I am very concerned about Dean Gitter's proposed Belleayre Resort development project, currently under consideration by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, would be understating things.
The current proposal and even the counter-proposal both have problems. The Gitter proposal would entail massive construction spread across hundreds of acres of mountainsides and mountain ridges, destroy more than 100,000 trees, pave over dozens of acres of forested watershed lands, potentially endanger NYC's water supply, and constitute the biggest development project ever within the Catskill Park boundaries. The developers' "compromise" plan, announced in summer 2006, does not go nearly far enough in safeguarding this environmentally fragile landscape.
BUT, even the proposal advanced by Maurice Hinchey, to downsize this project & protect the fragile 1,240-acre eastern portion of the site (by sale of that parcel to the state for inclusion in the Catskill Forest Preserve) has problems. The revenues that would come to Delaware County, on the western (developed) size would not at all benefit those in the Eastern county (Ulster) -- which would nonetheless bear the burden of the increased traffic flow, pollution, etc. of this project.
If the "best case" scenario, environmentally, is the compromise that develops only the western side of the mountain, then there needs to be some form of economic sharing of the benefits, as well as the burdens, for the people whose FRONT yards all this undesirable traffic is about to pass through.
Danielle Woerner
Shokan, NY

Dear Editor,
Regarding the recent articles about the Masterpage cell tower in Shandaken, I feel the need to bring up the unpopular subject of openly embracing technology without carefully looking at the downside. In this case 24 HOUR A DAY - 7 DAYS A WEEK OF MICROWAVE RADIATION. Of course the cell phone industry says the microwaves from cell towers are safe...but what do other experts have to say? Since I am not an expert, I refer readers to the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS Website, where they quote experts from around the world:
http://www.iaff.org/safe/content/celltower/celltowerfinal.htm
Here is an interesting exerpt from the conclusion:
"WHEREAS, fire stations across the United States and Canada are being sought by wireless companies as base stations for the antennas and towers for the conduction of cell phone transmissions; and
WHEREAS, many firefighters who are living with cell towers on or adjacent to their stations are paying a substantial price in terms of physical and mental health. As first responders and protectors of the general public, it is crucial that firefighters are functioning at optimal cognitive and physical capacity at all times; and
WHEREAS, the brain is the first organ to be affected by RF radiation and symptoms manifest in a multitude of neurological conditions including migraine headaches, extreme fatigue, disorientation, slowed reaction time, vertigo, vital memory loss and attention deficit amidst life threatening emergencies; and
WHEREAS, most of the firefighters who are experiencing symptoms can attribute the onset to the first week(s) these towers/antennas were activated; and
WHEREAS, RF radiation is emitted by these cellular antennas and RF radiation can penetrate every living cell, including plants, animals and humans; and
WHEREAS, both the U. S. and Canadian governments established regulatory limits for RF radiation based on thermal (heat) measurements with no regard for the adverse health effects from non-thermal radiation which is proven to harm the human brain and immune system; and
WHEREAS, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency stated in a July 16, 2002, letter, “Federal health and safety agencies have not yet developed policies concerning possible risk from long-term, non-thermal exposures. The FCC’s exposure guideline is considered protective of effects arising from a thermal mechanism (RF radiation from cell towers is non-thermal) but not from all possible mechanisms. Therefore, the generalization by many that the guidelines protecting human beings from harm by any or all mechanisms is not justified”; and
WHEREAS, an Expert Panel Report requested by the Royal Society of Canada prepared for Health Canada (1999) stated that, “Exposure to RF fields at intensities far less than levels required to produce measurable heating can cause effects in cells and tissues. These biological effects include alterations in the activity of the enzyme ornithine decarboxylase, in calcium regulation, and in the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Some of these biological effects brought about by non-thermal exposure levels of RF could potentially be associated with adverse health effects”; and
WHEREAS, based on concerns over growing scientific evidence of dangers from RF radiation, an international conference was convened in Salzburg, Austria, in the summer of 2000 where renowned scientists declared the upper-most RF radiation exposure limit from a tower-mast should be 1/10th of 1 microwatt (Note that 1/10th of 1 microwatt is 10,000 times lower than the uppermost limit allowed by the U. S. or Canada.); and it should be noted this limit was set because of study results showing brain wave changes at 1/10th of 1 microwatt; and
WHEREAS, in a recently cleared paper by Dr. Richard A. Albanese of the U. S. Air Force, a highly recognized physician in the area of the impact of radiation on the human body, Dr. Albanese states, “I would ask a good faith effort in achieving as low exposure rates as are possible within reasonable financial constraints. Also I would fund targeted studies using animal subjects and human groups living or working in high radiation settings or heavy cellular phone users, emphasizing disease causations. I urge acceptance of the ideal that there should be no unmonitored occupational or environmental exposures whose associated disease rates are unknown.” (The opinions expressed herein are those of Dr. Albanese, and do not reflect the policies of the United States Air Force.); and
WHEREAS, recently a study, not affiliated with the wireless industry, was conducted of firefighters exposed to RF radiation from cell towers/antennas affixed to their stations.** The study revealed brain damage that can be differentiated from chemical causation (such as inhalation of toxic smoke) suggesting RF radiation as the cause of the brain damage found on SPECT scans; and
WHEREAS, firefighters are the protectors of people and property and should be protected under the Precautionary Principle of Science and therefore, unless radiation is proven safe and harmless, cellular antennas should not be placed on or near fire stations; therefore be it "
I caution all to consider the health consequences of microwave cell towers on the entire community, and not to consider them as necessities.
V Minielli
Chichester NY

Dear Editor,
Although this winter has been relatively mild, mobility issues for people with disabilities continue. Even just a few inches of snow makes it more difficult for people with disabilities to get out of their homes to work, shop or do errands. Snow is piled in handicapped parking spots, sidewalks aren't cleared and pedestrian crosswalk visibility is blocked. No wonder accidents happen!
Most municipalities have local ordinances that require homeowners or occupants to remove snow and ice from their sidewalks within a designated time after a snow storm. Businesses are required to clear ice, snow or any obstructions from a handicapped parking space and adjacent curb cuts.
Apart from governmental ordinances, let's remember that individuals with mobility impairments are our sisters and brothers or other family members, co-workers or ourselves.
Fran Wishnick
Maryann Donaldson
Resource Ctr for Accessible Living
Kingston, NY

Dear Editor,
The Spitzer “middle class” STAR exemption will correct a major flaw of the original STAR exemption program by limiting increased STAR benefits to those with household income under $235,000. However, the basic STAR benefit will continue to be available to all homeowners – rich, middle-income and working poor. Further, relief is marginal and short-lived: three years from now, even those receiving the maximum STAR benefit – a $60,000-income household - will find their property taxes increase 10% over their 2006-2007 payment.
The Property Tax Reform Task force interprets Governor Spitzer’s addition of an income cap as an attempt to save a politically popular program, and a first step to shifting taxation to an ability-to-pay basis. It is, though, a very cautious first step. Another major problem remains: there’s an enormous disparity between the amount of STAR dollars per student that the State allocates to rich school districts compared to the rest of the State. Moreover, like the original STAR program, increases in future school and town budgets will eliminate any short-term benefit to homeowners.
The original STAR program, signed into law in 1997, never achieved its promise to provide meaningful property tax relief. School budgets continue to spiral up, and so do property taxes. Today’s exorbitant taxes fund more than 50% of the public school budget, according to the Office of the New York State Comptroller. This is the bind: We can’t afford our schools. Their budgets exceed our ability to pay.
This press release contains two attachments (in addition to this press release):
• First, a worksheet that illustrates how Governor Spitzer’s proposed STAR enhancement will affect a homeowner of a typical house in Marbletown (Ulster County), New York, over the next 3 years.
• The second attachment, entitled The Dark Side of New York State’s STAR Exemption Program, looks back at the 8-year old program and asks critical questions: Why STAR in the first place; Is STAR fair; Can any program provide genuine tax relief without cost containment; and, Where does STAR exemption money come from?
The Property Tax Reform Task Force is part of a New York State coalition of citizens, towns, municipalities, civic and professional groups. The Task Force organizes grassroots support for reform of property tax and school funding, and pushes for legislative change at the county and state levels.
Carole Kraus
Property Tax Reform Task Force
Stone Ridge, NY

Dear Editor,
It has for a long time disturbed me that grants from our state representatives are universally tainted with the designation "pork" or "pork barrel." The implication is that the money is being spent to benefit the legislator, or at the least, that the money is not being spent on something that is needed or of benefit to the community. In the case of the grants that Family of Woodstock, Inc. has gotten from our state representatives, nothing could be further from the truth. Were it not for the funds from Senator Bonacic and Assemblyman Cahill, Family of Woodstock would not at this moment be distributing copies of a newly revised Youth Yellow Pages to every middle and high school student in the county; were it not for Assemblyman Cahill's personal initiative to help the homeless, the increase of 11 beds and more living space for homeless families would not be being completed at the Family Inn. A grant from Senator Bonacic is allowing the agency to bring its accounting system into the 21st century and will significantly improve our cash flow, allowing us to keep our administrative costs down and our service level up.
These grants are the life blood for many not for profits. Most often, they allow innovative programs to get funded before the need is recognized and a state department designated. They also allow agencies like ours to make improvements which make us more cost effective, improvements that would otherwise only come at the expense of services. There is no doubt that information on all state grants should be available to the public and the press and should be scrutinized, but to diminish the value and appropriateness of thousands of local projects because they are funded by our local representatives is wrong. I do not think that either Senator Bonacic or Assemblyman Cahill in their assistance to Family are motivated by getting the homeless vote or looking to the future when the teens they are helping will be voters; rather I think that we are fortunate to have community spirited representatives who are aware of the needs in our community. Throughout the state there may be some inappropriate legislative items, but to denigrate all legislative items as such seems a cheap shot and poor reporting.
Michael Berg, Executive Director
Family of Woodstock, Inc.

Dear Editor,
Time after time, we hear lie after lie coming from the Bush Whitehouse and the republican administration. How much more evidence does the Republican minority in the house and senate need before they begin impeachment proceedings? I seem to recall many of the same republicans led the lynch mob to drag Bill Clinton through the impeachment process for lying about oral sex. Yes, oral sex that had nothing to do with our country, our troops, or our RULE OF LAW! Now you have Bush who seems to either be unaware of the concept of truth or just arrogant enough to believe that Americans are too stupid to see through his lies and blatant acts of treason. Bush and his team have lied about so many things, but I will name just a few like the reasons to send our soldiers off to die in an illegal war, disregarding the Geneva conventions, condoning torture, illegal rendition, hurricane Katrina response, outing undercover CIA agents, letting wounded soldiers lay in their own urine, firing US attorneys, and on and on it goes. If congress won’t call them out on all the lies that are destroying our country, killing our young men and women, and disrespecting our wounded veterans, then we must! Please show your outrage and contact all of your elected leaders to demand that they finally put a stop to this insanity. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales and the rest must be removed from office through impeachment. There is no other way to stop the lies and restore the credibility to our country that every American deserves.
David Turan
Stamford, NY

Dear Editor,
I sent the following post to Rep. Maurice Hinchey; if you agree with this, please let him know you do.
Mo:
You have been early and consistent in calling Bush and Cheney liars, lawbreakers, and derelict of duty. The logical next step is to begin the impeachment process. It is not a mere option, but required by the constitution if you believe the above characterizations to be true. Congress must do its duty, or else we will be condoning this behavior and there will be no limits to what the current and future executives will do, or try to do.
Support for Bush and Cheney is at its lowest ever; additional recent events only make stronger the case that was already valid years ago. We are only getting mired deeper in a national nightmare that is sapping our strength, finances, and standing in the world; unless we make a clear and principled stand in support of our constitution and against overwhelming violations in our laws, we become as guilty as the offenders, and will never redeem ourselves in the eyes of our posterity and the world.
The case for impeachment is solid; the language is available in various reports and proposals. That many Vermont towns have voted to support this initiative should indicate that the mood of the nation is already ahead of the Congress. Now it is the turn of our representatives to do their duty and reclaim our constitution and the rule of law from a criminal gang (add AG Gonzales to the list) before it isn't possible.
Put impeachment back on the table and make it happen!
Steven Krulick
Ellenville, NY

Dear Editor,
What product, when used as directed, causes disease and death to millions? A product promoted in our communities with tantalizing advertisements, as another 4,000 of our youth each day are lured into using it regularly. Why, as citizens, do we tolerate such ads when we don't have to?
Have you ever seen youth smoking cigarettes and wonder why kids today would ever start smoking? Research attributes that a third of our youth get sucked in by the "exciting and cool" advertisements like those plastered on convenience stores' property. Even when stores just have the brand logos posted, such signs suggest that smoking a product with 200 poisons is somehow "normal behavior."
The Master Settlement Agreement reached with the tobacco industry did not go far enough to protect youth. Cities and counties can adopt zoning ordinances limiting the size and location of any advertising. Suggested guidelines include not allowing more than 10 percent of storefront windows to be covered with ads of any kind (also reduces obstructions for patrol officers) and prohibiting exterior signs.
For many, exterior tobacco ads are just eyesores. However, placement matters. For example, tobacco ads at Stewart's Stores' gas pumps are placed at the eye level of toddlers, who see and imprint the images whenever being escorted inside. Promoting tobacco tar and fresh milk together, how "distasteful."
Citizens can request zoning boards and government officials to address this issue, and limit advertising that threatens the beauty, safety, and children of our communities. As for convenience stores without such ads, please offer them a "thank you." Instead of only wondering why youth start smoking, adults can take actions that help prevent youth smoking.
Checko Miller
High Falls, NY

Dear Editor,
I must agree with Ms. Mescal Hornbeck in the first part of her missal to us in the press issue of March 1, 2007. All of the “jousting” in the Social arena that has migrated to the Legislative Halls is so “out of place”. The Courts likewise have no business in “our” personal business. Who is the state to “allow” us to marry? Who then is the state to officially dissolve that marriage?
Ms. Hornbeck points out quite correctly that a belief culture which most of us subscribe to is fine for each of us individually, but not the larger community unless we want to “gather together at the river”. I, myself accept Leviticus and Romans as a fair guide [for me]. I think Psalm 139 re: “a child in the womb” is a strong indication of “life” before birth and is part of my belief(s). However, there is opposition to this notion by those who support “choice”. OK, there’s not much room for argument citing the Constitution and it’s 27 Amendments. Can I get an “amen” which would include my 2nd Amendment Right?
The other half of Ms. Hornbeck”s admonition to the people is “off the chart”. She wants to ban some of my favorite products including “under arm” deodorants, “bug” sprays” and common “foo-foo” lotions. I suspect cigarettes [a legal product] are in there somewhere but we do have the right to kill our self.
Let’s hear it for WD-40. It’s a great body rub and will fix arthriris.
Some states have “outlawed” suicide, again minding someone else’s business.
In total Ms. Hornbeck’s message to us is valid, timely and in good faith. There’s that “faith” again. It gets in everyone’s way.
Glenn T. Anderson
Olivebridge, NY

Dear Editor,
News reported via NPR is that addiction to gambling is rising at an alarming rate, that it is greater than anytime in history and the United States has the highest percentage. Perhaps the most alarming news of all is that our children are gambling and becoming addicts at an alarming rate. Much of the gambling is done via the Internet but in places close to casinos there is much more addiction than exists elsewhere. Caring people take news like this to heart and do all they can to oppose the establishment of new casinos. This includes voting for casino opponents and acting locally wherever and whenever the chance arises where your voice can be heard. It is tragic to see that more and more of our daily life is swayed by commercial interests and many people support casinos because of the false promise that the jobs they offer will improve our economy.
Gambling addiction is a phenomenon that is not visible to the observer, as is addiction to drugs and alcohol, and also the addiction is not talked about nor are there social forces at work to provide help for the addict of which he or his friends or relatives can take advantage. The result is that it consumes more and more of the addict's time, causes severe economic woes for the addict and his family. Educational goals as well as careers are ruined.
While the casino industry and new casinos are developing ostensibly as a support for the economy of the Native Americans it is important to note that many Indians, if not the majority, are opposed to it but have somehow been ignored by, again, corporate greed and power of those promoting it. There is always somebody there working for financial profit no mater what the human cost. Would that St. Patrick or some other kind of Saint would come along and get the snakes out of our midst!
Mescal Hornbeck
Woodstock, NY

Dear Editor,
Over the past nine months, a concerted campaign against Mr. Rick Fritschler, former chair of the Ulster Environmental Management Council (EMC), has been undertaken by leaders of the Ulster County government.
In these communications, I review the organizations being attacked, their relationship, and then the charges themselves.
The Ulster County EMC was started by the county in 1972. The EMC has functioned well for 35 years advising and assisting county and municipal governments on a wide variety of environmental matters. In 1995, Rick Fritschler was appointed chair, increasing the activities of the EMC. In particular, he obtained annual grants from the State Education Department (SED) for a federally-funded education program for volunteers called Learn and Serve America (LSA). Following federal regulations, this program combines the Kingston schools as grantee along with the Rondout schools, Ulster County Community College, Ramapo College and the EMC, acting for the county, and the federally-specified non-profit corporation, Lower Esopus River Watch (LERW), in a cooperative organization called the Mid-Hudson Service Learning Institute (MHI). All parties sign a required memorandum of agreement annually.
The Kingston schools have received such LSA funding from SED each year since 1997. Ulster County has matched that funding through annual appropriations to the EMC, plus in-kind services. The Kingston schools send 100 percent of the LSA grant to the EMC, which turns both county and federal funds over to LERW. The LERW executes the LSA program planned by the EMC. LERW acts as a vendor to the EMC. The close relationship between LERW and EMC has been questioned by some, but it is absolutely necessary for efficiency; planning and execution cannot and should not be completely separate.
The LSA program is audited annually by the Kingston schools and by the SED. If the program is not being successfully completed in a cost effective manner, the funding would be stopped. The Ulster County LSA program is one of four in New York used as models throughout the country. The program has trained over 1,900 volunteers in a wide variety of environmental efforts including water quality determination, stream bank protection, trail building and maintenance, park development, storm water management, Geographic Information System mapping, inventorying natural resources, food gleaning and firewood production donated to the poor, and other similar activities. The students range in age from about 10 to college age and the adult volunteers are of all ages. The volunteers put in about 30,000 hours of effort in 2004 alone (and hundreds of thousands of hours since the program began) on these programs under the direct leadership of teachers, EMC employees, and many experienced volunteers. After their training, most volunteers continue to give their time, effort, and expertise in their communities.
This is the goal of the LSA program and it has been very successful in Ulster County.
The program has saved us taxpayers big bucks. Think of the cost of hiring professionals to do all those thousands of hours of work and the continued effort after their training. The EPA has estimated that the stormwater management program, alone, has saved the taxpayers of Ulster County about $1.8 million so far.
David Straus, Executive Committee
Ulster County EMC Board
Gardiner, NY

Dear Editor,
After the last several stressful political years, it’s a relief to find the Democrats in power in both houses of congress and to have hope of reversing the wrongs instituted by the Republican government. But I know this is not a time to relax and leave it all to the powers that now be. I think a great place to put my energy is into getting the governing power into the hands of people who will not be bought and who don’t have to answer to corporations and other heavily financed entities. Luckily for us, the new governor of New York, Elliot Spitzer, arrives predisposed to implement the ideas of Clean Money, Clean Elections. This Clean Money Clean Elections system is already working in five states: New Mexico, Connecticut, Maine, Arizona, and New Jersey, and in the cities of Albuquerque, NM, and Portland,OR. In these states and cities, a person of good will in any party and of ordinary means can run for office by getting fully funded by the government after getting enough signatures and five-dollar contributions. To find out more about how this process works, go to www.citizenactiony.org and click on clean elections. It feels good to have hope again that people concerned about people, instead of money, can be elected and do the work that benefits people.
Lee Fishback-Crummins
Cottekill, NY

Dear Editor,
The first time I saw it, it immediately made me smile. I had just walked into the driveway of what we know as La Dutchess Anne and there it was rising up in front of me, a magnificent, extraordinary light sculpture, about 30 feet high. Maybe it started out as a Christmas tree decoration and it is that but it has gone beyond that and is also an unusual abstract light sculpture. It was created by Fabrice, the chef and proprietor pf the restaurant and inn. I understand it took him three days to create it and he did it without a ladder.
It is worth the ride there to take a look. It is unconventional. You won't see anything like it around. While you are there stop in and try out some of this Brittany born gourmet chef's delicious cuisine. His food is a pleasure. The atmosphere is warm and friendly and the service is excellent.
Bob Jacobson
Mt.Tremper, NY