Dear Editor,
            I have been following the statements and articles in the local press and Town Board meetings concerning the residency and police officer status of Commissioner Robert C. Schanck. It appears to me that there is some confusion with the basic questions, the provided answers and documentation.
            The question asked by Commissioner Schanck, re: the source of documentation possessed by Mr. Chris Johansen as not being available to anyone except from his office, is incorrect.   I personally obtained the document in question thru the Freedom of Information Law from the Division of Criminal Justice Service and the document is available for review by yourself and the Town Board at any time.  It is a public document easily obtainable by anyone.
            The statement attributed to Councilman Bruce Lamonda (The Olive Press August 19, 2004) noted "Schanck was the only current commission member with the qualifications required by the state."   This is also incorrect.   Town Law gives the Town of Olive the authority to appoint Police Commissioners as they see fit.  There is no Division of Criminal Justice Service requirement that states who a Town Board may appoint, and what their qualifications must be.  Wouldn't that be inconsistent with the town statutes?  Also there is no requirement for a "Chief" Commissioner, "Director," or any other title, other than Police Commissioner.  The Town may be able to create such a title, but there is no "statutory requirement" for it.   Mr. Schanck has sworn an oath with the Town of Olive as a Police Commissioner only.
            The "opinion" from the Town Attorney Peter Graham indicating that Mr. Robert Schanck is not a police officer and has sworn a Constitutional Oath of Office as a Police Commissioner has never been questioned.   He is correct.   The question that has been raised is how did Commissioner Schanck's name appear on the list of police officers for the Town of Olive with Department of Criminal Justice Services, the state agency which requires these records be kept and reported to them?  Why is he currently listed there?  Who are the individuals who submitted his name and certified the list correct since 1991? 
            Also, there appears to be some confusion with the documentation submitted by Commissioner Schanck at a recent board meeting indicating that his title is listed as a "Commissioner."(Olive document 74-04) filed at the Town Clerks Office.   That particular document appears to be outdated.  There is no date to indicate its timeliness, and there are four police officers listed that are no longer employed by the Town.   I believe one officer on this list had a retirement party a couple of years ago. At best, this would certainly bring this document into question.   In addition, the Division of Criminal Justice Services has indicated on several occasions (in writing) that Mr. Robert Schanck is listed as a police officer with a title of Commissioner.  When questioned, the DCJS records access officer responded after she had the legal division research the police officer question, and indeed Mr. Schanck is, and has been, listed as a police officer on the Town of Olive police records.   I again requested clarification from them, (DCJS), and they supplied additional information in writing (dated August 4, 2004) indicating that Mr. Schanck is listed as a police officer.  (Documentation available for your review at any time.)
            The question of the Town of Olive police badges and identification cards should be a very easy one to answer.  Shouldn't a simple inventory of the badges and cards issued indicate who possesses them?   A telephone call to the identification card supplier will answer the question on the identification cards.   How about a check of the cards purchased on or about February 2002 and earlier?
            In all fairness to Chris Johansen, I think he has asked some very basic questions about Commissioner Schanck's residency and other matters over the past several years.  He has supplied documentation supporting his concerns, and to date has not received answers from the Town Board or yourself.
            Some very basic questions that still need answering are:
            1. Who has certified and/or submitted the police officer registry to the Division of Criminal Justice Services since 1991 to the present time for the Town of Olive? Why doesmn't the Town Board simply ask the Police Commissioners who has certified the police officer registry since 1991?  A very simple and direct question could eliminate all this confusion.
            2. Why is Commissioner Schanck registered as a police officer when apparently no other Commissioner is, or has been so registered, and his Oath of Office indicates that he is a Commissioner?                3.Does Commissioner Schanck currently or has he ever, possessed a police badge and identification card?    If so, who issued it to him and why?
            Sincerely,                     
Richard Ostrander
Boiceville, NY

Dear Editor,
            Historically, the Republican Party came about in the 1850s. The Republicans were the people in the north wanting to outlaw slavery on a Federal level, the Democratic Party were the people in the south who said that the Federal Government has no right to tell them what to do. That was the real issue of the civil war: how much power should the federal government have? Your daddy and daddy's daddy voted Republican because of this. The Republican Party, like the Green Party today, at the time was a third party - the traditional two being the Democrats and the Whigs. Lincoln, of course, was a Republican President - the very first. He was a great man, and cared deeply for the well being of his country as a whole, above and beyond personal and vested interest. Strangely enough, the Republican Party was also instrumental in getting women the vote, and favored women's suffrage, as well as preserving vast amounts of public lands. Currently, however, the Party is seeking to reverse many of these accomplishments by privatizing our national forests and parks, and creating an atmosphere where anyone with a differing opinion is told to "get out", or worse, which are the beginnings of a Fascist Party. In short, the Republican Party of today is but a scrap of what it used to be.
            You should know why your family voted the way they did. My father voted Republican all his life, as did his father, etc. But now my father, being an educated man and able to think for himself with critical analysis, is not going to vote Republican because he knows that the "Republican Party", as they like to call themselves, are not really that at all. In fact, political analysts and historians say that the current Democratic Party is more like the Republicans of yesterday, and the current Republicans are really a Conservative Party, and a fairly extreme one at that. And that's what they should call themselves. They should be a third party and fight it out with Ralph Nader. Like my father, you too should think twice before you vote out of habit, or out of a feeling of loyalty to something you don't necessarily fully understand.
James Krueger
Pine Hill, NY

Dear Editor,                                                                It is time for the Onteora Board of Education and Administration to do the right thing. It had been a little over two years since the death of Kevin O'Connor. For the last two years I have watched the O'Connor family struggle with the death of their oldest son. The O'Connors just want the truth of how and why this has happened and the appropriate people held accountable for the decisions they made that lead to their son's death.
            For over two years Kevin's family has been told the accident was unavoidable and unpreventable. It does not sound like Don Williams, the Ulster County District Attorney, believes this. Negligence and wrongdoing was what he said. Onteora do the right thing. You owe it to Kevin O'Connor and his family.
Lorene Oaks
Shokan, NY

Dear Editor,
            As a practicing psychologist in Ulster County for the past 19 years, I have worked extensively in the Family Court. In so doing, I have come to know first hand the judicial excellence practiced by Mary Work in her role as a Family Court Judge. Her long experience on the bench handling the complexities of family problems makes her ideally suited to be elected to the Ulster County Surrogate's Court. I know Judge Work, and I know she will provide all of our County residents with fairness and judicial acumen. I strongly support her candidacy for the Surrogate's Court and hope you will too.
Steven B. Silverman, Ph.D.
Kingston, NY
 
Dear Editor,
            I was hoping your readers could answer these questions that have me really confused about The Large Parcel Bill:
            Why did the Onteora School Board enact this alternate means of assessing when Olive had begun a total town re-val and when the Olive Town Board was successful in appealing ORPS assessment of the Ashokan Reservoir?
            Didn't the 120% rise in the ORPS assessment of the Reservoir, without the Large Parcel Bill, bring all the towns of the Onteora School District into single digit percent differences of the Large Parcel method of assessment?
            Why did the Board of Education not focus on the fact that Shandaken, like Olive, has not re-assessed its properties for many, many years?
            Will the Gitter project throw Shandaken into The Large Parcel Bill status? Why hasn't Shandaken challenged the under-assessed State properties?
            When New York City sues Olive, once again, for over-assessment of the Ashokan Reservoir, will all the towns who shared the tax benefit chip in to fund the lawsuit?
            Why did Legislative Minority Leader Donaldson from Kingston get involved in an issue of the non-political school board?
            Is The Large Properties Bill similar to The Large Parcel Bill in that the towns in Ulster County will share in the revenue of the Town of Ulster Malls?
            Is HurIey considered a town with a large parcel since it also contains the Ashokan Reservoir and city properties? If so, why isn't the Kingston School District affected?
            Why is Woodstock only fighting for equal taxes in Onteora? What about the part of its town that is in the Kingston School District?
            I'd like answers to these disturbing questions.
Karen Hanson
Ashokan, NY

Dear Editor,
"No, they haven't let me play in the sandbox yet." That was the young marine's answer to my, "Have you been to Iraq?" He and the young woman were walking across my lawn to their car after their outdoor visit and as I walked towards my door I was stunned by his answer and repeated aloud to myself, "They haven't let me play in the sandbox yet."
It was morning and I saw them looking at my work. I went out to meet them. What was first noticeable was the fellow's military buzz haircut. To me he projected machismo, a restrained aggressiveness, even hostility. That is what basic training is about, along with helping to compensate for whatever doubts the individual has about his manliness. She, a painter and furniture maker, was the reason they stopped. She was wearing a Marine Corp tee shirt.
I thought about them. Was he short? Was he trying to impress her with that talk or did he need to hear himself say it? A couple, more different in their being, I have never met. She was slender and perceptive, and made me think of Diane Arbus or Sylvia Plath. I hoped they weren't married. She was keen to hear
me explain about my creative process and he became uncomfortable and impatient. When I asked if they were staying in the area, he answered with vehemence, "Not around here".
He was very respectful. He held the car door open for her. Maybe if he gets to kill a few Iraqis he will feel more like a man.                                                 

Bob Jacobson                                               Mt Tremper, NY

Dear Editor,                                                                Evidence shows that the church's claim to have had an unchanging attitude towards homosexuality is pure fabrication.  Yale history professor John Boswell found records of same sex unions in the Vatican, in St. Petersburg, in Paris, Istanbul, and in Sinai, dating from the 8th to 18th centuries.  The Dominican Jacques Goar included such ceremonies in a printed collection of prayer books.                                                A Kiev art museum contains a Roman icon from St. Catherine's monastery on Mt. Sinai.  It pictures St. Serge and St. Bacchus, homosexual Roman soldiers canonized by the church, being married and having Jesus as their pronubus/best man.  Pictorial proof that the church condoned same-sex unions with the blessings of Christ.  Separating time and place Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, was married twice to men by ordained clergymen.                                                            For much of the last two thousand years little churches and big cathedrals, throughout Christendom and in the heart of Rome itself, recognized homosexual relationships.  Same-sex unions were validated by the churches through clergymen and seen as a God given right to love and commit to a same-sex person, and to have that love celebrated and honored with the blessings of Jesus Christ.                                              Contrary to popular belief, Christianity's concept of marriage did not evolve in the days of Christ, but has evolved over time as a concept and as a ritual.                  For further readings on this topic, see the writings of Jim Duffy, historian, or Yale history professor John Boswell.                                            

Judith A. Boggess, MSC                                                    Shokan, NY

Dear Editor,                                                                I have been a resident of New York City all my life, and one of the many things I have learned out of living there is that free speech is a beloved thing. The city is so alive with street side performances, demonstrations, fundraisers ˜ and so diverse, too, are these events and their coordinators! ˜ how could it not be? One thing is for sure: New York City could not have gotten where it is  - "The Capital of the World" - if it had no freedom of expression.                                                                                   For the past four years, however, huge changes have been going on internationally. And in these four years (the previous term), I have watched our government erase many important things that I, and many others, stand for. I have watched our president shatter my values ˜ misinterpret them, to say the least ˜ and feed them back to me. I have watched myself be generalized as a horrible, bloodthirsty, conniving person wishing for the deaths of innocent people, when indeed I wish exactly the opposite and am only being lumped together with a small group of politicians I didn't even elect (myself, I am a Democrat... having my country governed almost entirely by Republicans is pretty upsetting in itself). This is why I, as well as millions of other people, am compelled to march.                                                                     Marching is one of our most powerful voices. However, in the past term the voicing of our opinions has been ignored, even stifled as our government blunders heedlessly along. We try to tell them what we want! After all, that's what they need to know to do their job, right? Isn't that what a government - a president - is supposed to do. Be a sort of "spokesperson" for the American people? Sure, they pretend to listen. It looks good to the public! But they don't really. Otherwise they would do something. Why don't they do something?!                     For four years I have watched while their mistakes affect the world. Badly. Horribly! Agony has been wrought beyond imagination because of the misjudgments of one man and his posse. And now they have had their convention in our city. These so-called "runners of our country" decided that they wanted the Republican National Convention of 2004 to take place in a city that prides itself on being largely Democratic! What hospitality had they a right to? Certainly not ours.                                                   And then they forbid us to march! (Like I said, New York City loves free speech! Where would we be without our freedom to express ourselves?!). It is depressing how they fumble for excuses! I have been told that we were not be given the permit because the grass in the Great Lawn in Central Park must not be disturbed. Ah! - so now I see where we are on their priority list. Below grass, apparently.                                                                                Kudos to all those who were a part of the Sunday, August 29th march against the Republican National Convention in New York City. I fully support your actions and am very troubled that I was unable to attend.                                                                               Yours sincerely,                                                         Audri Augenbraum, Age 12                                           NYC & Olive, NY                                                                              Dear Editor,                                                                It's getting closer and closer to the big election and the rhetoric from Bush and his team is really hitting the air waves. The other day Bush said that no matter how much Kerry flip flops getting rid of Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do. It seems to me that Mr. Bush himself has flipped flopped a few times on his reasons why he led this nation into war. Remember those images of President Bush flying in on that ship walking up to the podium and announcing that the major combat was over. At the time about one hundred young men and women had been killed. Today there are over one thousand young men and women that have been killed. Not to mention the almost seven thousand young men and women that has been wounded. And what about all the destruction in Iraq and the thousands of Iraqi people that have been either killed or wounded. That's a terrible price to pay for getting rid of one man. To top it off the war in Iraq has increased terrorist activities around the world. If Bush gets reelected who knows what country he'll want to attack. We see plenty of images of Bush and his spin doctors, but have you noticed that we don't see any images of the caskets coming home. You can draw your own conclusion as to why the government won't allow any television cameras to take picture of the wounded and of the caskets coming home. I think I know why.                                                                                              William Warnecke                                                 Glenford, NY                                                                    Dear Editor,                                                                I/we have been on our annual pilgrimage to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for 10 weeks and I am back to entertain my friends; those who agree with me and conversely, to torment those who are not on my "page".                                                                         First I must mention my most pragmatic friend, Dominick LoGiudice whom I have never met. His wisdom [and humor] seems to be unending and I appreciate his remedy for "tracking" illegal aliens and other miscreants who should not be here (Times, Sept 2). Bravo Dominick!                                   Now, another person I admire greatly is the Olive town clerk, Sylvia Rozzelle for a number of reasons. It seems she ran into the same [blockhead] stone wall that I did when calling the Onteora District office in Sept., 2003. The lady (?) who answered her call requesting phone numbers of public [school board] servants with a snarling, "Well if you folks in Olive..." (Times, Sept. 2). Sounds like the same nasty woman that ran interference for the O.S.D. tax collector and hung up on me when I inquired re: my school tax payment [which was short $.39 and returned the check to mewhich might have caused delinquency on my part]. She certainly is efficient; for the arrogant school board, the Admin. office and especially for the board president, M. D'Orazio, PC.                                                 This "lady" is badly in need of a major attitude adjustment and counseling as to how to respond to requests and dispense information. As an instructor of new Supervisors and Managers in the NYC Dept. of Parks & Rec. I offered this bit of advice; " always listen to a problem whether real or imagined because to the employee or client it's real". And further, "if someone is seeking information and you have no answer tell them you will get back to them or ask them to 'hold' while you dig it up".                                                                                   It costs nothing to be nice. And if one is a public servant [paid by our taxes] thay have no right to be arrogant or visit their own philisophy or anger on their constituants. We don't care who lives in Woodstock, Shandaken or even Olive for whatever reason. Ms. Rozzelle reminds us that Woodstock and Shandaken were not well off in the 40's-50's and Olive voted to admit them if only to put their insolvent heads inside the tent. Well, you all know Aesop's Fables.                                                           Because of the prevailing attitude of the O.S.D. board members and their leadership [who sets the pace/tempo] Ms. Rozzelle had to chase all over for the information she requested and be tied up with innovative delaying tactics. How dare they? How dare one person who after all is nothing more than a "switchboard" operator.                      I would be remiss if I failed to mention the stalwart perseverance exhibited by Town Supervisor Berndt Leifeld in his efforts to reason with an unreasonable school board; as in the book of Isaiah. Supv. Leifeld has been at the helm of the "SS Town of Olive" for more than 23 years without foundering, collision or grounding. He deserves to be Town Supervisor for life.                     Lastly, but which should move to the top of "things to do" is what Ms. Rozzelle describes as a "counter attitude" that is developing in the Town of Olive. I have news for you all. Secession from the O.S.D. is a long overdue action that has much merit and practicality and is bubbling and festering in our minds already. We still will have the NYC reservoir; it's not going anywhere. Olive [and Hurley if it's a joint venture] will determine where and how the NYC tax money will be disbursed. Not the Socialistic Onteora School Board.                                   O.S.D. sports teams may not want to play "Tongore" as our team members might be wearing Gucci cleats or Bruno Malli track shoes. Ain't that a Hoot? "Rah, Rah,  go Tongore"!                                                                        Glenn T. Anderson                                                         Olivebridge, NY