Still Reeling From It All
Town Residents In Tears Over Tax Hikes As Town Searches For New Loopholes

By Gary Alexander and Violet Snow
Olive officials have sent out copies of a letter from Senator William Larkin's office stating in no uncertain terms that his large parcel law was meant to mitigate wild year-to-year swings in property tax value and definitely NOT intended to apply to reservoirs.
"Furthermore," Larkin's letter states, "it was my intention that the use of the alternate equalization formula in the Law would be optional and used only if ALL affected municipalities opted to use the large parcel equalization process."
Olive officials, arguing that the law was misapplied by the Onteora School
Board through the manipulations of other parties who stood to gain by distorting the bill's purpose, included a copy of the letter with a petition demanding the restoration of the descriptors Larkin mentioned, which vanished from the bill mysteriously while it was sessions.

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Finding The Glory In Others' Weeds...

By Paul Smart
            Virginia Luppino, of Olivebridge, is in love with weeds. They're her mentor and vision guide, her editor and muse.
            They were also the balm she needed when her son was serving in Iraq last year. Moreover, they're the basis of her art, a singular body of work that's dfrawing accolades in the area every time she shows.
            Luppino is part of a remarkable show of floral works, "Bed: A Flower Show," at the Inquiring Mind Gallery in Saugerties. Her last show of distinctive black and white photographs, "Floribundos: Intimate Portraiture," this past summer at the M Studio Gallery in Beacon, was an unmitigated success.
            But it's weeds we're talking about in a recent interview.
            "They're the plants that the deer will always go to first. The Japanese Beetles. They tell me what a garden needs," she is saying, as part of a talk about her new work.
            Luppino is a professional gardener. She is also a fine photographer whose new work shows a major leap in accomplishment that we're trying to get to the bottom of.
            "A gardener learns most from weeds. They're the best indicators of what's going on in the landscape. They tell you what the other plants need," she is saying from her Town of Olive home. "My own garden is wild, filled with Queen Anne's Lace and wildflowers and other things most people don't think of as beautiful."

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READY FOR A FESTIVAL? Woodstock Piano Company's Rackelle Roden and  Israel Schossev have been busy finalizing details for the town's first music festival... a classical feast to be held over Columbus Day weekend at the Oddfellows Hall in Olivebridge. See details on page 9 inside.