Dear Editor,
The people have clearly spoken regarding the proposed water harvesting by Mr. Poncic in the Woodland Valley. I am aware of no other issue that has ever so fully consolidated the views of all the residents of this pristine and historical neighborhood.
I represent the family that has most certainly continually lived in this valley longer than most any other of the residents. There have been Botchford land owners here since the early 19th century. Our great grandfather Henry Jay Botchford represented the valley as a officer and recognized hero in New York's 44th regiment during the Civil War. Responses to my earlier letters to the Shandaken media accused this same war hero of amassing a family fortune from his tanning and lumber enterprises following the war. I can only say my family has since spent many amusing hours searching to no avail for any evidence of this so called fortune!
The fact is my family, like most other residents of the Woodland Valley, struggle to pay our taxes, protect and conserve our property, and be good and considerate neighbors. Most of our neighbors came to the public hearing on Mr. Poncic's proposal. As many recall, of the 150 people who attended only Mr. Poncic himself was in favor of this project! That's 149 to 1. I doubt if any other issue concerning the Woodland Valley has ever garnered as strong and united protest. The government of Shandaken and all others who may be involved simply have to listen to us and understand that we are carefully watching. It would be a travesty if our united voice is ignored!
Sincerely yours,
Henry Jay Botchford III
Woodland Valley, NY

Dear Editor,
"We don't want it!" When I think about my personal response to the Poncic water Plant proposal, I feel like a broken record. I expressed this same sentiment some months back in a letter to the Phoenicia Times.
But as simple as this sentiment is, there isn't, in my opinion, a whole lot more to be said on the matter. Sure, we can all go on endlessly about the potential environmental impact on Woodland Valley, the economic implications of possible damage done to the road, the safety of our children and pets (and ourselves), the aesthetic implications, property values, the effect on the trout etc etc etc.. But is it really necessary? It can all be summed up in one simple phrase :"We don't want it!"
At the public hearing some months ago at the Shandaken Town Hall, a gentleman stood up and offered what to me was the most compelling observation of the evening. He pointed out that this situation is somewhat unique as far as debates go. Generally in a situation such as this, two sides present their respective points of view, and the arguments are then examined and decided upon.
What makes this unique is the dramatic detail that in that room sat some 150 people opposed to the project, and one lone advocate- the ONLY person standing to gain from it's passing.
This is a very unusual debate indeed, where ONE person's gain is being considered over the objections of an entire community, who fears loss of quality of life as a result. We don' want it.
While I assume we all recognize and respect a landowner's right to exploit his or her property as he/she sees fit, doesn't that right need to be granted only after some consideration is given to how it's granting will affect the lives and property of all others around it?? And more importantly, isn't it the job of local government to consider the wishes of it's constituents and act accordingly with their well-being in mind? Well-I think our wishes are overwhelmingly clear--We don't want it. It's not a majority point of view--the sentiment is 100 percent unanimous! Or should i say 99%? How often does one see such a thing?
What more do we need to say? We don't want it!! I feel like a broken record.
Eugene Ruffolo
Woodland Valley, NY

Dear Editor,
I am unalterably opposed to granting permission to Andrew Poncic's water harvesting proposal in the Woodland Valley.
Sixty years ago my family purchased a home in the Woodland Valley quite near to where Mr. Poncic now owns property. We completely restored an 1850s farm house, installing electricity when it came up the Valley and replacing the outhouse with indoor plumbing. I spent every summer of my youth, from age three until I went off to college, in that house. I now return whenever I can. This past July, we held a family gathering at our house in the Valley in honor of my mother's 90th birthday and her great grandson's 6th birthday. Relatives from as far away as San Diego attended. We all consider the Woodland Valley to be our "family home."
I remember clearly the huge, overweight lumber trucks that rumbled up and down the Valley in the 1940s and '50s. They caused enormous damage to the roads and literally destroyed the bridges. Once, one of the trucks caused such serious structural damage to the bridge over the Panther Kill that it had to be closed immediately. My family was in the unique position of having one car one each side of the closed bridge, because my uncle happened to have been in town (Phoenicia) when the damage was incurred. For a week or more, we ran an informal taxi service for those who were stranded up the Valley from the bridge.
The repairs to our roads and bridges were the financial burden of the citizens, through the Township, not of the lumber companies. The damages to the environment were also the burden of all of us. How could one possibly think that it will be any different with huge trucks taking water out of the Valley and the environment suffering for the depletion of its resources?
I now live primarily in Kentucky where we know first-hand the devastating effects of the exportation of natural resources. Eastern Kentucky was a thriving, verdant area in the nineteenth century, much like Ulster County, until out-of-state commercial interests realized the wealth of coal and timber there. The resulting rape of our land has left dire poverty in the entire region (Owsley County, KY, for example, is the second poorest county in the United States - second only to a Native American reservation in South Dakota). A number of areas look like moon-scapes as the result of surface mining operations. And, countless people have been killed and injured on our roads because of the damage the overloaded coal and lumber trucks do or as a result of actual accidents with the trucks. The same was the case Ulster County not so long ago. We must not allow this to happen again.
My grandfathers and grandmother loved our home in the Valley, as did my parents and my brother and I. We still love it, as do our children and grand-children. If you were counting, that's five generations of our family who have cherished this Valley. We want it to go on for at least another five, or ten, or 50.
I would like to call to your attention a passage from Quaker Testimonies, published by the Testimonies Committee of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Friends House, London, England:
. . . The future is constantly sacrificed to the present and the needs of others to the wants of the self. It cannot be right to leave the world poorer than we found it in beauty or in the rich diversity of life forms, or to consume recklessly in the knowledge that our actions are bound to lead to future tragedy . . .
Let us, please, do everything in our power to see that Mr. Poncic's proposal is not approved.
Robert S. Tannenbaum, Ed.D.
Lexington, KY

Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my grave concerns regarding the Water Harvesting Proposal for Woodland Valley, as put forward by the Good Water Corporation. It is farcical that the Shandaken Planning Board is ignoring the concerns of the majority of the residents. Particularly as time and taxpayers' money is being wasted.
It is blindingly obvious why this proposal should be voted against. The main reason is one of safety – Woodland Valley Road is too narrow and has too many bends for two 18-wheel trailer tractors to be traveling along twice a day. It is dangerous enough already with cars speeding along. Like many, I walk and cycle frequently on Woodland Valley. Having trucks on this road will endanger pedestrians, bicyclists as well as other drivers. During the summer months, the road is busy with extra people drawn in to enjoy the valley and the campsite. In the winter months, the road is much narrower because of plowed snow and ice at the side of the road. In bad weather it will make the road hazardous, as the icy conditions will reduce the stopping times of such a large and heavy vehicle.
As a taxpayer I am concerned about the extra wear that it will place on the road surface. The blacktop is already worn and this will undoubtedly be exacerbated by the extra weight. No doubt, the additional repair is a cost that we taxpayers will have to bear.
Another concern is the precedent that passing this proposal will set. It is giving a green light to any other resident that wants to start harvesting water or some other dubious commercial venture in a residential zoning area. It really is opening the floodgates for changing the area drastically in an unregulated way that will not benefit the local community.
On many levels — safety, environmental, community etc — this development is wholly inappropriate for a residential and vacation area. I hope Shandaken Planning make their decision soon on what is best for the majority of the Woodland Valley residents.
Lisa Davies
Shandaken, NY

Dear Editor,
Next summer will mark the 40th anniversary of my first visit to Woodland Valley and I still come back several times every year to visit friends and enjoy the beauty of the Valley.
Like many beautiful things, Woodland contains a dangerous, not apparent aspect—its road. The seven narrow miles of twists, turns, shaded curves and low, soft shoulders can be and has been fatal. I was there on a hot summer’s day years ago when two young women lost their lives. I ask that the planners consider what might once again occur with the addition of regular heavy truck traffic.
A summer Saturday in 1980 dawned hot and sticky; warm sunshine speckling the ground between the trees while playing hide-and-seek with the storm clouds. The day went as many hot, sticky summer days do and about 5 o’clock that afternoon a thunderstorm—mild by Catskill’s standards—swept down the valley, soaking everything and doing little to relieve the heat and humidity.
As the family sat on the screened-in porch of the house, a loud crash came from the road below, out of sight behind the undulations of the downward slope. A high-pitched mechanical keening which puzzled everyone followed the crash. One man decided to take a look. He disappeared over the ridge and another followed a short distance behind.
”Call the rescue squad and the police,” shouted the man from below. His friend looked over the hill and saw the accident—a blue four-door Ford pointed north and a sand color VW Bug headed south had violently collided at the drivers-side fenders in the middle of the road. Both cars seemed to have bounced backward from the impact. The Ford’s engine screamed.
The noise stopped abruptly. Both cars had drifted slightly to the center of this narrow two-lane country road at moderate speeds with lethal results. Moans of pain and crys came from the four youngsters in the Ford as they got out. The driver struggled to exit by the passenger door—his was jammed by the force of the collision. The man at the road yelled —”Bring down some Blankets.”
A pile of old Army Blankets was brought down the hill quickly.
They wrapped a couple of the kids from the Ford in blankets and then directed
them to sit on the porch of a nearby house. Two were physically unhurt, but badly shaken; two more from the Ford were injured but mobile.
Blankets were spread on the roadside for the young people in the VW. A boy, maybe 18, shirtless in the front passenger seat, had a chunk bitten from his shoulder by the impact and his face was bleeding badly—seatbelt usage wasn’t common then.
He was unconscious at first but revived slightly and was able to finally walk to the other side of the road and sit on the embankment, a wool blanket, now bloodstained, covering his thin back and arms.
The girl in the seat behind him screamed and sobbed—her jaw was askew—broken badly. She was doubled over. She was extracted and lay on the roadside blanket. Sirens screamed at the head of the valley— An Ulster County Sheriff’s officer arrived while traffic was beginning to build around the accident. The young cop looked at the sight of the bloody bodies in and out of the cars and had to be reminded to get the traffic clear for the emergency vehicles that were following.
The VW driver’s side door was smashed shut. There was a weak pulse from the girl behind the driver and none from the driver herself, her slender arm ripped on the underside—a slice of flesh hanging from the upper arm which was slightly out the window. Her long, pale brown hair dipped into her blood by the slight breeze. You could picture her laughing and smiling as she drove town the valley road. A pretty girl with friends on a summer lark—going to town for supplies or a beer.
Three men were desperately trying to open the driver’s door to at least get the girls out of the car—10 minutes at least had gone by and the emergency vehicles were just now heard in the valley.
Cars were backed up in both directions. Even though it’s a rural area it has many visitors in the summer. The emergency people went about their business professionally, but the looks on their faces told of tragedy—at least one of the girls and more likely both were dead.
The Sheriff had arrived, much to his young officer’s relief, and taken charge. The young man, who knew the girls, was sent down the road to handle traffic.
Then a man—about 5’10" 200 pounds in summer shorts and a tee-shirt; short hair, clean shaven about 45 or 50 years old come walking up to the scene. He stumbled as he looked at the VW and the young body being treated by the EMS personnel.
The sheriff turned, recognized the man and opened his arms to bear hug his friend and neighbor before he collapsed. It was this strapping man’s daughter who lay on the road with the last of her life fleeing into the moist sunlight.
Life was never crueler to anyone then it was to this man. A hum-drum
summer’s day at the vacation house and his daughter lies dead beside the fun-filled car.
He was driving up the Woodland Valley Road—saw the roadway blocked with cars and emergency vehicles and left his car to investigate—most likely unconcerned at first —”tree down” —would have been his first thought, considering the storm.
One could mentally trace his walk—the stunned look as he recognized his daughter’s car—the denial and disbelief as he saw her on the blanket and the utter collapse of his world as he realized that his daughter lay dead on this idyllic, sylvan road, with the stream burbling in the distance where it sparkles in the sunlight on a clear day.
The men who had tried to help sat, silent, beneath a horse-chestnut tree, staring at the spot of the accident while the tow-trucks attached themselves to the cars. They nursed drinks of scotch until the road was empty.
Tanker trucks on Woodland Valley Road insure this will happen again and no “water harvesting” project is worth the price of a life.
Robert C. Grant
Denville, NJ
Dear Editor,
Although the public has seen only broad outlines of Crossroads Venture's revised and supposedly reduced resort proposal - the details have been shared only with selected invited audiences - it's clear that the new concept is just as damaging to the environment and our economy as the original. We know that the proposal does eliminate the golf course (previously considered crucial for economic viability) and the time-share units and other buildings associated with the Belleayre Highlands section of the east side.
These changes do not eliminate the environmental problems of the East Side. According to the draft proposal presented to the EPA and DEP, a large development on the Big Indian Plateau would still be in place. In fact, instead of 55 time-share units on the ridge there would be106, almost twice as many buildings. The number of hotel rooms would be decreased by 30, but the Spa would be increased in size and would encompass space previously set aside for a golf clubhouse.
The proposed time share units would be spread along the entire Big Indian Plateau and would require a paved road around the entire ridge and clear cutting a substantial number of trees. The steep access road from Route 28 would be expanded. All this construction would require many new stormwater runoff controls even though the developer states this project is reduced in size. The old erosion controls were deemed inadequate. Will the new be any better?
In sum, the new concept, like the old, still plans massive development on a high-elevation mountain ridge in the heart of public lands mandated as "Forever Wild".
Alan Hevesi, New York State Comptroller, pointed out last month that the economic viability of the old project was highly suspect. The Catskill Heritage Alliance sees nothing in the new concept to indicate it is any more economically viable than Crossroads' original proposal. Previously, the developer said that the golf course was essential to make the project financially successful. Now that the golf course is eliminated, financial success depends on the sale of the 306 undeveloped acres of the Belleayre Highlands and an expanded spa. Is this forecast any sounder than the first?
If, once started, the project fails, the community would be left with a scarred landscape. If the supposedly revised project goes forward, the outlook is even more dire. The viewshed at night would still be ruined with additional lighting and, in daytime, there would be a visible eyesore for hikers, hunters, fishermen and homeowners north of Route 28. Water quality would be challenged from additional use and increased runoff. The unique character of our communities would be lost due to sprawling growth and increased traffic. Further, the reduced development would still require increased municipal services such as fire, police, ambulance, schools and social services. Studies have shown that increased taxes from such development do not cover the cost of the increased services, and therefore everyone's taxes will rise.
The revised resort would still dominate the area and threaten the "Forever Wild' nature of the Catskill Park - and these are just the problems of the reduced size east. The west-side Wildacres project adds to all these problems and presents problems of its own.
The Catskill Heritage Alliance maintains that the only viable solution is to not have any development on the East Side and to proceed on the west side only if an environmentally friendly solution can be found.
Richard Schaedle, Chairman,
Catskill Heritage Alliance
Pine Hill, NY

Dear Editor,
Several letters have circulated recently, most notably from the Catskill Heritage Alliance, making the claim that new plans for the Belleayre Resort, which call for the elimination of an 18-hole golf course, 88 time-share units and 30 hotel rooms, will somehow have MORE of an environmental impact. Does this make sense to you?
They will tell you that we have more buildings than originally planned. That is true. However, the buildings are smaller, one-family units instead of the multi-unit buildings that have been eliminated. The smaller footprint of each building means less disturbed land, and that is the fact they have ignored to suit their purposes.
The simple fact is this: our new plan has reduced the amount of disturbed land by 49 percent on the eastern side. Only 150 acres will be disturbed on a parcel of land that is more than 1,200 acres in size. The rest will become permanent open space. No golf course means no clear cutting, no daily watering, no pesticides and no fertilizers. Our expanded spa will occupy space originally designed for the pro shop so, there is no change to the footprint. There will be no roads needed to access the eliminated time-share development nor will a bridge to get there over Giggle Hollow be required. And reducing the total number of lodging units by one-third will eliminate the need to tap into any Pine Hill water sources.
Nearly 50 percent less disturbed land. Elimination of an entire golf course. Fewer roads and no bridge. Reduced daily water usage. Doesn’t that seem like less of an environmental impact to you?
Paul Rakov. VP, Public Affairs
Crossroads Ventures, LLC
Mt. Tremper, NY

Dear Editor,
Two years ago the four people signing this letter met and resolved to get serious about a revitalization program for greater Phoenicia that would eventually expand to cover the entire Town of Shandaken. At this point, we thought your readers would appreciate the specifics of what we’ve been doing and why; also, a little information about where to from here.
From the very outset, we had two goals. One was to help make Phoenicia a nicer place in which to live and work. Another was to make Phoenicia a more attractive destination for tourists to visit — an endeavor that in the long run will inevitably build volume for our tourist-oriented businesses, not only in Phoenicia but throughout the township, too.
The first year we were modestly successful with a program of hanging baskets and pots of flowers, largely on Main Street. We did a little painting of eyesores using donated paint (from Herzog’s in Kingston); built the flower bed at the market with at-cost decorative masonry blocks (from Kingston Block & Masonry Supply) in order to hide another eyesore; supported the re-planting of the flowerbed opposite the Post Office with funding for flowers, volunteer help on digging, and watering. We also arranged for the public toilets behind Valero’s which we serviced on a daily basis to keep them neat and clean. (Since our restaurant owners were discouraging use of their restrooms by non-customers, it seemed a little weird for a town whose economy depends on tourists in the summertime to have no public facilities available seven days a week in the evening as well as the daytime.
Financial support came from several sources
To finance this “Summerscape” program, we raised all of the money ourselves by soliciting help from over 25 village business people, several private individuals, plus major contributions from KeyBank, Phoenicia Business Association, Rotary Club, Rondout Savings Bank, and a one-time, pump-primer gift of $3,000 from the Catskill Center. To make ends meet, we did all of the watering – normally the biggest expense in any floral beautification project – with volunteer help, including flowers planted and maintained by Phriends of Phoenicia in Simpson Park and their ten big flower pots Total cost of the program was about $7,000. Cost to the town of Shandaken for the flower program: Zero.
Because of the positive reception of townspeople to the program, we resolved to expand and improve it in 2006 by extending our coverage of the hanging baskets down Plank Road to Parish Hall, up Route 214 to Tremper Avenue, and out to Al’s Restaurant, thus giving us almost complete coverage of the downtown business district. We also invested in large sidewalk flower pots which cut watering time and offered a bigger display of flowers in each pot. Further, we successfully sought and found flowers (Supertunias) which would create a dazzling display of red-white-and-blue color from June through at least mid-September. And we invested in new park benches for Simpson Park and Main Street plus three new picnic tables for Simpson Park financed with over $5,000 from a Streetscape Grant. All of this outdoor furniture is made of recycled plastic that comes with a 25-year warrantee against staining or weathering.
We financed the 2006 expanded program with a combination of private contributions, huge contributions of volunteer time, the Streetscape grant and financial support from the Town. Local business people were again generous with financial support that adding up to about $3,500. Among them were Paul Pettinato, Mike Ricciardella, Tom Crucet, Dave Pillard, Kathy Judware from Miss Kitty’s Salon, Ray Kirk, Marty Millman, Margaret and Bill Nolte, Bill Forbes, Tom Fraser, Ruth Gale, Debra Jo Ryan, Mr. & Mrs. Shah from the Phoenicia Market, Sue Taylor, Richard Verona from Valero’s, Mark Wilsey, Bart Guglielmetti, Heather Roberts, Maverick Family Health, and Gala Geru Khamba from the Gateway to Tibet.
In addition, the Ulster Savings Bank endowed one of the park benches on the Boardwalk with a contribution of $700. The town added approximately $8,000 to help pay for the one-time purchases of pots, pole brackets and new hanging baskets and hangers plus the seedlings and about $2,500 for watering. We also built the second tier – the rock wall and excavation — for the flower beds at the Bridge Street exit from Route 28, entirely with volunteer help. The town helped us with the excavation of a new flower bed between Brio’s and the Boardwalk which will eliminate a former eyesore of weeds and trash right in the middle of the business district. We financed the bluestone, gravel and topsoil entirely with the Streetscape Grant plus a generous discount by Jeff Collins. We also figured out a way to bear-proof the dumpster behind the market for less than $10 so there wouldn’t be garbage all over the parking lot every morning. Finally, we applied the Streetscape Grant towards financing a bright, new bicycle rack behind the Pharmacy which is now in place.
It would be a mistake to assume we did these things all by ourselves. Scores of people helped us in one way or another and to them we owe them a big vote of thanks for making possible everything we have achieved. We absolutely could not have done all this without them.
Adam Steen and Leroy Harrison made themselves available almost any time with a bucket truck to help erect the steel hangers and to mount the hanging baskets. Kyle Ricketson helped hang the baskets. Otto Bernstein and John Byer taught us how to make a dry rock wall and gave us a big head start towards its erection. Frank Nazzaro and Linda Byer pitched in on the rock wall and Linda personally planted and tended the top tier flowerbed during the season. Janice Rubin, representing both the Rotary Club and Phriends of Phoenicia, used her green thumb to plant and maintain the gorgeous display of massed petunias in the Simpson Park Gazebo flowerboxes. Marilyn Manning was responsible for planting and maintaining the flowerbed across from the post office and helped greatly with the plantings in flower pots on Main Street. Paul and Lisa Dutcher contributed a load of annuals which filled out the Route 28 flower bed as well as the Post Office garden with big bursts of color. Mr. & Mrs. Shah financed the flowers in the masonry flowerbed and the pots and barrels of flowers along the market entrance. Elizabeth Kern regularly patrols Main Street in the morning picking up trash. Phriends of Phoenicia planted and maintained the flower beds in Simpson Park beneath the Catskill Forest Preserve Bulletin Board and beneath the fire bell. Joe Munster and Bob Kalb contributed their handyman skills and day’s worth of labor to help assemble park benches, picnic tables and the new bicycle rack. Bob Cross did much of the hard work of assembling the masonry flower bed at the corner of Main and Ave Marie Streets – one of the first things tourists see when they exit Route 28 at Bridge Street. Good people at NYSEG and Verizon helped us cut through the red tape to get the needed permissions in timely fashion. Peter Ferrante, one of the owners of the Wallkill View Nursery, gave us a big discount on the hanging baskets and seedlings plus free fertilizer. He also advised us on a new type of low-evaporation baskets that only need watering every other day. Since these pots are also re-usable, we’ll cut the cost of the hanging baskets in future years from the current $60 to $40 each. Laurilyn Frasier was responsible for the big splash of Impatiens color on the hillside opposite the eagle, using donated seedlings. And the Eagle Committee of the Rotary Club poured energy into refurbishing the Eagle site prior to Eagle Day, including painting the eagle, mulching, and plantings. If we’ve overlooked anybody, let us apologize now.
You might ask why the big emphasis on flowers and why the big emphasis on Phoenicia?
Regarding flowers, they are almost certainly the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to jump start a beautification program and make a good first impression when tourists first hit town.
Regarding the emphasis on Phoenicia, our reasoning was this:
First, if we divvied up our limited funds among the half dozen villages in the town, we could not hope to make much of an impact anywhere.
Second, Phoenicia is not only the largest village in the town but the financial center and by far the largest business center. So if we’re going to add to the tourist draw of Shandaken and the economic revitalization of our region we almost necessarily must start with Phoenicia and make a real splash there. In the future, we want to move out the program into a wider area.
Third, the second largest village and the prime next candidate for any revitalization effort is Pine Hill and they are already doing a terrific job with flowers on the Main Street using volunteer help. In fact, one of the goals of our program was to raise the bar in Phoenicia so it at least matches accomplishments in Pine Hill.
So we’ve been focusing on Phoenicia and hope to continue that emphasis for the next several years when we hope to extend the program to Pine Hill, Shandaken village, Big Indian, and Mt. Tremper, too.
So where to from here?
Providing we can get adequate funding in 2007, we hope to continue the program of hanging baskets and pots of flowers at about the same level as 2006, although the materials cost will go down by about 25% because our investments in durable capital items in 2005 and 2006 — baskets, pots, hanging brackets, watering equipment, etc. However, we’ve got to bite the bullet on watering costs because it’s not realistic to expect a volunteer to continue doing all the watering either free or with only minimal compensation. (Watering of the baskets, flower pots and gardens takes an average of three hours a day from June through September, seven days a week which would normally go for $15 an hour and add up to about $5,200 for the season, allowing for occasional heavy rain.) We also need such part-time paid help so we can use more of our time to carry the revitalization program forward in other areas. With sufficient funding we might also be able to extend the hanging basket program to the Main Street of Pine Hill. (We had hoped to do this in 2006 but lacked the necessary funds.)
Incidentally, if you’ve seen us watering the hanging baskets right after a rainstorm or during a drizzle, be assured this is not wasted effort. We know the flow rate of our little pump (1 gallon a minute) and we use a stop watch to measure water consumption. From experience, we’ve found that even a downpour doesn’t meet more than 20% of regular watering needs of the hanging baskets because their diameter is so small (14") and the tangle of vines tends to shed water like an umbrella. Where rainstorms help is on the large sidewalk pots because of their larger diameter and the greater depth of dirt which holds more water. But even here, we use a moisture meter (probe) to determine when watering is really necessary.
With regard to the future, we are looking closely at a program to reduce the amount of littering (garbage, trash and just plain dirt and cigarette butts) on Main Street. This would include tactics to frustrate the wits out of marauding bears. Here again, our goal is to help make Phoenicia a more attractive place to visit.
Another area of concern is Shandaken-wide promotion and publicity (feature articles) aimed at tourists which, again, will help build our base of business and ultimately our tax base as we attract new enterprises and employers. Harry Jameson has already agreed to act as a tourist information center, at no cost to the town, answering questions and providing a rack of literature and publicity reprints As it is, we do very little aggressive promotion, other than that for tubing, even though we have a lot to offer: Not just tubing, railroading, hunting and fishing, but kayaking, horseback riding, the Shandaken Theatrical Society, marked hiking trails like Tanbark, Devil’s Notch, Panther Mountain, and Giant Ledge; a marked bicycle trail, proximity to the Belleayre Ski Center and Hunter in winter and cultural events in the summer, Belleayre Beach at Pine Hill Lake, antique shopping, the Shandaken Museum in Pine Hill, the nearby Ulster and Delaware tourist railroad, the Catskills Forest Preserve and wilderness area, historical and cultural sites, etc. We are thinking in terms of an enhanced website aimed directly at visitor interests, promotional literature and maps, signage, posters, and other kinds of outreach to potential visitors and customers.
Still another area is an effort to enhance the two exits off Route 28 so they become more of a visual magnet to people passing by – “Gee, that looks like an interesting place worth visiting.” For example, we plan to plant the new lower tier of the flowerbed at the Bridge Street exit from Route 28 with something like solid pink wave petunias which should be a real eye-popper.
Everything depends on money and community support.
From the many, many comments from townspeople and visitors in 2006, there appears to be great appreciation of the flower program. And that support is very important. Otherwise, this program will eventually die.
We currently have a small surplus in our bank account. In 2007, we expect to again raise $3,000 or so from business people, possibly a contribution or two from philanthropic or private sources, and we will continue to pursue grants. But we also need at least $7500 from the town and possibly some support of time and equipment from town resources like the Highway Department and recreational services.
With this kind of a support you can expect to see a bigger, even better program next year. And in the long run. the continuation of the program will benefit our entire community, creating more opportunities for our young people and greater prosperity for us all.
Jane Todd
Harry Jameson
Declan Feehan
Ted French

Dear Editor,
I would like to tell your readers about the FACETS program. F.A.C.E.T.S. stands for Family and Child Early Treatment Service and it has operated in the Onteora school district for eleven years. It is in danger of being cut from the district because of a 2005 Pataki legislation chapter 513 law 414.
My family has benefited enormously from FACETS. All three of my children along with my husband and me have been involved in Counseling at the school. My Son also got involved with “Kids Together”, an Ulster County Mental Health program that helps kids with the intricate socialization skills that some teens need. This was another amazing benefit to which we never would have known was available without FACETS. If this wonderful program was not available right at the school, either during school hours or right after, my husband and myself would have had to choose between our hours at work or our child’s mental health. This is no choice at all.
Of course we both would have taken time off to do any thing for our children because they come first. As I’m sure most parents do. But that’s not to say that the added financial burden would not have contributed to the stress at home. In turn this creates a circle of one stress after another and possible guilty feelings on the child.
I never want to tell my children they can’t have something they want, let alone something they need. In the years my husband and I struggled financially, which we are still doing, albeit, we can say yes more than we say no these days, we said no to many of the costly extras kids want just to keep up with their more privileged friends.
My Husband and I did not fully comprehend the huge pressure on our kids to come up to the media standards they are bombarded with day in and day out. With the high profile lives of the rich and famous how can our kids from the Catskills compete? Add in hormones, plus the social anxieties of coming of age and all other stresses of being a teen in the twenty-first century and you have a great recipe for disaster among our community’s teens.
Ulster County Mental Health in conjunction with the school runs an early treatment program that works within and without the conventional guidelines for developmental disabilities and 504 plans. It also stretches the financial boundaries of Medicaid and employee benefit packages by making it possible for all kids in the district to receive counseling regardless of their family’s ability to pay. Without FACETS we as a school and a community will pay the price later. We owe it to our kids to keep this profound and positive program in place.
Right now Onteora is embarking on a redistricting project that could run as high as seventy million dollars. We are currently running an Indie Program that costs an estimated three million dollars. The FACETS program provides three full time counselors and one psychiatrist through Ulster County Mental Health for a mere ninety thousand dollars a year. It provides counseling at the schools in the district even during the summer for the kids who need it.
To not find a way for the district to pay for this program would be a grave disservice to the families, students, and community who rely on FACETS. Onteora is a rural district with many families living at or below the poverty-line. Studies show that without the immediate availability of counseling most troubled teens will experiment with other ways of dealing with their feelings. Obsessive compulsive behaviors such as cutting, anorexia, bulimia, along with drinking and drug use can all be ways our children try to deal with their problems.
Let me sum up with a few statistics. In 2002 the U.S. dept of health and human services documented 900,000 cases of child abuse, 51% of which was due to neglect, the other 49% taken up by cases of physical abuse. Depression affects 17% of the population in the U.S., and is considered to be a gateway to drug and alcohol abuse if left untreated. Lastly, suicide is the third largest killer between the ages of fifteen to twenty four and the fifth largest between the ages of five through fourteen.
Let us find a way to pay for this vital and life saving program.
Emily A. Scully
Phoenicia, NY

Dear Editor,
Most of us have probably seen the campaign signs by our roads for Kevin Costello, who is the Republican candidate for Ulster County sheriff. These signs are not legal, as the aspiring sheriff should know. In this town as well as others, there are regulations that designate the days on which these signs may be displayed, beginning with ten days before and after the primary election (Sept. 12). They must be taken down by the 22nd and may be displayed again 30 days prior to the Nov. 7 election. In this period from Sept. 22 to Oct. 7, no political campaign signs are permitted but, sad to say, Mr. Costello's signs are everywhere. Where is the respect for law?
The Rev. Finley Schaef
Saugerties, NY