Dear Editor,
This Open Letter was sent to Planning Board Chairman John Horn...
Re: Andrew Poncic's application for Special Permit Use (to siphon and transport spring water from Woodland Valley)
I ask that you and the Planning Board deny Andrew Poncic's application for a special permit use in Woodland Valley. Aside from serious environmental concerns, article VII of the Shandaken Zoning Code (Special Permit Uses—Section 116-39) provides strong reasons to reject this application. I quote:
In authorizing any permit use, the Planning Board shall take into consideration the public health, safety and general welfare, the comfort and convenience of the public in general and that of the immediate neighborhood in particular.
Mr. Poncic has stated in the past that he plans to have tanker trucks traveling the Woodland Valley road a minimum of 30 times a week (trucks entering and leaving the valley 3 times a day, 5 days a week). Woodland Valley Road is not much more than a narrow country lane, full of sharp twists and turns. In fact, Mr. Poncic has stated that it made sense to engage the largest trucks possible for a more "balanced" distribution of weight. I have no doubt that he will eventually try to act on this theory. Even the "smallest" water tanker will present a real danger to people traveling the road, whether on foot or driving. They are simply too large to negotiate this particular road. Even one trip a day is too many.
It's been pointed out that big trucks already travel Woodland Valley delivering fuel, hauling garbage, transporting gravel and the like, with no significant accidents (though Ken Umhay might argue this point). All these services are just that—services—which to some extent aid in "the comfort", "convenience", even the "public health" of Woodland Valley residents. That they must be delivered by truck is something of a necessary evil.
The introduction of tankers would be contrary to the safety and general welfare of Valley residents and visitors. It would serve one purpose only—to fatten Mr. Poncic’s already thick wallet.
Mike O'Neil
Woodland Valley, NY

Dear Editor,
WRITE, UNITE and FIGHT!
If the mainstream media spent as much time investigating reports of voting irregularities as they spend debunking them, we might get at the truth- but we're not there yet. Recounts are going on in New Hampshire, and Ohio is next. Remember the millions who died defending our right to free, fair elections. In the beginning, only wealthy white men could vote. After centuries of struggle, women, non-whites, native Americans and, yes, even poor people got the right to vote. We still fight gerrymandering, partisan corruption, barricades of police intimidation, illegal voter roll purges, defective equipment and ratty polling places in poor neighborhoods. America has a lousy track record... no wonder only a fraction of eligible voters even bother to pull a lever or punch a chad.
Now that a few giant corporations control the media, now that lock-step Republicans dominate the Senate, Congress, Supreme Court and the White House, now that Republican-run private companies make the electronic machines we vote on, now that evangelical Christianity has replaced science with religion and broken down the barriers between church and state... now we are supposed to trust them to get the vote right? With secret codes in black boxes that have no paper record? You buy a candy bar and you get a receipt. Is the vote less important than a candy bar? Shout for an end to paperless voting and don't stop shouting till we get the job done.
I don't believe a majority of Americans voted for Bush. To those that actually did, think about this: isn't it just possible that George W. Bush is really an Anti-Christ? It may take many shapes, but always feeds on hate. Hatred of abortion lets him wage a war on false pretences, killing women and babies in Iraq. Hatred of gay marriage lets him tap our phones and soil our Constitution. Hatred of stem cell research lets him cripple public education and health care. Hatred of condoms lets him condemn millions to death from AIDS. Hatred of poor people getting welfare lets him kill our overtime pay, lavish tax cuts
on millionaires, pave the way for the rape of social security, wreck our reputation in the world, inflame a new generation of terrorists, and send us racing into poverty, pollution and pestilence. That doesn't sound like true Christian values to me.
Democrats and progressive people everywhere- don't be blue... see red. Even with titanic odds against us, the reds only won by a scant few percent. That's like me going 13 rounds with Leon Spinks, never getting knocked down, and losing by a referee decision. OK, so our ears are bleeding- people have bled for democracy before.
But before reds impose a 40% national sales tax and bring back the draft, before reds throw millions more in prison and make torture legal, before reds provoke an unholy religious nuclear war, let's try this: WRITE, UNITE and FIGHT! WRITE letters to TV stations, newspapers
and politicians. UNITE in ever larger groups that include all colors, religions, and all ways of life... and FIGHT like our lives depend on it... because they do.
Dave Channon
Shandaken, NY

Dear Editor,
What has been most disheartening to me is the glee with which the rape of Olive's tax base has been pursued by the other Towns in the Onteora District and the County. If Woodstock and Shandakan would expend as much energy in fostering their own tax bases perhaps they would be better able to bear their own share of the burden. For example, Woodstock made the choice to spurn expansion of the old Grand Union market, to spurn the advances of Marriott and any other developer who sought to build something of substance. More power to Woodstock and their love of open space and small town charm...why give up anything when they can come take Olive's tax base?
Perhaps we need to look at other large parcel candidates in the Onteora District, like the Belleayre Ski Center...how would Shandakan like that? Are all the Towns in Ulster County sharing the tax base of Ulster where the HV Mall and all the big box stores are shoehorned into a compact strip? Sounds like a large parcel to me.
There are many ironies in this situation. By invoking the Large Parcel issue, the School Board has sunk any hope of seeing a budget passed in Olive, ever, so now they want to pass the hot potato. The school district gets no benefit from this controversy, it only suffers. No additional revenue is raised, and Olive's loss will be faintly felt in reductions in the tax bills of the other towns, yet Olive will get a massive wedgie right where it hurts. Thanks.
Of course, I am seeing this as a resident of Olive, but I am also a former resident of Shandaken and Woodstock. After IBM left I experienced a significant drop in income from my sales as an artist. By 1996 I was hurting, and relocating from Rosendale to 'low-tax' Olive really enabled me to stay in New York, as opposed to going to North Carolina or Virginia. Olive's low tax status has been under continual threat since I moved here, first from the City of New York and their attempt to lower their assessment around the reservoir, and now this Large Parcel rape. The squeeze is on and seeing the glee of our 'neighbors' is distressing.
Onerous taxes will continue until structural changes are made in funding education. Perhaps the school board should look to the coal and steel industries for their next initiative: declare bankruptcy, void labor contracts, pension and healthcare commitments and sell the schools. The Large Parcel act was designed to prevent tax fluctuations on large capital installations, like power plants, whose values could be manipulated by an Enron style management. Its use on a reservoir in Olive, which covers more than half our town, is a move worthy of Enron itself.
Robert Selkowitz
Ashokan, NY

Dear Editor, The Supervisor of Woodstock stood before the Board of Education numerous times crying, “Fair and Equal!” He even duped the Supervisor of Shandaken into making it a duet. If the School Board’s decision to enact the Large Parcel Bill was to level the playing fields with regard to school taxes, what will happen now that citizens within Woodstock who pay more taxes to Saugerties and Kingston are now crying, “Fair and Equal!” to their own Town Board. Should they now take their “pound of flesh” or “bucket of water” from Olive’s former reservoir or will Mr. Wilber figure a way to redistribute tax money to make Woodstock’s school taxes “ Fair and Equal!”
Did Mr. Cross and Mr. Wilber never hear of the old saying, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?” When Ulster County’s Real Property Office was asked about Shandaken’s last reval, the answer was, “I think it was in the seventies. I have been here eighteen years and it hasn’t been done within that time period.” How can Shandaken with an archaic tax assessment base and with 75% of its state land under-assessed, point fingers at Olive and cry, “Fair and Equal?”
Last year Olive negotiated a higher assessment of the Ashokan Reservoir and rigorously initiated a town-wide reval to keep up with Woodstock’s assessment that was done in 1992, and updated twice, and with Hurley that does a yearly update. Will the Onteora School Board now direct its attention to Shandaken as the weakest tax link of the District?
How about the Towns, not the school district, doing the business of the towns? Next year the Board of Education should avoid the option of the Large Parcel Bill; stop meddling in the Home Rule of the towns and get back to setting Educational Policy! Karen Hanson
Shokan, NY

Dear Editor,
There are a number of issues scattered throughout the Olive Press of November 11, 2004 that I wish to comment on and perhaps correct.
The editorial begins with a "body slam" from the past when the writer refers to the "stolen election" [of 2000]. What part of the Constitution, Mr./Madam editorial writer do you not understand? Is it the electoral process [which is left to the several states]; or the single date for selecting electors; or perhaps the part you think the court(s) should play in the actual selection. The US Supreme Court did nothing other than to tell a lower [meddling] court to follow the Constitution. I should be delighted to review the Constitution with you in a public forum sir/madam, and let public embarrassment convince you that the 2000 election was indeed "on the level".
Then you refer to Ulster County's "ancient political dynasty" soon passing into oblivion. The dynasty is obviously the UC Republican Party which by it's succession each election cycle has risen quite often well above mediocrity. Gee, I was accused of attacking a family when I referred to them as a dynasty. What changed and where is my accuser lately?
Now on to other more important concerns such as a Police Commissioner giving much free time and direction. Who cares where a volunteer lives or votes when that person contributes to a community without compensation and the contribution is a sharing of talent and experience? So the person "fibbed" a little when stating that he "is" a police officer. I lied to get into the Navy at age 16 in 1943. What should happen to me? Lose my citizenship? Sharing is a gift you give to yourself.
Then we have Stacey Banks of Woodstock singing the praises of Supervisor Jeremy Wilber and the Onteora School Board for reaching into the pockets of Olive [and Hurley] taxpayers only because they could under the "Large Parcel" act. I would ask Ms. Banks and Supervisor Wilber if I as a resident of Olive might vote in a Woodstock election; the old "taxation without representation" thing, don't you know? Ms. Banks allows that a house in Olive with a market value of $100,000 should be taxed at the same level that a $100,000 home in Woodstock. Not so fast Ms. Banks. The reservoir which NYC pays taxes on requires no public services as your $100,000 home in Woodstock does and has no students attending Onteora. Likewise the businesses in Woodstock that require Police and Fire response, street maintenance and a park or two. (Anyone know of a fire or robbery in the reservoir? NYC doesn't even have insurance and you do). The asessed value of the reservoir with it's commensurate tax(es) causes the real estate and school taxes to be lower in Olive which is common all over the country. In fact a prospective new home buyer inquires as to schools, shopping malls, churches and TAXES when the real estate agent shows his offerings Ms. Banks. I can see your expression when your r.e. agent explains that "this town shares it's tax base income with East Gedunk, the next town over". Your reply?, "Oh my, that's not fair". Exactly.
One of these days soon this joke will end whether it's Olive's [and Hurley's] withdrawal from Onteora or a court intervenes. As for the Onteora School Board; your days are numbered as you come up for re-election. Those especially from Olive who "represented" Shandaken, Woodstock and Marbletown and led by a "biased" lawyer are targeted for extinction. You all now have the "Hutzpah" to point to the victims and declare yourselves not responsible for this debacle. You even suggest [led by the lawyer] that another group or [political] entity take over where you left off. If you, the school board are not happy with what you did you don't need anyone else to "shill" the game for you. Just back off the large parcel and do it the old way. We can live with the usual annual increase even if it takes two votes to "get it right".
Do you folks not know that politicians [which the school board has become] are noted for creating commissions, authority(s), associations and other "insulating" types of organizations? Try barking at the Governor for the MTA ineptness and you will be informed that the MTA is an independent public organization. (Incidentally we pay an MTA surcharge on our phone bills. When is the last time you took a subway in Olive?) This is your school board attempting to transfer the responsibility. They say now that they should not have to make those choices. Why didn't they say that prior to invoking the Large Parcel Act?
Remember folks. This is the same board that implied that we, their constituants are responsible for a short budget, depriving the children and cheating the school system. This is what lawyer/politicians do; blame the victim(s). So, under the circumstances we must reject the next proposed budget [both times] while working the court(s) and electing Olive board members who have Olive resident's rights and equality in their interests or establish the "Olive/Hurley" Central School District. Forget whatever relationship you have with the Olive "Benedict Arnolds" who now appear as scared rabbits in a forest fire. They have had more impact on the residents of Olive [in various ways] than any "real" politician of whatever office. In fact our other elected representatives are decent, reliable public servants.
I respectfully decline consideration for any elected position as I prefer being the "marksman", not the "target".
Glenn T. Anderson
Olivebridge, NY

Dear Editor,
The Ulster County Department of Social Services is appealing to the community for donations in order to provide needy children, families and senior citizens in our community with Christmas/holiday gifts, new toys, new warm clothing (for children and adults/seniors) and gifts or gift certificates for teenagers. All would be greatly appreciated. Families can be 'adopted' and monetary donations are also appreciated.
At this hectic time of year it is often possible to overlook those people in our community who may not be as fortunate. In the spirit of giving during this season, we would appreciate any assistance in making this holiday season a special one for all.
We would also like to thank all of the individuals and businesses who have helped us in the past. We could not have holiday gifts without their assistance.
For more information, please contact Rachel Hunter at 334-5140.
Laura Boodakain, Rachel Hunter
UC Department of Social Services

Dear Editor, This is in response to your misinformation in your article, “What’s in the budget.” Regarding the budget for my office, Brian Grant and Doris Bartlett did not receive any increase as they are busy attending classes to obtain them certification. Therefore, they were not putting a lot of time in the office, so I did not put in for an increase. As far as all town employees receiving a four percent increase, I believe some employees received more and 1 only received a “two percent” increase. You also mentioned that the assessors’ office was one of the largest line items. The reason for this is that 911 was added to my budget against my objections. Just getting the facts straight, once more. Sincerely, Rosalie M. Boland, CSA
Chairman, Board of Assessors Publisher’s Note: Thanks for the correction. The statement that all town employees received a 4% increase was provided directly and verbatim by Supervisor Cross, in Cross' office, and verified by his secretary. Next budget, you can be sure we'll check the math for ourselves before reporting it...