The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Letters & Comments

A Scavenger Hunt For Kids At The Dyken Pond Center

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Grab your little one and come out on October 11 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm for a fun, easy hike and craft at the Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center. We will discuss how the plants and animals of Dyken Pond adapt to survive the winter while we collect nature items on our list. We will use the collected items to create a nature craft that can be brought home. This program is free and open to all ages.

Contact the Center for more information at 658-2055 or dykenpond@fairpoint.net or visit www.dykenpond.org for directions and a complete schedule of our fall events.

Letter To The Editor – Does HFCS Know What The ADA Is?

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Dear Editor:

On Thursday afternoon (September 4) I went to a local automotive repair business in Bennington, VT, to have my wheelchair van’s oil changed and checked before I drove to the Syracuse Carrier Dome on Sunday, September 7, to watch the Hoosick Falls Football Team, of which my son is a member, play in the High School Kick-off Classic, one of only 18 schools in New York State to receive the honor, but the mechanic drove it off the side of the cement lift slamming the van into a cement wall leaving it severely damaged and unsafe to drive to Syracuse

Since I am a quadriplegic of 43 years and use a power wheelchair for mobility I am forced to use a vehicle that either has a wheelchair lift or a ramping system. My son knowing that Hoosick Falls was sending buses for cheerleaders/band and fans took it upon himself on Friday to ask the Athletic Director (Mr. Tom Husser) if one of the wheelchair buses could be sent so his dad could go? He was told NO, without hesitation.

Some of the football coaches also asked; they, too, were told no. My wife and other ambulatory parents were allowed to ride the fan buses but not me. On the bus ride to Syracuse, my wife was told by the driver, if more ambulatory buses were needed, they were to be added.

Recently I went with my son to the yearly Code of Conduct meeting required for any student who is going to play sports at Hoosick Falls. Two ex-NAVY SEALS spoke about how it takes parents, coaches, students and school administrators working together for the students’ teams to be successful.

I think the students, coaches and parents understand the philosophy, but I am not sure the school administration does. My son is a senior, and unless the football team ends up in the championship game again, I will never get to see my son’s team play at the Dome again. I know Coach Jones and his team will try their hardest to make it back to the Dome, and I pray that happens, but just in case it doesn’t, I have to ask again WHY COULDN’T THEY SEND A LIFT BUS to allow me or a student or any other individual with a disability to go to the game?

So I ask, why couldn’t a lift equipped bus have been added? I have managed transportation systems throughout the United States for over 35 years and during most of that time the Americans with Disabilities Act (passed July 26, 1991) which protects persons with disabilities from discriminations has been in effect. Doesn’t the Hoosick Falls Administration know what the ADA is?

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was told to move to the back of the city bus but stood her ground by refusing, and the whole world heard her. Fifty-nine years later discrimination still exists, however, now, individuals try harder to keep it quiet!

Sincerely,

Richard Pitt

Oak Street, Hoosick Falls

Letter To The Editor – 60 Years Old Picnic

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To The Editor:

The Grafton Library’s “60 Years Old” picnic [on September 14] was a wonderful event. The weather was sunny; the food was terrific and abundant. The cake was delicious, and the company was friendly and entertaining. Those Graftonites who didn’t attend missed an awesome and auspicious celebration. I met some neighbors I had not known before. I hope you have another picnic.

Elsie Risedorf

Route 2, Grafton

Letter To The Editor – A Concoction?

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To the editor,

The newest concoction to drum up business in the Town of New Lebanon has emerged in the form of a museum of contemporary rural living. Selected business members of the community for whom I have had a long abiding, deep respect, many non-resident business owners, as well as regular homeowners, are preparing to demonstrate to tourists how contemporary rural living happens. Its title, Behold! New Lebanon implies that those who travel to see how we survive in the wilds of a rural town will be enlightened and leave in awe for how we could do it all without the benefits an urban lifestyle affords. Behold! It sounds like the Magic Kingdom.

Unfortunately, the creator of this museum, a recent permanent resident from New York City, failed to actually include the Town in the planning of something that is about the town! No letter was sent to residents asking for input, no survey was conducted to learn everyone’s talents and strengths and no presentation was made to the Town’s Planning Board, much less the Town Board. The latter was befuddled. They had never heard of this “Town project” designed to benefit the Town, when an official Behold! representative attended a Town Board meeting and asked them permission to allow oversight from Columbia County’s Economic Development Committee with financial donations from supporters, which includes Town Supervisor, Mike Benson.

In order to effectively project the concept of rural living, individuals will be stationed in their homes and businesses, prepared to prove rural living is the quintessential and fun way to get through life. Each presenter will be paid $100 each time they demonstrate contemporary rural living to tourists, as well as their equal, rural-living neighbors in town! Tourists will pay $25 for a day, $40 for a family for a day, and residents, who see their neighbors up close and personal every day for free, will be able to do the same thing attending Behold!, but will then pay a discounted ticket price of $12.50, along with an ID and proof of residency. A tour through the Hand Hollow Nature Conservancy, normally free by design, is also part of the rural museum, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Friday the 29. But, if you want to walk that trail at 5:25 pm, it will still be free!

How will these curious tourists, and even curiouser town residents, get to all those wonderful rural places? A tour bus, that grinds its gears, belches diesel smoke and breaks branches hanging over a narrow country back road, will ensure everyone who paid gets the true experience of rural living. I’ve got some bad news. Tour buses don’t promote rural lifestyles nor provide an adequate portrait of how to experience country living. Adding insult to injury, Behold!’s notion that residents of this town should even pay one nickel to see their neighbors perform normal everyday activities, is hubris at its best. Requiring residents to prove they live in this town indicates that the New York City mentality behind this project is compounded by the fact that those in charge of this project don’t know many lifetime residents, outside of their exclusive group.

Most residents, totally unaware of this affront that has descended upon us, must be living under a rock to not know about it, as Town Supervisor Benson bluntly stated, or not know this privately arranged group has decided, without any consideration of other’s opinions, that the Town needs to be redefined to fit what they want in a stereotyped image of cutesy, simple, country folk, a portrait the rest of us under a rock, finds outrageous and totally unacceptable. While a rock may keep us in the dark, it also protects us from damage.

Nineteen years ago the movie “Before and After” came to the area. I was one of a dozen extras chosen to be on site at Darrow School for a scene that took place in the winter. We were told to dress appropriately for a winter scene, which was not difficult to do. A costume assistant from California, in charge of our group, reacted with horror because our winter clothing was nothing she expected, or wanted. Her facial expression said it all, as she snorted that we didn’t dress right. Perhaps out of embarrassment no one said anything, except me as I bluntly explained to her that we dressed with whatever was available in our closets and with total disregard for fashion coordination. She angrily told us we should be wearing LL Bean. When I told her she had the wrong idea about us, she walked out and didn’t return for the rest of the day.

This project’s creator, who reminds me of that woman and her opinion of what we should be, went one step further with a deceptive statement to the local reporter, saying she had “asked the residents what they wanted.” Yet, reiterating, she never held a community meeting with the entire town to inquire what our desires were nor expressed true interest in the Town as a whole nor wrote a letter to us. No communication was made except through the former Business Association’s website, which, if you didn’t have time to read it in its entirety, meant you were out of luck and uninformed, as our trusty rock would insure.

The demand that the rest of the town pay to view our neighbors living indicates that this project is about making money not about building Town morale or embracing the Town as a whole. The ridiculous fear and mistrust that the rest of us would sneak into the exhibits of our neighbors without proper ID would be laughable if it weren’t insulting. Requiring proof of residency from us, then demanding money from those not included in a “town” project intended to affect all of us, does not bring us closer together but divides us more than anything ever has. Behold! is sadly unaware of the deep poverty that exists in our Town or the class, and income divisions. New Lebanon is not about status or money or who you know at the top of the social ladder. Yet this project, intended to promote the community, and should include all classes and incomes, is really for the benefit of those who have contributed financially or invested their demonstration time to it.

It remains a tragedy that most of our Town residents are unaware they have been stolen and sold off because someone has decided that after 200 years, we suddenly need to be re-defined. Behold!’s creator misses the point that a tour bus won’t promote rural living but rather stink up and disrupt the peace and tranquility of our neighborhoods. We don’t want that on a country road. It has no place on a country road. The rest of us were not asked, but now the creator’s definition of “rural living” will include it, without consideration for its impact on us. The rest of the Town doesn’t count, and it should.

Three years ago, when I was New Lebanon’s Supervisor, Behold!’s creator asked me why I thought the Town liked me, a question shocking alone in its audacity. While I was stunned at the arrogance of the question, I see now why she wanted to know. It seems, like three quarters of the Town, with my 57 years living here, I don’t fit the criteria for what she wishes to promote as the rural image, which – exactly like the woman from California in “Before and After” – is what she desires to recreate from an urban newcomer’s perspective.

Rural living doesn’t mean specially selected people showing their wares to strangers or fast moving tour buses on back roads. Rural living means peace and quiet, free from all of that, especially diesel buses flying past your house, belching up the air and adding a noise which belongs in a city. Behold!, and all that it entails, has no right to define what we are as a whole, put words in our mouths or decide what is important and what is not. Collectively as a real town, we do. The entire Town should be embraced and promoted without regard to class or income. Her world really isn’t our world, and she needs to stop trying to make it so. In the online flyer, it is stated so definitively that we know it is summer here when the Shaker Mountain Barbeque opens. In truth, we really know it is summer in New Lebanon when the fragrant, brilliant colors of dozens of flowers bloom, vegetables are planted, fields are furrowed with real fertilizer for crops, daylight lasts until 8 pm, crickets chirp, fireflies twinkle and the red wing blackbirds, Baltimore orioles and finches return to the fields with their melodious tunes. That is summer, while the Shaker Mountain Barbeque is just another good place to eat in New Lebanon.

Sincerely,

Meg Robertson

former New Lebanon Supervisor

Letter To The Editor – Solution To A Non-Existent Problem?

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To the Editor:

I respectfully oppose the transfer station moving to Petersburgh. Priscilla and I are very happy with the Berlin/Petersburgh situation and wish it to continue. Having used it since its inception, we have found it to be convenient, economical and have found the staff highly professional and helpful.

Although we do not have the figures to prove it, it seems to us that simple math would dictate that the present solution is far more economical than splitting the collection up into two units, each of which has its own overhead. Furthermore, we shudder at the thought of turning the “downtown” Petersburgh area into a garbage facility.

Furthermore, splitting the collection up into two when one was working just fine goes against the recent State of New York push to consolidate facilities whenever possible. There is a reason for that policy – namely to save taxpayers money.

We have seen the figures as put forth in The Eastwick Press by our [Petersburgh Town] Supervisor. Although we do not doubt his sincerity, we are hesitant to exclusively rely on them and would certainly not want to move for change without an independent audit and assessment of costs and benefits.

In short, we believe that the present proposals for change are solutions to a non-existent problem and should not be adopted.

Respectfully,

Barton McLean

Coon Brook Road , Petersburgh

Letter To The Editor – Start Telling The Truth

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To the Editor:

Let’s start telling the truth in regard to the Grafton playground equipment. Yes, I, a private citizen, contacted the Berlin School Board to see if they would be willing to give the pieces to the Town of Grafton. They requested an official letter from the Town requesting the equipment. At the March Town Board meeting I brought this up to the Board, and they were in agreement. Councilman Crandall called it “a wonderful idea.” The Supervisor turned it over to the Park Committee to handle. Councilwoman Barb Messenger offered to write the letter to the School Board. Prior to the April Town Board meeting I checked with the Town’s insurance agent to see if this would raise the Town’s premium. He informed me that the State has strict rules on playground equipment, how to install it, proper footing around it, the need to inspect and maintain it, etc. The Town most likely would need an engineer to draw up plans for the installation. He also informed me that the insurance company would send a safety inspector to look at the equipment first at NO COST to the Town to give us their opinion. Owning the equipment itself does not raise the premium.

Following up with the School Board I found out Barb never sent the letter. At the April Town Board meeting there was no mention of the playground equipment. I asked for an update and the response by the Supervisor was, “After what I learned from the insurance company, I’m not touching it.”

I did not contact the School Board after that statement. At this point I’m not sure what to even say to them. So where the statement or idea came from that I went around the Town Board and the red tape is TOTALLY FALSE.

Back to the Grafton Town Board, analyze the Supervisor’s statement for yourself and the actions of certain members of the Board. Two councilmen support having the insurance company send its safety inspector to look at the equipment. From there we can put a plan together depending upon his or her findings and whether or not the School Board is willing to allow us to have a few of the pieces.

Please contact your Board members and inform them you want them to start working for the people of this Town instead of working against them!

Cathy Goyer

38 Goyer Way, Petersburgh

Letter To The Editor – What Happened To Thank You?

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To the Editor:

I would like to publicly thank Tom Berry for his presentation and educational handouts provided to Ray Harrison, Highway Superintendent, and Town Board members at the March 17 Petersburgh Town Board meeting.

Mr. Berry presented the Town with informational handouts on gravel specs, road building materials and various workshops offered at minimal or no cost to the Town.

Supervisor Krahforst was clearly not happy with Mr. Berry’s presentation. Krahforst was defensive and rudely interrupted Berry twice during his presentation. At the closing of Berry’s presentation Krahforst’s’ only response was “we can access that information from the internet!”

As a Town leader, Supervisor Krahforst should at the very least show some respect. Mr. Berry obviously spent hours on researching data. Krahforst and Harrison should be appreciative and thankful that a Town resident has taken the initiative to provide valuable information.

The old adage is “Knowledge is Power.” No one is beyond room for improvement.

Thank you Tom Berry for your efforts and time spent.

Respectfully submitted,

Priscilla Maxon

William Jones Road,

Petersburgh

Letter To The Editor – Preventing Substance Abuse

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To the Editor:

As Principal of the Junior/Senior High School in New Lebanon I am thrilled to know that there is a local community initiative aimed at preventing substance abuse in our township. I learned of the group after speaking with Matt Larabee at our annual soccer tournament this fall. Immediately, we sought to connect TRACS with our existing Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) coordinator, Lenny Brown. Additionally, I contacted Biffy Cahill in January with the goal of establishing a relationship between the school and TRACS.

The school’s ongoing efforts toward our common mission of preventing substance abuse include the posting of TRACS monthly meetings on Mr. Brown’s school e-board. I was pleased to learn that one of our students took the initiative to attend last month’s meeting as a result of this effort. New Lebanon Junior/Senior High School addresses the threats posed by substance abuse in many areas, which include:

• having our health classes target the dangers associated with substance use;

• participation in Red Ribbon week (alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention awareness);

• participating in Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness week;

• providing character education programming that supports leading a healthy life;

• re-establishing and maintaining an active SADD program (going on 3 years);

• seven years of inviting the Columbia County Sheriff’s K-9 unit into our building (multiple times per year), and

• utilizing the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office for presentations, including drug identification for faculty and staff.

I am proud of our young adults and believe in their ability to make sound choices. We will continue our programming initiatives and will work in partnership with the New Lebanon community to address any issues should they arise.

Matthew R. Klafehn, NLCS Principal

Letter To The Editor – Donating Heirlooms

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To The Editor:

I just realized that it’s been twenty years since I first began donating family heirlooms and historical items to the Taconic Valley Historical Society. Since the old vacant garage on Main Street in Berlin was burned to the ground by arsonists, how safe is the old, vacant “cracker box” building where some of my donations are stored. Also, someone entered one of the homes where my donations are and walked out with one of the books I wrote for children, which was illustrated by Randi Bentley. 1 had to purchase another one to replace it.

I thought when I donated items to the Taconic Valley Historical Society: family heirlooms, two theatrical posters of my grandparents (cost $500 to restore), an original leather bound book by Emma Willard, books written by my great grandparents, and cannot be replaced, that these items would be appreciated and kept safe. At the time, a resident of Berlin advised me to donate to the Rensselaer County Historical Society instead, because everything was farmed out in individual homes and some things were reported stolen. Never once did I imagine that it would take twenty years to generate interest enough to provide a building for the society where my family treasures would be safe, and then – wait how long – for these items to be moved inside that building.

I planned to attend a lecture on March 11 in Waterford covering the Irish Revolutionaries. One of these groups was the Clan-na-Gael, of which my paternal great-grandfather was President and is written about in a book I donated to the Taconic Valley Historical Society called My Twenty-five Years In the Secret Service by Henri LeCaron.

It was because these treasures meant so much to me, and because I was proud of my family history, that I donated them to an organization I believed would provide safe keeping for the years to come; a place where my future generations could come to learn about their ancestors’ lives, careers and fame. My parents were life-long residents of Berlin, and I was born in a Berlin landmark. I’ve spent my life trying to restore and preserve – from my apartment buildings, homes (including Moseley’s), to heirlooms and genealogy.

I am hurt that the people of Berlin have this “day come – day go” attitude. I’d hoped to receive an announcement of an opening of the new building where I’d see my Victorian quilt and my family books, etc., displayed. I’ve had two strokes and have health problems and am afraid I’ll never see my cherished donations in a permanent, safe place, visible to all. I almost cry when I think about the lack of concern. I am filled with regret and disappointment. Can you tell me anything to restore my hope?

Sincerely,

Beverly Plank Lettko

Main Street, Mechanicville

Letter To The Editor: Problems With The Rail Trail

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Dear Editor,

Congratulations on an excellent, thorough and balanced depiction of the Corkscrew trail developments.  Some of us in Petersburgh have been following these with interest, since there had been a parallel flurry of low key meetings last year called by our Petersburgh town supervisor and spurred also by Jim Bonesteel of the RPA.  As a dissenting member of that committee, I was nonetheless privy to local reactions and research that might be relevant to the grand (or some would say, grandiose) plan to run the trail from Chatham to Bennington.

In a nutshell, from my perspective, it ain’t going to happen.   First, our supervisor, who initially wisely attempted to enlist some local landowners in the possible path of the trail before making the plan generally known to the public, was, as far as I know, unable to enlist one single landowner to offer his/her land for trail use.  In a happenstance neighborly chat with two such landowners with critical land in the trail’s path, a member of our committee was told that they were unalterably opposed to the trail’s using their land.

Second, unlike our Stephentown friends, there is virtually no local interest or support from the critical mass or people who ostensibly would use, run, and police the trail — hikers and bikers.  Of the committee that was formed, only three people could be characterized as active outdoorspeople, and all three were opposed to the trail.  It is precisely this kind of grass roots structure that is absolutely crucial to any forward movement on a trail proposal.

Third, the cost.  A recent dinner with Barbara and Bob Murdock, who were involved in the initial stages of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, gave me indigestion … the initial engineering cost  was $200,000 according to Bob, and the actual construction cost c. 11 million dollars, or roughly 1 million per mile.   With the county’s complete inability to manage event the most basic road infrastructure such as Route 22 south of Petersburgh, where do the Corkscrew people think they are going to get this kind of money?

Due to the devastation of Irene, any rail trail that comes anywhere near the Little Hoosick will need additional mitigation that in itself will put it out of reach of any proposal.

The concern for Stephentown folks should be that, should you bind with Petersburgh in a joint grant proposal, we would be so needful (since we would be going from scratch) that we would drain an inordinate amount of funding that would take away from your own funding.

Fourth, after doing some research, knowing the history and culture of Petersburgh, and seeing the impossibility of implementing it here without significant motorized use and noise (legally or illegally), the project will only cause a major uproar in the town similar to the one that occurred when they tried to install a motocross track here a few years ago.

Our situation is nearly directly opposite from Stephentown’s:

•  In Stephentown, the motorized use is already there and will remain.  There might be more of an upside to expanding it as a multiple use facility.  Petersburgh, on the other hand, enjoys relative peace and quiet along the route.  The trail will open it up to noise and misuse that didn’t exist.

• In Stephentown, there is already a force in place to maintain the trail, with the snowmobile club, with heavy equipment and a ready cadre of people ready to help, involving relatively little extra effort required to make this into a hike bike use as well.  But even with this body of dedicated snowmobilers, I noticed on their web site’s Facebook page a continual thread of the problem of ATV and other non-authorized motorized use.  If these responsible people, who have a larger community of support which is already well organized, can not stop this motorized use, what makes you think that Petersburgh, with virtually no infrastructure, no policing capability, and a culture of unlawful motorized use all over the area  will be able to restrict this in any way?  No property owner in his (her) right mind would agree to opening their land to such potential abuse. Just look at what has happened to the Taconic Trail south of Petersburgh around Berlin Mountain.  Totally ruined by ATV use and no discernible policing.

•  The acoustic sound problem is a significant difference.   Anyone who is living along the Rt. 22 corridor in Petersburgh/Berlin knows that motorized noise has an echo/amplification effect, unlike the relatively flatter area around Stephentown.

Any promises by an official that, once built, trail abuse can be prevented and policed just do not ring true if one examines the culture and the budgets of this area. That is why it is so important for us to very closely examine the long term implications of this trail and its potential to severely impact the peace and quiet of our rural valley, and the resultant abuse and lowering of property values along the route.  Any statements to the contrary by officials promoting the project should be viewed skeptically.

Barton McLean

Petersburgh