In the April 6 issue, Paul Smart incorrectly reported that Jim Lonergan, a former Woodstock Arts Board Trustee, is the attorney foreclosing the Ulster Savings Bank mortgage loan on the Playhouse property now in default. He is not the foreclosing attorney and has no part in the process. He has and continues to interface with the WAB on an informal, pro bono basis.
FAST TRACK? I have to acknowledge that "Fast Track" may not be the best name for this program. It's looking more and more like a "Deem and Pass" type of arrangement.
Our Town Board announced to us at its March 9 meeting that the idea to pursue these powers was not even their own. The concept was made manifest to them by its attorney who claimed that Woodstock was rare among New York's towns to not already have these powers. This raises some interesting questions...1. Is it a bad thing that Woodstock is rare in this respect? 2. Did the TB look into the natures of the few New York towns that still honor their Planning Boards?
Needless to say, I am very interested in what our Planning Board has to say about the program. I encourage all interested citizens to write to them, or talk to them. Ask them if they think they're redundant. We're all neighbors here.
Lee Danziger
Woodstock
ONTEORA MUST CLOSE PHOENICIA ELEMENTARY
As I sit in another "forum" concerning the Onteora School 2010-2011 Budget, my heart sinks listening to the devastating cuts that are being contemplated in order to shave off over $2,500,000. This Board claims that it is bringing everything to the table to ensure that the cuts are as far away from the "classroom" as possible. Far way? They are considering cutting the Pupil Personnel Director whose expertise is Special Education, the DAT team, a specialized group who create and enforce corrective measure for early childhood intervention of learning disabilities, and Jayvee sports and/or some winter sports programs. How far away from the classroom is that?
What they mean is far away from the classrooms in the Phoenicia Elementary School. The place they promised to keep open above all other considerations.
Our school is in great need of consolidation. This board presents this as a non-necessity. They try to convince the public that our three elementary schools are full and they would be overcrowded if we closed one school. The truth is that the Bennett School can accommodate 400 students and the Woodstock School has already done just that when we closed West Hurley. Splitting the student population in Phoenicia in half by redistricting would add about 108 students to each of the other two elementary schools keeping them both well below their capacity. Especially, since this board is considering (or so they say) putting the sixth grade into the middle school (which has been on the table for years). This would even lessen the student population in each school by about 30 more students. The cuts that are being considered are only a "this year" strategy and we will only have to look forward to next years $2,000,000 cuts. When will they realize that we must close a school (Phoenicia being the most logical since we are still paying off a $20,000,000 bond at Bennett and Woodstock houses our largest student population in the east end of the district.)
If we keep bleeding the district this way, without a long term strategy, the projection is by 2014 our school district will be in debt for over $27,000,000. Whose going to pay those taxes then?
Rita Vanacore
Shokan
A LIVING HELL The unemployment situation in this country is going to be a big topic of discussion come April 12. Thousands of families that counted on this lifeline have lost it because of Congress going on vacation for Easter.
The job market is improving but not fast enough to keep up with unemployment. Many like myself are going back to finish college, to re-train ourselves, and hopefully to find a new place in the job market.
This is the worst unemployment since the 1930s. If you could please do an article on the situation, it may help our cause. We don't want to live on half of what we used to, we want to work.
This is a living hell that we did not ask for. Unemployedfriends.com is a good place to get info on the situation. There are people from all walks of life on the site.
Brian Tate and family
Rosendale
CONSTRUCTION FOR THE MOBILITY IMPAIRED
A movement to change home construction practices is underway in many parts of the country. Some specific features would make it easier for people with mobility impairment to live and remain in their homes throughout their lifetime. The features are low cost and include: one entrance with no steps, main-floor interior passage doors with enough clear opening to allow unobstructed passage space, a main-floor bathroom with enough maneuvering space for a wheelchair, available space on the main floor for possible use as a bedroom, re-enforced walls in the bathroom for future installation of grab bars and electrical outlets and environmental controls within reachable locations.
Why? The population is aging, the number of people with mobility impairments continues to rise and in the absence of sufficient accessible units, people are either housed inappropriately or unnecessarily institutionalized when they could have lived in the community.
Bills have been introduced in the NY Senate and Assembly that would require any new housing unit which receives or has received state or federal financial assistance for design or construction to comply with accessibility features known as visitability.
The Resource Center for Accessible Living (RCAL) appreciates Assembly member Kevin Cahill's co-sponsorship of this legislation. If your group or organization would like more information or a presentation on this topic, please contact us at 845-331-0541.
Fran Wishnick
Public Policy/Advocacy Director, Resource Center for Accessible Living
IN THE MEDIGAP Now that the euphoria of electing the first African-American president has receded somewhat, reality has reentered our lives. Perhaps we underestimated the power of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies to control legislation and overestimated the power of the president to shape policy and get things passed in Congress. Perhaps the president's advisors were not the best and steered him in the wrong direction. In any case, he wasted an inordinate length of time wooing the Republicans to achieve bi-partisanship and they still said "no" to any proposal made by the President.
The "Blue Dog" Democrats didn't help either. The result is a weak health reform bill without a public option, and while containing some reforms, they are minor ones. They hope to cover 31 million of the uninsured but that still isn't everybody as it would have been if expanded Medicare had been extended to all Americans as per HR 676. This would have been uniform, easily understood and cheaper than private insurance, for the patients and the government. We all know (or should know) that the cost of administrating Medicare is only 3% of all costs, while that of the private insurance companies is over 30%. This, plus the drive for ever higher profits, results in the ever increasing cost of private insurance and pharma companies. The fight for universal health care is not over according to we who have been advocating this for decades.
Another needed health care reform concerns an inequity in senior coverage in which Medicare covers 80% of its allowed fees, while the 20% balance is an out of pocket expense for the senior. Medigap insurance is required and unless you join an HMO, it often costs twice per month as the Medicare premium (which is now $96.40 per month.) I pay $190 per month for this insurance, a great burden for one on a limited income. I shall continue to bring this to the attention of my Congressional representatives and urge others to do the same.
Esther Nason
Kingston
(Editor's note: for more on this subject, see Health, Page 26)
DOING WALL STREET'S BIDDING The Working Families Party - yes, there are still a few working families left...no thanks to our bankers and corporate highwaymen - suggested that maybe our "public servants" should actually serve the public interest for once and tax outsized Wall Street bonuses to finance property tax reform.
Predictably the chorus of Albany castrati who do Wall Street's bidding began singing the same old tired refrain, "If we make Wall Streeters pay just a little of their bloated bonuses to save the New Yorkers who bailed them out, they'll run for the hills."
Albany never stops trash talking.
They live in fear their Wall Street patrons will cut off their supply of lolly...so they hand out taxpayer money to keep their patrons happy.
However the pols are lionhearted and loud about insisting that public services are too expensive to support with public funds.
No bailouts for hospitals, schools, public transportation, parks, and the security and safety sectors we depend on for our quality of life; just a lot of the green stuff for the guys who brought us the latest financial disaster...money wrung from the working and middle class taxpayer and handed over to support the monarchial lifestyles of the super -rich.
Albany has already caused an exodus...not of the investment bankers and insurance companies but the thousands of workers leaving for sunnier, cheaper climes where property taxes and Albany's subservience to Wall Street won't pauperize them.
Remember the part in the Godfather when Don Corleone says "You'll know the traitor. He'll be the one who asks for a meeting."
Well listen to this Sicilian when I say, "You'll know which pol to vote out of office.
He or she will be the one who says that taxing Wall Street to save Main Street will make the super- rich leave New York."
Losing elections is the political equivalent of "sleeping with the fishes."
These traitors to their oath to serve the public interest deserve to "sleep with the fishes."
Gioia Shebar
Gardiner
ONLY WITH THE FACTS
When I've come across underhanded, un-democratic practices in the Woodstock Town Board, I've publicized it. That is my duty. I have been attacked by other members of the Board for doing that, sometimes being accused of lying. I have responded with facts and anger. I've had enough. I will no longer react. I will continue to make public in the future, things I find abhorrent, when they exist. If I'm pilloried again, I will respond with facts, only. I have attached letters I've sent to Moran and Rosenblum:
Terrie, this warfare has gone on way too long. Can we sit down and find a way for us to say in public what we each need to say without reacting venomously? Jay
Jeff, I don't like this business any more than you, I'm sure. I propose a sit down where we can make peace and as much agreement as possible; clearly, we don't agree all the time. I want to end the nastiness, on both sides. We know how to do the opposite. This is sincere on my part. Jay
Jay Wenk
Woodstock
THANKS FROM THE PANTRY
Thanks to everyone at Woodstock Elementary for the wonderful food drive. The food was delivered to the Good Neighbor Food Pantry along with a wonderful large poster painted by the donors. We now have three of these wonderful posters in the hallway outside the food pantry.
So, thank you for your generosity with the food and your talent as well. You gave boxes and boxes and cans and cans of food and even included some grocery bags for us to recycle. The food was greatly appreciated. As a matter of fact, it was so greatly appreciated that it all went to people's homes the day it arrived in the pantry.
Thanks to everyone for thinking of us. Thanks to everyone for acting on your generous thoughts. We needed and used every item you gave to us.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
DELAYS COME FROM THE TOWN, NOT THE PLANNING BOARD
It's unfortunate that supervisor Jeff Moran took a cheap shot at the planning board during his interview in last week's Woodstock Times. "According to the supervisor, the frequently crowded agenda for the Planning Board's twice-monthly meetings often consigns town projects to a prolonged state of limbo, costing the town time and money."
Nothing could be further from the truth. The town has had no problem getting all the time it needed on the planning board's agenda. The town first presented the Comeau parking expansion to the planning board on February 4. Since then, the planning board met on February 18, March 18 and April 1 to consider the town's proposal. No doubt for good reasons, the town was not prepared for two of these meetings. But for the supervisor to criticize the planning board for these delays is completely irresponsible
At the request of the town board, the planning board scheduled a special meeting on February 11 for the first review of a proposal to renovate/expand town buildings on the Comeau. That meeting was subsequently canceled by the town board.
When Dennis Larios, the town's engineer, presented his timeline for the development of a town office campus on the upper Comeau, he made it quite clear that planning board review was not a significant factor and would not delay the project.
The dedicated volunteers on the planning board spend a great deal of time and effort working with developers and residents helping them comply with town's law. For the supervisor and town board to be constantly trashing them, without justification, is unconscionable.
Ken Panza
Woodstock
SAVE THE PLAYHOUSE
While I'm grateful for the story and coverage for the plight of the Woodstock Playhouse in Thursday's paper, I feel that I must correct a few misstatements. The Playhouse has indeed been served with papers for foreclosure. But, with support from our patrons, legislators and local businesses we can once more pull ourselves away from this brink of disaster. What do we need? A "Save the Playhouse" concert perhaps? A "Save the Playhouse" fundraiser of any sort? We need Board members, volunteers, and Friends of the Playhouse to turn this bump in the road around (have you seen our driveway?), so that we can continue to operate and bring the banks up to date. And then we need a plan for ongoing survival - in any economy. We need to retire our debt because we've proven over the last few years that without the mortgages hanging over our heads, we can operate with ticket sales, donations, fundraisers and grants. Ultimately, we need to fully enclose the structure so that we can operate at least ten months of the year, but that's another year and a much longer letter!
I also want to clear up something else. For 21 years the Woodstock Arts Board has worked diligently to preserve and protect the 4.2 acres at the entrance to town for the community. For the first eleven years Jim Lonergan worked tirelessly as a Board member and then as our Board President. He was the major force behind fund raising efforts, legislative member items and, along with Vince Christofora and Les Walker, the vision for the physical plant.
The article in the paper last week made it sound like Jim Lonergan had abandoned the Playhouse and nothing could be further from the truth. Even while not functioning as a Board member, attorney Jim Lonergan continued his pro bono efforts for us all during the past ten years. If I ever had a question or a concern I could always count on Jim to be there for the Arts Board and guide us through any legal maze. Those efforts would continue today, but with other business related obligations, Mr. Lonergan is not able to fully continue in that capacity. To be clear, Mr. Lonergan does not represent Ulster Savings Bank in the foreclosure against the Playhouse. But he does occasionally work with the Bank - which puts him in a difficult spot. We recognize that spot and that's why the Arts Board is seeking a different avenue in seeking legal advice.
So - in summary - if you've got a good idea and want to help the Playhouse, call me - I'm in the book!
Joan Roberts, President
Woodstock Arts Board
NO PARTICIPATION IN PLAYHOUSE FORECLOSURE
I write to correct what I know to be categorically wrong in Paul Smart's "Playhouse in Foreclosure" that appears on pages one and nine of your April 8, 2010 issue.
Although most of my comments were taken out of context, I feel obliged to disabuse your readers of the one statement that I am "now serving as the foreclosing attorney for Ulster Savings Bank." I am not and I never have been a USB employee or its foreclosure attorney.
I do not know how Mr. Smart drew this conclusion. He did not ask me and he did not ask Mr. Shaughnessy of USB about who was handling the matter. I did state that after serving on the Arts Board for ten years until 2004, I have been less involved recently. The restrictions on what I said stem from informal conversations with persons interested in forestalling or reversing the situation - not any participation in the foreclosure process.
I bristle at the suggestion that I would volunteer my services to help the Board acquire the property, serve on the Board for a decade through the theater construction, abandon them after years of pro bono work and sue them in foreclosure. Such factual errors cause one to question the accuracy of every part of the paper.
It is a sad commentary, almost ludicrous, that one can contribute years of time and energy to a community project and then have to defend oneself for the record in a public forum.
James S. Lonergan
Woodstock
CENTRAL IDEAS OF EXPRESSION Jim Charles' letter in the April 8 issue, which quotes several of the Time/Warner Commandments to condemn "advertizing" of an independent artist's album or a poet's book (on their own independent shows, no less), entirely misses the intended focus of the Access TV rules he rakes over. When I was covering Woodstock's Access issues in detail for the Freeman back in the '90's, most of the discussion of these rules (meant to accent the "public" in Public Access and distinguish between the well-fettered grip of commercial telecasting and restraint from fettering the public voice in their "own" media) took place before, after and outside of the meetings rather than during them but the concepts were well understood (if not agreed upon) by the participants who sought to clarify their local expression.
Those ideas were begot by passages in the divinely inspired Telecommunications Act of 1996 which sagely gave control of the public airwaves to the worldly wisdom of private corporate minds, offering a sliver back to the public as a kindly gesture of compensation and, no doubt, display of good will and upstanding citizenship. Although many of the provisions of that law have been neglected (like the Low Power Radio clause and other such gestures), a focus on preserving the purity of the Access forum from gross commercial invasion became a topic of lively debate which rather pointedly skirted threats from ointment specks like poets and local musicians. The very fact that they were presenting (and representing) their own work to the local community bumped them into a category quite apart from the perceived threat. In fact, they were considered central to the entire idea of a public forum of ideas and expression.
In the bargain, along with corporate consolidation in mass media, we've been able to corral unruly social and political thought into far fewer and more manageable streams to address the challenges of an ever newer perspective of ourselves. You can't be a Progressive when you stand against progress. Who defines that progress is an unwanted detail which needlessly hampers progress itself and can now be more easily edited out of the discussion as carried bravely forward by the five divisions of media deliverance our corporate leaders have currently settled upon.
Consolidation has brought clearer avenues of thought, creating road maps of political identification that enhance the personal security of the individual, eliminating unnecessary labors of ponderment and leaving more time for entertainment. There's no longer a shadow of confusion because the resident of this less cluttered landscape knows whether he's a Fox-guy or an MSNBC-guy. This has helped assumptions of party affiliation become more effective handlers of thought perimeter than religion or patriotism ever were. The big five media structures can concentrate on the same events and issues, offering generous and broadly labeled containers for all matters of consideration. Any burdensome and useless questions which fail to emerge in this arrangement can be dispensed with as nonessential litter so we can rally around the momentous decisions of the day like - yes, we can rescue the billionaires because we are a great and powerful people.
We do not need to know what is going to happen to the analog TV airwaves abandoned in the mandated (by whom?) move to digital broadband telecasts. If that space is taken over by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies, as claimed by retired IBM lab worker Patrick Redmond, to keep track of products, micro-chipped animals and the upcoming shift to world carbon-credit currency, then things will just get more tidy. Only then will there be time to turn our attention to the unlicensed promotion of thoughts and language in small town Access TV studios.
In other words, are you serious, Mr. Charles? To paraphrase an old tune by Timbuk3, the future's so dim, you'd better take off your shades...Or, as the late Ukrainian poet Anna Akhmatova observed from Veronezh on the river Don in 1936; "Fear and the Muse in turn guard the place/Where the banished poet has gone,/And the night that comes with quickened pace/Is ignorant of dawn."
Gary Alexander
Shokan
RUPCO WILL SELL OUT There are absolutely no legal assurances with the Town that the RUPCO proposed housing project will be and will remain affordable for the 50 short years RUPCO keeps saying it will. RUPCO has stated in its FEIS Notice of Completion that it will no longer receive federal funding, so it is unclear whether any funding has been secured or is available to construct this affordable housing project. Throughout this process RUPCO has represented to the Planning Board, the Town Board, all interested and involved agencies and the public that Woodstock Commons will be an affordable housing project. It is highly doubtful that the project would have been as well received by both Boards if it were a market rate project. But the fact remains - the RUPCO project could be sold or transferred to anyone at any time for market rate!
If RUPCO were truly committed to providing affordable housing then why in the FEIS Exhibit 6 is there a draft declaration of covenants, easements and restrictions that states, "In the event that certain multi-family units are lawfully converted to townhouses in the future, this prohibition on subdivision shall not apply to said townhouse lots as may be ultimately depicted upon a filed subdivision map...." It further states, "The Woodstock Commons Homeowners Association, Inc shall be wholly responsible immediately ...and only in the event that the Woodstock Commons development changes in the future so that the units built within said Development are changed to fee simple ownership."
This declaration is designed for home ownership development and not for a multifamily development. It speaks clearly to the units' conversion to home ownership, not after 50 years but at any time in the future. Since this project will be owned by a for-profit limited partnership, at any time, the private investors could flip this project if it decides being affordable is not so profitable.
The zoning law's table of use regulations clearly states that a multi-family development is to be rental and not condominium or single or two-family development. The creation of townhouses on individual lots would result in the creation of an impermissible use since it would no longer represent a multifamily dwelling allowed by our zoning and special use permit.
If there are no affordable housing funds and there are no guarantees with the Town to keep it affordable then the site plan and special use permit are null and void and this project should be denied.
It's about time everyone woke up to what RUPCO is trying to get away with.
Iris York
Woodstock
CONTRIBUTE TO FARM FESTIVAL How much does the Woodstock Farm Festival mean to you? As one of our neighbors memorably said, "It's like Santa arriving on the Town Green, but in the summer and every week!" In two short years the Farm Festival has become a hugely popular part of life in Woodstock. It supports local farmers, brings us fresh local food along with entertainment, information and a festive atmosphere in which to gather weekly with friends and neighbors.
Since the Farm Festival is non-profit but has a very real overhead that includes paying people to administer the event over the full year, weekly set up and break down expenses and paying entertainers to perform, we must rely on monies donated by our very generous sponsors and, for the past two years, a State grant. After this past year, that State funding ceases.
So if we're going to keep the Farm Festival going, we need your help in raising $20,000. It's a big number, but if everyone who enjoys the market pitches in a small amount, we can all keep this wonderful Wednesday in Woodstock event alive.
We are (painfully) aware of tight budgets. Our request is for a donation of $50. If that amount strains your budget, please donate what you can. If you believe the value generated by this community event deserves a larger sum, by all means feel free to write a check for more. If you cannot see your way clear to donate, please, you and your family, be our guest at the Farm Festival and enjoy yourselves. Please make checks out to "The Woodstock Farm Festival" and mail them to: Woodstock Farm Festival, PO Box 607, Woodstock, NY 12498. Thank you for your support in whatever form. It's greatly appreciated.
Farrell Reynolds, WFF Committee Member
Woodstock
PRESERVE THE MIDDLE WOODS The proposal presented to the Town Board by the Woodstock Soccer Club to expand the soccer field eastward into the Comeau Middle Meadow has been approved and forwarded to the Woodstock Land Conservancy for their approval. In the WSC's larger proposal is a 40x80 foot pavilion which I hope will not be approved. It would be placed where the Middle Woods is today. When I realize how large 40x80 feet is, I know this will forever alter the spacious, open feeling of the Comeau. Also, much of the charming Middle Woods will have to be cut down to accommodate it.
The mixture of woods, open space, and tree lines spreading away from the house on the hill was carefully and beautifully landscaped. I voted for the town to buy the Comeau property. It is a miracle that we have it. I have walked there for years, and it is the whole peaceful perspective I love. The small Middle Woods complements the meadows. A 40x80 foot structure will be enormous and no doubt violate the Conservation Easement. Why can't we just leave those meadows and woods alone instead of taking bites out of a beautiful place?
Beryl Goss
Woodstock
LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE IS NEEDED IN PLANNING
Thank you Ken Panza for articulating so well the reasons not to exempt the Town of Woodstock from Planning Board Review of municipal projects. I heartily agree with every word he wrote in his letter (April 8 issue of Woodstock Times). The idea that the residents should trust the Town Board to do what's best without benefit of review by those who have particular experience and expertise in land use projects is absurd. Politicians tend to analyze the short-term impacts of projects due to the pressures of election cycles, whereas physical developments, designed to last decades, need to be considered from a long-term perspective. This latter approach is exactly what the Planning Board provides. Don't ask me to trust the Town Board's vision when it has failed to adopt a Comprehensive Plan for our community against which specific projects can be judged. I agree with Planning Chair Shultis that there are ways in which time and money issues for the Town can be mitigated without gutting the checks and balances (i.e. the zoning code) on those in political power at the moment. Also, I think it is only fair that the municipality be subject to the same basic planning processes required of private developers. Hopefully the residents of Woodstock will for once be united and unequivocally oppose Supervisor Moran's proposal.
Jill Fisher
Woodstock
ONE VOICE FOR HAITI
I am writing about an upcoming benefit "One Voice For Haiti" which will be a dance party blowout! Many of you know me as the networker for dance parties, I send out info on where the best live music dancing will be for the weekend. Here's my pick for next Friday:
On Friday, April 23, from 7 p.m. to midnight at Backstage Productions, 323 Wall Street, Kingston, NY., we can look forward to fabulous, funky music! Boukman Eksperyans, an 11 member group of musicians and dancers with a high energy sound fusing traditional Haitian and Caribbean rhythms with rock and reggae. It's bound to get everyone on the dance floor. Also rocking the house will be our beloved local band, Sonando and Bakana, a Ghanaian duo. The Community Children's Chorus is also performing and DJ WA is playing music between sets.
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at door. Proceeds will benefit the Haitian People's Support Project, the Hudson Valley-based organization founded 20 years ago that supports many orphanages and grass roots programs in Haiti. Advance tickets are available at Catskill Art and Supply, all locations and haitiansupportproject.org
One Voice For Haiti is being co-produced by Evelyne Pouget and the Creative Music Studio. "We're producing this concert not only to raise desperately needed funds for Haitian orphanages, but also to spread the word in the Hudson Valley. Our goal is to have our community 'adopt' 400 orphans in five orphanages," said Pouget.
Back Stage Productions has generously donated its space for the cause. WKZE 98.1 FM is the concert's radio partner.
If one cannot attend the event but would like to contribute to this Haitian earthquake relief project, monetary donations can be sent by check or money order to: Haitian People's Support Project and mailed to: HPSP, P.O. Box 496, Woodstock, NY, 12498
The Haitian People's Support Project (HPSP) is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization.
I was glad to see Sean Penn on CNN last week, reminding us that there is still so much need. The Hudson Valley has responded, it seems there are great benefits every week for Haiti. For all you dancers out there who want to offer a helping hand, come on out! I look forward to seeing you there.
Joan Apter
Woodstock
RUPCO MARKETING LIES
On February 5, 2009, RUPCO's Executive Director, Kevin O'Connor, stood before a packed Community Center in Woodstock, and told the crowd how RUPCO would market Woodstock Commons. "We do not have to market this project to a minimum of seventy-five thousand people. I don't know where that came from," he said. That law comes from the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal's (DHCR) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. DHCR administers the tax credit program that RUPCO proposes to use to finance Woodstock Commons.
Kevin O'Connor talked about a market study, but a market study and the legally required marketing plan are two different things. Under the fair housing law, in the marketing plan, the housing sponsor must identify a primary market, and then analyze the minority populations in that area. O'Connor correctly identified an area of four towns, including Woodstock, with just over 20,000 people.
The law goes on to define a secondary market, which is 75,000-100,000 people. The project sponsor is required to market the project to the Least Likely to Apply (LLA) groups in the secondary market, and to advertise generally in the secondary market.
In the case of Woodstock Commons, this means that RUPCO must advertise to the LLA populations in an area roughly represented by Woodstock, Shandaken, Olive, Hurley, Kingston (City and Town,) Saugerties, Esopus, Rosendale, and the Town of Ulster. This group is about 96,000 people, according to the 2000 Census, which is used to define the populations.
What Kevin O'Connor did, both on the night of February 5, 2009 and in Woodstock Times' letters section of the same day, is lie to the people of Woodstock, promising to market Woodstock Commons illegally in order to bring about higher Woodstocker occupancy than would be the case under a lawful marketing plan.
What this boils down to is either Kevin O'Connor lied to the town of Woodstock in person, in writing, and on tape (see youtube video - search "RUPCO",) or RUPCO is planning to violate the Fair Housing Law in its Woodstock Commons marketing efforts.
Kevin O'Connor does not care whether Woodstockers lose out. In fact, in RUPCO's 2005 funding application to DHCR, Kevin O'Connor wrote a letter promising to refer over a thousand wait listed people from other affordable housing projects and programs to Woodstock Commons. That is a far cry from marketing exclusively to Woodstock and neighboring towns.
RUPCO must submit its marketing plan to DHCR for approval before marketing the project. Do you think that plan is going to be a legal one, or will it be like the one Kevin told the people over a year ago? Once the Planning Board approves the project, I think Kevin will forget what he told Woodstockers about stacking the projecting with local people, and proceed legally. RUPCO will bring outsiders into town, thereby defeating Woodstock's mandate to meet all or even part of its affordable housing need. Woodstock Commons will be a failure. Please visit my blog for supporting documentation: http://thetroublewithrupco.blogspot.com
Robin Segal
Woodstock
MESCAL'S MESSAGE
When discussing ideology it seems you are dragging in religion and dragging it in where it doesn't belong. But it is of great importance that if it is discussed, a very important ideology be discussed. For the safeguarding of everyone's fair treatment it is vital that everyone has the right to their beliefs; that no one has the right to impose their beliefs on others, depriving the others of their human rights. The devout Muslim believes it right to beat or even kill a woman who exposes too much flesh or a person who sells alcohol. Should a devout "Christian" be able to deprive a woman of the right to choose the health care course that is vital to her because the "Christian" holds certain beliefs? In this country our laws and governance are supposed to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people." We cannot allow the country to be governed by "some of the people, for all the people." Don't forget that the Christians who came to America did so to get away from a country where their Church was dominated, even persecuted by the government or their lives were dominated by a given Church.
Mescal Hornbeck
Woodstock
GOLDEN TREASURES
My husband and I have owned our house in Woodstock for over 30 years and clearly remember the opening of the Golden Notebook. That event brought so much to our town, a place where books were respected and presented intelligently. We could browse to our heart's delight, chat about net titles and authors with Ellen, Barry and the staff, and place special orders. The shop's very presence added to the town's quality of life and with the opening of the children's store, another dimension was added to our delight. The broad range of books was impressive, and I know that Barnes and Noble did not have the same titles on its shelves.
Thank you, Ellen, Barry and staff for 25 years of programs and the service to the community. Hopefully some entrepreneur will realize the value of this local bookstore, this Golden Notebook, with its loyal readers and pick up where Ellen and Barry left off.
Sandy and Alan Siegel
Woodstock
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