smart art wintry mix woodstock times january 15, 2015 1...

January 15, 2015 1WOODSTOCK TIMES

WOODSTOCK TIMESVol. 42, No. 3; January 15, 2015 www.woodstockx.com $1.00

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insideinsideALMANACWEEKLY

by Violet Snow

The Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, a haven for rescued cows, goats, turkeys, and other abused livestock, is pulling up stakes and moving 30 miles south to High Falls. The

sanctuary’s 23-acre property in Willow is up for sale, along with a renovated farmhouse that serves as a bed-and-breakfast for

sanctuary visitors, and the recently purchased 150-acre Epworth Camp and Retreat Center is being prepared for the animals and their caretakers to move this spring.

The new location’s acreage will provide insulation from neigh-bors, who have complained in the past of noise, crowding and

The whole enchiladaLibrary Task Force considers the long run

by Nick Henderson

The panel charged with recom-mending solutions to the Wood-stock Library’s space needs real-

izes that the future isn’t just about an addition or annex, and plans to voice that in its fi nal recommendations.

At some point, said facilities task force member Joe Mangan at a January 13 meeting, a decision has to be made whether to continue maintaining the current library building or to ultimately replace it. The 11-member group has convened almost weekly since the past summer to research and recommend solutions to the library’s needs.

The panel will recommend an addi-tion of approximately 4,500 square feet on the current library property — though even that number isn’t fi rm — as a more

Moooving DayWoodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary heads for High Falls

Kayli, Mike, Maybelle.

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Continued on 1

Continued on Page 6

The hands of Tasso Zapanti. A profi le of the composer is on Page 10.

2 January 15, 2015 WOODSTOCK TIMES

NEWS NOTES

BROOKS BAR-B Q FUNDRAISER

Woodstock Fire Company No. 1 will host its 4th annual Brooks Bar-B Q Fundraiser, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, January 17 at the fi re house 242 Tinker Street in Woodstock.

Eat In or take out, the choice is yours. Get extra to take home for Sunday lunch or to put in the freezer. Call friends and suggest this as a great way to meet, and catch up, while enjoying a good meal and supporting your local volunteer fi re department. Price for a half-chicken dinner is $13, and Rib dinners are $13. An Extra half-chicken is available for sale at $7. Call 679-2927 for informa-tion and/or to reserve your ticket.

WHAT WOULD DR. KING SAY?The Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

celebration will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Janu-ary 18 at Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, featuring Rev. G. Modele Clarke, New Progressive Baptist Church; Pam Africa, International Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal; Kortnee Simmons, Youth Activist, Kingston; Josh Otero, with Spoken Word Poets, Urban Lyrics from SUNY New Paltz, and Hip Hop Performers; and Debra Burger, Freedom Songs. Featured performer is Josh Otero, Using Poetry and Hip Hop to Help Change Consciousness.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 679-7320.

SAT PREPARATION CLASSES

College-bound high school students can prepare for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at winter classes offered through SUNY Ulster. Two different class formats are being offered: the tra-ditional eight-week SAT Preparation course at the Business Resource Center (BRC) in Kingston and an intensive one-day refresher SAT Bootcamp at the BRC or Stone Ridge Campus.

In the SAT Preparation Course, SUNY Ulster’s NYS certifi ed math and English instructors will target areas where students need the most help. Students will receive a textbook, full-length SAT test, test-taking techniques, time-saving methods, test anxiety reducing strategies, comprehension and reasoning strategies. Sessions are held at the BRC with evening and weekend options starting Feb-ruary 4 and March 24. Registration is required at least two weeks prior to the start date and class sizes are limited. Cost is $289.

The SAT Preparation Bootcamp is recom-mended for students planning to retake the SATs.

Graphing calculators are recommended. Classes will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on March 7 at the Stone Ridge campus and April 25 at the BRC. Cost is $79.

For information, call 845-339-2025, e-mail [email protected] or see www.sunyulster.edu/ce.

ONE-STOP EMPLOYMENT TOOLS

The Ulster Works One-Stop Center and the Ulster County Offi ce of Employment and Training will hold a workshop for SSI and SSDI consum-ers on how to return to the workforce, at 2 p.m. Thursday, January 22. A trained counselor will offer tools for fi nding employment, job training and the best ways to gain self-suffi ciency in the workplace. The workshop is open to the general public, professionals, and agencies who work with SSDI and SSI recipients.

This program will be held at the One-Stop at 601 Development Court (Albany Avenue) in Kingston. Reservations are required. For reserva-tions or for more information, call 845-331-7202.

LAKE HILL PANCAKE BREAKFAST

The fi rst Spectacular & Always Great “All You Can Eat” Pancake Breakfast of the new year will be held 8 a.m.-11 a.m. Sunday, January 18, at the Lake Hill Fire House, Woodstock Fire Company Three located at 4123 Route 212, Lake Hill. As an added benefi t, free hearing tests will be performed by Byron’s Hearing of Lake Katrine.

Menu includes pancakes, eggs, sausages, cof-fee, tea, and juice at a bargain price for adults at $6 and children at $4.

The Fire House is about 6 miles west of Woodstock’s Village Green. Kids can get a tour of the fi re house.

If you have a child who will be enrolling in Kindergarten at Onteora next September, it’s time to fi ll out the necessary forms so he or she can be screened as part of the registration process.

Parents or guardians can request Onteora’s Kindergarten information packet by calling the District Registrar, Kimberly Fisher, at 845-657-3320 ext. 1023. Alternatively, they can pick up the necessary materials at Woodstock Primary School, Phoenicia Primary School, or the District Offi ce on Route 28 in Boiceville. The deadline for returning the forms is Friday, February 27.

In spring, parents will be contacted regard-ing their child’s screening appointment. Children who turn fi ve on or before December 1, 2015 are eligible to enroll in Kindergarten beginning in September 2015.

ONTEORA SEEKS PRESCHOOLS FOR PRE-KThe Onteora Central School District is seeking

applications from local preschools interested in accommodating the District’s Universal Prekin-dergarten Program for the 2015-2016 school year. Preschools can request an application by calling Cynthia Bishop, Pupil Personnel Services Director, at 845-657-3320. Applications can also be picked up at the Central Administration Offi ces located at 4166 Route 28 in Boiceville. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 10, 2015.

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OBITUARY

Timothy Patrick Moynihan

Timothy Patrick Moynihan, political cartoonist and private wit, died in his sleep at a friend’s

home in Connecticut the morning of January 9 after several months treatment for brain, lung and other cancers. He was just short of his 59th birthday.

Moynihan was a man of his own making, and myths. Never much liking his given “Christian” names, he was known for years as Mendel, “M,” and later took the pseudonym “Gus Murphy” for his cartooning, and T.P. Moynihan for his sculptural and illustration work. He was proud to have been born in Albany, NY — the “longest baby ever born in that hospital” according to family annals, and would list his being a “native Albanian” as a key accomplishment. He chose to honor Groundhog’s Day, on February 2, as his birthday each year.

Moynihan grew up the eldest son of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in Coeyman’s Hollow, NY, Syracuse, NY, Washington DC, New York, NY, Middletown CT, and Cambridge MA; for most of his life his family kept a farm in Pindar’s Corners, NY. He taught himself to read at age two and started cartooning for his family at age 2 1/2. Moynihan graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he served as class president his senior year, and then chose to live and work in Cambridge, MA while his closest friends all attended Harvard University; as he put it, he never saw any need for a cartoonist to actually attend college and picked up a continuing love of political and arcane knowledge from his friends, reading, and observations.

Moynihan was well-collected as a three-dimen-sional cartoonist for years, his paper-mache and felt sculptures showing and selling out in several well-received solo exhibitions at the Vorpal Gallery in SoHo, NY and Ismail Merchant’s Red Mills Gallery in Clav-erack, NY; the worklives on in numerous prominent New York City and Washington DC private collections.

As a cartoonist, Moynihan contributed a regular comic strip, “New Thermos,” about a rural town council to several Upstate New York weeklies, includ-ing The Mountain Eagle and Phoenicia Times, and provided regular political cartoons in single frame and strip formats to those and other daily newspa-pers, including The Boston Globe and New York Times on occasion. He illustrated a music history, Rock ‘n Woodstock (Purple Mountain Press) and created commissioned drawings of Dante’s Inferno and other great works, updated as contemporary political satire. He worked as a copy editor at the Public Interest magazine for a number of years in the 1980s.

Over the years, Moynihan created a canon of Groundhog’s Day carols which he would perform, for years, with friends at a variety of sites in Lower Manhattan and, later, in Brooklyn, inevitaby stopping at a police barracks, a homeless shelter, an “old man’s bar,” and some newer eating establishment to the combined delight and befuddlement of the public.

He is survived by his wife Trey Moynihan and daughter Zora Olea Moynihan; his sister Maura Moynihan; his mother Elizabeth Brennan Moynihan; and countless friends who deeply appreciates the man’s caustic wit and keen political observations. He was predeceased by his father Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 2003 and younger brother John Mc-Closkey Moynihan in 2004.

A memorial celebration will take place on the afternoon of February 1, the eve of Moynihan’s beloved Groundhog’s Day, near his home of many years in Downtown Brooklyn, complete with a tra-ditional pub crawl, many spoken memories of this idiosyncratic man’s great love of fun, and innate shyness; and of course the singing of his singular Groundhog’s Carols.

An online memorial is growing on the Gus Murphy Facebook page.

OBITUARY

IGNITIA TERUNA TIPTON, 46, of Olivebridge, NY, passed away peacefully, Sunday, January 4, 2015 at her home. Services were held privately. She was born April 27, 1968 in Rochester, NH, one of the two

children of Donald and Mary (Vallée) Lemire. She was married to Dean Alan Tipton. Th ey wed on October 9, 2005 in Woodstock, NY.Born Christine Marie Lemire, Ignitia had an extremely rich creative life. Immersed in poetry, painting and photography, she had work shown in local galleries in Woodstock and Phoenicia. In addition to her husband Dean, her parents ‘Bonnie’ and Don and her brother Ken and his wife Dani, Ignitia is survived by her daughters, Aliya, Emma and Leorah. Also, beloved cats Zooky, JoJo, Obi and Cookie. At peace.Entrusted to the care of Keyser Funeral & Cremation Service, 326 Albany Ave., Kingston. Services will be held privately. To leave an expression of sympathy,

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MEETING CALL

TOWN OF WOODSTOCK

Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, January 15, Town Offi ces

Woodstock Library Board, 7 p.m. Thursday, January 15, Woodstock Library, 5 Library Lane

Town Board, 7 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, Town Offi ces

Justice Court, 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 21, Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street

Environmental Commission, 7 p.m. Wednes-day, January 21, Town Offi ces

Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m. Thursday, January 22, Town Offi ces

Justice Court, 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 28, Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street

Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, January 29, Town Offi ces

Board of Fire Commissioners, 7:30 p.m. Thurs-day, February 12, Fire Co. No. 1, 242 Tinker Street

ONTEORA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Task Force On Testing Reduction, 6 p.m. Thursday, January 15, Middle/High School Library

Communications Committee, 8:45 p.m. Thurs-day, January 15, Central Administration

Board of Education, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Janu-ary 27, Woodstock School

TOWN OF OLIVE

Planning Board, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, Town Hall, 50 Bostock Road

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First crunchOnteora begins to look forward fi scally

Onteora Central School District offi cials marked off the fi rst January meeting after the New Year by presenting a very pre-

liminary $52 million draft budget for the 2015/16 school year that will begin in July. At its January 13 Board of Education meeting at Phoenicia Primary School, Assistant Superintendent for Business Vic-toria McLaren presented a budget glimpse of the next fi scal year, projecting an approximate $341,000 increase in spending. McLaren called that “a sig-nifi cant increase in these times” though the fi gure represents less than a one percent increase from the current $51.8 million budget. No projections were made regarding the potential tax levy.

The source of more than 80 percent of the school district revenue is real estate taxes. State aid makes up a little more than ten-percent of revenue.

According to McLaren the largest area of budget increase, a little over $1 million, would stem

from employee salary increase. Employee ben-efi ts, which include health insurance and benefi ts from retirement is expected to increase by $158,314 or 1.06 percent. McLaren said, “Employee benefi ts is increasing, but not by as much as it may have in the past, because for the fi rst time in a number of years the retirement rate is actually decreasing.”

Health insurance for employees is projected to increase by eight-percent — but, it was explained, that is a maximum placeholder and the fi nal increase could be lower. School Board president Tony Fletcher noted that the CPI (Consumer Price Index) is ex-pected to be approximately 1.6 percent, with health insurance annually increasing over that amount. “I fi nd that abominable. Its money out of the district and I say that every year, because I’m all for people getting benefi ts and staying healthy, but the fact that health insurance can go up by eight-percent when infl ation is 1.6 percent just seems ludicrous to me and continues to frustrate me.” Fletcher requested a benefi ts breakdown during the next budget pre-sentation. “I would be interested in knowing what we pay for current employees vs. what we pay for retirees,” said Fletcher.

The largest budget decrease is projected to be $900,000 from interfund transfers or the reduction of the capital budget line that funded capital projects

through the annual budget. There are no proposed capital projects for next year.

Potential staff additions include two full time English as Second Language (ESL) teachers, one full time library media specialist and one full time director of technology. Proposed reductions include a part time ESL instructor from BOCES, one full time teach-ing assistant and one full time elementary teacher potentially through retirement. Trustee Gideon Moor cautioned school offi cials about classroom size. “I wanted to make sure that in the planning, the district was being attentive to the Superintendent’s new regulation regarding classroom sizes. I know that currently Phoenicia has at least one class that exceeds the guidelines and this is an issue of critical importance for me, and I think the board.”

Gap Elimination AdjustmentTrustee Ann McGillicuddy attended the Ulster

County School Boards Association annual meeting at Ulster BOCES where she is Chair of the Legisla-tion Action Committee. She reported on the com-mittee’s work, which focused on overturning the

Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA), designed to be a temporary freeze on State Aid in 2009 as the State was having budget shortfalls. With the State now experiencing a healthier budget the GEA is still impacting schools. Ulster county school districts in total lost $15.5 million in state aid last budget year and Onteora lost $1.37 million. Ulster County Assemblyman Kevin Cahill attended the meeting as did an aide for Assemblywoman Claudia Ten-ney. “I shared with Cahill and Tenney’s aide that the Ulster County School Boards decided to create a county wide petition to end the GEA,” she said, “and we agreed later in the meeting that I would write a letter to all the eight legislators that serve Ulster County and express our disappointment in their lack of attendance at our meeting.”

PlaygroundTrustees Rob Kurnit and Moor, co-chairs of the

facilities committee, reported on a meeting that was held for the purpose of doling out $350,000 that will repair the Phoenicia and Woodstock playgrounds. The committee is recommending that $35,000 be set aside for site work, $155,000 go to Phoenicia playground and $165,000 allocated toward Wood-stock. The Phoenicia playground is approximately 60x60 square feet and Woodstock is 100x90 square feet. Kurnit said, “Phoenicia has a playground that is fairly new, left over from Head Start that is being maintained and that is priced out by the playground vendor by approximately $10,000.”

Moor disagreed with the rationale of splitting the money at a near equal value between the two schools. “The community of Woodstock is larger than the community of Phoenicia, so is the gen-eral population in addition to enrolled students. It seems to me Woodstock would have a need for a larger playground.” Moor continued, “Looking at the budget discussion, I frankly couldn’t fi nd a rationale for splitting the budget.” Trustees will continue this discussion at the next Board meeting January 27.

Welcome to SchnellAdministrators and trustees welcomed newly

appointed school board trustee and retired Wood-stock principal Bobbi Schnell. Fletcher said, “I would like to confi rm that we are seven trustees strong again.” Schnell thanked the board and said, “I’m pretty excited to be back.”++

Lisa Childers

Board president Tony Fletcher and trustee Ann McGillicuddy.


McGrath to be honored at Snowball

Over the years, the Coalition to Save Belleayre’s annual Snowball — which unfolds for its 29th

time on Saturday, January 24 (with ticket reserva-tions requested this week) — has provided constant highlights for its supporters.

Everyone comes in black tie. People tend to really enjoy the open bar that starts at 6:30 p.m., the speeches that lead up to the presentation of each year’s Spirit of the Catskills Award Honoree, the dancing afterwards.

Occasionally, a protest would occur regarding the Belleayre Resort project that’s been under review for half the event’s life to date. But that would be outside the entrance area to the mountain’s Overlook Lodge. Inside, joviality ruled... along with a sense of optimism for the many ways in which tourism, and especially Belleayre and its various activities and dreamed-of projects, could save the local economy.

This year’s Spirit of the Catskills Award Honoree is James ‘Jimmy’ McGrath, longtime mainstay of the Shandaken police force, who has also worked ex-tensively in the ski industry. McGrath was a police offi cer for 34 years and Chief of the Shandaken Police from 1995 until his retirement in July 2014. McGrath has been in the ski business since the age of ten when he started working in his uncles ski shop. From 1970-78 he was manager of the

Snowfl ake Ski Shop and he now co-owns Jimmy’s Belleayre Ski Shop at the base of the Belleayre Ski Area. He became a partner in the Phoenicia Plaza complex in 2006.

Big changes for this year include the event’s fi rst move in eons...to the Emerson resort & Spa in Mount Tremper, its fi rst time off the mountain since its early days at Rudi’s Big Indian (now the Peekamoose). It is also pegged to be a masquerade event this year.

For tickets and additional information, please contact Belleayre Conservatory Board Member Judy Shiner at 845-254-5787 by January 15 or visit www.belleayremusic.org.++

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cost-effective solution than a proposed 1,800-square-foot annex on the former Library Laundromat grounds. However, the report will avow that the new space will only solve needs for the near future.

What’s important to the Facilities Task Force is the consultation of a master plan architect who will study available resources and offer possible solutions to fulfi ll needs down the road. Plans for the distant future may include additional expansions, or, once the current library building outlives its useful life, a new facility. The library’s plan hasn’t been updated since 2007, when voters overwhelmingly defeated a $5 million renovation proposal.

“If the decision is ‘wow, this is a money pit,’ then you have to incorporate that in your plan,” said task force member Eliza Kunkel, who has been taking input from the panel and the public and crafting it into the fi nal recommendation document.

But the task force doesn’t want to raise any alarm bells that the library will get torn down any-time soon. Mangan, an architectural engineer, said that could be 30 years down the road.

“We have a building that is repairable,” said member Jerry Washington. “I don’t think we should open the possibility that it’s not.”

The task force was formed as a response to public reaction over the proposed $1.6-million an-nex across the street from the library on the site of the former Library Laundromat. The panel’s chore has been to review the 2007 feasibility study that

pointed out the need for more space and to explore some alternatives to the annex proposed by the public. It will make a report to the library trustees.

The chosen annex design by Joel Sanders Ar-chitect includes a 2,050 square feet of space on an 1,800-square-foot footprint at the site of the former Woodstock Laundromat across Library Lane that in-cludes a 65-seat meeting space that can be divided into smaller areas, a “maker-space” workshop, two unisex bathrooms, a small kitchen, storage room, front and rear decks and a roof deck.

Although the annex was to be funded by private donations, trustees put the project on hold after public doubts about cost-effectiveness of the design and the ability to raise enough money. To date, the library has raised about $210,000, mostly through donations. Much of that money has been spent on acquiring the former laundromat, engineering and architectural fees.

What about the Friends?The fi gure of 4,500 square feet, estimated from

the library’s programming needs, doesn’t include space for Friends of the Library, a longtime booster group that raises much-needed money through book sales and the annual Library Fair. The group now uses 1,500 square feet in a dilapidated barn that frequently fl oods and suffers from mildew issues.

To date, the Friends of the Library has offered little input on their space needs other than a recent campaign urging resurrection of the annex plan.

The expansion proposal calls for demolishing the barn and building a larger structure in its place. Replacing that space is a thorny issue because the Friends of the Library is a separate private entity.

“We don’t know the legal aspects of building something for the Friends,” Mangan said.

Conveying the messageThe task force discussed the importance of con-

densing the fi nal report into an executive summary since not everyone will want to digest the entire document. Several suggested explaining the issue’s background in the summary for members of the public who haven’t followed it from the beginning.

But Kunkel said the task force needs to focus on its audience.

“Our mission was to write a recommendation to the board (of trustees). We’re speaking to the board, not somebody who is not familiar with the issue,” said Kunkel. As for anyone else, “If they haven’t been paying attention up to now, they’re not going to read the whole thing anyway.”

Washington suggested the entire summary could be boiled down to three paragraphs and the rest could be included in a background section.

Co-chair and library board President Stuart Auchincloss envisions the summary as an introduc-tion to an all-inclusive electronic report with links to sections and other material so that people could read just the areas that interest them.

An issue of civilityThe task force is grappling with how to ad-

dress tension over the project that is back on the rise after calming down this fall. A current draft of the executive summary and other references in the report body call for a change in tone. While all task force members agree with that sentiment, the question is where it belongs in a formal document.

“It seems like the battle lines have hardened,” Kunkel said. “It doesn’t seem like anything is go-ing to happen if a more constructive tone doesn’t happen. It’s just about our hope that the summary might kick off a conversation with a new tone.”++

Thw whole enchiladaContinued from Page 1

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filed with the Sec. of State (SSNY) on 01/12/2015. Location: Ul-ster County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: C/O MICHAEL HERZOG, 33 ELLISH PARKWAY, SPRING VALLEY, NY 10977. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

LEGAL NOTICE Notice of Formation of a

Limited Liability Company LLC: Name: WILL U PUBLISHING, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on November 5, 2014. The county within the state in which the limited liability company is to be located is Ulster. The Secretary of State is designated as agent of the limited liability company upon whom process against it may be served. The address within or without this state to

which the Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process accepted on behalf of the limited company served upon him or her is: c/o United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 7014 13 Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. Latest date upon which LLC is to dissolve: No specific date

LEGAL NOTICE PLEASE TAKE NOTICE the

Woodstock Board of Fire Com-missioners will hold a workshop meeting on Thursday, January 15, 2015 at 5:30 pm at the firehouse located at 242 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY. The Board is expected to enter into execu-tive session pursuant to Public Officers Law, Article 7, Open Meetings Law Section 105, for the purpose of discussing the appointment, employment and promotion of personnel. No formal action by the Board is expected.

By Order of the Woodstock Fire District

Board of Fire CommissionersJudy Peters, District Secre-

tary/TreasurerJanuary 12, 2015

LEGAL NOTICE Notice of Formation of

HIGHWOOD ESTATE CAPITAL LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/21/2014. Office location: Ulster County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Highwood Estate Capital LLC, 22 Estate Road, Saugerties, NY 12477. Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGAL NOTICE MILLER/HOWARD STRA-

TEGIC INDEXES, LLC App. for Auth. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 11/12/14. LLC was organized in DE on 7/18/01. Office in Ulster Co. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to 324 Up-per Byrdcliffe Rd., Woodstock, NY 12498. Required office at 615 S. Dupont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Cert. of Org. filed with SSDE, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

LEGAL NOTICE MILLER/ HOWARD IN-

TERNATIONAL, LLC App. for Auth. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 11/12/14.LLC was organized in DE on 8/26/13. Office in Ulster Co. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to 324 Upper Byrdcliffe Rd., Wood-stock, NY 12498. Required office at 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Org. filed with SSDE, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.


NOYAHEAD, LLC, Art. of Org. filed w/Sec. of State of NY (SSNY) 9/11/14. Office location: Ulster Co., NY.; SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process c/o the Company, 78 Main Street, P.O. Box 4148, Kingston NY 12402. Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGAL NOTICENotice of Formation of a

Limited Liability Company (LLC): Name: VITALITY YOGA FLOW LLC, Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 09/02/2014. Office location: Ulster County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: C/O VITALITY YOGA FLOW LLC, 8 Cicero Ave. , New Paltz, 12561. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. Latest date upon which LLC is to dissolve: No specific date.

LEGAL NOTICENotice of Formation of 1179

BL. MTN. LLC . Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on December 1, 2014. Office in Ulster County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to JoAnn O. Chamberlain, P.O. Box 212, 71 Carly Road, Woodstock, NY 12498. The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any lawful

act or activity.

LEGAL NOTICENotice of Formation of

TISCHLER DENTAL SEMI-NARS, LLC. Articles of Or-ganization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on December 10, 2014. Office in Ulster County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to Tischler Dental Seminars, LLC, 121 Route 375, Woodstock, NY 12498. The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.


KINETIC DYNAMICS CON-SULTING, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/07/2014. Office location: Ulster County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of any process to: Kinetic Dynam-ics Consulting, LLC, 43 Ryan Drive, West Hurley, NY 12491.

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Kicking the corpseEllenville’s hopes for a casino rise and fall yet again

It’s Monday night in Ellenville and it’s been sleeting all day; a heavy freeze is on its way. Nevertheless, the village’s meeting room in the

multi-story Government Center that once served as a would-be bank headquarters back when this community was considered the manufacturing center for the region is SRO at 5:30 p.m. Several county legislators are there, including chairman John Parete, along with regional planners, busi-ness fi gures, and plenty of local residents.

It’s been almost a month since the state’s fi ve-member Gaming Facilities Location Board dealt what’s been thought to be a fatal stab to the half-century dream of a robust economic revival based on gambling by deciding to place only one casino in the region, at the site of the former Concord Hotel outside Monticello. The board disappointed by limiting its choices to only three casinos statewide.

Now it’s been less than two weeks since Governor Cuomo opened up the idea of a fourth casino in the Southern Tier, and 72 hours since the chairman of the location board said he was open to that idea. But for the Catskills?

The Ellenville meeting was originally called as a ses-sion where the community could discuss future econom-ic development plans. But the gambling itch rises again with the fi rst announcements of reopening the process. Then the meeting is called off when word comes down about the region being off the state’s list. And back on again with word that maybe the board could still be swayed.

The back wall of the place is lined with young people holding up signs on behalf of the Nevele, site of Ellenville’s failed bid for a state-sanctioned casino. A press release and eblast had gone out that morning from casino developers calling the meeting a “rally.”

In introductory remarks, Ellenville mayor Jeff Kaplan talks about how the state’s process had betrayed the local community. He mentions how hard everyone had fought for that fourth spot; it didn’t seem fair to now be going to a different region altogether. Wawarsing town supervisor Leonard Distel echos his sentiments, then Nevele developer Michael Treanor — briefl y out as head of his effort following a run in with bad press last summer — takes over the podium.

He begs everyone’s forgiveness for not having won the casino, then blames his failure to secure hundreds of millions in fi nancing on neighbor-ing Orange County’s entrance into the process. But now things are different he says, speaking about a bid he is pushing to completion involv-ing a conglomerate, named RatPac Entertainment, made up of a Hollywood-based producer and real estate and Australian billionaire theme park and casino builder developer. All he is asking for

is another chance...and the community’s help in making that ask.

“I’m not here to apologize, I’m here to fi ght,” Treanor concludes while noting how he may have made a mistake by not having given any political

contributions as part of his bidding process. “This is a town of fi ghters.”

The crowd of over 100, stretched into the hall be-cause of a seating arrange-ment that gave over half the room to sparsely-seated town and village offi cials, cheers loudly. And then more rise to back up the push for the Nevele, urging everyone to phone, fax, tweet and peti-tion the governor.

Other ideasOccasionally, others get

a word in. Artist and former advertising man Chuck Da-vison talks about turning the Nevele into a high-end assisted living development with resort amenities to urge families to visit their elders. Which, another woman says, wasn’t all that different from

what the Nevele actually was in its fi nal years.Andrew Faust, an ecological designer, brings

up the idea of a community trying to plan for its future better, including ideals of sustainability and

diversity. Others bring up the idea of the town and village setting a schedule of further meetings to discuss things besides a casino, including the many state grants that must be applied for come June.

“The Gunks’ ridge line gets 400,000 visitors a year who spend $13 million. Why not here,” asks Wawarsing Environmental Commission chair-man Hank Alicandri, decrying the community’s “all eggs in one basket” approach to economic development. “

Kaplan excoriates the state for turning the Wawarsing portion of its Minnewaska properties, formerly known as Sam’s Point and once home to Ice Cave Mountain, forever wild.

Yet Alicandri gets a big round of applause as he speaks about the community taking some smaller, inexpensive steps to draw people its direction again. Just as Aroma Thyme owner Marcus Giuliani does with an impassioned speech about the area’s attraction to hikers and runners, and need for everything from new festivals to a better website.

“Has anyone been to Beacon in recent years,” asks village justice Matt Parker, noting what a contemporary art museum did for that once in-dustrialized city.

“I believe we have an obligation to do more...we are resilient and casino or not, there’s more to be done here,” says Ellenville school superinten-dent Lisa Wiles. “We need a good planner down here. People are listening to us now. We’re not going to be down and out without a casino but we do need to get our plans in order.”

And while some community leaders continue to warn against any “diluting” of the last effort to get the Nevele back on the Governor’s, and Gaming Facility Location Board’s agenda, those who stay on at the meeting over its hour and a half course give more attention to other ideas.

And then the next evening, Tuesday, the Gaming Facilities Location Board twists the dag-ger again. No, the process will not be opened up again to the Catskills and Hudson Valley, they say. But a fourth casino would be considered along the Pennsylvania border.

And Kaplan sets a second Future of Ellenville meeting, to start, again, at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, February 9. Only this time at the school...the bet-ter to actually accommodate people.++

Paul Smart

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The back wall of the

place is lined with young

people holding up signs

on behalf of the Nevele,

site of Ellenville’s failed

bid for a state-sanctioned

casino. A press release

and eblast had gone out

that morning from casino

developers calling the

meeting a ‘rally.’


Walking in a winter wonderlandOur reporter decides snowshoes may be the way to go

After last winter, I decided I need a winter sport. This year we’re not getting as much snow, and you can actually walk in it, but

if the cold decides to stretch out until April again, I want to be prepared with some form of outdoor entertainment. Not that I didn’t enjoy taking pictures of snowbanks and puddle ice, but I don’t want to be stuck on the roadside every time I go outdoors.

I considered reviving my teenage enjoyment of downhill skiing, but on a writer’s income, it’s too expensive, between the equipment, the lift tick-ets, and the prospect of doctor bills for damaged limbs. Some years ago, I tried cross-country skiing and even bought skis and boots at a yard sale, but the boots are too tight, and I only made it out in the fi eld once. I really prefer an activity I can do right on the mountain in my own back yard. Like snowshoeing.

Did you try to walk in the snow last winter? It was about four feet deep behind my house, with a crust that held my weight for a second, then broke, send-ing a jolt through my body and leaving me buried crotch-deep in heavy snow. It took fi ve minutes just to extricate myself from that fi rst step. Second step, repeat. Forget it. But maybe snowshoes would spread out my weight and enable me to glide over the crust without sinking.

When outdoor enthusiasts Jess and Tim Luby opened Catskill Mountain Storehouse on the Phoenicia boardwalk and announced that, in addition to selling and renting camping equipment, they planned to rent out snowshoes for $20 a day, I decided I would defi nitely try out my new winter sport. Last week’s two-inch snowfall provided my fi rst opportunity. Jess offered to take me out to Wilson State Park on Wittenberg Road and teach me the basics.

It turns out there’s not much to learn, at least in two inches of snow, except not to step on your snowshoes and how to put them on and take them

off. The stepping thing you just have to practice. Jess, thank goodness, handled the much more dif-fi cult process of disentangling the various straps, then loosening them and fastening them around my boots. I did experiment with the straps myself and will hopefully be able to get the shoes on without help next time, although it will probably take me about half an hour, given my klutzy fi ngers.

The snowshoes them-selves are high-tech, with aluminum frames that are so light (about four pounds per pair), you barely feel them on your feet. Stiff nylon decking, stretched over the frame, is what keeps you from sinking into the snow. A hole in the decking near the front allows the toe of your boot to pass through, facilitating the action of the ankle in walking. Cram-pons — jagged steel plates mounted vertically under the decking — prevent slipping. Some styles — including the Atlas brand showshoes that the Storehouse rents — have a heel bar that you can pop up to provide more leverage when hiking uphill. One bar was already up and took several minutes of muscle to push back into place, but I expect in the Catskills, you would want a shoe with such a device for long uphills.

Adjustable telescoping ski poles complete the outfi t.

The afternoon was cold but sunny, and the woods at Wilson were lovely in their snowy blanket. We

set off down the nature trail, and I quickly realized

that it would have been slightly easier to walk than snowshoe. Jess pointed out that shallow snow is ideal for getting used to the shoes. Deep powder, not typical of the Northeast, calls for complex rest steps and kick steps, according to the book Snowshoeing by Gene Prater (The Mountaineers, 1997). Our local mountains often sport crusted snow, which can be slippery, especially on slopes.

At Wilson, we trucked along on level ground, and I just had to remember to keep my feet farther apart than usual, a stance whose effects I could feel in my hip joints after a while. It’s also impor-tant to keep the feet parallel, which is tricky when making sharp turns. That’s when you end up with one snowshoe planted under the other, yanking helplessly until you realize you have to pick up the other foot.

We did experiment with a few mild slopes, which can be navigated by sidestepping, but I found it easier to just plunge straight downhill, relying on the toe crampons to grip the snow. A steep downhill might be a different matter.

I’m curious how effective snowshoes will be once we have deeper snow and a crust to deal with. Jess said there was snow up in Greene County a few weeks earlier than it arrived down here in Ulster County.

Prater’s book makes it clear that different snowshoe styles are suitable dependent on snow conditions, terrain, size of snowshoer, and amount

of weight to be carried. Men’s snowshoes are slightly wider than women’s, and a larger size is ideal for a heavier person or one carrying a large pack, since weight increases the ten-dency to sink into the snow. Tim said the MSR (Mountain Safety Research) brand has the advantage of an attachable “fl oat tail” that increases the size when needed. However, they were out of stock by the time he tried to order them.

Rental is $20 per day, and the Storehouse also offers new snowshoes for sale. A package including shoes, poles, and car-rying case costs $209.95. But keep in mind that the shop is open only on weekends, and just a few rental pairs are avail-able, so be sure to call ahead.

I am certainly going to try again, as soon as we get some serious snow. Bring it on! I’m ready.++

Catskill Mountain Storehouse is located at 60 Main Street in Phoenicia, on the boardwalk. They are open only on Saturdays and Sundays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Consult their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StorehouseNY or contact the store by phone at 845-688-3143.

Did you try to walk in

the snow last winter? It

was about four feet deep

behind my house, with a

crust that held my weight

for a second, then broke,

sending a jolt through

my body and leaving me

buried crotch-deep in

heavy snow.

Aluminum frames make for easy walking.

Jess leads the way.

PH

OT

OS B

Y V

IOL

ET

SNO

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CHARGE OF PROMOTING SUICIDE

A Kingston woman was in critical condition and a Kingston man was facing a felony charge after, police said, he tried to rig a West Chestnut Street home’s heating system to help the woman take her

own life.According to po-

lice, Monday, January 12, Paul J. Egan, 62, had disconnected a boiler exhaust pipe and turned on a gas generator to pump le-thal carbon monoxide into the home. Cops went to the house at about 8:20 a.m. after a family member called with concerns about Egan and another resident’s welfare.

When they got there, offi cers knocked on several doors and windows until Egan answered. When the door was opened, police immediately smelled some-thing strange. Egan told police another person was inside. Offi cers found an unconscious 59-year-old woman in the house and took her out immediately. She was taken to HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway campus and then to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. She was listed in critical condition Tuesday night, police reported.

Egan was charged with promoting a suicide attempt, a felony, because, a press release stated, “of aiding another person in attempting to commit suicide.”

According to the Kingston police Facebook page, he was arraigned and sent to Ulster County Jail on $25,000 bail. Further details were not im-mediately available.

TRANS-FRIENDLY SCHOOL FACILITIES? As Kingston’s school district moves forward on

its Second Century renovation plan for Kingston High School, a school board trustee is asking whether the school will make provisions for transgender students.

“The Shenendehowa school board two weeks ago passed a policy for transgender students us-ing the bathrooms of their sexual identity. It’s now policy there,” said trustee and past board president James Shaughnessy at a meeting last month updat-ing the board on the renovation’s progress. “Since we’re building something that’s going to have to represent what our society is going to be for the next 100 years, have you considered that at all in your design?”

According to project manager Robin Scroda-nus, the policy is being considered. Where it leads remains to be seen: The subject wasn’t discussed any further during the meeting, and school offi cials haven’t responded to requests for comment.

In Shenendehowa, high school students can ask to use bathrooms and locker rooms that cor-respond to their gender identity. Those requests will be considered by a school administrator. The policy also allows all students access to single-user bathrooms and alternative changing areas.

Rob Conlon, co-chair of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)’s Hudson Val-ley chapter and a KHS Class of ’88 alum, said the new policy in Shenendehowa may have been put into place to give local residents a chance to digest something that’s already the law. “That school board may have passed that policy, but federal guidelines say that all students in the United States are allowed to use any bathroom that they choose based on the identity that they present most commonly,” said Conlon. “Oftentimes school boards are really put in a position of having to have those discussions and have those votes in front of the public and the community so everyone’s very clear about what’s going on.”

With the comprehensive renovation plan under way, Conlon said Kingston was in a unique posi-tion from other districts that aren’t trying to create gender-neutral space.

“What this particular district really has is a huge opportunity,” Conlon said.

TRASH PICKED UP TOO EARLY?A rumbling diesel truck pulls up to the curb, the

air brakes squeal, trash bins are hoisted, and their contents are compacted. How early is too early for

this weekly necessity?After some discussion that included references

to numerous complaints about haulers collecting trash as early as 3 a.m., a Saugerties village trustee will be contacting garbage haulers that serve cus-tomers in the village with a request they pick up trash later.

Trustees have been told in the past that haulers begin their pickups early because they need to get the trash to transfer stations or landfi lls that close at 2:30 p.m.

After some expression of support, trustee Vince Buono suggested the board pass a law that would restrict pickups to match the village’s noise ordinance, which would be after 7 a.m. Buono volunteered to make calls to the haulers to fi nd out if they could come a little later.

UNFUNDED FOOD MANDATES

New Paltz students are throwing out a good portion of their lunches. School district offi cials are trying to fi gure out how to reduce waste.

In response to a question from school board vice-president Ruth Quinn about the quantity of food being thrown out each day, district food ser-vices manager Mike Robinson said at a meeting last week that he’s not exactly sure of the amount. But it’s a lot. “It’s large quantities,” Robinso said. “And it isn’t just at the high school, it’s all four schools. I’m amazed at the amount of waste even in the elementary schools.”

Basically, he said, students are “feeding the trash cans.”

At issue is the federal mandate that every student buying breakfast take a half-cup serving of fruit or vegetables to receive the lowest-priced lunch. (The alternative is to pay the a la carte price.) Rogers said he was motivated to take on the topic after read-ing an article in the high school newspaper about students’ frustration with having to take specifi c items of food.

The board discussed, but ultimately tabled, the fi rst draft of a resolution by board member Tim Rog-ers, tentatively titled, “Resolution against wasting of food and taxpayer money for unfunded mandates.”

Rogers said that the board was in agreement with the overall sentiment of the new USDA stan-

dards aimed at aligning school meals with the latest nutritional science. The issue was not the desire for food quality but local autonomy, he said. The district should be “allowed to make decisions that work best for our district.”

The school receives six cents per meal for complying with the new regulations, which include the requirement of a half-cup of fruit or vegetable.

“It’s funded, but the least expensive fruit or vegetable costs me 18 cents,” Mike Robinson said. “The most expensive costs me somewhere around 35 cents a portion.”

APPLE WAREHOUSE DESTROYED An early-morning fi re, fanned by frigid winds,

brought fi refi ghters from three counties out in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to save the A. Zim-merman Orchards warehouse on Station Road in Clintondale last Saturday. Both the building and millions of dollars of stored apples and equipment were considered a total loss.

The cold-storage facility, located about a mile from the Apple Greens Golf Course at 310 Station Road, caught fire in the early morning hours on January 10. The cause has yet to be determined, but the Ulster County fire investiga-tions unit is investigating. Clintondale assistant fire chief Rick Brooks said the building was fully involved when his company responded to the 3:47 a.m. call. A light wind fanned the flames, and firefighters’ equipment froze in the nine-degree air.

In all, some 20 fi re companies from Ulster, Orange and Dutchess counties either responded directly to the scene or were on standby. While fi refi ghters were rotating out trucks that had frozen up outside, the propane tanks used in the cold-storage facility were heating up — and blowing up. Brooks said that he believed there were at least seven explosions during the course of the fi re, which wasn’t brought under control until about 8 a.m. the next day.

The orchard has been in operation since 1952. The present owners live on the same property in a house that was not damaged in the fi re. They were unavailable for comment.

Paul J. Egan.

REGIONAL NEWS NOTES


Bigger statementsTasso Zapanti’s music moves from recordings to fi lm to dance

“When I fi rst began to write music,” recalls Tasso Zapanti, sitting in the living room of his Bearsville house,

“it was such a great satisfaction to put emotions into sound and then be able to play them back. It was the late 70s, early 80s, and technology was taking off, the early years of Apple, Commodore 68, Atari — they gave you the option to put the sound through synthesizers, record it, and play all the parts back immediately.”

Zapanti went from playing in high school bands to training in classical music at City College of New York, where he discovered that his forte was composing fi lm scores. Having scored several fi lms, including the docudrama Proud, which stars Ossie Davis, and Hangin’ With the Homeboys with John Leguizamo, he has lately turned to composing for dance. Zapanti’s recently released CD, Refl ec-tions Upon, demonstrates the lyricism and electronic inventiveness that his work is known for.

“Even when I played in punk and rock bands,” he says, “people said the music sounded like theme songs.” He started scoring student fi lms in college and delighted in what he calls “expressing visuals with music.” College schoolmate Joseph B. Vásquez used Zapanti’s music for his fi lms The Bronx War in 1989 and Hangin’ With the Homeboys, which won critical acclaim when it was released by New Line Cinema in 1991.

Proud tells the story of a black naval crew in World War II, when black servicemen were forbidden to fi ght on the front lines. Their ship was thrown into battle, and the sailors’ courageous actions were overlooked by history until 1994, when three crew

members were fi nally honored for their service. Released to mixed critical reception in 2004, the fi lm is shown widely each year during Black His-tory Month in February, keeping Zapanti’s music in the ears of audience. He continues to receive royalties from cable TV and showings in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Zapanti has enjoyed writing for dancers who choreograph pieces to his music and perform in Tribeca. “I would love to get my music in the rep-ertory of a dance company,” he remarked. “I like being part of a collective. I like how it becomes more operatic. You can make a bigger statement.”

He fi nds Woodstock an ideal location for a musician with multidisciplinary leanings. “My wife and I chose to have a house in Woodstock because there are always photo exhibitions, art, classical music, rock, theater, dance. It constantly feeds my soul and inspiration.”

The Bearsville house, with its cathedral ceiling and expansive view of fi elds, has a grand piano in the living room. So does his one-bedroom apartment in New York City. “Every day I have to do music,” he says. “My mobile studio, the computer, moves around, but I need a piano to draft ideas. At times I call it a healthy addiction, but it also has to do with the artist’s fi re burning within that needs to come out somehow. That energy’s constantly inside me — I have to create.”

If those sentiments have a Mediterranean ring, it’s because Zapanti was born in Greece and came to

the U.S. at the age of 12. He grew up in the Greek community of Astoria, Queens. Although he doesn’t listen to Greek music these days, some people hear a Greek infl uence in his compositions. “There’s a progression of chords that comes naturally,” says Zapanti, who received an ASCAP/Gershwin award in composition, presented by Morton Gould, in the late 1980s.

Zapanti’s taste centers on classical music, and he cites Stravinsky as favorite. “He wrote a lot of ballet music, which evokes visuals. I like the sounds he created from the orchestra, how the instruments dance together.” He also likes Schönberg and expres-siveness of Chopin, with his variations in tempo.

Among composers of fi lm scores, Zapanti reso-nates with the Italian Ennio Morricone, who wrote the theme to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and the Greek Vangelis, whose score for Chariots of Fire won an Oscar. “Vangelis combines electronic textures with classical instruments — which is right where I am right now.”

The new CD begins with “A Night in New York,” originally entitled “Bearsville Blues,” since Zapanti wrote it while gazing out his upstate win-dow. However, the rhythms seemed more suited to an urban ambiance, and a Youtube video uses the piece as a soundtrack to a tour of New York after dark, with Zapanti as tour guide.

Most tracks on the CD bring in professional musicians to supply instrumental riffs, including guitarist Spiros Exaras, who has backed up Mariah Carey, saxophonist Alex Foster (Mingus Big Band,

Saturday Night Live Band), and percussionist Steve Thornton (Miles Davis, Michael Jackson). A piece called “Nine White Horses” features velvety, wordless vocals by soprano Lorelei McBroom (Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart),

Zapanti is currently putting the fi nishing touches on his next album, “Elysium,” to be followed by “Cinematic Plateau,” a compilation of his music from several fi lms. Another project in the works is writing music for a documentary produced by “Right To Be Free/Africa.” Zapanti and his wife, Jeannine, are sponsors of two African children, through a friend whose program is devoted to saving kids from slave labor. “He brought me to an award-winning actress in Ghana doing a documentary on slave labor,” says Zapanti. “Fishermen with families can’t support their kids and are having to sell kids to support the rest of the family. I’ll be doing the score for that fi lm.”

As a follow-up to “A Night in New York,” he’s currently considering choreographers for a video in which dancers in white will perform a drama against a backdrop of nighttime New York.

Clearly, there are many ways to feed creative fi re. ++

Violet Snow

Tasso Zapanti’s CD Refl ections Upon is avail-able from iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, Spotify, and Rhapsody.

Come for the mountains.

5681 RT 28 , PHOENICIAFor more information: 845.688.9957 www.phoeniciadiner.com

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odors, and plenty of space to shelter more animals and welcome visitors on a whole new scale. “We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary in 2014, and we’ve grown beyond this property,” said Brown. “We had no idea we would grow to this size and be as popular. We draw thousands of visitors in the summer. Part of what we do is to get people in touch with these animals who are out of sight and out of mind except for what’s on their plate. We raise awareness about the plight of farm animals, especially those who dwell on factory farms, who have been turned into commodities but are thinking, feeling beings, just as much as our cats and dogs.”

The Willow neighbors will likely be relieved, and so will the sanctuary staff. “Woodstock limits us to only four events throughout the year, which hurts our ability to raise funds and host outreach events,” said Jenny Brown, who co-founded and continues to run the organization with her husband, Doug Abel. “We can have only two school buses a month and no coach buses which, unfortunately,

are the only kind that have bathrooms, which is a problem for fi eld trips for kids and groups com-ing from a distance. If there’s one car outside our parking area, neighbors will hide in the bushes and take pictures.”

Epworth served as a Methodist camp and retreat center for 55 years and before that was Dreamland Farm, a Socialist summer refuge for New Yorkers. The property features a dining hall, lodging, and a picturesque barn, which the sanctuary is renovat-ing, turning the lower level into a medical treatment facility for the animals, many of which arrive in poor health. More barns and fencing are going up. Proximity to New Paltz, with its university, and to New York City, just 90 miles away, are also advan-tages, since one of the organization’s missions is to reach out to youth, and many supporters come from the city.

Raising $2 millionThe move was announced on January 14 at

a $150-a-plate benefi t in Manhattan to launch the raising of $2 million required to fund the reloca-tion, renovations, and payments on the mortgage. The Willow location will no longer be open to the public, and Brown hopes to be open for weekend tours in High Falls by the summer. The name will be shortened to Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, with the tagline “A sanctuary for animals and people too!” Despite the new location, Brown observed, “Woodstock is a state of mind.”

The website is being revamped and will be ready to take donations within a few weeks, when the strategic capital campaign is launched. Brown remarked, “This move will allow us to save more lives and raise our profile to reach more hearts.” ++

Moooving DayContinued from Page 1

Group of people with Olive and Andy.

Aerial of the new location in High Falls — formerly The Epworth Center

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EDITORIAL / Brian Hollander FEEDBACK HOLY WAR ON ITS HOMELANDFor many years, the French government has

downplayed the rising tides of anti-Semitism and radical Islam within its borders, and throughout Europe. But as long as it was Jews who were being targeted, terrorized and murdered it was a manageable problem. After all, it was just Jews.

Turns out, turning the other cheek doesn’t work. It’s not only France’s Jews anymore. Now it’s France’s cartoonists. Tomorrow it’s the rest of us.

By not vigorously standing with its Jews against hatred and bloodshed, France has set the stage for a holy war in its own homeland against a fanaticism that allows no other truth than its own.

It’s a classic case of killer chickens coming home to roost.

Gary MaurerWillow

HIRE THE ARCHITECTSThe work of the Facilities Task Force of the

Woodstock Library has been to expose the mis-conceptions of the Woodstock Library Board of Directors, among which were: The idea that we would benefi t from an unecological glass walled structure built in the fl ood zone of Tannery Brook; The idea that the most expensive concept is the best choice; The idea that community input is unnecessary for a public building; The idea the Woodstock Library Board is exempt from public zoning, scrutiny and feedback; The idea that the public will not support a bond issued for a pub-licly vetted library expansion — we, the public, will support a bond issue for a community vet-ted, clearly developed ecologically sound library expansion! Let’s hire the architects and begin!

HeraBearsville

WEST SAUGERTIES ROAD CONSTRUCTION — WHERE’S THE OVERSIGHT?

I live out West Saugerties Rd. and travel it once or twice everyday. In early October I spoke to the Ulster County Road Dept. Supervi-sor. I was assured at that time that the culvert re-construction on West Saugerties Rd. would be complete by December 1.

As it is the middle of January, I twice called the supervisor again, and left a message requesting a return call. To date, I have not received a reply.

There has been very little progress on the bridge over the last three weeks; holidays and bad weather etc. There seems to be only a few workman, and very little done daily.

Because it is temporary, the detour road is always full of potholes — not great for my cars’ suspension. To add insult to injury, they have put up a three-minute light to traverse the de-tour. A thoughtless and poor decision. You can see the beginning and end of the detour from each side. The correct move would be to have blinking red lights. A motorist can see if a car is coming from the other side and proceed if clear.

I have requested this in my calls to the su-pervisor’s offi ce, to no avail.

Is there someone who’s task it is to monitor what these crews are doing, and who is respon-sible for the decisions being made?

Len SapiroWoodstock

TEN POINTS TO A SUCCESSFUL PROJECTThis is what I’ve learned from eight years as

a library director and two years as an elemen-tary school board trustee about what is needed (and what the public usually wants) for success-ful building projects. These are: 1. To fulfi ll the li-brary’s over-all needs; 2. To exemplify the library’s long-range plan; 3. The most cost-effective design and plan possible; 4. Community input to be integral to the project; 5. Solid public vetting of the project; 6. Environmentally-conscious and ecologi-cal design and plan; 7. To solve any problems that the library currently has; 8. To pass all build-ing codes, zoning laws and legal requirements through due process; 9. Want the board to make objective decisions about all aspects of the project; and 10. A plan that doesn’t create new problems and will not have problems in the future.

The community has voiced their con-cerns about the proposed Annex design and plan. Many problems have come to light. The Facilities Task Force was formed to address these issues. It was made up of carefully-selected ob-jective participants with a range of views. After many hours of research and weighing the issues in a democratic process, they came forth with evidence-based recommendations that cover all the bases I’ve mentioned. If the board now fol-lows the public input and the recommendations of the FTF it will put an end to all the prob-lems we’ve had and avoid any problems in the future. An extension to the existing building can fulfi ll all these 10 points and be beautiful too!

Barbara SchackerWoodstock

The Feedback rules1. Letters should be no more than 300 words. Obviously

we often allow more, but when space is tight, the long ones tend to get cut fi rst.

2. All letters must contain a real name, contact informa-tion for the individual writer, including an address or phone number. These are for verifi cation only. A town of location will be printed.

3. Letters shall have no more than four signatures. 4. Writing, for malicious purposes, an untruth about another

human that you know to be untrue, is libel. This is not permitted.

5. Ad Hominem attacks, gratuitous name-calling, and threats are also cause for immediate editorial excision. We also won’t waste space on the incomprehensible.

6. If you write every week, and we run out of room, your letter will move to the head of the cut list.

7. Emailed letters don’t have to be retyped (unless you type in all caps) and therefore are our favorite method of receiving correspondence. However, feel not slighted, because we can, and do, retype others, unless we cannot read the scrawl. Those, we discard.

8. Third-party letters are uninteresting. Write to us and the Woodstock community, not what you wrote to your senators and congressmen.

9. Deadline for letters to the editor is usually the Monday before publication. But we don’t turn away later ones, they just have to get on line.

10. That’s enough rules.

Letters can be mailed to P.O. Box 3329, Kingston, NY, 12401; emailed to [email protected]; faxed to (845) 334-8809; delivered to our offi ce at 322 Wall St. Kingston, NY; or put in our drop box at Bradley Meadows, Woodstock.

WOODSTOCK TIMES, a weekly news pa per, Wood stock, N.Y. 12498. Sub scrip tions are $35/year in Ulster Coun ty; $40/year in the rest of the con ti nen tal U.S.; $75/year over seas. Periodicals postage paid at Woodstock NY USPS 010-870. Postmaster send ad dress change orders to Wood-stock Times, P.O. Box 3329, Kingston, NY 12402; offi ce at 322 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401.

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Telephone (845) 334-8200 • Fax (845) 334-8809E mail: [email protected];

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Publisher ................................................. Geddy SveikauskasAssociate Publisher ..................................Dolores GiordanoEditor .............................................................Brian HollanderAlmanac Weekly Editor ..................................Julie O’ConnorCalendar Manager ..........................................Donna KeefeAdvertising Project Manager/Ac count Ex ec u tive ... Su s an RogersAdvertising .............................. Lynn Coraza, Pam Courselle,

Elizabeth K. W. Jackson, Ralph Longendyke Classifi ed Advertising Director ...................Genia WickwireClassifi ed Advertising ................ Amy Murphy, Tobi WatsonSubscriptions .....................................................Amy MurphyCirculation .................................................. Dominic LabateProduction Manager ......................................... Joe MorganProduction ................................... Karin Evans, Josh GilliganWriters ........................................... Spider Barbour, Lisa Childers,

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Violet Snow, Robert Titus, Tad Wise, Jennifer BrizziPhotographers ........................................ Alan Carey, Dion Ogust

LEARNING FROM MISTAKESI take back some of what I have said about

Wilber, McKenna and Magarelli, they are open to new solutions. For those of you who are unaware Councilman McKenna, was the Town’s “liaison” when we built the highway garage whose roof leaked and still leaks. McKenna was also the Town’s “liaison” when the Town Hall was renovated, ending up with a leaky roof that still leaks. Now, however, a recent Town Board resolution has McKenna, not as the Town’s liai-son for the renovating the Community Center but as a “member” of “a subcommittee to monitor the Mescal Hornbeck Community Center Capital Project, and make reports and recommendations to the Town Board” which may just possibly lead to the avoidance of another leaky roof.

Bill Clinton said “If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person” and this is a step in that direction. What do you think? Will Wilber, McKenna and Magarelli overcome their vindic-tiveness, stop spending tax payer dollars for mentoring the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and appoint me to one of the two current ZBA vacancies? Maybe, when cows fl y.

Howard HarrisBearsville

BEST PRESENT EVERI picked up the phone at the very end of my

shift as a volunteer on Family’s crisis hotline. It was a suicide call. Needless to say, the caller was extremely distraught and often hysterical. After spending almost an hour talking to her, she real-ized that she had other options. My training al-lowed me to stay calm and clear, knowing where I needed our conversation to go.

This was a gift that I will never forget. I always leave my shift with great gratitude for all that I have in my life knowing full well that it could be otherwise. I urge you to consider vol-unteering at Family for your own health and well being. A training begins in April.

Vicki SternWoodstock

TRAIL AND RAIL IN BALANCEThis letter is in support of the rail trail, and

specifi cally the compromise that the County Executive offered. I like the idea that the railroad attraction can continue from Kingston under the Thruway. That way the County can offer tourists a terrifi c experience right in Kingston. Business owners benefi t, too.

But the County should not curtail or dimin-ish the full use of the rail trail, or Kingston as a hub for several trails. If it became a choice between either the railroad or the rail trail over segments of the right-of-way, I suggest the fol-lowing reason for favoring the rail trail. While local riders may ride the train a time or two, it’s real appeal will be to visitors. On the other hand, local people will return to the rail trail continually, and in all seasons. Serving the trans-portation, health, and recreational needs of our own Ulster County residents should take prece-dence over serving the interests of our visitors.

The Rev’d Susan AuchinclossWoodstock

A few fi scal questions

The original idea for the Library Annex has the trustees raising all the funding. It started out

around $500,000 and that was deemed a do-able sum. It went up to $1.6 million with the acceptance by the Library Board of the Sanders annex plan and the consultants say that it could be a stretch to raise that much privately. Borrowing the rest of the money remains an option.

The Facilities Task Force says a 4500 square foot addition might work better, and be built more efficiently at $459 per square foot. That comes out to be $2,065,500. To my knowledge, no one has offered to raise private funds for this option, but you’d have to hope that if the library board and public coalesced around this idea, some of it could be raised. The rest? Borrowed. Floating a bond.

Here’s something that has to be remembered about fl oating a bond. It has to be paid back in yearly increments. Those yearly payments have to be included in the library budget. And the library budget is subject to the 2% tax increase cap. The cap can be overridden by 60 percent of the library board. But the public has to vote on the library budget.

It can be instructive, though painful to some, to look for a moment at the 2007 library budget vote. That year the Library trustees sought to ready the budget for payments on a 10 year, $5 million bond to renovate the library. The Library, being a wooden structure, couldn’t get a loan for longer than ten years. The payments alone each year would have been $630,000, and that was about $165,000 more than the entire library budget. The voters overwhelm-ingly rejected a 144 percent increase in spending.

The differences this year? Any bond would be for much less, we suppose. Interest rates are much lower, somewhere around three percent. It might be possible to get a loan for longer than ten years. These factors make the borrowing more feasible for either option. Still, a bond for $1 million plus could require a payment of $50,000 or more including the vig and principle, and that could lead to a tax levy increase of perhaps ten percent.

That could be a lot to ask of voters, especially if the rancor between the annex and addition camps continues. It would require a whole community effort to succeed.

Perhaps, before the library trustees signal their ultimate direction, the funding questions should be made much clearer, rather than risking a voter rejection.

And, we’d again request, though not particu-larly germane to the above essay, that, once the choice is made, all plans be submitted for proper planning board review. A whole community effort requires no less. ++


HEDGE FUNDS, CHARTER SCHOOLS AND CUOMOThis week hundreds of people are in Albany

reminding Governor Cuomo that public schools are the primary American institution which made our country great. In October, Governor Cuomo prom-ised to break up “the last public monopoly,” the public schools! Monopoly is a negative catch word of course, but public schools, Governor? Now, he is championing moving our tax money to charter schools while local students go without Art and other electives we adults took for granted Charter schools sounded terrifi c when fi rst introduced: small, innova-tive public. Why has their promise been disappoint-ing? The real question is why are Wall Street Hedge Funds also championing charter schools? (Google that question.) Hedge funds want the public money (ours) that charters are entitled to combined with the lack of accountability and transparency their adminis-trations enjoy. (Google charter school corruption.)

Why does Governor Cuomo want the same thing as Hedge Funds, which, by the way, con-tributed thousands to his campaign? We really do need to remind Governor Cuomo that this is New York, that he works for us, and that all New York’s children are our top priority.

Joan Walker-WasylykWoodstock

SPRING PROPOSAL FOR LIBRARY EXPANSIONThe Library’s Facilities Task Force is fi nalizing

its presentation for the Library Board recommend-ing that an addition to the rear of the Library is the best way to meet the Library’s need for more space. The task force was established to review the Li-brary’s 2007 master plan and recommend how best to implement it, and after looking at all the options, decided a 6,000 square foot addition is the most cost effective way to satisfy the Library’s space needs.

An addition to the existing building would not only provide much needed space, but would allow the existing building to be repaired and renovated to provide additional program space. The Joel Sanders annex design provides only a fourth of the needed space and does not include renovating the existing Library building.

The task force considered a six to ten week effort with a qualifi ed library architect necessary to update the existing 2007 master plan. The details and a timeline of how to make use of the space in a new addition and how to reconfi gure and reno-vate the existing building needs to be developed. A library architect working with the Director could develop a plan to reconfi gure the program space for existing and anticipated future needs.

If the Library Board accepts the proposal for a six to ten week effort to update the Library’s master plan, it’s possible the Board could pres-ent a serious recommendation for an expanded Library to the public by late spring.

Ken PanzaWoodstock

FRONT-PAGE BIASReporter Jesse J. Smith has shown subtle

to glowing Chris Gibson bias in every article he has written comparing the two candidates of our recent Congressional election. In Smith’s latest article (1/8/15) he cited Gibson’s victory in face of “a fl ood of negative advertising” and labeled Sean Eldridge as “well-fi nanced” and a “venture capitalist.” In an earlier article Smith repeated Gibson’s claim that Eldridge was trying to buy the election. Smith neglected to men-tion the plethora of negative ads and negative fund-raising letters (which noted “this buying the election” allegation) from Gibson against El-dridge. Smith also neglected to acknowledge or did not know that dozens of Eldridge signs were repeatedly stolen in the Woodstock area, such that Eldridge support simply disappeared from view. Yes, Eldridge used some of his own funds, but he also raised massive amounts grass-roots money, eschewing the special interests, such as the fossil fuel industry, that helped to support Gibson. Yes, Eldridge uses his venture capital, but he does so to support local small businesses, rather than to raise money as a “capitalist”. Can-didate Eldridge did have widespread support for his progressive views. Our district was reconfi g-ured sometime before this and the last election and came to include about 5 conservative rural counties, losing a chunk of its progressive base to the south. Chris Gibson’s victory therefore was not that remarkable, even though he did garner some democratic votes. These are just a few of the points that have been unbalanced in Smith’s reporting. Even though Smith gave both sides in his previous discussions, his language was always slanted to the Gibson view and in all but one instance, gave Gibson the last word. We need more cautious, balanced reporting for our front page.

Sara Lynn Henry, PhDWoodstock

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY SCHOLARSHIPThe Friends of the Woodstock Library are

proud to launch their fi rst ever scholarship to be awarded to two qualifi ed applicants in the amounts of $1,500 each. These awards will be given to use towards post-secondary educa-tional advancement. Recipients must reside in the Town of Woodstock, having made signifi cant contributions to our community, specifi cally the library. A two-part essay to include a biography and thoughtful views of the future of libraries

is required. Award recipients will be selected by May 1st. Any questions should be directed to: [email protected] or by calling 845-679-2213.

Claudia GahaganPresident

ACADEMIC LEANINGSThe purpose of college is to addict the next

generation to coffee and alcohol.SparrowPhoenicia

THE COOKING OF HUMANITYNatural background electro-magnetic radia-

tion (EMR),created by the sun and the earth, has increased 200 million times over the past hun-dred years due to the proliferation of wireless devices producing man made EMR (pulsed). This increase in background radiation is creating hav-oc on the earth in many different ways. Research has demonstrated bees get disoriented when a cordless phone is placed near the beehives. Spar-row populations are declining in cities due to intense levels of radiation from heavy cell phone use. Migratory birds are getting confused because they can’t detect the subtle magnetic fi elds they rely on because of interference from powerful, pulsed, manmade radiation. The list goes on.

With humans it is affecting us in may ways from tumors to leukemia. Breast cancers have increased 200% and prostate has increased 400%. The prevalence of Autism in children in the 1970s to 1980s was one in 2000 children. Today the CDC says the rate is 1 in 68 children, up 30% from two years ago. Put this on a graph and it lines up with the upward curve showing the increase of the proliferation of wireless devices.

Another very serious effect of the increased density of background EMR is Electro-hyper-sensitivity or electrosensitivity (EHS). EHS is when the individual cannot tolerate microwave emissions from wireless devices such as WIFI, cordless phones, cell phones, smart meters and cell towers. Life becomes miserable for these people. Hallberg and Oberfi eld 2006 research paper demonstrates with the current trends, start-ing from 1991 when EHS was fi rst recorded, 50% of the population could become electrosensitive by 2017. People need to take action against the microwaving of humanity. Watch physicist Barrie Trower on YouTube: The Cooking of Humanity. Please become active. “Silence is Betrayal” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Steve RomineWoodstock

LIBRARY NEEDS CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIESAs we try to keep warm and dry through the

sleet and snow, planning has begun for the 84th An-nual Woodstock Library Fair on Saturday July 25th.

Two years ago we resurrected the Clothing Rummage Sale to great success. Many thanks to all those who donated and bought something under our tent. It helped make the last two fairs the most successful in many years. All money raised helps the library purchase needed items and fund children’s programs.

If you’re doing a little winter cleaning around the house and have any clothes and accessories for adults and children, feel free to email [email protected] and arrange for drop off.

Patricia Rich, Clothing Rummage ChairWoodstock

NEW CLOTHESI have come to think of Joel Sanders (archi-

tect of the proposed library annex-on-the-brook) as head tailor of the emperor’s new library. The Sanders’ annex doesn’t exist yet except on paper as preliminary plans, and in model of cardboard

SaturdayJanuary 17th

at theWoodstock Library

7:00 pmFree Admission

STU’S CAR SERVICE.

THANKS TO ALL for helping to make 2014 a good year. Some of your referrals and all for your heartfelt support & friendship. We look forward to travelling along the road of

2015 with you. Good health- much love- generous prosperity & happiness to all.

845-649-5350; [email protected] Look for me on Facebook.


(lately unseen and apparently not in possession of the Library).

Go to the Library Board meeting to-night, 1/15/15, 7 p.m. at the Woodstock Library and hear what the Library’s “new clothes” could be and what your donations and future tax sup-port will be maintaining.

Joan ElliottWoodstock

ANNEX READY TO GOThe architectural image of the Annex bal-

ances new and old. Its iconic sculptural massing continues the same progressive spirit of Wood-stock. Its design accommodates the Library’s 21st-century needs while its scale and materials are in keeping with the village surroundings.

With a modest height and footprint, the An-nex is no taller than the existing library and simi-lar in size to neighboring homes on Library Lane.

The Annex’s warm palette of materials takes inspiration from local landmark buildings. The painted white wood siding match the Library and neighboring Town Hall, and the naturally aged gray wood porches and blue accents recall the signature colors of Byrdcliffe.

The Annex uses sustainable materials and en-ergy systems throughout. Locally-sourced materi-als have been selected for their recycled content, low maintenance and long lifecycle. Zoned HVAC systems, LED lighting and a highly insulated thermal envelope ensure low levels of energy use and operational costs.

It is a fully ADA-compliant building with ramp access to the interior and lift access to the roof-deck, plus ADA fi xtures and appliances throughout.

Soon the Library Board will make the choice between the Annex Proposal and the FTF recom-mendation. There’s one plan that is detailed and ready to go. Please let the Board know that you support the Annex.

McKenzie Willis, Friends of the Library board memberWoodstock

ANNEX ENHANCEMENTSMost Woodstockers we’ve spoken to have

said they want to move the conversation towards the merits of the proposed Annex versus the FTF proposal. Everything else is smokescreens and distractions.

In a compact architectural volume, the pro-posed Annex signifi cantly enhances the Library’s roster of offerings to the public, providing a fl exible multi-purpose space that can be used for the following purpose: Meetings & Events — Its core is a 35×25 ft meeting hall for lectures and performances that seats 65+. A sliding parti-tion system transforms the hall into three distinct rooms, with zoned systems for lighting, electricity and audio/visual devices.

Media & Workshop — To serve the Library’s mission to provide computer training and digi-tal media workshops, the Annex would offer a technically sophisticated environment that in-cludes internet, a mobile computing lab and fl ex-ible light-weight furniture that encourage group collaboration.

Outdoor Community Spaces — Front and rear porches would offer a continuous indoor-outdoor experience. Decks of porous sustainable wood would provide shaded outdoor places for events, reading, or just sitting.

A thoughtful and detailed plan is ready to be created. Let’s tell the Library Board the choice is clear. Then we can get on to the challenge of rais-ing the private funds and grants to make it a real-ity without any expense to Woodstock taxpayers.

Michael HuntWoodstock

PROTECT YOUR BRAINThe biggest “beginning of 2015” story took

place in France, where 17 people were killed and over 3 million people came out to march for the freedom of expression. Of course, I agree with them on that ideal. I believe that all people, of all nations are entitled to knowledge no matter where they live and today with our new technology, hopefully it will spread more rapidly.

One example of our needing a more timely expansion is the other incident that began taking place on the third day of 2015 in Nigeria. It seems that around 2,000 people were killed from an at-tack, which was reported as the “deadliest mas-sacre” in the history of Boko Haram. That story is only coming to the surface as I write this.

But the even greater issue in my opinion is Climate Change, which may well be the cause of the mayhem around the world. So, I will now bring up the Keystone Pipeline as the most urgent issue now for us here in the U.S. One might wonder why the U.S. would allow a Canadian oil company to dig into our ground to carry their profi table oil to the Gulf of Mexico, which can

then be exported out to other countries.Well, there are some profi ts that will be

made, but who will get them? I guess anyone that votes in favor of it, and maybe some refi neries in Texas. But right now, since oil prices have low-ered because we have so much of it, I just can’t understand why we don’t turn our attention to solar and wind and not digging further into the Mother Earth, which the Native Americans con-sider a “living being.”

When are we going to face the fact that our air, our water and our food is more toxic than it has ever been? When are we going to listen to the scientists that tell us that toxins are creating “dead zones” in the ocean that kill fi sh and other aquatic life? When will the story about 400,000 people in Toledo, Ohio who were told that they shouldn’t drink their water this past summer because it wasn’t safe, get more attention? Holy Toledo!

When are we going to say no to a Canadian Pipeline, which could cost us another (unresolved) sinkhole such as the one we have in Kingston, only far more dangerous?

In my opinion, and from my personal expe-rience, toxic chemicals often break through the brain/blood barrier and cause sometimes illogical brain functioning. After all, they have robots and drones now, don’t they?

Let’s lower the toxins that are invading our brain cells and get back to protecting life on earth.

Jill PapernoGlenford

KEEP THE ANNEX ALIVEThe scale, the location, the context, the cost,

the environmental relationship, the history and the value of the Library Board’s choice last year with the Joel Sanders design have still not been convincingly trumped.

Woodstock does not have a growing popu-lation, do we need more quantity? The Shake-speare pavilion on the Comeau has a similar footprint to the Annex.

The new version of the 2007 RTF/Architec-ture+ posited by the FTF says it is cost effi cient. Say what? The town voted it down over seven years ago — in respect to that vote, the Library Board proposed to build on the old laundromat site without our taxes.

We discovered in December that the Joel Sanders proposal was about to dissipate into the Woodstock memory hole. So here we are, keeping the possibility of this clear, rational and inspiring Library endeavor alive.

Shawn DelisioWoodstock

NO GOING BACKThe library annex should be a done deal! In

fact it was. The Friends of the Library, who are members of our community and responsible for many of the library functions, put together the effort to help grow and modernize the library. As well, create a location that was appealing to younger generations in order to drive up use and participa-tion. As we all know, the future of our library is in the hands of our youth. This project was to be ac-complished without placing the burden of cost on our community by generating funds through private donations and grants. The library board was on the same page. The additional property was purchased for the annex. There were about 18 submissions for the design of the annex. Where was the op-position during this time which was about three years. It was voted on and agreed upon that the Joel Sanders design was best for our community. So what happened? A small group of people voiced an opposition. Some were just plain frustrated because the design they wanted was not chosen. Seems petty right? So the advisory committee was formed made up mostly of the opposition. And, they proposed more of the same by building in back of the current library. The cost is much higher and it places the burden of cost to the taxpayer. This idea was rejected through the voting process in 2007 prior to the recession. Makes no sense to go back down that path! We have a bird in hand! Now let’s move forward with the annex and work on a plan to refurbish the existing space.

Jody JacksonWoodstock

STAY ON COURSEWho are you human beings that have the

overblown ego to dictate to the duly elected library board what has become a gift and solution to the needs of library users as best we can do? Why is it that a group of educated affl uent citizens as George Washington “IBM,” Ken Panza “IBM,” John Ludwig “IBM,” Hera “retired,” Lorin Rose “re-tired,” Sam Magarelli “retired,” Cornelia Rosenblum “retired,” and Joe Mangan “retired,” all needed to pursue persistent intimidating and dismantling action to selfi shly confuse what was a very straight forward plan to help our town move forward.

When the vote to become a library district was

proposed, the same types of antis tried to scare the people. “Friends of the Library,” whom I knew many of them, and had been giving in time and money more than their incomes would have been practical and voted yes.

Amy, Library Board, and Friends of the Li-brary, stay on course.

PS. Joe, what’s under the fl oor at the Commu-nity Center?

Ralph GoneauWoodstock

THE BIG PICTUREPeople lined up out the door in September

2007 to vote no to doubling the library budget. The proposed budget for 2008 was $1,136,003, an increase that would have become permanent because of the ratchet effect of the 1989 legisla-tion establishing the library district. That vote against doubling the budget was 1062 to 216.

The building project also fell with the budget vote, and months later a task force concluded “that the board had failed to get community input on the endeavor, that communication about costs became public too late and that there is much work to be done to repair the image of the li-brary.” That task force took place in January 2008 — the whole report is available at http://www.woodstock.org/FTF/ by clicking on “Notes from 2008 Focus Groups,” which downloads the pdf.

Fast forward four years and the board em-barked on another building project — the current annex project — with the strategy of “major gift fundraising” to fund the design and construc-tion. The board hired a fundraiser at taxpayer expense, with invoices totaling $63,000 over 17 months in 2012 and 2013. Since then the total charged to the taxpayer has reached $97,000.

Today we have the big-picture assessment of the Facilities Task Force, which is calling for a master plan and will soon complete its report to the board. There may be a special board meeting — you’ll hear about it — and the board meets tonight at 7 p.m. and February 19 at 7 p.m. Come out and support the work of the FTF.

John LudwigWoodstock

BUILD THE FUTUREWoodstock must — if it is to continue its

legacy as a vibrant, progressive community of the arts — grow and embrace the beauty of the modern paradigm, with all its miracles and fl aws.

The people of Woodstock have been and can continue to be visionaries. Always ahead of its time in the past, Woodstock must catch up to the future in order to remain relevant and alive.

We have the opportunity, with the comple-tion of this one very achievable library annex project, to become the place that still commands attention, that still inspires the world.

Let us, despite and because of our many disparate origins, come together and agree to continue to be the true mavericks that we all are. why else do we live here? Let’s build the future now. Let’s live the future now! It happens here...

Myoshin ThurmanBearsville

JE SUIS AHMAD MERABETHow many media outlets bothered to tell

us that the injured French policeman executed by terrorists on the pavement was a Muslim French policeman by the name of Ahmed Mera-bet. These terrorists seemed like professionally trained maybe by a state intelligence service and yet “conveniently” forgot an identity card in the get-away car and are killed not apprehended. The timing of this incident was suspicious.

First it came a week after France voted in the U.N. Security Council to end the Israeli occupation that started in 1967 (i.e. with a sub-minimal demand supported by International law). Second, the terror attack happened just after the Israeli government said their largest number of immigrants in 2014 came from France and they want more colonial settlers.

What came to mind is the bombing of Jewish community centers in Baghdad in the 1950’s that helped recruit needed Jews for Israeli colonial ac-tivities. In that case it was exposed to be a Mossad operation. We also recall the Lavon affair (Israeli bombings of American and British interests in Cairo blaming it on Egyptian nationals). Whether this was yet another false fl ag operation or by rogue terror-ists not left alive to be questioned, Zionists are milk-ing it to the best of their (very large) media abilities and they talk endlessly about Muslims and Islam. When Jewish terrorists like Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon committed crimes, they were merely “deluded renegades” (but who became prime ministers of Israel). Why not call those in Paris also “deluded renegades”? But more importantly what are lessons to draw from all this?

Fanny PrizantWoodstock


HUGH REYNOLDS

Forward march!

People ask me, as if I knew, why congressman Chris Gibson decided to leave the House after only

three terms. Dunno. After dropping that bombshell on the fi rst day of what will be his fi nal term, Gibson disappeared into a black hole somewhere between Washington and his hometown of Kinderhook.

Go fi gure. One of the most accessible congress-men we’ve ever had in this area suddenly goes dark after issuing what might have been the most impor-tant announcement of his career. When it comes to their own particular interests, politicians can be extremely secretive.

It probably doesn’t matter a great deal whether Gibson decided to leave after six years, rather than eight, as he had repeatedly promised after his fi rst electoral victory in 2010. Given the shelf life of politi-cal pledges, the smart money, in my cynical mind, was on his going the other way, running again in 2016 and then deciding two years later that “the job wasn’t done.” Memo to other career politicians: The job is never done, and life goes on without you.

Gibson seemed positioned for a long congressional career. In burying millionaire Democrat Sean Eldridge of Shokan, Gibson solidifi ed a seat he won handily in 2012, even with Obama romping in the district. Two predecessors prior to redistricting, Democrats Matt McHugh and Maurice Hinchey, each served 18 years. Hinchey, 76, would still be congressman if illness hadn’t taken its toll.

While he says he’s done with Congress in two years, Gibson spoke to a future in statewide Republican politics. One Gotham newspaper took that to mean he’ll actively seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2018. Lieutenant governor with a city or suburban running mate seems to me a better bet, though as a retired Army colonel Gibson probably doesn’t see himself as anybody’s lieutenant.

The prospects for a three-term upstate Republican congressman succeeding in a statewide contest are dim. Republicans have not elected anybody to state offi ce since 2002 (Pataki).

But then, what chance did a recently retired army colonel running against an incumbent congressman seem to have in 2010? It may just be that Gibson, as he has demonstrated for most of his life, relishes a new challenge.

Gibson, in any event, presents possibilities for a Republican brain trust hoping for another ABC op-portunity (Anybody But Cuomo) in 2018. Another election like 1994, when state senator George Pataki came out of the woodwork to narrowly defeat a hugely unpopular Mario Cuomo, represents a stretch but not an impossibility. Whereas Mario had coasted to a third term, his son, present governor Andrew Cuomo, has shown serious slippage in stumbling to a second-term win last November.

Gibson, in presenting himself as a centrist “no-labels” Republican, did not endear himself to radical elements of his party. But so what? Elections are not won at the fringe.

Gibson’s joining a handful of rightwing Repub-licans in voting against speaker John Boehner may have been an indicator. Gibson’s future is not in the House.

Though few believe it when most politicians claim that “family considerations” drive their political decisions, there may be some truth to it in Gibson’s case. As a career army offi cer he was away from home a great deal, and in some very dangerous places.

Gibson, as congressman, has been a relentless campaigner, as Eldridge can well attest. It can be fairly said that if there were three people standing on a corner anywhere in the congressional district during his last campaign, one of them was likely to have been Chris Gibson.

Given his disciplined lifestyle, I doubt if Gibson will be any less a congressman over the next two years. But he probably won’t be more. His stated ambition, to be a statewide presence, will no doubt leave him even less time with his family. Those are the choices families make, hopefully, together.

Gibson’s surprise announcement left jaws agape,

so the present list of would-be successors is neces-sarily short. An open seat in a tossup district will, however, attract multitudes.

The logistics are daunting. A congressional district has more than 700,000 people, almost four times Ulster County’s population and more than twice that of a state senate district. Gibson’s Connecticut-sized district encompasses eleven counties from the Hudson River north and west into the Adirondacks, across the river for a big chunk of Dutchess, all of Columbia and south to Orange and Sullivan. There is no way to get anywhere fast other than by helicopter. It’s an extremely diverse district. The northern Republican end, Gibson’s base, is as different from Democratic Ulster as Sullivan is to Orange.

It has been an unfortunate reality of our politics for more than a few generations that only those with considerable personal wealth or access to deep pockets and its consequent obligations) can compete

for high offi ce. Gibson, a man of modest means, spent an inordinate amount of time fundraising, as do most of his colleagues.

And yet there is the lure of becoming one of a very select company, close to the seats of power, sitting in rooms where deci-sions are made, part of the action, recognized, lionized. Many fat cats lust for the opportunity.

Congress matters. It’s where the money is, where regulators regulate, where issues directly affecting the lives of constituents get resolved, or not. Gibson, by any fair assessment, and clearly in the judgment of voters, has been an effective congressman. He was also acquiring a degree of seniority, bucking Boehner notwithstanding, which counts in every legislature. His successor will enter at the back of the line.

Gibson, now offi cially a lame duck, did the process a solid in announcing his in-tentions way early, thus giving interested parties the opportunity to consider at some length a life-altering decision for them, and maybe for us.

The following names, obvious to even the ca-sual observer at this stage, could morph into serious candidates faster than we can say Jack Robinson.

Sean Eldridge: The losing candidate usually gets fi rst refusal, though Eldridge’s run at Gibson didn’t make anybody forget Maurice Hinchey or even Julian Schreibman (2012’s punching bag). Eldridge says it’s early, which it is. After a grueling campaign against the Gibson juggernaut, Eldridge knows early doesn’t last long. He’s been keeping in touch with people who matter.

The county executives: I can’t put Ulster Democrat Mike Hein or Duchess’s Republican Marc Molinaro numbers one or two. Both are up for reelection to four-year terms in November and will need to run like Secretariat to be seriously considered for Con-gress. It is not inconceivable that they could face each other. Hein has the population base in Ulster. Molinaro has broader experience as a legislator and greater fundraising possibilities.

George Amedore: The State Senator would have to move his residence. He lives in Rotterdam, in Schenectady County, which is in the 20th Congres-sional District, represented by Democrat Paul Tonko.

Honorable mention: Fill in the blanks.

We hear from Dancin’ DaveCounty legislator Dave Donaldson, who appar-

ently considers the world his oyster, has been getting ink of late in urging the Kingston school board to reconsider its 5-4 rejection of a Project Labor Agree-ment (PLA) for the upcoming $137-million high-school renovation project. He says that by hiring union workers the district could save upwards of $11 million. The district administration does not agree.

As proof of the value of organized labor on a major construction project, Donaldson cites the Ulster County jail, which had a PLA. Donaldson, ever the loyal union man — unions donated to his campaign and to other legislators during the jail debacle — says it wasn’t labor that drove jail costs some $20 million over budget. Unions just did their jobs, which owing to inept management — and that’s putting it mildly — resulted in massive overruns.

The bottom line is that a PLA is no guarantee a

project will be brought in on time and on budget, but it sure puts local workers to work.

Legislative funniesUnder the heading of fool me once, shame on

you, fool me twice, etc., I can’t say I blame disgruntled Democrats for being bent after being two-timed by legislature chairman John Parete. For the second year in a row, the wily Parete recruited minority Republicans in the 13-10 Democratic house for the votes he needed for reelection. This time legislators Chris Allen of Saugerties and T.J. Briggs of Ellenville joined Parete, his son Richard and Donaldson for the 14-8 win.

Democrats were so desperate to thwart Parete that a few even offered the chairmanship to minority leader Ken Ronk of Wallkill. Ronk laughed, though it must have been tempting.

So, what we have for the second year is a bipar-tisan legislature, and that is not a bad thing.

I fi nd Herb Litts, freshman Republican from Lloyd, a real asset. Sober, sensible and receptive, Litts paid his dues after several terms as a town councilman. But sometimes, in the heat of debate, tongues get twisted, feet tangled, and funny stuff comes out.

Example: Litts, in debating a resolution, made reference to New Paltz legislator Hector Rodriguez as his “constituent, Hernandez.” Rodriguez, tongue-in-cheek, corrected and forgave his colleague, who obviously meant no offense. “I know some people think we [Hispanics] all look alike,” he quipped. Craig Lopez just smiled.

It was announced at last week’s county legislature organizational session that the sheriff had signed a memorandum of understanding to cease warrant checks at the department of social services. I had the sheriff signing with the county executive, which Hein later told us was wrong. He signed with DSS commissioner Mike Iapoce, a Hein appointee.

Hein said a correction was in order, and here it is. I apologize.

But I see a distinction without a difference. Iapoce works for Hein. Had he signed an MOU with the sheriff without the all-controlling executive’s express approval, he might well have been standing in one of those welfare lines the next day. Running this highly controversial subject through DSS gives the executive cover. ++

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While he says he’s

done with Congress

in two years, Gibson

spoke to a future in

statewide Republican

politics. One Gotham

newspaper took that

to mean he’ll actively

seek the Republican

nomination for

governor in 2018.


HEALTH / Jennifer Brizzi

Getting that checkup

It may pay to schedule a physical this month. Be-sides catching any serious health problems early,

and helping you get in better health, it may put more money in your pocket, too. As we reported recently, insurance carrier Oscar is handing out cash for walking more.

There are other ways to make preventative health care pay off, like if you’re a Medicare-eligible senior or a younger person taking advantage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Your health in-surance plan, either from your employer or private, may offer valuable incentives to get in better health and prevent problems.

“We are embarking on what we are calling ‘the year of the physical,’” says Dr. Davide DeBellis, in-ternal medicine specialist at Premier Medical Group, which has multiple locations throughout the Hudson Valley, including Kingston, Rhinebeck, Poughkeep-sie, Fishkill, New Windsor and Newburgh.

“Insurers, employers, and Medicare are offering a wide variety of fi nancial incentives for patients to get a periodic physical examination, or checkup, or health maintenance exam, as different plans call it,” said DeBellis. “We call it a great opportunity to build your relationship with your physician, to establish baselines for good health, and to put in place preventive regimes that will serve you well throughout the year.”

Many of us hesitate to make that call and schedule a physical. The cause may be fear of the unknown, or some preventable health issue we’re ashamed of, such as being unfi t.

“We know nobody’s perfect,” says DeBellis. “In fact, if patients do come to see us, we can help them get control of their health and wellness and set them on the right track.”

Screening for “the silent killers” is crucial as well, with many illnesses — like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and many cancers, like those of the breast, cervix, colon or skin — detectable only at a thorough physical. A physical

exam combined with blood work, other screening tests and a complete family history can help catch problems early.

If you fi nd yourself signing on with the Af-fordable Care Act this year, your insurer may offer you periodic health maintenance exams without a co-payment. Compared to the steep copayments of many insurers, this sounds like a good deal. All plans are supposed to offer preventive services without co-insurance charges even if you haven’t yet met your annual deductible. The services can include screening for high blood pressure and cholesterol, colorectal cancer (adults over 50), diabetes type 2, depression, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, and more, as well as various immunizations.

Another provision of the Affordable Care Act provides tax credits and subsidies that lower monthly premiums to help pay for your health insurance, if you qualify. Your chosen health plan must be approved by both state and federal governments, what’s called an exchange plan, which avoids benefi t loopholes like denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

A Wall Street Journal article reported recently that some patients have been charged co-pays or deductibles for healthcare visits when they’ve men-tioned past or current health concerns.

Even those who don’t qualify for the tax cred-its or subsidies are eligible for enrollment in an exchange plan. The deadline for AFA coverage for this year is February 15; those without insurance

will be charged a penalty of $325 per adult plus $162.50 per child, or two percent of the family income, whichever is greater.

Carrot and stick approachMany employers have made scheduling that

annual physical more enticing with carrot-and-stick approaches that are increasingly common in wellness programs. The carrot can come in the form of cash rewards or premium reductions for those checkups or for getting exercise, or merely fi lling out a health assessment questionnaire. The stick could take the form of penalization like higher premiums for unhealthy behavior like smoking or having a high Body Mass Index (BMI). Another component of Obamacare was to increase the allowable amounts of both incentives and penalties from employers.

As I’ve mentioned previously, half of compa-nies with 50 or more employees have wellness programs in place. Financial incentives for good-health behavior are in place for 36 percent of the ones with over 200 employees, and 18 percent of all companies, per the Kaiser Family Foundation. Spending on wellness programs, now a six-billion-dollar industry, is way up. The idea is that the more companies spend the more they’ll save covering workers’ lifestyle-related health problems.

The effectiveness of this approach for employ-ers is a subject of much debate (not to mention discrimination lawsuits). For the worker, however, it can mean not only living longer by adapting a healthier lifestyle but also having extra money to spend.

People eligible for Medicare have an incentive to schedule that physical as well. Part B of the program includes a free checkup they call the “Welcome to Medicare” introductory visit. It is scheduled during the fi rst year of coverage and includes a medi-cal history review and counseling on preventive services. You’ll have height, weight and blood pressure measured, a vision test, immunizations, disease screenings (for depression, substance abuse, cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes and HIV), specialist referrals, a discussion on advance directives and a written plan for your care.

After the fi rst Medicare year you are entitled to a free annual wellness visit to follow up on that plan. For these visits to be free, the doctor or health provider must accept Medicare reimbursement in full. Sometimes the physician will recommend extra diagnostic tests or services more frequently than what Medicare covers, and there will be a co-pay for these.

So in many cases it’s worth your while to schedule that annual physical now and set your mind at ease that you’re doing everything you can for your health.++

Read more about health issues from a local perspective on Ulster Publishing’s healthyhv.com.

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Rat Rods of Peter Duvaloois

Saugerties’ own Peter Duvaloois was featured last March in the New York Times “Auto Ego” column

titled “Rat Rods: A Statement Made of Rust.” He sections old truck cabs and builds jalopy looking hot rods with big old engines. He was just featured in an AP web post which was forwarded to me by my brother in Florida and ended up appearing on my Facebook wall. I thought, I’d like to draw these mad machines, and that’s what I did.

Peter welcomed me into his shop and I climbed around old dirty, rusty and impressive car engines and parts. Under wraps were three rods, two Ratty pick ups and one Canary Yellow Businessman’s Coupe, perfectly fabricated and pristine. It’s the ratty ones that get attention. I sketched the old trucks while Peter ground away at a part, sparks showered the shop.

Thirty years ago Peter was building modifi ed stock cars and racing on dirt tracks. He also built and fl ew small airplanes. A product design engineer, he always loved cars. His fi rst big project was restoring a 1952 Dodge Power Wagon pick up truck. It was a big brutal machine and uncomfortable to ride, so he sold that and his next project was a classic hot rod. He took a replica fi berglass 1946 Chevy Busi-

nessman’s coupe body and a rebuilt 1952 Dodge hemi engine and created a pristine quality custom rod in canary yellow. With 425 horsepower and a plush interior, it was gorgeous, but not unique. Peter calls it a ‘belly button’ car, because everyone has one. He spent more time cleaning it than driving it, not so much fun.

His third project was a rusty 1946 Chevy pick-up cab which he narrowed by fi ve inches and mounted on a fabricated frame with a rebuilt 1952 Dodge hemi engine. Old rusty pick-ups were cheap to buy and utilitarian. Peter could fi gure out all the pieces needed to assemble a vehicle and create a

unique contraption that grabbed attention. He found his métier. He’s put 40,000 miles on this rig in the seven years he’s had it on the road. Never needs washing. It gets 23 miles per gallon. He takes his shoe and rubs the sole on the hood of the truck, no problem. He points to the canary yellow rod and shakes his head.

The rat rods are a sub-culture that has grown in recent years. Peter has organized shows and

images of his cars have been widely published. He built a rat rod 1963 Power Wagon which he sold to a guy in the Adirondacks. He built a 1936 Ford pick-up with a rebuilt 1956 hemi engine that he’d like to drive to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

His current project is based on a 1936 Ford, a City of Kingston truck. Its faded rusty orange patina and offi cial seal on each door will be maintained, while new shocks, suspension and fl oor pan are being fabricated and installed. It’s getting a 1950 Olds Rocket engine. Peter designed and fabricated the frame and suspension. I noted twin trailing arms locating a 1968 Mustang rear axle with coil over shocks. He has cut down the cab, grill and hood from the original truck, all else is fabricated and fi nely machined and detailed.

The Kingston truck will be fi nished in the com-ing year. Once the weather breaks, Peter offered me a ride in his ’46 Chevy rat. ++

AUTOMOBILIA / Robert Selkowitz

Winter auto tips1) Keep the gas tank at least half full; this

decreases the chance of moisture forming in the gas lines and possibly freezing.

2) Check the tire pressure, including the spare, as tires can lose pressure when tempera-tures drop. Consider special tires if snow and ice are a problem in your area.

3) Have the exhaust system checked for carbon monoxide leaks, which can be especially dangerous during cold weather driving when windows are closed.

4) If you’re not trying to defrost the wind-shield or warm the interior, modern cars are ready to be driven right away. Idling longer than 30 seconds in most cases is unnecessary for the sake of warming up the engine. The best way to warm up your car is to drive gently at the start.

5) Change to low-viscosity oil in winter as it will fl ow more easily between moving parts when it is cold. Drivers in sub-zero tempera-tures should drop their oil weight from 10-W30 to 5-W30 as thickened oil can make it hard to start the car.

6) Consider using cold weather washer fl uid and special winter windshield blades if you live in a place with especially harsh winter conditions.++

Peter Duvaloois


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WALKING WOODSTOCK / Michael Perkins

Geezerhood

“Age diminishes us. One minute we’re 50, which the French say is the youth

of aging, and the next we’re 70, looking at a stranger in the mirror. Geezerhood has struck, and the youth culture demands our disappearance. If we lived in China, we would be venerated as Liv-ing National Treasures, treasured for our wisdom. Here, we’re in the way.”

It was a cold day in hell when this unhappy assessment appeared on the scream screen in the fl aneur’s mind. Being negative about anything makes him shiver. Accepting what is with good grace was his strategy for catching up to Methu-selah, but he was fed up with being exhorted to get out of youth’s way. Like everyone in a conformist society, he tried to cover up the tread marks of age that made indentations in his formerly open physiognomy. He curbed the curmudgeon that paced inside. But life has four seasons, and spring, however sweet, does not last forever. Winter is tart, but tasty, if you can keep warm and well fed.

The national news was full of stories about “seniors” (a PC term he hated, preferring the

honesty of “old”) taking all the available jobs and housing and sucking up Social Security funds. The Boomers who could not afford retirement in Death’s Waiting Room, aka Florida, stubbornly remained in place and Juniors resented their longevity. (Although thankful for a parental roof.)

So the old, if not despised, are given short shrift by those who, by keeping fi t, hope to grow old. Death might come at any moment from cradle to grave, but old people have survived to grow gray. As the Chinese say, the old have eaten without

themselves being eaten — proof enough of their wisdom.

The fl aneur had known two Woodstockers who had shown him by example how to grow old without scaring the horses: the historian Alf Evers, and the painter Wllliam Pachner. Together, the fl aneur and Alf assembled the giant two-week Woodstock Bicentennial Celebration, and gave guided tours of Byrdcliffe. They even appeared in tandem on television.

Attaining a success-ful geezerhood does

not come automatically. There is a learning curve, a Geriatr ics 101, in

which the first lesson is surrender: you can no longer do what you could do just last year. Accept this change, and throw yourself into something

you can do. Don’t retire — begin a new project. Having finished his doorstopper volumes on the history of Woodstock and the Catskills, at an advanced age Alf Evers started his last book, on the history of Kingston. This good advice is seldom followed, although often cited. Retirement is risky.

When Alf wasn’t writing, he was talking. If you asked him a question about local history, it was best to put side at least ten minutes for the answer. History is memory, and Alf’s memory was prodigious, so complete that the flaneur thought of him as Alf the Memorian. He was a totemic figure around town in his nineties, drawing SRO crowds

when he spoke at a Library Forum. His grandfatherly look was that of the archetypal storyteller.

There is a price to be paid for remaining above ground longer than most. Both Alf Evers and Bill Pachner lost their eyesight. The last time the flaneur saw Alf, he was presid-ing over an annual gathering in a natural amphitheater above his house. Music and Alf: a good time in the secret Woodstock. Later it was learned that the couple who brought him

to the party forgot to guide him down. Uh oh.

Bill Pachner will turn 100 this spring. He had to stop paint-

ing decades ago when he lost his sight, but he had a one man show at the Kleinert not long ago, and on that occasion gave a talk to a large crowd of artists which demonstrated that he still has all his marbles. Unlike Alf, Bill has a sarcastic streak, his motto being “Sincer-ity when necessary. Honesty when possible.”

When the flaneur pays a call on his oldest friend, they often speak of the books Bill “reads” on audio aids. Bill keeps up intellectually. His memory, like Alf’s, is encyclopedic.

Recently, he referred to his age, which he seldom does. “I am reluctant to claim enlight-enment, but some days I think I am. It’s only taken a century to get here.”

He shook hands, and made his usual joke: “Goodbye, please.”++

Walking Man sculpture by Alberto Giacometti.

As the Chinese say,

the old have eaten

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their wisdom.

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ART NOTES

C.B. SMITH ALBUM RELEASE CONCERT

C.B. Smith & The Lucky Devils will perform at their Bluebird album release concert at 8 p.m. Sat-urday, January 24 at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts34 Tinker St. Woodstock. The band’s music runs from bluegrass to Americana. The players are the inimitable C.B. Smith on guitar, Megan Gugliotta on fi ddle and cello, Bill Strohm on upright bass, Brendan Donovan on mandolin, and everybody on four part harmony!

Advance tickets are available at www.brown-papertickets.com/event/1112881, and until Janu-ary 22 you have a chance to win a pair by go-ing to its Facebook page and “liking” the photo there. See www.facebook.com/CBSmith518 for the details.

LIVE AT THE LIBRARY!Live at the Library acoustic concert series pres-

ents Peter Einhorn, Emily Kate Einhorn and Lou Pappas at 7 p.m. Saturday, January 17. Guitarist Peter Einhorn has performed and/or recorded with Joe Lovano, Jimmy Cobb, Steve Swallow, Placido Domingo and many others. As a senior at Kingston high school, Emily already has numerous national recording studio credits. Recently performances include the lead role in the Woodstock Playhouse production of Peter Pan, and playing her original music as the opening act for Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. Bassist Lou Pappas has performed with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Wood-stock Chamber Orchestra, Westchester Philharmonic, the Chappaqua Chamber Orchestra, the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra and the Greater

Newburgh Symphony Orchestra. He is presently the Adjunct Instructor of Double Bass at Vassar Col-lege and the State University of New York at New Paltz. Admission is free. The Woodstock Library is at 5 Library Lane.

BLUE FOOD AT BEARSVILLE

Blue Food, with Joey Eppard, will perform at 9 p.m. (doors open at 8 p.m.) at the Lounge at the Bearsville Theater. Admission is $10. For more information, call 679-4406.

TRIBUTE TO RADIOHEAD

The Paul Green Rock Academy presents A Trib-ute To Radiohead at 7 p.m. Friday, January 16 and Saturday, January 17 at the Woodstock Playhouse, 103 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock. Rock Academy students, ages 8-18 years old will be performing.

All tickets are $20 and are available at wood-stockplayhouse.org, or at the door.

Doors open at 6:15 p.m. For more information, see rockacademy.com or call 679-6900.

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SATURDAY NIGHT BLUEGRASS AT ROSENDALE JAN. 24The Saturday Night Bluegrass Band will make its return to the Rosendale Cafe after more than a

year’s absence. Guitar and Dobro player Brian Hollander, bassist Geoff Harden and mandolin player Tim Kapeluck combine on the sweet vocals. The incredible Guy ‘Fooch’ Fischetti is the soaring fi ddler who doubles on pedal steel guitar. And the band is joined by the fantastic Eric Weissberg, of Dueling Banjos fame, playing the fi ve string hot licks and adding a fourth part to the vocals. Weissberg has been playing with the band for a year or so, for the now mostly retired Bill Keith.

And of course, special guest will be the spectacular country chanteuse Francine Hollander, breaking your heart with songs of Patsy, Dolly, and other classics that tear down the walls.

It all happens at 8 p.m. Saturday, January 24. Admission is a mere $10.


DEP offers reservoir driftwood to artists

Who’s looking for some real cool art materials? Listen to this...The New York City Department

of Environmental Protection is offering a limited supply of free driftwood from the Ashokan Reser-voir to artists and craftsmen for distribution from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, January 23, at a staging area on Beaverkill Road in Olivebridge just a few hundred feet from its intersection with Route 28A. DEP staff will be on hand to answer questions and assist artists as needed.

“The weathered wood i s carried by the Esopus Creek into Ashokan Reservoir, where it regularly piles up in a portion of the reservoir’s west basin known as “Driftwood Cove,” read a DEP press release on the matter. “Periodically, DEP removes the wood from the cove so it does not infringe on a nearby boat launch area used by fi shermen.”

The wood will be given away on a fi rst come, fi rst served basis.

For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep.++

SMART ART / Paul Smart

Guild members’ turn

Twice a year the ever-more-select Kleinert/James Art Center steps back from its successful schedule

of solo and group exhibits featuring top regional artists and curators, and the best of mid-career art out there these days, to focus on the membership of its mother organization, the Woodstock Byrd-cliffe Guild. Last month saw the run of its most successful 5 x 7 benefi t show ever, in terms of both participation and sales. Now Byrdcliffe opens its annual members’ exhibition, entitled re: Member in an inimitably moderne style, with a 4 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, January 17 reception.

As the organization’s 550 plus members brought works in for display this week, it was estimated that the fi nal exhibit would include some 150 pieces come Saturday. The resulting exhibit, featuring “the work of both well-known and emerging art-ists, in an array of media from the traditional to the experimental: painters and printmakers, sculptors and installation artists, photographers, digital artists, and multiple permutations along the way,” will stay up through February 22.

Over the past decade, what’s seen in the annual Guild members’ show has shifted away from the more traditional to edgier work, fueled by both the organization’s arms-open approach to the changing art world outside Woodstock’s once-tight borders, as well as the nature of its membership. At the same time, the work has also maintained an underlying sense of place, in most cases, as well as an over-whelming concern for substance over pure style.

That said, the show’s always turned out fun, due to the Byrdcliffe exhibition committee’s savvy way of hanging its exhibits, as well as everyone’s need for a grand party-like opening this time of year.

Following the reception Saturday will be a free Open Mic event featuring Guild members who sing, write and read poetry, tell jokes and stories, pontifi cate, and play instruments (including the venue’s historic Steinway B)...or any variation thereof. There will also be the awarding of a $100 Best of Show prize.

The Kleinert is located at 34 Tinker Street in the center of town. For further information call 679-2079 or www.byrdcliffe.org.++

Magnusson’s Decorating Nature

“I strive to create art that is both beautiful and meaningful, art that is aesthetically and intellec-

tually accessible and deals with important themes,” writes artist and provocative wit Norm Magnusson of his ongoing art series, Decorating Nature, as seen here. “This current body of work is on a theme

that has in-formed a great deal of my work over the past couple of decades — mankind’s complicat-ed and vast relationship w i th na -ture.”

M a g -n u s s o n ’ s creations in the series are subtle, often small, yet always conc i se l y

conceived and meticulously enacted. They span all seasons, and several years now.

And yet there’s something perfect about this latest addition, given the chill and spareness of just now.

“We use nature how we see fi t: we strive to bring order to it, we seek to explain it in a language that doesn’t belong to it, we try to make it prettier, we try to make it better, we try to make it more profi table,” he has added. “Some efforts succeed, some don’t.”

See more, and even by archival prints of works from the series, by visiting http://decoratingnature.blogspot.com/++

New Year at Arts Upstairs

Anthony Margiotta, the Halcott-based, Saugerties-born artist who we featured in a short piece last month, will continue on as the solo rooms artist at The Arts Upstairs in Phoenicia for the coming

month, where a new group show opening and potluck party will be taking place around the theme, “A New Year,” 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, January 17. The gallery is located at 60 Main Street in the center of Phoenicia...upstairs, of course. Be prepared for a long, fun evening; and bring dinner if you can. To share. For further information visitwww.artsupstairs.com.++

Painting by Anthony Margiotti

By Norm Magnusson.

smart art wintry mix woodstock times january 15, 2015 1...

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