The River Reporter Online - Letters to the Editor

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The River Reporter welcomes letters on all subjects from its readers. They must be signed and include the correspondent's phone number. The correspondent's name and town will appear at the bottom of each letter; titles and affiliations will not, unless the correspondent is writing on behalf of a group.

Letters are printed as they are received, or at the discretion of the editor, and without correction to grammar or spelling. It is requested they be limited to 500 words; correspondents may be asked to cut longer letters. Deadline is 1:00 p.m. on Monday.

There may be some confusion concerning the Cochecton Town Board's action or lack of it at the public hearing held Wednesday August 9. For those persons who had read the public notice the board held a public hearing to consider placing a proposal on this year's ballot to approve or disapprove extending the term of the next elected Town Clerk from two years to four years. This action in no way would have affected the length of the present term of our current Town Clerk.

As the duties of the position of Town Clerk become ever more sophisticated and expanded it becomes more difficult for an individual to "step-in" to the job and be efficient. It costs the town large sums of money to train the individual through schooling and consulting services. Just as in a business investment, it would be beneficial to the Town of Cochecton taxpayers to get a four-year commitment from the candidate seeking the elected position of Town Clerk. The choice of candidate would still be up to the voters and only the position of Town Clerk was being considered.

Hope I'm not the only attendee to write in praise of Jocelyne Castellano's beleaguered NIIFF at the Tusten Theatre (though for a couple of days I seem to have been the only attendee at the first screening! The audience both days picked up after lunch, which suggests a change for future years: don't schedule morning screenings).

Prior commitments limited my participation to the final two days, but I feel compelled to thank the staff for the opportunity to see four feature films I'd otherwise never have caught up with.

First of all, celebrating the cinema of India may have been a bizarre notion, but it worked! I was able to catch only two of the features: Sturla Gunnarsson's "Such a Long Journey" and Santos Sivan's "The Terrorist." They couldn't have been less alike (except for having been set in India) but each was galvanizing.

On the final day (devoted to Family Values, yet!) Peter O'Fallon's "A Rumor of Angels" was magnificent-starring Vanessa Redgrave and a remarkable child actor (Trevor Morgan?) who matched her scene-by-scene. The festival's final film, John Gallagher's "Blue Moon" was a likable romp.

Thanks again NIIFF! You're offering the Upper Delaware unique midsummer treasures-and I think the community is starting to sense this! Hang on!

What a joke. On Monday July 31st in the Times Herald Record there was an advertisement that Vincent Pastore and Uncle Junior from the Sopranos were to appear. I made reservations for Wednesday, August 2 for $25 that was to include the premiere of their movie. When I called I was told that the $25 did not include the movie that it would be $5 additional. Also cocktail dresses and suits were required. On Tuesday after talking with my daughter I was informed that Vincent Pastore (A personal friend of my daughter's) had no knowledge of this event. To date I have not seen anything in any paper stating a mistake was made. This is false advertising and I feel the theatre cannot be trusted in soliciting people that are not even scheduled to appear.

Despite earlier experience with Ira Cohen, I confess that I allowed him to mislead me during our last exchange. I refer to his deceptively sanitized, fairy-tale-like and unrecognizable description of his intervention in the Concord matter in '95. When I am able to offer the elements he somehow left out, you will find that they are quite unlike his description. For example, he totally omitted reference to such identifying highlights as the letter, the extended news coverage, the acrimonious conflict and two of what may have been C.Y.A. memos.* The matter, unequivocally, was not, as he craftily implied, unremarkable and similar to several hundred others. His trying to lead us to believe so was, at best, misleading. I apologize to readers who might reasonably expect me to know better than to trust anything Cohen says but then, I am just a 71-year-old retiree while he is an active, professional attorney-at-law, Doctor of Jurisprudence and the County Attorney. And he has the intellectual (Heaven help us.) ethical (H.h.u., again) and financial (at our collective expense) resources of the majority of the Sullivan County Legislature behind him. My efforts to further confirm my recollection will require just a little more research, part of which may involve having to employ The Freedom of Information Act in which case, if the experience of Jeryl Abramson (a county resource to be treasured-and a columnist of rare excellence) is any indication, it may be a little while before I can get back to you.

* C.Y.A. memos, as they are popularly known, are communications sometimes employed in the administrative world for the purpose of covering one's back, so to speak, and/or shifting responsibility. Their dating and delivery is considered, by some, a minor art form.

Tom Atkinson and company are barking up the wrong tree. Cutting off taxpayer support for the libraries will not reduce their school taxes by a single penny. Their complaint should be addressed to the elected school board members. Don't be misled, elimination of the two mill local Support for libraries will also eliminate all matching state funding. A total cut of about 80 percent for our children's libraries. Yet only a reduction of 1 percent or less in local taxes. Wrong tree. Anyone that wants more information or to help us to SAVE THE LIBRARIES, should give their name and phone number to their local library.

I'm not sure to whose attention this letter should go now that Mr. Drapkin has left. Please direct this to the correct person or persons if it is not your department. We in Sullivan County have a gold mine in Alan Sorensen. The Motl family's experiences with him have been great and we wanted to share these with you.

As you know, we are presently renovating the pharmacy. When Mr. Sorensen found out we were attempting to bring our little corner of the world up to snuff, he introduced himself to us and asked what he could do to help. He arranged a low interest loan and advised us on how to qualify for certain matching grant monies that were available. He even gave up a Sunday to work with me on developing a business plan to qualify for the loan. He is certainly knowledgeable, caring and enthusiastic.

We are now close to completing these renovations and we want to thank those in the County government who helped us. We would also like you to realize how much Alan Sorensen helped a longtime Sullivan County family achieve its dreams.