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.

We appreciate your work publishing the newspaper as a weekly! You have created a strong "voice" that interests many people we know.

I would like to commend all the highway departments who worked so diligently during the flooding last week in our area. They worked quickly and efficiently to get driveways and roads opened. It was also impressive to see all the help the Gorzynski family received to save whatever crops they could as quickly as possible. Hats off to you all.

When North American Cultural Laboratory (NaCl Theatre) established its residency in Highland Lake last year and began developing plans for the First Ever Catskills Experimental Theatre Festival, we had high hopes about how the community in Sullivan County would receive us. We hoped that we could truly offer something valuable to the people of this area and that we could develop lasting friendships and partnerships with individuals, businesses, and cultural organizations.

Never did we expect to find the warmth, generosity of spirit, and open-minded curiosity with which the community greeted our festival this year. Nor could we have predicted the thoroughness and intelligence with which the local press helped to give us a public face.

On behalf of NaCl, I offer my tremendous gratitude to The River Reporter and to its readership for making our work here this summer such a joy. I look forward with great excitement to the Second Ever next August and to a long future of friends and partnerships in Sullivan County.

Roy Howard and Jeryll Abramson have been able to do what Alan Gerry has not: keep alive the spirit of the 60's and to continue the celebration of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, 1969. They have opened their property and their hearts to the proposition that music and camaraderie can be celebrated without a large budget or an overbearing and unnecessary police presence. While traffic control remains a concern, it was handled courteously and professionally by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Department.

Alan Gerry, the self-proclaimed savior of Sullivan County, is too busy trying to sanitize and commercialize his presentation, and so this year the Woodstock site was devoid of celebration. While security guards from Granite protected the original site from the dangers of peace, love and music, young revelers at Yasgur's Farm commemorated not only the greatest single event in the history of Sullivan County, but of an entire generation.

While I wish Mr. Gerry success in the development of his property, I can't help but wonder why, after three years of amateur floundering, he has not turned over the development of his "year-round, world-class performing arts center" to professionals who can get the job done.

In the meantime, we must thank and congratulate Roy and Jeryll for their commitment and perseverance. They kept the music and the tradition alive, and hosted a political rally for the Green Party, an alternative voice to mainstream politics.

Home Schooling may be the answer! Pretty soon the valley will echo with the call of a Home Schooling Movement. All we will need is an educational supply store which could fill an empty store front. On a national level, these home schoolers seem to be winning the National Spelling Bees and Geography contests. Soon they'll sweep all the other contests as well.

If a child spends two hours a day riding a public school bus, then the home schooler has a two-hour head start on learning. In twelve years, he jumps a grade or two.

Commuters hate two hours or more of daily driving. People in wealthy communities would never let their children ride a school bus two hours a day. Right now the D.V.C.S. students are tentatively scheduled to do a Triple Shuffle. No-it's not a dance step. They will get the longest commute-Elementary at D.V.C.S., Jr. High in Jeffersonville and H.S. in Lake Huntington. If they are uninspired by their schooling, at least they'll get to see different scenery out of the bus window.

Sullivan West School Superintendent Michael Johndrow's belated advertisement in the August 13-23 edition of The River Reporter concerning the vandalized Delaware Valley Central School lighted sign board on Route 97 has exacerbated an already touchy situation.

For that sign board to sit there unrepaired since October 25, 1999 speaks volumes about the Sullivan West administration's lack of interest in Delaware Valley.

Leaving the sign unrepaired for all these months only-.encourages additional vandalism and reduces the student body's pride in their own school.

Many local residents are privately saying that this is just one more indication of how unresponsive the newly merged district is to community concerns that would have been quickly addressed before consolidation.

The Beach Lake Fire Company began its 2000 Fund Drive in the March mailing to our area residents and businesses for financial support. Response to this mailing has been less than 25 percent and lukewarm. This year's lagging support has moved the Beach Lake Volunteer Fire Co. to again send out a second mailing to all area residents and business who have not yet contributed to the 2000 Fund Drive. Your Volunteer Fire Company needs your contributions as a part of the department's operating income. Rules and Regulations imposed upon volunteer organizations such as ours by Federal, State and Local government quickly use any allocated and budgeted monies.

We need you! You need us! Please send in your support to your volunteer fire company. My wife use to say that at least ten cents ($0.10) a day, only $36.50 per year, was a reasonable donation. More if you can afford it. Review of our returns indicate many of our residents and our businesses have not responded to our earlier fund drive mailing. We of the department do hope you are well and that the failure to respond is just an oversight.

Again as in the past, to you who have already sent in your donation, a huge thank you. Your Volunteer Fire Co. needs the support of everyone with both manpower and money to make it a viable option of emergency service in the event you need it. Keep it alive to help keep you alive.

The members of BLVFC volunteer their time ...around the clock. They don't ask for much, just some, or even a little financial support necessary to replace medical supplies and material and equipment used, lost or destroyed in the responses to your friends and neighbor's medical emergencies, auto accidents, rescues and fires. Please, before you decide to discard our second mailing, take a few moments to think of how important these volunteers and your Volunteer Fire Department would be to you and your loved ones should an emergency occur such as a fire, an accident or a rescue need them to respond. We depend upon you, our supporters... as you depend upon us, your Volunteer Fire Department. A contribution to your BLVFC is a contribution to the future of your emergency services. Please, write a check today and if you can, also become a volunteer. To do so is internally rewarding. Ask them. Thank you.