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.

I just wanted to thank Mr. Tom Kane for all his coverage of the Eldred girls basketball team, and myself this season.

I will be attending Susquehanna University in the fall. I am grateful for and looking forward to the opportunity and challege of playing ball at the collegiate level. I have been awarded an $18,000 academic scholarship. I plan to major in Mathematics and pursue a degree in Secondary Education, leading to my long term goals of teaching and coaching.

The Productions Class of Sullivan West at Narrowsburg would like to thank you all for your accommodations on Friday, June 8.

We were very excited to see pictures of us in the paper along with the great article that included personal interviews of the students involved in creating and building water vessels.

The land where you let us put our vessels in the water, the ice cream and the papers you presented us with were greatly appreciated.

My husband and I went to the Flag Day ceremony here is Liberty, NY. I got to thinking about our flag and how it should be greatly respected.

Then my thoughts went to the day, about a month or so ago, when we went to the Lava cemetery looking for relatives of my husband. In one corner of the cemetery we found the stones we were looking for, but we also found something else that disgusted and amazed us. There, in one corner of the cemetery was a pile of old dead leaves, sticks, etc. and mixed among the debris were quite a few faded, dirty American flags, apparently there for a long time. Whoever threw them there ought to be ashamed and anyone responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery should have seen this.

We took the flags with us and gave them to the VFW here in Liberty, where they will be disposed of respectfully and appropriately.

In reference to the May 3 TRR edition, yes, I remember the Big Eddy’s early switch board from the early 1930’s.

The first switchboard I remember was located at Atco, PA, operated by Mrs. Biddlecomb in her home. I believe there were two switchboard locations, the other one being at the home of Mrs. L.M. Longstreet in Narrowsburg, NY. The chief operator was Mrs. Chas. Igler, who I knew at that time. Before World War II, I worked at M.W. Crocker’s general store and I knew all the telephone operators in Narrowsbug who ran that switchboard. It must have been a nerve racking job to serve the public, and much credit is due.

It might seem very antique in comparison with today’s communication, but it had many advantages which today’s system doesn’t have. For example, our party line had about 30 homes on that line. We all had a special ring—two shorts and a long ring was for the Brauser’s home. Of course, when that telephone rang, 15 or 20 people listened in on your conversation.

We had a fire ring, which was 10 shorts. When that ring sounded, everyone picked up the phone and called in, “Where’s the fire?” When the location was determined, everyone would go and help.

Now I just want to point out what this old switchboard system did for me—a GI soldier returning from three years overseas.

Arriving in New York after 22 weary days on an old Liberty ship, we docked. The first thought was call home. Giving my home number to Dorothy Reith, whom I knew very well, she rang that number many times but got no answer. She said “Is that you, Ralph Brauser?” I replied, “It’s me, Dot.” She said, “Ralph, your father Herman is painting John Neiger’s house. Let me ring there.” Which she did.

I attended the unfortunate Sullivan West groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, June 16, and was not impressed with the site. It is a very questionable location for a school.

Recently, I filed several Freedom Of Information Law requests with the Sullivan West Central School District concerning this project. One of the documents I obtained was an April 5 letter from the Sullivan County Soil and Water Conservation District, which raises a number of important concerns about the property.

This letter says, “Page 3 of the Stormwater Report lists Ad (Alden Silt Loam) as an on-site soil. It should be noted that this soil is hydric and may fall under Federal Wetlands Jurisdiction.”

The letter also states that, “It should be noted that this project site is the location of a former hotel, which was one of many that operated in the rural areas of Sullivan County from the early 1900’s to the present time. Because the county and most of the local towns did not operate a waste disposal operation, most of said hotel operations had their own on-site dump. Some thought should be given to a disposal plan if this type of contingency is necessary.”

I also obtained the O’Brien & Gere Phase I document for the property. It is not a definitive study, nor can you expect it to be.

This Phase I Environmental Assessment was compiled, “based on the site walk throughs; information provided by Mr. Michael Johndrow, Superintendent and Mr. David Rowley, Assistant Superintendent of the Sullivan West Central School District and a review of a federal, state and local file database search.”

If illegal dumping has taken place over several decades, such information wouldwill only appear in computer databases if the situation has been previously reported and addressed. Obviously, this is not the case with respect to the Lake Huntington site.

Also, the fact that the study relies heavily on information provided by Mr. Johndrow and Mr. Rowley demonstrates the preliminary and superficial nature of the report. Johndrow and Rowley are school employees who desperately want the project to be placed on the Lake Huntington site. They are not independent experts.

The Phase I report does state that, “On-site disposal of solid waste, appliances, C & D debris and other waste, and storm flow through these areas, represent recognized environmental conditions related to solid waste and storm water. Depending on the chemical composition of the materials, they may be classified as hazardous wastes according to applicable State and federal regulations and, therefore, represent a potential recognized environmental condition related to hazardous waste. In addition, the potential presence of asbestos-containing material (ACM) in the C & D debris represents a potential recognized environmental condition related to asbestos.”

Plate 2 of this report is a photograph of, “Household waste, appliances and C & D debris in the eastern portion of Parcel 1.”

The Plate 3 photograph in the report is of, “Five-gallon buckets in the western portion of Parcel l.” With respect to that photograph, the Phase I report says on page 14 that, “The approximately 25 five-gallon buckets containing what appears to be driveway sealer and/or paint in the southwestern portion of the Site also represents a potential recognized environmental condition related to hazardous waste, depending on chemical composition.”

Based on these photographs by the O’Brien & Gere firm, it would appear that the 26 devastating photographs of the Lake Huntington property in community activist Tony Wayne’s website are accurate and not “posed.”

These are just the surface indications of major environmental problems on the site. No one has addressed the widespread rumors circulating through Sullivan County for two years that 55-gallon drums of toxic waste have been illegally buried on the property for decades without the knowledge of the previous owners. Surface inspections will not uncover this.

What troubles me most is the fact that the Phase I report was completed in May of 2000. For over a year, the Sullivan West administration never disclosed any of this adverse information in the expensive brochures and newsletters it sent to local residents describing how fantastic this project was supposed to be. No wonder the public is suspicious.

Given what we now know, all work on the Lake Huntington project should be stopped immediately before we sink a fortune in taxpayers’ money into this financial black hole and risk damaging the health of future generations of Sullivan West students.

I call on Sullivan West Superintendent Michael Johndrow and BOCES Superintendent Martin Handler to make that decision before it is too late. Failure to do so would be very unprofessional.

The storm water discharge permit issued to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBP) for the proposed Waymart Penitentiary is a privilege. That privilege, granted by the citizens of The Commonwealth, carries with it a severe burden of responsibility borne not just by the FBP, but by its contractors, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and particularly by the Wayne County District Conservation Office.

There was no demonstrated evidence of any responsibility two weeks ago after citizens reported to the Wayne County District Conservation Office and the DEP that a local tributary had suddenly become chocolate brown from runoff from the prison work. It took a week of additional citizen alarms before the county conservation office finally acted to issue a stop work order against the FBP.

This permit requires stringent control of storm water by a competent runoff erosion and sedimentation plan. That plan also requires certification that the permittee has an emergency team, materials and equipment available for immediate action if a breach develops in the storm water control system. Obviously, none of these conditions were met at the prison site. The situation is still out of control.

The resulting damage to Middle Creek, etc., all the way to the Delaware River, is evidence of inadequate supervision by the Wayne County District Conservation Office. Its recent experience with Walmart and Holbert Creek should have been their wake up call.

The Wayne County Conservation District office is either inept, or incompetent. The Lackawaxen River watershed is being insulted by the cavalier attitude of the Wayne County District office, the DEP, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

What confidence can we have that it won’t happen again if the Wayne County District Office approves the basically flawed erosion and sedimentation control plan submitted for the proposed “windfence” atop Moosic Mountain?