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.

As a long-time subscriber I would like to comment on your new format and the new type. I used to read the paper from cover to cover but no more! The type is so small and dim that it is a chore to read. Why I even have a hard time reading Noel van Swol’s Letter to the Editor picking apart the Sullivan West School District. Keep it to the 500 word maximum, Noel! As I recall, over the 30 plus years I have listened to you, I cannot remember one single complimentary thing you had to say about the Delaware Valley Central School. Thanks to you and your cronies my kids never had Driver’s Ed—had to cut it out because of too much “Fat in the Budget”. But, I digress! The purpose of this letter is to comment on the paper.

Since I am aging gracefully, and near-sighted besides, I found that if I hold the paper about five inches from my nose, and take off my glasses, the print becomes clearer and I can read it better. But here’s the problem, when I sit down to read the paper, Regis, my tabby cat, gets on my lap for a snooze and because I hold the paper awkwardly, he can’t get comfortable. So, please do us both a favor and bring back the old type and a little darker print. Thank you.

My name is Jill Rowe; I am the co-owner of the restaurant in Jeffersonville, The Kitchen.

I would like to address several items mentioned in a recent article in the fashion magazine “W” that have been misquoted. In one section of the article, an accusation is attributed to my husband and me that is completely untrue. It states that we suspect one of our neighbors of killing our cat. In reality, we found our two kittens abandoned by their mother in our barn and heard that an adult cat had been killed in the area sometime shortly thereafter. Another misquote regards the local diner, “Ted’s.” It states that my business partner, Randy Florke, and I opened the restaurant hoping to “challenge the reign of Ted’s diner.”

These are not our words or sentiments at all. Both Randy and I feel that Jeffersonville is a thriving town that will only benefit from offering an array of dining choices to its residents and visitors.

My family dates back some 100 years in Sullivan County, hailing from Monticello, Liberty and Mongaup Valley. Although I moved into the area in 1997, I consider myself to be a full-time local resident and am insulted by the tone of this article that undermines my emotional and financial commitment to our business and this area. Our restaurant is committed to serving the local population.

I hope that those who know me will understand that this article does not accurately reflect how I feel about this area and its inhabitants, and for those of you who have not yet had an opportunity to meet me, I can only hope that you will forgive any misinterpretation of items in this article that were inaccurately attributed to me.

On behalf of the town board may I express our appreciation to the people who worked on the beautification of Narrowsburg. You have set a example for others. You may not have won the big prize, but you are all winners to an appreciative community from the board.

Thank you to everyone who made The Catskill Festival of New Theatre a resounding success this year. If you were not able to attend the festival, please come to Fort Greene Park on Wednesday, August 15 at noon and see the stilt show that we built with a group of local high school students up here in Highland Lake. The Revolution is a commedia dell’arte farce on stilts that is incredibly charming and funny. The students have done a terrific job and we would love if you could come out and see the work.

A special thank you to The River Reporter for all of their support and coverage in the 2001 season.

It seems hard to believe that four years have passed since on Monday, August 25, 1997 Thomas Hill, the Supervisor of our Town of Lumberland departed into eternity. Born in May 21, 1951 he was elected as Supervisor in 1985 and took the office on January 1, 1986. Dedicated to his Town of Lumberland, he was a respected and delightful individual with a sparkling personality. As our guide he performed admirably at his job and was knowledgeable of his duties.

I personally was fortunate to know him as a joyous person, sympathetic with good humor and with a humble life style. He was modest and had a tendency to make himself unnoticeable. No one can understand why God called him to His side.

Let this few humble and sincere words be my tribute to Thomas Hill. I and many of us will remember him as a great man with a gentle soul, kind and always ready to help.

I feel strongly compelled to reply to horrid and defamatory accusations which appeared in a recent article about me and my animal rescue shelter. Foremost among these was the cruel and heartless insinuation that my sister was planning to open another shelter on adjoining property. Even modest research on your part would have revealed that my sister, Ornella DeLuca, has been deceased for two years! That such an unkind and callous statement could have been so casually inserted in an article supposedly meant to “inform” your readers is simply beyond belief. It has opened fresh emotional wounds and caused me deep personal anguish.

I think it’s not too much to ask that the vicious machinations of certain of my neighbors should not be allowed to so strongly distort any norms of journalism in such a way! This has been a constant campaign of smears, distortions, and downright character assassination which has been unending for four years and has climaxed in such a cruel lie as the one above. It is also very revelatory of the truth —that this whole thing has never really been about dogs at all, but stems from deep-rooted unhappiness and insecurities on the part of these “neighbors.” I would like to let those who put into play such a painful and mean-spirited rumor as the one about my sister, know that I too, if I so chose, could concoct scurrilous falsehoods about them, but have refrained from doing so, because I know that I’m in the right!

Just last Sunday an article appeared in another newspaper about the desperation of overcrowding and euthanasia of animals at area shelters. I am trying to help! You “neighbors” (and you know who you are)—what are YOU doing—cursing the darkness, or lighting a candle?

NYC as well as counties in the vicinity of thinly populated Sullivan County watch with vague interest as Sullivan County wrestles with concerns about casino gambling. Given their far larger populations, more active interest might be appropriate.

While studies reveal that those who live closest to casinos are those most negatively impacted by the ills of casinos, those who reside within a casual drive are very notably at risk as well. Given the disparity in population sizes it is reasonable to predict that a far greater absolute number of people and businesses from neighboring areas would be negatively impacted by gambling than would the relatively few of Sullivan County. Sullivan would, of course, suffer a greater per-capita number of negative consequences but it would not even come close to matching those of their neighbors. The dollar amounts required for dealing with these consequences would be exponentially higher close by as well.

Does anyone really imagine that the surrounding area would somehow be immune to the increase in embezzlements, burglaries, robberies, bankruptcies, broken families, suicides, and the increased court, welfare and prison costs associated with casino gambling?

A Sullivan County committee is now bargaining with Park Place Entertainment concerning millions of dollars annually for what would amount, in large part, to reparations. At the same time, politicians from areas surrounding Sullivan County seem to slumber.

As it stands, there would be insufficient millions paid to Sullivan County for accepting the suppurating pollution of casinos and not a nickel paid to surrounding counties.

It is in exactly this manner, in much the same way that the lethal tobacco industry was once allowed to operate—by not being forced to pay for cleaning up after itself, and thereby forcing taxpayers to subsidize them—that the predatory gambling industry manages to grind out its phenomenal profits.

The largely unexamined, widely accepted and passively unopposed idea that a single, thinly populated county can, without consulting its neighbors, accept pollution that is actively designed to spill over and contaminate millions is as irresponsible and as deadly as it is irrational and absurd.

Failure to take effective action to protect against a threat of this magnitude seems tantamount to political malpractice. To dismiss it as a Sullivan County issue is to bury ones head in the sand.

Or are politicians planning to wait for forty years, until costly tragedies pile up like cord-wood before they act —as they did in the case of tobacco?

I have known Ed Diana all of his life. He has been a caring, dependable friend. Those qualifications are a part of his public life as well. Among other things, we discuss what is best for seniors, my favorite issue! Ed represents us and will help us always in an honorable way. He in no way can condone anything but respect and compassion for those of us in our “golden years”! It is his commitment, with years of experience. He treats others as he treats his family and friends.

He was a great kid and he is a great adult, ready to serve all ages of Orange County residents with honor.