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 enjoyed it so much and I know many others did too. The writing was lucid and informative and the drawings, charming. It added something to my life.

I enjoy reading The River Reporter very much and often prefer it to the larger publications. Yet there are frequent contributors to your Letters to the Editor whose negative and divisive viewpoints cause me to reach for the antacids.

It is distressing to read the degree of negativity (dare I say ‘toxicity’?) espoused by these persons on a regular basis. Would it be possible to limit the number of times an individual(s) could contribute to the paper on a given subject without giving them their own column? It would be interesting to learn how other readers feel on the matter.

I believe most of us are capable of arriving at our own truths, and do not believe the horrendous nature of things expounded upon by certain regular contributors to your paper. Limiting the printing of their letters could have a palliative effect in delaying the onset of an ulcer and allow us more quality time to enjoy our beautiful surroundings!

The Tusten Town Board changed the zoning regulations for the R-1 district, to allow eating and drinking establishments, but without giving the required ten days’ notice. They placed a notice in the legal section of this paper (you probably missed it) five days before holding a special meeting to change our zoning law. This zoning law change was rescinded and the public hearing has been scheduled for the next town board meeting on March 11.

Were they not surprised that no one showed up for a meeting that would affect so many people? Approximately 75 percent of the Town of Tusten is zoned R-1.

Ostensibly the change is to accommodate someone who wants to sell tacos out of her home. Would a variance not accommodate that?

The part that smells like Coney Island at low tide is the inclusion of retail establishment and/or restaurant in the original legal notice. What does that mean…Taco Bell? Home Depot? What did they pass? What are they proposing?

Deja Vu, all over again!! As happened the last time a credible lawsuit was filed against them, casino interests are pulling in their horns and disappearing. Well not exactly disappearing but going dormant. Cappelli is no longer interested in a casino, he says, and Pataki conveniently comes up with a principle (the resolution of land claims first) that effectively stops casino development dead in its tracks. Or so they would have us believe.

What has really happened is that the laws purporting to enable expanded gambling are very flawed and they have recognized this—but rather than acknowledge it, or allowing their domesticated media to explain it, they are retreating to rationalizations that paint them in what they hope is a better light as they try to decide what to do next.

Do you want your children to attend a “poisoned school”? Every parent in the Sullivan West Central School District now faces this alarming prospect.

Important new information uncovered by Callicoon’s Arthur Norden reveals that both the proposed Lake Huntington high school site and the Narrowsburg school campus are exposed to severe environmental hazards that threaten to escalate a local controversy into a national one.

In a January 2002 report, the Center For Health, Environment and Justice, a Washington area think tank, has independently identified the high-risk Narrowsburg building as the only school in Sullivan County located within one half mile of a federal Superfund site, the Cortese landfill.

The center has developed a national reputation for exposing school-based environmental problems since its founding in 1981 by Lois Gibbs, the community leader who exposed the Love Canal situation. The term “poisoned schools” is used by the center to describe schools with major environmental issues.

The Environmental Protection Agency website also contains important historical information on the Cortese landfill that was never adequately publicized in the past. In fact, the mere listing of the Cortese landfill as a national Superfund site means it is a Love Canal-type environmental problem.

To date, “5,300 buried drums and 3,200 tons of contaminated soils” as well as “15,000 gallons of hazardous liquid/sludge” have been removed. Even though this reclamation process has reduced the public health threat, the risks will always be there.

These stunning new revelations were never factored in prior to the merger. They change everything. It means that the Sullivan West school board is poised to spend 4.8 million dollars to renovate a substandard school building dangerously close to a hazardous waste site. Based on what we now know, the Narrowsburg building should be abandoned. Those funds could be used to build a new school on a safe location in the Narrowsburg area or an annex to accommodate Narrowsburg students at either Jeffersonville-Youngsville or Delaware Valley. Why pour good money down an environmental black hole?

Since June, the Johndrow administration has blindly ignored all the controversy about the Lake Huntington high school building site with its well documented garbage, construction and demolition debris, oil spills and the unresolved questions about the adjoining properties.

With a national organization like the Center For Health, Environment, and Justice saying that, “Under no circumstance shall a school be built on top of or within 1,000 feet of at hazardous waste disposal site, a garbage dump, or a site where construction and demolition debris have been disposed of,” the absolute stupidity of putting a $28 million dollar new high school on the old Green Acres Hotel property has been confirmed.

The time to cut our losses is at hand. If Sullivan West school board members really care about the health and safety of our students they will stop these projects now and rethink everything.

Failure to do so may well mean that each and every school board member who votes to move forward on these two environmentally dangerous projects will face multiple lawsuits for negligence from the parents of sick kids or irate taxpayers in the near future. Is it worth the risk? I don’t think so.

Stephen Stuart, Code Enforcement Officer, does not understand a recently released report on school siting issues and does not appreciate the efforts of citizens who are working hard at effecting a better, safer educational environment for the Sullivan West Central School District.

This nationally researched study, Creating Safe Learning Zones: Invisible Threats, Visible Actions was coordinated by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice for the purpose of “minimizing health risks posed by unsafe school renovation, construction and siting in contaminated areas” which have reached epidemic proportions. Mr. Stuart challenges the study’s contention that the Narrowsburg school campus is located within a non-recommended one-half mile distance of the Cortese Landfill, a Federal Superfund hazardous waste site.

Mr. Stuart bases his 3,000-foot measurement from the landfill on an engineered map of the Narrowsburg Sewer District. The CSLZ report bases its 2,640-foot guideline on Latitude and Longitude coordinates provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Education Department.

While the accuracy of either source of measurement may be questionable, his concern about a distance of 360 feet is irrelevant and insignificant to the purpose of the study’s guidelines that address the particular vulnerability of school-age children to environmental contamination. The one-half mile radius or a campus is considered by the study to be a hub of activity, including travel, by school-aged children. An example of just such activity is the use of the Narrowsburg baseball field which I believe is even closer to the Superfund site than the actual school building, and is well within the tango of concern.

Although an official EPA report describes the removal of 5,300 buried drums of toxic material, 3,200 tons of contaminated soil, and 15,000 gallons of hazardous sludge as having significantly reduced the threat to public health and the environment, it does not go so far as to claim, as Mr. Stuart infers, that the environmental threat of the Cortese Landfill has been eliminated. Today it remains a Federal Superfund site and a New York State DEC Class 11 hazardous waste site, the most serious classification of any known site in New York State history, including Love Canal.

I look forward to a day when school district officials, and their supporters, recognize that many of us who fought hard for the merger have chosen not to sit back and “imagine what dreams may come true” as Mr. Stuart recommends, but prefer to address the impact that today’s realities will have on the health of our children and the future of our community. Mr. Stuart should embrace the diversity of ideas and resources brought about by the merger and be thankful for the efforts of those who researched the valuable recommendations he is criticizing.