To the editor:

Anyone who has lived in the Upper Delaware River Valley over the past twenty years, and those whose family name goes back a hundred years of more, can see and feel a change moving in our direction. Those who live in the greater New York metropolitan area around New York City, northern New Jersey, and Long Island have discovered Sullivan County, New York.

Lots of folks are dreaming of a summer place near the Delaware where they can eventually retire to enjoy the serenity found in this area. The biggest concern for those of us who are lucky enough to live here all year is how do we protect the natural beauty of the river valley while building a better tax base through development. One town that appears be succeeding with this issue is Tusten, New York. To protect the scenic integrity of their community, they are working with single home builders and large scale developers, before the construction starts, to limit impacts to the natural scenic beauty found both near the Delaware River and NYS highway Route 97. To my knowledge, they are the only town in the scenic river corridor that has put set back requirements into their zoning to minimize the visual impact of new construction on Route 97.

Next time you drive south or north from Narrowsburg, NY notice how the new homes are set back from the road with winding driveways and a strip of natural woodlands hiding each house from the roadway. Even many of the older homes built prior to this zoning requirement have left the natural forest near the roadway in place to limit their impact from traffic on Route 97.

Tusten zoning officials are negotiating the landscaping design and placement of new houses for a proposed group of houses that will be built high on a cliff face overlooking the Delaware River. The residents of Tusten have recognized that the scenic beauty of their town should not be lost to over development or poorly designed structures that could have been designed to blend into the landscape. As one who has worked for twenty years to maintain the natural beauty of the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, I would like to thank the Town of Tusten for their efforts to prove that development does not have to be ugly.

Malcolm Ross
Damascus, PA

To the editor:

I am especially upset by a recent commercial that depicts a younger man, having just achieved ownership of his first home, calling his mom to tell his father he is burning every light in the house to declare his father’s apparent insistence on conservation. (It’s an act of freedom and not defiance, I trust.)

This is an issue that hits the pocket, yes. But I think this young man and many others miss the big picture.

It may not be the 5 to 10 percent savings of money but the saving of energy that is the responsibility of right thinking. Men and women need to prolong our apparent depletion of natural resources and our staggering quantities of waste product.

In all, let our wealth represent our desire to righteous conservation and may our new motto be waste not need not.

Phil Jacobi
Callicoon, NY

To the editor:

Y’know, if I had been one of those folks who supported the invasion of Iraq, if I had taken the ideologues of the Bush administration at their word when they laid out their supposed motivations and goals for that extraordinary action, I think that right about now I might be starting to feel a bit ticked off.

I might be starting to wonder why they haven’t delivered on their promises, either to us or to the Iraqis—or to our soldiers. I might be getting very curious to know why they weren’t better prepared to deliver on those promises. And I’d be starting to wonder why it looks more and more like the rationale they presented to us all was -- well, let’s be charitable and say “inaccurate.”

I’d be starting to want some better answers from these people. I’d be starting to wonder if maybe their desires got the better of their judgment.

And I’d be starting to wonder whether this is really the team that I want to have in place as the world becomes more and more dangerous. In fact, I’d be starting to wonder whether it wasn’t this team itself that, through its incompetence, hubris, shortsightedness, and ideological blindness, is adding to the danger. And maybe I wouldn’t just feel ticked off—maybe I’d be starting to feel just a little bit betrayed.

W. S. Mendler
Honesdale PA

To the editor:

The Catskill Regional Medical Center (CRMC) family is deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Jake Gunther.

As an Assemblyman, Jake was instrumental in helping CRMC obtain funding for many beneficial medical and social programs that have helped countless residents of Sullivan County.

But his loss hits us even harder because Jake’s wife Aileen has been a dedicated member of the CRMC hospital staff for more than twenty years. His family has been our family and we send our thoughts and prayers to Aileen and their children Jake IV, Caitlin and Mary Alice at this difficult time.

But Jake wouldn’t want us to mourn for him. Instead he would urge us to embrace life even more fully. That’s the way he was—an energetic, truly unique individual.

During his five terms in public office, Jake was enormously committed to the health and well being of the Sullivan and Orange County communities he served. He was never afraid to speak his mind and he cared more about solving issues than in being politically correct.

Jake Gunther was a tireless advocate and an inspiration for Sullivan County. We at CRMC consider ourselves fortunate to have known him.

Arthur L. Brien
President and CEO

To the editor:

Ulster County’s casino contract with the Medoc tribe is reportedly based on the $15 million figure that Sullivan County was requiring of tribes wanting a casino in Sullivan. Ulster seems to have imagined that Sullivan knew what it was doing.

What makes that absurd is that the Sullivan County’s Legislature can’t seem to say why it chose the $15 million figure and is belatedly learning that $15 million may well be far too low. The so-called study, which was the basis of the decision to require $15 million as an impact fee, was apparently looked at by the legislative leadership some years ago, and then quietly buried. And the Sullivan Legislature is now having an embarrassing time deciding how to unearth and release that information.

While I have rarely agreed with current Legislative Chair, Leni Binder, I certainly agree that the figures on casino-associated school costs they have begun to release, are “frightening,” both in terms of their dangerous financial implications as well as in the slap-dash, inept and surface-scratching manner in which they were organized and presented. I also agree with Andrew Boyer, once a leader of the pro-casino movement, who, as reported by David Hulse of The River Reporter described the figures as “phantom, bogus numbers.”

If the “frightening” and “ phantom, bogus” information on school costs associated with casinos is the part of the buried information that the legislature feels most comfortable displaying, it should be more than interesting to see the stuff they feel they must pay consultants up to $35,000 taxpayer dollars to prepare and to present for them. And if and when we get to see it, remember that it is unwritten policy in government that “consultants” are hired not necessarily to bring back objective results but, rather, results that favor the plans of those who hire them.

Lee Karr
Forestburgh, NY