Birds and wildlife can’t vote, but you can

To the editor:

Each May, Pennsylvania hosts a great number of bird species that pass through the Commonwealth. According to Dr. Tim Schaeffer, this awesome bird migration from South America serves to remind us of the global significance of Pennsylvania’s natural habitat with its mountain ridges, wetlands and grasslands. This month, Pennsylvania citizens will count native and migratory bird species to monitor population trends.

On May 17, we will be counting more than birds—we will be counting votes.

The following bond question will appear on the May 17 primary election ballot:

“Do you favor authorizing the Commonwealth to borrow up to $625 million for the maintenance and protection of the environment, open space and farmland preservation, watershed protection, abandoned mine remediation and other environmental initiatives?”

Please vote “yes.”

This effort builds on the highly successful Growing Greener program initiated by Governor Tom Ridge. The question before the voters represents a bipartisan effort by Republican and Democratic legislators and Governor Ed Rendell. Officials from both parties worked diligently to draft the $625 million compromise and are actively promoting the initiative in their districts as we approach the primary election.

This is a unique opportunity to secure $625 million to help restore and conserve wildlife habitats and to invest in the land and water that make Pennsylvania such a special place to live, work and play.

The rate of land development in Pennsylvania outpaces the rate of land conservation by an average ratio of nearly three acres to one, despite the fact that our population growth is slowing. Sprawling development is draining the lifeblood of our older communities and destroying our rural economies. A “yes” vote will help slow sprawl.

Over a million acres of Pennsylvania farmland habitat has been lost since 1960, and the rate at which farmland is being lost is accelerating. Only one farm acre is being saved for every five that are being developed. A “yes” vote will help preserve our farmland.

The Growing Greener Bond Question will improve water quality in a number of ways, including cleaning up our abandoned mine legacy. Abandoned mine drainage (AMD) is responsible for rendering more than 4,000 miles of stream unfit for drinking, fishing or swimming. A “yes” vote will help clean-up polluted waters.

Birds, fish and other wildlife can’t vote, but you can. Please vote yes on May 17.

The fat lady has not sung yet

To the editor:

I read with interest Mr. Uy’s letter referring to the closing of Narrowsburg Central School. If, in fact Mr. Uy, it is six years too late to save our school, why did we put millions into renovating it just two years ago? Are there plans for that building that the public are not aware of? Perhaps Mr. Uy could tell us why Martin Handler told us that our local schools would not be closed after the merger. Does he find this an acceptable deception of our townspeople? In addition, I wonder what country Mr. Uy thinks he lives in. This is government of, by and for the people—not of, by, and for those that we select to govern. I do hope that all of the residents of Narrowsburg and Callicoon remember Mr. Uy’s stand on this issue when they enter the voting booth on May 17.

Can’t beat ’em, join ’em

To the editor:

Tim Morse of Narrowsburg writes in your 3-24-05 edition that he received an “invitation” to join the local school board “Budgeteers.” He indicates that such an invitation was just a scam proffered to make him feel good; that there was not a chance that the offer was bona fide, and that his expertise (if he has any) might be ignored.

Mr. Morse, Sir, if you reject that invitation, you’re giving the board an opportunity to continue to do just what riles you! Why not take them up on their offer? Accept and see just how things are being done. It’s the only way you’ll be able to affect any kind of change, if change is what you advocate. You can’t beat them standing on the outside looking in. We’ve all been there, done that and lost. You’ve got to become a “player” to get in the game and make a meaningful contribution. Certainly, it takes time and effort, patience and perseverance and a good deal of listening.

Try it. Mr. Morse, you could be just the “tonic” the board needs to stir it from the lethargy in which you seem to think they wallow. Give it a shot, Pal!! What’ve you got to lose??

Mother’s Day is about peace

To the editor:

No friends, Hallmark Cards did not create Mothers Day.

Mothers of dead and injured Civil War soldiers originally called for Mothers Day, as a time to dedicate ourselves to the establishment of peace and the eradication of war. It was a heartfelt endeavor on the part of caring people.

In the words of Julia Ward Howe (author of the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic), writing in l870 as a call for the end to all war:

“Arise all women who have hearts, say firmly: Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. In the name of womanhood and of humanity; take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace...”

This year, in a tribute to and celebration of the true meaning of Mothers Day, let us do our part to further the cause of peace, one way being to support the Department of Peace campaign at dopcampaign.org or call me at 845/292-2279.

Hunting clubs want use of neighbor’s land

To the editor:

At the next meeting on May 10, the Highland Town Council will present for adoption a new law. It will state that all property owners who own land adjoining any hunt club land will not be permitted to build anything on their land within 500 feet of hunt club land!

This is a blatant land grab by the hunt clubs. At 500 feet depth if you walk about 27 steps down the boundary line you will have lost about an acre of your land. You can do nothing with it but look at it.

And if this isn’t bad enough the town council says nothing about compensation for your loss. If you want to build within this 500-foot setback you will have to give the hunt club written permission (without compensation) to hunt within this setback.

Any landowner with this 500-foot encumbrance on their land will find that at a future sale, their land will no longer be as valuable as it was before.

Landowners, show up on May 10 and tell the town council what you think of this land grab.

It’s my party and I’ll do as a want to

To the editor:

Politics abounds with little ironies. For example, right now we have the sorry spectacle of the national Republican Party, which has been riding a wave of concern about “absolute moral values” with such great success, attempting to systematically dismantle inconvenient ethics rules in Congress in order to protect one man, Majority Leader Tom DeLay. As Seinfeld would say, “What’s up with that?” Could it be that Republicans have succumbed to the disease of—moral relativism?

The brouhaha highlights the problem that inevitably emerges when one party gains too much dominance—people start to feel above the law. (The same thing happened to Democrats, of course, when they held sway; just look up the name “Rostenkowski” for one example.) But the ethics process is the immune system of Congress, and if that ceases to function then the system runs the risk of disability or death from the organizational equivalent of AIDS.

Fortunately, citizens of all parties have begun to respond, and demand that our Federal officials hold themselves to higher standards of conduct. We have to keep up the pressure on both sides of the aisle, and resist attempts to castrate the ethics process. The long-term health of the American body politic is at stake.

A life defined by Narrowsburg Central School

To the editor:

As a graduate of Narrowsburg Central School Class of 1952, it really breaks my heart to see that building closed. I am sure the graduates of Delaware Valley in Callicoon feel the same way about their alma mater. If it were not for the education that I received at NHS, I do not think I would have had the very successful career that I enjoyed.

I am now enjoying retirement in Boynton Beach, FL, and I must say that schools down here have their problems with finances. But school districts in the State of Florida are on a countrywide basis.

One of the things Palm Beach County did in the last election was to approve raising the sales tax one cent on the dollar to go to the Palm Beach County School District. They had to do that because the voters of the state had previously voted to cap class sizes and that presented monetary problems for the state school systems.

The “bed tax,” as they refer to it brings in millions of dollars from the tourist trade. And even in spite of three major hurricanes, the bed tax was up very sizably this year. We collected from tourists during the winter season and the people who flooded into the state to help with rebuilding after the storms.

But as we all know the tourist trade in Sullivan Country is not what it used to be. All of the big hotels are either gone or going. The local townships are flooded with summer camps that claim a tax exemption and that is killing the local tax base. Not only does it kill it on land and school taxes, but those same tax-exempt organizations can go into a local store, buy something, show their tax exemption certificate and not pay any taxes.

Other counties, Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk and, of course, the five counties of New York City have all increased their local sales tax to offset their budgetary woes.

Sullivan County has to do some creative thinking on a countywide basis. An idea that came into my head was a countywide sales tax that would be a “dedicated” tax to help the county and all of the school districts with their obligation to the New York State Retirement Fund. This contribution is a big part of all local and county budgets. If the school districts and the county government had some help with this alone, it would free up more money for other areas.

I do not know if anyone has thought of this, but I would surely say some creative thought has to be put in all of this to decrease the burden on the taxpayers in the entire county. The county legislators are going to have to look around to see how other cities and local municipalities and school districts have solved their problems. It is not just an issue that Narrowsburg or any other community has had to face.

I know there are many fine people up there and if they put their heads together in a “brainstorming” session they will come up with some ideas. And they are going to have to all cooperate together to see what they can come up. It cannot be one town against the other, or one school district against the other; it has to be a total cooperative effort.

I just hate to see that school building closed. It would just sit there and decay. That is something that I hope will not happen because I got a fine education there. There were many fine teachers who taught all of the very fine students who attended the school. And I will add this, Roy V. Sullivan was one of the finest principals I had ever had the privilege of knowing. He was an inspiration to many of us who graduated from NHS.