Honor the original agreement

To the editor:

As I talk to different people about the situation in the Sullivan West School District, I keep hearing one similar theme. Whether it’s in Jeffersonville or Narrowsburg or Delaware Valley, people almost always comment that they feel the merger was a sham, based on lies and broken promises, and they would undo it if they could.

Certainly anyone who was against the merger has earned the right to say “I told you so.” But it’s worth remembering one of the most important principles that persuaded a majority of people to vote for it. And that is the basic fairness of the original structure. People were willing to come together as a new high school as long as they could keep their local schools and didn’t lose their identities as communities. This was the essential ingredient, the basic compact that made it all come together.

So why should anyone be surprised now that our district has descended into discord and turmoil when this linchpin of our agreement has been removed?

Wanting to reopen Narrowsburg and Delaware Valley isn’t some twisted vengeance. It’s an effort to return fairness to our distribution of services as well as enhance the quality of education for our youngest children. It means honoring the original agreement.

Reopening the schools is also within our means. We can’t listen to those who argue that we are a second-class district that can’t afford to have what other districts take for granted: smaller local elementary schools.

I believe the closing of the two schools was kept out of the hands of the people because Allen Derry and the old school board knew that it would never pass a fair vote. But anyone who now goes out of his or her way to block the reopening of the schools will become responsible for the lies and broken promises. And I don’t believe that’s who we really are in this district.

Town website shouldn’t be used for propaganda

To the editor:

I am shocked and alarmed at the lies as well as distortions of truth that appear on the Mamakating website in regard to the Basha Kill Area Association (BKAA.) How can one person have the audacity to publish his personal biased agenda on this website dedicated to the Township of Mamakating? What’s worse, no member of the town board, to the best of my knowledge, has come forward to recant this biased, fabricated article. I cannot understand why the ramblings of a town official, at some point, should not be held up to scrutiny. Where is the evidence that the BKAA is taking your land, then your homes, that Donald Trump is giving us money? Where are the countless acres of land the BKAA has taken off the tax rolls? When? Show me the evidence.

We are protectors, not developers. This land is taxed as vacant land at the same rate as anyone else owning vacant land.

Has this grass roots environmental organization, whose board serves voluntarily with only their love and passion for this wetlands as payment, so frightened our supervisor that he has to resort to misrepresenting facts and inventing lies to try to scare our citizens? To quote our mission statement, “Since our founding in 1972 our mission has been to protect the Basha Kill Wetlands and surrounding area from ecological degradation; to preserve the beauty of this area; and to promote education and respect for the environment in general.” I believe we should start in educating supervisor Penna. We conduct nature walks for the public, moonlight walks, canoe trips, eagle watches, taking students on nature walks, sponsor campers to Camp DeBruce, an environmental camp, and other activities. We continue to stress smart development, not “any” development in our area.

I hope that your other town board members will publicly distance themselves from one man’s ranting.

(Editor’s note: as of press time, the material referred to had been taken down and replaced with the phrase, “The BKAA has learned how to use the system, and to stop anyone with a dissenting opinion.”)