Invisible

To the editor:

When landsmen and gas companies began snapping up leases in our area last fall, virtually none of us had ever heard of the Marcellus Shale or hydraulic fracturing. Some of us immediately saw dollar signs: leases and royalties to make us rich, or get us out of debt, or maybe just save the family farm. Others immediately began to fear the worst: contaminated water wells and ruined roads, increased crime and higher taxes, noise that would rob us of our sleep.

But we’ve come a long way in a few short months. Landowners have banded together to try to negotiate fair and protective leases, the Damascus Citizens for Sustainability sounded the alarm about environmental risks and Catskill Mountainkeeper brought in experts from around the country to educate us about this very complex subject.

Sullivan County Commissioner of Planning Dr. Bill Pammer has been encouraging town boards to study the matter and be proactive. Highland and other towns are looking at moratoriums as a way to buy time to plan for what lies ahead. And recently, all of the Sullivan County’s town supervisors worked together to hammer out a resolution calling for procedures that would mitigate the most damaging effects of gas extraction.

But one voice has been conspicuously silent: that of the gas companies themselves.

They haven’t been here to address our concerns or answer our questions. They have failed to sit down with our government representatives to disclose their plans or to negotiate compensation for our towns, which will be forced to spend millions of dollars repairing roads and bridges and expanding law enforcement and emergency medical services. In short, they’ve done nothing to reassure us that they’re willing to be good neighbors and good partners with their host communities.

We’re told that the gas companies are coming to town and that they plan to be here for years to come. Isn’t it time they introduced themselves to the rest of us?

Thanks for one treat—and looking forward to another

To the editor:

As a committed concertgoer, I’d like to express appreciation to Stuart Communications for its service to the local music scene. For the second year, The River Reporter sponsored one of the most delightful events in July’s Weekend(s) of Chamber Music: The Café Concert at Callicoon Center’s Hill’s Country Inn. After an al fresco dinner served on the deck, we settled into the lounge for a most satisfying concert of Schubert, Mendelssohn and others.

An idyll for voice and flute was typical of the surprises Judith Pearce (artistic director) always manages to work into her deeply satisfying programming. In this piece by Cyril Scott, Ms. Pearce piped her flute off-stage while vocalist Szilvia Schranz charmingly sang along with the “distant shepherd boy.” But it was quite a different shepherd to climax the evening: Shubert’s mini-opera “The Shepherd on the Rock,” with Hungarian soprano Schranz, Spanish clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester and American keyboard virtuoso Ken Hamrick. My concert companion remarked over the applause, “To make Judith Pearce’s cut you must look as good as you play.” And it was true: the international trio that had just performed was as easy on the eye as they’d been on the ear.

I’d also like to commend Stuart Communications Creative Services for those neat pocket guides you produce for local entities, a sampling of which was included in a gift bag distributed at this event. They’re a colorful mix of local ads and useful text; I was especially taken with a special edition of Bethel Woods Insider, created around a program for the August 1 appearance of Chanticleer on Bethel Woods’ new Terrace Stage—one of this summer’s most imaginative bookings. I’ve enjoyed a good dozen performances of this unique vocal ensemble (based in San Franciso) over the years. The booklet includes the group’s program, and I’m pleased to see they will be offering a range of delights from Josquin des Pres (d. 1521) to Samuel Barber (d. 1981). Wouldn’t miss this treat for anything.