I’m writing this letter to correct misinformation in the December 29 article, “Cochecton Zoning Commission update.”

The Cochecton Zoning advisory Committee was established by the town board for the specific purpose of identifying areas of agreement between the two sides of the gas drilling issue, and to make zoning recommendations we believed to be of benefit to the town.

The article says, “Johnson and the members, who, like her, are in favor of allowing drilling to go forward unimpeded, say there is no resolution to be had, while Rubin is still interested in discussion.” The statement that I, or any member of the committee, wants drilling to go forward unimpeded, is completely false, and negates the whole purpose of the committee. The other half of the statement is true. The committee has not reached consensus.

It is also true that Allan Rubin wants to continue discussions. Rubin has stated a number of times that he wants the meetings to continue for a year because “that is the amount of time it took Narrowsburg to decide to ban drilling.” While I am sure Narrowsburg did what was best for Narrowsburg, we were appointed by the Cochecton Town Board to recommend zoning changes, if any, that we believe are best for Cochecton.

I also bring to your attention that the person identified in the article as giving a committee report to the town board was Peter Grosser, not Peter Grossman.

Paulene Johnson

Cochecton, NY