To the Editor:
At the Town Board meeting on March 24, I, as well as several veterans, were pretty much appalled that our own Town Board would even consider removing the yellow ribbons from Town Hall as the two local guard units have returned home (safely), thank God, and there is no reason to have them up any more (Kingston unit, Poughkeepsie Armory unit).
I would like to point out that there are still several hundred from Dutchess on active duty, still serving overseas as of this writing, and still a lot from Hyde Park in the regular Army, Marines, Navy, etc. Our wonderful local churches do have these names in their church bulletins so their respective congregations can pray for them and keep thema safe from harm. Perhaps our Town Board should reconsider this proposal. I did, at said meeting, request that the ribbons proudly stay until the end of hostilities.
However, no matter what your take on the war, pro or con, you support the vets either way. Support the troops. Our military services all have one thing in common – no one is forgotten, no one left behind. In their haste to take down the ribbons as soon as possible, maybe they forgot this is a presidential town, also the town of Forestal and also Walter Bowe, and the county of Mr. Dulles. This is not the right example a presidential town should do as a slap in the face to our troops overseas serving, especially the ones still from Hyde Park not home.
Town Board, please reconsider this proposal for our troops. They certainly deserve it.
Bill Conn
Hyde Park
To the Editor:
It’s nice to hear that the city is concerned about spending a few thousand dollars on events held in the city. I only wish that they showed as much concern with spending $23 million needlessly on a parking deck and transportation hub on Cannon and Academy streets.
Instead of moving the buses over there, the city could utilize the access road between Garden and Market streets that runs by the parking deck. Plexiglass shelters could be placed adjacent to the deck for people to sit and stand waiting for their bus. The buses could then turn directly in front of the deck and use the existing exit to Market Street. That way, the city could lower the proposed deck from five levels to three levels at a savings of several million dollars of taxpayers’ money.
The city should also not put a shovel in the ground to start building the deck until the city issues a certificate of occupancy for the Luckey Platt Building.
Frank Clark
Poughkeepsie
To the Editor:
The permanent collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society comprises 11 major categories. The collection is the core of the society’s existence and needs constant attention and includes:
Manuscripts: Bound manuscripts i.e. account books, ledgers, and diaries; books; 18th-20th century maps; photographs and prints; furnishings and decorative arts; textiles; newspapers, many in bound format; paintings; ephemera – pamphlets, brochures, leaflets, programs, invitations, postcards; natural historic and prehistoric material; and modern technology audio recordings, oral history, videocassettes, CDs, and DVDs, is a category that needs to be included.
In 2006, a collections inventory was started by a core of volunteers. Work on this project will continue in spring 2008. The data gathered will be checked against the Past Perfect computer inventory which has all the information on each object. Volunteers have been scanning images of these objects to accompany this data.
The society serves thousands of people a year through e-mail inquiries, letters, personal visits, etc. Researchers, authors, historians, genealogists and interested parties use the Franklin A. Butts Library at Clinton House Tuesday through Friday by appointment. We work with local colleges, media, cultural institutions, municipal historians, members, schools and the public at large.
Many changes are taking place at the society. Noticeable improvements are being made to the society’s headquarters, the Clinton House in Poughkeepsie, inside and out. We are working to better provide an interpretive history of our sister site, the Glebe House, which serves many school children and members of the public.
We are planning several events for the Hudson-Fulton Quad celebration in 2009. Our calendar of events will be available on our Web site, dutchesscountyhistoricalsociety.org. Our annual members meeting will take place on Saturday, April 5 at 10 a.m. at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck with Rhinebeck Town Historian Nancy Vogel Kelly presenting an informative power point presentation on The Palatines.
Steven Mann
Rhinebeck
To the Editor:
On March 8, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released an audit showing that Albany County and four other municipalities who worked with NYSERDA– Hempstead, Rosendale, New Paltz, and Woodstock – “by installing solar panel electrical systems over the last four years, realized immediate savings on their electrical bills, and reduced environmental emissions.”
Time for Dutchess County itself to get off the dime on this – with solar panels on all of our own county-owned buildings; the least we can do is to start this year with our County Office Building itself.
Our resolution for this will be on the agenda for our County Legislature’s Environmental Committee meeting this Thursday, April 10 at 4:15 pm on the sixth floor of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie – speak up to make it happen.
Kudos as well to Hannafords, Stop and Shop, and Wal-Mart here in Dutchess for already having collection containers at their stores for customers to place their used plastic bags for recycling. All stores over 10,000 square feet in our county could and should do this – as already in Suffolk County and New York City, and soon in Westchester.
You’re also invited to join county Legislator Marge Horton and yours truly Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at the East Fishkill Town Hall – as members of our County Legislature’s Environmental Committee continue to reach out and listen to the concerns of folks across the county.
Save this date, too – Tuesday, April 22 (6 p.m.) – for our Senior Issues Forum with Priscilla Bassett, vice-president of the New York Statewide Senior Action, at the Rhinebeck Town Hall at 80 East Market St.
Finally, contact us at 876-2488 if you’ve seen flooding that may be due to a subdivision or development upstream.
Joel Tyner
County Legislator (D-Clinton/Rhinebeck)