Letters to the Editor - The Millerton News - 12-16-21

Millerton Fire Company is, and was, a lifesaver

A recent letter to the editor gave the mistaken impression that our Millerton Fire Company (MFC) was not sufficiently staffed to respond the incredibly tragic fire on South Elm Avenue last month.

From everything I observed first-hand and have learned since, that is just not the case.

Given the extraordinary intensity of this fire, our Fire Company responded quickly, in force, and to the best of their abilities.

Fire companies from other towns responded to lend assistance, in what is known as Mutual Aid, as they regularly do, and as our company does with other towns.

While more volunteers are certainly needed to assure the future of our Fire Company, the women and men of our MFC should be recognized and appreciated for their exceptional dedication and effort.

I’m glad to know they are there.

Chris Kennan

Supervisor,
Town of North East

North East

 

It’s time for U.S. Senator Schumer to step up

Along with so many others, I have grave concerns about the state of our Democracy and the efforts of certain political actors to undermine Democracy’s foundational election process.  In this vein, I have sent the following email to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

I write to urge you to delay the upcoming Senate recess in order to bring voting rights legislation to a vote before the end of the year and before conservative Republican-majority state legislators do further harm to voter protections and enfranchisement measures.

Why can’t Democrats work as diligently to protect voting rights as Republicans do to disenfranchise people and weaken voter protections?

I urge others to make similar pleas to Sen. Schumer.

Amy Rothstein

Pine Plains

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Library on the ballot

Libraries have become the heart of many communities, serve to promote the health of the community through a growing number of varied programs and by offering communal space where people come together to work and play. On Nov. 5, three libraries in our region are asking for an increase in funding from voters to enable them to continue with a reliable source of funding — and remain cornerstones of social and intellectual life.

In Millbrook, it has been nine years since the Millbrook Library, which serves the Village of Millbrook and the Town of Washington, sought an increase. The Amenia Free Library is seeking an annual increase from the town to meet a continued demand for more services from those who use the library, not to mention pressure from operating expenses common to all institutions — utilities, salaries and supplies — to name a few. The NorthEast-Millerton Library is seeking a budget increase from taxpayers to secure additional funding that the Town of North East has been providing since 2007.

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Donors give Stanford $2 million for ambulance; $150,000 for park

The proposed Dot and Ira Burdick Park plan with funding donated by Gayle Bontecou in memory of her late husband Jesse, features among other things a berry patch, beehives, crab apple walk, benches, walkways, a pollinator meadow, split rail fence, a pavilion for field trips and historical society exhibits, a pond with a boardwalk over it, and parking.

Photo provided

STANFORD — When an ambulance arrives in the next three years to save a life in Stanford, it will be doing so largely thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor who recently gave what Town Supervisor Wendy Burton describes as a “jaw dropping” $2 million to pick up the lion’s share of that service’s annual fee of $750,000.

When families build memories in the soon to be created Dot and Ira Burdick pocket park, named respectively after the former historian and town supervisor, their appreciation should go to Gayle Bontecou for the $150,000 donation she made in memory of her late husband Jesse — one of many they made over the years.

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Millerton Police receive $220,000 funding increase

MILLERTON — The Millerton Police Department has received $220,000 from New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services to update infrastructure and aid in supplying officers with uniforms and firearms.

In July, Millerton’s Police Department requested an increase in funding to support the officers on duty.

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