![A new obstetrician joins the team at Sharon OB-GYN](https://millertonnews.com/media-library/dr-william-schweizer-educated-at-nyu-and-yale-with-38-years-on-staff-at-nyu-has-joined-sharon-ob-gyn.jpg?id=48204731&width=980&quality=90)
Dr. William Schweizer, educated at NYU and Yale with 38 years on staff at NYU, has joined Sharon OB-GYN.
Photo by Leila Hawken
SHARON — With more young families settling in the region, there are likely to be more babies to be counted in the mix. Meeting the projected demand, Sharon OB-GYN Associates has welcomed a new physician to their practice, Dr. William Schweizer, who has moved full-time to Cornwall and is enthusiastic about serving the community’s needs.
Pausing for an interview on Thursday, Feb. 3, Dr. Schweizer said that he opened his practice on Jan. 3, at the Women’s Health CT professional building at 50 Amenia Road (Route 343) in Sharon. He has full privileges at Sharon Hospital.
Offering a wealth of credentials and experience, Schweizer said he began his medical studies with an early interest in public health, anticipating that he would study neurology and multiple sclerosis. As his education progressed, he was drawn toward longevity of care, wellness visits and screening practices.
NYU and Yale
Eventually he focused on emergency procedures and dealing with complications that require fast and effective action. Those studies led Schweizer to obstetrics as a specialty and the medical art of dealing with complications and emergencies calling for swift response.
Through his studies and residency at New York University (NYU), he was versed in safety protocols and saw the importance of a high-quality department of obstetrics, learning how to assemble the best people to create such a department.
Schweizer did his pre-med at Cornell, and also earned a Master of Public Health degree at Yale where he was among the first to earn that newly offered degree.
Furthering his specialty in obstetrics, he accomplished his residency at NYU where he has remained for 38 years, now continuing his association as a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, specializing in teaching means for improving medical safety.
“We are fortunate to be living in a country with technology, innovation and enthusiasm for possibilities,” he said.
From around the world to Sharon
He and like-minded colleagues are working together to improve conditions in other parts of the world. “We’re trying to decrease maternal hemorrhaging in third-world countries,” he said of their work, noting a significant shortage of physicians for women in South America, for example.
Speaking of his new Sharon practice, he said, “This is a wonderful community. I feel honored to be able to contribute in some way.”
Deeply committed to the area’s OB-GYN needs, Schweizer observed that Northwest Corner demographics have changed in recent years.
He noted statistics showing the likelihood of 250 more children enrolled in area schools by 2030. The birthrate is changing and the population is changing, he said.
“We should anticipate the change,” he said, noting that many women have put off childbearing because of the pandemic. “We will see an increase in childbearing,” he predicted.
Schweizer joins the three other doctors on staff there now: Bhavana Daruvuri, Joshua Jaffe and Howard Mortman.
Why here?
“My heart has always been here,” he said, pleased to now be a full-time Cornwall resident, after 24 years as a part-time resident enjoying Cornwall with his family on weekends.
As he thought of transitioning from life in New York City, he recognized that there are great advantages for life outside of the city and he is not alone. “I see many friends and families moving here.”
New residents who have made the area their home, have taken advantage of tele-commuting through Zoom and other platforms and working from home in general, he said.
“Our community will be expanding,” he added, indicating that the proposed changes at Sharon Hospital are flawed by being “shortsighted.”
He and his wife, Alison, first came to Cornwall 24 years ago when their twins, Noah and Elia, were newborns. Elia is now a recognized textile artist and Noah has developed a career in medical infomatics, where he develops apps useful to the medical profession.
Alison’s career focused on Wall Street, and Schweizer indicates that she has strong talents for organizing. She presently volunteers with the Cornwall Library.
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.