Mailbag

To The Editor:
The following is an open letter to the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA):

 I write in the hopes that ORDA will facilitate, encourage and promote alpine tour skiing and snow shoeing at Belleayre.  For those not familiar with alpine tour skiing, it is perhaps best described as the four-wheel drive of skiing.  The equipment employs a hybrid boot that can either lock into the ski-bindings, like a conventional downhill ski, or operate with a free heel, like a cross-country ski.

To The Editor:
As the Board of Directors of HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, the parent company of Benedictine Hospital, Kingston Hospital, Margaretville Hospital, Mountainside Residential Care Center and Woodland Pond at New Paltz, we are volunteer community members who care deeply about the physical and economic health of our region. We have a responsibility to preserve and enhance the quality healthcare services that have evolved over the last 100 years in Kingston.
Our evolution has been driven by a variety of fast-paced regulatory, legal, economic and financial considerations.

To The Editor:
I decided to go to the Living History Cemetery Tour on June 30 given by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown. I like to support community events, some of the people involved are friends and I thought it was a nice thing to do.
Actually, I expected to be bored.

To The Editor:
The handwriting is on the wall folks. National Mutual Insurance Co. has declared that it will not cover claims that are in any way related to fracking because, “The risks involved in fracking operations are too great to ignore.” This decision applies to policies of commercial contractors, landowners who lease their property to gas companies, water haulers, pipe and lumber haulers, operators of bulldozers, dump trucks, and all other vehicles used in drill site operations, etc. In other words, everything and everyone in any way connected to fracking.

To The Editor:
Dr. Huggins delivered three of my children at the old Margaretville Hospital in the 1950s. I sure wish that doctors now were more like him.

He did everything from delivering babies to taking care of them and any adult who came to his office with a medical problem.
He will be missed.

Ruth Miller,
Newburgh

To The Editor:
Kudos to Jennifer Kabat and the Catskill Mountain News for last week’s article connecting the dots between the heedless New York City politicians, the troubled Department of Environmental Police (yes, them), and the vulnerable reservoirs in our community.

It’s refreshing to see our local newspaper take the time and editorial space to do an important piece of investigative journalism. Looking forward to more of the same.

Fred Margulies,
New Kingston

To The Editor:
Twice within the past three weeks I became stranded in our beautiful mountains and needed assistance.

To The Editor:
No doubt, the region was enjoying the spotlight last week, what with the article on the challenges facing the Catskills brand in The New York Times. So much of the article focused on the point of view that a total departure with the past was necessary. And so much of the region’s future hopes seem pinned to the competition to generate a new “Catskill catchphrase,” a contest currently in deliberation, gearing up for an online vote to decide on the winner.

To The Editor:
Recently, my husband John suffered a mild heart attack. Unfortunately, John was not aware that all the pain he had three days previously was a heart attack! He thought he had either pulled a muscle or cracked his sternum. When the pain didn’t go away, we went to the ER at the Margaretville Hospital. The reason I am writing about this is because I want everyone in this area to know that the care he received there was outstanding.

To The Editor:
It is with great remorse that we write this letter. We recently learned of the firing of Tony Lanza from Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. Tony was a positive force to the mountain and the community.