Published: June 19, 2008 01:25 pm         

Letters for June 19, 2008

Clean Sweep made difference

The Town Board of the Town of Hartwick would like to thank all those who participated in the recent Hartwick Clean Sweep.

The Committee members were hard-working, and wellorganized. Hartwick citizens took the challenge, and it made a positive difference in the Town. Appreciation also goes to the following people and businesses for their donations of supplies and prizes: Jim and Sandy Austin, Barnyard Swing, Beaver Valley Campgrounds, K.W. Bunn Engineering, Mike and Karen Burgess, Changing Seasons, Paul and Martha Clarvoe, Cooperstown Cutters, Cooperstown Event Rentals, Inc., Haggerty ACE Hardware, Howard Johnson’s, J&J Liquors and Wines, NBT Bank, Bobby O’Brien, Pizza Hut, Pat Ryan Realty, The Pit Stop, Subway, and Videoto- Go.

Thank you to everyone else who helped in any way.

Regina Palmer Hartwick Town Clerk

Flower beds great addition

As someone who walks Main Street every day for the pure pleasure of observing its beauty, it was a pleasant surprise to see the new flower beds surrounding the many trees lining the street. In the past, the area around these trees was all too often trampled down and covered with debris. Hopefully, the civic-minded individuals who planted these new beds, along with those who are committed to maintaining them, will turn an eyesore into a real enhancement. Many thanks to the many volunteers who donated plants, labored on the street and adopted a bed to maintain. And special thanks to a few who made it happen:

Charlene and Jim Vrooman for their initiative, organization and work; Eric Hage for supporting the program and setting an example of participation; and Neil Weiller for gathering volunteers, assembling tools and supplies, and getting the job done.

Rod Torrence Cooperstown

Paid parking must go

As one of the many local residents who use the Doubleday Laundromat, I would like to express my serious displeasure with the paid parking “experiment” in Doubleday Parking Lot. At a time when gasoline prices have hit $4.22 a gallon and are only expected to have a continued incline in cost, traveling to wash laundry once a week is already costly. I spend $15 a week already at the Laundromat, plus the cost of gas to get it here from Cherry Valley. Now I have to pay an extra $2 for every hour I am there?

That will add up to more than $20 just to do my laundry every week, and we can barely afford rent, gas, and food as it is.

There are no other options for parking in Cooperstown, near enough to carry laundry to Doubleday and spend the two or three hours parked that it would require to wash and dry laundry.

I am sure that the village’s decision to enact this paid parking policy was made in an effort to solve some of the parking issues in the village proper, and to make money for the village, but all that is going to be accomplished is punishing local people and taking advantage of the tourists. If all of these funds were to go to a great big parking garage in town, maybe I could feel some sort of favor towards this plan; however, we all know that this is not the case.

The town, and unfortunately Doubleday Laundromat and all the businesses I shop at while doing my laundry, have just lost a loyal patron. I will now be traveling to Richfield Springs to do laundry and shopping.

I will be taking my limited consumer power with me — and I will be recommending that others do the same — until this ill-thought-out plan is overturned.

This plan makes the village of Cooperstown appear greedy and disdainful of local residents and non-tourist dependent businesses. It needs to go the way of the dodo.

Amber Northwind Cherry Valley

Clarifying DAR article

As a former area resident, I subscribe to the Crier. With interest, I read the article about the young girl winning the DAR essay contest. My mother and her aunt were DAR members as were my father’s two sisters. I joined Davie Poplar DAR here in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1990.

You state in the article that “DAR is an organization of women dedicated to promoting historic preservation, education and patriotism.” There is much more involved in becoming a DAR member.

The applicant must prove, with documentation, that she is a direct descendant of a person who aided in the American Revolution. It can be as a soldier, as were my six ancestors, or one who aided in other ways — such as contributing food supplies or being of general assistance.

I want your readers to know what it actually involves to become a Daughter of the American Revolution.

Regina F. Snyder Chapel Hill, N.C.

Organic farming is important

As global warming becomes more of a threat to society, there is a little-known solution in our own backyards: organic farming. Rodale Institute has conducted nearly 30 years worth of research looking at organic and conventional farming and has found that organic, regenerative methods can drastically reduce greenhouse gases. By using methods such as no-till farming, composting and crop rotation, farmers can store as much as 2,000 lbs. of carbon per acre in their soil. If all of our croplands converted to organic practices, it would be the equivalent of taking 217 million cars off the roads each year.

Farmers have always been our heroes — they fed our citizens and helped our nation grow in good times as well as bad. Today farmers can be heroes in the fight against climate change by making the transition to organic farming. By supporting organic farms and buying organic products, we can all be heroes.

Tim LaSalle

President, Rodale Institute