Letters to the editor
Do we want a ghost town?
Has the impact on the Village of Saugerties by the mega-development of Winston Farm been sufficiently assessed? Do we want a ghost town?
Meyer Rothberg
Saugerties
Heartbroken
I am writing to express my feelings regarding using Winston Farm to promote monetizing the natural world.
I am heartbroken over the dramatic disregard for this precious resource.
Yes, people need housing, recreation and all that temporary stuff, but the land here must endure.
I can’t speak to the details of this project, because I don’t care about that. I only recognize beauty and the life that exists. This project will impair our world and will reverberate into the future
Please leave Winston farm as a huge parcel of beauty and a gift to all.
Susan Towlson
Saugerties
Saugerties development and a growing safety concern
Over the past couple of days, Saugerties has seen multiple car accidents, one even involving a first responder en route to help at another crash site. These accidents are alarming on their own, but even more so in the context of the continued push for overdevelopment in our town. With the Winston Farm proposals that would add an extreme amount of housing and entertainment units, I can’t help but ask: what are we doing to our community?
Saugerties is already feeling the strain. In recent years, we’ve added significant developments — Summit on Hudson and the unfinished condos by Diamond Mills along 9W, Country Meadow Apartments on North Street and a new neighborhood of single-family homes off Glasco Turnpike. This, on top of a road system that seems increasingly unable to handle the traffic. The recent accidents make it painfully clear that we’re pushing beyond what our infrastructure can safely accommodate.
On top of it all, the constant alarms from the fire department and other first responders make it feel like we’re living in New York City rather than a small upstate community. The pace of development is turning Saugerties into something unrecognizable, with no relief in sight.
I’m glad the town board recently voted down the pro-housing designation, a win for common sense. If New York State can’t see that Saugerties has done more than its share while the rest of Ulster County hasn’t stepped up, then the blame is on them. We are not the dumping ground for every housing project just because we’ve shown we can handle growth in the past. We need responsible development, not unchecked expansion.
When you have multiple serious accidents in just two days, shouldn’t that be enough to warrant a pause? Let’s not wait for a tragedy to realize we’ve overdeveloped. It’s time for our town leaders to hit the brakes and truly assess the impact on public safety before charging ahead with even more growth.
April O’Neal
Malden-On-the-Hudson
