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I own a small business in Kerhonkson and I am concerned about the comprehensive plan that is going to be voted on soon. I feel that I have to send this without my name because I am afraid of what might happen. I heard around town that Alex Miller and a man named Zalie Win have gone to business people in town and told them it would be better if they not make them mad by not saying yes to the people running the town. I have to work to make sure I can take care of my family and can not take the chance of them coming to me for writing this letter. The talk is that is the same man who tells the town board who they should put on the other boards. I was told theirs a letter from him saying that to. I do not know who he is but its like he is the boss of our town.
My cousin told me about how Peter Fairweather is not really working for the town that he is really working for Green Assets. He is not concerned about our towns and that he is only concerned about the shawungunk mountain. With the help of my cousin I am going to try to explain this as best as I can.
Mr. Fairweather was hired by Shawungunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership in 2004 to help with Green Assets. It's job is to protect the viewsheds, forests and farmlands that are close to the Shawungunk Ridge. It says in the April 16, 2004 Poughkeepsie Journal paper about Open Space that Mr. Fairweather is the official liaison to a new program that's supposed to be sharing biodiversity information among municipal planners. Mr. Fairweather told us in January that change was coming and something about keeping what we care about in our town. It should be what we care about not what Mr. Fairweather cares about. Even if both are the same we should be able to find that out without him pushing us to see things they way he wants us to see them. We should see them on our own for what we care about in our town not what he is hired to care about from Green Assets.
Mr. Fairweather wrote Thinking at a Landscape Scale How People Relate to the Ridge in the Ridgeline Summer and Fall 2004. He says that each individual preservation effort by a local goverment or private citizen needs to link up to the larger effort to protect the entire ridge. He says that Green Assets started to help local goverments and individual property owners preserve open space on the slopes of the ridge. New York State's Biodiversity Research Institute says that this group is supposed to actively protect the elements of biodiversity and other natural, cultural, scenic and recreational resources of the Shawungunks by sharing information and expertise. I'm not really sure what this all means but it sounds serious. The people that have the tremainefoundation.org website paid for this stuff. On that website it says that The Shawangunk Biodiversity Consortium, led by the Mohonk Preserve and the Nature Conservancy in partnership with municipalities and other non-profits, are working hard to save the Shawangunk Ridge in upstate New York, a unique Ridge ecosystem. The Conservancy refers to the ridge as one of the "Last Great Places on Earth". Through strategic planning and community outreach they have been able to generate a constituency for a new framework for preserving open space in and around the Shawangunk Ridge.
The company (Chazing Company) that did the maps and natural resource list for our town got their info from a woman named Cara Lee. Ms. Lee is the director for the same people that hired Mr. Fairweather. They are makeing us go in the way they want us to go and are giving us the info to go that way. This can not be ok.
I think we should ask Mr. Fairweather if he is getting paid or got paid to do our comprehensive plans from someone else. I think we should find out if our towns have been part of Green Assets. We should find out if anyone has gone to the ridge town supervisor meetings from our towns because this is part of Green Assets to. All of the comprehensive plans and law changes should stop right now until we know who Mr. Fairweather is really working for and helping.
This is not just about our town it is about all of our towns. I think that the town boards do not know about this because I have not read anything about it in our newspapers. I know that my letter is very long to be printed in the paper but think maybe that they could look into this and find out if this is true and if this ok with the laws.
I don't know who to talk to and what to do because I am scared for my business and my family. I hope that by sending this to everyone someone can check in to this and make sure that Peter Fairweather is really trying to help our towns and not Green Assets.
Thank you for your help.
Send to
Ulster County Planning Board
P.O. Box 1800 Kingston, NY 12402
Peter Fairweather
153 Main Street New Paltz, NY 12561
Ulster County Lawyer
PO Box 1800 Kingston, NY 12402-1800
Wawarsing Town Board Members
108 Canal Street Ellenville, NY 12428
Wawarsing Planning Board Members
108 Canal Street Ellenville, NY 12428
Rosendale Town Board Members
P.O. Box 423 Rosendale, NY 12472
Rosendale Planning Board Members
P.O. Box 423 Rosendale, NY 12472
Gardiner Town Board Members
P.O. Box 1 Gardiner, NY 12525
Gardiner Planning Board Members
P.O. Box 1 Gardiner, NY 12525
New Paltz Town Board Members
PO Box 550 New Paltz, NY 12561
New Paltz Planning Board Members
PO Box 550 New Paltz, NY 12561
Rochester Town Board Members
PO Box 65 Accord, NY 12404
Rochester Planning Board Members
PO Box 65 Accord, NY 12404
Rochester Comprehensive Plan Members
PO Box 65 Accord, NY 12404
Marbletown Town Board Members
PO Box 217 Stone Ridge, NY 12484
Marbletown Planning Board Members
PO Box 217 Stone Ridge, NY 12484
Shawungunk Town Board Members
PO Box 247 Wallkill, NY 12589
Shawungunk Planning Board Members
PO Box 247 Wallkill, NY 12589
Time Warner Cable - Channel 6
27 Industrial Drive Middletown, NY 10940
Ellenville Press PO Box 31
Ellenville, NY 12428
Ulster County Press
1209 Route 213 High Falls, NY 12440
Blue Stone Press
1209 Route 213 High Falls, NY 12440
The Record
PO Box 2046 Middletown, NY 10940
New Paltz Times
PO Box 537 New Paltz, NY 12561
Ulster Publishing
PO Box 3329 Kingston, NY 12402
If you think this should be sent to other persons please send it to them. Thank you.
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