I enjoy your paper and the focus on local issues. I am writing in response to the editorial by Anita Altman.

Her concern for environmental water issues for the proposed mushroom plant appear to be muddied (pun intended) with a host of other issues she throws in to make her point..

We moved to the Ellenville area a few years ago because of it's beauty and the affordability of housing in the area and because we had an internet business and wouldn't be needing local employment. Our business tanked with the economy and we were left frantic to find jobs in a very depressed area. Kohl's was hiring seasonal and we were overjoyed to get these "low paying" jobs that Anita Altman so quickly dismisses. I don't believe Kohl's has a negative environmental impact on Mamakating. Look around at all the businesses closed, homes foreclosed on and up for sale and the lack of a vital economic environment in this Sullivan/Ulster area and tell me why we shouldn't be making all attempts to woo businesses here..

I applaud the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development's attempts at bringing in business and jobs to an area that desperately needs them. I hope Anita Altman never finds herself in a position to be looking for employment in this place we call home..

Diane Holzapfel
Ellenville

I couldn't help but laugh when I read Hal Chorny's letter to the editor attacking (incorrectly and falsely) our State Senator, John Bonacic.

Mr. Chorny rambled on for some time about the alleged evils of Republicans but left out one important point. Mr. Chorny is the Town Democratic Chairman of the Town of Gardiner. The reality is Senator Bonacic is a long-time reformer. He has taken on the powerful political bosses in his own party and the other party. No local Democrats have bothered to challenge, for example, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Bonacic, on the other hand, challenged his party leadership time and again. He is a champion for women's healthcare and is leading the bi-partisan effort in the State Senate to reform the property tax system.

In fact, unlike the Democrats that Mr. Chorny leads, Senator Bonacic has successfully passed property tax reform three years in a row in the Senate when it was under Republican control. The Democrat controlled State Assembly, on the other hand has done nothing - zilch, zippo, nada, nill - nothing for property tax reform.

Cheap shot letters to the editor are expected and they happen all the time. Is it too much to ask that Mr. Chorny admit his true background - that of a local Democratic political leader? Would a little honesty on the part of Mr. Chorny as to his true motivation - politics be too much to ask? I, for one don't think so.

Susan M. Giova
Westtown, NY

"Clean, safe water is essential to life" reads a billboard from the United Water Foundation that I recently saw. That is the real issue that I and numerous other Mamakating residents have with the proposed Yukiguni Maitake mushroom plant: clean, safe water.

I have been a resident of Wurtsboro for the past 24 years and yes, I am a proud member of the Basha Kill Area Association. I attended the Yukiguni/DEC public hearing in Mamakating on July 15th and I too heard all the speakers from the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development push for this project. I am not opposed to commercial development within Mamakating. That was not the issue to be addressed at the public hearing nor is it the matter that concerns me most. It is the WATER. I only ask that Yukiguni produce tests and results that will assure the residents of Mamakating that the infiltration basin/s, sanitary wastewater system and stormwater water basins will not damage our precious water supply.

Isn't it interesting that there was only one local proponent of Yukiguni?

Isn't it interesting that Yukiguni avoids the specific permit issues by bringing in SCPED and union workers who do not live here to say "industry - at any cost"?

Isn't it interesting that other nearby towns such as Goshen have huge problems with their water supply, but our Town officials do not consider Yukiguni's proposed 450,000 gallons of water a day from our aquifer to be a major concern?

Isn't it strange that Yukiguni says the 300,000 gallons of treated water isn't clean enough to be recycled through their mushroom plant and yet it is "clean enough" to return to our water system?

Isn't it questionable that Yukiguni can't even tell us what will be in the water once it circulates through the plant?

I agree, Mr. Westlake, "Enough is Enough", that is, Enough of skirting the issues, Yukiguni! Show us the proof! We, the people who live here and need this clean water, want the proof!

Susan Erny
Wurtsboro