The Copake Fire Dept. Professional, Polite and well Trained

Bob, your newspaper is a great service to the town. I think that the new reports that you are publishing about the fire department and all the calls they make is an important civic lesson for us all. Something we don't think about often enough. We are lucky to have such a terrific department here in Copake. In the few times I have met them they have always been professional, polite and it seems to me very well trained. Their Chiefs and the whole town should be very proud, and I think lucky to have such a group. Oh yes and they make great chicken BBQ too. John R.

Rush to Judgment

Rush to Judgment “Mr. Blue,” I believe this is yours,” yelled the man standing outside my porch. Just a moment before on this quiet late Saturday morning, Ihad been startled by a loud and furious banging on the porch door. Sticking my head out from the kitchen doorway, I saw Bill Kane standing there, his face red and full of rage. “What’s the problem?” I asked at which he dropped a heavy, large black garbage bag on my lawn. “This is the problem,” he said. You left your garbage in the garbagecan at the clubhouse. I barely knew Bill. At the time he was still living in Taconic Shores (where I live) and once or twice we had had abrief conversation. "Well," I said, trying to stay calm. "First of all, that's where garbage is supposed to be left - in garbage cans. And secondly, it's not my garbage. "And I told him where it had come from. Earlier that morning I had been riding in Taconic Shores when I passed a friend picking up some garbage that someone had strewn all over a grassy public area. I stopped and she expressed annoyance about the situation. "But I don'tknow what to do with this bag now," she said pointing to the garbage that she had accumulated. It was too big to fit into the small town County bags that I had bought , but I volunteered "I'll take it over to the clubhouse for you. "At the clubhouse office I described the situation to Joanne who works there. "Dump it in one of the garbage cans in the back," she said. And that's what I did. I quickly told all this to Bill,. "Well I'm having a party in the clubhouse later today, and I don't want to have to deal with your garbage, he replied. And he stormed away, leaving the garbage behind,and leaving me with the impression that he had not heard a word I said. No good deed goes unpunished. Now Bill is running for Town Justice against an incumbent, Brian Herman, who also has years of experience as a trained attorney. Let's see, who do I want as a town justice? Someone trained in the law who has the capacity to listen and reason things through? Or someone who makes snap judgments and ignores the facts? Hmmm. Howard Blue

Revive the Copake Movie Theater

Bob, As I knocked on doors to register "weekenders", one couple in a very substantial house in West Copake on Rhoda pond, bent my ear for over a quarter of an hour about the loss of the movie house. As they put that bee in my ear , I could not agree more with your Chronicle sentiments about it's loss, and the forming of a group to revive it with private funds, (a co-op). With the demise of the Hudson plex, there is a marketing opportunity for one in Copake. This could be the central event in the revitalization plan. Perhaps the township can donate some land. Perhaps the old railroad station buildings could be moved to it and renovated. Since the mode today is a plex, the small spaces in the two buildings would not be limiting. There is a lot of private money in Copake as the Library indicated. Why not go after it? Leonard

About The Chronicle

I have learned more from this paper than any other source since moving here eight years ago Laurie