To the editor:
At a recent Economic Summit, a group of men (lawyers, architects, land developers, real estate agents etc.), talked to the audience about the importance of industrial development in Sullivan County. They cajoled the people that found, I think they mentioned a frog, that could upset a planned development. Maybe they meant an owl!
They used taxes as the key to why we would want industrial development. They pointed out how the Casino, helped to keep Town of Thompson’s taxes down. Years ago, I was told how new business brings more people into the area and increases the tax base.
They don’t talk about how the increase of people increases our taxes to support increased populations in schools and the stress on fire houses, or how fire calls increase with decreasing amounts of volunteers. They don’t talk about the increase of fast-food chains on a proven unhealthy population or the whole change in your town that will require two traffic lights instead of none, to control the traffic.
They don’t tell you about how an industrial development a mile from your rural home, increases the 18-wheel truck traffic on your unlined road, nor about the increase of employee traffic and decrease in safety on your road due to speeding. They don’t speak about the road garbage that increases with the traffic or how many years a new industry has before they start paying tax.
These are people who want to make a good living, like we all do. They will tell you everything they need to in order to make you stop fighting for the very things everyone who lives here has come for - the beauty, the air, quiet, the feeling of peace. They will increase the industry and the density until we look just like what we see from the highway in Orange County. Yes, change is always coming. Thank God for the people that continue the fight that keeps us from being overrun.
Unfortunately, as I’ve aged, I’ve sat back more and watched. I feel like the picture of the Indian that has a tear running down his face.

Pamela Zaitchick
Glen Wild