TIMES
WALLKILL VALLEY
Vol. 34, No 1 3 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2015
Coaches
vs cancer
Page 14
Page 34
www.WallkillValleyTimes.net
Pine Bush community mourns death of graduate
By JANE ANDERSON
Continued on page 2
ONE DOLLAR
Dvorák in
Montgomery
New Year’s stabbing
On New Year’s Day, a group of 25
young people gathered in a kitchen in
Scotchtown. Since it was New Year’s
Day, they could have been there to laugh,
to celebrate, maybe even to nurse a hangover from the night before. But, no; they
were there to mourn.
Less than a day before, their friend
and Pine Bush High School Class of 2014
classmate Justin Speights was stabbed
to death at a house party on Paddock
Drive in Crawford. As of Monday, state
police and Town of Crawford police were
still investigating, and a suspect hadn’t
yet been found. Police are urging anyone
who attended the party and may have
information, photos or video to contact
them: state police in Middletown at 3445300 or the Town of Crawford Police
Department at 744-5000.
On Monday, the Silver Lake Fire
Company announced that it was offering
a $10,000 reward for information leading
to the arrest of the suspect.
Speights, a scholar-athlete and a
four-year veteran of the Silver Lake Fire
Company, was trying to break up a fight
when he was killed, reports said. He had
just turned 20 years old two weeks earlier.
Joshua Stewart is the pastor of
Goodwill Church in New Paltz, where
one of Speights’ best friends worships.
He and his wife, Denise, sat in the kitchen among the mourners, at the request
of Speights’ friend’s parents.
“We take moments like this and
we either let them wreck us or we let
them remake us,” Stewart told the stillstunned young people. “I didn’t know
3
Montgomery
town
historian
won’t be
reappointed
By JANE ANDERSON
Photo courtesy New York Giants
New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. displayed a photo of Pine Bush grad
Justin Speights on the field at Met Life Stadium, Sunday, prior to the game against the
Philadelphia Eagles.
Suzanne Isaksen, town historian for
the town of Montgomery, will not be reappointed this year, the town supervisor has
confirmed.
Isaksen, whose tenure in the town
began before Supervisor Mike Hayes took
office eight years ago, said in a Facebook
post that she received a letter over the
weekend informing her of Hayes’ decision.
“This came as no surprise to me,”
Isaksen’s post read. “After the last Town
Board meeting I attended, I had come
to the conclusion that I probably would
not request reappointment. There is very
important preservation work to be done
in the Town, but without the support
of the Town Supervisor, or some of the
Town Board members, or a good showing
of the community, that work cannot be
successful. 2015 has been a dismal year
for community support for preservation
in the Town of Montgomery.”
Isaksen did not return a telephone call
for comment.
At Town Hall Tuesday, Hayes said
historic preservation has become a hot
topic in the town, but that it wasn’t the
reason for his decision not to ask Isaksen
to retain her position. The town historian
is a supervisor-appointed post, and Hayes
Continued on page 5
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL