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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Filipino general visits Pine Bush High School
Sotero Ramos, Jr., Philippine Police Brigadier General
Police Attaché, visited the Pine Bush Law and Leadership
Academy on June 9 to teach students about Filipino
culture and police structure.
Ramos shared information about Filipino language,
culture, religion and more with students from the
academy.
He also shared information about the Filipino police
structure, which is a national police structure. Unlike the
American police system, which is broken up into several
levels of government, the Filipino police are governed by
a national police commission.
Ramos, who is assigned to the Embassy of the
Philippines in Washington, D.C., establishes ties between
Filipino and United States police and law enforcement.
Ramos also provides assistance to the Filipino community
in the United States.
The Philippines are a populous southeastern Asian
nation made up of thousands of islands. The archipelago
is the 13-most populated nation in the world, with a
population of more than 104 million.
The Pine Bush Leadership and Law Academy teaches
students leadership, citizenship and character education.
The academy is a collaboration between five social
studies teachers, army non-commissioned officers and
the Crawford Police Department.
- Laura Fitzgerald
Sotero Ramos, Jr., Philippine Police Brigadier General Police Attaché, visited the Pine Bush Law and Leadership Academy last
Tuesday to teach students about Filipino culture and police structure.
Short term rental owners express concerns over Gardiner law
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
Short-term rental owners shared
concerns about a proposed short-term
rental (STR) law at a Gardiner town board
meeting on July 9.
The draft law requires STR owners to
register with the town code enforcement
officer, install and maintain basic safety
precautions, and that the STR must be
owner occupied.
The largest bone of contention among
STR owners was the owner occupancy
requirement.
“How do you rent the house if you’re
in it?” one resident asked. “If you’re a
short-term rental, unless you’re doing a
share, you have to get out of the house to
let them in.”
Short-term rental owner Todd Baker
lives in Gardiner part-time and uses his
property as an STR. He said the rental
supports him and his wife’s ability to have
a second home, an owner-occupancy rule
would affect their ability to support their
lifestyle.
Pascal and Simone Vohradnik live full-
time in Gardiner and rent out a second
property adjacent to their home. They
said their STR is a house they fixed up,
beautifying the property in the process.
They said they would be concerned about
the owner occupancy component of the
law.
The law defines owner occupied as the
majority owner of the property who must
be in residence a minimum of 49 weeks
out of the year during short-term rentals.
The law does allow the owner to be away
during rentals for one three-week period
out of the year, as long as they designate
a host to deal with issues on the property
should they arise.
Deputy Supervisor Laura Walls said
the definition of owner occupancy could
be subject to change pending public input.
According to the draft law, owner
occupancy would also protect affordability
of housing stock by preventing the
purchase of real estate based on the
return on investment associated with
STRs.
The law states its purpose is to protect
residents of the town from harm to
character of their neighborhoods. Several
board members have expressed concern
for the problems that occur as a result of
absentee STR owners, such as noise, litter
and traffic issues.
“It’s for the people that live here year-
round and have to justify not being able
to put their kids to bed because there’s a
party going on or having their quality of
life impacted by this,” Town Supervisor
Marybeth Majestic said.
Baker said the language used to describe
owners in the law unfairly paints owners
in a bad light. He said most STR owners
are invested in the Gardiner community,
whether they live part- or full-time in the
town.
Reel ‘em in....
Laura Fitzgerald
Daniel casts a line in the pond at James Olley Community Park in Walden The park is open
daily and the Walden beach is open daily from 12 to 6 p.m. through Aug. 27.