T IMES
WALLKILL VALLEY
Vol. 35, No 24 3 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2017
3
ONE DOLLAR
Cobras’
season
underway
Page 36
www .W allkill V alley T imes . net
Walden again considers dropping fluoride
By TED REMSNYDER
The debate over the practice of water fluoridation in
Walden is poised to continue, as the Village Board decided
unanimously during its June 6 meeting to further explore
the possibility of dropping fluoride from its water supply.
In the coming weeks, the village council will weigh the
facts of the issue via testimony from outside health
experts, as the state process for discontinuance of water
Montgomery
solar law
raises new
concerns
fluoridation requires that municipalities bring in at least
one accomplished health professional to provide their
expertise as the board considers the matter.
A special public meeting dealing with the issue
is expected to be set in the near future, once Village
Manager John Revella and attorney David Donovan
identify qualified professionals to testify. When Walden
investigated the possibility of removing fluoride from
its water supply four years ago, the discussion elicited
many strong opinions from local residents, and the
village board hopes to hear views from multiple sources
before rendering their verdict. “I don’t think it will last
months,” Walden Mayor Susan Rumbold said of the
impending decision-making process. “The requirement
of the new law is that you have to have a health care
professional come in and tell us why we should leave
fluoride in the water, etc. If you want to have opposing
views with other healthcare professionals, then you do
Continued on page 4
Wallkill’s brightest
Valley
Central
honors its
retirees
By TED REMSNYDER
By RACHEL COLEMAN
“Our perspective is that it is too
restrictive,” said Doug Warden, attorney
for Cypress Creek Renewables, during a
public hearing of the Montgomery Town
Board last Thursday.
Warden’s clients currently have a
“solar farm” project before the town’s
planning board and are concerned that
the solar law being finalized by the town
board will send them back to the drawing
board.
According to Warden, the law’s
restriction on the clearing of trees
and brush, when combined with other
requirements, is “shrinking the pool” of
possible sites “so that it amounts to a de
facto ban of solar farms in much of the
town.”
He pointed out to the board that the
Continued on page 2
From left to right: Wallkill High School Valedictorian Linzy Dineen, Principal’s Award recipi-
ent David Myszelow, and Salutatorian Josephine Rose were honored recently by the Ulster
County Superintendent’s Council. Story on page 18.
The past, present and future of the
Valley Central School District staff
was celebrated at a reception at Berea
Elementary School on June 5th, as the
district honored its retirees, long-serving
staff members and a new crop of tenure
recipients. At the end of the school
year, the district is losing a pillar of its
administration, as Sheila Lease-Murphy,
the Deputy Superintendent of Human
Resources and Pupil Services, is retiring
after 28 years with the district.
Lease-Murphy, who spent 34 years in
the field of education and the last 11 in
her current position, explained that she
has a long list of things she’ll miss when
she leaves the district. “I’ll miss the kids,”
she said. “I’ll miss working with teachers
to help kids. I’ve always felt my role is
to support teachers and administrators
who are doing this hard work. I think
Continued on page 5
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