The best source for local news from Marbletown, Rochester & Rosendale
Published the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month | Vol. 27, Issue 21
Remembering best-selling author Julie Powell PAGE 10
November 4, 2022 | $1.00
Marbletown board looks at skating rink, discusses ethics law
Erik the Reptile Guy gets his own PBS show PAGE 16
PAGE 8
Role of conservation easements Parents' Part 3 in series: Farming the Valley
concern
Ann Belmont BSP Reporter Land in the Rondout Valley, as we all know, is valuable, and that creates a lot of financial pressure on local farmers. One way for them to ease that pressure is to do an agricultural conservation easement. Under the terms of such an agreement the farmer sells his development rights, but retains ownership of the land and the right to farm it. Chris Kelder, who owns 94-acre Kelder's Farm in Kerhonkson with his family, completed an easement deal over a year ago, he said. He gave a crisp explanation of how it works. "For instance, a piece of property is worth x number of dollars for farming … but if you were to develop that land, put houses on it, it may actually have a value of [twice as much]. So what you’re doing is selling your future right [to develop] for the difference between the full value and the agricultural value … it’s as if you have a car, and you’re selling your trunk. You just have a car that has four seats now." The price is based on what the land is worth at the time of the sale. "It’s done by appraisal. It’s an agreed-upon value. … I think it’s a good program. It’s voluntary, it saves a lot of farmland ... it’s a win-win.” Does Kelder see any downsides? “Well, you are selling value," in effect betting that the future value of the development rights won’t grow faster than the money you earn from the sale and the investments you make. "There’s risks to anything. There’s
Parents express concern to BOE about progressive ideologies, discipline, busing and cafeteria food quality Amber Kelly BSP Reporter
Bruce Davenport walks his fields. Davenport Farms is under a conservation easement.
a risk between buying a tomato now and waiting till tomorrow – it might not be on the shelf. It’s like anything – you weigh the pluses and the minuses and people have to make the decision for themselves. But I think it’s a good tool to keep open space and keep farming active.” Besides using their easement sale profits to buy another 70-acre farm, as the Kelders did, “there’s a lot of things you can do – you can invest in capital improvements to make your business more efficient, you can pay down debt, you can transfer to the next generation – there’s a lot of reasons to use the tool. Like anything
else, it’s not for everybody, and it’s not for every piece of land … it’s a personal decision.” A couple of miles away on Route 209, at Saunderskill Farms in Accord, Dan Schoonmaker and his family have held off making that decision for now. “Our goal with our land is to try to keep as much of it in agriculture as we possibly can," Schoonmaker said. But as far as doing an easement deal, "We’ve talked about it, thought about it, just didn’t feel it was
See Farm series, page 5
Funny smiles at St. Peter's 'trunk or treat'
10 trunks participated and over 125 people came through, decorated pumpkins, cookies and cupcakes, and won prizes. The weather was exceptional. Snacks were plentiful and there was even impromptu line dancing. 'Lots of work. Sooooo much fun!'
The Rondout Valley school board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25, took place in the district office. Board president Dawn Van Kleeck opened the meeting and announced public comment time. About a dozen members of the public were present at the meeting. First up was a parent and member of the community who said, “I want the LGBTQ community to know I’m not here to wage war with your organization or membership,” but saying that he felt steamrolled by the gender ideology being integrated into the elementary schools. He said staff members are confusing children by asking “what pronoun they want to be called.” He wants transparency to occur between staff and administration and parents. He noted that parents receive a phone call if a child needs Tylenol, so why not for gender ideology? He said that education is to teach children the three R’s, not to indoctrinate with progressive policies, asking the schools to please give children a chance to grow up and understand the world first. A mom who said she comes from a diverse family with a spouse who has been disabled for the past 25 years reported that her 10-year-old boy came home very upset. He said, “I don’t want to talk about it, and I feel so uncomfortable. A woman came into my class and used hate words.” The parent went on to express the opinion that to say “drag queen,” “retard” and “gay” in a class just gives the children more hate words to use. She said that the family unit is where children are taught to be decent, empathetic human beings. Despite the current cultural sensitivity of the topic, she said, those words are highly inappropriate for 9- and 10-year-old children. One parent said that children are not born racist, they are taught it, and that it is in the parents’ jurisdiction. If there is a problem, fine, it should be addressed, if not, leave it alone. A parent of children in the district said
See Parents, page 5