Friday April 19, 2024 
Parking at North Greenbush Town Celebration
North Greenbush is hosting their annual town celebration this weekend (9/9 – 9/11). Last year, there was no parking accomodations for those with mobility issues (people in wheel chairs, walkers, strollers, etc.). I wrote about this in the Advertiser last year and I mentioned at the May 2022 town meeting, the lack of parking for low mobility people. Last year organizers of the town celebration parked in the parking lot adjacent to town hall. I hope that this year, the lot off of Main Ave is restricted to parking for those with mobility issues. The town is having a celebration, let’s make it easier for those with mobility issues to attend.
Michael Myer, North Greenbush
“Green amendment” changed nothing
It seems as if on an almost weekly basis now, the people of Rensselaer affected by the Dunn dump have yet another letter in the Advertiser pleading with Governor Hochul to close the landfill, which raises in my mind the question why.
Why would Kathy Hochul, who is running for office in November, and thus, in need of a steady stream of incoming cash donations, risk annoying and alienating the powerful people who benefit from keeping the landfill open by siding with a small group of people from Rensselaer who have no clout or power, or else they wouldn’t be writing letters to the Advertiser every week begging her to take action?
Besides nothing, what is in it for her?
She has made it quite clear since she took office that with her administration, money talks.
So why should she do something for the people of Rensselaer for free, and start a precedent?
Because of the so-called “green amendment,” which supposedly guarantees “clean water, clean air and a healthful environment,” which amendment became law of the land on 1 January 2022?
Has anyone ever heard a word in favor the amendment uttered by Kathy Hochul since she has been in office?
And what about Basil Seggos, her “environmental chief?”
Has anyone ever heard Basil utter a word in favor of the so-called “green amendment?”
And of course they haven’t, because Basil has never even acknowledged the “green amendment” as applying to him as DEC commissioner and his agency, and to the contrary, in a WCNY Radio article titled “Green constitutional amendment still ‘undefined’” by David Lombardo on July 18th, 2022, Basil was quoted as saying said the amendment is still “very undefined.”
“I’m sure the courts will interpret [the amendment], ultimately,” Seggos said, noting some cases had already been filed.
“That ultimately will then help us understand the metes and bounds of that amendment.”
In the meantime, it means nothing and changes nothing at DEC and the Dunn dump will remain open.
Paul Plante, Poestenkill