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Group targets plan for Woodstock site BETHEL: Some folks don't want buildings in their Woodstock garden. By Steve Israel Times Herald-Record sisrael@th-record.com She was raising three kids in diapers. She was splitting with her husband. She was diagnosed with clinical depression. "This," said Carolyn Madsen, "ain't working." So in 1994 she packed her toddlers in her car and headed to the 25th anniversary of Woodstock celebration at the original site in Bethel. When she walked on the sloping green field that was dotted with thousands of camping Woodstockers, she felt like she was stepping in heaven. "Smiles everywhere,'' Madsen says. "I felt accepted for myself, like I belonged." Carolyn Madsen has been getting back to the garden ever since. "I can feel the earth power coming through the ground," she says. "I know it sounds flaky, but it's true." Madsen and other members of the loose-knit Woodstock Preservation Alliance are scared some of that "earth power" will be destroyed. The new plans for the performing arts center call for a marketplace to be built on top of the site. They want the ground they say is hallowed to be left alone, as it was in the original arts center design. So they've begun a letter writing campaign to stop what their newspaper ad calls "A Shopping Center on this sacred land." They know that Bethel is accepting letters as part of the public comment period on the project's Environmental Impact Statement. So far, the town has received 20 letters, all from beyond Sullivan County. Just about all echo what someone with an "olehippy" e-mail address wrote: "Do not allow building on the site." These folks don't care that only 100,000 square feet of the 1.5 million-square-foot site will be a marketplace. Or that you won't see the Woodstock marker or original stage site from that marketplace. And the Woodstock Preservation Alliance isn't concerned that most folks in Bethel echo what Barbara Natelson of the Woodstock Emporium country store says; "I just want them to break ground," says the woman whose store borders the 635-acre performing arts center district. These Woodstock worshippers just don't want buildings on the land that was packed with some 400,000 long-haired folks in 1969 – even if they're going to host artsy, Woodstock-related businesses. "It would be ruined," says Wayne Skala of Schenectady. "It should be treated as a national treasure," says Ed Watt of Downingtown, Pa. "It's home," sums up Carolyn Madsen of Albany, "and we don't want to lose that."
Copyright 2002 Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., all rights reserved. |
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