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September 13, 2002 Woodstock pleas come too late By Steve Israel Times Herald-Record sisrael@th-record.com Bethel – So what if 2,500 folks signed petitions to save a small part of the Woodstock festival site from development. By the time their signatures got to Bethel, they were three months late. Yesterday, the Woodstock Preservation Alliance gave a loose-leaf binder's worth of signatures to the Town Board. They ask the Gerry Foundation, which is building a performing arts center on the site of the 1969 bash, not to build a marketplace on the land – even though the spot is on less than one-tenth of the rolling green hills. These folks support the arts center, which could open as early 2004, but probably won't break ground until the spring. They just want to keep the top of the field open – even though vendors sold brown rice and tie-dyed shirts in the same spot in 1969. "I love the field and I love the peace and unity it symbolizes," writes Robert Clarkson of Green Bay, Wis. "I do not want to see ANY piece of that 37.5 acres built on." Problem is, the public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement ended May 24. Bethel is now reviewing the final statement. "We're in a period when there's nothing to comment on," says Bethel's lawyer, Rob McEwan. And there won't be anything to comment on until the final impact statement is reviewed. That could come as early as Sept. 26. Missing the deadline doesn't matter, says the woman who presented the handwritten petitions and typed e-mails from as far away as Sweden. "I'll just submit them again," says Joanne Hague, a member of the WPA board of directors. Hague, who lives near Scranton, Pa., pointed to signatures that included Phil Donahue and original Woodstocker Country Joe McDonald. Problem is, Donahue may be peace and love to the bone, but his spokesman said yesterday that he didn't sign it. Donahue or no Donahue, missed deadline or not, the Gerry Foundation isn't losing sleep over the petitions. "The measure was set in 1969," says its spokesman Glenn Pontier. "Twenty-five hundred isn't a lot compared to 500,000." 40 Mulberry Street * PO Box 2046 * Middletown, NY 10940 Telephone 845-341-1100 or 800-295-2181 outside the Middletown, N.Y., area. For optimal viewing experience, click here. Copyright Orange County Publications. All rights reserved.
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