Ulster County now has a county executive, for the first time since its settlement history, which goes back to around Henry Hudson’s day. The office commenced Jan. 1, 2009. I met the winning candidate, Michael Hein, when he was campaigning, and one morning at the Kingston Farmer’s Market he committed to a sit-down on the issue of SUNY-New Paltz PCB contamination.
That meeting happened today. I was given a time slot of 15 minutes out of Hein’s schedule; and showed up, in earnest, with two big thick blue binders full of my articles, which were mainly intended as a prop: something to show for 18 years of work on an issue. Hundreds of published articles in about 15 different publications, backed up by dozens and dozens of books full of documents (which live in Seattle).
I showed up with my books and put them down on the conference table. I knew immediately this would be a friendly meeting. When someone is trying to shut you down, they may as well sock you in the eye; it’s that obvious. I asked Hein if he knew what happened and he gave an informed rundown of the basic events from 1992.