Janet Kern
Member, Town Board

I came to Gardiner when my mother bought an abandoned farmhouse on the ridge in 1970, and learned about rural community from the family on whose farm I kept my horse, and about the lay of this land from riding across the forests, fields, and roads.

I graduated with honors in political science and philosophy from the College of Wooster in Ohio. Heeding my generation’s call to “ask what you can do for your country” I served in the domestic Peace Corps working with migrant laborers in Florida.

For the past 30 years, my career has been in the film industry, as a technician (Local #161 I.A.T.S.E.) on movies and commercials, and as an independent documentary producer. All of my documentaries have been about what it means to be a citizen in America: as an Eagle Scout (PBS), or a Mississippi River family hosting Russian visitors in the heartland, or an American Indian.

Successful completion of a film requires energy, vision, and teamwork. I look forward to bringing these things to the challenges Gardiner now faces: protection of the ridge, preservation of the rural character, encouragement of the responsible economic development we need, and strengthening the bond of community for our civic well-being.

It is a privilege to live in our democracy. It is a privilege to live in Gardiner. I am dedicated to helping create the community that will be our children’s heritage.

A Renaissance in Gardiner

The Town Board meeting on September 12th was illuminating with regard to the stark differences in the Democratic vs. Republican approaches to effective governance.

I respect Mrs. Kells as a community elder, and appreciate her as a citizen whose unwavering contribution to the democratic process is unflappable. But she and her proteges, Pam O'Dell and Daryl Carr, subvert Gardiner's revived sense of itself as a vibrant community by reducing our civic priorities to ledger-keeping.

Is living within our means mandatory? Of course it is. Should official paperwork be distributed in a timely way to all of those involved in its content? Sure it should. Need we be confident that our leadership is neither stealing nor squandering our money? We are. (The audit of our books is seeking to resolve a surplus.) But paperwork is meager measure of a person, or a community.

Since the election of 2003, this place, our Gardiner, has begun its own renaissance. A new Master Plan Committee expressed the will of the community, a talented and fair-minded Zoning Advisory Committee faced the devil in the details, and a visionary whirlwind of a supervisor set about making Gardiner the best little town in America. We are fully engaged in our lives as Gardiner citizens, for the first time in a very long time , and that is a wonderful thing. But it didn't, simply, happen.

This summer alone, Carl Zatz established a Youth Commission , introduced a biodiesel alternative energy program, launched the new tog.org website, led a resolution to oppose casinos, paved the way for cellular service, spearheaded the End to Property Tax coalition, championed the Year of the Library promotional effort, helped realize Gardiner's aggressive Open Space Planning effort, organized the concept of conservation planning in Gardiner, and orchestrated a bucket brigade of volunteers who raised $4500 for Katrina victims (this and the dunk tank at Gardiner Day are my personal favorites so far). On July 4th, fireworks lit up the sky.

At Monday night's Town Board meeting, during Supervisor Zatz's presentation of construction drawings for our new Town Board offices (prepared pro bono by architects Kim Hoover and Joe Trapani) , contender O'Dell raised her hand to ask the following question: "Where's the vault?"

There it is. Meet the opposition. Come November, we choose between vault and vision.

My name is Janet Kern. The balance between community values and environmental protection is my priority in running for Town Board. I look forward to serving the people of Gardiner.

This is our moment.


MEETING GARDINER'S VOTERS

My thanks to the Independence voters of Gardiner for choosing Joe Katz and me as their party's candidates for Gardiner town council.

I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world. My work as a documentary filmmaker has recently allowed me to enter the world of the Nez Perce tribe to tell about their history and their horses. And seeking election in my hometown makes it perfectly reasonable to just walk up someone's driveway and ask if they'd like to talk awhile. It is my great fortune to know communities at the opposite ends of America, both seeking effective and honorable means to cope with the changes and choices they face and profoundly mindful of the generations to follow. Decisions made today will be their legacy, and how those decisions are arrived at will set a standard of conduct.

I enjoyed every minute of campaigning door-to-door during the past several weeks. The weather, as we all know, was spectacular. All of the dogs were friendly. One man had just finished splitting a cord-and-a-half of wood. A young mother was settling into a rocking chair on the porch to feed her baby. No one was wary. Hearing from the citizens of Gardiner about what they think and what they hope for was grassroots democracy at its finest.

Their issues weren't complicated. It's good living in the country. It would also be good to be able to do some grocery shopping closer to home. The development of Gardiner's town center, especially our new library, is eagerly anticipated. Taxes are a problem. The Ridge is our treasure. These voters' strong sense of community and neighborliness is in stark contrast to the tone struck by signators of last week's vituperative letter from angry landowners who expressed responsibility solely to "ourselves, our families and our heirs." The citizens I spoke with expressed a more generous range of connectedness.

Against all odds, I believe that politics can be an honorable calling. The sheer decency of the people I met last week inspires and demands nothing less. I thank them all for participating in democracy, and pledge to represent everyone the best way I know how.


FAIR AND INTELLIGENT NEW RIDGE ZONING

Early in 2003, the people of Gardiner presented a petition with 1,100 signatures requesting a moratorium on development in order to create a new Master Plan.

In November of 2003, the people of Gardiner overwhelmingly voted for a Democratic Town Board dedicated to the creation of that new Master Plan expressing the community will and zoning laws which would be in compliance with that document. A Zoning Advisory Committee comprised of talented, hardworking citizens and advised by experienced planners, painstakingly wrote a zoning law reflecting and incorporating the viewpoints of our citizens through dozens and dozens of public hearings. The law evolved and was strengthened.

Our Gardiner Planning Board has now submitted requests for some basic administrative adjustments which will make the law easier to interpret and enforce. Their suggestions are in the process of being addressed and incorporated.

Ms. O'Dell, Mr. Fischer and Mr. Friedle - in their recently advertised claim that the old zoning laws are adequate - are sadly out of step and out of touch with the majority of Gardiner citizens.

Gardiner has created a fair and intelligent new ridge zoning law which will protect this community, now and in the challenging years to come. The people have spoken, and been heard.

On to AR-80.

Janet Kern
Gardiner town council candidate, Democrat/Independence Parties


READY ON THE SET

Many Gardinerites know me as the "camera lady," videotaping town board meetings and community events during the last few years. I take this opportunity to explain that work, and how my career in the film industry has prepared me for service on our town board.

All of my documentaries have been, in one way or another, about what it means to be a citizen in America: as an Eagle Scout wrestling with his conscience (On My Honor), or families along the Mississippi defining the heartland for visitors from Russia (Begin with Me, broadcast on PBS), or a Navajo living in a nation within a nation (Horse Tribe, currently in production). I found the next, and most deeply personal, American story here at home. It began three years ago, when our quiet, middle-class rural community was jolted by the prospect of a large, elitist gated settlement above and apart from its neighbors, on the flank of Gardiner's Shawangunk Ridge, our Last Great Place. What to do?

Small Town, Big Story (working title) portrays our struggle to answer this question. It is a question faced, in varying ways, by communities all over this country, as citizens seeking to protect dwindling natural resources and citizens asserting claims of property rights find themselves more frequently at odds. Gardiner's experience has implications for American society as a whole.

There will be no narration to the finished film; the voices are ours alone. (Although I am torn about filming individuals who would prefer not be photographed, if their ideas are not documented some would perceive that as bias against their perspective.) Ours is a saga of philosophies and characters - with few likely villains, and many unlikely heroes - playing itself out in this beautiful place where we all live. It is my greatest hope that we will all take pride in what we see, and what we do.

As a script supervisor, I am hired to work on movies and commercials as part of a "crew" with other technicians, each having a specific skill set (carpenters, electricians, camerapeople, sound recordists et cetera). I am used to working long hours, with many big egos. The pressure is intense. Teamwork is essential to productivity and, at the end of the day, it is often the sweetest part of a job well-done.

A town board environment of genuine civility and mutual trust will be required for governing, as our supervisor and council members grapple with the issues, reach their conclusions and cast their votes. The people of Gardiner have every right to expect those votes to be solely reflective of their community's best interests, and they deserve nothing less.

Janet Kern
Democrat/Independence candidate,
Gardiner Town Board


SAVING GARDINER'S FAMILY FARMS

As a candidate for Gardiner town board, support for family farms and farmers is a priority for me. My in-laws grew hay, corn and oats in Dayton, Ohio, and had to conclude that selling their farm for development was the only move that made sense for them. And when I came to Gardiner more than 30 years ago, the acres and owners of the Shawangunk Valley Horse Farm altered the course of my life.

Charlie and Marion Youngs, who mentored my evolution from a city girl to a country girl those many decades ago, certainly didn't see themselves as philosophers or philanthropists. They simply had a big old house with a big kitchen where neighbors gathered, despite their grumpy Rottweiler. The Youngs had acquired a reputation as magicians who could cure the myriad leg ailments of horses coming off the track. Countless racehorses were sent to the Shawangunk Valley Horse Farm for rehab, where Charlie tethered them in the swift-running stream. "It ain't magic," said Charlie, "it's the mud." "It ain't the mud," said Marion, "it's the love."

They showed me the trails, taught me the ropes and offered me a chair at their always-crowded table for lemonade or hot chocolate or beer, depending on the season. They had horses and cattle and pigs (and dogs and cats and chickens) they tended, and land they farmed and lived on and loved more than they ever said, or anyone ever imagined. They felt a connection to place so deep, and a sense of legacy so strong, it turned into unforeseen action. (The complete text of an article I wrote about the Shawangunk Valley Horse Farm is available at http://www.gardinerdemocraticparty.com/.)

When a series of family tragedies made it impossible for the Youngs to remain on their home place ("Gotta roll with the punches, honey..."), they resolved nevertheless that the land they had nurtured, and been nurtured by, which embodied so much of what they held dear, should remain intact as a resource for others. Refusing seven-figure offers from developers, they chose to sell their 83.6 acres to Shawangunk for $180,000. In June 2002, the Shawangunk Valley Horse Farm was officially dedicated as Verkeerderkill Town Park.

Many people think of farmers as individuals of a conservative bent, steady and set in their ways. I think of farmers as the agrarian equivalent of riverboat gamblers, betting everything on markets, on weather, on good stock and seeds and health. Farmers' land is their wealth: "Live poor, die rich," some say, because making a profit from farming has become harder and harder, while the financial return on land sold for real estate development offers attractive numbers.

Of Gardiner's 26,000 acres, 5,600 acres remain in agriculture, predominantly fruit, field crops, cattle and horses. This would be a different and, I believe, lesser place without them. In accordance with what the wishes of our farmers might be - and no one size fits all - I would like Gardiner to make the commitment to help keep farming a viable economic pursuit. Agriculture provides more than the produce of its business to our community: It gives us open space, wildlife habitat, water-cleansing...and a palpable reminder of the farming tradition upon which Gardiner was founded. Its importance to our sense of community should not be underestimated, nor farmers' responsibility to indulge others' preferences be presumed.

In the face of international trade pressures and soaring property taxes, the role of local government in protecting family farms may be modest. But cumulatively, there are steps we can take if the farmers themselves want us to do so: encouraging everyone to buy local (perhaps establishing a "farm trail" similar to the "wine trail"), and brokering outreach for farm support through the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture (most of whose 60 billion dollars goes to large agribusinesses in other parts of the country, but some of which should go to family farmers in the Northeast) and to the state-funded Farmland Protection Program. Farm-friendly provisions should be considered as part of AR-80 zoning, which might allow a farmer to cluster-develop part of his/her property while keeping some acres in crops. Farmers should be permitted some local ordinance relief for signage and vehicles. I look forward to working with our agricultural community to identify and help implement whatever initiatives they consider appropriate and welcome.

There was a time when getting stuck on the road behind a slow-moving tractor was cause for impatience. Now, it's a good thing - a reminder of the simpler times we all look back on fondly. Being Scottish myself, I understand the wistful focus on modesty and thrift which seems to constitute the entire focus of the Republicans' plan for Gardiner. But "being good watchdogs" is a wee (Scottish, meaning "tiny") strategy for the wonderful future within our grasp. This is our moment.

I do, however, sympathize with candidate Friedle's expressed longing for his couch. Mine is to be on horseback in October, during that small window between horseflies and ice, surrounded by exultant color. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Janet Kern
Gardiner town board