Letter to the Editor: Group seeks support for street dedication

Please support our Sugar Loaf Historical Society’s proposed street dedication honoring NYS Trooper William McDonagh, who was shot and killed in Sugar Loaf in 1975.

Sadly, a petition opposing our dedication was recently submitted to Chester’s Town Board. The petition shows 40 un-numbered, undated “signatures”; some simply printed in the same font as others. Few are Sugar Loaf residents, some street addresses on this petition claim four to six different surnames living at each street address. Absent are current residents/shopkeepers who were here in 1975. And residents that support our proposal never saw the petition.

It’s first signature belongs to one Chester Town official/ Sugar Loaf shopkeeper, married to the president of the Sugar Loaf Community Foundation.

In 2007, when we officially incorporated the Sugar Loaf Historical Society, another Community Foundation shopkeeper opposed our proposal as “bad for business”, because the murderer himself was a Sugar Loaf shopkeeper. Now that a shopkeeper’s a town official, (and her husband’s the SL Community Foundation president), they’ve selectively gathered undated/unverified signatures opposing our respectful street dedication proposal (not a renaming).

They suggested an obscure tree planting to align with their existing projects to co-opt our dedication. Their petition states that the trooper “...did not have a direct connection to Sugar Loaf...” What could be more “direct” than giving one’s life, in the line of duty on that street, protecting its residents? They complain our dedication would“...needlessly create an ongoing reminder...” ‘reminders’ are the purpose of memorial dedications... “bad for business” or not.

Board of Officers,
Sugar Loaf Historical Society
Chester