Vote yes on Nov. 7 to preserve our community

To the editor: It is difficult to understand why every voter doesn’t recognize the benefits to Warwick of the Community Preservation Fund, except perhaps some of the developers who are altering our beautiful town’s landscape as we are striving to preserve it. Warwick was recognized in 2005 by the New York State Association of Realtors with its first-ever award for Smart Growth Excellence and New York State recognizes Warwick as a Quality Community What a selling point that is for the real estate brokers. We who have lived here for several years and even several generations know well what a special and quality community Warwick is. To ask new house buyers to pay a one-time minimal three-quarters of 1 percent fee, which, rolled into a 30-year mortgage, comes out to a few dollars a year, is like asking for an initiation fee to join a beautiful and well managed club. (For a $300,000 house, the fee would be $1,500, which, over 30 years, would be about $1 a week, plus interest.) A “quality community” can only assure that property values will continue to increase over the coming years. In a recent issue of The Warwick Advertiser, one broker reported that the mean price of a house in the town has increased 27 percent in the last year. Warwick is privileged to have this opportunity for its citizens to vote yes to preserve what we love most about the town - it’s small town-ness, its farms with their fresh vegetables, apples, peaches and glorious vistas. And we are blessed to have the far-sighted and dedicated volunteers who, as the Smart Growth Alliance, working closely with the Town and Village governments are striving to protect Warwick from overdevelopment and the consequences thereof. Voting yes on Nov. 7 will assure that the citizens of Warwick have taken control of the Town’s destiny. It cannot be said often enough that the 2,300 acres that have been saved through PDR have kept us from having 600-800 new homes, not to mention the traffic, traffic lights, the need for larger schools, more busses and teachers; all resulting in even higher taxes. Jean Beattie May Warwick