Garrison Landing Association Can Find a Better Way
Dear Editor:

Enough has been said about Guinan's Store to convey the community's sense of loss, but nostalgia won't win this argument. In an age of digital contact, the Store oozed with humanity. The Store is as much a part of the landscape here as any wetland or protected habitat, and the connection it provides between people is just as important to our community's health.

Covenants are written in Philipstown to preserve rights or the environment. As a gathering spot for generations the Store has a covenant that is no less bound. This may not have been considered by the razorthin majority of the Garrison Landing Association, Inc. If this challenge were about property rights I'd defer. But with respect to the majority members on the GLA, your actions belie the wisdom, spirit, and covenant your founders stood for. What you are undertaking deserves to be challenged.

That a community noted for resisting mediocre change would permit the silencing of this store so central to our "aesthetic," "historic" and "community" interests, is profoundly short sighted. Replacing the store with an apartment and a couple of offices cannot satisfy your covenant.

The founders of the GLA were pillars of the community with family names synonymous with local stewardship. When the GLA was formed in the early 1960s the store was already 40 years old and the GLA knew its importance. Years earlier many of these same families created the Garrison Commons ball field; built the original school; formed the school forest and preserved large parcels. To these leaders, noblesse oblige was not a middle-school history lesson but a purposefilled way of life. Gratefully some of these families are still in town. As society fragments, the need for the store has grown since being protected by GLA founders nearly 50 years ago, and a store has been on this spot since the 1920s.

Formed as a not-for-profit, the GLA memorialized its 'Purpose' in corporate filings and therefore the reason for its legal existence. The 'Purpose' includes; the "aesthetics," "history," and "community" of the Landing; the GLA's goal was to protect it. Thus it became the GLA's trust with the community; their covenant with the community. The community in return has provided much to the GLA. For one example, see 'Garrison Water District. Now the GLA owns 70%+ of the forprofit real estate company formed to own and manage the Landing's property. Still the GLA's original 'Purpose' is no less bound.

The GLA should continue the history of the Landing, admired by the community and fulfilling the intent of their founders. I've temporarily moved upstate for business, but I hope to see some of the 1,000 petition signers at the March 19 Planning Board meeting. It is in the VFW on Kemble Ave, in Cold Spring. Let's help the GLA find a better way.

Tim Donovan

Garrison