To the Editor:

Although I am a full-time shepherdess in Berne, New York, I am also a full-time critical-care intensive-care unit registered nurse at Weill-Cornell in New York City. Don’t ask me how I have time to do both, but I do! I attended the last Berne Town Board meeting and shared a profound patient experience and wanted to pass it along to others in our area through this letter.

I always talk to my patients about my farm and where I live and it usually helps to calm them down and relax. Being in an ICU is a very physically and emotionally draining event for both the patients and their families.

While I was showing them pictures of my baby lambs, they asked what town I live in and I responded that it was about three hours upstate. Berne is not really a tourist destination for New York City inhabitants, but upon their insistence, I told them “Berne.”

Their faces instantly lit up and they exclaimed that their son had gone to an educational event at the Switzkill Farm. Their family had stayed at a fancy “Airbnb” in the Altamont area, ate at The Fox Creek Market for lunch, at Maple on the Lake for dinner, and purchased wine from Remedies Wine & Spirits, and had a breakfast at the Home Front Café. Then they visited Indian Ladder Farms. They absolutely raved about Switzkill Farm and wanted to go “every year.”

Honestly, I was shocked. This was an Upper East Side family who spent their money in our Hilltowns and had left their hearts at Switzkill Farm. They loved walking through the woods, seeing the waterfall, and getting back to nature.

They thought the property “could use a little love” but the potential was endless and they were so intrigued that the town bought it mainly with a grant to promote the Hilltowns. They came up with a lot of “out of the box” ideas on how to raise money without using town funding to make improvements. (We had a lovely chat about it!)

As a resident of Berne and a constant visitor to Switzkill Farm, I am saddened to see that a few people with obvious political agendas would be so against something that benefits our community. No matter the political bent, we should all be on the same page about certain things.

The Hilltowns need “agrotourism” and the New York City money influx. Money keeps people employed, farms running, and mortgages paid. It also helps to keep crime down and our children fed.

The Hilltowns need venues for our children to learn and grow. Switzkill Farm provides a fun place to learn for our local students and even those in New York City! We will, in turn, have a more educated workforce that will help to creatively shape the future of our Hilltowns and make wise decisions (fiscally and environmentally) when they are older and we are “under their direction.” These children will be our next business owners, politicians, and possibly even president!

The Hilltowns need future planners and forward-thinking visionaries. The naysayers are stuck on the problems, but when solutions are presented, they start to scream even more loudly. These same people argue for human rights, but take them away. Argue for small business, but want to take away crucial marketing strategies for our Hilltowns provided by our great state. Argue that our children are not being properly educated, but refuse to provide them with additional resources to enable them to learn and don’t even take their own children to Switzkill Farm for hikes or day trips. Argue that they are “for the farmer,” but take away crucial agrotourism.

It is easy to see why the news ratings increase when there is a tragedy. It saddens me to see so many people giving into this “fake news” strategy. But Switzkill Farm is positive news. Not negative news. Meant to better the Hilltowns, not to be a political soapbox and tear us apart.

I’m sure there will be many angry letters in this edition; however, take all of this into account when you read them and know for every negative there is a solution and many more positives!

The Hilltowns have unlimited potential to draw people in and to really enhance our personal lives and that of our children and future generations. Switzkill Farm has already started to prove that it is the exact catalyst to promote these changes.

Emily Vincent

Shepherdess, RN BSN PHN

Berne

Editor’s note: Emily Vincent and her husband own Two Rock Ranch, a sheep farm in Berne where Enterprise co-publisher Marcello Iaia has worked as a volunteer. She is a member of the Berne Planning Board.