To the Editor:

At a recent inaugural meeting of the HilltownStrong organization, held at the Rensselaerville firehouse, President Sarah Amedure put forth an agenda that was a follow-up to the public-information meeting that was held at the New York State Park Police Training Facility in March.

A roundtable discussion was held regarding official responses that came out of that event.

Critical concerns noted stem from continuous and intrusive sounds of gunfire from the shooting range; lead contamination into groundwater; and increased light pollution, affecting the dark-sky environment of the area and plans to locate a new observatory-science center there.

The meeting closed with a discussion of possible legal and other remedies to deal with pending final reports and environmental impact statements, as due from the appropriate state agencies and as directly related to the proposed planning for the expansion of the park-police facility, to accommodate new recruits.

The Helderberg Earth & Sky Observatory Science Center is a signatory member of HilltownStrong. Our main concern is the extremely critical adverse effect of increased light pollution, resulting from any planned expansion of the park-police training facility — and its direct effects on the dark-sky environment of the Rensselaerville area and the proposed location of the future observatory.

Ron Barnell

President

Helderberg Earth & Sky

Observatory Science Center