Residents voice concerns over Woodstock

SCHUYLER COUNTY--On an evening when the proposed Woodstock 50 concert was not even on the agenda, the Schuyler County legislature was met with a standing-room-only crowd, Monday, Feb. 11, wanting to express their opinions. Although the majority of the 40 people in attendance only listened, the ones who spoke asked the legislature to hear their stories and experiences from the 1973 Summer Jam concert when considering permits for the upcoming Woodstock event.
In January earlier this year, Woodstock Co-Producer and Co-Founder Michael Lang announced the return of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair for its official 50th anniversary celebration at the Watkins Glen International racetrack. The "Woodstock 50" event will be the only authorized commemoration of the iconic 1969 festival.
Watkins Glen is no stranger to music festivals, however, as a few years after Woodstock, the 1973 Summer Jam concert drew a reported 600,000 people and completely overwhelmed Schuyler and the surrounding counties.
A number of comments during the public participation period addressed those feelings.
"They opened that can of worms back in '73 and said we're only going to get so many people, but once they opened Pandora's Box you can't close it," said Ray Ector. "Fences came down...put it in the back of your mind that there are people that live up there."
Gary Westervelt also mentioned his experience with the previous music festival. "They came in in such numbers...they cut every fence all the way up through the woods to form a path; in the 24-acre field you had 4x4 skids, you had tents, you had trash to clean up for two years. The lawlessness was unreal."
Westervelt also mentioned it was his understanding that after the 1973 incident there were no longer going to be music festivals at the location.
Schuyler County Administrator Tim O'Hearn explained there are a number of misconceptions about what laws were enacted and how they pertain to mass gatherings after Summer Jam. He said the laws passed after the festival, and strengthened in 2010, were to "regulate" the gatherings, not "prohibit" them.
"I'm not sure where that story or rumor came from, but there is no legislation that was adopted, in fact, it is illegal, you cannot prohibit mass gatherings," said O'Hearn. "If you did prohibit mass gatherings you could not say we are not going to have Woodstock or a music festival, mass gatherings are mass gatherings."
He did, however, point out the event will require a number of permits both from the local legislature and from various state agencies. If the conditions to keep the public safe are not met, the event could be stopped. O'Hearn referenced the canceled Phish Festival last summer as evidence they can and will intervene if a problem occurs.
"The state police will be covering the entire event, outside and inside," O'Hearn answered to a concerned resident. "The sheriff will be handling the rest of the county."
Other residents mentioned how with GPS navigation the influx of people could affect much more than just the main thoroughfares, and track neighbors said they have already received offers to rent their land to accommodate extra vehicle parking.
Prior to the meeting Monday night, Clerk Stacy Husted sent an email to local media saying reports of a New York State Police presentation at the legislature were inaccurate. Legislator Phil Barnes spoke Monday evening about the topic. "I have taken a great deal of heat recently, my integrity has been brought into question, and I would like to clear up this deal with the state police," Barnes said. "I attended a meeting with members of emergency management across the state, probably no less than a dozen state troopers were there and there was a presentation done, there were FBI agents there, a variety of all sorts of emergency management people."
Barnes explained he was in talks with the state police to visit the legislature and further expand upon their plans. However, he said a decision was made in the name of security to not conduct a public question and answer session about the police presence. He added they are willing to meet with the legislature privately.
"I am tired of being thrown under the bus for looking out for your welfare, added Barnes. "You folks all know me, I've been here forever, and when I was with the sheriff's office my job was to listen to you folks, I haven't stopped doing that."
O'Hearn said he expects there will be a public meeting in "late March" which will have a number of the details of the event further explained.
In the remainder of the meeting, all the resolutions on the agenda were passed and Chairman Dennis Fagan said the county experienced a record year in 2018 for sale tax revenue.