Woodstock will never be the same

Dear Editor,

Every weekend, even in icecold temperatures, trust fund multimillionaires from New York City, whose lofts in Tribeca or Williamsburg have, all of a sudden, fallen dramatically in value, roam up and down Tinker Street. They desperately search for a pied à terre here in Woodstock. They are willing to pay anything for anything. But every last barn, shack, chicken coup and outhouse has been bought up.

Although real estate agencies display eye-catching listings in their windows, there is nothing left. Their inventory of houses and land in this town is just about zero. What they still have are worthless building lots in Saugerties, where you hear the continuous hum of the Thruway. Or they try, to no avail, offer ramshackle homes on Reservoir Road in the town of Olive.

Those lucky enough to grab a home, most likely a handyman special, find out the prohibitive rates of local contractors, who, without thinking twice, charge exorbitant rates, often as much as $1,000 per hour. Then they find out that any improvement they had made is reflected on their tax bills.

The unwitting ones who bought land with an intention to construct their dream house, begin to realize that the cost per square foot has climbed to $500.

This mean that a 2,000- squarefoot home will come up to $1 million, plus a 10 percent architect’s fee.

This is probably a small potato for these trust fund kids. Little did they know that their new dream home will be hit with $30,000 bill each year in school and property taxes. God forbid there is a view.

When it is just about impossible to find a reasonable contractor, when it is hard to pass through the town, and not only during the weekends, when trust fund millionaires looking like bums in their worn out clothes hover everywhere like hawks searching for mice, and when even the old hippies are disappearing from Woodstock, we know there is something wrong.

This is the end Woodstock as we knew it.

Jan Halaska Lake Hill, N.Y.