Twice in the last two weeks the Southern Ulster Times has published letters by Jake Marro which distorted comments made by Legislator Tom Corcoran regarding Meet Me in Marlborough and local farmers.  
We have to throw a penalty flag here.  

Jake Marro is or was the Chairman of the Marlborough Democratic Committee. He ran Mici Simonofsky’s failed campaign against Tom Corcoran two years ago. The center piece of that campaign was that Mici is a champion of agritourism by virtue of being “a founding member of Meet Me In Marlborough.” 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said: “Try something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work then have the courage to admit it hasn’t worked and try something else.” Have the courage to admit it doesn’t work. 
By any metric Meet Me In Marlborough is a failure. Well intended? Yes. But a failure none the less. 

Local wineries bring tons of people seasonally to our town as a result of their own marketing. Not because of a couple of obtuse signs scattered along the road, most agritourists do not even travel.  

Our visitors come from downstate, Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. Winery visitors take Route 84 to 9W and then turn at Stewarts and proceed to Benmarl, Weed, Glorie and Stoutridge. The traffic flow along Lattintown Road, clearly supports this claim. 

Agritourists do not buy sandwiches at Frank’s. Grab a hot dog at Coach’s. Lunch at Brix or enjoy a slice from Pizza Town. The don’t dine at the Racoon or Ship Lantern or Henry’s at the Farm. They don’t enjoy brunch at the Falcon or attend shows there. 

The current beneficiaries of Marlborough agritourism are the Alexis Dinner and the fast-food joints along Route 32 in Newburgh.  

The purpose of Meet Me in Marlborough was to put tourist dollars in the coffers of our local business. That simply has not happened.  

So maybe Jake Marro ought to focus on his cushy, patronage job at the Board of Elections and stop slinging mud at Legislator Tom Corcoran. You lost, Jake. Get over it.  

I cannot think of a more dedicated civil servant than Tom Corcoran. Years devoting his time to youth sports. Who used their significant social media presence to make sure local people – including me – got vaccinated? Who remembered the graduating class of Marlborough High School with signs in the midst of the Covid epidemic? 

There is no better friend of local farmers or local business than Tom Corcoran. I suspect if you pricked his finger, he’d bleed orange and black.  
So let’s put an end to prevarications, distortions and political attacks and get to the business of building local businesses.