BETTER THAN HEARSAY - Leadership Messages to the Community of Windham

WINDHAM - It would be a private family matter if Thomas Hoyt wasn’t also the Windham town supervisor, prompting him to deliver a forthright message to the community, earlier this week.

“Many people may have heard I had a major health condition over the past week,” Hoyt said in an interview, Monday, on local WRIP radio.

“It started with a minor stroke. Upon investigation they found some floating blood clots,” Hoyt said from his hospital bed at Albany Medical Center.

“One of those blood clots ended up in my heart,” Hoyt said, noting he had been released from Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson before a second emergency situation surfaced.

“I was told I was having a heart attack,” Hoyt says, explaining that he was in a private car at the time, necessitating a call to 911, resulting in crews from Greene County Emergency Medical Systems and town of Durham being dispatched to the scene along with state police.

“Within minutes, they found where it was blocked up. They couldn’t get to it. They inserted a balloon to keep blood pressure in the heart. I ended up at Albany Med,” Hoyt said.

“They’ve taken eight million tests and ten gallons of blood. It feels like I was run over by a truck and backed over, but I am on the mend,” Hoyt said.

Differing medical opinions have been offered as to what happens next. In the meantime, Hoyt said, “I will be here for a couple of days if not more.

“I want the residents of Windham to know the town is more than in good hands with all the ladies in the office, our deputy supervisor Wayne van Valin, the highway department, police and ambulance departments.

“I do my best to talk to them at least once a day when my daughter comes. My family has taken my phone away because I need to rest and, if the phone was ringing, I would answer it and jibber jabber,” Hoyt said.

“We’re prepared. We gotta’ keep going, regardless if the head dog is on his back,” Hoyt said, getting up and around a bit, hopeful of a rapid trip home.

Hoyt serves as Occupational Safety & Health officer for Greene County and, in early December, announced his plans to run for a NY State Assembly seat as a Republican, replacing Chris Tague. 

The process for choosing a GOP nominee for Greene County began on January 22 with a gathering of Party heads from each town. Tague is seeking a move to the NY State Senate.

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Another important message was delivered to the community by Windham Mountain Club president Kristen Leach, welcoming the two feet of snow dropped by Mother Nature on the mountains, on Sunday.

Leach grew up a Garraghan in Windham, a short walk from the ski slope, ascending to the presidency, last year, amid a significant change in ownership and operations at the town’s commercial engine.

“I must have some people looking over me, good karma,” she said of the heavenly-sent nor’easter, likewise being interviewed on WRIP radio. 

“We are 100 percent open and loving it, loving it, loving it. We definitely have phenomenal skiing with the depth of snow on our base too.”

Well aware of the vagaries of northeast winters, with snow here one day and gone the next, needing to manufacture white stuff to survive, Leach added, “this will give our snowmakers a day or two off.”

Leach touched on numerous topics within her radio talk, specifically the business plan of ownership, headed by Sandy Beall.

Many concerns have been expressed about how the Windham Mountain Club has geared itself more toward smaller crowds and private membership at the slope and a company-owned golf course.

In her youth, Leach says she spent countless hours on the slopes and at the Windham County Club, now owned by the ski resort.

“We have limited our capacity, when we were taking 7,000 visitors on a Saturday,” at the slopes, she said, now reducing that number to 4,500.

“But you have to realize. Most of those people were coming on a bus, coming in and out, not really hanging around,” Leach said.

“We went through covid and it was eye-opening, what it was like with less people and much shorter lift lines. We saw people enjoyed that.

“So this approach [with visitor limits] was happening before Sandy Beall, going back to when we were owned by North Castle,” Leach said.

“Other resorts have massive [ski lift] lines. We think it’s worth the value of the experience you’re getting,” Leach said.

There are ongoing plans for a new hotel and an extensive, upscale housing development on ski slope lands, potentially impacting businesses and a small town, rural way of life.

“Businesses are elevating themselves,” Leach said. “Our focus is on people who are invested in Windham, who fell in love with Windham.

“What they fell in love with was the community. Those relationships are now generational, and will continue to keep our community growing and thriving,” Leach said.

“We want to deliver to them what they are looking for,” Leach said, including keeping the golf course available to residents.

“Sandy Beall is not a person looking to make a quick buck. He has rooted himself here. He doesn’t want to compete with local business. He is passionate about this town and wants to see it do well.”

Even with the thick blanket of snow, “we are already full deep into planning for summer,” Leach said. “It’s all about teamwork. All hands on deck.”