Blue Jay Way

Our second Independence Weekend Salute to Essential Workers nominee is Lt. Joseph Decker. Lt. Decker began employment with the Ulster County Sheriff's Office i...n August 21, 1995. In addition to his duties, Lt. Decker is the Assistant Chief of the Hurley Volunteer Fire Co where he has served for over 25 years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Pause NY shut down of nonessential functions in NY State, Lt. Decker was tasked with the startup and oversight of the Town of Ulster and City of Kingston Drive and walk through COVID-19 test sites. He has also supervised and coordinated the point of distribution for PPE which has serviced well over 600 area agencies. He also coordinates with the county Emergency Management Office for ordering COVID-19 resources for the county. Lt. Decker has taken a leadership role in this pandemic and has assured the safety of the county residents and first responders on the front line of this pandemic. He is a consummate professional and a well-respected leader in all tasks assigned. He is to be commended for his tireless commitment to the safety of Ulster County Sheriff’s Office staff, inmates, and residents of Ulster County.

Good morning. Today I turn 52 and I am glad to have made it this far and I am blessed by so many of you out there wishing me a happy birthday and a family that ...loves me. With that said I wake to see the country tearing itself apart over a tragic incident. The issue is because of the treatment of a man that is supposedly because he was different than the scumbag who treated him horribly and as a result this man died. In response the country is trying to show its outrage in many ways and some of it is in ways that are just terrible. I see friends talking about how we should recognize and support the race that seems to be discriminated against. And yes we should stop that discrimination! Absolutely! But we need to stop all discrimination! This makes me think about a movie I saw once. The most recent version of HG Wells, the Time Machine. In this movie some people hide underground and end up becoming a race of monsters because they lived in darkness. But more importantly some survived on the surface and worked together to try and rebuild. They forget their differences and live and love without any division of race. Eventually they become one race and the author shows them as a beautiful group of people that have become one. What is my point? This is what we need to embrace. To forget our differences in skin color and become one group of people. Look around you. It’s already happening. How many interracial relationships have you seen? People are beginning to forget our differences and see each other as what we are....human beings! Let’s stop supporting our differences. We will just push discrimination from one race to another. I have already seen it happening. We have overcompensated at times and begun to discriminate against the majority. We create a rift between races when we try and support one race more than the other. I know the intentions are good but it will go wrong. Our future is not a people divided by race but one of human beings becoming as one! Thank you to those who took the time to read this.....honestly I wanted to do a video but my old ugly ass will make you not want to watch lol

LIP SYNC CHALLENGE: We at the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. Some time ag...o, we promised you a video for the #LipSyncChallenge. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get it shot, edited and ready in the time we would’ve liked. We don’t enjoy the benefit of some larger agencies by having a dedicated video unit, and we wouldn’t sacrifice the quality of service in performing our mission you receive and rightfully expect by pulling people away from their primary assignments to film this video. That is why we used all volunteers and did this without using taxpayer money. That said, a promise is a promise and we keep our word. We hope you will forgive us for our tardiness, and nonetheless enjoy watching our video as much as we enjoyed making it. We want to extend a very special thank you to Kate Pierson from the B-52s for her graciousness and cameo appearance. Thanks also to CJ and Jess at 94.3/97.3 THE WOLF for originally challenging us to do this, Barbara O'Brien from our agency for facilitating Ms. Pierson's cameo appearence, the Ulster County Deputy Sheriffs' PBA for absorbing the minimal costs incurred in this production and Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum for sanctioning and encouraging this. Finally, a big shout out to Woodstock Day School media arts program for volunteering their time, equipment and students. These young adults made this possible by doing all the filming and post-production in addition to contributing to the writing. Take note of their names in the credits; we think you’ll be seeing them again in the film industry before too long! NOTE: We don't own the rights to the song. Hopefully this will satisfy any legal stuff. #LipSyncChallenge #WoodstockDaySchool #943TheWolf