Redistricting

The result is that voters will now be faced with two completely different propositions this November, in addition to its regular choices of legislative representation. First, there will be a resolution on whether to reduce the size of the county's governing body from its current 33 members to a 23 member body. Secondly, a referendum on whether to have single-member districts, put forth by an 8,000 signature drive by county Democrats this winter, will stand. However, neither can take effect until 2012.

So what happened?
"It appeared it was time to sit down and talk. Things were spinning in all different directions," county Democratic chairman John Parete said, adding that the threat of ongoing lawsuits was a deciding factor in his decision to settle. He offered that the 12-district plan was a significant improvement over current practices and that there was "significant uncertainty" as to who would prevail vis a vis the growing number of Republican lawsuits over the matter. State Supreme Court justice Vincent Bradley ruled earlier in April that single-member districts be created, which the legislature's Republican majority achieved with its mid-April plan, voted on and approved by Bradley. Parete said his final decision, though, had been based on an undisclosed decision by county Republicans to take their appeals to higher courts, which have been ruling very conservatively in recent years.

Immediately following Parete's acquiescence to the deal, county Republican attorney Francis Murray, who authored the new plan, took it beyond Bradley, a state judge, to Federal District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn, in Albany, for certification.

"I think everybody was saying they wanted smaller districts and this plan satisfied that criteria," said Marlboro legislator Richard Gerentine, who led the negotiations with Parete and was named Ward Todd's successor as Chairman of the Legislature following the decision to go with 12 districts. Ward Todd, who
doubles as Shandaken Republican Party chair and Ulster County representative to the Catskill Watershed Corporation, steps down from his legislative post June 30 for a new job as president of the county Chamber of Commerce.
"We've left it up to voters to decide on the shape of Ulster County government in eight years from now," Gerentine adding, noting how the new 12-district plan is better at keeping towns whole. Oddly, he further noted that he plans to support the smaller 23-member legislature on the ballot in November, but would oppose any plan to create single member districts, which he feels would be
too confusing for voters.

Single-member districts currently elect federal and state representatives and are used by the vast majority of county legislatures around New York State. But since the county legislature was created to replace an earlier board of town supervisors in the late 1960s, the legislature has been intent on multi-member districts, which have favored Republicans despite a growing Democrat presence in the county.

Under the new legislature plan, the entire town of Shandaken will be included in the two-representative District 2 with the entire towns of Woodstock, Denning and Hardenburgh, as it was for years. There is also a small slice of Saugerties in the equation. According to the 2000 census, Woodstock has 6,241 full time residents, Shandaken has 3,235, Denning has 516 and Hardenburgh has 208. The two current incumbents for this district are Republican Michael Stock of Woodstock and Todd, who is resigning.

All of Olive and Hurley will make up District 3, with three legislators. Also included will be most of the town of Marbletown.. Three current legislators live in the district: Linda Bertone, R-Hurley,Richard Parete, D-Accord, and Robert Parete, D-Boiceville.Other towns that are partially split between districts are Shawangunk, New Paltz, Marbletown, Saugerties and Ulster. The city of Kingston will be split among t hree districts: two contained within city boundaries, and one made up of a small part of Kingston and most of the town of Ulster.

The current mess dated back to April, 2001, when Todd appointed an eight-member Special Committee on Reapportionment to accommodate new date from the 2000 Census. Within a week the process had split into two plans: a Republican call for a seven-district legislature, and the Democrats plans for 33 separate single-member districts. In June of that year, Bradley ruled the seven-district plan unconstitutional but let it remain in place for the November 2001 election because he felt it too late to change it.In March, 2002, Bradley again ruled the plan unconstitutional and ordered the Legislature to redraw district lines. Appeals followed until Todd appointed a new five-member Legislative Redistricting Committee last October. Despite resolutions from Olive, Shandaken, Woodstock and New Paltz calling for single member districts, a 10-member plan was set for approval in early December with a nine-member plan
finally adopted later that month. Lawsuits over the plans started in February, when County Republican Chairman Pete Savago filed a motion in U.S. District
Court asking the court to impose the nine-district as an interim plan for the November 2003 election. In late March, however, U.S. District Judge Kahn ruled
the fate of the county's redistricting will remain under the jurisdiction of Bradley, provided Bradley made a decision in the case by April 21. Bradley ordered the county to come up with new single-member district plans starting April 1.

On April 10, the Legislature adopted the single-member district plan announced in our last issues; and on April 16 that plan was approved by Bradley. Then the April 23 meeting occurred, with the Legislature approving it later that night in a special meeting. Kahn approved the 12-district plan and the public referendum issues on April 25.

Got it?
See you at the ballot booths come November.

 

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First Aid

Monthly meetings, practice drills,
ordering supplies, maintaining
equipment and coordinating schedules
are a few of the tasks that the 35
members of this volunteer emergency
response team tend to regularly, but their
most important responsibility is showing
up.
Whether it involves getting out of
bed in the middle of the night after a full
day’s work or leaving a Sunday barbecue
at a friendís house, Oliveís first-aiders
must put their personal lives on hold the
moment their radio crackles.
“We get calls for everything. Kids
with heads stuck in banisters, swallowed
quarters, heart attacks, diabetic
emergencies, child birth and high-blood
pressure trauma,” said Kristen Demorest,
an Olive EMT who also serves as the
unit’s fundraising coordinator and media
spokesperson.
“I volunteer because somebody I
know or my family may need [the service].
And, if my family needs it, then someone
elseís family needs it ,” she explained.
The Olive First Aid Squad is a basic
life support (BLS) team that is dispatched
by county 911 and functions
independently of the Olive Fire
Department. Those members of the
squad who are state-registered EMTís
can assist with medical treatment such as
giving oxygen and applying traction
splints, but they are not allowed to
administer drugs, initiate IV’s or intubate
patients.
In Olive, those jobs are left to the
private paramedic or Advanced Life
Support (ALS) teams, such as
MobileLife and Alamo who are hired by
the county. In addition, the town of
Shandaken has a paid day ALS unit that
county 911 dispatches to Olive when
needed.
Olive squad members can choose
their own shifts but are required to be on-
call a minimum of 12 hours a month.
Demorest who works a fulltime job during
the day, like most of the squad members,
usually signs up for the 12 midnight to
6am shift.
“During the day we have a hard time
filling shifts because people have lives
and have to work and as much as we
would like to be here for everything, there
are just so many of us to go around,”
Demorest said.
Because many of the emergencies
are designated a two-tier response by
county 911, an ALS team is often
dispatched along with the Olive team.
And in the cases where the Olive team is
not available during the day, the county
sends an ALS team solo. But even so,
Demorest said, it would be better to have
an Olive team available at all times
because the unit
is usually closer to the location of the
emergency than the ALS teams.
Demorest said the unit has “toyed
with the idea of getting a paid day crew,”
but to do so would require that the BLS
unit be state-certified.
Another possibility, according to the
Olive First Aid president Brian Davis, is
to bill as volunteers. “We are looking into
a billing agency and medicaid/medicare,
but itís a long drawn out process,” Davis
said. “As a not-for-profit group, it’s
possible that we could use the revenue as
per-diem pay, a stipend or towards an
incentive point system for those who take
a shift during the day.”
Currently, the Olive First Aid unit
receives $70,000 from the town, but those
monies, Davis said, go toward equipment
and its maintenance.
In the meantime, Demorest is
planning a couple of fundraising events
that will serve not only to raise money for
the unit but to give the residents of Olive a
chance to meet the first aid team in
person.
“I’d like to bring the town in so that
itís a group effort between the people
serving and who is being served,” she
said. “To get the community involved and
bring them into the organization so that
they know what weíre doing.”
The first of these events includes a
coin drop that will be held on Saturday
May 24 in front of Onteora High School
which is having a yard sale on that day.
Future events will include a penny social
and a pancake breakfast, both of which
would be held at the squad house on
Church Street.
And for those who want to see the
squadís new ambulance and a
demonstration of its equipment, there will
be an open house on May 18th to
celebrate the squadís 30 anniversary. "It
will start at 1:00," said Demorest, "and
end when the crowd runs out."

 

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MOTHER

And yet it's more specific than that. It
has to do with that first voice and face we
grow to love. The glorious breast that
feeds us. The hand that guides us on our
first awkward steps on two feet. The lap
that we nestle inas times grow hard, as
we hurt and learn to keep going, despite
the hurt. The scolding finger that instills a
sense of right and wrong, or simply guilt.
The soothing look that teaches
forgiveness and undying love. The smile
of pride. The understanding tone that
implies the long picture of time, allowing
us to handle our own children's, partner's
or simply life's troubles. The unending
need for our love.
Even more specifically, I think of my
own mother's naive faith in everything.
The way she defined lipstick for me. The
thrilling adventure of all that hid in her
purse. The scent of Jean Nate. That look
she could give when sassed, part hurt,
part pure-as-needles anger.
I was the first of three. Instead of
feeling competitive with the birth of my
brother and sister, I had only the sight of
my mother being an even greater mother,
holding these dear babies with a glow
unlike any other.
When my parents broke apart, I
listened to the process from the top of the
stairs. Often, I'd side with my dad, thinking
such things would make me more manly.
But it was my mom who I felt for. Her
emotions flowed, and will always flow,
through me like blood.
After the divorce she had difficult
times. Severe depression and suicide
attempts. A brief spell of hospitalization. I
tried to pull away and almost succeeded,
confused by my own inability to deal with
mom as a living, feeling contemporary -
as another person, as troubled and needy
as me.
But then she up and moved to
Alaska. Said she'd met this guy, who
would eventually become my step-father,
at a conference. Took my brother and
sister by car across the country, eventually
catching the ferry from the coast of British
Columbia. Settled onto an island in the
Alexander Archipelago, where she stayed
for twenty years, giving herself a new
career as a social worker, marriage
therapist and adoption specialist. Sailed,
with her husband Chris, down the Pacific
Coast to Peru, the Galapagos, the
Marquesas, Hawaii and home to Alaska
again.
At some point we discovered that
she had actually met Chris via a
personals ad. She laughed along with her
admission, laughed heartily. And she
made that island our new home, visited
whenever we could get there; a home of
the heart whenever the distances were
too great. A home supported by letters
and little notes of support, by phone calls
and visits to wherever we kids were, no
matter those same distances.
My mom never lost her way with
mothering. Every time we'd see her,
there'd be new sisters and brothers she'd
have found -- orphans of some sort,
spiritually or distance-wise, who'd we'd be
forced to share her love with. And still
share, as she continues the tradition into
the realm of grandmothering.
She moved from Alaska, and Chris,
after twenty years. Figured a change was
needed. Wanted to try her hand at the
accessibility of the East Coast again.
She and I had taken to taking annual road
trips together when I was in my late
thirties. Did the Alaska interior. Much of
the Pacific Coast. Good dollops of
Mexico. The entire Atlantic Coast from
Quebec to Key West.
She found a new home for all of us
on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, with lots
of water frontage, a boat, new found
careers, new friends and orphans.
My brother died, unexpectedly, a
year ago. She got the call from the D.C.
police, who had found him in a hotel
room. It was hard. And yet by Mother's
Day she was facing forward again, as
mother's somehow seem able to do.
How did my mother end up the
strong one in the family that begat me?
I think it's something about the very
concept of motherhood, which we're
celebrating this weekend.
I think of how my grandmother, living
in a succession of St. Louis apartments
with her only son, my grandfather,
somehow managed to make both a
career and a successful son. She never
faltered.
I think, too, of my mother-in-law,
Linda, and how she survived similar
travailsÖ with four kids. My wife, like me,
was the eldest. And strangely, my mother-
in-law recently moved out of their home of
thirty-some years into a new home in the
same apartment building my grandmother
eventually graduated to, as she stepped
beyond immediate care for my dad and
could concentrate solely on her career,
confident that her progeny was truly
walking out in the world on his own two
feet.
The last time my mom and my
mother-in-law got together, with my aunt,
who's just lost her husband at the same
time she gained a first grandson, the
three ladies called and left a message on
our answering machine.
"It's mom," said one voice. "And
mom," said another. Even my aunt
chimed in with being a mom, as well as
an aunt.
My wife and I laughed on hearing it.
Laughed that laugh of recognition,
compassion, home that all laughter
seems somehow aimed at achieving.
Now we're trying to have our own.
Because these days, these Mother Days,
need continuing.