(News Briefs January 17, 2008)

Reorganized
The Town of Olive’s January 3 reorganization meeting held no surprises... unsurprisingly.
The big shift was seeing the town’s previous 5-0 Democratic majority shrink by a seat as Republican challenger Pete Friedel was given the oath of office, replacing Linda Burkhardt, who was given her adieus at the board’s end-of-year meeting in the days following Christmas. Besides a litany of re-appointments, the chief business of the day was for returning supervisor Bert Leifeld to make his annual committee liaison appointments, with Burkhardt’s role on the town’s Recreation Committee handed over to Helen Chase and Friedel named as liaison to the town’s Transfer Station and Recycling Center Committee, which is currently dealing with a shed collapse and accompanying insurance claims at present.
According to Leifeld, things at the landfill, where a collapse occurred after the heavy snows of mid-December, were back up and operational already with all debris removed and insurance matters moving ahead.
In other business, Leifeld noted that there had been a meeting with Onteora school officials to solicit support in the town’s tax case against New York City, currently set for a hearing in April. Things went cordially, Leifeld said, but nothing has yet solidified on that front.
Stay tuned...

No Casinos
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne rejected the proposals of two American Indian tribes to operate casinos in Sullivan County earlier this month, effectively killing the idea of gambling in the Catskills and drawing complaints from various pro-casino factions in the region and state, including the Governor. For the casinos to move forward, Kempthorne said he would need to authorize the placement of off-Indian reservation land in trust at the two sites. He refused to do that.
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe wants to create a casino at Monticello Raceway, and the Stockbridge Munsee Tribe has been developing plans for a gaming hall in Bridgeville.
In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the state Legislature and then-Gov. George Pataki approved the creation of a total of three Indian-run casinos in Ulster and Sullivan counties as a way to boost state revenue. But final approval of the gaming halls rests with the interior secretary. There currently is no plan on the table for a casino in Ulster County, though towns is the southern part of the county have expressed interest in becoming home to one. And former County Ligislative Chairman Ward Todd went to contract for one during his tenure in office… although the matter was later allowed to lapse.
Both Congressman Maurice Hinchey and State Sen. John Bonacic said the presence of casinos could breathe new life into the Catskills and Hudson Valley.
and criticized Kempthorne’s ruling.
Officials at Empire Resorts, which owns Monticello Gaming and Raceway, held out hope following the decision, stating that they would continue to look at “every opportunity to realize the promise of jobs and economic development for the people of Sullivan County.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council, which has opposed development of Native American casinos in Sullivan County, Monday, said the decision by US Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne not to approve them was “a major victory” for the people of the Catskills and New York State and noted that it is unlikely that there would be a reversal of that decision any time soon.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is concerned about the impact the casinos would have on Route 17 traffic, air quality and new development impacting the quality of life in the Catskills.
“This is a tremendous victory for Catskills residents who have fought to preserve the quality of life in our region,” read a statement from Catskill Mountainkeeper, a new regional organization brought together to fight the issue. “This is a great opportunity for us to leave behind the divisive battle over casinos that has divided communities for so long and look to economic development we can all get behind.”
Meanwhile, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has announced that it has filed a suit against Kempthorne seeking to overturn his decision, alleging the secretary’s decision is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, has no basis in the law, and constitutes an abuse of his position as secretary.

County’s OK!
David Donaldson was the unanimous choice to continue as chairman of the Ulster County Legislature at its recent reorganization meeting, with Republican Wayne Harris seconding his nomination, saying Democrat Donaldson had worked well on a bipartisan level.
In his following state-of-the-county message, Donaldson then said the legislature had been “quite productive by any standard” on numerous fronts. “We created long-needed reforms with an eye toward efficiency, accountability, while remaining transparent.”
Donaldson touted economic development, tourism promotion and preservation of open space. And said the county’s biggest remaining challenge is in balancing taxpayer concerns with essential services. Taxes are up under four percent in the 2008 budget, but Donaldson warned that may not continue.
Republican Ulster County legislators later expressed confidence in the Chairman’s ability to lead the county toward a new form of government in 2009. As also stated in his annual address, Donaldson will more or less guide the county’s changeover to a voter-approved charter form of government, to be led by an elected county executive, starting in January 2009.
“(The transition) is going to take all 33 legislators, but Dave certainly has the leadership qualities to make it a smooth transition,” said Robert Aiello, R-Saugerties, who singularly praised the concept of having a research center to draw in large companies.
“This is a great idea and (the county) is on the right track with universities acting as a partnership to the private sector,” said Aiello. “Companies will migrate towards a center like that. ... We desperately need to do something because we’re losing all our college kids and basically turning this into a senior citizen place.”

Radon Worries
The state Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have identified Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia and Greene counties as high-risk areas for radon contamination, Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced earlier this month, urging alongside state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard F. Daines that New Yorkers have their homes tested for the colorless, odorless gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in salt, rock and water.
The EPA said radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the country and that 20,000 lung cancer deaths annually can be attributed to the gas. Radon occurs naturally in the Earth but becomes a problem when it enters the home. It gets indoors through cracks and openings in the homes foundation and walls and around sump pumps.
New Yorkers can obtain radon test kits for $6.75 from the state Health Department. Results of the test are sent directly to whoever submitted the kit. To get a kit, call (800) 458-1158, toll-free, or send an e-mail to radon@health.state.ny.us.

GOP Business?
Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued a promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business, saying he is planning, “To build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed.” The warning from the nation’s largest trade association came against a background of mounting popular concern over the condition of the economy. A weak record of job creation, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and other problems have all helped make the economy a major campaign issue.
Presidential candidates in particular have responded to the public concern. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has been the bluntest populist voice, but other front-running Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have also called for change on behalf of middle-class voters. On the Republican side, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee - emerging as an unexpected front-runner after winning the Iowa caucuses - has used populist themes in his effort to woo independent voters, blasting bonus pay for corporate chief executives and the effect of unfettered globalization on workers.
Reacting to what it sees as a potentially hostile political climate, Chamber President Tom Donohue said, the chamber will seek to punish candidates who target business interests with their rhetoric or policy proposals, including congressional and state-level candidates. Although Donohue shied away from precise figures, he indicated that his organization would spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it spent in the last presidential cycle. That approaches the spending levels planned by the largest labor unions.
The chamber has become a significant force in state and national politics under Donohue’s decade of leadership. Once a notably bipartisan trade association with a limited budget and limited influence, it has hugely increased its political fundraising and developed new ways to spend money on behalf of pro-business candidates. Under Donohue, the organization has also frequently aligned itself with GOP priorities. Under a system Donohue pioneered, corporations contribute money to the chamber, which then finances attack ads targeting individual candidates without revealing the name of the businesses involved in the ads.
The GOP has meanwhile put out official word that it is seeking millionaire candidates, wherever possible. Should prove rich…

Deadbeats...
In conjunction with a number of other county departments, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office conducted a “Deadbeat Dad” sweep throughout the state over the last few months. With the aid of the county Department of Social Services Child Support Enforcement, the District Attorney’s office and Family Court, detectives and uniformed personnel from the Sheriff’s Office focused their attention on “deadbeat dads” that owed amounts of money ranging from $5,000 to $100,000.
Eleven individuals were arrested stemming from the sweep and the cumulative amount owed was over $210,000. Over $37,000 that was owed in child support was collected due to this effort. Furthermore, the various departments stated that they will continue their efforts to apprehend those individuals that are significantly behind in child support payments by conducting more sweeps of this nature.
Among those arrested during the sweep were William Robert Slaughter of 74 Parker Lane, Olive; and John Szymanski, also of Olive.

Keep Working!
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said late last year that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. The policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65 and more limited benefits - or none at all - for those older.
More than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare. Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent this year and have increased 78 percent since 2001. Because of the rising cost of health care and the increased life expectancy of workers, the commission said, many employers refuse to provide retiree health benefits or even to negotiate on the issue.
In general, the commission observed, employers are not required by federal law to provide health benefits to either active or retired workers.
AARP and other advocates for older Americans attacked the rule. “This rule gives employers free rein to use age as a basis for reducing or eliminating health care benefits for retirees 65 and older,” said Christopher G. Mackaronis, a lawyer for AARP, which represents millions of people age 50 or above and which had sued in an effort to block issuance of the final regulation. “Ten million people could be affected - adversely affected - by the rule.”
Meanwhile, Medicare prescription drug plan premiums are scheduled to rise by an average of almost 25 percent in 2008.
And at the same time, fears of a U.S. recession coupled with a sudden spike in oil prices replaced terrorism, pandemic disease outbreaks and short-term disasters resulting from climate change as the issues global business leaders are most worried about, said the “Global Risks 2008” report.
The report, which is based on workshops involving corporate leaders, professors and risk analysts, also listed dwindling food supplies as a growing concern.
The report coincides with a World Bank study released Wednesday that expressed concern about the faltering U.S. housing market and its impact on global financial markets.
Oil prices soared past $100 a barrel for the first time ever in recent weeks, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will continue to outstrip supplies. Separately, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said its member nations may not be able to meet demand as early as 2024, though OPEC also said that deadline could slide for decades if members increase production more quickly.

Seniors Beware
The folks at Phoenicia’s Key Bank have reported that two senior customers called to tell them that they had received phone calls from the social security office (supposedly) and that new cards were going to be issued. First, however, the senior needed to confirm the social security, their bank, and their account numbers, as well as their address. Unfortunately, one of the seniors fell for the scam.
Beware…

Katrina Costs
Hurricane Katrina’s victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering - including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion, or $3,014,170,389,176,410 to be exact for some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
Of the total number of claims, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has received 247 for at least $1 billion apiece, including the one for $3 quadrillion. “It’s important to the person who filed it, so we’re taking every single claim seriously,” Corps spokeswoman Amanda Jones said.
Some residents may have grossly exaggerated their claims to send a message to the corps, which has accepted blame for poorly designing the failed levees.
Daniel Becnel, Jr., a lawyer who said his clients have filed more than 60,000 claims, said measuring Katrina’s devastation in dollars and cents is a nearly impossible task. “There’s no way on earth you can figure it out,” he said. “The trauma these people have undergone is unlike anything that has occurred in the history of our country.”
The corps released zip codes, but no names, for the 247 claims of at least $1 billion. The list includes a $77 billion claim by the city of New Orleans. Fourteen involve a wrongful death claim. Fifteen were filed by businesses, including several insurance companies. Little is known about the person who claimed $3 quadrillion. It was filed in Baker, 93 miles northwest of New Orleans. Baker is far from the epicenter of Katrina’s destruction, but the city has a trailer park where hundreds of evacuees have lived since the storm.
Katrina, which is blamed for more than 1,600 deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi, is considered the most destructive storm to ever hit the U.S. It caused at least $60 billion in insured losses and could cost Gulf Coast states up to $125 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
‘We’ll have procedures and we’re not going to advertise what they are.’

Bad Call...
A Town of Rochester man was taken into custody in late December after a report of a fire at his home led police to find two marijuana grow rooms inside the house, state police at Ellenville said. They noted that they and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home on Route 209 in the Town of Rochester in the afternoon to assist the local fire department with a reported chimney fire.
Fire officials were unable to locate any fire after checking the chimney and the furnace of the home, and the occupant of the house, Ernie V. Ferreira, 23, of Allentown, Pa., was present while fire officials continued to search the interior walls of the home, police said.
Police said fire personnel opened a door to a small bedroom and found what appeared to be a fully operating marijuana grow room, along with more plants growing in an adjacent room. The Ellenville state police Bureau of Criminal Investigations unit responded and were notified of the findings made by fire officials, police said.
Ferreira would not consent to a search of his residence, and a search warrant was obtained from Town of Marbletown Justice Davenport and carried out at the residence later the same afternoon. The search yielded a Charter Arms 38-caliber revolver as well as about 28 marijuana plants, police said.
Ferreira was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of marijuana and misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned in Village of Ellenville Court and remanded to Ulster County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.

Nobel Seeger?
Over 11,000 people have signed an online petition to nominate famed folk singer and peace activist Pete Seeger for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.
Seeger, 88, of Beacon, was founder of Clearwater, the environmental organization that in 1969 launched the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater as an educational vessel to travel the river as an educational vehicle to clean up and preserve the natural habitat.
Supporters of the effort may log on to www.nobelprize4pete.org.

Electoral…
New Jersey has became the second state to enter a compact that would eliminate the Electoral College’s power to choose a president if enough states endorse the idea by passing legislation that approves delivering the state’s 15 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Maryland - with 10 electoral votes - had been the only state to pass the compact into law. The compact would take effect only if enough states - those with a majority of votes in the Electoral College - agreed to it. A candidate needs 270 of 538 electoral votes to win.
The compact has also passed both houses of the Illinois Legislature, according to the National Popular Vote movement, and has been approved by one legislative house in Arkansas, Colorado and North Carolina. Governors in California and Hawaii, though, vetoed bills to join the compact.
The goal is to ensure that the national popular vote winner becomes president. Democrats who sponsored the bill have noted that their party’s 2000 presidential nominee, Al Gore, won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College. Sponsors contend the agreement would ensure that all states are competitive in presidential elections and make all votes important. It also would guarantee the presidency to the person who received the most votes.
Republicans have criticized the bill as undermining federal elections.
Meanwhile, the federal agency in charge of policing the torrent of political spending during the upcoming presidential primaries has, for all practical purposes, shut its doors as of New Year’s Eve.
The Federal Election Commission effectively stopped business on Jan. 1 because Congress remains locked in a standoff over the confirmation of President Bush’s nominees to the panel. As a consequence, the FEC will enter 2008 with just two of six members - short of the four votes needed for the commission to take any official action. And although the 375 auditors, lawyers and investigators at the FEC will continue to process work already before them, a variety of matters that fall to the commissioners will be placed on hold indefinitely. Chief among them are deciding whether to launch investigations into possible campaign finance violations and determining the penalties.
Seven presidential candidates have applied to receive public matching funds for their campaigns, but they may not be able to access the money until the FEC certifies their requests. That takes four votes.
The FEC is composed of three appointees from each party, all nominated by the president. There is already one vacancy, and three recess appointments will expire on Dec. 31. The potential for an FEC shutdown has been looming for weeks, as a handful of Democratic senators voiced opposition to one of Bush’s nominees to the commission, Hans A. von Spakovsky due to pronlems that arose during his tenure in the Alberto Gonzalez-led Dept. of Justice. The blockade worked, but Republican leaders in the Senate countered with one of their own. If von Spakovsky were rejected, they would not allow the two Democratic nominees to be appointed, either.
“The Democrats have picked their nominees, and we’ve picked ours,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said as the Senate prepared to recess for the holidays. “What we have here,” he said, is “the Democrats trying to veto one of our nominees. That isn’t going to happen. They’re all four going to go together, or none of them will be approved.”

Power Corridor
A group of 11 environmental organizations, including Catskill Mountainkeeper, have announced they will file a lawsuit against the US Energy Department over its final designation of a Mid-Atlantic National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. That designation could pave the way for construction of the New York Regional Interconnection power line from Oneida County to Orange County.
Environmental groups, municipalities and residents up and down the proposed NRYI route oppose the project.
The National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor designation would allow it to exercise the right of eminent domain to acquire property.
Joining the lawsuit are Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Environmental Advocates of New York, Clean Air Council, Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, Civil War Preservation Trust, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Brandywine Conservancy and Natural Lands Trust.
In addition, the state Public Service Commission and the Department of Environmental Conservation have filed separate petitions with the federal Department of Energy seeking a rehearing on the agency’s decision to make a large area of New York State part of a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. In the petitions, the state contends that federal authorities disregarded key energy issues and failed to adequately assess potential significant environmental impacts.
The governor said designation of the transmission corridor would set the stage for the federal government “to preempt New York’s legitimate oversight and process for reviewing and siting transmission projects within our state’s borders.”
Over $400,000 in state funding secured through the State Senate’s Republican Majority has flowed to anti-NYRI group Communities Against Regional Interconnect, Senator John Bonacic recently announced, noting that the funding is the first installment of up to $1 million allocated by Senate Republicans to oppose the NYRI plan.

Bad Dick
The US vice president, Dick Cheney, was behind a controversial decision to block California’s attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency.
Staff at the agency, which announced last week that California’s proposed limits were redundant, said the agency’s chief went against their expert advice after car executives met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases. They added that the agency’s head, the Bush appointee Stephen Johnson, ignored their conclusions and shut himself off from consultation in the month before the announcement. He then informed them of his decision and instructed them to provide the legal rationale for it, they said.
In an editorial, the New York Times described the decision as, “an indefensible act of executive arrogance that can only be explained as the product of ideological blindness and as a political payoff to the automobile industry.”
Johnson said that because Bush signed an energy bill last week which raised fuel economy standards, there was no justification for separate state regulation. The president, the agency said, had provided a “clear national solution” and there was no need for a “confusing patchwork of state rules to reduce America’s climate footprint from vehicles.”
But Johnson’s staff gave him the opposite advice, warning him that should he block California, the state would probably sue him in the courts and would probably win. The state’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, immediately announced that he would challenge the EPA’s ruling in the courts, describing it as “legally indefensible.”
That lawsuit has since been joined by New York and 14 other states, including Massachusetts, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
In other Cheney news, a veteran National Archives official that challenged claims by Cheney’s office that it was exempt from federal rules governing classified information. Ended up with Cheney’s staff arguing for the elimination of the official’s job. After months of struggle, he finally decided to leave his position… stating publicly that his fight with Cheney’s office was a “contributing” factor in his decision to retire after 34 years of government service.

Big Impacts?
Two new studies of the Hudson Landing development proposed for the City of Kingston say the project violates policies adopted by the city in its Local Waterfront Revitalization Program and is inconsistent with state coastal management guidelines, according to the Friends of Kingston Waterfront coalition.
After reviewing materials submitted by developer AVR Realty to the Kingston Planning board, two expert analysts said the 1,750 unit waterfront development would have unacceptable visual impacts within Kingston, from vantage points on the Hudson River from many areas of Dutchess County.
A second student found the project “would appear to be out of character with the Hudson River National Historic Landmark District and would impair the setting of the Estates District Scenic Area of Statewide Significance.”
Stay tuned to see what compromises might occur there…

Investigate
Over one thousand lawyers - including former Governor Mario Cuomo and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein - have signed onto the above statement demanding wide-ranging investigative hearings into unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush administration. Michael Ratner, the Olive-based president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and winner of the 2007 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, said: “The majority of lawyers in this country understand that the Bush administration has really gone off the page of constitutional rights and off the page of fundamental rights, and is willing to push the Congress to restore those rights.”
Ratner noted that even with regard to the US attorney’s investigations, where Congressional committees held Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, and Karl Rove in contempt, leadership has failed to enforce these actions by bringing the resolutions to a vote.
“Just announcing that investigations will be held and subpoenas will be issued is terribly insufficient unless Congress is willing to enforce the subpoenas by issuing contempt citations,” Ratner said. “Congress has a constitutional duty to oversee the activities of the executive branch and our entire system of government is threatened when Congress simply folds before an obstinate executive. Issuing contempt citations against Bolten, Miers, and Rove should be Congress’s first order of business in 2008.”
“This lawyers’ letter and the growing number of signatures we’ll have on it, and prominent people - it’s a way of saying to Congress, ‘You need some backbone. You need to have a serious investigation, wherever it might go, on these issues that really have taken the United States out of the mainstream of human rights.’ It’s absolutely critical,” added Ratner. “We’ve opened up the door to illegality.... Unless we have accountability on those illegalities, we’re going to be facing a very bleak future in which fundamental rights will not really be obeyed.”

Think Positive!
Ulster Tomorrow officials said at a county Chamber breakfast the morning of January 15 that the next step in bringing Ulster County to a new level of economic development would be to consolidate economic development services, and that to complete their goals, there needs to be a culture of change within the county collectively.
Ulster Tomorrow Committee Chair Glenn Sutherland claimed “there are too many agencies in the economic pie” in the county. UCDC President Lance Matteson called on businesses to help in this process by offering their time, services, and recommendations to the county to promote the change. Finally, UCDC Board Chairman Ron Marquette said the attitude of the county as a whole needs to change for the county to catch up to the rest of the Hudson Valley economically.
“Maybe a year or a year and a half ago, the mindset was pretty pessimistic that things were going to happen here, or that it was even beyond our control, but with this culture of collaboration, this culture of change, this culture of leadership, the mindset has gotten much more positive,” he said. “We have to get over the fact that it can’t happen in Ulster County, that it always happens some place else, and with leadership and a change in positive attitude, I think it can happen.”
The officials feel that the new county charter and election of a county executive come this fall will help foster this new initiative, and that business leaders will embrace the Ulster Tomorrow mission to increase jobs and improve affordability and prosperity.

Snuffy’s Friend?
Friends of Snuffy, an all-volunteer non-profit organization helping stray dogs and cats, is sponsoring a fund-raising costume party at Don Hills, 511 Greenwich Street, NY, NY on Wednesday, January 30 th starting 8pm.
Come dressed as your favorite animal and dance to the music of DJ Logic. elebrity judges will be on hand to award a weekend retreat for two at the luxurious Emerson Resort and Spa, located in the Catskill Mountains.
The entrance fee of $20.00 will go to direct funding for veterinary care and adoption programs for dogs and cats throughout the New York area.
For more information and to buy tickets visit www.friendsofsnuffy.com or www.myspace.com/friendsofsnuffy

The New Army
President Bush has approved what officials are describing as the most significant realignment of the Army since World War II, signing off on a plan that will keep more troops than previously envisioned in Europe and add large numbers of soldiers to bases in Colorado, Georgia and Texas, Army officials said Wednesday. The basing plan is the final step in a detailed program for deciding where a larger Army will live and train in the years ahead, as it grows by 65,000 active-duty soldiers. It significantly changes the military’s footprint from before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and alters a global basing plan adopted with great fanfare by the Pentagon in 2004. The commitment to keep about 10,000 extra troops in Europe above the level of previous plans was advocated as necessary to sustain training and other exercises with foreign militaries, and as a hedge against risks to American security.
“The Army is undergoing the largest transformational change since 1942,” General Cody said, as a full one-third of the Army will be based at different stations by 2011. The active-duty Army end-strength is scheduled to reach 547,000 by then, as the Army’s fighting force will grow to 48 brigade combat teams from 33 in 2003.
New construction for housing, headquarters and motor pools - as well as health care and child care centers - will top $66.4 billion by 2013, General Cody said, emphasizing that the Army was paying special attention to quality-of-life issues for the all-volunteer force. He said that under the new plan, combat brigades would live alongside and train with the support, sustainment and intelligence units with which they would go to war.

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