Lifelong resident Peter Friedel of West Shokan, a Republican
who tried unsuccessfully for an open town justice in the 2005
election, was the sole challenger out of three incumbents present,
including unchallenged town supervisor Berndt Leifeld, in office
three decades, town board member Linda Burkhardt of Olivebridge,
seeking her third four year term, and town justice Ron Wright,
unchallenged in his bid for another term in his post.
Most of the audience was made up of family and friends of the
incumbents.
The event began after Deputy Supervisor Bruce LaMonda was okayed
by the LWV moderator to read a letter from incumbent Democratic
boardmember Henry Rank, who could not make it to the event because
of a grave illness that has befallen his wife. The letter listed
Rank’s accomplishments as an incumbent and urged townsfolk
to vote for him to keep success happening.
In introductory remarks, Leifeld spoke about how he’d
“rather be unopposed than opposed. I’m not into
sportsmanship,” and noted that he didn’t like changes
much.He described his job in terms of his fight of 20 years
plus with New York City over its reservoir lands and tax assessments,
among other issues.
Friedel read a list of his accomplishments as an involved Olive
Resident and practically begged to be given a chance to get
more involved, despite his being a Republican.
“I am a keen player that can represent different viewpoints,”
he said. “I can bring new insights, new energy to what
you do.”
Burkhardt talked of her accomplishments, her love of the town,
and she and the rest of the board’s central belief that
their main issue was, is and will likely continue to be New
York City, with whom she wanted “a better relationship.”
Wreight said it was his first run unopposed, a feeling he found
“great.” He talked about his judicial philosophy…
to be fair and consistent.
When later asked why so many Olive incumbents run unopposed,
Friedel ventured to answer that it might be because people “are
waiting for certain people to be retiring.” Burkhardt
noted how people seemed to “like the way things are going”
and noted the complexities of the job. Wright said it might
“keep us sharper” if someone were to run against
those in power.
Leifeld went one step further and talked about the local Republican
Party being in disarray and “a harmony we have”
among the longstanding incumbents.
Asked to face the changing demographics in town, and how best
to deal with new needs, Leifeld spoke about how “these
new people have completely different ideas than folks who have
been here for a while… they have more and more complaints
for petty things.”
Friedel talked about the numbers of people now working out of
their homes and the infrastructure improvements that required.
He said he was concerned about probable traffic increases if
the Belleayre Resort gets built, and the need for better local
road maintenance on the City’s part.
Burkhardtspoke about having negotiated better broadband deals
for the town and working to increase local recreational offerings.
But as for possible effects of the same resort Friedel referred
to, on land prices, Burkhardt was adamant that, “Shandaklen
is a whole different land” without effect in Olive.
Differences peaked in discussion about the town’s long
struggle to get cellular service, with Burkhardt and Leifeld
defending their actions, blaming slowness on the private companies,
while Friedel suggested more could have been done. Similarly,
a question about the resignations of the entire planning board
earlier this year, and their replacement by town board appointees,
resulted in Burkhardt talking about previous planners’
failure to better educate themselves, per the town board’s
orders, Leifeld’s gruff acknowledgement that the actions
had been political in nature, and Friedel’s simple acknowledgement
of Leifeld’s acknowledgement, as if not wanting to shake
the tree any more than it had already been shaken.
As for other issues, Leifeld said how much he’d like to
see the town, “get back to what it was 20 years ago.”
Friedel said he’d like to see more transparency on the
town government’s part, “so people know what’s
going on… We just need something new.”
Burkhardt said she’d like to see more public participation,
but suggested it come up through the same committee system the
town’s run with for years… and which she came up
through herself.
In closing, Rank complained about how as a judge, he couldn’t
always state his opinions.
“It’s not our fault no one shows up,” Leifeld
said in his closing statement. “We get blamed all the
time…”
Friedel repeated his wish to get involved, to help, to be part
of the town he’s spent his whole life in.
Burkhardt to the opportunity to correct Friedel on earlier statements,
then grinned when the moderator said Friedel couldn’t
answer her answers. Time was up.
Voting is Tuesday, November 6 from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
We’ll let you know what happens… if you haven’t
already heard.
Railroad
Back On Track
Eventually, the answer may be at an inter-modal transportation
hub on Washington Avenue in uptown Kingston, It is a potentially
lucrative vision for uniting rail and trail to create viable
tourist attractions for Ulster County and Kingston. But for
now, those transport modes came together only at a sometimes
testy meeting of the Ulster County Railroad Advisory Board on
October 16, where city and county officials and members of the
public and a non-profit group seemed to have divergent views
about how far a tourist train should run into the city, if at
all. But there are powerful incentives to act to bridge the
differences. Literally millions of dollars in federal state
and local funding are being made available to turn the vision
into reality over the next decade. Mike Berardi, the chairman
of the advisory board vowed to move the discussion from theoretical
to practical as soon as possible but the next step is uncertain,
though it certainly requires higher level involvement than the
advisory board. Mayor James Sottile, after the meeting, stressed
his support for efforts to turn the railroad into a tourist
attraction. He extolled the potential of linking an urban hiking
trail through historic Kingston with a scenic train ride through
the countryside. He particularly praised a new proposal that
surfaced at the meeting, that would run a classic dining car
from a siding near the Holiday Inn to the scenic vistas of the
Ashokan Reservoir, a round trip of about 20 miles. But Sottile
said the railroad belongs west of Washington Ave, saying Kingston
would be better served by turning the currently little used
track bed snaking from the eastern side of Washington Avenue
through midtown into a linear park for everyday use by residents
and visitors for hiking and biking, instead of intermittent
use as a tourist train. Sottile’s idea, though, is somewhat
at odds with the proposal being promoted by the Catskill Mountain
Rail Road, (CMRR) a non-profit volunteer driven group that has
leases the track bed from the Ulster County IDA. The group announced
at the railroad board meeting that they plan to run a holiday
excursion train from near the Boice Dairy in mid-town Kingston
out to the siding behind the Kingston Plaza. They said they
hope to run such a train during the upcoming holiday season.
About ten citizens and Ringwood attended the October 16 meeting,
at the same forum where the CMRR presented ideas. They objected
to the potential diesel plume, pesticide use, noise and traffic
delay along Washington Avenue, if a train were to run east of
that divide. They provided board members with a letter dated
October 5 from Kingston Mayor James Sottile, who was not present,
to county legislative chairman David Donaldson. Writing that
he has received “numerous complaints” regarding
better potential uses and lack of maintenance of the tracks
by the CMRR, the Mayor’s letter reads, “I write
to request that the [county] legislature dedicate the tracks
from within the City limits from Elmendorf Street to the Holiday
Inn as a bike trail and walking path.” Sottile adds that
solution would resolve the complaints and “enhance the
use of the tracks for residents and visitors to the City of
Kingston.” The CMRR now leases the rail road right of
way from the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency, a
lease that expires in nine years. But some in Kingston have
pointed out ways in which the railroad group had failed to meet
the terms of the lease, including falling short of their obligation
to refurbish the track bed at the rate of a mile per year and
suggested that the county could get out of the lease based on
those failings. Harry Jameson, chairman of the CMRR, conceded
that shortcomings in fulfilling the lease have arisen, but said
that since he took over as chair of the organization two years
ago, the group has consistently met its obligations. “Welcome
to the new CMRR. This should have happened long ago, but its
happening now,” Jameson said. He expressed support for
a joint railroad and trail project, but said it should not mean
tearing up tracks. Berardi, after the meeting, praised the CMRR
for progress in recent years and said they had shown a new flexibility
in working with other stakeholders recently. And he said that
changes may be needed, though he stressed he thought concerns
could be alleviated amicably. “I think we’re getting
close to a critical mass for a decision regarding the lease,”
Berardi said, adding, that while it shouldn’t be severed,
“I do think in a lot of ways the lease has become outdated.”
The October 16 meeting has been set up as a chance by the CMRR
to update officials about their quarter century long efforts
to upgrade the old Ulster and Delaware right of way to run a
tourist along the former route of the Ulster and Delaware railroad
roughly 40 miles from the Rondout in Kingston to the Belleayre
Ski Center in the Catskill Mountains, near the Ulster County
border with Delaware County. The right of way is between 33
feet to 66 feet wide, measured from the center of the tracks,
or the rail bed and totals about 300 acres. At the meeting,
the dividing line in competing visions appeared to be Washington
Avenue, at the Holiday Inn plaza. The CMRR wants to create a
crossing at the location and the Mayor and other Kingstonites
oppose it. But the seeds of compromise and the potential for
complication all arose at the meeting. Jameson, of the CMRR,
discussed a proposal to bring a class dining car called the
Silver Flyer from its currently underutilized route, off the
beaten track in Arkville, to a new home near the Thruway traffic
circle, for an excursion to the Ashokan Reservoir. He noted
that the idea had been proposed by the current operator of the
Silver Flyer, who said that he had been repeatedly told by tour
bus operators that their attraction was tempting, but too far
from the Thruway to be viable. To make it work in Ulster County
would require enough space to turn the Silver Flyer around at
both ends of its run and space enough to park tour buses that
would arrive from the Thruway. But those difficulties are not
insurmountable, in light of current work by Kingston and Ulster
County to create what is being called an inter-modal transportation
hub to serve the county’s mass transit needs. Although
it is basically a glorified bus terminal, broader ideas include
linking foot trails and bike trails, providing parking for cars
who wish to park and ride, and in the most grandiose vision,
a way of linking rail. There are no firm plans yet on the configuration,
location or cost of the project, but the possible proximity
to a potentially lucrative tourist train facility would undoubtedly
be figured in by planners. Mayor Sottile extolled the idea of
a completed track system running all the way to the ski center
at Belleyare Mountain. “Imagine waking up at the Holiday
Inn, walking to the train, having breakfast in a dining car
traveling through beautiful snowy scenery, right to the ski
slopes, or viewing at the foliage while having lunch and dinner
in a rail car. That would bring people here,” said Sottile.
But he noted that could and in his view should all take place
west of Washington Avenue. And Berardi, the county legislator
and chairman of the railroad advisory board also lauds the prospect,
“Could you imagine that attraction? To me, that sounds
utopian, that’s unbelievable, that’s great stuff.
That’s the real deal, especially with that train.”
The idea is surfacing at a potentially fortuitous juncture.
The county has just approved its latest Transportation Improvement
Plan which earmarks about $11 million for the 40 mile stretch
of track, citing a recent study that says it could best be utilized
as a combination rail road and hiking-biking trail. Complication
abound, including the sensitivity of New York City to encroachment
on watershed lands around the Ashokan Reservoir, the narrow
width of the right of way and the rugged topography it traverses.
Funding for studies and scoping for the project is slated to
begin with a $500 thousand appropriation in 2010. The first
$3.3 million in construction funding is slated to arrive in
2012. The rest of the funding would be the subject of upcoming
decisions for another TIP, which is updated every two years
for a five year planning and funding horizon. Now, the question
is how best to spend the money. “This is going to kick
in a higher level discussion,” said Berardi. “We’re
going to have to get stakeholders together, the city, the county
the railroad and the residents and understand everyone’s
concerns and work to get a solution where everyone appears to
get a piece of the pie. That’s going to take some doing,
but that’s what we need to do.”
A Jar Of Olives
The
Road Not Taken
Today I did a 5K walking race for Corrine Amari, a woman who
died of breast cancer. As I crossed the finish line just a second
after my sister did, I got a hug from Bernie Stahl, the consummate
runner. I didn’t come in dead last. Behind me was a grandmother
sauntering along with her five-year-old granddaughter. I was
entered in the Clydesdale category (seriously!) that has something
to do with my age and weight. I think it entitles me to wash
down the Aleve I am about to take with a cold Budweiser! What
a magnificent walk it was! Colors just screamed out loud in
the sunshine. Did I mention that the top three five-mile racers,
who started a half an hour after us, lapped us at the finish
line? Kathy and I thought the wild cheers were for us!
This morning Diva, my dog, I shuffled through the many leaves
that came down in last night’s rainstorm. As I headed
towards the stream, the path was obscured in a carpet of bronze
and yellow. The old English teacher in me started reciting Robert
Frost’s poem that I insisted each of my students memorize
and analyze:
The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The poem reminded me that each of our choices affects the direction
of our lives. The metaphor of a road as our life journey is
so appropriate for this season. We have choices in our elections;
we have choices in our friends, our jobs, and our hobbies. We
make a thousand choices each day, and each one of them has a
consequence. Thinking back, as Frost does in the last stanza,
I am so glad that Bruce’s aerial photography company had
Ulster County Tax Mapping as a client, and that my husband met
Bert Winne, Jr. and that they became partners, and that we moved
here and found a house on Deerfield Road where we met our first
friends. And on and on… It’s good to look back and
see how our choices create the road map of our lives, but it’s
even more exciting to think where that road might take us.
Speaking of roads, Garwood Cline is saving plastic milk cartons
for his Christmas Eve luminaries on Krumville Road. Robert Frost
could do well with that metaphor. Perhaps, as we walk along
life’s road, our job is to do as Garwood does. We need
to light the way for others.
Like DonnaVan Kleeck who is putting on a pot roast dinner in
honor of Mimi McGloughlin at the Olivebridge Methodist Church
this Saturday, October 27. Mimi loved the pot roast dinners.
There is nothing better than a church dinner. Does anyone remember
the Ham and Oyster dinners they used to have? I would fight
to sit next to Pete Tosi who would pass his oysters over with
a distasteful grimace. For the windfall of oysters, I would
share my ham. Last night we had a meatloaf dinner at the Samsonville
Church. The politicians were there, but we, Bruce and I, are
just meatloaf lovers and connoisseurs. I congratulated the “meatloaf
man.” I wanted to compliment him in the press, but I don’t
know his name.
The road lies ahead of us. We keep walking forward and choosing
new directions. I hope you are able to walk along with a lover,
a devoted dog, sister or friend and that you have someone like
Mimi or Garwood to guide you along the way. I hope your road
will be a long one, like the ninety-seven years of Bill Golden,
and not a short one like Bobby (Banshee) Van Leuvan. Whatever
the mileage, I hope that your fellow travelers remember your
gifts and talents that smoothed out the speed bumps and potholes
for you. Bill Golden was a benefactor to Olive in many ways,
and Bobby blazed the path for his family to go on, sadly, without
him
Bear
Attacks Local Woman
She
said events unfolded quickly starting around 10 PM, when she
and her husband Herry’s dog, a Terrier named Digger, began
to bark outside after being let out. As she went to investigate,
the bear attacked the dog about 30 feet from the house. As the
dog, which wasn’t injured, managed to break away, the
bear turned and charged Pearlman. She was knocked to the ground
and the sweatshirt she was wearing was ripped as if clawed.
Although she was knocked to the ground and suffered some lacerations
to the head, she was not seriously injured. Pearlman and her
husband, both Emergency Medical Technicians, own and operate
the Terrace Farm Nursery on Old Plank Road, just east of the
Phoenicia business district. Following the incident she was
immediately treated at the scene by her husband and later checked
into Benedictine’s emergency room for required rabies
shots.
Although stiff and sore following the incident, Pearlman said
she is otherwise OK. She said she is not sure if it was due
to the bear or the fall she took
Monday night, due to the attack, the State Department of Environmental
Conservation live trapped a bear on the Pearlman’s property,
but neither DEC officials nor Pearlman think it was the bear
that attacked her.
The trap will be reset. The bear caught will be destroyed and
tested for rabies.
.Although the altercation lasted only seconds, Pearlman made
it clear that it was a harrowing experience that left her, and
Digger, badly shaken up.
“I was scared,” she said. “I didn’t
sleep all night afterwards.”
At the time of the attack, the bear did have an escape route
she said, and was not cornered by her or the dog.
“It happened so fast…something came flying around
the side of the house and we collided…as soon as it knocked
me down it turned and left,” she said.
After the attack, the bear remained in the immediate vicinity
of the house for the entire night, apparently foraging for food.
On the two preceding nights a bear, presumably the same one,
had broken into the feed room of their barn, ripping a heavy
door from its hinges to get to a 50-lb bag of dog food and some
horse feed.
The Pearlman’s, who operate a small farm on their property,
believe the animal to be female, possibly 300 to 400 lbs, most
likely with two cubs. It is believed that the bear caught Monday
night is one of them.
According to DEC bear specialist Matt Merchant, the incident
appears to be the first such bear attack on a human in our region
since a 2002 incident near Ellenville where an infant was fatally
mauled after being taken from a porch by a black bear.
Merchant said that based on the Pearlman’s accounts, it
didn’t sound as if the attack was predatory but instead
a defensive act, with a mother bear possibly startled both by
the dog and seeking to protect her cubs.
According to Merchant there are probably between 1,200 and 1,500
bears in the Catskills.
Merchant stresses the importance of activity discouraging bears
from making contact with people, by making that contact with
people unpleasant for them. In addition to removing potential
food sources such as birdfeeders and dirty grills, he says we
should yell at them, blow car horns etc, so that they don’t
seek to acclimate to our presence and instead avoid it.
