10/8/2009

Olive Debate
Following what’s become a local tradition, the Mid-Hudson Valley Chapter of the League of Women Voters will be coming to town to moderate a Meet the Candidates’ event for all running for town office in the upcoming elections set to take place Tuesday, November 3. The event will take place at 10:00 A on Saturday, October 17 at the Olive Meeting Hall on Bostock Road in Shokan.
Invitations to the event went out over a week ago from this publication, which will also be sponsoring a similar Shandaken event the afternoon following Olive’s surprisingly crowded candidate field.
Cindy Bell of the League will serve as moderator for the event, which is expected to take two hours.
The basic format starts with lots drawn to determine the order of speakers for opening remarks, which will be kept to two or three minutes, as well as a reading of LWV rules Audience members will be provided with index cards and writing implements with which to write questions that are not to include any statements, personal remarks, or personal issues.
The moderator will choose questions and paraphrase for clarity and appropriateness, and not repeat questions that repeat similar issues and themes. The candidates will have one minute to answer. Candidates are urged to take notes so as to be able to answer points raised by other candidates in their closing remarks, if needed.
Each candidate will then have a 2 or 3-minute closing statement.
Candidates are encouraged to bring one stack of campaign literature, to be placed on a table set up outside the room for the purpose of distributing the literature.
The League, as well as the format of the event, tries and dissuade audience participation beyond the index card questions in the event, asking all to withhold applause and comment until the debate’s end.
Candidates expected for next Saturday’s event include incumbent Democratic Supervisor Bert Leifeld and Republican challenger Vince Barringer, who preceded Leifeld in his position over two decades ago. For town council, there will be incumbent Bruce LaMonda and former boardmember Linda Burkhardt on the Democratic ticket, former state policeman Craig Grazier and “Donnie” Van Buren on the Republican ticket, and independent former school board member Rita Vanacore on her own Olive Branch line. For town highway superintendent, incumbent Jimmy Fugel, on the Democratic line, will again face GOP candidate Chet Scofield.. For town justice, Democrat Timothy Cox, an incumbent, will face Republican Earla Van Kleeck. Town clerk Sylvia Rozelle is running for re-election unopposed.

New Burn Laws
After over a year's pause and a few key changes, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has set new restrictions on the open burning of residential waste effective Oct. 14. The open burning of residential waste will be prohibited in all communities statewide, regardless of population, with exceptions for burning tree limbs and branches at limited times and other certain circumstances. Previously, the ban applied only in towns with populations of 20,000 or more but was changed in light of new evidence about the incidence of lung diseases, as well as concerns related to new climate change science.
As a result of public comments from a series of hearings last summer, modifications were made to the original proposal to include an exemption for burning of tree limbs and branches in smaller municipalities during certain times of the year. As now stands, on-site burning of limbs and branches can only occur between May 15th and the following March 15th. In addition, on-site burning of organic agricultural wastes, but not pesticides, plastics or other non-organic material, along with liquid petroleum fueled smudge pots to prevent frost damage to crops will be allowed, along with ceremonial or celebratory bonfires and prescribed burns performed according to state regulations.
Towns totally or partially within the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill Parks are designated fire towns under Environmental Conservation Law. The law prohibits open burning without a written permit from the DEC, including for on-site open burning of limbs and branches allowed under the new regulation .

County Budget
County Executive Michael Hein presented a 2010 budget to county legislators last week that increases the tax levy by just under 3.5 percent via a total budget just under $350 million and 100 positions being eliminated. The latter will occur through 30 layoffs, effective January 1, 22 early retirement positions to be left unfilled and 48 currently vacant positions tobe eliminated.
Another move to balance the budget is using almost $13 million from the capital reserve, bringing that down to five percent.
"Consider that the fund balance is supposed to be for a rainy day; in reality, its taxpayer money", said Ways and Means Chairman Alan Lomita, a Democrat. "If you notice, it's not only raining, it's pouring, and a lot of people are hurting out there, as you well know. So, taking money from the fund balance now, to relieve some of the pain of property taxes, I think, is something that's justified."
Republican Minority Leader Glenn Noonan said even a seemingly modest 3.5 percent tax hike may be too much pain, echoing what seems to be the national GOP playbook these days.

At Belleayre...
It's time, once again, to start thinking in terms of the state's ski center in our midst... Belleayre Mountain.
This coming Columbus Day weekend, October 10 and 11, the ski center will be hosting its 30th Annual Fall Festival, with loads of traditional fun and German food, ski lift rides to take in the foliage, and a newly expanded Entertainment Village featuring a host of top local bands and other musical entertainment. For outdoor sports enthusiasts, Catskill Outback Adventures will be hosting an outdoor expo center with a zip line and ropes course, plus mountain bike rentals. Festival Gates will open at 10am on Saturday and Sunday, closing after the Entertainment Village quiets in the dark hours. Also on hand will be pre-season sales for the upcoming Ski Time. Visit www.belleayre.com for more info..
On the following Saturday, October 17, the Catskills German-American Club will be hosting its 10th Annual Oktoberfest, also at Belleayre, with more traditional German music and more of the German food. Hours will be from 11:00 AM to 6:30 PM.
In between the two events, the Catskill Watershed Corporation will be hosting the region's Ninth Annual Catskills Local Government Day on Thursday, Oct. 15 at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, with the timely theme of "Climate Change Made Local." Elected and appointed government officials and employees, economic and environmental planners, and interested community members are welcome to attend and discuss matters ranging from local flood preparations and planning changes to just what might happen to long-held economic development planning that put added emphasis on Belleayre's role as a winter ski destination - a future that's grown more cloudy in the past few years as climate change science has grown. Examples of area municipalities that have already taken steps to address flooding hazards and insurance costs, reduce energy use and minimize their carbon footprints will be highlighted.
Members of planning and zoning boards may wish to take advantage of a two-hour training session on "Promoting Climate Protection Through Land Use Tools." A workshop for town board members, highway department heads and other municipal officials will focus on examining the vulnerability of community infrastructure - from buildings and parks to sewer plants, water systems and street lights. "Green Means Business" will look at how businesses can save money using sustainable practices, and the potential for jobs in the renewable energy field.
The featured lunchtime speaker, Mimi Katzenbach, will explain the Transition Movement by which communities work towards locally-based energy, economic and social systems - not unlike the Catskills of the pre-World War II era -- as a strategy for meeting a future of weather extremes, fossil fuel depletion and other challenges.
To see the agenda and register electronically, go to www.cwconline.org. Registration materials may also be obtained by calling toll free 877-WAT-SHED, or 845-586-1400.

Parting Ways
Lisa Rainwater last week resigned her position as Executive Director of the Arkville based Catskill Center for Conservation and Development.
"This was a difficult decision for me, " said Rainwater, who'd served in the position for 16 months. "I came in with a skill set based on strategic planning, outreach, policy, and administration, but the focus of my work has been primarily administrative, which is not where my passion is.
The organization needs to grow, she said, "and I think I'm leaving it stronger than when I got there. I'm very proud of that and hope that whoever comes in will continue to work at rebuilding community ties, diversifying funding sources, and some of the other projects I've been involved with."
Rainwater was hired after several months of searching, following the resignation of longtime CCCD Director Tom Alworth, who moved on to a state Parks Department job after completion of the Spitzer AIP negotiations regarding the Belleayre Resort project in 2007. In between, longstanding Catskill Watershed Corporation environmental community board representative Debra Dewan, now at the Ashokan Center, served as Interim Director.
In similar news, it appears that Phoenicia Library Director Regina Johnson has also departed, on mutual terms with her board of directors, after a half decade's employment. According to sources, the reasons for her departure had to do with the library board's wishes for a different approach to library organizing and ordering than had been the case under Johnson's tenure.
Calls for comment to the library board went unanswered as of press time.
Library staff, meanwhile, noted in their own release that, “Any statements made on behalf of the ‘Phoenicia
Library’ were made without the knowledge or consultation of the Phoenicia Library staff.”

Sentence Upheld
The conviction of a Phoenicia woman who pleaded guilty in March 2008 to charges related to a head-on crash on Route 28 that left a 78-year-old Roxbury man dead was upheld by a state appellate court, according to the Ulster County District Attorney's Office.
Carol A. Williams, 50, was sentenced in Ulster County Court to 1 to 3 years in state prison on May 23, 2008, after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter, a felony, and drunken driving, a misdemeanor. Prosecutors said that around midnight on Aug. 7, 2007, Williams had several drinks at a tavern in the town of Hurley then drove west on state Route 28. At 12:19 a.m., Williams' vehicle crossed into the oncoming traffic lane in Boiceville in the town of Olive and struck the car driven by Jose Hurtado Sr., head-on.
Prosecutors said Williams' blood alcohol level was 0.14 percent, nearly twice the legal limit, after the crash.
Hurtado was taken to Benedictine Hospital in Kingston but died while being transferred to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.
At her sentencing last year, Judge Paul Czajka said he needed to balance several factors including the trauma inflicted upon the victim and the effect on the community at large to deter others from like conduct. The maximum sentence would have been 2-1/3 to seven years in state prison.
While Prosecutors did not offer any specific sentencing recommendation, William's attorney asked that she only receive five years probation. Hurtado's son, also named Jose, asked that Williams receive the maximum sentence.

Subway Ads!
Talk about getting new converts where it matters most... Ulster County has launched a new tourism initiative that is placing billboard ads inside the New York City subways system as part of a new effort to draw visitors to the many attractions the county has to offer as daytrippers. County Executive Michael Hein announced the county's new branding of "Ulster County Alive" this week, along with a new tourism website at www.UlsterCountyAlive.com.
The branding is meant to convey that no matter what a potential visitor's interests are, the county is vibrant and alive with possibilities.
Tourism in Ulster generates as much as $471 million to the local economy and 8,000 jobs. The county will be spending tens of thousands of dollars on tourism promotion under the new branding, Hein said.
And we thought it was a joke that the Route 28 corridor was the new ultra-hip Brooklyn of Upstate!

Food Costs...
The weekly cost of feeding a family of four in Ulster County is $193.98 for the week ended October 2. The decrease of $5.86 is a decline of three percent from the previous survey during the week ended September 18.
The Ulster County Consumer Fraud Bureau said that is due primarily to a decrease in the cost of grain products.
The marketbasket survey is intended to provide consumers with information regarding fluctuations in the local cost of retail foods. The survey is conducted twice each month in three local chain-type supermarkets.
The items surveyed are within the categories of grain products; meats and fish; dairy; fresh fruits and vegetables; processed fruits and vegetables; and beverages.

More School?
Summer vacations are being considered for partial elimination as the Obama Administration starts looking seriously at means of increasing America's academic competitiveness on a global basis beyond the punitive means of No Child Left Behind and other methods of changing test scores. President Barack Obama has said that American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the world.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan has added. "Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here. I want to just level the playing field."
Early results of schools undertaking a 3-year-old initiative in Maryland to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools have been positive.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.
"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."
Currently, charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.
In Massachusetts' expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics -- kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.
Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days. Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.
It has also been pointed out that summer is a crucial time for poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents. That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school and some studies suggesting they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

Pizza Burglar?
State Police have charged an Olive man with trying to burglarize Cancelliere's Pizzeria on Route 209 in Kerhonkson in the overnight hours on September 30 and they say he may have been involved in other commercial burglaries in the area during the same timeframe.
William Monarch, 38, has been charged with third-degree attempted burglary, a felony, and criminal mischief in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor. Police said Monarch allegedly attempted to burglarize the pizzeria and in the process damaged store property. Troopers also received several reports of commercial burglaries during the same overnight hours and police said Monarch is considered a suspect. All of those burglaries were of commercial establishments where damage occurred to property and money and product were stolen. The investigation is continuing in an effort to tie Monarch to those burglaries, police said.
He was arraigned and remanded to the Ulster County Jail without bail.

Fleischmanns?
Ah, Fleischmanns. Consider heading up to the former resort center of the Central Catskills this Sunday, October 11, for the community's 2nd Annual Fleischmanns First Floors Historic House & Garden Tour from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, followed by an old-time baseball game and children's activity's from 3:30 PM on. The Historic House tours features some of this historic village's most interesting and grand properties from its early 20th century heyday, when the community gained its new name after selling its Griffin Corners moniker for baseball uniforms and a marching band. Everything'll be centered at Wagner Avenue Village Park. For more information, call the newly community-centering M-ARK Project at 586-3500.
In other local news, the new documentary Bienvenidos a Fleischmanns, recently won the Special Jury Award at the Orlando Hispanic Film Fest! The film is an intimate portrait of the challenges and successes of the local Hispanic immigrant community that first came to Fleischmanns in 1986, looking for a more tranquil way of life, from more urban Newburgh to the south. Now, 20 years later, the Hispanic community in Fleischmanns accounts for 30% of the village's population.
The film is by Delaware County resident Jessica Vecchione, whose production company, Vecc Videography specializes in videos for local businesses and events.

Deer Meetups
NYS DEC is holding public meetings statewide this fall to get input from hunters and the public on how to manage New York State's deer population. To date, meetings have been scheduled for October 8 at Orange County Community College, Bio-Tech Building, Room 207 115 South Street, Middletown, NY (Orange County) and October 14 at the Town of Bedford Court House, 321 Bedford Road, Bedford Hills (Westchester County). Both meetings are scheduled from 7:00-9:00 PM. The DEC is interested in changes to the deer program that will enhance the ability to manage deer considering the many differences in regional deer populations, habitat conditions and social interests. DEC recognizes the many stakeholders interested in New York's white tailed deer resource and that the State faces many challenges to successful deer management. DEC is asking for help with prioritizing the issues that are most important to NYS deer hunters and the public. Additional public input include sending a letter to: Deer Management Program, NYSDEC, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4750 or going online at http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/57795.html. All comments are due by November 6.

Yo, Seniors!
All interested members of the public are invited to attend the County's Office for the Aging Annual Public Hearing on Wednesday, October 14, beginning at 9:00am, at the Rosendale Recreation Center, Rt. 32, Rosendale. The event provides seniors the opportunity to comment on current programs, offer suggestions for improving services and share ideas for additional programs that would be valuable to Ulster County seniors. For those seniors who cannot attend the Hearing but would like to share their ideas and comments, please call the Office for the Aging and speak directly to the Director, Anne Cardinale at 340-3456.

Paid Back!
The owner of the shuttered Nevele Grande Resort and Country Club has paid the back taxes it owed to Ulster County on the hotel property in Ellenville, according to County Executive Michael Hein. Stratford Business Corp. wired $342,687.22 to the county late last month to settle all claims by the county against the resort, Hein said. The payment satisfies all general county taxes, town of Wawarsing taxes and hotel/motel taxes owed by Nevele Grande for 2008 and 2009, plus interest and full reimbursement for litigation costs and attorneys' fees incurred by the county. The money was owed under a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement between the Nevele's owner and the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency.
The resort owner, however, still owes the Ellenville school district more than $250,000 in back taxes, according to Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach
The payment to the county clears the way for the sale of the property, which for decades was a mainstay in both the Ellenville-Wawarsing area and the broader Catskills.
The Nevele Grande, comprising the former Nevele and Fallsview hotels, shut down unexpectedly in July, putting about 100 people out of work. Stratford, which has owned the property since 2000, then hired Auction America Realty, a New York City real estate company, to sell the closed hotel at a public auction. The auction was canceled when a deal was struck for the sale of the property.
The sale was halted, however, by acting state Supreme Court Justice Richard Platkin, who ruled, in a lawsuit filed by Ulster County, that the Nevele Grande could not change hands before all outstanding tax debts were paid.
The name of the potential buyer has not been made public.
All eyes now turn to other county IDA loans and PILOT programs, along with other failing developments throughout the region...

Climate Security
The campaign to salvage the climate bill now has a new buzzword, "climate security," and a new ally, the Pentagon, whose security planners have started pointing out that climate change will loom large in the national security strategy they're working on.
The military has begun studying, and taking seriously, the scenarios of climate-induced water and food shortages precipitating violent conflicts on a global scale. The message embedded none too deeply in these studies: Unless these scenarios can be changed, our forces will be overwhelmed. Either stem rising global temperatures, or prepare to grow the military. A lot.
The question is whether financial planning is going to back up their strategic planning; that is, whether this new strategic direction will be underwritten by the budget.
The timing of this climate security hype is no accident. President Dwight Eisenhower learned long ago that his plans to build a national network of highways sold much better when he called it the National Security Highway System. The climate bill is in trouble, squeezed by charges that it is too ambitious, and that it's not ambitious enough. Time to play the national security card.
So what will this climate security strategy entail? In addition to providing a potent rationale for strong legislation reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Pentagon planners will do what they're mostly paid to do, which is figure out, based on these assessments of the threat, what size and shape of military forces will be required to confront it.
Beyond that, the military has also begun taking seriously its own status as the world's largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases. Solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations are beginning to spring up on military bases across the country.
Locally, $754,400 in federal economic recovery funding has been approved for Ulster County to use for a variety of energy efficiency and conservation projects. The funds were released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and were made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The funds are part of the DOE's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, which is designed to help implement programs that lower energy use, reduce carbon pollution, and create green jobs locally. Ulster County and all grantees have specific measures they must take before spending the full amount of awarded funding, such as ensuring oversight and transparency, submitting a conservation strategy to the Department of Energy, and complying with environmental regulations.

Yay, 4Hers!
Several members of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County's 4-H Youth Program gathered together at the Ulster County Fair Grounds on Monday, September 28, to donate over 200 pounds of fresh pork and poultry to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. The meats were donated from the 4-H Livestock Auction which was held in August at the Ulster County Fair.
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley collects large donations and distributes it to charitable agencies feeding hungry people in a six county region. In 2002, the Food Bank provided more than 6 million pounds of food to over 350 member agencies in Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, Rockland, Sullivan, and Putnam counties.
In other ag-related news, a recent federal House-Senate agreement will deliver $350 million in aid to dairy farmers across the country. The funds are included in the fiscal year 2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which the House and Senate will both vote on this week and subsequently send to the White House where the president will sign the funding into law.
Under the agreement, $290 million will be allocated in direct payments to dairy farmers while an additional $60 million will be directed towards the purchasing of cheese products for food banks and other nutritional programs. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will determine which farmers will receive the aid. As a member of the subcommittee that oversees agriculture spending, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey will work to ensure that New York dairy farmers, particularly family farmers, receive the support they need.
"While the price paid to dairy farmers for their milk has dropped dramatically, the price of milk at grocery stores has remained the same because dairy corporations that distribute the milk to stores for farmers are exploiting the system," Hinchey said. "Those corporations are taking in a greater profit for themselves at the expense of both dairy farmers who are being paid lower amounts for their product and customers who purchase milk and other dairy products at their local stores."
In the midst of the economic recession, the price paid to New York dairy farmers for milk has plummeted by more than 40 percent since last September. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced a short-term increase in the Dairy Product Price Support Program (DPPSP) to help bolster dairy prices. While that step will help dairy farmers, additional aid is needed to help farmers stay in business as they weather the current dairy price crisis.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has forecasted that net farm income nationwide will be one-third less than last year. Also, according to the USDA, dairy farmers in New York are receiving approximately $7 less per hundredweight of milk than it costs them to produce that milk.
On the food front, the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, which has a satellite office in Cornwall-on-Hudson, is estimating an 18 percent increase in need for emergency food assistance to its 370 plus member agencies in six counties, including Ulster, particularly driven by first-time users of the emergency food assistance system and people who have recently lost their jobs.
A new survey released by Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger relief charity, shows the increase in demand is nearly universal, with 99 percent of all participating food banks reporting a significant surge in demand for emergency food assistance over the past year. More than half, or 56 percent, of food banks reported seeing more children as clients.
For more information on Feeding America's Economic Impact Survey, visit http://feedingamerica.org/newsroom/local-impact-study.aspx

Albany $$$?
Who's bringing home the bacon from Albany these days, now that the state Senate is Democratic for the first time in years?
First off, it seems that the ascension of state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill to a committee chairmanship has translated to a more than $1 million increase this year in the amount of state funding the Kingston Democrat has been able to spread around the 101st Assembly District, which encompasses most of Ulster County.
State "member item" funding is doled out by individual lawmakers to municipalities, school districts, community organizations and nonprofit agencies in their legislative districts, allowing hundreds of projects large and small to be funded... under the idea that local legislators know best what needs money in their district, and how it will spread once there.
And while "pork-barrel" money has become increasingly controversial over recent years, state lawmakers in the Mid-Hudson Valley say it helps provide needed money for important projects in their districts that would otherwise have to be funded from the pockets of local property taxpayers.
Among the most vocal critics of the process, which critics charge is overly political, is the New York Public Interest Group, which for years has spoken out against both the method used to determine the level of funding awarded to individual lawmakers and that used to determine which projects ultimately get funding. They have termed it all, "a political spoils system."
Nevertheless, Cahill brought home the most bacon of any state lawmaker in the Mid-Hudson region, receiving $1,343,778 for 37 projects in his district. That amount is up a whopping 83 percent from the $733,000 he was awarded in 2008-09. Republican assemblymen, who are in the minority in their chamber, brought home significantly less money to their districts: Clifford Crouch, who covers much of Delaware County, was allocated $137,300; while Peter Lopez, who covers Greene County, was allocated a mere $48,892.
In the State Senate, where Republicans lost control this year, area lawmakers saw their funding allocations cut by as much as 87 percent.
Last year, Senator John Bonacic, who represents most of the Catskills and much of Ulster County, led the pack among senators in member-item funding with $2.2 million. This year his allocation dropped to $250,000.
To access information on who gets what, go to www.oag.state.ny.us, then click on the "Project Sunlight" icon. From there, click on "browse," then click on "member items." From there, select the year you would like to view (for the current year, select 2009-10) and enter the last name of the legislator whose member items you would like to view.
T he list also is available on the Web site of See Through New York. To access that site, go to www.seethroughny.net. Click on "expenditures," then click on "search legislative pork barrel member items." In the "report date" drop-down box, click on "2009-2010," and in the drop down-box for sponsor, click on the name of the legislator whose member items you would like to view.

Reel Teens!
One of our favorite events each year, the annual Reel Teens Film Festival of film and video work by high school students (and younger), gets underway this coming weekend, October 10 and 11, with a Friday night kickoff at the Hunter Theater on Main Street in Hunter Friday night, October 9, at 7:30 PM.
Among the highlights to be seen this year will be Sunday night screenings of new works by Shandakenites Tessa Morelli (starring former Kids Columnist Paloma Kopp), and Nicholas Sveikauskas, whose black and white surrealist work, all in French, will likely prove one of the crowd faves of the fest (as well as one of the funniest things we've seen anywhere in years). Also from Onteora will be the great INDIE work, Candyland.
According to festival director Barry Kerr, who chooses each year's 70 or so festival finalists from over 500 entries alongside a panel of film industry judges from the Phoenicia and Olive area, this year's work was less dark than previous years, with more wacky humor and also more introspection on the part of kid filmmakers.
Among the highlights of the festival, he said, was the work of a Chicago teenager from an abusive background who will be attending the events all weekend, her first visit away from her home city.
This is a great means of getting an idea of just where our next generation may be taking us. And it's all good. Plus funny and fun.
For more on Reel Teens, call 246-1598 or visit www.reelteens.org. Or get yourselves up to Hunter for what SRO seats remain...

Kids R Future!
Ulster County 4-H Youth Development, through the Cornell Cooperative Extension, will offer a 6-week series of classes about the science and careers of wind energy, for youth 6th to 8th graders. The series will feature great hands-on learning and visits by professionals in the wind industry, and will culminate with a field trip to a wind energy site at the end of the course. Topics to be covered include: How wind energy works, residential-scale wind turbines, utility-scale wind turbines, wind energy and New York State, wind energy and the natural environment, the history of wind energy, new developments in wind energy and careers in wind energy.
Classes will be held Thursday evenings, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, beginning October 22 and running through November 19, with a field trip on Saturday, November 21. The location is SUNY Ulster (Ulster County Community College) room HAS-201. The cost will be $30 per student ($20 if you are an enrolled 4-H member). Registration and payment is required no later than Friday, October 16. Registration forms can be found at http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/ulster/ in the 4-H Youth Development section menu click on 4-H Wind Energy Program.
The class will be taught by Todd Olinsky-Paul, an energy policy analyst and wind energy specialist with Pace Energy and Climate Center.
For more information by phone contact Jenny Burkins at Cornell Cooperative Extension Ulster County at 340-3990.

$3 Million!
Paul Leone, Jr., the 52-year-old Woodstock resident who owned Woodstock Wool in his town's old post office before becoming a freelance graphics artist in recent years , was identified last month as the $3 million jackpot winner in the state's Sept. 2 Lotto drawing. The winning ticket was bought on Sept. 2 in the Stewart's Shop at 165 Main St. in Saugerties, and played by Leone's mother.
Leone claimed his $3 million prize - which will be smaller when taxes are taken out - on Sept. 14, according to the Lottery Division.
The winner has said that he will utilize his winnings to secure his future, replace his vehicle, and possibly take his mother on a cruise.