Follow Up on the News

Scoping It Correctly?

But according to DEC Region 3 Director Willie Janeway, in a February 4 interview at his New Paltz offices, he had heard that the Scope, as he termed it, would be out this Friday, February 15.
“The best thing will be to look at the new scope next to the old,” Janeway said, after noting how the extra time had been needed to ensure “that this be done right, answering everyone’s concerns.”
Janeway presided over a trio of December, 2007 “scoping sessions” where a large number of local residents came out to comment about what they wanted to see in the projects’ environmental impact statements, as well as to question the resort’s appropriateness for their community, the negotiating process by which he governor’s AIP was reached, and the propriety of the DEC overseeing a review process for which it was also an applicant.
A minority of community and business leaders touted the vast proposal’s potential economic benefits at the same gatherings and have since started passing around their own petitions supporting what’s been proposed and basically questioning the possibility of too many questions being asked of what’s proposed.
A moment of controversy arose at the Town of Shandaken’s February 4 meeting when new Supervisor Peter DiSclafani apologized for having authorized a $3,000 payment to a Westchester-based environmnetal consultancy firm for supplying comments to the DEC regarding the Scope in time for its deadline, which occurred fast on he and his new board having taken office in January. DiSclafani noted that he had polled all four of his board members about the matter, in lieu of a meeting, with four agreeing to hire Ferrandino Associates, who had previously been hired by the town to prepare a longer series of concerns for the town two years ago. Only the board’s sole registered Republican, Rob Stanley, had said no to the request and loudly complained about the procedure, which bypassed open meeting laws, at the recent meeting. He was backed up by a number of Resort employees, backers, and others in town worried about process.
The Ferrandino submission, short by highly specific and tied directly to all elements of the projects’ history, asks for greater detailed impact studies in all areaS and, in particular, in relation to such possible regional impacts as snow making, mountain bike trail runoff, and traffic. In addition, it suggests that full alternatives to what’s proposed, as well as cost analyses related to local business and wage impacts, be provided for the town’s own planning board permit decision-making.
The scoping document is basically a list of all the issues that the project’s environmental review must address. The state agency was to review all those ideas brought forth at the December hearings, plus within hundreds of letters and e-mails, and put together a document taking all into account.
This is not the first extension for the scoping process. All public comments were originally to be submitted before Jan. 7, but a number of citizens and organizations complained that there was not enough time to compose those comments, which address the proposed 700-acre development plan set forth by Crossroads Ventures. A two-week extension was requested; one week was granted.
A second request for an extension came from the town of Shandaken, which has a new administration this year. The new Town Board wanted more time to draft comments, but its request was denied.. leading to the recent controversy.
The Scope involves both a private development (the proposed construction and operation of the Wildacres Resort and Highmount Spa Resort complex by Crossroads Ventures) and related proposals by the Department of Environmental Conservation: the expansion of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, including “ski-in, ski-out” access to Crossroads’ proposed Highmount Spa Resort; the acquisition of a parcel known as Big Indian (1,200 acres); and the acquisition of the former Highmount Ski Center (78 acres) and an easement (21 acres) on the Highmount Spa property.
The project would be located in the towns of Shandaken in Ulster County and Middletown in Delaware County, within the boundaries of the Catskill Park. It is subject to an analysis as required by the State Environmental Quality Review Act for its potential environmental impact.
The preparation of the scoping document is among the first steps in a review process that will take a breather after the state releases its Scope in the coming weeks, and resume after both Crossroad Ventures, the private developer, AND the state come back with full plans in the form of multi-volume Draft Environmental Impacvt Statements. While the Crossroads’ document is expected to involve updating of previous information, the state’s creation will involve not only release of a long-awaited Unit Management Plan for the ski area, but detyails and impact studies for all that Spitzer promoted in his September 5 press conference.
Supporters of the project say the development would help the economy and provide badly needed jobs. Their efforts have included a push by the Coalition for Belleayre, an ad hoc group that successfully fought the state’s previous attempts to shut down their Catskills ski area and later started promoting summer music series at the state-owned facility, to rename itself The Coaliton To Save Belleayre in an attempt to make the current plans appear like “do or die” decision.
Critics say the development is too massive and would damage the region if allowed to be built as proposed. In addition, they have noted that state development of its ski resort in light of climate change is bad economics, and that the current plans represent possible class divisions in the region. Furthermore, their voices have been joined by competing privately-owned ski areas who say the state will be putting their businesses in danger with its expansion into new private-public areas.
Stay tuned, next issue, for what the scope actually says. And when everyone expects to be given their next opportunities to talk about this behemoth.

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Rent-A- Reverend

We’re talking, of course, about Tony & Tina’s Wedding, the hit Off-Broadway play of 18 years running that started screening as a film at the Waverly Theater, former home to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, back in November, with Reverend Debra performing actual vows before each screening. And of how this odd gig, which Debra’s hoping to take next to the Colony Café in Woodstock, has helped grow Romano’s separate RentAReverend.com business.
Suffice it to say that St. Valentine’s Day, and Romance with a capital R, mean a lot to the Reverend.
“I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness. My parents took me out of high school on Staten Island when I was 16,” Romano recalled, trying to get at what she finds so special about the Big V-Day, along with all the gaudy trappings of the sorts of weddings she’s become involved with much of the time. “It’s an over the top, commercialized holiday, but I never got to play with pink paper and glue, making Valentines for my mom, when I wished I could. I guess you could say I’m making up for lost time.”
Reverend Debra says she slipped into her new life a few years ago after spending years in the insurance business. When she found herself let go from one job she particularly hated, she said a friend suggested she start doing something she really wanted to do instead of always focusing on what she didn’t like. Since she’d already gotten a license to perform weddings years before hand, around the same time she started studies as a paralegal, it wasn’t a big leap to starting her own business.
“Then I answered a Craigslist ad for someone looking for a wedding officiant,” she says. “In that my moment my life changed.”
Today, Reverend Debra performs weddings with Hudson Valley Ceremonies, as well as on her own. In addition to the Tony & Tina gigs, she spent the recent holiday season wedding folk at the Charmin Restrooms in Times Square… and is also proud to have brought together a goodly share of alternative folks in committal ceremonies she feels are often more emotionally charged than normal weddings, because of the still-renegade aspects of the phenomenon.
She talks about how, when her son was killed in a motorcycle accident 1998, she felt she had to do some major things with her life. At the time, it was all about returning to school for the paralegal degree. But then, it also was involved in her new sense of commitment to bringing people together… with a bit of fun.
For her Tony N Tina gigs, Romano teases her hair bigger than usual, wears a miniskirt and fishnet stockings, and plays up the nasal New York accent she learned as a kid. Her words may be largely on script, but her intonations are broad… and fun, stressing vows of recommitment as well as newlyweds.
“I chew gum. I’m very 80s,” she says of her act. “And yet I make my ceremonies very personal. There’s something great about officiating someone’s choice, and being part of the happiest moment of their life up to that point.”
Reverend Debra added that after all these years doing weddings elsewhere, now, she’s ready to go to the town to see if she can hang out a shingle that would publicize her special services in Olive and the rest of the Catskills. In addition to making it possible to share what she does with neighbors and fellow Catskillians, she’s looking forward to sharing her husband, Antoine Hepkins’, musical contributions.
“You’ve just got to hear his version of ‘Here Comes The Bride,’” she notes. “It’s, what can I say… pretty groovy, all in all.”
She hoped folks would be able to catch her act before Tony & Tina, if not in Rosendale, at least in Woodstock… at a date still to be announced.
And as for Valentines, she noted that busy or not, she adores any holiday that reminds folks how important it is to declare one’s love. And accept others.
For further information visit www.rentareverend.com. Or just call 845-532-5610.

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Ready For Regionality?

The Smart Growth funds, announced on a local basis as part of Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Agreement in Principal to support a new Belleayre Resort compromise proposal that includes ties-in to state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Area, are part of a larger $2 million state fund dedicated to supporting “improvement projects that retain the vibrancy of the hamlets, villages, and town centers.”
At a February 5 Shandaken Town Board meeting where he introduced a possible resolution geared towards jump starting a collaborative process between the targeted towns, Manning said the Catskill Center will not be in charge of the money, but wishes to “start a regional dialogue.” He said the communities might want to discuss possible ways to leverage the funds, which will be controlled by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, so as to put them to the best use.
“Our organization has no control how the state is going to handle those monies,” Manning said to his audience, which included a number of folks who see the money as too small for any major projects and something of a pay-off to get acceptance of the governor’s AIP. Shandaken officials tabled the resolution Manning presented for further study.
Under its description in the AIP, projects eligible for Smart Growth funds include streetscape amenities, Main Street improvements, landscaping, affordable housing and enforcement of sign regulations.
Manning said, at the Shandaken meeting, that he believes the state will pay more attention to an application for use of the funds that is prepared by a group of municipalities than those from individual governments competing against one another for the funds.
“New York State Route 28 is the major thoroughfare of the central Catskill Mountains, offering the traveler a unique experience of mountain scenery and clear waterways, complemented by historic hamlets, and it is the combination of resources that gives the region much of its scenic and community character and is vital to the region’s economy,” he said, noting that the roadway passes through the heart of the Catskill Park, a resource created by an act of the state Legislature in 1904 and now encompassing approximately 700,000 acres, about half of which are lands of the Catskill Forest Preserve and held in the public trust.
“These six Central Catskills municipalities share many of the region’s unique resources and can mutually benefit by exploring cooperative approaches, engaging in intermunicipal discussions and identifying collective strategies and actions that support and enhance such shared resources,” Manning said, noting that he is hopeful that all government representatives consider joining what he called the “Central Catskills Collaborative” to work together through a bottom-up process that builds on local goals and objectives and engages in a regional dialogue focused on protecting and promoting the scenic, cultural, historic, and economic well-being of the Route 28 corridor and the Central Catskills.
In Olive, a similar meeting had yet to be scheduled, although Deputy Superviusor Bruce LaMOnda said he saw nothing to keep his town from joining in a regional consortium of the sort suggested.
Manning, in a separate interview, said recently that his current involvement with the collaborative project is as a means to a larger end: reinvigorating a corporative regional sensibility throughout the area. He said that his predecessor at the Catskill Center, Helen Budrock, had done good work within individual communities around the Catskills; he felt his job was to now get communities across the map looking into “the larger picture.”
“We need to understand how we share this resource,” he said, calling the Smart Growth money, no matter what its detractors say, a “big boost from the state.”. “My job is to help connections arise around the process.”
“These moneys are meant for capital projects and not planning,” he said. “The idea is to return vibrancy to our hamlets.”
Some project ideas he welcomed, talking off the top of his head, included better trail heads for the park, sidewalk improvements, and an overall upgrading of walking facilities in the area. At the same time, he said that he felt the greatest long-term benefit that everyone was wishing for out of the new funds was a better sense of cooperation, or at least dialogue, between the six Route 28 communities involved.
“I just want to be able to facilitate that,” Manning said, pointing to similar projects pulling together farming communities in Schoharie County, historical tours in Delaware County, and joint efforts in Greene County’s Mountaintop Communities. He said what was needed in many places was a better sense of a regional, as well as an individual municipal “sense of place.”
He said the potential difficulties of passing similar resolutions establishing a cooperative effort amongst towns were worth it, in the long run, if a new way of discussing regional matters could be established.
In similar talks, Catskill Center Director Tom Alworth, under fire from some in local communities for his role in helping reach the new Belleayre Resort compromise, spoke as well about moving his organization from specific goals conserving land and fostering specific advocacy campaigns to a new focus on the regional… similar to where the CCCD had been 12 years ago when it came under fire for helping propose the Catskills being recognized as one of a few hundred special United Nations Biosphere regions around the globe.
Alworth talked about his organization’s “optimism” and “glass half full” ideals, pushing for a unique mix of development and conservation that will not only save the region’s natural resources, but provide better livings for all who choose to live here. He spoke in terms of new development pressures, much as the state’s new Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Director, Willie Janeway, did in a separate interview about his own view of challenges, and opportunities, over the coming years.
Both men spoke at length about drawing new attention to the Catskills in light of the governor’s Belleayre expansion and resort proposals. Janeway said that he was hoping that not just the proposed, and once-started, Catskill Interpretive Center in Mt. Tremper will be started in the coming years, but at least three other such centers in Delaware, Greene and Sullivan counties, the better to focus on the region’s watershed, history, and communal aspects. Alworth said he was hoping to find ways of breeding more interaction between counties and communities, the better to overcome bad planning decisions that might not be seen when towns or villages look out only for themselves.
Speaking on an even wider basis, the Catskill Center’s new Director of Policy, Deborah DeWan – last with the organization 12 years ago, spoke about how the new focus brought to the Catskills by Spitzer and his Belleayre focus, while still controversial, is activating numerous other longer-promised or hoped-for projects. She said the effort is on to get people to thinking in terms of all the Catskills, and its park as well as watershed attributes, the better to create a “park effect” identity to protect it, and grow it smartly, in the future. Much like the Lake District in England, the Alps, or the way Vermont has come to be seen.
“This Smart Growth initiative,” DeWan said, “is part of that. It’s an opportunity…”
But also, being involved in such battered and self-protective towns as those it is geared towards, one set up for more challenges.
Stay tuned on this one…

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A Jar Of Olives...
We Get To See Our Shadow

To counteract those Februaryblashahs you might visit Barry DeBaun’’s exhibition entitled From the Catskills…to the Coast that runs from February 23 to March 30, 2008. There will be an opening reception at the DeBaun Art Gallery at the Trail Motel on Route 28 in Boiceville on Saturday, February 23 from 2-7 p.m.
Speaking of artists, remember to contact Judith Boggess at jboggessmsc@hvc.rr.com or at 657- 5817 to show interest in the senior art class that is about to start in early March. Remember, novices and seasoned artists, even social art lovers and critics, are welcome.
Another event that shouldn’t be missed is Martha Frankel’s book signing and reading of Hats and Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling that will be Saturday, February 16 at 5:00 p.m. at the Boiceville Inn. On Thursday, February 7, the New York Times published an interview with Martha at her home in West Shokan. The article was entitled Will She Hold Them or Fold Them? If you log onto her website, Marthafrankel.com, you can read this and the other stories creating a buzz for this entertainment biographer. Borders Books will be highlighting her book in the prestigious Orignial Voices series. Barnes and Noble in New York City and Kingston (March 6 at 7 p.m.) have scheduled book signings. She has radio interviews and college presentations on the horizon. I am a bit of a gambler myself, and I am betting that Martha is one of those people we can brag about and say, “ I knew her when.”
This paper will be published on Valentine’s Day. If you haven’t done something wonderful for your honey, mother, child, wife, sister, friend or neighbor, you’d better giddy-up. Of course, you can always do the chocolate or flowers thing. You could also go out to eat or make a special dinner at home. However, the best Valentine’s gift comes from the heart and doesn’t always have to come from the wallet. A back or foot rub, a handwritten poem, or a simple baloney sandwich carved into a heart is sure to earn you points with your sweetheart. A word of advice, men: Do not, I repeat, do not buy a cooking appliance unless you are personally going to use it to create a romantic dinner for two. Women: Do not buy matching sweaters; Guaranteed one will never be worn. Then again, you can just let it go by declaring, “It’s only a Hallmark and Retail holiday.” I would not advise doing that because, as Olive/Oliver the groundhog predicts, “It’s going to be a long winter, and it’ll be an even longer one for those who ignore this holiday of love.”

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