Heralded, Sight Unseen

As has become a familiar sight at his local public appearances, Gitter was accompanied by a large group of trade union members, many from the Newburgh-Middletown area, there to voice hope they might one day benefit from construction jobs on the project. Gitter's men who arrived early, took up most of the visitor seating and for the most part sat with their arms folded.
Gitter began by outlining his company's positive economic projections, substantially unchanged in the eight years the project's been formally under public review. He repeated his recent pronouncement, first made before the Chamber of Commerce, that his company was "in partnership in the design and operation" of the proposed project with some environmental groups which signed on to a 2007 Agreement in Principal brokered by former governor Spitzer. Asked about this after the meeting, several of those groups said that's an understanding of their involvement they do not share.
But apparently troubled by legislator Brian Shapiro's comment that the project is "extremely contentious" in our district, or perhaps by remarks from fellow District 2 legislator Don Gregorius that he felt lawmakers should delay considering an endorsement until Crossroads actually releases its current plans to the public, Gitter went after both.
"This is part of the conspiracy that you guys have been involved with for four years," he said. He also accused them of representing only the town of Woodstock, not Shandaken. The two also represent the towns of Denning and Hardenburgh in the legislature, though Gitter didn't offer political analysis of that.
"I do take exception to you, Mr. Gitter, attacking my fellow legislators" said David Donaldson, who until recently served as their chairman these past several years. Similar sentiments were echoed by former majority, now minority leader Jeanette Provenzano. Perhaps sensing the discomfort at the sudden surge of palpable surliness, Chairman Fred Wadnola stepped in.
"Thank you. Enough is enough," he said.
"If I've embarrassed you, I apologize" said Gitter.
Neither Shapiro nor Gregorius responded to Gitter's attacks in chambers, but later held a brief news conference, joined by the Catskill Heritage Alliance's Richard Schaedle.
Shapiro said that Gitter had described his community's concerns as "a lunch meat product known as bologna." Gregorius reiterated that for the county legislature to take a position on the project "before an environmental review is finished" makes no sense. And Schaedle raised a number of questions concerning Spitzer's suspension of its SEQRA process and the unresolved issues in 12 areas legally judged to require adjudication but never allowed, under Spitzer's executive authority, to proceed.
A week later, the public was back in the same chamber, sans Gitter, to comment in advance of the legislature's planned vote on the matter. Crowds in the packed chamber overflowed into the hallway. At issue was a resolution "strongly supporting" the project and citing as whereases the developer's economic claims, but having no force of law or direct effect on its ongoing regulatory process. In legislative-speak, what was pending was a "memorializing resolution."
More than two dozen people addressed the legislators and crowd, and comments went on for well over an hour. Some spoke in support of the measure and the need for the project, including Eugene Gruner from the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce, who called Shandaken "a sad, depressed place," and Joe Kelly of the Coalition to Save Belleayre, who said the state-owned ski area lost out on $5.5 million in funding for snowmaking that would have been available had the resort project been moving forward. Newburgh residents and union workers Glen Williams and Mark Peifley also spoke in favor, as a means to creating needed construction jobs.
Many of those who spoke, however, were local residents of the Route 28 corridor, citing potential problems and unresolved impact issues, and asking the legislators not to take a position until the developer's current plans are released for public review. Such plans have been expected by regulators since the end of the project's last SEQRA Scoping process in 2008.
"We respectfully request you keep your nose out of it," said Town of Hardenburgh Supervisor Jerry Fairbairn, adding that the project is subject to municipal review in Shandaken and Middletown, and that Ulster County lacks permitting and regulatory authority.
By the end of the evening, though, it became clear the votes had been counted earlier at the two parties' pre-meeting caucuses. 27 legislators voted in favor, Shapiro, Gregorius, and Robert Parete of Boiceville voted against, with Roy Hochberg from Glenford abstaining. It was the third time in four attempts over a 10-year period that such resolutions supporting the project had been adopted by the county legislature, and most observers regard it as public relations win for the developer. Whether its passage will have anything beyond symbolic effect remains unclear. The week before, Gitter had said " I firmly believe that such a statement by this county legislature will help move this project through the bureaucratic morass." Time, presumably, will tell.
As for Gitter's suggestion of an ongoing partnership with signatories to the 2007 AIP, that, if anything, appears perhaps overly hopeful.
"No contact or collaboration (has) ever been made with Crossroads Ventures for "design or operation" as Gitter stated" said Ron Urban, signatory to the agreement for Trout Unlimited. "I in fact, have never met Dean Gitter or spoken with him."
"I wouldn't characterize the relationship as a partnership, " said Alan White, Executive Director of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development. "It primarily reflected agreement on a couple broad strokes."
"We would not characterize our relationship with Mr.Gitter as being "in partnership in the design and operation of the proposed project" said Eric Goldstein of NRDC, one of the agreement's lead negotiators. "When we signed the AIP, we did so primarily to advance and support the acquisition of 1,220 acres of hydrologically critical and ecologically important lands...We also agreed, consistent with Congressman Maurice Hinchey's original concept, that there could be environmentally sound economic development on the smaller parcel, west of Belleayre. The groups that signed the conceptual agreement were careful to insist that (such) proposed development be required to undergo a comprehensive review process including public hearings and comment as well as full compliance with all local, state, and federal environmental laws. And we look forward to reviewing the SDEIS and participating in the public hearings when they take place."
When Gitter's company will unveil and submit that long-awaited document isn't readily apparent. In late December Gitter said it would be released in January; few regulators now expect it until late spring or perhaps summer.
Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors in Delaware County, where 15 percent of the resort will lie and 50 % of its taxes and all of its runoff head, say they haven't heard from Gitter this season.

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Nothing New Being Built

That's in contrast, however, to 2008, which saw 24 permits in the hands of builders by mid March.
Zoning Chairman Rolf Reiss said Tuesday that things have been slow for the Zoning Board of Appeals of late. Real slow.
"Actually we haven't had a meeting since November," he said.
The ZBA handles cases in which landowners seek relief from land use law by claiming hardship. Sometimes people want to put on an addition to their home, but find the plans require that the new structure be too close to the property line. Or others might want to put up a fence to block unsightly commercial activity but need a fence higher than the law allows for it to be effective.
None of that is happening this year.
Reiss, a builder, did note that recent storms have created lots of short term work in the town due to tree limbs doing damage to structures, but he doesn't see much real building happening.
Nor does Planning Board Secretary Marie Stutman.
"We've only had two cases all year," she said Tuesday.
One was for a two lot subdivision and the other was a simple lot line adjustment. Both have been completed by the board already. Stutman says this is nothing like the planning board's agenda a few years back.
"Five years ago they were handling four cases a month," she said.
So what will the Planning Board do now?
"We'll have a meeting without a case," she said.
This is now policy on the Planning Board under new Chairman Charles Frasier, who was appointed to the post in February by the Town Board after the rest of the Planning Board supported the ousting of former chair Beth Waterman, who was not reappointed when her term ended on December 31st.
One the criticisms of Waterman's tenure by her fellow planners was that she would cancel meetings when there was no caseload.
Planner Joanne Kalb, a vocal critic of Waterman, said at the time that she believes there is plenty for the planners to work on besides specific cases, including looking for means to be more proactive about changing the town's development profile.
The planners will meet for an informal workshop on April 6th at 7pm at town hall on Route 28. The official monthly planning board meeting, where they can conduct official business, is slated for Wednesday, April 14th at 7pm.
Calls to both Frasier and Kalb went unanswered as of press time.
So did a call to Ulster County Planner Dennis Doyle regarding what a town should do when it has eight standing zoning infractions pending, and more expected to come into view in the coming term.
Stay tuned...

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Ashokan Center On Hold

At the March 2 Olive Planning Board meeting, a brief discussion was held about putting plans for new building at the Ashokan Center on hold for the foreseeable future. The Center had been on schedule to get plans finalized for their new buildings, and had hoped to be able to go to Public Hearing sometime in April. However, due to estimated costs coming in much higher than had been anticipated, they are taking a step back and reviewing their options.

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USPS Mulls Closings

According to Big Indian resident Jeffrey Laskow, who owns the building the United States Postal Service leases along Route 28 next to the recently spruced up Big Indian Park, he has been battling with the USPS recently, trying to negotiate a new deal instead of their apparent plans to let a lease expire at the end of June and shift services to Shandaken, a few miles away..
In Willow, a committee of local residents, including former postmistress Rose Van Wagenen, has come together to find ways of ensuring the USPS honors a deal it announced three years ago to move its temporary trailer from private lands whose owner has requested they move to another lot.
In lieu of the fact that current postmasters andpostmistresses are forbidden for speaking about such matters publicly, they have, in turn, been in touch with Betty Eickler of New Paltz, National Chair for matters dealing with all closings and consolidations of post offices for the lobbying group, National Association of Postmasters of the United States (NAPUS).
"Losing such an important component of our local community will have everlasting effects and create such hardships on the locals that would never really recover," Laskow said in a prepared statement. "Our local Post Offices create a life line for residents during bad weather and times of local disasters and the obvious reasons of day to day life....without your help and the support of local government the facility will close in a blink of an eye and be lost forever."
"This is how we lose our hamlets," said Stanley, after noting that he and Laskow had been unable to reach anyone at USPS confirm, or even talk to about their concerns. "This is how we lose our identities."
Laskow says the USPS plans to not sign another lease, but call the result an eviction. His research indicates this strategy "has been happening all across America."
The post office has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and bill paying, or use private carriers for shipments. The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, cuts in staff and removal of collection boxes.
Post officials sent a list of nearly 700 potential closing candidates to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for review. That was recently whittleddown to a list of several hundred, most of them in major cities... including New York's five boroughs, Albany and Syracuse, in our extended area.
In addition, USPS is studying activities of approximately 3,200 stations and branches across the country considering factors such as customer access, service standards, cost savings, impact on employees, environmental impact, real estate values and long-term Postal Service needs.
"Negotiations are going on in Big Indian. We have a lease there that expires at the end of June," said USPS Corporate Communications Officer Tom Grayson from New York City offices this week, when contacted about the local closing possibilities. "Things are in flux..."
According to information put on the record this week from a March 10 U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission hearing in Washingtton, the objective of the current "Initiative" is to "realign the postal retail network with current and future postal customer service needs, to reduce inefficiency and redundancy, and
to capture the resulting cost savings." Citing the recent declines in mail volume
and demand for retail service, the Postal Service is proposing to identify opportunities for consolidation, but to carry out consolidations only after concluding that such changes would continue to provide "ready access to essential postal services.".
The USPS stated, at that time, that the Initiative began in May, 2009 with the examination of the portion of the retail network consisting of stations and branches primarily in urban and suburban population centers and comprise approximately two-thirds of the over 4,800 stations and branches nationwide. Request at 5-6.
Gaynor suggested that the activities taking place in our region are more routine than part of the larger effort, but added that he would have to ascertain such information formally.
In the recent hearings, it was determined that use of "alternative access
Channels" to postal services via the Postal Service's website, the availability of stamps at non-postal retail locations, privately-operated Approved Shipper locations; and carrier pick-up services now account for over a third of all business, further forcing changes.
And although, as Laskow has pointed out, postal regulations stipulate specifically against the closing of rural post offices for efficiency purposes, new criteria discussed on March 10, and part of the new Initiative, include looking at all post offices within five to ten miles of each other, as well as those leased, as well as the nature of the buildings occupied.
In Shandaken, at present, post offices exist in Highmount, Pine Hill, Shandaken, Phoenicia, and Mt. Tremper, as well as Big Indian and nearby Lanesville. In Olive, they are located in Boiceville, Shokan, West Shokan, and Olivebridge, as well as nearby Glenford. In Woodstock, besides Willows, post offices are currently in Lake Hill, Woodstock, and Bearsville, as well as nearby West Hurley.
Older post offices existed for various periods in various other communities around the region, from Krumville and Samsonville to Bushnellsville, Allaben and Oliverea. Whenever closings have occurred in recent decades, they've tended to occur somewhat mysteriously, as now.
Representing postal customers at the recent commission hearing, by and large, were representatives from the American Postal Workers Union, as well as the Association of United States Postal Lessors... the sort of entities some now characterize as "special interests." Amongst the points they raised were the fact that the Postal Service should consider additional factors in its review process for potential closings and consolidations including meetings with area planners and government staff to better understand the general activity of activity, and possible development, in the area, as well as " the postal and non-postal needs of the community."
Two public hearings on the current Initiative were held last September, in Ohio and The Bronx.
In their findings, the Postal Regulatory Commission found that better communications were needed whenever actions were contemplated by the USPS in a community, and that, "The method used for evaluating proposals for consolidations and closures should include a separate category for
community issues."
At the same time, they also concluded that all current cost-cutting attempts by the agency should be continued.
We'll keep you informed as negotiations continue, and USPS plans surface. In the meantime, we urge you contact NAPUS, the American Postal Workers Union, as well as the Association of United States Postal Lessors for help.
In the end, there are governmental entities we both want and need in our lives.

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Easing The Big Cuts

"This is the first step down, they are only restoring part," the superintendent added, predicting that the following years will become even more difficult and presenting a sheet of projections that saw the district with a deficit of $5.3million if nothing changed in the aid formula and the district maintained a three percent levy increase each year based on increased budget costs regarding health care, teacher's retirement and salaries.
Reductions or elimination of programs have already included the Gifted and Talented program, after school homework help, GED, INDIE and field trips so far. Other cuts include a complete shuttering of West Hurley Elementary, special education teachers and aides, and field trips.
With a four percent levy targeted by the board, the budget is projected to increase by .26 percent or $127,997.91. Currently the district budget is $49,918,911.97 and would increase to $50,046,909.88.
If the district made no budget reductions, a rollover budget would increase the tax levy by 10.23 percent or a 4.93 increase in the budget. If voters were to reject the budget two times, a contingent budget would take over, offering up a zero budget increase and a 2.85 percent levy increase... as well as a projected $3 million budget shortfall.
A week later, on March 16, the cafetorium at Phoenicia Elementary School was wedged with students, parents, teachers and community members who sometimes spoke through tears, music and prayers. Everyone asked to save their beloved programs on a three tiered list of budget cuts and spoke about the importance of art, music, sports and teachers.
In response, the board asked the administration to make tweaks to the proposed .36 budget increase that would bring in a four percent tax levy and, in order to restore some of the programming, board members said they would start looking at increasing the budget to meet a 4.5 percent levy, although they acknowledged approaching such an increase with caution.
Among newer cuts discussed were the elimination of a middle school team, which in turn would lay off four secondary teachers, the cutting of a math teacher, the cutting of girl's volleyball, golf and winter indoor track, the elimination of late bus runs on Monday and Friday, the dropping of another two special education teachers and a speech therapist, four special education teaching assistants, and one librarian.
After three plus hours of discussion, the board requested that the administration look into a handful of cuts that would replace other programs on the chopping block, including JV sports (to be merges into modified and varsity if possible), ALL late run transportation, the printing of a school calendar, the finding of additional energy savings, the partially elimination of the district's equipment budget, and the complete mothballing of West Hurley.
The board additionally requested restoring the music position; that administrators seeks a gifted and talented-type program through in-house teachers, and look into combining bus stops where possible.
The athletic department announced that the popular indoor winter track program had broken 14 district records this year and board members are seeking ways to keep the program.
Also, early retirement incentives were introduced as a cost savings strategy.
The superintendent's budget recommendation is set for April 6, with a public discussion period starting at 5 PM at The Bennett School in Boiceville, and the board is scheduled to adopt a budget on April 20 at the Middle/High School.
In addition, it should be noted that two seats are available for anyone interested in serving on the Onteora Board of Education. Petitions can be found at the central office in Boiceville or online by going to Onteora.k12.ny.us. A PDF file of petitions and rules can be found to the left of the district's home page. Anyone interested in the three-year term beginning July 2010 must be a registered voter, citizen and have resided in the district for one year. Petitions must be turned into the district office with 37 valid signatures no later than 5:00 PM on Monday, April 19. Tom Hickey and Rob Kurnit are up for re-election. The school board appointed them in July 2009 when Michelle Friedel and Rick Wolff resigned. The election and budget vote is Tuesday, May 18.

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