News Briefs 4/10/2008

The Lobbying Effort For Better Skiing…

...saying that despite the state’s needs for budget cuts, the actions “would severely impact the future of the Belleayre Ski Center, which is the primary economic catalyst of the region.” Organizers met with several key State officials in an effort to have the proposed cuts put back into the budget including longtime Belleayre supporters Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos; Senator John Bonacic; and Assembly members Clifford Crouch; along with Assemblyman Kevin Cahill and Deputy Secretary for the Environment Judith Enck, in whose office the above image was taken. Complaints were voiced about similar lobbying efforts from various private ski area owners in the region now including former Belleayre ally Plattekill, HUnter and Windham Mountains in Greene County, and the entire Ski Association of New York, who have asked for a moratorium on further Belleayre development until a full study of the industry and effects of private/public competition can be made. In addition to the Coalition, other groups with members marching were the Belleayre Regional Lodging and Tourism Association, the members of which rely on overnight skiers guests, the Greater Margaretville Chamber of Commerce, the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, and Partners for Progress, a grassroots organization formed to support Belleayre and the proposed Belleayre Resort. And yet as budget talks continued this past week towards a resolution expected next week, all talk of the lobbying effort started falling to silence as more budget trimming took place elsewhere around the state. In the meanwhile, those who called the state run facility ‘s toll free phone or regular phone numbers were informed that it had been disconnected. Turns out there was a glitch in the system... that necessitated it all be shut down for the time being. Word was, though, that things should be back to normal for the ski area’s final weekend over the coming days...

Park Planning
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released a new proposed Catskill Park State Land Master Plan during the first week in April that incorporates significant changes to balance recreational opportunities with enhanced environmental protection, and is designed to serve as a guide for future management of the State’s 292,000-acre holdings within the Catskill Forest Preserve. It is being made available for public review and comment until May 19, 2008. Key revisions focus on trails open to mountain biking, boundaries of the Colgate Wild Forest and the control of invasive species.
“The DEC has worked hard to evaluate and incorporate the public feedback received on the initial draft and has made significant changes in response to that public input, DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said in a press release. “This revised draft Master Plan will assist DEC in continuing to manage the Catskill Forest Preserve in ways that are sensitive to public needs and protect the region’s natural resources for the future.”
The Catskill Forest Preserve is part of the Catskill Park, which consists of 705,500 acres of public and private lands. Since its creation in 1885, the Catskill Forest Preserve has grown from 34,000 acres to nearly 300,000 acres of public land within Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster counties. Forest Preserve lands are protected under Article 14 of the State Constitution as “forever wild” and cannot be logged, leased or sold, and must be managed to protect wilderness values. The state pays local property taxes on all Forest Preserve lands.
The original Catskill Park State Land Master Plan was developed in 1985 and classifies forest preserve lands within the Park based on their physical character and capacity to accommodate human use based on four land classifications: wilderness, wild forest, intensive use and administrative. The Plan also designates management units and directs DEC to develop individual Unit Management Plans that guide management activities and public use of those units.
In August 2003, a proposed draft revision of the Catskill Master Plan was released for public review and comment, including numerous requests for increased mountain biking opportunities. The plan now includes a new “Primitive Bicycle Corridor” with links to local communities along the former Mink Hollow Road, Overlook Turnpike, Diamond Notch Road, and up from Colgate Lake in Greene County.
The draft plan is on the DEC website http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/5265.html. DEC is accepting comments on the revised draft Catskill Park State Land Master Plan until May 19, 2008. Comments should be addressed to: Peter J. Frank, Bureau Chief, Forest Preserve Management, NYSDEC, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4254, or by email to lfcat@gw.dec.state.ny.us.

Jail Finale
Ulster County district attorney Holley Carnright held a press conference on March 27 to announce that an Ulster County grand jury has handed up a one-count indictment for a misdemeanor charge of official misfeasance against former county buildings and grounds superintendent Harvey Sleight for his conduct during the construction of the Ulster County Law Enforcement Center.
The special committee of the county legislature that investigated the construction debacle had recommended that the grand jury look into potential misdeeds by former county legislature chairman Ward Todd, current county legislator and former chairman Richard Gerentine, and former county attorney Francis Murray. None were found, according to Carnright.
Sleight was charged with violating a 2000 county legislature resolution and General Municipal Law 104b, both of which require a request for proposals from professional-service providers for any and all contracts in excess of $40,000.
The contract, for approximately $98,000, was awarded to McNeice, Hatch and Roblee without such a process, after the firm was apparently shown a competitor’s proposal.
Sleight, if found guilty of the charge, could face one year in jail - in another wing of the same edifice - and be fined $1,000. Sleight appeared for arraignment with his attorney, Michael Miranda, before judge Michael J. Bruhn, and pled not guilty on Monday, March 31. According to Carnright, the case was then adjourned for discovery and motions, which could take about a month.
“It appears to me like I’m being a scapegoat,” said Sleight at his arraigment. “There was nothing done wrong. I’m not happy about the fact that the only name on the front page of the paper was mine.”
The contract in question was for part of an environmental analysis for SEQRA determination, involved an analysis of the size and purpose of the project. The same firm, under a different name, also got the contract to be architect of the project.
“It would be a mistake for me to make Harvey Sleight a scapegoat,” said Carnright at the March 27 gathering. “Having said that, as district attorney, if the grand jury says there’s evidence of a crime, it’s up to me to prosecute it.”
The grand jury has filed a report with Ulster County Court Judge Bruhn that the district attorney believes will answer more questions. It will be up to the judge to decide whether the report is made public, something that Carnright said he had recommended.
Carnright later said that motives behind what went wrong are not in the report, and added that the voluminous paperwork from which the report was drawn will be permanently sealed from public view.
Civil suits are now pending with and between the various private contractors hired. Maybe more information will arise during those trials… should they get that far.
Sleight faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the charge, though people found guilty of official misconduct rarely get jail time.
Speaking of former Republican Legislature Chairmen Ward Todd and Richard Gerentine and former county attorney Frank Murray, whose names came up repeatedly during previous investigations into the jail’s cost overruns, Carnright said that while the grand jury didn’t indict the three former officials, it also did not issue “a report exonerating those individuals.” But he added that the grand jury of 18 also did not criticize the three men in any way, which it could have done.

Home Sales
Sales of existing single-family homes continued their downward spiral in the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions in February, according to figures released by the New York State Association of Realtors. Rockland County experienced the largest decline with a 45.5 percent drop in home sales. In contrast, sales rose in Dutchess County by eight percent and by 4.4 percent in Putnam County. They dropped by almost 44 percent in Orange County, by 33 percent in Sullivan County, by 30 percent in Delaware County, by 22 percent in Westchester County, by almost 16 percent in Columbia County, by 10 percent in Greene County and by over four percent in Ulster County. Statewide, sales dipped by 19 percent.
The highest priced homes continued to sell in Westchester with a median price of $607,500; the lowest priced were in $110,000 in Delaware County. In Rockland, the median selling price in February was $438,000; in Putnam, it was $425,000, in Dutchess, $328,500; in Columbia County, $300,000; Orange, $295,000; in Ulster, $233,700; in Greene, $179,950; and in Sullivan County, $153,250.
But all that represents a slight lessening of such declining figures over January.
Ulster County Director of Planning Dennis Doyle spoke about what was happening at a recent meeting at the Marlboro Library where he detailed the priority strategies for the Ulster County Housing Consortium. Speaking of the new median price for a house in Ulster County being between $180,000 and $190,000, Doyle noted how a family needed an annual household income of about $64,000 to afford such prices. And, he added, renters don’t fare much better. About $740 is paid in median rent with a household income about of $30,000.
Doyle said many people, including elected officials and business leaders, in the local communities need to get involved with the housing issue to help ensure all residents are served well,

Suicidal…
Police on April 5 disarmed a 15-year-old boy who they said was suicidal and wanted cops to kill him. The teen’s weapon turned out to be a BB gun.
New York City Department of Environmental Protection police said they were notified about 8:35 a.m. that the boy had left his home in Olive and was suicidal. Police, using a dog, found the boy a short time later on state Route 213 in Marbletown, they said. When officers approached the boy, he pulled a black Beretta-style gun from his shirt pocket, aimed it at one of the officers and urged them to shoot him, police said. Police said they struggled briefly with the boy and were able to disarm him, realizing only then that the weapon was a BB gun.
The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was taken to Benedictine Hospital in Kingston for evaluation, and criminal charges were pending, police said.

Cleanup Time
The Catskill Watershed Corporation will once again support groups and individuals who clean litter and other debris from streambanks in their neighborhoods. Youth and school groups, church organizations, civic and business associations, neighborhood groups and teams of friends are encouraged to scour stream and riversides for trash and to dispose of it properly. The CWC will provide trash bags, gloves and tokens of appreciation for those who choose to serve their communities in this way. Call Kim Ackerley at 845-586-1400 to arrange to get these items, or for suggestions on areas that need attention.
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection is also coordinating clean-ups at the Ashokan Reservoir May 3 and June 7; the Schoharie Reservoir May 17 and Sept. 13; the Pepacton Reservoir August 9; the Rondout Reservoir Sept. 20 and the Neversink Reservoir September 21. Contact Amy Flavin (845-340-7530, or aflavin@dep.nyc.gov) for more information on how to lend a hand with those projects.

Joan’s The One
Joan Lawrence-Bauer, executive director of the M-ARK Project since 2004, will leave that Margaretville-based agency in May to return as the public relations director for the Emerson Resort and the Belleayre Resort according to officials at both organizations.
Crossroads Ventures Managing Partner Dean Gitter announced this week that Paul Rakov, who has served as the company’s spokesperson since 2005, has left for a post with a New York City PR firm that specializes in luxury travel. Lawrence-Bauer held the position of Public Relations Director under Gitter prior to Rakov being hired, after several others held the position for short periods of time, leaving with pay and other complaints.
The MARK Project is a 30-year-old Rural Preservation Company serving Andes, Middletown, Roxbury and the villages of Fleischmanns and Margaretville. The group will begin a statewide search process for a new director immediately, joining the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development on the list regional agencies seeking new leadership. Tom Alworth, the Catskill Center’s most recent Executive Director, left that position last month.
The current Chairman of the M-ARK board of directors, J.R. Lawrence, is Lawrence-Bauer’s former husband.
In recent months, Lawrence Bauer had become increasingly involved in helping organize efforts on behalf of Gitter’s project and tied-in development expansion plans for adjacent state-owned Belleayre Ski Center, a level of partisanship she can now increase instead of worrying whether her efforts were running counter of state and federal laws governing grants administration via not-for-profit entities such as MARK.

CWC To Meet
The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) will hold its 11th Annual Meeting of member towns Tuesday, April 22 at 6 p.m. at CWC offices, 905 Main Street, Margaretville. Results of the election of representatives from Greene and Delaware Counties to the CWC Board of Directors will be announced. A slide show of CWC achievements over the past year will be shown, and the floor will then be open for questions and comments from representatives of member towns and villages.
Following the Annual Meeting, the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors will be held.
On March 25, the Catskill Watershed Corporation Board of Directors March 25 authorized funding for four stormwater projects and approved four community planning grants. The Stormwater Retrofit grants included $220,743 to Ulster County to improve drainage and manage erosion along Glenford-Wittenberg Road, in the Town of Hurley; and $107,519 to the Town of Hurley to implement improvements on and near the Bristol Hill Subdivision. In addition, the Board approved reimbursement of $10,950 to Paul Solodar for stormwater management measures installed in connection with construction of a four-unit condominium project completed last year in the Village of Hunter.
The planning grants, awarded under the CWC’s Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), will go to the Town of Halcott ($25,000 to complete a proposal to implement zoning); the Town of Denning ($45,000 to complete a comprehensive plan); and the Town and Village of Delhi ($50,000 to update a joint comprehensive plan).
A $30,000 LTAP grant will go to the Town and Village of Hunter and the Village of Tannersville for development of a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for the Route 23A corridor that runs through these communities.
For more information, go to www.cwconline.org, or call toll-free 877-928-7433.

Karmapa Coming
Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, the Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Woodstock, will be hosting an upcoming visit by the head of their order, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa lama from Monday, May 19, through Thursday, May 23 for his first visit to the West, when he will also travel to New York City, a sister monastery in Boulder, CO and Seattle before returning to the Gyuto Monastery near Dharamsala, India, where the 22 year old now lives. An estimated 1,000 people are expected to be present at the Karmapa’s private invitation Woodstock events at KTD on Tuesday, May 20, and Wednesday, May 21.
The Karmapa will reportedly not give a public talk in Woodstock as did the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of all the Tibetan people, during his visit in September 2006, when he stayed at Phoenicia’s Menla Center.
The Karmapa is regarded by Tibetan Buddhists as a “reincarnate lama,” someone who, although enlightened, returns to human birth, lifetime after lifetime, in order help others achieve enlightenment. The 16th Karmapa, who passed away in Illinois in 1981, visited KTD in 1980 and performed a rare and ancient Tibetan Buddhist ritual known as the “Black Hat” ceremony.

Benefiting All...
Onteora High School’s Amnesty International/ Diversity Club is organizing a Silent Auction to benefit the children of Deborah Leshkevich, the teaching assistant who was killed by her husband in February. The auction will be held at New World Home Cooking, 1411 Route 212, between Woodstock and Saugerties, on Thursday, April 10, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Bidding will end at 8:30. Admission is $15 for students and $20 for adults. Hors d’oeuvres, dessert, and coffee will be served. Tickets can be purchased at Onteora High School’s main office, Woodstock Elementary School’s main office, or at the door.

Intern Ready?
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is sponsoring a summer internship program for 10 college students and graduating high school seniors who are presently enrolled in accredited college programs. The interns are expected to be assigned to seven different DEP facilities in Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster Counties. The internships run from early June 2008 until late August 2008, depending upon the academic calendar of each intern.
Interns will be placed in assignments that focus on engineering and scientific disciplines and will include tasks in water supply and wastewater treatment operations, water quality, watershed protection, and administration.
“This program is designed to develop future employees to lead the water supply into the future and to improve the partnership with watershed communities that is essential to long-term filtration avoidance,” said Paul Rush, DEP’s Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Water Supply.
Students interested in this opportunity should submit their resumes to NYCDEP, BWS, P.O. Box 358, Grahamsville, NY 12740 by April 25.

Close Gitmo
Five former U.S. secretaries of State have urged the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran. The former chiefs of American diplomacy, who served in Democratic and Republican administrations, reached a consensus on the two issues at a conference in Athens aimed at giving the next president some bipartisan foreign policy advice. Each of them said closing the prison in Cuba would bolster America’s image abroad.
“It says to the world: ‘We are now going back to our traditional respective forms of dealing with people who potentially committed crimes,’ “ said Colin Powell, who served as President Bush’s first secretary of State.
Powell was joined by Henry A. Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Warren Christopher and Madeleine K. Albright, who sat in a round-table discussion sponsored by the University of Georgia at a sold-out conference center in downtown Athens.
The former secretaries of State also urged that the U.S. open a line of dialogue with Iran, each saying it was important to maintain contact with adversaries and allies alike.
“One has to talk with adversaries,” said Kissinger, who served the Nixon and Ford administrations.
Powell compared the potential talks to difficult visits he made to Syria while he served as America’s chief diplomat.
“They are not always pleasant visits,” he said. “But you’ve got to do it.”

Senior Sports...
The Ulster County Office for the Aging’s Senior Games will begin on May 5, 2008, with competitive sporting events held in various locations in the County. The games include Swimming, Bowling, Shuffleboard, Horseshoes, Miniature Golf, Golf, Trivia and Name that Tune. The Senior Games are open to all Ulster County seniors, age 60 and over, these events provide fun, exercise, socialization and competition. An Awards Luncheon will follow on June 12, 2008 with a Sunset Cruise theme. For more information and an application, please contact the Office for the Aging at 340-3456 or 1-877-914-3456.

Headed South?
The efforts of the Save The Mountain group opposing the Belleayre Resort as currently configured have started to range south in the region, and are working with The Sierra Club and local chapters of American Mensa to put on an upcoming informational session and film screening in conjunction with Save the Lakes, an organization trying to save Williams Lake in Rosendale, where a large-scale housing and resort project is planned as a gated community and would forever remove public access from a variety of local trails in the area.
The event, including speeches by and a showing of the film “Resorting To Madness,” takes place at 7 PM on Wednesday, April 16 at the New Paltz Jewish Center on North Chestnut Street. Speakers include: Dave Porter & Paul Rubin for Williams Lake, for Belleayre; Rich Shaedle, Chairman of the Catskill Heritage Alliance; and Julie McQuain, founding member of ‘Save the Mountain’ and President of the Ulster County Democratic Women’s Club.

Walkathoning...
A Benefit Walkathon is scheduled for April 19th at 2: PM meeting at the Ashokan Reservoir at the Frying Pan. Participants are welcomed to walk, run, or ride a bike. Families and children will be in attendance and are welcomed. All participants are encouraged to gain sponsorships for each mile walked to donate to the P.E.T. cause.
Overlook United Methodist Church youth took on the P.E.T. (Personal Energy Transport) project after hearing about their efforts to raise money to build rustic wheel chairs for the severely handicapped in 3rd world countries such as in Africa, Mexico and Honduras and all of South America.
The main US charitable group is called PET International, Inc, 503 E. Nifong Blvd,, Columbia, MO. Their email is pet@petinternational.org. Their homemade chairs are built in the US by volunteers.
For further information visit www.petnyej.org. or call 679-9353..

Universalizing
More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a new survey that suggests that opinions have changed substantially since the last survey in 2002 as the country debates serious changes to the health care system. Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it.
“Many claim to speak for physicians and represent their views. We asked doctors directly and found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most doctors support national health insurance,” said Dr. Aaron Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who led the study.
“As doctors, we find that our patients suffer because of increasing deductibles, co-payments, and restrictions on patient care,” said Dr. Ronald Ackermann, who worked on the study with Carroll. “More and more, physicians are turning to national health insurance as a solution to this problem.”
Many other countries have national plans, including Britain, France and Canada, and several studies have shown the United States spends more per capita on health care, without achieving better results for patients. An estimated 47 million people have no insurance coverage at all, meaning they must pay out of their pockets for health care or skip it. Contenders in the election for president in November all have proposed various changes, but none of the major party candidates has called for a fully national health plan.
The Indiana survey found that 83 percent of psychiatrists, 69 percent of emergency medicine specialists, 65 percent of pediatricians, 64 percent of internists, 60 percent of family physicians and 55 percent of general surgeons favor a national health insurance plan.

Watch The Cells
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation.
The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks. It draws on growing evidence using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.
Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimize handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.
Cell users are also warned against keeping their phones attached to their belts anywhere near their genitals

The Other Basin
Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania recently noted that with New York City reservoirs near full capacity, officials in the Delaware River basin states should act to better protect downstream communities.
Seasonal triggers, or guidelines that direct when to release water, went into effect April 1 that restrict releases from the reservoirs at any time other than when completely full. Those triggers are intended to ensure adequate water supplies are available during the summer months.
However, the Governor, as chair of the Delaware River Basin Commission, called on officials from Delaware, New Jersey, New York and New York City to support a commonsense plan that would modify the guidelines to help accommodate expected rainfall and protect against potential flooding on the main stem of the river.
Rendell asked the decree party principals—officials from the basin states and New York City—to sign an agreement that would modify the flexible flow management plan that was put into effect last year. Under the flexible flow management plan, releases in April are designed to mitigate reservoir overflows, yet ensure reservoirs are at full capacity by May 1. If the Governor’s request is approved, New York City could make more frequent and higher volume reservoir releases through April.
The flexible flow management plan was designed to provide greater flood protection, improve fisheries management, and allow for greater flexibility to address future water needs without compromising the reliability of the public water supply for
Under new plans for the proposed Belleayre Resort, most of its runoff would no go into the Delaware RIver basin... a phenomenon still in need of full commentary from its own commissions and other overseers and watchdogs.
To view the management plan, visit the Delaware River Basin’s Web site at www.state.nj.us/drbc.

Travel Guide
Ulster County Tourism is in the process of putting the finishing touches on its 2008 Travel Guide. Any Ulster County tourist-based business who would like to receive a free listing in the travel guide should contact Diane Fauci, Information Assistant, at 845-340-3569, to request a listing form. The listings are for travel-related businesses, annual fairs, festivals and events only. The deadline for submission is April 18, 2008.

Bash Time…
The Belleayre Bash is a drug free/alcohol free all-night graduation party that keeps Onteora’s graduates safe and happy on one of the most dangerous nights of the year - graduation night. It is free to all Onteora graduating following graduation. Organizing the Bash is a massive undertaking, one that involves the entire community, but it is clearly worth it. A committee of parents, teachers, students, and community members is hard at work organizing this year’s Bash which will begin on Friday night June 27 at 11:00pm. If you would like to join this year’s effort by making a tax-deductible donation to Onteora SADD in support of The Belleayre Bash, please send a check to Onteroa SADD, c/o Onteora High School, Route 28, PO Box 300, Boiceville, NY 12412. …

Ah, Belleayre
New York State’s DEC Belleayre Mountain will be hosting a grand finale of season events with a “Slamming Spring Weekend” including a Sunday, April 13 event where Superintendent Tony Lanza will be challenging anyone with a 7-iron in a special “Long Drive Contest “ from behind the Overlook Lodge at 1pm. The State will provide golf balls and clubs and the contest is free for challengers. For further information visit www.belleayre.com.