4/222010

County Figures
County Executive Michael Hein spoke of coming cutback plans while Ulster County Budget Director Arthur Smith delivered an update to the county legislature's Budget and Finance Committee recently, warning of impending problems for 2011. The idea had been to comment on the effects of the state's spending plan on local finances, although Albany's lateness precluded that.
Nevertheless, Smith presented a range of possibilities for the county tax impact in five key areas including Health insurance costs, predicted to be going up to $2.6 million; Retirement costs, rising up to $2.75 million over the coming year; Medicaid, possibly going up at leats $4.6 million; needed new costs for the county's Golden Hill Health Care Center, up $4.9 million, and the fact that the county's fund balance available for appropriations for the coming year will be $10.5 million less than for this year
Based on those numbers, the additional tax levy needed to cover that would be at least 15 percent, Smith said.
Hein's budget deficit reduction plan, meanwhile, includes plans to sell some county property, close some Health Department satellite offices, offer a new employee retirement incentive and eliminate a position within his own office to help close the potential $25 million budget gap in the upcoming year.
Hein unveiled his 10-point "Taxpayer First" initiative during a press conference on April 14, a day after Smith warned county legislators about looming fiscal problems for 2011.. If all the measures were fully implemented as proposed, he said the county could see a savings of as much as $8.6 million in 2011.
Among Hein's cost-savings plans is the elimination of Health Department satellite offices in Saugerties and Highland and on Broadway and in Midtown Kingston, to be replaced with scheduled mobile clinics. A new retirement incentive plan to be offered to Civil Service Employee Association members could save $1.4 million, and a move away from the traditional health insurance program to a county-run self-insured plan could save $1.2 million. Lastly, eliminating the assistant deputy county executive position now held by Vin Martello would save $89,844 in 2011, with Martello getting transferred to a position in the Health Department.
Other items include implementation of a voluntary mail order prescription drug plan, allowing county employees to buy medications by mail from Canada, which could save $500,000, as wellas $2 million in savings from better management of county employees, job consolidations and early retirements. Additionally, a freeze on the salaries of all non-union management employees will remain in place for 2011, Hein said.
Hein also proposed creating a Conflict Defender's Office, which would provide legal representation for individuals involved in proceedings in Family Court in instances in which the Public Defender's Office has a conflict of interest.
One time savings, he added, could be had by selling the county's Certified Home Health Agency License for $1.5 million (the program was eliminated this year); and selling a portion of county-owned land at 300 Flatbush Ave. in Kingston for $1.6 million.
Several of Hein's initiatives will require approval by the county Legislature. The executive will work over the next several months to submit to the Legislature resolutions to move his agenda forward.
Super Contract?
Rumors continue to swirl about the relationship between the Onteora Board of Education and current District Superintendent Dr. Leslie Ford.
During public commentary at an April 13 meeting, past board trustee Rita Vanacore noted that she'd heard "that this board has chosen not to renew the contract of our Superintendent" and praised Ford for her hard work and diligence. She criticized past administrators for not doing their job with staff evaluations or filing.
In a separate interview, school board president Laurie Osmond said Ford's contract was up for a year's extension in June. She added that the board has not met to discuss her contract and she does not have any idea what Vanacore was talking about.
During previous March board meetings, information was leaked - falsely, according to Osmond - regarding an ongoing harassment complaint the district is dealing with. A resolution was passed on March 2 that would allow a maximum of $7,500 to investigate such a harassment charge. Due to confidentiality, the resolution does not name the employee. The resolution stated that a particular employee "filed a harassment complaint with the Board of Education on or about July 7, 2009."
At the March 2 meeting, Peter Friedel complained about the use of money freed up to investigate a complaint made by Superintendent Leslie Ford. Friedel is the husband of previous Onteora trustee Michelle Friedel, who resigned in July, 2009. Osmond prohibited Freidel from speaking about employees.
In a separate interview, Osmond said she had no idea how Friedel got the information and why he chose to mention Ford. She would not comment on who the employee mentioned in the resolution was. She added that leaked employee information true or false would not be tolerated.
Ford also would not comment.
Also At Onteora...
Firefighters were on hand at Onteora High last Friday, April 16 for a bathroom trashcan fire, with an Olive teen reportedly suspended after the fact.
On the same day, Middle/High School students were given the opportunity to participate in a Day of Silence, the annual event sponsored by the Middle/High School Gay Straight Alliance Club (GSA) was created by the University of Virginia in 1996 and has since grown into a nationwide event with over 8000 Middle, High Schools and colleges participating.
Students take a vow of silence throughout the school day as a way to recognize anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) bullying and harassment. April 16 was chosen to recognize Carl Walker-Hoover, a boy from Massachusetts who did not identify with any sexual orientation, but was bullied including the use of anti-gay harassment, and committed suicide just before his 12th birthday at this time of year..
New@Crossroads
On Wednesday, April 14, the Delaware County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the $400 million Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, the controversial development proposal slated to occupy land in both Delaware and Ulster Counties. And while the Ulster County Legislature passed a similar resolution last month following warnings from staunch opponents of the plan, the Delaware lawmakers heard little.
Individual members of the board praised the project and it's backers, with the most vocal support coming from Dennis Valente, Supervisor of the Town of Davenport and Chairman of the Delaware County Economic Development Committee, Len Utter, Supervisor of the Town of Middletown, Martin Donnelly, Supervisor of the Town of Andes and Jim Eisel, Supervisor of the Town of Harpersfield and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
The memorializing resolution echoes, largely verbatim, claims made by Gitter that have been challenged by opposition groups lincluding Save the Mountain and the Catskill Heritage Alliance. According to the resolution, the Board of Supervisors is now "committed to working with Crossroads Ventures, LLC and offering any appropriate assistance to acquire permits, licenses and/or easements to assure the development of the resort..."
Gitter thanked the legislators in a statement this week and added that his Crossroads team is "working diligently" to complete the plans, which he says will "assure the public of the economic and environmental benefits of this public-private partnership among the Belleayre Ski Center, the environmental community and Crossroads."
"We are confident that the DEC's undertaking to expand Belleayre in concert with the construction of the Belleayre Resort will result in one of the most attractive ski and recreation venues in the Northeast," said Gitter.
The previous week, Gitter denied that NYS Comptroller Art DiNapoli's office was blocking completion of a land sale involving 1200 acres of Crossroads land originally slated for a previous component of the long-proposed resort, while a spokesperson from the Comptroller's office, said the sale of the land is being reviewed, and that such review is a normal part of the process for state acquisition of property.
Gitter also questioned the original amount offered for his property as part of the AIP, claiming it was about $8 million, and not the nearly $14 million mentioned in all news reports at the time.
He added that the current $6 million figure did not include sale of the former Highmount Ski Center, which is another element in the 2007 Spitzer AIP. If not included in the current sale amount, whose funds were included in a special Environmental Protection Fund not effected by recent state budget constraints, further hold ups are likely, given the tie-ins between the Highmount property's development and the AIP deal being worked towards completion, and eventual environmental review.
Looks like there's still quite a distance to go on all things Crossroads, new or not...
Gas Drilling...
Speaking at an environmental conference hosted by the Business Council, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Director of Mineral Resources Bradley Field said the entire process, including finalizing the pending environmental impact statement for the proposal, and issuing permits, will be completed by the end of 2010. The surprise announcement has met with outcry from all of the state's environmental groups.
At the same time, this all may be moot, given what's happening on a federal and international level regarding the controversial technology.
A federal study of hydraulic fracturing set to begin in the coming weeks, and currently the focus of congressional hearings that started this week, is expected to provide the most expansive look yet at how the natural gas drilling process can affect drinking water supplies. The research will take a substantial step beyond previous studies and focus on how a broad range of ancillary activity - not just the act of injecting fluids under pressure - may affect drinking water quality.
The oil and gas industry strongly opposes this new approach. The agency's intended research "goes well beyond relationships between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water," said Lee Fuller, vice president of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of America submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The "lifecycle" approach will allow the agency to take into account hundreds of reports of water contamination in gas drilling fields across the country. Although the agency hasn't settled on the exact details, researchers could examine both underground and surface water supplies, gas well construction errors, liquid waste disposal issues and chemical storage plans as part of its assessment.
Plans for the study have attracted international attention and have been the focus of intense debate among lawmakers and the oil and gas industry. The findings could affect Congress' decision whether to repeal an exemption that shields the fracturing process from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Independent studies have shown more than 1,000 cases in which various aspects of the fracturing lifecycle have affected water supplies, including spills of fracturing fluid waste, cracking of underground cement and well casings meant to enclose the fracturing process, and methane gas traveling large distances underground through faults and fractures.
The EPA hopes to complete its research by late 2012, which means any local environmental actions involving the process would be premature, and likely moot. Environmental officials from New York City, who are concerned about how plans to drill for gas in the state's Marcellus Shale will affect the city's water supply, have also submitted comments to the EPA, urging the agency to follow through with its ambitious plans.
The agency's conclusions could have wide-ranging effects. Last month President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia said he would curtail natural gas production by the state company Gazprom until the study is completed.
On Wednesday, April 28th, the Ashokan-Pepacton Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited welcomes Ramsey Adams, Executive Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, for a critical look at the gas drilling system known as hydrofracking, as well as the use of science-based regulation and permitting to prevent harms to water resources in the Catskills and New York City Watershed.
Catskill Mountainkeeper has created an online "common sense" petition demanding that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation wait to issue any permitting guidelines until the federal Environmental Protection Agency completes its study of hydrofracking, which is currently underway.
The TU meeting starts at 8:00 PM at the Boiceville Inn along Route 28. See you there.
Earth Day!!!
When the Ashokan Center in Olive celebrates Earth Day this weekend, its story - and that of its principals Jay Ungar and Molly Mason - will mirror much of our nation's history of the past 40 years. As well as the more recent economic ride we've all taken over the past two years.
The Center's Earth Day Open House, to take place Saturday, April 24, starting off with a sunrise bird walk at 6:30 AM and ending with a foot stomping concert by the Center's directors, legendary folk musicians Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, is but one of several events marking the celebration started out of the same "Back To Nature" movement that had such an impact on all our towns in the Catskills. And continues to shape all our futures.
Two years ago, Ungar and Mason took over what had been SUNY New Paltz's Ashokan Field Campus since 1967. Part of the complicated deal that allowed their Ashokan Foundation to purchase and save the location they'd been using for their popular fiddle and dance camps since 1980 (on Ungar's part) involved the New York City Department of Environmental Protection's purchase of a portion of the former campus property that had originally been designed as a water release for the nearby Ashokan Reservoir when it was first built in 1913. They paid an amount for the channel property that was amended to include enough for the replacement of five old SUNY New Paltz campus buildings constructed in the release channel's flood plain.
A date was set to complete construction of a new campus for the renamed Ashokan Center by August, 2012, when the City DEP wanted to raze the old buildings.
Ungar and Mason's original plans for their new campus were for something that would be carbon neutral in terms of energy usage and fully sustainable, in keeping with the hopefulness of the time.
But then the bottom fell out of the economy.
The Ashokan Center has stayed busy - very busy - ever since, with new staff and a host of public events on hand.
Now, its $7 million plus construction plans have been shrunk back somewhat, because of the economy, and all systems are go for a construction start in the autumn.
Due to cost estimates coming in very high the first time around, about $2 million over the $5 million the City was providing for the campus' move, Ungar and Mason have chosen to take a step back and find ways to continue with their project on a scope and price that was within their adjusted budget.
"We're going before the County Planning Board in May and are expecting to be through this process over the summer and breaking ground in September at the earliest and October at the latest," Ungar said last week. "It will then take a year to complete our construction."
Helping bridge the $1 million gap between what they had in hand and need to complete the new Ashokan Center buildings being built further up the hillside on their 375 acres, over what is now a plateau-like stretch of parking, and the campus' collection of historic structures, Ungar said that the Catskill Watershed Corporation had already pledged $250,000 and another $50,000 had been brought in through private donations.
"The rest we'll get through foundations and grants," he added. "And we're also talking to local banks about bridge loans for a worst-case scenario."
Most importantly, Ungar, Mason and crew have reigned in some of their original green ideas... as have all of us, over the past year. There will more use of natural materials from the property, as well as nearby City road-moving projects, to help keep down costs. And instead of being completely energy self-sufficient, it will be a low energy campus... a compromise, but much better than it had been.
"It's become a way more thoughtful design," Ungar said this week. "With five to six thousand school children coming through each year, we want the buildings to be part of the learning experience.
"It's an inspirational property," Mason added. "We want something that will attract other groups interested in sustainability to use the property. There's nothing quite like this in the region..."
Buildings will be partly built into hillsides so as to be hidden from each other, on the one hand, but also accessed via quadrangles whose lawns will become part of the meeting grounds for activities.
"Best of all, the City will be restoring the places where the buildings now are with natural landscaping, and allowing us use of it for educational purposes when there aren't water releases in effect," Ungar added.
"I believe it's going to end up looking like it did 75 years ago," Mason said.
The NYC DEP's plan is to utilize the release channel more than it's presently used to help relieve flooding, in the future, and better tamp down the turbidity that occurs in the reservoir's west basin as waters are stored before release to the Ashokan's East Basin, from which 40 percent of New York City's water flows.
"When we started to put both feet into this we were still in the midst of a big bubble," Ungar replied. "So we stepped back. Now we're doing as much as we can afford... we've already milled 35,000 board feet of our own lumber for what we'll be doing."
For this weekend's Earth Day Open House, the two noted,. Highlights will include a 6:30 AM bird walk with Peter Schoenberger, then a string of 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM events including a Songs of the Earth and Maypole celebration with local musician and singer, Nancy Chusid, a nature and literature walk/talk with poet and naturalist Richard Parisio during his River of Words poetry walk, local flora identification with SUNY New Paltz Adjunct Professor and former Ashokan Director, Andy Angstrom, another plant walk with Northeast Herbal Association founding member Dina Falconi, ample talks about the future "greening of Ashokan" with staff members Brian Joyner and Deborah DeWan, and then music by Jay & Molly.
"My recollection of the first Earth Days was that they were coming out of the sixties, a time when many such good changes were developed," Ungar recalled of 40 years ago, when he was a member of a host of influential local bands with a national presence. "It seemed to fall asleep, like Rip Van Winkle, for a few decades, but now I think people are waking up to Earth Day's ideals once again. I'm almost shocked to think how long ago that was..."
"It's like this campus," added Molly. "It used to be pretty insular, even our dance and music events. But now here we are doing six or seven major events open to all over the year."
Talk about changes we can believe in. As well as more metaphors.
Other major Earth Day events will be taking place over the coming week at Barnes & Noble in the Town of Ulster this Thursday, April 22 - where Onteoras students will join authors Will Nixon and Michael Perkins for a celebration of local hikes; and at Frost Valley YMCA Camp on Saturday, April 24... when a morning hike is planned, along with other events.Stormy Concerns
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, a partner of the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program, is hosting the First Annual "Ashokan Watershed Conference: Floodplain and Stormwater Management for Towns and Landowners" on Saturday, May 1, from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm at Belleayre Mountain's Overlook Lodge in Big Indian.
The conference will present tools needed for local towns, landowners, and businesses to benefit from good floodplain planning and low impact development.
"Knowing these tools can save time, money and hassle in regulations, fees and property damage while also improving water quality," said Michael Courtney, educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County.
The event will provide a networking and training opportunity for landowners, realtors, town boards, and planning boards, developers, engineering firms, contractors and others. Municipal training credits will be available to town officials with local town approval.
A conference highlight includes speaker Bill Nechamen, the State Floodplain Manager for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, who will lead a workshop on the National Flood Insurance Program: An Introduction to Floodplain Management. Also of particular interest to town officials, a panel of funding agencies will discuss funding opportunities for stream-related projects. Teresa Rusinek from Cooperative Extension and Mark Masseo of Masseo Landscaping, Inc. will present one of the landowner-oriented workshops titled, "Slow It Down and Soak It In," to demonstrate how raingardens, swales and other landscape designs can help slow and filter stormwater.
Be sure to register and see the full listing of the conference sessions and materials online at www.ashokanstreams.org, Call 688-3047 for further info.
Local Planning?
Beginning soon, the property where the Phoenicia Hotel once stood before being destroyed by fire three years ago will once again be a commercial venture, though not on the scale of the historic hotel with its several storefronts.
Starting small, owner Declan Feehan has allowed an entrepreneur to lease out a small cottage on the property for conversion into a coffee shop. The plan has already been given the green light by the Shandaken Planning Board.
"He doesn't need a permit, but he needed to come in for a site plan review," said Planning Department Secretary Marie Stutman, who explained that the property is in a Hamlet Commercial Zone, which gives property owners the right to have commercial activity. However, because the cottage was a residence that needs to be converted into a coffee shop, the planning board needed to make sure there was an adequate septic system on the property and that there are enough parking spaces for visitors. Stutman said the planning board's review of the site plan determined that all requirements have been met.
"We also wanted to make sure the property is cleaned up," she added.
Along those lines, the gazebo on the property will be fixed up for use by coffee shop patrons.
Feehan does not say specifically what he intends to do on the rest of the land. In the past he has spoken optimistically about building a new hotel on the site with a pub, but those plans have been put on hold as the local community wrestles whether to build a sewer system with over $17 million in funds offered for such purposes by New York City. At present the Town has asked the Catskill Watershed Corporation to get involved in the process, which they will agree to, or not, early next month.
Stay tuned for information on an opening date.

Acid Rain...
Two US Geological Survey scientists will share results of their research on the effects of acid deposition on trees and streams of the Catskills at a program to be held Thursday, April 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Seelig Theater at Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake.
"Acid Rain and Its Impact on Fish and Forest in the Catskills" will feature presentations by Doug Burns, Director of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, and Barry Baldigo, research biologist with the USGS. The free program is sponsored by the Catskill Institute for the Environment (CIE). The public is most welcome.
Author of more than 60 scientific papers and reports, Dr. Burns will be lead author of a report to the U.S. Congress due to be submitted in fall 2010.
The CIE, established in 1998, is a consortium of representatives of colleges, institutions and individuals that coordinates symposia and special programming to promote environmental awareness, education and scientific cooperation in the Catskill region. For more information, contact Dr. Morton (Sam) Adams, chairman, www.catskillinstitute.org.
For further information, call 845-434-5750, ext. 4447.
Cutting Salt...
The U.S. and other nations are planning a push to gradually cut the amount of salt Americans consume, saying less sodium would reduce deaths from hypertension and heart disease. The effort would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in processed foods, and is currently set to be launched this year.
The government plans to work with the food industry and health experts to reduce sodium gradually over a period of years to ratchet down sodium consumption. U.S. researchers noted in a recent study that working with the food industry to cut salt intake by nearly 10 percent could prevent hundreds of thousands of heart attacks and strokes over several decades and save the U.S. government $32 billion in healthcare costs. Eating too much salt is a major cause of high blood pressure, which the Institute of Medicine has declared a "neglected disease" that costs the U.S. health system $73 billion a year.
The FDA, which regulates most processed foods, and the U.S. Agriculture Department, which oversees meat and poultry, will work together on the effort to reduce Americans' sodium consumption. Manufacturers can now use as much salt as they like in products but they are required to report the amount on nutrition labels.
Fox News has been running surveys this week linking the move to government overreach while word is that a number of GOP candidates are currently talking about coming out against such health regulations by the November election.
Meanwhile, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has proposed $1 billion in loans and grants Monday to help build 2,100 grocery stores in areas around the nation that lack access to fresh food, noting that the measure would help about four million New York residents living in so-called "food deserts" by providing the funding for more than 350 stores statewide, many in low-income areas. Modeled on a similar program in Pennsylvania, the legislation would provide startup grants and loans in rural and urban areas to expand access to fresh food and to create jobs.
The Obama administration has already dedicated $345 million in his 2011 budget for a similar proposal. Gillibrand said the measure would help fight obesity by making more fresh, healthy food available.
City Buying...
New York City Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway has announced the purchase of 1,026 acres of upstate land for $2.8 million. A total of nine parcels of land were acquired, ranging in size from 16 to 309 acres. The properties are located in Greene, Delaware, Schoharie and Ulster counties. Since the inception of the Land Acquisition Program, New York City has protected over 108,000 acres of watershed land in the Catskill/Delaware and Croton systems, which cover parts of eight counties in New York State.
According to City officials, however, actual info on where these parcels are is not yet ready for public consumption, given that negotiations are still being completed. Same goes for the requested percentages in each county.
Stay tuned...
CWC Grants!
The Catskill Watershed Corporation Board of Directors approved a number of grants at its monthly meeting April 6. One of them will allocate $24,750 from the Catskill Studies Fund to allow Margaretville Telephone Company to conduct market feasibility and engineering studies on extending broadband service to the Towns of Gilboa and Conesville in Schoharie County. Also, five planning grants totaling $250,000 were awarded under the final round of the CWC's Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP). They will go to the Village of Hunter to update zoning and subdivision regulations; the Town of Hunter to complete a riparian buffer protection program; the Town of Olive to complete a comprehensive plan; the Town of Roxbury to update its comprehensive plan, and the Greene County Soil & Water Conservation District to develop a Mountaintop Better Site Design Plan to address new construction and development.
Three projects proposed under the CWC's Special Education Program fund were also approved. The Bronx River Alliance will receive $7,125 to conduct a series of lectures, hikes and field trips on various aspects of the New York City water system for educators and the general public. The Delaware County Historical Association was granted $1,900 to collaborate with the Catskill Artisans Guild to conduct a series of outdoor talks on the region's environmental and social history. And Time and the Valleys Museum in Grahamsville will receive $12,650 to help develop a permanent exhibition on "Water: Its Impact on the Life and Growth of the Valleys."
Rail Trail Help?
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a weekend bicyclist, is working to give bicycling - and walking, too - the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican congressman quietly announced the "sea change" in transportation policy last month.
"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized," he wrote in his government blog.
The new policy is an extension of the Obama administration's livability initiative, which regards the creation of alternatives to driving - buses, streetcars, trolleys and trains, as well as biking and walking - as central to solving the nation's transportation woes.
LaHood's blog was accompanied by a DOT policy statement urging states and transportation agencies to treat "walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes." It recommends, among other things, including biking and walking lanes on bridges and clearing snow from bike paths.
Not so fast, say some conservatives and industries dependent on trucking. A manufacturers' blog called the policy "nonsensical." One congressman, Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio suggested LaHood was on drugs.
The new policy is not a regulation and, therefore, not mandatory, Transportation undersecretary for policy Roy Kienitz responded to LaTourette.
But it's LaHood's view "that the federal government should not take the position that roads and trains are real transportation and walking and biking is not," Kienitz said. "His view is it's all real transportation, and we should consider it based on what benefits it can bring for the amount of money we spend."
Saving Grace
The National Park Service has warned Gov. David Paterson's administration that New York could lose millions of dollars in federal funding if it goes forward with plans to close dozens of state parks and historic sites. The agency also warned it could request all federal funds be withheld, including money for education and transportation.
"The public has no less need for recreation opportunities and access to open space in times of economic hardship," the Parks letter stated.
The Paterson administration plans to close 41 parks and 14 historic sites because of a projected $9 billion deficit. The National Park Service has offered to help Paterson's staff find ways to avoid shutting the parks while still dealing with funding shortfalls.
The Governor replied, in a letter, that he would work with federal officials to try and prevent any damage...