News Briefs 4/23/2009

Gauge Reprieve
The U.S. Geological Survey recently found a means to maintain the 96 stream-monitoring gauges operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection as a means of collecting data for flood mmonitorinmg and other purposes. Last month we reported that the city had planned to close down most of the gauges as a means of saving the estimated $17,000 per year it costs to maintain each device on an annual basis.
Among the local areas affected by the possible loss of data were gauges in the Peekamoose area of the Rondout watershed, the upper Esopus creeks in Big Indian, and along the Beaverkill in Lake Hill..
Funding from the U.S. Geological Survey alone will help keep operating at least eight gauges considered critical by the agency. Another nine such gauges will be funded through the joint cooperation of U.S.G.S., the Department of Environmental Protection, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Susquehanna Flood Forecast and Warning System and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Way to go, everyone!

Help Belleayre?
The snow’s all melted and the budget’s been passed but still the calls for expanding Belleayre NOW keep coming.
First, there was a new press release from the Coalition to Save Belleayre, and then a letter from the chairman of the Ulster County Legislature urging Governor David Paterson to allocate some of the state’s federal stimulus money for the expansion of state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center.
Separate from both lobbying efforts, though, the state official closest to the governor on such matters noted that nothing would be done to expand the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s leading ski center until a current environmental review process tied to that expansion, as well as a proposal to build a massive adjoining private resort, completed its course.
Which could take up to ten years, she added without irony, given complications and probable lawsuits and appeals.
“We are now more than 20 years past a Constitutional Amendment passed by the voters of this state demanding an expansion,” said Coalition founder Joe Kelly in his own early April press release, put out after the state’s budget was finalized. “When the state signed an agreement in principle in 2007, we thought we were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel… This is a picture perfect economic stimulus project with a tremendous spinoff of benefits, The work can move forward in a timely and expeditious manner with a real and immediate positive effect on job creation and economic development.”
“I am concerned that the Obama ‘economic stimulus package’ will pass by without the needed expansion of the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center being included,” said Ulster County Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, in an April 9 letter to the governor. “The long overdue expansion of this state-owned property is a $62 million project that will require 200 jobs to build it. Additionally, 150 to 200 permanent jobs coupled with 600 to 800 seasonal jobs will be created once it is completed.
“The ski center’s expansion was approved by the voters of New York state by a constitutional amendment twenty years ago,” Donaldson added, echoing Kelly’s statement. “I hope you agree this is long overdue, and I ask you to finally make the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center expansion a reality.”
Gary Gailes, a spokesman for Crossroads Ventures, the company planning a $400 million resort right next to Belleayre, said funneling stimulus money to Belleayre makes sense “irrespective of the plans for Crossroads.”
“If there was anyplace in need of stimulus money it’s the central Catskills,” Gailes said, noting closed businesses and “for sale” signs along state Route 28.
Yancey Roy, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, replied to questions about both statements by stating that he was not aware of Donaldson’s request and would not say whether the Belleayre expansion plan, said to still be on the drawing board, would be ready to accept stimulus funds.
The expansion plan has received considerable attention in the community since 2007, when it was linked to Crossroads’ proposed Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park.. a roposed $400 million resort that would be comprised of two complexes — one with a 250-room hotel and 139 townhouse-style lodging units surrounding an 18-hole golf course; the other with a 120-room hotel and spa, 60 lodging units in two buildings and another 60 detached units in up to 52 buildings.
If the resort plan is approved, the state has agreed to build new lifts and trails next to the resort on 78 acres the state would purchased from the developer, in addition to another 1400 acres being bought for the state’s Catskill Forest Preserve holdings from Crossroads.
By state law, Belleayre’s ski trails cannot exceed a total of 25 miles.
Complicating the project’s review process have been requirements that both the DEC and Crossroads take into account climate change science in its mitigation processes, along with a wider look at community character and other effects of such development over the region.
Asked about it all at a private event in Kingston a couple of weeks ago, the state’s cabinet-level Deputy Secretary for the Environment, Judith Enck, noted that as far as she had heard, the current hold-up on new environmental impact statements was coming from the Crossroads as much as, if not more than, the state DEC.
Furthermore, she added, there would be no state funding, or building of any sort at Belleayre, until that process was completed.
Which was when she lobbed out the ten year matter…
Albeit with the added statement that she still felt the project was a good one, and would eventually get built.
Stay tuned… we’ll be sure and do yet another update on this multi-year process over the coming summer months. And probably beyond...

Planning Grants
The Board of Directors of the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) recently approved six community planning grants benefiting nine municipalities in Delaware and Ulster County. The awards, issued under the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), totaled $200,000.
Ulster County ($50,000) will develop community planning tools for the Towns of Olive and Shandaken, incorporating principles of smart growth and open space controls. The Town of Olive applied on behalf of the seven municipalities of the Central Catskills Collaborative (the Towns of Hurley, Olive, Shandaken, Middletown, Andes and the Villages of Margaretville and Fleischmanns) along the Route 28 corridor and a project that will propose measures to protect natural and scenic resources along Route 28 and Upper Esopus Creek, the Bush Kill, and the East Branch of the Delaware River. The Town of Middletown applied to conduct a $40,830 regional economic Revitalization Plan for Middletown, Roxbury, Andes and the Villages of Fleischmanns and Margaretville that will focus on the local economy and the importance of water resources to tourism and economic stability. The Village of Fleischmanns will receive two grants — a $20,000 award to update its zoning law, and a $14,170 grant to complete a comprehensive plan for the village park. The Town of Stamford ($25,000) will complete a Comprehensive Plan to address watershed and farmland protection.
CWC programs and projects are explained in detail on the corporation’s web site: www.cwconline.org. The entity’s 12th Annual Meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 28 at 6 p.m. at CWC offices, 905 Main Street, Margaretville.

Food Costs Up!
Ulster County’s biweekly Marketbasket Survey reflecting the cost of feeding a family of four through local supermarkets, jumped a whopping 7% between April 3 and April 17. The survey which is based on the USDA’s Moderate Cost Family Food Plan shows that the weekly cost to feed a family of four is now up to $218.65. According to Patrick Long, the county’s Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs, this is the largest biweekly jump in food costs since they began tracking them last August. Nearly all of the increase said Long, is in the category of Meats & Fish.

Old School...
The Olive & Hurley Old School Baptist Church at Winchell’s Corner is currently in the process of completing an 11-year restoration project of the centuries-old meeting house this Spring. At the moment, the structure’s entire interior is scaffolded, the ceiling is being repaired, the walls are being scraped and skim-coated, and the entire interior will be repainted in its original colors. The new, replicated shutters should be installed shortly. Volunteers are also installing new, massive bluestone slabs on the front porch (to replace some busted-up cement slabs).
More, with pictures, in our next issues…

Affordablility…
The first funding awards from the federal economic stimulus package aimed at boosting affordable housing with the Hudson Valley receiving a total of $27.2 million from three different programs.
Senator Charles Schumer said the Hudson Valley will receive $6.1 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, $7.6 million in capital funding for homelessness services, and $13.6 million from the capital fund for modernization and development of public housing. Schumer said this vital funding will both create jobs and upgrade aging affordable housing complexes to improve the quality of life for tens of thousands of New Yorkers.
The funding breaks out as follows:
$6.1 million boost for CDBG, a program once vital in the Shandaken and Olive areas via the once-powerful SHARP Committee, which provides funding for local governments to undertake a wide range of activities intended to create suitable living environments for low-income families and seniors by providing decent affordable housing and creating economic opportunities.
$7.6 million from the Homelessness Prevention Block grant program. This program provides financial and other assistance to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless and help those who experiencing homelessness to be quickly re-houses and stabilized. This funding targets individuals and families who would be homeless without this assistance by providing a variety of services including short and medium term rental assistance, housing and relocation services, and aid with other costs.
$13.6 million from the Capital Fund, which will be used to provide funds to Public Housing Agencies eligible for Capital funding as authorized under Section 9 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, with the exception that funds cannot be used for operations or rental assistance. The funds will be used for capital and management activities including modernization and development of public housing.
Locally, The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development agency is offering home repair loans at 1 percent interest for qualifying very-low income homeowners. Homeowners 62 and older who cannot afford a loan may qualify for a grant. The maximum outstanding loans at a given time is $20,000 and the maximum repayment term is 20 years. Grants are limited to a lifetime assistance of $7,500.
Home repair loan applicants must live in a rural area, own and occupy the single-family dwelling in need of repair, have an acceptable credit history, the ability to repay the loan and an income falling within the very-low category for the household size of the county inhabited.
A coverage area including Columbia, Dutchess and Ulster counties is now being handled out of Middletown, in Orange County. For more information, call (845) 343-1872, ext. 4.
In addition, The Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), a member of the national NeighborWorks network, is being awarded $190,500 in flexible first round grant funds to provide a much-needed boost to the agency operating budget as a whole and to its First Time Homebuyer programs in particular. Eligible applicants will be first time homebuyers who have gone through RUPCO’s First Time Homebuyer’s Education and Counseling program and are purchasing a home in Ulster County. This program will assist approximately 15 households with incomes of up to 115% of area median income.
For more information about RUPCO call 331-2140 ext. 268.

Stimulus…
The Hudson Valley is expected to receive at least $167 million in transportation and infrastructure funding through the federal economic stimulus package. The highway, road repair, bridge work and other infrastructure projects are anticipated to create some 4,000 jobs. Among local projects pegged, to date, are…
$3.3 million for a project to construct new bluestone sidewalks along Route 209 in the Hamlet of Stone Ridge located in the Town of Marbletown, Ulster County. The project will restore the historic sidewalk, repave a nearly one mile section of highway, and install a new traffic signal at the intersection of Route 209 and Route 213. The new traffic signal will also include enhanced pedestrian signal poles and crosswalks. Construction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2010.
And $4.4 million for a project to repave approximately 22 miles of state route 9W roadway in Orange and Ulster counties. The top layer of worn, deteriorated pavement will be removed and replaced with new asphalt and fresh pavement markings to extend the service life of pavement. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

Tax Relief?
The Ulster County Legislature voted unanimously this month to support an Omnibus Property Tax Relief and Reform Bill, which provides short-term relief and long-term reform on behalf of the Ulster County residents and New York State taxpayers. The resolution goes on to request the adoption of this bill by the New York State Legislature in this 2009 session.
The Omnibus Bill is the work of a consortium of grass roots tax groups from around New York State, unions and fiscal watchdogs. The consortium has been working for nine months on legislation that would reform the property tax system to provide immediate relief to overburdened homeowners through the creation of a property tax circuit breaker –with the long term goal of creating a fair and equitable tax system by shifting costs from the local level to the state.
Stay tuned…

Host Family?
There are several opportunities out there now for prospective host families willing to share their homes with students from abroad over the coming months.
USAI, a local educational organization, is looking for families who would like to host international students from Spain and France attending Frost Valley Day Camp for 3 weeks in July and August. Weekly stipends will be available for travel and entertainment.
If your family is interested, contact Belen Millan, Director of the Summer Programs, at 688-2434. You can read more about USAI at www.usaimmersion.com.
Also, Coleman Catholic High School is looking for families willing to host a Korean or Chinese exchange student for the entire 2009-2010 school year. Benefits of hosting include a monthly stipend and a tuition break for your child attending Coleman
For further information or if interested, contact Bob or Laura Cunningham at (845) 338- 3969 or via email at cclan7@aol.com

State Of The Arts
The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) and the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA) at the State University of New York at New Paltz, along with the Dutchess Council for the Arts, will host a program for artists, arts organizations and interested residents throughout the region, titled “Innovative Responses to the Current Funding Crisis in the Arts” on Tuesday, April 28. The program begins at 4 p.m. with a director’s tour of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. At 5 p.m. in Lecture Center 102, Heather Hitchens, executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts, will speak about ways in which the council is addressing the state budget cuts and the future state of the arts in New York.
Following the keynote, Hitchens will moderate a panel discussion with the focus on the status of New York state arts funding and the innovative approaches that arts organizations and artists might use to maintain their programs and businesses. Panelists include Carl Van Brunt, artist and gallery owner, Jeff Haynes, musician, founder and president of Komunyaka Music, Lou Trapani, artistic and managing director, Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, Meira Blaustein, cofounder and festival director, Woodstock Film Festival , and Carole Wolf, executive director, Mill Street Loft.
Each panelist will be asked to talk about their own innovative responses to the current funding crisis. This will be followed by a problem-solving discussion guided by audience queries. The event is free and open to the public.
“The nation’s financial crisis has had a significant impact on the arts community, creating real challenges for arts organizations, arts management, and the relationship of business and government to the arts in our state,” said Sara Pasti, director of the SDMA. “With this event, we are trying to mine what Hudson Valley artists and art managers have done creatively to deal with the current situation.”
The mission of The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) (www.newpaltz.edu/crreo) is to conduct studies on topics of regional interest; bring visibility and focus to these matters; foster communities working together to better serve citizenry; and advance the public interest in our region.

Getting Low…
A popular summer destination for locals and visitors alike has come to the attention of many this week. The Pine Hill Lake, known also as Belleayre Beach, has lost lots of water. Now less than half full, the shores of the state-owned, man-made resource have grown considerably as the water line drops, now well below the diving platform used by swimmers and the dock used to launch boats.
But according to state officials all is well.
“We have lowered the level of the lake to conduct routine maintenance’ said Lori Severino, a spokesperson for the State’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Once the work is complete, she said, the lake will be refilled.
Unclear is what specifically the state is working on at the lake.
Calls to Belleayre Superintendent Tony Lanza were not returned.

Go, Tessa!
Onteora High School junior Tessa Morelli will be honored at Carnegie Hall on June 4th for winning a national award through The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, an annual showcase of creativity in Grades 7-12. Presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, a National Silver Award will be presented to Tessa for her film Cycles, a commentary on material possessions in a disposable world. Selected award recipients and high school seniors recognized with top honors for portfolios will have their art or writing exhibited in Manhattan at the World Monuments Fund Gallery.
By winning at the national level, Tessa joins the ranks of some of the country’s most revered artists and writers who once received Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a list which includes Robert Redford, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, John Lithgow, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, and Richard Avedon.
The first level of recognition for outstanding student work took place through Ulster BOCES partnership in the Hudson Valley Art Affiliate, which coordinated the participation of students in Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties. In mid-January, Tessa was one of 38 students recognized at the Hudson Valley Scholastic Awards, making hers one of 10 Gold Key Awards earned by an Ulster County student. After earning the regional award, Tessa’s work was evaluated by an esteemed panel of jurors in New York City, along with 37 others from the Mid-Hudson region, and thousands of entries from other regional affiliate programs across the country.
Tessa’s film, Cycles, features a woman on a vintage bicycle in Phoenicia who replaces random objects with others she finds, only to find that another “nomadic” character has moved them once again. “As the film progressed, particularly while I was editing, it became more and more of a social commentary,” she says. “It could definitely be interpreted as a criticism of how fickle we are with our material possessions…”
For more information, contact Katy Colletti, Ulster BOCES coordinator of Talent Development & the Arts, at 845-255-1402, ext. 1257.

The Third!
The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra brings its Thirtieth Season Celebrations to a close with performances of Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 3, the Eroica (Heroic) Symphony, May 1, 2 and 3, throughout the area. In this work Beethoven opened new vistas of sound and constructed a work of inner musical logic that set a standard for symphonic composers. David Leighton, Artistic Director of the WCO, will conduct this towering work, as well as Beethoven’s concert aria, “Ah, perfido!” with soprano Cheryl Warfield, and two intimate pieces by Frederick Delius, “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring” and “Summer Night on the River”.
Performances are 8 pm Friday, May 1 at Olin Hall, Bard College, 8 pm Saturday, May 2 at Pointe of Praise Family Life Center, 243 Hurley Avenue, Kingston and 3 pm Sunday, May 3 at Bearsville Theater, Route 212, Woodstock. Call 246-7045 or visit www.wco-online.com for information.

Pot’s Benefits…
Citing “overwhelming” evidence that marijuana eases pain and anxiety for the chronically ill, medicinal pot advocates told a federal appeals panel last week that the federal government should be stopped from spreading “false information” about marijuana.
As was argued in the debate over whether stem cell research should be resumed, Americans for Safe Access cast the Bush administration’s opposition to any legalized use of marijuana as being shaped by conservative sentiments instead of hard facts. President Obama has signaled to Cabinet members that science should be guiding government judgments in controversial matters of medicine and technology, not the prevailing political mood. IN recent weeks, however, a government lawyer told three judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the administration wasn’t required to explain or retract its statements that marijuana “has no currently accepted medical use.”
Marijuana is banned under federal law but is legal for cancer patients and others suffering chronic illnesses in California and a dozen other states. Safe Access sued the federal government under a law that prohibits it from disseminating inaccurate information.
U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder signaled last month that the administration wouldn’t interfere with medical pot dispensing in states where it is legal as long as users abide by state law.
Safe Access argues that the federal government needs to update its assessment to conform with the reality of marijuana’s broadening legal use as a pain reliever.

Eating Better
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein has signed a local law requiring chain restaurants in the county to post the calorie content of the foods they serve. The move makes Ulster the first county in the Mid-Hudson Valley to take such a step.
The law, adopted 17-9 by the Legislature, requires all chain restaurants that have 15 or more food-service establishments in the Unites States to clearly post calorie information on menus, menu boards and food-display tags in their Ulster County locations. It does not apply to locally owned and operated eateries or chains with fewer than 15 restaurants.
The law has the backing of a number of heath organizations, including the American Cancer Society.
Hein said that in the days after the Legislature’s vote, his office received a number of calls from residents who seemed to oppose the law, but the way the calls reached the office struck the executive as odd. He said local residents were called by someone — he doesn’t know who, but suspects the restaurant industry was involved — and asked a series of questions about “jobs, taxes and menu items” and then had their calls forwarded to the executive’s office.
The law is scheduled to take effect in October.

Jail Time…
A Shandaken man is expected to get one to three years in prison for killing a passenger in his pickup truck in a drunk driving incident. Jay Conosa, 44, of 11 Regina Way, located in the Broadstreet Hollow area of town, pleaded guilty in Ulster County Court to second-degree vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault, prosecutors said. Conosa is expected to be sentenced on May 18 to 1 to 3 years in state prison on each count.
In court, Conosa pleaded guilty to felony charges in a one-vehicle accident last September that claimed the life of his passenger, Timothy Phelan, 48, of Phoenicia, and seriously injured the other passenger, Karl W. Bowers, 50,of Shandaken, who suffered multiple rib fractures and other injuries.
State police took a blood sample from Canosa following the crash and found he had a blood alcohol content of 0.11, exceeding the state’s legal limit for alcohol. Prosecutors said Canosa admitted drinking beer and other alcoholic drinks at a local tavern before driving home to Shandaken.
Canosa was driving a 1987 pickup truck with two passengers on Broadstreet Hollow Road in the town of Shandaken at about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2008, when the truck veered off the pavement at a strong bend in the road and struck a large tree.

Burn Barrels?
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has issued a springtime advisory warning of the potential harmful health effects and increased likelihood of wildfires caused by backyard “burn barrels.”
The agency warns that “burning household trash can cause harmful health effects due to the release of potentially dangerous compounds found in backyard fires.” Burn barrels usually have fires that burn at lower temperatures than large industrial incinerators, resulting in harmful fumes released into the air and hazardous materials remaining in the ash. They also noted that ashes from a burn barrel should never be used to fertilize a vegetable garden because the ashes can contain numerous hazardous materials that would be harmful if ingested.
Any type of burning by a commercial or industrial enterprise, except agriculture, is illegal unless a permit has been obtained from the Department of Environmental Conservation. Residential burning may require a permit, depending on the location of the residence. Open burning is prohibited within incorporated villages and cities, and all towns over 20,000 in population.
Attempts by the DEC to ban such burnings, including brush piles, ran into public opposition when proposed last year and are currently awaiting revision and new hearings, eventually.
Stay tuned… and stay safe.

Economics...
“Toward a New Economics; Transparency and Sharing” is the title of a public talk and community conversation being held in Rosendale on Sunday May 3 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at the Lifebridge Foundation, with support from the UN Millennium Development Goals. Three speakers will be featured: David McCarthy, author of The Six-Fold Economics of Compassion, past chairman of Hudson Valley Sustainable Communities Network (Now Sustainable Hudson Valley), and staff videographer for Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery in Woodstock; Kristine Flones, initiator of The Woodstock TimeBank, an exchange of services experiment; and Mike Ignatowski, head of The Global Marshall Plan Initiative, and President of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills.
The program Towards a New Economics – Transparency and Sharing is free and open to the public at Lifebridge Sanctuary, 333 Mountain Rd. Rosendale. Call 658.3439 or visit www.lifebridge.org for further information.
Also, the Third Annual Hudson Valley Entrepreneurial Conference & Expo is set to get underway April 29 and 30 at the Mid Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie NY
Among highlights will be a presentation by Glenn Croston, author of 75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference. Expect hosts of seminars and workshops, information booths and job networking. For further information call (845) 790-5004 or visit www.GEThudsonvalley.org.
Croston will also speak from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29 at SUNY Ulster’s Business Resource Center in Kingston as a presentation of Sustainable Hudson Valley.

Next Big Issue?
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) recently introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to amend the U.S. Constitution to permanently “enshrine” in American society an inviolable set of parents’ rights…. And more importantly, set a new “culture wars” issue on the books for discussion in next year’s mid-term elections. The bill had 70 co-sponsors, all Republicans, and was intended to stem the “slow erosion” of parents’ rights and to circumvent the effects of a United Nations treaty the GOP believes “clearly undermines parental rights in the United States.”
The treaty to which the bill refers is the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a 20-year-old document signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 but never ratified. The treaty sets international standards for government obligations to children in areas that range from protection from abuse and exploitation to ensuring a child’s right to free expression. It was signed by all nations excepting the U.S. and Somalia.
While a treaty that seeks to protect children may sound innocuous, its opponents, such as Michael Farris, the Christian conservative founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, see in it a dystopian future in which “Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children”; “A child’s ‘right to be heard’ would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed”; and “Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion,” as he puts it on his website parentalrights.org.
Advocates counter that 193 countries have managed to take the plunge without catastrophic result; that the treaty is supported by groups ranging from the Girl Scouts to the Christian Children’s Fund; and that opponents both overestimate and misunderstand the treaty’s purpose and likely impact.

Watcha Driving?
General Motors will conduct a massive recall of 1.5 million cars in May while preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Six models, among three makes under the GM brand, spanning seven years of manufacture are being recalled due to a risk of engine compartment fire, according to the National Highway Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation.
The models being recalled include the 1997-2003 Buick Regal, the 2000-2003 Chevrolet Impala, the 1998-1999 Chevrolet Lumina, the 1998-2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue and the 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Pre-K Worries
The recession could spell trouble for the nation’s youngest schoolchildren, despite positive trends in spending and enrollment for state pre-K programs, according to a new report. At least nine states are likely to make cuts to pre-kindergarten programs including some of the biggest - California, Florida and New York, said Steve Barnett, one of the authors of the annual report on state-funded preschool and director at the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, who added that enrollment cuts, fewer dollars per pupil, and delaying expansion plans are some of the steps that states are considering.
A spokesman for New York Governor David Paterson says the state’s 2010 budget maintains spending on pre-K programs at current levels, but doesn’t have additional money to expand them.
The institute is urging the federal government to match state spending with up to $2,500 for every additional child enrolled in state pre-K programs as a way to grow preschool so that all of the nation’s 4-year-olds can have access by 2020.
Barnett said a good preschool program helps children acquire rich vocabularies and learn about numbers and shapes.
“They also learn how to take responsibility for their actions and to get along with other children,” he said. “These things are the foundation for success in school and in life.”
Currently, more than 80 percent of all 4-year-olds attend some kind of preschool program, according to the report. About half of those go to a public program, either state pre-K, Head Start or special education. The other half attend private programs.

Digital Corridor
Mark Greene, a Kingston resident who has won an Emmy for his work in digital media, is working to develop the Digital Corridor Initiative, an idea to attract those primarily living in New York City to relocate to Kingston and surrounding areas.
Greene said Kingston already has a significant population of what he called technopreneurs or micro-businesses that can be built upon.
For more information, go to www.kingstondigitalcorridor.org

Unstimulated…
The list of governors threatening to decline federal stimulus money last month read like a list of Republicans considering running for president in 2012: Govs. Mark Sanford, Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin led the anti-stimulus charge. But what began with a bang is ending with something closer to a whimper. All three of those governors have been forced to scale back their expectations, to varying degrees, as the push of conservative philosophy gave way to the pull of political reality.
All three found that praise from the conservative movement in Washington meant nothing to furious state legislators of both parties. And in the end, along with other conservative Republican governors, the three submitted letters in recent weeks asking to be eligible for federal funds, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed.
“At this point, it looks like everybody’s on board with the program,” said Tom Gavin, an OMB spokesman.
Republican governors faced with the popular federal spending legislation, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, staked positions on a political continuum, with national conservative support at one end and local approval at the other. Some campaigned for the legislation with the president and accepted the money enthusiastically. Other governors sought a middle ground. Still others loudly spoke of a partial rejection of the federal funds… but all of the latter sparked statehouse uprisings. Lawmakers, including Republicans in Alaska, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas, moved to make end runs around their governors and accept the money.
So now what?

Eating Deals...
Two big eating deals are presently being offered by Ulster County restaurants, including offerings along the Route 28 corridor.
First off, there are the 26 restaurants, located in Kingston, Saugerties, New Paltz, Woodstock, and Mount Tremper, that are offering a $16.09 meal special during Ulster County’s Quadricentennial Celebration of Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage. Chefs are taking the opportunity to be creative. Here are a few sample deals, most of which are offered through October:
Included among the 26 are Peekamoose Restaurant and Taproom, located on Route 28 in Big Indian, and Catskill Rose Lodging and Dining in Mount Tremper. For addresses and contact information, visit www.hudsonriver400.org.
Also upcoming will be a Saturday, April 25 event where five area personalities will don aprons and serve lunch at the
Peekamoose Restaurant in Shandaken in an effort to raise funds for theUlster County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Things start at noon. Among the “celebrities” will be JR Lawrence of Mang Insurance Company, Rosina Montana of the Belleayre Ski Patrol, Retired Onteora Superintendent, Jack Jordan, Margaretville
Hospital CEO Ed Morache, and Emerson Resort & Spa Manager Tracy Lynch. All tips the waiters receive will go directly to the Red Cross, as will the non-food costs of each luncheon ticket sold. Reservations are critical so planners know how many folks will attend. They can be made electronically at bdgroup@catskill.net or by phone to 254-5553.

Sweeteners?
If you're watching your weight, those no-calorie sweeteners could be doing more harm than good. A recent study found that artificial sweeteners might actually foster weight gain by confusing the body in a way that makes it harder to burn calories. In the study, one group of rats were fed yogurt sweetened with glucose, a simple sugar with the same calories as table sugar. Another group received yogurt with saccharin. The saccharine group went on to consume more calories, gain more weight and put on more body fat. The findings come on the heels of a separate study that linked diet soda to an increased likelihood of metabolic syndrome — a combination of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes that include abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels, and high blood pressure.

The End?
Engaging the World Forum, a gathering where people of faith look at and share thoughts on difficult issues of contemporary life, will meet on Sunday, April 26, at 3:00 PM in the Carriage House at the Jay Gould Memorial Reformed Church in Roxbury to address the question: “Is It OK to Die?” Rev. Richard A. Dykstra, who is both minister of the Gould Reformed Church and works as a chaplain for Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care, will lead the session. He will be joined by two special guests from the Andes Round Table— Akira Odeni, sociology professor at SUNY Delhi, and Bill Piervincenzi, retired biology professor.
For more information, call 586-1689, 607-326-7101, or e-mail gouldchurch@catskill.net.