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Follow Up on the
News
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Watershed
Report Card
The occasion
for the three reports – one on the “historic”
partnerships designed to protect New York City drinking
water via a mixture of regulations and clean development
incentives, one the summation of an exhaustive six-year
study of 110 streams in the region, and one an overview
of the region’s economic life before and after implementation
of the watershed’s new regs in the late 1990s –
was the passing last year of the tenth anniversary of the
Memorandum of Agreement.
Upstate attendance at the gathering, which the event’s
moderator called embarrassing, was limited to a handful
of folks come out to protest Dean Gitter’s proposed
Belleayre Resort project, which that same moderator, Environmental
Psychologist Mirele Goldsmith, said would likely be the
subject of its own NY Academy forum in the future.
Goldsmith started things out by noting everyone’s
wish to start “working towards sustainability”
in regards to the watershed’s health. She said the
evening’s reports would focus on ways of protecting
the region’s hydrological systems, how decisions get
made in a democratic fashion, and what the costs of the
MOA and its maintenance are, directly and indirectly.
Cathleen Breen, Watershed Coordinator for New York Public
Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), presented the findings
of a new report card on the MOA’s first ten years
by the Clean Drinking Water Coalition, a partnership between
NYPIRG, Riverkeeper, Inc. and the Catskill Center for Conservation
and Development. Running through a fast power point presentation,
she gave out As for general water quality improvements and
septic system replacement programs, but noted that grades
could have been higher if the City increased its funding
and logistical support for its incentive programs, if there
were better training so more people could help the region
catch up with its septic system replacements, and the DEP’s
land acquisitions program were more user friendly.
For the latter, Breen noted that although city land holdings
had grown from 3.5 percent of the huge watershed region
in 1997 to 11.5 percent in 2007, the time might be right
to start using land trusts and development covenants instead
of outright purchases. The report also pointed out that
much more could be done in terms of education and outreach
to lessen the decades of animosity between Catskills residents
and the City. Ways to do that would include more work on
the DEP’s part to prevent local flooding, and definitely
new training programs.
In conclusion, the CDCW Report Card on the MOA said all
programs needed to be stepped up and better funded, but
also noted that the city’s East of Hudson Croton system
would do better with an organization such as the Catskills
Watershed Corporation in place to oversee its projects,
and needs.
Bern Sweeney, director and senior research scientist with
the internationally-recognized Stroud Water Research Center
then presented findings from his institute’s six year
study of 110 streams and 12 reservoirs in the watershed,
completed on behal of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and state Department of Environmental Conservation
over the past six years.
He termed his findings “a baseline for future reference
to show if we’re doing better or worse,” as
well as a demonstration of the need for new water purity
parameters; and lamented the fact that, at present, there
are no further plans for study of the watershed at present.
His studies of various chemical traces in sampled stream
waters, as well as local insect populations, showed that
water in the Catskills ranged from Good to Very Good, but
was still 24 percent off what it would have been at the
time of Hendrick Hudson’s first visit to the region
400 years ago. This latter point, he added, was important
given that the Croton region was 42 percent off what it
could be and hence in need of filtering. Sweeney said the
issue was to find ways of not only preventing the Catskills
watershed from needing filtration, but even getting its
ratings better than they were in his findings.
Those included a few surprises… streams near places
with impervious surfaces, be they roadways or parking lots,
showed marked increases in salt and other runoff, which
was posing a danger to local fish and insects that served
a role in natural filtration of the water. Furthermore,
trace amounts of pharmaceuticals were starting to show up
significantly in streams near nursing homes and other concentrations
of seniors taking prescription drugs.
To stem and possibly reverse any worsening of the region’s
water quality, Sweeney’s report suggests greater conservation
of water to allow local septic systems and wastewater treatment
plants to do their jobs better, and the planting of more
trees around all water courses.
“Trees clean our water,” Sweeney concluded,
adding that policymakers also had to look at upgrading private
and public wastewater systems, and ensuring that all communities
get sewer treatment plants of the highest quality, without
exception.
Presenting last, John Jay College Professor of Economics
Joan Hoffman presented a first-ever study of impacts of
the Watershed Agreement on the economy in the affected towns,
as compared to both their surrounding counties, other rural
counties in the state, the state, and the nation as a whole.
Put simply, she found no significant adverse effects from
the new interaction itself, and many benefits. But also
some unforeseen developments.
Hoffman spoke of a region with 57,238 residents that represented
a “vulnerable thin market” before and after
the signing of the MOA in 1997, filled with small farms
and businesses and a growing number of giant box stores
clamoring for attention and shopper dollars on its outskirts,
totaling up to a $1 billion economy helped hugely by nearly
$1.2 billion in City investments in the past ten years.
In the past ten years, she added, unemployment has gone
down, and trended better than comparison groups, while self-employment
has gone up, reflecting new contractors and other new arrivals
come up from the City post 9/11. Yet Hoffman also found
worrisome signs of poverty bulwarked by a growing population
over the age of 65, plus a poor wage picture that’s
actually gotten worse since the implementation of the MOA
(See editorial on page 39).
Concurrent with the poor wages, she said, retail businesses
have had a net loss… partly because of the new shopping
trends involving surrounding box stores, but also a shift
towards tourism within the area not supported by the low
wage local population.
Furthermore, Hoffman pointed out troubles in the farming
world, where younger people weren’t coming into the
once prevalant industry and land prices were driving many
to sell off family farms.
The economy professor said her findings led her to several
conclusions. First, she felt the local economy needed diversification
away from tourism, but also “greater use of DEP lands
in the local economy.” She felt new incentives for
the continuation of farming in the region needed to be explored,
and wages had to be raised, by state, federal and local
means.
In questions and answers following the presentations, several
policy sorts asked for direct recommendations. These included
further studies, use of better land preservation tools in
the region, and a change in the nation’s mindset similar
to that used in the building of structures.
“When we look at safety factors in construction, it’s
usual that we double the safe level. And yet we talk about
bettering our drinking water, or our food supply, in the
smallest of increments,” Sweeney said. “WE need
a different mind set.”
A majority of those traipsing up to the mics made statements
against the Belleayre Resort and asked for comments from
the panel. All declined to address the issue.
As Goldsmith said at the beginning, that would be a future
topic for discussion.
A
Challengers’ Sweep
Which seemed only right, given that the issue pulling the biggest
blocks of voters out had to do with a pending decision to close
at least one community elementary school in Phoenicia to create
a new 5-8 Middle School on a rapidly centralizing Boiceville-based
campus rather than the Large Parcel threat, or reality, that
drove Olive voter turnout since 2005.
“Taking Large Parcel off the table changed the demographics,”
said Ralph Legnini, the evening’s top vote-getter and
a West Shokan resident, after all the tallies were counted.
“I’m glad people came out and participated. They
spoke out to change the way things have been going.”
Legnini received a total of 2,460 votes, with Woodstocker Donna
Flayhan at 2,379, Phoenicia-resident Ann McGillicuddy at 2,294
and Willow resident Laurie Osmond getting a total of 2,267 votes.
On the incumbents side, O’Connor received a high of 1,446
votes, current board president Bernholz got 1,384 votes, and
Rita Vanacore ended up with 1,301. All were from the Town of
Olive, which voted for them overwhelmingly, albeit by slightly
less numbers and splits than other candidates have received
in recent years.
Woodstock-based High School senior Adam Pollack got a total
of 739 votes but promised to try again next year.
All four propositions on the ballot passed. The budget, a proposed
$48,215,077 budget representing a 3.08 percent hike in spending,
won 2,468 votes to 1,165; a proposition to purchase $189,127
worth of new busses, got through 2,063 to 1,529 after several
previous failures; a $1.8 million expenditure of already-there
capital reserve funds was okayed 2,062 to 1,457 and finally,
a request to establish a Child Safety zone requiring use of
school busses to pick up and drop off kids near the high school
in Boiceville passed 2,642 to 964.
“I’m just so pleased we passed a budget, a proposition
to get new busses, and a child safety zone; all really wonderful
things that are good for the kids of Onteora,” said District
Superintendent Leslie Ford after hugging the incumbent board
members who hired her, and with whom she’s worked for
the last year, and welcoming their replacements warmly. “We
welcome the new board and their energy… That is a feature
of working with the board, that is the democratic process so
that’s not something to be disappointed over.”
Asked about how she and the district would handle a series of
pending decisions — some made like the decision to create
a 5-8 Middle School at the high school and take that issue out
for bonding in January, and others about to be okayed, such
as the official closing of the Phoenicia School that had been
set for mid-June, Dr. Ford spoke about process.
“The new board will decide what still stands. The new
board, as it formulates, will decide the directions they want
to go in. As you know, I serve at their pleasure.”
Osmond, as the lowest vote-getter of the four winners Tuesday
night, was sworn into office during a terse board meeting where
all results were accepted by the current board. She will be
filling the vacated board seat of Herb Rosenfeld, and will be
up for re-election next May.
“I am overwhelmed that the community spoke and got to
vote on the direction that they want the schools to go in,”
Legnini said after it was all over. He said that come July,
when he and his three other challengers take office, they would
work on a proper procedure to overturn the 5/8 middle school
proposal. “We have to reflect the vote that was cast by
the community-we ran on those issues and the community spoke.”
“I feel like the vote was so overwhelming that it’s
a mandate for the four of us,” added Flayhan. “Clearly
people voted for us because of what we are against – the
$70 million bond and the five-through-eight middle school. We
have a mandate to move forward to fix the elementary schools
and make sure we keep the student teacher ratios low.”
She added that she and her slate had also spoken about shifting
away from the current committee structure, a governing style
picked up from the town of Olive that the challengers feel may
have insulated the defeated incumbents, and entire board, from
truly hearing from the wider community about their wishes and
dislikes.
Voting breakdowns, in the order in which they were posted, had
Hurley going 221 for Pollack, 399 for Flayhan, 418 for Osmond,
428 for Legnini, 301 for McGillicuddy, 310 for Bernholz, 328
for O’Connor and 281 for Vanacore. Woodstock voted for
189 for Pollack, 967 for Flayhan, 928 for Osmond, 942 for Legnini,
937 for McGillicuddy, 116 for Bernholz, 130 for O’Connor
and 108 for Vanacore. Olive voted for 202 for Pollack, 270 for
Flayhan, 186 for Osmond, 339 for Legnini, 288 for McGillicuddy,
867 for Bernholz, 893 for O’Connor and 834 for Vanacore.
Shandaken, coming in at almost 10:30 PM, went 127 for Pollack,
743 for Flayhan, 736 for Osmond, 751 for Legnini, 768 for McGillicuddy,
91 for Bernholz, 95 for O’Connor and 78 for Vanacore.
Turnouts were about 50 percent higher this year than any previous
year in Shandaken, about the same in Woodstock and Hurley as
voting three years ago, and about 40 percent down from a 2005
high in Olive.
Asked about the election following the official totals were
posted, O’Connor, Bernholz and Vanacore refused official
comment, although Lisa Valvo, O’Connor’s sister,
said, “I think you should leave them alone.”
“No comment, I am not going to comment at all to anybody,”
said Vanacore when one reporter persisted.
When asked “Why not,” she replied, “Read your
own newspapers!”
“I think this is a sign of very good things to come,”
said Osmond, soon after being sworn in as the first new boardmember
of four.
“it was a grass roots effort by so many members of the
Onteora community,” added McGillicuddy. “I look
forward to working with everyone in the community.”
Ashokan
To Jay & Molly
On Monday, May 12, Ungar and his partner Molly Mason took possession
of the former State University at New Paltz’s property
after two years of negotiations and paperwork. Or more exactly,
The Open Space Institute and the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection announced the acquisition of the 394
acres by the Open Space Conservancy (OSC), the land acquisition
affiliate of OSI, from Campus Auxiliary Services, an affiliate
of SUNY-New Paltz, for later subdivision that will see a portion
of the property going to the City DEP to facilitate its water
supply operations, and the remainder transferred to Ungar and
Mason’s Ashokan Foundation, a new non-profit group that
will continue to run educational, cultural and arts programs
on the property.
Sound complicated?
“It’s been quite an odyssey,” said Ungar from
his Saugerties home on Wednesday, two days after the complex
deal’s announcement on May 12.
“Put the emphasis on odd,” quipped Mason, on another
line.
The two spoke about all parties needing tight specifics for
the deal that would end up having the city pay more than half
of the $2.1 million funding for the purchase. An almost-immediate
subdivision of the property would need to occur via the Olive
Planning Board. Plans were being drawn up for rebuilding of
the facility’s campus at a new location on what would
be the new Ashokan Center’s lands… by Kingston-based
Ashokan Architects (a nice coincidence of names, according to
Ungar and Mason). Land covenants and right-of-ways had been
worked out between the soon-to-be new neighbors.
“We’re in a planning and design stage for the coming
months,” Ungar added, noting that in addition to working
out details for the construction of a new campus in ways that
will not disrupt a full schedule of dance weekends, school visits
and a possible teen summer camp, the Ashokan Center was looking
to build eco-friendly buildings that would play a greater community
role in both Olive and the surrounding region. “One of
our ideas involves a five year plan for becoming more self-sustaining
in terms of the food we use, as well as our energy needs.”
He said that both the subdivision process and final construction
phase for the new campus were on “fairly tight timetables.”
The Open Space Institute, which has protected 100,000 acres
of scenic open space in the Hudson River Valley, and played
similar roles involving the purchase of properties for the Catskill
Center for Conservation and Development and Woodstock Land Conservancy,
tends to purchase properties such as the SUNY-New Paltz acreage
for fairly quick turnover.
Ungar and Mason said that part of their plan for the new Ashokan
Center would be to revive use of the campus back to its earlier
days in the 1970s, before SUNY New Paltz started doing more
of its environmental studies at the Mohonk Preserve. The property,
adjacent to the city-built and owned Ashokan Reservoir and wilderness
areas in the state-owned Catskill Forest Preserve, is bisected
by the Esopus Creek and includes a cluster of older frontier
and farm buildings from the region’s early days.
The main reason for the property’s subdivision, and campus
move, is the City DEP’s recent decision to re-open a long
unused Esopus stream channel, which is now used for reservoir
releases to curb turbidity in the city’s water supply
and avert possible downstream flooding along the Esopus Creek.
“DEP is very pleased to be able to partner with the Open
Space Institute, the Ashokan Foundation and SUNY New Paltz and
preserve the use of Ashokan for educational and cultural programs,
while enabling the City to use the property for important water
protection purposes,” said DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd
in a press release announcing the land exchange on Monday.
“In addition to the land, we’ve taken on 30 employees
from the Field Campus,” said Ungar. “Everyone’s
excited about moving ahead now.”
He and Mason added that a celebration of the handover will likely
not occur until Labor Day weekend, due to pressing schedules,
and planning needs, during the interim.
Does he, the composer of the award-winning tune, “Ashokan
Farewell,” plan any new compositions by then?
Ungar laughed and noted that, running his own institution now,
it was unlikely he’d find the time over the coming months.
Not that he’d like to.
Was he surprised to have bought this land he was almost ready
to move on from 28 years ago?
“I don’t want to sound too new agey, but there’s
something about that place that causes good things to happen,”
he replied. “Maybe it’s the orientation of the buildings…
it works.”
For more on what Jay and Molly are planning for their newly
bought Ashokan Center, visit their websites at either www.ashokanfoundation.org
or www.ashokan.org
Saving
Habeas Corpus...
Last week, the CCR filed suit in Los Angeles federal court
against CACI International, CACI Premier Technology and L-3
Communications Titan Corporation, private companies that have
served as “dungeon masters” interrogating detainees
supplied by the U.S. government.
“We believe private contractors...should not be involved
in any part of fighting a war, partly because they don’t
have the same kind of supervision, training or accountability
and are, to me, way of avoiding (the law),” said Ratner,
a part-time Olive resident with his wife Karen Ranucci, who
works with the national radio show Democracy Now. Among questionable
legal activities the Center is focused upon are such evasions
as the use of mercenaries for activities which may be seen
as lawless misconduct on the part of a government or the shifting
of such actions to countries where legality is a lesser consideration.
“(P)rivate security forces have behaved brutally, with
impunity,” Ratner told Jeremy Scahill, author of a book
on Blackwater, a company CCR litigated against for their role
in the Nisoor Square massacre in Iraq. “These kind of
paramilitary groups bring to mind Nazi Party brownshirts,
functioning as an extrajudicial enforcement mechanism that
can and does operate outside the law....not subject to constitutional
limitations that apply to both federal and state officials
and employees.”
Even more dramatically last week, charges against Mohammed
al-Qahtani, one of the Guantanamo Six now facing the death
penalty before a military tribunal were suddenly dropped without
prejudice (meaning they can be reinstated at any time), removing
this CCR client from the upcoming trials. One of several individuals
accused by the government of being the “20th hijacker”
of 9-11, al-Qahtani has been held in the Camp Delta facility
at the U.S. base in Cuba since 2002, where he denied, confessed
under torture, and then recanted the allegations. Records
of his detention recently sought by retired general Michael
Dunlavey, who had supervised Guantanamo during that year,
were found to have disappeared along with their “back-ups.”
The tribunal al-Qahtani avoids is one in which, as described
by the NYT in February, “Prosecutors will be able to
use evidence obtained by improper means, including by torture.
The rules will be stacked in the government’s favor,
so hearsay evidence that would not be allowed in civilian
courts may be allowed. Prosecutors may rely on classified
evidence that the defendants will not be able to challenge.
Defendants may not be allowed to call important witnesses
(and) even if the defendants were somehow to beat the charges,
they would not be set free. They would simply go back to being
detainees in Guantanamo.”
“If you want to prosecute terrorists, there are plenty
of criminal laws to use,” Ratner said in an interview
with Mother Jones magazine. “You don’t have to
make up special new laws like military commissions or holding
people indefinitely.”
The tribunals are legitimized by the Military Commissions
Act of 2006, which former NY congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman
said “countenances abuse of detainees in defiance of
the Geneva Conventions and the country’s past moral
values and it suspends habeas corpus in defiance of the Constitution
(as well as extending the) grant of a pardon to President
Bush and his top Cabinet officials for any crimes they may
have committed under the War Crimes Act of 1996.”
What is momentous about the events of the past two weeks is
the unknown projected effect upon the prosecution’s
case against the other defendants, all of whom are said to
be portrayed in the hundreds of hours of interrogation videos
(24,000 interrogations) recently destroyed by the CIA in defiance
of a court order. With destruction of state evidence seemingly
almost routine throughout these proceedings it isn’t
difficult to envision a collective collapse of the cases.
In late April, the CIA, already under fire for withholding
information from Congress, responded to FOIA requests from
CCR and other human rights organizations, admitting possession
of over 7,000 documents related to its “extraordinary
rendition” program, partly because of content including
correspondence from top administration officials. At the time
of our interview, Ratner was irked by what he perceived as
the press having underplayed a story of high officials’
involvement in devising the torture program. The Center is
expected to file a response to the CIA’s legal tactic
this month.
“We just saw on ABC that Condi Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney
and a few others sat around the White House dozens of times,
according to the story, approving various torture techniques
to use against detainees in CIA custody and the press should
be screaming ‘How is this legal? Shouldn’t that
subject you to prosecution? How did this administration get
away with blaming lower level soldiers for what was a torture
program from the highest level?’” Ratner said
in April, finding additional media fault in continuously giving
“some people free passes on a series of lies told to
us about the Iraq War” and a program of falsehoods “from
politicians and the press in particular” that pushed
us into a war that shouldn’t have been fought which
“anyone with a modicum of intelligence knew we were
having shoved down our throats.”
With 151 members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike,
having invested $196 million in companies with Department
of Defense contracts bringing in $755 million a day in 2006,
over $275.6 billion according to the non-profit group OMB
Watch, it’s hard to dismiss the profit motive. With
names like Kerry, Sensenbrenner, Lieberman, Harkin and many
others cashing in on the profits of war, (Hillary Clinton
sold her stock in Raytheon, Boeing and Honeywell last year),
can that factor be ignored? Senate Foreign Relations and Armed
Services committee members, alone, have between $32 million
and $44 million invested in DoD-contracted companies as they
oversee the Iraqi misadventure. In what some see as an era
of unabated corporate plunder, with overcharged and unfinished
projects in Baghdad, there are questions as to how much of
the terror war itself is a colossal swindle.
Ratner feels that Homeland Security money was an issue in
the DEP’s decision to close the Ashokan’s Monument
Road and it was certainly a major factor in the round-up of
“suspects” sent to our tropical gulag in Cuba
where only a small percentage will face trial and a vast majority
of those freed thusfar were released without charges. (Others
were sent to secret trials in Afghanistan which make the tribunals
look civil in comparison.)
“The way it worked was, when the Afghan War began, they
dropped leaflets all over saying ‘Your family will be
rich...You’ll never have to work again’ (if you
turn in a ‘terrorist’),” Ratner said of
the 86% of detainees who were brought in when large bounties
were offered. “The average award was maybe $5,000 in
a situation where warlords are running all over, deciding
to turn in opponents or people they didn’t like...or
bad neighbors needing money- that’s a lot of the people.
In fact, I just did a panel with the German attorney for (Murat
Kumaz) who just got out and wrote a book {Guantanamo: Five
Years An Innocent Man) and he was taken off a bus in Pakistan
and the warlord was paid $3,000.”
A typical prisoner, interviewed for an article on routine
torture in Afghani prisons by the British newspaper The Guardian,
related; “At the end of my time in Guantanamo, I had
to sign a paper saying I had been captured in battle, which
was not true...I was stopped when I was in my taxi with four
passengers. But they told me I would have to spend the rest
of my life in Guantanamo if I did not sign it, so I did.”
While, in the eyes of some observers, such captures have helped
justify swelling terror war expenditures and the rising profit
margins of recession-proof techno-security companies sopping
up an increasing percentage of the federal budget, others
see them as overwhelming cause to rethink current policy.
“The fact that torture is a subject of debate in this
country right now; the fact that it isn’t slammed by
the press on a daily basis- that the press doesn’t say
‘When are we going to have accountability,’ whether
through Congress or the courts, and stop it? That these aren’t
questions at every press conference, I find shocking,”
Ratner said, vowing to seek accountability for evil-doers
in office through “universal jurisdiction” cases
which can prosecute torturers almost anywhere in the world.
Ratner’s CCR has led the legal battles against the alleged
abuses at Guantanamo for 6 years, sending the first habeas
attorney there and organizing the largest coalition of pro-bono
lawyers on record to defend rights they see as essential to
a free nation. His Center was also in the forefront of the
international initiative to arrest the late Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet and active in numerous arrests and convictions
of European and African leaders accused of similar crimes
against humanity. They have contributed to the arrest warrants,
under international law, of certain officials who have left
the current administration, for instance Donald Rumsfeld,
who had to flee France last October to avoid a warrant for
his arrest for war crimes.
The object, as CCR sees it, is a restoration of justice in
the American system of justice and the opposition, as they
view it, is a shadow government that operates in secrecy to
criminally pursue goals they serially misrepresent to the
public. The Center’s own leader, Michael Ratner, dreams
of upstate trees and mountains, saying “Since I’ve
been coming to Olive for 35 years, going back into those woods
is always with me, wherever I am in the world. That’s
the place I love most.”
But duty calls.
A
Jar Of Olives...
Life’s A Gift... Unwrap It!
The
wine steward did not follow us home to Shokan either. When I
went to sleep at 8:30 p.m., I realized that my body was still
saying 2:30 a.m. Venice time. When I awoke, I missed Domingo
who would, like a little elf, know when we left the cabin to
make it tidy for our return. My bed this morning was a crumpled
pile of pillows and comforter and stayed that way when I looked
at the bedroom at noon. There were no chocolate candies on my
pillow.
Fourteen of us traveled on this incredible vacation. Our ages
spanned four decades from forties to eighties. We were four
colors: white, black, tan and sunburned pink. We were married,
single, widowed, divorced and remarried. We toured Rome, Naples,
Florence, Tuscany, Capri, Monte Carlo, Santorini, Mykonos, Kusadasi
(Ephesus), Athens, Katakalon (Olympia) and Venice. We left as
strangers, acquaintances and relatives, and we returned as lifelong
friends. We were a living unit that pulsed and breathed as one
as we followed the itinerary of the Mediterranean Cruise that
took us through France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. We traveled
by plane, ship, boat, tender, water taxi, gondola, cable cars,
donkeys, buses, and cabs.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. said, “…Travel plans are dance
lessons from God.” When you dance, you don’t lead.
You just follow your partner and the music. We did just that
as we danced our way to the unknown music of foreign shores.
We were a field trip of left-footed dance students discovering
the songs of other cultures. We could feel the melody even when
we not understand the lyrics of French, Greek, Italian, and
Turkish. We looked out for one another and survived our blunders.
We almost lost Lisa in the Vatican. We made it to the cruise
ship just moments before the gangplank was brought aboard, and
we found Jocelyn’s passport and boarding pass moments
before loading unto the plane in Venice.
Venice is, by far, the most magical of places. I expected it
to find a small tourist section that looks like the travel brochures.
It truly is picturesque no matter where you looked. It is a
time capsule of another century. It is hard to believe that
a place like this exists. Walt Disney couldn’t have done
better if he tried to image a Magic Kingdom where all travel
is by boat, water, taxi or gondola. No cars at all. No crime.
Just picture postcard scenery. I vowed to return.
The trip home gave us twenty hours to make the adjustment from
there to here. Each hour erased the fantasy and added to the
reality. When we boarded the plane that held three hundred passengers
each occupying 20 cubic feet of space and needing twice that
amount to be comfortable, Bruce and I looked around. Next to
us was a fecund female who had her eight-month pregnant belly
wedged into that small airplane seat. Next to her were her three
young children. Just our luck to sit next to a row of three
kids less than five years old. Our fears were for nothing because
that little family was a delight. Instead the very large man,
who obviously had not showered that month, was the annoyance.
He didn’t fit in the seat either, so he shifted his immense
girth from side to side, stood up, rocked and pushed on the
seats around him. When the pilot announced that there was turbulence
and we needed to secure seat belts, I was convinced that this
man’s constant shifting of weight caused the turbulence.
Airplane seats are designed for people who are four feet tall
and weigh ninety pounds. He was our wake-up call to reality.
Our vacation was ending.
It is possible to enjoy every moment of the vacation and yet
look forward to being home. I left euros and magic an ocean
away as our dog, Diva, welcomed us home with wet dog kisses
and furious tail wags. It’s good to be back among family
and friends. We saw many of them at Alison Fredericks’
graduation party. Alison and Jason Young, two of my favorite
students, will make outstanding teachers themselves. Jason was
awarded the prestigious President’s Award from New Paltz
State University.
What’s Up With The City?
Now, it appears that what’s been happening in regards
to new attitudes on the part of New York City, and its old Upstate
foes, has been the result of a new round of closed-door talks
going on in Albany, the City department of Environmental Protection’s
Kingston offices, and other locations around the Catskills in
recent months… all started under former governor Eliot
Spitzer but currently being continued by his successor, Governor
David Paterson.
That information arose on April 22 when the Catskill Watershed
Corporation held its annual meeting out in the Delaware County
village of Margaretville. Towards the end of the evening’s
proceedings, it turns out, former State Watershed Inspector
General James Tierney, now a Deputy Commissioner at the State
Department of Environmental Conservation, announced that in
fact it has been the Governor’s office that has stepped
in to help solve the ongoing issue of the city’s policy
of challenging upstate tax assessments.
CWC Executive Director Alan Rosa followed up, noting how he’d
been warning watershed towns for over a year that the tax issue
must be resolved because the City has the resources to go far
through the legal system while upstate towns were going broke
in the fight. He spoke about current talks run by the Governor’s
office since January with optimism, and said that he felt the
discussions to date had played a major role in the recent settlement
reached with Olive.
Back when the CWC was set up after the signing of a Governor’s
office-brokered Memorandum of Agreement in 1997, a special account
was set up with New York City funds to pay the costs for defending
tax assessment challenges made by the City against municipalities
within the City’s watershed region. Although there are
still ten different challenges pending, Olive’s battle
had nearly depleted that account.
A call to one of the remaining assessment battles, Hurley supervisor
Gary Bellows, resulted in the news that a recent April 9 court
hearing on their case ended with the judge hearing both summations
and sending both parties back to their drawing boards for another
60 days of finalizing work.
“We’ve been told there’ll be no decision before
June or July,” said Bellows this week. “We won’t
have any more news on the issue until then.”
At the CWC meeting, meanwhile, Rosa and other watershed representatives
insisted that the talks they’d been holding were totally
confidential, much in the same way talks had been back in were
back in the mid-1990s when a host of local representatives met
under former Governor George Pataki to reach the MOA deal they
all signed in 1997.
Dennis Lucas, the Town of Hunter supervisor who serves as Executive
Director of the Coalition of Watershed Towns, whose fight over
proposed New York City regulations led to the creation of the
MOA and CWC, noted in a separate interview that the impetus
for the current talks, and resulting new atmosphere, came after
he reached out to “the governor’s people and other
state regulators” last year to address concerns about
fraying upstate/downstate relations.
He said the big push came after the federal Environmental Protection
Agency okayed a ten year Filtration Avoidance Determination
for the City, sparking a lawsuit and other threats from the
Coalition and other Upstate entities worried that the length
of time of the new approvals would eat into their negotiating
power.
Late last fall, Lucas continued, Tierney - knowledgeable about
Catskills issues since dealing with the Belleayre Resort review
in his previous job - was given the role of leading talks…
and allowed to use a sizable staff to help move things along.
Since January, parties involved in the ongoing talks have included
various DEC officials, the Governor’s Secretary of the
Environment Judith Enck, city DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd and
Deputy Commissioner Paul Rush, and representatives from the
Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, representing
the region’s environmental interests.
“From these discussions much progress has been made,”
Lucas said, noting that in addition to tax assessment battles,
items being mulled over include giving Upstate entities approval
power regarding City land acquisitions within the watershed,
increased recreation uses for city lands, including those around
its reservoirs, and new investment mechanisms for the region.
“We’re moving back towards an equal partnership
bent on serving our shared constituents… We just had to
recognize once again that we’re all in this together.”
Asked whether there was any relationship between the state’s
new attitude towards the Catskills watershed region and the
Agreement in Principal regarding the controversial Belleayre
Resort that Spitzer announced and signed in Kingston last September,
Lucas said no, not at all. He said the only time the Coalition
of Watershed Towns touched on the Gitter proposal, now grown
more controversial as it involves new state investment in its
own ski center adjacent to the resort complex, was when its
review process raised issues involving community character that
Lucas and others in the entity felt were better left to “home
rule” decisions by individual towns.
“It’s my belief that if one town wants to paint
itself green and go to hell in a handbasket, they have a right
to do so, within reason,” he said. “That’s
part of the character of the Catskills.”
“I’m just tickled pink to see everyone willing to
sit down together and critique our partnership, renew commitments
to work together, and move forward,” Lucas said. “We’re
doing okay.”
Leifeld, for his part, spoke about the “new attitude of
cooperation” also including $500,000 in Smart Growth funds
committed by the state to projects in the Route 28 corridor
from Olive to Andes, and possibly being more tied into “the
Dean Gitter thing” than Lucas wanted to admit.
“I’m not privy to the meetings,” he said.
“But I’m happy they’re happening.”
He also offered that a relationship between the new talks and
the AIP did exist in the way the new administration, through
two governors now, has placed emphasis on developing the Hudson
Valley as a “green corridor” similar to what Silicon
Valley was for the digital age, and bettering relationships,
and opportunities, within the Catskills.
“It’s big stuff,” he said. “For them
to agree to leave us alone for ten years… that’s
something!”
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