Follow Up on the News

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Stuck In The Ozone...

What’s happened instead is that air quality regulations developed under the Bush administration and currently proposed for adoption by the US EPA have become increasingly stringent. And while they haven’t been adopted yet, county and state regulators we’ve spoken with do expect that they will be. What those standards are hasn’t been released publicly, but according to Department of Environmental Conservation Region 3 Director Willie Janeway, “there is a process unfolding which is likely to lead to a tightening of the air quality standards...We’ve sent information in to the Feds, and they will make the determination.”
According to Spokesman Lori Severino of the agency’s Press Office, DEC sent a letter in March of this year to EPA, reporting on air quality monitoring data from 2006 to 2008, and recommending Ulster County’s designation of Non-Attainment. She said that EPA has until March of next year to make its determination, but that they’re scheduled to release their list of newly designated counties by November or December.
When EPA will release its new regs is uncertain, but most regulators expect the tightening to be significant. Standards for example, which currently measure allowable pollutant thresholds over a 1-hour period may soon require similar thresholds to be met over an 8-hour period.
Although in counties further downstate those pollutants include such things as carbon monoxide and particulates, in Ulster County it’s the ozone level that’s ex pected to trigger the shift into Non-Attainment. Usually associated with automobile emissions and combustion from heating systems and manufacturing, there are also natural sources which may contribute to the problem. Trees, which produce huge amounts of oxygen and have a highly positive effect on air quality also release oxides of nitrogen which are chemical precursors of ozone and may ultimately effect its atmospheric levels.
Assuming that new regs go into effect this year, Ulster County is expected to be joined with Dutchess, Orange, and Putnam counties as part of the federally designated “Poughkeepsie-Orange Non-Attainment Area.” According to Rich Peters, Regional Planning & Program Manager for NYS Department of Transportation Region 8, that designation would significantly impact any proposed transportation project that used federal funds.
The designation would also appear to require some level of new impact analysis for any transportation project or development capable of impacting air quality at the county level. In this county our Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Ulster County Transportation Council, would need to demonstrate to state regula tors that proposed projects not only wouldn’t negatively affect air quality, but would actually help improve it.
The county might also be compelled under the designation, to consider air quality mitigation measures that aren’t currently required here, such as extra nozzles on fuel dispensers, and limits on certain air discharge permits. On the brighter side however, Non-Attainment does make the County eligible for some federal aid through a program called CMAC, short for ‘Congestion Mitigation Air Quality.” Most CMAC funds do go to more densely populated areas but modest funding, generally for transit projects, would likely become available.
If the new regs go into effect this year, few in government expect serious problems as a result. “It’s a manageable situation” said Hector Rodriguez, Chairman of the County Legislature’s Economic Development, Planning, Housing, and Transit Committee. “But we will have to supply additional documentation and support for when we do major transportation projects.”
There is a reason for the regs however, and DEC’s Janeway seemed to sum it up: “We do have air quality issues, health issues, and as the standards are improved to better protect the public health, we all benefit.”

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The End Of An Era

Which was all accepted thought, Marian Umhey says, back when she took over the Townsman, which published its final issue last week, over 50 years ago.
The newspaper had been founded by Charles Ryder of Cobleskill, NY, who at the time owned small weekly newspapers in his hometown and other small communities throughout the northern Catskills and central New York. At first, each hamlet had its own paper. Then it was towns like Stamford and Cooperstown… and Woodstock. Ryder started in 1919 and sold out to Dick Sanford of the Catskill Mountain News in 1979. But by then he was already long gone from his Ulster County publication, which Umhey said his family felt was too far afield to keep track of.
Umhey, who later served as the Town of Shandaken’s first woman board member, its first (and to date only) female supervisor, and a longtime county legislator, had moved to the area to marry Mt. Tremper resident Howard Umhey with ink already on her fingers and deadlines in her blood. She loves to tell of working with neighborhood publications as a girl in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn during World War II. Of working with the paper at school when she was going to Fordham University, one of its first women students. And then applying for and getting a job writing for the old Brooklyn Eagle, back when it was one of the nation’s top publications… and the borough still had its own major league baseball team.
When she came upstate she was offered a job with the Daily Freeman, then Kingston’s only paper after its competitor, the Leader, had folded. But the commute was too long and she had started having babies, eventually building a family of five children. She started working with Ryder’s new paper as a writer and editor and next thing she knew, he was asking if she’d buy the paper then known as the Woodstock Townsman from him… at a good price.
She turned to her ad saleswoman, longstanding Woodstock-based friend Kiki Godwin, for help in the venture. And together the two women, Umhey a Republican and Godwin (now Randolph) a staunch Democrat, started getting it out week in and week out.
They opened an office over a deli on the Woodstock Village Green and kept printing at Ryder’s Stamford paper office until he sold the business in the late 1970s, when Sanford shifted the presses to Margaretville. Copy would be typed and driven up for years. Then an arrangement was worked out to send a package up on the Trailways bus from Saugerties to Stamford three times a week. Eventually, Umhey would return to driving 28 to Margaretville.
She and Kiki had no competition for the longest time and became the official newspapers of their hometowns, Woodstock and Shandaken. Eventually, they shifted their moniker, and coverage area, to The Ulster County Townsman. They recall the passions of one of their first big issues, pushing for the inclusion of Woodstock and West Hurley into the Onteora School District, which was then dominated by Olive… who eventually pushed to have a centralized school campus placed in their town.
Umhey tells stories about being threatened for her paper’s positions. She laughs recalling a time when she thought she had been car-bombed.
Later, she was instrumental in urging Woodstock to keep out a giant hippie festival being proposed for the town, and eventually moved to Sullivan County. Although she notes how folks came to town anyway, “and the next thing you know we were looking down from our windows at all these head shops. It wasn’t good.)
The Townsman thrived on Umhey’s reporting and Godwin’s ability to talk friends into taking out advertising. But the two shifted roles whenever necessary and hired friends whenever possible to help out. After veteran Freeman sports editor Charlie Tiano retired, he took to writing a column, then serving as a regular reporter. As did Freeman and Woodstock Times reporters Sharon and Ken Cherven. Sylvia Day and Elsie Schoonmaker wrote regular columns, those old-style gatherings of gossip like “news” about who was visiting whom when and where.
Umhey wrote her “Marian’s Memos,” a sort of hyper-local column of news bits and observations. And she never missed a deadline in her half century writing it.
Umhey recalls the typos, as all newspaper sorts do. Substituting an I for an O in tots. Or reviewing a production of Tennessee Williams’ Desire Under the Arms. And her subscribers, including the actor Lee Marvin, who’d have copies sent to him at homes in Arizona and Pacific Palisades, as well as to his studio.
She finally sold the paper in the early 1990s when her husband and she started ailing and there was some talk of moving away. Kiki had moved on by then. Tiano had passed away. It was time to hand over the reins.
Enter Blake Killin, an Ohio University School of Journalism grad with a deep love for the area, having spent years visiting a family getaway in Woodland Valley for as long as he could remember. He’d been living and working in Connecticut, and the idea of having the newspaper in the town he’d always dreamed of making his home was irresistible.
He took on the various roles involved with relish. Set up a new office next to Family on Rock City Road in Woodstock. Kept on the writers who’d been there and upgraded the meetings coverage, the photography. Moved his printing to the Mountain Eagle, then in Tannersville, and eventually to Johnson Newspaper’s Register-Star facility in Hudson. To which he’d drive copy for typesetting, then go to do computer layout, for his full 908 week run with what would then become The County Townsman and finally The Townsman.
Killin held on to his paper’s official status for as long as possible until his increasingly lengthy editorials, and coverage, started to jibe with the changing demographics of an increasingly Democratic region. Advertising shrank away, as it’s done for all newspapers, while print and other costs escalated.
And yet he won regular awards for his coverage of devastating floods and watershed politics, state trooper stand-offs and an endless stream of meetings where he was always a presence. Sure, his slant on things was his own. And yet it was well earned after years of coverage, and billions of words of copy written and edited.
Eventually, earlier this decade, he sold out to Johnson Newspapers, based in Watertown, who saw the opportunity to increase their theoretical coverage area, used to attract advertising, into Ulster County. But Killin stayed on as editor and writer and all that changed were the ads, with more coming in from Greene and Columbia counties.
“We have covered three Woodstock Festivals, almost two decades of graduations of Onteora’s seniors as well as athletic and academic accomplishments,” he wrote in his final editorial published May 28. “We have watched Ulster County’s government change…”
His parent company, which has also started cutting back on the frequency of its “daily” newspaper’s schedule among other cost-cutting means, decided it couldn’t keep the Townsman running. Just as the Freeman’s parent company felt about its weekly newspapers in Dutchess and Columbia counties. Or Ulster Publishing felt about its Highland newspaper, and Dutchess County publications.
“Many of our long-time readers have passed away over the years and most of their offspring have been forced to move away in search of employment,” Killin wrote, while also noting his continuing belief in small-town community newspapering. “We bid our loyal readers a fond farewell.”
In a separate interview, by phone, Killin was quiet. He’d finally gotten a vacation after so many years without one, he said. There were some future plans in the work that could keep at work in his livelihood of choice.
“It was a good run,” he said.
“He kept it alive,” Umhey said. “But it’s sad to see this gone. I wonder what some of the old folks around here, the Republicans, will do for a regular voice now.”
Who would have thought a tiny publication such as the Townsman, which printed its last issue a week ago, would have lasted as long as it did… over a half century. Basically under the steam of one or two strong individuals throughout its 53 years. Then again, who really can ever conceive of life without such elements being part of our civic lives. Where all our news is gotten only from large corporations broadcasting out of other places, with concerns not necessarily our own.
The Townsman, and all Marian and Kiki and Charlie and Sharon and finally Blake put into it, were a central part of our lives. Its passing is a loss.
Editor’s Note: Umhey’s Marian’s Memos will resume publication within the Phoenicia Times and Olive Press starting with our next issue.

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A Jar Of Olives...
Abundance

Gene Gormley once said that there are no Brinks Armored Cars in a funeral procession— just the people who loved, liked or respected us. Our money is only there for us to spend or share. Among my mother’s treasures was a check she wrote to herself. The date was “Always.” The check was made out to her for the amount of “Abundance.” It was signed, “The Universe.” She believed that the world and all spiritual forces would provide “Enough” if we shared and gave. She was not necessarily a “churchy” woman, but she was a good person who gave freely of her talents and her love. Perhaps she learned this lesson from Nana, my father’s mother. Nana was a “churchy” woman who once gave all her food money to a radio evangelist. She just sent it away in the mail when she could ill afford to do so. She endured lots of lectures and many tongue-cluckings until notification came that she had won a trip for two to Norway, her native country. Coincidence or catalyst? Hmmmm.
My father was a man who only attended church at weddings and funerals although he would drop us three kids off at Sunday school and pick us up. Without the religious component, he would get a kick out of giving something away. Once he paid his toll on the Jones Beach Expressway and gave the toll collector another fare. “Tell the car behind us that it’s Oldsmobile Day.” Random acts of kindness are like magnets and boomerangs. They both send and receive joy.
You don’t always have to give money. You can share in many ways. Lois Ostapczuk and Cheryl Kosarek have “other men” in their life that their husbands approve of. Lois has Earl who is learning to read through The Literacy Association. Cheryl delivers home made soup to Ralph each week. Peter Grandia, Mr. Occhi, the Parete’s, Steve Blakely, and many other local businesses contribute, oh so often, to each and every charitable event in town. There are the great volunteers who deliver Meals on Wheels and spend a few moments visiting and brightening the day of those who may not be able to get out and about. There are the firemen and first responders who are so compassionate that Terry Elmendorf and Yvonne Fuller administered oxygen to a smoke-overpowered cat.
Jack Molloy received his Father’s Day present early this year. Jack’s five children, Meghan, Chris, Kevin, Terry, and Mary Pat organized a family reunion along with twenty-six other family members. They, and a hundred or so guests, celebrated at a Brooks Barbecue at West Shokan Park. Jack, accompanied by his son and grandson, walked proudly in the Memorial Day Parade.
The Fiftieth Celebration of the Olive Free Library brought so many neighbors together. We got to see our Deerfield Road neighbors, Kay and Lloyd Humphrey. At the silent auction, I won the Hoppy Quick cutting board, which is soon to be put into action as I create bacon, lettuce, and fresh tomato (from Al Higley’s Farm Stand) sandwiches for dinner. A light dinner is just the thing after snacking and enjoying cake at the Library reception. Rosie Burgher, Lois Wiedner, and Ruth Ann Muller gave us the history and behind the scenes information on the library’s creation. Don Bishop, son of the library’s benefactors Don and Edna Bishop, was there to visit with old friends. Do you know that Chubby Checker, the famous fifties recording star, and the Olive Free Library have in common? Chubby Checker, famous for the dance craze, The Twist, hated olives with a passion. Someone sent him a picture of the Olive Free (Get it?) Library.
I challenge you to do one good deed, share a compliment or give one gift for no reason at all. If you’re not into the “Goody Two Shoes” mood, then at least smile or wave at a stranger. That person will either catch your good will or spend the rest of the day trying to figure out who you were.