Everyone's A Counselor

Summer Camp this year will employ over 30 "youngsters"... young adults, actually. Some of these counselors have moved up from being last year's campers - and will now enjoy the status of being counselors-in-training. Many will move up a level each year and continue to work each summer right through their college years. For many, it's their first jobs, and a good opportunity to be close to home and still make a few bucks, especially if you like being with kids who want to have fun.
Each counselor is given an orientation - which sets ground rules and expectations during their summer employ. After all, they will be responsible for your most valued possession - your children.
Activities abound during Summer Camp, even though this year, the Town Board moved to eliminate the weekly field trips. The cost of bussing campers to Rhinebeck to the movies or the Zoom Flume Water Park near Catskill became too costly. There's a rumor that entertainment might be brought in as a special treat, but nothing concrete has yet been scheduled.
"Campers" as all participants are known, will be treated to many activities during the day. Arts & crafts, ball games, and of course, time in the pool, are all part of the routine. But if your child would just like to read a book in the shade of one of the many pines, they are welcome to do that, as well. No one will be forced to do what he or she is not comfortable doing. Bussing will bring your child from home and back - with pick up points arranged by home addresses.
It is strongly recommended that no iPods, iPhones or cell phones be brought to the park - actually anything of great value should wait at home for fear of lost, stolen or broken results. Counselors are also not allowed to bring cell phones so that distractions are kept to a minimum, though certain Supervisors will have their phones available for emergencies.
Summer Camp runs Monday through Thursday until August 4 - with each day ending around 3 PM. Cancellations happen - mostly for inclement weather - but it's wise not to presume that camp will be called off because it happens to be raining in Samsonville! It may not be raining at Davis Park!
This year, Summer Recreation is using www.cancellations.com as a means to supplement notices of closing or early release due to weather conditions. This coupled with good old fashioned phone networking, might help to get the word out faster.
All the details of camp are available at the Town office in West Shokan and were handed out in Bennett School. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, you can contact Gino Sorbellini or any member of the Olive Recreation Committee.
One important note: As in past years, the town's swimming pool is open to Summer Campers only during posted recreation hours. It will open to the public after camp each day and of course, each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The pool and Summer Camp are open to Olive Residents only - but also include children who are visiting Olive residents. So if your grand-kids are here for an extended stay - or even just for a couple of days - be sure to bring them down and get them signed up for some fun, Town of Olive style.

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Countdown For Dr. Ford

In a separate interview, School Board President Laurie Osmond said, "When the BOE chooses not to act there is no vote taken."
This allows Ford's contract to expire. By taking inaction, there is only one fiscal year left on Ford's contract with the district. The board can review her contract again by June 30, 2011.
It was recently reported in the Saratogian newspaper that Ford was one of the finalists for Superintendent for the South Glens Falls School district and rumors continue to swirl around her actively seeking employment elsewhere.
Osmond is not aware if Ford has found a job or is looking for work, calling all the talk "hearsay."
"All I know is what I read in the papers."
Ford was out due to illness and did not attend Monday's board meeting.
In a separate phone conversation, past school board president Marino D'Orazio said he couldn't recall contract renewals or discussions during the ten years he served. He said Dr. Hal Rowe retired during his time on the board, followed by the untimely death of Rowe's replacement Justine Winters. He served for one year with Ford and supported her as Superintendent. He could not give an opinion based on experience, but said any contract purposely allowed to lapse sends a message to look for work elsewhere.
"The way I would read it as a past school board member," said D'Orazio, "is this kind of inaction sends a message of no confidence."
In other news... The district is considering changing the way it retains lawyers based on the increased number of hours that they have been used. This past school year, the district used approximately 150 hours over its retainer, but was able to modify the overtime hours with Donahue, Thomas, Auslander and Drohan law firm. General legal counseling in 2009/2010 was budgeted at $34,900 with an additional increase of $13,000. Osmond said the board plans to use a "different formulation to reflect reality," based upon increased costs and mandates requiring legal council.
Over the years, legal fees have consistently increased. In the 1998/99 school year, 101.5 hours were used in legal council. Ten years later, in 2008/2009, that number increased to 402.80 hours. During the reorganization meeting in July the board will consider upping the legal retainer to $48,000. General legal council does not include contract disputes or other special disputed lawsuits.
During this past year's budget discussions, several public pleas were made demanding that the board address the aging district facilities, declining enrollment and Middle School options. As a result, at Monday's meeting, the board discussed holding community forums over the summer, but decided the summer months would not draw enough community interest. The end of September was penciled in as a target to begin discussions. The board plans to contend with recent arguments on whether an additional elementary school should be closed.
In 2004, West Hurley Elementary closed amid district wide protest. The reason given was declining enrollment and expanding budget. Community members demanded that district plans be put in place over the future of the remaining buildings and West Hurley School. The board of education at that time promised to find ways to make use of the West Hurley building, but a plan never surfaced. It remains unused at a cost of approximately $40,000 per year, in fuel and other expenses. To completely shut the building would make it unmarketable and also fall derelict according to State regulations.
In 2005 the school board at the time and newly hired Superintendent Justine Winters created the Future of The District Committee. Their responsibilities included the viability of reopening West Hurley School. After lengthy research, four recommendations were made: hiring a firm to recommend facility upgrades, redistricting to level out student population, and the creation of a separate middle school and continue with three elementary schools (instead of four). In 2005, KSQ architects were hired and based on several community forums, made a recommendation in 2006 to keep the remaining three elementary schools open and create a six-through-eight middle school. This was followed by a Board of Education rejection of the plan and substitute choice of another plan that would close an additional elementary school. This was followed by public protest and the successful election of a school board that promised not to close any more schools.

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Road Work Ahead...

Later this fall, expect work to start up again on the road project below the Reservoir Dam, with one-way traffic to be maintained at all times. At least that was the last anyone has heard...
On the local front, Highway Superintendent Jim Fugel reported that work is almost complete on the major road reconstruction along McMillan Road near Broadhead. This section of road has always been prone to flooding. Since materials for this project were mostly stockpiled from the local bridge work being done by NYC, funding was not so much an issue as manpower to do the work. Work started on this section as soon as snow was gone from the roads.
A few finishing touches are scheduled for this week and the re-paving of the road is scheduled for July 6, directly after the holiday. With the elevation of the road greatly improved, and larger areas made for dispersing water, the problems with flooding have been contained to one side where it will be able to absorb excess water rather than running over the road.
Other roads slated for consideration this summer include parts of Sheldon Hill Road where the road surface is starting to break up. Preventative action such as patching and oiling that is being planned will help to delay further breakdown of the road surfaces so that major repairs will be less likely.
Fugel said that if the budget allowed, he would also like to target an area of Kelder Highway, near Brown Road that is also starting to break apart.
Of course, all depends on the budget once they get that far. But then everything seems to be attached to purse strings these days, so keep an eye out as you travel around town!

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A Halliburton Loophole?

The primary purpose of the event, and five others around the state, was to urge passage of the "Englebright-Addabbo Bill" calling for a moratorium on the issuance of drilling site permits until the completion of a recently commenced EPA study of the potential impact of the process is completed. The coordinated demonstrations emphasized damage to the regional eco-system along the Gulf Coast from what they term another form of "extreme drilling" with inadequate "back-up" plans for potential environmental contamination.

"Developing infrastructure for drilling is quite a long process," observes Nadia Steinzor, a Willow resident and Marcellus Regional Organizer for the Oil & Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) of Earthworks, part of a 20 group coalition calling for the moratorium. "There are applications in front of the DEC currently and a lot of land is already leased; 40% of Tompkins County, around Ithaca, the Finger Lakes, Delaware and Sullivan Counties... There's an effort in progress to do some lease-mapping- find out where it is and how much."

Later, Steinzor said there is concern beyond the oil industry's track record of leaving ruin in their wake.

"New York is not the only state looking to close its budget gap in this way," Steinzor said. "But there's very little calculation as to cost to municipalities and long term cost in building out the gas industry areas of the state which would lose tourism, farming, vineyards, fishing, and other areas that are difficult to put figures to...There's no attention being paid to that end and what it would mean; extensive build-out for thousands of wells, where municipalities are saddled with the costs around road damage, health care issues and other things."

Another group sponsoring the New Paltz rally, FrackAction, estimates budgetary shortfalls from the 29 new DEC positions the Governor proposes to oversee gas extraction,,, Meaning taxpayers would subsidize the methane gas industry by $5 million over 2 years. Calculated over a 20 year period, potential total gain from gas extraction is seen as $22 billion (by FrackAction estimates), to be sized against an unmeasurable decrease in the $392 billion the state realizes from the farm, tourist and other revenue expected to be affected . Under a chart with these figures, they add: "Other deficits not included here are up-front lease payments, or costs from damage to the infrastructure or loss of farmland and potable water."

Horizontal hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" is a relatively new process elaborated from drilling techniques developed by the Halliburton Corp in the 1940s which injects huge amounts of water with chemical additives far below ground surface to break shale layers and free the gas, a process which critics claim endangers aquifers and water systems through the region because the chemicals can "travel for miles along underground fissures to groundwater and ultimately streams that feed reservoirs." Even EPA's 2004 report concluded that 30% of toxic components of fracking fluid, like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene ans xylene, remain underground after injection and were "likely to be transported by groundwater supplies." A 2008 investigation identified at least 65 chemicals used in gas drilling that were classified as hazardous or toxic under federal environmental laws.

Although the industry denies contaminating wells, a letter from Northeast Pennsylvania residents, Craig and Julie Sautner, offered first-hand testimony stating otherwise. The Sautners, now dependent upon delivered water, enjoyed "pristine" well water before drilling began. In less than a month their well had "high levels of manganese, aluminum, iron, sodium, chloride, TDS and heavy metals with highly satured methane gas." Their tale is echoed by residents in other states where the process has been used, as documented by Josh Fox in his film Gasland, which won a documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival in January and scheduled for a screening on July 17 in Woodstock.

The contaminants in the Sautner's well are only a few of the toxins routinely involved in the fracking process, points out SUNY professor, public health expert and Woodstock resident Donna Flayhan. She spoke at the demonstration about how there are many ingredients which have remained "trade secrets" because of an addition to the 2005 energy policy act now called the "Halliburton Loophole" which (besides giving the energy companies federal eminent domain powers) exempts the oil & gas industry from federal statutes to protect and environment, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, Clean Air Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, National Environmental Policy Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

Flayhan's prime concerns are with synergistic effects, compounds which, when combined, cause escalated and unforeseen effects. Her experiences working with toxin synergies in Gulf War Syndrome, toxin exposures of 9/11 and other unusual ailments drew her attention to the potential fallout from frack-drilling in the watershed.

When groundwater and aquifers are contaminated, it effects everybody,' Flayhan said. Efforts to close this loophole are included in the so-called FRAC Act (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness Act sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey , among others. Hinchey, like Earthworks, does not oppose drilling per se but is demanding that it be approached responsibly and safely. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Charles Schumer , with others. The debate has formed along roughly partisan lines, with Hinchey's opponent for the 22nd District seat, George Phillips, making the issue a major platform in his campaign, accusing Hinchey of an "anti-drilling agenda" and "opportunistic fear-mongering" due to the "troubling events" in the Gulf of Mexico, which he contends is completely unrelated to the Marcellus deposits.

Another bill, introduced the day before the rally, was less favored at the gathering because it proposed only a one-year moratorium regardless of how long the EPA study took to complete. A previous EPA study, undertaken with Christie Whitman at the helm, provided foundation for the loophole the FRAC Act hopes to erase, provoking controversy when Vice President and former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney cited executive privilege to keep the deliberations between EPA and his drilling task force secret.

According to a WCNY story by Susan Arbetter, the NY legislature is vulnerable to some sway on the issue due to the fact that State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, as Trustee for the NYS Common Retirement Fund, has significantly invested state pension monies in gas-drilling companies. The new elements of the fracking process were first worked out on Barnett Shale deposits in North Texas, using an average of 2,226 gallons per million cubic feet of gas in a drought-troubled region with 10,000 new wells and thousands more in the works. In a report from that state which speculates that 100,000 wells may be targeted for the Marcellus Shale Project, it is stated that the gas companies are already "bankrupting" the Lone Star water supply. Billions of gallons of fresh water have become "polluted beyond use, and the portion that surfaces from the drilling hole, called flowback, is pumped into a disposal well deep into the earth under a 'containment barrier.' This permanently removes the water from our hydraulic cycle."

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