9/23/2010

Comp Planning!
The Town Board of the Town of Olive will conduct a morning Planning Charrette and hold an afternoon Public Hearing regarding the preparation and content of a Town of Olive Comprehensive Plan in accordance with the standards and requirements as set forth in ß272-a of New York State Town Law.
Public participation is encouraged as it is vital to ensuring a Comprehensive Plan
which respects the desires and direction of the entire community. Thus, the Town
Board invites all Town residents, property owners, business owners and other
interested stakeholders to attend and participate in either or both the Planning
Charrette and/or Public Hearing.
The events will start at 10:00 AM on Saturday, October 2 at the Olive Free Library on Route 23A in West Shokan. A published agenda has the main design discussion regarding planning running from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM, the Formal Public Hearing starting at 2:00 PM, and open discussion following.
The word charrette refers to any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem. While the structure of a charrette varies, they tend to serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution while integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people.
For further information, please call in advance to the Supervisor's Office at 657-8118 or email Supervisor Leifeld at: olivesupervisor@town.olive.ny.us
Government Day!
The 10th Annual Catskills Local Government Day, a day of workshops, panel discussions and training for local government officials, Catskills residents and businesspeople, will be held Friday, Oct. 1 at Catskill Mountain Foundation's Doctorow Center for the Arts, Main Street, Hunter. Sponsored by the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC), the event runs from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Pre-registration is required and may be done on-line at www.cwconline.org, where the agenda, workshop descriptions and presenter profiles may be found. For info call 586-1400.
Concurrent morning sessions will be held in the comfortable three-theater arts center operated by the Catskill Mountain Foundation (CMF), which will be represented on a panel discussion titled "For the Good of the Community: Local and Regional Foundations and How They Work." Helen Budrock of the Gerry Foundation, and Diane Brown of the Community Foundation of South Central New York will also be on the panel. A roundtable discussion with four area businesspeople will follow on the topic "Stimulating Business Through Public/Private Partnerships."
A team of planning experts will present a two-part workshop, "Putting the Main Street Toolbox to Work." The keynote address will be delivered during lunch at the CMF Red Barn across the street from the theater. Cynthia Nikitin, Vice President of Project for Public Spaces, will give a presentation on the role that civic institutions can play as community anchors and partners of opportunity. A resident of Boiceville, she will provide inspiring examples of rural communities in the Catskills and beyond that have created multifaceted partnerships to build upon public spaces and other existing assets, enhancing functionality, community pride and economic activity.
Following a buffet lunch, participants may choose from two field trips led by CMF staff: The Sugar Maples Arts Center and Farm in Maplecrest, where multidisciplinary art classes are offered all summer in a renovated former resort, and where the CMF operates a 4.5 acre farm utilizing the Natural Agriculture method taught by the Japanese organization, Shumei or the Orpheum Theater in Tannersville, a prime example of arts-based economic development of the local and regional area. CMF expects to open the new theater later this fall.
Voting SNAFUs
In New York, the last state to comply with a federal law calling for simpler voting, the switch to a fill-in-the-dot ballot fed into machines had a bumpy start last week, with scattered reports of delays caused by flustered poll workers and malfunctioning equipment throughout the state.
Instead of pulling levers - as New Yorkers had done for 80 years - polling sites presented voters on Primary Day with the new ballots and two scanners at each polling station. Where the machines worked, voters shrugged and mostly agreed the new system was easy to use. But problems elsewhere caused backups and frustration.
The nonpartisan Election Protection Coalition, which monitored the New York City situation with teams of poll watchers and a voter hot line, said it was aware of at least 10 polling sites of the 1,358 citywide where machines broke down or poll workers had trouble setting them up in the morning. At one site, setup problems delayed its 6 a.m. opening by 2 1/2 hours. And Sen. Charles Schumer's polling site in Brooklyn was also late opening by about 15 minutes, his office said.
The Board of Elections said it had been working to address the voting snags and asked voters to be patient.
The Help America Vote Act was enacted in response to the contested Florida presidential vote in 2000. It directed states to adopt simpler voting systems to avoid problems like what led to the infamous recount there. The lever machines violated HAVA guidelines because they were difficult for people with disabilities to use and did not provide a paper trail if the outcome of a vote was disputed.
Scenic Byway...
The Central Catskills Collaborative will meet to advance its nomination to the NYS Scenic Byways Program for designation of Route 28 as a Scenic Byway. The Program requires the corridor communities to outline the strategies they will use to market and promote the byway. The group will move to incorporate these strategies into its developing Corridor Management Plan - the key document for nomination. A design for a scenic byway logo will also be presented and discussed; and there will be updates on the new Catskill Park signs and the Route 28 Corridor exhibit.
The public is welcome to participate in the meeting, which will be held at the Catskill Center on Route 28 in Arkville, Thursday, September 23rd from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Refreshments will be provided.
For more information, please contact Peter Manning, Regional Planner, at 586-2611 ext.104 or pmanning@catskillcenter.org.
Case Closed
Daniel L. Malak, 29, a former Kerhonkson resident now serving time in the Attica Correctional Facility for a Samsonville murder in the late 1990s, was convicted of the second-degree murder of Joseph Martin last week following a four-day trial in Ulster County Court and seven hours of jury deliberations.
The other suspect in the case, Alexander Barsky, was arrested in 2008 and ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
"It is hard to imagine the pain that this family went through over all of these years, not even knowing if Joseph was alive," said Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright. "I hope that this verdict offers them some peace."
Martin was 15 when he disappeared on March 25, 1996, after sneaking out through a bedroom window at his Krumville Road home in Kerhonkson to meet friends Malak and Barsky, both 15 at the time, ostensibly for a night of comet watching. Despite a massive search and police investigation that included police questioning both Malak and Barsky - no trace of Martin was found, and he was classified as a missing person.
In November 2007, state police Senior Investigator Stanley O'Dell assigned the case to Investigator Peter Cirigliano, who requestioned Barsky, then 27 and living in Brooklyn. Under questioning in May 2008, Barsky admitted his role in Martin's death and implicated Malak.
Barsky was charged with murder but was allowed to plead guilty three months later to a reduced charge of manslaughter. Barsky told authorities Malak was the mastermind of the murder plot, and he agreed to testify against him.
Because he was only 15 when Martin was killed, Barsky was sentenced to just 3-1/3 to 10 years in state prison. Malak, behind bars for a 1997 homicide in Samsonville, was charged with murder in the Martin case in September 2009.
Carnright said Barsky testified during Malak's trial that, the night Martin snuck out, Malak hit Martin in the head twice with a 2-foot metal pipe, rendering him either dead or unconscious, then handed Barsky the pipe. Barsky said he then hit Martin twice in the legs and that Malak then hit Martin again in the head.
Investigators have said the two then hid Martin's body in a crevice in a nearby rock ledge, and several years later, Barsky returned to the site, collected Martin's remains, took them to New York City and threw them into several garbage cans.
Barsky said in court in 2008 that he and Malak intended to hurt Martin because Martin had stolen money from Barsky a few days earlier.
Because he was juvenile at the time of Martin's murder, Malak faces a minimum prison sentence of 7-1/2 years to life and a maximum of 15 years to life. He is to be sentenced on Oct. 22.
Malak currently is serving 20 years to life for the 1997 murder of George Allison, a 62-year-old New York City resident who was shot to death at his weekend home in Samsonville. Malak is eligible for parole in that case on Aug. 4, 2017.
Unemployment?
Unemployment declined last month in all Mid-Hudson Valley counties but rose slightly in New York state as a whole. The statewide jobless rate in August was 8.4 percent, up from 8.2 percent in July, according to state Labor Department statistics released last week.
In Mid-Hudson counties, the August unemployment rates were as follows. Ulster: 7.6 percent, down from 7.9 percent in July. Dutchess: 7.4 percent, down from 7.6. Greene: 7.5, down from 7.7. Columbia: 6.8, down from 7.1. Delaware: 7.9, down from 8.2. Sullivan: 7.7, down from 8.0. Orange: 7.8 down from 8.1.
Hiking Safety
Local emergency service personnel on recently asked state lawmakers to fund rescue equipment and signs clearly indicating hazards to hikers in the region, after meeting in the Devil's Kitchen area of Greene County's Platte Clove where a high school junior fell to her death last Spring.
State Sen. James Seward and Assemblyman Peter Lopez received information about recent hiking deaths and rescues in advance of their visit to popular Catskills hiking spots, including Kaaterskill Clove, where loose stones and soil can make footing treacherous along ledges hundreds of feet high.
"Instead of having scattered unmarked trails that aren't even real trails, having some dedicated trail access to key access points that are safer, well-graded and well- signed," said Lopez, outlining one of the recommendations. "Another key recommendation was to identify areas where there could be more aggressive signage."
Another key problem is a parking area off state Route 23A that is 0.2 miles west of the trail leading to Kaaterskill Falls. The road, a major truck route, runs along a steep ledge with a dropoff of several hundred feet on one side and a rock embankment that with no room for pedestrian traffic on the other.
Seward said he was getting his first look at the terrain and empathized with rescue crews who have to help fallen hikers.
"It's no question when a fall or accident does occur it's very challenging for our first responders, our rescue squads, our firemen to respond at all here," he said. "It's time-consuming and a cost to them, and that's an issue, of finding a way to assist our first responders with what they do."
Four have died hiking Greene County Mountaintop trails in the past year.Units typically called to respond to injuries are the state police, state environmental conservation police, state forest rangers and rope rescue teams from the Tannersville, Haines Falls, Palenville, Centerville-Cedar Grove and Woodstock fire departments.
It is now expected for the legislators suggestions to be taken up by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for policy recommendations.
Be safe when in the park...
Skiing????
As the nights get crisp and the leaves begin to fall, ski centers are planning for their seasons. This year Belleayre is leading the way, announcing plans to open the 2010-2011 season on November 13th, almost two weeks before Thanksgiving.
On September 17, Belleayre's Superintendent Tony Lanza also let the region know that he and staff are currently ramping up in preparation for the 31st Annual Fall Festival and Craft Fair on Columbus Day Weekend on October 9 and 10.
"This year is going to be bigger and better than ever with an expanded entertainment village including concerts by a number of local favorites including the local rock of Detour, the classic reggae of The Big Takeover, Belleayre regulars and favorites The Trapps fresh from opening for America at the Belleayre Music Festival and the alt-rock of New Paltz based Ratboy," he said this week. "The popular zipline run by Catskill Outback Adventure will be back this year. And of course the festival will feature an expanded selection of local artisans and craft fair vendors and fair food vendors that have been the core attraction of this long-standing popular event which traditionally draws around 5000 people per day."
Hunter Mountain has not yet announced an opening date for skiing but is instead busy installing a new six-passenger chairlift, which Hunter says will be the only one in New York State.
Nearby Windham, nor Plattekill, have set opening dates yet either, but the latter will be hosting their first ever Count-Down-to-Winter Celebration. Also set for Columbus Day weekend, the main event will surround a big Ski and Bike Swap Sale run by the resorts volunteer ski patrol as a fundraising effort, with a percentage of the proceeds to be donated to the Plattekill Ski Patrol. The swap hopes to encourage everyone to clean out their garages, basements and storage areas of all their used and/or unused skis, snowboards, bikes, gear, clothing, and perhaps even trade it in for something else. This event will also provide an outlet for people to sell their used equipment and purchase items at a low cost alternative to paying retail prices for new items.
Plattekill's event will also include kid and family activities from games, face painting and temporary tattoos, to a kids bounce house, just to name a few. The mountain will also be featuring Live Music on the deck both days, accompanied by hearty menu options on the outdoor grill and fall beverages. In addition, Plattekill will be hosting their season finale mountain bike races with lots of action for spectating. Scenic fall-foliage chairlift skyrides will be open all weekend and rides will be free for anyone that purchases a Plattekill Mountain 2010-11 Winter Season Pass that weekend.
Plattekill Mountain is located in Roxbury, NY. For more info contact Plattekill at (607) 326-3500 or at their website at www.plattekill.com
For more Belleayre information call (845) 254-5600 or check out www.belleayre.com
Gas Drilling...
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey told a federal hearing last week that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate hydraulic fracturing, the natural gas extraction process that he said has contaminated water near drilling sites around the country.
"There are numerous reports of water contamination related to hydraulic fracturing in states across the country," said Hinchey, D-Hurley. "Despite the fact that EPA is, in many ways, precluded from taking regulatory action in response to these reports, I believe EPA must investigate to understand what is being done - to keep water supplies safe and secure."
Congress has ordered EPA to conduct a new fracking study and EPA is considering how broadly to construct it, since the agency's 2004 study that declared the technology safe was widely criticized as flawed. The earlier study had enabled passage of 2005 energy legislation exempting fracking from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, leaving regulation to individual states.
New York's Department of Environmental Conservation has halted issuing drilling permits until it draws regulations to govern the process. Complaints of wellwater contamination and surface spills of post-fracking water have forced revision of state rules in Pennsylvania, where more than 1,600 wells have already been drilled in the Marcellus Shale and more than 4,000 permits have been granted.
The process, also known as fracking, blasts millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals, some of them carcinogens, deep into the earth to free gas from dense shale deposits. As a gas rush sweeps parts of the vast and lucrative Marcellus Shale region that underlies New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, environmentalists are concerned for the watershed that provides drinking water for 17 million people from Philadelphia to New York City.
Environmentalists fear the process, which leaves as much as 90 percent of the post-fracking water known as "produced water" deep underground, will irreversibly taint aquifers.
Hinchey's opponent for the House election in November, George Phillips, is meanwhile against any EPA oversight of fracking procedures, saying current state regs are enough... and the economic boost from such activities are needed.
"The real decision we face is whether this is a matter to be handled by our state or turned over to bureaucrats in Washington, D.C," Phillips said recently. "The rich reserves of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale represent a huge opportunity and it comes at a time when we need opportunity more than ever. Our state is still bleeding jobs and economic ruin is a constant threat...Turning our backs on this opportunity and allowing Washington to dither while our region continues to decline would be the height of folly."
No water supplies have been poisoned by fracking, the petroleum industry says, and the process - which promises lucrative industry profits and thousands of jobs in economically depressed areas - is safe.
"Billions of dollars in economic impact on New York and its citizens is at stake here," said Brad Gill of the Independent Oil and Gas Association, with drilling promising more than 60,000 jobs in New York alone. "The positive impact is staggering but it doesn't come at the expense of environmental protection."
Hundreds of people on both sides gathered for the last of four public hearings on a pending EPA study of fracking in Binghamton last week.
Paul Rush of New York City's Department of Environmental Protection noted that half the state's population, residing in New York City and its environs, depend on unfiltered water from the Catskills-Delaware watershed that is in the Marcellus Shale region. Two DEP studies showed serious risks to the watershed if gas drilling is allowed there. He urged the EPA to read the studies posted on the DEP's website.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration urged gas companies to voluntarily disclose the toxic chemicals they inject in the ground in a type of natural gas exploration that uses hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. In letters sent to nine leading providers of fracking services, the EPA said it is seeking data for the first time on the "chemical composition" of the drilling fluids and their hazards to human health. Full cooperation from gas firms is expected, EPA declared to the press.
"If not, EPA is prepared to use its authorities to require the information needed to carry out its study," it said.
Fracking giant Halliburton, a recipient of one of the letters, said that it "will of course fully cooperate with the EPA's request." Others in the industry welcomed the EPA disclosure as a way to give fracking a credibility boost.
But Kate Sinding of the Natural Resources Defense Council expressed cautious optimism with companies' eagerness to cooperate with EPA.
"In the past [their practice] has been to hide behind this trade-secret, proprietary information veil," she said, adding that pressure is clearly on to release the ingredients contained in the chemical stew. "We're getting to a tipping point where the companies feel like they can't withhold this information from the public anymore."
She added that the "disclosure of the chemicals at this point is long past due."
But the industry claims the information is already available to U.S. officials and even the public. And all the industry groups remain staunchly opposed to federal regulation.
EPA pledged to respond to heath concerns while its fracking study, due in late 2012, is carried out.
"EPA will do everything in its power, as it is obligated to do, to protect the health of the American people and will respond to demonstrated threats while the study is underway," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
Gun Exchange
Kingston Police Chief Gerald Keller said police will set up a station on Oct. 2 at Broadway and Henry Street in the city to let people exchange guns - illegal or not, no questions asked - for debit cards. The buyback will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., or later if necessary.
Participants will get Key Bank debit cards ranging in value from $75 to $150, depending on the size of the guns. The buyback is only for "working guns."
Keller, citing a shooting in Boiceville last week for which two Kingston teens have been arrested, described the buyback as "timely."
"If we can even get one gun off the street, it's worth it," the chief said.
Last year's buyback took more than two dozen handguns, shotguns and rifles out of circulation, Keller said, noting that the event went so well that the Police Benevolent Association donated more debit cards when the ones provided by individual donations ran out.
County Battles
With the potential for two multimillion dollar construction projects on the horizon, Ulster County legislators are taking steps to avoid a repeat of the Ulster County Jail debacle of a few years back. A five-member ad hoc committee has been appointed by the county's returned GOP majority, who lost power after (and because of) the jail difficulties, to create a policy and possible local law that would require a special legislative oversight committee for any major capital projects and make it a crime for contractors to submit inaccurate information about the status of the project to the committee.
Appointed to serve on the ad hoc committee, which will establish a framework under which the oversight committee would work and develop the policy and potential local law, were Republicans Dean Fabiano, Kenneth Ronk, Terry Bernardo, and Mary Beth Maio, with Peter Loughran the sole Democrat. Fabiano, the chairman of the Public Works Committee, said the county could face capital projects for Golden Hill Health Care Center and the Ulster County Family Court facility.
Although both the Legislature and County Executive Michael Hein instituted a number of procedures designed to protect the county from a similar construction debacle, legislators said more needs to be done.
Redistricting
Meanwhile, Ulster County Executive Mike Hein and multiple community leaders met earlier this week to urge interested Ulster County residents to join the pool of candidates for the Charter-created Reapportionment Commission. This effort is being undertaken sooner, rather than later, so that every opportunity is made to provide a diverse pool of eligible Commissioners to the Legislature. The County Executive is seeking individuals who will design fair and equitable election districts which will be in effect for the next ten years. This action is designed to counteract partisan politics when redrawing election district lines and avoid gerrymandering.
"This is an important and historic task," said Ulster County Executive Mike Hein. "It's an opportunity for the citizens of Ulster County to create a fair and level playing field. We need dedicated, honest and hard-working volunteers to make this a reality; and I thank all the advocates of good government who are joining me in this effort."
Good government leaders who spoke at a September 20 meeting on redistricting included Blair Horner, Legislative Director, NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group); Dr. Gerald Benjamin, Associate Vice President for Regional Engagement and Director of CRREO at SUNY New Paltz and former Chair of the Ulster County Charter Commission; and Dare Thompson, President, League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region.
"What Ulster County is preparing to undertake can be a model for New York State, which begins its redistricting process next year," said Blair Horner, Legislative Director of NYPIRG.
"I am delighted that we have reached the point where we are beginning a process to assure fairness in representation in the Ulster County Legislature," said Dr. Benjamin.
"The League has been fighting for fairness in elections for a very long time," said Dare Thompson. It is so exciting to see this type of initiative right here in Ulster County. We hope that people will step forward and participate in this process."
Hein requested that these good government advocates as well as all Ulster County citizens watch and evaluate this redistricting process under the new Charter form of government.
Commission members must be Ulster County residents, eligible to register to vote and cannot be public officers or employees. Anyone interested in participating can apply on the County's website: www.ulstercountyny.gov. The deadline for applying is Friday, October 29.
Ashokan Loan
The Catskill Watershed Corp. has awarded a low-interest, 15-year loan of $1 million to the Ashokan Foundation, a non-profit organization that is redeveloping the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge. The environmental education and cultural center is being relocated out of the Esopus Creek floodway and reconstructed with an emphasis on sustainability.
The corporation previously awarded the Ashokan Center a grant of $250,000 toward renewable energy applications to be employed in the new buildings. Site work has already begun, with completion expected sometime in 2012.
The Center is currently gearing up towards its October 16 Harvest Festival, where it will be welcoming the local community and showing off its recent progress.
Benefit BBQ
When catastrophic illness drops out of the blue, medical expenses typically devastate nest eggs and bank accounts to magnify the struggle. Beyond the limits of health insurance, beyond family resources, friends and good neighbors are a merciful resort and that's what Ed Kahil was doing on Olive Day at a little table near the edge of the field.
Friends of Judi Emrich at her place of employment, Brinnier & Larios engineering company, had organized a barbecue at Robert Post Park in Ulster between 2 and 6 PM on Saturday, September 25th to help toward the purchase of life support equipment for her husband of 40 years, Joe, and Kahil was selling raffle tickets connected to the event.
Joe Emrich of Olivebridge was an active outdoorsman involved in Town of Olive sports programs as a coach and past president of Olive Athletic Association and Onteora Sports Fans before being stricken, 3 years ago, by ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or "Lou Gehrig's disease") in his fifties. No longer able to work as a demolition specialist for D&K Rock Service, Joe is immobilized at home, on a ventilator and unable to speak. Many of the medical necessities associated with his condition are not covered by insurance and, as Kahil said, volunteers have come forward to help this humble and private family meet their needs.
Food will be provided by the widely praised Joe Beez Deli of Kingston and music by DJ Brian of Saugerties. Tickets are available from Peggy at 338-7622 and all are welcome. For those who cannot attend but would like to help, donations payable to Joe Emrich will be gratefully accepted at "A Day for Joe" c/o Brinnier & Larios, P.C., 67 Maiden Lane, Kingston, NY 12401
Groundbreaking
Experts in palliative care and renowned spiritual teachers will gather from October 1 - 3 at The Menla Mountain Retreat Center in Phoenicia for a conference that inspires us to rethink the way we face death. "The Art of Dying IV" responds to a clear call in contemporary American society to talk about death in new and more open ways.
The conference brings doctors, nurses, therapists, hospice workers, and bereavement counselors together with spiritual teachers possessed of profound and sophisticated approaches to death. Presenters include acclaimed teacher Marianne Williamson, author of the bestselling A Return to Love; Frank Ostaseski, co-founder of the first Buddhist hospice in America, who was honored by H.H. Dalai Lama in 2001 for his years of compassionate service to the dying and their families; and Robert A.F. Thurman, PhD, professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University.
Together, presenters and participants will examine such key issues as: What is death? How can our own death and the death of those we love be faced with courage and awareness? Does consciousness survive death and, if so, what might we expect? How can we best prepare? And how can we work more compassionately and intelligently with the dying? "The Art of Dying IV" aims to help us make peace with our death and, in doing so, find better ways to live.
Previous Art of Dying conferences have taken place in Manhattan.
Ralph White, Conference Director states "The Menla Retreat provides a beautiful place for conference participants to engage with a subject as profound as death and dying. The beauty of the Catskills will provide an evocative backdrop for this meaningful conference that will speak to both professionals in the field as well as members of the public currently engaged with the question of death."
More information and a full conference schedule can be found at artofdying.org.
Homeless?
A Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP) expected to run for 18 months, stopped accepting new screening applications this week, just nine months into the program. Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO) announced that more than 1,000 persons have been served since December 1, 2009 when it launched the $1 million program in collaboration with Family of Woodstock. Applications already received are still being processed and the housing assistance and case management services already committed will be delivered until all program resources are exhausted.
"More than 300 households with more than 1,000 family members have already been assisted by this grant," said RUPCO Executive Director, Kevin O'Connor. "Originally we anticipated serving just 225 households and a total of 450 people, so we've stretched the dollars further than we thought we would," he added. "That said, we have been astounded by the need brought on by the current economic conditions and we're very concerned about preventing homelessness going forward."
Kathy Germain, Director of Housing Services at RUPCO said "Housing options in Ulster County are in an incredible state of flux right now. With the foreclosure crisis, which we are also addressing, many former homeowners have been forced to become renters and many renters are getting squeezed out." Germain added that "our goal is always to keep people housed. If we can prevent people from becoming homeless, we may be able to help them stabilize their situations and move forward."
In response to a growing need exacerbated by the global economic crisis, RUPCO, collaborating with Family, applied for the Homeless Prevention & Rapid Rehoushing funding from the NYS Office for Temporary Disability Assistance in July of 2009 and was awarded just over $1 million in funding. The program was projected to run until July of 2011, however it now appears that funding will likely run out before the deadline.
Germain said that RUPCO's active participation in foreclosure counseling continues through Hudson Valley Foreclosure Prevention Services. Foreclosure prevention work involves strategizing with homeowners to get mortgages modified, sell homes, or otherwise work out mortgage issues before a foreclosure takes place. The HPRP was designed to assist when other measures have failed and helps residents who are either homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. The program is intended to serve households that can achieve housing stability and self sufficiency with one time or short term assistance.
All HPRP participants must be able to demonstrate the hardship contributing to their housing condition and be willing to receive case management services which will help them re-stabilize their households. Counseling and education may be part of the case management component, as needed. Financial assistance may include rental or utility arrears, security deposits and temporary assistance.
Those who need help should contact 331-9860.
ProAct Now!
Ulster County officials are noting that their ProAct Prescription Drug Discount Program has resulted in a price savings to Ulster County Residents totaling $44,805.89 for the months of July and August alone. This is approximately $13,500.00 more than the amount saved during all of 2009.
Ulster County Government partnered with ProAct to help residents save at the pharmacy. During the first week of July, ProAct mailed over 82,000 cards to every household in Ulster County. Thru the month of August 2010, 754 cards were used for an average price savings of $30.88.
Here is an overview of the highlights regarding the program:
Any resident of Ulster County based on criteria established by ProAct, regardless of age or income can participate and use this program, or if a particular benefit is not offered.
?????????There is no need to sign up or fill anything out in order to participate.
Every household has received a card in the mail. If for any reason a household was missed or someone requires an extra card(s) they can visit www.NYRxDiscountCard.com to print a card or call the ProAct, Inc. help desk at 1-877-776-2285.
This card is of most use and benefit to those who are un-insured or under-insured.
The cards cannot be used in conjunction with any other type of insurance or to discount co-pays. Folks who currently have insurance can use the card in the event that a particular drug is not covered under their current insurance plan.
- No cost to the County and no cost to participants.
- Discount Card covers all prescription medications, brand or generic. Prescriptions for pets are also covered, as long as the prescription can be filled at a regular retail pharmacy.
- Discount card will also provide discounts on vision, hearing and LASIK services; for details please refer participants to www.NYRxDiscountCard.com
Various County agencies have been provided with a supply of cards to keep on hand. Any agencies and/or County offices that haven't received a supply of cards and would like to receive them can contact ProAct, Inc., at: 1-877-776-2285. Also, your towns, villages or other organizations may contact ProAct, Inc., to arrange for a supply of cards.