Picking At A Bone

           The letter cites NYS Vehicle and Traffic Law, Section 1643, which states "The legislative body of any city or village with respect to highways...may by local law, ordinance, order, rule or regulation establish maximum speed limits...higher or lower than the fifty-five miles per hour maximum statutory limit."
            Call it a selective reading of the law or a sleazy lawyers' trick, but the full passage omitted from the space occupied by the second set of triple dots above reads, following maximum speed limits'- "at which vechiles may proceed within such city or village, within designated areas of such city or village or on or along designated highways within such city or village"- 'higher or lower than fifty-five...'
            The question comes into play is whether a public road which is OWNED by the City of New York but which lies OUTSIDE of its legal and political boundaries is subject solely to their jurisdiction. That's where an area of doubt shadows the issue.
            The letter points out; "In the mid 1980s there was no speed limit on Route
28A, and since it was mistakenly believed to be a State highway, the speed limit was considered to be 55 miles per hour..." It states that, in 1985, Regional Traffic Engineer M. D. Mignogna of the NYS DOT determined that the area speed limit would have to be established by the City because the roads serviced their facility. Subsequently, the DEP posted the roads in October of 1985 and Solomon's letter includes attachments of Bureau of Traffic Operations forms identifying the location of each sign.
            But, hold on. In April of 2002, Olive Town Justices Ronald C. Wright and Vincent Barringer notified all pertinent police agencies that the Olive court "will no longer
enforce the 35 mph speed zone along Rt. 28A and Reservoir Road. Any tickets written for a speed under 55 mph will be dismissed. Any tickets written for speeds in excess of 55 mph will be handled as usual. ... It has come to this court's attention that these speed zones are illegally posted. The Town of Olive will be requesting that these signs be removed as soon as possible."
            The question of jurisdiction had surfaced in the Olive court. The principle
of Home Rule was at issue.
            In Michael Moore's recent liberal cinematic broadside at the Bush administration, Farenheit 911, the film's producer notes that Saudi Arabia owns substantial properties in the United States. By analogy, if the City of Riyadh came into the U.S. and set their own speed limits on public roads they might own in Texas, would the Texans have any say in the matter?
            Olive Justice Ronald Wright is calling for a closer reading of the law,
specifically those lines left out of the DEP's recent letter... lines like "within such city."
            "It is our contention that the reservoir does not lie within the City of New
York," Wright declares. "It may be City property but we feel, according to Section 1643, that what they're saying in their letter is not correct. You can't just cite the lines that bolster your case and leave out the rest. You lose the intent of the law."
            Prior to receiving Solomon's letter, Supervisor Leifeld and the DEP had
begun discussing the matter. It seemed to Leifeld that an invitation to
establish a town and city fiat on the matter was just around the corner. Even after the letter's arrival seemed to close that door, a meeting with DEP Commissioner Christopher Ward to preview scheduled bridge restoration work on 28A included some exchanges about the speed limit issue.
            The Supervisor notes that Ward had acknowledged that parts of the 20 mile
roadway could appropriately be posted with a higher limit and even passing zones. Other sections, Leifeld added, might be posted too high at 35 mph.
            "Like other matters, these things are mentioned," Leifeld commented. "And then you wait to see if anything ever comes of it."

Sunshine Inside

            Allison, who plans to study mathematics at Vassar College in the fall, was awarded highest academic honors along with four others in the graduating class. Joining her with a High Honor Regents Diploma registering 95% or above were Mihalis S. Kariolis, Eva Marin Knoth, Adam Paul Solis"Cohen and Class Valedictorian, Natalie Joy Martin.
            Other students who graduated with honors were Hannah Bessell, Cattlyn Carpanzano, Jacob Dagir"manjian, Josh Duma, Shawn Faulkner, Jennaleigh Fish, Jessica Gendron, Benjamin Johnan, Melanie Kaftan, Michael Kinnaman, Heather Lapp, Jessica McCarthy, Elizabeth Morra,
Jonathan Nichols, Sara Ostrander, Lisa Parisio, Erin Raffaldi, Christine Reynolds, Omri Roden"Schossev, Amina Rushkoski, Rory Schneider, Jessica Shultis, Ryan Sieber, Joshua Slovensky, Nehemiah Smith, Elizabeth Thomas, Heather Van Wagner, Kaitlyn Weider and Evan Workstus.
            Natalie Martin's address urged her classmates to social involvement, pointing out that the 18"to"25 segment of the population has the lowest turn"out record of voter"age groups. She said that her class's school experience in the politics of a democracy, as exemplified by the organized debates about the Iraqi invasion in April of 2003 and other student forums,
had primed them to political awareness.
            After student board representative Hannah Bessell excerpted lines of inspiration from popular songs by Aretha Franklin, the Indigo Girls and other contemporary icons, Elizabeth Thomas stirred the crowd with an outstanding vocal rendition of "Let Them Hear You" from the musical "Ragtime." The Senior Jazz Quartet, comprised of Josh Duma, Thomas Rosato, David Anderson and Cory Lomas, played a rousing follow"up to Thomas's number before guest speaker Andrew Perlman took the stand.
            An Onteora graduate in 1989, Perlman went on to gather diplomas from Harvard and Yale law schools. He served as a legal intern for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City and law clerk for a federal district judge in Chicago as well as a teaching fellow at Harvard and associate of law at Columbia Law School. He has published articles in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, the Florida Law Review and the Seton Hall Law Review.
            Perlman encouraged students to find their own "internal compass" and pursue those interests which best resounded to that inner guide rather than yield to social pressures which might lead them into materially profitable but ultimately unhappy circumstances in life. He offered as example his own situation of some years ago when he found himself putting in 80 hour weeks at a large law firm which guaranteed a financially comfortable future but
endless dreary weeks of boring work.
            After opting out of the "golden handcuffs" of his position at the law firm
and accepting a substantial cut in salary to teach law, Perlman, who is now Associate Professor of Law at Suffolk University in Boston, declares himself to have never been happier.
            In what may have been a sign of the times at the conclusion of the ceremony, those with cameras poised to capture what used to be a traditional mass flinging of caps into the air, were able to capture only a dozen or so airborne hats.

Models Heat Up Hearings 

            Wissler's narrowly technical ruling essentially says that it is too early in the review process to grant "discovery" or release of the information sought, and that CPC has not demonstrated it can't make its case that the cumulative impacts of the resort and the ski area aren't "substantative and significant" without those plans.  Wissler's ruling, according to CPC Counsel Marc Gerstman, "will definitely be appealed," setting the stage in the coming months for the first direct decision related to the project by DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty.
            As expected, stormwater issues in Crossroads Ventures' Draft Environmental Impact Statement has moved to center stage, with experts both from CPC and The City of New York focusing on its potential problems.  
            "We're trying to model what actually happens on a landscape in a rainfall," said NYC Department of Environmental Protection Hydrologist Joe Damrath. "Modeling is critical, it's the core of stormwater analysis, and any modeling is only as good as its input"You've all heard the expression garbage in, garbage out."   
            Garbage out of the program appeared to the substantive conclusion of CPC witness Dr. Robert Pitt, who designed and developed the "WINSLAMM"  computer program used by Crossroads to model its stormwater plan. Professor Pitt, who's authored 8 books and over 100 publications on the subject, said
            "The model is set up to specifically deal with surfaces in an urban setting. It's not very applicable to a forested hillside or a wooded area." He explained that before his model can be used with any accuracy, it must be "locally calibrated" with considerable data specific to the site. "There was no calibration or verification process conducted"Except for the rainfall file and the site description file, all the parameter files used were the ones submitted with the model, not modified to reflect local data."
            The net effect was that most of the inputs used in running the WINSLAMM model for the DEIS reflect the "default files", generally "nationally averages" for the various categories, without apparent connection to the actual project site. Additionally the model's rainfall file, which reflects significantly less precipitation than measured at Belleayre Mountain, comes from Tannersville. "There is a lot of comment floating around about rainfall data and how we used it, said Crossroads counsel Theresa Bakner."   "To make WINSLAMM run, you must have hourly data", which, she explained, wasn't available from higher"precipitation sites closer to the proposed resort.
            Apart from problems with modeling, Professor Pitt also expressed concerns over the project's stormwater detention ponds, indicating their levels of control of suspended solids and phosphorus were "overly optimistic" by a factor of about 100%, and appeared to be undersized to accommodate heavy precipitation events such as rain on snowpack.  He characterized their design as "not conservative," as described in the DEIS, but "the opposite."  Pitt also ventured an opinion as to the project's impact on trout streams. "They are small and they are close," he said. "The effects of erosion on the site will be, I feel, devastating."
            "I'm concerned about the steepness of the sites, the shallowness of the soils, and the clay nature of the soils," said Pitt. "All point to increased hazards and extra effort that will be necessary to mitigate the effects of stormwater and construction erosion." He also expressed agreement with recommendations by Watershed Attorney General James Tierney and Dr. Charles Silver, that due to the very poor soils and extremely steep slopes, construction sites should be limited to under 5 acres, as opposed to the 25 acres on each side of the project sought by Crossroads.
            Computer modeling issues also dominated testimony concerning the environmental impact of pesticides and fertilizers proposed for use on the site.  Dr. Walter Kneisel, principal developer of the GLEAMS model (Ground Water Loading Effects for Agricultural Management Systems) used by Crossroads was direct in his assessment: "The DEIS doesn't answer the question as to whether pesticides or fertilizers will increase in the streams," said Kneisel.
            According to Kneisel, the GLEAMS program which is used by most federal and state agencies, incorporates over 200 input parameters such as temperature, rainfall, soil types, and plant cover to predict their interactions in a daily simulation model. "I reviewed their input, " said Kneisel. "It led me to think they didn't know what they were doing."
            Among examples cited, Kneisel, like Pitt, noted the extensive use of "default settings" in the program, again representing national averages for the variables, instead of the required site"specific data. "The hydrology data is essential," said Kneisel. "The hydrology is the driving part that carries the pesticides"The applicant used default settings"The results of any model are no better than the worst information put in," he said, inferring that the GLEAMS data in the DEIS is essentially useless.
            On the issue of potable water, hydrologist Joe Habib testifying for CPC cited numerous data irregularities with respect to the amount of water available to Pine Hill, following the diversion of some of its sources for the resort. According to Habib, the average monthly flow is "grossly overestimated," critical data "cannot support claims in the DEIS," new flow studies are required, and the hamlet's current public water supply permit was issued by the DEC based on grossly incorrect data.
            Turning to land use, CPC witness Dr. Chad Dawson, co "author of the primary tex tbook on Wilderness Management used by all federal agencies and many states and foreign countries, took issue with the lack of analysis in the DEIS, as well as with DEC's apparent lack of concern as to the project's impact on adjacent public lands. Dawson, who also developed the standard Recreational Behavioral Simulation Model used to analyze such impacts argued that  "Nobody has really measured what the potential effects of the project would be"I recommend that we do that as vigorously for the environment as we do it for economics or traffic "It's not only essential, it's required by the State Land Master Plan."
            "The law does not require us to speculate as regards to impacts", responded Crossroads counsel Theresa Bakner. "What we have here is a fundamental disagreement as to what SEQRA requires"It's clearly not an applicant's responsibility to fill in the gaps on the state's management of literally hundreds of thousands of acres."
            "The applicant is selling the forest preserve as one of the amenities of this golf complex, " said Dawson. "(They) say they intend to Œmarry' the Ski Center and the Forest Preserve. If I'm marrying somebody, I want a prenuptual agreement"These are things that should and must be prepared in advance of the resort."
            Dawson also noted that in the Adirondacks, where he currently works for DEC as a consultant, the agency will not approve any Unit Management Plans until such studies are completed and included in them.  
            Speaking for that agency, DEC's Region 3 Senior Forester Jeff Ryder, who oversees recreational use of the 300,000 state"owned acres within the Catskill Park, summarized their view of the project's impact by saying "We will be able to absorb much greater use of public land than we have now."
            According to Ryder's figures, 2002 trailhead register data indicates about 150,000 people hike on trails in the Catskill Park annually. According to Dawson's figures, if half the resort's visitors took one hike on those trails, that would reflect a 700 % increase in usage of Wilderness and Wild Forest lands for the entire Catskill Park. What level of additional use DEC might anticipate from the resort has not been analyzed, though the agency did propose to monitor it through questionnaires to be distributed at the proposed resort's "Wilderness Center."
            Responding to DEC's offer to analyze impacts on the forest preserve after the resort's built instead of before, Gerstman said "Your Honor" I believe they've tried to turn SEQRA on its head."
            The issues conference being held at the Margaretville firehouse, is expected to continue through mid or late July.

Patriotism...