Follow Up on the News

What’s In It For Us?

What, with cuts to the state’s arts council and state Department of Environmental Conservation’s General Fund, is being considered?
And what else might be of interest to citizens in the Upper Esopus/Ashokan region in that proposal, as well as a recent address Spitzer designed to address “Upstate” issues.
On the latter front, the first thing we discovered is that what the governor considers “Upstate” doesn’t necessarily include the Hudson Valley or Catskills.
And yet his $124.3 billion state budget DOES include more than $21 million in state funding to “critical projects” in the area, including $5 million for a solar energy research center in Kingston, $8 million for converting the old Poughkeepsie-Highland railroad bridge into a pedestrian walkway, $7 million for the state’s quadricentennial celebration, a $50 million boost in local funding through the Aid to Municipalities program, continued investment in the rural broadband initiative, a generalized promise to start taking education funding off the back of property taxpayers… and that $1 million for a Catskill Interpretive Center.
Countering the good news, though, are budget balancing items that throw more weight onto county governments, some $300 million in new fees, as well as savings of more than $1 billion in the hospital and nursing home sector and in tax rebates under the STAR program. Plus state debt would increase from this year’s $50 billion to $53.3 billion.
“While he did not specifically mention the Hudson Valley or Catskill regions, his focus on property taxes, economic development, access to affordable and quality health care, spiraling energy costs and improving education struck at the heart of the major concerns of our communities,” said State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, defending the governor’s efforts in light of a united opposition from local Republicans, including State Senator John Bonacic. “For the second time in a week, while pledging to hold the line on taxes, the Governor acknowledged a growing consensus that we can no longer distinguish between taxes raised at the state level or those locally, such as through the unfair and unaffordable real property tax. He reiterated a clear commitment to thoroughly address the property tax crisis by forming a commission to examine the way we fund our schools and local government consolidation.”
We checked around this week with various people who should know… and didn’t, except to note that they’d been having talks about reviving the CIC with state officials in recent months, had noticed the figure in the budget, and wanted to remind everybody there were still months of negotiations pending before any final budget figures were arrived at or approved.
“We’ve been kind of on the verge of things with a lot of movement on the support level, for some time now,” noted the CIC’s original visionary Sherret Chase, currently chairman of its Friends board of active supporters. “Given that it would take $5 million to $10 million to build the thing, and our current plans are out of date, I suspect these funds are for redoing our plans.”
Chase noted that he and others working with the Friends of the Interpretive Center have been envisioning making any new plans for such a facility, whose entrance road off Route 28 in Mount Tremper and basic site preparation were completed before incoming Governor George Pataki puilled the plug on the entire project upon taking office in 1995, so whatever got built was more “green” and lexible than what was originally planned.
Chase added that he would be meeting with Friends Secretary Jim Infante this coming Monday, January 28, to go over what’s now on the table, as well as to set a larger meeting of all interested in the facility in the following fortnight.
“I don’t know how these things get done,” he added, “But we had strong support from (State Senator John) Bonacic, as well as a meeting with DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis and constant support from DEC regional Director Willi Janeway in recent months. Everyone’s been very supportive.
Speaking for Janeway the day after the budget announcement, DEC spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach said things were still vague as to what exactly was being set aside via the state’s Environmental Protection Fund, which would also be funding the upcoming quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the river bearing his name in the coming year.
“Willi said he’d heard there was $500,000 this year and $500,000 next year,” she said. “That’s enough to keep planning, but not to build it.”
And Deb Dewan at the Catskill Center said that although the budget had yet to go through full discussions, the state’s renewed interest in an interpretive center for the region was a good sign of a renewed commitment to see it built in the coming years.
The effort to get the state to build an Interpretive Center for its Catskill Park holdings similar to interpretive centers located in two locations in the Adirondacks started in the middle 1980s as a grassroots effort including numerous community members, local business leaders, political representatives, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), and The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development (CCCD). Eventually, plans for a Center were formalized in the early 1990s, with the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and Trust for Public Land eventually purchasing a 62-acre parcel of land on Route 28 in Mount Tremper when it was discovered that the state could not buy such property without making it part of the overall state park… sans development. The DEC then spent over $1 million on road, bridge, site grading, and other improvements to the property, plus more for architectural blueprints for a 18,600 square foot building and for surrounding grounds, plus plans for interpretive exhibits, interpretive and educational programs, travel information resources, a reference library, auditorium, gift shop, and hiking trails and connections to nearby State land. In 1995, the projected cost of the building (not including the cost of exhibits, furniture, equipment and supplies) was $ 3.68 million.
“The need for an interpretive center for the Catskills remains,” the Friends now say on their website, www.catskillinterpretivecenter.org. “We believe that The Catskill Park and Forest Preserve represent significant and unique public assets badly in need of an interpretive center to give them the focus and accessibility required for their full public value to be realized. The Catskills, and their visitors and residents, suffer from this unsatisfied need.”
“We’ll see what happens now,” added Chase this week.
As for the in-betweenies our region seems to have found itself in, and what that might mean for future funding initiatives, most asked felt that the problem was largely semantics… at least for now.
“We are between areas of enormous prosperity, New York City and the state Capitol,” Bonacic said. “Revitalizing upstate means more than helping Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and Albany. It must mean helping the Mid-Hudson, an area of enormous wealth of natural resources but desperately in need of sustainable jobs.”
Stay tuned as the promises of the proposed budget get deciphered and reworked over the coming months… The new budget is to be adopted by the Legislature and signed by the governor by April 1, a deadline that has been met each of the last two years after being missed the previous 20 years.

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Project Disconnect

But that didn’t mean people didn’t want to talk anyway about closing yet another elementary school, bonding figures upwards from $60 million, and the nature of the board’s insular process that got them to this point in the first place.
“We’ll be doing this on a carousel basis,” Ford said at the start of the promptly-run three-hour session, noting that after an introduction by she and project architect and planning consultant Armand Quadrini, those in attendance should split into groups and then move between tables organized around various physical attributes of the planned-for Middle School open for discussion. When bells rang, people were to move on. Like in Middle School.
The tables focused on issues related to what people wanted the new school’s entry to look and feel like, how they envisioned new classrooms, science and art lab needs, special instruction elements (including overall technology requirements and music classes), and phys ed and wellness concerns.
People’s concerns would be tabulated, Ford said, and discussed at the end of the session, when a straw poll would be taken.
“These decisions are made by the board but they want to know what you are thinking,” Ford said.
Quadrini, in his presentation, noted how a decision to place the Middle School in Bennett would result in the tearing down of much of the current Middle School wing at the high school.
Ford spoke about how a bond would be needed for long-postponed building updates and repairs, no matter the public’s view of the current Middle School plans. She talked about the changed and charged, future that present and future students from the district will be facing. She tried to inspire her skeptical audience, filling the room by the time she finished.
“We welcome your suggestions. This isn’t the end,” she said. “It’s not even the middle.”
When several people in the audience tried to ask whether the 5-8 Middle School configuration could be discussed, Ford said no. There was an agenda to keep. She suggested that people with questions and comments apart from the specifics addressed by the carousel method talk to her directly. She’d also be taking comments about people’s ideas for a Middle School Parking Lot.
A petition was passed around from Woodstock parent Donna Flayhan, opposing the 5-8 Middle School plan and asking that the board agree to keep all three elementary schools open. By event’s end, 32 of the 120 or so in attendance had signed.
Olivebridge resident Charlie Blumstein talked about how he’d been asking friends and neighbors in Olive about why there’d been such silence to date about the bonding figures being proposed. He said every time the subject came up people started “laughing hysterically at the cost.”
Others gathered around and similarly questioned the size of the project, as well as its timing at the start of a national recession. A group of Phoenicia parents got Quadrini to compare costs between his propositions, noting that closure of Bennett had not been factored in to any plan, then noted their surprise at the day’s disclosure that there was now a possibility of tearing down part of the current Middle/Senior High School structure, should Bennett get a makeover go-ahead.
Ford’s “Parking Lot” list included repeated requests that the board further discuss its 5-8 plan with the public, and that a new option putting 5th and 6th grades into Bennett, keeping 7th and 8th in its current place, be looked into.
After discussing people’s wish lists at the meeting’s end, Ford noted that a similar Forum held last year had proved indispensable to the board’s current decision-making. People grumbled that they’d suggested nothing like what was eventually decided upon. She added that it was the board’s role to make decisions, and that Onteora would henceforth be moving in the direction of a 5-8 Middle School whether a bond passed or not.
Some asked why there was no regular running water in many of the districts’ bathrooms. Others began filtering out of the room and school, shaking their heads.
“How can we discuss this more,” asked Phoenicia’s Tony Fletcher, “Or is it a done deal?”
“The board has made a decision,” replied Ford.
“Is it reversible?” asked Michael Lang of Woodstock.
“Board decisions are not reversible,” said Ford. “It’s the role of the board to listen. Voting is a public right… If this seems deceitful, at least it’s all out in public.”
Parents rose and noted how they hated to vote against a school bond, but they felt compelled to in order to save their community schools.
“We have a lot to think about,” said Ford. “This is not an easy time.”
Later, during a Tuesday night, January 29 regular board meeting at Woodstock Elementary School, Ford announced that the next steps after the forum would include presentation of a budget advisory committee report on cost efficiency at the February 26 board meeting and a presentation for Strategic planning.
After reading a lengthy rule sheet that the public must follow during public be heard, school board president Mary Jane Bernholz had to cut off several people expressing anger over the school board proposals. Board member Cindy O’Connor added that the communication committee is creating a newsletter dedicated to the middle school option, “to answer some questions and start the process…”

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World Class In West Shokan

The mysteries are, how do they get such prominent musicians to come the wilds of Olive, and what do the performers get out of playing for an audience of 64 people, as pianist Jason Cutmore did on a recent Sunday afternoon? “I love the intimacy,” said Cutmore, who has performed around the world, from Budapest to Bombay. “It’s much more personal in a venue like this.” He was standing near the library door, shaking hands with audience members after his lyrical performance of pieces by Schubert, de Falla, Scriabin, and Poulenc.
Rackelle Roden, the energetic organizer of the series, described how she finds performers: “I’d like to say I have these amazing contacts, but I don’t. I get in touch with some musicians through master cello-maker David Wiebe, who lives in Woodstock, or through George Tsontakis,” Bard artist-in-residence and Shokan dweller. “And we make connections through Israel’s work. He is a top-notch voicer and tuner.”
We discuss fine points of her husband’s piano-tuning vocation, which he has practiced on instruments owned by concert pianists, recording studios, members of the New York Philharmonic, and musicians on the faculty of the Julliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the New School, among others. “The voicer manipulates the hammers of the piano so you get the best possible sound,” explained Roden. “The hammers are covered with felt. They have to be lacquered, pinned down, filed, shaped, and put at the correct angle so they strike the strings correctly. Tuning involves stretching the strings so all the intervals vibrate correctly. And then there’s regulation, making sure the keys ‘hit’ all the same under the pianist’s fingers.”
Schossev studied at Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and then worked for Steinway and Sons in Queens, where he tuned, voiced, and regulated hundreds of pianos. He has also been restoring pianos since 1985, replacing the multitude of parts that deteriorate over time and impair an instrument’s sound.
Roden’s father was opera singer, and her mother was an opera director. They formed a company, and she grew up in the opera houses of Europe. In Israel, she played the harp and taught voice. The couple came to the U.S. from Israel in 1997 and moved to Olive with their sons a month before September 11, 2001. After a year of rising at 4:00 a.m. for the commute to Queens, Schossev started working on his own, tuning and rebuilding pianos as the Woodstock Piano Company. Occasionally, he also sells pianos, such as the fully rebuilt Steinway and Sons ebony-finished grand advertised on his website for $35,000.
When Trail Mix began in 2002, the concerts took place in their house, where the acoustics, said Roden, are excellent. The initial performances were free, with a suggested donation, although they were already paying the musicians. To gather the early audiences, “I walked around for three weeks and knocked on doors on Watson Hollow Road, High Point Mountain Road, asking people if they were interested in classical music,” recalled Roden. “I would give out tickets at the Boiceville Market.” After a while, they averaged 50 or more spectators per show and began to charge admission. However, they wanted to add chamber music, and the house wasn’t big enough for a quartet, so the venue shifted to the library on Route 28A in West Shokan.
Now they charge $20 a head, receive all-important donations from community members, and just obtained their first grant from the Dutchess County Arts Council. “The musicians are very generous,” said Roden. “They work for less than their usual fee.” Nevertheless, the festival has attracted such performers as pianist Pascal Rogé, a preeminent interpreter of Poulenc, Debussy, and other French composers. “An audience member knew Pascal’s partner, and she asked Israel to come work on her piano,” explained Roden. “We’ve had several musicians who came here just before their careers took off.” Last year, for example, Spencer Mayer performed at Trail Mix just before winning an important competition. He is now playing with major orchestras.
Trail Mix concerts take place on the third Sunday of each month at the Olive Free Library on Route 28A in West Shokan, from October through May, avoiding the summer months when the Maverick concerts are held in Woodstock. The next performance will be Sunday, February 17, at 2:30 p.m. and will feature pianist David Leighton, recently appointed artistic director of the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Julliard, he has been recital accompanist for Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto, Marilyn Horne, and other opera stars and has directed a number of orchestras and operas. Leighton will perform pieces by Chopin and Schubert. For further events visit www.woodstockpianocompany.com

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A Jar Of Olives...
Broken Bones

My husband keeps telling people that my trapeze broke, and Kate McGloughlin announced, at church mind you, that, “You’d be proud of her. She didn’t spill a drop!” Another political version is that I was climbing the cell tower to plug in the Verizon connection. My personal favorite is that I was extreme snowboarding, and although injured, I captured the first place trophy. Yeah, right! Just old bones and lack of grace!
Since I am limited for the time being, I have taken advantage of the quiet time to read, watch the stock market plunge on CNN, read magazines and write. When one reads a stack of women’s magazines, they begin to parallel each other in their stories. There is always one article about “How to drop ten pounds in less than a month” that is, inevitably, followed by a medley of fattening recipes that involve many too many cooking utensils and ingredients that cannot be found in my cupboard nor the local markets. Then there is the advice on how to be a better lover, friend, wife, husband or mother. Lastly, there is always a scary health report about some obscure disease and how to prevent or heroically endure it. These predictable four stories are the twelve pages that are found within the eighty-eight pages of advertisements, scratch and sniff perfume ads and magazine reorder postcards that annoyingly fall into your lap as you turn yet another page. I have not lost ten pounds, nor tried a single recipe, nor improved my relationships. I have, however, contracted every rare disease they wrote about as a born-again hypochondriac. I have also produced a large stack of read magazines ready to go to the recycling bin.
Speaking of the landfill. Olive is once again accepting our trash and recyclables at our landfill, or “land-full” as I have heard it called. The insurance company has made its offer of a claim, and bids are about to go out for reconstruction for a new pavilion that will cover the bins and the cars as they unload their cargo.
One thing I have begun is to write a book. I am on page five. I am telling you this because in one of those magazines, the writer suggested telling the world that you are on a diet so you become publicly embarrassed if you don’t stick to it. Writing the Great American Novel, which, in this case, is about a Greek immigrant, is like that commitment. I will have to write an hour each day unless I confess to have copped out and written “The Great American Pamphlet.”
My friend Martha really did finish her book and get it published. I went on line to Amazon.com and ordered three copies of Hats and Eyeglasses. The book will be distributed the second week in February, and Martha Frankel will have a book signing and reception at the Boiceville Inn on Saturday February 16 at 5:00 p.m.
After four funerals last week for Gary Zoehfeld, my aunt Helen, Victor “Doc” Fairbairn, and Yolanda Ingram, I think we could all use a lift. So, I would like to concentrate on some good news.
Judie Rank is home after six months of hospitalization. Patty D’Errico is responding to that expensive Interferon drug. Some cell phones, not Verizon yet, are getting cell service. The days are getting longer. We haven’t had to plow snow in two weeks. Temperatures can be read in two digits. Also, a senior art class is going to be sponsored by Olive Recreation. It will begin in early March and will be open to all seniors in Olive who are fifty-five or older. Sketching and painting (oil, acrylic and water color) lessons will be available from Judith Boggess, or “artists” are welcome to do their own thing in a social setting. To get an idea of how many participants we might have, please email Judith Boggess at jboggessmsc@hvc.rr.com or call her at 657-5817.
According to the economic stimulus package, “the check is in the mail.” I do appreciate the pittance, but I am not sure how two new pairs of shoes and a new outfit from Chico’s will greatly impact the economy. I am only a retired English teacher, but I am thinking that making some oil reserves available at a reasonable price might make more of a difference. I am more concerned about gas for my economy car and heating oil for homes and businesses. Reducing our daily expenses might be something to look into to jump-start the economy. Why not resurrect the Conservation Corps, the workforce of the 1930’s, to create green-collar jobs or to beef up our infrastructure?
While I am at it, how about funding school taxes in some other way except on the backs of the homeowner? At least if it a sales tax, the consumer has some control over to buy or not to buy. That is the question, and perhaps, it is the answer.

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