(News Briefs July 6, 2006)

Anti-DEP...
An attorney that specializes in the rules and regulations for the New York City watershed region claims the City’s Department of Environmental Protection is altering its policy toward septic system programs in a way that prevents some landowners from using their property.
Jeff Baker, whose firm represents the Coalition of Watershed Towns, alerted the coalition’s executive committee to the issue so it can be discussed by EPA officials, who are deciding whether to grant the city of New York another 5 year filtration waiver. His point is that the City should be given the waiver only after such matters are investigated and, if necessary. be corrected.
Jeffrey Graff, a representative for the City’s Department of Environmental Protection, was present for Baker’s report and said that no policy has changed. However, residents reported to Baker specific incidences where the DEP recently rejected variance requests for septic systems based on criteria that, until recently, was not used as reason to reject same request.
It is alleged that DEP denied permission for variances on land bought after the watershed deal was signed in 1997. According too Baker, DEP told applicants that the land was bought with the knowledge of the watershed deal, therefore if the land can't meet septic system requirements it's tough luck. A variance would not be granted because it is a self created hardship.
Baker said the DEP tried to get this clause put into the deal in 1997 but it was specifically denied after the Coalition of Watershed Towns fought against it. He added that for quite some time after the deal was signed variances were granted under similar circumstances to those that are now being denied.
“It appears that at some point (after the deal was signed) DEP made a policy decision,” Baker charged.
Graff is accumulating the documents of the related cases and DEP’s related policy for review.

Jail Inquiries
Sure enough, it turns out that a county committee is investigating whether it would be feasible to use the old jail, soon to be replaced by the way-over-budget new law enforcement center, as a holding facility for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, now a part of the Department of Homeland Security. And, according to county legislature chairman David Donaldson, two private prison corporations have had preliminary contact with Ulster County officials to inquire about the possibility of using it for incarceration purposes - one company contacting Ulster in January and another in March. Donaldson added, however, that the companies asked not to be identified so as to prevent their competitors from learning of their interest.
So how can a jail we were told wasn’t good enough stay a jail? Well… it turns out that while the state Commission on Corrections was threatening Ulster County with sanctions if it did not solve problems with overcrowding at the old jail, it never cited the facility for violations or said it was inadequate. Though it would need upgrading, the old jail could perhaps be operated as a detention center without major renovation. Furthermore, privately operated prisons, such as those run by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, which enjoyed boom times in the late 1990s as state prisons bulged from overcrowding and officials looked for cheaper alternatives that could be implemented quickly, have less regulatory oversight. Just ask the White House…
Meanwhile, state approval to move inmates to the new jail is anywhere from two to six months away, members of a legislative oversight committee learned recently, because of requirements for safety flooring in the kitchen and delays in installing computer equipment, among other problems. Terrence Moran, a field operations supervisor for the state Commission of Correction, told county officials Monday that they cannot begin training employees in the new facility until all equipment is operational.
The Law Enforcement Center, which includes sheriff’s offices and a 484-bed jail, was initially expected to cost $54 million and open by April 2004. Cost overruns have led to the jail facility being reduced to 402 beds, while the project budget currently stands at $86.16 million. No new opening date has been set.
Legislators have also learned of an anticipated parking shortage at the site because of other departments planning to locate there. The parking lot has about 200 spaces, of which 85 are set aside for county employees.
All of this may end up causing greater problems down the line, especially for Republican legislators who pushed the project through at first, what with a state audit citing mismanagement, inadequate oversight, design flaws and poorly written contracts as the cause of cost overruns and construction delays about to be used in a probe of whether corruption played a role in the problems.
Donaldson, at a recent legislative session, singled out former Legislature Chairman Ward Todd, saying that when the project “really started to go bad,” the Shandaken Republican was “looking the other way.”
Todd became chairman of the Legislature shortly after contracts for the Law Enforcement Center project were signed in the fall of 2000 and was succeeded in June 2003 by Republican Richard Gerentine of Marlboro. Donaldson succeeded Gerentine this past January when Democrats took control of the Legislature for the first time in a quarter-century.
Rodd has been under fire since it was revealed in April that he was the recipient in late 2001 of $39.95 worth of cigars purchased by an Atlanta-based consulting firm that then billed the county for the purchase.
“I can certainly say that there were cigars being bought and people billing twice for hotels and things of that nature,” Donaldson said of items cited in the state audit. “And I believe there was corruption on the site. I believe on the site there was some purposeful situations where people were doing the same work twice.”
Todd lamented the fact that he was not interviewed during the process that led to the comptroller’s audit and said he would take a lie-detector test to defend his administration. He also said that during his last meeting as chairman in 2003, there was no indication that delays in the jail project were significant.
Oh boy.

Onteora News...
At the June 20 Onteora meeting at West Hurley elementary school, Olive’s Joe Friedel voiced concerns regarding the district’s inaction to create a new football team for a future varsity league. On January 31, athletic director Mike Kocher announced eliminating varsity football due to lack of interest from students, high employee turnover of coaches and difficulty in finding a good coach, and proposed finding a well-qualified coach to build up a strong football team who can compete well with area schools and re-spark students’ interest.
Later in the evening school board president Dave Patterson weighed in on the subject: “We want a program to be built and the fact that nothing has been done, or at least the perception that nothing has been done since February, is a concern for anybody that’s involved, parents as well as the board…”
Trustee Marino D’Orazio asked for more information from Kocher and other administrators.
In other recent business, district school lunch manager Christine Downs made a request to the board that lunch fees be increased in order of offset the cost of more healthier food, which tends to be more expensive.
Currently, elementary school lunch costs $1.45; the increase would go to $1.60. High School lunch costs $1.75 and the increase would go to $2.00
Adult lunch costs $2.98 and would increase to over $3.00.
School board trustee Rita Vanacore voiced a concern that families with multiple children would have difficulty affording the increase and asked for more information. She noted that adult lunch price is inexpensive for what’s being offered but Interim Superintendent Jack Jordan said he believes that raising only the adult price will not offset the cost completely.
The school board requested additional information for the next school board meeting July 11.
Finally, the administration gave a presentation on the 2004-2005 school report card and the Comprehensive District Educational Plan (CDEP). Bennett school Principal Laurie Cassel reported that district is in good standing and the elementary schools are doing exceptionally well.
“We consistently perform well, above in Ulster county and the region,” said Cassel, noting that ELA, Math and science scores are higher than the state-set benchmark, including students with disabilities.
Middle School principal Gayle Kavanagh said, “I wish I could say as much glowing things as Laurie just did, but our scores are not as beautiful as the elementary schools.” This is the first year ELA fell below 140 and math has consistently fallen below standards, due in large part to special education students not meeting required standards.
Assistant High school principal Gabriel Buono reviewed the regents and mentioned that out of 170 students, 166 passed English regent tests. He noted that this was a very good accomplishment, with 100 percent of juniors passing the test. Overall he reported that students are doing very well on all regent exams with high passing rates and Onteora has a good solid graduation rate.
As defined in the district CDEP study, there are four areas in need of improvement. They are, kindergarten-through-eight math, English language arts, students with disabilities and technology. Assistant superintendent Deborah Fox said that staff development including teacher aides is a major goal.
Cassell added that CDEP has helped the district focus. “This has helped people focus and target, using the data and saying this is our goal and this is what we need to do over the next three to five years.”
Interim transportation supervisor Peter Montalvo gave a status report on the department. Responding to a question Vanacore asked regarding the two bus requests turned down by voters in May, he said they intend to assess the situation. A bus for the disabled and full passenger bus was passed by a department of transportation inspection and reported in good shape. When the new school year begins he noted that the department would decide, with the new superintendent, regarding the future of the two busses.

Welfare Changes
The Bush administration has issued new regulations that “clarify” what states can count when it comes to work participation under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, effectively tossing many more needy off government rolls without any safety net to speak of. Under the law, states are supposed to have at least half of their welfare recipients in approved work activities or face cuts in funding of up to 5 percent. However, states have been on their own in defining those work activities. Some have gone too far, the administration says.
Congress recently instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to draft regulations that would explicitly define the 12 work categories cited in federal law. For instance, on-the-job training will be defined, as will community service and unsubsidized employment. Furthermore, in a recent speech, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt signaled that he wanted stricter definitions of work. He questioned Wisconsin’s use of pregnant women or new mothers’ bed rest as an eligible welfare activity. He also questioned other activities, such as motivational reading and other forms of job training.
But some social services analysts worry that the new approach could stifle innovative programs undertaken by the states. They say such approaches have helped reduce the welfare rolls by 57 percent over the past decade.
“Every state’s economy is different and states are dealing with different challenges among the welfare recipients that remain on the caseload,” said Sheri Steisel, director of human services policy for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Changes approved to the nation’s welfare program in 1996 set limits on how long people could obtain cash assistance. Since the law went into effect, the welfare rolls have dropped from about 4.4 million families to under 2 million.

Ellenville Rx
Ellenville Regional Hospital, after years of seemingly insurmountable debt that forced it to declare bankruptcy twice in a span of four years, is now not only alive and well, but expanding… what with the hospital’s plan for a $1.7 million emergency room getting approved by the state Department of Health and the town of Wawarsing Planning Board all in one week. Groundbreaking is set for early August, greatly expanding the facility’s emergency room and expanding radiology and other services.
Ellenville, once an offshoot of Kingston Hospital, became independent from Westchester Medical Center on Jan. 1 after its 1999 bail out by Westchester Medical Center. Three years ago, the 51-bed hospital again faced closure, but through a complex reorganization system, it was reclassified as a critical-access hospital, which, among other benefits, made it eligible for additional Medicare reimbursements. Last year was Ellenville Regional Hospital’s first year in the black in 13 years.

Getting Better
The former Onteora honors student who accidentally set a West Hurley house fire last year that killed his mother and half-brother will avoid prison time under a deal reached by his lawyer and the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office and accepted by the county judge. Jack D. Henderson Milgram, 21, instead will continue to receive psychiatric treatment for the psychosis that two psychiatrists have diagnosed, and he may be treated on an outpatient basis rather than be institutionalized.
Milgram, a 2003 honors graduate of Onteora High School, was charged with two counts of manslaughter in connection with the June 7, 2005, fire that killed his mother, 46-year-old Gayle Henderson, and half-brother, 7-year-old Garrett Henderson Ackerman.
Under the deal, Ulster County Judge J. Michael Bruhn accepted Milgram’s plea of “not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect” and will order psychiatric treatment.
Investigators said last year that Milgram admitted setting fire to two books - the Bible and “Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury’s novel about book-burning - in his family’s home at 60 Collier Road in West Hurley and that the fire spread quickly. Milgram’s mother and half-brother were sleeping in a room one story up from where the fire began. Investigators said Milgram told them he tried to alert the two but was unable to because the flames had become too intense.
Milgram, accompanied in court by his father, Michael, said he set the books on fire with a cigarette about 3 a.m. after smoking a “small amount” of marijuana. Two psychiatric reports regarding Milgram - one prepared for the defense, the other for the prosecution - were presented to Bruhn. Both reached the same conclusion, Williams said: that Milgram suffered from “psychosis” at the time of the fire.
Williams said Bruhn will get two more reports from other psychiatrists, about Milgram’s current state of mind, before deciding whether Milgram should continue to receive outpatient treatment or be committed to a psychiatric facility.
Milgram’s attorney, Leon Greenspan, said his client is functioning in society, seeing a psychiatrist regularly, taking prescribed medications and doing well in classes he is taking at Ulster County Community College.

Hinchey End-Run
The House of Representatives rejected Maurice Hinchey’s bid to undercut a recent Supreme Court decision permitting evidence obtained in violation of the “knock and announce” rule to be used at trial. The vote came two weeks after the court ruled that evidence seized by police with a warrant who barge into homes even if they don’t knock can be used in court.
By a 310-109 vote, the House rejected the amendment, blocking the Justice Department from obtaining evidence in violation of the knock and announce rule. The vote came as the House debated a $59.8 billion measure funding the budget of the Justice Department and other agencies.
“The knock and announce policy is enshrined in the Constitution in the context of the Fourth Amendment,” Hinchey said. “It is held up by numerous Supreme Court decisions over the last 100 years.”
Civil libertarians have predicted that police will now feel free to ignore previous court rulings that officers with search warrants must knock and announce themselves or run afoul of the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches.
During a brief debate, GOP floor manager Frank Wolf of Virginia argued that “we ought not on the floor of the House ... overrule a Supreme Court decision.”
But Hinchey made his point when Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., retorted that Republicans voted to undercut the Supreme Court’s decision last year to permit local governments to use eminent domain to force owners to sell their property for private economic development.
President Bush has issued an executive order to limit the U.S. government from taking private property only for the benefit of other private interests, like corporations. The order came exactly a year after a divided Supreme Court ruled a city could take a person’s home or business for a development project to revitalize a depressed local economy, a practice known as eminent domain.
“The federal government is going to limit its own use of eminent domain so that it won’t be used for purely economic development purposes,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
She said more than 20 states had already enacted laws that prohibit the use of eminent domain for purely economic development purposes and four states have proposed constitutional amendments on November election ballots.
The order does permit the federal government to take property for many public purposes, such as for a public medical facility, roads, a military reservation, acquiring abandoned property or to prevent a harmful use of land.
Go figure..

Pork Battles
The Albany Times Union has sued state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for concealing the names of lawmakers who arranged to spend millions of dollars in taxpayer money on pork barrel projects called “member items.” In a petition filed in Albany’s state Supreme Court, the newspaper alleges the two powerful politicians have violated New York’s Freedom of Information Law by refusing to let the public see secret computer data kept at the Capitol that projects each lawmaker obtained and who got the money.
The Senate and Assembly divvy up $170 million taken from taxpayer revenue each year, sign a confidential deal with the governor, then transfer the cash to a special member-item account Bruno and Silver control as a kind of political piggy bank. Lawyers for the Hearst Corp., owner of the Times Union, prepared the lawsuit, which seeks to have the courts order both legislators to release their records and to pay legal fees for the lawsuit. State spending through member items is a longstanding tradition in New York. For the past several years, $200 million in member-item money has been appropriated by the Legislature, with $85 million going to Bruno, $85 million to Silver and $30 million to Gov. George Pataki. They each can decide how to distribute the money, with the legislative leaders typically making it available to legislators from their own party for local projects of their choosing.
The newspaper has obtained lists of Senate and Assembly members who sponsored some member-item projects from some state agencies, from the governor’s office and from the Senate and Assembly minority leaders. But the refusal of the leaders of the majorities in each house to honor the FOIL request to account for all such expenditures has left the public in the dark about the details of millions of dollars more in spending.
“The core purpose of FOIL is to enable the public to know what the government is doing,” said Robert Freeman, executive director of the State Committee on Open Government, an arm of the secretary of state’s office. “Clearly, there is a public interest in the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars.” A judge will get to decide whether lawmakers keep lists of member items and whether it is data tied to state spending. “If a list exists, in my opinion, there is a precedent to make it available,” Freeman said.

Flood Help…
In the aftermath of the terrible flooding in New York and other northeastern states, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Northeast Office is offering relevant materials and information developed in response to hurricane relief work in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast over the past year. They note that while floodwaters can cause significant damage to historic buildings, they do not spell the end. In our region, many of the affected buildings have stood the test of time and have survived other floods and severe weather. With proper cleaning and drying out procedures, the only reminder of floodwaters in historic structures should be a watermark and date on the wall.
Here are several key actions property owners should take:
Most of the damaging effects of water, such as rot, rust, and spalling, can be minimized by reducing both interior arid exterior moisture levels. The least damaging method for drying out a building is natural ventilation—open the doors and windows, and if safe, dehumidifiers and fans can also be used. Although tempting, do not use heat! Warm, moist environments encourage mold and fungal growth.
Use caution when pumping water from basements. This water may be providing the necessary pressure to balance the hydrostatic pressure of the groundwater. If the groundwater level is higher than your basement floor and you pump the water from your basement, the foundation walls could be pushed inward and collapse. If your basement is flooded with several feet of water and you are reasonably certain that your floor drains are operational, you can assume that the groundwater table is high. It is advisable to leave the water in place until the groundwater table sinks and the water recedes by itself. If your basement contains only a few inches of water, however, you may be able to pump it out safely. Keep in mind that if the groundwater level is higher than the floor, the water will return.
Even if you cannot pump the water out of the basement, consult with local health officials to determine if there is any sanitizing agent that can be used to treat standing water in the basement.
To avoid needless condemnation and demolition of buildings, it is important to ensure that people with expertise in preservation of historic buildings conduct the building assessments. Contact the New York State Historic Preservation Office at (518) 237-8643, and the Preservation League of New York State at (518) 462-5658 for lists of preservation consultants and tradespeople. A checklist and much more detailed information is available in the booklet, “Treatment of Flood-Damaged Older and Historic Buildings,” available online as a PDF at www.nationaltrust.org/hurricane/files/flood_booklet.pdf. An updated version of the booklet can be ordered free of charge at http://www.preservationbooks.org/.
Please contact the Northeast Office at 617-523-0885 for more information.
Also, the state Legislature has approved a much-needed incentive that will encourage new investment in the reuse of historic buildings in urban and rural communities throughout New York State. The measure provides for a State Income Tax credit for the rehabilitation costs of historic commercial and residential structures. The measure now goes to the Governor for consideration.
Under this legislation, State and National Register-listed owner- occupied residential structures in distressed areas are eligible for a New York State Income Tax credit covering 20% of exterior rehabilitation costs, up to a credit value of $25,000. Approximately 11,000 historic residential structures are qualified statewide, primarily in urban neighborhoods. The bill also includes incentives for historic commercial properties. National Register-listed or -eligible commercial properties that qualify for the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit would qualify for an additional New York State Income Tax Credit, covering 30% of rehabilitation costs, up to a credit value of $100,000.

Prevailing Wage
The Ulster County Industrial Development Agency recently passed a resolution that will require paying union workers the prevailing wage during the construction phases of most Industrial Development Agency-assisted projects. Jen Fuentes, senior field coordinator for the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, said that all Industrial Development Agency-assisted projects running up a bill of more than $1 million will now have to use the prevailing wage during construction. Fuentes said the new legislation does not apply to projects “in the pipeline, just projects in the future.”
Chester Straub, administrative director of the Industrial Development Agency and president of the Ulster County Development Corp., said a modified form of the new legislation was put into place last year when union members brought it up. The resolution was refined to highlight two specific components - encouraging developers to use local contractors, builders and workers in construction phases of projects; and to mandate paying the prevailing wage during construction.

Warming Trends
An influential and controversial paper asserting that recent warming in the Northern Hemisphere was probably unrivaled for 1,000 years was endorsed recently, with few reservations, by a panel convened by the nation’s pre-eminent scientific body.
In the 155-page report, the 12-member panel convened by the National Academies said “an array of evidence” supported the main thrust of the paper. Disputes over details, it said, reflected the normal intellectual clash that takes place as science tests new approaches to old questions.
The study, led by Michael E. Mann, a climatologist now at Pennsylvania State University, was the first to estimate widespread climate trends by stitching together a grab bag of evidence, including variations in ancient tree rings and temperatures measured in deep holes in the earth.
It has been repeatedly attacked by Republican lawmakers and some industry-financed groups as built on cherry-picked data meant to create an alarming view of recent warming and play down past natural warm periods.
At the same time, the nation’s top climate scientists are giving “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy as reported in am Associated Press survey during which they contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion, including vocal skeptics of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book. But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Gore, in an interview with the AP, said he wasn’t surprised “because I took a lot of care to try to make sure the science was right.”
While more than 1 million people have seen the movie since it opened in May, that does not include Washington’s top science decision makers. President Bush said he won’t see it. The heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA haven’t seen it, and the president’s science adviser said the movie is on his to-see list.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has plunged into the acrimonious debate over global warming and whether the government should regulate “greenhouse” gases, especially carbon dioxide from cars. Spurred by states in a pollution battle with the Bush administration, the court said it would decide whether the Environmental Protection Agency is required under the federal clean air law to treat carbon dioxide from automobiles as a pollutant harmful to health. The decision could determine how the nation addresses global warming.
A dozen states argued that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping chemicals from automobile tailpipes should be treated as unhealthy pollutants. They filed a lawsuit in an effort to force the EPA to curtail such emissions just as it does cancer-causing lead and chemicals that produce smog and acid rain. A ruling is expected by next June.
The states involved, which together account for more than a third of the car market, say the Clean Air Act makes clear carbon dioxide is a pollutant that should be regulated if it poses a danger to public health and welfare. They argue it does so by causing a warming of the earth.
The administration maintains that unlike other chemicals that must be controlled to ensure healthy air, carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is not a dangerous pollutant under the federal law. And, officials argue, even if it is, the EPA has discretion over whether to regulate it, considering the economic costs involved.