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Follow Up on the
News
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Lots
Of Road Closings
“The detour for traffic headed northbound for Shokan
will be Route 28A East or West to Route 28. Southbound vehicles
headed towards Olive Bridge will use Route 28 East or West
to Route 28A. Detour signs will be posted,” said Ian
Michaels, a spokesman for the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection.
The three day diversion will require significant travel for
motorists. Rt 28A connects with Route 28 in Hurley near the
old Doll’s House building and runs along the reservoir
to Boiceville where it again intersects with Route 28.
The road resurfacing has been coordinated with Ulster County
and with the New York State Department of Transportation.
Local authorities have also been notified, Michaels said.
He also said the work would not hinder the actions of local
emergency service.
“Emergency response vehicles such as police, fire trucks
and ambulances will be allowed to pass,” Michaels said.
Also on Friday, September 1, the City has announced that it
will be resurfacing the Five Arch Bridge in Boiceville.
“Motorists can expect delays during this resurfacing,”
Michaels said on this one. “Only one lane will be closed,
and flag crews will be on site to guide traffic through work
zones. This work is being accomplished to eliminate uneven
approach ramps, and pot holes throughout the bridge.”
This weeks exercises should be good practice. The whole dividing
weir bridge is scheduled to be replaced beginning in the Summer
of 2010. The length of the project is expected to run almost
two and half years. Michaels said DEP is attempting to plan
it so that one lane of the bridge remains open for the duration
of the project, but no decision has been reached yet.
So what’s the good news?
Recently announced plans to close Route 28 for culvert repairs
in the Boiceville area are being postponed until October or
November, with an anticipated detour through Woodstock now
replaced by “on-site detouring” according to state
Department of Transportation officials.
But that doesn’t mean traffic patterns won’t be
disrupted for the coming Labor Day weekend, or that confusion
won’t reign as the result of new signs just west of
the Thruway traffic circle.
New plans were simultaneously announced this week for another
Route 28 repair job in the town of Ulster that will close
down 300 feet or so of the heavily-traveled highway to one
or two lanes just east of where Route 28A enters the main
road near the old Doll’s House and current Sunoco Station…
for anywhere between two and three weeks of “pipe replacement.”
“We’re in the process of putting together a public
information meeting and press release on the Boiceville area
closures,” said DOT Civil Engineer Lee Zimmer of his
agency’s Operations Management office on Wednesday.
“We’re working out some details now.”
Zimmer, who agreed that the signs further east on Route 28
have proved confusing to many who had heard about the repair
plans for further west on the highway, and nothing about the
pipe replacement and repaving job about to start, added that
“we’re waiting for them to finish up fixing 23A
before we start work.”
Several hundred feet of Route 23A slipped down the mountainside
slopes of scenic Kaaterskill Clove following heavy rains in
late June. DOT crews have been working 24-hours-a-day throughout
the last month to build new retaining walls along the highway.
As of last week, 45 of the 59 pilings needed to support the
road were in place.
Current estimates call for the road to be open again by November
1, and possibly earlier. The 23A repair job is considered
of major importance because the road serves as the chief route
between Greene County’s valley towns and its Mountaintop
Region, whose economy is based on winter skiing. At present,
the only routes open to the area are via Route 23 and the
town of Windham, farther north; via the narrow Platte Clove
“back road” from Manorkill and West Saugerties
to the Elka Park area, and up Route 214 from Phoenicia.
The latter is the route Adirondack and Pine Hill Trailways
busses have been taking instead of 23A since late June. Platte
Clove Road is closed by the town of Hunter each November 15
for five months.
Long-needed repairs were completed on 23A several days before
the June rains that closed its collapse, making it almost
a full four months that the town of Hunter, and its villages
of Hunter and Tannersville, have been isolated to date.
While putting the highway back in place along the mountainside,
DOT officials have said, a number of other needed repairs
to culverts and topping will be made along the Kaaterskill
Clove roadway.
Zimmer said that DOT plans for work on 28 near Boiceville,
which is seeking to replace a 50 foot deep culvert harmed
in flooding in June and earlier, will be postponed so as not
to further hamper traffic to the Hunter area.
“Yes, you could call it good news,” he said of
his announcement of a pending press release and public hearing,
scheduled for final approvals and dissemination in the coming
weeks… with the meeting scheduled for a space to be
arranged in the area for the middle of September.
Earlier plans, announced in the local press several weeks
ago, had called for the possible detouring of all Route 28
traffic through Woodstock and up Route 212 while culverts
were replaced. Local responses ranged from bemusement to outrage.
According to Olive town superintendent Bert Leifeld in a recent
interview, he and other local municipal leaders had been working
with state legislators Kevin Cahill and John Bonacic to put
pressure on the DOT to change such plans.
“We’re looking to close things down to one lane
while doing our repairs and get things done ASAP up there,”
Zimmer added. “We’re hoping the 23A job gets accelerated
so we can accelerate our own repairs. We’ll be keeping
everyone informed from here on in…”
Of
True Historic Interest...
The Church required strict adherence to doctrines that were
very demanding . It hasn’t been active in these parts
for many years. It sounds as though the strictness of its
tenets were not well accepted and the denomination was pretty
well out of the cultural swim. The services were reported
to have been very lengthy and the sermon given as part of
the commemoration ceremony adhered to tradition.
I have memories of when I was a small child living in West
Shokan and the church held meetings there.
My Grandfather belonged to that church so occasionally there
would be meetings for the local members in the community.
They had no church building and the small group met in the
Bushkill school. Folks drove there, hitched their horses and
attended the meeting. The hymn singing was a capella , not
because there was no organ or piano there but because they
used no musical instrument in their services.
I was too young to know anything about the sermon or other
parts of the service but I do know it was long, which was
a characteristic of them according to Google. In those days
little children went to church along with their parents and
were expected to be quiet, no nonsense.
Since my Grandfather owned a boarding house he hosted the
officials who were in charge and so our family and the Elders
in charge of the service went to my grandfather’s house
after the service.
The sect didn’t have ministers or priests but services
were conducted by church elders who always went around in
pairs. They were nicknamed “Two by Twos”. There
was a big dinner with family and the two elders. I do remember
most distinctly that the grace or blessing was about the longest
ever and I was hungry and anxious to get at the food that
smelled so good. Luscious Sunday dinners were part of my childhood
memories and for this occasion it was probably extra special.
One of the elders, Elder Bishop, had a Santa Claus-like beard
and I had the interesting experience of having Elder Bishop
tell me and my sister fascinating bear stories that afternoon.
The date of the service I speak of must have been about nineteen
sixteen. (And now I can’t remember the exact dates this
year when my daughter from Texas came for a visit)
OCS
Votes Not To Vote
At the meeting, board president D’Orazio
asked Vanacore to read the resolution, noting she was
its author. The crowd at the Middle/High School consisted
of nearly all Olive residents, who applauded the board
members who supported the resolution. Vanacore’s
resolution read, “Be it hereby resolved that the
board of education of the Onteora central school district
will not entertain a vote on the large parcel legislation,
thus sending a clear message to the New York State Legislature,
the Ulster County Legislature and the Onteora Central
school district that, we, the Trustees feel that this
type of legislation fractures the cohesiveness of a school
district and that no school district should be involved
in political issues.”
Later Vanacore called the large parcel law “discriminatory
by nature against small towns and if it were in fact brought
to court, it would be considered illegal and unconstitutional.”
D’Orazio, an attorney, asked people to look at the
law in more realistic terms. “There is no way that
this legislation is going to be declared unconstitutional,
people are trying, people will try, but there is no support
in the legislature for doing away with this law,”
he said.
Patterson supported Vanacore’s resolution and said,
“The last two years reflected my vote against implementing
large parcel and each time it has been that it is not
our job as a school board and this is why I think this
motion fits in.”
Patterson added that the board had had a “lengthy
discussion” regarding the break down of assessed
home values given to them and their accuracy.
“I know some trustees asked questions and there
is still some unresolved issues,” he said. “There
seems to be a lot of people who are supposed to be experts
but have no idea how to do the correct math on this.”
Patterson and other board members did not go any further
into what the alleged blunders were or who was responsible.
But Bernholz questioned the process on the tax charts
because of the number of times they were changed, noting
“blatant mistakes that need to be drawn to people’s
attention.” She also read from letters of objections
to the school, county and state-approved figures from
the tax assessors of Hurley and Olive, with the Olive
assessor calling the tax rate table “partisan propaganda.”
Rosenfeld said Large Parcel and “the whole way of
calculating taxes is rotten.” Commenting on Bernholz’s
stated lack of trust in the process, he added that tax
collectors have “generated a language that no one
seems to understand.”
But the recently-reelected Rosenfeld also said the intent
of the law is to provide an equal playing field.
“If somebody owns a $100,000 house anyplace in Onteora
they should be paying the same tax for the service,”
he noted, adding that his responsibility was to the whole
district. “We are not four towns or six towns here,
we are one town when you are talking about Onteora.”
The newly-elected Resnick said the legislation created
division among the communities but she recognized, as
an elected school board official, that difficult decisions
must be made. The legislation, she explained, forces the
board to choose between two definitions of fairness.
“One would be whether each household in the district
would pay approximately the same amount based on the value
of their home to support our school system,” she
said. “The second would be to determine whether
each town as a whole is paying its fair share based on
its proportionate share of the school tax levy - the proportion
of which is determined by the town’s share of the
total assessed of all of our towns.”
Resnick said she agrees in spirit with Vanacore’s
proposal, but believes the board was handed a “lousy
law” and it is their responsibility to make the
decision. She added that she would prefer to see a vote
of yes or no on the legislation, noting that she would
vote in favor of adopting the law.
She further commended Olive on doing a town wide revaluation
of their properties and noted that she would like to see
her own town of Shandaken do the same.
D’Orazio agreed with everyone on the board that
said the law was terrible for the school district. But
he said that the members of the school board had taken
an oath to “represent the interest of the school
district and not any particular town.”
D’Orazio read a memo from John Wolham, the regional
director of the NYS Office of Real Property Services (ORPS)
stating that the tax options questioned by Patterson and
Bernholz had been reviewed.
“For demonstration purposes the information presented
appears to be a reasonable representation for each option,”
the state official was quoted.
He commended Olive on fighting for what they believe is
right, for accomplishing their town wide reval, and for
electing people to the board who would sway the vote in
their favor.
“There is nothing wrong with that, but I do not
believe that I want to vote that way,” D’Orazio
then added, drawing heckles from the audience.
O’Connor took offense with D’Orazio infering
that she was elected because of the Olive Large Parcel
vote.
“I have witnessed everybody take their stance and
I take offense that when you bring other board members
in on how they got elected. I do not say how you got elected!”
O’Connor said, noting that she did not run on the
large parcel issue and works “thirty hours a week”
on school board projects.
D’Orazio apologized, saying that he was not trying
to be offensive. But he then added that the vote that
brought O’Connor and others to the board was “one
of the ways that the town of Olive decided to exercise
their constitutional prerogative to use political force
to make things happen, which is a perfectly appropriate
thing to do. I am not trying to be derogatory about it,
it is how democracy works.”
O’Connor then weighed in on the large parcel issue,
supporting Vanacore’s resolution.
“As a board member I am obligated to make sure the
State education regulations and laws are being followed
in our school district, just as I am obligated to make
sure each towns are being apportioned correctly based
on equalization rates handed down by ORPS,” she
said. “This is why I want to vote yes to not entertain
a vote on large parcel… this is not for us to decide.”
Once the vote was taken, a yes or no vote on the Large
Parcel legislation became a moot point.
In other news, Interim Superintendent Jack Jordan announced
that a private school has expressed an interest in buying
the West Hurley School, adding that schools for sale tend
to not get a good price and expressing uncertainty whether
such a move would be a positive avenue to take…
but certainly worth a look.
Jordan mentioned that the asbestos removal in the high
school is complete and there are new tiles in the high
school being replaced and will be complete by the beginning
of the school year.
The school board passed a resolution allowing the continuation
of Jordan as interim superintendent throughout the school
year.
Approaching
Game’s End
Gitter’s
manipulations of the approval processes –
normally involving state Department of Environmental
Conservation, New York City Department of Environmental
Protection, and local Planning and Zoning board
approvals – surfaced surreptitiously this
past week in the form of an apparent EPA reversal.
It started like this…
Last week, on August 3, U.S. Congressman Maurice
Hinchey, whose district encompasses most of Gitter’s
proposed development, sent out a press release announcing
that the EPA’s Regional Administrator, Alan
J. Steinberg had “endorsed the congressman’s
plan for a lower-build alternative to the proposed
Belleayre Resort.”
The reference was, on the one hand, to a Hinchey
alternative plan presented to Gitter last winter
that seeks to safeguard the 1,240 acre eastern portion
of the resort project site from development, while
allowing some development on the less sensitive
western parcel. On the other, it referenced a June
22 letter to Congressman Jerry Nadler from Steinberg,
asking for comments on Hinchey’s plan.
“ The momentum has clearly shifted in favor
of protecting the New York City Watershed and responsible
development. I look forward to using the EPA’s
backing as additional leverage to advance this alternative
proposal,” Hinchey was quoted in the release,
which outlined how Steinberg’s letter “referenced
the agency’s previously expressed concerns
about the size and scope of the proposed development
and referenced the project’s risk to water
quality” and “noted the threat from
runoff of turbid storm water to the sensitive Catskill
water supply, which provides drinking water to over
9 million New Yorkers.
“We therefore support revisions to the Belleayre
Resort project that would eliminate development
in the eastern section of the site which lies within
the Catskill watershed,” Hinchey’s release
quoted Steinberg stating.
But then on Monday, August 7, Steinberg was quoted
on a WAMC-FM report by new Hudson Valley reporter
Julia Taylor entitled “Dueling Compromises
Over Belleayre” basically contradicting his
own letter to Congress.
“I have to first and foremost protect the
water systems,” Steinberg said online. “At
the same time, I don’t want to needlessly
hamper development. If development has to be restricted
due to environmental concerns, so be it. If, on
the other hand, a development proposal will avoid
harmful effects to the watershed, so be that also.”
Hinchey, in the same broadcast, asked how the EPA
could go back on its own findings. Steinberg added
that he was basing his statements on a new proposal
Gitter’s development company, Crossroads Ventures,
had presented to him. He concluded by noting that
he would base any final recommendation he made on
a late August visit to the area.
Asked about Hinchey’s letter Monday, Crossroads’
spokesperson Paul Rakov referred all questions to
the broadcast, once it became available online.
“Congressman Hinchey based his announcement
on a letter that was not addressed to him and that
is now more than a month and a half old,”
he added, even though the Steinberg letter had been
directed to a number of Congressmen, and the dates
of departmental proclamations setting precedent
normally never come into play. “For several
years, Crossroads Ventures has maintained a constant
dialogue with all the regulatory agencies: the EPA,
the DEP and the DEC - listening to their concerns
and re-examining our plans for the Belleayre Resort
accordingly. Congressman Hinchey seems to be unaware
of these interactions and the new concepts which
we are exploring. His understanding of these developments
is out of touch and out of date. While the so-called
‘Hinchey compromise’ was an interesting,
though unacceptable, starting point, it should be
clear that he is not the only legitimate source
of compromises.”
Calls to Hinchey’s office the day after the
Steinberg turnaround found aids stating that the
Congressman stood by the letter Steinberg had originally
sent.
According to that letter, “EPA provided comments
about the Belleayre project in a March 2004 letter
in which we raised concerns about the size and scope
of the proposed development. In general, EPA explained
that the project represented a risk to water quality
and could promote additional growth and development
in forested areas outside of town centers. The letter
specifically recommended that a reduced scale project
be considered.”
That letter, it turns out, had been written by longstanding
regional EPA employee Walter Mugdan. Steinberg was
appointed to his position on September 7, 2005,
by executive order during the follow-up to the Katrina
disaster.
Prior to his EPA appointment, Mr. Steinberg worked
for the federal government’s Small Business
Administration, served as Executive Director of
the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, and spent
years with the New Jersey Department of Commerce
and Economic Development, as well as in higher-up
Republican Party political offices.
In his June 22 letter, Steinberg referred to a May
21 letter he had sent to Gitter. ON air, he spoke
about a new development proposal made available
to him.
“Unfortunately, we can’t share that
proposal,” noted Steinberg’s spokesperson,
Mary Meers, this past Tuesday, adding that “it
would be up to the developer to release it. It’s
not ours to share.”
Meers added that as far as she could tell, there
were no contradictions between the Administrator’s
June 22 letter and his current statements. When
we read elements of the letter and transcript to
her, though, she said she’d talk to Steinberg.
Getting back a few hours later after speaking to
Steinberg – who said he was unavailable for
interviews the remainder of the week – Meers
said that, “The developer came to us with
a revised project. Alan feels the EPA has to look
at all options here… not that we’re
going back on any of our concerns. It’s simply
a new, scaled-back proposal.”
Tom Alworth, the Catskill Center for Conservation
and Development director who is also serving as
head and spokesperson for an alliance of national
and regional environmental organizations who have
shepherded resources to oppose Gitter’s plans,
which call for two gold courses and over 1,000 hotel
rooms and condominium units over a long ridge line
running on either side of state-owned Belleayre
Mountain Ski Center, said he was taken aback by
Gitter’s recent move. Usually, he says, WAMC
has phoned him for commentary on any news involving
the resort project, but the recent story seemed
to have been arranged by Gitter’s people.
“When a letter from the EPA regional administrator
says one thing, and days later he backs off his
own statements, some interesting questions arise
as to why,” Alworth said. “It’s
like he was two days for it and then two days against
it.”
Meers, asked to supply details about when Steinberg
might have received a new proposal for the Belleayre
Resort noted that there had been a meeting with
Gitter in his offices on June 28, 6 days after Steinberg’s
letter was received in Congress. She added that
someone from Representative John Sweeney’s
office had set the meeting up and was on speakerphone
throughout its proceedings.
Sweeney, who represents the sprawling district to
our north that includes the Delaware County portion
of Gitter’s proposed development, is a former
state Republican Party chair nicknamed “Congressman
Kickass” by President Bush after he started
the so-called “Republican Riot” that
shut down the November 2000 Miami-Dade elections
commissioners vote recount, ostensibly leading to
Bush’s victory. Sweeney recently helped convince
Steinberg to delay a long-promised EPA dredging
project to remove PCBs from the Hudson River, to
have been paid for by General Electric, long amongst
Sweeney’s biggest backers.
“Quite frankly, I am not surprised, from the
beginning I have had concerns regarding the magnitude
of this project,” the Congressman said on
July 27, the same hour Steinberg made his announcement..
“It is sad that it took others far longer
to realize what the rest of us have already known…”
“We are now facing several obstacles beyond
our control that make it unrealistic to begin dredging
during the 2007 dredging season,” was how
Steinberg tersely put his decision to push all work,
promised four years ago, off to 2008.
Rakov, when asked if others on a state or city level
had been invited to Gitter’s June 28 meeting
with Steinberg, or given a chance to see his new
proposal, was equally terse.
“Who says we didn’t,” came his
e-mailed reply.
After being told that Meers had said no one else
was invited to the meeting and that all queries
to New York City about the proposal had the DEP
scrambling to get a copy and make a statement, because
Steinberg’s August 7 radio interview had been
the fiorst they’d heard of anything, Rakov
replied again. He had also been asked, at this point,
about Sweeney’s part in Gitter’s process.
“You have our comments,” he replied.
“That is all we are saying at this time.”
The EPA, it should be noted, has been holding public
hearings this year in regards to the City and state’s
need for it to issue a second seven year Filtration
Avoidance Determination that would not only preclude
New York from the $8 million plus expenditure necessary
should it need to filter its water, but the loss
of much of its Watershed funding program should
such occur.
The only real opposition to the granting of a new
FAD has come from the once dormant Coalition of
Watershed Towns, whose former attorney now works
as Gitter’s counsel and whose first big issue
in years arose two years ago when it decided to
sit in on the Belleayre Resort issues conferences,
speaking on behalf of Gitter’s proposal in
most cases.
Meers, when asked what role the Environemntal Protection
Agency might play in the Gitter project, was at
first circumspect.
“We have no regulatory role here,” she
said. “Alan just likes to help parties reach
a compromise if possible.”
But then asked again, Meers defined a role, vague
though it might seem.
“We do have a role in protecting New York
City’s watershed,” she said. “The
EPA decides whether they filter or not.”
Hinchey’s office, asked if the Congressman
had any last word about the press release he had
sent out, said they stood by what was originally
written.
Stay tuned...
The End Of A Summer
Allison
Tosi graduated from Marist College with a degree
in School Psychology. Her celebration was called
a Victory Tour. Thirty-three friends and family
boarded a TTI coach bound for Saratoga. We each
placed a bet for Allison. Most of us picked a horse
named Student and wagered on it “to show.”
Unfortunately, Student “flunked out.”
We enjoyed a day at the track and a dinner at Carmine’s
Table in Albany. We all had such a great time that
we are encouraging her to do a repeat performance
when she completes her Masters at LIU.
Large Parcel did not make it to a vote this year.
Instead a vote To Not Vote was passed four to three.
The resolution introduced by Rita Vanacore stated:
“Be it hereby resolved that the Board of Education
of the Onteora Central School District will not
entertain a vote on the Large Parcel Legislation,
thus sending a clear message to the New York State
Legislature, the Ulster County Legislature and the
Onteora School District that, we, the Trustees feel
that this type of legislation fractures the cohesiveness
of a school district and that no school district
should be involved in political issues.” Had
it come to a vote, the vote would have still been
four to three: however, the resolution highlights
the fact that the Large Parcel Legislation is merely
an option, not a requirement.
As summer draws to a close, a dozen of my friends
and family are prolonging summer by going on a cruise
to Bermuda, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Grand Turk.
I am not bragging. I am countering my husband who
has told everyone that his scatter-brained wife
booked a cruise on a broken ship during the height
of hurricane season. Yes, my prior, pre-paid choice
of a cruise line was the one on the news that listed
sixteen degrees emptying the pool, injuring passengers,
and spawning jokes. I think it was Jack Darwak who
said it tilted so far that people lost their place
in the buffet line. Now the appearance of tropical
depression Debbie on the weather map is making my
husband even more smug!
A cruise requires an updated bathing suit. That
is an adventure in itself. Men can choose a suit
with a twenty-dollar bill, a preference for color
and a size range. Women undergo a quest. First of
all, the price is in triple digits—a cruel
price to pay for such ignominy! The advertising
copy of bathing suits is skewed to our vanity and
desire to be the same size we were as teenagers.
Billboards are attached to the suit, along with
inflated price tickets, that tout, “Slimming,”
“Makes you ten pounds lighter,” and
“tummy control.” Lies, all lies. Even
at half price, I feel cheated and embarrassed.
The cruise is to smooth out my personal transition
from end of summer to the start of school. Usually
I would be counting the days until school begins.
Alas, it begins without me. I have either attended
or taught school for over fifty years. How shall
I spend that opening day of school? Ralph Wesselmann,
who passed on this year to that big classroom in
the sky, would drag out his recliner chair to his
lawn, coffee in hand, and wave to all of us driving
up Route 28 on our way to school. I think a second
cup of coffee and a walk in the woods with my dog
will suffice.
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