(News Briefs August 31, 2006)

Dead Hiker
A hiker from Bayside, Queens died Sunday afternoon, August 17, on the Peekamoose Mountain Trail in the town of Denning after suffering a heart attack brought on by an irregular heartbeat, state police said Monday.
The hiker, Chong M. Kong, 59, reportedly told his hiking companions that he was dizzy and then collapsed around 2:30 p.m. They were about 200 feet before the summit of Peekamoose, which was more than three miles from the trail-head at County Route 42. The party tried to bring Kong down on a makeshift stretcher and met up with state forest rangers and emergency medical personnel around 4:50 p.m. State police said Kong could not be revived.
An autopsy at Kingston Hospital Monday found the cause of Kong’s death to be, “cardiac arrhythmia due to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and myocardial scarring,” state police said.
Gitter Moves
Against a backdrop of severe criticism of his proposed 1,900-acre Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, Shandaken developer Dean Gitter has altered his long-delayed plans for the Central Catskills in hopes of addressing concerns of the public and permitting agencies.
On Monday, Crosroads’ spokesperson Paul Rakov issued a statement outlining proposed changes after the developers met with an official from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency... and had to call off a scheduled press conference when the federal official and a supportive congressman shied from being seen with the developer.
"Crossroads Ventures continues to listen and respond to concerns expressed by all the parties," Rakov said. "This compromise, with its dramatic downsizing, speaks directly to their issues. We hope that the various governmental agencies and the involved environmental organizations will see this as a victory for their efforts and embrace the new prospect."
The original plan, under review for several years with no end in sight, called for the development of approximately 2,000 acres to the east and west of the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Highmount, on the border of the towns of Shandaken in Ulster County and Middletown in Delaware County.
On the eastern portion, the developer proposed an 18-hole golf course, a 150-room hotel with a spa and other amenities, 77 buildings housing a total of 183 detached timeshare lodging units, a golf course maintenance building complex, a satellite golf course maintenance building, and a wastewater treatment plant. Proposed for the western portion was another 18-hole golf course; a 250-room hotel with a conference center, spa, and other amenities; 21 buildings containing 168 detached lodging units, a children's center, clubhouse, golf course maintenance building complex, a satellite golf course maintenance building, a wastewater treatment plant, and a 21-unit residential subdivision.
Under the new plan, the western portion would remain the same, but the eastern side, which related agencies have deemed more environmentally sensitive, may be reduced. Crossroads' latest proposal, still unofficial, calls for the elimination of the eastern golf course and 107 lodging units.
The developers also propose eliminating plans for an on-site wastewater treatment plant, hoping instead to get permission to connect to a New York City-owned system near the site. City officials have so far denied the developers permission to hook up.
In place of the golf course, Crossroads would consider an expanded spa and wellness facility.
"Such a restructuring of the project, if accepted by Crossroads and formally submitted to the various regulatory agencies, would dramatically reduce almost all of the potential environmental impacts raised as concerns by the EPA, New York City's DEP, and a coalition of national and local environmental groups," Rakov said.
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, who called the original proposal a "massive, reckless resort," last year proposed an alternative plan calling for no development at all on the eastern portion of the project and reduced development on the western side. The developers dismissed Hinchey's plan at the time, saying it was not economically feasible.
On Monday, Hinchey maintained that any development on the eastern side would have "profoundly negative consequences."
"I understand what (developer) Dean Gitter is doing," Hinchey said. "He's got a project and he's trying to make some money off of it."
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi issued a report earlier this month saying Crossroads' original plan was based on faulty economic assumptions.
The press release was issued in lieu of a press conference set to coincide with a viist from federal EPA Region 2 administrator Alan Steinberg and U.S. Congressman John Sweeney of the Albany area to see Gitter’s land on Monday. Steinberg has come under fire for being swayed by Gitter in recent weeks, despite his staff’s views that the Belleayre project is inappropriate for the watershed.
“It sounds like the developer may have overreached in trying to box the EPA administrator into a press conference,” noted environmental attorney Eric Goldstein of the National Resources Defense Council on Tuesday. “The last thing you want to do is embarass the EPA.”

Hello Dalai!
The Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Prize for Peace winner and head of the Tibetan state-in-exile, will be spending time in Phoenicia in September for a conference of scientists to be held at the Menla Institute in Woodland Valley. He will also be visiting the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD) Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside Woodstock, although none of his visits will be open to the public.
Two years ago, the Dalai Lama, via Menla, wrote a letter to the people of Shandaken and the Route 28 corridor, commenting on his memories of a previous drive through the region to another monastery in the Hardenburgh area.
On Thursday, September 21, the Dalai Lama will be at Menla Mountain Retreat and Conference Center in Phoenicia (site of the former Pathworks Center), where he will address a conference entitled “Longevity and Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives.” He will overnight there and then go to Woodstock for lunch on the 22nd.
From September 18 to September 20, he will be at the University at Buffalo as part of that college’s “Distinguished Speakers” series, where he will be giving a sold-out public speech in a stadium that holds 30,000.
Participation in the Menla Mountain event is selective and limited to scientists and other professionals and practitioners in the field, according to representatives for Tibet House, which owns and operates the retreat center and is sponsoring the three-day conference with the Columbia Integrative Medicine Program.
Ganden Thurman, executive director of Tibet House, said the Dalai Lama will attend the conference at Menla Mountain to hear a report on the conference findings concerning the potential for life extension and the possibility for a reversal of aging. The Indo-Tibetan tradition has long maintained that attaining optimal health is a benefit of long-term meditation and yoga practice.
The conference will bring together researchers and scholars from the Indo-Tibetan tradition as well as leading Western scientists in the fields of longevity, regeneration, and health to discuss these advancements and to build a program of collaborative research.
After leaving the area, the 14th Dalai Lama, one of the world’s most respected and recognizable spiritual leaders, will then travel to New York City to do a teaching at Tibet House.

Primary Time!
The Ulster County Board of Elections is hiring Election Inspectors for this year’s Primary on Tuesday, September 12 and General Election on Tuesday, November 7. Inspectors must be 18 years of age and registered to vote. Compensation is: Mandatory Training Class (approximately 1.5 hours): $25.00 plus mileage; Primary Election (11:30 am to approximately 9:30 pm): $125.00; General Election (5:30 am to approximately 10:00 pm): $200.00.
The BOE is also hiring Alternate Inspectors, who must attend training and agree to be on call to work where and as needed. If assigned, they will be compensated as with all others. If not, assigned they will still be paid $75.00 for being available for each Election Day.
If interested in exploring this opportunity, please call the Ulster County Board of Elections Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at (845) 334-5470.
The Democratic Party will hold a primary on September 12, 2006, with polls open at 12:00 noon and closing at 9:00 pm, with Eliot Spitzer (spitzer2006.com) and Thomas Suozzi (www.tomsuozzi.com) facing off for the governor’s race; Andrew Cuomo (www.andrewcuomo.com), Mark Green (www.markgreen.com), Charles King (www.king2006.com) and Sean Patrick Maloney (www.seanmaloney.com) facing off for the Attorney General nod, and Hillary Rodham Clinton (www.hillaryclinton.com) and Jonathan Tasini (www.tasinifornewyork.org) battling for the U.S. Senate candidacy.
On a more local level, the Conservative and Independence Parties in Ulster County are also holding a primary for the office of Ulster County Sheriff between Paul Van Blarcum and Kevin Costello.
If unable to vote in the primary election in person, you may print an absentee ballot application by clicking: http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/elections/absenteeapp.pdf, or you can call or visit the Ulster County Board of Elections at 284 Wall Street, Kingston, telephone number 845-334-5470.
Absentee ballot applications must be received by the Board of Elections prior to September 5th if a ballot is to be mailed, or by September 11th if the ballot is to be picked up in person at the Board of Elections office.

OCS Meetings...
There will be a series of four informational workshop sessions on the capital improvement project and the future of the District facilities with presentations by the architects. Each presentation will be followed by a Public Comment segment. These workshop sessions will be held at the beginning of the following Board meetings starting at 7:00 p.m.
* Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at Bennett School
* Tuesday, September 26, 2006 at Phoenicia School
* Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at West Hurley School
* Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at Woodstock School

Charter Vote!
Ulster County residents will have a chance to vote on a county executive form of government in the Nov. 7 election, after the county Legislature itself voted last week to put a proposed charter on the ballot… as well as to hold a public hearing to discuss a proposal to abolish the county’s flexible benefits plan, which reimburses department heads and managers for medical, insurance and certain other expenses not covered by their Empire Blue Cross plan, on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
Only legislator Joan Every, R-Rosendale, voted against the charter vote, saying she felt the process was moving too fast.
The charter’s main function is to bring accountability to county government by placing final decision-making power with a county executive rather than the 33 member legislature. The full-time, elected executive would have the authority to appoint department heads, conduct collective bargaining negotiations and prepare and execute the county budget. The charter spells out the executive’s duties and revamps the county’s financial management by establishing an elected comptroller to oversee county finances.
County Republicans had earlier balked at the possible costs of the new system.
If voters approve the proposal, the charter will take effect Jan. 1, 2009, following an election for county executive in November 2008.
Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, said copies of the charter will be available on the county’s Web site and will be distributed at libraries and town halls for the public to view.

Tourism Boost
The Catskill Association for Tourism Services – comprised of Sullivan, Ulster and Delaware counties – recently launched a new E-Kiosk initiative to provide real time tourism information to visitors to the region. Armed with a $100,000 grant from state Senator John Bonacic, the new electronic kiosks will be located in strategic locations such as Belleayre Mountain, the Strand in Kingston, Monticello Raceway, Bethel Wood, and other key locations.
There will be 10 of the $6,000 a piece electronic information centers installed initially, mostly in Sullivan County, with more to follow.
“Our goal, as tourism leaders, is to see to it that they are located in places that are going to be able to capture the largest amount of visitors, encourage them to not only come while on this trip, but perhaps come back and do a repeat,” noted a press release on the new initiative.
“Now that the people are coming here, it’s being discovered,” Bonacic said. “Our game plan is to keep them here.”
Delaware County Tourism Director Patty Cullen said the E-kiosks assigned to her will be moved around to different locations depending upon the season of the year.

Housing Slump
Sales of existing homes in the US slumped a sharper-than-expected 4.1 per cent in July, the National Association of Realtors reported in recent weeks. The data underlined the rapid pace of the slowdown in the property market and sent stocks lower amid fears over the health of the broader economy.
The number of homes sold fell to an annualised 6.33m, a drop of 4.1 per cent from June against analyst expectations of a 1 per cent decline. The supply of unsold homes rose to a record high 7.3 months of sales, up from about four months early last year.
“No region was spared from July’s softness,” said Omair Sharif, analyst at RBS Greenwich Capital. “The headline figure was well below our forecast and that of the consensus, and corroborates recent builders’ statements that the housing market cooled substantially at the start of the summer.”
The fourth consecutive monthly decline in existing home sales leaves the measure 14 per cent below its peak last June and at the lowest level since January 2004. The median sale price was less than 1 per cent higher than a year before.
Other recent data have helped paint a gloomy picture of the US housing market. Builders’ are at their least confident in 15 years, and buyers’ confidence is also plumbing fresh lows. New home sales data are due to be released on Thursday, and are also expected to show a decline.
Fears that the housing slowdown is affecting other sectors were compounded last week when a University of Michigan survey found overall consumer confidence at its lowest since the aftermath of hurricane Katrina last year.
The downturn will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year and could be more damaging to the world economy than the dotcom crash, economists have warned.
'Things do seem to be getting worse very quickly. Freefall is a strong word, but I think it's the right one to use here,' said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.
Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, predicts that the property slowdown will shave at least 2 percentage points off GDP growth next year, taking the US perilously close to recession, as construction spending plummets and homeowners lose their cushion of extra wealth.
“For a wealth-dependent US economy, the bursting of another major asset bubble is likely to be a very big deal,” he said, warning that, with US fiscal and trade imbalances now larger than five years ago, the fallout for the rest of the world could be more devastating than the aftermath of the dotcom boom.

Trade Show!
The M-ARK Project’s second annual Tri-County Trade Show is scheduled for Saturday, September 9 at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. More than 60 booths are available to businesses that wish to showcase their goods and services at the event that runs from 10 am to 5 pm in the ski center’s Discovery Lodge. Businesses with operations in Ulster, Delaware and Greene counties are expected to participate. The Saturday event will feature workshops, demonstrations and door prizes those who attend.
The Tri-County Trade Show, established to boost business in the more rural areas of three different counties, gives high profile businesses like banks, hotels and restaurants an opportunity to introduce new products or services. But the show is also meant to help smaller businesses, and those located off the beaten path, to get the word out to people who might not know they are in the area..
For 2006, in addition to the traditional larger businesses, the M-ARK Project will be placing emphasis on the area’s smallest businesses, many of which have just a single employee. Practitioners in alternative or complementary health services, artists and businesses offering agricultural and forest products are encouraged to attend, along with those specializing in outdoor recreation and tourism.
“Mom and Pop businesses are the backbone of our economy,” said Lawrence-Bauer. This is an opportunity for them to shine. This is one of very few opportunities to find a new audience for a product or service not traditionally offered in this area.”
A new and improved version of last year’s event, this year’s show will feature more than a dozen workshops that will appeal not only to business owners, but also to the general public. Topics will include everything from marketing for artists to interpreting dreams. Massage and other non-traditional therapies and protocols and furniture refinishing will also be among the topics. A popular e-marketing workshop offered last year will return, as will workshops on different types of alternative health options available in the region.
For more information on the show, to rent a booth, or to get complimentary entrance tickets are available by calling the M-ARK office at 845-586-3500 or via e-mail to iris@markproject.org.

Ag Battles…
If authorities in Vermont have their way, farmers will have to tell them more about their business or face a $1,000 fine. The reason? As noted in our own On The Farm column in these pages several months back, Vermont is the latest state to consider requiring farmers to reveal data on such things as their farms’ livestock and size - laws veterinarians say could help manage farm animal diseases like mad cow and foot and mouth in the event of an outbreak, but which small farmers are weighted against them in the latest push by giant agribusinesses to take over all markets.
Even though such livestock accounting systems are voluntary - for now - throughout most of the country, the emotional issue has small-time farmers worrying about Big Brother and government intrusion. What worries people are “premises registrations,” which would require farmers to reveal the nature of their farm business, their locations, and type of livestock to state authorities every two years.
The Vermont Agency of Agriculture says the law will simplify efforts to quickly trace diseases to their source, thereby avoiding the widespread preventive slaughters left behind by scourges like avian influenza in Asia and foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. The proposal is part of a federal effort to compile a nationwide database of animal identification tag numbers. But even as calls by US meat consumers grow louder for more stalwart government safety regulations, many small farmers are railing against what they see as collusion between large agribusiness and federal farm authorities to crowd out the little guy.
I n Vermont, a state known as much for its progressive politics as for its pastoral provincialism, the number of organic farmers has more than tripled from 90 in 1994 to 332 in 2004, according to the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, based in Montpelier. While the premises-registration program is free, many here see it as a first step toward the kind of labor-intensive bureaucratic regulations that could pose huge challenges for small farms.
At public hearings on premises registration, a common refrain from small farmers is that the program is simply a veiled attempt to cover up the dangers of industrial farming.
“Mad-cow disease is the result of these cows being fed parts of other cows. Cows that eat grass don’t get mad-cow disease,” says Amy Shollenberger, director of Rural Vermont, a small-farms advocacy group based in Montpelier. “The whole point of the animal ID system and the premises registration program is to respond to these diseases. And that’s where the corporations win.... They get to make money off running the program, the databases, and making the tags.”
State and federal agriculture officials, on the other hand, say the program benefits everybody. Disease trace-back programs like premises registration help reassure consumers and foreign importers of the safety of American beef, they say.
Vermont’s voluntary premises registration program - a precursor to what may someday become the law of the land - is separate from a larger federal program managed by the US Department of Agriculture. The federal plan, called the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), is also voluntary and covers three separate elements.
The first is premises registration. As of March, some 235,000 farms had registered nationwide, making up about 10 percent of America’s producers. A further stage of the NAIS plan is animal identification. While most farmers already use tags and numbers to identify livestock, the NAIS’s animal identification component would establish a standardized, national livestock registry. The third element of the plan, animal tracking, would provide investigators with a full history of each animal’s movements in case of an emergency.

Local Rainfall...
Rainfall during the summer months was either at or below average levels with the exception of June which saw more than double the average.
Immediately following the heavy rains, the weather turned dry for an extended period of time and that could have a positive or negative effect on crops depending upon what the farms have planted.
One crop in the Hudson Valley is doing well, though, according to Neal Needleman, Orange County executive director for the US Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.
“Apples are actually one of the bright spots,” he said. “We’re hearing reports that the apple producers are very pleased with the yield and the size of the fruit, so that’s looking positive.”
The recent rains may help those crops that may have been in trouble before, said Needleman.

Evolving Out?
Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students. The omission is inadvertent, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants, adding that the topic would be restored to the list. But weeks later, it was still missing.
If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless they declare another major, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Mr. Nassirian said students seeking the grants went first to their college registrar, who determined whether they were full-time students majoring in an eligible field.
“If a field is missing, that student would not even get into the process,” he said.
That the omission occurred at all is worrying scientists concerned about threats to the teaching of evolution.
Nassirian said people at the Education Department had described the omission as “a clerical mistake.” But it is “odd,” he said, because applying the subject codes “is a fairly mechanical task. It is not supposed to be the subject of any kind of deliberation.”
“I am not at all certain that the omission of this particular major is unintentional,” he added. “But I have to take them at their word.”
Jeremy Gunn, who directs the Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that if the change was not immediately reversed “we will certainly pursue this. Removing that one major is not going to make the nation stupid, but if this really was removed, specifically removed, then I see it as part of a pattern to put ideology over knowledge. And, especially in the Department of Education, that should be abhorred.”

EPA Sued…
An environmental group has sued federal regulators, charging that they failed to protect beaches and the Great Lakes from pollution and that negligence by the Bush administration exposed swimmers and surfers to potential illnesses. The lawsuit, filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council in U.S. District Court earlier this summer, charged that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to protect the public against the “substantial adverse health effects” from contact with contaminated beach-water.
In 2000, Congress passed a law requiring the EPA to update its beach-water health standards by 2005. The agency missed the deadline and current standards are two decades old, according to court documents.
The lawsuit was filed on the same day the group issued a report that found beach closings due to hazardous bacterial contamination in Los Angeles County jumped 50 percent in 2005. Across the nation, beaches were closed or posted with health advisories 20,000 times last year, the report said.
EPA spokesman Dale Kemery did not address the lawsuit, but said in a statement “the state of the nation’s beach health remains high, even as the number of beaches monitored increased by 11 percent in 2005.”
The agency “has made significant progress in carrying out its responsibilities under the” 2000 law, he added.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the agency to complete the water-quality studies and publish revised safety rules. The pollution comes from a wide mix of sources, including animal waste, factories, septic tanks, sewage, pesticides and oil and metals deposited on city streets.

Textbook Costs
With the average new text costing more than $100, the typical student can expect to spend more than $900 a year on books. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance began an investigation into the cost of college textbooks, its impact on students and ways to make them more affordable.
The investigation came in response to a General Accountability Office report last summer that showed textbook prices rose 6 percent per year on average between 1987 and 2004. That was twice the overall rate of inflation and almost as high as the 7 percent annual increase in college tuition and fees.
Congress is concerned about textbooks because nearly half of undergraduates receive federal financial aid and the cost of books is one factor considered in making these awards, the GAO says.
In 2003-04, the average textbook cost $102.44 and the average student spent about $900 a year on textbooks, according to the GAO and a separate survey by the CalPIRG Higher Education Project.
Today, the average book would cost almost $115, given the rate of textbook inflation.
CalPIRG and the GAO blamed the soaring cost of textbooks on more-frequent revisions and the bundling of textbooks with CD-ROMs, workbooks and other products that are often not used. Bundling increases the initial cost and makes it harder to sell used books if the ancillary products are lost, broken or used.

Local Accident
Members of the Shandaken Police Department report a personal injury automobile accident sent a Shokan woman to a local hospital early Monday morning, August 21. The accident occurred when Marcus Lent 57 of Port Crane NY was attempting to make a left hand turn onto Route 28 from Route 212, due to a large van making a right turn and the early morning glare of the rising sun, Lent failed to observe a 1991 Ford pickup operated by Kristin Wright 17, of Shokan. Wright, who was traveling west on route 28, attempted to stop but could not and struck the drivers side door and front quarter panel of Lent’s 1999 Dodge pickup. Both drivers escaped prior to Lent's Dodge bursting into flames. The Dodge was fully engulfed upon arrival of police and firefighters, police were assisted at the scene by the New York State Police and members of the Phoenicia Fire Department. .

Game Farm??
The Ulster County Environmental Committee has voted unanimously to call on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to monitor the auction of animals from the Catskill Game Farm, which plans to close this fall.
“It’s very easy for an animal to end up in a disreputable place,” said committee Chairman Brian Shapiro, D-Woodstock.
Shapiro recognizes that because the Catskill Game Farm is in Greene County, the committee has no jurisdiction over it. However, he is looking at the closing of the 73-year-old zoo as a regional issue because so many people in Ulster County would have visited the Catskill Game Farm during their lives.
The Catskill Game Farm announced earlier this month it would be closing for good in October, and Shapiro is concerned about what will happen to the animals afterward. About half of its 2,000 animals, made up of about 150 different species, will be auctioned by Michigan-based Norton Auctioneers, which specializes in items from amusement parks and zoos.
The worry is that some of the animals could end up in “canned-hunt” operations, where people pay top dollar to shoot game animals at close range, or in poor roadside zoos, Shapiro said. He said there have been documented cases where former Catskill Game Farm animals have ended up in canned hunts. Sun Media Newspapers reported in 1999 that the Toronto Zoo stopped selling animals to the Catskill Game Farm after it learned some were ending up in canned hunt operations.
Kathie Schulz, owner of the Catskill Game Farm, said the allegations are a misunderstanding that stems from her ex-husband, Jurgen Schulz. Jurgen Schulz ran an importing and exporting business for exotic animals and because they were husband and wife the permits for the two businesses were consolidated under one, she said. However, she insists the businesses remained separate.
“That’s his business. That’s not my business and the Game Farm shouldn’t be confused with that,” she said.
The federal agency will require documentation of who the animals are sold or given to, spokesman Darby Holladay said in Washington D.C. However, according to the federal Animal Welfare Act, that’s where the agency’s control ends.