Tonight's Public
Hearing For the “Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park”
has been posponed until Jan 20 at 7
PM at the Onteora School in Boiceville. Come early to reserve
your place to speak.
Written comments should be addressed to Alexander Ciesluk, Jr.
NYS DEC, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY 12561-1620
Email: afcieslu@gw.dec.state.NY.us
SHARP SHAKEOUT
Three of SHARP’s six board members
from Shandaken, including two of its founders, Lonnie and
Ruth Gale, have resigned following accusations by the group’s
president that comments in a letter-to-the-editor written
by fellow SHARP board member Edna Hoyt had undermined the
group’s reputation.
According to SHARP President Ernest Gardner, Hoyt’s
comments were an attempt to “politically discredit”
its executive director, Shandaken town board member Jane Todd.
Gardener, in a December 1 letter notifying Hoyt of her immanent
dismissal, said that “The SHARP Committee has never
and will never be engaged in ‘using government money’
to further anyone’s career.”
His denial was unusual in that Hoyt’s letter-to-the-editor
which appeared in The Phoenicia Times and the Catskill Mountain
News in late October and which Gardner claimed as the basis
for the Board’s action, neither mentioned nor implied
any such charge.
Continue>>>
An Anniversary Passes
One Year On, We Take A Quick Look At What Happened In Town Over
The Past 12 Months
By Paul Smart
The biggest thing to happen to Olive this past year was undoubtedly
the emergence of the large parcel tax option that Onteora seems
poised to pass this coming Spring, adding nearly 50 percent
to all local tax bills - unless the amount paid by New York
City increases hugely.
According to Supervisor Bert Leifeld in mid-December, he has
been holding a series of meetings with state tax officials and
City DEP Commissioner Chris Ward, with the results that ORPS,
the state real property service that determines tax equalizations,
will listen more closely to the Town of Olive‚s complaints.
And Ward, according to Leifeld, will no longer be appealing
past Olive lawsuits over taxes.
"If their payment goes up to $250 million, this all goes
away," Leifeld said before bringing up the complexities
of the case.
He added that there's a strong possibility the town may start
working with professional lobbyists up in Albany to help us
all through the coming year.
"They're sitting on $100 million. We're asking for $300
million," Leifeld said of the longstanding battle over
the city's tax payments.
Continue>>>
Talking ‘Bout
Mister Right
A New Year Holiday Kind-Of Love Story
By Martha Frankel
January 14th
It's love at first sight, although I hear Her voice first. It
is nothing like the mean, stupid woman's; Hers is light and
funny. The girls at the shelter are showing Her all the yapping
puppies, using words like sweet, adorable, cuddly. "What
about him?" She asks, nodding towards me. I don't move,
don't wag my stump of a tail, don't look interested or pathetic,
both of which I do pretty well. I know what's coming. "Well,"
the girls tell Her, trying to steer Her back towards those adorable
puppies, "he's a year old Doberman-mix, partially trained,
but he's got a bit of an attitude." She walks right over
to my cage. "Me, too," She says, eyeball-to-eyeball
with me, and within the hour I'm riding in the back of Her car.
She sings the whole way home and scratches my ears. I nuzzle
Her hair with my nose.
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THE HOLIDAYS HAVE PASSED...The bills are about
to start rolling in. Snow on the ground, a long time until Spring.
This is the season many of us treasure most for hunkering down
in front of the fire.
The Year Ahead...
Onteora School District Mulls Budget Changes, Including Large
Parcels
By Violet Snow
Onteora Central School District administrators are facing a
complex financial scenario as they gear up for formulating a
2004-2005 budget to present to voters in May. Superintendent
of schools Hal Rowe outlined influences including a prospective
change in the state aid formula, a drop in enrollments throughout
the district, dramatic increases in retirement funding, and
the potential application of the large-parcel tax legislation
in Olive, all of which will affect the budget process that begins
in January.
Continue>>>
Ali's
Friend
Teen Reporter Meets Local
Oscar Winner...
By Hailey Martine Pearson
Walking up the windy driveway to the door of Leon Gast‚s
screen porch has to be one of the most nerve-racking things that‚s
occurred in my life to date. But being greeted by the legendary
filmmaker himself, and his two dogs, has also proved to be one
of the best things that‚s happened to me.
Leon Gast is a documentary filmmaker/producer. He is most widely
known for the extraordinary film, When We Were Kings, which was
about Muhammad Ali at the time of the Foreman/Ali fight in Zaire.
Born in Jersey City in 1936, Gast's first job in the film business
was with a show called High Adventure with Lowell Thomas that
ran in the 1950s. Leon speaks of Thomas in terms of adventure.
He says that Thomas was the first to see the Dalai Lama: "Lowell
brought an expedition up Everest. He was just one of those kind
of guys, back fifty years ago."
Continue>>>
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