At Onteora...
On October 20, at the Onteora Mountain House, Robin Sears, Director of Health and Human Services, held a forum to discuss concerns based on a survey taken by students addressing substance abuse. Although reported substance abuse at Onteora is slightly lower than the country’s average, Sears raised concern regarding mixed messages from the communities.
“We chose not to make this a school issue, but a community issue based on the data you are about to see,” said Sears.
According to a youth survey report called Communities That Cares (CTC), Onteora students between grades seven through twelve, reported receiving ambiguous messages about drug and alcohol use from their parents or media, and said it was pretty easy to get alcohol from family or friends over the age of 21.
The audience, which consisted of students, parents, town board members, law enforcement, prevention specialists and school administrators were split into four groups representing each town in the district and discussed problems their community may have.
Phoenicia’s group voiced concern that their community has too many signs advertising alcohol and cigarettes, which sends negative messages to kids.
Also on October 20, Sears revealed the creation of a Teen Hotline.
Sears said, “Some of the people in this room have been in the trenches for a long time and about eight years ago we started taking a look at the communities.” As a result they formed a group called Teen and Parents who met monthly and looked at the demographics of the various communities and produced a document with recommendations, including the survey.
Family of Woodstock’s TEENline will be available in December 2005.
“We are planning to formally train kids through these three school systems to be Hotline volunteers, and I am really very proud that the first coalition led to something so successful,” said Sears.
If anyone is interested in more information, or who may know of someone between the age of 16 and 21 who may be interested, contact; Teen Hotline Manager, Doug Muller at 845-679-2485 or teenhotline845@yahoo.com
The rising cost of fuel was of greatest concern at Onteora’s November 1 School Board meeting, forcing trustees to look at long and short-term solutions.
Marino D’Orazio voiced worry that the school might not be able to meet the projected fuel costs and asked what the district could do to save taxpayer money.
Business Administrator Victoria McLaren noted that heating costs may run $200,000 over what has been budgeted for.
State law mandates that classrooms must be heated no less than 68 degrees.
McLaren and Superintendent Justine Winters have asked athletic director Mike Kocher to minimize extra bus runs for athletic activities and they will also be speaking with principals to direct staff on extra energy efficient measures.
Certified Public Accountants of Nugent and Haeussler, P. C, Gary Theodore and Brent Napoleon, gave an audit report on the school district and the year has been good. The district saved a little over a million dollars last year and the money was returned to tax payers. The lunch program has a deficit of $7,000 in which Theodore called “small” compared to what it once was nearly reaching $200,000 in the red. The money for the lunch program is now taking money from the general fund account to help pay for the lunch program.
During the new business section of the meeting, Trustee Rita Vanacore requested a review in district goals and asked to have the goals redefined to be more specific. The board debated over how the goals should be set and who would be involved. Trustee Herb Rosenfeld said he would like student’s achievements to be more specific, while trustee Mary Jane Bernholtz said she would like to see all the community stakeholders involved, and trustee Dave Patterson would like to include the administration.
A date to discuss district goals was not set.
Heather Schauman received tenure as a full time special education teacher at Bennett school with high recommendations from the administration. The decision from the board was unanimous with trustee Vanacore abstaining because she disagrees with teachers getting tenure.
Meanwhile, it was announced that two fifth grade students from Bennett elementary school had two poems published in a book called the Anthology of Poetry, 2005 edition. The book was founded in 1989 and is published nationally with works chosen by educators and teachers who inspire. Bennett Elementary grade five teachers, Joan Mayone-Allison and Virginia Occhi nominated the two students for the book. Sarah Corwin wrote a poem titled “A Breakfast Of Flies,” and Chelsea O’Connell wrote a poem called “A Single Rose.”

Town Budget
The Olive Press seemed to have made a grave miscalculation in its story on the Town of Olive’s tentative 2006 budget proposal in the October 27 issue. It turns out we put together the story minus a very key element: the use of the town’s sizable unexpended balance as a means of minimizing the amount to be raised by taxes.
Furthermore, revised figures given us by town supervisor Berndt Leifeld now indicate the rise in the amount to be raised by taxes for the coming year will be 3.9 percent, as proposed. And that number can yet shift via further cuts or discovery of new revenue streams at the town’s annual budget hearing on November 10.
According to Leifeld, the total appropriations for the town’s general fund budget for the coming year will be $1,648,032, with a revenue of $415,650. After application of $300,000 in unexpended funds, the amount to be raised by taxes for the general fund will be $532,382. The 2006 highway budget appropriations will be $1,327,691, with a revenue of $87,793. After application of $100,000 in unexpended balance funds, the total to be raised by taxes, in the highway fund, will be $1,139,898.
In addition to the highway and general funds, the town is looking at a fire district appropriations amount of $425,431 to be raised by taxes, as well as a $550 amount to be raised by taxes for the town’s sole special lighting district.
The total appropriations for the town in its 2006 budget are $3,401,704, against total revenues of $503,443 and an unexpended balance fund of $400,000. The total amount to be raised by taxes, pending public hearing and resolution on November 10, is $2,498,261.
That represents a rise of $93,640 in the amount to be raised by taxes, a hike of 3.9 percent all total.
According to Leifeld, that translates in a shift in the tax rate per thousand for the general fund from $134.67 in 2005 to $145.41 per thousand for the coming year, a rise of $10.74 per thousand; and in terms of the highway budget, from $170.74 per thousand in 2005 to $177.78 per thousand for the coming year, a rise of just under $7 per thousand of assessed value. The increase in the fire district is approximately 85 cents per thousand.
The supervisor noted that results of the current reval process will not be in effect until the 2007 budget year, and that the rise in the assessor’s department budget has nothing to do with the cost of the reval, as reported, but reflects the hiring of a second assessor consultant. Expenditures for the reval are coming out of a capital reserve account, he said.
The supervisor further noted that the town board has been putting funds into its contingency budgets to build up the annual unexpended budget amount to its current levels to handle difficult years such as this, where rising fuel costs, dropping sales and mortgage tax revenues, and a continuing rise in the cost of mandated benefits have been pushing municipal and county budgets up across the state and nation.
The Olive Press apologizd for any confusion that may have occurred as the result of its reporting the budget figures without Leifeld’s commentary, and especially without the inclusion of the town’s unexpended balance (released this week in a newly revised cover sheet).
Yet later, it discovered that those figures had never been added, by the supervisor, to its official budget figures, which had been due, according to State Law, on October 5.
The budget hearing takes place Thursday, Nov. 10 at the Town Meeting Hall on Bostock Road starting at 7:30 p.m.

Jail Problems
Mold and leaks… the problems at the yet-to-open jail continue to proliferate.
Contractors have started testing the installation of windows at the new Ulster County Law Enforcement Center, hoping to pinpoint the source of leaks that caused more than $50,000 in water damage at the facility this autumn.
Meanwhile, an environmental testing firm has confirmed the presence of mold inside the new facility, and recommends immediate removal of wallboard and other porous building materials that were soaked through during recent heavy rains. The findings confirm test results presented earlier by Legislator Robert Parete, D-Boiceville, which showed rare to heavy concentrations of several types of mold in selected areas of the Law Enforcement Center. The county Buildings and Grounds Department will hire an independent contractor to begin pulling out wallboard, ceiling tiles, and other water-damaged building materials that are harboring or could harbor mold growth.
Contractors have said that fixing the water damage will not further delay the project - which already is a year-and-a-half behind schedule and $12.6 million over budget - because it can be done concurrently with other work. But at the same time, sub-contractors have said that even though they’ve been directed to begin repairs, they’re not going to start until there is a plan to correct the problems that led to the water damage.
No estimates were given of what delay, if any, the process could add to the building’s projected completion date.
Bovis Lend Lease, the construction manager, has attributed water damage to work done by Christa Construction and R.S. Roofing and Sheet Metal, two of the prime contractors on the job. Both have denied culpability.
Sheriff J. Richard Bockelmann questioned why the potential for mold damage was not made public sooner, along with whether the building was safe for his staff and contractors. While county Buildings and Grounds Commissioner Harvey Sleight said he doesn’t believe anyone in the building is in danger, Quality Environmental could not say for certain that the building is safe.

On To The Jury...
The ongoing court case resulting from the 2002 death of Onteora student Kevin O’Connor came up recently with the release of a decision on several motions filed by lawyers for the O’Connor family and the defendants in the case, which includes the Onteora School District and the employee who blacked out and struck O’Connor, Paul Bresciani.
In an October 12 ruling, Judge Vincent Bradley of the NY Supreme Court weighed a motion by the defendants to have the entire O’Connor complaint dismissed on the basis that the death was the result of a singular “accident,” and that if it isn’t dismissed, that their claims for damages and punitive be dismissed, against the plaintiff’s motion and cross-motion for “summary judgment” regarding liability. He denied all motions, finding, in his six page ruling, that Brasciani had a history of black outs based on his diabetes, and continuing sweet tooth, and terming the O’Connor boy’s death, “a horribly tragic incident;” yet further finding that a summary judgment could not be made, yet, because of continuing “questions of fact.”
The idea of punitive damages was tossed based on the fact that, no matter the facts of the case, Bresciani’s actions did not in any way indicate “reckless or wanton negligence.”
According to Kevin’s mother, Cindy O’Connor, currently a member of the Onteora School Board, the case now moves on to a jury trial in Kingston set to start on January 9.

Casino News…
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s elected chiefs officially ended their five-year pursuit of a casino at Kutsher’s Resort in Sullivan County and are concentrating on gaining approvals for a gambling hall at Monticello Raceway. Two of the three chiefs wrote to the Bureau of Indian Affairs withdrawing their application for the agency to take land into trust for the Kutsher’s project. They informed the BIA they would appreciate all final reviews and clearances necessary to allow a casino at the raceway, which is owned by Empire Resorts. A copy of the letter was sent to Gov. George Pataki, from whom the tribe wants a concurrence letter stating that he supports the BIA taking land into trust for the raceway project. The tribe’s leaders then wrote to Harrah’s, their casino partners for the Kutsher’s site since 2000, informing the Las Vegas gambling company that they have no plans anymore for the site Harrah’s controls. Harrah’s has spent $40 million in pre-development costs and the tribe could be held liable for much of the costs.
The 29-acre raceway site was approved by the federal government in 2000 for a Mohawk casino, but the tribe abruptly switched developers and sites, restarting the long application process.
Representatives of two Iroquois tribes in New York are upset that publicly traded gambling companies may be misrepresenting their tribal relationships. The inaccurate portrayals, they say, could deceive investors on the odds for Catskills casino deals.
Empire has said in SEC filings that it has a casino contract with the “provisional” Cayuga government — a pro-casino group that won a disputed election. But the Bureau of Indian Affairs has refused to certify the election or recognize the provisional government. So far, the BIA recognizes only the current tribal government, which opposes the casino
plan.
Empire, in its July 27 SEC filing, suggested the leadership issue is unresolved. The company denies any deception, saying it has fairly and accurately presented facts amid a complex leadership dispute. The charges of misrepresentation arose as Mohawk leaders, exploring bringing Empire and Harrah’s together, asked Gov. George Pataki to back the Monticello Raceway project. This has caused Harrah’s to suggest the chiefs rethink the raceway plan.

Oral History!
“Behind the Scenes: The Inside Story of the Watershed Negotiations” is a
collection of 12 first-person accounts of the seven-year struggle that culminated in the groundbreaking New York City Watershed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which was signed in 1997, allowing the City to avoid building a costly, federally-mandated
water filtration plant for its mammoth Catskill-Delaware water supply, to impose stricter environmental regulations on the region that supplies the water, and to purchase vacant lands from willing sellers while in exchange, providing funds to Upstate communities for environmental protection, education and other programs. The MOA and its partnership programs were considered a turning point in historically bitter upstate-downstate relations and the agreement continues to influence the lives of both stewards and consumers of New York City water.
Compiled by Unadilla radio producer Nancy Burnett, the “Behind the Scenes”
project was made possible with grants from the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) in partnership with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and from the Coalition of Watershed Towns. The collection includes audio CDs and transcripts of interviews with negotiators from the Watershed, the City, the Governor’s office and the environmental community. This oral history collection, with associated background information on the New York City water system and its impact on upstate communities, has been distributed to libraries and archives throughout the West-of-Hudson Watershed and in New York City. Transcripts and photos of the interviewees have also been placed on the CWC’s website, www.cwconline.org/about/scenes.html. “Behind the Scenes” is also archived at the Catskill Center for Conservation & Development in Arkville. For more information, contact CWC Education Coordinator Diane Galusha, galusha@cwconline.org; 845-586-1400, ext. 29.

The DMV Case
A former clerk at the Ulster County Department of Motor Vehicles was sentenced to one year of probation recently for not being forthcoming to investigators during an investigation into the distribution of phony drivers’ licenses. Donna Keefe of Boiceville was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd in Albany after pleading guilty to the charge, “making a false statement,” on March 24. Keefe pleaded guilty in November 2000 to making phony licenses at the DMV and selling them to people who she knew had lost their driving privileges. For that charge - a felony of “knowing and unlawful production and transfer of an identification document” - she was sentenced on March 23, 2001, to five years’ probation, a $2,500 fine and 240 hours of community service. The original probation sentence and the new one will run concurrently. Keefe received lighter sentences after she agreed to cooperate with the government.
Keefe is one of two Ulster County DMV clerks who pleaded guilty to participating in the scam. The other, Kingston resident Jeanine Riggins, was sentenced in September to three years of probation and 200 hours of community service. A deputy clerk, Brian Donnelly, was encouraged to leave his position by Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack, who oversees the DMV office, after he got a license for a person he never met, officials have said.

Eminence…
Charging that the Supreme Court has undermined one of the pillars of American society - the sanctity of the home - the House of Representatives has passed a bill to block court-sanctioned seizings of private property for use by developers. The bill, which now moves on to the Senate, would withhold federal funds from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling in June, recognized the power of local governments to seize property needed for private development projects that generate tax revenue. The decision drew criticism from a broad spectrum of private property, civil rights, farm and religious groups which said it was an abuse of the Fifth Amendment’s “takings clause” which provides for the taking of private property, with fair compensation, for public use.
The legislation is the latest, and most far-reaching, of several congressional responses to the court ruling. The House previously passed a measure to bar federal transportation funds from being used to make improvements on land seized for private development, and the Senate approved an amendment to a transportation spending bill applying similar restrictions.
Several lawmakers who opposed the House bill said eminent domain has long been used by local governments for economic development projects such as the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, the cleaning up of Times Square and the building of a baseball stadium in Houston.

HEAP Help
The Home Energy Assistance Program is accepting applications for about $236 million in statewide allocations to be distributed through county offices for the aging and departments of social services. Maximum monthly income guidelines have increased, from $1,702 per month to $1,803 for a one-person household; $2,358 for two; $2,913 for three; $3,468 for four; $4,022 for five; and $4,577 for six. But with fuel prices up an estimated 30 percent or more, according to the state Energy Research and Development Authority, even a maximum program payout of $400 won’t go as far. Applications and more information are available through county offices for the aging and departments of social services. Questions can also be directed to the state program help line, which is toll-free at (800) 342-3009.

Flu Watch…
The federal government’s long-awaited plan on how to fight the next super-flu includes beefed-up attempts to spot human infections early, both here and abroad, recommendations on how to isolate the sick, and a plan on who will actually inject stockpiled vaccines into the arms of panicked people.
While it is impossible to say when the next super-flu will strike, there have been three pandemics in the last century and influenza experts say the world is overdue. Concern is growing that the bird flu could trigger one if it mutates to start spreading easily among people - something that hasn’t yet happened.
Already the government is buying $162.5 million worth of vaccine against that bird flu strain, called H5N1, from two companies - Sanofi-Aventis and Chiron Corp. - in case that happens. It also is ordering millions of doses of Tamiflu and Relenza, two antiflu drugs believed to offer some protection against the bird flu, stockpiles that the pandemic plan is expected to order be augmented.
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it’s proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that’s now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)’s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don’t reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead’s stock from $35 to $47. That’s made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
The Ulster County Health Department has scheduled its annual flu and pneumonia vaccination clinics. No appointments are needed, and county residents may attend any site convenient to them.
Residents deemed high-risk are encouraged to receive a flu shot. This includes anyone over 50, and adults over 18 who have heart disease, chronic broncho-pulmonary disease, renal disease, diabetes mellitus, other chronic metabolic disorders, severe anemia and/or compromised immune function, and others at risk of flu-related conditions.
The flu vaccine also is recommended for home care providers and others who may be in close contact with high-risk individuals.
SENIOR citizens who have Medicare Part B benefits can have their vaccinations paid for by Medicare. Recipients must be entitled to Part B coverage on the date of service, Medicare Part B must be the primary insurance coverage, and a Medicare card must be presented on the date of service.
For those not eligible for Medicare Part B coverage, there will be a $20 charge for the flu vaccine and $25 for the pneumonia vaccine, payable at the clinic. County residents enrolled in Medicare Managed Care programs should consult with their primary-care physician prior to visiting one of the clinics.
FLU SHOT clinics scheduled for the area are as follows.
* Nov. 10, 9:30 a.m. to noon, Midtown Neighborhood Center, 467 Broadway, Kingston.
* Nov. 16, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Ashokan Legion Hall, Mountain Road, Shokan.
* Nov. 18, 10 a.m. to noon. Trudy Farber Resnick Building, 50 Center St., Ellenville.
* Nov. 21, 10-11 a.m., Dutch Village Apartments, Washington Avenue, Kingston.
* Dec. 2, 9:30-10:30 a.m., Hurley Firehouse, 137 Old Route 209, Hurley.
· Dec. 9, 10 a.m. to noon, Woodstock Rescue Squad Building, state Route 212, Woodstock.