Casino Move…
Gov. George Pataki and the chief of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma have signed an agreement to settle the tribe’s New York land claim, establish a Catskill-area casino and provide for tribal collection of sales taxes. The pact now requires approval by Congress and the state Legislature.
“The agreement allows us to move forward with plans to establish the first of three new casinos in the Catskills, which would create thousands of new jobs and provide a tremendous boost to the region’s economy,” Pataki said in a prepared statement. “Our agreement will also provide for the collection and remittance of state and local sales and excise taxes on products sold by the tribe.”
The pact says the tribe will relinquish its interest in the $247.9 million federal court judgment obtained jointly with the Cayuga Indian Nation in 2002 and indemnify the state for final monetary judgment in the land claim case up to $350 million. A federal judge set awards to both Indian nations after ruling the state had illegally purchased 64,000 acres of reservation land in Cayuga and Seneca counties more than 200 years ago.
The Seneca-Cayugas in August offered to end their litigation and stake in the judgment in return for a state compact for a Catskills casino. A source close to the deal said the site proposed by the tribe will be in the Town of Thompson.
Representatives of the Cayuga Nation of New York have maintained that the Seneca Cayugas have no right to the claim judgment and shouldn’t be allowed to set up a casino in New York.
The deal was brokered by former state Attorney General Dennis Vacco, who stands to earn a substantial success fee — more than $1 million — should the project in the Catskills get built. Vacco’s arrangement is under investigation by the Temporary State Lobbying Commission because Vacco is also a lobbyist and such contingency fees are illegal under most circumstances when legislation is being sought.

Still Kicking?
Many think the Catskill Interpretive Center project long dead, but according to Sherret Chase, Chair of the non-profit group Friends of the Catskill Interpretive Center, the project is alive and well.
All it needs is money. Money and permission from Governor George Pataki, who stopped the project and took away the funding in the first month of his first term in office.
“Our goal is to organize a process that would encourage the State of New York to build The Catskill Interpretive Center on the basis of an update of the plans originally formulated a decade ago by NYSDEC with the advice of community members, and at the originally planned site,” Chase said to a small audience of Shandaken residents this week.
After more than a decade of planning the plug was pulled on the project in the mid 1990’s, leaving behind a well paved road, a new bridge, and a leveled off parcel of land that was to be the location for an impressive structure built of local materials such as timbers and bluestone.

Cultural Cuts?
The arts, local libraries, historical societies and a host of other agencies and programs are facing funding cuts next year because Ulster County’s $295 million tentative budget for 2005, rising over 20 percent because of jail and other costs, calls for a 25 percent cut in the county’s support of so-called “contract agencies.”
Some 39 agencies and organizations have submitted $1.69 million in funding requests for next year to Ulster County. But the funding of these agencies is one of the few discretionary items in the annual budget that is left fully to the Ulster County Legislature to decide. This year, the county doled out $1.28 million to agencies, an amount equal to roughly 3 percent of the 2004 tax levy.
When County Administrator Arthur Smith presented his tentative 2005 budget in late October, it included a recommendation that lawmakers cut the funding for contract agencies by 25 percent from current levels. Should lawmakers take his recommendation to heart, it could pit agencies with large requests against those seeking less, because all the agencies will share a pot of $959,250, or just under 57 percent of the total requests submitted to the county.
As in past years, the three largest funding requests are from Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Ulster County Development Corp. and the Ulster County Library Association, none of which has received a county funding increase in at least three years.
And with only 75 percent of last year’s agency funding to spend, lawmakers would be unable to fulfill even these three funding requests, which total $1.14 million. That leaves legislators with the tough choice: Direct funding to the largest beneficiaries, at the expense of the arts, historic and social groups that also depend on the county’s annual contribution; or cut funding across the board.
The Mid-Hudson Region Small Business Development Center, meanwhile was recently ranked first in New York State in economic impact for the fourth straight year. In addition, it was ranked first in the state for overall performance among the 23 state Small Business Development Centers.
Its counselors provided 5,738 of service to 1,050 clients, resulting in nearly $42 million in economic impact for the region and 1,303 jobs created or saved.
Meanwhile, legislators have been putting together a wish list of new facilities they would like over the next six years, including a $3.9 million, 20,000-square-foot state-of-the-art computer center to house the county’s Information Services Department; a $2.7 million, 15,000-square-foot county office building in New Paltz, which would consolidate probation, mental health and health department offices currently leasing space there; a $2.3 million, 2-story parking garage in Uptown Kingston to provide free parking for employees working in the Ulster County Office Building; a $1.9 million visitor center at the Thruway Exit 19 roundabout; a $3.2 million emergency communications and operations center; a $13.4 million law administration building on the site of the current county jail, which would house Family Court, the Consumer Fraud Bureau, the Public Defender’s Office and other criminal justice-related services and a $516,000 central auto maintenance garage.
Ulster County currently is $139.5 million in debt. This year, the county will pay $10.9 million in debt service.
An Informational Meeting on the proposed 2005 County Budget will be held on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at 5:30 pm in the Legislative Chambers, Sixth Floor, County Office Building, 244 Fair Street, Kingston, New York. Department Heads will be in attendance to offer an explanation of their department proposals.

Tunnel Light…
Legislation proposed by State Senator John Bonacic, designed to repeal new laws changing the method for distributing vehicle and traffic fines between local courts and the State, recently passed the state Senate and now moves on to the Assembly in the coming months. The provision, part of a larger budget bill, had reversed a longstanding practice of the State to a1low localities to keep most of the income from ticket and fine revenue. The new changes were creating major shortfalls in a number of local town budgets, and movement towards repeal is being hoped for throughout the Route 28 corridor…

Defibrillate!
A program unanimously approved by the Ulster County Legislature this month is expected to help local businesses, agencies, and individuals buy automated external defibrillators by leveraging the purchasing power of Ulster County to bring down the price. The proper use of the devices has improved the survival rate of heart attack victims from less than 2 percent to more than 80 percent, according to the American Heart Association.
“I’m very happy that everyone supported it,” said program sponsor Robert Parete, D-Boiceville. “It’s a good way that we can work in a bipartisan manner to get things done for the residents of Ulster County.”
Parete came up with the program to boost county residents’ accessibility to the devices, given the Food and Drug Administration’s decision last month to allow the sale of automated external defibrillators without a prescription.
The county will seek bids on the bulk purchase of defibrillators, up to an initial purchase total of $35,000. In addition to making the units available to county residents at cost, the program calls for defibrillators to be gradually placed in all 36 buildings that house county operations. Currently a handful of county buildings, including the Ulster County Office Building, the county Jail, and the Department of Social Services, have automated external defibrillators in them.
In addition to purchasing the units, the county will team up with an agency to provide training to consumers and county employees who may end up using the automated external defibrillators. An amendment was added to the resolution asking that state representatives - including the state Senate, Assembly, and the governor - be asked to help the county by reimbursing it for some or all of the program’s cost.

New Club!
The 100th Anniversary of the Catskill Park has inspired a group of individuals to launch the Catskill Mountain Club (CMC) – the first all-inclusive hiking and outdoor organization to specifically serve the entire Catskill region. Chris Olney, newly elected president of the CMC, and a writer for this paper, explained the new club is devoted to outdoor stewardship, education, hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, canoeing, kayaking, biking, and other non-motorized nature-related pursuits in the Catskill Mountains.
“We hope to encourage people to safely and responsibly explore and care for the public lands of the Catskill region” said Mr. Olney. “Membership in the Catskill Mountain Club is open to anyone with an interest in the Catskills and its outdoor recreational opportunities. We encourage people to volunteer and give something back to our natural areas by leading hikes, assisting with maintenance of trails and other recreational resources, and participating with friends and neighbors in other activities planned by the CMC”.
The Club consists of a 15-member board of directors. Committees have been established to organize outings, educational workshops, and stewardship activities. Mr. Olney explained the group was brought together by their mutual enjoyment of the outdoor recreational opportunities of the Catskills, and respect for the region’s diverse public lands and natural resources.
As an inaugural event, the Catskill Mountain Club joined with another regional organization, the Catskills Institute for the Environment, to host a Catskill Park photo scavenger hunt contest during the Catskill Park centennial Lark in the Park, sponsored by the New York State DEC during a two week period in October. Participants were given a list of ten things to photo-document inside the Catskill Park. Helen Chase of Shokan won the contest by locating and photographing nine of the ten items.
Membership in the CMC is currently free, however the club welcomes donations to support their volunteer work and programs. For more information about the Catskill Mountain Club, to participate in upcoming activities, and to print out a membership application, visit the organization’s website at www.catskillmountainclub.org.

He’s Back?!?
Seeking to take advantage of the momentum from an election where moral values proved important to voters, the Rev. Jerry Falwell announced this month that he has formed a new coalition to guide an “evangelical revolution.” Falwell, a religious broadcaster based in Lynchburg, Va., said the Faith and Values Coalition will be a “21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority,” the organization he founded in 1979. Falwell said he would serve as the coalition’s national chairman for four years and added that the new group’s mission would be to lobby for anti-abortion conservatives to fill openings on the Supreme Court and lower courts, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and the election of another “George Bush-type” conservative in 2008.

Born To Run
Humans were born to run and evolved from ape-like creatures into the way they look today probably because of the need to cover long distances and compete for food, scientists have now said. From tendons and ligaments in the legs and feet that act like springs and skull features that help prevent overheating, to well-defined buttocks that stabilize the body, the human anatomy is shaped for running.
Scientists suspect modern humans evolved from their ape-like ancestors about 2 million years ago so they could hunt and scavenge for food over large distances. But the development of physical features that enabled humans to run entailed a trade off -- the loss of traits that were useful for being a tree-climber.
The conventional theory is that running was a by-product of bipedalism, or the ability to walk upright on two legs, that evolved in ape-like human ancestors called Australopithecus at least 4.5 million years ago. But the new study argues that it took a few million more years for the running physique to evolve, so the ability to walk cannot explain the transition.
If natural selection did not favor running, the scientists believe humans would still look a lot like apes. Among the features that set humans apart from apes to make them good runners are longer legs to take longer strides, shorter forearms to enable the upper body to counterbalance the lower half during running and larger disks which allow for better shock absorption.
Big buttocks are also important.
“Have you ever looked at an ape? They have no buns,” said one of the scientists who authored the report.
Humans lean forward when they run and the buttocks “keep you from pitching over on your nose each time a foot hits the ground,” he added.

Septic Changes
The Catskill Watershed Corporation has a message for homeowners who have participated in its septic repair and replacement program: It’s time to think about maintenance of those systems, and the CWC can help. A new Septic Maintenance Program, piloted earlier this year in Sullivan County, has been expanded throughout the five-county New York City Watershed West of the Hudson River. In early November, letters were sent to 1,100 eligible homeowners – those who have had their systems repaired or replaced by the CWC prior to 2002 — explaining how they might benefit from this program to inspect their systems and pump out septic tanks. The reimbursement program is intended to encourage homeowners to have their systems maintained on a regular basis (every three to five years). Preventive maintenance wards off costly repairs and prolongs the life of on-site wastewater treatment systems. Eligible properties are those where the CWC paid for all or part of a failed septic system at least three years ago. Eligibility extends to new owners of properties on which septic system repairs were conducted by the CWC prior to acquisition. Homeowners may contract with any licensed septage hauler to conduct the inspection and pump-out. Upon submittal of a completed inspection check list, reimbursement form, contractor’s invoice and proof of payment, the CWC will reimburse the homeowner 50% of the incurred eligible cost. Funding for pump-outs of an eligible system cannot be provided more often than every three years under this program. The CWC does not pay for enzyme treatments or other system additives. To learn more about the maintenance program, or about the CWC’s Septic Repair and Replacement Program, call toll-free: 877-WAT-SHED (928-7433), or go to the corporation’s website, www.cwconline.org.

Hacked Election?
Despite mainstream media attempts to kill the story, talk radio and the Internet are abuzz with suggestions that John Kerry was elected president on Nov. 2 – but Republican election officials made it difficult for millions of Democrats to vote while employees of four secretive, GOP-bankrolled corporations rigged electronic voting machines and then hacked central tabulating computers to steal the election for George W. Bush. According to reports, the Bush administration’s “fix” of the 2000 election debacle (the Help America Vote Act) made crooked elections considerably easier, by foisting paperless electronic voting on states before the bugs had been worked out or meaningful safeguards could be installed.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Verified Voting, a group formed by a Stanford University professor to assess electronic voting, has collected 31,000 reports of election fraud and other problems. University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Steven Freeman has noted that the odds that the discrepancies between predicted [exit poll] results and actual vote counts in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania could have been due to chance or random error are 250 million to 1.
Unlike Europe, where citizens count the ballots, in the United States employees of a highly secretive Republican-leaning company, ES&S, managed every aspect of the 2004 election. That included everything from registering voters, printing ballots and programming voting machines to tabulating votes (often with armed guards keeping the media and members of the public who wished to witness the count at bay) and reporting the results, for 60 million voters in 47 states, according to Christopher Bollyn, writing in American Free Press. Most other votes were counted by three other firms.
Six important Congressmen, including three on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the U.S. Comptroller General to investigate the efficacy of new electronic voting devices. Black Box Voting – the nonprofit group which spearheaded much of the pre-election testing (and subsequent criticism) of electronic machines that found them hackable in 90 seconds – is filing the largest Freedom of Information Act inquiry in U.S. history. And the Green and Libertarian Parties, as well as Ralph Nader, are demanding an Ohio recount, because of voting fraud, suppression and disenfranchisement. Recounts are also being sought in New Hampshire, Nevada and Washington.
In 47 Florida counties, the number of presidential votes exceeded the number of registered voters. Palm Beach County recorded 90,774 more votes than voters and Miami-Dade had 51,979 more, while relatively honest Orange County had only 1,648 more votes than voters. Overall, Florida reported 237,522 more presidential votes (7.59 million) than citizens who turned out to cast ballots (7.35 million).

Sadly Passed...
Leona Werner, 93, of Weber Lane, Olivebridge, died November 11, 2004 at the Kingston Hospital. She had been an area resident for over 50 years. Many years ago, she had worked as a licensed beautician at Jones’ Beauty Parlor in New York City and Maryland. Mrs. Werner helped to establish the Olive First Aid Squad. She was a member of the Olivebridge United Methodist Church, the United Methodist Women, the Olive Rebecca’s, the Olive Women’s Club, the Olivebridge Fire Department Auxillary, and the Olive Senior Citizens. She was born May 28, 1911 in North Carolina daughter of the late James and Mary Lenora Bevill Lemons. Surviving are her daughter Linda Werner of Olivebridge, a son Charles Lemons of Olivebridge. She was predeceased by her husband of 56 years, Joseph Werner on January 15, 2003, and her siblings; Herman, Hal, Harry, Marvin, George, Joyner Lemons, and Mabel Vitale. Private burial will be in the family plot at the Krumville Cemetery. The family suggests memorial contributions may be made to the Olivebridge United Methodist Church.