Possible Checkmate

Also in attendance was Tom Alworth, Executive Director of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and representative for the newly-formed Catskill Preservation Coalition, whose eleven members include most of the state and region's top environmental organizations, including  the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, Theodore Gordon Flyfishers Inc., Hudson Riverkeeper, Friends of Catskill Park, Zen Environmental Studies Institute, Inc., the New York Public Interest Group (NYPIRG), Catskill Heritage Alliance, the Pine Hill Water District Coalition, and the Catskill Center.
            The Coalition is seeking to participate in an upcoming adjudication hearing on the project set for May 25 in Margaretville, where it wants to challenge statements made in a 6,720 page draft environmental impact statement submitted by the developers and challenged in the New York City comments released on April 22.
            Gitter was present with his Crossroad Ventures project manager, Gary Gailes, and attorney Dan Ruzow, who had served as one of two lawyers for the Coalition of Watershed Towns during the lengthy battle and subsequent negotiations that led to the formation of the CWC in 1997.
            The CWC was set up, under the 1997 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) brokered by Pataki between Upstate communities and New York City, " to protect the water resources of the New York City Watershed west of the Hudson River, while preserving and strengthening communities located in the region" according to its own website description. It was funded with an initial influx of $65 million, since amended, to initiate and run a variety of programs aimed at maintaining local water quality and helping to induce responsible development.    
            The 65-page report submitted by the New York City DEP to the state last week states, bluntly, that the city, "believes that the proposed Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park does not embody environmentally responsible growth consistent with the spirit of the MOA." More succinctly, it states that Gitter's DEIS, however lengthy, is filled with "errors, inconsistencies, data gaps and flawed logic" and that the DEIS, and Crossroad Ventures, has failed to provide any alternatives to its plans as required under State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) laws.
            "Unless the analyses in the DEIS are substantially improved and demonstrate that the impacts of the project as proposed or a reasonable alternative project have been accurately quantified using complete, consistent, and accurate underlying data and fully documenting the measures through which the impacts are mitigated, the Applicant has not discharged its duties under SEQRA that all potential significant environmental impacts have been adequately identified, analyzed and mitigated," the comments state. "As such NYCDEP is not, and until such steps are completed would not, be able to issue findings in support of the project or approve permits pursuant to its independent regulatory authority over stormwater discharges and wastewater treatment at the site. NYCDEP is concerned that it would not be able to issue permits for any of the alternatives that had been considered by the project's sponsor because our current rules and regulations do not permit post-development loadings to exceed pre-development levels."
            Gitter's presence at the social hour preceding the annual meeting was seen by many as an attempt to win over support for what is now shaping up to be his project's last gasps. He kibitzed with Alworth, Ward, and Gelber, with various members of the CWC board he briefly served as an alternate to in the late 1990s. Moreover, he huddled with Shandaken supervisor Bob Cross, Jr. and Ulster County CWC representative Ward Todd, the former Chairman of the Ulster County Legislature and Shandaken Republican boss who owns land with wife Jane, a Shandaken councilwoman, adjacent to Belleayre Resort projects.
            Cross later showed off a copy of the city's comments that, like similar copies held by Ruzow and Gailes, had a specific reference to the MOA highlighted with yellow magic marker.
            "Among other things, all parties to the MOA agreed to the principle that responsible growth and development should be promoted in the NYCDEP watershed if pursued in an environmentally responsible manner consistent with the protection of water quality," the highlighted sections read. "Development was to be encouraged in town centers with supporting infrastructure. Growth was not envisioned as appropriate on steep slopes or at locations outside of population centers on large tracts of undeveloped land with mature forests."
            Reporter Jay Braman, Jr. of the Daily Freeman and Catskill Mountain News, which covers the town of Middletown into which the proposed resort will spill, said that he had gotten a call from Gitter on the morning before the meeting bringing up the highlighted problems. There was talk that Ruzow had called his fellow Coalition for Watershed Towns attorney Jeff Baker about the clause, and to see whether the Coalition, still around for pressuring the city on issues where a clear consensus of disfavor could be found.
            "I just told the commissioner that we're going to have to have a meeting to sit down and talk about some issues I've uncovered in the city's comments," Cross said after first speaking with Ward, and then in a closed door session with Middletown supervisor Len Utter. "I have some serious questions about what they've written and what it says about development in the Catskills. I'm also planning to talk to Pat Meehan about all of this, as well as other town supervisors in the watershed who might like to hear about what I've found."
            Meehan is the executive director of the Coalition of Watershed Towns, and was not present at the meeting. Similarly, he did not answer repeated calls from the press about the Gitter project all week.
            CWC President and Coalition founder Perry Shelton said Tuesday that although Gitter had come to him and the CWC board on several occasions about his project, there was nothing he could do.
            "And I don't think the Coalition is planning to do anything either since this doesn't really involve any towns directly," Shelton added.
            Several other CWC boardmembers who still attended Coalition meetings likewise noted that they didn't think the Coalition would take up Gitter's cause because there was no concensus of support for the project, and actual opposition to it from several towns.
            "It's too controversial," Shelton said.
            "We're all working with the city on projects," CWC Vice President Mike Flaherty said. "Meehan's up to his ankles in a new sewer system-"
            The CWC's other vice president for economic development, Todd, did not speak publicly at all during the annual meeting, or a subsequent monthly meeting held Tuesday.
            Other talk on Tuesday focused on the release, earlier in the week, of a letter from the influential Coalition to Save Belleayre to DEC Commissioner Crotty asking that she not link the ski center in any way with Gitter's project.
            "The pioneering ski center has been in existence as a state entity since 1949," Coalition to Save Belleayre founder and president Joe Kelly wrote. "Its future is not and should not be linked to the issue of the resort project any more than any other private project in the Catskills or State of New York for that matter."
            For his part, Gitter refused comment to the press.
            An April 23 press release from his PR spokesperson, Fred Winters, was headlined "City Agency Declares End To Further Development In Catskills In Defiance Of Watershed Agreement; City DEP's Views On First Major Project Under Agreement Threatens Era Of Upstate-Downstate Cooperation" and spoke of city efforts to "derail" what Gitter had proposed as an example of "environmentally-responsible development."
            "The DEP has effectively torn up the MOA and declared war on the people of the Catskills," Gitter was quoted as saying. "By its actions today, DEP threatens the future livelihoods and standard of living of every working family in the region. We pledge to use every resource available to us to convince the City to live up to its promise and reverse the position they are now taking."
            Ward, affable and friendly, spoke with the CWC board members about ongoing projects and patiently explained to Cross that its comments were directed to the Gitter project and not all development in the Catskills. He later said that it was unfortunate that he would have to play the role of the "bad commissioner" who says no to Gitter's project, but it just wasn't right for where it was being proposed at the center of the Catskills.
            Ward added that the state, via the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Governor's office, knew that his department's comments would be strongly negative beforehand.
            "It means they won't have to play the heavy in this," he said, later affirming that attempts by Gitter to speak directly with Mayor Michael Bloomberg about his project may have backfired.
            During the meeting itself, both Ward and Gelber, as well as the entire CWC board, were the recipient of numerous accolades and commendations. "We are a partnership," Sullivan County representative Georgianne Lepke said, pointing out the great help given the Catskills by the NYCDEP.
            Later, Gitter stood and addressed the board. After starting with his own accolades about this "commendable program" he lamented how some projects still managed to "fall between the cracks." But instead of speaking about his resort plans, he brought up how Mary Beth and Devon Mills, the new owners of the old Rudi's Restaurant, last known as Jake Moon, were running into trouble getting septic permits from New York City.
            "Could the CWC or Commissioner Ward ,oderate the severity of what these young people are going through," Gitter asked, with characteristic rhetorical flourish.
            "We'll look into that," mumbled CWC Executive Director Alan Rosa after Gitter sat down, looking somewhat deflated after his attempt to rile up emotions against the city.
            Someone mentioned, in the audience, how he'd forgotten to acknowledge having sold the restaurant to the Mills for $185,000, the price lowered because of septic problems.
            Asked what he'd thought of the DEP comments and statement about never permitting his client's proposed resort project, Ruzow simply said "harsh," and turned around. After a moment he turned back around and spoke a second time: "Unnecessarily harsh," he said.
            A similar question to Utter, the Middletown supervisor whose town will also be effected by the life or death of Gitter's dream, was met with a simpler response. He ran a finger across his throat.
            "The range of reasonable alternatives for this site cannot include a golf course," the New York Times quoted city officials as saying in a stern April 24 story on the city's comments. They then quoted Ruzow stating, "The city is sending a very clear signal that there should be no large project in the watershed."
            "The intent of the city's salvo here is to pursue a policy that there will be no economic development in the Catskills," Gitter later told the Daily Freeman. "This is an effort to depopulate the Catskills," he said.
            "The Belleayre Resort as currently proposed is unprecedented in scale not just here in the Catskills, but throughout the entire northeastern United States," said Alworth, countering Gitter's attempted attack on New York City. "This project will inevitably have significant impacts on environmental quality, community character and the overall quality of life in the central Catskills."
            "Instead of 'smart growth' that can offer economic vitality while still safeguarding the irreplaceable resources of the Catskill Mountains, the proposed project is an example of ill-advised development that runs counter to the region's long-term environmental and economic interests," added Eric Goldstein of the NRDC. "The premise that the city does not want to see economic development in the Catskills is ridiculous!"
            Funders for Gitter's project, as well as Crossroad Ventures' previous developments at the Emerson Inn and Catskill Corners, now renamed Emerson Place, have included Kenneth Pasternak, Emily Fisher and Richard Fisher. Pasternak has since come under investigation from Securities and Exchange authorities for irregularities involving his former Wall Street company, Knight Trading. Richard Fisher, who recently funded the Frank Gehry-designed building in his name, has long maintained a strong board presence in the environmental world, as has his ex-wife, Emily.
            The next stage of the current review of Gitter's $250 million resort proposal, which he claims has cost millions to get to this current stage, will take place in the form of an "issues conference" to discuss the parameters for further review and adjudication by the state DEC set to take place in Maragaretville on May 25.
            "Mr. Gitter has no desire to speak right at this time," a last call to Crossroad Ventures resulted in.

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That Other Town

            The bill was designed to address an entirely different situation than the one which exists here, he contended. In fact, he noted, in tracing the history of Senate Bill J1316, the lawyers discovered that the intent of the bill was spelled out in the Sponsor's Memorandum of Understanding and included language which specified that, in order for a school board to adopt the reapportionment of school taxes indicated, all of the municipalities in the school district concerned would have to consent to it. Somehow, in the process of passage, the Sponsor's Memo was left out of the bill.
            "My understanding is that, when our lawyers asked (Sen. Larkin) about it, he thought the memorandum was in there and was surprised to find that the bill
passed without it," LaMonda elaborated. "A key part of the history of the bill, concerning the intention of the legislature, was to stop the wild swings in assessed value due to sales of power plants, utility facilities, large enterprises like that. (Senator William J. Larkin, Jr. R-C) has those kind of industrial problems down there (in the Newburgh, New Windsor area) whereas, reservoirs never get sold, so there are no wild swings."
            The Onteora School Board stated during its April meeting that it intended to
act on the bill following the May 18th school budget vote. This option would raise school taxes in Olive between 50% and 60% after the state Office of Real Property Services re-evaluates the Ashokan Reservoir properties owned by New York City.
            Under the bill, which relates to a former bill, 1314, involving equalization rates in school districts spread over more than one town, New York City would continue to pay the same amount of taxes as the largest landowner in Olive but their payment would be equalized with other towns, leaving other Olive taxpayers to make up the difference. Woodstock and Shandaken would enjoy a 10% to 12% decrease, LaMonda points out, while Olive and Hurley- wherein the City properties lie, would pay more.
            "Only individual property owners take the hit," said LaMonda. "The reservoir isn't even adjacent to the benefiting towns while all of its dams, labs, police departments and maintenance buildings are within our boundaries."
            While urging Olive citizens to make their concerns known to the Onteora
School Board, LaMonda said the town was working in several ways to counter the bill's impact, including an update of property assessments and motions for repeal or amendment of the law.
            "I didn't realize it before we got involved in this," LaMonda said, "but apparently these big corporations sell these power plants back and forth for tax purposes and I guess the assessed values go up and down like crazy. It's a business lever to get tax breaks. But of the 31 districts eligible for this maneuver in New York State, only Onteora and one other town has opted for it. And this has to be the LEAST appropriate of the large parcel sites to do that."

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Onteora Voting Time

                        Also on the ballot will be the proposed 2004-2005 budget of $42,720,937.
            Polling will take place from 2 PM to 9 PM. At approximately 9:30 p.m., the Onteora Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting to canvass the votes cast. The meeting will be held in the Cafeteria of the Onteora Middle-Senior High School, 4166 Route 28, Boiceville, at which point winners and results will be announced.
            Registration is by May 11.
 Polling places are as follows:
District # 1 Town of Shandaken and that part of Lexington (Greene County) already in the Onteora District. Polling Center: Phoenicia Elementary School, Phoenicia. District # 2 Town of Olive and that part of Marbletown already in the Onteora District. Polling Center: Bennett Elementary School, Boiceville. District # 3 Town of Woodstock. Polling Center: Woodstock Elementary School. District # 4 T own of Hurley. Polling Center: West Hurley Elementary School
            Onteora administrators presented a revised plan for elementary consolidation at the school board's April 28 meeting, stating that all the students from the West Hurley attendance area would be able to fit in the Woodstock school along with current Woodstock students, while Phoenicia and Bennett students would remain at their respective schools. Several parents who addressed the school board were relieved to hear that their children would not have to move across the district but were concerned about issues of inadequate auditorium, gym, playground, and parking space at Woodstock, which would house 400 students, as opposed to this year's 281.
            The Bennett and Phoenicia schools will have class sizes ranging from 17 to 24, with Phoenicia's classes tending to be smaller. Parents will be permitted to apply for variances to allow their children to attend a school other than their designated school. Variances will be considered based on class sizes, with decisions to be finalized in July. Students currently on forced variances from Bennett to Woodstock or West Hurley due to overcrowding 3 years ago, will be considered Woodstock students and will have to apply for variances to return to Bennett.
 
Tom Rosato
            Tom Rosato, age 53, lives in Shandaken and works as supervisor of buildings and grounds for Ulster County BOCES, where he heads the maintenance and custodial departments and oversees construction projects. Two of his three children currently attend Onteora schools, and his wife teaches math at the high school. Rosato has been on the school board for almost four years and feels his familiarity with budget and contract cycles has provided invaluable insight for effective decision-making.
In fifteen years at BOCES, he says, "I've been in and around the educational environment, and I know what's needed to make education happen. My experience in facilities helped the district get through the Bennett renovation project and roofing projects, as well as issues with the heating plant at the high school. I was instrumental in creating the Facilities Committee, which I chair. We deal with issues that arise regularly in terms of facilities. We have created a document that explains everything about the facilities and their needs, to help the board make decisions on infrastructure."
When asked whether the budget risks defeat due to the anger of segments of the community over recent board decisions, Rosato replied, "Yes, of course. I hope it doesn't, but folks have interests that are very important to them. If they're not being accommodated, they may vote no. But the board has dealt with these difficult issues compassionately and, I believe, properly, with the entire district in mind. I understand why West Hurley parents are not happy, but when you look at what losses would mean at upper levels, you can see it would hamper students' ability to compete. I'm aware that we have a high per-student expenditure, but I've looked at it closely, and the areas to bring down are very small. We don't want to cut electives, academic intervention, sports programs. In a rural district, these are very important for kids."
Among the important tasks of the next few years will be ushering in the new superintendent. "We have to have a stable budget and a stable board so she can concentrate on educational programs. I hope we can keep the culture we've created on the board and with the administration, now that we have eliminated the narrow-minded self-interest of past school board members. We have a diverse group that works well together, and litigation has dropped off to zero. I get a good feeling from this board when we accomplish something. That's what makes it worthwhile."
His other goals include finding an educational use for the West Hurley building and using the Facilities Committee to help the newly formed Technology Committee upgrade computers and other technology throughout the district.

David Patterson
David Patterson, age 42, lives in West Hurley and is a sales representative for a Port Ewen-based communications products company. He has a college degree in criminal justice and calls himself "a very concerned parent of a large family" of seven children, five of whom are currently in district schools. At school board meetings over the last year and a half, he has criticized the administration, opposing the West Hurley closing and pointing out post-reorganization problems such as the inadequacy of remedial reading staff at Woodstock, a disparity that was corrected as a result of his complaints.
"In the ten years that I've lived here," Patterson says, "educational equity has not been occurring in the district in terms of resource allocation and functionality of buildings." While the recent decision to consolidate elementary schools is aimed at equalizing class sizes and redistributing resources, he says, "That will help on paper, as the Princeton Plan was supposed to work, but I'm skeptical. As a parent, I was able to show the board that the plans they had made did not meet the promises." One of his goals as a board member is to ensure that the transition does create equity among the elementary schools.
He finds that the board's recent decisions have divided the community. "It's 'us versus them' at every level, and that needs to be repaired immediately." He points out that board members tend to vote unanimously on every issue. "Two or three opinionated board members were against the West Hurley closing at first, but their strong beliefs changed so quickly." Dissatisfied teachers have told him that they are afraid to express opinions or criticisms and that they do not receive enough support from administrators. He doesn't feel the board's communication with the public is adequate, although it is slowly moving in the right direction.
Patterson believes the public's frustration will affect the budget vote. "People don't feel they have any strength, and this is the only way they can express themselves. A lot of people say defeating the budget will hurt kids, but the board hasn't worked on the budget except in a generic way. I went through the budget line items and found $1 million in cuts, not in programs or AP [Advanced Placement] courses or afterschool, just things like administration and transportation. There's no long-range planning. Every year, they put band-aids on the budget when what they need is major surgery.
"The bottom line is, the children are most important. But parents need to be more involved. The apathy in this district is just a shame. I promise to do what I think is right as a parent."
Meg Carey
            Meg Carey, age 59, is a former teacher with a B.A. from Grinnell College and an M.A. from the Bank Street College of Education. She lives in the Town of Olive, and her two grown children attended Onteora schools, where she was active in the PTA and in site team shared decision-making, receiving the Jenkins Award in recognition of community service to children. She served on the board of the Woodstock Youth Theater and is now in her sixth year on the board of education.
            She says that supporting the new superintendent will be a top priority, requiring a strong board that can continue to work well with administration. "The district is now in transition. We're making the best plan for consolidation of four elementary schools into three, on top of last year's reorganization, and this will continue for quite a while as we deal with declining enrollments and the need to do more on less money. Government keeps increasing its mandates, but we anticipate no additional state aid for years to come. The money issue is getting to be bigger and bigger, with no end in sight. This is all under the umbrella of how to support improvement of student achievement, which is always our focus."
            Carey finds it is also important to "continue to work on perceiving ourselves as a 'K-through-twelve' district and not as five separate schools. The different schools tend to be competitive with each other. Shared decision-making brought parents of different schools together, and that was a big change. Consolidation takes us a step in the right direction so there will be consistency throughout the district that parents and students can expect."
            Regarding the budget vote, she expresses hope that "when people step back and take a breath, they might be able to understand the questions of equity the board is dealing with, and that we have to look at the whole picture, not just with the elementary schools, but with the large-parcel issue too. I'm hoping people can direct their anger at the state and federal level, where we're not getting proper support. The board has been listening and taking time and trying to be fair. We don't do anything in secret. I hope reasonable people will be willing to support the budget. There are a lot of concerns about change, but many teachers and staff were energized by the reorganization last year and have risen to the challenge."
            She is confident her experience will benefit the board. "It takes so long to figure out how to be an effective board member. I want to continue to offer my services. It's a very satisfying job."