Whither The Vote?

            Board president Marino D'Orazio said on Monday, "The inclination of the board is to propose a budget in the four-percent-plus range. Tom Rosato has some ideas, and I have some ideas. The issue is going to be what programs and what positions, if any, will become part of a proposed budget. That was the feeling at the beginning˜if this budget went down, we would suggest another." In April, Supt.Hal Rowe and his administrative team proposed the original budget, with a six percent increase over this year's budget, as well as a second option, with a 4.3 percent increase, in case of the first budget's failure.
            When asked how the board would  convince taxpayers to vote for the second budget, D'Orazio said, "We'll try very hard to explain to the public what it means to have this budget versus a contingency budget. Voting it down doesn't really save the taxpayers any money. A contingency budget will have almost a three percent increase, as mandated by law. It's simple to say, if we vote down the budget, nothing happens to taxes, but that's not the case. The difference between the budgets is really minimal, and a contingency budget hurts the kids. Then we have to make do with the bare minimum, and everything is up for grabs. Most of the expenditures in the budget are beyond the control of the school district, such as contracted salaries and mandated programs."
            Rowe remarked, "I don't think the last budget was defeated over the budget but from anger and concern over other issues," such as parents' dissatisfaction with the closing of the West Hurley Elementary School, the board's plan to apply the large-parcel option, which may raise Town of Olive taxes by over fifty percent, and the recent Woodstock property revaluation, raising many homeowners' taxes in that town. Rowe quoted from charts published in local newspapers indicating that Onteora was proposing the second lowest budget-to-budget increase in the county. "We were second highest in tax levy increase because we don't have any fund balance, since it was given away by another board at another time. But our budget increase certainly wasn't out of line, there are just too many volatile issues right now and people who are really persistent about keeping them going."
            Outgoing trustee Meg Carey lost the school board election but will retain her seat until July, so she will be voting at next Monday's meeting. She stated, "My position remains that I want to support what the administrators recommend. They are the ones who live the budget and know in most detail how the students and staff are affected. I truly believe when the administrators make their recommendations, they believe it's in the best interest of the whole district. I anticipate slight variations in their recommendations, but I don't expect any major change."
            Regarding the second budget's chance of passing, she commented, "My understanding is that a school budget has never before been defeated by such a huge margin. It makes me question whether there's any budget these numbers of people will support. The issue is much bigger than the West Hurley school closing. Taxes are already known to be much higher in Woodstock because of the reval, and Olive's very concerned about their taxes. I'm curious how it's all going to be revealed to us."
            D'Orazio said he had invited several politicians to "give their opinions about whether it's appropriate for us to enact the large-parcel law this year." Senator Larkin, one of the authors of the bill, attached comments to the legislation indicating that its purpose was to avoid large fluctuations in taxes each year as large commercial properties were bought and sold. Olive officials have pointed out that the parcel in question, the Ashokan Reservoir, does not undergo such changes, and therefore the legislation should not be applied in this case. District clerk Wendy Stefano said Tuesday afternoon that Bonacic would not be able to make the meeting, and she had not yet received word from Larkin or Cahill.
            Complicating the issue is the contention of Woodstock officials that their town bears the brunt of school taxes, while Olive pays an unfairly small proportion of taxes. "A lot of that has to do with the fact that the Olive government has not chosen to revaluate their properties, which we've said they should do," said D'Orazio. "Then if the legislation were enacted, it wouldn't have a huge impact." Olive supervisor Berndt Leifeld has said the town is preparing to do a reval, but because one hasn't been done in many years, the process will take at least a year or two.
            "It's a very divisive issue," D'Orazio continued. "Every single year, we're faced with this decision. As a school board we may become victims of a yearly jockeying for position depending on what town [candidates and board members] are from. It's a horrible, probably unintended effect, another example of higher government laying it on the lowest form of government we have, which is the school board. Voters look on the school board budget as one chance to make themselves heard. I hope people who really were instrumental in voting against it may feel they have made their point, and it's no longer about teaching someone a lesson but about not hurting educational programs."

Crossroads Proceedings 

           Last Tuesday, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Adjudicatory Law Judge Richard J. Wissler read into the record a number of exhibits for his later consideration, from the 10 bound volumes of Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) materials that were the subject of the review to petitions from four entities seeking to gain "party status" in the subsequent process and enter issues for consideration to a large box filled with several hundred pages of testimony and letters from the public and a number of concerned agencies, including the federal Environmental Protection Agency, regarding the project.
            He also noted the purposes of the current proceedings: To determine which parties, and issues raised by those parties, could be considered "substantive" and "significant" enough, based on environmental concerns, to warrant inclusion in first Wissler's ,and later DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty's decision regarding the Crossroad's DEIS completion, and whether it might need any mitigation- or downright refusal.
            Wissler added that the current Issues Conference process would likely not end until the end of June, with a decision likely by late summer, at the earliest. Appeals of whatever decision was reached would likely last into the Fall, with the entire adjudiocatory process not ending until "late Fall or Winter." And only then would actual permit processes begin.
            The official time at which all this started, according to Judge Wissler, was 10:14 AM.
            But by then, the battle stances of the various partners involved in what promises to be months of review of Crossroads Ventures' massive double-golf course, double-hotel resort surrounding the state DEC's own Belleayre Mountain Ski Center had already been laid out in an informal press conference in the parking lot outside the fire hall.
            Tom Alworth, Executive Director of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and organizer of an ad hoc consortium of eleven national, state and local environmental organizations calling itself the Catskill Preservation Coalition, had called the press conference to discuss some of the issues it was hoping to have heard, and included in the coming month's process.
            "The Coalition will be looking at a Forest Preserve issues," Alworth noted, referring to the fact that in addition to being in the New York City watershed, it was also firmly situated in the Catskill Park, one of two large forest preserve tracts, with the Adirondacks, under the direct stewardship of the DEC. "The DEC, as lead agency, is in for some tricky business."
            Alworth noted that as far as the organizations he's working with can tell, the proposed Belleayre Resort could increase traffic to the Catskill Park, which is currently in its centennial year, by ten times.
            Did his Coalition see any possible conflicts of interest on the DEC's part?
            "We'll see if it becomes an issue," he replied. "The jury is still out."
            Gitter's attorney for the process, Dan Ruzow, noted that a supplemental report had been submitted to the DEC in recent weeks answering charges made in some of the submitted comments from the City DEP and other agencies.
            "This is an iterative process," he said, repeating a term used by Gitter in recent interviews. He added that, as far as he could see, the most contentious sessions of the current process were likely to come on June 8 and June 22, when visual impacts and stormwater impacts, respectively, are to be discussed.
            He and Alworth traded statements about the recent decision by the Coalition of Watershed Towns to protest the city's comments, with Ruzow expressing his pleasure at CWT's new involvement, feeling they raised important Home Rule issues around the project review (see accompanying story); and Alworth speaking about the important issue being sustainable development as a key to the Catskills' future, and the fact that he did not see the proposed resort as being sustainable.
            "This is not an Upstate versus Downstate fight," Alworth said. "And unlike some reports I've read, I do not believe this indicates, in any way, the death of the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) between the City and the Catskills. That idea is ludicrous."
            When asked whether the growing brouhaha around the project was helping or hindering the financial commitment of the project's lead backers, Emily Fisher and Richard Fisher, both of whom live at least part-time in New York and pride themselves for their board involvement with a number of key City-based cultural organizations and national environmental organizations, Ruzow said "It's strengthened it. We're in this for the long haul. Our loyal investors believe this vision will work."
            Alworth, too, said the Resort issue has galvanized support for the Catskill Center and other environmental groups involved in it.
            National Resources Defense Council Senior Attorney Eric Goldstein added that the current project was thankfully the exception to the rule of Upstate development patterns, and hence needing greater scrutiny than other projects.
            Later, Alworth said that he was hoping the issue of DEC's own expansion and possible privatization plans for its Belleayre Mt. Ski Center would be allowed into Wissler's decision-making. He added that the agency recently refused to release its plans, after being petitioned under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), saying that they were still in "a draft, interagency form."
            Among lawyers in attendance for the May 25 hearing were counsel for New York City, the state DEC, a number of key environmental groups, and Jeff Baker, representing the Coalition of Watershed Towns and Delaware County, in a last-minute plea for inclusion in the talks that was okayed, for the current process, by Judge Wissler. Filling out the crowd were several representatives of Crossroads, including a PR agent handing out copies of the Coalition of Watershed Towns' recent resolution slamming New York City's comments, representatives of environmental groups, and a plethora of press.
            Of all the four entities seeking party status in the proceedings, as well as of all the entities seeking involvement in the process, only the Town of Shandaken was absent. Wissler noted that he had received an e-mail from Shandaken planning board attorney Drayton Grant saying they would rely on their submitted comments and would be providing no witnesses or testimony.
            A recent story on the underlying reasons for Shandaken's reluctance to be present in the process ran into flack from Shandaken Town Supervisor Bob Cross Jr. and Grant about statements made off-the-record by various sources as to why Shandaken was not backing up its report at the current hearings. The story noted that there had been discrepancies regarding the draft of a commissioned report submitted to the state by hired  environmental consultants, which had been objected to by Crossroads representatives as being too harsh.
            Ruzow, on behalf of Crossroads, said on May 25 that he had no objection to Shandaken not being present in the proceedings, and suggested that instead of being considered a full party to the proceedings, they be relegated to "Amicus" or friend of the court status, since they would have a chance to review the project later via their planning board.
            He then questioned the involvement of two of the Catskill Preservation Coalition's members - the Zen Environmental Studies Institute in Mt. Tremper and the New York Public Interest Resource Group (NYPIRG), as well as the legality of such an ad hoc organization.
            After much testimony from the various members of CPC, by both their attorney, Marc Gerstman, and their attendant representatives, Ruzow dropped his objections.
            After New York City's phalanx of lawyers and scientists gave a long presentation outlining their interest in, and basic concerns with the proposed project, Ruzow again objected- to both the extent of their comments, which Ruzow said he feels the courts need to test, implying Wissler's adjudication as an arena; as well as to the nature of the material they brought up, a series of giant photos showing erosion in other projects in Westchester and Margaretville in particular.
            Ruzow said he and his clients had "serious questions" about the city using the adjudicatory process for watershed planning versus individual project review processes.
            At several points Baker, representing the Coaliton of Watershed Towns, spoke in support of Ruzow, his former law partner.
            During the afternoon session, discussion centered on matters involving wastewater treatment, with DEP Engineer Brenda Drake characterizing hydraulic loading estimates in the Crossroads DEIS as massively incorrect and Ruzow raising the issue of the DEP's denial of use of its Pine Hill treatment facility for the project. There was also discussion of mining issues, involved in the excavation process.
            Addressing the planned visit to the proposed Belleayre Resort site on May 26, Judge Wissler said that he had been asked by Gitter, as owner of the property, to exclude former Shandaken Supervisor Peter Di Modica, a representative of the Pine Hill Water District Coalition, and Judith Wyman, director of the Friends of Catskill Park, from the field trip. Wissler said he'd originally allowed the exclusion, along with exclusion of the press and any and all photographs, because the purpose of the site visit was for him to be acquainted with what was being discussed, and nothing more. But then he added that Gitter had dropped his request to exclude Di Modica and Wyman.
            "I'm pleased with the directness and the forthrightness of all these folks," Wissler said at meeting's close on May 25th. "I'm pleased with the progress we're making."

BUT NO PRESS

     HEAVY TRAFFIC

       In a preliminary presentation to Administrative Law Judge Wissler, Ketchum said that baseline traffic data prepared for the developer by Creighton Manning and Associates under-reports existing volume by 40 percent, that it fails to take into account the growth of the Belleayre Ski area or traffic from the proposed 372 time-share units containing 832 bedrooms, and that, among other things, shuttle bus trips between the resort and ski area may be overestimated and parking spaces underestimated.
            Based on data already submitted by Ketchum, his firm projects that the resort's additional traffic volume of approximately 500,000 cars per year will result in one additional death and 37 additional injuries from traffic accidents annually on Route 28. He also posits that the increased volume will reduce the average speed of traffic and increase travel times throughout the 28 corridor but especially as one get closer to Kingston, where annual traffic volume on the road is approximately four times the level at the resort site itself.
            Ketchum also raised a new issue of "externality costs," representing the indirect fiscal impact to the region from the additional traffic loading. Such costs according to Ketchum include things like vibrational damage to structures, traffic accidents and deductibles not covered by insurance, and other normally hidden costs primarily borne by the region's residents. Ketchum's calculations peg such costs of the resort traffic at $27 million per year, although he said DOT's formulas place the cost at about $7 million.
            Asked to comment on the disparity between the two figures at the conclusion of Ketchum's presentation, Chuck Manning, principal of Creighton Manning Associates, Crossroads' traffic consulting firm, would say only "It's a type of analysis I'm not familiar with, so I'd have to look at it.

  Valuation Trouble

          Perhaps not so oddly, Irene Miller of New York Citizens for Clean Elections (NYCCE) used the same 'pie in the sky' metaphor in referring to the bill when she later spoke of weaning office-seekers from the corrupting influence of tit-for-tat campaign donations. The phrase, which originated in the lines of a song by early 20th Century folksinger and labor organizer Joe Hill ("Work and pray, live on hay/You'll get pie in the sky when you die"), may have become a cliche for "unattainable dream" but Miller, who had a hand in getting a copy of the bill to Leifeld and other political leaders in New York, firmly believes otherwise.
            "It really is happening," Miller observed of the relatively simple idea of providing campaign funds to those who'd care to run for office on the basis of their ideas and abilities rather than the amounts of money they can raise. It's a voluntary system wherein the acceptance of public means you cannot use any private money at all- even your own. "Five states have already passed these kinds of bills and the plan is to have it happen on the state level in various states. Once there's enough momentum going in the states, we can get them to pass the one that's already been introduced in the U.S. Congress."
            Support in the House and the Senate was growing rapidly after it was introduced in the latter by the late Paul Wellstone but eroded after his sudden death. The hope is that a grassroots groundswell at the state level will revive interest in leveling the financial playing field for aspirants to leadership. Miller's organization is part of a national movement of local organizations affiliated through an umbrella group called Public Campaign that was founded in 1996 in Washington, D.C.
            Before NYCCE was formed two years ago, Miller was active in New York City where, in 1997, Citizens' Action of New York collected more than double the
required amount of signatures to get a Clean Money referendum on the ballot. Mayor Giuliani countered by exercising his prerogative to introduce Charter Amendment on the separate issue of campaign financing reform - which knocked the Clean Money proposal off the ballot. Such "campaign reform" bills, which change scarcely anything on the Big Money-Big Power front, have thus far been a successful strategy against grassroots efforts.
            "Otherwise, New York City, today, would have full public funding for candidates who refuse private funding," Miller noted. "The idea, at the time, was to have it happen in New York City before going after Albany but the Mayor defused us."
            Strong bills, covering all state offices, have been passed in Maine and Arizona, Miller notes, while North Carolina, New Mexico and Vermont have partial Clean Money options for their legislatures. Massachusetts dropped their bill, she adds, because too weak a funding mechanism was written into it to prevent the legislature from refusing to publicly fund candidates.
            In a video NYCCE is circulating to elected officials, Bill Moyers speaks with officials who have used the Clean Money system for two election cycles and finds it is working even better than expected.
            Quite a few CM candidates ran in 2000 and a majority of them won, Miller observes. The numbers doubled in 2002 and ex-incumbents who had opposed it while in office tried the new system and swore they would never go back to the old one. Embracing the logic of "he who spends the most, owes the most," they relished the freedom from begging contributions and the release to serve the will of the voters rather than the lobbyists.
            "It's going along faster than I thought it would," Miller enthused. "We have chapters in Woodstock, Rensselaerville and New Paltz who work with other organizations statewide. All three of those towns have passed resolutions of support, as have Schenectady, Tompkins County, Ithaca and Saugerties.
Workshops are pending in Esopus, Berne, Marbletown, Rosendale and other towns."
            "We are totally grassroots because we get very little help from the mainstream media," (who fatten their coffers with hundreds of millions in campaign advertizing funds each election cycle), she said. "The Freeman and some other papers have covered some of our activities but the big media pattern all over the country is to ignore us."
            Miller said Leifeld was attentive and receptive and that the resolutions help because they come from representatives of the people. It's not a 'pie in the sky' thing but definitely do-able, she insists. It is a foundation for taking back the representation lost to the interests of massive corporations and volunteers to help it along are welcome.
            "It is, to me, the fundamental reason we are in such terrible straits with our health care system, the environment, the educational system and everything else that we, as citizens, want but are deprived of by money lobbies," she said. "It's a matter of educating the public and galvanizing
opinion for a massive campaign to make sure legislators in Albany are aware of how much this is wanted by the voters.
            In the N.Y. Assembly, the Clean Money bill is numbered A3453A and the same bill is designated 3440A in the NYS Senate. NYCCE's new website is under development at NYCCE.org and contains links to other organizations throughout the state and the country.

A Reel Teen

            Fraser's currently working on his follow-up film, "Dead Kid," which again plays with themes involving the anticipated and actual realties of rural life in today's Catskills. It's 8 minutes long.
            By the time Chance Fraser gets out of high school and heads towards film school in a couple of years, he should be making television-length dramas, maybe even feature films.
            "I want to take this further," he says in a matter-of-fact tone, cool as his age, while sitting in the living room of his parents' bed and breakfast in the center of Phoenicia. ""I'm actually thinking now of buying a camera. All you need to make movies these days is a camera and a computer."
            Fraser's not quite ready to talk specifics in regards to film schools. He's still got to finish tenth grade. But he does know how he's gotten to where he is, and the role his Catskill surroundings have played in his development.
            Chance Fraser moved to the area from Brooklyn when he was 4. Even though, like many his age, he tends to see the local area as being a bit "rednecky" at times, he's loved the closeness of nature, the pockets of sophistication here and there in the area, the number of film types who regularly make their way through the region, and the safe, supportive pace of small town life.
            "I guess my biggest dream right now is about getting a place of my own," he says, nodding his head, looking dead serious. "I'll probably be staying in New York State."
            He's been excited about all he's been learning as part of the Indie Works program he's been part of since its inception. Says that just learning about what's involved in filmmaking has changed the way he looks at all movies.

"They taught us about lighting and cinematography and now when I'm watching movies I find myself just thinking all about how it's done," Fraser says.
            Were there any specific films that he caught his directing bug from?
            He talks about early memories of Thomas, The Tank Engine, all the Disney films and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Edward Scissorhands made a big impression. 
            Now, Fraser adds, he's a big fan of action movies, with a particular passion for Quentin Tarantino, himself a former wunderkind who learned his craft watching action movies while working in a Los Angeles-area video store.
            As for wanting to make movies himself, to dream them up, write them out and actually direct them into a finished state, Chance recalls fooling around with his dad, Tom, when he was in 6th Grade and Tom bought a camera. It all seemed like fun- and relatively easy.
            He adds that he's always been into drawing, something he probably picked up from his mother, Dana, an accomplished painter.
            "It's just cool making something," Fraser says. "Making movies is like drawing in motion- and it's actually easier than drawing."
            He's looking forward to the Reel Teens Festival this weekend, which he's attended since its inception three years ago. He gets a thrill out of the range of topics the work in the festival covers, as well as the amount of talent displayed. He gets ideas about how to try things himself, from all that his peers around the country have accomplished on their own limited budgets.
            In specific, Fraser recalls a long list of great films he's seen at Reel Teens, which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings in Hunter- and should be a must-see for anyone with an active interest in movies around the area.
            He wonders how "The Letter Guy" is going to look up against all the competition. He's worried about his sound mix in the film. Finds himself grimacing every time he watches the movie he made, now. Is worrying about some microphone problems that arose during his recent shoot for "Dead Kid." Wonders when his prowess will become such where he can move beyond such limitations.
            But is he excited about going with a film this year? What was it like at the Woodstock Film Festival?
            Fraser speaks about how nervous he felt having to answer questions about his film, but also how relieved he was when another kid proved so comfortable talking that he took up most of the allotted time. He pauses, considering.
            "It just feels good to be recognized for what I'm doing," he finally says. "This has all gotten a lot farther than I ever thought it would go."
            Chance Fraser, if you ask us, is well on his way.
            For further information on Reel Teens, call the Catskill Mountain Foundation Theater at 518-263-4908 or visit www.reelteensusa.org.