The Olive Press

'Large Parcel' OKed Onteora Board Sends Olive A Rasberry As Town Folk Start To Talk Tax Revolt By Gary Alexander The nasty pool of muck into which the Onteora School District was pitched by the Large Parcel Law just got deeper. Nothing official has been said but Olive is fuming over the Onteora School Board vote of August 17th. Unofficially, drastic measures are well within the realm of future possibilities. Olive residents, who threatened a tax revolt at the meeting that night, if the board voted 'yes' on the implementation of the Large Parcel Law in the district, are comparing notes on how to best set up an escrow account for their school tax funds. Some residents are calling the board option "the large parcel scam" and saying that "as sure a flim-flam rhymes with scam" the school board was bamboozled into viewing the vote they way they did by an inside "buddy system" with Woodstock officials and deliberation misrepresentation of the facts. Continue>>> Mr. Rights... A Talk With Michael Ratner By Brian Powers It's not every day one of our serious trout fishermen and reservoir history buffs wins a landmark case before the US Supreme Court. But his most recent win there wasn't a first for Michael Ratner, who for 31 years has split his time between West Shokan and NYC, where he serves as president of the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights. Regarded by many as the country's leading human rights attorney, Ratner has frequently represented the ultimately dispossessed: from the Attica prisoners after their 1971 uprising to the Haitian boat people, and from Arab-Americans detained after 9-11 to foreign nationals held in our offshore detention camps. Continue>>>	COLD REALITY... Town Supervisor Berndt Leifeld makes his way from the August 19 Onteora School Board Meeting where this town's tax structure was changed. More photos inside. . A Momentary Pause Belleayre Resort Issues Conference Issues Conference Ends... For Now By Brian Powers "Significant professional disagreement" seemed a fitting conclusion regardless of which side characterized it that way - both did - as the Department of Environmental Conservation's "Issues Conference" for the proposed Belleayre Resort ended in Margaretville last week, capping 12 weeks of often scathing critique and rebuttal by five teams of lawyers and consultants on the adequacy of the project's massive Draft Environmental Impact Statement. At issue throughout have been the facts, how they were arrived at, and the validity of the data and conclusions in the proposal, the largest of its type ever received in the state's history. Equally at issue were the "offers of proof" disputing its accuracy and completeness by the Catskill Preservation Coalition's expert witness lineup, arguably, according to a number of leading SEQRA attorneys, the most formidable group of its type ever to testify at such a proceeding. Of the fifteen or so major issues under contention, few appear to have been put to rest by the conferences end, and some such as water supply, traffic, alternatives, and community character seem almost certain to resurface for the coming phases of the review. But based on the recent testimony and the submission of over 300 new exhibits - some the length of books - many if not most issues raised at the conference appear to remain open to the prospect of later adjudication; a formal "trial" so to speak, of the developer's claims. Continue>>> Juried Rite Of Passage Our Intrepid Intern Reporter Gets Pulled Into The True Depths Of Civic Duty... By Eric Hersey It hadn't been ten months since I registered to vote in Ulster County when I was pegged with a summons for jury duty. At age 19, I had frankly expected that my name would kick around the pool of eligible citizens for at least a few years before I was selected for this particular duty. Nonetheless, there was the summons, loudly exclaiming "Welcome to jury service in Ulster County!" as if the letter would inspire enthusiasm in its recipients. Continue>>>