Newsbriefs

10/9/2008

Register Now!
Hudson Valley residents have less than a week left to register to vote in the November election. Mailed voter registration forms must be postmarked by Oct. 10 and received by county Board of Elections offices by Oct. 15. Voter registration forms are available at all town halls, Department of Motor Vehicle offices and post offices. Residents also can register to vote in person at any local Board of Elections office.
To accommodate residents who might be unable to register in person during the week, the state has designated Saturday, Oct. 11, as a statewide voter registration day.
Board of Election offices across the state will hold special hours on that date so last-minute registrants can sign up to vote in the Nov. 4 election.
In Ulster County, residents can register on that date from 2-9 p.m. at any town hall, except in the town of Olive, where voter registration will be held at the Olive Free Library in West Shokan.
To cast ballots in congressional, state, county or local elections, voters must be a resident of the county in which they wish to vote for at least 30 days prior to Election Day.

Tax The State?
A state appeals court has rejected a ban on local tax collections on state-owned land, a move that ensures the integrity of the state Forest Preserve and the fiscal viability of many Adirondack and Catskill communities.
Last year, in a case called Dillenburg vs. New York, state Supreme Court Justice Timothy Walker issued an order prohibiting the state from making property tax payments on all lands managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation, including Forest Preserve lands in the Adirondack and Catskill parks. Last week, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, 4th Department, reversed that decision.
“This is a major victory for those who live, work and recreate in the Adirondacks and Catskills,” said Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK). “The state Forest Preserve, which protects more than 3 million acres of wild lands in the Catskills and Adirondacks, is an important asset to all New Yorkers, and the fiscal burden of maintaining these lands should be shared by all New Yorkers and not fall on the shoulders of a few.”
Under the common law principle of sovereign immunity, codified in the state’s Real Property Tax Law, no municipality has the right to tax the state unless the state gives its consent. In 1886, the year after the Legislature created the Forest Preserve, lawmakers agreed to allow Forest Preserve communities to collect taxes on these properties, the first such tax payments in state history. In 2006, New York paid an estimated $80 million on its land in the Adirondack and Catskill parks.
Over the years, the Legislature expanded that taxing authority to certain communities with substantial state property within their boundaries. Outside of the Forest Preserve, taxes are paid on most state forest lands, but not all. John C. Dillenburg III, who was then supervisor of the town of Arkwright in Chautauqua County, sued the state, alleging that his community was being unfairly denied tax payments on state-owned property within its borders.
Judge Walker, decrying the system of taxing state land as a “hodgepodge” of state laws “devoid of any consistent rationale,” ordered the state to stop paying taxes on all of its lands. Judge Walker immediately stayed his own order pending appeals, and the state has continued making the tax payments, but the ruling caused uncertainty and apprehension for local governments and property owners in the Adirondacks and Catskills Parks.
The decision prompted calls for a moratorium on additional state land purchases in the Adirondacks until the case was resolved, a move that would have tied the state’s hands at a time when it has a rare opportunity to protect tens of thousands of Adirondack acres and open those lands to public recreation.
The Appellate Division in Rochester ruled that the Legislature has the discretion to waive sovereign immunity in certain cases without being subject to an “equal protection” challenge. ADK, the Adirondack Council, the Open Space Conservancy, the Adirondack Landowners Association, the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and Audubon New York filed a court brief in support of continued tax payments on Forest Preserve land. The coalition was represented by Marc S. Gerstman of Albany, former chief counsel for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
A copy of the decision is available at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ad4/.

Festival Moved
The folks at Belleayre Mountain want you to know something. Contrary to popular belief, the state-owned ski center’s popular fall festival has not been cancelled.
True, it won’t be on the grassy slopes where visitors can stand in awe of panoramic views of the Catskills in full color, but Belleayre and new partners Delaware and Ulster Railroad think they’ve come up with a pretty good alternative.
The 29th Annual Belleayre Fall Festival will be held this coming Columbus Day weekend, but at a new location thanks to a partnership announced by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Delaware and Ulster Railroad. The festival will take place on Oct. 11-12 at the Delaware and Ulster Railroad on Route 28 in Arkville, Delaware County from 10am - 5pm.
This year's festival will offer dozens of craft vendors, live music, food from Mary*s Cooking, a kid's crafts tent, face painting, a giant hay maze and much more. The DURR will be running train rides into the Catskill Mountains at the peak of fall color. However, the Ski Center’s lifts will not be running this weekend as previously reported.
Normally held at DEC's Belleayre Mountain ski area about five miles away, the Railroad has worked with DEC to supply support for the Festival. Belleayre Mountain representatives will also be on-site to
provide information about tickets for the upcoming ski season. Belleayre will have a tent where they will again be selling the popular $99 four-pack of lift tickets, season passes, snowsports programs, and much more.
For those that remain upset over the Belleayre Fall festival being moved to Arkville, Councilman Rob Stanley and a couple of Pine Hill Business folks have set up a mini festival in that hamlet. Stanley recently complained that moving the festival out of the town and the county would harm Shandaken and threatened to set up something that would catch visitors before they went westward to Arkville.
Now he says that the activities in Pine Hill are only meant to compliment the larger Festival. Look for Live music and an Oktoberfest atmosphere starting Friday night at both the Pine Hill Arms and the Colonial Inn and there might be some special events at the Pine Hill Community Center as well. There’s even vendor space available for the weekend. Word is being spread that such space, while costing $125 in Arkville, is available for only $25.
If all goes well the event, called the Fall Crawl Oktoberfest, may become an annual thing.
There’s another limb of this lanky stretch of fall fest activities set for Saturday in Big Indian at Catskill Outback Adventures.
Officers Cleared
Two New York City Department of Environmental Protection police officers who were brought up on misconduct charges were recently cleared when a state administrative law judge ruled that Officers Gianfranco Nuccio and Michael Williamson did not commit misconduct when they responded to a domestic violence call when on patrol near the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County on October 2, 2007.
The officers received a 911 call while on patrol of an incident on County Route 28 at a residence across from the reservoir. After no response from the first Ulster 911 “poll” for police response, the officers, who were five minutes away, responded.
They were familiar with the residence since they had been there before for prior domestic violence and environmental related calls and they knew one of the occupants was a prior felon.
While responding, the officers sought supervisory permission, which was delayed due to the unavailability of the nearest assigned sergeant. The request was ultimately denied by another duty sergeant, but later approved by a department inspector when they officers said they were on the scene.
The officers found a bloody man in the driveway of the residence and maintained the scene until local and state police arrived.
The inspector who approved the response later brought charges against the two for violating the interim order.
“These officers should have been commended for their behavior not charged with misconduct,” said Kenneth Wynder, president of the Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association, following the judge’s decision. “This same agency has had officers commit crimes and not be charged with any misconduct. It is ridiculous to then have to justify the actions of good officers.”
Union counsel and attorney Terrence Dwyer said this is a case “that should have never gone as far as it did.”

Gas Drilling…
Information on the potential for natural gas drilling in the Catskills is now available from the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) via a packet of basic information culled from various sources for landowners, municipal officials and Catskills residents interested in or concerned about the possibility for natural gas exploration in the Marcellus shale formation.
This geologic formation underlies a large portion of the Appalachian range, including the Catskill Region and the New York City Watershed. It is believed to hold substantial deposits of natural gas which have become accessible because of refined developments in extraction techniques.
The CWC Board of Directors, while not taking a position on whether drilling is good or bad for the area, felt that its role as a regional entity should be to disseminate accurate, balanced information from reliable sources on the subject, according to Executive Director Alan Rosa. Towards that end, it has sent to village and town clerks in the Catskill-Delaware Watershed a packet of backgrounders, maps and illustrations on geology, drilling techniques and their impacts, leasing advice and tax issues.
The packet is available to anyone upon request: Call toll-free 877-WAT-SHED (928-7433); or 845-586-1400.
The CWC has also added a page of pertinent Marcellus shale-related links to its website (www.cwconline.org). These links include the DEC, DRBC, CCE, New York Farm Bureau, NYS AG, and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.
Guess that, despite early reports from geologists, it all runs deeper, and farther, than originally expected…

Lark In The Park
The 5th Annual "Lark in the Park" is underway and its events continue to run through Monday, October 13th. This year's "Lark in the Park" is co-sponsored by The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and the Catskill Mountain Club. Please check out the impressive line-up of events online at www.catskillpark.org.
Here's some of the events planned for the weekend (visit the web site for more details about each and for more events):
Friday the 10th: Learn about the birthplace of the American environmental ethic as you hike along the Escarpment Trail. Andy Mele will put forth his hypothesis that this is the birthplace of the European-American nature ethic, while telling stories of Irving, Cooper, Cole, Church, the European Romantics, Melville, Hawthorne, Burroughs, Emerson, Muir, TR Roosevelt and more! 10AM; call Andy at 845-679-0362 for more details.
Saturday the 11th: "Ride the Rails and the Trails!" You can partake in a "multi-modal" excursion of the Delaware & Ulster Railroad. Board the rail-ride in Arkville with your bicycles and after lunch in Roxbury, cycle on the newest section of the Catskill Scenic Trail to Grand Gorge, and the catch the late train back to Arkville. 10:45AM; call Peter Manning at 845-586-2611.
Sunday, the 12th: Kelly Hollow hike followed by a slide presentation on "Catskill Peaks and Trails". Authors Carol & David White will lead a hike in Kelly Hollow followed by a slide presentation/book signing for their new book "Catskill Peak Experiences" . Hike at 1PM; Slideshow at 4:45PM at The Catskill Center; Carol and David at 315-853-6942.
Monday, the 13th: 12-mile hike of Plateau and Sugarloaf Mountains and "discover" the newest trail in the Catskills! From Silver Hollow Notch you'll ascend Plateau via the new section of the Long Path and onto the Devil's Path to Sugarloaf and hike out on the Pecoy Notch Trail. 8AM; Cal Johnson at 845-246-2006.

Pass On Pass?
Ulster County Legislature Chairman David Donaldson’s proposal that Ulster, Greene and Delaware counties team up to institute a “Catskill Regional Ski Pass” has received a chilly reception from one of the region’s biggest ski centers and only a curious look from another.
Donaldson, who earlier this year called for a public boycott of activities at Hunter and Windham ski centers in Greene County in response to their criticism of subsidies for the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, now thinks that leaders of the three counties should meet with tourism leaders and ski center operators to develop and promote a ski pass that would allow skiers to ski at any of the centers in the Catskill region.
Tim Woods, president of Windham Mountain, said Donaldson’s idea has been discussed at length within his organization since it was proposed, and Windham is not interested.
“First, we’re subsidizing Belleayre (with taxpayer dollars),” Woods said. “Then we’re loaning them our customers?”
Woods said he looks forward to more skier visits this season anyway, saying that he expects high gas prices to keep skiers from the metropolitan area closer to home than Vermont and New Hampshire.
Hunter Mountain President Russ Coloton said that he doesn’t know anything about the regional ski pass plan.
“No one has contacted us yet,” he said. “Our only understanding of it is from what we read in the paper.”
Coloton added that he would be interested in hearing more about the plan.
Donaldson said the leaders of the three Catskill Region counties should work together to promote the whole region and raise awareness of the fact that there are more ski centers in New York state than in any other state in the country, and that there are more ski centers in the Catskill region than in any other region in the state.
“This type of approach makes more sense than Greene County attacking Ulster County’s No. 1 tourist attraction, or Ulster County calling for a boycott of Greene County’s ski resorts, which in the long run is detrimental to the region as a whole and to both counties,” Donaldson said.

Who Spent What
Members of the state Senate Majority spent an average of 62 percent more on their legislative offices than Minority party members during the six months ending March 31, while Assembly Majority members spent 33 percent more than Minority members during the same period, according to a new searchable database of legislative expenditure reports posted at www.SeeThroughNY.net. The data show the 32 Senate Republicans spent an average of $445,904 and the 30 Senate Democrats spent average of $274,316 on staff, rent, travel, telephone service, office supplies and other expenditures. In the 150-member Assembly, where Democrats hold a 108-42 edge, the average Democratic member spent $181,078 while the average Assembly Republican spent $135,982.
Topping the Senate expenditure list for the period was former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who spent $607,232. The Assembly’s top spender was Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) at $402,776. Spending figures for to member offices do not include added staff assigned to legislators who chair committees. Also not included are member items, or pork barrel projects, which can be viewed on www.SeeThroughNY.net under “Community Projects Spending.”
Roughly $48 million of the $110.7 million spent by the Legislature during the period was allocated to individual member offices. The other $63 million was spent on committee and central operations including telephones, print shops, TV and radio studios and other items. The Legislature’s 2008-09 budget is $219 million.
Flu Shots!
The Ulster County Health Department will hold its annual influenza and pneumococcal vaccination clinics at several locations throughout the county beginning on October 15 in Shokan. No appointments are necessary, and county residents may attend any site which is convenient.
County residents who are at greatest risk for influenza-related conditions are encouraged to receive the flu vaccination. This high-risk group includes those over the age of 50, as well as adults aged 18 and over 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 who are at risk of influenza-related conditions. Influenza vaccine is also recommended for home care providers and others (including household members) who may be in close contact with high-risk individuals.
Senior citizens who have Medicare Part B benefits will be able to obtain their vaccinations through Medicare. The recipient must be entitled to Part B coverage on the date of service, Medicare Part B must be the primary insurance coverage, and the Medicare Card must be presented on the date of service. For those not eligible for Medicare Part B coverage, there will be a $20.00 charge for influenza vaccination and a $35.00 charge for pneumococcal vaccination, payable at the clinic. County residents enrolled in Medicare Managed Care programs should consult with their primary care physician prior to presenting at one of the Health Department’s sites.
Ulster County Department of Health Flu Clinics will be administered locally this year from the Ulster County Senior Care-A-Van, for seniors age 60 and over, at Reservoir United Methodist Church on Route 28 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Tuesday, October 14 and at the United Methodist Church in Phoenicia from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM on Wednesday, November 12.
For recorded information about all dates and times, please call the Ulster County Health Department Flu Hotline at 340-3093. Information can also be obtained through our web site: www.co.ulster.ny.us/health.
Meanwhile, Margaretville Hospital will hold its annual Fall Health Fair on Monday, October 13 from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM in the hospital lobby. Free health screenings will include: Blood pressure, blood glucose, Body Mass Indexing, hearing tests, CO breath analyzer, and Pulse Oximeter for lung function.
For additional information about the Health Fair or hospital services, please call 845-586-2631.

Solar Bucks
The House of Representatives has granted final approval to $2.4 million for C9 Corporation and PrecisionFlow Technologies to further develop their solar technology for the US military. The companies will conduct their work in conjunction with The Solar Energy Consortium in Ulster County.
The Senate is also expected to grant its final approval for the funding shortly.
C9 currently has a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop Silicon Carbide-type semiconductors for the military. It is anticipated that the newly developed solar application technology will be used for civilian and commercial use as well.
PrecisionFlow Technologies will construct the machines that C9 will use to develop its solar products. It’s expected that PrecisionFlow Technologies will be adding new jobs at its Saugerties site to adequately handle this new business.
U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, currently running for reelection, secured $3.2 million for C9 as part of the Fiscal Year 2008 budget.

Census Fears
Fear of the government in many communities after the Sept. 11 attacks and years of debate over immigration policy could create problems in getting an accurate count of the U.S. population in 2010, the director of the Census Bureau said recently.
To combat people’s hesitancy, the bureau will work with local governments and organizations such as churches and community groups to make sure people understand what the census is and that the data won’t be shared. Participation in the nation’s count every 10 years is required, but no one has been prosecuted for refusing to respond. Getting an accurate count of everyone who lives in the country is vital because it determines how congressional seats are apportioned and how federal funds are given out, among other things.
“A community that doesn’t respond to the census doesn’t exist,” said New York City’s chief demographer, Joseph Salvo.
To conduct the survey, the Census Bureau sends mailings and then follows up with visits to households that don’t respond. It doesn’t ask about legal status, but there has been a push to count only American citizens. The 2008 Republican platform includes that point.

New Realty…
FreeStyle Realty is opening a new office on Main Street in Phoenicia, directly across from the Phoenicia Belle Bed and Breakfast.
“We are happy and anxious to become a vital part of the Phoenicia community,” said Doreen Mar, the company’s principle Broker/Owner.
Centennial Mortgage has joined FreeStyle by opening a satellite office at the same location.
Bruce Katz, President of Centennial, indicates that in these times of financial uncertainty, “You need a powerful team of local experts fully committed to providing you with the best up-to-the-minute advice available.”

Heritage Tourism
The Central Catskills Collaborative held the latest of its monthly meetings at the historic Skene Memorial Library in Fleischmanns on Thursday, October 2. The featured speaker was Peg Ellsworth, Executive Director of the M-ARK Project and previously a driving force behind the Town of Roxbury’s outstanding heritage tourism programs and landscapes, which earned the community the prestigious Preserve America Designation and the NY State Historic Preservation Award. The Roxbury Nine Vintage Base Ball Club and popular “turn-of-the-century” events like Railride into Yesteryear have helped stimulate the town and surrounding area’s economy for 10 years. The community of Fleischmanns, once a baseball hub of the Catskills, also recently resurrected its vintage baseball team, the Mountain Athletic Club, and hopes to connect with the historic Delaware and Ulster Railroad to repeat Roxbury’s success.
After the presentation, the gathering organized into facilitated interest groups, who discussed connections between heritage tourism and two of the region’s key resources: Route 28 (the Onteora Trail) and the Ulster & Delaware (U&D) Railroad Corridor. The session was designed to assist the collaborative, which is beginning the planning process for a Rte. 28 scenic byway and looking into improving the connections between municipalities and business and nonprofit entities along the U&D Corridor.
For more information please contact Peter Manning, Regional Planner, The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development (845) 586-2611 or pmanning@catskillcenter.org

Green Cahill
Governor Dave Paterson has signed legislation to encourage the construction of new homes and the renovation of existing homes to meet “green building” standards. The measure was sponsored by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill of Kingston, chairman of the Assembly Energy Committee.
The bill creates financial incentives to state residents who agree to “go green” when building new homes or renovating existing ones. The program will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
“One of the quickest and most effective ways we can cut back on energy costs and globe changing pollution is to rethink the way we build and renovate our homes,” Cahill said. “Sustainable green building practices are no longer a luxury; they are a necessity for our economic, environmental and energy security. The program will give homeowners and builders the incentives to make green buildings the standard going forward.”
Environmental Advocates has named Kingston Assemblyman Kevin Cahill as Legislator of the Year.

DOJ Crimes?
In 18 months of searching, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility chief H. Marshall Jarrett have uncovered new e-mail messages hinting at heightened involvement of White House lawyers and political aides in the firings of nine federal prosecutors two years ago. But they could not probe much deeper because key officials declined to be interviewed and a critical timeline drafted by the White House was so heavily redacted that it was ‘virtually worthless as an investigative tool,’ the authorities said. ‘We were unable to fully develop the facts regarding the removal of [David C.] Iglesias and several other US Attorneys because of the refusal by certain key witnesses to be interviewed by us, as well as the White House’s decision not to provide ... internal documents to us,’ the investigators concluded in their report.”
Guess we have to wait for this one to fully unfold…

Talking Guns
Educators, public safety officials, parents, and concerned citizens are invited to attend a conference on “Violence in Our Schools: Protecting Our Most Valuable Resource” featuring Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, an expert in dealing with this national and international threat, on Thursday, October 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Quimby Theater on the Stone Ridge campus of SUNY Ulster. Colonel Grossman will speak on “Lessons Learned from Jonesboro, Littleton, Virginia Tech, and from Vietnam and Iraq; The Psychological Cost of School and Campus Violence.” The morning talk will be followed by an afternoon session on “Impact and Solutions.”
Colonel Grossman is a West Point psychology professor, Professor of Military Science, and an Army Ranger who has combined his experiences to become the founder of a new field of scientific endeavor, which has been termed “killology,” or the study of the act of killing. He is also the author of Stop Teaching Our Kids To Kill, an indictment of violent video games, movies, and television shows. His Pulitzer-nominated book On Killing is on the US Marine Corps’ recommended reading list and is required reading at the FBI academy and numerous other academies and colleges.
Seating is limited, and advance registration is recommended. To register by phone, call 845-687-5109.

Global Warming
The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.Details of preliminary findings suggest that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.
Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia’s northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane - sometimes at up to 100 times background levels - over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.
In the past weeks, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through “methane chimneys” rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a “lid” to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.
They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.
Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane. The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.
The Arctic region as a whole has seen an 8F degree rise in average temperatures over recent decades and a dramatic decline in the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by summer sea ice. Many scientists fear that the loss of sea ice could accelerate the warming trend because open ocean soaks up more heat from the sun than the reflective surface of an ice-covered sea.

Ashokan Shots
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County recently participated in the 2008 Snapshot Day event sponsored by the Hudson River Estuary Program of the DEC in partnership with Hudson Basin River Watch. CCE educators collected scientific information from the Esopus Creek, a tributary of the Hudson River, right across the street from Onteora High School on Tuesday, October 7 from 10 AM to 12 Noon with the high school’s AP Environmental Studies class. Data will be posted on the CCE website so that students can compare their results to the 52 other sites that will be collecting data from the Hudson River on the same day. And observations from the Esopus Creek will be posted on line to NYC participants so they can learn more about their water source.
To learn more about this event go to www.dec.ny.gov/lands/47285.html.

Baby Plastic
With scientists at odds about the risks of a chemical found in plastic baby bottles, metal cans and other food packaging, the government gave consumers some tips on how to reduce their exposure to BPA even as it said the substance is safe.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee met as a major study linked bisphenol A to possible risks of heart disease and diabetes. The scientific debate could drag on for years.
Concerns About Bisphenol ADenis Farrell, AP4 photos Bisphenol A, a chemical used in baby bottles, food cans and other items, is safe, federal regulators said. But a new study has suggested that BPA raised a person’s risk of heart disease and diabetes.
“Right now, our tentative conclusion is that it’s safe, so we’re not recommending any change in habits,” said Laura Tarantino, head of the FDA’s office of food additive safety. But she acknowledged, “there are a number of things people can do to lower their exposure.”
For example, consumers can avoid plastic containers imprinted with the recycling number ‘7,’ as many of those contain BPA. Or, Tarantino said, they can avoid warming food in such containers, as heat helps to release the chemical.
More than 90 percent of Americans have traces of BPA in their bodies, but the FDA says the levels of exposure are too low to pose a health risk, even for infants and children. Other scientists, however, say BPA has been shown to affect the human body even at very low levels.
Another study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a new concern about BPA. Using a health survey of nearly 1,500 adults, the study found that those exposed to higher amounts of BPA were more likely to report having heart disease and diabetes. Because of the possible public health implications, the results “deserve scientific follow-up,” its authors said.
The study is preliminary, far from proof that the chemical caused the health problems. Two Dartmouth College analysts of medical research said it raises questions but provides no answers about whether the ubiquitous chemical is harmful.
FDA officials said they are not dismissing such findings. “We recognize the need to resolve the concerning questions that have been raised,” said Tarantino, acknowledging that more research is needed. But the FDA is also arguing that the studies with rats and mice it relied on for its assessment are more thorough than some of the human research that has raised doubts.
The agency has asked an outside scientific panel for a second opinion on BPA’s safety, and the medical journal article was released to coincide with the advisers’ hearing. The FDA has the power to ban or limit use of BPA in food containers and medical devices.
BPA is used in hardened plastics and in a wide range of consumer goods, including the lining of metal cans, eyeglass lenses and compact discs. Many scientists believe it can act like the hormone estrogen, and animal studies have linked it with breast, prostate and reproductive system problems and some cancers.
Several states are considering restricting BPA use, some manufacturers have begun promoting BPA-free baby bottles, and some stores are phasing out baby products containing the chemical. The European Union has said BPA-containing products are safe, but Canada’s government has proposed banning the sale of baby bottles with BPA as a precaution.
The FDA advisory panel is expected to make its recommendations to the FDA late next month.

Obituary…
Marilyn Ruth Ford, 80, of Mt. Tremper, died on Sunday, October 5th. Her tenacious love of life could not overcome the power of lung cancer. Marilyn passed gracefully and peacefully from her sleep while in the loving embrace of her family.
Marilyn lived life to the fullest during her 80 years. She was born on November 10, 1927 in Brooklyn; the daughter of Florence Nelson Bennett and Floyd Bennett. As a child, she remembered riding a sleigh through the snow-covered streets of her Bay Ridge neighborhood. As a young adult, Marilyn worked at the radio station of Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. She graduated Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. She met Robert Ford at work in his father’s garage in Shandaken in 1947 , and they married in June of 1948. During their early married years they lived in Oliverea, New York City, and Phoenicia. By 1950 they had built their permanent home in Mt. Tremper.
Marilyn had a love of family, animals, nature, art, and music. Marilyn had many talents and interests. She played piano, and painted using watercolors, oils, and pastels. She crafted many family heirlooms in wood and wool. Marilyn was a talented seamstress; sewing her daughter’s wedding gown as well as many quilts, skirts, and dresses. She also crafted stained glass chandeliers to light her families’ dinner tables. She taught herself to lay cobblestone with mortar, and carried stones from the Esopus Creek to build patio walls and stairs. In her daughter’s house, she laid a cobblestone veneer chimney three stories high, which is remarkable in light of her aversion to heights.
Marilyn is survived by her husband of 60 years, Robert; her children Debbie Park of Idaho, Mark Ford of Saugerties, and Wayne Ford of Roxbury; a brother, Floyd Bennett of Great Barrington, Massachusetts; her five grandchildren: Matthew and Harley Park, Jennifer (Park) Haaland, Christopher Ford, and Marisa Ford; and two great- grandchildren, Megan and Samuel Haaland.
A Service to Celebrate the life of Mrs. Ford was held on Wednesday at 10am at the E. B. Gormley Funeral Home 87 Main St. Phoenicia with the Rev. Ralph Darmstadt as celebrant. Burial will be in the family plot at the Hudler Cemetery Rt. 28 Mt. Tremper.

Moosewatch
DEC officials advised motorists in the state to watch out for moose, after one of the large creatures was struck by several motorists and killed on an interstate highway September 23.
Turns out early fall is moose breeding season, and they’re at their most active this time of year as they wander into areas they don’t typically travel in search of mates.
Most years, a moose or two meet an untimely end on the northern sections of the NYS Thruway. Last year, one caused a major truck accident not far from Catskill.
What was notable about this most recent close-encounter was that it happened not up in the Adirondacks, but on I-684 down in the Westchester suburb of Lewisboro. A bit further south and they’ll have to start alerting subway trainmen...