Newsbriefs

11/20/2008

New Town Laws...
Shandaken has a new law on the books that will give the town the power to order the removal of debris from private property. The law was drafted, officials said, when it became clear that, while the town had authority to order that structures be removed it had none that dealt with structures that have either collapsed or have been torn down. The law describes debris as follows: The remnants, remains, ruins and parts of all materials resulting from breaking down, demolition or destruction of buildings, structures or the parts thereof or accidentally by any individuals entity or by natural forces and /or natural elements.
Debris includes metals, furniture, glass, crockery, mineral waste, sheet rock, roofing materials, siding, pipes, conduits, wire and other demolition and building materials.
The board also amended another portion of the law at Highway Superintendent Eric Hoffmeister’s request. Now fences cannot be built that will “impede the plowing of snow on a public right of way.”
The amendment also prevents the building of fences or walls within the town right of way along any roads, prompting one resident to complain that the Town might be overstepping its bounds.
“You just have a right of way, but now you’re telling people what they can and can’t do with their own property,” said Big Indian resident Chuck Perez.

Hiring Shocker
When the Menla Mountain Retreat, a Woodland Valley conference center owned by the NYC-based nonprofit Tibet House hired a new manager last summer, they got more state history than they expected. Turns out the new staffer, Tania Robyn Cyrlin, 36, of Rhinebeck is also known as Tanya Hollander, one of four people arrested in March for their roles in a high priced prostitution ring, Emperor’s Club VIP, whose clients included former Governor Eliot Spitzer.
“When we interviewed and hired her back in July, we had absolutely no idea that she had any involvement in such a thing”, said Nena Thurman, Menla’s Managing Director. “She was referred to us through contacts in the City as a capable administrator and it’s an unfortunate situation for everyone since she’s been doing a very good job for us. But we’re extremely troubled to learn of her problems only now, and especially troubled that she withheld what’s clearly pertinent information about her background. Clearly, had we been aware, we might have hired someone else.”
Shortly after taking her new job, Hollander pled guilty in Manhattan Federal Court on August 25 to a charge of violating the Travel Act which bans crossing state lines to carry out illegal business such as prostitution, in which Hollander acted as a booking agent. Under sentencing guidelines outlined in her plea agreement, she faces a possible 6 to 10 months in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 25.
In August her lawyer, Michael Farkas, told reporters she had not been asked to cooperate with prosecutors in any possible criminal case against Spitzer: Since that time all criminal charges in the matter against Spitzer have been dropped. Farkas indicated that at her sentencing he would ask the judge to consider whether Hollander was being treated more harshly than other possible co-conspirators such as the former Governor.

Hunting Tragedy
State Police Sunday night charged a 45-year-old New York City man with manslaughter in the second degree in connection with the shooting death of a 16-month-old baby in the Sullivan County Town of Bethel, when Edward Taibi allegedly fired a shot from his rifle while hunting. The bullet went through the wall of a nearby trailer and hit the child, Charly Skala of Woodbourne, who died of her injuries at Westchester Medical Center.
Taibi had been hunting on private property nearby and fired his rifle, striking a deer. He then fired a second time from about 400 feet from a residence and struck the victim in the upper torso.
State Police said Taibi was extremely remorseful and noted how this tragedy points up the need for extreme caution and safety when hunting.
The investigation is continuing by the State Police with the assistance of the State Environmental Conservation Police and the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office.

County Budget
Using a portion of the $2.8 million contingency fund included in the $345 million spending plan approved by County Administrator Michael Hein enables the Legislature to put its mark on the budget while holding the tax levy increase to roughly the 2.95 percent hike proposed under the Hein plan. But during the committee’s meeting Monday, November 17 legislators added about an additional $304,468 to the budget.
All but about $42,492 will come from the county’s contingency fund, an amount of money usually included in a budget to provide the county with a cushion against unanticipated expenses throughout the year.
The $42,492 in new spending comes on top of $17,063 in new spending added by the committee last week. Among the new spending approved by the committee was $24,992 for a public health assistant in the county Health Department and $17,500 in additional spending for a plethora of contract agencies in the county.
The proposed budget included $220,000 for contract agency funding — the additional funding will increase by $10,000 the county’s contribution to the Ulster County Library Association; increase by $5,000 the $50,000 contribution to the Dutchess County Arts Council, which administers the Ulster County arts program funding; and provide $2,500 to the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
The single largest funding allocation approved Monday was $150,000 for The Solar Energy Consortium, which was allocated the full $150,000 pot of money in the contingency fund earmarked for “legislative incentives.”
Rejected by committee members were proposals by GOP Minority Leader Glenn Noonan to roll back the salaries for the county executive and his deputies and the county comptroller to the levels originally proposed. The salaries included in the budget were increased to reflect raises given to all management employees for the upcoming year.
Committee members also rejected a proposal by Noonan to cut off funding to the Ulster County Development Corp. However they agreed to move into the county’s contingency fund $200,000 in incentive funding for the agency.
It takes the votes of two-thirds of the Legislature, or 22 legislators, to move money from the contingency fund. The committee and the full Legislature are expected to vote on a final budget on Dec. 10.

Food Costs Up
The Ulster County District Attorney’s Office says that the weekly cost of feeding a local family of four was $215.42 for the week ending November 7. This is an increase of $13.79 since the previous survey for the week ending October 24. The Marketbasket Survey which is based on the USDA’s Moderate Cost Family Food Plan, reflects bi-weekly price checks in three local chain-type supermarkets.
The county will be extending its food aid hours at Shandaken Town Hall the morning of Tuesday, November 25 to help with those facing food shortages locally.
Meanwhile, local Boy Scouts collected over 70,000 food items on Saturday, November 15 as part of their annual Scouting For Food drive. A total of 35 local food pantries have benefited from the project to help stock their shelves for the holiday season. Over 100 volunteers who helped the Scouts pack food for delivery came from the Salvation Army, Kiwanis Club of Kingston, Lowe’s Home Improvement staff, Peoples Place, Kingston Key Club, UPS drivers and families, Queen’s Galley, Ulster County Community Action, Old Dutch Church, Ship 609, Caring Hands Soup Kitchen and Catsbaan Church.

Smelly Dogs
A woman from Indiana has been arrested on animal cruelty charges by the Ulster County SPCA with assistance from the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and Town of Shandaken Police.
After receiving complaints reporting strong smells of urine and feces emanating from the vehicle while it was in Shandaken, the Ulster County SPCA seized 11 dogs in overcrowded cages and deplorable conditions from a passenger van in the parking lot of the Wenton Motel in Saugerties, said SPCA Executive Director Brian Shapiro.
“Conditions were awful. The woman was arrested and remanded to Ulster County Jail and the animals are currently under our care,” he said. “This case is currently in court and we are prosecuting it.”
Cameron Lickey, 49, of Indianapolis, Indiana was arrested and charged with 11 misdemeanor violations for Failure to Provide Sustenance under New York State Agriculture and Markets Law.
A number of the dog crates in the van contained as much as 30 pounds of feces and waste in each of them, according to Humane Law Enforcement Investigator Glenn Daniels. Some of the dogs had over two pounds of dirty matted hair shaved off each of them as well. “These were the conditions in the van they were living in on a very cold night,” Daniels said.
According to Shapiro, he received an initial tip that Lickey was trying to sell puppies in Shandaken.
Donations to assist in the care of these dogs may be sent to the Ulster County SPCA, 20 Wiedy Rd. Kingston, NY 12401.

Resiliency!?!
“Building Resiliency for Our Youth,” a special program recently hosted by Ulster BOCES, took a close look at the life-saving issues teachers sometimes face when they keep a keen eye out for possible abuse in the home. The conference brought together educators, social workers, and administrators from throughout Ulster County in sharing best practices and brainstorming solutions unique to their profession.
Dr. Kris Miccio, J.S.D., an associate professor of law at Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver and an award-winning Fulbright scholar and author, led the program. A native New Yorker, she is also the founding director of the Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services of Sanctuary for Families, and had years of expertise to share on the topic of child abuse.
The in-depth educational session was designed especially for members of the Traumatic Event Team in Ulster County. The Traumatic Event Team was designed to be a resource and support to Districts that may need additional help in a crisis situation.
Abuse, said Dr. Miccio, “is a cultural, social, and political problem that needs a coordinated response.” Dr. Miccio drew on her in-depth knowledge of the history of mother and child abuse in the United States and explained that for many women, homeland security is not about terrorism—homeland security is about what is going on in their very own homes. With statistics like three to four million women being beaten each year, and three to four thousand women dying from this abuse, the nexus between mother and child abuse creates a cycle of violence that can be difficult to penetrate, Dr. Miccio said.
Team members learned through first-hand examples of abuse cases from Dr. Miccio’s career about how the child abuse laws of New York State apply in specific situations. During a question-and-answer session, attendees were able to get advice tailored to real-life scenarios. Later in the session, team members and administrators broke into small groups to share best practices through different challenges presented by Dr. Miccio.

Bad Asphalt
The Associated Press story finding its way into post-election broadcasts and print stories this past week was an eye catcher, for certain.
“Asphalt is becoming scarce as U.S. refiners overhaul their equipment to maximize output of highly profitable fuels such as diesel and gasoline, using inexpensive — and hard to process — crude oil,” read the kicker sentence, after varying localized leads. “To make things worse, refiners are also cutting back on the production of a petrochemical that many states mix into asphalt to make roads more durable.”
Wow… so what did that possibly mean, locally, where our roads tend to need repair regularly because of the Northeast’s weather extremes?
“Supplies are still available here,” said Woodstock Highway Superintendent Mike Reynolds of the news, which was new to him as a national story. “It’s just the prices that have gone astronomical.”
Reynolds furthered his point by use of a vivid example. In the midst of his department’s biggest repaving job this past summer, he said, the price of blacktop materials went up $11 a ton in one week, from $65.24 per ton during the last week in July to $76.09 per ton during the first week in August.
Since then, the longstanding road worker added, things have continued to go up.
“It just changes how much you can get done,” Reynolds said. “At this point, with other costs going up, our infrastructure’s going to have to take the hit.”
The underlying problem, it turns out, is a shift in refining technologies spurred on by the recent price hike in oil, as well as growing concerns about a diminishing of supplies over the coming years. In the past, about 40 percent of an oil barrel would be turned into asphalt products, whereas now that formula’s been shifted down to around 10 percent. The results have forced thousands of miles of highways, city streets and country roads to go without needed repairs, or a shift in repair methods that has reduced the amount of asphalt required for road jobs
There’s also new research just starting out on changing the chemical requirements of asphalt, or looking again at the more expensive alternative of using concrete for roads.
The nation, AP has reported, is currently undersupplied by about 24,000 barrels of asphalt a day, or 5 percent of total daily demand, and is expected to be down about 257,000 barrels a day by 2012,. The shift in refinery technology that led to the decline in asphalt production was spurred by oil refineries installing billion-dollar machines called “cokers” that are able to refine the chunkiest, low-grade and least expensive crude oil into highly profitable fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, leaving leading asphalt suppliers to thin out their product in the meantime.
What ever happened to the idea of utilizing old tires in roadways?
That’s done regularly, Reynolds said, but usually in binder and base coats atop of which regular asphalt gets laid.
As for the larger story, it turns out AP ran almost identical stories about “Peak Asphalt,” as they’re calling the phenomenon, two autumns ago, when gas prices first started rising in the year following the Katrina mess.
Check those shocks…

Smoking Ban!
The Ulster County Legislature, on a split vote, has approved a ban on all smoking on all property owned or leased by the county, including the community college. Over the past month, the debate had been over the full ban, generally favored by Democrats, and a less stringent prohibition pushed by several Republicans that would have created a 50-foot no-smoking zone around all entrances to buildings.
Republican Minority Leader Glenn Noonan referred to the smoking ban as a “feel good law”, prompting an angry response from Democrat Jeanette Provenzano, who noted that smoking kills people, and that governments, including the county, bear a high cost related to health care for people who smoke.
All of the Democrats and three Republicans supported the resolution, which passed on a vote of 21 to 10.
Meanwhile, on a state level, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Region 3 Director Willie Janeway announced in recent weeks that DEC has begun to implement a long-term enforcement action to reduce the health impacts associated with smoking and idling trucks and buses, especially in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution.Under the plan, DEC will carry out regular but unannounced enforcement actions in hot spots where heavy truck traffic enters or exits a neighborhood, or in areas where trucks are found to congregate. At these hot spots, DEC will implement pullover operations that target trucks spewing dirty smoke in violation of air regulations and will patrol the area for trucks and buses illegally idling.

Buy Nothing?
In an attempt to counteract the holiday shopping frenzy, a free rummage sale/gift swap called BUY NOTHING DAY is scheduled for Saturday, November 29th, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills (UUCC), 320 Sawkill Rd., Kingston. Sponsored by the Environmental Section of the Social Action Committee of UUCC, the event features a wide array of gift items, all free to the public.
Among available categories of free gifts are toys, gadgets, fancy books, blankets, household items, small near-new electronics, tools, music, and winter outerwear (coats, jackets, gloves, hats and winter boots). In addition, anything and everything!
Participants are encouraged to donate gift-quality items when they attend BUY NOTHING DAY although it is definitely not required. Additional items will be put out throughout the day.
Donations for the free rummage sale will be accepted until noon the day of the event and in advance on Sunday, November 23rd, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UUCC, 320 Sawkill Rd. (half-way between Washington Avenue and Route 209). in Kingston. The UUCC will screen items before accepting them and will refuse any out-of-date computer products, or clothing other than winter outerwear and boots.
BUY NOTHING DAY is an international event started in 1992 by Adbusters magazine and celebrated by millions. It has now spread to over 60 countries around the globe.
For further information contact Joanne Steele (339-7526 or aardvark@ulster.net) or visit UUCC on the web at: http://www.uucckingston.org/bnd.html.

Burglary Ring
A special Multi Agency Burglary Ring Detail comprised of State Police and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office has arrested seven people in connection with 20 house burglaries. The suspects were found to have stolen firearms, flat screen TVs, computers, electronic devices, jewelry, cash, clothing chainsaws and other tools. They are also implicated in the grand larceny of a BMW as the arson of a building and of a motor vehicle. Much of the stolen items were recovered, police said.
The burglary detail was formed following a dramatic increase in residential burglaries involving unoccupied residences in the towns of Rochester, Wawarsing, Marbletown, Rosendale and Gardiner. The residences had been forcibly entered.
Arrested on second-degree burglary charges were Kyle Kouhout, 18, of Rosendale; Thomas Bauer, 18, of Accord; Brandon Miller, 17, of Kerhonkson; David Stephens, 18, of Accord; Ron Vanetten, 17, of Kerhonkson; john Halter, 21, of Kerhonkson; and Dale Faulker, 17, of Accord. Additional charges are pending.
All seven were arraigned and remanded to the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond.

Climate Change?
The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach at the State University of New York at New Paltz and the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley Gillespie Forum will host a presentation on “Climate Change and World Security” with Marc Levy at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, in the Coykendall Science Building auditorium on campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Marc Levy serves as deputy director of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Levy will speak on climate change trends and how they impact the stability of nations and the well-being of populations.
Levy said there is growing recognition that climate change can have significant impact on world security, particularly in regions that are already prone to instability. Multi-year droughts, rising sea levels and increasing temperatures are climate change trends affecting food and water resources, and the health and well-being of populations around the world. For example, the greatest number of people exposed to sea-level rise is in China, the Philippines, Egypt and Indonesia. China and the Philippines alone have 64 million people in the lowest elevation zones (1 meter above sea level).
Levy has published on environmental sustainability indicators, environment-security connections and the effectiveness of international environmental institutions. The common thread running through his work is a desire to deepen our ability to understand and manage the complex interactions between humans and their environment. He is currently serving as a convening lead author for the UN Environment Program’s Fourth Global Environmental Outlook. Before coming to CIESIN, Levy had teaching appointments at Princeton University and Williams College.
For more information about the Center, visit www.newpaltz.edu/crreo.

Pot Bust!
Police shut down a large drug operation and arrested two men at a secluded house protected by motion sensors and a swamp that served as a natural moat, the Ulster Regional Drug Enforcement Narcotics Team said this week. URGENT’s raid of the house at 473 Spillway Road on Friday turned up more than 45 pounds of marijuana, about 400 marijuana plants, two indoor growing rooms, hashish, evidence of hashish manufacturing, hashish oil, evidence of a previous large-scale outdoor growing operation and $30,000 in cash, according to a press release from the drug-enforcement team.
The two men arrested — Joseph H. Barton (a.k.a. Joseph Anderson), 62, and Barton’s stepson, Jay Debberman, 33 — were renting the property and living in “squalor.” For example, detectives said, there were piles of both new and dirty clothes around the home, indicating the men bought new clothes rather than wash items they had worn. Police also found chukka sticks, police batons and daggers in the house, but no guns, Budd said.
URGENT said officers went to the house after receiving an anonymous tip about drug processing and distribution taking place there but had difficulty accessing the property because it’s in a heavily wooded area and is blocked by a watery swamp that’s navigable only by a narrow causeway. There also were motion sensors around the property’s perimeter to alert the people inside about any incoming people or vehicles, URGENT said.
URGENT also said the alleged traffickers tried to avoid detection by using gas- and diesel-powered generators to offset the spike in power usage caused by the growing operation.
Police said the men distributed drugs locally and also had operated in the New York City and New Jersey areas.
Barton was charged with the felonies of criminal possession of marijuana, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a weapon. (The weapons charge was a felony because of a prior conviction, Budd said.) Debberman was charged with the felonies of criminal possession of marijuana and criminal possession of a controlled substance and a misdemeanor county of criminal possession of a weapon.
The two men were arraigned in Hurley Town Court, and though the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office requested bail be set at $50,000 for each, Justice Elizabeth Corrado released them on their own recognizance, police said.

Better Energy
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County is hosting Save Energy, Save Dollars a FREE Weatherization and Energy Savings Workshop designed to help people reduce their electric and heating bills resulting in significant savings year round. The workshop will be Tuesday, November 25, 2008 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the Town of Shandaken Town Hall, located at 7209 Route 28 in Shandaken.
All pre-registered attendees ages 18 and up will receive a FREE Energy Saving Gift Pack. The session is free and open to the public. Participants will learn about reducing their heating and electric bills with low cost, no cost energy conservation methods, and easy to use weatherization and energy saving information for homeowners and renters alike.
Pre-registration is required. Call Barbara Grumberg, 845-340-3990 or email: bag23@cornell.edu.

Cell Breakthrough
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered and demonstrated a new method for overcoming two major hurdles facing solar energy. By developing a new antireflective coating that boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire solar spectrum from nearly any angle, the research team has moved academia and industry closer to realizing high-efficiency, cost-effective solar power.
“To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity, you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky,” said Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer and a member of the university’s Future Chips Constellation, who led the research project. “Our new antireflective coating makes this possible.”
An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4 percent of sunlight shone upon it - meaning that nearly one-third of that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable. From an economic and efficiency perspective, this unharvested light is wasted potential and a major barrier hampering the proliferation and widespread adoption of solar power.
After a silicon surface was treated with Lin’s new nanoengineered reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight shone upon it - meaning that only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested. This huge gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward toward economic viability.
Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, as well as the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

AIDS Cure?
An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said. And although researchers caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide.
Dr. Gero Huetter said Wedneday his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin who was not identified, had been infected with the AIDS virus for more than a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow, he no longer shows signs of carrying the virus.
This isn’t the first time marrow transplants have been attempted for treating AIDS or HIV infection. In 1999, an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses reviewed the results of 32 attempts reported between 1982 and 1996. In two cases, HIV was apparently eradicated, the review reported.
Before the transplant, the patient endured powerful drugs and radiation to kill off his own infected bone marrow cells and disable his immune system — a treatment fatal to between 20 and 30 percent of recipients. He was also taken off the potent drugs used to treat his AIDS.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases in the U.S., said the procedure was too costly and too dangerous to employ as a firstline cure. But he said it could inspire researchers to pursue gene therapy as a means to block or suppress HIV.
David Roth, a professor of epidemiology and international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said gene therapy as cheap and effective as current drug treatments is in very early stages of development.

The New Aggies…
State Ag Commissioner Patrick Hooker will kick off the first Agricultural Renewable Energy Forum Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at the Holiday Inn, 503 Washington Avenue, in Kingston. The forum for the agriculture community is scheduled for 10:00am to 3:00pm
To pre-register please call 518-828-4718, or download a registration form online at www.hvadc.org and click on upcoming events. For more information call Teresa Rusinek at 845-340-3990.