Newsbriefs

12/18/2008

County Budget?
The Ulster County Legislature adopted its 2009 budget on December 3 alongside new ethics laws and the tabling of a $600,000 proposal, and associated bond, for renovations to the county administrative office space. Tentative plans call for the executive and legislature to share the sixth floor at the county office building, colloquially known as the Glass Menagerie, in Uptown Kingston, with the comptroller and county attorney sharing the fifth floor.
The renovation measure was referred back to committee, by unanimous vote, and without discussion.
For the long-discussed ethics law, a controversial provision that would have prevented elected officials and department heads from holding offices on county political committees was not included…
In other final business, the legislature thanked county attorneys Joshua Koplovitz and Bea Havranek, who will not be returning. Also congratulated was Legislature Clerk Kathy Mihm, who is to become the county’s Democrat election commissioner.
Hein announced the appointment of three deputy county executives, one of whom will serve as his chief of staff, including Adele Reiter as chief of staff and deputy county executive, Havranek as deputy county executive in charge of government operations and education, and Marshall Beckman as deputy county executive in charge of health and human services.
Hein also named Arthur Smith as budget director. He has worked for over 27 years in county government serving, at one time or another, as Ulster County administrator and deputy administrator.
Later, legislators adopted an energy policy for Ulster County intended to help departments cut costs and increase energy savings. In the policy, county officials would be required to determine the amount of energy use for vehicles and buildings while developing an implementation strategy. Requirements under the policy include: Use of energy performance contracts when making building improvements that would affect fuel use; the provision of verification and commissioning of fundamental building systems to ensure they are designed, constructed, installed, calibrated, and operating properly; adherence to voluntary guidelines such as Energy Star when possible; development of a purchasing policy that identifies the energy-use impact of products, vehicles, and services; provision of county personnel with training to implement new policies; the setting of a timetable for measuring environmental impacts from county energy use, water use, fleet emissions, recycled materials, and waste generation; the finding of energy-saving initiatives through savings from utility costs; and the development of a reward system as an incentive for programs that help the county save energy.

Whither Hamlet?
Redefining hamlet lines in the region has become something of a bother to DEP, which extended the offer earlier this year, announcing that watershed towns could propose plans to expand Hamlet borders, thus preventing the DEP from trying to buy land within those new boundaries.
Some of town’s came up with dramatic plans to limit the DEP’s buying power, but DEP has so far not favored the proposals. Shandaken proposed that the DEP not buy any more land at all within town borders. Olive proposed no buying along the north side of the route 28 corridor in the entire town.
Jeff Baker, the Attorney for the Coalition of Watershed Towns, said December 15 that it has been agreed that the town of Hunter in Greene County and Hamden in Delaware County will be pilot communities where Hamlet designations will be prepared.
Using both towns as models, Baker said the idea is to show DEP that they can still protect water in other ways besides gobbling up property, an idea that apparently still needs to be driven home to DEP brass.
Baker said that one New York City official recently complained that the Coalition was interfering with DEP’s “mission to buy all developable land in the watershed.”
With such a mindset still prevalent, Coalition Chairman Dennis Lucas added that now, more then ever, watershed dwellers must take steps to protect themselves.
“We are planning for ourselves so as not to have it done by others,” he said

Revenue Loss
Tough times are coming home to roost in the area.
As predicted, the downturn in the nation’s economy has put a dent in the revenues that area municipalities anticipated when their Officials prepared their operating budgets for this year. Last week the Ulster County legislature announced the bad news that there has been a 27.52 percent decrease in mortgage tax revenue countywide. Towns like Denning and Hardenburgh were particularly hard hit, with Denning seeing a decrease of almost 70 percent and Hardenburgh’s take down 52 percent from the same April through September collection period last year.
Shandaken and Olive suffered too, but not nearly as badly. That towns’ revenues from mortgage tax, basically the fruits collected from the sale of property, are down between 16 and 21 percent, respectively.
Specific amounts are as follows:
Denning received $10,380.67 from real estate transactions occurring between April and September of this year. That figure is down 69.50 percent, or $23,652.55, from the amount received between April and September of 2007.
Hardenburgh has collected $4,978.25 for a 52.48 percent decrease of $5,498.89.
Olive has brought in $71,186.24 for a 21.37 percent decrease of $19,352.60
Shandaken received $47,607.86 for a 15.69 percent decrease of $8,859.52.
Woodstock has brought in $189,058.86 for a 23.70 percent decrease of $58,714.18.
Of course, any revenue loss must be picked up by the taxpayers.

Bad Judge!
A former state Supreme Court justice who was kicked off the bench more than two years ago has been charged with attempted extortion and bribery for allegedly soliciting $10,000 from a lawyer who had cases pending before him. The federal indictment handed up December 10 alleges Thomas Spargo, 65, a former justice in the state’s Third Judicial District, solicited the money from an Ulster County attorney in 2003, when Spargo was on the bench, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Ulster is one of seven counties in the Third District.
If convicted, Spargo faces up to 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines, according to a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the former judge. Spargo was not taken into custody after the indictment was handed up and that an arraignment had not been scheduled.
The indictment alleges Spargo solicited the money by convincing the attorney he would benefit from making the payment or suffer reprisals if he refused. The money apparently was for a defense fund Spargo had created for himself to help him resolve legal problems he was having.
Spargo, a politically active state judge who went to Florida in late 2000 to help fight for George W. Bush during the state’s presidential election recount, was removed from the bench in 2006 after the state Commission on Judicial Conduct concluded he was hitting up lawyers for money.
Spargo’s legal problems — and the commission’s investigation of him — date to 1999, when he was running for town justice in Berne, near Albany. Spargo was accused at that time of giving out coupons for gas and coffee and buying drinks for potential voters. The gifts had a total value of about $2,000, the commission said.
State Supreme Court justices are elected to 14-year terms. Spargo was elected in November 2001 and was being paid $136,700 per year at the time of his removal. New York’s Third Judicial District comprises Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Sullivan, Albany, Rensselaer and Schoharie counties.

Falling Values
Household wealth fell in the third quarter by the most on record as property values and stock prices tumbled, highlighting the tattered state of consumer finances even before the most recent slump in lending.
Net worth for households and non-profit groups decreased by $2.81 trillion, the most since records began in 1952, according to the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds report issued today in Washington. Real-estate-related assets declined by $646.9 billion, three times the prior quarter’s drop.
Combined with the loss of 1.9 million jobs so far this year, almost half of which occurred in the last two months, and the slump in bank financing since the credit crisis intensified, the figures darken an already gloomy outlook for consumer spending. President-elect Barack Obama has called for a stimulus package of unprecedented size as the economy slides toward the longest postwar recession.
Consumer spending will probably decline 1 percent in 2009, making it the biggest drop since 1942. The economy is projected to shrink for four straight quarters, the longest contraction since quarterly records began in 1947.
Hold on, everybody…

Stimulus Promo?
Belleayre Mountain wants people to shop locally….well…regionally.
The state-run Ski Center, which suffers tough financial times itself, has worked out a deal with the Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce and the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce.
Patrons are encouraged to bring any receipt for $50.00 or more for a purchase of goods or services made between Dec 15, 2008 and Jan 15, 2009 at any local businesses that are members of either the Central Catskills, Delaware County, or Ulster County Chambers of Commerce, and Belleayre will sell the customer a Buy One Get One Free lift ticket that is good to return and use anytime during the 2008-2009 ski season.

Sustainability!
OK… the big talk is of a Green New Deal, a rearranging of the nation’s economy to match new challenges, including the phenomenon formerly known as Global Warming and now talked about as Climate Change.
President-elect Obama is speaking of high system charges via new emphases on infrastructure re-builds, the push for better energy planning, and so on.
Locally, the recent weeks have seen a host of regional conferences on warming trends and new sustainable lifestyles. Olive’s own Charlie Blumstein has stepped up in all this with his push to Relocalize via a host of community-building activities from shared dinner discussions and movie nights in Olivebridge to the building of greenhouses for more home production of food.
Finally, Sustainable Hudson Valley’s Melissa Everett is currently getting on a number of key boards and commissions patterning the county’s and region’s future… and holding a special holiday party this Friday December 19, from 5 to 7 pm to celebrate her organization’s new offices. Talk about a nice intimate way to get hooked on the new impetus to make change real and lasting!
Everett will report at the event about her recent scouting trip where she learned about a new Living Green Project funded with 9.4 million Euros to do deep green renovations of 5 historic buildings in 5 countries, about the Netherlands Institute for City Innovation Studies and how they help un-stick local governments, as well as several European entities wanting to work with Hudson Valley and Catskills counterparts.
The new offices for Sustainable Hudson Valley are at 400 Stockade Drive, Kingston (off Schwenk Drive & opposite Kingston Plaza). For further information call 331-2670 or visit www.sustainhv.org.

Onteora TV?
Shandaken, Olive, and Hurley residents with Time Warner cable service will soon be able to watch Onteora school board meetings and other district-initiated programming on a new cable channel to be available on the system’s channel 20. Programming for what’s slated to debut as the “SHOW (Shandaken, Hurley, Olive, Woodstock) educational channel” will originate from a new studio at Onteora, partially paid for by BOCES. It will not initially be available to Woodstock residents, as a result of that town’s lack of a currently renewed contract with Time Warner.
Guided by high school principal Lance Edelman and teacher David Nelson-Epstein, the project reflects contributions made over a seven year period by Onteora and Time Warner staff and officials and others districtwide. According to Epstein, who actually built the studio facility and will run it with his students, he hopes to provide sports, arts, and music programming and events from all 3 elementary schools and the middle and high school.
The channel is expected to be up and running by sometime in January.

Burgled…
Six area businesses in the towns of Kingston and Hurley were burglarized during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday December 7, according to police, with persons unknown making off with over $1,000 in cash, coins from a car wash, and gasoline stolen from a landscaping business. Businesses struck included the Hobo Deli, Bistro-To-Go, Steve’s Pizza, the Route 28 Car Wash, and Woodstock Landscaping.
According to MaryAnne Erickson, co-owner of Bistro-To-Go, the thief cut phone and power lines and security camera cables before prying open a back door and smashing a safe containing cash. She said that video recorded before the system was disabled showed a person in a ski mask & hooded sweatshirt.
County Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum says that his agency and others are investigating and asks anyone with potentially helpful information to contact them at 338-3640.

Need Heat?
There’s a new initiative through the New York State Attorney General’s office to deliver $1.9 million to low-income households to help them cope with the high cost of home heating oil. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo created the Oil Efficiency Pilot Program with funds secured through a record settlement with the nation’s largest power company for violations of the Clean Air Act.
The hitch? Most of the money is for weatherization.
“Weatherization services are the most effective form of home heating assistance,” said Assemblymember Kevin Cahill, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Energy. “Efficiency measures, if done properly, could save a household more in one year then they would be eligible to receive in grants through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.”
The Oil Efficiency Pilot Program will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Approximately 500 low-income New York households are expected to benefit from the pilot program across the state.
The funding will offset the costs of installing high-efficiency furnaces, steam boilers, and household hot water systems, as well as insulation, weather-stripping, and other weatherization features. These oil efficiency measures are expected to save an average household approximately 224 gallons of heating oil per year. The initiative will also pay for cost-effective electricity saving adjustments, such as lighting and refrigeration replacements. Through these measures, an average household could save up to $1,000 annually.
For more information or questions about the Oil Efficiency Pilot Program call Cahill’s Kingston office at (845) 338-9610, visit www.HeatSmartNY.org or call the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) at 1-877-NYSMART.

Septic Needs?
Are you a homeowner in the Catskill-Delaware Watershed who repaired or replaced your septic system during 2008 without help from the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC)? If so, you may be able to recoup those costs now. Full-time residents may receive 100% of eligible costs, while part-time residents can get 60% of those costs reimbursed.
The CWC Board of Directors recently adopted a measure allowing reimbursement for septic repairs done between January 1 and December 31, 2008 that were not within priority areas for the regular Septic Repair and Rehabilitation Program. Adequate monies in the program fund allows the CWC to make this assistance available at year’s end.
Homeowners who can show proof that repairs were completed, were approved by NYC Department of Environmental Protection and were paid for may fill out a CWC form to request reimbursement.
Homes that were constructed after November 2, 1995 are not eligible for this program. Neither, we have heard, may residents of Phoenicia, which is still on a priority list…
The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) Board of Directors on December 2 also approved rules for a new program that will reimburse eligible small business owners – those employing 100 or fewer people — 75% of the cost of septic repairs up to a maximum of $40,000. To be eligible, failing commercial septics must be 100 feet from a watercourse, 500 feet from a reservoir of the New York City Water System, or within a specified priority zone (the so-called “60-day travel time” area).
Apartment buildings and trailer parks are not considered small businesses for this program and only commercial septic systems constructed after Nov. 2, 1995 are eligible for repair reimbursement. Business properties served or potentially served by New York City- or municipally-owned sewer projects, or by Community Wastewater Management Projects developed by the CWC, are not eligible for the new septic repair program (ah, Phoencia, again).
Commercial enterprises in 13 areas where a new Cluster System Septic Program is being developed may also be ineligible for septic repairs as they may be served by future wastewater projects addressing clusters of buildings. Arrangements may be made, however, for temporary or managed repairs in these areas if circumstances warrant it.
For more information on both programs, call 845-586-1400 or visit www.cwconline.org.

That Other Flow…
Ever think about that other great watershed the Catskills is so key to?
Well, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has joined with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) to release their 2008 State of the Delaware River Basin Report and re-release an analysis from last summer that together discuss the current health of the Delaware River Basin by examining the status of certain environmental conditions, as well as trends and actions needed to better monitor and improve these conditions in the future. The two reports have found that while there are some conditions in the basin and estuary that have improved over time and are on a positive trend, there are others that have worsened, as well as some that have remained static. Furthermore, while some goals in the plans have been attained, the reports highlight that more work needs to be done.
The State of the Basin Report catalogs specific indicators, or measurements of environmental conditions, on which data were readily available and assembles them into four categories: hydrology, water quality, living resources, and landscape. Each of the 37 indicators – for example, water use, dissolved oxygen, horseshoe crabs, and wetlands – is discussed in terms of current status and trend (positive, negative, or static) toward a desired condition, as well as future actions and needs necessary to achieve that desired condition. The report also includes features on burgeoning issues such as climate change, emerging contaminants, invasive species, and the valuation of natural landscapes. It concludes with a summary of all conditions and recommendations for future monitoring and reporting. Updating this comprehensive report is planned every five years.
The rest of the Catskills is being studied similarly, and the state DEC held a one day conference discussing recent findings as part of the Local Government gatherings last month.
The State of the Basin Report is available on the DRBC web site at www.drbc.net.

Volunteer Aid
The Ulster County Fire Coordinator’s office in partnership with the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce is coordinating a Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) in recognition of Ulster County’s volunteer Fire Fighters and Emergency Responders. The program aims to increase the number of volunteers willing to serve their local Fire Department and/or Ambulance Squad by asking local businesses if they would be willing to offer a discount of their determination to emergency service volunteers, while the County Safety Department will provide volunteers identified as active, social or lifelong with an identification card that will indicate membership.
For more information contact the Chamber of Commerce at 338-5100.

Albany Politics…
Want a sense of how Albany really works? Consider this… After narrowly winning the state Senate last month, Democrats looked forward to a new era of control in the Capital, with majorities in both houses of the Legislature and a Democrat in the Executive Mansion. Right? Well, it turns out that three Democrats (originally four) held their colleagues hostage by flirting with current GOP Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Long Island and threatening to jump ship unless some political goodies were given them. After weeks of uncertainty and a delay in organizing a transition, the three reached agreement with Malcolm Smith, the Senate’s Democratic leader. As a result, Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. will be the Senate’s new second in command and majority leader of the Democratic caucus. (Under Republican rule, the majority leader had both titles.) Senator Carl Kruger will chair the powerful Finance Committee. Senator Ruben Diaz will chair the Aging Committee. A same-sex marriage bill (which Diaz opposes) will not be brought to the floor this year. And finally, a new Latino caucus in the Senate will be created.
A breakthrough in bipartisanship or the handing over juicy assignments and concessions to three men who put a figurative gun to their party’s head.
It’s Albany…

Natural Gas
Congressman Maurice Hinchey recently submitted comments to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) regarding the draft scope for the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program. NYSDEC has solicited comments on its draft scope for the environmental review of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale deposit.
Hinchey asked the agency to use the SGEIS process to “develop and implement the highest standards possible for protecting human health and the environment” for permitting and regulating new gas drilling operations. In addition, Hinchey called for an analysis of the cumulative impacts from the expected proliferation of drilling, full review and public disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals, and requirement of best management practices by gas companies to ensure the protection groundwater, aquifers and surface waters.
“In addition to assessing whether and how drilling should take place in certain areas, the SGEIS should examine how thousands of new gas wells throughout New York State might impact water quality, scenic and historic resources, and land use patterns,” Hinchey noted in the lengthy comments. “When new subdivisions or commercial developments are reviewed under SEQRA, lead agencies must take into account the aggregate impacts of development and avoid segmentation in reviewing a project. The industrial activity of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale should be considered in the same cumulative and comprehensive manner as part of the SGEIS.”
Stay tuned…

Cyber Rules?
President-elect Barack Obama should create a new White House office to protect cyberspace from hackers, thieves and foreign agents, coordinating security efforts across U.S. military, intelligence and civilian agencies, according to a new report from a panel of leading government and industry experts.
The report, made public last week, also urges Obama’s new administration and Congress to pass new laws to allow for speedier investigations - and in some cases quicker retaliation once intruders are identified. It proposed online “data warrants,” for example, rather than traditional search warrants, which it said “may be increasingly impracticable in the online environment.”
Chances are good Obama will be receptive to many of the proposals: At least five members of the panel that produced the report also are working for his presidential transition team. They include former White House official Paul Kurtz, advising Obama on national security matters, and Obama technology advisers Dan Chenok and Bruce McConnell.
The proposals by the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency were being delivered to Capitol Hill during a period of increasing exasperation within the U.S. government over embarrassing computer break-ins at the Pentagon, White House, State Department, Commerce Department and elsewhere that have been traced in recent years across foreign borders, notably to Russia and China.
It was unclear how the commission’s new recommendations will compare with the Bush administration’s proposals because President Bush chose to classify as secret most provisions of his cyber initiative, which was launched late in his second term. Bush’s plans included reducing the number of the government’s Internet junctions to minimize the number of targets for attackers and monitoring federal Internet traffic more aggressively under a surveillance program it called “Einstein.”

4 Day Weeks?
As local governments face tougher and tougher budgetary times with the state of the economy, some in the lower Hudson Valley have started exploring converting to a four-day work week for municipal employees.
The regional group Pattern for Progress held a forum this month with a number of communities to consider the options and Pattern President Jonathan Drapkin said that depending upon the local government, it may be something worth exploring in the future.
“Our sense is while it may not be for everybody today, that as fiscal conditions worsen for local government, more of them are going to use this in discussions with their employees to say, ‘is this something we can offer you in exchange for some other benefit’?”
Drapkin said a four-day work week could be an added benefit for workers in terms of a three-day weekend. He also noted that the program would not work with some departments like public works and police.
A four-day week is seen as a means of reducing electric and energy costs for municipalities.
Mark those calendars, folks…

ATT: Seniors!
Not happy about the state cuts to STAR Refunds on your property taxes? At least the county seems to be trying to work on your behalf.
The Ulster County Legislature has adopted legislation to increase the income limits for senior citizens’ exemptions and disability exemptions. The increase allows qualifying seniors and certain persons with disabilities that own and reside in Ulster County to receive an exemption if their income is between $24,000 to $32,400. The exemption could be five to 50 percent of the assessed value of their residence.
Also adopted was the Cold War Veterans Exemption. This exemption also allows for a partial exemption for those veterans who qualify.
Exemption applications are available on line at www.orps.state.ny.us or at your local assessor’s office. Please be advised that any exemption application needs to be at your assessor’s office by March 1, 2009.
They’re small windows but hey, every little bit helps, right?

Cheesemakers!
The New York State Farmstead and Artisan Cheese Makers Guild will be holding a four-part series of workshop/events scheduled regionally for the winter/early spring of 2009 about an hour’s drive north of here. In addition to Guild sponsorship, addition support comes from Pure Catskill (an economic initiative of the Watershed Agricultural Council) and CADE –Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship.
The first of the series is a hands-on cheese making workshop in the Catskill region. The class will meet the needs of both novice and intermediate cheese makers. The workshop will be held Sunday, January 18, 2009 from 9 am to 4 pm at Brovetto Dairy and Cheese House in Jefferson, NY
For more information and registration forms contact Linda Smith at 607-829-8852.
Other events include a seminar to be held in the Northern Hudson region that will cover more advanced topics of cheese making such as rind development, cultures, phage, and trouble shooting. The third event, a tour of aging facilities in the Finger Lakes region, will be held in March. The final event is a cheese tasting and an opportunity to meet the cheese makers and will be held at the Culinary Institute of America. Check www.nyfarmcheese.org for updates on these events.

Watershed Grants
Watershed Education Grant applications are now available from the Catskill Watershed Corp. for projects beginning in the fall of 2009.
Pre-school through 12th grade students are the target audience for Round 12 of the Grant Program. The deadline for submitting applications is February 1, 2009. Awards will be announced in the spring.
County, town and village governments are also invited to apply for funds under the Catskill Watershed Corporation’s Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP).
For info and applications call 845-586-1400 or visit www.cwconline.org.


Obituaries...
Gertrude Muller, 82 of Ava Maria Drive in Phoenicia, died peacefully at home on Monday December 8, 2008. She was a life time area resident, who was focused on raising her family. She was talented in handicrafts such as crocheting and knitting.
She was born February 14, 1926 in the former community of Arena, now flooded by the waters of the Pepacton Reservoir, the daughter of the late Victor and Frieda Irwin Cross. Surviving are her son Robert of Olivebridge, 3 daughters: Susan Wayman of New Kingston, Debra Muller of Phoenicia, and Linda Pettersson of Shandaken. Grandchildren Angie Hunter, Jacob and Robbie Wayman, great
grandchildren Makayla and Mackenzie Hunter , Cody and Connor Wayman. She
was predeceased by her husband Robert in 1979, grandson Ian Lee Wayman,and siblings: Valmer Cross, Dorothy VanValkenberg, and W. Robert Cross.
A Service to Celebrate the Life of Mrs. Muller was held on December 11 at the E. B. Gormley Funeral Home 87 Main St. Phoenicia.. Burial will be in the Mt. Pleasant Rural Cemetery Rt. 28 Mt. Tremper. Donations may be sent to www. LiveStrong.org, or to www.AmericanCancerSociety.org.
Tisanne S. Gardner, 80 of Brunell Drive in Boiceville, died peacefully at her home after a lengthy illness on Tuesday December 9, 2008. She was a talented artist who worked with watercolors, and she was the graphics designer for the Town of Olive logo. She was an accomplished seamstress who also enjoyed cooking, entertaining, travel, and tending to her flower gardens. She had played the organ at the Shandaken Reformed Church at Mt. Tremper and years ago had worked for the Ulster County Mental Health Clinic at the switchboard.
She was born February 1, 1928 in New York City, daughter of the late William and Marian Brown Sewell. Surviving is her daughter Christina Gardner of Boiceville, and former husband Ernest Gardner of Boiceville. She was predeceased by her daughter Judith, and sister Millicent Coleman. A Service to Celebrate her Life was held at 11am at the E. B. Gormley Funeral Home 87 Main St Phoenicia. Burial will be in the Hudler Cemetery.

Contagious…
A paper published in a British medical journal concludes that happiness is contagious — and that people pass on their good cheer even to total strangers. American researchers who tracked more than 4,700 people in Framingham, Mass., as part of a 20-year heart study also found the transferred happiness is good for up to a year.
“Happiness is like a stampede,” said Nicholas Christakis, a professor in Harvard University’s sociology department and co-author of the study. “Whether you’re happy depends not just on your own actions and behaviors and thoughts, but on those of people you don’t even know.”
While the study is another sign of the power of social networks, it ran through 2003, just before the rise of social networking Web sites like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Christiakis couldn’t say for sure whether the effect works online.
“This type of technology enhances your contact with friends, so it should support the kind of emotional contagion we observed,” he said.
Christakis and co-author James Fowler, of the University of California in San Diego, are old hands at studying social networks. They previously found that obesity and smoking habits spread socially as well.
For this study, published in the British journal BMJ, they examined questionnaires that asked people to measure their happiness. They found distinct happy and unhappy clusters significantly bigger than would be expected by chance.
Happy people tended to be at the center of social networks and had many friends who were also happy. Having friends or siblings nearby increased people’s chances of being upbeat. Happiness spread outward by three degrees, to the friends of friends of friends.
Happy spouses helped, too, but not as much as happy friends of the same gender. Experts think people, particularly woman, take emotional cues from people who look like them.
Christakis and Fowler estimate that each happy friend boosts your own chances of being happy by 9 percent. Having grumpy friends decreases it by about 7 percent. But it also turns out misery don’t love company: Happiness seemed to spread more consistently than unhappiness. But that doesn’t mean you should drop your gloomy friends.
Being happy also brings other benefits, including a protective effect on your immune system so you produce fewer stress hormones, said Andrew Steptoe, a psychology professor at University College London who was not involved with the study.
According to the research, an extra chunk of money increases your odds of being happy only marginally — notably less than the odds of being happier if you have a happy friend. Smile, everyone…