Newsbriefs

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Drugs in the H2O?
A series of state Attorney General's office sanctions against Catskill regional hospitals for unsafe disposal of pharmaceutical waste has raised the question of proper focus for clean-up action, as well as a more comprehensive plan that not only attacks the issue at its sources, but as an overall health and welfare issue tied to our large planning for safe water systems, including New York City's vast holdings throughout the region.
This has set off much discussion of late, with local officials stating their belief that the state AG's office should treat local sources of such waste the same as others across the state... by basically doing nothing.
Representatives from several health facilities met last week together with Catskill Watershed Corporation officials and the Chairman of the Coalition of Watershed Towns to discuss how to handle the dilemma.
The matter is one familiar to watershed dwellers. The actions of the attorney general, according to Coalition officials, single out and discriminate against the region by requiring actions and expenses that the rest of state does not need to comply with... all in the name of protecting the drinking water of the nation's largest city.
They take offense that local hospitals are being asked to ship what they've been used to flushing away across state lines for incineration now. And while Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, pegged as the leading candidate for the state's next Governor, has so far only targeted about 15 facilities in the watershed, there is concern that eventually all medical establishments such as doctor's office's, dentists, even veterinarians, will need to comply with new laws.
Cuomo recently reached an agreement with some, but not all healthcare facilities to stop disposing of their pharmaceutical waste into the New York City watershed following threatening notice of fines up to $37,000 per day should the facilities not agree to the Attorney General's terms.
The O'Connor Hospital, located in Delhi, Margaretville Memorial Hospital and Mountainside Residential Care Center nursing home, and Countryside Care Center, a nursing home in Delhi, all agreed to redirect their pharmaceutical waste to proper waste management facilities.
Alan Rosa, Executive Director of the Catskill Watershed Corporation, noted that the disposal of such items was discussed during watershed talks involving the Coalition a decade and a half ago. but it was determined by the City and the State that pharmaceuticals were not a critical element of water quality protection because there were only miniscule trace levels of the material in the water.
"We said give us a program to deal with it," Rosa said. "They didn't."
Now, with the Attorney General's demands, many wish such a program did exist.
As far as Cuomo's office is concerned, pharmaceutical waste in the watershed should be incinerated. But there is no such incinerator in the state, and health care officials are now saying they will now be forced to hire contractors to ship the waste across state borders to dispose of it, with no direction as to who can do such transporting. In the meantime the waste is being stored.
Rosa said that the Attorney General's office is acting prematurely. He added that state and federal agencies are at work right now preparing plans for how to handle the waste, but until those plans are complete no one really knows how to deal with it.
"It's new territory," Rosa said, adding that no one in the watershed is seeking a right to pollute the streams with drugs, they simply expect to be treated the same way as everyone else.
"They ( the Attorney general's office) said they did it because we supply the water for half of the state," Rosa said. "Well, what about the other half?"
He also raised the fact that the local entities have also been ordered to pay civil penalties for prior infractions and for the cost of the state's investigation, and must bring all waste management practices up to comply with both state and federal codes. In addition, each facility must spearhead "take back" efforts, making sure that area households properly dispose of any pharmaceutical waste, too.
Some state officials, including Republican Assemblyman Clifford Crouch and Senator John Bonacic, have contacted the Attorney General and asked that the department back off.
City Land Buys...
The Coalition of Watershed Towns, a regional advocacy group that has given itself the charge of protecting local property rights, and keeping an eye on the New York City Department of Environmental Protection's watershed activities, is now focusing its attention at the DEP's newly announced plan to acquire more land in the area.
The DEP recently submitted its application for a permit to continue to buy land to protect its watershed, from which the water to sustain a population of 10 million is drawn. The permit, to be issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), will allow DEP to acquire additional properties in the Catskills region to ensure that the undeveloped, environmentally-sensitive watershed remain protected. The current permit ends in 2012.
"Since the beginning of the Filtration Avoidance Determination, New York City has committed $541 million to purchase land to protect our unfiltered drinking water supply," said New York City's Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway in a prepared statement on January 25th. "We are acutely aware of the need to balance water quality preservation with the interests and economic vitality of watershed communities."
DEP has been buying land since 1997 under a deal reached that same year with the Coalition of Watershed Towns, environmental groups, New York State and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to keep the water clean without filtration and at the same time protect the rights of those in the watershed, where the Coalition feared City efforts would cripple the area's economy.
The agreement also gave the City a waiver from federal requirements to build a multi billion dollar water filtration system.
In 2007, the EPA granted the City another 10 years on that waiver, despite complaints from the Coalition that the waiver should be reviewed again in five years. In the waiver, EPA also required the City beef up its land buying in the watershed, requiring the City to allocate another $300 million for more purchases.
The Coalition sued the EPA, claiming it gave the City the power to lock up so much land the local economy would suffer, precisely what the 1997 watershed deal is supposed to prevent. That lawsuit was unsuccessful... and the subsequent city land purchases, according to many, have instead provided a level of stability to the region's real estate market.
Now the Coalition is trying to take the opportunity to present its argument against the city's land acquisition program again. The state Department of Environmental Conservation will hold public hearings... and the CWT plans to be at them.
The Coalition's Executive Committee recently met in executive session with their attorney to discuss the upcoming permitting process. Details of the session were not made public as they pertained to possible litigation.
Gitter's Resort?
Since September 2007 the Crossroads team has been retooling their controversial development plan for a Resort/Spa near Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. Almost two and half years later it appears they have something to show the public.
On Thursday, February 18th Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park Developer Dean Gitter will be the guest speaker at the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce membership breakfast from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM.
This week, project consultant Gary Gailes said that those interested in the project will see and hear information about the latest plans. Gitter, Gailes noted, will be addressing some of the concerns expressed by the public during the volatile scoping sessions held at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in the winter following the signing of what is called the Agreement in Principle, a deal brokered by former Governor Eliot Spitzer between New York State, Crossroads, New York City, and several environmental groups that had been opposed to resort project as originally planned.
Those concerns raised at the scoping sessions are to be addressed in what is a called a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a plan for how Crossroads will mitigate issues like traffic, noise, stormwater and a host of other possible troubles.
The impact statement is expected to be completed soon, although its full review awaits completion of plans, and an additional SEIS, for expansion at neighboring state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, with which Gitter's resort is to be linked. Completion of the state's plans, in turn, have been said to be awaiting a better sense of the state's budget future, especially when it comes to investments in public recreation in a winter sports climate private entities have said is becoming too competitive without having to battle against public funding.
Included in both new SEIS documents will be materials addressing scientific climate change assertions, a first for such reviews that folks are also saying may prove sticky.
As for the actual layout of the project, said to include a golf course, two hotels and dozens of residential units, Gailes said those that attend the Chamber event will see, for the first time, what Crossroads has in mind.
"The layout as now proposed consolidates some of the structures," he said.
Call the Chamber office at 338-5100 for more information and reservations for the event.
Bad Chemistry
The late January explosion in a Tuesday afternoon Onteora High School chemistry class that sent its veteran teacher and seven of his students to local hospitals is still under investigation, although at this point it seems that lawsuits or recriminations will not be occurring from what everyone's noting as a simple accident.
Donald Bucher was demonstrating an experiment with the chemical potassium chlorate when the strong explosion occurred, shattering the classroom's windows. Onteora school district Superintendent Leslie Ford said the next day that Bucher had conducted the same experiment dozens of times before, without incident, and that the cause of the explosion remained a mystery.
Ford said a small piece of glass punctured Bucher's arm and cut an artery. "He was bleeding quite a lot," she said. He and the seven students who were injured, all 11th-graders, were treated at Kingston and Benedictine hospitals, primarily for minor cuts, and released.
The explosion occurred when Bucher dropped a stick of gum into a test tube containing potassium chlorate, a chemical used in matches, explosives, gunpowder and fireworks.
Ford said school district officials reviewed the chemistry class' lesson plan and concluded the experiment had been performed safely by Bucher in the past. She also said it is a standard high school chemistry experiment and that Bucher executed each of its steps properly. The goal of the experiment is to determine the amount of oxygen in the potassium chlorate.
Possible causes of the accident were a faulty test tube or the chemical itself being compromised.
All the remaining potassium chlorate in the classroom was later removed, bagged, locked in a secure location elsewhere in the building, and then removed and destroyed by Michael O'Rourke of the Risk Management Department at Ulster BOCES. Other chemicals in the school were then checked for problems.
Gas Drilling...
Another voice in the region is asking to be heard on the much discussed matter of gas drilling in the New York City Watershed.
This time it is the Coalition of Watershed Towns' Executive Committee, a group of representatives from the Delaware, Ulster, Greene, Sullivan and Schoharie counties, who have submitted a three page position on the issue to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the agency that is currently in charge of regulating gas drilling in the State and is in the process of setting regulations for gas mining in the Marcellus Shale and elsewhere, parts of a geologic formation that sits under parts of the watershed as well the rest of Appalachia in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Western New York.
The Coalition has not taken a position on the issue of drilling, but has come out swinging against the City of New York, which has called for a ban on drilling in its watershed.
The problem opponents of gas drilling have pointed out is that its method of sucking gas out of the ground, called hydrofracking, could be harmful to drinking water.
In its statement, the Coalition wants the watershed region to be treated like all the other areas where drilling is under consideration.
"If it harms water quality here then it harms water quality everywhere," said Coalition Attorney Jeff Baker, who spoke on the matter at a recent meeting in Margaretville.
Baker challenged the validity of the City's call for a drilling ban.
"The Coalition does strongly protest any claim that gas mining...should be prohibited anywhere in the New York City Watershed. We do not believe that proponents of such a ban have demonstrated any sufficient reason why the mining presents a special threat to the City's water supply, compared to any other water supply in the state," Baker wrote.
Through Baker, the Coalition did agreed that hydrofracking can have a significant impact on groundwater.
"However, those impacts are statewide and are not unique or present a specific threat to the New York City supply," their document adds, however.
The Coalition actually has a bigger concern on a smaller scale.
"If the threat of contamination is real, it is even more of a concern for smaller municipal systems relying upon groundwater and individual homes than it is to the City's supply," Baker said.
The Coalition's comments follow comments submitted to DEC by the City's Department of Environmental Protection, which wrote that "gas drilling poses unacceptable risks to the unfiltered water supply for nine million New Yorkers."
Baker also notes that the City's position fails to take into account the economic impact on landowners in the watershed.
"An arbitrary prohibition deprives property owners from realizing the full potential of their property and denies the communities needed tax revenues and jobs," according to Baker.
OCS Applications
The Onteora Central School District is in the process of planning the Universal PreKindergarten program for the 2010-2011 school year. If you have a child turning 4 by December 1, 2010, please call the Pupil Personnel Services Office at 657-3320 for details and an application. The application is also available on the Onteora School District website: http://Onteora.schoolwires.com.
In addition, Request for Proposals to house a program within the District is available to interested persons with appropriate certifications. Please call 657-3320 for more information.
Finally, the Onteora Central School District has announced that petitions are available to nominate candidates for the Board of Education. Petition forms may be picked up at the Onteora Administrative Offices, 4166 Route 28, Boiceville, New York, from the District Clerk between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. each business day. Petitions will require at least 37 qualified voter signatures and must be returned to the Clerk by 5:00 P.M., Monday, April 19, 2010. There are two vacancies for Board Seats, both three Year Seats running from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2013. Candidates must have one year residence in the school district at the time of the election.
The Annual Meeting and Election will be held on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, in the four elementary schools.
Think Gardens
A number of regional iniatives are starting up for those among us who can't wait to get their knees on the ground and their hands in the soil come Spring in the Catskills, which everyone's saying will eventually happen again hereabouts.
The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County Master Gardener Program will once again offer a series of workshops during February and March to help the avid home gardener get prepared for spring. Classes will be held on Thursdays February 11, February 25, Wednesday, March 10 and Thursday, March 25, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at Ulster County BOCES, 175 Rt. 32 in New Paltz. For more information call 340-3990 or visit www.cceulster.org.
Also up for those itching to start planning their gardens is the availability of an array of fresh seedlings being offered again by the same entity, including a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and evergreen seedlings. Order forms can be requested now, with the stipulation that no orders be accepted after Friday, March 5.
The pick up dates for all orders are: Wednesday, April 21, and Thursday, April 22, from 10:00am to 4:00pm at the Ulster County Fair Grounds in New Paltz, and Friday, April 23, from 10:00am to 4:00pm, and Saturday, April 24, from 9:00am to 12:00pm at the Ulster County Highway Garage, 66 Hurley Ave, in Kingston.
AARP Tax Help
AARP volunteers in Ulster and Dutchess counties are set to provide free tax-preparation assistance for low- to moderate-income taxpayers. Beneficiaries do not need to be a member of AARP or a retiree and electronic filing service will be offered at all locations for both federal and New York state income tax returns. Sites are will be open Feb. 1 through April 15. Appointments are required.
Assistance will be offered, among 29 total sites, at Kingston Library, 55 Franklin St., 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, and noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays; Olive Library, 4033 state Route 28A, 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays; Stone Ridge Library, 3700 Main St., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays; and West Hurley Library, 42 Clover St., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays.
For all Ulster County sites, call (845) 802-7190 for more information or to make an appointment:
National Park?
Federal legislation that calls for studying whether the Hudson Valley should become a unit of the National Park Service has come before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey introduced the bill last year and brought it before the subcommittee late last month.
"Preserving and promoting the Hudson River Valley's resources has been a top priority for me dating back to my time in the New York State Assembly," Hinchey, D-Hurley, told his colleagues. Hinchey was a state assemblyman from 1975 to 1992 and has been in the House since 1993.
Hinchey, in making his case, pointed to the history and beauty of the Hudson Valley and its surrounding mountains, including the Catskills.
Meanwhile, Carol LaGrasse of the Property Rights Foundation of America in Stony Creek is leading opposition to the legislation, describing the effort as little more than a governmental land grab.
"The initial national park or parks - which would likely be a conglomeration of lands owned by the state, federal government, local municipalities and non-profits - would likely expand to encompass much of the land in (the region's) 12 counties," LaGrasse told panel members in Washington.
LaGrasse was instrumental, in the mid-1990s Clinton years, for helping to defeat a proposal that would have seen the Catskills declared one of a few dozen special United Nations' recognized Biospheres in North America.
For the Hudson Valley to become part of the national parks system, a congressionally authorized study must be conducted first. The legislation sponsored by Hinchey would have that study cover the area extending from Washington County, northeast of Albany, to Westchester County. He has said it would be useful for numerous funding initiatives, over time.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Olive resident Mitchell Langbert received last month, Alma Ripps of the US Parks Service noted that, "There are various models of units of the National Park System ranging from the traditional model where the National Park Service owns and manages a resource to those where we have limited or no ownership interest and work with partners for the continued protection of natural or cultural resources and to promote public understanding of their importance to the nation through education and interpretation. An example of the latter model is the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area where we partner with state and nonprofit organizations and provide financial, technical and interpretive assistance. We also have affiliated areas of the National Park System which we do not manage, but provide financial and technical assistance to those organizations that protect the resource. A study permits us to tailor the appropriate model to the resource(s), assuming that the criteria for potential designation have first been met."
"Should a study of the Hudson River Valley be authorized by Congress, an extensive public involvement process would accompany the study since public support for any potential designation is a key aspect of the feasibility analysis," Ripps added. "A study must also provide an analysis of environmental, cultural and socio-economic impacts of a unit of the National Park System should one be determined eligible for establishment."
Currently, she added, the parks department has a cooperative relationship with the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, established by Congress in 1996, including support for the Thomas Cole House in Catskill.
This one seems destined to have a long roll-out time ahead of it...
Going National...
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein first came up with the idea to form a consortium of community banks to provide loans for small businesses under his Credit for Success Program a couple of months ago. Recently, Senator Charles Schumer took the idea statewide, forming consortiums around New York. Now, the senator has written to President Obama urging him to take the program nationwide.
Schumer said such a program would be complimentary to the initiative the President proposed to provide capital to community banks to lend to small businesses.
In his recent State of the Union Address, the President pledged to "take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat."
Schumer said he shares the President's goal of increasing small business lending and views the Credit for Success program as "the most effective way to increase small businesses' access to capital."
Legionaires!!!
The Legionella bacteria - which infected two residents of the Golden Hill Health Care Center last month, including one who later died - ended up being found in the hot water system at the Ulster County-owned nursing home, according to County Public Health Director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, who added that a high-temperature flush of the system was performed to kill off any of the bacteria that may have remained. The process will be repeated quarterly.
An alternative, shocking the building's water system with high levels of chlorine, was ruled out because the chemical could damage the aging system.
Two residents of Golden Hill - an 88-year-old woman and a 91-year-old woman - were diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease, a respiratory condition caused by the Legionella bacteria, earlier in January after first contracting pneumonia. The 91-year-old died on Jan. 12, while the 88-year-old was treated successfully and recovered, county officials said. Neither woman has been identified.
Afterwards, a process described by county officials as an "exhaustive on-site environmental assessment" was conducted at Golden Hill, focusing on the facility's water-distribution system. More than 30 water samples were sent to state laboratories.
Legionnaires' disease is a waterborne type of pneumonia caused by exposure to the Legionella bacteria. The bacteria usually is found in water vapors given off by showers or air conditioning systems. Golden Hill's air conditioning system was ruled out as the source of the problem because it has been turned off for months.
Shortly after the two cases of Legionnaires' disease were diagnosed, precautions btaken at Golden Hill focused on eliminating the sources of aerosolization of water, such as the use of showers. Residents were instructed to take baths instead, and, even though the disease cannot be contracted by drinking water, the nursing home had residents drink only bottled water.
Legionnaires' cannot be passed from person to person.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 8,000 and 18,000 Americans are hospitalized with Legionnaires' disease each year and 5 percent to 30 percent of cases can be fatal.
No other cases of the disease have been identified among Golden Hill residents, although a couple of years ago a Mt. Tremper man in his 60s came down was the disease, presumably while in Kingston. He was later cured.
Golden Hill uses city of Kingston water but has its own pumping station through which the water passes. Hasbrouck said that's why the search for the bacteria's source was confined to the nursing home's system.
Medical THC!
The State Assembly Health Committee passed legislation last month allowing the use of marijuana to treat serious, life-threatening illnesses under a doctor's supervision. The bill is similar to a measure passed by the Assembly in 2007 and one passed in New Jersey this year. The legislation, which received bi-partisan support, is now in the Assembly Codes Committee.
This legislation would allow a certified patient or designated caregiver with a valid registry ID card to possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana; authorize the state Department of Health to issue ID cards to certified patients and designated caregivers; allow doctors to certify the use of marijuana for intervals of up to one year for patients suffering from life-threatening conditions - only if the doctor determines it would be more effective than other drugs; and bar patients from using marijuana in public places.
While the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, has been approved for medical use by the Federal Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency since 1986 in synthetic pill form. Consuming the drug in its natural form - which physicians say is more effective - remains illegal.
Could be the dawning of an age of... now how did that go, again?
Homegrown!
Local musicians Mark Donato and Mark Brown performed original songs from their "twisted but heartfelt catalogs" on Saturday, February 6 at the Olive Free Library in West Shokan. Mark Brown, often accompanied by his band, Uncle Buckle, and Mark Donato, who lives less than a mile from the Library, both wanted to "bring homegrown music back to West
Shokan."
"We're hoping, by example, people will pick up on this," said Donato.
The Olive Free Library hosts a range of arts events-from the annual crafts fair and art exhibits (wonderful smorgasbords of regional talent) to the now-famous Trail Mix concerts (which feature renowned orchestral performers in an intimate setting).
Board member Freya DeNitto has been championing the Library as an arts venue, saying, "The library has a receptive community room for performance arts, and we'd like to see more artists use this venue."
Any interested artists should contact Ruth Ann Muller at the Olive Free Library at 657- 2482 or olivefreelibrary@hvc.rr.com.
Climate Change
Despite all the fun some are trying to have with the fact that major climate swings also include heavier snows, along with tropical storms, science continues to find new evidence of troubled times ahead.
A report released last month says that the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice could cost the United States a minimum of $2.4 trillion by 2050. The study, coauthored by Bard Center for Environmental Policy Director Eban S. Goodstein, is the first to quantify the global cost of losing the Arctic's climate cooling services.
The report, issued at a press conference in Iqaluit, Nunavut - a southeast Baffin Island town in Canada where G7 finance ministers began a two-day meeting to discuss the global economy - estimates that this year alone, the global cost of retreating Arctic sea ice and thawing permafrost caused by climate change could be between $61 billion and $371 billion. The report estimates that these costs could climb to the tens of trillions of dollars by the end of the century unless governments implement policies to reverse climate change.
"Putting a dollar figure on the Arctic's climate services allows us to better understand both the region's immense importance and the enormous price we will pay if the ice is lost," said Goodstein. "At the mid-range of our estimates, the cumulative cost of the melting Arctic in the next 40 years is equivalent to the annual gross domestic product from the economies of Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom combined."
The report, "An Initial Estimate of the Cost of Lost Climate Regulation Services Due to Changes in the Arctic Cryosphere," notes that the Arctic region is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. The loss of vast swaths of sea ice and snow that used to reflect sunlight results in the absorption of more solar energy, leading to warming. The thawing of permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, is releasing large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The increase in warming caused by a melting Arctic reinforces the need for governments to set meaningful CO2 reduction targets to address climate change. To arrive at the economic cost of Arctic melting, the report's authors converted projected trends in snow and ice loss and methane releases into carbon dioxide equivalents. Those were multiplied by the social cost of carbon, producing the range of initial dollar estimates cited in the report.
To view the report visit www.oceansnorth.org .
Meanwhile, new, tougher standards for ozone levels on a federal level could throw nearly the entire state, including the Hudson River Valley, into noncompliance with the federal Clean Air Act.
In August, the Obama administration is expected to announce new limits on ozone, a gas created by the mixture of high temperatures, sunlight and pollutants - particularly those emitted from motor vehicles, power plants and factories. The current standard of .075 parts per million was set in March 2008 after former President George W. Bush personally intervened to block a plan by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lower the standard to .070 ppm from .080, which was set in 1998. Although all areas of the state are reaching the .080 standard, many regions are struggling to reach the .075 standard.
Now, the EPA is considering a new standard of between .060 and .070 parts per million for allowable concentrations of ground-level ozone.
Among the areas that will be unable to meet even the more lax .070 parts per million standard is Dutchess County and the more densely populated areas of Ulster County, like Kingston and the town of Ulster.
Once the EPA settles on a final standard, states will have two years to develop a plan to meet it. They will then have between three and 20 years to meet the standard.
And speaking of climate issues, did you hear that Pope Benedict XVI denounced the failure of world leaders to agree to a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen last year, saying that world peace depends on safeguarding God's creation. The pontiff said it's a moral issue: Church teaching holds that man must respect creation because it's destined for the benefit of humanity's future. In his speech, he criticized the "economic and political resistance" to fighting environmental degradation and creating a new climate treaty at last month's negotiations in Copenhagen.
Essay Prize!
Graduating seniors at Margaretville, Onteora, Roxbury, and Andes Central Schools who answer that question in written form may be eligible to win a graduation prize of $150 plus a gift pertinent to the theme of their writing. The prize is sponsored by the Catskill Heritage Alliance. The only two requirements for submitting an entry are the title of the work, 'My Catskill Heritage,' and a limit of 750 words. It is entirely up to participating students to decide what the title means to them and to choose how to express that meaning-essay, poem, short fiction, whatever. The prize will consist of $150 in cash plus an item that, in the judges' determination, reflects and/or suits the content of the winning piece of writing.
Entries should be submitted by April 16 to school coordinators Gary Robson at Margaretville, Elaine Conroy at Onteora, Maggie Pebler at Roxbury, or Anthony Coiro at Andes. Entries will be judged on subject matter and of course on the quality of the writing by a jury composed of CHA members, and the winners will be announced and the prizes delivered at graduation, 2010.
The Catskill Heritage Alliance is a volunteer, non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to preserving the harmony between the villages of the central Catskills and the surrounding wilderness through community revitalization and open space conservation.

Supervisors...
In the 21st century, we could seek a merging or reconfiguration of school districts in Ulster County that would lead to greater efficiencies, eliminating overlapping services and saving taxpayers money, according to Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, speaking at the January 21 forum of regional town supervisors and elected officials in the newly renovated auditorium at Onteora Middle/High School.
The forum on Local Government, Local Education, sponsored by the Onteora Board of Education included panelists Assistant Deputy to County Executive Vincent Martello (in place of County Exec Mike Hein), Hurley town supervisor Gary Bellows and town board member Janet Briggs, Woodstock town supervisor Jeff Moran and Shandaken board member John "Jack" Jordan sitting in for Shandaken town supervisor Rob Stanley (Berndt Leifeld Supervisor of Olive was invited but canceled for health reasons).
Pointing out that school district lines have not been redrawn since the early 1950's, Cahill added that he believes it is time to rethink the way schools function, especially in the area of bureaucratic duties. He said it would be a State wide, "Berger Commission style study," (after the study that recommended the merging of hospitals in the area) that would look at services overlapping with BOCES or county government while still preserving community character.
Cahill said that State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated that school districts could save up to $400 million on back office services already available. The legislation, if approved, would mandate such services. Cahill said the legislation would require the commission to come up with findings based on regional community input followed by public hearings on the findings.
Panel moderator Brian Hollander, editor of Woodstock Times, asked town board members if there was any support among them for closing another school in the district to save money and deal with a dwindling student population. Both Moran and Jordan, a former interim superintendent and principal in the Onteora district, said no. Briggs, who is also Hurley's deputy supervisor, said it was a shame that West Hurley Elementary School, closed in 2004 was sitting empty.
Comedy Tonight!
The Shandaken Theatrical Society is presenting Joseph Kesselring's classic "Arsenic and Old Lace" at STS Playhouse three weekends in February, beginning February 12 with an opening night gala performance. Performances are February 12-14, 19-21, and 26-28. Friday and Saturday shows at 8pm and Sunday Matinees at 2pm.
"Arsenic and Old Lace" is a dark farce in which Mortimer, a young theatre-hating drama critic, is trapped between deciding whether to go through with an engagement and dealing with his homicidal spinster Aunts who poison unsuspecting old men with "elderberry wine.
Linda Burkhardt directs Joe Bonjiorno, former Broadway baby Ann Davies, STS veteran Deb Warren, Amos Newcombe, and Justin Waldo.
STS Playhouse is located at 10 Church Street in Phoenicia. Call 688-2279 to reserve tickets.