Follow Up on the News

These issues took attention away from the calmer business of the evening, which was primarily to hire an assistant recreation director and advertise for bids for summer field trips to be taken by kids in the summer recreation program.
The owner of the controversial farm stand, which Supervisor DiSclafani said is in violation of the local zoning code, took his case out in the open at the meeting, with his lawyer claiming that in the court of public opinion he has been found innocent and should be left alone.
Al Higley, representing his son’s Mount Tremper based produce stand called Hanover Farms, appeared before the Shandaken Town Board Monday with an Attorney and a number of supporters. The visit comes as Hanover Farms faces a court appearance for allegedly being in violation of the town’s laws.
The farmstand in Mount Tremper, located alongside route 28, has been issued a violation because, according to Shandaken Code Enforcement Officer Gina Reilly, its operator is not in compliance with the size restrictions specified within the permit granted by the town Planning Board in 2003.
The popular local business has grown beyond the scope of the 100 square foot size limit set by the town planning board, and appears to be closer to 1000 square feet in size. There are also items for sale at the business which, to some, make it more of a retail business than a farm stand.
Hanover Farms was issued a violation in January, Reilly said, with a clause stating that it must comply before opening this season. On April 11th the farm opened. Reilly, having not received a response, sent a notice of violation immediately, giving its owner 30 days to comply with the conditions of the permit.
Should the farm stand not be in compliance when that 30 days are up, Reilly said last month, she would then issue the owners an appearance ticket to go to Shandaken Justice court, where fines of up to $250 per week can be levied against code violators. She hopes, however, that it does not come to that.
“We hope to come to agreement,” said Reilly, who replaced long time Code Officer Glenn Miller, who resigned at the end of last year. “They’ve been in violation since 2003.”
But on Monday, Attorney Daniel Heppner emphatically denied any wrongdoing, saying that no violation could be proven in court.
Heppner said he was present to let the town board know that his client wants to discuss the issues with town and reach an amicable solution. “Al Higley wants to co-exist with other businesses in this town,” Heppner said.
But Heppner also delivered a threat that if the town was not prepared to reach an agreement with his client than officials would find themselves embroiled in what Heppner described as “expensive litigation.”
Before being told by his lawyer to stop talking, Higley chimed in that such litigation would cost taxpayers “a lot of money.”
The two were armed with a petition said to carry 1000 signature in support of Hanford farms.
“The court of public opinion does not support the effort to shut him down,” Heppner said.
In a phone interview the following day, Heppner said it was not clear to him what the town board was going to do, but he hoped he would get a phone call from DiSclafani about the matter soon. He also said that his first choice to solve the problem would be to have the Town’s Zoning Board of Appeals amend the farm stands special use permit by increasing the amount of square footage allowed.
“It is something they have absolute power to do,” he added.
In other news, Councilman Robert Stanley said he was shocked when he walked into town hall last week to discover the rest of the town board together in the Supervisors office. Stanley, a Republican, accussed the rest of the board, all Democrat, of meeting without him. The session, Stanley said, constitutes an official meeting of the Town Board and one that should not have happened.
Councilman Tim Malloy tried to cut Stanley off, saying that the gathering was coincidental.
“We didn’t meet on anything,” Malloy said.
Stanley said that, regardless, they must have talked about something.
“Chicken,” Malloy replied.
But Stanley said that all board members should be aware that such meetings would be interpreted by the public as secret sessions and so they should all take steps to make sure they don’t create the appearance of impropriety.
“If the same thing happened under a previous administration we’d hear screaming,” Stanley said.
Stanley continued to complain that a letter had been sent to Crossroads Ventures demanding the company give the town $15,000 to be placed in escrow and used to pay for the review of the Companies application to build a Hotel/Spa Resort on Highmount. Stanley said that, to date, no application has been submitted on the town level.
Several years ago Crossroads agreed to supply an escrow fund to the town for review of the project, which was first presented in 1999, but never fully funded the account when the Town was hiring Professionals to scrutinize the project during the environmental review that precedes a formal application to the towns planning board. The Town believes the money should be used to pay for those professionals, but Crossroads has disagreed, claiming instead that they will make money available only during the local level review.

The Treasures Of History

These objects are among the multitude of fascinating relics on display at the Town of Shandaken Historical Museum in Pine Hill, where the new director, Margarete de Soleil, is bringing our town’s past into the 21st century.
De Soleil, an artist living in Big Indian, started work in January, when she began photographing and scanning items from the collection to facilitate search and study, while instituting several new programs to enrich our lives with an awareness of local history. A new exhibit, organized by town historian and museum founder Nancy Smith, features photos and documents from the twelve hamlets that make up the Town of Shandaken.
A recent tour of the museum began in the office, where de Soleil showed off a state-of-the-art scanner. “It even does slides and negatives, which we have a huge collection of,” she explained. “We’re seeking an intern from a college or from Onteora High School to help scan the collection.” Volunteers Flavia De Mola and Evelyn Augusto have already begun the process, and de Soleil has photographed 70 percent of the objects on display. “We have a handwritten ledger of everything in the collection, but it’s hard to search. We can put letters and documents onto the computer so they’re enlarged and easier to read, and that will make room for items we have in storage. My vision is to have twelve flatscreen computers that are interactive, so you could get information and go as deep as you want on a particular subject.”
She opens the top drawer of a file cabinet filled with folders, each bearing a family name. “We have genealogical information on local families, inquiries that have been made, obituaries, and other documents.” Another cabinet holds census data, election lists, records of births, marriages, and deaths, material on subjects such as floods, wars, the Chichester furniture factory, local personalities. Anyone can make an appointment to come and search through the files.
“A graduate student from Columbia University called recently to ask about the Rainmaker’s Flood in the 1950’s, which I had never heard of,” de Soleil recalls. “A scientist came and seeded the clouds because there was a long drought, and New York City was low on water. That year there was a lot of flooding, and some people thought it was due to the rainmaker, so the town sued the city. Nothing came of it. I scanned and emailed the information to the student, and she even found the lawyer involved.”
What brings people to the museum, besides curiosity about the past? De Soleil answers instantly: “People come to research their family history or the house they live in, what was destroyed in a fire, what was rebuilt, who lived there.” An invaluable resource will be Nancy Smith’s new book, And They Stayed, which collects photographs, advertisements, and anecdotal information on the town’s many hotels and boarding houses in operation beginning in the early 1800s. June La Marca, a member of the museum’s board of directors, comments, “In those days, almost every house had rooms to rent for tourists. That’s how people survived financially.”
In the Big Indian section of the “Twelve Hamlets” exhibit, de Soleil points to a 1960s photograph of a couple behind the counter of Aley’s General Store, now Morra’s Market. There is La Marca, looking like a movie star, perhaps Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo. In the display case is a card from her campaign for town council. La Marca was involved in the establishment of the museum, when she helped Nancy Smith catalog the collection of memorabilia she had accumulated over the years. Smith, whom de Soleil calls “a walking encyclopedia” of local history, petitioned the town to move the items into the 1920’s school building in Pine Hill when it became available, creating the museum in 1989.
A man walks in and signs the guest book. His name is John O’Brien, from Franklin, Massachusetts. “Sixty-five years ago, I was a citizen of Pine Hill,” he says. “My grandfather lived here, and my mother came up when my father was a gunner in the Second World War. I lived down near the Overhead Door Company.” Soon he is immersed in a book of photographs of Pine Hill.
La Marca explains how de Soleil was hired. “We’ve been neighbors for three years. The previous director was Evie Bennett, but her health prevented her from continuing. After talking to Margarete, I felt this woman was perfect. She’s congenial, she’s artistic, and she’s always two steps ahead of you when you’re thinking. She’s worth more than she’s getting.” Other candidates were interviewed, but de Soleil’s past experience includes drawing maps for the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., work as a natural science illustrator for science centers, and building bird and nature museums from scratch. She works a little more than half time at the museum and almost full time at her studio art.

All are still riding the wave of public support that brought them into office in all but Olive, speaking with people and getting different views. Two were seen marching in Memorial Day parades that had a warm reception followed by more meet-n-greet.
Osmond was already sworn in the night of the May 20 election, filling recently resigned Herb Rosenfeld’s seat. The other three will take their seats July 1.
Put into motion at a May 6 school board meeting were plans to close Phoenicia elementary school as part of the district reconfiguration. Dates were scheduled for discussion at the June 3 meeting and a board vote was scheduled for June 17. Osmond said in a recent phone conversation that if the outgoing board were to proceed she would try to talk them out of it, noting that the election was a mandate to keep the three elementary schools open.
But Superintendent Leslie Ford put a stop to it all and even though they have not finalized the agenda for June 3, for all practical purposes she said, “I don’t think it will be on the agenda.”
With that out of the way, beginning July 1, the school board will still have much on its plate just going about the daily grind of school business, but also reorganizing what they deem as too many cogs in the wheel. Added to that grind is the reshuffling of committees, including the dissolving of some.
“I was told (by district clerk Jeanne Shultis), that only the audit committee is a state mandate,” said Osmond. Although she believes there are necessary committees, they plan to re-examine, “their purpose and effectiveness.”
Flayhan explained that committees often “create layers of unnecessary bureaucracy and expense,” that lead to a lack of transparency since the public cannot attend the multitude of meetings. For example, the district calendars put together by the communication committee cost around $24,000 that Flayhan would often see “in the recycle bins at the Post Office.” On the other hand she would like to read the Green committee’s report, a document she said was never analyzed.
Once they get past the usual re-organization of district procedures, the new board members say they will call for a halt to the five-through-eight middle school proposal connected to the High School. McGillicuddy said they were elected to stop it. She added that she had spoken to many teachers who did not support the plan and that she and her fellow incoming board slate is listening to everyone’s ideas, including the possible resurrection of a Plan A that would keep three elementary schools open and create a six-through-eight middle school.
Flayhan said that the people she spoke with want to see a closer look at all costs. She has already been speaking with staff, including school nurses, and discovered that were a Middle school expanded, additional nursing staff would need to be hired. She also wants to explore former board member Herb Rosenfeld’s idea of creating pods of grades seven/eight, nine/ten and eleven/twelve as well as the possibility of bringing Pre-Kindergarten into the district schools.
In an email Legnini wrote, “Aside from all the hot issues on the table, we need to energize the community to have pride, commitment, and involvement with their schools, and hopefully chip away at the division between the towns.” He said he met with Olive town supervisor Berndt Leifeld and explained, “There will be nothing anti-Olive coming from the new board members.”
But school board member Rick Wolff did not seem so enthusiastic about any of the new plans, or board members. In a recent online response to an article in the Kingston Daily Freeman, Wolff wrote, “Let’s stop everything in its tracks and go back and study it for three more years. Let see if that will give our kids the 21st century skills they need. Let’s send the seventh and eighth graders back to the elementary schools so they don’t have access to the sports, music and technology. Let’s stand still and pay $42,000 per kid in six years and still have those great metal lockers.”
Flayhan responded, “I hope he can listen and understand; we don’t want three more years of the empty West Hurley building, we didn’t want more studies after Plan A, we want upgrades now.”
Legnini wrote that he believed Wolff to be a “good man,” probably disappointed with the outcome of the election.
Regarding other pending matters, the newly elected board members believe the middle/high school lockers proposed for replacement at a cost of $350,000 is an unnecessary expense. Flayhan said she listened to teachers’ complaints about the out dated science labs and believes the priority for upgrades should be to them instead of lockers.
They are all having preliminary conversations with Ford in order to catch up on district business so they can have a smooth transition. Legnini wrote, “We have a lot to learn and a lot to do.”
With so many district issues, Osmond said they are all very realistic regarding the challenges ahead of them.
“You are either a can do or can’t do person,” she said. “I like to think of myself as a can-do person.”
On June 3 in Phoenicia, a tense board meeting with both new and departing school board members in attendance included much lip service towards niceties, including accolades for all the present board has done, plus some straight out defensiveness.
Late in the evening after a large audience had left, outgoing OCS Board President Maryjane Bernholz read a statement on behalf of the three outgoing board members. In it she explained their vision on consolidating the district and through restrained anger explained that the taxpayer would be burdened, “because of a missed opportunity.” Cindy O’Connor asked that the whole statement be entered into the minutes so the public can have access to it.
“Our district is faced with difficult realities and decisions that our long term educational fiscal plan addressed,” she said, explaining their vision of savings through maximum use of state aid, consolidation of staff and cost savings through the closing of Phoenicia Elementary. “Through this election, good command positioning has been compromised by bad emotional decisions.”
Former school board candidate Adam Pollack, soon to be an Onteora graduate, presented the school board with a test tube of dark brown water that was taken out of the sink at one of the High School science labs.
“I know this can’t be a problem addressed this year, it but should be for the 09/10 budget, through remodeling the science labs because I don’t think this comes from the water source, but from the pipes in the science class.”
In a separate interview, Ford said it was not a source of drinking water, but the brown water problem stems from old pipes and it is something they must address. She added that drinking water is a separate issue where the water has high levels of Manganese and Iron, but still is within state regulations.
. The school board approved a request to provide engineering services from Clark Patterson Lee for the remediation of the water.