Follow Up on the News

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Claimed By The Esopus

There were no trees, roots or debris present, and no visible obstructions or entrapments anywhere nearby, only the force of the water and the naturally shifting stones of the creek bottom. And yet somehow about 3:20 PM on Sunday, August 17, 58 year-old Peter DeBaum of Kerhonkson, traveling over this stretch in an inner tube, became caught or pinned, and drowned.
Bystanders from the nearby Sleepy Hollow Campground, on the scene almost immediately, tried desperately to keep his head above water and free him. Within three minutes of the 911 call from the campground, Shandaken police and first responders from Phoenicia’s MF Whitney Hose Company arrived, several plunging into the raging current while others rigged an overhead line which was used to stabilize a boat from the county’s Swift Water Rescue team which arrived soon afterwards. Ultimately, all efforts proved futile.
According to Shandaken Ambulance chief Richard Muellerleile, DeBaum was pronounced dead at the scene by the Ulster County Medical Examiner.
“I think it was just a freak thing,” said Deputy Joe Stier, who heads the county’s Swift Water team, based at Ulster Hose Company #5 in Kingston which finally, together with local fireman and whitewater rescue personnel, extracted DeBaum.
As to what exactly may have happened, Stier speculated that DeBaum may have fallen out of his tube and tried to stand up, but been pushed down and held under by the force of the water.
DeBaum and his party had rented equipment from F& S Tube in Phoenicia, where according to owner Richie Bedner, he’d been a regular customer who had made the run several times before. The incident happened about a quarter mile upstream from the end of the commercial tubing run near the Catskill Mountain Railroad’s Mt. Pleasant station.
Three previous whitewater fatalities occurred in the summer of 2002, when kayaker Lawrence Kirwin and 17-year old tuber, Nicole Coppolino, were both caught in rapids; and in 2005, when Elaine Dier capsized in a kayak near the Route 28 bridge in Mt. Tremper.
Both of the 2002 deaths occurred just downstream from the Shandaken tunnel outlet and outside the stretch of the river used for commercial tubing. Both had become entrapped in a “strainer” of logs created by high waters.
The Coppolino acciudent occurred after the Brooklyn resident, her half-brother and a friend, apparently entered the river near where the portal from the Schoharie Reservoir empties into the Esopus. Reports at the time indicated that neither of the two businesses that rent tubing equipment supplied the three that day, even though the tube Coppolino was in resembled those used by F/S Tube Rentals, nor dropped them off at the point where they entered.
The parents of Coppolino and her half-brother Ronnie own a home near the portal. Richard Bedner, owner of F/S Tube Rental on Route 214, said that Ronnie, whose last name he did not know, was an occasional employee, and that Bedner had given him three tubes that “Ronnie kept at home and used on his own.”
Following Coppolino’s death, landowner Elizabeth Winograd, whose property abuts the creek, was named in a civil suit filed by Coppolino’s family. That suit was eventually settled by her insurer for $7,500 with no finding of any wrongdoing.
Winograd however, found that her liability insurance costs have tripled.
In the days following the recent accident, e-mail posts abounded from others on the creek that day, including members of the F&S party who noted that they had been told that they were sure to spill, and if so, the main thing was to hold on to their inner tube so it would not get lost, and not to attempt standing up in the rapids. Others complained about the length of time it took for them to be picked up and returned to their starting point in Phoenicia.
Harry Jameson, owner of the region’s most popular and tightly run operation, Town Tinker Tube Rentals, noted in a post-accident e-mail that, “There was a time delay from the initiation of the accident to when the emergency rescue team contacted the Town Tinker and made us aware of the fact, as well as telling us to shut down that section of river for the remainder of the day.”
Continuing, Jameson noted that, “The second delay was in the timing of when we were next contacted and told that our customers were being forced to exit the river and needed transportation back to Phoenicia. Both Town Tinker buses now had to switch their focus to transporting customers, not only from Mt. Pleasant but also from various locations on Route 28 and County Route 40. A number of customers who exited at Sleepy Hollow were delayed even further due to the inability of buses to enter the location with the rescue in process and all the emergency vehicles blocking passage. Once able, the Town Tinker bus picked up all the customers waiting at Sleepy Hollow campsite and returned them to the main location in Phoenicia.”
He added that his enterprise ended up giving out between 15 and 20 refunds for the day, then noted how his competitor’s practices, and inability to warn tubers of the dangers of the activity, “have put the industry in danger… We are a self-regulated industry. Do they not instruct their people how to float?
“We have strived for thirty years to be in 100% compliance in every aspect of running this business correctly and safely,” Jameson wrote, pointing out that in that time he’d been responsible for at least 2 million tubers on the Esopus… and not one death on his watch.
But he also added that, given the dangers of any outdoor activity – from bicycling and ledge climbing to skiing and even swimming – the tubing industry’s record was still safe.
Two hikers have fallen, one fatally, from nearby Kaaterskill Falls in Greene County this season, and the same weekend that the tuber died on the Esopus, a young man was found drowned at North/South Lake in Haines Falls.
“All in all, we felt terrible about this death, we were very impressed by the water rescue team, but we are concerned that people are insufficiently prepared when they go out tubing on this river,” wrote one of the bloggers in an e-mail following release of news of the recent death on the creek. “It is not the lazy day of sun that you hear of on the Delaware—this is white water, and it can be dangerous.”
Following Coppolino’s death in 2002, State Senator John Bonacic tried to initiate a state inquiry into making the Esopus safer, and Jameson has regularly cleaned the parts of the creek his tubers use of “strainers” and other debris ever since.
Representatives of both the state Department of Environmnetal Conservation and New York City Department of Environmental Protection, meanwhile, both noted their own own lack of jurisdiction over the state’s creeks, or activities within them.

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Killian Mansfield, 16, of West Shokan, NY, passed away on Thursday, August 20, a little under a week after the release of his album. Artist, musician, humanitarian, he waged a valiant battle against a rare form of cancer armed with an infectious sense of humor and a “life force” to be reckoned with.
He took up violin at age 3 and continued his dedication to music, winning an award for his elementary school music program (PS 24 in The Bronx, NY), and participating in what he called, “an outstanding string program” at Onteora High School. As a participant of the Fiddle & Dance camp run by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason at the Ashokan Center, he picked up the ukulele , an instrument that enabled him to continue playing music despite the limitations cancer imposed on his body, and made such an impact that a Pavilion at the Center is now named in his honor.
Killian loved the ukulele for its simplicity and ability to encourage egalitarian musicianship in young and old, professional and beginner. His philanthropic devotion was similar in its focus on empowerment. He wished, he would tell those who asked how he was, that more kids with cancer knew that choosing to eat well and doing acupuncture, reflexology, aromatherapy and the like can make them feel better. Then he started the Killian Mansfield Foundation to help children with cancer and other serious illnesses through health care that treats the whole child - mind, body and spirit.
Killian’s visual art reflected his infatuation with the art and science of origami. He created some of his own origami designs, and started a series of outdoor metal sculptures of origami animals. He loved and appreciated the natural world where he was thrilled by its color and sheer beauty. He believed in the Native American philosophy of animal spiritual experience, which much of his art reflects.
And that album, “Somewhere Else.” In the last few months of his life, with the assistance of world class musicians such as Dr. John, Kate Pierson, John Sebastian, Todd Rungdren, Levon Helm and many others, he summoned up all his fading strength and recorded Somewhere Else to benefit his foundation, and to send another message of empowerment for seriously ill children and teens.
Neighbor Ralph Legnini produced during a window of opportunity between a long hospitalization last winter and Killian’s entering hospice care last spring. And when everything was completed, recording-wise, the community gathered at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, spilling out onto the streets to celebrate not only this young man, but the spirited embrace of life and all its potential his example had spread to all of us.
“Conventional medicine does what it can to cure cancer and other diseases but sometimes the cure feels brutal and elusive,” Killian said at the time of his album’s release last month. “Integrative therapies are important because these practices are safe and available now to help make people feel better. Like integrative therapies, making this album with Ralph and all the other musicians has brought me ‘somewhere else’—beyond all this cancer business.”
Killian is survived by his devoted parents Phil and Barbara Mansfield, his cherished sister Calder Peace Mansfield (Cally) of West Shokan NY; his maternal grandparents Fleming and Brit Pfann of Silver City, NC, and John and Suzanne Bonitz of Wilmington, NC; his paternal grandparents Matt and Mary Mansfield of Rochester, NY; his uncles, John Bonitz, III of Pittsboro, NC, Chad Felton of Rochester, NY, and Brendan Mansfield of NYC; his aunts Lea Peace and Amanda Mansfield of Portland OR; his godparents, Lori Brown of The Bronx, NY and Breon Dunigan and Bob Bailey of Truro MA.
“When you’re a kid with cancer, there’s a lot you don’t have control of—even decisions are made for you,” he said, in those last interviews. “Cancer is just a disease. It doesn’t get to decide who I am or how I deal with feeling sick,”
The family requests donations to the Killian Mansfield Foundation in lieu of memorial gifts or flowers. A private and public celebration of Killian’s Life will be held on September 13 in West Shokan when there will be a public procession from St. Augustine’s Chapel to Bushkill Cemetery on September 13 and all are asked to bring drums, ukuleles, “whatever you can walk and play,” and learn the tune “Blessed” by Brett Dennen.
Further details will be announced in the next issue of this publication.
“I welcome the sun, the clouds and rain, the wind that sweeps the sky clean and lets the sun shine again. This is the most magnificent life there has ever been,” goes Dennen’s song. “Here is heaven and earth and the brilliant sky... in between. Blessed is this life and I’m gonna celebrate being alive.Bblessed is this life and I’m gonna celebrate being alive.”

Stimulating A Rail Trail

News of the possible funding started bubbling up at town board meetings over the summer, as Shandaken Supervisor Peter DiSclafani, who also serves on the Ulster County Trails Advisory Committee, mentioned requests he’d gotten from the office of State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill for spending plans to start preparing trail plans on currently unused stretches of the old U&D line from Phoenicia to the Delaware County line in Highmount.
According to DiSclafani, Cahill’s office had alerted them that it had $1 million in “reserve funds” that had originally been set aside for matching other funding for work on the lower portions of the rail bed renovation, and was looking to divvy it up for projects along the U&D line in Kingston, Hurley and Shandaken. They wanted the Shandaken supervisor to put in a written outline of what such funds could be used for, locally.
A year earlier, he added, DiSclafani had gone to a county legislative Rail Advisory Committee with Cahill’s Kingston Chief of Staff, Tom Hoffay, as well as members of the Catskill Mountain Rail Road board of directors, Earl Pardini, Mike Berardi and Harry Jameson. At that time, the Shandaken supervisor was told that CMRR had no problem with development of the western stretch of its line into a rail trail, if they could retain rights to return it to rail use, if possible.
The CMRR, a for-profit corporation that was briefly tied in with a proposal to bring Steamtown, USA to the region, has leased the rail line since 1983, via the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency. The county has owned the line since purchasing the tracks in 1979. The last commercial train to ride its length was in 1976.
Hoffay said this week that a $1 million grant had been set aside for the building of a “trail next to the rails” up the Route 28 corridor, and meetings had been held to determine means of spending such funds before they reverted to other state agencies, as has been occurring in the past year.
Others on the Trails and Rail Advisory Committees said that the reason for the current rush of interest in the monies was based on the fact that the TARP stimulus funds set aside for the larger rail projects had been pushed back from a 2010 start date to 2012 or 2013… and everyone figured it was better to utilize them elsewhere. The idea was to look into quickly-fundable feasibility studies, then project rep work that could later be applied as a match to further funding.
When Cahill’s office asked DiSclafani for a written narrative for what he might spend such funds on, it was suggested that he aim for $600,000.. or a half million for each of the 12 miles to be turned into a rail trail. Since he had already shown verbal commitment from CMRR board members, witnessed by other committee members, and Hoffay, the Shandaken project has been pushed towards a faster start-date… albeit with procedures for actual funding still being worked out as the process has unfolded.
Sound confusing? It certainly did to some of DiSclafani’s fellow Shandaken board members and others in recent months, who asked how such funding could be applied for without everyone being on board first.
DiSClafani has since replied that he had spoken to “most” of his board about what was underway, and besides… the process wasn’t formal yet, but a series of opportunities that were being met so a formal application process could occur with assured funding at the end.
It’s been that way, trails committee members said, with much of the Stimulus and other federal funding being used to get the economy back in gear of late. How many knew that much about the “Cash for Clunkers” program before it started drawing to a close? Or that such sums have been set aside for DOT projects throughout the area, including the current repaving of so much of Route 28?
Recently, however, Rail Advisory Board members, as well as CMRR board members, expressed some consternation at the speed of recent developments regarding a rail trail. The biggest beef? That somehow, a trail would keep a rail revival from occurring, even though all assurances have been met that such wouldn’t occur and that what the local system would end up looking like would be the Delaware & Ulster Railride and trail system in neighboring Delaware County, which allows for hiking and rail movement from Fleischmanns all the way to Roxbury, by train, and on to Oneonta and Central New York’s own rail trail system, by foot or bicycle.
Underlying CMRR’s nervousness, however, may be a couple of other items. First off, their for-profit status has long kept their funding levels lower than not-for-profits such as the DURR, which gets a huge chunk of its annual budget from the O’Connor Foundation, based in Delhi (but founded on an Olive fortune). Secondly, it turns out that because of its long-term lease situation with the county, via the IDA, the CMRR’s expenses come under county purview… and Ulster County Comptroller Eliot Auerbach has been “reviewing” what he can of their finances.
Finally, as reported in past stories, there’s long been a growing sense of regret, on many county officials’ parts, that CMRR has had control of such a key piece of county property for so long, without major benefits… yet. Even though CMRR has regularly countered that it is a volunteer effort, doing what it can, the nervousness persists.
But will it be enough to thwart the current push by DiSclafani to free up funds for an eventual rail trail through the Central Catskills, eventually hooking up to similar networks across the state? Do local Shandaken complaints about the nature of the supervisor’s process, predicated by the nature of the Assemblyman’s funding offer, add up to enough rancor to stop such monies from coming to town?
According to our Trails Advisory Committee sources, things are close to actual Requests for Proposals so each of the towns interested in the 28 trail can at least get $75,000 by year’s end for feasibility studies. Then local committees can be set up… with actual templates in place for action. And that promised, set aside money still as a goal. If we’re allowed to get at it.
The next Trails Advisory Committee meeting takes place Tuesday, September 8 in the County Office Building’s Library Conference Room in Kingston, start time 6:30 PM.