Newsbriefs

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9/10/2009

Scenic Byway...
The Central Catskill Planning Alliance is ready to take the next step toward securing a scenic byway designation for the Route 28 Corridor, and they want some help to do it.
“The last meeting was the kickoff,” said Peter Manning, Regional Planner for the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and the advisor to the Alliance, referring a to a recent session on August 27 where it was agreed to put the word out that volunteers are needed to help start accumulating all sorts of information about the corridor from Olive to Andes.
Old photographs, history, anecdotes about people and places, and just about anything that will help paint a picture of what makes this corridor special is welcome.
Manning said that volunteers are needed because the collaborative is proceeding with a shoestring budget. A $200,000 state grant has not come through as planned, due to last year’s budget pull-backs, so the Catskill Watershed Corporation put up $50,000 to get things moving.
Manning said the collaborative could accomplish what it intended to do with the once-expected $200,000 with volunteer help.
Another bright spot is the possible merger with a Main Street Planning effort in Shandaken, which Manning said would be redundant otherwise.
For now, all interested are encouraged to start thinking about everything that makes the communities along the route 28 corridor unique and begin compiling anything they might have or know about to support that.
Next month the collaborative will prepare a preliminary visions and goals statement following an input gathering session where residents get to help shape both.

That Dog Story...
Olivebridge resident David Delisio’s months-long fight over the way he kept his dogs, and property, reached a denouement in Olive Town Court recently when Town Justice Ron Wright agreed to his request for an Adjournment Contemplating Dismissal instead of taking the 18 counts of animal cruelty brought against him by the Ulster County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to trial. Under the ACD, all charges against Delisio will be dismissed in six months unless he gets arrested again. Also as part of the sentence, Delisio agreed to one announced inspection of his property by the SPCA.

Waning Football
Yet another local high school has closed up its varsity football franchise in the area recently, indicating a shift in the region’s, and perhaps even the nation’s sports profile. According to reports, it was health and safety issues stemming from a player shortage that prompted the Rondout Valley Central School District to cancel its upcoming varsity football season in recent weeks… even while athletic directors expressed disappointment over “the unfortunate situation and hardship placed on seniors unable to play football.”
With younger students now coming up through junior varsity teams from the junior, senior and freshman classes, the current decision is expected to be for one year only… at least for now.
A similar situation in the Onteora School District several years ago has yet to be reversed, with parents now pushing extracurricular Pop Warner and similar league play for elementary and middle school players as a means of rebuilding the region’s football presence.
In June, Rondout experienced a turnout of 72 potential players attending an organizational meeting, although it was determined that between 20 and 25 lacked any experience within the program. When weekly workouts started in July, however, participation dropped immediately to the point where only 14 players showed up for the opening day of practice.

DMV Hikes
As part of the enacted 2009-10 State Budget, drivers’ license and vehicle registration fees increased by 25 percent on September 1. Additionally, effective April 1, 2010, all registered vehicles will be required to get new license plates and renewed registrations. This will require all New York State motorists to pay not only the increased fees but also an additional $10 fee for the new license. Stay tuned for more rising costs… and folks trying to make political hay out of all that’s become necessary to keep our governments working as we’ve all become used to.

Trail Mix Time!
Trail Mix Concerts will be hosting the opening fall concert of their annual season on Sunday September 20th at 2:30pm with Vista Lirica, a chamber ensemble combining music with environmental consciousness. Neil Rynston, clarinet, Lawrence Zoernig, cello, Beth Levin, piano and guest artist violinist, Laufey Sigur<eth>ardóttir will perform works by Khachaturian, Simic, Zemlinsky, Ives and Brahms.
Other concerts coming up include an October Classical Jam concert and an event in November with Ensemble Caprice, who recently won the prestigious 2009 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year. Winter concerts include three duos — Cello & Piano with Amy Sue Barston and Ieva Jokubaviciute in December, a Two Piano program with Babette Hierholzer and German pianist Jurgen Appel in January, and a dramatic young Violin & Piano duo, Guy Figer and Anna Khanina in February; while the series’ spring concerts start in March with pianist Inna Faliks returning with a beautiful program of Chopin and Schumann, followed in April with one of the crown compositions for the piano, Beethoven’s Diabbelli’s Variations, performed by pianist Beth Levin. Trail Mix’s final concert, in May, will be an afternoon of Brahms with pianists Ami and Pascal Rogé.
For further information on this sparkling locally-originated and based series, which takes place at the Olive Free Library on Route 28A in West Shokan and is run by the same folks behind Woodstock Pianos, call 657-6864 or visit www.trailmixmusic.org.

Candlelit Protest
Hundreds of candles were lit by Catskills residents protesting the possibility of natural gas drilling into the Marcellus Shale that underlies the region along the Delaware River in Sullivan County’s Narrowsburg recently, timed to affect the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s deliberations over a potential ban on the controversial new technology. Reportedly, thousands of people from New York State and adjacent Pennsylvania communities gathered in protest Sunday night, September 6, lighting candles at 22 spots along the river.

Local Government
Registration is now open for the Ninth Annual Catskills Local Government Day, to be held Thursday, Oct. 15 at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. The Catskill Watershed Corporation will sponsor the event, whose theme this year is “Climate Change Made Local.” To see the agenda and register electronically, go to www.cwconline.org. Registration materials may also be obtained by calling toll free 877-WAT-SHED, or 845-586-1400.
Elected and appointed government officials and employees, economic and environmental planners, and interested community members are welcome to attend. Space is limited; registration deadline is October 9. A $10 fee includes all presentations and workshops, as well as lunch.
The event will feature presentations on the science of climate change along with discussions of its potential impacts on municipal and community infrastructure and on the economy of New York and the Catskills. Examples of area municipalities that have already taken steps to address flooding hazards and insurance costs, reduce energy use and minimize their carbon footprints will be highlighted.
Members of planning and zoning boards may wish to take advantage of a two-hour training session on “Promoting Climate Protection Through Land Use Tools.” A workshop for town board members, highway department heads and other municipal officials will focus on examining the vulnerability of community infrastructure – from buildings and parks to sewer plants, water systems and street lights. “Green Means Business” will look at how businesses can save money using sustainable practices, and the potential for jobs in the renewable energy field.
The featured lunchtime speaker, Mimi Katzenbach, will explain the Transition Movement by which communities work towards locally-based energy, economic and social systems – not unlike the Catskills of the pre-World War II era — as a strategy for meeting a future of weather extremes, fossil fuel depletion and other challenges.
Local Government Day is being planned with the environment in mind. Promotion, outreach and registration are being handled electronically to reduce paper consumption. Those unable to register online will receive materials printed on 100% recycled paper. To encourage car pooling to the conference, CWC will give bottles of local maple syrup to all those who arrive in vehicles occupied by two or more people.
Belleayre Ski Center, the venue for the event, has been working diligently for the past few years to cut resource and energy consumption and to recycle waste. Attendees will have an opportunity to view plans for the new “green” lower lodge being planned at the state-run facility. Belleayre management and its food service purveyor, Boston Concessions, are working in collaboration with CWC consultant Hospitality Green to address potential areas of waste and redundancy at Local Government Day.
Currently expansion of the ski center, plus a conjoined proposal to build a 928 room resort on its borders, has been held up, in part, because of the state-mandated requirement that its review include ample data about possible effects of climate change, as well as possible mitigation elements.

At Onteora…
The Onteora School District still has its new 2009/2010 school calendars held up at the printers and wanted to remind folks of several interim calendar items: Middle School physicals and a Phoenicia PTA Back-To-School Breakfast for staff and bus drivers on Friday, September 11; Middle and High School fall photos, and a Phoenicia Elementary School book fair, on Monday, September 14, and Tuesday, September 15; and a 3:30 PM Audit Committee meeting on the 14th; a Middle School Back to School night event on the 15th; Middle School Physicals and a Phoenicia PTA meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16; a High School Alliance meeting and Phoenicia Open House on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 17, and a Bennett School Welcome Back Picnic on Friday, September 18.

Living At Home
A new AFL/CIO survey, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade” has found that about a third of workers under 35 live at home with their parents, and they’re far less likely to have health care or job security than they were ten years ago in a similar 1999 survey,
A quarter of young workers surveyed said they don’t earn enough to even pay their monthly bills, a 14% rise from 1999. 35 percent are significantly less likely to have health care than older workers, only 31 percent make enough money to pay their bills while putting anything aside in savings, and almost half are more worried than hopeful about their economic future.
The 100,000 young workers surveyed also strongly prefered public investment to create jobs over reducing the deficit. And by a 50 to 23 percent margin, they think workers are better off with a union. They support Obama and identify with Democrats much more strongly than older workers.
Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. In the age group 25 through 34 years old, traditionally a prime age range for getting married and starting a family, just 81 of 100 men were employed.
For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16- through 19-year-old age group...
Yikes…

The Martin Murder
Daniel L. Malak, 29 of Kerhonkson, but jailed in Attica for years now, was indicted by an Ulster County Grand Jury on the charge of second degree murder for the killing of Joseph Martin, then 15, on March 25, 1996. Malak is currently doing time for an unrelated murder and is the second suspect charged with killing Martin, who was murdered near the intersection of Schwabie Turnpike and Samsonville Road in Kerhonkson. Alexander Barsky pled guilty a year ago to a reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Barsky agreed to testify against Malak, as part of the plea deal. He claims Malak was the ‘mastermind’ of a ‘revenge plot’ to kill Martin.
For more than a decade the Joseph Martin matter has been the subject of intense investigation by the New York State Police. District Attorney Holley Carnright said, in announcing the indictment Tuesday.
The County DA’s office said Malak was to be transported from the State Correctional Facility at Attica to Ulster County for arraignment following the Labor Day weekend.

More Wireless…
Ulster County has submitted an application for $4 million in federal stimulus money to build a high-speed, wireless broadband system to provide Internet service to unserved and underserved areas of the county. County Executive Michael Hein said the entire county needs access to the global economy via broadband.
Targeted areas of Ulster County would include the towns of Rochester, Wawarsing, Denning, Hardenburgh, Woodstock, Shandaken, Shawangunk, Olive and other areas. The total project would cost $4.8 million with the funds not covered by the federal money picked up by other non-county sources, said Hein.
Also on the stimulus front, Ulster County Planning Commissioner Dennis Doyle has proposed the county seek the designation of Recovery Zone for the sole purpose of maximizing the flexibility of funds from two new bonding authorities made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
According to Doyle the term “Recovery Zone” as defined in the ARRA is, “any area designated by the county having significant poverty, unemployment rate, home foreclosures, and general distress.” To designate the entire county “gives the maximum amount of flexibility and allows you to look at funding regional projects.”
Doyle explained that what these two bonding authorities would make available is the allocation of about $6 million in economic bonds and about $8.8 million in facility bonds. The benefits of utilizing these bonds, he added, would be to lower bonding costs to the county and potentially lower bonding costs for economic development projects.

Developments...
While everyone else in Ulster seems aimed at governmental stimulus funds, the board of directors of the Ulster County Development Corp. has undergone a shakeup that shifts the weight of membership more toward the private sector than the public sector. Ron Marquette, the head of community relations at Ulster County Community College and chairman of the UCDC board for nearly two years, said 15 of the board’s 25 voting members are now from the private sector, and that the move is designed to “make the UCDC more relevant” and increase an emphasis on private enterprise in Ulster County.
Paul Rakov, the agency’s marketing director and a former top level employee at Dean Gitter’s Emerson Resort and Belleayre Resort developments, said the board’s new members are Ken Davenport of Heritagenergy; John Gill of Gill Farms; T.N. Thompson of Millrock Technologies; and Paul Hakim of Wilbur National Bank.
A new “Balanced Growth Committee” has been set up to help businesses that want to move into the area and create jobs “by educating the public about developers, providing a voice at public hearings and assisting them through any logistical problems with moving into the area,” according to Rakov, quoting Marquette. The committee will “help people move faster” and serve as a resource center for prospective businesses, he said.
The creation of more shovel-ready sites for new businesses will also be a priority, according to UCDC officials.

Health Alert…
A new alert from the State of New York Department of Health concerns a “health advisory” for an intestinal infection called vibrio parahaemolyticus, which has seen an increase from NYC up through Albany County since June 1. Vibrio, they’re saying, is caused by eating raw fish OR undercooked fish such as seared tuna. Symptoms can occur within hours to five days but the usual set of stool tests do not include the one for vibrio.
Also, it seems there is no treatment for relief, although the infection is self-limiting and does require constant hydration of your system.
The faxed notice was sent to all hospitals, healthcare providers, laboratories, and local health departments.
Watch that sushi, for the time being at least…

Tax Junk Food?
One of the most detailed investigations ever carried out into obesity in the US has proposed increased taxes on junk food and heavily-sweetened soft drinks, a move that will be aggressively resisted by the multibillion-dollar beverage industry.
The report, Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity, written jointly by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, says: “In the United States, 16.3% of children and adolescents between the ages of two and 19 are obese. This epidemic has exploded over just three decades ... The prevalence of obesity is so high that it may reduce the life expectancy of today’s generation of children and diminish the overall quality of their lives.”
It suggests state legislators, governors, mayors, community leaders and others take action rather than waiting for a lead from the federal government. These actions include offering tax credits as an incentive for grocery stores to open up in poor neighborhoods, building pavements to encourage walking, creating more bike trails, and reducing video games and other sedentary pursuits in preschool and afterschool clubs.
“Childhood obesity poses a serious threat to health in the United States,” the report says.
Congress, while drawing up a bill before the summer as part of President Barack Obama’s drive for health reform, proposed a federal tax on soft drinks.
The Congressional Budget Office, set up to provide members of the House and Senate with independent advice, estimates that a three-cent tax would generate $24bn over the next four years, which would help pay for health reform.
But it appears to be backing down in the face of an intensive advertising campaign backed by the American Beverage Association, which includes Coca Cola. The association in July set up a new lobbying group, Americans Against Food Taxes. The group says: “Discriminatory and punitive taxes on soda and juice drinks do not teach our children to have a healthy lifestyle and have no meaningful impact on child obesity or public health.”
The group has been running an aggressive advertising campaign over the summer that shows a family enjoying soft drinks on a camping holiday, with a voice-over saying “this is no time for Congress to be adding taxes on the simple pleasures we all enjoy.”
US obesity rates rose 37% between 1998 and 2006 to the point where more than 26% of Americans are now obese.
Obese children and adolescents are more likely than their lower-weight counterparts to develop hypertension, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes.
Obesity-related health spending has grown to $147 billion a year, double what it was nearly a decade ago, according to a study published by the journal Health Affairs.
Obesity-related health problems account for 9.1% of the total US health budget, up from 6.5% in 1998. Obese people spend 40% more - or $1,429 more per year — in healthcare costs than people of normal weight.

Help On The Way
The Rural Ulster Preservation Co. (RUPCO) and Family of Woodstock are teaming up to assist the homeless and those at risk of homelessness as part of a housing program that’s being financed with a state grant totaling $1,019,242. Both Kevin O’Connor, RUPCO’s executive director, and Michael Berg, who holds the same title at Family, say the partnership will make services for people who are homeless and nearly homeless more effective.
The two agencies worked together in applying for the grant from the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. The local award — formally designated for RUPCO — is among $25 million that has come to the state from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly called the federal stimulus package.
In the new effort, Family will provide case management services — including finding out whether a person needs job training, whether they have health issues, how a person can get needed services and whether they should go back to school so that they can get a “living wage” job — and RUPCO will be dealing with the housing side.
The joint effort is called the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program and some of it will focus on people who are at the brink of becoming homeless.

Reservoir News
New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the City of New York recently announced an agreement providing temporary additional releases of water from three New York City reservoirs to the Delaware River in anticipation of a future shutdown of the Rondout to West Branch Tunnel. Under the terms of the agreement now in effect, total supplemental water available to be released from the Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink reservoirs, which all feed the Delaware River, could be as high as 50 billion gallons over the course of this program that is scheduled to expire on May 31, 2010. These temporary releases will be in addition to water that will be released under the Decree Parties’ September 2007 Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) agreement that was amended in December 2008.
The supplemental releases will be based on National Weather Service (NWS) long-term probabilistic reservoir inflow forecasts, New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) historical inflow data, and the water supply condition of each reservoir. Acting in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, NYCDEP will determine which shutdown supplemental release quantity to use for the three reservoirs. The release amounts are expected to be reevaluated on a weekly basis in conjunction with the issuance of updated NWS probabilistic forecasts and be adjusted accordingly.
The 45-mile-long tunnel transports water from the city’s Rondout Reservoir to its West Branch Reservoir in the Croton Watershed. This tunnel is in need of repairs in order to improve the reliability and long-term sustainability of the city’s drinking water supply system.
The releases will not affect any of the reservoirs most of us know here within the Ashokan reservoir basin.

Casino Watch
Assistant Secretary of the Interior and head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Larry EchoHawk toured the three sites of proposed Native American casinos in Sullivan County a couple of weeks ago, but would only say he was on a fact-finding tour.
He will have to make decisions about those three and other proposals around the country, including elsewhere in the Catskills possibly including the lower Catskills, that would like land placed in trust so that tribes can build the gaming facilities.
Senator Charles Schumer made it quite clear that he supports gaming and what it would do for the tribes and the region.
Before the tour, EchoHawk met with Congressman Maurice Hinchey, Schumer, New York Senator John Bonacic, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and a number of local officials in separate closed door sessions with a group of people opposed to casinos and a group in favor of them.
Meanwhile, the recently closed and bankrupted Nevele Resort outside Ellenville was sold to unnamed developers in recent weeks and the watchdog group Catskill Mountainkeeper has started sending out alerts about what they’re dubbing “the Catskills casino scheme.” The latter notices point out how new financiers behind the Concord, and possibly the Nevele land ownership shifts included the same Malaysian company that financed the startup of Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut and the Seneca Niagara Casino in New York.
“The casino scheme is massive and unprecedented,” Mountainkeeper claims, pointing to the casino proposals’ estimates of over 6 million visitors a year. “A new ‘Casino City’ with multiple casinos - 3,4,5 even 6 tribes and multiple independent sovereign nations, police forces and interests will be created. So where is the cumulative economic, environmental and social impact study for this? Where is the traffic study? Where is the impact study on crime, addiction, healthcare and emergency services for this new Casino City? The answer is that there is none.”
Stay tuned…

Decriminalizing
Argentina and Mexico have taken significant steps towards decriminalizing drugs amid a growing Latin American backlash against the US-sponsored “war on drugs”. Argentina’s supreme court has ruled it unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption, an eagerly awaited judgment that gave the government the green light to push for further liberalization.It followed Mexico’s decision to stop prosecuting people for possession of relatively small quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Instead, they will be referred to clinics and treated as patients, not criminals.
Brazil and Ecuador are also considering partial decriminalization as part of a regional swing away from a decades-old policy of crackdowns still favored by Washington.
“The tide is clearly turning. The ‘war on drugs’ strategy has failed,” Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president, has said. “The report of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy has certainly helped to open up the debate about more humane and efficient policies. But, most of all, the facts are speaking by themselves.”.
Reform campaigners have long argued that criminalization enriched drug cartels, fuelled savage turf wars, corrupted state institutions and filled prisons with addicts.

The Star Effect...
The enacted 2009-10 State Budget eliminated the STAR Rebate Program (at a total of $1.6 million), which provided an average rebate to homeowners in the Mid-Hudson Region between $104 and $1,186, depending on each home’s individual assessment and income. Enhanced STAR recipients received even more to reflect seniors with moderate to low incomes, decreased ability to pay property tax bills, some of which reach $10,000 or more in this area. In total, the loss of the rebate check is what’s made those school tax bills look so big. .

Ashokan Boating?
On Wednesday, September 23 at 8:00 PM, Trout Unlimited’s Ashokan Pepacton Watershed Chapter will be presenting a session on the pilot program currently underway for boating on the Cannonsville Reservoir at the Boiceville Inn on Route 28.
John Vickers, who is Chief of the Western Operations Division of the Bureau of Water Supply for the New York City
Department of Environmental Protection, will give a presentation about the program that was recently introduced and includes the daily use of sailboats, kayaks, canoes, and sculls on the reservoir. This is the first time New York City has opened their reservoir property to recreational boating.
The Chapter1s monthly meeting
begins at 6:30 pm with a fly tying demonstration, followed by a short business meeting. The presentation begins at 8 pm. The entire evening is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please visit www.apwctu.org



tween $50,000 and $200,000 in further legal fees... and no assurance of a win in the case.
Tax Assessor Heidi Clark worked up some examples of how the settlement would impact individual taxpayers. A property in town with an assessed value of $30,000, she said, would pay an extra $12.30 to pick up the slack. But those in Pine Hill can expect to pay more than twice that amount, and taxpayers in Big Indian and Oliverea will pay an extra $17.10/
Prior to the settlement, town officials thought the plant was worth about $70 million. The City’s Department of Environmental Protection figured it at more like $30 million
The settlement, prepared by the attorneys involved, meets near the middle and results from a lawsuit filed against Shandaken by the City in 2007 that claimed the property was over assessed. The settlement covers the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, but does not require any repayment to the city for those years. It does reduce the City’s tax responsibility for the Pine Hill plant from now through 2011, but also prevents the city from bringing any legal challenge during that time as well.
CWC and town officials hope the deal also prevents lawsuits further in the future, but admit there are no guarantees.
Explaining his support for the settlement, Supervisor Peter DiSclafani said that CWC has already spent $140,000 in this legal dispute, and that has depleted its funds. To go to the next level against the City, which has greater legal resources and way more money, would cost just as much, only this time the town taxpayers would have to pay for it.
“We have to be pragmatic,” he said
CWC Executive Director Alan Rosa told the board that he felt the town would actually lose if they continued the battle in the courts. CWC Attorney Tim Cox said that settling was the best way to go.
“Nobody wins when you try to fight it,” he said.
DiSclafani and board members Bernstein, Tim Malloy and Doris Bartlett voted to accept the settlement. Only Councilman Rob Stanley opposed the measure.
Stanley, who said, “I don’t think this is a horribly bad deal,” voted no because he wanted to send a message to the City that the town was not satisfied with the arrangement.
OCS Arrest
State police have arrested an Onteora High School employee and charged her with felony grand larceny and related charges, alleging that she stole over $9000 that school groups accumulated by holding fundraisers. Elizabeth Sopata, 45, of Kingston, was charged on August 4. In addition to the grand larceny charge, Sopata was also charged with forgery and falsifying business records, police said.
According to State Police at Ulster, Sopata, who is secretary to the High School Principal, was in charge of collecting and depositing proceeds from fundraisers held by school groups. Between July 2008 and March 2009, Police allege Sopata stole $9,200 while handling the funds. She was arrested following an investigation brought on by an audit that turned up discrepancies.
On Monday, August 24, School board officials had no comment on the matter.
Each year students and parent groups hold fund raising events like car washes and bake sales to pay for extracurricular activities not covered by taxpayer funds in the school districts budget.
District Superintendent Dr. Leslie Ford said Tuesday that Sopata, a long term employee, is currently on administrative leave.

County Cuts…
In an effort to streamline the Ulster County budget, County Executive Michael Hein has said he would offer an early retirement package to any of the county’s 1,550 CSEA employees who are eligible. In recent weeks, he made the offer to 31 county employees. Now, he said anyone who may be eligible may apply for the program and each person will be considered on a case by case basis.
“We recognize the realities that are facing all municipalities around New York State. In Ulster County in particular, we are facing upwards of an $8 million shortfall in sales tax as well as an additional $4 million increase in retirement system payments to New York State,” Hein said.
There are 376 employees who are 55 or older and are vested, making them potentially eligible for the program. Decisions as to an applicant’s eligibility to retire under the program will be based on criteria such as the overall needs of the county and the necessity to backfill the position.

Byway Kickoff...
The Central Catskills Collaborative (CCC) will meet this Thursday, August 27. and begin the development of the Corridor Management Plan for the nomination of a 50-mile stretch of Route 28 as a Scenic Byway. The meeting will feature an overview of the Scenic Byway nomination process, the steps in completing the plan, and the opportunities for community involvement. An open discussion will follow.
The public is welcome to attend the meeting, which will be held at the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development on Route 28 in Arkville on Thursday, August 27 from 6-8 PM. Refreshments will be provided. To learn more about Catskill Regional Planning, please contact Peter Manning at (845) 586-2611 or visit www.catskillcenter.org. For more about the Central Catskill Collaborative, please visit www.centralcatskills.org/ccc.

Bussing Safety
The management and drivers at Arthur F. Mulligan, one of Onteora School District’s transportation contractors, will be directly addressing school bus safety issues at the upcoming Olive Day taking place in West Shokan on September 12. One of their key issues: Parents seem to feel that their obligation is to get the child to the bus on time, regardless of any cuts to safety that may ensue.
In a recent press release, the company has announced that it, “has decided to become pro active in dealing with this growing problem and has started the AFM S.A.F.E Team.” This is a group of volunteers organized to provide education in preventive measures and evacuation training involving accidents, fire and emergencies along with providing general safety instructions regarding daily transportation of students. Dave Croswell is the team leader and says he wants to address the public’s impatience with school buses, and student behavior while riding the bus. The goal of the S.A.F.E Team, Croswell said, is to help parents understand that they play an important role in their child’s safety while riding the school bus.
“We would appreciate it if parents would remind their children that any distraction can be disastrous.” He said, singling out such things as seat hopping and camera flashes. “The driver is only human and although they are fully trained and qualified a distraction cannot be ignored all of the time. All it takes is a split second.”
Visit myyellowschoolbus.com for more information.
And be sure and drive safely…

Housing Help
A $500,000 grant recently announced by Governor David Paterson’s office brings total home buying and home repair resources currently available in Ulster County to $1.6 million in direct spending for the purchase and post purchase re-habilitation of Ulster County homes. Rural Ulster Preservation Company officials, who will be administering the funds, believe that the latest grant announcement plus other resources in-house will help them top last year’s total investments of $1.8 million spent for 34 new homeowners and 75 rehabilitated homes.
The Affordable Housing Corporation grant will provide an average of $20,000 each to approximately 25 homeowners to help cover down payments, closing costs and post-purchase rehabilitation projects that might be essential on the homes they are able to afford. RUCPO Executive Director Kevin O’Connor noted that “at least 51% of the grant must be spent on the rehabilitation portion of the equation, which is good not just for the buyers but for everyone in the county. This helps to keep our overall housing stock habitable,” he added. “Something that isn’t always easy in this economy.”
Kathy Germain, Director of RUPCO’s Neighbor Works Home Ownership Center, agreed with O’Connor and said that the latest grant would be leveraged with other resources already available at the center to provide maximum benefit possible to clients and to the county and with mortgage financing from private lenders.
Because all of the RUPCO grant programs have different eligibility requirements, Germain urged everyone who might be interested to contact RUPCO to review their circumstances. Call 331-9860 or visit www.rupco.org.

Redistricting?
The Onteora school board will be taking a long hard look at the problem of class sizes in the district over the next few months, and acknowledge that one solution may be redistricting. At an August 18th meeting, many board members as well as some administrators agreed that the best class size for the district would between 18 and 22 students. It was noted however, that in some cases, such as the fifth grade at the Phoenicia School, there would be 28 come the start of classes next month.
Trustee Dan Spencer pointed out that recent elections have shown the community wants to keep the three elementary schools open rather than consolidate students in two schools. One way to accomplish the goals of reducing class sizes and keeping all the schools open, he and fellow trustees discussed, is to redraw district lines through population clusters instead of municipal borders.
“We seem to have the right amount of kids and the right amount of buildings,” Spencer said.
It was agreed that the Board would begin taking a look at possibilities by first accumulating information on district lines and population, expecting that Dave Moraca, the District’s director of transportation, will provide the board with maps and grids so they can start at the September 22nd meeting.
Board president Laurie Osmond said the issue should be examined from a point of view that puts students first.
“It’s very important that we approach this from an educational standpoint and how class size affects our kids and which kids it affects,” she said.

Join On Up!
The Board of Education of the Onteora Central School District is seeking committee members for the following committees/task forces: Arts Task Force (created to further interaction between community members in the arts and our students), Audit (state-mandated, seeking persons with financial backgrounds), Communications, Facilities, Green, Policy, as well as the District Health and Wellness Committee and the District Technology Committee.
Committees generally meet monthly, (the Green Committee has been meeting twice-monthly), and are task-driven. Committee members from the 2008/2009 school year are encouraged to re-join for 2009/2010.
Interested persons are asked to contact the District Clerk: districtclerk@onteora.k12.ny.us or 845.657.6383 x264

Dam Safety…
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has adopted new dam safety regulations following an 18-month review and revision process, emphasizing and detailing the responsibilities of dam owners to keep structures in a safe condition and, to be consistent with the statute, enhance NYS DEC’s authority to help ensure the responsibilities are fulfilled. The statutory amendments explicitly authorize NYS DEC to adopt regulations requiring dam owners to prepare safety programs including inspections, monitoring, maintenance and operation, and emergency plans, where failure of the dam could cause personal injury, substantial property damage or substantial natural resource damage.
A single paper copy of the regulations, or a single CD of the entire rule adoption package, are available for free upon request by writing damsregs@gw.dec.state.ny.us or calling (518) 402-8151.

Local Laptops
Fred Waring of West Shokan first got the idea for his great new foundation during a trip to Cambodia with his wife Tracey, in 2001, when they witnessed the needs at one of the troubled nation’s orphanages. Upon his return Fred began his grassroots campaign to help the children he saw by soliciting in-kind and cash donations. In 2005, he then incorporated The Fred Waring Foundation, Inc., allowing him to expand his vision to include the construction of a new center and manufacturing facility using Cambodia’s natural resources to create products for export. The plan is to offer to employ orphanage children when they are forced to leave their orphanages at age 18, so that they can learn a trade, earn wages, have decent housing and hope for a great future.
Since 2001, Waring, the grandson of the big band-leader, Congressional Gold Medal recipient, and inventor of the Waring Blender, has made 3 to 4 trips per year to Cambodia and each time brings donations of vitamins from GNC and medicines from New York doctors. The Waring Family has been donating toys, sporting goods, school supplies, and crafts.
They are currently looking for old laptops to be used in the classrooms of three different orphanages that house over 500 children and young adults, and in the midst of a fundraising raffle whose cut-off date is September 21, and whose prizes include a trip for two to Angkor Wat.
For further information, visit www.fredwaringfoundation.org

28 Repaving
Construction has begun on a $1.5 million project to pave 3.5 miles of state Route 28. The project will include milling and resurfacing state Route 28, beginning at the west side of the bridge over the Esopus Creek at the state Route 212 intersection, to the east side beyond the bridge over the Esopus Creek at the state Route 214 intersection.
Daily lane closures are expected with restrictions in place during peak travel hours.
The contract was awarded to Callanan Industries Inc. of Schenectady and is being funded under the federal economic stimulus program, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The state Department of Transportation has received $1.1 billion for highway and bridge projects under the stimulus program, with $167 million of the funding expected to be certified for Hudson Valley communities.
Construction of this project is expected to be completed in late December 2009.

A USPS Arrest
Mona A. Senecal, 42, of Shokan, , who worked as a clerk at the U.S. Post Office in Shokan, was arrested on Aug. 11 and charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records, both felonies, according to state police at Ulster.
Senecal is accused of taking $3,895.19 from proceeds she pocketed while selling money orders at the post office.

End of Season
The Belleayre Music Festival at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center is closing out its somewhat soggy but still boisterous 2009 season with a pair of upcoming concerts sure to pull a certain type. On Saturday, August 29, Mary Wilson of The Supremes will be on hand to sing Motown favorites; while on the following Saturday, September 5, an ABBA tribute band will capture the same feeling caught in last year’s film hit, Mamma Mia.
Visit www.belleayre.org for more info. And start counting down to Octoberfest and more...

Shot In Groin
An early morning struggle on Sunday, August 16 ended in a gunshot to the groin for one man inside a home on Route 214 in the Shandaken hamlet of Phoenicia. Kyle Manny, 25, was being treated at Kingston Hospital for his injury, according to state police at Ulster. Police said Manny was struck in the groin by one bullet fired from a 9mm semiautomatic handgun after getting into a fight with another person inside the residence at state Route 214 in Phoenicia.
During the altercation, the owner of the home, John S. Rymer, 68, armed himself with the handgun, which police said is a legally registered weapon.
A prepared statement by police states that in the course of the ensuing altercation one round was discharged and struck alleged assailant Manny in the groin.
Police said the investigation led to the arrest of Richard Manny, 27, who had been staying at the residence with Kyle Manny. The older Manny was charged with criminal mischief and endangering the welfare of a child, misdemeanors. Police said the criminal mischief charge comes due to Manny doing considerable damage to the home. Further charges against Manny may occur. As for the endangering the welfare of a child charge, a child was present in the home at the time of the incident, police said.
The Manny’s were friends of Rymer’s daughter…
The suspect was arraigned in Town of Kingston Court. He was released without bail. The investigation surrounding the firing of the weapon by Rymer and the actions of Kyle Manny is continuing, police said. Should the District Attorney’s office convene a grand jury and that jury decides that Rymer should be charged, police said, then charges would be leveled against Rymer.

Flu, Round 2
The global spread of swine flu will endanger more lives as it speeds up in coming months and governments must boost preparations for a swift response, the World Health Organization said last week. There will soon be a period of further global spread of the virus, and most countries may see swine flu cases double every three to four days for several months until peak transmission is reached, said WHO’s Western Pacific director, Shin Young-soo.
“At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers,” Shin told a symposium of health officials and experts in Beijing. “It is certain there will be more cases and more deaths.”
WHO has declared the swine flu strain a pandemic, and it has killed almost 1,800 people worldwide through last week. International attention has focused on how the pandemic is progressing in southern hemisphere countries such as Australia, which are experiencing winter and their flu season. But it is in developing countries where the accelerated spread of swine flu poses the greatest threat as it places underequipped and underfunded health systems under severe strain, Shin said.
WHO earlier estimated that as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years - nearly one-third of the world’s population.
Health officials and drug makers are looking into ways to speed up production of a vaccine before the northern hemisphere enters its flu season in coming months. Estimates for when a vaccine will be available range from September to December.

Job Losses?
The Hudson Valley took another hit between July 2008 and July 2009 with the loss of 17,900 jobs. The state Labor Department released the latest figures recently, showing a 2.3 percent loss in jobs bringing the total number of unemployed to 745,100.
The greatest loss of jobs was in trade, transportation and utilities, which lost 5,500 jobs, while professional and business services lost 4,200 and manufacturing shrunk by 4,100 jobs. The government sector also declined by 400 jobs.
Employment gains were in education and health services, which picked up 3,700 jobs.
The report noted that the July jobless rate for the region increased to 7.6 percent from 5.2 percent a year ago, the largest July over the year increase on record since 1991.
At the same time, reports are also out noting that the weekly cost of feeding a family of four in Ulster County in the past weeks was $200.64. That was an increase of $1.65, or one percent, above the previous survey week, ending August 7.
The Ulster County Consumer Fraud Bureau, which conducts the surveys, said prices increased primarily because of fewer sale items in the meat and fish category.

New GI Bill!
SUNY Ulster has been recognized for its policies and outreach to recruit military veterans and facilitating access to new Post 9/11 GI bill benefits by G.I. Jobs magazine with the “Military Friendly School” designation in 2010. The local college was ranked among the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide for embracing America’s veterans as students based on a survey that reviewed policies, efforts and results of military recruitment. SUNY Ulster will be listed in the magazine’s “Guide to Military Friendly Schools” that publishes in September 2009.
SUNY Ulster has been conducting informational sessions on the Post 9/11 GI Bill that went into effect Aug. 1 and provides financial support for education and housing to eligible veterans. The bill expands benefits and provides tuition, housing and book stipends, and tutoring.
SUNY Ulster will conduct workshops on the Post 9/11 GI Bill on Sept. 14 and Oct. 19, both starting at 10 a.m. at the Dewitt Library on the Stone Ridge campus; and Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. at the Business Resource Center in Kingston. College representatives will be available to discuss programs of study, transfer credits, VA tuition benefits and campus support services. These events are free and open to the public.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the successful RISE program at SUNY Ulster may be going statewide. The collaboration between the college and the Department of Social Services has been successful at taking candidates that are eligible for high school diplomas or GED diplomas and getting them out of the cycle of dependency in social services and moving them on into the college format,” he said. Funding for the students in the program comes from state and federal grants.
For more information, call 687-5022 or visit www.sunyulster.edu.

Annual Meeting
The annual picnic and general meeting for The Neversink Association will be Sunday, August 30, at noon on the Meadow across from Lake Cole at Frost Valley YMCA. The featured speaker is Lisa Rainwater, Executive Director of The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, who will discuss four invasive species, such as didymo, that threaten the health of the Neversink River and Valley. The purpose of the organization is to protect the Neversink River watershed and the conservation of the flora and fauna of the Upper Neversink Valley. All are welcome to attend.

Rights For All!
A California-based federal judge being asked to declare gay marriage a fundamental constitutional right has set a January 2010 trial date and denied attempts by gay and conservative advocacy groups to join the case, already top-heavy with high profile lawyers.
About 30 lawyers crowded into a San Francisco courtroom hearing the challenge to California’s Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban recently, a high-risk venture that will set court policy for years, if it reaches the U.S. Supreme court. Ted Olson, the lawyer whose Supreme Court arguments put President George W. Bush in the White House, and David Boies, his opponent in the 2000 case, joined forces to overturn Prop. 8, arguing precedents showed they could win.
Gay rights groups had avoided federal court in favor of a state-by-state battle for fear conservative Supreme Court justices would deny their cause. A handful of U.S. states, mostly in the northeast, have allowed same-sex marriage, but the overwhelming majority forbid it.
In respectful tones, Olson told federal district Judge Vaughn Walker participation by gay groups and social conservatives would only slow the case. Walker, clearly eager to focus and speed arguments, denied the groups’ motions but added the city and county of San Francisco to the case as a government representative. Calif. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signaled his administration will not actively join the case.
“I am surprised by the governor’s position in this case,” Walker told a state lawyer, telling him to urge Schwarzenegger, who personally favours gay marriage, to get involved. “This is a matter of some importance to the people.”
Walker set a January 11, 2010 date to start the trial, an aggressive schedule. Two same-sex couples represented by Olson and Boies say marriage is a federal constitutional right which they are being denied.
Social conservatives led by lawyer Charles Cooper say the people of California had the right to limit marriage to a man and a woman, since it is in the state’s interest to limit marriage to couples of opposite sex.

Casino Watch
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Larry EchoHawk was set to come to Sullivan County and the Catskills to meet with people on both sides of the casino issue as this issue was going to bed. EchoHawk, who heads the Bureau of Indian Affairs, will be in town at the invitation of Congressman Maurice Hinchey, who said the secretary has no preconceived opinion about whether there should be Native American Gaming.
Under the previous administration in Washington, the BIA refused to approve placing land in trust which would have paved the way for Indian gaming. Supporters are hoping to pursuade EchoHawk to reverse that and allow for land in trust.
Three Native American tribes want to build gaming casinos in Sullivan County.
Meanwhile. the Seneca Nation, which has been eyeing Sullivan County for development of a Native American gaming casino, said last week that it may purchase the entire Concord Hotel property from Louis Cappelli, who had planned to redevlop the site for a hotel-resort conference center with a racetrack and video lottery machine gaming operation with Empire Resorts.

Payback…
Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach personally delivered a check for $61,486.90 to Town of Wawarsing Officials Thursday evening. The check represents monies owed to the town from a 2007 Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) from the Nevele Grande Hotel.
Auerbach uncovered the money during an examination of payments made to the county which revealed that $24,341.88 was owed to Wawarsing’s General Fund and $37,145.02 was owed to their Highway Fund.
The comptroller continues to pursue over $600,000 owed by the Nevele to Ulster County, the Town of Wawarsing, the Village of Ellenville, the Ellenville Central School District and the Ellenville Library.
Stay tuned…

Food Fight…
Four inmates at the Ulster County Law Enforcement Center have been charged with gang assault for allegedly beating up another inmate because he refused to give them some of his food. The incident occurred in the jail recreation area of A-Pod on Friday, August 14. The four inmates attempted to coerce the inmate into giving them some of his food and when he refused, they attacked him, the sheriff’s office reported. Once the assault was over, one of the inmates then told the victim that he should tell corrections personnel he received the injuries as the result of getting elbowed during a basketball game.
The victim suffered contusions and lacerations to his head, face, neck and chest.
Authorities have charged Tarrance Daniels, 17, of Kingston; Devante Knox, 17, of Kingston; Shaquille Moore, 17, of Poughkeepsie; and Lee Gray, 18, of Kingston, with gang assault in the second degree and assault in the second degree, both felonies. Gray was also charged with intimidating a victim or witness in the third degree, also a felony.

Old Time Days
At the 10th annual “Turn of the Century Days” in Roxbury, there's always something new coming to 1898. This Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5-6, a gala fireworks display on Saturday evening will cap a full day of old-fashioned base ball, mountain music, period fashion, children's pastimes, history and architecture, horse drawn carriage rides, beer garden and all the authentic country victuals you can eat.
All Labor Day weekend, the Harry M. Keator vintage base ball games will be afoot in Kirkside Park with the hometown Roxbury Nine hosting the Mountain Athletic Club of Fleischmanns and the Bovina Dairymen, and from the gritty city, the Brooklyn Atlantics. Games start at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5 and at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
All weekend, you'll be serenaded by roving minstrels and Roxbury Brass marches. The Children’s Tent will be humming with hand crafts, old-fashioned activities and toys like hoops and stilts. At the popular Teddy Bear Tea on Saturday afternoon at the original Gould children's playhouse, girls and boys can bring their teddies and dolls on a high society date. There will even be demonstrations of how to make Victorian woven-hair jewelry!
On Sunday afternoon, there will be a Fashion Parade of 19th century dress, from haute couture to work-a-day wear.
The decade-long Labor Day “Turn of the Century” festivities helped Roxbury earn the prestigious “Preserve America” designation by the White House in 2005, for its ongoing commitment to preserving and revitalizing its historic heritage and for bringing "all the agreeable pursuits of 1898" to life with painstaking authenticity. Call 607-326-3722 for more information.

Eat Smart!
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County’s Eat Smart New York Program is pleased to announce a new program “Healthy Nutrition Habits”, a free six part series will run continuously every Monday, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm. Sessions will take place at the CCEUC Extension Education Center located at 10 Westbrook Lane in Kingston.
This program is open to all food stamp participants and low to moderate income families and individuals residing in Ulster County. Sessions will include various topics including food budgeting, serving sizes, learning about food groups, eating healthier by making better food choices, food safety and more! Participants will gain valuable kitchen skills through hands-on food demonstrations with CCEUC Nutrition Program Educator, Danielle J. Garris. One on one session’s in the home can be arranged for those without transportation.
All participants who complete six sessions of the program will receive a Certificate of Completion from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Ulster County’s Eat Smart New York Program.
For more information or to attend please call Barbara Grumberg at 340-3990.

Boomers Bust
There aren’t just fewer jobs in a recession. There are fewer babies, too. U.S. births fell in 2008, the first full year of the recession, marking the first annual decline in births since the start of the decade and ending an American baby boomlet.
The downturn in the economy best explains the drop in maternity, some experts believe. The Great Depression and subsequent recessions all were accompanied by a decline in births. And the numbers have never rebounded until the economy pulled out of it, according to historians.
It’s not clear that it’s the only explanation, however. Another expert noted a recent decline in immigration to the U.S. may also be a factor.
The nation recorded about 4,247,000 births last year, down about 68,000 from 2007, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics.
This recession began in December 2007, and since then the economy has lost almost 7 million jobs. Housing foreclosures worsened in 2007 too, and fell into a state of crisis in 2008.
The largest decline in births were in California and Florida, two states hit hardest by the housing crisis.
Of course, 2007 was also a year in which more babies were born in the United States than any other year in the nation’s history. In the past, a fluctuation of births by 1 or 2 percent would not be seen as very significant, especially from such an unusual year.

Climate Change
The cost of tackling climate change will be paid for by benefits that would come from better energy security, employment and health, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is saying. Measures needed to tackle global warming could save economies more money than they cost.
Until now, estimates of the price of preventing dangerous climate change have all indicated significant costs. The most authoritative study, the 2006 Stern report, concluded that 1% of global GDP would be required, and he has since said 2% is now more likely.
Funding for reducing and adapting to climate change is one of the most difficult issues in the negotiations towards a global deal at a UN summit in December in Copenhagen. But Pachauri argues that if the costs are negative, then “inertia and vested interests would be washed away. As the Americans say, it would be like dollar bills lying on the sidewalk.”
The associated benefits Pachauri pointed to include better energy security, protecting consumers from oil price spikes, new employment in green industries, more productive agriculture and lower air pollution, and cutting health costs. He said one good example was insulating draughty homes and installing better energy control systems. “This can yield very high rates of returns, with pay back in one year.”
Meanwhile, photos from US spy satellites declassified by the Obama White House provide the first graphic images of how the polar ice sheets are retreating in the summer. The effects on the world’s weather, environments and wildlife could be devastating.
The pictures, kept secret by Washington during the presidency of George W Bush, were declassified by the White House this month. President Barack Obama is currently trying to galvanize Congress and the American public to take action to halt catastrophic climate change caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
One particularly striking set of images - selected from the 1,000 photographs released - includes views of the Alaskan port of Barrow. One, taken in July 2006, shows sea ice still nestling close to the shore. A second image shows that by the following July the coastal waters were entirely ice-free.
Disappearing summer sea ice poses considerable dangers, scientists have warned. Ice shelves are used by animals such as polar bears as platforms for hunting seals and other sea creatures. Without them, they could starve. In addition, ice reflects solar radiation. Without that process, the Arctic sea could warm up even more. The phenomenon threatens to set off runaway heating of the planet, say climatologists.
The latest revelations have triggered warnings from scientists that they no longer have the funds to keep a comprehensive track of climate change. Last week the head of the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Professor Jane Lubchenco, warned that the gathering of satellite data - crucial to predicting future climate changes - was now at “great risk” because America’s ageing satellite fleet was not being replaced.
The NOAA is under additional pressure to provide environmental data because of the re-emergence of the El Niño climate phenomenon, where warming of the tropical Pacific causes heatwaves, droughts and flooding around the world. June’s land and sea surface temperatures were the second hottest on record, and scientists are predicting this will be the warmest decade in recorded history. The last major El Niño was in 1998, the hottest year in recorded history.

Help The River
The Hudson River Watershed Alliance is accepting nominations for the 2009 Watershed Stewardship Award, seeking individuals, organizations, or government officials that exemplify leadership through successful local watershed protection, management and restoration of the Hudson River watershed.
The purpose of this award is to recognize the efforts of local partners that contribute to the protection, conservation and restoration of the water resources of the Hudson River basin. The award will be presented at the State of the Hudson River Watershed Conference, scheduled for September 29-30, at The Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Museum and Library.
Nomination forms can be found online at http://www.hudsonwatershed.org . Nominations submitted for last year’s award should be re-submitted for the 2009 Watershed Steward Award. For questions, call 486-1556.
Also, in response to the Quadricentennial Commission’s call for a continuing dialogue to advance a vision for the future of the Hudson Valley in the next 100 years, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance is sponsoring an online forum called OurHudson.org.
Talk about getting involved easily…


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