Follow Up on the News
Then Gitter was back and
on WAMC-FM, the local NPR outlet, fielding questions about his project
and again tussling with his opponents. On the one hand he spoke about
setting a new precedent for developers’ relations with environmentalist
– something the new MOA went out of its way NOT to suggest. On
the other he admitted that all his offers of land sales to the state,
including that upon which state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center’s
expansions plans were based, were cintingent onhis getting approvals
to build. Or no go.
So what is the process involving Gitter’s essentially new proposal,
agreed to in principal, which would see him concentrate 80 percent of
his project into its western side, outside of the Ashokan Reservoir
watershed? And what of the adjudicatory nature of where he had been,
before recent negotiations stalled everything.
We checked in with Marc Gerstman, the Albany-based attorney who served
as counsel to the Catskill Preservation Coalition and one of its lead
negotiators. After all, Gerstman was once lead counsel to the state
Department of Environmental Conservation, which is still in charge of
whatever process the state’s Environmental Quality Review act
(SEQRA) requires.
According to the lawyer, who said he is in something of a hiring limbo
concerning all things Gitter-related until he’s released by the
continuing members of the CPC, the new process is clear. As is the fate
of the old adjudication.
The first thing that will happen, before year’s end by his estimate,
will be a formal Public Scoping Session overseen by the DEC where the
basic outline of the new project being proposed by Gitter, and approved
in the recent MOA, will be looked at in hard planning terms.
What will be needed to be documented regarding the new plan via a new
Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement? What materials could
be carried over from the previous DEIS submitted by Gitter’s Crossroads
Ventures, which included much of what the project now is, and what would
have to be tackled new?
Once such parameters have been agreed to, Gitter, via his company and
its many consultants, will prepare and then submit the new SDEIS. That
document would then be looked at for basic completeness by the DEC and,
once okayed, put forth for public hearings and commentary around the
region.
Those comments would then be looked at for adjudicable issues. Should
an “Issues Conference” then be called, to discuss continuing
Big Problem areas of contention beyond the parameters of the MOA, entities
– such as the remaining three local environmental groups –
would have to argue for party status to an adjudicatory process similar
to what everyone’s just emerged from with the almost-unanimous
negotiated agreement.
Those parties that have already signed off on the deal could not take
on such status, per the deal, unless the project’s parameters
change drastically.
“It’ll basically have to be new issues,” Gerstman
said.
Then things move to a final EIS and, once approved by the DEC, actual
permitting processes with the state, New York City, and local town and
county planning boards and other regulatory bodies. Which could still
counter the project on a community basis… albeit under threat
of lawsuits.
So what with the old adjudication, once added up to 12 and later shrunk,
by a previous DEC decision, to a half dozen key issues?
“The parties who agreed to the MOA have moved to adjourn that
process,” Gerstman said. “Right now, it’s been suspended
until a new SDEIS is submitted by Crossroads.”
After that, he said, the final resolution will be decided by that adjudicatory
process’s DEC Administrative Law Judge, the Hon. Richard Wissler,
or if later appealed, by the DEC itself.
“It’s all part of an actual process at this point,”
Gerstman said. “There are standards that have to be met.”
And deadlines.
Meanwhile, new Catskills-based consortium has come together to continue
the fight against the resort and seek “Party” status when
the scoping and, later, full review process for the new SDEIS starts.
Made up of local landowners in the Pine Hill, Fleischmanns, Hardenburgh
and Arkville communities that flank the proposed resort’s properties
located adjacent to the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, the
new Highmount Preservation Association has sent out a press release
and letters campaign in which they, “reject the current Belleayre
resort plan both for its dire consequences for the local environment
and community as well as for its negative impact on the New York City
water supply and global environmental trends.”
Among the points it is making in the coming months before Gitter’s
Crossroads Ventures submits its new revised plans to the DEC is the
fact that the entity it refers to as a “mega development”
will “create the largest population center between Woodstock and
Delhi.”
Continuing, the release notes how, unlike other population centers along
the Route 28 corridor, which “grew organically in suitable locations
with adequate resources; this resort ‘city’ consisting of
650 housing units would be artificially forced on an unsuitable site
and an unwilling community.”
Other elements of its current press release attack on the publicly-touted
“Compromise Agreement” include concerns about its costs,
both economic and social, to local communities, property owners and
the environment; as well as its future economic viability in light of
a slew of failed resorts in Sullivan County now vying for casino status.
“Studies conducted throughout the nation have shown that mega-developments
such as this result in an increased tax burden on the local population.
Typically, mega-development also results in increased crime,”
the draft release notes. “While the building sites specified in
the plan are relatively small, the proposed structures are huge. The
main building envisioned for the Wild Acres site, bristling with turrets
and dormers, would overpower the landscape. The 220 room hotel planned
for the Galli Curci site, not to mention the spa and clustered apartments
would be visible from the west and the south. The 19 houses audaciously
planned for the Highmount ridge-line above 3000’ and the 4-season
access road would scar the natural environment beyond recognition.”
On WAMC the morning of September 25, Gitter responded to questions by
Friends of Catskill director Judith Wyman by inferring that she was
too negative, and then exaggerating that concerns made out the use of
explosives to level building sites on the mountain to be on a par with
that of the Atomic Bomb exploded over Hiroshima at the end of World
War II.
Also phoning in were a Phoenicia man identified as “Jerry,”
a PTA member, Laurie, and “Joan,” who spoke of those in
favor of the project and, like Gittter, derided those not in favor of
the new compromise.
The latter, it turned out, was Joan Lawrence-Bauer, executive director
of the non-profit M-ARK Project, a community enhancement organization
serving the communities of Arkville and Margaretville, and a former
Gitter contractee who did publicity for the man’s developments
for years.
Railroad Future Teeters
The issue arose earlier
in September when the Ulster County Transportation Council released
a long-awaited Transportation Improvement Program with $106 million
in projects pegged directly for the county and another $360 million
in multi-county projects benefiting local residents. Hidden within the
proposal, which lists projects for available federal funding, some of
it need of state or county matches of up to 20 percent, in further funding
or in-kind contributions, was the long rail trail… which took
many by surprise despite periodic public hearings on such a project
in various locations around the county in recent years.
Confusion, for most, resulted from the very short advance notice regarding
a countywide public hearing set for the SUNY-New Paltz campus before
any publications had a chance to publicize what was going on, as well
as the closing of public commentary on the TIP by month’s end.
The fact that the only other discussion set for the matter – which
some started saying had the possibility of costing local taxpayers tens
of millions – was scheduled for a Transportation Council meeting
in Kingston this Thursday, September 27, just made people anxious.
Members of the UCTC include the head of the county legislature, mayor
of Kingston, Saugerties and Ulster town supervisors, state DOT commissioner
representative, state Thruway director, seven town supervisors and one
“rural voting member” representing the towns of Denning,
Gardiner, Hardenburgh, Marbletown, Olive, Rochester and Shandaken.
Confusion, for CMRR volunteers and supporters, came because the new
TIP seemed to have completely overlooked a fully-commissioned study
on bringing the old rail line back as a working tourist railroad from
just five years ago. Did this new project, which seemed far below the
$19 million cost that had been touted for a rail trail up the Route
28 corridor when it was first discussed publicly a couple of years ago,
mean to eschew the CMRR people’s plans for a revived railride?
“We were part of the entire feasibility study,” CMRR spokesperson
Harry Jameson said of the recent matters this past week. “As far
as our position goes, we do not see the plan as a problem. The multi-use
use of the corridor meets federal standards. The main crux of the two
projects working side by side is that neither one should intrude on
any other regarding access.”
In other words, Jameson added, everything was hunky-dory given that
the county put its rail trail alongside the train tracks, and elsewhere
where setbacks couldn’t allow the two to co-exist. As for any
other compromises on CMRR’s part, he just noted that the organization
of 100 plus volunteers, working on rebuilding the tracks for two decades
now, was relying on the legal status of its lease with the county.
On the county’s part, meanwhile, County Planner Dennis Doyle was
quick to note, first-off, how the local funding matches necessitated
by the federal dollars driving the new TIP were not really a stumbling
block.
“The council has a responsibility to program for the federal dollars,”
he said. “And much of this is tied to the state’s request
that we look at a 12-year plan.”
That, Doyle added, is where most of the rail trail project included
in the TIP comes in… as something now planned for “post-2112.”
“We’re a long way from implementation,” he said. “Included
now, it gets people to think about substantial public involvement in
a railroad, which many aren’t so sure CMRR has the wherewithal
to do… it’s a way of looking at what they’ve been
doing versus a trail system that can be countywide.”
Doyle conceded that any future planning, at least for projects in the
coming term before 2016 comes around, would be complicated by CMRR’s
lease on the county lands… “an ownership issue,” as
he put it.
Jameson, meanwhile, said he and fellow members of the CMRR like the
idea that the new funding promises resources for work on the railbed
they’ve been getting out to replace ties on every weekend they
can.
“Given that the easiest way to get into much of the proposed rail
trail there is via the tracks and our railcars, we’d be more than
happy to contract with the county to help build what they want,”
he said. “We would also like to be more involved in the creation
of the Kingston transportation hub they’ve been talking about.”
But then, asked how things got to this point, Jameson asked how the
county could shift so dramatically from fully backing the idea of a
tourist railroad 30, and to a lesser extent even 5 years ago, and now
seem ready to push it all aside for a concept he and the other rail
enthusiasts felt was economically unfeasible, as well as something that
ran counter to the growing belief that we’ll be needing more trains
in the future than roads.
Furthermore, Jameson noted how he and his fellow volunteers had felt
sideswiped by Kingston politicians who told them they could use pesticides
to help clear brush along their tracks in town only to later find themselves
publicized as having acted in bad faith for having done what they were
allowed to do.
Jameson said he “called them on it in committee” last week.
Then he added how, should the current battles for a rail trail and no
rails increase, “we go to war.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.
He added that when he asked UCTC recently why his group, as the responsible
party for the right-of-way in question, was not contacted about the
new TIP, an official with the county group said he should have been
contacted… by the group’s rural towns rep. Which would have
meant someone from the southern Ulster town of Gardiner, currently facing
its own slew of planning issues.
“If you ask me, this is a real to-be-continued story still in
its early stages,” Doyle concluded. “But it least puts CMRR’s
feet to the fire to do something after all these years.”
Jameson, for his part, simply reiterated that he and the others looking
after what he called Ulster’s “diamond in the rough,”
“Haven’t been attending enough meetings.”
In related news, a new set of meetings for another subsect of the Transportation
Council and its new TIP, the Ulster County Non-Motorized Transportation
Plan (NMTP), will be the focus of a new set of public hearings around
the counting starting in the coming week.
“The purpose of the NMTP is to identify and prioritize non-motorized
transportation projects, such as bicycle and pedestrian facility improvements,
and rail trail improvements countywide,” read a September 25 press
release on the matter. “Using survey data, feedback collected
at previous public meetings, and stakeholder group feedback, the UCTC
has developed an initial draft list of non-motorized transportation
project priorities.”
Meetings will be held at the Ulster County Legislative Chambers, 6th
Floor, on Fair Street in Kingston from 6 to 8 PM on Tuesday, October
9; on the 4th Floor of the Ellenville Government Center, 2 Elting Circle,
Ellenville from 6 to 8 PM on Tuesday, October 16; and at the BOCES Conference
Center on Route 32 in New Paltz from 6 to 8 pm on Thursday, October
18.
For further information visit www.co.ulster.ny.us/planning/bikeped.
Comments on their draft project priorities are due by October 26. We’ll
keep keeping you informed as best we can…
. Sella said the district’s Building and Grounds’ crew, who were already booked with repairs and overseeing the new boilers system at Woodstock elementary school, helped oversee the project, but it was primarily the parents who made the changes. The Phoenicia library committee could not find furniture that was environmentally friendly, so it therefore made their own tables using old table frames and creating tops out of bamboo. Christina Himberger, President of Phoenicia PTA, thanked the parents involved = Katie Legnini, Liz and Peter Appelson, Nancy and Chris Carter, Eric Sheflin, and Steve Patchke. She said they want to move forward keeping “green” in mind on every project. She noted that a practical way of thinking about renovating while keeping it environmentally sensitive is possible, but it takes a bit of imagination and research. As part of the Go Green initiative, Phoenicia Elementary School is now recycling and separation containers can be found in three locations throughout the school. Himberger said Phoenicia elementary came up with five R’s to help the environment: Refuse too much packaging, Reduce the amount of paper used, Reuse the back of one sided paper, Recycle and Repeat. While walking the halls of Phoenicia elementary school Sella pointed out that the school currently holds two classes in each Kindergarten-through-three grades. In regular business, Scott Hillje of KSQ architects gave a presentation on the Middle/High school auditorium and an update on the boiler system at Woodstock Elementary School. The auditorium is in its first stage of renovation proposals and Hillje explained all that was needed, hoping it will go out to bid by spring of 2008. The plans must first be submitted to the State Education Department by the end of October after which review can take up to 12 weeks, with approval if all goes well. Hillje said the shape and architecture on the auditorium was good. “We do not want to change the character, but enhance what is there.” He presented layouts of what the auditorium would look like, once finished, all keeping its original shape. He explained that there had been no ventilation at all and it would now be installed along with air conditioning. The seats, he added, date back to the 1970’s and are worn or broken, a new floor is needed, steps, acoustics, lighting, stage rigs, sound system, wall, projection booths and doors. He also explained how they plan to keep it green. Beginning with the lighting they would use halogen energy efficient lights, walls and floors would have water based paint, while new carpeting will be unrolled and left to air out from any toxic fumes before installing. Hillje said water based products are, “not as durable, but getting better.” But the upside to this is there would be no lingering odors from highly toxic oil based product. He said the removal of the old carpets, metal and other materials could get picked up by recycling centers, instead of thrown away. During public be heard, Phoenicia parent Abbe Aronson said she and others approached the board in the spring as “a disgruntled angry group,” worried that it is their school that may close. “Today, we stand before you as a unified collaboratively minded group of parents from all three of the elementary schools who only have in mind what is best for our community,” she said, noting that the former Phoenicia parent group is now called the Onteora parent group. Anne McGillcuddy, who has two kids at Phoenicia School, said that there is an Onteora Parent Yahoo group with files based on grade configurations for parents to stay better informed. The site can be accessed through this address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OnteoraParents
Vincent Bernstein, a native
of Shandaken, was trained as a forester and served as a Marine and for
21 years as our local Conservation Officer. A father of three and grandfather,
he and his wife Sue operate the Simpler Times Cabins in Phoenicia. He
has long been active in Boy Scouts, American Legion and local fish and
game clubs.
This is Bernstein’s first run for elective office and he’s
not running he says, against anybody but for the town, and is pleased
with the field of candidates. His interest in town government initially
stemmed from his concerns about Phoenicia’s proposed wastewater
system. In the two years he’s been attending town meetings, he’s
been troubled by the lack of transparency in the way the town conducts
its business, saying that “we need more open government that doesn’t
hold back facts from people, and a greater exchange of information.”
He’s often had the feeling he says, “that the town board
doesn’t work for the people” but that the attitude he’s
often seen is that “we work for them.”
Bernstein proposes to set up weekly Listening & Discussion sessions
in each of our hamlets, so that board members can have a more direct
sense of what people throughout the town really want. “I just
want to be honest and as straight with people as I can be, so that I
can do the best job I can.”
Pete DiModica has lived here 30 years and owned his antiques and furniture
making business in Pine Hill for 25. He served as Town Supervisor from
2002 through 2003. “As Supervisor I kept tax increases lower than
anyone in recent years,” said DiModica, and I think that lower
taxes and fairness in taxation are central issues for us, as well as
the fair application of town laws.”
DiModica says the Cross administration “has cut people out of
the equation of government” and has been highly critical of the
way decisions are made, citing as examples the Poncic water harvesting
approval and the town board’s handling of the Phoenicia wastewater
treatment plant.
“The town board works for the people of Shandaken and not for
some of its special interests. Its job is to try and take care of everybody,
not the board’s family and friends. I want to see town government
listen to the people and not shut us out of the process. In recent years
the board has pretty much run closed meetings, cut off most opportunities
for public dialogue, and done its work behind closed doors. Often, they
haven’t even made sure that what they’re voting on is available
to the whole town board. In my experience,” said DiModica, “all
our problems have a fair solution if you look at both sides of the issue
and listen to the people. I’d like to be part of a new town board
that can do that.”
Jack Jordan has lived in Pine Hill for 5 years, though he’s been
a ski instructor at Belleayre for 17. His wife Cathy is a lifelong resident,
and he’s currently working as the Interim Principal at Onteora,
after a long career in education including serving last year as our
Interim Superintendant of Schools.
“My experience as a school administrator,” says Jordan,
“formulating and administering multi-million dollar budgets, organizing
successful referendums and grant funding efforts, my ability to work
with people and groups, and my sincere desire to do what’s best
for the Town of Shandaken, these will all be a plus in helping formulate
the future for our town. “
Jordan also stresses that his experience facilitating and running successful
public meetings will also be important. “People need to be given
as much information as possible prior to meetings, and we may need to
open new lines of communication’” he says. “Decisions
can’t be made behind closed doors. If the Supervisor has information,
that needs to shared in advance, so that everyone, including the public,
can come to meetings prepared.”
Tim Malloy, a Shandaken native and chef, lives in Mt. Tremper with his
wife Tracy, a nurse,and their daughter. “We’ve got a great
town here,” says Malloy. “Since the mid-70’s it’s
really grown nicely. Back then you could have pitched a tent on Main
Street, and it wouldn’t have been in anyone’s way. But as
things change we’ve got to start using common sense and doing
the right things for ourselves. And because there’s so much on
Shandaken’s plate right now, I’d like to be there to help
manage it.”
“We have a lot to protect here,” says Malloy. “I don’t
think any of us should have to give up or sell out our way of life for
an Appleby’s and a steady stream of traffic on Route 28, like
somehow either one is going to actually improve our lives. But what
we do need to do is manage the changes that are coming. Obviously there
are big issues coming up, like can we coexist with this new town that
looks like it’s going to get built on the mountain up there. Will
Shandaken be fairly dealt with when it comes to taxes, or is it going
to be a financial disaster for us? What can we do to keep our school
open, if closing it is maybe in the cards? And how can our town government
find the chemistry as a group, to try and work through some of these
things better than we have. I think maybe a little respect for the public
and what it wants would be a good start.”
Lynn O’Brophy has lived here since 1982, and owned and operated
the Woodland Valley Inn from 1985 until 2004. She has two grown children
and 3 grandchildren and supervises the local Head Start program.
“I think we should start looking ahead,” says O’Brophy.
“Everybody likes living here and everybody wishes their kids could
live here and didn’t have to move somewhere else for a better
job. We all live here and care about the town, and we have to stop beating
dead horses. Politics at the town level are inane, just crazy.”
She cites as an example her displeasure with the lack of progress on
cellular communications.
“I’m not going to say anybody did a bad job, said O’Brophy.
“But it’s time to replace vanity with sanity. It’s
a safety issue, and people have dragged their feet. Negotiations seemed
destined to fail…We need better accountability than we’ve
had.” Her political party,The Action Party, has a slogan: Actions,
Answers, and Accountability. With respect to the outgoing administration,
“there are a lot of unfulfilled promises,” said O’Brophy.
She also took issue with the way town board meetings have been run,
saying “they’re usually mayhem, not civil,” and that’s
what’s caused attendance to fall off.
O’Brophy says she’s “very serious about the campaign,”
and that “when - not if” elected, she “will be informed
and accessable.” She said she “wants to see a Youth Center,
a Community Center, and a bigger and better library.”
Jerry Pearlman has lived here since 1970, raised two boys with his wife
Adelle, and worked for the town ambulance for 22 years, 10 as its chief.
“I think this current town board has been a total failure, and
that nothing constructive has been accomplished,” says Pearlman.
“There is less confidence in government now, after this administration,
than ever. I think that events at the last town board meeting underscore
the lack of respect that this town board has for the people of Shandaken.
Its approach to the cell tower approval was a back door deal, to which
it seemed two of the board members, Stanley & DiSclafani, weren’t
even privy.”
“My feeling,” says Pearlman, “is that the people aren’t
really represented by the board. The special interests - Belleayre,
Dean Gitter - they have too much influence. The government serves them
and not the rest of us. Now that those two things are one thing, it’s
more important than ever that people protect their own interests, and
that we elect people who’ll do that. We all need to be more involved,
and our government needs to be more in touch with the needs of the people.”
Election Day is November 6.
Among the key names pegged
for further investigation to date have been former county attorney Frank
Murray, former Buildings & Grounds Commissioner Harvey Sleight,
and former county legislative chairmen Richard Gerentine and Ward Todd.
The Special Committee Formed to Investigate the Preplanning, Planning,
and Construction of the Ulster County Jail released its final report
Monday, September 24, noting that while no particular party was fully
responsible for the $30 million cost overrun and two-year delay in opening
the jail, preplanning for the project – much of it under Todd’s
watch – often proceeded against legal procedures.
The committee found that, in particular, Todd and Harvey Sleight broke
county procedure and state law by not issuing a request for proposals
when they decided to hire an architectural firm. The report also implicates
Murray and Gerentine of hiding the services of later consultant Hill
International as a means of covering up the cost and time overruns of
the jail project intentionally, and keeping the news away from other
legislators so as to save embarrassment and possible political ramifications.
Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams announced Tuesday that
he has convened a special grand jury to look into the circumstances
surrounding the jail project for a term of up to six months. Its first
session will be held on October 3.
“In conducting an investigation, the Grand Jury has the power
to compel by subpoena the appearance of witnesses and the production
of documents,” a press release from the D.A.’s office has
stated. “The New York State Criminal Procedure Law provides the
Grand Jury with the following options: Vote criminal charges if reasonable
cause exists to believe that a crime has been committed; Prepare a report
concerning misconduct, nonfeasance or neglect in public office by a
public servant; Prepare a report finding no misconduct, nonfeasance
or neglect in public office by a public servant, if requested by that
public servant; Prepare a report proposing recommendations for legislative,
executive or administrative action in the public interest based upon
stated findings; Neither return charges nor issue a report, if the Grand
Jury
concludes that neither is warranted.”
“The Grand Jury is an independent body, free of political bias
and agendas, and insulated from media speculation. It will conduct a
full and unfettered review of the matters referred by the Special Legislative
Committee,” Williams, who leaves office December 31, said. “Its
decision will be based only on legally admissible evidence, not conjecture,
assumption or surmise… It is my desire that the Grand Jury complete
its work by the end of my term but there will be no constraints placed
upon its review, other than as provided by law.”
The committee, in its report, noted that preliminary information concerning
the jail project was “intentionally manipulated” to evade
laws intended to “guard against favoritism, improvidence, extravagance,
fraud, and corruption” and that Todd and Sleight appeared to have
acted in concert to direct the award toward certain parties without
proper bidding.
Sleight has said that anything he did was as an employee of Todd, a
longstanding Shandaken resident who now serves as Director of the County
Chamber of Commerce and whose wife, Jane, is presently running for supervisor
in their home town. Todd’s lawyer, David Lenefsky, has noted his
belief that the committee had already determined its position before
the investigation began.
The committee said problems began when a report by National Institute
of Corrections consultant Alvin Cohn was censored at the behest of Todd
to reflect only opinions favorable to construction of a new jail.
During the hearings, Gerentine, Murray, Sleight, and Todd all claimed
they had followed procedure accordingly, and that they had not done
anything illegal or unethical during the planning of the jail.
Stay tuned…