The Phoenicia Times - Follow Up on the News

The event, designed to celebrate the town in all its diversity and history, moves from hamlet to hamlet each year, and took place in Pine Hill last year. Like a localized version of the Olympics, it was planned to help local communities by bringing attention to their glories, hailing local; heroes and others who help make the town click, and quietly rebranding the town, with new signs and logos, the better for regional; tourism efforts.
This year, that latter effort has yielded some friction in recent weeks, with a brouhaha over a new sign heralding Mt. Tremper and its businesses that some longtime hamlet residents, including one being heralded this year at Shandaken Day, see as usurping their own sign put up 18 years ago.
But don’t let such matters dampen your celebratory nature.
This year’s event, with off-site parking and shuttle buses at and from Tonche Transport and the Emerson Resort, among other places, will feature such down-home fun as rope courses, kids games, loads of live music and an Awards Ceremony at 5 pm. In addition, special focus will be put on Shandaken’s history, and future, as a Green Community, including sustainable energy alternatives and other information available via booths and support literature.
Those being honored include 2008 Pride of Shandaken recipients Jay and Gloria Braman, Helen Cordo and Bruce Storey, and hamlet heroes Ted Byron and Jack Schlegel.
Councilpersons Rob Stanley and Doris Bartlett, Republican and Democrat, worked with a crew of community volunteers to help put together the program, a recent mailer on the event, and support advertising for the event.
“The Town of Shandaken is always welcoming. In fact we have been renowned throughout the century as a rural tourist retreat and second-home community,” noted town supervisor Peter DiSclafani in an introduction for visitors attending the upcoming event. “Being located in the center of the Catskill Park has defined our hospitality and our legacy… The Town of Shandaken is the perfect place to retreat and explore.
Events run continuously from 10 AM to 7 PM, ending with a square dance.
As for that sign thing… on the evening of August 4th several Mt. Tremper firemen wrestled a large road sign for their hamlet into Shandaken Town Hall and dropped it at DiSclafani’s doorway to let him know it was not welcome in their community. Later, at that night’s town board meeting, Byron and Ken Berryann, a former candidate for town highway superintendent, annnounce that they had dismantled the sign earlier that evening because it had been placed over a sign that the Fire Company installed 18 years ago and maintained ever since
The supervisor explained that the old sign didn’t really direct motorists off the beaten path of Route 28 to the hamlet’s center, which was bypassed in the early 1960’s when Rt. 28 was rebuilt, and a replacement had been discussed for years, at fire department meetings (he is a member), and then in town offices, where the idea of new signage is part of the general Shandaken Day idea. He said everyone seemed to have agreed that it was important to highlight local shops, services, dining and lodging in the town’s hamlets, as is part of existing signage in Pine Hill and Phoenicia.
Regardless, Berryann called the new sign “offensive,” and said that DiSclafani should have come to the Fire Company with his plan before moving forward with it. Some say he should have come to the taxpayers too, even though DiSclafani noted that he had discussed matters with the town board… and that the property in question belonged to the state DOT.
DiSclafani said later that the way things worked out, the new sign ended up costing the town nothing.
Oh well… at least it all means there’ll be juice at the upcoming event, even if they can’t get electricity. Anyone ready to start a betting pool on what next year’s controversy will be when Shandaken Day hits its next two hamlets, Big Indian and Oliverea, where we’re sure to learn of a tragic romance, Native American myths and probably much much more.

From Tokyo To Big Indian
Now that she has moved to a larger apartment in a graceful, porch-wrapped house in Big Indian, just seven minutes from Phoenicia, business is starting to take off. “The owner of the house let me put in a shampoo sink,” she says in her Japanese-accented English, “and now I can really work. I can do coloring as well as styling and cuts.”
It’s a rainy day when I visit the house on Oliverea Road. Looking through the back window of her first-floor apartment, I catch my breath at the misty view of the mountains beyond the profusion of plants hanging above the porch railing. Except for the rain drumming and Itzhak Perlman’s violin crooning on the CD player, the house is quiet. White futons in front of the windows, smooth wooden bowls on the shelves, the spareness and order of the rooms contribute to the peaceful ambiance.
In an alcove sits a salon chair, two steps from the sink, with neat shelves of hair care products along the wall. Maki’s toy poodle, Mikey, eyes me curiously as his mistress explains that she moved to New York City from Tokyo in 1987. “I spoke no English. I went to school for English, and then I went to hairstyling school. I worked for Pielle Michel, with salons in the Plaza Hotel and Trump Tower. Our customers were East Side wealthy people. Then I was at Sacha and Olivier, a French salon in Chelsea. There they taught me to do dry cutting, which is what I do now. You can see the texture and body, and the client can see what’s going on while I’m working. It works very well.”
When she tired of Manhattan, she made a move to Los Angeles. “A friend said life there was easy. But there were no seasons, and it drove me crazy. Seventy-five degrees at Christmas?” After two years, she came back east, and on a trip upstate, decided to move here. She had visited many times while living in New York City and had always loved the area.
“Moving here is the best thing I ever did for myself,” she says. “I love the nature and the mountains. I feel like I belong here, even through I grew up in Tokyo and thought I was a city girl. People ask if it’s too lonely or quiet, but I never get bored. I hike, swim in the stream, go skiing. I also do woodworking. My friend’s father is a wood turner.”
She takes several wooden objects down from the shelves. They are unique: for instance, a small polished urn with one side of the rim left ragged. “I find this wood and bring it to my friend, and it turns out to be spalted maple,” she explains, as I run my fingers over the jagged black lines etched against the creamy background of a bowl. “A micro-sized insect eats away and makes the lines.” She points out larger objects she has fashioned, a bench and a toolbox, precisely and elegantly made.
“I love being a hairstylist because it’s creation,” she says. “It’s not only my idea—I share with the client, find out what she likes. When I finish, and they really like it, and I get a smile—I love that. And when they say, ‘That’s the best haircut I ever got—that really makes me feel good.”
She still bartends on weekends at the Pine Hill Arms, where she loves her employers. “They’re so good to me!” she says.
Does she ever get homesick for Japan? She shakes her head: “There they like things quiet. I’m too aggressive for them. When I think something I have to say it. They want people equalized, with not too much personality. I am not free to be myself. When I was waiting for my green card, I had nightmares of being sent back to Japan. I love the people coming here. They really appreciate nature and try to save it.”
Maki Yuinada charges $40 for a haircut. She is located in Big Indian on Oliverea Road and can be reached at (845) 254-5960.

Membership used to exclude the Catskills but was extended to Ulster County’s Catskill Park towns Hudson Valley in recent years. Denning, Olive and Woodstock were quick to jump at the further grants funding opportunities inclusion in the Greenway represented, while Shandaken had shied away from membership worried about possible home rule issues.
When the issue came up earlier this month, though, there was little discussion about the measure among Board members,althoughsome in the audience needed reassurance that property rights would not be stepped on.
According to Councilwoman Doris Bartlett, the designation would have no direct impact on land use.
“They (the Hudson River Greenway Communities Council) can’t change our zoning in any way,” she said.
The Hudson River Valley Greenway Act of 1991 created a process for voluntary regional cooperation among the 242 communities in the 13 counties in the Hudson River Valley. These include both “riverside” communities that border the Hudson River and “countryside” communities with no physical connection to the Hudson River but within the geographic boundary of the Greenway area.
The Greenway works with communities on a voluntary basis to assist in the development of local land use plans and programs related to the Greenway criteria, providing technical assistance and funding for community planning projects. Projects can be undertaken by a single community to address local issues or a group of communities working together to address both local and regional issues.
Typical grants range from $5,000 - $10,000, with greater financial assistance available for projects involving two or more municipalities.
The Greenway Communities Council, a state agency, works with local and county governments to enhance local land use planning and create a voluntary regional planning compact for the Hudson River Valley. The Council provides community planning grants and technical assistance to help communities develop a vision for their future and tools to achieve it by balancing economic development and resource protection objectives.
The “Greenway Criteria” identified in the Greenway Act are the basis for the Greenway program, providing an overall vision for voluntary local Greenway plans and projects.
The Criteria include:
Natural and Cultural Resource Protection: Project preserves and enhances natural and cultural resources including natural communities, open spaces, historic places, scenic areas and scenic roads.
Regional Planning: Encourage communities to work together to develop mutually beneficial regional strategies for natural and cultural resource protection, economic development, public access and heritage and environmental education.
Economic Development: Encourage economic development that is compatible with the preservation and enhancement of natural and cultural resources with emphasis on agriculture, tourism and the revitalization of existing community centers and waterfronts.
Public Access: Promote increased public access to the Hudson River through the creation of riverside parks and the development of the Hudson River Valley Greenway Trail System with linkages to the natural and cultural resources of the Valley.
Heritage and Environmental Education: Promote awareness among residents and visitors about the Valley’s natural, cultural, scenic and historic resources.
The success of the program has led to its prototype being proposed for other states, as well as other parts of New York. Chief among its attributes are the ways in which it can open up funding streams promoting intermunicipal projects, much as the new Smart Growth funds being allocated by the state are currently being used for projects up and down the Route 28 corridor that would have normally been up for cuts given the current economic climate.
In particular, projects eyed for the Route 28 corridor include trail improvements and other means of attracting steady tourism.
Current programs of the Hudson River Valley Greenway include:· Technical and financial assistance for local planning efforts and regional planning with groups of communities, counties and organization; Technical and financial assistance for development of the Hudson River Valley Greenway Trail system for hiking, biking and paddling; An incentives package for communities participating in regional planning compacts including an advantage in state funding programs; indemnification for communities in law suits brought pursuant to zoning and other planning changes; the ability to regulate waterfronts through local rather than state regulations, and incentives to create plans using generic environmental impact statements to provide a measure of planning predictability through a broader public process; and participation in the programs of the Hudson Valley Tourism Development Council to foster the potential of tourism as a regional economic development engine.
Currently, plans are pending for the creation of an Upper Delaware River Valley Greenway Council being sponsored by Senator John Bonacic and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther of Sullivan County.
For further information visit www.hudsongreenway.state.ny.us.

Prioritizing Belleayre?

This past week he extended the ideas of those cuts, almost doubling the amounts he was looking to save in spending this year and next. He made a speech following a day of budget talks by the state Senate last Thursday, August 7, and closed door sessions amongst state assembly members in recent days.
What effects will this all have on our own regional priorities, which have included in recent years a number of projects denied funding during belt-tightening periods under the previous Pataki administration? Last Spring, when everyone in Albany was fighting to get a responsible budget passed, it seemed local lobbyists were calling the citizenry up to the Capital building for press events and meetings on a weekly if not daily basis.
What now?
“When the economy gets bad the sectors that suffer tend to be parks, transportation, and human services first,” said State Senator John Bonacic of the looming budget battles, which he pointed out would be occurring during a particularly tense political season, with incumbents everywhere looking to protect education and major employment while in “campaign mode.” “We all know the economy’s going to suffer. I think it’s prudent to try and soften the deficit now rather than letting it get worse. Some things will just have to wait until things get better.”
Bonacic was the sole official called who was able or willing to discuss the pending budget battles openly, with agency and department officials saying things were too early in process to report and other elected representatives on vacation for the week.
Those with projects balanced in the brink, such as Joe Kelly of the Coalition To Save Belleayre and Partners For Progress, two organizations pushing for major capital improvements to the Shandaken-based state owned ski center and the private development now tied to its future via an Agreement in Principal announced last September by former governor Eliot Spitzer, say they’re not hearing anything.
Kelly said that he hoped his organizations arguments from the spring budget battles, that Upstate needs jobs and investment in the local business climate, still hold.
Asked whether such concerns still held the same power now that they did a few months back, Bonacic reiterated his talk of funding priorities and noted that, “Belleayre would be like that,” meaning one of the first items up for chopping, once the chopping starts.
“We’ll discuss what we want to put on the table,” Bonacic said of his branch of the legislature, fighting to hold on to its slim majority for another year. “The wild card, of course, is going to be (Assembly Speaker Sheldon) Silver and how he’s going to play it. The last I heard, he’s not only saying there’s no need for property tax reform but saying we can wait on any cuts until we start the regular budget process in a few months. We have yet to see if he just gavels the Assembly in and out on the same day…”
The Senator then agreed that moves by a number of agencies to shift funding projects into larger entities, such as Smart Growth and Transportation initiatives with federal matches, seemed to be a safe way of protecting revenue streams. Monies tied to next year’s Hudson-Champlain-Fulton celebration looked safe.
What about the millions tied to that Spitzer deal, including land purchases and associated infrastructure build-outs at the state-owned ski center? Would the AIP, as it’s been called, survive bad economic times?
“That’s moving forward,” Bonacic said. “Some obstacles still exist, from a few environmental organizations to (major landowner) Kingdon Gould’s complaints about it ruining his viewshed. Yet I’ll still argue on behalf of its benefits.”
Nevertheless, the Senator added, it’s his current belief that “the economy could very well put it all off for a while now.”
“Maybe we put off the capital projects off a year or two until things get better,” he said, including the Catskill Interpretive Center and other major state infrastructure projects in the region into the equation. “You can put it off…”
Bonacic added that he wasn’t trying to second-guess the Governor, just getting a sense of what the looming budget cutting discussions will involve.
“I’m looking into taking some HMOs private, which could bring in several billion to the revenue side, and I know there’s also talk about selling off some roads and bridges to make money,” he added. “There’s other stuff that can be privatized, too. It’ll be a lively discussion…”
State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, meanwhile, followed up on a press statement supporting the Governor’s August 11 speech bysaying he’d withhold comment on local funding priorities until an entire package gets opened up for discussion.
“If it ends up being just us that takes the big hits (at Belleayre and with the CIC), that’s unacceptable,” Cahill said on Tuesday. “If it’s across the board, that’s different. I just don’t want to be the community taking it on the chin for the entire state here.”

The meeting at Bennett Elementary School was the first time board members have chosen to vote on the law itself in years, instead of casting a protest vote.

With the settlement between the reservoir owners, New York City and the town of Olive, most believed that a vote would not be necessary, but the State Office of Real Property Services (ORPS) does not agree with the valuation.

“I think we all had high hopes that the Large Parcel would go away this year,” said Resnick, “and the Olive assessment and the city were so close but unfortunately ORPS did not agree with that assessment, (therefore) triggering a vote.”

The town of Hurley is currently in its own court dispute with New York City over the valuation of its portion of the Ashokan Reservior and this also carries an impact on how taxes are apportioned. Trustee Donna Flayhan said, “I want to encourage the administration to look into ways to talk to the town of Hurley and encourage them to work with New York City, like we did in the town of Olive.”

Trustees engaged in a lengthy executive session focusing on employee contract negotiations before finally returning to its regular session at the midnight hour. At that time, the board and administrators, very sleepy eyed, began discussing a range of problems they recognized within the district that they hope will be fixed by the beginning of the school year. Board president Ralph Legnini apologized for the lateness of the hour but felt the matters at hand were important because the clock is ticking down to the beginning of school.

The first topic was the water quality at the Middle/high School. The school board mulled over ideas on ways to combat an elevated level of Manganese in the water, that runs afoul of the state’s secondary standards. Although the State does not mandate removing Manganese based on health concerns, board members pointed to an EPA study that does highlight a correlation that excessive Manganese in water could cause unhealthy results. The board debated whether there was danger in the Manganese, and whether it stems from the water traveling through the pipes or from the well water.

School board student representative William Melvin asked if the brown water seen throughout most of the school fountains was from the Manganese. Superintendent Leslie Ford said the discoloration was due to old pipes and not the Manganese although she explained that chlorination in the water enhances the mineral deposits. The State mandates water is to be tested closest to the wellhead, before it travels through the pipes. Middle School Assistant teacher Nancy Parisio brought in a bottle of brown water taken from a sink in the staff lounge.

A filtration system may take out the Manganese but could be ineffective in dealing with pipe corrosion.

Flayhan recommended, as a quick fix, to supply bottled water or “point of use filters,” that would address both the Manganese level and the rusty pipes. These filters would apply directly to certain drinking fountains. But Legnini said, “If we were to supply water coolers, bottled water, anything we have to pay for to supply water to the children, that would be considered a gift. To justify those funds...would bring up a red flag from the audit committee because we are saying we have to fix something that the health department says is not dangerous.”

Assistant Superintendent for business Victoria McLaren agreed and explained that in the past the district paid for water coolers that cost around $4,000 a year. She said the State recognizes it as an extravagant cost to taxpayers because according to the health department, “this is water that is potable.”

An EPA report has advised that for health and aesthetic purposes that Iron and Manganese not exceed .3 mg/L in drinking water, but this is not a mandate. The school’s water was tested at .840 mg/L of Manganese and .057 mg/L of iron.

Ford said she received a memo from engineers Clark Patterson Lee with approximate costs for three types of systems ranging from $10,000 to $30,000. The board discovered that the less expensive sequestering system was not a permanent solution and would eventually become non-effective. The school board asked for more information on the Greensand filtration and Ford said the costs would be significantly higher, but did not have approximates. The board also requested more information on point of use filtration. School board trustees Michelle Friedel and Resnick requested more information on health concerns and restrictions to the watershed. The board asked to bring in a speaker from the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection. Legnini said towards the beginning of the school year, maybe they should consider alerting parents for kids to bring in their own water to drink.

It was also noted that the Woodstock Elementary school boiler is in limbo at this point after incomplete work from the original contractors. Currently the school does not have hot water, which poses a question of health concerns in the kitchen. Ford said the district is working hard to have the problem solved by September. But the problem is in finding someone to work on it after the original contractors had left problems. She said the district’s construction manager met with another company and that there should be more information by the end of the week on getting the problem resolved.

Also discussed was the West Hurley Elementary School building, empty for several years now since its population was consolidated at Woodstock Elementary, and whether it could be used for temporary or seasonal type rentals until the school board decides on a long range plan for the district’s buildings. Ford said that the district has allowed municipal organizations such as the West Hurley library and the police department to use the building. But Flayhan said she spoke with neighbors around the school and was concerned about the empty building attracting negative or illegal activity.

Ford said that any action was on hold because of uncertainty with the district’s master plan. What to do with West Hurley depends, she said, on how the board wants to proceed with the district configuration. Flayhan said that she also received a complaint from a neighbor when the building was in use and asked that the district inform the neighbors when an activity would be taking place there.

In related news, Ford told the board that it needs to think about proceeding with a district reorganization. She presented several examples on how it can move forward. “One is we can meet in September with our presenters (KSQ architects), to come back and have further discussions...and then continue; or we could take a brief hiatus, then we could look at it all in a couple of months.” She also said the board could chose to do nothing, but she did not recommend this due to the district’s infrastructure problems.

Finally, confusion over the district’s dress code policy last spring was discussed, primarily focused on female elementary students who were told they could not wear shirts with spaghetti straps. He said that if there are dress code problems in elementary school, the parents should be contacted and the children should not be reprimanded when they do not fully understand why.

Student rep Melvin, who is a senior at the high school said, “I find it kind of funny that they enforce a dress code at the elementary schools when the middle and high school really does not have a dress code...and if they do, it is not enforced. I think that is kind of crazy.”

Ford said that the three elementary school principals have since met and are now on the same page with school dress codes. Addressing Melvin, she said the high school is revising its dress code, “So things may be different when you come back to school this year.”

Melvin asked, “Will elements of the dress code be discussed? Because I know this will be a hot issue at the high school.” Ford said students would be included in the discussion.

Finally, trustee Laurie Osmond said she wants to reconstitute Site Teams at the schools with the intention of obtaining more community input at a local level. Site Teams are a State mandate, but currently the schools do not have any structured shared decision making groups that includes teachers, staff and parents.

“I think it is critical to try our best to maintain the level of community involvement that we have seen happen lately,” Osmond said, “where people really care about their particular school building and the environment in that building.”

She also would want various members of each Site Team to give informal presentations to the board on an occasional basis. In the past every elementary school had a Site Team and regular reports were submitted to the school board.

Also, several students complained about the transfer of high school Physical Education teacher Patrick Burkhardt to Phoenicia elementary school. This also included his long-term involvement as cross-country track coach. Although the board does not have any power over the transfer of teachers, they did approve him as cross-country track coach for the incoming school year.

And Ford said the State approved the proposal on renovating the High School Auditorium. Although costs in construction have increased, with funding provided by a State EXCEL grant the board can now move forward on the project.