Newsbriefs

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Rob, At Last
Although officials won't be opening the final ballot from November's election 'till after Christmas, Rob Stanley has apparently won the town board race and will be sworn in January 1. Depending on that lone ballot's votes for the two town board positions, Stanley's final margin of victory over Doris Bartlet will be either 1,2, or 3 votes. The outcome was mathematically assured December 13 when another contested ballot which arrived without a normal postmark was disallowed in a decision by State Supreme Court Judge Mary Work. According to reports, both candidates showed consistent patience, comraderie, and good humor throughout the lengthy resolution process. Stanley's win assures the town's Republicans of a 4-1 majority on the town board through 2007.

Fire Co. Results...
Phoenicia resident and volunteer firefighter Linda Michela has been elected to the Board of Fire Commissioners for the Phoenicia Fire District.
Michela on Tuesday won a rare four-way race for a single seat on the five member board.
Michela received 56 votes, followed by Ted Byron Sr. of Mount Tremper with 49, Phoenicia firefighter George Blank with 39 and Val Schmidt, a Shandaken-based firefighter, with 13.
Michela will serve a five-year term, joining current commissioners Howard Sebald, Chad Story, Ken Umhey Jr. and Richard Loveless.
The Phoenicia Fire District comprises the hamlets of Shandaken, Bushnellville, Allaben, Phoenicia, Chichester, Mount Pleasant and Mount Tremper.
The district has three separate volunteer fire companies operating on a total budget of $175,000 per year, funded by taxpayers.
Michela, who is married and has two children, has been a Phoenicia-area resident for about eight years and visited the area for almost 10 years before moving here. She is employed by Uniprise in the town of Ulster and is a member of the M.F. Whitney Hose Company.
"I am an active volunteer firefighter with over a year of service to this community," she said.
Michela said she rain for a seat on the Board of Fire Commissioners because she felt the body needed an active firefighter among its members.
" For quite some time, politicians and firefighters who have not been active have run the board," she said. "I feel they are out of touch with the needs of the active firefighter."
Michela said there are several important issues facing the fire district, including the ability to attract and keep qualified firefighters. Another key issue is keeping up with rapid changes in technology, she said.
"We, as a fire district, need to keep up with those changes," she said. "Changing times require us ... to change the way we do things in order to keep us and the public safe from harm."
Among Michela's goals as a commissioner is finding "the balance between meeting the needs of the fire district and the need to keep our taxes as low as possible," she said.

Burgled Copper
Shandaken Police arrested Chris M. Klutsch age 41 of Kingston,.for Burglary in the 3rd degree (felony) and Petit Larceny (misdemeanor). A patrolman from the Shandaken Police Dept. was on patrol when he observed a suspicious vehicle parked near an abandon building known as the White House Lodge on Bonnieview Ave in the hamlet of Pine Hill. Further investigation found the defendant was inside the building stealing the copper radiators and the copper water lines from the building. Klutsch was arraigned in the Town of Shandaken Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $5000 bail to return at a later date.

County Budget!
The Ulster County legislature recently approved a 2006 budget that will raise the property tax levy by 38.95 percent. They reached the final figure, approved 18-14 along a largely party-line vote (and about ten percent less than what was originally anticipated) by making two last-minute additions to anticipated revenues and eliminating one job.
All 17 Republicans, who will be losing their long-held majority status next month, and retiring Democrat Joan Feldmann of Saugerties voted for the budget.
The last-minute amendments adopted by the legislature included an increase in the estimated sales tax revenue for next year of $800,000, an increase in appropriations from the county’s Medicaid reserve fund by $700,000, and the elimination of a vacant job in the Department of Highways and Bridges for a savings of about $100,000.
The Legislature’s Republican leadership withdrew a last-minute proposal to increase the county’s hotel/motel tax from 2 percent to 8 percent, a move that would have generated an additional $2.6 million in revenue and reduced the increase in the property tax levy by as much as 8 percentage points.
Democrats said that overestimating revenue in past budgets is part of what brought the county to its current financial troubles. Republicans countered that at least they were bringing proposals to the table - more, they said, than the Democrats have done to bring the tax levy down.
Also Wednesday, lawmakers unanimously adopted the county’s $260 million capital program for the next five years after eliminating about $31 million in new construction projects that had not been authorized by the Legislature.

Police Grads!
On Friday, December 16, the third graduation under the collaboration of Ulster County Community College and the Ulster County Law Enforcement Training Group was held at Hillside Manor, Kingston.
Graduates included Trevor Bailey from Olive, Trevor Bailey and Travis Nissen for the Town of Shandaken. Congratulations, officers!

County Shifts…
The Ulster County Charter Commission has finalized its suggestion, minus any budgeting guesses, to shift county governance to an elected executive position from its current appointed administrator format. The premise, the commission has said, is that a county executive who is a sole, fully accountable leader, coupled with an elected comptroller, would find and enforce efficiencies in operations that would offset the additional cost of a larger government.
In more immediate matters, Kingston Mayor James Sottile declared that he was not interested in serving as the county administrator and would finish out the remaining two years in his second term as mayor.
The county administrator’s job comes with an $89,500 salary. Sottile currently grosses $60,000. Under next year’s Kingston City budget approved by the Common Council this week, the mayor will get a 25 percent raise in 2006, to $75,000. Political watchers are saying the administrator’s post could serve as a showcase for its next appointed incumbent to prove his or her worth as a viable county executive candidate when election to that office comes up, perhaps as soon as 2007.
Sottile’s decision leaves the field open for Democrats to appoint an administrator from inside or outside of Ulster County. The choices include current jobholder Art Smith, a Republican who is serving his first two-year stint in the post, but who served as deputy county administrator for some 20 years before that. His term does not expire until June of 2006.
But Sottile’s decision also concerns the current administrator’s post alone; it doesn’t rule out a run at county executive, if and when that elective post is created. The timing could serve the mayor well, for voters are expected to be asked if they want to approve a new executive form of government in November 2006, and then to be asked to actually choose an executive in either 2007 or 2008.
“Who knows what could happen two or three years from now?” said Sottile.
As incoming Legislature chairman, Democrat David Donaldson has vowed to uphold party promises made during the election and move diligently toward creating a county executive form of government. He has said he believes the office would be captured by a Democrat.
Topping the list of local officials cited as potential candidates for the county executive post is Democratic Assemblyman Kevin Cahill of the 101st Assembly District, which covers most of the county, including Kingston. Cahill is a native of Kingston and still lives here, and was a county legislator and minority leader before winning election to the Assembly.
Cahill laughed when asked if he was interested in running for the county’s future top job. “We don’t have a county executive form of government, last time I checked,” he said. But he acknowledged that rumors are rampant, including the fact he was introduced by Democratic County Treasurer Lew Kirschner at a recent party gathering as “the first county executive of Ulster County.”
If Cahill were to run for and be elected county executive, one rumor circulating already has it that Sottile might be appointed to Cahill’s Assembly seat.
Also in recent weeks, Glenn Noonan, Republican Minority Leader for the 2006 Legislative Session, announced
the following Minority Committee assignments: Administrative Services – Robert Aiello and Joan Every; Arts, Education and Community Relations – Frank Felicello and Wayne Harris; Criminal Justice and Safety - Robert Aiello and Joan Every; Economic Development – Elizabeth Alfonso and Joseph P. Roberti, Jr.; Efficiency, Reform and Intergovernmental Affairs - Charles Busick and Susan Cummings; Environmental - Dean Fabiano and William McAfee; Health – Charles Busick and Joseph P. Roberti, Jr.; Human Services - Dean Fabiano and Wayne Harris; Labor Relations and Negotiation – Richard A. Gerentine and Glenn
Noonan; Personnel – Elizabeth Alfonso and Wayne Harris; Public Works - Frank Felicello and William McAfee; and Ways and Means - Susan Cummings and Richard A. Gerentine.

Disinvited
Kingston will seek an injunction against white supremacist radio host Hal Turner if he tries to hold another rally in Kingston, two city attorneys and the police chief said last week, noting that any court action would be based on Turner’s threat during a Nov. 19 rally to bring Kingston “to its economic knees” by holding future demonstrations if a black student accused of attacking a white classmate at Kingston High School wasn’t charged with a hate crime.
A recent indictment against the suspect included no hate crimes, but there has been no word from Turner, a New Jersey-based Internet radio host, on whether he plans to return to Kingston.
Police Chief Gerald Keller has said that Turner gave up his First Amendment right to demonstrate in Kingston the moment he turned the prospect of future rallies into a threat. He conceded, however, that courts usually protect First Amendment rights and could side with Turner.
The Nov. 19 rally - which attracted about 40 Turner supporters, 200 counterdemonstrators and 200 police officers - cost the city about $60,000. The event was verbally confrontational, but there were no violent incidents and no arrests.
The Laws and Rules Committee of the city is currently considering a proposal that would require demonstrators to obtain permits, but no action has been taken yet.

Shotgun Fight
A Hunter family blowout degraded into what State Police called a “Dodge City” shotgun battle between two Haines Falls brothers recently inside the home they shared. Wesley N. Hall, 19, and Watson A. Hall, 21, were both in the Greene County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail December 11 after, authorities say, the two became incensed at each other sometime before 9 a.m., grabbed a shotgun each and opened fire. Despite exchanging blasts from 12- and 20-gauge shotguns, neither brother was seriously injured, authorities said. Both were cut by glass blown from a window and skylight destroyed in the gunplay.
“They got injured more from the glass that was in the house after their little escapades,” said one law enforcement official, who asked that his name not be used.
Troopers received a call for shots fired and responded to the home to find one brother, Watson, already outside. He was taken into custody while authorities made phone contact with Wesley, who was still inside. He also surrendered. Both were charged with felony first-degree reckless endangerment and misdemeanor menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
Watson Hall also was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance, though authorities declined to identify the substance pending test results.
At one point, Wesley appears to have had both shotguns, police said. But exactly what happened inside, and what they were fighting over, was not clear. It also wasn’t clear how many shots were fired inside what police called “a decent-size” house.
Asked if they were sharing the same cell, a jail official said: “They’re not even in the same tier.”

First Big Snow
The first major snow of the season December 9 ended up with Kingston hosting 11.5 inches of snow on the ground, Poughkeepsie had 11, Catskill 9.2, Shandaken 8 and Hudson had 6 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Meteorologists described the storm as a classic Nor’Easter with two storm systems - one from the Ohio Valley and another coming up from the mid-Atlantic. The two storms merged near Long Island before moving northeast.
There were five accidents on the Thruway and more than a dozen vehicles had to be winched out of the shoulders and medians along the highway. There were also numerous traffic mishaps on more local roads.

New For Septics
A program that pays half of the cost of inspecting and pumping out residential septic systems in the Catskill-Delaware Watershed has been expanded. The program, administered by the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC), now applies to all new or replacement residential systems installed since Jan. 21, 1997 that are at least three years old. Property owners who are eligible will soon receive a letter from the CWC explaining the program. Original program rules offered inspections and pumpouts only to homeowners whose systems had been replaced under the CWC’s Septic Rehabilitation and Replacement Program. The rule change extending this routine maintenance of
on-site septic systems to all homeowners who were issued septic construction approval from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection since Jan. 21, 1997 was adopted by the CWC Board of Directors November 29. To participate in the program, property owners may contract with any licensed septage hauler and arrange to have their tank pumped out. An inspection check list must be filled out and signed by the hauler. The homeowner pays the hauler, and returns the checklist to the CWC, along with
a reimbursement form, contractor’s invoice and proof of payment (contractor’s receipt or cancelled check). The CWC does not pay for enzyme treatments, system additives or sales tax. For more information and the required forms, contact Larry Kelly at the CWC,
845-586-1400, Ext. 15.

At Onteora...
On December 6, the Onteora School community heard New York State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill speak about his bill titled A8069, that would change school funding from the real property tax method, to a State flat tax,
“We have an education funding crisis in New York State,” said Cahill, “this is about our constitutional obligation and our moral obligation to provide funding for quality of education for every single child in New York State.”
Cahill explained that the Hudson valley is unique because the “property wealth exceeds income wealth.” As property values raise the middle class and the diversity of people can no longer afford to live in the area and as houses are sold at a higher rate, “we can be pretty sure we can count on more school tax tomorrow, but what we cannot be sure is that these folks here will be able to afford to pay and we will have people consider this their vacation home or an opportunity as an investment to run up the prices and sell it to someone else, we loose young working families and the fabric of our communities.”
Bill A8069 would eliminate real property tax as funding to education and instead shift the tax burden to a state tax. The school budget would be created by the local school board and must comply with standards under the New York State education department.
The bill needs sponsorship from a Senator in order to reach the Senate floor for a vote, but Cahill is optimistic about it’s future. Local senator John Bonacic is currently pushing a similar, but not same bill…
The school administration has asked the district to keep all heating temperatures set at 68 degrees in every school and classroom. Winters recommended that teachers and students come equipped with an extra sweater and explained that because of the old heating system, some rooms may be colder than others. The heat was reduced beginning Monday December 5, hoping it will help offset the cost of rising fuel prices. They have also asked bus drivers not to keep busses standing idle while running using unnecessary fuel.

Large Parcel?
According to Olive Supervisor Bert Leifeld, everything went well for him at the Coalition of Watershed Towns meeting in Margaretville Monday night, December 19. The general consensus of the meeting, he said, was in his favor regarding a resolution he’s asking for that will ask the state legislature to remove reservoirs from consideration under its controversial “Large Parcel” tax formulas for sharing large properties between towns that make up school or county taxing districts.
Sure, Leifeld said, Shandaken supervisor Bob Cross Jr. read a letter against the resolution. But then he had to leave the meeting early, before a two hour discussion of the matter, including a Power Point presentation by Leifeld’s fellow reservoir impoundment town supervisor, Georgiana Lepke, on how her town’s facing Large Parcel next. And yes, he’s heard that Woodstock supervisor Jeremy Wilber will be fighting tooth and nail against any resolutions Leifeld suggests.
So what if the immediate decision to send a CWT resolution up to Albany was tabled for now?
“They said they WILL come up with a resolution of support,” Leifeld said. “They’re just going to invite all the membership towns to the next meeting first.”
The Coalition of Watershed Towns came together under the guidance of the late state senator Charles Cook in the early 1990s to fight proposed regulatory changes from New York City regarding its massive upstate reservoir system holdings. It eventually forced the state’s brokering of a 1997 Memorandum of Agreement between the City and Upstate that created the Catskill Watershed Corporation, and brought significant funding to the region for development and conservation purposes.
In recent years the CWT, headed for over a decade by Windham supervisor Pat Meehan, has sufficed to bicker over city infringements regarding property purchases and minor regulations. In the past year, though, it became involved in the fight over permits for Dean Gitter’s proposed Belleayre Resort in Shandaken, and has started using its clout in other matters.
Two months ago Olive town Supervisor Bert Leifeld asked CWT to pass a resolution asking the State Legislature to remove the term reservoir from New York large parcel legislation. With that word in the law, the Ashokan Reservoir met criteria to allow the Onteora school district to remove the Ashokan from Leifeld's town of Olive for school tax purposes and treat it as a separate entity. The result was that Olive taxes went through the roof.
Earlier this year, angry Olivians took control of the school board and gained enough votes on the board to sink the large parcel plans for the Ashokan this year, but Leifeld is aiming at putting the matter to sleep forever by getting the state to change the law so the Ashokan could never be considered a large parcel, even if the school board wanted it to.
Cross and Wilber say large parcel creates a fair tax structure between the towns in their school district.
Meehan said he was tabling the issue, at Cross’ request, and notifying all 50 member communities of CWT of the issue because of the flack he ran into over a recent decision to appeal a judge’s ruling for adjudication in the Belleayre Resort process.
The next CWT meeting, where Leifeld’s resolution will be discussed and voted on, is scheduled for January 16 at 6:30 p.m. at CWC offices in Margaretville.
Lepke, a longstanding CWC board member, recently called for a special meeting of her Town Board on Wednesday to discuss Sullivan County legislators' enactment of the state's Large Parcel Bill that will increase county taxes for Neversink residents by 74 percent. County lawmakers voted 5-4 last month to change the taxing formula the town had received from the Neversink Reservoir, similar to that enacted regarding the Ahokan by Ulster County in 2004. They committed to the change for only one year.

Air Pollution?
Government research project that assigns risk scores for industrial air pollution throughout the United States has rated Ulster, Dutchess, Greene and Columbia counties as above the median health risk among 3,141 counties nationwide. According to data obtained by the Associated Press and based on the 2000 Census, Ulster and Dutchess counties each have a health risk from industrial air pollution that is 3.6 times greater than the national median. In Greene County, the health risk is twice the national median, while Columbia is 1.6 times the national median. In Ulster County, the hamlet of Wallkill in the town of Shawangunk was ranked among the top 5 percent of national Census tracts with the highest health risk scores from industrial air pollution.
Ulster County Legislator Brian Shapiro, D-Woodstock, said it is hard to accept the data because the area is overwhelmingly rural.
“Along with most people, I think of Ulster County as having fresh mountain air and country air,” Shapiro said. “I wouldn’t think that we have a problem.”
Shapiro, designated chairman of the county Legislature’s newly formed Environmental Committee starting in January, said he would like to review the data further.
Peter Iwanowicz, the director of environmental health with the American Lung Association of New York, said he is not surprised by the findings. He said the American Lung Association has given Ulster and Dutchess counties failing grades on ozone tests in the past few years.
“Its been a trend over the past six or seven years,” Iwanowicz said, adding that poor air quality has been seen from New York City to the Adirondacks. Emissions from motor vehicles, factories and power plants are up, and contributing to the ozone problem, he said.
Ozone is a form of oxygen that results when byproducts of fuel combustion are “cooked” by sunlight. Exposure to high ozone levels can trigger asthma attacks and lead to difficulty breathing. Long-term exposure can permanently damage lung tissue.
“The Hudson Valley is becoming more and more developed, and that’s why you’re seeing the problems become more and more acute,” Iwanowicz said.
While emissions limits have been put in place for motor vehicles and smokestacks, they are not protective enough, Iwanowicz said. He said more needs to be done to reduce the number of cars on the road.

Loan Seizures
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously recently that the government can seize a person’s Social Security benefits to pay old student loans. Retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the decision that went against a disabled man, James Lockhart, who had sued claiming he needed all of his $874 monthly check to pay for food and medication after his government benefits had been cut by 15 percent to cover debts he incurred for college in the 1980s.
Congress recently eliminated a 10-year time limit on the government’s right to seek repayment on defaulted student loans by seizing payments, including Social Security, to individuals. The Bush administration has maintained that the case was important because outstanding student loans total about $33 billion, which includes about $7 billion in delinquent debt. Of the delinquent loans, about half are over 10 years old.
Justices were called on to clarify federal laws that sent conflicting messages about the collection of loans that are more than a decade old.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said that Congress “unambiguously authorized, without exception, the collection of 10-year-old student loan debt ... in doing so, it flatly contracted and thereby effectively repealed part of the Social Security Act.”
Groups like the AARP and the National Consumer Law Center had urged the court to safeguard Social Security benefits in the Lockhart case, arguing they “are critical in preserving a measure of financial independence for older and disabled workers.”

Medicare Failure
Under the normal rules of politics, Congressional Republicans ought to be doing victory laps these days because of the new Medicare drug benefit, accepting the gratitude of the nation’s retirees. Instead, at meetings around the country, they are trying to ease widespread confusion and apprehension about a program that strikes many retirees as dauntingly complex. Beyond altruistic concerns, Congressional Republicans have a keen political interest in ensuring an orderly, successful rollout of the program, which happens to begin in a highly competitive midterm election year. The drug benefits are available for the first time beginning Jan. 1, and the initial sign-up period, which began Nov. 15, lasts until May 15. Nobody knows how popular the drug benefit will ultimately be with the nation’s retirees, who are a critical voting bloc. But Congressional Republicans, who pushed through the Medicare drug law in 2003, have clear political ownership of it, and whatever credit or blame it brings, strategists say.
Republicans counter that, properly explained, the drug benefit is a huge advantage to the 42 million Americans on Medicare - the biggest expansion of the program since its creation 40 years ago.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Congressional members are already pushing legislation to extend the May deadline for signing up for the drug benefit without penalty. They argue that retirees need more time to decide what to do and more flexibility to change their minds. The penalty for a late sign-up is significant - an increase in premiums of 1 percent for every month past the deadline.
“Seniors are confused, bewildered and frightened,” said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, who is leading the push for a delay.
The administration is opposed to such delays, arguing they are unnecessary and would only compound the uncertainty about the program.
The Medicare drug plan was devised to reflect central Republican tenets: that private companies, and private market forces, are the best way to deliver drug benefits to the nation’s elderly; that the government’s role should be sharply limited, particularly when it comes to exerting price pressure on the drug companies; and that the nation’s retirees ought to have a full array of options for their drug coverage.

Power Crunch
From Maine to Florida, from Virginia to Missouri, as much as half the United States confronts the possibility that harshly cold weather will lead to restrictions of natural-gas supplies. In some places - areas heavily dependent on natural gas to produce electricity (such as the Catskills and Hudson Valley) - the prospect of “rolling blackouts,” or controlled power outages, is much higher than in previous winters.
Any natural-gas cutoffs would primarily affect electric-power plants and factories fueled by gas, not homes, and be most likely in the Northeast. If cold deepens for prolonged periods, the likelihood of interrupted natural-gas supplies rises to 30 percent in the Northeast and to 10 percent as far south as Florida and as far west as Missouri, according to a recent report by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), a trade association representing gas pipeline companies. In a “worst-case” scenario, chances of interrupted gas rise to 40 percent for the Northeast and 25 percent across the eastern seaboard.
Even so, gas cutoffs would not automatically mean power outages to residential and commercial consumers. Residential customers who heat homes with natural gas are unlikely to have their supply interrupted, because gas utilities typically have “firm contracts” with distributors. Still, hurricane damage continues to block about 6 percent of the nation’s gas supply flowing through pipelines north from the Gulf of Mexico. The government reported last week that 32 percent of the Gulf supply remains “shut in” - a loss of 3.2 billion cubic feet per day. That’s at the high end of the range the INGAA predicts will be “missing” this winter.
This missing flow of gas could be critical in mid- to late winter, when reserves are drawn down. Potential problems exist in New York, where half of the electricity-generating capacity is fueled by natural gas.

Immigration?
More than 8,000 people have been mistakenly tagged for immigration violations as a result of the Bush administration’s strategy of entering the names of thousands of immigrants in a national crime database meant to help apprehend terrorism suspects, according to a new study conducted by the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington, which relied on statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security that covered 2002 to 2004. The study found that the national crime database was wrong in 42 percent of the cases in which it identified immigrants stopped by the local police as being wanted by domestic security officials.
Many immigration violations, like overstaying a visa, are civil infractions, not criminal offenses typically handled by the police. But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, domestic security officials have worked to encourage states and localities to help enforce immigration laws by adding the names of thousands of violators - like immigrants evading deportation orders - to the F.B.I. crime database.
Locally, a large number of Pakistani and other Islamic immigrants to the area were deported following the 9/11 attacks, and sparked a local investigation into the Ulster County Department of Motor Vehicles.
Conservatives are meanwhile pegging illegal immigration as the next powerful political issue to shape coming elections. GOP strategists have said they are looking to opposition to illegal immigration as a way to edge out Democrats in 2006, and not just in border states.