Follow Up on the News
In a phone interview Monday Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. said he expects many of those questions to be answered at a special town board meeting on February 22nd.
Cross said that the issue has now entered into a phase where many of the issues must be addressed from a legal standpoint. That’s why town attorney Kevin Young has been asked to come to town on the 22nd, Cross said.
With the project’s defeat at the polls there is no clear description of what happens next. Some say there’s already another petition drive to force the town board to push the project through. Young announced prior to Saturday’s vote that if enough residents signed a petition demanding the town board push the project through, the board would be legally compelled to consider the plan. He said they would have to follow a specific list of criteria to determine if the project was best for the community.
Others say that if the details of the project proposal are altered, even slightly, it gives a green light to another vote and that if the deal were better for Phoenicia than before it would pass that time around. Others still say that all of the above is just speculation and that the town needs to accept the reality that a majority of Phoenicia voters said no. Because of this, it has been said, the town must now pay back the City of New York, which bought $225,000 worth of real estate as a site for the sewer plant.
This last point has been the subject of contention around the hamlet and the entire town, with taxpayers being concerned that they would somehow end up on the hook for paying the city back and others claiming this would not be the case.
The sewer system was to be built under a partnership program between the City of New York and the Communities within the city’s watershed. Under the program the city would have paid $17 million to build the system. On February 3rd the project was voted down. Unofficial results showed a 33 vote spread, with 156 voters opposing the project and 123 in favor.
Asked when the tally would become official, Frasier said it would not be until Thursday February 22nd at 3 pm. That is when Young, the Attorney handling the project for the town, will meet with the town board at town hall to discuss where the project goes from here. The session will be a workshop, Cross said, until 3:45 and then become an official town board meeting in which action can be taken.
Again, Cross notes that right now no one knows what that action, if any, would be. But at least the absentee ballots will be counted.
“Bob said that the town Board will open the absentee ballots,” Frasier said.
By the February 3rd vote, 36 absentee ballots had been received in time to be included in the vote count that took place at the Phoenicia Firehouse immediately following the 8 pm closing of the polls.
Frasier said only nine remain outstanding and that another three had already been received. Frasier said that one of those was postmarked one day after the February 2nd postmark deadline, so that ballot would be declared invalid.
“Rules are rules,” she said.
Opponents of the project insist that the project is officially dead. Ric Ricciardella, a vocal opponent, said that there is nothing else to discuss.
“It’s over. We voted. That’s it,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the recent defeat of the sewer project, Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. has invited officials with the Catskill Watershed Corporation to come to town and explain the details of the agencies septic system rehabilitation program.
CWC staff will be on hand at the March town board meeting, slated for March 5th, to answer questions.
CWC’s corporate counsel, Tim Cox, said Tuesday that there are some cases in which some Phoenicia homeowners could get CWC assistance, but that there are rules and guidelines that could also prevent others from getting help.
With no sewer system planned, Phoenicia would be eligible for participation in CWC’s septic rehabilitation program, which is funded by New York City.
However, a big guideline right now is that it pertains to residential septic systems that sit within 150 feet of a watercourse. This rule eliminates many hamlet properties from eligibility, as not all residences are within that distance.
Cox said the CWC may change this policy eventually, eliminating the 150 foot maximum to allow all homeowners a chance at getting in on the program.
There are other details to consider. A residence that is used as a second home or is not owner occupied would only get 60 percent of the total septic replacement cost reimbursed.
The CWC also doesn’t come back. Cox said if they install a septic system and that system fails the CWC does not pay to repair it, at least for a long time.
He said you could get reimbursed, but only after CWC takes care of over 17,000 other systems watershed wide already on the list.
“You go to the back of the line,” he said.
Making Up For Lost Snow
Slutzky added that with snow expected as of press time this week, just before the President’s Day long weekend that serves as the last of the ski season’s big three three day chances to make big money, the climate change couldn’t have hit at a better time.
“Let’s just hope it’s not followed by rain,” the new nonagenarian added, although he did add that his mountain’s new slopeside hotel has been booked solid for the coming weekend for months now… and has helped keep the company afloat all season.
Across Greene County’s Northern Catskills peaks from Hunter, at Windham Mountain, P.R. Director Ed Koller was likewise upbeat about the impending snow… while also similarly downbeat on how the season’s gone so far.
“Obviously, November and December were disappointing to say the least,” he said in as upbeat a voice as possible. “We couldn’t even take advantage of our world-class snowmaking until January, which in itself wasn’t the best, either.”
For the last month, though, Koller said his resort’s been doing well on weekends. He said that as far as he could tell, it was as though the skiing and snowboarding community could only take so much time away from the slopes, snow or no snow. So they’ve been fitting in their dozen or more weekends each season into a shorter span than usual.
So are he and his fellow ski industry employees doing special dances and a variety of talismanic acts to bring on the snowfall now?
Koller laughed.
“We kind of make our own luck,” he said. “We don’t rely on natural snow at all anymore. Take this week… it won’t help us for snow advertising because it’s not supposed to fall much down in the metro area, but it will end up making the slopes nice.”
Koller said most ski areas now work their client base via direct e-mail updates. Their list currently boasts 25,000 regular names.
“Which doesn’t mean we’re not really excited about getting snow this last big weekend of the season,” he added. “After all, we tanked the first two…”
Up at Belleayre Mountain in Shandaken, even Superintendent Tony Lanza – normally the most optimistic of the usually optimistic ski industry lot – was speaking about the season so far as being a disappointment.
“We’re 32 percent down from last year,” Lanza said, although he added, in his way, that even that was better than the 56 percent down Belleayre was just after the rainy Martin Luther King weekend in January.
“Now, I’m hoping to get it within an 8 percent difference by year’s end,” he added. “Although that every weekend has to be a hit… who’d have expected January to be so problematic?”
Asked whether the climate change suggested possible further difficulties ahead for his industry, whether global warming was a culprit, Lanza said that as a state government employee he felt uncomfortable talking about “something that could be considered a political issue.”
He then talked about how much snowfall the Catskills got in the 1990s, how well the ski industry’s been doing in the United States in recent years, and how there have been similar warm periods recorded in the last 50 years.
“We’re skiing a longer season, a full 26 weeks for many areas,” he said. “If it is a fact, this global warming idea, I’m not the guy to say it.”
We noted that, talking to Slutzky earlier, the birthday boy had spoken with deep appreciation of the fact that Lanza had all his state-owned ski center’s lift tickets noting Orville’s birthday that day.
“Orville’s my idol.” The Belleayre super replied, after acknowledging Slutzky’s longstanding public antipathy to the state being in the ski business at all. “He’s the industry’s icon.”
“I don’t like years like this,” Slutzky himself said.
So did that mean he did dances, used talismans.
“None of that for me,” he added. “I’m too old. And believe it or not, I’m a realist.”
Compounding the company's problems is the fact that after forcing through okays to put a tower on South Mountain in Olive, it now seems that project has also hit nearly fatal snags. Verizon, set to be a major tenant on the South Mountain tower, is now reportedly seeking permission from Olive to build its own tower near the towns transfer station on Beaverkill Road, claiming that the South Mountain tower won’t really suit Verizon’s needs.
Masterpage is refusing all calls from the press these days, but it should be noted they have never really cooperated much with local media during the long-running legal problems with the South mountain Project approval several years ago, then with more recent legal wrangles with property owners near the South Mountain site.
Olivians are scratching their heads as much as Shandakenites lately, looking for answers as to when they can get any cellular signal.
The tower on South Mountain in Olive is up but not yet operational. Last summer Chris Buckey, the attorney representing Masterpage, said the company had found itself in litigation with one landowner that claimed there are right of way issues that need ironing out but that litigation, according to Buckey, has no bearing on Masterpage’s progress on the project. The status of the lawsuit was unclear this week, though sources say it remains unresolved.
In August Buckey was not able to speak as freely about the plans for a tower in Shandaken because, he said, Masterpage owner Kevin Kellerhouse chose not to use an attorney when putting the deal together with the town. However, Buckey said he was familiar with the plans for the project and insisted that nothing has changed, that Masterpage intends to build on the Glenbrook Park site as soon as possible.
But many in Shandaken, six months after Buckey’s remarks, still wonder when that will be. After highly publicized talks during the 2005 election season, Masterpage struck a deal with Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. to build a tower on town-owned land near Glenbrook Park. Though Cross had made it clear that time was of the essence, it got to be April 2006 before Masterpage appeared before the planning board with a complete application for review, and only after Cross expressed personal displeasure with the company’s snail-like pace.
The project got approved by the planning board, but nothing has happened since.
The only cellular coverage supplied by the tower approved in Shandaken would be exclusively for Nextel customers, and then it would only be for a distance of about two and half miles around the tower, according to Nextel representatives.
It was also announced that the structure, which in April 2006 Kellerhouse claimed “would be built in a couple of months”, would actually be 198 feet tall. While the tower is only 180 feet there will be another 18 feet of whip antennas atop it.
After being told of rumors that Masterpage was on the verge of bankruptcy, Buckey dismissed such notions outright.
“ They are financially solvent,” he said.
Kellerhouse has been summoned to a special Shandaken town board meeting set for February 22 at 3pm to answer questions about his companies no show for almost a year and half after striking a deal to build on town land.
“A lot of people want answers,” Cross said Monday
Bonacic Talks About His
New PowerAt this past Monday’s Ulster County Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Kingston Holiday Inn, Bonacic gave an address heavy on praise for Spitzer, a Democrat who, rumors had it, was thinking about offering the Orange County Republican a post in his administration.
Yet asked whether he would leave his Senate post, which he faced the toughest challenge of his 17 year legislative career to hold on to last autumn, Bonacic replied matter-of-factly that he liked the newfound power he had, protecting (and ultimately riding) his party’s two-vote majority… which he talked about repeatedly as a key to the sorts of governmental “checks and balances” that protect Upstate interests from New York City’s huge control over Albany.
The assembled media – more than at last month’s breakfast featuring U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey – muttered disbelief at Bonacic’s answers to their questions. Why hadn’t he addressed their concerns in his speech to those he had just spoken to, assuring them he was their senator and set to stay so.
Partly, that may have been because his audience had a heavier sprinkling of not-for-profit organizational employees in it than politicians. More small business owners than usual.
Then again, his Democratic challenger from November, County Legislator Susan Zimet, was busy working the room as Bonacic eyed her movements before his speech. And she had taken Ulster from him, while losing the larger race.
“It’s Gunga Din,” said the Senator’s aide and counsel, Langdon Chapman, to the side before Bonacic’s talk. He was referring to the Kipling poem and classic 30s film about a water carrier who helps save the day for the British in their fight against infidels.
Chapman added how his boss had always been independent, but was “never more pivotal, with more power, than now.”
“We have a new sheriff in town, he’s called Governor Spitzer,” Bonacic started off his speech, repeating a line he’d been using for a couple of months already. He talked about how in business, a new CEO likes to change the way things are done. “If you can’t meet the expectations, watch out.”
He spoke about how impressed he was with the Governor, with whom he’d just had a widely publicized hour long closed door session that Chapman characterized as something “the Senator is keeping to himself.”
“He’s very intelligent, a man of substance,” the Republican said of Spitzer. “He’s got vision and he’s very courageous… He’s taken on the leadership in the Assembly, in the Senate, and he’s taken on Mayor Bloomberg of New York. I applaud his boldness…”
Yet Bonacic also noted that the key to governance, especially from the Governor’s seat, is compromise.
“In government you need partners,” he repeated at several points. “It’s the governor’s style not to negotiate, a ‘take no prisoners’ approach. All that will happen with that is gridlock.”
Obviously relishing the inside process of politics at work as his key subject, Bonacic was quick with the prognoses and observations, outlining his own current position obliquely at the same time.
“The (Democrat) minority in the Senate is at his hip, meaning there will be no override of his vetoes,” Bonacic explained. “The legislature is afraid of his vetoes. These are very interesting times and from what I’ve seen so far, I like what I see.”
The Senator noted how he was for all the elements of reform Spitzer had won his large electoral margins fighting for. He then addressed the concerns he says he’d heard about repeatedly from his own constituents, such as education, affordable health care, jobs, property taxes, and affordable housing. He said his favorite “R” word was “Results.”
Bonacic’s speech lost its original drive as he jumped from topic to topic, repeatedly noting about various issues, “this is a good thing,” as if checking down a list.
He spoke about the need for structural changes in the way education was funded through property taxes while noting the political obstacles change would have to overcome based on New York City’s inability to see the issue as important, it being largely a city of renters.
He made a stab at the second home, tax exempt and larger business communities as being basically okay to tax.
“How do we get traction,” he asked. “We have a governor who recognizes that we need property tax reform.”
In terms of jobs, he noted how state-owned Belleayre Ski Resort, for which he’s helped procure expansion monies, was “doing well” and spoke of all the talk about handing Stewart Airport over to Port Authority as something that “could be a real sleeper for all of us.” Meaning “that’s a good thing.”
Then, shifting gears guilelessly, Bonacic slammed the local business community, albeit with the gloves on.
"I've watched Ulster County for six years. There's a malaise here, the Senator said. "Greene and Orange counties are taking off. Sullivan has a heartbeat. Dutchess has IBM. Albany has nanotechnology but we’re are not keeping up.”
Bonacic suggested the county leadership start pushing for a $300 million neon plant the state’s looking to site somewhere in the Hudson Valley. He suggested setting up shovel-ready business draws like other counties. He suggested that Ulster was sending out messages that they weren’t business friendly.
“I’m not here to chastise everyone but I’m looking at counties around Ulster and they’re doing better,” he said. “You saved the ridge; I think that was a good thing. Open Space: a good thing. But we need a balance, we need ratables.”
Without explanation, the senator slipped into talk of what draws big business and suggested that all of Ulster County’s environmentalist actions might be pushing its middle class away. He talked about people, and counties, getting naught but one bit at the apple of, everyone supposed, big time success, long-term prosperity.
“I think I’m almost done… in more ways than one,” Bonacic joked as he rushed through statements about education, healthcare and other topics. “I have a tight schedule today. I’m really tight today.”
He spoke about casinos and how “They’re not going to happen in Ulster County,” subsequently noting Sp\iutzer’s support for at least one in neighboring Sullivan County, which would still have local ramifications for the Route 209 corridor. To battle that, the senator said, he was hoping to help push through legislation ensuring gambling proceeds for local aid.
He said he was all for a new commission on the state prison system, but against closing any such institutions in Ulster County.
He suggested that the Governor was for helping small businesses, but needed direct support to counter anti-business moves in the Democrat-controlled Assembly.
“You preach to the choir when you come to me. Go to the governor,” Bonacic said, repeating the morning’s sense of political process over all, of an exegesis on the use of power.
“I think the governor at some point will have to change his temperament,” he concluded, before taking questions. “Right now he’s pushing the envelope.”
When someone later asked about so-called Member Items, the allocations given to individual legislators for use in their districts commonly called “pork” by many in the media – and under attack by new Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in recent weeks -- Bonacic became defensive. He spoke about the $2 million he passes out annually in his sprawling district, and noted how quite a few in attendance had helped their organizations with such funds, or were looking for new monies from the same.
“I look around this room I see ARC, I see fire companies, I see libraries, I see police, I see EMTs,” the senator said. “I don’t hide anything. How many not for profits do we have in this room this morning that need help? Member items are generally good. But they have to be line itemed, One bite at the apple… that’s a good thing.”
Asked if the county had its collective head ion the sand, Bonacic said he’d like to get together with Chamber of Commerce president Ward Todd and others to discuss smart growth planning. He said ratables needed to be improved, once more, and repeated his “one bit at the apple” line.
“You have to proceed, you have to move forward,” Bonacic said.
So what about the power politics in Albany and his battles with Bruno, his courtship by the Governor, who seems to have been weakening the Republican majority in the state Senate through bipartisan appointments?
Bonacic seemed to perk up again, grow wily and sharp-tongued in his quick answer.
“My life has changed this year because my counsel tastes my food before I can eat it,” he quipped. “But really, it’s not about relationships, it’s all about doing what’s right.”
The veteran politician seemed to measure his words as they landed around the room.
“In our business if you attack the king he’s going to try and kill you. It’s not really Republicans versus Democrats. The fights are regional,” he said, speaking from an inner knowledge of his battlefield of the last two decades now. “We need checks and balances. If we lose the senate, New York City will rule the state.”
And himself in all this?
“I haven’t been punished and I don’t expect to be punished,” he said of his move to oust Bruno, and his more recent siding with Spitzer against the legislative majority’s vote for one of their own as the new state comptroller. “If we can’t speak freely we’re in the wrong country, in the wrong state… This is the people’s agenda.”
In other words, John Bonacic had the power – for now at least. And he relished knowing he had that power.
It was added that the Onteora district, which welcomed new superintendent Leslie Ford from California this past week, will lose the state aid if it is not approved.
The money is allocated for replacing the boiler at Woodstock elementary school and renovating the high school auditorium. A portion of the total cost, $662,711 will come out of EXCEL aid (Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning) and capital reserve funds will cover the other $1, 200,000.
Over the past several years, the school board has been trying to find a way to renovate the high school auditorium with broken seats and antiquated stage rigging. School board president Marino D’Orazio explained that safety dictates the boiler replacement.
“At the Woodstock school we have been informed by both the facilities committee and Buildings and Grounds Manager Jimmy O’Neil that they are in danger of failing and we need to deal with them one way or another,” he noted.
Trustee Maxanne Resnick explained why the vote had to take place earlier than the May 15 budget vote.
“The timing of it is important to everyone that in order to replace the Woodstock boilers in a timely manner,” she said. “For next year’s heating season we really had to do this as a March vote and could not wait much later.”
Also, the EXCEL aid would expire soon and cannot carry over into the next school year. It must have an expense in place to qualify for reimbursal.
Trustee Mary Jane Bernholz added, “This is actually a loss in revenue to the district if the voters don’t approve it.”
“Absolutely, we are going to throw $662,711 out the window if we don’t approve it,” interim superintendent Jack Jordan agreed, explaining that EXCEL aid has never been turned down by other district voters and hoped Onteora would not be the first to refuse it.
“This has nothing to do with the large capital improvement project which we are in the process of trying to define and discuss and the next effort in that is March third,” further explained D’Orazio.
In other recent business, Jordan was given a farewell party with much praise and appreciation from the school board. February 6 was his last school board meeting, although he intends to stay and help out incoming superintendent Dr. Leslie Ford for a while after her arrival on February 12.
D’Orazio thanked Jordan on behalf of the school board, noting that an interim position can be difficult.
“He didn’t just come in here and warm up the seat, he did not do that. He came in and took on all the chores and all the responsibilities of a superintendent and he did it with a lot of energy and honesty,” said D’Orazio.
Trustee Herb Rosenfeld sang high praise of Jordan.
“You were able to operate as if you had been here for years,” he said. “I think it is just amazing, and it says a tremendous amount about your professionalism and we have been very fortunate.”
Jordan gave credit to his wife, a long time employee of the district now retired, and also to district superintendent’s secretary Jeanne Shultis.
“I would like to thank everyone for having the opportunity to work with, you are a very conscientious school board,” Jordan said. “I have come to learn that you care, you do an excellent job and I hope the community appreciates how much time and effort that you put into what you do.”
Assistant Superintendent for Business Victoria McLaren gave a budget presentation on the Athletic and Food service departments. The proposed athletic budget for 2007-2008 is $408,538, or a 4.02 percent increase from the prior year. McLaren said that the increase was due in large part to contractual salary agreements and needed equipment. Weight room equipment, baseball pitching machine, a scoreboard for the old gym and a pole vault mat cover are a part of needed supplies.
Trustee Cindy O’Connor also asked for an additional expense of approximately $5000 to purchase a video camera and “mix matched jerseys” for the football team.
“They are trying to build up their varsity team and that would be very helpful for them,” said O’Connor.
There are currently 43 athletic teams at Onteora, with approximately 1/3 of middle school through high school students who participate in fall and spring sports and about 1/2 participate in winter sports.
The food service department proposed a $1,029,545 for the 2007-2008 school year, a 2.70 percent increase. The increase once again primarily comes from employee benefits. Also some kitchen equipment must be replaced and a computerized payment system was proposed for Woodstock elementary school. This will be the same system that the high school converted to, eventually expanding to all the schools in the district.
The district serves approximately 169,263 meals annually, 186 breakfasts and 770 lunches are served daily.
Trustee Dave Patterson requested that he would like to see an addition line item to the budget process. He said he would like to see “a two-to-three year comparative on what the budget was and what the actual audited amount was, by line item.”
Patterson said he wants the board to budget with what they are actually spending and not a certain percentage “thrown on each year.”
Jordan warned Patterson that the budget process must have flexibility.
“You need to keep it planted firmly in your mind, the expenditures you do not see because you don’t know what to expect in the course of the year,” Jordan explained, noting how unexpected costs can creep in. “You certainly don’t want to get a zero based budget. Just look at where we went with special ed last year…”
He added that money that does not get spent returns to the taxpayers the following year and if the district comes up short in funds, loans have a very high interest rate.
On Saturday, March 3 the school board will be holding an all day presentation on the capital improvement proposals and consolidation ideas. Located at the high school, the public and town representatives are encouraged to attend. This will also be an opportunity to meet the new superintendent.