Newsbriefs

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5/24/2007

Sewer Again...
At press time it was learned that a special meeting of the town board, planned for 6pm Thursday May 24th, is going to be another showdown over the Phoenicia sewer plan.
The issue is whether the board will vote to authorize Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. to commit to accepting the deal as currently offered by the City of New York.
On Monday Cross was clear about the plan for the meeting. He said he knew the anti-project contingent, which has complained long and loud about the Board’s efforts to make the project come to fruition, would probably be out again to insist that the project not move forward.
At the same time, Cross also said he expects supporters of the project, who have been quiet in comparison, to be at the session to insist the plan move ahead, especially now that nearby Boiceville has weighed in so strongly in favor of a similar, but differently-funded project for that community.
“What does Phoenicia know that Boiceville doesn’t?” Cross said. “Absolutley nothing. It’s the same deal.”
Supporters of a $10.7 million waste treatment system overwhelmed the project’s opposition two weeks ago in Boiceville, where voters in the hamlet ushered in the plan via referendum vote.
Out of 148 possible votes from within this small hamlet on the banks of the Esopus Creek which feeds the City of New York’s Ashokan reservoir, 96 were cast at the firehouse, which sits next door to the site slated to hold the new treatment plant.
Of those who voted in Boiceville, 80 supported the project and only 16 opposed.
In contrast Phoenician’s defeated the $17 million Phoenicia project, in a much closer referendum held in February, by a vote of 156-123.
Since then New York City Officals, as well as EPA officals, have made it clear they want the Phoenicia project to move forward despite the defeat at the polls. The City has proposed a cooling off period for the community to revisit the plan, but wants a statement from the town by the end of this month saying the town will not try and negotiate details of the deal any further.
“That’s the biggest part of this meeting,” Cross said.

First Candidate
Jack Jordan has become the first individual this year to announce that he’s considering a candidacy for the Shandaken Town Board this November.
There are three seats up for grabs on the five member board this time around…and all three are held by Republicans while the other two are currently held by Democrat Peter DiSclafani and Rebublican Robert Stanley, both of whom have terms running until 2010.
On Tuesday Joe Munster, whose term ends this year, was still on the fence when asked whether he would seek re-election.
“I haven’t decided yet,” he said.
Robert Cross Jr., the town Supervisor whose second two-year term ends this year, remains tight lipped on his plans. Cross could not be reached for comment, but when last asked he told reporters he had made up his mind but was keeping the decision private until the appropriate time.
Jane Todd, who could not be reached for comment, has yet to announce any plans to seek re-election.
Jordan, a five year resident of Pine Hill with multiple education degrees from SUNY-New Paltz, was until February 2007 the interim Superintendent for the Onteora School district, replacing the late Justine Winters. Before that he was Sullivan County BOCES Director of Secondary programs, former superintendent of the Jeffersonville-Youngsville School District (which he merged), former principal of the Tri Valley High School in the 209 corridor, and a former high school social studies teacher and sports coach specializing in basketball and golf. He has served on the Claryville Fire Department, the Town of Denning board of tax assessment, and the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce.
On Tuesday Jordan said he had not made any commitment yet to a run.
“I’m considering it,” he said. “In fact I’m meeting with some people tonight to talk about it.”
The people Jordan was referring to are members of the Shandaken Republican Club. Jordan said he has been in contact with Club president Joanne Kalb. He said the meeting Tuesday, slated for after press time, was an opportunity for the Republicans to talk things over with Jordan and see if he would be a candidate that would represent the party.
Another potential town board candidate that Republicans are interested in is said to be Joan Lawrence Bauer, a former publicist for Crossroads Ventures and currently the Executive Director of the M-ARK project in Arkville. She was previously registered as a Democrat.

“I’ve heard that too,” Jordan said.
However, Lawrence Bauer did not return calls Tuesday so her intentions remain unclear

Jail Probe…
A much-anticipated investigation into the county jail debacle will be postponed yet again as county legislators go over a proposed $90,200 budget and scope of work more closely.
The Law Enforcement Center project began under Republican leadership in the Legislature, when current county Chamber of Commerce director Ward Todd was the body’s chairman. Democrats took the county majority in 2006 after making the jail debacle a key campaign issue.
The new jail opened in February, nearly three years after its initial target date. The Legislature originally approved the project at an estimated $53 million, but bids came in at $71.8 million. The county has settled all but two of its claims, making the project’s total cost $95.2 million. Claims with the construction manager and architect are still outstanding.
The investigative committee asked for $90,200 to fund its work, including up to $69,500 for an investigative consultant; and an estimated $3,500 for clerical services; $3,000 for legal filing fees and subpoenas; $500 to establish a tip hotline; $4,000 for stenographic and transcription fees; $1,500 for travel expenses; and $8,200 of contingency funds in the case of unforeseen costs.
Tracey Bartels, a non-enrolled legislator from Gardiner, and chairwoman of the jail investigative committee, had wanted to complete the work by the end of August.
The investigation will include a review of all documents, contracts, bids, correspondence and schedules related to the new jail. It will also encompass interviews and testimonials from individuals and groups involved in the project.
The committee chose West Park consultant John Mavretich to conduct initial interviews, review and analyze documents and prepare legislators for formal interviews that require subpoenas, along with other necessary tasks.

Onteora Growth…
On May 30 at 6 PM a special meeting of the Onteora School board will be held at the Middle/High School to discuss the future of the district. The meeting will reflect the results of a community forum held March 3 in which people were asked about specifics on the three plans proposed. Statements based on strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities and concerns on how to renovate and reconfigure the district’s buildings often contradicted each other, then. For example many mentioned a dislike of redistricting students outside of their neighborhood schools, but others used it as a possibility to keep an additional school open. Some list having a central campus as ideal because all communities will be treated equally, while others are concerned that the unique character of a community school will be lost.
All will now enter more serious discussion.
Attend if you can…
Also, students will have an extended holiday this week with Onteora taking an extra snow day to let the school off from midday Thursday to Tuesday morning. Have fun…

No Plan B?
According to the Belleayre Resort’s DEIS, plans for providing potable water for the proposed western side of the resort have always centered on an access or sale arrangement with the public water supply from the nearby Village of Fleishmanns. But although five years ago Crossroads Ventures did receive a vague letter from a previous mayor expressing a willingness to discuss it, no formal arrangement to access the village’s sources has ever been put in place.
In advance of May’s Village Board meeting, project investor Ken Pasternak was rumored to be making a planned presentation to the village on that very subject. Pasternak never came, but questions on the subject did. With four of five village trustees present, the answers seemed to come back clear and unanimous.
No, any advance word of a presentation by Pasternak were “rumors.” No, no discussion on the subject is currently planned or expected. And in answer to a direct question as to whether the village might consider such a request in the future, the answer wasn’t remotely equivocal.
“We can’t even think about selling them water,” said Mayor Kathleen Wilber. “We don’t know how much we have or how much we’ll need.”
Finally, asked if they were aware that the developer appeared to be looking for somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 gallons of potable water per day, the general response seemed to be that that was pretty funny.
“That’s a LOT of water,” agreed the Trustees.
We’ll keep you posted…

County Budget!
Ulster County Administrator Michael Hein recently announced the schedule for four regional County Budget Meetings, to be held in June. The purpose of these meetings is to provide an opportunity for the general public to have input on the county budget substantially earlier than in the past. The County Administrator’s Office will also discuss the mandated portion of the budget and the services offered by the county.
The first meeting will take place Monday, June 18 in the Town of Lloyd Town Hall; the second is set for Tuesday, June 19 in the Town of Rochester at the Accord Fire District Bldg; the third is on Wednesday, June 20 in the Woodstock Community Center on Rock City Road, and the fourth is in Kingston on Thursday, June 21 at the Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair Street.

HVI Burns…
The Hunter Village Inn, a Greene County Main Street nightspot that was key to the Hunter winter ski scene for years – and host to numerous fights and several deaths over the years — was destroyed by a fire that started the evening of Sunday, May 13 and continued into the following morning. The inn, opposite the Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl, had been closed the day before it burned and was unoccupied at the time of the fire. Five fire companies fought the blaze, bringing the number of firefighters on the scene to about 100. A cause and origin team was investigated the scene to determine how the fire started and has yet to release a ruling, even though Hunter firefighters told the press that they did not believe the origin was suspicious.
Over the past 20 years, over a dozen major structures along Route 23A in Hunter and Tannersville have burned to the ground under similar circumstances.
The three-story building, at least 100 years old, contained a bar on the ground floor and rooms on the upper floors, and collapsed in on itself as it burned. Route 23A in the village of Hunter was closed for several hours during the firefighting effort because hoses were run across the street to hydrants.
The Hunter Village Inn, known by many as the HVI, made news last year when a bouncer was charged in the Feb. 4, 2006, death of a bar patron. The man, who was charged with criminally negligent homicide, was later acquitted by a Greene County jury who concluded the death occurred as the result of cardiac arrest due to asphyxiation, with heavy alcohol consumption a likely culprit.

More Bad FAD
Greene County is seeking changes to a plan to grant New York City a 10-year extension of a federal variance allowing it to avoid filtering its upstate water supply. Last week, the county Legislature unanimously adopted a resolution urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which grants the waiver, to limit its “filtration avoidance determination” to five years.
In addition to calling for a reduction in the length of the waiver, the county resolution urges the federal agency to incorporate comments by municipal leaders in the city’s watershed and hold hearings on flooding within the watershed and in adjoining areas. The resolution also urges the city to open land within the watershed for recreational purposes on par with state-owned lands, require the city to create voids in its reservoirs to take into account the potential for flooding from excessive rain and melting snow, and require the city to fund the Coalition of Watershed Towns with an amount adequate to establish an ombudsman program to advocate for municipal needs.
The resolution, provided by state representatives, is making its way through local municipalities in the watershed before a review period runs out on the EP decision at the end of this month..
Some have noted that, with the Coalition of Watershed Towns having failed to make its problems with the FAD known more forcefully or in a timely fashion, the best that could be hoped now would be canoeing on the reservoirs, and maybe the ability for hunters to shoot geese with handguns.
As for the expansion to ten years, others have pointed out that that may be a good thing, keeping the city from adding to regulations every five years, as has been their habit.
Stay tuned…

Play Football!
The Onteora Community Junior Football Committee is continuing its push to offer local kids the chance to learn the fundamentals of contact football via the setting up of teams to compete in the Kingston Area Jr. Football League, which plays in Dietz Stadium.
Registration is for 13 and below, with all 13-year-old players needing to be in the 7th grade and only able to play interior line positions. Weight restrictions are 55-155 lbs.
There will be a Junior Division for 8-10 year olds and a Senior Division for 11-13 year olds. Sign ups for the 2007 season will take place starting at 10:00 AM on June 2, at Olive Meeting Hall on Bostock Road in Shokan. Uniforms and equipment will be ordered based on turnout at that time. There will be a league mini camp on August 13,14 and 15 at Dietz Stadium each evening from 6 to 8 PM; League team practices then start august 16th.
The Onteora Community Junior Football Committee is committed to helping the Onteora School District rebuild the Onteora Football Program by enlisting children ages 8-13 to learn the fundamentals of contact football in a community league. By joining forces with the Kingston Area Jr. Football League in Kingston, children in the Onteora communities of Woodstock, Shandaken, Hurley, Marbletown and Olive will have the opportunity to play the game of contact football prior to entering seventh grade. The committee’s philosophy is that of engaging and teaching children football fundamentals so they have basic skill before entering the Onteora Middle School and join the Onteora Modified Program.
The Kingston Area Junior Football League was started in 1971 to provide a safe and healthy environment for young people to learn the game. The goal of the Onteora Community Junior Football Committee is to organize two new teams, a junior and senior team, each with 20- 25 players. All players that join our new team will have the opportunity to give their team a name and pick the colors of their uniforms. All games will be played at Dietz Memorial Stadium. Monday night games are played under the lights and a real treat for the kids. Practices will be at our community local fields.
The Committee is presently seeking donations for the initial start-up cost for uniforms and equipment. The cost for the uniforms and equipment is approximately $100 per player. The initial total cost would be $5,000.. Once the new teams have acquired the uniforms and equipment, a yearly registration of $75 should support the program.
For further information contact Cindy O’Connor at 657-2620, Wally Fulford at 657-6471, or Gene Sorbellini at 657-6570.

Local Accident
A head-on collision on May 18 between a car and a New York City Department of Environmental Protection vehicle on state Route 28 sent three people to the hospital, two of them in serious condition. The DEP vehicle failed to keep right, according to state police at Ulster, and struck a black Acura head-on. The female driver of the Acura was flown by helicopter to Albany Medical Center in serious condition. Her passenger, a man, was flown to Westchester Medical Center. Police said the man’s injuries were more serious than the woman’s but provided no further details. The driver of the DEP vehicle, a man, was taken to Kingston Hospital with minor injuries, police said. He was ticketed for failure to keep right.
Stay tuned…

Onteora Photos?
The Onteora Central School District is seeking to showcase its beautiful setting and surroundings with a new 2007-2008 Onteora District Calendar that includes local photos. Amateur and professional photographers, as well as students, are invited to participate in a Photo Contest. Entrants need not be residents of the District, but photos must be taken within its boundaries and should not include people as subjects.
Contestants may submit a maximum of six entries. Please send high-quality, high-resolution, black and white or color prints (no slides or negatives). Prints may be no larger than 8x10-inches and no smaller than 4x6-inches. Do not mount photos as this makes them difficult to scan. Entry forms and guidelines can be obtained on the Onteora School District website at www.onteora.k12.ny.us, by emailing mharkin@onteora.k12.ny.us, or attending a Board meeting where flyers will be available.
The Onteora School District Calendar is sent to all District residents with a circulation of approximately 13,500. Contest winners will be recognized by photo credit and caption as well as be invited to a recognition reception featuring their work as part of a Board of Education meeting in the Fall of 2007. Judging of entries will be made by members of the District’s Communications Committee.
Mail or deliver entries to: Onteora Central School District, Central Administration/Communications Committee, Attention: Margaret Tinti-Harking, Photo Contest Entry, P.O. Box 300, 4166 State Route 28, Boiceville, NY 12412. Entries may also be emailed to mharkin@onteora.k12.ny.us.
The deadline for entries is 4 PM, Friday, June 15, 2007.

Migrations Off
Like the canaries that once warned of danger in mine shafts, migrating birds are becoming harbingers of another risk - climate change. Confused and disoriented by erratic weather, birds are changing migration habits and routes to adjust to warmer winters, disappearing feeding grounds and shrinking wetlands. Failure to adapt risks extinction, experts say.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of some 2,500 scientists, has warned in a series of authoritative reports this year that high emissions of greenhouse gases - mainly from power plants, industries and vehicles - are likely to raise the Earth’s average temperatures by at least 2 degrees Centigrade, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which is predicted to drive up to 30 percent of known animal species to extinction.
Migrating birds are especially vulnerable. Climate change can strike at each stage of their annual trek, from breeding ground to rest stops along their flyways, to the final destination. Studies cited by the organization say arctic permafrost and tundra where many species breed is melting. Even moderate rises in sea levels can swamp wetlands where travelers stop to feed. Deserts are expanding, lengthening the distance between rests.
Birds face starvation when they arrive too early or too late to find their normal diet of insects, plankton or fish. With warmer winters in the north, some birds have stopped migrating altogether, leaving them at risk when the next cold winter strikes.

Stream Cleanups
The Catskill Watershed Corporation will once again support groups and individuals who clean litter and other debris from streambanks in their neighborhoods. The CWC will provide trash bags, gloves and tokens of appreciation for those who choose to serve their communities in this way. Call Kim Ackerley at 845-586-1400 to arrange to get these items, or for suggestions on areas that need attention.
Volunteers might wish to coordinate their efforts with National River Clean-up Week sponsored by American Rivers June 2-10, 2007. Go to www.nationalrivercleanup.org to register your group, get trash tracking forms and more.
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection is also coordinating clean-ups at the Ashokan Reservoir June 2; the Schoharie Reservoir Sept. 8; the Pepacton Reservoir August 11; the Rondout Reservoir Sept. 15 and the Neversink Reservoir September 29. Contact Amy Flavin (845-340-7530, or aflavin@dep.nyc.gov) for more information on how to lend a hand with those projects.
Meanwhile, high school students from New York City and local upstate schools recently joined forces to protect local land and downstate drinking water. On May 15th, 45 students planted trees to enhance a streamside vegetation zone next to an important water source in the City’s watershed.
“This marks the fifth year of a project that not only benefits the stream by promoting establishment of woody vegetation,” said Michael Courtney of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, “the project is also valuable in the experience it offers to high school students to participate in beneficial stewardship of lands and make a connection with the source of their drinking water.”
To date 130 students from six schools- Margaretville, Onteora, Gilboa and Jefferson Central, High School for Environmental Studies and Gompers have contributed to planting over 700 trees. This year’s planting efforts will focus on installing large maple and river birches plus a variety of small native seedlings. The Beaver Kill flows into the Esopus Creek, which in turn flows into the Ashokan Reservoir, an integral part of the Catskill water system.

AARP Expansion
The powerful senior lobby AARP announced an ambitious expansion in the health-care products it markets to older Americans, targeting in particular the roughly 7 million who are still under the age of 65 and have no coverage. As part of the expansion, the 38 million-member organization renewed and expanded a longstanding contract with UnitedHealth Group Inc. to continue to sell AARP-branded indemnity health plans, Medicare supplement policies and drug benefit plans. It will also market private, comprehensive Medicare plans, known as Medicare Advantage, under the AARP name. The group also struck a new partnership with Aetna Inc. to design, underwrite and administer a range of health plans for the under-65 set.
AARP says its move is an effort to improve the health and to bring more affordable and stable health care coverage to a population that increasingly finds it out of reach. Unless they’re covered by an employer, many Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 find individual insurance either too expensive or simply unavailable from health insurers eager to avoid customers in declining health.
AARP executives say the deals will help them reach their target of providing health insurance products to roughly 14 million people by 2014, up from 7 million today. AARP said the plans would become available at the beginning of 2008.

Preservation Tax
The Ulster County Legislature’s Environmental Committee is offering its support for a Community Preservation Act - proposed state legislation that would enable towns to institute a real estate transfer tax dedicated to protecting natural resources. The proposed legislation, which has passed the state Assembly but still needs Senate approval, would allow for a real estate transfer fee of up to 2 percent. Money from the one-time tax on homebuyers would go into a fund dedicated to protecting natural wildlife habitats, working family farms and historical property. It could also be used to buy development rights and build parks and trails. Towns could choose to opt in, but would have to get the public’s consent via a referendum. The tax would be paid by homebuyers and would only apply to the portion of a home that exceeds the median sale price - an exemption designed to protect affordable housing.
Marbletown Supervisor Vincent Martello praised the Community Preservation Act along with representatives of Scenic Hudson, The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and The Nature Conservancy at a meeting of the Environmental Committee last week. The towns of New Paltz, Gardiner and Marbletown have all adopted bond acts to save farms and preserve open space.
The act has drawn opposition from developers and real estate agents in other areas, but Andy Bicking, director of education and volunteers for Scenic Hudson, said local builders often benefit from preservation efforts.
Currently, towns must receive permission from the state Legislature to put such a tax up for the public’s vote. Red Hook voters in Dutchess County approved a preservation tax early this month. Some towns in Ulster County have already adopted resolutions supporting the state enabling legislation, including Gardiner, Marbletown, Olive, Rosendale, New Paltz and Woodstock.

Being Green
A group of local businesspeople is exploring development of a green hamlet in the Town of Marbletown and long before they draft plans for the 147-acre apple orchard in Stone Ridge, they want input from the community. The land, at the intersection of routes 209 and 213 could be developed for residential and mixed use in a traditional neighborhood setting, said one of the partners in the project, architect Peter Reynolds.
“It’s an open, big idea, we think, to come to the town before we have designed anything to see whether or not one of their critical pieces of land, which has been offered by the landowner right in the center of the hamlet, could be considered in a very visionary way for a 21st century approach to hamlet design, incorporating demonstration level green strategies with a radically open community collaboration process,” he said.
The project could even include a new town hall and other amenities; all constructed and operated using green principles.

Young Fisherfolk
Hakim Rashada, 8, of Kingston, was the first prize winner at Take a Kid Fishing Day on the Ashokan Reservoir May 12. Hakim reeled in a 19-inch brown trout. Second place went to Nicholas Keefe of Olive, who landed a 17-inch small mouth bass. Nicholas’ brother Jonathan took third with a 16 1/4-inch smallmouth. The event, co-sponsored by the Catskill Watershed Corp. and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, drew 48 people to the Woodstock Dike on a brilliant spring day. Bushkill Rod & Gun Club donated bait for the event. Fishing Days are also planned for June 9 at the Rondout Reservoir and June 23 at the Cannonsville Reservoir. Call Paul Thiesing at the DEP, 914-773-4553, for information and directions.

Trooper Benefit
Margaretville United Methodist Church is sponsoring a Community Concert to benefit the family of NYS Trooper David Brinkerhoff, who lost his life in the line of duty in the Delaware County community just up Route 28 last month. The concert will be Sunday, June 3rd, at 2:30 p.m., at the Church, which is located at 55 Church Street in Margaretville, next door to the Fire Hall. Theconcert has been planned as a way for the wider community to say thank you and to lend a helping hand to the brave family who sacrificed so much for local safety. There will be no admission charge for the concert, but a free will offering will be taken. Many well-known local performers have come together to organize this event. Those wishing to donate to this worthy cause but who can’t come to the concert can send donations to Margaretville United Methodist Church, PO Box 438, Margaretville NY 12455. Please make your checks out to “Margaretville United Methodist Church” and note on the memo of your check “Brinkerhoff Fund.”

Stolen Election?
Starting at 7 PM on Friday, June 1 in Room LC 100, Lecture Center, SUNY New Paltz, a special panel discussion will be held on the hot topic, “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?” Among those addressing the issue, recently brought up amidst the probe into US Atto0rney firings and the politicization of the Attorney Genera;’s office under Alberto Gonzales, will be BBC Journalist and bestselling author Greg Palast, Steve Freeman of “Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count,” the Election Defense Alliance’s Jonathan Simon; Bo Lipari of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, and Nancy Tobi, co-founder of Democracy for New Hampshire)
The premise of the evening runs like this: In the last few elections millions of Americans were illegally prevented from voting, another million were given provisional ballots that were never counted, and still millions more voted electronically, only to have their votes left uncounted or switched. Even the evidence published by the US Census Bureau reported a 3.4 million vote discrepancy in the official tally in 2004.
For more information contact Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media at www.re-media.org.

That Plame Game
Attorneys for Vice President Cheney and top White House officials have told a federal judge that they cannot be held liable for anything they disclosed to reporters about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame or her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The officials, who include senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, argued that the judge should dismiss a lawsuit filed by the couple that stemmed from the disclosure of Plame’s identity to the media. The suit claims that Cheney, Libby, Rove and former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage violated the couple’s privacy and constitutional rights by publicly revealing Plame’s identity in an effort to retaliate against Wilson, who publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate Iraq’s nuclear threat and justify an invasion.
The lawyers said any conversations Cheney and the officials had about Plame with one another or with reporters were part of their normal duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate “policy dispute.” Cheney’s attorney went further, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates asked: “So you’re arguing there is nothing - absolutely nothing - these officials could have said to reporters that would have been beyond the scope of their employment,” whether the statements were true or false?
“That’s true, Your Honor. Mr. Wilson was criticizing government policy,” said Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division. “These officials were responding to that criticism.”
Erwin Chemerinsky, a Duke University law professor who is representing Wilson and Plame, said the leak was no typical policy debate. President Bush himself said that revealing Plame’s identity could be illegal conduct and a firing offense, he told Bates. He added that after Plame’s cover was blown, the couple feared for their safety and their children’s safety and Plame lost any opportunity for advancement at the CIA.

Youth Leaders!
The Rotary Club of Phoenicia has drawn note to several sophomore students at Onteora Central School who were selected to receive full scholarships to the 2007 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference, which will be conducted at Mount St. Mary’s College, Newburgh, from June 24 through June 28. The scholarships were awarded to Harrison Edwards of Chichester, and Claire Wilsey of Phoenicia, who qualified as students who demonstrate leadership potential in the school and /or community. The program is designed to strengthen and develop leadership skills through presentations on the concepts and components related to leadership and in an environment which offers the opportunity to discuss, exchange ideas, and practice the skills with other students from the Mid-Hudson region.

Ah, Marriott…
Hotel chain Marriott International Inc. is well on its way to meeting its expansion goals and is keeping its forecast for U.S. revenue growth this year, Chairman and Chief Executive J. W. “Bill” Marriott said recently.
“In the next three years we plan to add 85,000 to 100,000 hotel rooms worldwide and have a portfolio in 2009 of 600,000 rooms, 120,000 of which will be outside North America,” he told a news conference. “We are well on the way to meeting our target.”
At the end of March the company had 517,202 rooms worldwide.
Marriott said the group was “very close” to presenting a new boutique hotel brand concept. He said this would be positioned just below its luxury Ritz Carlton brand and consist of hotels with an average of around 200 rooms. They also announced they had won approval to open a new 118-room hotel, near Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, under its Renaissance brand in 2009 and would be looking at adding properties in and around the French capital and elsewhere in France.
On the United States, Marriott said his chain was maintaining its forecast for revenue per available room growth of between 6 and 8 percent. But he stressed that the company was also looking at acquisitions to accelerate development elsewhere in Europe.
Marriott has long been rumored to be one of the larger concerns interested in buying out the proposed Belleayre Resort, should it ever get built.

Affordable?
One theme runs through any discussion of housing issues in the Hudson Valley and Catskills: the cost of housing is outstripping the ability of many people to pay for it. That was a point made many times at a two-hour roundtable discussion organized by State Senator John Bonacic, chairman of the Senate Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee. Among the participants, at the still under construction Horizons at Wurtsboro senior housing project in Sullivan County, were State Housing Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen, State Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) President Priscilla Almodovar, county planners, developers and not-for-profit officials from around the region.
Larry Regan, of Regan Development Corporation, builders of the Horizons project, said people are fleeing Rockland and Westchester for the Catskills and Hudson Valley to search for affordable housing. The alternative is staying put, and paying half your income for housing.
Several speakers pointed out the $60,000 disparity between a prospective homebuyer’s average income and what is typically needed to afford what is now the medial price home in the Catskills - $195,000.
Regan said solutions must include tackling political realities: municipal officials reluctant to open their doors to low-income or workforce housing.
“To give exactly what you were just saying, political cover to these leaders, so that they feel like they can sell it to their community,” he said. “Not only floating workforce housing zones, but PILOTs [Payment In Lieu of Taxes]. Selling a PILOT is the hardest thing a municipal leader can do.”
“Affordable housing needs to be presented as part of the infrastructure for economic development”, said Alice Dickinson, of the Rural Development Advisory Corporation.
Housing Commissioner VanAmerongen said creativity may work in bringing around reluctant municipal officials. “They are letting the ‘not in my back yard’ …the NIMBY interests… keep affording out. We really have to look at what incentives the state can provide and I think we’re much more focused on a carrot than a stick approach in this area.”

Pentagon-Huge
When the idea of building a new US embassy in Baghdad was first mooted by the American administration in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, there seemed to be a grandiose logic to it. The compound, by the side of the Tigris, would be a statement of President Bush’s intent to expand democracy through the Middle East. Now, however, the entire project is under fresh scrutiny as new details emerge of its cost and scale.
Rising from the dust of the city’s Green Zone it is destined, at $592 million, to become the biggest and most expensive US embassy on earth when it opens in September. It will cover 104 acres of land, about the size of the Vatican. It will include 27 separate buildings and house about 615 people behind bomb-proof walls. Most of the embassy staff will live in simple, if not quite monastic, accommodation in one-bedroom apartments. The US ambassador, however, will enjoy a little more elbow room in a high-security home on the compound reported to fill 16,000 square feet. His deputy will have to make do with a more modest 9,500 sq ft.
They will have a pool, gym and communal living areas, and the embassy will have its own power and water supplies.
But commentators and Iraq experts believe the project was flawed from its inception, and have raised concerns it will become an enormous, heavily targeted white elephant that will be an even greater liability if and when the Americans scale back their presence in Iraq.
“What you have is a situation in which they are building an embassy without really thinking about what its functions are,” Edward Peck, a former American diplomat in Iraq, recently told reporters. “What kind of embassy is it when everybody lives inside and it’s blast-proof, and people are running around with helmets and crouching behind sandbags?”
Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 about 1,000 US diplomatic and military staff have been using one of his former palaces as a make-shift embassy, which several observers have criticized as giving the regrettable impression that the Americans merely replaced Saddam’s authoritarian rule with their own.
The need to make the compound secure is a top priority. The Green Zone - the fortified four square miles in which the Iraqi and American governments and other international officials operate - used to be relatively peaceful but in recent months has come under almost daily rocket and mortar fire. This month the US embassy ordered its people to wear flak jackets and helmets at all times when in the open after four foreign contractors were killed by a rocket landing beside the present embassy.
The multiple cranes surrounding the construction site of the new embassy have already attracted attacks from insurgents. Last week five contractors were wounded in a rocket assault. Despite the peculiar pressures, though, the Bush administration says the embassy will open in September, and be fully staffed by the end of the year.
“A fortress-style embassy, with a huge staff, will remain in Baghdad until
helicopters come to airlift the last man and woman from the roof,” said one embassy employee in a recent news report, anonymously. “Include a large roof.”

The Big Divide
The growing divide between the rich and poor in America is more generation gap than class conflict, according to a new analysis of federal government data. The rich are getting richer, but what’s received little attention is who these rich people are. Overwhelmingly, they’re older folks.
Nearly all additional wealth created in the USA since 1989 has gone to people 55 and older, according to Federal Reserve data. Wealth has doubled since 1989 in households headed by older Americans.
Not so for younger Americans. Households headed by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s have barely kept up with inflation or have fallen behind since 1989. People 35 to 50 actually have lost wealth since 1989 after adjusting for inflation, Fed data show.
Older people have always been wealthier than younger ones. What’s changed is the disparity between the generations. Old people have been racing ahead, helped by government retirement benefits. Young people are running in place, partly because they’re delaying careers to get more education. In the USA, income typically peaks at age 57 and wealth tops out at 63, according to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finance. Wealth describes a person’s net worth - assets minus debts - and reflects a lifetime’s accumulation of income, investments and inheritances. Income measures how much a person earned in a single year.
The growing gap between rich and poor has raised concerns about social justice, the fairness of the tax system and other issues. Congressional Democrats, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and President Bush have expressed concerns about economic inequality, although there is no consensus about what, if anything, should be done.
The increase in the wealth of older people tracks a sharp reduction in elderly poverty that began in the 1960s, when Medicare was introduced and Social Security benefits were improved. And the wealth gap between young and old is on a path to grow even more extreme as baby boomers - 79 million people born from 1946 to 1964 - enter their years of greatest wealth and maximum government benefits.
Stay tuned…

Employment Stats
The April unemployment rate in the Hudson Valley is just one-tenth of a percent above that of Long Island, which had the lowest rate in the state. The Hudson Valley rate was 3.3 percent; the Long Island rate was 3.2 percent.
Among metropolitan statistical areas in the state, Ulster County has the greatest private sector growth rate, said Labor Department analyst John Nelson. The Ulster County MSA grew at 2.4 percent. In second place was the City of New York MSA at 1.7 percent growth. The Putnam-Rockland-Westchester MSA was fourth in the state in terms of private sector growth. Dutchess-Orange was sixth.
Putnam County also had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.8 percent. Rockland and Westchester were tied for third place at 3.1 percent. Dutchess was in sixth at 3.3 percent; Ulster in eighth place at 3.4 percent.
Columbia County’s rate of joblessness was 3.6 percent; Orange was 3.7 percent; Greene County was at 4.6 percent; and Sullivan County was at 4.8 percent.