Newsbriefs

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7/19/2007

New At DEC!
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis recently announced the selection of William C. Janeway, better known as Willie, as the new regional director for DEC’s Region 3 office, which serves the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester. Janeway had been serving as the Director of Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy in New York since 1994, Mr. Janeway, working as the organization’s liaison in building government partnerships with government agencies on cooperative environmental conservation development projects across the state. He also served as the Executive Director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, where he helped raise $23 million to expand the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and advance conservation of the rare inland Pine Barrens. Following that role, he served as the Executive Director of the Hudson Valley Greenway Conservancy, where he focused on projects designed to conserve and interpret the environmental and historic heritage of the Hudson River Valley and the economic potential for the area. From 1985 to 1994, Mr. Janeway worked for the Adirondack Mountain Club. He began his professional career with the club as a trails coordinator and later served as its Director of North Country Operations. As director, he coordinated the funding of education projects, long-term planning, daily operations and the trails and wilderness programs.
“Willie is a great addition to our team who will lead our efforts to work with public and private partners throughout New York City, the lower Hudson Valley and the Catskills to protect the environment and public health,” DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said. “Our regional offices play a critical role, serving the public and the regulated community in many different ways on a daily basis.”
Willie graduated from St. Lawrence University, where he received his B.A. in Economics, concentrating on Environmental Studies.

Belleayre Support
Supporters of the state owned Belleayre Mountain ski center wasted no time in fighting back against an attack on the facility. Last month the Greene County Legislature passed a resolution that calls on the state to show that Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Ulster County is operating on a break-even basis without using surplus funds from state accounts. The measure came after the owners of Hunter and Windham ski centers complained that it isn’t fair for Belleayre to be funded with tax dollars. Greene’s resolution also called on the state to adopt a moratorium on expansion of all state-owned ski areas pending an independent analysis of potential harm to the private ski industry and neighboring communities from such expansion.
This month a counter resolution was unveiled at a town board meeting in Shandaken, the town which hosts Belleayre. The resolution is not an attack on Greene County, and it does not mention Hunter or Windham or any of the complaints they have about Belleayre. But it does suggest that the aforementioned should recall that there was a time when Belleayre was helpful to them.
“…Other ski centers in the region were developed more than a decade after Belleayre Mt. opened with the first chairlift in the State of New York because Belleayre served as an economic catalyst for them,” the resolution states.
It also contains language taken from the State Constitution, according to Councilman Robert Stanley, to remind all that the ski center was created on forever wild land in the Catskill Forest Preserve by virtue of an amendment to the New York State Constitution approved in 1947 by voters in the state and can never “be leased, sold or exchanged or be taken by any corporation, public or private.” It also notes that the voters of the state approved another constitutional amendment in 1987 authorizing an expansion of Belleayre.
The resolution, drafted with the help of Coalition for Belleayre President Joe Kelly, argues that investment of public funding in economic development is the legitimate business of state government because all residents of the state benefit from economic development initiatives, and the recreational needs of the citizens is a legitimate concern of government.
Since Belleayre Mountain provides a four season recreation facility for citizens from all over the state it should be funded, the resolution states.
“Belleayre Mt. must receive continued reinvestment if it is to continue to serve as an economic catalyst,” the resolution concludes.” Therefore be it resolved that the Town of Shandaken supports the Ulster County Legislature in urging this major investment in Belleayre Mt. to expand it to the full size and scope authorized by New York State’s voters in 1987, and be it further resolved that the operation of Belleayre Mt. Ski Center be underwritten by the revenues it collects coupled with other state funds as may be appropriated from time to time…”
Belleayre Mt. Ski Center plays a critical role in the tourism economy by attracting more than 200,000 a year, the resolution states.
In other news, Cross and the board agreed to send out a request for proposal to various companies in hopes of getting cell towers built in town. A measure requiring the RFP be sent out by the first of next month passed 3 to 1, with Rob Stanley opposed. Joe Munster was absent.
Stanley’s felt the RFP should call for companies to come to town and do a study to determine where the best locations for towers were. Instead the RFP calls for a proposal to build a tower on town property at Glenbrook Park.
“It’s like you’re building a staircase first and designing a house around it,” Stanley said.
The board also handed a sticky issue off to the public this month when they agreed to hold a referendum vote to decide whether to change to a sole town assessor. At present the town elects three assessors. If changed, the board would just appoint one.
Last month Cross tried to push the measure through, saying he wanted to make the appointment soon, but the rest of the board disagreed. The referendum will be on the ballot this November on Election Day.
The board agreed this month to take $5000 out of the “Good Neighbor Fund” to make alterations to a town-owned structure on Eva Maria Drive in Phoenicia. Once completed, the building will serve as headquarters for the town’s ambulance squad.
Lastly, Stanley reported on the town’s summer recreation program, which started up last week. There are about 80 kids in the program, he said. That’s about 30 more than they had last year.
Rotella Walks
Roger Rotella, a former officer with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police as well as the Shandaken Police force, pleaded guilty recently to official misconduct and taking a bribe in Ulster County Court, admitting that he offered to drop a drunken driving charge against a motorist in exchange for $30,000. In reward, he was offered a commuted sentence with parole time.
Roger Rotella, 29, of state Route 28A, West Shokan, pleaded guilty to a felony count of bribe receiving and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct. Rotella also pleaded guilty to a separate indictment charging him with assault and reckless assault of a child, both felonies, as well as the misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child.
Ulster County Judge J. Michael Bruhn sentenced Rotella to five years probation on all the charges, to be served concurrently. Chief Assistant District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji said his office had recommended that Rotella be sentenced to “substantial incarceration.”
On July 9, 2005, Rotella promised Dale Ford that he would make a charge of driving while intoxicated go away if Ford paid him $30,000, according to Ulster County District Attorney Donald A. Williams. Ford had been arrested on the drunken driving charge by Department of Environmental Protection police on July 4, 2005.
In a separate incident, Rotella was arrested by state police at Ulster in November 2006 and charged with assault and reckless assault of a child, felonies, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. Police said Rotella caused serious injury to a 3-month-old child who had been in his care.
The district attorney said at the time Rotella was indicted on the bribery charge that Rotella had mounting mortgage and credit card bills. State police were contacted about the bribery scheme, Williams said, and set up a sting operation. Authorities would not say who contacted police.
Police said that a bag made to look as if it contained money was placed in a specified location. Rotella picked it up and was promptly arrested. He was interviewed and confessed to the scheme.

Cop Hits Bike
A Shandaken Police car had a collision over the weekend with a motorcycle when at about 2:20 pm Saturday a patrol car was headed toward a domestic dispute call when it collided with the motorcycle, according to State Police. The driver of the motorcycle, who was not identified, sustained some abrasions and contusions, police said. It remains unclear which Shandaken police officer was driving the car, or whether the car had its siren or emergency lights on.

The Bee Problem!
Federal Agriculture Department scientists are mobilizing to fight the puzzling and potentially catastrophic collapse of the nation’s honey bee colonies. Citing a “perfect storm for beekeepers,” alarmed officials admitted in the last few weeks they still don’t know why bees are dying in large numbers in more than 22 states. But prodded by Congress and farmers alike, the scientists will be devoting new resources to protecting the diligent pollinators some call six-legged livestock.
“There were enough honey bees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond,” Agriculture Undersecretary Gale Buchanan warned.
Nationwide, honey bees pollinate more than 130 crops. They are particularly dutiful in some areas, such as California’s nearly $3 billion-a-year almond industry. Of the nation’s 2.4 million commercial bee colonies, 1.3 million pollinate almond orchards.
Prepared with the help of scientists at North Carolina State University and Pennsylvania State University, among others, the 28-page action plan issued last week proposes:
* Spending more money. The Agricultural Research Service has a bee research budget of $7.4 million this year. Officials will redirect new funds to the cause, including an additional $1 million annually for work on honey bee health.
* Conducting new surveys. Officials cautioned that current colony surveys have been either “limited in scope (or) fundamentally flawed.” Agriculture Department agencies will collaborate with university researchers to obtain “an accurate picture of bee numbers,” as well as a better understanding of the pesticides, pests and environmental stresses plaguing the bees.
* Finding fixes. This is particularly hard, since no one really knows why the bee colonies are collapsing. But officials say they will focus on “developing general best management practices” and distributing information through the Internet.
The new work will focus on so-called “colony collapse disorder.” This is when the colony’s adult bee population abruptly dies, leaving only the queen and a few attendants alive. Typically, there is no sign of mite or beetle damage. Some think toxic exposure or nutritional deficits might be undermining the bees’ immune systems.
The Agriculture Department plan sets out goals for both the short and long term. Immediately, for instance, scientists will “refine” symptoms to define what colony collapse disorder “is and what it is not.” Longer term, the National Agricultural Statistics Service will develop a more reliable annual survey on honey bee colony production and health.
At the same time, officials are ruling out some theories.
“Based on misleading news reports, the public has become concerned that cell-phone use may be causing bee die-offs,” the Agricultural Research Service noted. “However, scientists have largely dismissed this theory, because exposure of bees to high levels of electromagnetic fields is unlikely.”

CCCD News
Governor Spitzer’s Special Assistant on the Environment, Paul Beyer, was the guest speaker at the 38th annual meeting of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, held outside its Arkville offices July 14 and attended by about 80 people.
“I want to bring planning back into the equation,” explained Beyer, saying “if we do nothing to change our land use patterns then everything that people love will be threatened.”
Land use and Smartgrowth are the master art, he said, in explaining the latter as “reintroducing planning to the planning process” in an effort to target development and minimize sprawl, with its negative impacts on open space and the quality of life.
Tom Alworth, the Center’s Executive Director, announced the receipt of a $375,000 gift from the estate of former President of the Center’s Board of Directors William Ginsberg, who served in that role from 1981-1996. A nationally known expert on land protection whose work lead to the protection of some 20,000 acres mainly in the Catskills, Ginsberg’s gift, acknowledged by his son Josh, has been added to the Center’s roughly $2 million endowment that funds its programming.
Also announced at the meeting was $1million/ 5 year state DEC grant awarded to the Center to serve as one of eight regional agencies statewide to coordinate a new Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership (CRISP). This interagency program is intended to educate the public, to help manage, and where possible to eradicate non-native invasive species. In our region, those include Garlic Mustard and Japanese Knotweed, and insects such as the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, Emerald Ash Borer, and Asian Long Horned Beetle. For information on the program, contact bmurdock@ catskillcenter.org.
The Center’s 2007 Alf Evers Award for Excellence was presented by Geologist Robert Titus to Greene County historian and author Raymond Beecher, who helped organize the restoration of Cedar Grove, painter Thomas Cole’s home in Catskill.

Highway News...
According to incumbent Shandaken Highway Superintendent Keith Johnson, work on the town’s highways is proceeding without any big news this summer, thanks in no part to the ease with which winter swaddled us all a few months ago. Asked what he was working on for the warm months, Johnson said “general maintenance,” and noted savings on wages and low materials usage - as well as the fact of the town owning its own gravel bank - as shaving created something of a windfall, budget-wise.
We’re finishing Woodland Valley and Legion roads, “ he said. “Doing ditches and culverts.”

In The Blood?
The father of the fugitive killed during a shootout with state police near Margaretville three months ago has been arrested after trying to run down police officers with his pickup in northern New York state, authorities recently reported. St. Lawrence County sheriff’s deputies said they arrived Monday, July 9 with a mental health order for Marvin Trim, the father of Travis Trim, at his town of Lawrence residence and found him sitting inside his pickup. Trim, 45, refused to speak to police and drove off. Deputies followed, and though Trim eventually stopped his vehicle, he still refused to get out, they said. State police arrived at the scene soon after and put down spike strips. Investigators said Trim then sped toward the officers and ran over the spike strips, which punctured all four tires and caused him to lose control of the pickup. The truck landed in a ditch, and Trim was apprehended, then arraigned on charges of attempted assault, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, fleeing from a police officer and possession of marijuana. He was being held in St. Lawrence County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail and was scheduled to appear in Lawrence Town Court.
Travis Trim, 23, holed up in a farmhouse near Margaretville on April 25 after shooting, but not seriously injuring, a state trooper the day before in the Delaware County village. A shootout in the house with members of the state police Mobile Response Team left Trim and state Trooper David Brinkerhoff of Coxsackie dead. Trooper Richard Mattson of Clinton was shot in the arm. Police said later that Trim and Brinkerhoff were killed by police gunfire and that Mattson was shot by Trim.

Ash To Ashes?
The future of ash trees, once a staple of our region and the so-called Shandaken Bat Factory that supplied ash cores to baseball bat makers around the world, is in doubt because of a killer beetle and a warming climate, and with it, the complicated relationship of the baseball player to bats.
“No more ash?” said Juan Uribe, a Chicago White Sox shortstop, whose batting coach says he speaks to his ash bats every day. Uribe is so finicky about his bats, teammates say, that he stores them separately in the team’s dugout and complains bitterly if anyone else touches them.
In continuing bat factories in Pennsylvania, operators have drawn up a three-to-five-year emergency plan if the white ash tree, which has been used for decades to make the bat of choice, is compromised. And in Michigan, authorities have begun collecting the seeds of ash trees for storage in case the species is wiped out, a possibility some experts now consider inevitable.
As early as this summer, federal officials hope to set loose Asian wasps never seen in this country with the purpose of attacking the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle accused of killing 25 million ash trees in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Maryland since it was spotted in the United States five years ago.
“We’re watching all this very closely,” said Brian Boltz, the general manager of the Larimer & Norton company, whose Russell mill each day saws, grades and dries scores of billets destined to become Louisville Slugger bats. “Maybe it means more maple bats. Or it may be a matter of using a different species for our bats altogether.”
Stay poised…

Centralized
David Sheeley, Ulster County’s commissioner of highways and bridges since 2004, will now become acting commissioner of the county’s newly consolidated Department of Public Works, which brings under one cost-saving roof the departments of Highways and Bridges, Buildings and Grounds and Public Works Administration. The 61 year old, who served 19 years as the highway superintendent for the town of Marbletown before taking the county post, will be interim commissioner until 2008, when a new search will begin.

Blame Canada?
In front of a choreographed line-up of 120 sailors in their summer whites at a naval base outside Victoria in British Columbia, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a warning to other nations with their eye on the potentially oil-rich Arctic.
“Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic,” he said. “We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it.”
Harper’s message, combined with his nation’s budgeting of new military installations in the nation’s farthest north, are a sign that the Arctic, is becoming a new battleground.. With Canada, Denmark, Russia and the United States all having claims on the region, together with those of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, international tension in the region is mounting.
As the statement implies, two areas of international competition lie behind the Canadian prime minister’s actions. The first is that the Arctic region is rich in natural resources. It is thought to hold up to a quarter of the world’s undiscovered reserves of oil and gas, which as the established fields in the Middle East and elsewhere run dry will become increasingly valuable and sought after. There are also known to be major deposits of diamonds, silver, copper, zinc and, potentially, uranium. It also has rich fish stocks.
Desire to exploit these resources has led to tensions with the US over the offshore border between Alaska and Canada, an area known as the “wedge”, where one day oil and gas exploration could prove to be lucrative. The area above the North Pole, which under international law is an area owned by nobody, has also started to be targeted. Last month Russia astonished observers of the region by announcing a virtual land grab of about 400,000 square miles, using the premise that an underwater shelf known as the Lomonosov ridge connects its Arctic territories with the North Pole.
Russia’s existing oil reserves are likely to be depleted by 2030.

Go To College!
Student loans got you down? Well, get ready for what is being touted as the biggest increase in higher-education funding since the GI Bill enabled millions of veterans to attend college after World War II. On July 11, the House of Representatives passed the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 273-149, which backers say it could save students thousands of dollars, and which the Senate is set to pass later this month. The bills are in reaction to the fact that student loan debt has more than doubled over the past 10 years, with the average college graduate in the U.S. now leaving school owing $19,200, according to the nonprofit Project on Student Debt.
Under them, interest rates on federal loans and federally subsidized loans will be cut in half in the next five years; Pell Grants for low-income students would increase with more students eligible; undergraduates and graduate students who plan to teach in public schools would be able to get an extra $4,000 a year on top of loans and federal grants; and there would be loan forgiveness for those going into fields that benefit the common good.
Where is the money coming from? Federal subsidies that currently benefit private lenders that are also big players in the education-finance game – and which have been making record profits in recent years.
Meanwhile, the White House jas released a statement that the president would veto the bill in its current form, arguing it does not do enough to benefit low-income students.

Gun Amnesty…
The six-week Orange County gun buyback program ended over the July 13 weekend with some 200 weapons turned into the city police departments in Newburgh, Middletown and Port Jervis. The no-questions-asked program redeemed weapons for gift cards to local Shop Rite supermarkets. Orange County Emergency Services Commissioner Walter Koury said he would recommend the program for use elsewhere and encourage its use by any other community or county that is considering doing the same.
Dutchess County will explore using the Orange County model through the county Sheriff’s Office. Discussions about the program are also underway here in Ulster County.

US A Threat?
Europeans consistently regard the US as the biggest threat to world stability, a new poll by Harris Research reveals. 32 per cent of respondents in five European countries regard the US as a bigger threat than any other state while in the US itself, North Korea and Iran are seen as the biggest risks. However, the youngest US respondents share the Europeans’ view that theirs is the biggest threat, with 35 per cent of American 16- to 24-year-olds identifying it as the chief danger to stability.
The level of European concern about the US has remained broadly consistent over the past year. In 11 previous polls dating back to July 2006 the proportion of respondents considering the US a threat to stability has ranged between 28 per cent and 38 per cent. The latest poll comes in the wake of the “surge” that has increased US forces in Iraq to about 160,000 troops, but which has not been accompanied by political breakthroughs or a dramatic reduction of violence.
“It is evidence of the continued estrangement between the European public and the Bush administration, in spite of a real improvement in official ties,” said Ron Asmus, head of the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund, which works to bolster transatlantic ties. “It is proof that the next president will be confronted with the major challenge of improving America’s image abroad, starting with Europe and our main allies.”
Inhabitants of Spain are most concerned about the US, with 46 per cent of respondents naming America as the biggest threat. But European poll respondents - who also come from France, Germany, Italy and the UK - are increasingly concerned about China, which 19 per cent perceive as the biggest threat, up from 12 per cent last July. Meanwhile, 17 per cent identify Iran as the biggest threat, 11 per cent Iraq and 9 per cent North Korea. Only 5 per cent single out Russia, despite increased tensions between Moscow and the west.
The poll’s data on the US indicate that 25 per cent of Americans see North Korea as the biggest threat, followed by Iran with 23 per cent, China with 20 per cent, and the US itself with 11 per cent.
The poll is consistent with findings last week by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which found that favorable ratings of the US had declined in 26 of 33 countries over the past five years.

WIM Wins…
Although Writers in The Mountains (WIM) has been around these parts for almost fifteen years, the group has just received a letter from the IRS approving it as a 501(c3). This designation allows donations made to WIM to be tax deductible. The IRS allows this provision of the tax code to promote charitable giving so organizations can serve the greater good. The greater good is served, in this case, by WIM providing a nurturing environment for the practice, appreciation and sharing of writing
“Many people want to write but are afraid to try” says board member Brenda Reeser. “We offer an opportunity for people to try writing in different areas. We have people, some who have never written before, write about travel, hunting, cooking, poetry. It seems there is a little writer in everyone”.
Workshops are informal. Some participants have no writing experience at all and others have written for years. There are workshops geared toward all styles, genres, and experience. All that is required is a love of language and the desire to tell a story.
The group is run by an all volunteer board with no paid staff.
If you want to find that ability in you, learn more or participate in this new exciting phase of WIM’s development you can go to the website www.writersinthemountains. org or call (607) 326-7908.

That DA Race…
One of the three potential Democratic candidates for Ulster County district attorney dropped out of the race in recent weeks, just as the remaining candidates captured the nation’s attention via a bar fight involving one’s leading supporter, the Mayor of Kingston, and the other’s wife, a leading Republican, who entered into a slap-happy bar fight, complete with tossed drinks, via a Kingston waterfront bar’s surveillance camera video..
Julian Schreibman, a current assistant district attorney along with continuing candidate Jonathan Sennett and Sennett’s wife, announced he was withdrawing from the race, which also includes newly enrolled party-member Vincent Bradley, Jr.
Sennett won the Democratic Committee endorsement, but Bradley has vowed to challenge that in a primary election. The party’s executive committee, pushed by party chief John Parete of Olive in what many see as a controversial move that may split the new majority party, has voted to allow all 250 committee members to decide if Bradley, technically still a non-enrolled candidate, can primary in September.
Schreibman noted he is bound from endorsing either of the two remaining candidates but added that, ‘I am opposed to granting the waver to Mr. Bradley based upon the tactics that have been wielded on his behalf by certain leaders of his party.”
Holley Carnright, a former assistant DA, is the Republican candidate.

Addiction Pill…
A single pill appears to hold promise in curbing the urges to both smoke and drink, according to researchers trying to help people overcome addiction by targeting a pleasure center in the brain. The drug, called varenicline, already is sold to help smokers kick the habit. New but preliminary research suggests it could gain a second use in helping heavy drinkers quit, too. And much further down the line, the tablets might be considered as a treatment for addictions to everything from gambling to painkillers, researchers said.
Several experts not involved in the study cautioned that there is no such thing as a magic cure-all for addiction and that varenicline and similar drugs may find more immediate use in treating diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Pfizer Inc. developed the drug specifically as a stop-smoking aid and has sold it in the United States since August under the brand name Chantix. Varenicline works by latching onto the same receptors in the brain that nicotine binds to when inhaled in cigarette smoke, an action that leads to the release of dopamine in the brain’s pleasure centers. Taking the drug blocks any inhaled nicotine from reinforcing that effect.

Anti-Protester!
A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered a manual from the Bush Administration detailing its tactics for suppressing protests at presidential appearances. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two people from Colorado who were forcibly removed from a presidential “Town Hall Meeting” because their car had a bumper sticker that said, “No more blood for oil.” They have obtained a copy of the “Presidential Advance Manual,” which details tactics “to stop a demonstrator from getting into the event.” A section titled “Preventing Demonstrators” advises event organizers to recruit local Republicans into “Rally Squads” whose “task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors [sic] (USA! USA! USA!) As a last resort, security should remove the protestors from the event site.”

SPCA Changes
Long-simmering tensions between the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) board of directors and professional staff has led to a rash of resignations and the shutdown of the agency’s popular low-cost spay/neuter program. In the past month, three board members, the executive director, one veterinarian and a clinic coordinator have resigned their positions. Board President Louise Cutler said she anticipated more personnel losses. The spay/neuter program, which treats more than 3,000 animals each year, will cease operations after completing previously scheduled procedures.
According to Merle Borenstein, who quit the board last month, problems at the SPCA stem from some board members’ interference with day-to-day operations at the group’s shelter on Wiedy Road in Kingston, including the second-guessing of medical decisions made by three veterinarians and the clinic coordinator who run the spay/neuter program and care for shelter animals.
Executive Director Hope Brustein, who began her tenure in September, tendered her resignation last week.
A remaining board member confirmed that veterinarian Liz Higgins, clinic coordinator Gemma Ebeling and Brustein had resigned. She added that she believed the remaining two vets could resign soon nut noted that the shutdown of the low-cost spay/neuter program had more to do with finances than staff problems: a declining number of bequests had left the group’s finances depleted and made the program, at least for now, difficult to maintain.

Home Sales?
Sales of existing single-family homes fell off dramatically in May as compared to the same month in 2006, the New York State Association of Realtors has reported. They rose only in Putnam and Ulster counties.
In Putnam, the number of homes sold was up 17 percent above May of last year; in Ulster County, the number rose by five percent.
By contrast, single-family home sales fell by 46 percent in Greene County, by 27 percent in Sullivan County, by 17 percent in Dutchess, by 12 percent in Orange, by seven percent in Westchester, and by three percent in Rockland County.
Sales statewide fell off by almost 14 percent in May over the same month last year, the real estate group reported.
Median prices of existing single-family homes fluctuated. In May, the highest priced houses remained in Westchester County, at $675,000; in Rockland County at $505,000; in Putnam County at $399,000; in Dutchess County at $346,000; in Orange County at $318,000; in Ulster County at $261,000; in Columbia County at $247,000; in Sullivan County at $187,000; in Greene County at $167,000; and in Delaware County at $94,000.

Cheap Food Ends
The era of cheap food is over, according to a growing number of experts in the field. The price of corn has doubled in a year, and wheat futures are at their highest in a decade. The food price index in India has risen 11 per cent in one year, and in Mexico in January there were riots after the price of corn flour (used in making the staple food of the poor, tortillas) went up fourfold. Even in the developed countries food prices are going up, and they are not going to come down again.
Cheap food lasted for only 50 years. Before the Second World War most families in the developed countries spent a third or more of their income on food (as the poor majority in developing countries still do). But after the war a series of radical changes, from mechanization to the Green Revolution, raised agricultural productivity hugely and caused a long, steep fall in the real price of food. For the global middle class, it was the Good Old Days, with food taking only one-tenth of their income.
Now, three separate factors are converging to drive food prices up. The first is simply demand. Not only is the global population continuing to grow (about an extra Turkey or Vietnam every year), but as Asian economies race ahead more and more people in those populous countries are starting to eat significant amounts of meat. Early this month, in its annual assessment of farming trends, the United Nations predicted that by 2016, less than 10 years from now, people in the developing countries will be eating 30 per cent more beef, 50 per cent more pig meat and 25 per cent more poultry. The animals will need a great deal of grain, and meeting that demand will require shifting huge amounts of grain-growing land from human to animal consumption - so the price of grain and of meat will both go up.
Second, the mania for “bio-fuels” is shifting huge amounts of land out of food production. One-sixth of all the grain grown in the United States this year will be “industrial corn” destined to be converted into ethanol and burned in cars, and Europe, Brazil and China are all heading in the same direction. As oil prices rise (and the rapid economic growth in Asia guarantees that they will), they pull up the price of bio-fuels as well, and it gets even more attractive for farmers to switch from food to fuel.
Thirdly, global warming is set to hit crop yields, lowering productivity by huge amounts.
The price of food relative to average income is heading for levels that have not been seen since the early 19th century, and it is not expected to come down again in our lifetimes.
Meanwhile, it has been found that U.S. oversight of genetically modified crops, which critics charge is insufficient, may finally be overhauled following a series of proposed changes released by the Agriculture Department.
One change USDA is considering would abandon the existing two-tiered permit system in favor of a multilevel one… The new system would provide more stringent review for plants with which USDA is less familiar, or those that may pose an increased risk, such as plants that produce substances not intended for food use. Plants engineered for herbicide tolerance or insect resistance would be less complicated.
USDA is also considering expanding its oversight to include organisms that have the potential to become noxious weeds. This would increase review of genetically engineered organisms that may damage crops to include plants that pose a broader risk to agriculture, the environment and public health.
The draft environmental impact statement, which evaluates potential revisions to existing regulations, will be open to public comment for 60 days starting earlier this month.
Consumer groups, environmentalists and organic farmers oppose biotech crops, which they fear could mix with other crops or develop super weeds resistant to herbicides. They said the current system was not working and was in need of a major overhaul to better protect farmers, consumers and the environment.
“We welcome the fact that USDA is attempting an overhaul of its regulations, the question is going to be, as always, the devil will be in the details,” said Doug Gurian-Sherman with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “We are concerned given the record of this agency over the least few years that we’re worried they may go in the wrong direction.”

CSI Shandaken
Members of the Shandaken Police Department report the arrest of Ronald T. Gangle, 37 years of age of Miller Road, Mt Tremper Friday afternoon, July 13, after police received a report of a private residential alarm going off on State Route 212. Police state after an investigation it was determined that Gangle along with a uninvolved 12 year old youth trespassed onto private property to go fishing in Mt Tremper. Police alleged that Gangle while there broke into a residence through an unsecured window by climbing across the front of the building, pushing in a screen and entering the home. Police state that the homeowners alarm went off and when police arrived they found Gangle leaving the property. Gangle was charged with Criminal Trespassing. Endangering the Welfare of a Minor and Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle, all Misdemeanors. Police state the youth was not related to Gangle and he was released to his Aunt. Gangle was issued an appearance ticket returnable to town court.
Police in Shandaken also report the arrest of Ezekiel N. Fundoro, a 22 year old male from the Delaware County Town of Andes, for Impersonating a Public Servant. Fundaro and friends were boating at the Pine Hill Lake and repeatedly was told to stay away from the beaver and the beaver’s dam. Fundaro then approached an off duty sheriff’s deputy and told the deputy that he was a cop and that he worked for the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office. After Fundaro was unable to produce any identification, he was arrested by the Shandalcen Police Department and released on on appearance ticket to retum at a Iater date.

Art Wanted...
The Second Annual Olive Free Library Art Show, set to run in West Shokan from August 18 through September 30, has put out a call for entries to all area residents, age 17 or older, living and/or working within the boundaries of the Onteora School District.
Artists can submit up to three works completed since August 2, 2005, and all must be at the library by August 2... and must be ready to hang, framed and wired and easily mountable.
No works will be sold at the show, but those interested in making a purchase will be put into contact with the particpating artists.
The show was a major success last year and is expected to draw out an even stronger response this year.
There will be a special reception for all artists, as well as the entire community, on August 18 starting at 4 PM.
Works will be accepted in all media. although space limitations preclude standing sculptures... something that will be worked on in future years.