9/13/2007
Infrastructure!
Shandaken’s busiest hamlet was in the news at the
town board meeting this week when a couple of initiatives
were announced that are expected to improve the quality
of life for residents and visitors alike.
The board put out to bid the badly needed replacement
of sidewalks on Main Street in Phoenicia. The project
would replace the crumbling walkways along Main Street
on both sides from Brio’s Restaurant down to the
corner of Bridge Street and Main. The project would be
paid for with a State Department of Transportation grant,
Cross said. Bids need to be submitted by the first day
of next month.
The sidewalks have been a hazard for years, especially
in front the Sportsman’s Alamo Cantina, where the
concrete has broken apart leaving an unlevel terrain for
unsuspecting pedestrians.
Phoenicia will also have a new generator system installed
in the hamlet’s water filtration plant, enabling
the system to continue to work during power outages. The
generator will cost $39,425. Officials have talked about
the need for the generator for years and last year budgeted
the expense into the 2007 spending plan for the water
district.
Next week on Tuesday morning, September 18 at 9am the
town board will hold a special meeting during which a
field trip will be made to the site of the Phoenicia Hotel,
which burned last month. The purpose of the trip is for
town officials to inspect the premises to determine whether
it needs to be demolished. Current owner Richard Stokes
said that he thought a structural engineer would be needed
to make such a decision.
Lastly, Phoenicia, and the rest of the town will benefit
from a resolution passed that limits campaign signage
in town. The resolution calls for no signs to be put out
until after Columbus Day. The entranceways to Phoenicia
have long been preferred location for politicians who
riddle the landscape with signs in hopes of getter their
message, and of course their names, out in the public
eye.
Sole Assessor?
Shandaken voters will decide this November if they want
to change the way the town assesses property. For as long
as anyone can recall the town has had three elected assessors
doing the job. Now there will be a referendum on the ballot
asking if the voters want to abolish that set-up and instead
hire a single assessor that would not be elected but appointed
by the town board.
If passed by voters, the Sole Appointed Assessor Law would
go into effect on New Years Day 2008. The new own board
would appoint an Assessor who would hold the position
for six years.
Shandaken Live!
Check out Channel 23 on your cable dial and see the new
look of the town’s cable access channel. Once a
boring blue screen with a couple phone numbers of town
offices on it, the channel now features live broadcasts
of town meetings and other goings on around town. You
can also see dogs up for adoption, find out who’s
been planting all those flowers around town, and learn
a little about the ecology of the Esopus Creek in a short
video hosted by Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. That’s
what’s on so far, but anyone who wants to put something
on Channel 23 should contact the Town Clerk at 688-5004.
More Land?
The town of Shandaken has been given the opportunity to
purchase 30 acres of land in town for $37,200. That price,
of course, comes with some strings, but officials are
considering taking the offer because it may present benefits
down the line.
Attorney Jack Darwak came to the town board Monday, September
10 representing the owners of what has become known as
the “Dr Livingston property,” a stretch of
flood plain terrain in the hamlet of Shandaken across
Route 28 from the Shandaken Methodist Church. It seems
the current owners want to sell a conservation easement
to the City of New York, who is unable to purchase the
land outright, and sell the land to the town. Supervisor
Robert Cross Jr. said the land, which also borders the
Esopus, has a history of recreational use and that it
could be used again for baseball and the other activities
that kids enjoyed on the land when he himself was young.
It could also be a location for a waste treatment system
for the hamlet of Shandaken, which is in line to receive
one from the City of New York.
Correction...
In our last issue we noted the acquisition of a Phoenicia
land parcel by ViJen holdings,LLC. Supervisor Cross informs
us that a key element in that story, its potential use
as a future cell tower site, is incorrect and that a restrictive
covenant prohibiting such use remains in effect. According
to Cross, the final two pages of a deed conveying the
property to ViJen and containing that restriction were
not properly recorded due to a filing error in the Ulster
County Clerk's office, so that the covenant which we reported
"appears to have been removed,” was actually
not removed. At Monday's Town Board meeting, Cross provided
a faxed letter from Jay H. Simpson, a former owner of
the property, indicating the covenant remains in place.
It now appears no such use of the property is permissible.
Biker Death
Members of the Town of Shandaken Police responded to an
Ulster County 911 call for a reported Personal Injury
Motorcycle Accident at 4:28 pm on Old Plank Rd. in the
Hamlet of Mt. Tremper on Monday September 3. Upon arrival
a Shokan resident, Floyd Osterhoudt, 45 years old, was
found to have been operating a 1977 Harley Davidson motorcycle
when he lost control of the motorcycle and left the roadway
.
Osterhoudt was airlifted to Albany Medical Center via
Lifeguard with numerous internal injuries. At 7 :03 pm
he succumbed to his injuries at Albany Medical Center.
Floyd J. “Skippy” Osterhoudt, of Croswell
Manor Drive, Shokan, was the assistant produce manager
at the Hurley Ridge Market in West Hurley for seven years,
and was a 1979 graduate of Saugerties High School. After
working at several jobs, he previously was the manager
of the produce department for Boiceville Supermarket,
having worked there for 10 years. He was a hunter and
fisherman in addition to being an avid Harley Davidson
owner
Born October 16, 1961 in Kingston, he was the son of Floyd
E. Osterhoudt and Delores Caunitz Osterhoudt. Survivors
in addition to his mother of Saugerties, his father and
stepmother, Floyd Emmett and Christina Osterhoudt of Boiceville;
include his fiance, Debra Lloyd of Shokan, a son, Floyd
of Saugerties, two sisters, Mary Lou Bradford of Cementon
and Tina M. Osterhoudt of Brooklyn, maternal grandmother
Mary E.Caunitz of the town of Ulster, paternal grandmother
Marge Piccoli, and aunts, uncles, cousins, neices and
nephews.
Funeral arrangements were through Simpson-Gaus Funeral
Home, Kingston.
Shandaken Police were assisted at the scene by the Ulster
County Sheriff’s Office, Phoenicia Fire Companies
and Shandaken Ambulance. Old Plank Rd. was closed for
about two hours.
Jail Probe…
The second and third days of testimony to a legislative
committee assigned to find out what caused Ulster County’s
jail problems have ended with a lot of questions, a lot
of finger pointing, and a lot of trepidation about a final
report on the matter set for release next Monday, September
17.
Much of the final back and forth seeking to put blame
for what went wrong, and ascertain if any laws were broken
besides that of common sense management skills, focused
on the competency of Christa Corporation, once the overseeing
contractors on the project, and who was really in charge
from the county side of the project - the legislature
or Buildings and Grounds Department.
“I got my marching orders from the politicians of
the time,” former B&G head Harvey Sleight claimed
after being told by Kraft “the buck must stop somewhere,
but where.”
The bipartisan jail committee was further set to visit
the New Jersey headquarters of Hill International, the
company formerly charged with investigating the cost and
time overruns that ended up forcing the county’s
longstanding GOP majority out of power, as well as pushing
the project $50 million over budget and almost three years
behind schedule, last week to meet with officials that
couldn’t make the time to come up to Ulster County
for the hearings.
Other conversations with contractor Bovis Lend Lease and
Christa Corporation were also scheduled for this week,
albeit not in public.
Ulster County lawmakers on Thursday, September 6 were
told that Bovis Lend Lease, while construction manager
for the county’s Law Enforcement Center, feuded
with county officials about construction delays while
telling the manufacturer of jail cells for the facility
that the county was not at fault.
Bovis was the second of three construction management
firms overseeing the project.
Among new documents released by the committee on Thursday
was a Feb. 4, 1999, memo from the architectural firm McNeice
Hatch & Roblee showing principal Joseph Roblee had
been given advance information about the needs assessment
for the project by Sleight.
Questioned during the recent hearings were Sleight, former
county Legislature Chairman Ward Todd, Gerentine, former
County Attorney Francis Murray and former county lawyer
Mark Sweeney, as well as members of the current committee.
Part of the discussion during the daylong hearing focused
on notes taken by Todd showing that even during the Law
Enforcement Center’s planning stage, officials were
finding that questions were not being answered by consultants
or details were not be provided. Furthermore, alternatives
to the new construction seemed to have been routinely
ignored, or even crossed out, during Todd’s watch
as county head.
Todd was questioned about changes to meeting minutes in
which unfavorable comments where taken out of a final
version.
Todd was not allowed to make a closing statement but instead
submitted a 12-page written statement saying the committee
seemed to have already reached its conclusions and had
lost credibility because representatives of general contractor
Christa Construction were not being interviewed in public.
He added that politics did not play a part in approving
construction of the jail.
The facility ultimately opened in February 2007 and costs
currently stand at $95.51 million, with contractor claims
still outstanding.
Ulster Gets F
Citing five “core measures” of economic well
being, the New York State Business Council has issued
Ulster County and most of upstate New York a failing grade,
adding a bit more tarnish to an area already mired in
muddy economic development prospects. The state as a whole
got a D.
The Council’s new Economic Growth Index, released
on Aug. 30, ranks the five boroughs of New York City,
the state’s 57 other counties and all 50 states,
according to their growth rate in five key areas between
1995 and 2005. Those five areas are job growth, average
wage per job; total personal income; per capita personal
income; and population. The data used in the index come
from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and were compiled
by the Business Council’s research affiliate, the
Public Policy Institute.
The state avoided an F because its 10-year trend in average
wage per job showed growth exceeding the national average.
But that figure is to some extent skewed by the financial
sector salaries that are largely limited to jobs in lower
Manhattan. The state trailed national averages in all
four other measures.
Ulster County trailed the national growth average in all
five categories and received an F. Dutchess County received
a B grade, exceeding the study averages in job growth,
per capita income and population growth. Greene County
got a C, exceeding the averages in job growth and per
capita income. Orange County also got a C, exceeding averages
in job growth and population growth. Sullivan County was
also graded as an F. Thirty-one of New York’s 62
counties got an F. Only Saratoga and Putnam counties got
an A.
For further information visit www.bcnys.org.
Friedel Honored
The School of Education at the State University of New
York at New Paltz will award six of the region’s
teachers with the 2007 Dean’s Award for Excellence
in Teaching at 4:30 p.m., Sept. 18, at a ceremony to be
held at The Terrace Restaurant on the New Paltz campus.
As recipients of this award, each of the teachers will
receive an honorary appointment as an adjunct clinical
professor within New Paltz’s School of Education.
They will also be recognized at the Mid-Hudson School
Study Council’s Award for Excellence Dinner in October.
Among the nominees will be Olive resident and Onteora
School Board trustee Michelle Friedel, a teacher at Ulster
BOCES.
Nominations for outstanding teachers are made by school
principals and district superintendents. The awards are
given by the office of the dean of education at SUNY New
Paltz based on recommendations from a review committee
of education professionals. The winners are teachers who
have demonstrated their commitment to teaching, to excellence
and, most importantly, to children and their education.
In additional to Friedel, recipients of the 2007 awards
are Thomas Bemont (Pine Bush High School); Jennifer Lamoreaux
(Livingston Manor High School); Frances Lang (John F.
Kennedy Elementary School, Brewster); Sharon Stephenson-Rojan
(Ramapo High School); and Cheryl Leopold (Wallkill Central
School District).
Friedel teaches 11th & 12th grade for the Career &
Technical Center at Ulster County BOCES. She has taught
there for the last twelve years beginning her career with
BOCES as the Coordinator of the Childcare Center and,
for the last nine years, teaching in the early childhood
education program at the high school. She is known for
her “boundless energy and positive outlook”,
and as a colleague wrote, “She is that teacher you
will see in the classroom during summer break preparing
the classroom for her students, making sure resources
are easily accessible and that each student enters feeling
welcomed. She truly believes that all children can learn
and tirelessly works to ensure her students’ success.”
Kraft Pays Up
County Legislator Peter Kraft, who was charged with misdemeanor
drunken driving last December, pled guilty in Olive Town
Court last week to a reduced charge of driving while ability
impaired, a traffic violation. Kraft, 46 of Glenford,
representing a district including Olive, entered the plea
in August and was ordered by Town Justice Ronald Wright
to pay a $660 fine. He will have a conditional license
until he completes a required class.
“I’m glad that the process is complete and
I can put this incident behind me,” Kraft said.
Kraft was arrested at 3:49 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2006, after
being pulled over on state Route 28 in Shokan by an Ulster
County sheriff’s deputy. He was charged with misdemeanor
drunken driving; driving with a blood alcohol content
greater than .08 percent, also a misdemeanor; and crossing
pavement markings, a violation.
The incident occurred after Kraft had attended a Christmas
party.
CWC Grants WDC
The Catskill Watershed Corporation recently handed over
a check for $1 million to the Delaware County based grant
Water Discovery Center, the major world-class museum being
planned for the Catskills as a pumped-up version of a
watershed museum originally planned 10 years. The “irrigation”
money, designed to “grow the endeavor,” was
handed over to the WDC project’s board president
Gary Gailes in a recent event also attended by State Senator
John Bonacic and other local political dignitaries.
Among the guests on hand was Paul Sherlock of UNICEF,
in charge of coordinating the international response to
water emergencies worldwide.
Gailes explained that, with these funds, the trustees
could now seek the ideal executive director to raise the
$25 million needed to “make this unique educational
and exhibit center a reality. Funds will also enable the
creative team to continue developing its already ambitious
exhibit and architectural designs.”
Architect Joe Hurwitz and exhibit designer Leonard Levitan
are currently planning an exhibit center with 20,000 square
feet for special exhibits and three times as much space
overall: with a restaurant, cafeteria, event and conference
spaces and classrooms in addition to interactive exhibits,
exhibition gallery, shop and a huge rooftop garden.
“It’s gotta be fun, or as we say in the business,
edutainment,” said Levitan.
He emphasized that, just as the solutions and issues in
the global water crisis are constantly developing, so
would the infusion of creativity and changing exhibits
of the Discovery Center. Visit www.waterdiscoverycenter.org
for more.
Family Fun
Sensuous acoustic sound, voluptuous harmonies, lilting
melodies, lulling vocals, and good honest rock music will
fill the air Saturday, September 15 at the Catskill Heritage
Alliance’s third annual Fall Music and Family Fun
Festival. The Festival runs from noon to 5:00 pm at the
Rauters’ farm on County Route 3 in Halcott Center.
(From the Citgo station in Fleischmanns, take Lake Street
north 4.5 miles.) The event sprawls across a lovely expanse
of green field, offering food and drink, games, exhibits,
and such special entertainment for kids as face-painting,
crafts, volleyball, hayrides, and more.
New to the Festival this year are Brooklyn-based Split
the Lark and Woodstock’s own Julia Nichols with
Naked. Local favorites returning to the Festival include
John Holt & Friends, James Krueger singing with Henry
Hermann, Water Witch, children’s music specialist
Uncle Rock, and host Jim Rauter with his band. For more
information, check out the CHA website at www.catskillheritage.org
or call 845 254-5452. The Catskill Heritage Alliance is
a volunteer, non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated
to preserving the harmony between the villages of the
central Catskills and the surrounding wilderness through
community revitalization and open space conservation.
Bee Deaths…
Scientific sleuths have a new suspect for what’s
been killing billions of honeybees: a virus previously
unknown in the United States. A new report using a novel
genetic technique and old-fashioned statistics have identified
Israeli acute paralysis virus as the latest potential
culprit in the widespread deaths of worker bees, a phenomenon
known as colony collapse disorder. Next up are attempts
to infect honeybees with the newfound virus to see if
it’s indeed a killer.
“At least we have a lead now we can begin to follow.
We can use it as a marker and we can use it to investigate
whether it does in fact cause disease,” said Dr.
W. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist and
co-author of the study. Details appear this week in Science
Express, the online edition of the journal Science.
Experts stressed that parasitic mites, pesticides and
poor nutrition all remain in the lineup of suspects, as
does the stress of travel. Beekeepers shuffle bees around
the nation throughout the year so they can pollinate crops
as they come into bloom.
The mysterious deaths have struck between 50 percent and
90 percent of commercial honeybee hives in the United
States, sowing fears about the effects on the more than
90 crops that rely on bees to pollinate them.
Scientists previously have found blasting emptied hives
with radiation apparently kills whatever infectious agent
that causes the disorder. That has focused their attention
on viruses, bacteria and the like, to the exclusion of
other noninfectious phenomena, like cell phone interference,
also proposed as culprits.
Australia is being eyed as a potential source of the virus.
That could turn out to be an ironic twist, since the Australian
imports were meant to bolster, not further damage, U.S.
bee populations devastated by another scourge, the varroa
mite.
Tonche Honored
Lancer Insurance Company. the nation’s leading provider
of liability and physical damage insurance coverages to
passenger transportation companies, has announced that
Tonche Transit Inc. of Mt. Tremper, NY has received its
prestigious Gold Safety Award. The award recognizes Tonche
Transit’s safety excellence for the 2006 policy
year.
Way to go, guys!
RAPP Meetings
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County’s
Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) is sponsoring two
new support groups in Ulster County in Kingston and Ellenville,
for anyone who is raising the child of a relative. Both
groups will meet for the first time in September for a
special “Back to School” event. At these meetings,
free school supplies will be provided to families.
The first meeting of the Kingston group will be held on
Monday, September 17th from 10:30am-11:30am at the Clinton
Avenue Methodist Church in Kingston. Lunch will be provided
by Clinton Avenue Methodist Church after the group. The
Ellenville group will meet from 9:30-11:00 at the Ellenville
Public Library’s Community Room. Breakfast will
be served.
Regular meetings of the Kingston support group will be
on the third Monday of the month from 10:30am to 11:30am,
Clinton Avenue Methodist Church, 122 Clinton Ave., Kingston.
Regular meetings of the Ellenville support group will
be on the last Monday of the month from 9:30am to 11:00am,
Ellenville Public Library, 40 Center St., Ellenville.
All programs are free and are available to any person
in Ulster County who is the primary caregiver of the child
of a relative.
For further info call 340-3990 or e-mail emh56@cornell.edu.
Bike For Care
The fourth annual “Bike for Cancer Care” will
be held on Sunday, September 23, to benefit the Rosemary
D. Gruner Memorial Cancer Fund at Benedictine Hospital.
This year’s ride will again offer three routes (5
mile Family Ride, 25 and 50-mile rides) and all will travel
throughout Ulster County. All rides will start and finish
at Ulster Savings Bank’s 180 Schwenk Drive headquarters
in Kingston. Registration for the event begins at 7:45am
and rides will start as follows: 50-mile ride –
8:30am, 25-mile ride – 10:00am, 5-mile ride –
11:00am. The post-ride barbecue and awards ceremony will
begin at 12:00pm.
In partnership with the Cancer Center and Health Foundation
at Benedictine Hospital, the Fund, created in 2004 by
the Gruner family, provides financial assistance for cancer
patients and their families who are receiving treatment
in Ulster County. To date, over 150 patients and their
families have been assisted by the Gruner Fund in all
areas of Ulster County, including Kingston, Saugerties,
Kerhonkson, Ellenville, Accord, Woodstock, High Falls,
Margaretville and Shandaken.
Applications and fund-raising guidelines for the “Bike
for Cancer Care” are available at www.bikeforcancer.com.
For additional information, please call Dan Gruner at
(845) 417-1865.
Teen Abuse
Abusive relationships are becoming increasingly common
among teenagers, according to recent studies, with one
in three teenage girls likely to be involved in an abusive
relationship before graduating from high school. According
to Dr. Jill Murray, the pattern of abuse in teen dating
violence is the same as in adult domestic violence.
Murray, a leading authority on abusive dating relationships,
will present “Dating Abuse, Violence and Destructive
Relationships – Choosing to Have a Relationship
That Works” at Ulster County Community College’s
Quimby Theater on Monday, September 24, from 8:30 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m. on the college’s Stone Ridge campus.
Her best-selling books include: But I Love Him: Protecting
Your Teen Daughter From Controlling, Abusive Dating Relationships;
Destructive Relationships: A Guide to Changing the Unhealthy
Relationships in Your Life; her newest book is But He
Never Hit Me: The Devastating Cost of Non-Physical Abuse
to Girls and Women. Lifetime Television has optioned her
book But I Love Him for a television movie.
Sponsors of the presentation include FAMILY of Woodstock,
Family Services, Kingston Hospital, Never Alone, Prevention
Connections, St. Cabrini Home, STEP ONE, SUNY Ulster,
Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, Ulster
County Mental Health Association, Ulster County Substance
Abuse Prevention Services, Veritas Villa and the YWCA.
Registration is required for the Murray presentation by
calling (845) 687-5192.
Firemen!
If you like firemen, parades, or a general good time,
make your way to Hudson this Sunday afternoon, September
16, when the state Firemaen’s Home celebrates its
new home with a massive kick-off celebration set to include
marching outfits and trucks from over 100 fire companies
throughout New York. A formal dedication of the new 92-bed
Firemen’s Home of the State of New York, which houses
New York State volunteer firefighters, their spouses and
auxiliary members, will take place on the Association’s
campus just north and east of the city itself, adjacent
to the marvelous state Firemen’s museum, itself
home to hundreds of fire trucks and other historic equipment.
The parade of approximately 100 fire departments from
communities throughout New York State will march through
the City of Hudson to the Firemen’s Home, starting
off on Warren Street at noon and taking three hours to
complete. The actual dedication program runs from 3:00
to 4:30 PM at the new home on Harry Howard Avenue.
All are expecting the events to be the home’s biggest
in its 115 year history, as well as one of the biggest
gatherings of firemen in the state in decades.
For further information visit www.firemenshome.com or
call 518-828-7695.
Home Sales…
Sales of existing single-family houses in the Hudson Valley
and Catskills were up in July as compared to the same
month last year, according to figures from the New York
State Association of Realtors. The largest growth spurt
was in Greene County with 76 percent more homes sold year
over year. Sales rose by over 26 percent in Rockland County,
by 18 percent in Delaware County, by just under seven
percent in Westchester County, by a little over six percent
in Ulster and Putnam counties, and by over two percent
in Columbia County. Sales fell by 12 percent in Dutchess
County and by under three percent in Orange County.
The highest median price for a single-family existing
home was in Westchester County, at $730,000; the lowest
was in Delaware County at $135,000.
Homes sold in Rockland County for $518,000, in Putnam
County for $440,000, in Orange County for $327,000, in
Dutchess County for $322,000, in Ulster County for $275,000,
and in Columbia County for under $225,000. Statewide,
home sales fell by 2.5 percent year over year in July
and the median sales price was $252,000.
Watch The WiFi
People should avoid using Wi-Fi wherever possible because
of the risks it may pose to health, the German government
has said. And Germany’s official radiation protection
body also advises its citizens to use landlines instead
of mobile phones, and warns of “electrosmog”
from a wide range of other everyday products, from baby
monitors to electric blankets. The Environment Ministry
recommended that people should keep their exposure to
radiation from Wi-Fi “as low as possible”
by choosing “conventional wired connections.”
Florian Emrich of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection
says Wi-Fi should be avoided “because people receive
exposures from many sources and because it is a new technology
and all the research into its health effects has not yet
been carried out”.
New Center
SUNY New Paltz has announced the creation of the new Center
for Research, Regional Education and Outreach, which will
be directed by Gerald Benjamin, the former GOP county
legislator who is dean of the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences at New Paltz. The center will lead the college’s
efforts to increase its engagement within communities,
government and businesses across the Hudson Valley. It
is expected to focus existing college resources on service
to the region and New York state.
Among the center’s activities will be conducting
and publicizing research on regional topics; encouraging
faculty members to make regional service part of their
scholarship and teaching; creating and directing institutes
on topics of regional interest; leading the college’s
academic outreach to local governments and non-profit
and for-profit organizations; and creating programs to
train newly elected regional officials.
Benjamin, a former chairman of the Legislature, will have
the title of director of the center, as well as associate
vice president for regional engagement. He will step down
as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in
May 2008 after 12 years in the position.
Benjamin chaired the commission that proposed the first
charter for Ulster County, which was adopted by voters
in November 2006, and was appointed to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s
Commission on Local Government Efficiency in 2007.
No To Green
Members of Preserve Marbletown, a group of citizens concerned
about the prospect of a housing development at the Stone
Ridge Orchard, are skeptical of the orchard owner’s
assertion that the project is dead. Orchard owner Dan
Hauspurg said recently that he was abandoning his proposed
Marbletown Green project because he had received too much
negative feedback from the community.
Hauspurg’s plan was to create an environmentally
friendly, or “green,” project, comprising
350 or more houses, that would incorporate the ideas and
concerns of citizens. But the response from opponents
was to place green signs throughout the town that condemned
the proposal. Hauspurg said he didn’t want to engage
in a fight with the community.
A community meeting on Aug. 25 at which the housing project
was discussed drew nearly 300 people.
Among the concerns of Preserve Marbletown were the proposal’s
size and whether a development so large could be environmentally
friendly.
Food Culprits?
Try searching for a culprit in the 90 brands caught up
in the recent recall of canned chili, stew and other products,
and you weave back to a single manufacturer. That also
was the case in recalls of spinach, pet food and frozen
meat. Companies increasingly are paying others to make
the foods we eat - or the ingredients in them - and then
selling it under multiple brand names. And that has prompted
a growing debate about food safety.
"If people cannot trace a product back to a supplier,
the supplier has no incentives to keep their processes
as clean and effective, in terms of food safety, as possible,"
said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for
the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer
group.
But the food industry and regulators chalk up to coincidence
the rash of recent major food safety recalls and the consolidation
of food production. Store-brand or private-label products
account for much of the growth in the food outsourcing
business. Supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers
ring up more than $65 billion in store brand sales annually.
That amounts to one in every five items they sell, according
to the Private Label Manufacturers Association.
Be very careful with all you buy and we’ll let you
know what we find out...
