Follow Up on the News
That meeting was ended at 12:48 AM on the 22nd
by DEC Administrative Law Judge Richard Wissler after nearly 6 hours
of comment by some 47 speakers, with a large additional number yet to
be heard. The hearing will resume at 4 PM on Feb 3 and will end at midnight,
irrespective of whether all may or may not have been heard- and with
no break.
Cross said this week that he would have someone record both meetings,
and possibly air each on public access television at a future date.
" Right now, all we have to look at is the 3,500 pages of document,"
Cross said. "I haven't had time to sit down and give it my full
attention for a couple of days."
He said he expected to be able to go through it in three to four days,
given that "most of it I'll be able to leaf right over," but
was looking forward to the coming presentations because, "We all
have questions."
" At least we'll hear one side of it," he explained of the
format he's set up which will allow the public to attend, but not be
heard from. "The advantage of this format is that it will give
us the questions to get answers to."
Cross refused to comment on the two hearings he attended in Margaretville
and Boiceville over the last two weeks, with over 850 others in attendance,
10 speaking in favor of the project and 82 in opposition to it.
" I'm an interested spectator," is all he would say. "You
know I can't make a comment."
On January 14, one count had seven speaking in favor of the project,
and 39 opposed. After introductory remarks by Gitter, who spoke of how
his project was developed out of a sense of caring for the employment
needs of the Catskills, several Delaware County governmental officials
and businessmen, including the owner of the Margaretville area's largest
real estate company, spoke enthusiastically about the region needing
a large shot of development money.
Eric Wedemeyer, the owner and founder of Timberland Realty, went so
far as to plead with project opponents to "let the rest of us have
a piece of the pie."
Others derided the gathering of "bogus environmentalists,"
who had held a press conference about the possibility of the project
setting a bad precedent for Catskill Park development on the eve of
its centennial.
Representatives of the National Resources Defense Council, the Sierra
Club, Trout Unlimited, the New York Public Interest Group (NYPIRG),
the Adirondack Mountain Club, Riverkeeper, state Attorney General Elliot
Spitzer‚s office, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development,
and several smaller groups that have popped up to fight the proposed
project spent the rest of the evening outlining their concerns. All
noted that more than just a skirmish over a development, the battle
over the Belleayre Resort was at the forefront of a statewide and national
war to maintain environmental concerns in the face of unrelenting attacks
over the last three years.
A letter was read from U.S. Congressman John Sweeney, a close friend and former aide to Governor Pataki, expressing his support for the project, "a winner," because of its job production promises. Several local businessmen and real estate agents said the area had been waiting for an opportunity like that being offered by Gitter and his deep-pocketed investors.
But then the roster of project opponents started in,
raising questions about the environmental safety of what was being proposed,
the economic hazards of doubling the local population, and most effectively,
the fashion in which the DEIS was accepted without question and apparently
fast-tracked into the current hearings without proper dissemination.
"I think this all comes down to a question of precedent,"
said James Tierney, Watershed Inspector General for the state Attorney
General's office. He got applause from half of the room.
"Promises of jobs and money are not worth two cents. I lived in
New Jersey and saw what those casino resorts did," said an older
woman, her voice rising with anger. "This is a nice quiet place.
What they‚re offering the locals here is a joke. Don't ruin the
land; it's good enough as it is." Her comments got a standing
ovation, and resounding clapping from two thirds of the 250 or so gathered
in the gymnasium.
The presence of a reporter/photographer team from the New York Times
indicated the deeper waters into which the review had sailed by the
second, January 21 hearing at which Gitter's introductory remarks were
summarily booed, forcing him off script as his press agent, Fred Winters,
tried retrieving press releases he'd handed out before the hearing's
official start.
According to the Times' Anthony DePalma, who came up from New York with
photographer Stewart Cairn, much of his publication's growing interest
in what's been happening locally has been fed by growing interest in
the review on the part of the New York City Department of Environmental
Protection, which will be required to grant or deny permits to the project
farther along in the process.
The city made a brief statement at the January 14 hearing, later released
to the press in the form of a letter addressed to Wissler.
" The proposal by Crossroads Ventures is the largest development
proposed in the Catskills in decades -possibly ever - and as proposed
has many different potential impacts on the quality of the water flowing
into the reservoirs," reads the statement written and delivered
by Kurt Rieke, First Deputy Director of the DEP‚s Bureau of Water
Supply. "DEP is an involved agency under the State Environmental
Quality Review Act, because certain components of the project require
DEP permits but more importantly due to our responsibility for protection
of this extraordinary water supply under state law, which is shared
by all Parties to the MOA. We are devoting both in-house and consultant
resources to a thorough evaluation of the draft EIS that is the subject
of this hearing. We will be providing comments in detail, in writing,
before the close of the comment period."
While
declining to list specific elements of its written review comments,
currently bring worked on with half a million dollars of review funding
at DEP headquarters in Queens, Rieke did outline generic problems with,
"the sufficiency of pollutant removal by the proposed wastewater
treatment plant design and performance; the baseline data employed for
design, and the efficacy of the proposed stormwater management controls
in achieving required levels of pollutant control; the nature and severity
of wetlands impacts from the modifications that will be made to topography
throughout the development; the accuracy, sufficiency and reliability
of hydrologic analyses and water balance calculations used in the design
of the project; inaccurate depiction of baseline conditions, optimistic
projections of economic benefits, insufficient identification and analysis
of regional socio-economic and growth-inducing effects; and economic,
environmental and regional impacts during construction."
DEP Spokesperson Ian
Michaels added on Wednesday that no further comments on the Belleayre
Resort review would be made by the city until release of their review
documents in late February, which he noted would be "very specific
and very pointed."
At the Onteora High School auditorium DePalma was covering, filled to
its 600-seat capacity, those few speakers who expressed support for
the development drew boos and hisses throughout the hearing‚s
six hour length, while many of its critics were greeted by swells of
applause and cheering, with an occasional standing ovation.
Many speakers had done extensive homework, either by reading meticulously
through sections of the 3,500-page Draft Environmental Impact Study
(DEIS) supplied by Gitter‚s organization, Crossroads Ventures,
or by researching potential effects of such features as application
of chemicals to the two proposed golf courses and deforestation of 500
acres of mountainside. Numerous local officials spoke or had statements
read in opposition to the project, including county legislator Brian
Shapiro, Congressman Maurice Hinchey, State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill,
Town of Woodstock councilman Steve Knight, Town of Olive councilwomen
Helen Chase and Linda Burkhardt, and Richard Hochman of the Olive Planning
Board.
Gitter, as the evening‚s first speaker, referred to a sign carried
by a high school student with the legend "Save Our Catskills."
"Save it from what?" he asked, provoking loud jeers from the
audience. "I want to save it from economic decline and loss of
jobs. We‚re all interested in saving the Catskills, but we all
have different points of view about how we‚ll do this. I know
you are passionately committed. So are we."
Many opponents of the project spoke on familiar themes such as danger
to the purity of water resources, the impact of a predicted traffic
increase of 500 cars per hour, the prospect that the resorts would compete
with, rather than encourage, local businesses, the possible infiltration
of casino gambling, the difficulty of access of the DEIS, demands that
the DEC extend the period of public comment, complaints that the project
is on too large a scale for the region.
Further details came from speakers such as Steven Dawes, who described
his experiences working at three golf courses, where he observed application
of chemicals to greens and fairways. He quoted the DEIS as claiming
that pesticide use will be limited through a "curative rather than
preventive approach." Dawes questioned the meaning of this statement,
saying that resort owners can hardly be expected to wait for the appearance
of brown patches before applying pesticides when customers are "paying
top dollar" to play golf on immaculate lawns. In his experience,
the first appearance of any pest on a single green resulted in the prompt
spraying of all greens, and it was common for chemicals to be used in
higher than legal concentrations. He also reported that unexpected storms
occurring soon after chemical applications resulted in the death of
fish in lakes on the golf courses.
Environmental reporter Karen Charman read off negative health effects
documented for some of the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides to
be used, effects ranging from nervous system damage to cancer. "It's
true these are legal," she said. "That does not make them
safe." She also cited a New York Times article of November 1998
about Vail, Colorado, which was suffering from a labor shortage due
to elevated housing prices that prevented workers from living in the
town. She said that when Gitter first announced his proposal, he stated
that his vision was to make Shandaken resemble Vail.
Bruce Duffy of the Catskill-Delaware Water Alliance said that the cutting
of thousands of trees could "severely impact the normal discharge
curve" of rainwater runoff, altering the course of the Esopus Creek
and possibly causing floods, as well as endangering the $900,000 stream
stabilization project recently completed outside Phoenicia. Several
members of Trout Unlimited stated that a more direct impact would manifest
on the smaller and more fragile Birch Creek, which would be affected
by the higher temperatures of runoff and higher silt content without
the benefit of restraining vegetation, possible pesticide and fertilizer
contamination and resultant danger to trout populations.
Sherret Chase, a founding member of the Catskill Center for Conservation
and Development, called Crossroads "a high-risk venture" and
the project a resort "built for sale, perhaps a young Monte Carlo
or Las Vegas, with the potential to pollute both the Delaware and the
Esopus Rivers. We do not need more speculative ventures that take away
more from the region than they give. Contrary to project hype, we are
not a poor, downtrodden people, needing a knight in silver armor. We
do not need to strike a Faustian bargain. We do not need a shining,
gated city on our ridge." He recommended that New York City "buy
out Crossroads' land at a price that enables the developer to recoup
his costs. If he won't sell, they should condemn the property and incorporate
it into the forest preserve." The audience gave Chase a standing
ovation.
Officials with a number of key national,
state and regional environmental organizations, who have all spoken
against the proposed project and are submitting their own detailed reviews
of Gitter‚s DEIS, have repeatedely stated their beliefs that the
final battleground for the Belleayre Resort plan will be between city
and state entities, possibly coming down to a power struggle between
the governor and mayor. They've further noted that the DEC is paying
close attention to the numbers lining up pro and con the result, as
well as the issues being raised.
Simultaneous to its current review of the Belleayre Resort proposal,
which Gitter has described as being a means of fulfilling long-proposed
goals to make the state-run Belleayre Mountain Ski Center a year-round
destination, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has
also been putting the finishing touches on its own multi-million dollar
expansion plans. On Wednesday, Belleayre‚s DEC Superintendent,
Tony Lanza, said that a final state proposal should be out in the next
60 days.
The new Executive Budget proposal put out by Governor Pataki on the
same day as the Gitter review at Onteora lists an increase of $30.6
million for 2004 DEC capital improvement projects amongst a litany of
cuts in most other areas.
It is expected that the current review will be discussed as part of
the expected budget battles set to start waging between Albany and New
York City over the coming six months.
"I figured
he'd just deleted. That wasn't done at all," Cross said, describing
how he immediately took the Imac computer, purchased a year ago for
letter writing and internet access, over to Shandaken Police offices
where it's been in the evidence locker ever since. And will likely
stay, according to the supervisor.
"I
don't want to touch anything and have people say I've tampered with
the computer. I didn't even turn it on.," Cross said, explaining
why he moved the Imac so quickly. "I don't know what was there.
Peter, of course, is going to say he copied it all."
Which, infact, is what DiModica was saying this past week, when asked about Cross' charges.
"I gave him the computer the same way I got it,"
the former supervisor said. "Everything I produced for the town
are in the files or Rolodex in hard copies. I used the computer like
a word processor and would print letters out on town letterhead, which
I would then sign and have copied into the files."
According
to Robert Freeman of the New York State Department of State's Committee
on Open Government, legal issues involving town records are covered
in provisions of the state's Arts and Cultural Affairs Law.
"Basically,
it says that if you duplicate official documents, in any form, you
can throw away the other stuff," Freeman said. "I've heard
of situations arising like this, especially during transitions from
one administration to another, but none that have gone to court."
Ulster
County attorney Frank Murray said that clearing a computer tends to
be seen, in legal circles, the same as someone "clearing out
their desk."
"All
that matters is that the government be allowed to continue,"
he said, also noting that no actual cases have arisen involving loss
of records.
Cross,
meanwhile, said that he was considering sending the Imac "right
to Macintosh themselves and have them break it down."
"I
just want to ascertain if he deleted any town business, " Cross
said. "It wasn't his right to delete the information on that
computer. And even if it was, it's at the least in very poor taste."
DiModica
said he used the re-install function of the computer to ensure there
were no bugs in the system. The main process took about twenty minutes,
with extra time for reinstallation of special programs.
He
added that he had bought the Imac separate from the town's networked
PC system because he was familiar with Apple products and thought
it prudent to have one computer not susceptible to the sorts of Internet
viruses targeted against PCs and their Microsoft Windows operating
systems.
What
has Cross been doing in the interim, with the Imac in lockup?
"I
write things out long hand and Patty types them up," he said,
referring to his secretary. "Someone's offered to bring in a
spare computer for me."
"I
d= on't know that I will, " he said. "I don't know that
much about the Mac."
"Just
a word about that computer business: I left the computer in the same
condition that I received it. All the town documents that the new
supervisor needs are in the office files," DiModica wrote the
papers on Tuesday, after hearing of Cross' missive. "When he
gets that computer back from the police, I hope he starts using it
to do the job he was elected to do!"
"This
whole thing has taken hours to sort through," said Cross. "It's
created delays in my time, which has already taking up 60 to 70 hours
a week. I tell you one thing, this is no part time job."
Accusations that the Clinton administration vandalized computers and offices as the Bush administration was coming into office three years ago resulted in the production of a $200,000, 219-page report by the federal government's General Accounting Office that found only $19,000 damage, on a par with governmental transitions in 1993 and 1989.
Pickering will be at Onteora High School on Wednesday, February 4,
to meet with administrators, the Student Affairs Council, teaching
and non-teaching staff, and PTA members. On Thursday, February 5,
at 7:00 p.m., the public is invited to make her acquaintance in the
high school cafeteria, where she will answer questions. All groups
will be asked to fill out evaluation forms.
Winters is scheduled to meet with staff and students on Tuesday, February
10, and with the public on Wednesday, February 11, at 7:00 p.m.
Of the 33 applicants, there were 15 sitting superintendents, nine
assistant superintendents, three central office employees, one principal,
one adjunct professor, one consultant, one unemployed superintendent,
and one vice president of a non-profit organization. Twelve had doctorates,
and 21 had masters degrees. There were eight women and 25 men. Educational
search consultant Richard Lerer selected eight candidates for the
board to consider. From those, four semi-finalists, all from New York
State, were chosen for interviews.
The new superintendent will replace retiring Hal Rowe, who has served
in his current position for eleven years. Although his contract expired
last June, the board voted to extend it for a year so Rowe could assist
with two difficult transitions, staff contract negotiations and the
reorganization of two elementary schools in a stiff budget year. The
new superintendent will take over in July.
"Although the school board‚s function is to hire the superintendent,
we welcome a lot of input from all stakeholders and the public at
large," said D‚Orazio. "Please come and participate."
"I guess I'm over-sensitive to the fact that there's poverty
in our nation, that there are homeless," Nazzaro explains over
coffee and a salad at the Phoenicia Diner, where he worked as a teenager
soon after its opening. "This is simply a heinous place to get
caught with nothing. I feel this is what I'm supposed to accomplish
in my lifetime∑ to help as much as I can."
He speaks, with deep empathy and understanding, about how a broken
car or heater problems can start a downward spiral in a local household.
Of how someone will turn down a $7 an hour job in Kingston to hold
out for something that's minimum wage and closer to home. Of how a
lot of locals he know wouldn't mind cleaning rooms for rich people
because otherwise they'd never see how they lived. He called it all
a "reality show," a way of looking at life that compares
everyday hardships to what's available on the tube.
So he will help someone who asks with what money he can spare. Or
a ride to somewhere where better help can be found.
He took over the annual Holiday dinner at the Phoenicia Parish Hall
this past Christmas, bringing in donations and supplying the overflow
- enough for 500, should that many have come out - all from his own
larder.
Nazzaro's got a big enough heart that his grandparents used to worry
that he was operating on nothing but love. And even his wife, an accountant,
worries about where all this giving is leading.
"I'm starting to feel bled out. I'm having to learn where to
set limits and how to do this better," Nazzaro admits, sipping
coffee.
He makes his money, as best he can, from organic farming. Nazzaro's
been keeping gardens, he says, since he was five. He's currently got
two acres cultivated using French Intensive farming methods that utilize
intercropping, compressed farming techniques to heioghten the yield
of his 88,000 square feet of tillable land. He grows vegetables and
fruit, keeps various poultry and rabbits, taps numerous maple trees
and makes a fine syrup, and sells his own honey. He's a truly hard-working
man with a loyal clientele of weekenders, local restaurants, and those
who stop in at his own farm stand, where he also sells newspapers,
despite some ongoing friction with local zoning authorities over the
nature of his business.
On the side, Nazzaro still takes jobs installing garage doors and
doing construction jobs throughout the Northeast.
He shows off a notebook filled with calculations on how to take the
eight cents he makes selling a single copy of the Daily Freeman and
turn it into a half pound of food for the needy. And then extrapolates
from there.
Nazzaro can also speak knowledgably about the many gaps in the current
social services net, including non-profit agencies, especially in
rural areas like ours. It's hard for people to get to the centers
in Kingston. Sometimes they just don't know. Or are too proud to take
such steps. As a result, many are falling through the cracks. And
with proposed cuts on a statewide and national basis, those cracks
seem poised to become wider.
"I'm just trying to help people like me get out of the situation's
they've found themselves slipped into," he says, unblinking.
He talks lovingly of his grandfather, local builder Rudy Frank, who
emigrated from Germany in the 1930s, and his three children, Christopher,
Hailey and Calista, who he'd hoping will get the altruism bug he caught.
"I guess you could say I'm into surviving," Nazzaro says.
"I'm into finding ways of surviving in the Catskills."
He adds that his satisfaction comes from knowing he's making a difference.
He calls it a way of mortgaging his future. After a fashion, Nazzaro
seems to believe in the Eastern concept of Karma∑ that everything
comes back full circle.
Yet he also admits to being bled dry by his growing need to fill others'
needs.
"I give 'til it hurts," he says. "I'm hoping to start
getting some help now, to find a way of passing what I do on. You
know, there are others who do as I do - businesses, private individuals.
But they do it on the sly, by letting a bill slide, by turning their
head the other way."
"I guess you could say I have a hobby that grew horns,"
he laughs.
More like a halo, we think.
Those wishing to help with Nazzaro's endeavors are encouraged to contact
him regarding donations or food and goods, volunteer time, money and
whatever else they can think of. He lives in the large farmhouse at
the corner of Routes 28 and 42 in Shandaken. His number is 688-7210.