Lining Up Against
Public Hearings Batter Crossroads As City Gears Up To Battle The Resort's DEIS

By Paul Smart & Violet Snow
The long-awaited public hearings on Dean Gitter's proposed $300 million Belleayre Resort got underway in the last two weeks, with large numbers of opponents stepping forward to lambaste the planned complex of hotels, golf courses, condos and retail shopping set to straddle the ridgeline around Belleayre Mountain and Big Indian, and a growing outcry from project supporters, mostly business owners and government officials, saying their side isn‚t being properly heard.
In Shandaken, the battle lines between pro and con could reach a new crescendo this coming Tuesday, February 3, when both a final public hearing under the review run by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and a project presentation by the resort‚s Mount Tremper-based developers, Crossroads Ventures, occur simultaneously.
According to Shandaken Supervisor Bob Cross, Jr., the 7 PM meeting at town hall that day was set up at the behest of Crossroads Ventures. After receiving the developers' request to make a presentation to the combined Planning and Town Boards, who will be undertaking site plan review and a New York City-funded study of the project‚s economic and quality-of-life effects, Cross said he sent it on to the Planning Board, who placed the matter on the agenda for their Tuesday night workshop meeting. The scheduling conflict will preclude Shandaken officials from attending the public hearing. A similar presentation was made to the Middletown Planning and Town Boards in Margaretville.
The final public hearing for the project, also set for February 3rd , is an extension of the hearing originally scheduled for January 15 at Onteora High School but postponed till Jan 21 due to inclement weather. 
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Replacing Hal Rowe
Slowly But Surely, Onteora Whittles Down  To Two Selections For New Superintendent

By Violet Snow
            The Onteora school board has selected two finalists from among 33 applicants for the job of superintendent of schools. Both candidates will visit the district in the next two weeks to meet with various stakeholders of the district and answer questions from the public. Board president Marino D'Orazio said the candidates are highly qualified, and the board members are happy with their choices.
            Justine Winters is superintendent of schools at the Webetuck Central School District in northeastern Dutchess County. She has been an assistant superintendent at Wappingers, principal of both elementary and middle schools, and a teacher.
            Carol Pickering is currently assistant superintendent for instruction at Hyde Park Central School District, north of Poughkeepsie, also in Dutchess County. She has worked as a principal, a district director of music, and a music teacher.
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An additional Public Hearing on the proposed Belleayre Resort has been scheduled for Thursday February 19th from 4pm to midnight at the Onteora School.

DEC will be accepting written comments until February 24, 2004. Written comments should be addressed to Alexander Ciesluk, Jr. NYS DEC, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY 12561-1620

Email: afcieslu@gw.dec.state.NY.us

Special Belleayre Resort Supplement

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Computer Brouhaha

Cross Impounds IMac Questioning

Propriety Of Administrative Turnover

By Paul Smart

Less than a month since taking office, new Shandaken supervisor Bob Cross, Jr. has taken to the local press to blame a slow start on his predecessor in office, Pete DiModica. A letter to the editor sent out on Monday, Jan. 26, reads, "When I took office I knew there would be difficulties ahead of me, but never expected them to involve having the supervisors computer wiped clean. I hired a Macintosh computer technician to try to retrieve information, only to find all previous documents and or information stored in the town supervisors computer had been deleted, then written over to make it impossible to retrieve. The technician said this involved several hours and a great deal of patience, by someone with a vast understanding of computers. Not having information readily available on the computer creates a hardship when it comes to bringing one up to speed on issues. Believe me the Town of Shandaken has many issues right now, so I ask for your understanding in matters while we retrieve information by other means."

According to Cross, the situation he refers to arose when he came to the supervisor's office two days before taking office on January 2 and was told by DiModica that he'd cleaned the computer so Cross could start fresh.

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Locally Altruistic
Frank Nazzaro's Samaritanism

By Paul Smart
            Frank Nazzaro feels he picked up his altruism from his immigrant forebears, who never refused anyone a space at the table, no matter what they had. Because they carried with them always an understanding of the hardships lived by all immigrants to this nation at one time, as well as by most who went through the Great Depression of the 1930s.
            Most of all, Nazzaro understands the difficulties that can face anyone choosing to live and work full-time in the Catskills. He describes how he got away for a while - as far as Woodstock and Red Hook, with construction jobs ranging as far away as Montreal and Ohio - but ended up buying his grandfather's property and farming. Times when a car would break down along 28, forcing him to walk several miles home in the bitter cold, wondering whether he could make it. And times when the income just wasn't matching the bills and belts would have to be tightened past the comfort level.
            All of that's now part and parcel of Nazzaro's strange but truly commendable, almost holy altruism. His way of giving and, once given out, still giving a bit more.
            For years now, Frank Nazzaro has been donating a large portion of the produce he grows to the poor. It started with gifts to Family of Woodstock, the region's pioneering social services not-for-profit founded by Michael Berg, who Nazzaro claims as a longtime friend. Eventually, he started buying large amounts of food from the many stores that have been closing out throughout the region - Grand Unions, Jamesways, K-Marts, Ames (the list goes on) - and stockpiling the goods for later distribution.
            But that was all just a warm up.

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