Newsbriefs

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(from January 5, 2006)

Costly Close-Out
A year plagued with flood and fire and felony is blamed for extra expenses that were paid for Wednesday night at Shandaken's end of year meeting.
Each year the town board meets in a special session just before new years to close the books. All bills are paid through a reshuffling of budget line items. For example, with money left over in a line for planning and development, $1,627 of it was transferred to the line that contains money to take care of town parks, which this year cost more than expected.
Such transfers vary from year to year. While previous administrations have spread the transfers out over a period of several months, this year most were held off to the midnight hour.
And some are substantial. The town’s highway secretary racked up $4500 in overtime pay. Electric charges came in at $5900 more than allocated and a whopping $17,400 was needed to handle those fuel costs that everybody knows about after Hurricane Katrina.
The town’s ambulance squad had to move some funds around to pay for $11,000 worth of extra part time ambulance staff wages and part time police cost the town $2500 more than anticipated.
In all, a total of $57,805 was shuffled around. Of that amount, $20,614 must come out of the town’s contingency fund, a catch all line that exists to handle these matters. In 2005, $37,000 was allocated for the contingency fund. In November the town chose to allocate $30,000 for 2006.
According to Patricia Heinz, who helps the Supervisor prepare and maintain the town’s budget, these extra expenses will not affect the 2006 budget in any way.
“We still have money in the 2005 budget in other line items,” she said Thursday. “We may even have money left in contingency.”
Heinz added that town accountants would take care of all the fiscal loose ends in the first few weeks of 2006.
At Wednesdays meeting, Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. said 2005 was a year that put a strain on the town’s emergency services. He noted the burning of the Emerson Inn last April and the major flood that same month that washed away much of the towns roads and landscape and required an unprecedented evacuation procedure for much of Shandaken.
Cross is developing a town wide evacuation plan as a result of the mayhem that occurred last spring.
Speaking specifically about one police $550 police expense, Cross said it was to cover overtime Detective work that was required due to criminal activity in town.

Gracious Edna
For Edna Hoyt, a Shandaken Democrat who served 8 years on the town board, it wasn’t enough to just devote that time to public service. She had to give away most of her salary too.
Hoyt began her stint on the town board during the Neil Grant administration. From there she stayed on through two years with Supervisor Wayne Guttmann, another two with Peter DiModica, and two more with current Supervisor Robert Cross Jr.
E xcept for the two years spent with fellow Democrat DiModica, Hoyt spent most of that time in the role of minority party representative, questioning the more controversial maneuvers of the Republicans, agreeing with ones she felt were solidly in the towns best interests and disagreeing with those that were not, often to loud applause from an always appreciative audience.
On Wednesday night Hoyt waited for family members to arrive at that evenings end of year meeting before bidding farewell to elected office. Acknowledging that it has had its up’s and down’s, Hoyt said she was glad to have had the opportunity to serve.
“I enjoyed it,” she said.
She explained that during all her years as a board member she gave much of her salary away.
“You know what they say. If you get used to extra money you end up a pauper,” she said.
Hoyt kept most of the beneficiary’s identities a secret, only mentioning the Saint Francis De Sales Church in Phoenicia, which needed a great deal of repair work done on its Parish Hall last year.
She spoke of an unnamed local youth whom she has helped for years, donating $200 from every paycheck to his or her college education. That someone, she added, is now working on a doctorate at RPI.
Looking at the rest of the board, she said they all in effect contributed because her donations were from town funds,
“I just wanted to let you know you did. Thank you,” she said.
Cross, who has crossed swords on occasion with Hoyt, put the credit where the credit was do.
“No Edna. It’s what you did,” he said.
Then in typical Hoyt fashion she accepted his generous remarks, then good-naturedly let him have it.
At the close of her speech, Hoyt told Cross that although she is retiring from the board she wouldn’t retire from participating in local government. She said that his administration still needs to be scrutinized, and that’s what she’ll do from a seat in the audience.
“Il be watching you,” she said.
Peter DiSclafani, the Democrat elected in November to replace Hoyt, presented Hoyt with a bouquet of flowers as thanks for a job well done.

Who’s Hot!
Real estate has continued to be good in the Hudson Valley and Catskills as new housing construction and strong sales have pushed Ulster County’s market value assessment up by more than 20 percent since last year at this time. According to Real Property Tax Service Agency Director Dorothy Martin, the county’s full-market value has risen from $13.7 billion to $16.6 billion over the last year, a gain of $2.9 billion.
Full-market value is generated by taking town-level assessments and multiplying them by the state-set equalization rate, a factor that attempts to even out the fluctuations that occur when assessments are done town by town, as they are in Ulster County and much of the state.
This increase in the county’s total value, Martin said, will help offset the 39 percent property tax increase adopted by the county Legislature by broadening the tax base over which the county tax levy is spread. That does not mean, however, that taxpayers across the county can expect their increase to be less than that, as county tax rates vary among municipalities.
In some communities, the increase in assessed value comes from townwide revaluations, in which all the properties in a municipality are revalued based on current market conditions, generally by using a computer program that compares recent sales in a given area with current property values of similar properties.
In others, Martin says, new construction is driving the increase.
Six communities in Ulster County - Saugerties, Marlboro, Marbletown, Plattekill, Rosendale and the town of Kingston - underwent revaluations this year. Many of those communities saw their townwide values increase sharply as a result.
Woodstock and the city of Kingston are also on the high end of municipal values, with both valued at about $1.3 billion. The town of Ulster is valued at roughly $1.2 billion.
Rising home prices are a major factor in the double-digit annual property value increases the county has experienced over the past few years. Since 2002, the median home price in Ulster County has risen by more than 67 percent, according to figures provided by the New York State Association of Realtors, from $155,000 in 2002 to $259,900 in September 2005.
The towns that had revaluations in the past year will all see their county tax rates drop in 2006, according to the county agency, although that dip in the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value in some cases will be offset by the increase in the taxable value of individual properties.
County taxes account for about 12 percent of the average property tax bill in Ulster County.

At Onteora...
At the Onteora School District’s December 20 board meeting, Superintendent Justine Winters refused a request made by high school senior students for an open campus. Winters said the district had received written information, from both the OCS attorney and its insurance company, advising against the requested policy change, which would allow students to access the Boiceville shopping district across Route 28. School board president Dave Patterson asked that the subject, already denied by the administration, be placed on the agenda for the meeting at Woodstock Elementary School. School board members discussed alternative ways to wave the liability, including trustee Rita Vanacore’s suggestion that a traffic light be installed on the state highway, as well as other ways the senior class could have gathering places, such as a room for seniors only and delivery from the restaurants across the street.
Trustee Marino D’Orazio requested that the school board pass a resolution giving direction to the Future of the District Commission to work with KSQ architects concerning the future of West Hurley school, Woodstock elementary school and a location for a middle school. The Future of the District Commission was created by a previous school board to review the closed West Hurley school and decide it’s future. The committee came up with four recommendations; create a separate middle school, redistrict to ease up Woodstock school population, request a feasibility study, and — after research — recommended the district needed three elementary schools instead of four. They did not have enough information to make a decision regarding West Hurley, and asked that a further study be completed before decisions were made.
After the recommendations came in last month, the committee, confused by their own future role, asked the school board for a charge.
Most board members expressed a need to keep the committee going because it contained community members and faculty from all the schools providing important, researched input, although a minority suggested that the board decide a direction for the district before reconvening the committee to help implement the new mission.
In the final round the decision to specifically charge the committee ended up being unanimous.

Snow Days
New Superintendent of Highways Keith Johnson had to hit the ground running after being sworn in Monday night to take over from departing road boss Richard Merwin.
Thanks to the snowstorm that hit that same evening, ran though much of Tuesday and closed school as a result, Johnson started work a few short hours after Justice Tom Crucet made him the official Superintendent.
After the meeting Johnson happily explained the reason for the early start and shed a little light on the mysterious bit of winter magic known as the snow day.
J ohnson said that Onteora School officials actually make the decision, but only after consulting with all the highway superintendents district wide. The phones start ringing at 3AM, he said, when he gives a rundown of local road conditions and a recommendation. The School officials then have only a couple hours to make up their minds.
Regarding those that might complain that at times the decision doesn’t happen early enough, Johnson good-naturedly volunteered to call anyone who wants to hear a three AM update.

Family Awarded
Ulster County is pleased to announce an award of $311,030 from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its Continuum of Care Program managed by the Ulster County Housing Consortium. The funding will be used by various members of the Consortium to address the problems of homelessness throughout Ulster County. Funding was obtained to continue development of the County’s Homeless Management Information System and a supportive housing program by Family of Woodstock that will provide a stable environment for the homeless to live and grow. Funding was also made available to Multi-County Community Development Corporation for a Shelter plus Care program that offers additional support for young adolescents with disabilities. For further information contact Chester Straub, Chairman of the Ulster County Housing Consortium, at (845) 338-8840 or Dennis Doyle, Director, Ulster County Planning Board at (845) 340-3339.

Police Work…
A Woodstock man was arrested after he telephoned a threat to “start shooting people” at the Phoenicia branch of Key Bank, causing the building to be locked down Tuesday afternoon, Shandaken police said. Robert D. Heitmann, 53 of Meads Mountain Road, was apparently upset with overdraft charges to his account and called the bank’s customer service number with his threat, police said. Police and Ulster County Sheriff’s Office locked the bank for about an hour until Heitmann was found. A Woodstock town justice issued an arrest warrant, but Heitmann turned himself in, police said. Heitmann was charged with misdemeanor aggravated harassment, arraigned in Woodstock Town Court and released to answer the charge at a later date. Shandaken police were assisted by the Woodstock Police Department.
Shandaken Police also reported the arrest of two 18 year old males after receiving a complaint that a man’s jacket containing his wallet, credit cards, cash and cell phone were stolen at the Belleayre Ski Center on December 29. Police state that three brothers left their coats to reserve a table in the cafeteria and as they returned two of the brothers observed Daniel R. May of Wallkill and Billy-Joe Dart of Kingston walking out of the area with the jacket. One brother later located the pair at their vehicle rifling through the pockets and notified security and the two were apprehended a short time later. May and Dart were each charged with Grand Larceny, felonies, and Petit Larceny, a misdemeanor. They were both issued appearance tickets returnable at a later date.

Censured Judge
Kingston City Judge James Gilpatric, who had previously been pegged for State Supreme Court, was recently censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for being under the influence of alcohol while on the bench a year and a half ago. Eight members of the 11-member panel voted to censure Gilpatric, a punishmemt just short of removing a judge from the bench, as occurred recently in Olive because of political involvements, and in Shandaken a decade ago because of the appearance of improprieties. Gilpatric’s censure carries no punishment and no fine because state law doesn’t give the commission those powers.
According to the commission’s written decision, Gilpatric admitted to the panel that he was under the influence of alcohol when he took the bench on Sept. 1, 2004, and was unable to carry out his duties. Gilpatric also admitted he was under the influence of alcohol that morning when he appeared in Ulster County Family Court as an attorney, the commission’s decision stated. The Commission noted that since Gilpatric’s transgression was limited to a single day, and no party’s rights were compromised, and the judge took appropriate steps to be treated for his condition and was cooperative with the commission throughout the proceedings, the lesser punishment was granted. In its report, the commission also said Gilpatric sought treatment for his alcoholism in June 1994 and remained alcohol-free until the Sept. 1, 2004, incident. Gilpatric resumed his judicial duties on Oct. 7, 2004, “and has performed without impairment or incident,” the commission reported.

TV Dinners?
In a recent report released, the Institute of Medicine said television advertising strongly influences what children under 12 eat. The report said the food industry should spend its marketing dollars on nutritious food and drinks. That means SpongeBob, the popular animated star of the Nickelodeon cable TV network, and other characters should endorse only good-for-you food, the panel concluded.
The report said evidence is limited on whether TV advertising leads to obesity in children. A study hasn’t been done that would demonstrate a direct cause and effect. Still, the panel found the evidence compelling enough to call for a concerted effort to change the nature of foods being marketed to children.
The growth in new food products targeted to kids has been huge, from 52 introduced in 1994 to nearly 500 introduced last year, the report said. Overwhelmingly, those foods are high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, the scientists found.
Among children and adolescents from ages 6 through 19, obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years. Obesity increases the risks of type 2 diabetes and many other diseases and health conditions.
The food and beverage industries argue that they already are taking steps recommended in the report, making products healthier, shrinking package sizes and touting healthy lifestyles. An advertising industry spokesman called the findings frustrating, because many companies have been reformulating products to make them healthier or reporting calorie and fat content on menu boards or packaging.
The panel said the government should use tax breaks and other incentives to encourage the shift away from junk food and said if it doesn’t happen, Congress should mandate it.

Bad Relations
Canada’s prime minister said recently that he would “not be dictated to” by the United States, standing firm in his increasingly testy exchange of angry rhetoric with American officials. Washington has called on Prime Minister Paul Martin to calm the rhetoric against his southern neighbor - a favorite pastime of many Canadians - and accused him of lambasting the United States in an effort to win votes in federal elections next month.
The jousting is the latest in what has become a running skirmish between the prime minister and David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, who has made numerous public jibes against Martin.
Martin has said Conservative Leader Stephen Harper likely wouldn’t be willing to stand up to the White House were he to become prime minister after the Jan. 23 vote.
“My government has defended the interests of our softwood producers, and we have insisted on justice for Canadian forestry workers, and we did that without the support of Stephen Harper, whose silence could be heard all the way to Washington,” he said.
For his part, Harper called Wilkins’s criticisms “inappropriate” and said no foreign ambassador should be intervening in another country’s election campaign.

Leaking D.C.
The investigation into leaks about President Bush’s legally questionable decision to start a domestic spying program using wiretaps without court oversight, as constitutionally set over the years, should determine whether the motivation was damaging security or revealing a potentially illegal activity, New York’s Senior Senator, Charles Schumer, said recently.
On Friday, the Justice Department opened an investigation into who divulged the existence of President Bush’s secret domestic spying program. The New York Times reported last month about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who appeared with Schumer on “Fox News Sunday,” urged the Justice Department to “go after those who breached our national security and endangered Americans in the war on terror.”
Bush has acknowledged the existence of the spying program and defended it as essential to securing the nation. He has cited his constitutional war powers as well as a congressional resolution issued after the Sept. 11 attacks as legal justifications for the program.
The Times reported Sunday that an acting Attorney General, and possibly John Ashcroft, objected in 2004 to aspects of the NSA program and would not sign off on its continued use as required by the administration. Administration officials including current AG Alberto Gonzalez, it was reported, visited Ashcroft about the issue while he was hospitalized for gallbladder surgery.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, has called for hearings into the program.
Schumer, while supporting a leak investigation, questioned shifting the focus from the administration policy to the person who revealed the information to the press.
“To simply divert this whole thing to just looking at the leaker and saying everything else is just fine is typical of this administration,” he said.
Meanwhile, it was recently disclosed that counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.
F.B.I. officials noted that their investigators had no interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or violent activity at public protests and in other settings.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general, loosened restrictions on the F.B.I.’s investigative powers, giving the bureau greater ability to visit and monitor Web sites, mosques and other public entities in developing terrorism leads. The bureau has used that authority to investigate not only groups with suspected ties to foreign terrorists, but also protest groups suspected of having links to violent or disruptive activities.
Civil rights advocates have charged that the government has improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.
“It’s clear that this administration has engaged every possible agency, from the Pentagon to N.S.A. to the F.B.I., to engage in spying on Americans,” said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the A.C.L.U.

Unnaturalized…
A proposal to change long-standing federal policy and deny citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil ran aground recently in Congress, but it is sure to resurface - kindling bitter debate even if it fails to become law.
At issue is “birthright citizenship” - provided for since the Constitution’s 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. Section 1 of that amendment, drafted with freed slaves in mind, says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
Some conservatives in Congress, as well as advocacy groups seeking to crack down on illegal immigration, say the amendment has been misapplied over the years, that it was never intended to grant citizenship automatically to babies of illegal immigrants. Thus they contend that federal legislation, rather than a difficult-to-achieve constitutional amendment, would be sufficient to end birthright citizenship.
With more than 70 co-sponsors, Georgia Republican Rep. Nathan Deal tried to include a revocation of birthright citizenship in an immigration bill passed by the House in mid-December. GOP House leaders did not let the proposal come to a vote.
Deal has said he will continue pushing the issue, describing birthright citizenship as “a huge magnet” attracting illegal immigrants. He cited estimates - challenged by immigrant advocates - that roughly 10 percent of births in the United States, or close to 400,000 a year, are babies born to illegal immigrants.
Alvaro Huerta of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles said his organization opposes Deal’s proposal and is girding for a battle for public opinion.
“This is red meat for conservatives,” he said. “They throw out these issues they know aren’t winning issues, and they create an environment of anti-immigrant sentiment. We need to do better job of educating people why it’s wrong.”
According to a survey last month by Rasmussen Reports, a nonpartisan public opinion research firm, 49 percent of Americans favor ending birthright citizenship, and 41 percent favor keeping it. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Depressed?
A third of people suffering serious depression recover with the first antidepressant they try, and well-educated white women are most likely to benefit, according to initial results of an eagerly awaited study on the controversial drugs. One key finding: Patients whose depression symptoms disappeared took higher than typical drug doses, and received close monitoring and frequent dose adjustments in the first three months - a level of care that few U.S. patients today receive.
The main goal of the government-funded study is to identify what harder-to-treat patients should try when initial treatment fails, instead of abandoning therapy in frustration. Those results are due in a few months.
Psychiatrists have long known that for most depression sufferers, the first antidepressant choice won’t be a panacea, just as patients with epilepsy, heart disease or cancer often must mix and match medications before finding the best choice. But unlike those illnesses, physicians have had little scientific evidence until now to guide their choices of myriad antidepressants - or how to maximize each patient’s chances of benefit.

Iran Next?
Recent reports in the German media suggest that the United States may be preparing its allies for an imminent military strike against facilities that are part of Iran’s suspected clandestine nuclear weapons program. The growing likelihood of the military option is back in the headlines in Germany thanks to a slew of including a Dec. 23 piece by the German news agency DDP, which has reported that “western security sources” claim that during CIA Director Porter Goss’ Dec. 12 visit to Ankara, he asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide support for a possible 2006 air strike against Iranian nuclear and military facilities. More specifically, Goss is said to have asked Turkey to provide unfettered exchange of intelligence that could help with a mission. They also noted that the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman and Pakistan have been informed in recent weeks of Washington’s military plans. The countries, apparently, were told that air strikes were a “possible option,” but they were given no specific timeframe for the operations.
In a report published in the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, NATO intelligence sources claimed that Washington’s western allies had been informed that the United States is currently investigating all possibilities of bringing the mullah-led regime into line, including military options. Of course, Bush has publicly stated for months that he would not take the possibility of a military strike off the table. What’s new here, however, is that Washington appears to be dispatching high-level officials to prepare its allies for a possible attack rather than merely implying the possibility as it has repeatedly done during the past year.

Teen Depression
Nearly one in 10 American teenagers, or 2.2 million, experienced major depression last year, according to government statistics that also showed that depressed youths were more likely to smoke, drink alcohol or abuse drugs. Fewer than half received treatment, the survey found. Overall, 9 percent of teens were depressed, with older teens more at risk than their younger peers, said the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA.
About 12 percent of youth aged 16 or 17 faced severe depression in 2004, compared with about 5 percent of those 12 or 13 years old. Among those age 14 or 15, 9 percent experienced a major episode.
Treatment for depression among teenagers has been a controversial issue since a U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientist concluded in early 2004 that anti-depressants posed a suicide risk in youth. Another university-sponsored study also showed a link. Since then the FDA has required drug manufacturers to disclose the possible risk on labels for anti-depressants. Some experts, including doctors, worried the warning would lead to fewer youths receiving treatment.
The recent findings, part of the agency’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, also showed very depressed youth aged 12 to 17 were twice as likely to engage in substance abuse than those who were not depressed. About 28 percent of depressed teens used alcohol, while nearly 23 percent smoked cigarettes and another roughly 21 percent used drugs. Among those who did not report a major episode, about 17 percent drank alcohol, about 11 percent smoked, and about 10 percent used drugs.

Space Permits?
Thinking of spending that next vacation on the moon or Mars or circling the Earth? Before liftoff, there’s a list of things the would-be “space flight participant” should know.
More than 120 pages of proposed rules, released by the government in the last week of December, regulate the future of space tourism, touching on everything from passenger medical standards to preflight training.
Before taking a trip that literally is out of this world, companies would be required to inform the “space flight participant” - known in more earthly settings as a passenger - of the risks. Passengers also would be required to provide written consent before boarding a vehicle for takeoff.
Legislation signed a year ago by President Bush and designed to help the space industry flourish at the outset without too much government interference prohibits the Federal Aviation Administration from issuing safety regulations for passengers and crew for eight years, unless specific design features or operating practices cause a serious or fatal injury.
“This means that the FAA has to wait for harm to occur or almost occur before it can impose restrictions, even against foreseeable harm,” the proposal says. “Instead, Congress requires that space flight participants be informed of the risks.”
The new proposal sets requirements for crew qualifications and training, and establishes training and informed consent for passengers. It does not outline requirements for the vehicles themselves.
Physical exams for passengers are recommended, but will not be required, “unless a clear public safety need is identified,” the FAA says in the proposed regulations.
Laws governing private sector space endeavors, such as satellite launches, have existed for some time. But there previously has been no legal jurisdiction for regulating commercial human spaceflight.
The 123-page proposal was published in the Federal Register, the government’s daily publication of rules and regulations, and will be subject to public comment for 60 days, through Feb. 27. Final regulations are expected by June 23.