Newsbriefs

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Whose Appeal?
The Delaware County town of Middletown, slated to host 15 percent of the Belleayre Resort, has asked the Coalition of Watershed towns to challenge a recent Judicial ruling calling for a more extensive review of the proposal.
At a meeting of the Coalition’s Executive Committee last week in Margaretville, the advocacy groups legal representative got one of the two thumbs up needed to proceed with plans to appeal a ruling from a department of Environmental Conservation Administrative law Judge which states that more information is needed in order to determine whether the project as proposed would be harmful to the character of the communities that surround the project site.
Middletown Supervisor Len Utter, who also sits on the Coalition’s Executive Committee, told attorney Jeff Baker that his town board made no official resolution, but had discussed the issue and decided to request that the Coalition move forward with the appeal. For Utter, community issues such as amount of taxes for the project, impacts on school districts, emergency services, hamlet economies and others are best left up to the local planning board to review, not the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which is the lead agent in an unprecedented environmental review of the project known as the Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park.
“It’s up to the town to decide community character issues,” he said.
The Coalition, which is having financial troubles, got involved last year in the review of the Resort, a large project calling for two golf courses, two hotels and hundreds of residential units in a 1900-acre area. Its inclusion in the process was because it believed the City of New York was overstepping its authority in the region by fully participating in the review. The Coalition maintains that many elements of the projects review are home rule issues, and should stay that way.
Last month Baker suggested launching an appeal of the ruling only to be told he could proceed only if the two effected towns wanted him to.
Shandaken Supervisor Robert Cross Jr., also a Coalition Executive Committee member, said there is no word from his town.
Up for re-election this year, Cross said he decided to hand off the decision making. Unlike Middletown, where Utter had the town board rule on the matter, Cross chose to have the town planning board make the decision.
“There’s been no word yet,” he told Baker.
Why the planning board? Cross, whose wife works for the developer, Dean Gitter, explained that Community character issues are the planning boards bailiwick. Therefore, if the ruling were successfully appealed, they would be the ones that would review community character issues if and when the project comes before the town for review.
The deadline to file an appeal is November 23rd.

Volunteerism!
A new Phoenicia-based organization will introduce a bill in U.S. Congress on Friday that will effect 89 million Americans who volunteer each year to help their neighbors and communities. The bill, to be sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, will reward American volunteers with an annual tax credit of up to $2,000... whether you volunteer at your local fire department, school, hospital, hospice, elderly community, or other non-profit organization you will be eligible to earn the tax credit.
Andrew Martin, of Big Indian, is the founding chairman of S.A.V.E., Support American Volunteer Efforts.
Forty-four percent of Americans volunteer an average of four to six hours per week, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since volunteers contribute more than twice the money to charity than non-volunteers, they can choose to donate the $2,000 tax credit to causes they know are effective or invest the funds in their own family.

Edna Honored
The Ulster County YWCA honored Shandaken Town Councilwoman Edna Hoyt with a Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual “Tribute to Women Dinner” at the Wiltwyck Golf Course on Friday, October 21st. Also receiving awards were Carol LeMay (Woman of the Year), Sandy Fiore (Health Educator), Georgene Fredericks (Business), Susan Hansen (Mental Health), Toby Krawitz & Sara “Skit” Rabbino (Human Services), Cheryl Oliver (Child Advocate), Margaret Phelan (Community Service), Therese Raad Higgins (Education), Samantha Smith (Youth Volunteer), Elizabeth Toleno (The Arts), and Angel Food East (Organization of the Year). The YWCA recognized Edna for her years of service to the community in roles ranging over the years from Postmaster of Pine Hill, early organizer of the Onteora Board of Education, and Sunday school teacher to elected official, distinguished Rotarian, master doll maker, and talented vocalist with local choral groups. In accepting her award, Edna received a standing ovation from the 250 people in attendance in response to her call to “always say ‘yes’” when asked to serve.

At Onteora...
It was announced at the October school board meeting that the Onteora marching band is the class two champions of the United States Scholastic Band Association NY State Championships, a competition held in Long Island. They will be continuing their competition with All State Championship for North East Bands at Giants Stadium in New Jersey in November.
In other recent business, administrators from Ulster BOCES gave a technology presentation, report on costs and staff development services it offers to the district. BOCES contract costs for the school district in 2004-2005 was roughly $2.5 million dollars and many of the services received a refund of about 50 percent. Services include staff development and comprehensive planning for school development, as well as oversight of the regional scoring of tests and curriculum to align with regional tests. Also, when New York State adjusts learning standards in Math or English Language Arts, BOCES will give support and training for any changes in curriculum. The entity also provides audiovisual materials, internet access, and other technological tools to the school district.
During Student Be Heard, two Onteora seniors spoke on behalf of the Class of 2006 asking for the high school to become an open campus for all 12th graders. The students already met with the administration and then presented the proposal to the school board and asked them to consider the privilege to seniors. Their rational for this proposal is that BOCES students and Ulster County community college students can already leave campus; therefore, the students who remain in the building throughout the day should have the same open campus privilege, with permission slips and insurance waivers signed by parents and the knowledge that such privilege will be revoked if abused and is not intended for skipping class. School board members spoke favorably about allowing seniors the ability to leave the campus. Trustee Rita Vanacore said, “I really think seniors will soon be on their way to college, I believe they should have this privilege, so good luck.”
Details of the proposal will be looked at by the administration.
Lastly, it was announced the Future of the District Committee is looking for people from the community to join as members. The committee is working closely with hired architects to determine the future of the building facilities in the district, in conjunction with the direction of educational standards. For more information call the district office at 657-8851.

County Budget!!!
In what promises to be a major battle spurred on by the county’s deepening fiscal problems, Ulster County department heads have asked that about $423,000 in spending be restored to the county’s proposed budget for 2006. The changes would add $200,781 to the budget’s bottom line, after revenue shifts or departmental cuts aimed at offsetting the budget restorations.
The County Administrator’s Office recently released a $299.7 million budget proposal for 2006 that would increase county spending by 2.23 percent and raise the property tax levy by 48.8 percent. If the $423,000 requested by department heads is approved, the property tax levy would rise an additional one-third of a percentage point.
The seven county departments making the appeals included Environmental Management, the Board of Elections, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Youth Bureau, Ulster County Area Transit, Mental Health and Highways and Bridges. The largest request came from the Mental Health Department, which is looking for $126,692, none of which would be offset by cuts or new revenues… most of it for mandated services. The Board of Elections is seeking $64,000 for the creation of six new positions required to meet the workload demanded by the Jan. 1 implementation of the Help America Vote Act.
“The fact that underinflationary expenditure growth of 2.23 percent results in a 48.81 percent increase in the proposed levy underscores the basic structural deficiency that Ulster County has been dealing with in its budgets for the past several years,” County Administrator Arthur Smith said in describing the anticipated tax hike. The heart of that structural deficiency, he added, is the county’s reliance on sales tax and appropriations from the county fund balance to close the gap between spending and revenues. Over-reliance on that fund balance has brought this financial safety net down to about $5 million, leaving nothing to be drawn on this year to reduce taxes. The 2005 budget used $14.9 million from the county fund balance. Were that much available to apply to the 2006 budget, Smith said, the proposed increase in the property tax levy increase would have been just under 17 percent.
The proposed hike of nearly 49 percent is the largest since 1991, when county officials threatened - but ultimately did not approve - an increase of about 64 percent.
County taxes account for about 12 percent of the average homeowner’s annual tax bill. The rest comprises school taxes, municipal taxes and special district taxes.
Areas of the county budget in which spending is predicted to increase next year include heating, electric and gasoline costs, up about 20 percent; increased county contributions to Medicaid of about $3.8 million over 2005 levels; and $1.8 million more in pension contributions. Among unexpected costs in the proposed budget is $255,076 to operate the existing Ulster County Jail on Golden Hill Drive in Kingston through at least the end of March 2006. County officials initially figured the jail would be vacated before then end of the year.
The Legislature must approve the budget by mid-December.
County lawmakers have until mid-December to modify the proposed budget.
The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency’s board has meanwhile adopted a $16.4 million budget for the coming year that slashed over $1 million in county costs at the expense of higher “tipping fees” on the municipal level. The budget calls for raising municipal trash disposal fees by $3 a ton, and adds a $24 “pull fee” for each roll-off container of garbage or recyclables the agency picks up at town transfer stations. Between the two fees, towns will take on new charges ranging from $528 a year for Hardenburgh to $38,703 annually for the town of Saugerties. The board has also implemented a fuel surcharge program in hopes of cushioning volatile fuel prices and working down an expected $200,000 shortfall in this year’s budget, which priced diesel fuel used by the agency’s fleet at $1.30 before taxes. The average price now stands now stands at $3.14 per gallon, including taxes. At present, all the waste taken to the transfer station is hauled to Syracuse for disposal.

Bomb Threats…
A recent bomb threat to the Hudson Valley Mall, phoned in less than a year from the shooting incident that made national news at the same location last winter, has resulted in the bringing of charges against Blake A. Rivera, 21 of Kingston man, for phoning in the threat that forced a complete evacuation on Sept. 23, as well as a second attempt last week.Rivera was arrested at the mall, questioned extensively and charged at with two felony counts of falsely reporting an incident, police said.
No evacuation was ordered after the second threat, police said, because authorities were able to trace the call immediately to a phone inside a store in the mall and apprehend the suspect. Neither police nor mall General Manager Terry Parisian identified the store where the call originated, but police said Rivera was an employee of the store.
A Feb. 13 shooting spree inside the mall left two people wounded and ended in the arrest of Robert Bonelli Jr., 25 of Glasco, who is currently being held without bail in the Ulster County Jail.

Building Troubles
Two new development projects, collectively representing the potential building of over 2500 new high-end town house, apartment and private residence units in the greater Kingston area, are currently facing review.
In Hurley, a proposed “affordable” “active senior” gated community was set to be discussed at a public hearing on Wednesday. More on that in our next issue.
In Kingston/Ulster, a consultant hired by Scenic Hudson and other national and regional environmental groups has gone on record saying economic projections by the developer of the project known as The Landing at Kingston and Ulster are flawed, drawing a reaction from city mayor James Sottile, a strong supporter of the project, who questioned the report’s legitimacy.
Sound familiar?
The Yonkers developer AVR Acquisition Corp. has proposed to build 1,750 to 2,182 housing units on a site on Kingston’s northern border with the town of Ulster over 15 years, along with 300,000 square feet of commercial space.
The new report says AVR has projected the city’s future economic conditions as if the project would be completed this year, not over a span of 10 to 15 years. Another flaw, the study said, is the assumption that federal, state, and county government will cover 50 percent of community costs related to the project. The report also says that the study uses outdated data and predicts school, traffic, fire, and police and other tax-related impacts on the 1990 census, rather than the 2000 census.
Critics of the development have said Scenic Hudson serves a valuable watchdog role, but supporters of the project say the group is using scare tactics and unsubstantiated information in an attempt to halt a “much-needed housing development.”

Reval News…
Ulster County’s Charter Commission recently shot down a proposal to institute countywide property assessments, based largely on their sense that, what with other plans to push the county into the creation of an elected executive’s position, they have neither the time nor the resources to fully research the matter. Their decision came after a presentation by Shawangunk Assessor Curt Schoeberl, the statewide assessor’s advocate who helped bring the Large Parcel Issue into life a few years back and said he opposed countywide assessments.
Commission Chairman Gerald Benjamin said that because shifting the responsibility from the towns and city of Kingston to the county is a controversial issue, and one that requires a greater majority of voters’ approval than the charter as a whole, adding the change to the document going before voters could risk the entire charter’s rejection.
Schoeberl said there are several shortcomings to shifting assessment responsibility to the county level, including possible abuse of the new power by county officials using planned growth in assessments to close pending budget gaps. He further stated that town assessors have greater familiarity with their towns and hence better understand the property value differences within each town; that town assessors are more accessible to taxpayers; and that a required countywide revaluation could cost about $4 million.
The Town of Olive is currently finishing up its first reval in decades. Shandaken is currently starting to eye its first such undertaking, before being ordered to do so, in over twenty years.

Gas Too High?
Even with gas prices have dropped somewhat in recent weeks, many are still reeling from the post-Katrina price hike shocks. But are the lower prices we were once used to realistic?
Just as we Americans grit our teeth as we pump $3-per-gallon gas, thinking $2 is about right, British drivers find a $3 per gallon cost sounds fanciful, with people there paying about $6.40 a gallon and thinking $5 would be fair.
AP-Ipsos polling in the United States and eight of its allies turned up wide disparities in people’s thoughts on the cost of filling up.
Spaniards would like to see gasoline for just over $3 a gallon. People in France, Italy, Germany and South Korea put the fair market price $4 or a little more. Australians and Canadians would like to see it just under $3 a gallon.
In much of Europe and elsewhere, gas taxes account for two-thirds or more of the price of gasoline. People in those countries look for high-mileage cars. Public transportation is well-developed. In the U.S., taxes vary by state but amount to about 20 percent of gas prices. Fuel is cheaper in this country than in most parts of the world, and investment in mass transit is minimal..
The polls of about 1,000 adults in each of the nine countries were conducted between Sept. 17 and Oct. 2 and each has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Tax Changes?
President Bush’s tax advisory commission indicated recently that it would not propose replacing the income tax with a national sales tax or a value-added tax, but would recommend limits in the popular tax deductions for mortgage interest and employer-provided health insurance. The commission, scheduled to make its recommendations to the president by Nov. 1 on how to change the tax system, did not take votes or dwell on details, but its consensus on many important issues was clear.
Various proposals for a flat tax - an income tax with everyone paying the same rate - are still under consideration, and were to be discussed at a meeting this week.
At its last meeting, in July, the commission agreed to recommend abolishing the alternative minimum tax for individuals, a step that would cost the federal government $1.2 trillion in lost revenue over 10 years. With a mandate to develop a proposal for changing the tax system that is revenue neutral - meaning it neither raises nor lowers total tax receipts - the commission must find enough revenue to offset the amount now generated by the alternative minimum tax. That is mainly what led to an examination of ways to modify the deductions for mortgage interest and health insurance, two of the largest tax breaks now available to individuals. Together, the two deductions will cost the treasury about $250 billion this year, with the benefits going disproportionately to the most affluent taxpayers. The commission members decided that another popular deduction, for charitable contributions, should be expanded rather than cut back. They are looking at how to give the tax break to taxpayers who do not itemize deductions.
The panel would shrink the number of income tax rates from six to four and put 75 percent of individuals and families in the bottom 15 percent tax bracket. Myriad personal and family tax breaks would be replaced with one family credit. Benefits and savings accounts for retirement, health and education would be eliminated in favor of three savings accounts, all funded with taxed income that would be allowed to grow and be withdrawn tax free.
The panel members agreed that any of these changes would have to be phased in gradually to reduce the financial disruption for homeowners.

Baby Likes Garlic
It’s time to discard everything you think you know about feeding babies. It turns out most advice parents get about weaning infants onto solid foods — even from pediatricians — is more myth than science.
“There’s a bunch of mythology out there about this,” says Dr. David Bergman, a Stanford University pediatrics professor. “There’s not much evidence to support any particular way of doing things.”
As research increasingly suggests a child’s first experiences with food shape later eating habits, doctors say battling obesity and improving the American diet may mean debunking the myths and broadening babies’ palates. It’s easier — and harder — than it sounds. Easier because experts say 6-month-olds can eat many of the same things their parents do. Harder because it’s tough to find detailed guidance for nervous parents.
“Parents have lost touch with the notion that these charts are guides, not rules,” says Rachel Brandeis, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “Babies start with a very clean palate and it’s your job to mold it.”
It’s easy to mistake that for a regimented process. Most parents are told to start rice cereal at 6 months, then slowly progress to simple vegetables, mild fruits and finally pasta and meat. Ethnic foods and spices are mostly ignored by the guidelines — cinnamon and avocados are about as exotic as it gets — and parents are warned of potential allergens such as nuts and seafood for at least a year.
Yet experts say children over 6 months can handle most anything, with a few caveats: Be cautious if you have a family history of allergies; introduce one food at a time and watch for any problems; and make sure the food isn’t a choking hazard.
Parents elsewhere in the world certainly take a more freewheeling approach, often starting babies on heartier, more flavorful fare — from meats in African countries to fish and radishes in Japan and artichokes and tomatoes in France.
The difference is cultural, not scientific, says Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ nutrition committee who says the American approach suffers from a Western bias that fails to reflect the nation’s ethnic diversity.
Some studies suggest rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants because they digest very rapidly in the body into sugar, raising blood sugar and insulin levels” and could contribute to later health problems, including obesity. Furthermore, the lack of variety in the American approach also could be a problem since exposing infants to more foods may help them adapt to different foods later.

Flu Patents…
Pharmaceutical giant Roche has been under growing pressure from governments and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to license generic versions of Tamiflu, the only available drug that is effective in treating people infected with bird flu. The drug is already in limited supply. The Swiss-based company has said it plans to build a new plant in the United States to produce more or the drug. And while the firm has ruled out relinquishing the patent on the drug, which is protected until 2016, it also has said it was seeking other companies to help speed production due to the increased demand.
“For Tamiflu, the key need today is the rapid expansion of production capacity,” said William M. Burns, chief executive of Roche’s pharmaceuticals division. “We are prepared to discuss all available options, including granting sub-licenses, with any government or private company who approach us to manufacture Tamiflu or collaborate with us in its manufacturing.”
By the middle of next year, the company says, it will have boosted production tenfold in comparison to 2003. There is no human vaccine for the current strain of bird flu but scientists believe the Tamiflu drug may help humans fend off the virus.
The UN and European Union have issued a statement saying they recognize bird flu poses a serious, global health threat if it shifts from birds to people and one “that requires a coordinated international reaction.”
The World Health Organization recommends governments keep enough anti-viral drugs and regular human flu vaccines to inoculate at least 25 percent of their populations.
European officials say the 25 nations in the EU, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, have only 10 million doses for an area with 500 million people. That’s just 1 percent of the population.
No nation is prepared for a bird flu pandemic, the U.S. health secretary said recently, while the world health watchdog warned Europe against focusing on itself at the expense of Asia, the ground zero of any major outbreak.
Romanian authorities called for calm Saturday as they quarantined an eastern region where tests confirmed Europe’s first appearance of a deadly strain of bird flu that has devastated flocks and killed dozens of people in Asia. Poland’s government, meanwhile, banned the sale of live birds at open-air markets and ordered farmers to keep poultry in closed quarters beginning Monday. It also banned pigeon races.
Authorities around the world fear the virus could mutate into a form that can be passed among people, leading to a flu pandemic that some say could potentially kill millions. So far, most of the 60 humans deaths involving H5N1 have been linked to victims’ contact with birds.
In 1918, an influenza pandemic believed to have originated in birds killed more than 40 million people around the world. Subsequent pandemics in 1957 and 1968 had lower death rates but caused extreme disruption.
Spy Powers!
Claiming it needs greater latitude for the war on terror, the US Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a request from the Pentagon for the right to “covertly” gather intelligence on US citizens in order to determine whether they can recruit them as informants, without telling them that they are doing so on behalf of the US government. The Pentagon said the measure, which is aimed at the Muslim community in the US, could help them fight insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But civil libertarians and leaders of the Muslim community charge, however, that the Pentagon is using the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to reclaim domestic spying powers that Congress had taken away from it after those powers were abused to spy on Americans during the Vietnam era.
Two other controversial amendments are also being proposed at present by the Pentagon: one that would allow intelligence agencies greater access to databases on US citizens, and one that would grant the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency the right not to disclose “operational files” under the Freedom of Information Act.
Supporters of the bill say it gives Pentagon intelligence officers the same authority that the CIA has to approach Americans abroad. The CIA cannot spy on US citizens, but its agents “routinely approach American business executives and overseas travelers to provide information on foreign targets.” The Pentagon defended its request for the new powers last week, saying that as the Pentagon expands its role in counterterrorism, it needs more flexibility.
“This is not about spying on Americans,” [DIA general counsel George Peirce]
said in an interview in which he defended legislative language approved last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ...”We are not asking for the moon,” Peirce said. “We only want to assess their suitability as a source, person to person” and at the same time “protect the ID and safety of our officers.” The CIA and the FBI already have such authority, he added, and the [Defense Intelligence Agency] needs it “to develop critical leads” because “there is more than enough work for all of us to do.”
“This has a back-alley, dead-of-night feel to it that I don’t think would be received well by the Muslim community,” said Ibrahim Cooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Anti Bacterial
It seems hard to go wrong with a hand soap that “kills 99 percent of germs” it encounters. But critics of anti-bacterial soaps in the home say there’s plenty to be concerned about. A growing number of doctors are contending that a number of the products, particularly those that use synthetic chemicals rather than alcohol or bleach, pose the risk of creating germs that are resistant to antibacterials as well as antibiotics.
Those critics say antibacterials are no more effective than regular soap in reducing infections and illnesses. Unlike anti-bacterial products, regular household soap helps separate bacteria from the skin so they wash down the drain or attach to the hand towel when hands are dried. Anti-bacterial soap kills the bacteria outright.
Manufacturers disagree with many of the critics’ claims; both sides point to studies they say support their point of view. A Food and Drug Administration panel of independent experts will take up these concerns in a public hearing next month.
Last month, the FDA began enforcing the first U.S. ban of a veterinary antibiotic because of concerns it could lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans.
Other issues to be considered by FDA panelists include whether the synthetic chemicals in some soaps pose a hazard in the environment after they wash down the drain and through wastewater systems. They will also look at whether the use of antibacterials in homes may in fact leave those homes too clean for young children, who may need some exposure to the bacterial world to develop a strong immune system.
This controversial theory, called the “Hygiene Hypothesis,” suggests that growing up in a too-clean environment may cause a person to develop asthma and serious allergies later in life.