Follow Up on the News
Staunch opponents of Dean Gitter’s proposed Belleayre Resort, along with supervisors and councilpersons from four Ulster County towns, came out to question CWT’s decision to appeal a state Department of Environmental Conservation Administrative Law Judge’s call for the adjudication of local “Community Character” and “Induced Growth” consequences that include the possible spread of phosphorus.
Along the way, they witnessed a break-down in the once-unanimous organization of male elected official’s former sense of consensus, especially after Shandaken supervisor Bob Cross Jr. was questioned by his fellow Coalition board members about a Nov. 10 resolution for CWT’s involvement he proclaimed, and had certified, as unanimous, when in fact a participating board member said she and one other had in fact voted against the measure. Cross also raised eyebrows, among his fellow board members and the general public, when he called one of the members of the public speaking to the board names and later grew defensive about his wife’s working for one of resort developer Dean Gitter’s many companies and not recusing himself from voting on matters involving Gitter’s resort proposal.
According to Coalition attorney Jeff Baker, the decision to appeal two elements of Judge Wissler’s decision to adjudicate 12 key issues involving the Environmental Impact Statement submitted by Crossroads Ventures, the developers of the Belleayre Resort, came from him after reviewing Wissler’s lengthy comments.
“We’re making two very narrow appeals,” Baker explained. The first argues that the state Department of Environmental Conservation, via Wissler, has “abused its own process,” meaning the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), by usurping “home rule” in the case of asking for outside judicial arbitration of a town’s “Community Character.” The other pinpoints the phosphorus issue as being too minor an occurrence to warrant the expense of adjudication.
Public commentary, mostly from Shandaken residents, questioned the CWT’s motives in appealing Wissler’s decision and noted that another leading environmental attorney in the region, Drayton Grant (who works with the planning boards of both Shandaken and Woodstock), had stated that removal of such issues from adjudication could result in “a weakening of the record” that would end up making local review of the Gitter project difficult.
Furthermore, people asked why the CWT, set up to deal with New York City, was now taking on the state DEC and its judges, and if their involvement in this appeal, to include Delaware County and the towns of Shandaken and Middletown, represented a new direction for the organization.
Wilber said that Woodstockers were concerned about the resort’s possible effects on local school taxes via any deals given it by the town or county, or inadequacies in its current plans.
Olive supervisor Berndt Leifeld mentioned traffic problems from the resort that would effect his town.
Marbletown supervisor Vin Martello said he’d thought the Coalition looked into regional issues, and asked how issues of regional impact be looked at, except in the ways demanded by Wissler.
“It’s a question of costs to some towns and benefits to others,” Martello said. “What of these issues that cross town borders,” he added, stressing that “community character” often involved communities that stretched beyond municipal lines.
Meehan, reacting to the rising tenor of the crowd, said there might be a threshold at which home rule was usurped by larger decision-making bodies. He didn’t know.
Several people brought up Shandaken’s current political dividedness, and questioned whether its “stacked” planning board and ZBA couldn’t handle such a project, especially given the fact that Gitter, the lead partner in Crossroads as well as his various Emerson Place businesses, had flat out refused to pay required planning review fees for the town.
Baker noted that there were other appeals processes to cover such faults and called the concentration on the home rule issue, “making a mountain of a molehill.”
Besides, Meehan said, the decision to appeal Wissler’s decision, whose deadlne was November 23, two days after Monday’s meeting, had already been made in September, pending the official submission of town resolutions asking for the same from the towns of Middletown and Shandaken, as well as Delaware County, which county Chamber director (and IDA chair) Jim Thompson said “would definitely happen” the following day, November 22.
Was the board’s decision okayed by the Coalition’s membership towns, Meehan was asked?
“I’ve got be careful with how I answer that because I’ve already been chastised by Woodstock on that,” he replied.
Someone asked if the Coalition was pro-Gitter, citing confusion caused by their counsel during Wissler’s DEC “Issues Conference” during the summer of 2004. Meehan and Baker pointed that all statements made by Kevin Young were meant to represent the stance of Delaware County and not the Coalition or his fellow clients, Shandaken and Middletown.
“Did we misrepresent any of this to our towns,” CWT boardmember Bruce LaMOnda of Olive asked at one point.
“How many times did your member Bob Cross tell about his wife working for Crossroads,” asked a Shandaken resident, referring to her town supervisor and alluding to a possible conflict of interest.
“She doesn’t, she works at Emerson Place,” Cross replied before later referring to the woman as being childish.
“Our town’s divided. What you’re doing keeps people out of the process,” said another Shandake resident.
“The vote on this from our town board was 5 to 0,” Cross said before board member Edna Hoyt corrected him, noting that it had actually been 3-2.
Later, LaMOnda held up the certified town resolution the CWT had asked of Middletown and Shandaken, pointing out that it said the vote had been 5-0 when Cross had later admitted it was really 3 to 2.”
“That’s not my signature. She had that on my desk when I picked it up to come here,” Cross said, reddening.
“We’re moving on what we got,” said Meehan, noting that the decision had been made.
The next day, Shandaken Town Clerk Laurilyn Frasier said she, “would imagine it was a mistake… things get a little messed up, I guess,” and noted that she was working on “resubmitting” the needed paperwork.
Baker, it was observed, told Cross, after he admitted the certification falsehood, “That’s a pretty bad error.”
Noted Jeffrey Graf, the Community Planning Program Manager for the New York City DEP who attends all CWT meetings, later noted how both the Shandaken problem, and the Coalition’s overlooking it, indicated a “sloppiness” that he found “worrisome.”
“It used to be us against the city but now it seems to be us arguing amongst ourselves,” said Meehan, later in the November 21 meeting to all those gathered. “Maybe that’s healthy. I don’t know.”
Whence Now The Water
Mandated for completion by December 2006 as part of federal filtration avoidance regulations, the stream management plan is designed to minimize pollution and sediment in New York City’s drinking water, as well as benefit the upstate towns that rely on the Esopus for their own drinking water and their economic vitality. Since the April flood that exposed clay banks along the creek, turning the water a café-au-lait brown with sediment that has only recently begun to clear, prevention of erosion is a major concern for the DEP, which is bent on avoiding construction of a filtration plant that would cost billions of dollars. For local streamside landowners, however, erosion poses an immediate and urgent problem, as currents continue to eat away at the flood-weakened banks alongside their homes and businesses.
“Science will guide this planning process,” announced Magliaro, who said Craig Fischenich, an internationally prominent expert on stream restoration from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has been hired to conduct a through assessment of the upper Esopus. Fischenich was the designer of the project that diverted the creek at the mouth of the Woodland Valley stream in the summer of 2004, preserving the crumbling bank that threatened to undermine a row of homes at the top.
Fischenich has been walking the creek with DEP project manager W. Dan Davis, examining streamside conditions and punching codes into a handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) device to indicate locations of eroding banks, large deposits of woody debris and stones, lack of streamside vegetation, dumps, clumps of invasive plant species like Japanese knotweed, and riprap, installations of large rocks to prevent bank erosion. The GPS data, once uploaded to the Cornell computer, can be used to create maps that locate these features to within a meter, said Davis.
The stream management plan will be based on engineering recommendations resulting from the assessment and will include input from a Project Advisory Council composed of local homeowners and businesspeople, organizations such as Trout Unlimited and the Catskill Mountain Railroad, and government agencies, including the Town of Shandaken, state and county Departments of Transportation, Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and others. Magliaro invited community members to attend meetings of the council or join one of four working groups focusing on watershed assessment, hazard mitigation, education and outreach, or cultural resources, such as use of the stream for fishing, tubing, and kayaking.
“We’re under pressure to move fast,” said Davis. “In some areas, quick action is needed. But we want to make sure we’re getting the best value for our money.” Because any remediation project affects neighbors both upstream and down, and because different methods may be ineffective for specific situations, careful assessment and planning are required. Davis said the Woodland Valley project cost $810,000 for 1000 feet of streambank. While it kept houses from falling into the creek during the April flood, there was new erosion on the opposite bank as the creek sought to re-establish its equilibrium.
Elizabeth Winograd, proprietor of the Copper Hood Inn and Spa on Route 28 in Allaben, reacted to talk of coordinating groups to carefully plan the projected Riverwalk in Phoenicia. “You’re making long-range plans, but what about the emergency situations we have right now? The creek is two feet away from my underground cable. I’ve lost three feet of riverbank in the last few months. I pay a lot of taxes to this town, but no one is doing anything to help me. I don’t have the money to do what’s needed to fix this problem.”
Magliaro replied, “We don’t have regulatory authority. This is a planning process. We’re here to engage the regulatory authorities and get people to talk to each other and put together a plan to address the needs of the community. We’re going to be as responsive to the short-term needs as we can be.”
Davis added that Winograd was in a particularly sticky situation, located “on the outside of a meander bend, in between the creek and the road. You’re in a dangerous zone, and there’s only so much that can be done about it.” Winograd reported that a federally-funded $30,000 installation of riprap had failed to protect the bank. Her neighbor, Faye Storms of Blue Barn Antiques, said beavers were downing large trees that had been protecting the banks behind her property from erosion, and she wasn’t sure where to turn for help.
Someone called out that the beavers could be trapped by the DEC. “Part of the strategy of this plan,” said Magliaro, “is to give landowners resources so they can find out where to go for help.”
Michelle Spark, one of the homeowners whose proactive efforts resulted in the Woodland Valley reconstruction, said the biggest problem she encountered at the time was the unwillingness of different agencies to communicate with each other. “One group wanted to put up a wall. Another group told us it would be washed away in a matter of years and it should be done differently, but the first group had jurisdiction and wouldn’t talk to them. I hope this process will get the agencies talking to each other.”
A man from New Paltz pointed out that with so many government agencies and groups participating, it would be important to know “who’s going to decide at the end what should be done.”
Former DEC ranger Patricia Rudge agreed, commenting, “This is a beautiful planning process, and it will work. The implementation process is the problem. We need to have a clue as to who we’re going to hand this to. We should be looking at that now, along with the planning.”
Winograd said the town should be in charge, but the gentleman from New Paltz said the town doesn’t have the expertise. “The plan will give guidance to the town for implementing the recommendations,” said Davis.
Community members are offered a number of ways to get involved with the plan development, besides attending council meetings or joining a working group. As part of the assessment, Davis is seeking historical maps and photos of the creek from the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, showing where the old stream channel lies. “We want information on when properties were stabilized with riprap or boulders and how long they lasted, when bridges were put in and washed out, where there were old swimming and fishing holes that are now filled in, what flood damage occurred to people’s property and whether they got funding to fix it. And there may be things on the creek I’m not seeing. Kayakers know more about this river than I ever could.”
There will be volunteer projects for community participation, such as creekside plantings to prevent erosion. A Japanese knotweed removal effort has already been undertaken by Rudge’s 4-H group in Oliverea. Because knotweed crowds out many valuable native species and is not effective at preventing erosion, landowners are encouraged to get rid of it, but eradication requires a long-term, consistent effort. The 4-H kids have been writing letters to homeowners and helping them cut, dig, and burn stands of knotweed along McKinley Hollow. Rudge hopes the effort will spread to the other hollows in the upper Esopus valley.
Classes and lectures are also planned for public information, and a survey will soon be sent to residents’ mailboxes. The Cornell office is now open at the Phoenicia Plaza on Route 28, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Magliaro and community educator Michael Courtney invited community members to stop by with input or questions or to view a GPS map of their property.
Still, Roni and Steve want to marry. A wedding in the Catskills in a friend’s Lake Hill meadow, a party at La Duchesse Anne, music by Woodstock’s Slam Allen Blues Band. Fabulous. What they hadn’t considered was who would marry them. Secular Jews, they picked a Saturday afternoon, which cut out most rabbis, and they didn’t want anything Christian. Come to think of it, did they want a justice of some peace?
There they were with a wedding looming and no one to marry them.
Cut to a message on my voicemail: They just attended a wedding where a friend performed the ceremony. They loved it. Mel, my sister says, Steve and I want you to marry us.
Me – the Queen of Jewish Atheism and an anti-marriage lesbian to boot? My first impulse is No way. But I love these people. Besides I’m incredibly flattered. I suggest performing a ceremony, before or after which they go to a Justice of the Peace for the legalities., but Leslie reminds me of a friend who just went on line and got ordained and married friends of his. Apparently this is kosher
So armed with the $30 packet from the Universal Life Church, I prepare to officiate. I panic as it dawns on me that Roni and Steve have no idea what they want for a ceremony. I better become a serious wedding planner.
I begin reading through my poetry books, selecting one poem for me to read about sorrow and compassion (Naomi Shihab Nye, “Kindness”), another for Roni and Steve to read as part of their vows (Muriel Rukeyser, “Looking at Each Other”). I am prepared for “too heavy,” “too sexual”—but Roni and Steve are thrilled. This is starting to be fun.
The rest falls into place. Cousin Barbara makes matching garlands for Roni and Sophie Rose, her three-year-old granddaughter. She makes a tiny white pillow on which Sophie will carry the wedding rings (Sophie has begun calling herself Princess of the Rings). Leslie and I fashion the chuppah (wedding canopy) out of a beautiful purple scarf. Roni’s son and his wife, Steve’s stepson and his partner will hold the four poles. Roni and Steve will light candles for their dead beloved: Roni’s and my parents; Steve’s late wife; Roni’s adored friends Laura and Ellen, whose families will be present.
The day arrives. Leslie, a lifelong organizer of mass demonstrations has quietly emerged as the stage manager, such that Roni starts replying to all inquiries: “Ask Leslie.” The younger generation takes up their post as chuppah-holders. One hundred and twenty guests, all in place.
It begins. Laura’s son Noah plays a Bach Partita on the cello as we form a modest procession: first me and Leslie; then Steve’s family; then Princess Sophie of the Rings; at last Roni and Steve. I feel suddenly faint. “I’ll be right here,” Leslie tells me and I fall in love with her all over again.
As soon as I start to welcome everyone, faintness vanishes. I situate myself not as an agent of the state, church, or even synagogue, but as a representative of Roni and Steve’s communities, people who love them. Roni is already crying. She and Steve light the candles while Sophie Rose impromptu narrates: “Roni is lighting the candles. Now Steve is lighting the candles. Now they’re done lighting the candles.”
I read the poem linking kindness to love and to solidarity; I honor Roni’s teaching and Steve’s union leadership. Other voices join in celebration: Roni’s son names his mother “a retailer’s daughter who can spot a leather jacket in a window from a car going 40 miles an hour– in the rain.” and goes on to praise her scholarship, her devotion to him. Steve’s stepson tells how Steve first got him reading Marx, and talks of what Steve and Roni meant to him as a 15-year-old whose mother had recently died. “My mother would have been happy to see this,” he sobs along with all 120 guests. There will be time at the party for more speeches and celebration.
Then Roni and Steve read the Rukeyser poem, alternating lines, evoking a long relationship grounded in dailiness and intimacy. They repeat the simple vows they have written. Then the rings. The wineglass for Steve to stomp– a Jewish custom which is now mostly performed on wrapped light bulbs– you can count on them to break– and break it does. The kiss. Then – while I would have liked to say “by the authority vested in me by the internet”– I shout “Mazel Tov!!” and everyone bursts into Si-mon tov u-ma-zl tov u-ma-zl tov v’sim-mon tov clapping and stamping their feet.
Married! At this point my job is done, and those I represent– the community of people who love Roni and Steve– take over, serenade them with songs. Everyone seems to be floating on love.
Except Sophie Rose seems to think she married Roni. Each time Roni and Steve kiss, Sophie jumps up between them so she receives the kisses. When the dancing begins, she insists on her place in the bride’s arms as Roni, along with everyone else, dances up a storm to the blues music which so exemplifies the power, even the joy, of confronting sorrow head-on, thereby making space for love.
The owners of the Emerson Inn, which burned to the ground in April, have been given the go ahead by the town planning board to rebuild across Route 28 from the award winning establishment’s original location.
“Having already received approval from the Ulster County Planning Board and the D.E.P., we knew that this project would have a relatively easy time going through Shandaken’s process,” said Gitter, managing partner for Emerson Management Enterprises, in a prepared statement. “We continue to be impressed by the Shandaken Town Board’s commitment to the restoration of a strong, viable tourist economy, something that has been sorely missing in this area for decades.”
The project was explained by Emerson representative Al Frisenda, a former planning board member, who said the property where the original Inn was located will be landscaped over and would not have any new structures built on it. The Emerson spa, a small structure next to the burned out Inn, would probably be converted to office space, as the spa will be moved along with the Inn.
As for the remains of the Original, multi million-dollar hotel, it will be removed and its foundation will be filled in.
And so ends the life of the 131 year old building that Developer Dean Gitter purchased only a few years ago and renovated to create the prestigious 24-room, 4-star Emerson Inn, completed in 2000 using the shell of the original 1874 building. It was widely recognized as the Catskill region’s premier luxury lodging establishment. In addition to other recent honors, just this past Sunday it was designated by Mobil Travel Guide as one of the state’s 3 leading hotel-spas, along with The Four Seasons and Peninsula hotels in NYC.
The Inn rocketed to world-class status, claiming a prestigious designation as "Most Outstanding Inn in North America" by Conde Nast Johansens, earlier this year. Six years prior, Gitter purchased the long closed structure because it sat dilapidated across the highway from his Catskill Corners retail/lodging complex. Once added to Gitter's array of shops, conference centers, restaurants and lodges at Catskill Corners, the Emerson quickly became the crown jewel of the complex. So much so that Gitter two years ago changed the name of Catskill Corners to Emerson Place.
Now, Frisenda said, the spirit of the Emerson will live on, only right among the offerings of Emerson Place. Plans call for building 24 rooms on the 13-acre site that now holds the retail shops, a conference center, and an office building. The brick faced office building will be removed to make way for the new construction, which will tie all the buildings together. The Spotted Dog, a now closed restaurant, will become the Emerson’s Dining area. The Civil war era building that now houses a conference center will become the Emerson’s Spa. In total, the project represents 18,000 additional square feet of construction, Frisenda said, adding that there is already plenty of parking for guests.
Plans call for utilizing the parking spaces across the highway where the old structure was. Frisenda said they would also use the Emerson’s old septic system. They need to bore under Route 28 to tap into it, but Frisenda said that would only take a few days.
Construction will begin immediately. Plans call for the new Emerson to be opened on July 4th, 2006.
“We will bid a final farewell to the structure that was the Emerson Inn and take with us the spirit that made it the Most Outstanding Inn in North America,” expressed Gitter. “It is time to put the past behind us and forge ahead with an exciting new project that will once again attract visitors from around the world.”
Bids for the demolition of the old structure are now being received.
Future plans for the Emerson Inn razing, and groundbreaking for the new Emerson Place project will soon be announced.