Newsbriefs

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Zero Percent
Just two nights after the votes were counted, Shandaken town board meetings ran pretty much the same as they have been for years. Anger and frustration reigned, with Board members feeling attacked and residents feeling ignored and both sides determined to overcome the other.
Several issues raised tempers and the usual stalemates ensued. A 2006 budget that raises the town property tax rate by 5.8 percent was adopted.
But when a three-month logjam over borrowing money to fix the Pine Hill water system broke, many took notice of who it was that made it happen.
Robert Stanley, a Republican apparently just elected as councilman and a Pine Hill resident, successfully intervened in the dispute from his seat in the audience. Once Stanley gave his input, what he said to end the 15-minute shouting match between others wasn’t very different from what Pine Hill residents had been arguing to no avail. But what appears to be different was that it was coming from him and not from the usual sources that tend to rile Supervisor Robert Cross Jr.
The Board wanted to limit borrowing to $900,000 for repairs to the system and take advantage of a program allowing the borrowing at no interest. That’s not enough to finish the job, and residents have pleaded with the board to borrow more. Estimates show up to $1.6 million is needed, but most agreed that borrowing $1.2 million would go a long way.
The Board refused to budge on the amount until Stanley noted that borrowing the $1.2 million would only cost the average ratepayer a few extra dollars a year.
As a result Cross finally moved from his well dug in position and gave Pine Hill what it wanted. The borrowing will cost the average homeowner $84 annually over 30 years.
“Alright. The resolutions gonna read $1.2 million,” Cross said quickly.
The subsequent budget that was passed is the same as the preliminary plan introduced by the board last month.

Open Tunnel...
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has notified local town governments that it plans to leave the Shandaken tunnel portal open for much of the fall and winter, releasing water from the Schoharie Reservoir into the Esopus Creek, while the agency prepares to make repairs on the Gilboa Dam. The DEP says the dam is not in danger of failure, but towns along the Schoharie River, downstream from the dam, are making evacuation plans in the event of a worst-case scenario—inundation of the river valley. Meanwhile, communities along the Esopus, including Shandaken, Olive, Ulster, and Hurley, are preparing for higher water than usual, in the year following a major spring flood.
The Gilboa Dam, which impounds up to 19.5 billion gallons of water in the Schoharie Reservoir, was scheduled for major rehabilitation beginning in 2010, but structural problems were revealed during a recent routine survey by the DEP. With the reservoir currently at 100.6 percent capacity, an effort is being made to prevent excess pressure on the dam by draining water through the Shandaken tunnel that conveys water underground to connect the Schoharie Reservoir, via the Esopus Creek, to the Ashokan Reservoir. Repairs are planned for late spring, when water levels will be low enough to allow workers access to the section of the dam that needs repair.
At the Monday, November 21, meeting of the Coalition of Watershed Towns (CWT), the organization’s President, Pat Meehan, said the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has assured him that everyone was working very closely together on this issue “to prevent any sort of catastrophic failure” and the state was “encouraged by the anxious approach of the city.” He praised the DEP’s fast reaction and said he knew of “no accusations of things being held back” from any parties.
The Emergency Management Group of Ulster County Lawmakers has called a meeting for government officials on November 29 in Kingston, where the DEP will explain the measures it is taking with regard to the reservoir and water releases from the portal. Art Snyder of the Emergency Management Group said, “Any time one reservoir is worked on, it has an impact on the entire system. The DEP will explain what will take place and what can be expected. This is an emotional issue for anyone, especially if they’ve been flooded before, and we want the officials who’ll have to make the plans to hear the information firsthand without that highly charged atmosphere. Later we’ll have public meetings where anyone can come, listen, and ask questions.”

County Changes!
Ulster County’s Democrats, who will take over the county legislature for the first time in years come January, recently elected six-term legislator and current Minority Leader David Donaldson as the body’s 11th Legislature chairman. They also voted unanimously for Jeanette Provenzano, D-Kingston, as majority leader for next year, and Robert Parete, D-Boiceville, as the majority whip, second in command of the caucus proceedings. A vote of the full Legislature is still required for Donaldson to take control of the chairmanship. The vote is generally a formality, particularly when the majority holds a strong margin over the minority, like the incoming 21-12 body.
Donaldson, D-Kingston, faced a four-way runoff for the chairmanship with Peter Kraft, D-Glenford; Alan Lomita, D-Rosendale; and Joseph Stoeckeler, D-Ellenville. Two secret ballots were taken in the public meeting. The first ruled out the two candidates who received the least votes - Lomita and Stoeckeler - leaving Donaldson and Kraft in a head-to-head revote in which Donaldson prevailed. Donaldson won 13-8.

At Onteora...
After inspecting Onteora district buildings and grounds with school administrators, KSQ principal architects, Armand Quadrini and Scott Hillje reported their findings to the school board on November 15 pointing out many areas in need of repair or overhaul. Once these studies are complete, Onteora taxpayers will be presented with a bond issue asking for infrastructure upgrades, but are currently being asked for input. Most of the problems had to do with age. They included parking lot asphalt problems, drainage problems, aging playground equipment and fencing around perimeters of the buildings. Most toilet facilities are not accessible for the disabled, a federal code mandated under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Interior and exterior areas of buildings are in need of repair, while single pane windows at most of the schools are still in their original condition, bringing up issues with energy efficiency. Floor tiles in some of the schools carry asbestos, but have been well maintained where they do not pose a threat. The electrical system throughout all the buildings is in its original state and is in need of upgrading to keep with current technology.
Quadrini presented a report on demographics and projected enrollment throughout the district. Presently, Onteora district has a total of 2046 students. Woodstock elementary (including West Hurley Community) has 39 percent of elementary grade students, while Bennet carries 37 percent and Phoenicia 24 percent. By the year 2011 the projected enrollment will be down by approximately 25 percent to 1539 students.
Meanwhile, the future of the Future of the District Committee is in question since the school board could not agree with the definition of its current role. In 2004, the school board asked Winters to create a committee to look into the facilities and make recommendations based on future projections and study the closure of West Hurley Elementary School. The committee came up with four recommendations including the current feasibility study by architects and based on enrollment projections, decided to keep West Hurley School closed. The committee was asked by the current board to continue their work, but they are now questioning the committee’s responsibilities. Board President Dave Patterson said he would like to see the Future of the District committee play a role in getting information about a bond to improve the school’s infrastructure to the communities. The school board tabled making any decisions and will discuss the future of the district committee at the next school board meeting.
Coming meetings on the facilities report will take place at Phoenicia Elementary on Monday, November 28 at 6:00 p.m. and Woodstock Elementary on Thursday, December 1 at 6:00 p.m.

Kingston Hospital
Kingston Hospital hired Michael Kaminski, the beleaguered institution’s former interim CEO and president of Kingston Hospital, to fill those positions on a permanent basis as of November 1. Yet at the same time, it has been recently announced that Health Quest, the parent corporation of Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Northern Dutchess Hospital and Putnam Medical Center, recently terminated all merger discussions with the health facility because, sources say, Kingston had not been able to shore up its fiscal problems satisfactorily.
Starting in 2007 the Hospital will start facing a $3 million annual reduction in revenues due to its being reclassified by the federal government into a new funding aid category on a par with Westchester County band other “metro area” facilities. Kaminski and peers at Benedictine Hospitals have enlisted the aid of New York Senator Charles Schumer to convince Congress to allow them to participate in a demonstration project that would enable them to maintain their reimbursements at previous levels.
After seeing its deficit rise to nearly $11 million in 2002, Kingston Hospital relieved former CEO Anthony Marmo, who had been at the helm of the hospital and its various affiliations for ten years, of his duties and hired the Boston-based Speltz and Weiss management firm to oversee hospital operations. Speltz and Weiss then brought Kaminski to Kingston Hospital as interim CEO. Kingston ended its contractual arrangement with Speltz and Weiss as of Aug. 1.
The hospital is part of Kingston Regional Health Care Services (KRHCS), which includes Margaretville Hospital and the 82-bed Mountainside Nursing Home on the Margaretville Hospital campus, in addition to operating Ellenville Hospital under a management contract.

$100 Laptops
Plans to develop a $100 laptop computer for distribution to millions of schoolchildren in developing countries have caught the interest of governments and the attention of computer-industry heavyweights. First announced in January by Nicholas Negroponte, the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, the initiative appears to be gaining steam. Neighboring Massachusetts has proposed spending $54 million to buy one of the laptops for every student in middle school and high school in the state and a half dozen nations are looking to make similar moves, including laptops with hand cranks, for students in developing countries. Current plans call for producing five to ten million units beginning in late 2006 or early 2007, with tens of millions more a year later. The big question, to be decided by ongoing talks, is what operating system – Apple’s OS X or Microsoft Windows – would be included in the machines. To get the price down, an eight-inch diagonal screen — smaller than standard notebook computers — will run in two modes, with a high-resolution monochrome mode for word processing and a lower-resolution color mode for Internet surfing. It will be powered by both a power adapter, if electricity is available, or through a wind-up mechanism. The device will have wireless capabilities and can network with other units even without Internet access. Software will include a word processor, a Web browser, an email program and a programming system.

911 Take Back
Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers. State officials had sought for months to hold onto the funding, originally meant to cover increased worker compensation costs stemming from the 2001 terror attacks. But a massive labor and health spending bill moving fitfully through House-Senate negotiations would take back that funding, lawmakers said.
The tug-of-war over the $125 million began earlier this year when the White House proposed taking the money back because the state had not yet spent it. New York protested, saying the money was part of the $20 billion pledged by President Bush to help rebuild after the Sept. 11 attacks. Health advocates said the money is needed to treat current and future illnesses among ground zero workers.
The Senate voted last month to let New York keep the $125 million, but the House made no such move. House and Senate budget negotiators then decided to take the money back, lawmakers and aides said.
Top New York fire officials recently lobbied Congress to keep the funding. Fire and police officials say they worry that many people will develop long-term lung and mental health problems from their time working on the burning pile of toxic debris at ground zero and they want to use the money to help them.

Not Foreign!
Up to 3,000 foreign insurgents may be fighting in Iraq, but they remain a small part of the overall rebellion, a US military analyst has suggested. Algerians, Syrians and Yemenis are most numerous among foreign insurgents, an ex-White House aide has written in a controversial new report. Anthony Cordesman, a veteran analyst, used Saudi and other regional security studies to collate data on insurgents. The figure is three times as large as unofficial Pentagon estimates, but may total no more than 10% of insurgents. The Iraqi insurgency remains largely home-grown, Cordesman added, with 90% or more hailing from Iraq.

No Ed Funds!
Federal aid for education would be frozen under a bill emerging from House-Senate negotiations. Aid for special education would increase by less than 1 percent while programs funded under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind program would be cut by more than 3 percent. Saying they were doing it to avoid cutting more deeply into education, medical training and Pell Grants, lawmakers have decided to give up about $1 billion worth of home state projects from a sweeping bill funding education, labor and health and human services programs.
Lawmakers are trying to wrap up work on the 11 spending bills, comprising approximately one-third of the federal budget, that Congress passes each year. After years of consistent increases, the overall budget for domestic agencies - with the exception of the Homeland Security Department - is essentially frozen or even slightly below last year’s levels.
Also being frozen are funding levels for the National Institutes of Health, despite the probability of a scary new flu pandemic in the coming year.
All told, programs funded by the education and health bill faced a $1.4 billion cut over last year’s levels once extra costs to implement the new Medicare prescription drug benefit are factored in.

Cheaper Oil?
Venezuela will soon begin selling heating oil at discount prices to poor communities in Boston and New York, following up on a promise by President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's state oil company announced. Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company that runs roughly 16,000 gas stations in the United States, will offer fuel at discounted rates in Boston as early as next week. Heating oil will be sold later in the Bronx, a New York City borough. A statement on Citgo’s website The statement said the distribution of the discounted heating oil will be organized with the help of local nonprofit organizations. Chavez often blames the plight of the poor on unbridled capitalism and strongly criticizes the Bush administration for failing to reduce poverty in the United States. Chavez offered cheap heating oil for poor U.S. communities in August following a meeting in Caracas with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.Venezuela, which has the largest oil and natural gas reserves outside the Middle East, is the world's fifth most important oil exporter and a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Straub’s Day?
Chester Straub, President of the Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC), has been named Vice Chairman and Director of Corporation of the new not-for-profit Hudson Valley Center for Innovation, Inc. (HVCFI) incubator in Kingston. The business and technology incubator was formulated by UCDC and the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC) in Fishkill.
Mr. Straub is also administrator of the “Development 21 Initiative” and manages all programmatic matters of the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency (UCIDA). During his tenure with UCDC and UCIDA, these agencies have assisted over 140 projects in manufacturing, retail, residential housing, health care, tourism, not-for-profits, and various service related businesses resulting in $295 million in capital investment, retention of over 2,300 jobs, and the potential creation of over 4,000 jobs.
Straub has also used his agencies to work on behalf of Dean Gitter’s controversial Belleayre Resort proposal and is reportedly in line to possibly lose his position come January when the county legislature changes from Republican to Democratic hands. A recent committee suggested reining in the UCDC and similar efforts more closely to official county stances and agencies.

Internet Controls
Despite a late-night agreement averting a global showdown over continued U.S. control of the Internet’s addressing system, many delegates to a recent U.N. technology summit in Tunisia did not believe the Americans emerged victorious. And representatives of a number of countries remained adamant that U.S. control must be tempered if the Internet is to fully reach its potential, with even traditional allies of Washington considering the summit as having opened the door to the possibility of more shared governance.
More than 10,000 government, business and other delegates attended the three-day U.N. World Summit on the Information Society. Many questioned the fact that a quasi-independent group, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, manages the worldwide network’s main addressing computers on the U.S. government’s behalf. Many worried, at the summit’s end, whether complaints left unchecked could prompt dissatisfied countries to create their own addressing system, splintering the Internet such that two people typing in the same Web address may reach different sites, depending on where they live.
Although Pakistan and other countries sought a takeover of the system by an international body such as the United Nations, negotiators ultimately agreed, as time ran out, to a create an open-ended international forum for raising important Internet issues. The forum, however, would have no binding authority.
Delegates and officials involved in the talks said the new forum would give nations a stronger say in how the Internet works, including perhaps spurring the availability of domain suffixes in Chinese, Urdu and other languages.
The new group, the Internet Governance Forum, could also address any issue, such as spam or cybercrime, not currently covered by ICANN. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who would open the forum’s first meeting perhaps early next year in Athens, denied the United Nations wanted to assume ICANN’s day-to-day duties.
“Let me be absolutely clear: the United Nations does not want to take over, police or otherwise control the Internet,” he said. “Day-to-day running of the Internet must be left to technical institutions, not least to shield it from the heat of day-to-day politics
Meanwhile, Congress has passed a resolution that called for the United States to make plain its intention to permanently control the Internet’s day-to-day operations. Countries including China, Brazil, and Russia lobbied intensively at the first summit in Geneva two years ago for changes to the current system. The E.U., which had initially supported the status quo position of the U.S., made a surprise turnabout in September when it agreed for the need for more governmental participation.

Shifting Burdens
Rising sales and auto taxes increased the tax burden at the state and local levels for many U.S. households last year, a survey of 51 major municipalities shows. The finding, by Washington, D.C.’s chief financial officer, comes as separate research shows that tax burdens also are rising at the federal level because of growing employment, capital gains and income increases for some.
The report from the District of Columbia’s financial chief, Natwar Gandhi, found that a family of four with an annual income of $75,000 paid about $6,884 in local and state taxes on average last year, or 9.2% of their income. In 2003, that family paid average taxes of $6,832, or 9.1% of their income. At $150,000, the average tax burden for a hypothetical family of four rose to 9.3% in 2004 from 9.2% in 2003. The average tax burden for families at $25,000 declined.
The report’s findings reflect national tax trends. The federal tax burden as a percentage of personal income began declining when President Bush pushed through three rounds of tax cuts during his first term. But tax payments to the government began to rise again in late 2003 and have continued to do so this year, according to Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, N.C.
Today, Americans are paying roughly 11.8% of their personal income in federal taxes, compared with 9.6% in late 2003, Wachovia reports.
The trends pushing up local tax burdens differ from what is raising the federal burden. Recent reports have indicated that state tax revenue is swelling, owing in part to more Americans finding jobs and paying taxes.

Open Spaces!
The state has released its 2005 draft State Open Space Conservation Plan, updated every three years since 1992, outlining priority project areas that are eligible for State acquisition funding from the Environmental Protection Fund and other state, federal and local sources and making policy and program recommendations to guide the State’s Open space protection program for the future.
Among the new priorities are a push to enable the State to acquire lands adjacent to, or inholdings within, existing State Forests, Unique Areas and Wildlife Management Areas; the enhancing of local governments’ abilities to carry out local open space conservation programs; and the expansion of the existing Catskill Mountain Forest Legacy area to include the Shawangunk Ridge.

Morning After
Top federal health officials rejected easier access to the morning-after pill before reviewing all the scientific evidence, according to a new Congressional audit that has renewed charges that politics trumped science. It reports that the Food and Drug Administration’s May 2004 decision on emergency contraception deviated from 10 years of agency practice in evaluating over-the-counter sales of prescription drugs - and was unusual in several respects.
Critics in Congress declared their suspicions confirmed and urged the FDA’s boss to intervene to assure that a still pending reconsideration of the pill’s fate isn’t based on ideology. Also, the lawmakers asked the governmentg to probe whether the FDA illegally destroyed documents from the office of then-Commissioner Mark McClellan, now the government’s Medicare chief, that might have shed more light on the controversial decision.
In a statement, the FDA stood by its rejection and said the independent Government Accountability Office “mischaracterizes facts.”
The new report is the latest blow to the credibility of an agency that by law is supposed to base decisions on science, not politics or industry pressure. Top-ranking FDA officials have acknowledged they overruled their own scientists’ decision that nonprescription sales of emergency birth control would be safe - and the agency’s women’s health chief resigned in protest.
Minutes of a Jan. 15, 2004, meeting show Dr. Steven Galson, then acting drug chief, told reviewers that rejection was “recommended,” the GAO reported. Other FDA officials told investigators that they, too, were informed a decision had already been made.

Church/State
An Internal Revenue Service attempt to take away tax exempt status from an Episcopal Church that they said urged congregation members, in a pre 2004 election sermon, to vote against President Bush for his stance on First Strike wars. The IRS wouldn’t talk specifics of the case, but says federal tax law draws a clear line between church and politics.
The case, however, has opened a can of worms given the Bush campaign’s use of churches across the Bible Belt to push its own vote, and has drawn outraged reactions, and vows of support for the Episcopals, from church leaders of various denominations and faiths.
“If the government starts supervising religious speech and supervising the press and supervising political speech, where are we? Well, welcome to the Soviet Union,” says pastor Ted Haggard, head of the conservative National Association of Evangelicals.

Broken Laws
The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting broke federal law by interfering with PBS programming and appearing to use political tests in recruiting the corporation’s new president, internal investigators have said. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, a Republican, also sought to withhold funding from PBS unless the taxpayer-supported network brought in more conservative voices to balance its programming, said the report by the agency’s inspector general.
Tomlinson was chairman of the corporation until September and resigned as a board member earlier this month. The corporation - which funnels hundreds of millions of federal dollars to National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and noncommercial radio and television stations - was created by Congress in the late 1960s to shield public broadcasting from political influence.
Specifically, the report said Tomlinson violated the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and ethical standards by dealing directly with one of the creators of the conservative-leaning “Journal Editorial Report,” hosted by the editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. In internal e-mails, Tomlinson told CPB staff to threaten to withhold funds from PBS “if they didn’t balance their programming,” the report said.
There was also evidence, the report said, to suggest that “political tests” or qualifications were used as a major factor in the hiring of new CPB President Patricia S. Harrison, in violation of federal rules. Harrison, who was backed by Tomlinson, is a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
There are no criminal penalties associated with the laws the report said Tomlinson broke, the IG’s office said. The board could have incurred disciplinary action if Tomlinson were still a board member.

Hearty Hips
Well-toned hips and a trim waist - not just the pounds you carry - appear to be one of the best protections against heart attacks, according to a study of thousands of people in different countries. Researchers report that a hip-to-waist ratio is a better predictor of the risk of heart attack for a variety of ethnic groups than body-mass index, the current standard.
Based on weight and height, the body-mass index takes no notice of where fat is or how muscular a person is... An athlete and a couch potato could have similar BMI scores.
In the new study, the risk of heart attack rose progressively as the ratio of waist size increased in proportion to hip circumference. The 20 percent of the survey who had the highest ratio were 2.5 times more at risk than the 20 percent with the lowest ratio, the study found. That finding, researchers said, suggested a two-part strategy: trimming the abdomen, and possibly increasing hip size by increasing muscle mass or redistributing fat.
Overall, waist measurements recorded by the researchers were about 90 percent of the hip measurements. People in China scored best at 88 percent, followed by 89 percent in southeast Asia, 90 percent in North America, 92 percent in Africa, 93 percent in the Middle East and 94 percent in South America. A 30-inch waist and 36-inch hips, for instance, works out to a favorable 83 percent.
The study said the protective mechanism still isn’t clear. The authors speculated that hormones may influence waist and hip size, or that there may be important differences in the fat composition in the two areas. Larger hips might also be a marker of overall muscle mass, the study added. If dieting leads to a loss of skeletal muscle mass, that may counteract some of the benefits of simply losing weight, the authors said.

White Fire…
Iraq has launched an investigation into allegations — denied by the Pentagon — that U.S. soldiers aimed artillery rounds of flammable white phosphorus at civilians. Doctors and teams from Iraq’s Health Ministry have been dispatched to Falluja to look at hospital results while U.S. military officials said that although its troops used white phosphorus during an offensive to rid Falluja of insurgents last November, the dangerous material was used only as a “smoke screen” and means of flushing out insurgents in trenches and “spider holes.”
Pentagon officials said white phosphorus is a conventional weapon and is used for several purposes — from creating smoke screens to marking targets — and that it can be used against enemy combatants. A protocol to an accord on conventional weapons that came into force in 1983 forbids the use of incendiary weapons against civilians, the U.N. has said. The protocol also bans their use against military targets near concentrations of civilians, except when they are clearly separated from civilians and “all feasible precautions” are taken to avoid civilian casualties.
The U.S. has countered that while it signed the overall accord, it did not ratify the incendiary-weapons protocol or another involving blinding laser weapons.