Getting Together Now...

Regional, State & National Environmental Orgs Start Planning Crossroads Review

By Paul Smart
            The project review for Dean Gitter's Belleayre Resort project, which proposes building two golf courses, two world-class hotels, restaurants and private homes along ridgelines in western Shandaken near the state-owned ski center of the same name, has started gaining speed less than a month after its initiation.
            In a December 2 letter to Alexander Ciesluk, Jr, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation official coordinating the review of the project, New York City Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Director Kurt Rieke formally objected to "DEC's failure to conduct a coordinated review among all involved agencies as to the adequacy of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for this project, by proceeding with the circulation and public review and hearings on the project under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) as indicated by the Notice of Acceptance of Draft Environmental Impact Statement, dated November 26, 2003 (Notice)."

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Moving Ever Onward
The Belleayre Lodging Bureau Undergoes Growing Pains As It Surges Ahead

By Paul Smart
            Back when the Belleayre Lodging & Business Association was first set up in the early 1980s, the idea for the organization was simple. People who asked about accommodations while visiting Belleayre Mountain at the time were at the whim of whoever they asked. Either someone told them they didn‚t know if there were any hotels in area, or they‚d be passed on to a few large, obvious choices - like the Margaretville-based Cass Inn, now gone - with no sense of the breadth of lodging options that have characterized the Route 28 corridor since long before there even was a state highway running through the Central Catskills.
           Nowadays the Lodging Bureau, as most people know the BLBA, hosts over 100 members in three tiers of involvement, maintains a helpful website linked to the ski center‚s own Internet pages, maintains a staffed-desk up at the Ski Center itself, and is following a five year that saw its membership quadruple with a period of what it‚s co-directors can only describe as "growing pains."

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Searching For A Super
Onteora Gears Up For January Interviews In Countdown To Replacement For Rowe

By Violet Snow
Come the new year, Onteora board members will begin interviews of seven candidates for school district superintendent. According to an update at a recent board meeting, there will be two people interviewed on Jan. 8, four on Jan. 10, and one on Jan. 14 at the high school in the district administrative offices. Trustees, who have not released the names of candidates, have also scheduled a preliminary meeting with consultant Richard Lerer at 5 p.m. on Jan. 6 to discuss the applications in advance of interviews.
Following the preliminary round of interviews,  a smaller group of candidates will be chosen to be interviewed by constituent groups in the district.
 Lerer was hired in September at $18,000 to assist with finding a successor to current district Superintendent Hal Rowe, who last year announced he would be leaving the position after ten years on the job.
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Acting Up
Using A Talent For Nurturing

By Violet Snow
        "Theater was my whole life as a child," said Cara Cruickshank, who was born and raised in Shandaken. "I couldn't get enough of it and never felt this area offered enough for me. Luckily STS [Shandaken Theatrical Society] was doing a lot for shows with kids in them. But now there‚s virtually nothing theatrical in Phoenicia for kids. It's my great pleasure to make that happen." In November, her Listen To Me Company debuted with "Behind the Mirror", a play written and performed by 17 kids, aged 5 to 12. On December 21, a group of 28 will put on a Winter Fest of dance, song, crafts, and theater at 6:00 pm at the Methodist church on Church Street in Phoenicia. Continue>>>