Planning Vacancy   
Oath Snafu Sets Town Board To Change Planners On Eve Of Project Review

By Paul Smart
            The fight over Dean Gitter's Belleayre Resort landed on a new battleground last week: the Town of Shandaken Planning Board.
            At the town board meeting February 2, what would have been a routine approval of the Planning Board's chairman, who had been chosen by planners at their own recent meeting by a 6-0 vote, with one abstention, was voted down by the town's new Republican majority 3-2.
            In an aside to Democratic councilman Paul Van Blarcum following the vote, supervisor Bob Cross Jr. simply noted that "Someone gave me something I want to look at."
            Later, Waterman, a veteran of the board for the past 5 years and a state Department of Environmental Conservation planning specialist, said she was taken by complete surprise by the vote, noting simply that "all they're saying is that there have been allegations."

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More Review Time!
Town DEIS Meeting Set For Friday 13th As DEC Grants 60 More Days For Comment

By Phoenicia Times Staff
           Despite the early closing of schools due to the snowstorm Tuesday, February 3, about 100 people braved the weather and made it to Onteora High School to attend the third local public hearing on Crossroads Ventures proposed Belleayre Resort.
            That same evening, the Shandaken town board, planning board and zoning board of appeals went on with a joint meeting to hear presentations from consultants for the proposed Belleayre Resort project at the same time, leaving only Crossroads' lead counsel Dan Ruzow of Whiteman, Hanna, Osterman attending the DEC hearing.
            Shandaken town supervisor Bob Cross, Jr. has set a meeting to discuss, and decide, whether the town seeks Full Party status on review of the massive project for 2:30 PM this coming Friday, February 13, at which time a growing number of other town issues, including possibly major changes in the town planning board, will be discussed.
            A continuation of the ongoing DEC public hearings has been set for Onteora High School starting at 4 PM on Thursday, February 19.
            The final day for written comments on the massive Draft Environmental Impact Statement was officially extended 60 days this week to April 23.
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Written comments about the proposed Belleayre Resort should be addressed to Alexander Ciesluk, Jr. NYS DEC, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY 12561-1620 The DEC will be accepting written comments until February 24, 2004.

Email: afcieslu@gw.dec.state.NY.us

NEW!

Special Belleayre Resort Supplement

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The Park's Centennial
Celebrations Shaping Up As The Blue Line's Time Finally Comes Around

By Tree McElhinney
            The Catskill Park turns 100 years old this year. And to mark the occasion, a centennial committee chaired by Olive Town Councilwoman Helen Chase is planning a series of events and activities to "celebrate the people and the landscape within the blue line."
            The committee's theme is "how the social fabric of the variously defined communities within the Catskill Park work together with the landscape," says Chase who is also a board member of the The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development. "Afterall, the wilderness is the particular reason for the creation of the Catskill Park."
Established by the New York State Legislature in 1904, the Catskill Park ranges over 700,000 acres of public and privately-owned lands in Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties. The state-owned land within the "blue line' boundary of the Catskill Park is designated as the Catskill Forest Preserve and, as directed by the New York State Constitution, is to be kept forever as wild forest. Consisting of approximately 287,000 acres and containing the highest mountains in the Catskills, the Forest Preserve today constitutes over 40 percent of the total area of the Catskill Park.

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For Love Of Nature
Sherret & Kenny Chase's Saga...

By Paul Smart
            Sherret and Kenny Chase may be the "it couple" of the season, what with their joint appearance at the recent public hearings on the proposed Belleayre Resort project drawing a standing ovation.
            The two have an ease, comfort and depth of mutual respect for each other that is instant witness to their 60 years of marriage. Caught on an icy evening at their homestead home on Chase Mountain, off Chase Road in Shokan, the couple smiles as each takes a turn speaking about their life together.
            Kenny remembers first meeting Sherret when she was 12 and he 15, accompanying an aunt who happened to be a close friend of his future bride's mother.
            "I noticed her, anyhow," he says of the same moment in time back in Washington during the 1930s.

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