The Phoenicia Times - Follow Up on the News

Follow Up on the News

Heading Off To Iraq

            Van Blarcum is something of an old hand at this. A few years back he spent a year helping to train a new police force in Bosnia, working under the auspices of the United Nations. As part of that project, he saw a need for shoes while in the Balkans and spearheaded an effort to get local residents to help out. The result was an outpouring of thousands of pairs of shoes- and eventually, a Van Blarcum run for the county sheriff's position, which he lost.
            Frisenda, meanwhile, was recently granted a one year leave of absence from the Shandaken Police department in case he gets sent to Iraq. Which is in itself a victory on many levels for the young officer, who has progressed as a law enforcement officer despite his handicap of having lost part of a hand to a fireworks accident when a teenager.

Addressing Van Blarcum's leaving the same day he left, March 9, Shandaken supervisor Bob Cross, Jr. complained about how the police officer had left on such short notice, having only alerted him that he might be leaving two weeks earlier. He spoke about how, with freshman town councilman Joe Munster on vacation in Florida through the end of the month, Van Blarcum's decision to go to Iraq was leaving the town in a potential hot spot, should any emergencies arise.
            In January Van Blarcum proposed, and the board passed, a resolution requiring a supermajority of the board - 4 of its 5 members - for consideration of any resolutions that aren't presented on the town's agenda four days prior to its monthly meeting. To date, that has included changes in wording of resolutions, as well as emergency matters.
            Cross said that he would seek to have Van Blarcum's resolution rescinded at the town's April board meeting because he feels it keeps the remaining councilmen from being able to take vacations while Van Blarcum is in Iraq.
            Van Blarcum, meanwhile, said that he is hoping to get to come back for at least three more meetings before the end of the year, during his leaves of absence each month.
            Speaking about the current mission on Monday, which will also see Sheriff's Desputy James DeMille of Port Ewen going to Virginia for tests this week, Van Blarcum said that as far as he knew, the current mission is occurring under the auspices of the U.S. State department.
On January 29, the first class of 466 Iraqi police recruits graduated from an intensive eight week training program to begin policing duties. The training focuses on modern, democratically based policing methods, and includes subjects such as Human Rights, community policing, domestic violence, search and seizure, and firearms training.
            "The training curriculum has been used in rebuilding police forces in other post-conflict areas such as Kosovo, and is taught by international police training experts from a number of countries," said a Department of State press release on the program.
            U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld praised policerecruits while in Baghdad on February 23. Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of Defense Mira Ricardel countered press questions the same day in Washington by noting that the Department of State police training programs should be seen as different from the U.N. program that saw Van Blarcum and others go to the Balkans in the late 1990s.
            "Our objective is not to engage in 'nation building,'" Ricardel said in a press conference that day. "Our mission is to help the people of these countries so that they can build their own nation. That's an important distinction."
            Van Blarcum said that he, Frisenda and DeMille will be part of 1,000 law enforcement officers chosen to go to Iraq. While there, he said his job will be to "interview, vet and train the local police."
            He said that he had talked to Cross and Republican councilman Jane Todd about not being paid while he is gone. He added that should such a request be impossible to handle at such short notice, he would donate his pay back to the town, possibly to its recreation committee.
            "I don't think I'll be missing a whole lot," Van Blarcum said of the coming year. "Hopefully there will be no major decisions before the board while I'm gone."
            He noted that most of the major issues before the town will be going before the town's planning board and zoning board of appeals, not the town council.
            "I applied for this last year but didn't hear anything certain until Monday," he added.
            "This leave a void that makes it hard for the rest of us to do our jobs," said Cross.
            Approximately 130,000 U.S. combat troops are leaving Iraq over the next two months after deployments of up to one year. They will be replaced by some 110,000 fresh soldiers and marines, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Forty percent of those coming in are reservists, according to Centcom. Twenty percent to 25 percent of the homeward-bound soldiers they are replacing are reservists. Many of the arriving army troops underwent a two-week training course run by the Jordanian military to sensitize them to Arab society, the Department of State website has reported. They've also studied strategies used by the Los Angeles Police Department for policing urban, gang-controlled areas.

Best of Intentions?

            In the process of responding to issues raised by the audience, Cross, for the second time in his three board meetings, found it necessary to diverge from his strict new policy of limiting public comment to those who'd signed up to speak in advance. Of those who did sign up and speak, a number expressed frustration with Cross' new rules, which have eliminated the audience's ability to ask questions or have any kind of direct exchange with town board members.
            "I resent this form of a meeting" said Susan Robertson, one of the first to speak. "I feel very offended to be put through this process." Loud applause followed her statement.
            "When you have a public meeting without allowing the public to speak, you're basically shutting us out of the process" said Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Chuck Perez, a supporter of Cross, also to loud applause.
            "We have to have a real discussion here, Bob" said Friends of Catskill Park Chair Judy Wyman.
            "You're out of line," Cross shot back.
            Comments disparaging of the meeting format continued, along with others critical of the resolution many had found troubling. Cross' initial version, circulated four days before the meeting, directed the town's Zoning Revision Committee to recommend excluding casino gambling from "any residential or hamlet commercial zone in the town", and adult entertainment from "any residential zone." If ultimately adopted, the exclusions would have left three types of zoning districts in which casinos could be interpreted as permissible, and four for adult entertainment. A second version of the resolution, distributed just prior to the meeting, had been re-drafted to correct some of the apparent oversights in the original. Asked by Dennis Ladner about the two versions of the resolution circulating, Cross initiated a brief moment of levity in the room by explaining, "The only thing that's changed on that is the way it's written."
            "I'm opposed to casino gambling and I don't think this resolution is going to do the job" said Perez. "I think we should go on record as being opposed to (State Senator John) Bonacic's bill."
            Bonacic, who represents Shandaken, is a leading proponent of gambling in the Catskills, who last month introduced legislation to permit the issuance of gaming licenses or "compacts" to non-Indian casino operators. Bonacic opposes the legislative prohibition of casinos from the state's Catskill Park, and is known for his strong advocacy on behalf of both the Belleayre Mountain Ski Area and Crossroads Ventures proposed Belleayre Resort.
            Perez asked that the town board write a letter to Bonacic expressing its opposition to the expansion of casinos to include non-Indian operators. His remarks were greeted with enthusiastic support from the crowd, but no response from the board.
            Wyman then rose to ask whether she could speak, as the sign-up sheet had been removed when she arrived for the meeting a few minutes after its start.
            "Get here on time," responded town Ethics Committee Member Helen Morelli. Cross asked how many others also wished to speak but weren't signed up. When about 6 raised their hands, he let them have the floor.
            Wyman suggested the town institute a moratorium on casino gambling and adult entertainment while the issues are researched.
            Cross was called on to clarify the existence and composition of the town's Zoning Review Committee, whose existence few in the crowd seemed to know much about. Cross indicated it was an informal group set up last year under planning board auspices, consisting of Beth Waterman, John Beyer, and Bob Kalb from the planning board, Jay Braman and Keith Johnson from the ZBA, and the town's Zoning Enforcement Officer Mike Molloy. Two of the six, Braman and Kalb, no longer hold official positions with the town.
            When the issue was raised by planner Charlie Frasier that the town board start holding workshop meetings to better allow public participation, Cross moved to establish them but didn't receive a second.
            "This is why it doesn't work, Bob," said Perez, rising angrily. "Here we have no chance to comment on how you're changing the very way the town does business." Again, Perez was rounded applauded by the audience.
            Di Modica suggested that Cross consider restructuring the current meeting format, which Cross explained had been instituted because "there was a problem of cross-talk in the room. This format," said Cross, "has given me a chance to hear all of you out there."
            "The fact is that people are being heard tonight because you're not following the format," countered Di Modica.
            In other business, the town board appointed Gerry Setchko and John Horn to the planning board, filling the seats vacated voluntarily by Kalb and involuntarily by McGowan. A third request by the planning board to have Beth Waterman re-appointed its chair was again not acted on by the town board.
            Supervisor Cross reported that the State Office of Real Property Services has agreed to bring the settlement period covered under its threatened lawsuit up to the present, but that the potential settlement figure remains unchanged at $700,000.
            Cross also raised the likeliness that the town will soon have to undergo a full real property re-evaluation, as Woodstock, Olive and other towns are now beginning or considering. According to Cross, should we fail to do so, Shandaken will end up paying a larger share of school taxes than the other towns in the district.
            Regarding progress on implementing the town's nascent cell tower law completed last year, the board did not commit to moving toward implementation. Council member Jane Todd said "I think we have to look at the draft law that was done", suggesting it may now be headed back to a committee as yet unnamed.
            "It's ready for public hearing" said Di Modica.

Right Living...

            The couple has been in the area for what averages out at a decade. They were drawn to the mountains by a wish to simplify their lives and put more focus into projects of their own making. They had had enough of the metro area's corporate world, even though Robison notes how he's been pulled back into it somewhat by a decent-paying job that's got him commuting to Newburgh on a daily basis.
            Both feel that Prima Materia would never have happened anywhere but here. It's their attempt to create something of the region, which could also possibly set up a means for them to eventually be working here full-time.
            The publication got its start after Robison noted that there was a shortage of outlets for short fiction writers. Poets had a scene. Visual artists and non-fiction writers were well-served. So he started posting notices, and placed an ad in the Woodstock Times, seeking submissions.
            "I was very conscientious- too conscientious," he recalls, noting how he tried sending detailed critiques to all those he rejected at first, until he found such efforts time-consuming and often more hurtful than anticipated. "I was learning as I went on."
            Robison printed his first two volumes of Prima Materia, originally intended to come out twice a year - along with two books he's published under he and Klein's BlissPlot Press, with a web-accessible printing press in Tennessee. The new volume, he adds, is his first to be actually printed in Kingston with Tri-State Litho, a choice he feels comfortable with, even if it is slightly more expensive.
            The way things work is that Robison gets his manuscripts in. He reads all, chooses what he wants to publish, edits the pieces, finds an order to put them in, writes an introduction, finds art work- all with Klein helping at all stages. When things are in order he e-mails Microsoft Word and Photoshop documents to his printer.
            "My whole childhood was about reading and drawing," Robison says. His career has involved years of professional writing in the corporate training world; his creative output has included recognition in New York City writing circles.
            Klein adds how enthusiastic she's felt about Robison's seeing the project through, and how rewarding it was to work more closely with him on their Autumn, 2003 book, The Other Face: Experiencing The Mask.
            Both comment on how it was important for them to realize that the joy of setting up their publishing company was not monetary, but creative.
            They talk about the concept of Right Livelihood, and of the pleasures each has found having found a new level of maturity while making the Catskills, and Mt. Tremper, their home.
            They are currently in the process of expanding their family by adopting a daughter from India.
            They are committed to where they live.
            Both see the future of the area being in the unique livelihoods people build for themselves, moving beyond looking at employment as a passive entitlement with no guiding ethics. They want to make their income from things that give back to, and reflect, the community they live in. And most of the people they know think similarly, and have built up their own livelihoods in a similar fashion.
            "You have to look into the soul of what you do and ask if it is destructive in any way," Robison says.

"Our view of this area is that it can thrive on cottage industries, arts and crafts, internet businesses, and heritage and eco-tourism," Klein adds.
By focusing on bringing the region's literary accomplishments to light, just as its arts have gained world attention, what they're believing is more than viable. It's a right likelihood.

Our Man In Port-Au-Prince and Special Photo Gallery Supplement

         "The situation here is getting back to normal on the streets," Heil wrote after the craziness of a weekend that saw rebels entering Port-Au-Prince, the U.S. Marines going in, and Haitian President Aristide either fleeing or, as he is saying, being kidnapped from the country. "Gas stations are opening, the markets also, and police are constantly patrolling the streets. They are enforcing a six o'clock curfew every evening until this Friday, it is said. Sunday morning when word that Aristide had fled, the Chime took to the streets looting, killing, and burning buildings. We were attacked with machetes and shot at that morning. But by the evening the police had pushed the Chime into hiding and taken back control of the capital."
            I e-mailed Heil, asking about what the situation felt like. Was the gore upsetting, the violence?
            "I haven't seen anybody die, except for dead bodies and a man shot but still alive," he wrote back. "I trained as an EMT so I've been exposed to this before and the gore doesn't shock me, but watching other journalists trying to make photographs of dead bodies is strange. It's not bad, but it just feels out of place."

       What was it like living under a curfew?
            "After dark I pretty much stayed indoors because it was very dangerous until the police enforced the curfew on Saturday," Heil replied. "Sometimes it is unusually quiet. At night I hear a lot of gunfire and fire fights, but that is starting to slow down. There are church bells in the morning, the siren to end the curfew and many roosters. The city smells horrible most of the time, with open sewage and not much rain, but sometimes it smells really good with the burning charcoal and just the smell of everyday life.
            What has he been eating?
                        "My diet consists of corn flakes and lowly coffee for breakfast and greasy spaghetti sometime during the rest of the day... with grease and ham that comes from who knows where. I still haven't seen a single cow."
            Were people playing music or singing, I wondered.
            "I have not heard any Haitian music but a lot of gangster American/French rap," James replied. "I think the music is much more influential than realized, setting a gangster mentality that many young people follow.
            "What did people think of you coming in without an assignment?" I wrote Heil.
            "I am submitting my photos to a Stock Agency but there are a lot of people here without assignments paying their own way," he replied.
            So why did he go?
            "One reason I went is because it is a good way to get started in the photography world," Heil replied. "But what I really want to do is to bear witness and using photography in an artistic way draws attention to what is not in the mainstream media."
            Heil noted he was preparing to return to Chichester on a Saturday flight now that American Airlines was allowed to schedule once more.
            And then the electricity died.