Newsbriefs

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(from April 13, 2006)

Shut Off...
An ad hoc committee charged with devising a plan to drastically alter the rate structure for the Phoenicia water system failed to deliver that plan this month as previously hoped, with the committee instead asking the Shandaken town board for assistance in figuring things out.
“We really are at a standstill,” said Chairman Declan Feehan, adding that the committee doesn’t understand the specifics of the district’s finances.
Contributing to the delay, Feehan said, is that the Committee has yet to receive crucial data about the water district.
It remains unclear how the Committee would get the help it needs to understand the finances. Feehan has suggested having the books audited, but there was no solution discussed by the town board at its April 3rd meeting.
Feehan also said the committee has not received requested information on the amount of damaged water meters in the district, making it difficult to determine a solution to that problem.

Flood Time?
Even though local streams are dangerously low for this time of year and water watchers are predicting drought conditions for this summer, the Shandaken town board is keeping its collective eye on possible flood problems, adopting a water release plan for the New York City owned Shandaken tunnel, which still shoots millions of gallons per day into the Esopus Creek... in hopes that the City agrees to it.
Saying that flooding is guaranteed to return eventually, and probably sooner than later, Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. offered a resolution which would require the City to reduce the flows through the tunnel when flooding appears imminent.
On Friday Ian Michaels, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, made no comment on Shandaken’s resolution, but noted that flow through the tunnel right now is only 344 million gallons per day, just above half its full capacity of 600 million gallons per day.
“As the level of the Schoharie Reservoir goes down the capacity to move water through the tunnel decreases as well,” he said.”344 MGD is the maximum that can go through right now because of water levels in the reservoir. If levels rise then that number can too.”

No Show... Again
Masterpage Incorporated was not on the agenda for the April 11th planning board meeting, making the company officially past the timeframe they announced last year for starting construction of a cell tower near Glenbrook Park in Shandaken. Masterpage was courted by Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. during his re-election campaign last year, and Masterpage owner Kevin Kellerhouse helped draft the town’s wireless communication law. Last fall Cross announced that Masterpage hoped to start construction before Christmas of 2005, but that April 2006 was a more realistic goal. Then in January, after already signing a contract giving Masterpage the right to set up shop in town, Cross faulted the company for dragging its feet in the approval process. Masterpage fired back at the Supervisor, saying they were still on track for an April start.
As of Tuesday they had not even submitted a complete application to the planning board.

Cutting Time…
Ulster County budget-cutting began this week within the legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, with a goal of across-the-board five percent drops in spending. Meetings are scheduled for 2 p.m. 17 and 19 in the County Office Building at 244 Fair St. The first occurred on Monday. A special session of the full Legislature is expected to be called before the end of the month to act on the cuts.
County legislators in February began seeking ways to reduce spending in response to a predicted deficit of $1.15 million, although recent forecasts show a slightly smaller deficit, of $1,068,219. County departments have been working under a 2006 county budget of $300.25 million, up $7.12 million from the 2005 budget but resulting in a 39 percent increase in the property tax levy, the highest in the state.
New revenues being looked at by the county include a $4.2 million mortgage tax that buyers will pay, a $1 million mortgage tax that sellers will pay and $900,000 from a vehicle tax that would charge $5 per registration of private vehicle and $10 for each commercial vehicle.
A cigarette tax is also under consideration, along with the renewal of a two percent hotel/motel tax.

Boom Business
Gov. George Pataki came to Kingston in the past weeks to announce a plan to bring a fledgling armored equipment manufacturer, founded by a Stone Ridge resident, to the Kingston Business Park, with the potential to create 570 jobs over five years. Armor Dynamics Inc. simultaneously announced that it expects to secure $100 million in contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security for explosive-resistant equipment over the coming year. The company plans to build a 58,000-square foot manufacturing facility and announce a projected opening date later this spring. The project is being funded in part by a $522,800 grant from the state Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research for the manufacturer to work with a SUNY Geneseo researcher to “begin the commercialization of the ballistic panels that provide new protection for military personnel with about one-third the weight of existing products.” Armor Dynamics, which has six managing partners, will invest $20 million in the project. The company has already developed products being used in the field of combat.
Pataki said the project is part of an ongoing effort to create employment opportunities in Ulster County, where previous initiatives have come up short of expectations.

Traffic Signal
Will Route 28 be getting its first traffic lights between the Woodstock turn-off and Delhi in the near future?
At a recent Onteora School Board meeting, district Business Administrator Victoria McLaren reported that she had spoken with Ulster County transportation investigator Mark Remano regarding a possible traffic light in the front of the Middle/High School after the issue came up several times in the last year.
“He said we need to have a traffic study done, at the cost of five to eight thousand dollars and it would be at the districts expense,” said McLaren. “He did not think we would qualify for a traffic light, but if we did we would be responsible to pay for the installation of the traffic light which would be about 80 to 100 thousand dollars and we would be responsible for future upkeep and maintenance.”
McLaren thanked assemblyman Kevin Cahill for a quick response to the school board’s request regarding the matter.

Jail Overrun…
The cost of Ulster County’s long-delayed Law Enforcement Center has exceeded $100 million, well past its original budget figure of $71.8 million. The final cost is now forecast to reach $103 million because of higher-than-expected claims against the county by several contractors who are working on the facility. Work won’t be finished until sometime this summer, over two years beyond schedule.
Some $16 million in costs will now need to be borrowed, it has been determined, with bonding being worked out/ There are also a growing number of lawsuits, by and against the county, that have evolved from the controversial project, which many have attribuited with the county legislature’s shift from Republican to Democrat hands last November..

Ag Meeting…
The link between healthy forests and sustainable businesses in the region is the key to a working landscape that provides jobs and environmental benefits to local communities. To that end, the Watershed Agricultural Council’s Forestry Program has been working closely with local woodworkers and sawmills to lay the ground work for a Catskill WoodNet. The group plans to launch an interactive website in Summer ’06 – www.catskillwoodnet.org – that will represent the high quality craftsmanship and creativity of the Catskill Region’s forest-based businesses. Moreover, they will be holding a special regional meeting at Belleayre on Wednesday, April 19.
The goal is to encourage and support the local manufacturing of forest products from the Catskill Mountains through improved interaction among the region’s wood businesses. The idea for the WoodNet came from similar organizations in Vermont (www.vtwoodnet.org) and the Adirondacks (www.adirondackwood.com).
Those interested in becoming part of the Catskill WoodNet are invited to attend an informational gathering on April 19 from 6 - 8 p.m. at The Longhouse Lodge at Belleayre Mountain in Highmount, NY. The meeting will introduce the group to the Catskill WoodNet and answer any questions about the future website. The event is also a great opportunity to network with other members of the local wood-using community. If you wish to attend the upcoming meeting, please call Collin Miller at WAC at (607) 865-7790 x112 or e-mail collinmiller@nycwatershed.org.

CWC’s Annual...
The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) will hold its Annual Meeting of member towns Tuesday, April 25 at 6 p.m. at CWC offices, 905 Main Street, Margaretville. Results of the election of representatives from Delaware County to the CWC Board of Directors will be announced. A presentation by CWC staff members on program achievements during 2005 will be given. The floor will then be open for questions and comments from representatives of member towns and villages. Following the Annual Meeting, the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors will be held. The public is “cordially” invited to attend.

Gas Spiking?
The price of gasoline could rise this summer because of supply problems from the phaseout of a fuel additive found to contaminate groundwater, government and industry officials have started saying. The average retail price of gasoline in the United States is $2.50 a gallon - the highest level since October – but a growing number of analysts say $3 is a possibility by summer.
The additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, accounts for about 10 percent of the volume of every gallon of gasoline with which it is blended - or 1.4 percent of the nationwide supply - but refiners plan to stop using it next month because Congress refused to grant them protection from lawsuits. MTBE will be replaced with ethanol, but there are doubts within the Energy Department and the oil industry about whether there will be enough of the corn-derived fuel to meet the anticipated surge in demand, and whether the country’s distribution system is ready to handle it.
Guy Caruso, the head of the Energy Department’s statistical division, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the imminent transition from MTBE to ethanol “could cause temporary supply dislocations and may cause price volatility.” His agency estimates that 130,000 barrels per day of extra ethanol will be needed beginning May 5, an amount equal to almost 50 percent of current output.

Members of the Onteora community have started voicing increasing concern over the ever-more frequent presence of military recruiters in the High School.
“The No Child Left Behind requires the school to allow the military recruiter on an ‘equal basis’ as other college and employer recruiters, such as Onteora’s April 5 College fair, but nothing requires more extensive access to students,” said Woodstocker Jane Van de Bogart at a recent meeting.
Several people recounted an incident where two students got into a political discussion with a recruiter and the recruiter remarked by calling them “retarded liberal hippies.”
The school board has been asked to institute a policy where students would be provided with a safe, nurturing learning environment. In response, the school board requested future discussions before making a possible policy resolution. Board President Dave Patterson said he would like to see the difference between the recruiter’s frequency at the school as compared to the specific policies of the No Child Left Behind Act and reminded people of the “opt out” forms on the schools web site. When parents fill out the form, recruiters will not be allowed access to their child’s school records.
District Superintendent Justine Winters noted that in communications with the district’s lawyer about the military’s increasing frequency of requests to be on campus she was told there is not much a school district can do, because of legislation. The Army trumps home rule.
Trustee Rita Vanacore wanted to know how often colleges enter the school and use it as guidelines for allowing the military access. “Do they come here once a year? I know that there is a time of when that happens.”
Trustee Marino D’Orazio requested that the board adopt a policy.
“My wish is if we can limit the military to come only during the designated fair, so that the fair is for all institutions that want to recruit our students, like once in the fall semester and once in the spring semester and that is it,” he said. “And after that the doors are closed to them.”
Legal opinions about such a stance are currently being sought.

Backing Woes?
After our last issue went to press, and with it our front page story on a new labor suit brought against Emerson Place’s parent company, Spotted Dog LLC, in U.S. District Court, Northern District, Beth Bourassa of Whiteman, Hanna and Osterman phoned to say that she was preparing to “vigorously defend” her clients with a full response to the allegations filed by attorneys on behalf of Carol Martineau-Lopez and Bonnie Benjamin, which she expected to file in early May.
“Sometimes these laws are used as a vehicle for employees to vent their anger over losing their jobs,” she said of the Complaint, which outlined a series of harassment charges against former Emerson CEO Ted Wright and other employees based on sexual, weight and rural origins issues. “Emerson Place is one of the largest employers in the region... They provide a beneficial career path of local residents.”
Asked to comment on the lawsuit after our story appeared, the Emerson’s (and Spotted Dog LLC’s) Managing Partner, Dean Gitter, was adamant in saying he had none… and would not read our story. His Vice President of Public Affairs, Paul Rakov had the following response: “We are strongly defending our company and the former employees named in the suit. We believe the court process will demonstrate the plaintiffs were let go due to performance-only reasons… We take very seriously our responsibility as a community neighbor that creates long-term career paths for local residents. Through employee orientations, in-service training, open-door communication and performance review procedures, we regularly communicate our company’s well-defined standards and practices to all employees and do not tolerate behavior inconsistent with our core values.”
Gitter had previously spoken of Wright as “the most positive man I’ve ever known,” and joked on at least one public occasion of having lured him into his current position because “he bought my story that we’re going to be in Litchfield (Ct., one of America’s wealthiest towns) in another five years.”
As for all the recent hullabaloo about his recent public announcements that he was ready to negotiate the size of his other, Belleayre Resort proposal, and its being among several indicators that critics are saying indicates that Gitter’s financial backing may be crumbling, the man has been talkative… albeit to Kingston Freeman Political Editor Hugh Reynolds, only.
In a story published by Reynolds on April 8, one of the Belleayre Resort’s three primary investors, Kenneth Pasternak, is reported to have said that the money he’s putting up for the project “is not a large portion of our wealth,” and supported Gitter’s stance that the project’s investors are not running out. Pasternak also complained about the rigidity of the Resort proposal’s opponents, saying they were against compromise.
Pasternak was charged by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and privately-managed NASDAQ on numerous matters last year related back to his days running Knight Trading, a company he founded in 1996 and was forced out of five years later when its shares started to tank. The most severe of these deals with Pasternak’s involvement in a long-running fraud that resulted in the company’s paying $79 million in fines to stay in business, a number of as-yet-unsettled class action suits, and growing word on Wall Street, as reported in several key publications this past winter, that the investor may be facing criminal charges and possible jail time before the year is through.
Gitter’s other major partner, Emily H. Fisher of Sheffield, MA, has been increasing her philanthropic giving to various colleges and universities, the Natural History Museum in New York, the Lemur Foundation, and a variety of Democratic Party candidates, often via the influential Emily’s List, over recent years. She has not been seen at a Gitter event in years.
The developer himself, like Pasternak, has prided himself on giving to local and national Republican Party causes in recent years, including a significant involvement in recent Shandaken elections.
“My backers are extremely well heeled and are 100 per cent on board,” he said to Reynolds this past week. “If anything my backers are more intransigent than I am.”

Universality…
Massachusetts legislators have approved a sweeping health care reform package that dramatically expands coverage for the state’s uninsured, a bill that backers hope will become a model for the rest of the nation. According to the plan, the poor will be offered free or heavily subsidized coverage and those who can afford insurance but refuse to get it will face increasing tax penalties. The plan would use a combination of financial incentives and penalties to expand access to health care over the next three years and extend coverage to the state’s estimated 500,000 uninsured. If all goes as planned, poor people will be offered free or heavily subsidized coverage; those who can afford insurance but refuse to get it will face increasing tax penalties until they obtain coverage; and those already insured will see a modest drop in their premiums.
The only other state to come close to the Massachusetts plan is Maine, which passed a law in 2003 to dramatically expand health care. That plan relies largely on voluntary compliance.
The measure does not call for new taxes but would require businesses that do not offer insurance to pay a $295 annual fee per employee. The bill requires all residents to be insured beginning July 1, 2007, either by purchasing insurance directly or obtaining it through their employer.

US Families!
Experts who study families around the globe say America’s middle-class family is the one people in other countries both love and loathe. Anthropologists and sociologists at a conference on family myths say people from other countries hold up the American middle-class family as the modern ideal. They see movies, television programs and advertising that suggest wealth and prosperity - and they want some. But researchers also say these families understand that not everything about modern U.S. families is ideal.
“ There’s a vision of independence and material prosperity, but the downside is that other kinds of social connections are being lost,” said one report. “American families may have money but don’t have time and bonds together. There is a sense that maybe the family is a residential center and people are going off during the day into his or her world. They see family life as emotionally empty.”
Similar views were noted by other researchers, who have spent time in Barbados, Egypt and Mexico. Others are working with colleagues studying families in Argentina and Nepal.
“There’s a very clear criticism of American life, at least in Mexico, as being overly individualistic, as being selfish,” says Jennifer Hirsch, associate professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. “My experience of life in rural Mexico is that it’s a society that takes much more pleasure from human connection.”
But she says there also are aspects of America that Mexicans seek to emulate. “People want to shop like Americans,” she says. “There is a great global envy for American patterns of consumption.”

Retirement?
The majority of American workers think they’ll be able to retire comfortably, but most aren’t saving nearly enough to meet that goal, according to the new Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual retirement confidence survey, which found that about 68 percent of workers are confident about having adequate funds for a comfortable retirement, up slightly from 65 percent in 2005. At the same time, more than half of all workers say they’ve saved less than $25,000 toward retirement, according to the Washington, D.C., based research group. Even among workers 55 and older, more than four in 10 have retirement savings under $25,000.
“`Overconfidence’ is the word that comes to mind,” said Jack VanDerhei, co-author of the study. He said that the poor savings performance was especially troubling because it comes as many of the nation’s employers are eliminating the defined benefit plans - better known as pensions - that have buoyed the retirements of current workers’ parents and grandparents. Many companies also are eliminating retiree health care coverage or asking retirees to contribute more for it.
Not all was doom and gloom in the report, the 16th in a series begun in 1991. More than 70 percent of workers say that they or their spouses have saved something toward retirement - a percentage that’s held fairly level for the past six years, EBRI said. And while many have meager savings, others are doing quite well at accumulating retirement nest eggs, the study found.
While more than half of workers have less than $25,000 set aside, 12 percent have $25,000 to $49,999; 12 percent have $50,000 to $99,999; 11 percent have $100,000 to $249,999; and 12 percent have $250,000 or more. As would be expected, older workers generally have more set aside than younger workers, with 12 percent of those 55 and older reporting account balances of $100,000 to $249,999, and 26 percent with accounts of $250,000 and up.

Danger Season
On Saturday, April 15 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. there will be a timely program on tree defoliation causes and impacts that have been projected for the 2006 growing season. It is anticipated that this year there may be major tree defoliation in the region so it is important to be well informed in order to protect the trees on your property. Sponsored by the Department of Environmental Conservation in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware and Greene Counties, this workshop will cover topics such as Insect Defoliators of Concern including their identification, seasonal life cycle and where they are in the Catskills. The insects to be discussed include the Gypsy Moth, the Forest Tent Caterpillar, the Eastern Tent Caterpillar and the Fall/Spring Canker Worms. A section on Trees Targeted and will outline how defoliation affects trees. Natural Control will provide a discussion of virus and bacteria, over wintering die-back and parasites, and Chemical Control will answer questions such as where do I go for help and who do I contact for small scale (single tree/yard trees), as well as large scale (forest) impacts. Finally, Managing an Effected Tree/Forest will discuss dealing with defoliation (protecting the health of affected trees) as well as dealing with mortality (salvaging the dead wood). This workshop will held at two locations, one at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware in Hamden, NY (607-865-6531) and the other at the Agroforestry Resource Center in Acra, NY, with a possible third location in Oneonta. The cost for this workshop is $5 per person and pre-registration is required. For more information, please contact Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County at 518-622-9820.

Peaking Fat?
Could the obesity epidemic be peaking? According to the government’s most accurate recent check of the nation’s girth, U.S. men and children are increasingly tipping the scales. But the obesity rate among women - who at 33 percent are heavier as a group - held steady.
The study didn’t examine why men and children are getting fatter and women aren’t. But some experts think the leveling off in women could signal a turning point in the nation’s obesity epidemic.
“Women have always been more responsible about health than the general population,” said Dr. William Dietz, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported the new data. “I’d like to think this shows women are leading the way in recognizing obesity as a health threat,” said Dietz, director of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Another piece of research also suggests a turn. The NPD Group, a New York-based market research firm, found the percentage of overweight adults has held steady from 2002 to 2005.
“I would say it has leveled off. The bad news is we haven’t found a way to lose weight,” said Harry Balzer, vice president of NPD, which each year tracks what thousands of people eat and their self-reported height and weight.
The CDC report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings come from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which collects data on a sample of about 5,000 people each year. The researchers clustered years together, presenting calculations for 1999-2000, 2001-2002 and 2003-2004.
The survey is considered the gold standard for obesity data - it’s done through in-person examinations that include actual height and weight measurements. It found the percentage of men who are overweight rose to 71 percent in 2003-2004, from 67 percent in 1999-2000. The obese percentage rose to 31 percent, from 27.5 percent. For women, both the overweight and obese percentages held steady, at about 62 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
For children, the percentage of boys, ages 2 to 19, who were seriously overweight, or obese, rose to more than 18 percent in 2003-2004, from 14 percent four years earlier. For girls, the percentage rose to 16 percent, from about 14 percent.