Follow Up on the News
Along the way Tuesday night, June 6, the EPA heard a couple of major points. Primarily, those who spoke support the continuation of allowing the City to avoid the costly filtration of its drinking water. That said, EPA was also informed that although many of the programs designed to avoid filtration have been going well since instituted almost a decade ago, they needed to be adjusted.
A surprise came early on at the session when Shandaken Supervisor Robert Cross Jr urged EPA to require the city to pay for all of the annual costs for the proposed Phoenicia sewer system plus pay for all the costs to hook houses and businesses up to the system.
Charles Frasier, the Chairman of the Phoenicia wastewater Committee, liked what he heard.
“Wow. Bob’s really done a 180 on this,” he said.
Previously, Cross has been reluctant to support such demands and last month did not ask the regions most powerful advocacy group, the Coalition of Watershed Towns, to support the demands either.
Between then and now however, the Coalition clearly decided to take a position. Coalition Attorney Jeff Baker came out solidly behind Cross, urging EPA to require that the City reduce annual operating costs for waste treatment plants not just in Phoenicia but watershed wide. He explained that the water quality benefits of making sure such projects are successful would be well worth the expense.
“It’s a very cheap system compared to filtration,” he added.
Baker, who said the Coalition’s position on this and other matters would be expanded in coming weeks, said the Coalitions primary concern has to do with the City’s land acquisition ability in the watershed, and it’s reluctance to open those lands up to recreational use.
“We literally have been talking about this to the city for seven years…the city’s response has been glacial at best,” Baker said.
These land issues dominated much of the session, with Delaware County representatives echoing Bakers concerns. Delaware County Bureau of Watershed Affairs Director Dean Frasier called for an arbitration process to be built in to the filtration avoidance determination.
Joan Lawrence Bauer, the Executive Director of the M-ARK Project, raised some eyebrows with a map showing how little developable land is left in the town of Middletown after one removes all the property the city has a right to purchase.
Senator John Bonacic arrived late and spoke at length about the need for “significant changes in the substance of the agreement and how (the city) does its business.”
Margaretville resident Dave Budin felt that the city was shutting down some of the finest hunting property in the region with purchases, an act that he described as “political filtration.”
On another note, Fleishmanns resident Gloria Zola-Malloy took issue with the process Tuesday, saying that EPA officials gave too much respect to local elected officials and/or watershed officials and not enough respect to rank and file residents.
No Olive officials came out for the meeting despite having had a number of issues with New York City in recent years, from assessment disputes and the Large Parcel debacle to road closures and other “security measures.”
The Olive Town Board was holding its monthly meeting the same eveing. Coincidence on the City or EPA’s part?
Zola-Malloy said she felt there were many watershed residents like herself that disagree with the doom and gloom notions put forth at the session by the likes of Lawrence Bauer and Dean Frasier. She also used the proposed Golf resort as an example of the type of development she hopes the watershed deal would protect the area from.
“Although the developers and their associates support the idea, many locals do not want to see the eventual destruction of the Catskill region from a mega resort that will overpower the area,” she said.
Helping Out Volunteers
Based on the September 2005 Current Population Survey, the Bureau of Labor estimates that 65.4 million people, or 28.8 percent of the population, did volunteer work last year. But economic conditions have made volunteering difficult for many people, with communities like Woodstock resorting to hiring a professional paramedic because they can’t get enough volunteers for the rescue squad. The president of SUNY-Ulster has calculated that if the volunteer firefighters in Dutchess County had to be replaced with professional crews, the cost to taxpayers would be $26 million.
The bill before Congress proposes that volunteers receive tax refunds equal to minimum wage—$5.15 per hour—for their time spent at volunteer work, up to a limit of $2000 per year. Besides saving the cost of hiring professionals, the refunds would most likely be channeled back into the community. And given recent tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, it’s only fair, said Martin. SAVE’s website, www.saveusa.info, lists an array of recent tax cuts for the oil industry, despite the continuously rising price of fuel, as well as millions in savings for groups from NASCAR to Starbuck’s to pharmaceutical corporations.
Martin stated, “The New York Times reports a tax cut passed this week in the Senate that rescinds the estate tax, which will return billions to the richest one percent of people in America. Dave Letterman calls it the ‘No Millionaire Left Behind Program’. These savings will probably be reinvested in things like hedge funds, of no benefit to our communities. Trickle-down doesn’t work.”
Cruickshank added, “Our bill would put more money in the hands of people who’ll spend it in the community or will know where best to put it. Volunteers know where the money is most needed.”
The SAVE website, in the process of being updated, offers a screen where volunteers can sign in to indicate their support for the bill, creating evidence for Congresspeople that the bill is widely desired. Cruickshank explained, “We’ve made up a media list of all the districts of representatives on the Ways and Means Committee and lists of the non-profits in their districts. We’re going to contact the representatives and tell them, ‘We’re soon launching a huge media campaign in your district and would like to have your support for the bill, or else let people know that you’re opposed.’ We’ll see how they respond.”
Marie Shultis, wife of Hurley supervisor Mike Shultis and advertising director for this publication, is also involved with SAVE and sees the effort as potentially empowering for communities. She commented, “If people go to the website and vote for support of the bill, they’ll see we can make a difference if we all come together.”
Cruickshank grew up in Shandaken and has lived most of her life here, except when she went away to college and, she said, “couldn’t wait to get back here.” Her grandfather was a journalist whose radio program was the Voice of America in Brazil. “From the time I started to write, he encouraged me to be a journalist,” she said. “Through college, I developed a political bent, studied both local and international issues, and minored in economics. I was a business journalist in Colorado, and later I was an intern in Albany covering the state legislature, the budget, and the Commission on Aging, which made me aware of issues faced on the local level. Once I had kids, I volunteered in the PTA and the soccer league—I felt that giving back to the community is important.”
Shultis, a mother of five, is also active in volunteer work and knows how important it is. “She helps everybody,” said Martin. “She’s out to save the world on a local level.”
Martin grew up in New York City but spent summers with his family in Big Indian. As an international businessman, he has created half a dozen companies, including the ones that produce Smartfood popcorn and Annie’s macaroni and cheese. His businesses tithe 40 percent of their income to fund programs that support health, education, women, and the environment, from medical clinics in Jakarta to the Good Deeds Foundation in the U.S.
He credits Cruickshank and Shultis for inspiring the creation of SAVE and for the decision to locate its headquarters in Phoenicia. “I learned through Calandra and Marie that there are so many talented, intelligent, generous people in this area, with a strong sense of community. Otherwise I would’ve set up in Northern California, like every other foundation.” (SAVE does have a San Francisco office as well.)
Martin hopes the success of SAVE will pave the way for making the Phoenicia area a mecca for non-profit foundations as a boost to the local economy. “I’m in touch with SUNY-Ulster, the Ulster Savings Bank, and Hinchey,” he said. “With all the graphic artists and management people here, we have the skillsets for foundations, just like in New York City, but more relaxed and informal.”
Cruickshank summed up SAVE’s mission by stating, “What makes a community like ours work is people helping each other. None of us do it for the money, but if you could get a $2000 tax credit, it would really help.” Visit the SAVE website at www.saveusa.info
School board president Dave Patterson said that Ferrara’s resignation was for personal reasons. But Patterson noted that he heard allegations against Ferrara, “sometime in the first week after he was hired.” He said a concerned member of the community brought to his attention a report by the United States Department of Education regarding the Ellenville School District during Ferrara’s employment there.
“There was a report that was administered by the office of civil rights,” he said, lamenting that the board was not made aware of this, or some racial epithets the former super had used in Ellenville over the years, when they hired him at Onteora. “I think it would have been appropriate that we would have been aware of anything that would preclude us from hiring anybody.”
Patterson has repeatedly pointed out that candidates interviewed by the school board for the interim superintendent position were recommended by BOCES.
A complaint was filed against the Ellenville School District to the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, alleging discrimination directed at several special education students. A report issued on October 7, 2004 by the Civil Rights office states that the district failed to meet the educational needs of certain students and the district agreed to address the concerns listed in the report.
Allegations were made based on special education regarding budgetary needs and not the needs of the students. The report interviewed employees of the district and stated, “In particular, these staff members said they had difficulties recommending certain self-contained classrooms, inclusion science classes and resource room, and felt coerced into agreeing with the recommendations of the former Director.”
The report added that the office of civil rights, “determined that the evidence is sufficient to support a finding that the district failed individualized program offerings based on the needs of the students...”
Also mentioned in the report was a failure to provide adequate physical education equipment, and additional time for some special needs students to prepare for physical education class. The district also failed to provide a “male aide for toileting a male student, and failed to provide two other students with a 1:1 aide as required.” The report continued, “Specifically, the first student was provided with a female aide; and the aide assigned to the other two students was often taken away from her scheduled aide duties to perform as a substitute teacher, as a classroom behavior management aide, and as a translator.”
The district’s recent budget process involved a highly unpopular but quite surprisingly similar take on Special Education needs referred to at several points as being largely budget-driven, and looking to BOCES to provide services previously handled in-house at Onteora.
It was unknown, as of press time, how much Ferrara’s Special Ed experience or philosophy played into his hiring at Onteora, or by what process – and board count – he was hired.
Ruglis said, in answer to Patterson’s attempt to place the blame for the OCS board’s bad decision on BOCES, that the Onteora board should have more thoroughly researched its five finalists for the interim, and noted how he had encouraged them to continue to look further.
“They interviewed and they hired. I didn’t hire,” he said. “I didn’t only give them a single person.”
“Mr. Jordan was one of the candidates interviewed that was presented to us by (BOCES) district Superintendent (Martin) Ruglis,” Patterson said of Ferrara’s replacement.
Jordan, now retired, was the director of secondary programs in Sullivan County BOCES from 2000-2005. Before that he served four years as Superintendent in Jefferson-Youngsville school district. He was also a high school principal, teacher and sports coach.
In 2005 Jordan was one of ten candidates to challenge for four seats on the Onteora school board. His wife, Kathleen Jordan, is a 33-year employee of the Onteora district, and is retiring this year. She works in the personnel and payroll department.
Jordan will take the place of superintendent Justine Winters who passed away May 18. The school board has hired Richard Lerer Consulting Services at a cost of $18,000 to conduct a search for a superintendent who will be under contract. Lerer Consulting is the same service that recommended Winters to the district.
“We are looking for a person who is going to serve the district,” said Patterson. “Dr. Lerer served the district very well when we hired Justine and we expect nothing but the same, maybe even more from him on the next superintendent,” said Patterson.
He added that Lerer has received over thirty applications for the new school superintendent and would like to see a new person in place by the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.
On the other, an 11-0 vote reported by Phoenicia’s Wastewater Committee Chairman to remove Supervisor Bob Cross as the town’s chief negotiator with New York City over Operating and Maintenance costs and other concerns wasn’t actually recorded, said the Committee’s secretary. And so the town board didn’t replace Cross.
The good news for Shandaken’s western end was that four bids were awarded, over $700,000 in contracts, for work soon to begin on the rebuild of the former village’s water system, to be paid for by a combination of grants and loans. Even a lesser requirement for bidding to repair damages done to one of the system’s springs, awarded a $75,000 grant under the requirement that work be completed before other repairs on the system were started, was finally put out to bid, for bid approval next month… and actual job completion soon after.
Less clearly positive was the board’s approval of a long-controversial extension of the hamlet’s sewer district to include 14 new hookups along Route 28.
“I think you’re putting the existing district in jeopardy” argued former supervisor Pete DiModica, saying the move wasn’t a benefit to the rest of the district as the law requires. The Pine Hill resident added that the extension, as approved, shifts primary responsibility for enforcing a new sewer district ordinance from the New York City Department of Environmnetal Protection to the town, and that it opens the hamlet’s residents to potential fines stemming from enforcement issues, as have been levied recently against Margaretville residents.
Pine Hill residents have not paid for their sewer system since its inception in 1925.
Cross, along with board member Rob Stanley, counter-argued that such costs and events are exceedingly rare, and that enforcement problems, although hypothetically possible, appear to be not problematic enough to preclude the new sewer lines, which DEP will be paying both to install & maintain.
Kathy Nolan of Mt. Tremper said that the sewer extension was being brought forward when the people of Pine Hill hadn’t seen the contract with DEP the town would be signing .
Al Frisenda, a former town councilman and property owner in the proposed extension area, as well as the system’s director when it was owned by Gitter, noted the extension was planned during the creation of the 1997 watershed deal between New York City and the communities in the upstate watershed region.
Concerned that the board was once again backing away from the proposal Frisenda yelled, “I think you better read the god damned contract!”
Opponents of the plan, including DiModica, agreed, claiming all they wanted was an opportunity to do just that before the town board made a decision.
Councilman Peter DiSclafani floated a motion to delay the vote until next month to give both the board and the public a chance to review the contracts, but there was no second. Audience members subsequently showed their clear disappointment with Stanley, a Pine Hill resident and rookie elected official who had been gaining popular support in recent months.
As for the request to remove the town supervisor from his self appointed role as chief negotiator for the Phoenicia wastewater, an outburst of disagreements with Committee Chairman Charlie Frasier’s letter delayed the matter. The matter was scuttled, in the end, because the matter was supposedly voted on in executive session and committee recording secretary Anne Maroney said she had no record of a vote.
Committee member Mike Ricciardella, however, said he was the one who actually seconded a motion to oust Cross made by committee member Blake Killin, editor of the Ulster County Townsman, who admitted that he did, but had only done so within the confines of the closed door session.
So while it appears that there was consensus of the committee to call for Cross’s dismissal, the town board refused to act on the matter, even though there’s currently a call to bring the vote up officially at next week’s wastewater committee meeting on Tuesday, June 13 at 7 pm in the Phoenicia Parish Hall.
In other business, Cross re-presented an old proposal from Gitter involving the donation of lands on the Eastern end of town for a new home for the town hall current situated at its center… as well as for the Phoenicia Librray and the creation of a new community center.
“The clock is ticking” reported Cross on Gitter’s offer, a gesture he explained had been recently de-coupled from a two year-old laundry list of quid pro quos.
“How about when we need it we’ll just take it by eminent domain?” offered a town resident to widespread laughter.