Newsbriefs

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(from June 22, 2006)

Poncic Conflict?
Neighbors opposed to a water-harvesting plan slated for Woodland Valley Road in this Shandaken hamlet are wondering why an elected official appeared before the local Planning Board to represent the applicant. And the fact that that elected official is also the lead official regarding town zoning laws could end up providing fuel for any and all legal actions that are likely to ensue from whatever decisions emenate from the town regarding the water plan, as well as possibly lead to charges of malfeasance, according to state law.
On June 14, town of Shandaken Highway Superintendent Keith Johnson provided the Planning Board with details about how applicant Andrew Poncic, if he gets approval for his water harvesting plans, would lay out his property for the pickup of water by large tractor-trailers twice every weekday. Neighbors of the site say there isn't enough land for long semis to pull in and fill up, then leave without backing out onto the road. Johnson disagreed, and gave a detailed report to the board to illustrate how the trucks would successfully navigate the property.
Johnson, who has made several visits to the site, described plans to use fill to build up the property so trucks can get in. He also said the loading area would not infringe on town road right-of-way and that there would be no danger of the fill spilling onto neighbors' land.
Marcy Meiller, who owns property next to the site, has doubts.
Meiller said the Poncic parcel is only a sliver of land sandwiched between hers and another landowner's property. The lay of the land, she said, would prevent safe departure of a tractor-trailer, no matter what Johnson claims.
"They're going to have to back out," she said.
Howard McGowan, a former member of the Planning Board and also a neighbor, asked what right Johnson had to represent Poncic at the session and participate in the planning of a project on private property.
"Why should the taxpayers pay for this?" he said. "Why is Keith doing this?"
"Because I'm the highway superintendent," Johnson replied.
The Planning Board ultimately agreed with Johnson and declared Poncic's application to be complete. The project can be approved after a public hearing next month.
A subsequent check with town law found that there is no conflict of interest regarding Johnson’s dual roles as Highway Superintendent and Zoning Board of Appeals. And yet there are clear laws against any town official showing interest in any “action or contract” in which he has some control.
Because of Johnson’s role on the town’s lead zoning agency, which could be forced to weigh in on the Poncic application at some point, theoretically, Johnson’s actions may have compromised the town should there be a lawsuit regarding any of the approvals that are pending.
According to attorneys at the state AG’s office, such grey area often lead to lawsuits, and related expenses, on the part of municipalities where allowed overlaps in town official positions exist, and such conflicts of interest, even if only in apperance, are allowed to compomise local zoning laws.
Stay tuned as this issue moved toward a public hearing on July 12.

Meet Candidates...
The Onteora School Board, which reorganizes with new member Maxanne Resnick replacing retiring Lev Flournoy on July 11, has been busy of late interviewing candidates for a new district-wide superintendent to replace the late Justine Winters, who retired this past winter before succumbing to cancer last month. They’ve also been completely close-mouthed about who they’ve been talking top, what they’re learning, where they’re leaning and who the top contenders might be for the job, which they hope to full before summer’s end.
It is unknown, for instance, whether Interim Superintendent Jack Jordon of Pine Hill, a former candidate for the school board, is in the running.
Jordon was hired a few weeks ago to replace Peter Ferrara of Ellenville, who resigned in the face of inquiries into problems he ran into with federal authorities tied to his approach towards Special Education issues in his former district.
Special Education cuts proved one of the key controversies within the Onteora community during the most recent budget/election cycle, completed in May.
All we can report, for now, is that two Meet the Candidate sessions have been scheduled by the Board, without specific names attached, for the coming week.
On Tuesday, June 27, one candidate will be presented in a special session at the Middle/High School cafeteria, starting at 7 pm. A second candidate will then be presented at the same time and location on Thursday, June 29.
All who attend the sessions will be given brief resumes for each candidate, as well as a “Reaction Form” to be filled out and returned at the session’s end.
“Let your opinion count,” reads the press release from the Board of Education for the upcoming sessions.
Heed their words and be there!

Immigrant Jail?
While Ulster County Legislator Peter Kraft has proposed a kind of bed-and-breakfast behind bars, charging the public for a chance to stay overnight in the nearly completed Law Enforcement Center, a more serious alternative for the fate of the old county jail being replaced as legislatures have started looking into a proposal to turn the space, at some point to become redundant, as a new jail for U.S. Immigration Services.
According to legislator Gary Bischoff, a proposal will be coming shortly.
Kraft, of Glenford, said his plan would give the public an up-close look at the $86.16 million jail construction project and raise money to restore funding to county programs that have suffered budget cuts in recent months. Ulster County Sheriff J. Richard Bockelmann had suggested a sleepover for legislators last year to check out the facilities before inmates were brought in. That proposal never took hold, and the project has yet to be fully completed.
No date has been set for inmates to be transferred to the new facility from the old jail on Golden Hill Drive. In the meantime, county officials are negotiating with contractors over $20.04 million in claims that could push the project cost over $100 million. The project was originally estimated to cost $53 million.
Meanwhile, Bischoff also noted that he and a number of legislators recently got locked into the new jail’s communications room for several hours recently before figuring out a computer code to free themselves.
Stay tuned…

A Coalition Again
After several months of thumb twiddling the Coalition of Watershed Town’s Executive Committee rolled up it’s shirtsleeves and got back to work Monday, June 19th when the once-powerful advocacy group found out it is still greatly needed by the region.
As the agency gears up to go to the federal Environmental Protection Agency to discuss whether the City of New York should continue to be allowed to avoid building an ultra-expensive water filtration system, the Executive Committee is getting reams of information from regional representatives showing what the City should be forced to do in order to dodge that $8 billion dollar bullet for at least a few more years.
On Monday, June 19, the committee got into specifics on many issues, including Phoenicia’s Waste Treatment troubles, Olive’s apprehension about a Boiceville sewer system and the possible meddling by the City in polices toward the region’s popular septic replacement program, to name a few. And along the way they heard a horror story from one Delaware County businessman who claims that a program he got involved with that wasn’t supposed to cost him a dime is now costing about $350,000 a year.
The Coalition and it’s attorney, Jeff Baker, are absorbing the information for when they speak with EPA representatives over the next few weeks to lay out what they want the City to pay for in the region as a trade off for continuing strict prohibitions. The New York State Department of Health has some say in the City’s Filtration Avoidance issue too, and Baker reported at the recent gathering that an initial meeting with State Health officials showed the agency to be “generally supportive” of the Coalition’s position.
Shandaken Supervisor Robert Cross Jr., trying to make good on a promise to Phoenicia, succeeded in convincing the Coalition to demand the City pay for all operation and maintenance costs for not only Phoenicia’s system, but for all systems in the watershed being built under the same program. The Executive Committee unanimously agreed after Olive Councilman Bruce LaMonda chimed in with Cross, saying that Olive was worried that a similar system on tap for Boiceville may kill most of the businesses in that hamlet with high annual costs.
The demand for the City’s payment of those costs is the second such item Cross has successfully put on the bargaining table. He recently convinced the Coalition to demand that the City also pay for all the hook up costs that private landowners are responsible for under the current terms of the program.
The average cost per household is expected to be $2500. That is, of course, if Phoenicia decides to participate in the program.

Hit And Run
Joseph Gilsinger; 40, the driver who was charged with hitting and killing a bicyclist on Route 28 in April, was indicted by a grand jury with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting — a class D felony comparable to vehicular homicide. Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said that Gilsinger, of Mount Tremper, earned the felony charge because of his efforts to flee the scene and avoid capture in the April 19 death of Richard “Ricky” Shultis.
Gilsinger allegedly struck Shultis as the latter was riding one bicycle and towing another eastbound on Route 28 in the Town of Ulster. Through witness accounts, evidence collected at the scene and a picture published in lo-cal media of a vehicle similar to the one believed to have struck Shultis led to Gilsinger’s arrest.

Breathalyzered!
Onteora senior Catherine Hernandez addressed the OCS school board at its June 6 meeting about a mandatory alcohol Breathalyzer test for all students upon entering this year’s prom.
“At the pinnacle of our high school career on the night that we are celebrating our success of graduating, you are going to degrade us by treating us like inmates,” she voiced angrily. “Prom is a night when we’re supposed to be celebrating our accomplishments of the past four years and we’re deserving of the respect and opportunity to feel that pride, but what do we have to be proud of when you look at us like we are drug addicts.”
She noted that she understands that it is for safety reasons. “…but if somebody is showing up at the prom and they are dangerously drunk, then I’m pretty sure it’s going to be obvious.”
School board president Dave Patterson said he believed the mandatory Breathalyzer test was used at one other dance and thought it was a decision made at the administrators level. Interim superintendent Jack Jordan said, “This is the first I have heard about this…” and asked to meet with Vice Principal Gabriel Buono, Health Director Robin Sears, Hernandez and a few of her friends to resolve the problem.
Later after the board meeting Jordan expressed his views: “Personally I think you need a reasonable suspicion… morally and ethically, I don’t think it is the right thing to do.”
He noted that he is not against having an alcohol screening devise at the prom, but believes it should be used only based on suspicion and if students are made aware of the devise in advance, so they may then think twice about drinking alcohol.
In other recent matters, Board President Dave Patterson said the board’s facilities committee met with KSQ architects regarding capital project plans. He said that they are looking at three different school campus configurations, along with costs associated with the plans.
“At one point the facilities committee will probably be recommending to the board which of the plans we will be exploring in more detail and in more depth,” he said. “We are meeting again at the end of this month, to look at some of those revisions and more specific things, so we feel comfortable bringing it to the board and the public.”

Same Tuition
The Board of Trustees of Ulster County Community College has announced that tuition rates for 2006-2007 will remain the same as 2005-2006 for both full-time and part-time students. Current fees for full-time students (12 credits or more) who are residents of Ulster County are $1,600 per semester. Residents of other New York State counties must provide a Certificate of Residency from their county to obtain this rate. All other full-time students pay $3,200 per semester. Tuition rates for part-time students (fewer than 12 credit hours) are $107 per credit hour for all Ulster County residents and residents of other New York State counties who provide a Certificate of Residency. Other part-time students pay $214 per credit hour. High-school students in the Collegian program (formerly the Bridge program) pay $37 per credit hour. Special students taking off-site courses may be eligible for a tuition rate of $69 per credit hour.

Menla Activity
In a unique collaboration between the California Institute for Integral Studies (www.ciis.edu) and Matagiri Sri Aurobindo Center (www.matagiri.org) of Mt. Tremper, the Fifth Integral Psychology Conference (IPC) is being held at Menla Mountain Retreat in Phoenicia, NY July 1st through 5th. After a first outing in Woodstock five years ago, the annual event has hence been held each year in India or California. Among the featured speakers attending the conference from India are Dr. Aster Patel, Dr. Alok Pandey, author of the new book, “Death, Dying and Beyond,” Brant Cortright, Department Chair from CIIS, Jungian therapist Richard Stein of San Francisco, author Alan Lithman, and the former editor of “What Is Enlightenment”, Craig Hamilton. Local workshop leaders include author and therapist Stephen Larsen and educator Lucy Barbera. Attendees must register in advance but day passes are available for local residents to attend the programs. Two evening concerts by Karunamayee (vocal) with Ray Spiegel (tabla) and the overtone choir, Prana, and one evening lecture are also open to the public. Details are on the Matagiri website: www.matagiri.org or by calling 845-679-5358.

Abandon Ship?
Town Republican Club President Gerry Setchko has quit the Republican Party. Setchko, an unsuccessful candidate for Town Board in last year's election, said he hopes to lure registered voters away from the GOP and the Democratic Party and help him for a stronger local Conservative Party.
Setchko said in a prepared statement last week that his goal is to create "a strong third major party that will focus on town issues and concerns and get back to small-town core values."
But he's likely to face an uphill battle in his effort to build a strong Conservative base. According to Ulster County election records, Shandaken has only 39 registered Conservatives, compared to 771 Republicans, 758 Democrats and 114 Independence Party members. The town also has 532 non-enrolled voters.
Setchko has been at odds for several months with the town government, which is led by Republican Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. Three years ago, Cross, a political novice at the time, came out of nowhere to challenge Setchko for the GOP nomination to run for town supervisor and won by five votes.
Cross then won the 2003 general election and was re-elected in 2005.
Setchko won the town Republican Party's endorsement to run for Town Board in the 2005 election, but he came in last in a four-way race for two seats. The seats went to Republican Robert Stanley and Democrat Peter DiSclafani.
Cross declined comment about Setchko's decision to quit the GOP.

Boat Auction!
The DEP will auction boats that have been abandoned on City water supply lands, starting next week. The City allows the storage of boats on water supply property for fishing, provided the boats are steam cleaned and meet certain other requirements. There are currently over 10,000 boats on the shores of 19 City reservoirs. Occasionally, boats with expired permits are left for many years without being used. The DEP will then remove that boat for auction.
The current auction includes 502 boats in lots ranging from 1 to 98 boats. Bids are due by June 26, 2006. Boats are available for viewing at DEP Land Management offices in Schoharie, Grahamsville, Shokan and Mahopac, where bid solicitation. Please contact the offices for information at: Schoharie (607) 588-6231, Grahamsville (845) 985-0386, Shokan (845) 657-2663, Mahopac (914) 232-1309.

Administrated! Ulster County Deputy Treasurer Michael P. Hein, 40, has beenappointed to a two-year term as county administrator, replacing Arthur Smith, 5, a two-year appointment whose term would have expired June 30, but an employee who will remain as deputy administrator, a position he held under former Administrator William Darwak for more than a decade before being appointed administrator when Darwak retired two years ago.
Smith will take a $20,694-per-year pay cut, to $74,019. Hein was making $64,228 as deputy treasurer and will be paid $5,000 less than Smith’s $94,713 salary as administrator. The choices were made from a folder of 34 submitted resumes and seven interviews.
The Ulster County administrator is responsible for the day-to-day supervision of a $300 million county budget and also prepares the annual budget for legislative review and approval.
Hein, appointed deputy treasurer in 2003, repeatedly warned the Legislature of the county’s deteriorating financial position and recommended steps he thought necessary to stabilize the budget.

That Logo Again...
Promoters of the original 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel have sold exclusive licensing and brand rights to Signatures Network, a music licensing agency, according to a June 12 article in Brandweek magazine.
It was reported that Signatures has plans to market Woodstock with selections in apparel, accessories, home decor and other categories. The product line is scheduled to be released next fall with men’s and women’s knit tops and denim, according to Brandweek. Then Signature will launch a line of women’s sportswear, peasant tops and skirts.
“I’ve been looking for a long time to fmd a positive theme that represents the spirit of the ’60s, and its been staring me in the face the whole time,” Dell Furano, CEO at Signatures said in the article. “Woodstock’s recognition factor is enormous worldwide.”
The agreement does not include rights to market some of the artists that appeared at the Sullivan County festival. Signatures Network obtained the licensing rights from promoters Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman.

Dirty Water
More than half of U.S. streams are polluted, with the worst conditions found in the eastern third of the country, according to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In its first-ever study of shallow or “wadeable” streams, the agency found 42 percent were in poor condition, and another 25 percent were considered fair. Only 28 percent were in good condition, EPA said. Another 5 percent were not analyzed because of sampling problems in New England.
Streams running in the East, from the Atlantic coast through the Appalachian Mountains, fared the worst, with 52 percent listed as poor. In contrast, 45 percent of streams running west of the Rocky Mountains were the least polluted, the report found.
Streams in 48 states were sampled from 2000 to 2004. The EPA plans to extend the study to Alaska and Hawaii.
The survey found activities such as farming and logging helped raise the levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in the water.. Those chemicals promote the growth of plants and algae that gobble up oxygen. That, in turn, kills aquatic life. At the extreme those conditions could create “dead zones” in streams, similar to one in the Gulf of Mexico where fishermen have given up catching any live fish.
“We passed the Clean Water Act 35 years ago, and this is the first time we’ve taken a look at our small rivers and streams,” noted one reviewer of the new report. “It took too long.”

Nominate Us!
The Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC) and the Chamber of Commerce of Ulster County (Chamber) are seeking nominations for their 2nd Annual Business Recognition Awards. The awards recognize Ulster County entrepreneurs and businesses that are leaders in their field, have realized outstanding achievements over the past year, or have shown dedication and commitment to furthering business in Ulster County. Awards will be given in the following categories: Entrepreneur or Businessperson of the Year; Business of the Year; Small Business of the Year; Cultural Business of the Year; Building Project of the Year; Tourism or Hospitality Business of the Year
The application period is now through August 18, 2006. Nomination forms must be submitted to the office of UCDC at 5 Development Court, Kingston, New York, no later than 5:00 P.M. on August 18th. A committee of UCDC and Chamber representatives will evaluate nominations. Winners will be recognized at a dinner held on October 19, 2005 at the Wiltwyck Golf Club in Kingston, New York.
Additional information about the awards and the nomination forms are available by contacting Irene MacPherson at UCDC at 845-338-8840 or imacpherson@ulsterny.com.

Patch What?
The FDA has approved the first skin patch to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
The patch called Daytrana, designed to be worn for 9 hours, contains methylphenidate, which has been shown to help children with ADHD. It is the same stimulant that is in Ritalin. The patch is made by Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Miami.
In December, a Food and Drug Administration panel of independent experts voted to recommend that the patch’s label encourage its use as an alternative treatment for children ages 6 to 12 with ADHD, meaning doctors should prescribe it only if taking pills is too difficult for a child. Unlike pill forms of the drug, the patch can be removed if it causes side effects.
Noven Pharmaceuticals in 2003 submitted a 12-hour version of the patch to the FDA. The agency rejected it and recommended that Noven test a nine-hour version.
Nearly 3.3 million Americans age 19 and younger used an ADHD drug last year. The FDA continues to grapple with whether to require more severe warnings on the labels of the drugs.

Bad As Saddam
Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former U.N. human rights chief in Iraq has reported..
John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said the level of extra-judicial executions and torture is soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militia and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths.
“Under Saddam, if you agreed to forgo your basic right to freedom of expression and thought, you were physically more or less OK,” Pace said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But now, no. Here, you have a primitive, chaotic situation where anybody can do anything they want to anyone.”
Pace, who was born in Malta but now resides in Australia, said that while the scale of atrocity under Saddam was “daunting,” now nobody is safe from abuse.
“It is certainly as bad,” he said. “It extends over a much wider section of the population than it did under Saddam.”
Pace, who spent much of his two years in the post in Iraq, said he visited the morgue in Baghdad once a week when he was in the city and regarded it as a “barometer” of the level of violence in the country. He declined to provide more specific details about the threats, citing fears for the safety of morgue workers. He said that around three-quarters of the several hundred bodies brought to the morgue each month were categorized with “gunshot wound” as the cause of death _ a phrase Pace says is a euphemism. “Nearly all were executed and tortured,” he added.
Meanwhile, the top U.S. general in Iraq has ordered American commanders to conduct core values training on moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.
Army Gen. George W. Casey’s order came as the U.S. military investigated whether U.S. Marines might have intentionally killed unarmed civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha on Nov. 19. The killings, in which victims included women and children, followed a bomb attack on a military convoy that killed a Marine.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said in a statement the training would emphasize “professional military values and the importance of disciplined, professional conduct in combat” as well as Iraqi cultural expectations.
“As military professionals, it is important that we take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies,” Chiarelli said. “The challenge for us is to make sure the actions of a few do not tarnish the good work of the many.”

Good News!
Coffee may counteract alcohol’s poisonous effects on the liver and help prevent cirrhosis, researchers say. In a study of more than 125,000 people, one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent. The coffee effect held true for women and men of various ethnic backgrounds.
It is unclear whether it is the caffeine or some other ingredient in coffee that provides the protection.
The participants ranged from teetotalers, who made up 12 percent of the total, to heavy drinkers, who made up 8 percent. The researchers calculated the risk reductions rate for the whole group, not just the drinkers.
Not all heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, an irreversible scarring of the liver that hurts the organ’s ability to filter toxins from the blood. Hepatitis C and some inherited diseases can also cause cirrhosis. But the study found coffee did not protect the liver against those other causes of scarring.
The same study found coffee drinkers had healthier results on blood tests used to measure liver function, whether or not they were heavy alcohol users. Coffee’s effect on reducing liver enzymes in the blood was more apparent among the heavy drinkers in the study.
At the same time, chocolate lovers also have reason to rejoice. A new study hints that eating milk chocolate may boost brain function.
Chocolate contains many substances that act as stimulants, such as theobromine, phenethylamine, and caffeine, it has been reported, substances that by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention.
“By consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance,” reads the new report baed on a group of volunteers consuming, on four separate occasions, 85 grams of milk chocolate; 85 grams of dark chocolate; 85 grams of carob; and nothing (the control condition).
After a 15-minute digestive period, participants completed a variety of computer-based neuropsychological tests designed to assess cognitive performance including memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem solving.
“Composite scores for verbal and visual memory were significantly higher for milk chocolate than the other conditions,” the report found. And consumption of milk and dark chocolate was associated with improved impulse control and reaction time.

Byebye Regents?
A judge said recently that he is likely to prohibit the state of California from requiring that high school seniors pass an exit exam to graduate, siding with attorneys who say the test discriminates against the poor.
A group of high school students and their parents sued the state Department of Education in February, seeking a preliminary injunction to halt giving the exam to this year’s senior class. It’s the first class required to pass the exam to earn a diploma. The prohibition was based on the plaintiffs’ argument that all California students do not have access to the same quality of education.
Special education students who sued the state over the exit exam won a one-year exemption while the state comes up with an alternative for them.
Education and courts watchers are predicting the matter to effect New York’s own regent’s exams once it goes up to the U.S. Supreme Court in coming years.
Stay tuned…