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RIVERWALK... is the name of the exciting project
involving public parking, public bathrooms, an information center,
and creekside trails that was presented at a special August 27
meeting by the Catskill Center's Helen Budrock. Expect to hear
more of this vision for Phoenicia throughout the coming months,
with a possible completion date of 2008!
Bear Mayhem
A Big Bruin Gets Shipped On Out...
By Paul Smart
One moment Saturday morning, art gallery owner Jim Cox was inside
his Route 212 home along the Beaverkill in Willow, watching a
bear tear at a door trying to enter the room he had thought himself
safe in.
It was 2 AM and the state Department of Environmental Conservation
had placed a large culvert trap out in the yard to catch the bruin,
which had already ripped the outer door to Cox's kitchen open
twice, and entered his home four times. Cox had returned from
a trip to Cape Cod the previous day after he'd heard that the
bear, which Woodstock police chief Harry Baldwin confirmed had
broken into another half dozen Willow homes in the previous week,
had gotten into his house.
Continue>>>
Mr. Rights...
A Talk With Michael Ratner
By Brian Powers
It's not every day one of our serious trout fishermen and reservoir
history buffs wins a landmark case before the US Supreme Court.
But his most recent win there wasn't a first for Michael Ratner,
who for 31 years has split his time between West Shokan and
NYC, where he serves as president of the nonprofit Center for
Constitutional Rights. Regarded by many as the country's leading
human rights attorney, Ratner has frequently represented the
ultimately dispossessed: from the Attica prisoners after their
1971 uprising to the Haitian boat people, and from Arab-Americans
detained after 9-11 to foreign nationals held in our offshore
detention camps.
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Onteora Votes In 'Large
Parcel' Rates
Olive Considers Drastic Moves As Difficult Decision
Makes For A Major Split In Route 28's Sense Of Community...
By Gary Alexander
The nasty pool of muck into which the Onteora School District
was pitched by the Large Parcel Law just got deeper. Nothing
official has been said but Olive is fuming over the Onteora
School Board vote of August 17th. Unofficially, drastic measures
are well within the realm of future possibilities.
Olive residents, who threatened a tax revolt at the meeting
that night, if the board voted 'yes' on the implementation
of the Large Parcel Law in the district, are comparing notes
on how to best set up an escrow account for their school tax
funds.
Continue>>>
A Pause In The Permitting
Process
Issues Piled High On The DEC's Table, Belleayre Resort Hearings
End; Move Closer To Final Briefs Over Coming Months...
By Brian Powers
"Significant
professional disagreement" seemed a fitting conclusion
regardless of which side characterized it that way - both
did - as the Department of Environmental Conservation's
"Issues Conference" for the proposed Belleayre
Resort ended in Margaretville last week, capping 12 weeks
of often scathing critique and rebuttal by five teams of
lawyers and consultants on the adequacy of the project's
massive Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
At
issue throughout have been the facts, how they were arrived
at, and the validity of the data and conclusions in the proposal,
the largest of its type ever received in the state's history.
Equally at issue were the "offers of proof" disputing
its accuracy and completeness by the Catskill Preservation
Coalition's expert witness lineup, arguably, according to
a number of leading SEQRA attorneys, the most formidable group
of its type ever to testify at such a proceeding.
Of the fifteen or so major issues under contention, few appear
to have been put to rest by the conferences end, and some
such as water supply, traffic, alternatives, and community
character seem almost certain to resurface for the coming
phases of the review. But based on the recent testimony
and the submission of over 300 new exhibits - some the length
of books - many if not most issues raised at the conference
appear to remain open to the prospect of later adjudication;
a formal "trial" so to speak, of the developer's
claims.
Continue>>>
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