Habitat designations to shift, expand
Jim Planck in The Daily Mail reports that the NYS Department of State held an informational meeting Monday, July 11 at the Catskill Town Hall, where DOS Natural Resources Management Bureau Chief Fred Andersis how they are updating and expanding the number of Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat designations along the full length of the Hudson River, including the creation of seven new ones, five of which, plus a new combined unit, will be in or near Greene and Columbia county waters. Planck writes:

Five of the new units will include “South Bay Creek and Marsh,” which is within the municipal bounds of the Town of Greenport and the City of Hudson; “Catskill Deepwater,” within the towns of Catskill, Greenport, Germantown, and Livingston; “Stuyvesant Marsh,” within the Town of Stuyvesant; “Smith’s Landing,” within both the Towns and Village of Catskill, plus the Town of Saugerties; and “Brandow Point Marsh and Flats,” within both the Town and Village of Athens and the Town of Greenport. Additionally, the currently separate units of Hannacroix Creek and Coeymans will be combined into one, the “Coeymans Hannacroix Creek Complex,” within both the Towns of New Baltimore and Coeymans and the Village of Ravena. Seven of the 14 units recommended for boundary expansion are also within the area. They include “Roeliff-Jansen Kill,” within the Towns of Germantown, Livingston, and Clermont; “Inbocht Bay and Duck Cove,” within the towns of Catskill and Germantown; “Stockport Creek and Flats,” within the towns of Coxsackie, Greenport, Stockport, and Stuyvesant, and the City of Hudson; “Coxsackie Island Backwater,” within both the Town and Village of Coxsackie, and the towns of New Baltimore and Stuyvesant; “Rogers Island,” within both the Town and Village of Catskill and the Town of Greenport; “Ramshorn Marsh,” within the Town of Catskill; and “Shad and Schermerhorn Islands,” within the towns of Coeymans and Bethlehem. The other six existing units in the area are not expanding, and will see only updated narrative listings to reflect current scientific data and habitat conditions. They are “Catskill Creek,” “Germantown-Clermont Flats,” “Coxsackie Creek,” “Mill Creek Wetlands,” “Vosburgh Swamp and Middle Ground Flats,” and “Schodack and Houghtaling Islands and Schodack Creek.”

The DOS and DEC hold a joint public hearing to for comment on the DEC’s recommendations on July 27, from 6-9 p.m., at the Norrie Point Environmental Education Center, in Dutchess County. Written comment will be accepted through Aug. 15. See: http://www.nyswaterfronts.com. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Hudson in the Art World News
Carole Osterink in The Gossips of Rivertown blog reports that Hudson, New York is featured as "Up and Coming" in The Art Newspaper, in the July/August 2011 issue. The article mentions Steven Johnson and Walter Sudol, new owners of the Charles Williams School that they will turn into an arts center called The Second Ward and the Marina Abramovic Foundation for Preservation of Performance Art, which is due to open in 2012 in the Community Theater building at Seventh and Columbia streets, and the New Art Dealers Alliance fair at the Basilica Hudson July 30 and 31. ">Read the entire piece in The Art Newspaper.

Take them to their leader… later
Emilia Teasdale in The Columbia Paper says the The Town of Ghent and the Village of Chatham planning boards are having trouble solving a big problem: postponed who is lead agency on the Price Chopper supermarket move proposal. The two boards canceled a Wednesday, July 6 hearing of the two boards hosted in Ghent. Jonathan Walters, chairman of the Ghent Planning Board, told Teasdale that the Chatham Planning Board wants lead agency status on the state environmental quality review, or SEQR, the state's way of evaluating the environmental and economic impacts of proposed development projects. Walters says “90% of the project is in Ghent” and is disputing the designation. “We have no interest in being lead agency,” said Rick Georgeson, a regional public information officer at the DEC told Teasdale. "Calls to the village of Chatham Planning Board were not returned by deadline," Teadale wrote. Charles Chisholm, a real estate representative for Price Chopper, told Teadale, “Nothing has changed for us with the replacement store,” and that, “We'll be back in front of the Planning Board.” Read the entire story in The Columbia Paper.

Rumble in the Catskills boxing show has local punch
A story in The Daily Freeman previews this Saturday's third annual "Rumble in the Catskills" boxing show Saturday at Catskill Elementary School sponsored by World Class Promotions in Catskill. “Right now, it looks like we have 17 gyms that will bring fighters,” said promoter Ernest Westbrooke. “This is by far the highest level of participation and I think the quality of the fights are going to be well matched.” The first "Rumbles" were held at Catskill High, but repairs there forced the move. Read the whole story in The Daily Freeman.

DiNapoli: ‘Serious questions’ about IDAs
Jimmy Vielkind in Capitol Confidential reports that New York Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released a report on New York State’s Industrial Development Authorities on Tue., July 12. “For four years, I’ve called on IDAs to improve the accuracy of the jobs data,” DiNapoli said. “Taxpayers should know if the projects they’re paying for are creating the jobs that were promised. Year after year, we’ve had serious questions about the effectiveness of IDAs. We need to make sure that the tax breaks given for these projects are promoting job retention and growth. New York has a lot of local economic development entities; developing a regional, coordinated approach is very difficult. We have to fix that.” From the report:

The overlapping nature of these economic development efforts can make the task of establishing a regional, coordinated approach difficult. Moreover, there have been and continue to be persistent problems and questions related to local governments’ use of LDCs, and to IDA performance and accountability. In response, Comptroller DiNapoli recently advanced a reform package that would limit municipal use of LDCs to finance local government operations and the acquisition or improvement of their assets. He has also increased oversight of IDA operations through audits, issuance of an annual performance report and more rigorous review of IDA reports. Presently, if an IDA’s annual audited financial statement is not filed or is found to be incomplete, the IDA’s authority to offer financial assistance which provides exemptions from certain State taxes is suspended.

• IDAs provided total gross tax exemptions of $1.2 billion in 2009. These exemptions were partially offset by the receipt of payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOTs) totaling nearly $700 million, resulting in net tax exemptions of almost $500 million. Net exemptions declined by almost $150 million from 2008 due largely to ongoing adjustments in reporting methods by the New York City IDA. These adjustments also affect the average cost per job gained.
• Projects receiving IDA assistance employed 724,390 full-time equivalent workers in 2009. This represents a cumulative net gain of 204,172 jobs from IDA projects over the life of the projects.

Ida Performance 2011
Read the full story in Capitol Confidential.