Toby Rogers of the Daily Mail has a great story today that gets at some of the surreal oddities of the deigital age as it bashes into local politics. In New Baltimore, it turns out, Town Councilman Art Byas told Rogers on Tuesday that he "obtained the private information of 54 town employees from Sally Russo, who originally received the inadvertent email from Town Supervisor Susan O’Rorke."

"It was a turnabout from Monday’s town board meeting, where Byas declined to explain how he got the information," the story goes on. “Two people gave it to me, one of them was Sally Russo.” Byas said Tuesday.

Byas said at Monday’s regular Town Board work meeting that he has not destroyed the email accidentally sent by O’Rorke in October to seven town employees and Russo, who was the only unauthorized person who received it.

Russo could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Byas, one of two Republicans on the town council, who said he does not have an email address, refused to explain to the board how exactly he got the information. He said his attorney advised him not to divulge to the board or the public at large just how or why he obtained the information.


Councilman Chris Norris asked Byas on Monday if he had destroyed the information as Town Attorney David Wukitsch requested of everyone who had received it. Byas replied: “My attorney advised me not to.”

At the Nov. 8 meeting, Byas requested an executive session with the other board members. Councilman Christopher Norris said he could not comment on what happened in the executive session.

Town Clerk Janet Brooks also said she could not comment on the executive session.

Norris asked Byas at the end of the public part of the Nov. 8 meeting if he had the emails in his possession. Byas acknowledged he did, but was waiting “on my attorney’s advice” on how to handle the matter.

O’Rorke, who has apologized to every town employee affected by the matter in writing and in public, was instructed by Wukitsch to tell all members to delete and destroy all copies of the email from their computers.

Everyone said they had, except Byas. O’Rorke said she also got in touch with the state Attorney General’s office over the matter. An Attorney General’s office representative is expected to be present at the Dec. 1 meeting.

Even if Byas was told to destroy the email, he said he would not have anyway. “If everything is destroyed, there is no evidence of anything,” he said.

Byas also said he is out of the loop on some things because O’Rorke has blocked access to his mail. “She illegally held my mail for a month,” he said.

Councilwoman Barbara Finke said Tuesday that if the entire matter had been handled correctly from the beginning, the board wouldn’t be saddled with the issue now.

When asked if she felt comfortable with Byas keeping and the information instead of deleting it, Finke said, “I don’t know if he has the information or not. If his attorney told him not to destroy the information, I can’t override that.”

When asked to name his attorney, Byas said, “I don’t want to say. It’s a private attorney.”

O’Rorke said she is puzzled by Byas’ behavior since the email was inadvertently sent and a public apology was made. “If Art is so concerned about the privacy of the town’s employees, then why would he leak it to the media?” O’Rorke said.

The Times Union's Capital Confidential column reports this morning that Congressman-elect Chris Gibson has named Mark Westcott as his regional representative for the northern part of the 10-county 20th Congressional District. Gibson, a Republican from Kinderhook, defeated Scott Murphy in the November election.

Westcott, who was Gibson's Warren County coordinator during the recent election, worked for Jerry Solomon during his long rein in the Congress, which ended in 1999.
[caption id="attachment_4194" align="alignleft" width="162" caption="Jerry Solomon"][/caption]
Earlier, Gibson announced another Solomon stalwart, Saratoga Springs native Steve Stallmer, as his chief of staff. Solomon's widow has also come out in support of the new Congressman, who she said her late husband, who died in 2001, would have seen as a kindred spirit.

Solomon, who took office in 1978, was also an ex-Marine who rose to head the powerful House Rules Committee after stepping aside in a bid for the Speaker's position during the rise of Newt Gingrich. He later gained lasting fame as the originator and sponsor of the Solomon Amendment, a controversial amendment to United States Code that precluded the receipt of federal government funds by colleges and universities unless they provided equal access to military recruiters as they did private employers.

For more on the Times Union story click here.

Thursday is Thanksgiving. Here’s a rundown of how various services in Columbia and Greene counties will be affected Thursday and Friday.

Amtrak: Holiday schedule on Thursday, Sunday schedule on Friday.
Banks: Closed Thursday, open Friday.
County offices: Closed Thursday; open Friday
Federal and State offices: Closed Thursday, open Friday
Financial markets: Closed Thursday, open Friday
Greene County Transit: No service Thursday and Friday
Columbia County Transit: No shuttles or buses on Thursday; normal schedule resumes on Friday
Mail delivery: None Thursday, resumes Friday
Metro-North: Holiday schedule on Thursday, Saturday schedule (with extra trains) on Friday
Schools: Closed Thursday and Friday
Trailways: Holiday schedule Thursday and Friday

Hudson school board meeting confrontation between assistant principals attracts reporters
The Hudson school board meeting almost-altercation between assistant principals Tom Gavin and Steven Spicer was a giant regional story Tuesday. The Times-Union reported:

"Co-principal Steven Spicer said that on Wednesday he will also seek an order of protection against co-principal Thomas Gavin, who he says threatened him during the meeting. 'On the advice of my lawyer, I'm going to report the incident to the Hudson City Police,' Spicer said Tuesday night. Gavin has been suspended for an undetermined amount of time with pay, which is mandated by state law, according to district Superintendent Jack Howe."

WAMC had audio from Hudson Superintendent John Howe, and others:

"What's been described as "a week of mayhem" at a Columbia County High School boiled over during a Monday night meeting of the city Board of Education - Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports the police commissioner had to step in between two school officials engaged in a heated confrontation. The officials involved have been identified as Hudson High co-principals Tom Gavin and Steven Spicer. The chain of events that led to last night's violence began after a parent stood up to voice concerns about the safety of students. The officials disagreed over student discipline and the code of conduct. The men had to be separated as they engaged in confrontation. Superintendent of Schools John Howe says both Gavin and Spicer remain with the district. He promises parents concerns will be addressed. Hudson Police Commissioner Ron Grant says his office is investigating and always ready to help."

John Mason in Register-Star reports how Spicer is among "40 or 50" applicants for the principal position at John L. Edwards Primary School. "The position was vacated when Carol Gans retired in August," Mason writes. "Gans then agreed to remain on an interim basis until Dec. 31."

Demagall guilty
Francesca Olsen in Register-Star reports William Demagall was, "found guilty of second-degree murder and deemed responsible for his actions by a Columbia County jury Tuesday evening." Olsen reports afterwards Demagall’s father, Steven Demagall, stormed out of the courthouse after telling her that, “Judge (Paul) Czajka directly influenced the outcome of this trial with his antics in the courtroom,” he said. “This is a serious matter ... you can’t get a fair trial in Columbia County — because of Judge Czajka ... this is the result of the first trial and the f------- second one!” Olsen writes that he is, "referring to Columbia County Supreme Court Judge Paul Czajka, who presided over the first trial, and his presence in the courtroom during the retrial. Steven Demagall said that he observed Czajka speaking in a friendly manner with witnesses who were about to testify and his 'front and center' position in the courtroom gallery during the proceedings."

[Copake] budget passes with 8.97 percent tax increase
Lindsay Suchow in the Register-Star reports Copake town supervisors approved a 8.97 percent tax increase for residents by a 4-1 vote last week. "The total budget for 2011 is $1,868,672, which includes both the general fund ($294,776) and the highway fund ($797,642)," Suchow wrote. "The town board voted 4 to 1 to approve the budget, with Supervisor Reggie Crowley and council members Linda Gabaccia, Walter Kiernan and Daniel Tompkins voting 'yes' and Councilman Bob Sacks voting 'no.'"

Gibson, Molinaro co-host town hall meetings
New York State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro (R,C,I-Red Hook) and Congressman-elect Chris Gibson host town hall meetings in Hudson and Pleasant Valley Friday, December 10. The Hudson Elks will host the first town hall at 10 a.m. at 201 Harry Howard Avenue, and then the two will speak in Pleasant Valley at 2:30 in the New Horizons Resources Office at 123 West Road. Molinaro will host similar events with Congresswoman-elect Nan Hayworth on December 17 at locations to be announced.

Birthdays
Nov. 24 birthdays include Scott Joplin, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Arundahati Roy.

HUDSON, N.Y. -- The Berkshire Eagle out of Pittsfield, MA has a gripping and exhaustive story on its front page this morning about the murder case of a Berkshire County, Massachusetts man who escaped from a secure mental health facility at Berkshire Medical Center in 2006, then stabbed, bludgeoned and burned a school teacher in New York state, now in the hands of a Columbia County jury in Hudson.

Attorneys delivered closing arguments Monday, November 22 in the trial of 27-year-old William Demagall, a former Stockbridge resident who killed 56-year-old George Mancini on Feb. 11, 2006, at the retired teacher's home in Hillsdale, N.Y.

There's no doubt Mancini was killed by Demagall, a fact Demagall's attorney, Richard Mott, readily admits. But whether Demagall was of a sound mind when he stabbed Mancini 37 times, bludgeoned him with a paperweight, then set fire to the teacher remains to be seen.

The jury must weigh if Demagall was sane or insane at the time of the killing. The difference between an insanity finding and a murder conviction is the institution in which Demagall would possibly be confined -- a psychiatric facility or a prison.

Columbia County Supreme Court Justice Jonathan D. Nichols ordered jurors to return today to the Columbia County Courthouse to begin deliberations in the high-profile case.

The trial began earlier this month and marks the second time Demagall has faced murder charges in connection with the case.

In 2007, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. But that sentence was overturned after an appeals court ruled that the prosecution's failure to call a witness to the stand justified a "missing witness" charge.

For more on this story, click HERE.

NISKAYUNA -- The Times Union in Albany follows up on the recent radioactive leak story involving the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory on the Mohawk in Latham by reporting today on a new federal investigation that has found that Knolls workers felt pressed by bosses to ignore safety issues and get work done faster.

A draft report, filed by investigators for the Department of Energy and obtained by the Times Union, also concluded that Washington Group International, a private company performing work under a $69 million contract, made missteps that led to an "uncontrolled spread of radioactive contamination" during the Sept. 29 demolition of a tainted Cold War-era research building at the research complex.


The company was pushing to finish work three months earlier than first planned -- by September 2011 rather than December 2011 -- in order to receive an extra $32 million in federal stimulus funding awarded for the cleanup in April 2009.

Two years ago, Knolls began a cleanup of the radioactive soil that covers about five of the facility's 170 acres along the Mohawk River, including the demolition of two buildings dating to the early 1950s, when the federal government researched nuclear weaponry at Knolls.

WGI managers "created an atmosphere of fear among the work force not to speak up about issues of concern," according to the DOE report. Such pressure "appears to be driven by project supervision and management personnel ... brought into the project with the purpose of improving production."

The investigation also found "questionable document practices" by WGI managers, including handwritten changes to safety reports without evidence of when or by whom such changes were made.

The report does not address possible effects, if any, of the contamination on workers or areas outside the Knolls facility.

For more on this breaking story, click HERE.

RAVENA -- Brian Nearing at the Albany Times Union reports this morning that Lafarge North America has finally filed a completed application with the state Department of Environmental Conservation outlining consequences of its proposed $500 million expansion/renovation project, more than two years after announcing plans to replace its aging cement plant, which is the state's second-largest source of airborne mercury,

A completed draft Environmental Impact Statement will be released on Wednesday, according to a notice also set to be issued Wednesday by the DEC that was obtained by the Times Union.

The EIS release will start a 90-day public comment period that will end Feb. 22. A public information meeting on the plant is set for Dec. 8 at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School, located across the street from the plant. A public hearing is set for Jan. 20 at the high school.

Lafarge announced plans in July 2008 to rebuild its two high-temperature kilns, which have been in place since the plant was built in 1962, with modern, less-polluting versions.

In September, Lafarge received a five-year extension of its federal air pollution permit from the DEC.


The new facility will be able to produce about 63 percent more cement, up from 1.7 million tons a year to 2.8 million tons. While emissions of carbon monoxide will increase, "other emissions will decrease or remain constant," according to the DEC notice.

When Lafarge announced the project, the company indicated construction would begin in 2013 and take three years to complete.

Copies of the draft Environmental Impact Statement will be available Wednesday online at http://www.bethlehemchamber.com/modernization, as well as at DEC headquarters on Broadway in Albany; the town halls of Coeymans, Stuyvesant, Chatham, Kinderhook, Schodack and New Baltimore; and at public libraries in Kinderhook, North Chatham, Chatham, Valatie and Ravena.

For more on this story click HERE.

KINGSTON – Even though the setting for the debut of a new guide, “The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area Heritage Site Guidebook,” was the Senate House and Museum in Kingston, the benefits of the new Greenway-supported publication is region-wide... and stretching well into Columbia and Greene counties.

According to a report in today's Mid Hudson News Network site, the historic facility chosen for the unveiling in Kingston is but one of 100 National Heritage Sites in New York’s Hudson Valley and they are all outlined in the new book. Greenway Council Executive Director Mark Castiglione said the new book is aimed at a particular audience.

“We wanted to target this guidebook to the heritage tourist,” he said. “Heritage tourists have been shown to spend more and stay longer and we hope this guidebook contributes to growing the $4.7 billion part of our tourism economy here in the Hudson Valley.”

Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan noted tourism is a “significant economic engine” for the region, responsible for 80,000 jobs.

“The Hudson River Valley is rich in history and this guide will aid the visitor in making their choices when choosing their vacation destination,” said Hudson Valley Tourism President Mary Kay Vrba.

Ever wondered what the dreaded term of the season "earmarks" means on a local basis? A story in today's Catskill Daily Mail by Melanie Lekocevic charts the recent receipt of federal funding for important firefighting equipment for the Athens Volunteer Fire Company via a $94,000 grant secured through U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy’s office before his loss to rformer marine Chris Gibson, a conservative Republican, earlier this month.

Announced several months ago, the grant has finally come in, and so has the equipment.

The Athens fire department used the money to purchase 25 sets of full turnout gear for its firefighters, including the jackets, pants, helmets and boots they need to go into a burning building. Purchase of the gear took up about half of the federal grant money.

As part of the turnout gear, the department also purchased the integrated escape harnesses that attach to the jackets, and are now required – but not paid for – by the state.

“If you need to leave a building rapidly, the escape harness allows you to leave through a window and let yourself down to the ground in a safe manner,” Fire Chief John Greco said.

The equipment also includes a “drag device” on the jacket’s back, which enables a firefighter to physically drag a fallen comrade out of a burning building.

The 25 sets of turnout gear were critical because the department’s old gear was due to be replaced for safety’s sake.

For full story click HERE.

CATSKILL - Ariel Zangla-Girard of the Daily Freeman reports this morning that former Catskill High School principal William Ball IV is seeking reinstatement to his position, arguing that the abolishment of his tenure area was done in bad faith and as a pretext for his termination.

Ball, of Saugerties, filed a lawsuit last month in state Supreme Court in Greene County seeking reinstatement and back wages. The suit names the Catskill Central School District, its board of education and district Superintendent Kathleen Farrell as defendants.

A. Andre Dalbec, an attorney with the School Administrators Association of New York State, said his client was given tenure by the Catskill school district and then terminated despite there being no disciplinary actions against him that would result in his firing. He said the school district got rid of Ball by abolishing his tenure area and then laying him off, which was done in bad faith.

“What we’re seeking is reinstatement,” Dalbec said Friday. He said the lawsuit is currently pending before state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi. Dalbec said the school district’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the suit, but he expects the motion to be dismissed and for the district to be required to answer Ball’s petition.

According to the petition, Ball has been a licensed public school educator since 1991 and became high school principal in Catskill on June 14, 2006. He earned tenure on Jan. 25, 2007, and was regularly evaluated and earned a stellar work history, the suit states. It also said Ball served as president of the Catskill Administrators Association from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010.

Dalbec said looking at the timeline of events leading to Ball’s termination, it shows the district wanted him gone despite the fact he had done great work. He added that getting tenure as an administrator is difficult and it would be difficult for Ball to find another job in the current economy.

In the petition, Ball said the Board of Education and Farrell were retaliating against him for his duties with the Catskill Administrators Association and that they had recruited his subordinates to concoct disciplinary charges “from mere personnel matters knowing that the allegations would not rise to termination.” He also argued the defendants knew the disciplinary charges would irreparably damage him in hopes he would voluntarily resign, the petition states. It also states the abolishment of Ball’s tenure area was in bad faith and that he was not the least senior employee in that tenure area.

“The district is aware of all pending legal actions and will respond appropriately to all such actions,” Farrell said.

When Ball was let go last February, the Catskill Daily Mail reported that the reasons were listed as private, without much elaboration.

Comptroller: Hudson District schools failed to claim for services; Co-Principal Tom Gavin suspended one week for threat at board meeting
From Lynn Sloneker in unmuffled:

"An audit by the Office of the State Comptroller found the Hudson City School District failed to claim eligible special education services totaling nearly half a million dollars during the 2008-09 school year, losing the district an estimated $115,064 in reimbursement revenue, according to a report released late last week. As the result of an examination of records covering the period of July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, the Comptroller's team determined the district processed claims for less than 50 percent – 122 of 307 – of all Medicaid-eligible students enrolled in the four district schools. Auditors further found the district lacked 'written policies and procedures to define the responsibilities for collecting data, monitoring student eligibility, documenting services, submitting and reconciling claims and monitoring the receipt of payments.' In an Oct. 28 letter to Chief Examiner Kenneth Madej, Superintendent of Schools John F. Howe acknowledged the recommendations contained in the report, and further noted that HCSD 'recognizes the importance of maximizing revenue sources related to Medicaid and will focus improvement efforts in the areas noted in the audit report.'"

She also made several Twitter posts from Monday night's Hudson school board meeting describing some type of altercation.
unmuffled Twitter posts:

• Packed house and Tom Gavin threatens Steve Spicer after discussion about week from hell at HHS. Hudson Police Commissioner breaks it up.
• Later in the meeting a who's who of Hudson come forward and speak in support of making Spicer principal of JLE.
• Staff present for 'discipline' discussion lay blame for last week's violent chaos at HHS on students' use of cell phones.
• BoE decides Gavin's behavior merits a one-week 'out of school" suspension.
• Would have been hard for BoE to ignore Gavin's threat...he acted out in front of some of the city's most distinguished people.

John Mason in Register-Star further explains:

"Hudson High School Co-Principal Tom Gavin has been suspended for a week after he allegedly threatened fellow Co-Principal Steven Spicer with violence at Monday’s Board of Education meeting. Gavin had just reported to the board on a week of mayhem at the high school, featuring group fights in the hallways and classrooms, suspensions, superintendents hearings, and an all-school lockdown on Thursday. Several teachers and members of the public then rose to give their opinions on the origins and cures of the violence. Much of the discussion focused on the school’s non-enforcement of the rule against use of cell phones. Finally, Spicer rose to say, 'Let’s enforce the code of conduct. Kids don’t understand — if you let them break rules, they don’t understand you can’t break other rules. There has to be one rule for everybody.' Spicer told the Register-Star that Gavin then threw down his coat and gestured for him to come out in the hall. 'He invaded my space, he pointed his finger in my face and said, "What the hell were you telling those people I wasn’t enforcing the code of conduct for?"' Spicer said. "I said, "We’re not. We’re letting kids wear hats, doo-rags, scarves and listen to their iPods." Then he got really mad, pointed his finger back in my face and said, "I’ll give you code of conduct."' Then city of Hudson Police Commissioner Ron Grant separated them, he said. The confrontation between the two principals put the cap on a difficult week for the district."

Wheels grind slowly for courthouse upgrades
Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper tells a 20-year tale of the Columbia County Courthouse's failure to comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But give the county a break, they only began to attempt compliance for the Hudson building in 2003, she reports. "Under the current timetable, the County Courthouse will become ADA compliant by sometime in late 2012 or early 2013," Valden writes.

Have Columbia County bridges been repaired?
Mike McCagg in ccScoop pulls out a 2008 state report card on bridges in Columbia County and their ratings. He says, "a rating of 7 is the gold standard assigned to new bridges" which is not particularly exact. Then he lists all the substandard ratings in the county, those under, "the 5 rating threshold set by the state as meeting standards":
• Hildebrandt Bridge in Claverack, 3.9 rating
• The Ferry Street Bridge in Hudson over the railroad, 3.5
• Schoolhouse Road in Stuyvesant over the railroad, 3.6
• Hall Hill Road in Ancram over the Roe Jan Kill, 3.2
• State Route 295 in Chatham at the intersection with Interstate 90, 3.8
• Albany Turnpike in Chatham over the railroad, 3.4
• County Route 9 in East Chatham over Indian Creek, 3.4
• White Mills Road in Chatham over the railroad, 3.6
• Millbrook Road in Claverack over Loomis Creek, 3.7
• County Route 7A in Copake over the Roe Jan Kill, 3.4
• Fingar Road in Greenport over the Mud Creek, 3.9
"The report also classified the Hildebrandt Bridge – along with one on Empire Road in Copake – as 'functionally obsolete' by the state, meaning the bridges are unable to meet current standards for managing the volume of traffic they carry," McKagg wrote. "The Empire Road Bridge is being replaced, Copake officials said."

CSEA FOIL reveals Paterson administration's recent DEC hirings
From Civil Service Employees Association:

"A CSEA Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request has shown that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has added 36 top-level management/confidential positions to the state payroll since July 1, 2010, despite a state-hiring freeze. Eighteen of the 40 positions have a base salary in excess of $100,000 per year."

Bank of Greene County stockholders rewarded
Dick May in Seeing Greene reports:

"Directors of Greene County Bancorp Inc., governing parent of the Bank of Greene County, bestowed upon stockholders a special dividend, of 20 cents per share, on top of the regular quarterly dividend, of 17.5 cents a share. Their announcement may well have triggered the recent jump in the market price of GCBC shares, ahead of the November 12 ownership deadline. By way of explaining the bonus, the directors cited “strong earnings performance over the last several quarters” plus the coming increase in Federal tax rate on dividends. Consequently, a dividend paid by the end of this year is worth more than the same amount paid in 2011."

Birthdays
Nov. 23 birthdays include Harpo Marx, Krzysztof Pendericki, and Hamid Hassani.

[caption id="attachment_1383" align="alignright" width="175" caption="Chris Gibson opens his campaign headquarters in Kinderhook May 12, 2010."][/caption]Newly-elected Congressman Chris Gibson will keep a Congressional office in Columbia County, in his hometown of Kinderhook, a press representative tells WGXC. Outgoing NY20 Congressman Scott Murphy has an office on Warren St. in Hudson. In Washington D.C., Gibson drew 70 out of 85 for office assignments, Jennifer Dlouhy in New York on the Potomac reports. "That low position ensured he would get among the worst office options and could forget about any prized view of the Capitol building," she writes. "Gibson’s new office — 502 Cannon House Office Building — is more isolated than the first-floor homes of his colleague from the Capital Region, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and the lawmaker he is succeeding, Rep. Scott Murphy, D-N.Y. It also is tricky to get to. Some elevators in the Cannon building do not stop on the fifth floor."

The Albany Times Union has an in-depth story today about the safety of New York State's natural gas lines, looking at the utilities in several towns on either side of the Hudson River, as well as throughout the Capital area, in light of the September surprise explosion in the San Francisco Bay-area city of San Bruno, as well as past New York explosions in the Schoharie County community of North Blenheim, in 1990, and the Albany suburb of Colnie, recently named the nation's second safest city with a population over 75,000, in 1979. By the end of this fiscal year in March, all natural gas pipe in Hudson will have been replaced with new, cathodically protected pipe, according to the story. For more on this key piece, visit here.

HARLEMVILLE — The Registar-Star in Hudson reports this morning that the Hawthorne Valley Association held an open house on Sunday, November 21, where visitors were informed of the various projects that the organization has undertaken over its years of operation, as well as its goals for the future and its ever-growing role in the community.

The Hawthorne Valley Association consists of several different bodies under its umbrella including Hawthorne Valley Farm (which includes a full-line organic grocery store), Hawthorne Valley School (an independent Waldorf school for kindergarten through 12th grade), the Visiting Students Program and Summer Camps and the Farmscape Ecology Program.



Hawthorne Valley Association Executive Director Martin Ping said the organization will celebrate its 40th anniversary as a legal entity on Feb. 11 of next year, and that July 2012 will mark 40 years since the founders of Hawthorne Valley purchased the Harlemville farm.

Helen Enright, business manager for Hawthorne Valley’s Visiting Students Program, said the Hawthorne Valley campus’ main house currently holds 33 children. She hopes for expansion in the future in order to accommodate more kids. She added that the organization would also like to incorporate more green building techniques, such as solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling.

More than 500 children participate in the Visiting Students Program every year.

Caroline Geisler, administrator and development director, said another future goal of Hawthorne Valley is to build a stronger connection with New York City children, particularly with the Children’s Storefront, a tuition-free school in Harlem serving pre-school through eighth grade where Geisler said 60 percent of the students’ families receive some sort of financial assistance.

Dr. Conrad Vispo, director of Hawthorne Valley’s Farmscape Ecology Program — the goal of which is to combine understandings of nature, agriculture and society, or to “try to help people in the county connect with the landscape,” said Vispo — presented visual representations of some of the projects undertaken by his department.

Some of the research ventures he’s spearheaded, in conjunction with Claudia Knab-Vispo, include the creation of a map of Columbia County’s flood plain forests; a study on native bees and their relationship with the ecology of the farm; a study on county residents’ access to food (accompanied by a map symbolizing how many people in each township own cars, and how far those people live from the nearest food source); and even a series of maps from the 1940s scanned and assembled to identify industry in Columbia County and how it relates to the topography.


Ping also showed tour attendants two new hoop houses built on the grounds which have salvaged much of Hawthorne Valley’s hay stock by sheltering it from the rain, as well as a solar greenhouse in the distance. Ping said he’d like to add one or two more solar greenhouses in the future.

Hawthorne Valley has an annual operation budget of about $10 million, Ping said, and the organization employs 150 people (80 of which work there full time). The association sells its products at the popular Greenmarket in New York City’s Union Square, at a similar farmers’ market in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood, as well as at its own on-site farm store.

For more information on the Hawthorne Valley Association, visit hawthornevalleyassociation.org or call (518) 672-5118.

For more on this story in the Register Star, please click HERE.

CATSKILLS — State police have reported three hunting incidents that took place Saturday and Sunday in Greene and Schoharie counties, one fatal, according to the Catskill Daily Mail and Watershed Post.

According to a report from reporter Colin DeVries in the Daily Mail on Monday, Nov. 22, a man was injured Saturday morning in the mountaintop area of Greene County when he was allegedly shot in the leg, state police said. DeVries reports that emergency personnel said the man was transported via medevac to Albany Medical Center. The extent of the man’s injuries were not known by press time.

The Daily Mail reports that another incident reported Saturday involved a shooting which did not result in injury. A man was allegedly shot in the back but a backpack absorbed the blast, according to police. Authorities reported the state Department of Environmental Conservation handled the incident investigations, and that charges may be pending.

According to The Watershed Post, the Schoharie County Sheriff's Office is investigating an incident involving a male subject that was found unresponsive in a wooded area in the Town of Schoharie. The deputies report having received a 911 call from a hunter reporting that a subject he was hunting with was found unresponsive late Saturday afternoon. Sheriff's patrol along with Central Bridge Fire and New York State Environmental Conservation responded to the scene and located a subject identified as Robert Sawyer age 65 of Charleston unresponsive. Preliminary investigation revealed that the tree stand that Sawyer was in gave way causing him to fall to the ground. Cause of death is still under investigation pending autopsy results.

Regular deer hunting season is Nov. 20 through Dec. 12. WGXC's Newsroom earlier reported, erroneously, that hunting season started Sunday morning, and not Saturday. A new statewide policy initiated in recent years to draw more tourist and licensing dollars from the dwindling sport.

SULLIVAN COUNTY – The Sullivan County-based Catskill Mountainkeeper environmental organization, founded three years ago to battle Catskills casino development, new power lines through the Delaware watershed, and then the rise of what is being called gas franking, is calling on President Obama’s administration not to approve any more natural gas drilling permits until the EPA’s study of the impacts of hydrofracking has been completed, according to a report from the Mid-Hudson News Network this morning.

Mountainkeeper said that while the United States, especially in the Marcellus Shale region, have reserves of natural gas and there is interest in developing them, they are “enormously concerned about the idea of fast tracking natural gas exploration and the risks such actions will bring.”

Mountainkeeper volunteer Bruce Janklow, who is the group’s spokesman on this subject, said it is important for no more permits be granted for now.

“We want to make sure that the government takes careful note of the experiential things that have happened since hydrofracking has been utilized and identify what the threats are and basically not drill until we know that drilling can be done safely, and more than knowing that it can be done safely, know that it will be done safely,” he said in the MHNN news story this morning.

Mountainkeeper has launched an email campaign to ask the president to hold off until the EPA has completed its study and in the first several days of the campaign, some 800 people have sent messages to the White House.

According to noted Catskills geologist Dr. Robert Titus, a Greene County resident who teaches at Hartwick College in Oneonta, geological evidence shows no significant gas deposits under the eastern Catskills or in the Hudson Valley region.

The state assembly is currently considering whether to pass a moratorium, passed by the state Senate last summer, in the coming weeks.

Club Helsinki restaurant opens today
"The Restaurant at Helsinki Hudson" opens today with Executive Chef Hugh Horner at the helm. Horner was recently at café madison in Albany, where Metroland praised his work saying, "Horner's North Carolinian roots come through in dishes like braised short ribs." Helsinki's restaurant is open every day except Wednesday, at 405 Columbia St. in Hudson.

Openings and closings
John Doe Records -- once of the 500 block of Warren St., once of the 300 block of Warren St., lately at a warehouse on Front St. -- opens in its new home along the Public Square, or Seventh St. Park, at 4 Park Place in Hudson on Friday in a storefront that had been a temporary costume shop in late October.... The Hudson Farmer's Market just closed its outdoor season, and will try an indoor sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Claverack Dutch Reformed Church, Lindsay Suchow in the Register-Star reports.... Migliorelli Farm just shuttered its Hudson storefront, on the corner of 3rd and Warren Sts.... Several sources say Mod Gourmet Cafe in Catskill is the latest shop to close up there, but are moving to Front St. in Hudson.... River Street Bakers in Catskill also recently closed.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Yes Men's iPhone parody site."][/caption]Yes Men target Apple
Fast Company reports The Yes Men, based just north of our area, targeted Apple's iPhone for their latest prank. "On Tuesday, they launched a website that was a spitting image for Apple's, and professed to be announcing a new product: the iPhone4CF. "CF" stood for conflict-free, and the site promised that the new phone was exactly like the normal iPhone 4, only it didn't source its minerals from conflict-ridden regions like the Democratic Republic of Congo, thereby fueling atrocities there," David Zax wrote. Apple quickly got the group's website host to take down the site. Mother Jones points out the group was not really targeting Apple, as their press releases says, "Although Apple does have plans to certify its materials as conflict-free, this will by no means be any sort of solution to the situation of conflict in the Congo, nor in any way help bring an end to that conflict. Rather, the solution must be based in diplomacy."


Birthdays
Nov. 22 birthdays include Charles de Gaulle, Terry Gilliam, and Sandy Alderson.

Greg Dedrick of The Columbia Paper reported on Saturday that coaches in the Patroon Conference and the Central Hudson Valley League announced their selections for All Conference Soccer awards over the past week.

"The names of both the boys' and girls' teams were released for the Patroon while just the boy's were available for the C.H.V.L. Coaches in the Class B Football Reinfurt Division, the division Hudson plays in, announced their All League selections as well," Dedrick writes. "Maple Hill's Steve Sepowski was named the most valuable player in the Patroon Conference, while local players Hector Chavez of Hudson, Alex Mierejewski of Taconic Hills and Cody Clifford and Will Gauthier, both of Chatham, were named to the First Team.

The report goes on to note that Roodley Dorce of Hudson, Ian Rasweiler of Taconic Hills and Evan Young of Chatham all made Second Team. On the girls' side it was another Maple Hill player, Meeghan Arno, taking home the M.V.P. award. Cailey Nieto, Abby Wheeler and Regina Behn of Chatham all made First Team and were joined by Taconic Hill's Janine Ham.

On the second team were Brittany Lossow and Janelle Wallace of Chatham and Jackie Hall of Hudson. In the C.H.V.L. New Lebanon senior Mike Gavrity was named the league's M.V.P. Fellow Tigers Ben Burgess, a defender, and Kyle McHugh, a midfielder, made First Team. New Lebanon's Todd Ferguson and Ben Cassavaugh both were named to the Second Team and were joined by Germantown's Julio Rodriguez.

In the Reinfurt Division Hudson had a number of players named to both the First and Second teams. Tayron Bryant earned honors as First Team running back on offense, also as defensive back and return man for Special teams. Larell Roberts was named a First Team Defensive Lineman and was joined on the defense by Linebackers Cody Williams and Brian McSween. On the second team were Avery Ferrusi at running back, Mavist Fredrick at wide receiver and linebacker and Brian McSween at tight end.

ALBANY - While many continue to eye Alaska for newsworthy post-election battles, some of the biggest fights involved in our collective political hangover from November 2 are right here in New York State. And the Hudson Valley. Furthermore, with the State Senate lying in the lurch as recounts mount and lawsuits line up, even Governor-elect has stepped up to the plate to ask that things be settled, either way, sooner than later for the state's health.

Simultaneously, many notable poll watchers, as well as politicos of all stripes, are blaming the state's recent shift from lever machines to electronic voting for many of the problems now being sorted through.

On the statewide level, the big bugaboo in the balance is the state Senate, long Republican held, more recently Democratic by a slim 32-30 margin, and now teetering mightily. According to the Associated Press, via the Albany Times Union, incumbent Democratic senators Craig Johnson of Long Island and Antoine Thompson of Erie County are trailing as absentee ballots are being counted while Westchester Democrat Suzi Oppenheimer has a slight lead... and that's not counting a nailbiter in Dutchess County where the lead seems to be shifting daily, by a coiuple hundred votes, as absentees are getting counted between incumbent Democrat Frank Skartados and his Republican challenger Thomas Kirwan, who was closely defeated two years ago. All four Democratic incumbents must be re-elected for Democrats to obtain the majority.

On Thursday, Nov. 18, New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman set deadlines for settling court challenges in the three close state Senate races, not including Skartados-Kirwan, that requires trial court rulings by Dec. 6, midlevel court reviews by Dec. 15 and hearings at the top Court of Appeals by Dec. 20.
Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo requested prompt action in a speech on Wednesday to avoid a Senate without a functioning majority come Jan. 5, when the state's next legislative session starts.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats in recent days laid the groundwork for legal motions to count every paper ballot cast and read by an optical scanning machine based on problems reading electronic "memory sticks" in Erie County. Republicans say the request does not meet necessary legal thresholds, and they note standard audits of 3 percent of the scanners have not shown irregularities.

In the Skartados-Kirwan race, according to Kingston Daily Freeman reporter William Kemble writes today that Orange County Board of Elections officials yesterday announced revised vote totals that gave Kirwan a 207-vote lead over incumbent Democrat Frank Skartados in the race for the state’s 100th Assembly District seat. Before the tally of Orange County absentee ballots, Kirwan had a 110-vote lead. However,
Dutchess, the other county in the 100th District, was to begin tallying 545 absentee ballots and 202 affidavit ballots only Friday afternoon, Nov. 19, where in Election Day machine votes, Skartados led Kirwan, 5,781-3,129.

Kirwan, who lives in the Orange County town of Newburgh, was in the Assembly for seven two-year terms before being unseated by Skartados in the 2008 election by a vote of 22,490 to 21,578 led by demographic shifts in Dutchess County that have been shifting that part of the valley more Democratic.

On the congressional level, the Times Union reported this week that two House races remain too close to call, with Democrats Tim Bishop in the 1st Congressional District and Dan Maffei in the 25th District having now gone to court requesting hand re-counts of the paper ballots.

On Long Island, Bishop had a 3,400 vote lead on election night and was declared the winner after poll workers called results into the local election board. But a miscount was discovered later, giving Republican Randy Altschuler a lead of about 400 votes. In the Syracuse-area 25th District, where Republican Ann Marie Buerkle leads Maffei by about 700 votes, state Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph ruled last week that each side may inspect all the absentee ballot applications. A legal request is in for a hand recount.

Unlike many states, New York law does not trigger a re-count even if the margin between two candidates is wafer thin. Some states require a re-count if the margin is less than half a percent. Instead, every county is required to audit three percent of its new voting machines to identify any discrepancies in the voting results. Counties involved in the close races are completing their audits now, and none has reported any major problems, dimming the chances that a judge would grant a re-count.

Meanwhile, in the wide and strangely gerrymandered 22nd Congressional District, which stretches from the Hudson River to west of Binghamton, Republican George Phillips finally conceded to U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey on Friday, Nov. 19, even though he trailed Hinchey, D-Hurley, by about 8,200 votes. Phillips, a Binghamton high school history teacher who also lost to Hinchey two years ago before remaking himself as a Tea Party favorite this year, claimed that with some 12,000 absentee ballots still to be counted following the election, he "wanted to make sure every vote was counted."

Hinchey’s lead at the end of Election Night was 90,412 to 82,202, or 52.4 percent to 47.6 percent.

HUDSON VALLEY... As legendary anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott spoke at Troy's Sanctuary for Independent Media on November 13, the big subject on many Capital area media- and nuclear-watch minds was the late October radioactive leak from Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory into the Mohawk River at its Niskayuna site, and what went wrong with supposedly tight reporting procedures that ended up seeing municipalities along the Mohawk that use the river for their drinking water, as well as along the Hudson River, having no idea for over a week that their drinking water supply might have been contaminated.

"Instead, the public is left with an unsettling 'who-shoulda-done-it' following an Oct. 25 incident," noted the Albany Times Union in an editorial this past Tuesday, indicating how this story will now likely roll along, if there's anyone left in state govenment to follow it. "Knolls apparently thought the U.S. Energy Department would tell someone. The state Department of Environmental Conservation thought the state Department of Health would do it. So no one did."

Brian Nearing of the Times Union reported on November 8 that hundreds of gallons of radioactive water from a cleanup at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory spilled from a drainage pipe into the Mohawk River last month, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. A failed sump pump system caused about 630 gallons of tainted water --
containing Cesium-137, Strontium-90, uranium and plutonium -- to
overflow into a culvert draining directly into the river, DEC
reported.

DEC regional spokesman Rick Georgeson said the water came from storm drainage caused by heavy rains Oct. 25 at the River Road site, where a cleanup of pollution left behind by Cold War-era nuclear weapons
research has been going on since 2008.

Nearing reported on Nov. 13 that Knolls began a cleanup of radioactive soil, which covers about five of the facility's 170 acres along the Mohawk River, including two buildings, in 2008. The spill, he noted, dates to the early 1950s, when the federal government researched nuclear weaponry via a unit that was operational for less than three years before closing in 1953.. In December 2007, the federal Depart. of Energy awarded a $69 million cleanup contract to Washington Group International of Oak Ridge, Tenn. In April 2009, the federal government announced a $32 million stimulus grant to help pay for the cleanup.

Although calls to Bechtel-managed Knolls have gone unreturned in recent weeks, the entity's spokeswoman, Anne LaRoche, earlier said in a release that the lab was taking measures to ensure the incident isn't repeated, including the addition of sump-pump monitors on the main control panel and the addition of a collector tank in case another pump failure occurs. In addition, the facility will in future treat its tainted water offsite, rather than treating it at Knolls and discharging it into the Mohawk.

"We learned about the leak when we read about it in the newspaper," the Times Union quoted John Frazer, superintendent of the Latham Water District. "No one from Knolls called us. This left us in a very awkward position."
Officials in the city of Cohoes, which also relies on the Mohawk River for drinking water further downriver from Latham, also did not receive warnings about the Oct. 25 leak, with state officials maintaining the amount of radiation was too small to present a health risk. Warnings about leaks at Knolls allow officials in the Latham Water District, which serves about 80,000 residential customers, a chance to switch its water supply from the Mohawk to a series of wells. The drinking water intakes are about 1.5 miles downriver from Knolls.
Frazer said Knolls officials blamed the lack of a heads-up this time on the U.S. Energy Department.

DEC Regional Director John Kelly suggested that DEC officials thought the state Health Department, which accompanied DEC officials to investigate the leak, would call the Albany County Health Department, which would in turn alert Latham and Cohoes.
"So from now on, we will notify the locals, who may end up being notified twice," said Kelly. "We are changing our protocols so something like this will not happen again.".

"This is a little gray area," said Health Department spokesman John Constantakes. "I am not saying it was our responsibility, but we will look this over and see if we should be alerting people in every possible instance."

Constantakes added that tests of the stream bed where the leak had traveled through on its way to the Mohawk found only "trace elements of radioactivity" that did not present a health risk, which led the Health Department to conclude it was unnecessary to notify local officials.

Elsewhere, in nuclear waste matters in the wider region, the Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire reported that the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was shut down the first week in November so officials could investigate a radioactive leak of about 60 drops per minute into a floor drain in the plant, then through pumps that recirculated it into the plant's systems. Vermont Yankee later reported on Nov. 11 that repairs were successful and they were back "on the grid."

Farther down the Hudson this month, the ever-controversial Indian Point had its 1,020-megawatt Indian Point 2 reactor shut down by owners Entergy Corp. on November 7, according to Bloomberg News, after a transformer explosion, according to a report from the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Riverkeeper and other clean water advocates have since called for investigations.