[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Wes Gillingham. Photo from Stroud Water Research Center."][/caption]WGXC volunteer Sam Sebren recorded all sorts of sounds and speakers at the SnowFlow festival last weekend down in Ulster County at the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian. At the event's dinner, Sebren recorded Catskill Mountainkeeper Program Director Wes Gillingham who spoke about the organization which recently opened a Woodstock office (and is holding an open house Feb. 26). Gillingham also revealed that Catskill Mountainkeeper and other environmental groups are organizing a large-scale protest against hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction on April 11 at New York's capitol. Click here to listen to the recording Sebren made.

The Mayoral election in Philmont Tue. March 15 features Brian J. Wheeler (who graduated from Taconic High in 1990) of the Change Party against incumbent Clarence V. Speed of the People’s Party. Douglas C. Cropper of the Village Party and Laurence J. Ostrander of the Pine Hill Party, both current Trustees, will be re-elected to two-year-terms as the only candidates running. Voting will take place at the Village Hall Assembly Room between noon and 9 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued a High Wind Warning for Western Greene County through Saturday night at midnight. Winds will be from the, "Northwest, 20 to 40 mph with gusts 55 to 65 mph. Gusts up to 70 mph possible across the Eastern Catskills," according to the NWS.

Rick Karlin of the Times Union reports that in answer to state Senate Republicans recent moves to redistrict New York in its own interests, Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered a bill on February 17 to reform the partisan practice of gerrymandering, or letting lawmakers draw legislative districts that work to their advantage. Cuomo's Redistricting Reform Act of 2011 would set up a system that aims to appoint what it describes as a non-partisan commission to perform the once-in-a-decade task of redrawing legislative boundaries that conform to population changes outlined in the U.S. Census. The new 11-person Independent Redistricting Commission as envisioned by Cuomo would draw up legislative as well as congressional districts. Furthermore, the plan conforms to the concept laid out by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch through his New York Uprising group, which Cuomo and a majority of lawmakers last fall pledged to support. And whose possibility of non-support led Koch to suggest he'd starting setting state legislators pants ablaze should they renege on their promises. Now to see how this plays out, and whether Cuomo will actually have to veto some plan coming out of the Senate's Republican majority.

John Mason of the Register-Star has two stories up about the deepening budget talks at Taconic Hills School District, which held a board meeting on February 16. In one, he focuses on a recent speech by District Superintendent Mark Sposato, who put teachers squarely at the center of his budget presentation by talking about individual teachers' salaries and suggesting means of working through better union contracts, going so far as to charge that the district’s secondary teachers work 3.3 hours a day, a claim that was hotly contested by teachers in the audience, who said their tasks include more than just classroom teaching hours. Sposato said he was responding to media questions about his own rate of pay, which was ranked sixth out of 93 among all superintendents in the Capital Region, while the Taconic teachers’ was ranked 91st, with an average of $41,430, one fifth of what Sposato owns. Mason's second story, Mason reports on administrative discussions of how state aid cuts will effect Taconic Hills, which Sposato says will mean cuts of approximately $2.3 million from the current year’s budget in the coming year. Specifics, which have included talk of dropping kindergarten classes, all music and art, and most sports in other districts, have yet to be addressed.

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[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Greene County Legislature Majority Leader Keith Valentine, a local insurance broker, is charged, along with his wife, with serving accohol to minors at a party at his home last summer. Photo from Greene County governmental website. "][/caption]This is a sticky story getting stickier the closer we come to the November elections. Colin DeVries of the Daily Mail reports that Greene County Majority Leader Keith Valentine and his wife Cynthia have not yet resolved the criminal case against them from last summer, when they were charged with a local law violation for allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors on their property during a July Fourth party. They were also charged with unlawfully dealing with a child, a misdemeanor. The case, being heard in Hunter Town Court, has been delayed again after Cynthia Valentine retained her own attorney in the matter. In December, a special prosecutor from Columbia County presented a plea deal that would dismiss the misdemeanor charge if the Valentines had pleaded guilty to the alcohol violation but neither Valentine has responded to the deal. DeVries reports that Richard Mott, the attorney representing Mr. Valentine, a Republican legislator for Catskill, said a new plea bargain has been proposed but he was not at liberty to discuss it at this time. Judge William Simon said of the matter that he expected, “the next you’re going to hear is if there is going to be a plea or if we’re going to go to jury trial.” The Valentines were charged Aug. 20, 2010 after a state police investigation was requested by the Greene County District Attorney’s Office after a Catskill resident made a complaint. State police found that beer was made readily available to teens at a July Fourth celebration, which, according to police, was a joint high school graduation celebration for the Valentines’ daughter. Valentine, who comes up for reelection this year, was among the legislators in 2007 who supported adoption of the local law prohibiting the consumption of alcohol by minors.

The ongoing Ulster County story involving charges that cops in the Kingston city police department have been double-dipping on expense claims just got regionally interesting as the Daily Freeman runs with a story about how the FBI's now gotten interested, and expanded their scope to include the county-wide URGENT anti-drug task force that had been gaining popularity as a possible model for other Hudson Valley counties. According to city beat reporter Paul Kirby, the FBI is now conducting a wide-ranging investigation of the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team, which used to be led by now-suspended Kingston police Detective Lt. Timothy Matthews... who was suspended after being charged with stealing $9,000 from the city and later was accused of double dipping by charging both the city and the Kingston school district for simultaneous work. Ulster County Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum and Kingston Mayor James Sottile said on Feb. 17 that large amounts of documents have been subpoenaed by the federal law-enforcement agency from the Sheriff’s Office, the city police department and City Hall. The mayor said that the FBI's interest in URGENT may be related to the task force’s use of federal money provided to the crime-fighting effort by the city of Kingston, which has provided $45,000 in federal Entitlement Program to URGENT, some of it to buy drugs from suspected dealers. Mayor Sottile urged local residents not to jump to any conclusion as a result of the FBI subpoenas.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Columbia County plans for the old Wal Mart in Greenport's new use as a home for couty agencies, as seen on the Gossips of Rivertown website."][/caption]Both Francesca Olsen of the Register-Star and Carole Osterink of Gossips of Rivertown have stories on the early morning February 16 meeting of the Columbia County Capital Resource Corporation where the CRC selected New York City-based Urbahn Associates to complete Part 1 of its space needs assessment/efficiency study regarding county office space, including a proposal to move county services, including the Department of Social Services, from the City of Hudson to the old Wal-Mart building in Greenport. The CRC’s $78,000 pending contract with Urbahn will result in a professional analysis of Columbia County’s space needs, including which county departments are interdependent and therefore must be located together and a comparison of two to three different office space options. It will also pointedly include an analysis of the former Walmart property on Fairview Avenue in Greenport and its feasibility for multi-departmental office space.


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The study is expected to be completed May 1, although CRC Executive Director/County Commissioner of Planning and Economic Development Ken Flood said the contract depends on “being able to secure financing from the Board of Supervisors.”
For Olsen's cut and dried account of what happened at the meeting, click here.
For Osterink's more in-depth analysis of what's at stake, click here.

The Town of Athens has finally decided, after several years of back and forth, to do what the state wants all our municipalities to do, but few have the political courage to actually conduct a town wide revaluation of its tax assessments to get everyone on the same fair scale. And according to the story in the Daily Mail story by Melanie Lekocevic, this was after the same town board declined to vote on the same motion several weeks ago. The resolution last Monday, Feb. 14 was adopted by a 4-1 margin, with only Town Councilwoman April Paluch dissenting. The way the reval will occur is that most of Athens' commercial properties will be assessed by an outside firm, while residential properties would be reassessed by the town's assessor.

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Town officials stressed that a reval would not change the amount of taxes that are collected, but would ensure each property owner is paying their fair share, and hopefully eliminate worries about "welcome stranger" practices that see newcomers paying more of the local tax load than longtime residents. One caveat, though: it was stressed at the meeting on Feb. 16 that the resolution for a reval would not obligate the town to actually perform the revaluation, or to pay any particular fee to do so. The idea was to make it possible to put the job out to bid, with proposals now due to the town at the end of March. Which just goes to show how worrying revals still seem to everyone and in particular those who might surmise that what they're paying now isn't what they really should be paying.

HTC supt. says Cuomo’s budget looks dim
Jim Planck of the Daily Mail has a piece about the school budget woes hitting Hunter-Tannersville in Greene County, where called the cut to state aid for schools — $1.5 billion — is “the largest proposed cut within the history of State Education.” And that's before they got to property tax caps... and more talk of possible district mergers and major services and teachers cuts.

Cops nab alleged firehouse burglars
It turns out the crimes of the recent holiday season were not systemic, or a new trend. Andrew Amelinckx in The Register Star reports that police have nabbed two men for burglarizing the Mellenville Firehouse: Robert E. Perez, an ex-con already facing felony charges after an alleged car chase in January, and Lellan Smith, a parolee who was recently arrested for the armed robbery of a Hillsdale convenience store.

Tractor trailer fire on Thruway
This is largely visual: a flaming truck on the side of the Thruway between exits 24 and 25 from Bryan Fitzgerald at the Times Union.

Dispute arises over legitimacy of sewer claims
Doron Tyler Antrim in The Daily Mail has a story about how some fines OK'd by the Cairo Town Board last month are now being questioned as a possibly illegal move. It all relates back to operating cost overruns based on shrinking budget shares for local municipalities.

Non-profit group seeks new image for Opus 40
Harvey Fite's bluestone masterpiece in Ulster County is written about in the Daily Freeman by Ariel Zangla-Girard after a political battle broke out on whether the town of Saugerties should have gotten involved in saving the cultural attraction. Now it turns out a new non-profit is getting $400,000 to help purchase the place, and fundraising is underway to make it a first class museum and tourist attraction. Still, some say government should have let it go...

Battling the giant hogweed
The Watershed Post blog has the best headline of the day with a piece by Julia Reischel about the state Department of Environmental Conservation's look to hire hogweed wranglers, particularly in the western half of the state, to eradicate the growing weed, otherwise known as wild parsnips.

The National Weather Service says today will be cloudy with occasional showers. High 53F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Tonight will have partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Low 32F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Possibility of snow showers tomorrow!

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 2:42 p.m./Low, 9:37 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 6:47 a.m./5:31 p.m.
MOONSET/MOONRISE 6:33 a.m./6:21 p.m. (and what a thrilling moon last night!)

Birthdays
FEBRUARY 18 Louis Comfort Tiffany, Helen Gurley Brown, Yoko Ono, John Travolta, and Irma Thomas.

Congressman Chris Gibson is not claiming any credit, but is crowing that the Environmental Protection Agency indicated Wednesday that they won't treat spilled milk under the same rules that govern oil spills. Gibson met with EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck Wednesday Feb. 16 to discuss a host of issues affecting the 20th Congressional District, including EPA dairy regulations. The EPA proposed to regulate milk because it contains a certain percentage of animal fat, which is a non-petroleum oil, and thus would be covered under the Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure program. Dairy farmers would have been responsible for developing a spill prevention plan for milk equivalent to an oil spill prevention plan. But that is not going to happen.


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“Far too often, federal regulations have increased the cost of doing business and destroyed jobs. A prime example of this are these proposed EPA regulations, which dairy farmers across the 20th District have told me would decrease their profitability at a time when they are already struggling," Gibson said, in a statement. "This was a key topic at my Agriculture Advisory Committee meeting, and I have cosponsored legislation that would prevent this regulation. Thus, I was pleased to hear today that the EPA is empathetic to the plight of dairy farmers and will exempt them from these regulations when they are finalized this Spring."

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Wayne Speenburgh, Greene County Legislature Chairman"][/caption]Colin DeVries in The Daily Mail has a story about Greene County Legislature Chairman Wayne Speenburgh delivering his State of the County address Wednesday night, February 16. He defined 2010 as a “very challenging year” and predicted that 2011 could also be “challenging” even though “the worst may be over.” According to the story in The Daily Mail, Speenburgh, R-Coxsackie, announced that in the next 45 days, a program to further reduce spending will be introduced, noting the county faces a $5 million budget shortfall due to state aid reductions and the “increases in cost to maintain our workforce.” More importantly, the county head went after state mandates, which make up 75 percent of the county’s spending, but which also include a number of key civil service elements from standardized pay and insurance requirements to a variety of required social services. For 2010, according to DeVries, Speenburgh noted the completion of several significant infrastructure improvements, including the county courthouse, the seven-bay garage near the emergency control center in Cairo, the 911 computer-aided dispatch system, and the Greene County Visitor Center at the I-87 Thruway interchange in Catskill.


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He added that a new four-season destination campaign and family resorts has been implemented to bolster tourism in the county. Challenges for the year, Speenburgh said, included identifying savings in the county’s solid waste program, developing alternatives to incarceration in the county jail, and mitigating state mandate impacts. He further noted that the proposed 2 percent property tax cap would have “a disastrous impact on all counties” if it was not coupled with mandate relief.

Melanie Lekocevic in The Daily Mail reports about yet another town reconsidering its snow law in the face of actual snow this winter. In Athens, Town Attorney Tal Rappleyea, "is expected to draft a new law for the village at the board’s next meeting," Lekocevic writes, then quotes Village Mayor Andrea Smallwood saying, “Our attorney... thinks the law that is on the books in Catskill works well.” They may want to sit in on the Public Hearing Feb. 28 in the Meeting Room of the Catskill Fire Department that will reconsider Snow Emergency parking regulations in that town.

NL board holds off filling fifth seat
Paul Crossman in The Chatham Courier writes that the New Lebanon Town Board on Monday Feb. 14 decided to leave their fifth seat vacant until November elections. After a 30-minute executive session, Town Supervisor Margaret Robertson was not happy. “I was not comfortable with that decision,” Robertson told the Courier after the meeting. “I believe that having a fifth voice on the board could offset a tie vote, as well as offer a fifth perspective on the issues, but the rest of the board felt that we could manage our issues with only three board members and me.”

Ancram seeks volunteer workers to build place to play
Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper reports the Ancram Youth Commission plans a “community build” of a new town playground on the Town Hall property the weekend of April 29-May 1, with the grand opening set for May 4.

It's a whole new place to play
Jim Planck in The Daily Mail reports that Town of Catskill officials began discussion of the future of Ricky Cramer Memorial Field Wednesday night, following announcement by Town Councilman Kevin Lennon that he had just received notice from Catskill Babe Ruth representatives that they were no longer able to continue leasing the field.

End of the line for city trolley
Jamie Larson is back in The Register-Star, but he reports the Hudson trolley will end Feb. 28, replaced on March 1 with four new stops in Hudson along the Columbia County Transport Hudson-Greenport bus line.

Mental Health asks for salary hikes
Francesca Olsen in The Register-Star reports the Columbia County department asks for specific pay hikes for certain professional positions hard to fill. Will it hold, given the climate against paying anyone with government funds these days?

The National Weather Service says today will be partly cloudy with times of sun and clouds. High 54F. Winds light and variable. Tonight partly cloudy skies during the evening giving way to a few showers after midnight and tomorrow. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Town meetings tonight
ANCRAM Board meeting with public hearings beforehand on raising property tax exemption levels at 7 p.m. in town hall on CR 7.
CHATHAM Town Board Meeting at 7 p.m. town hall, 488 State Route 295, Chatham.
COPAKE Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting at 7:30 p.m., Town Hall.
DURHAM Town board meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Town Building, 7309 State Rt. 81, East Durham.
GHENT Public Hearing before the Town Board of the Town of Ghent, to be held at the Ghent Town Hall, Route 66, Ghent, New York, on February 17, 2011 at 7:15 p.m. to consider a Resolution which would raise the maximum amount of yearly income for real property tax exemption for persons sixty-five (65) years of age or over from $26,000.00 to an amount not to exceed $29,000.00, and to consider an increase in the yearly income ceilings for partial exemptions for persons with yearly income greater than this amount, but less than an amount to be established by the Town Board which amount will be no greater than $37,399.00. 7:15 p.m. at Ghent Town Hall, 2306 State Route 66. Ghent.
VALATIE Neighborhood Watch Meeting at 7 p.m. at Barnwell
WINDHAM board meeting 8 p.m. at Town Hall, Hensonville.
COLUMBIA COUNTY Public Safety Committee meeting at 6 p.m.

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 1:55 p.m./Low, 8:51 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 6:49 a.m./5:29 p.m.
MOONSET/MOONRISE 6:01 a.m./5:03 p.m.

Birthdays
FEBRUARY 17 Lola Montez, Chaim Potok, Michael Jordan, Billie Joe Armstrong.

Tune in today
WGXC MORNING SHOW Mark Lacoy and Casson Kennedy host with reports from Stockport, Albany, Ulster County, Hudson, and other towns, with Catskill Mountainkeeper's Program Director, Paul Smart's phone call, and more. 6-8 a.m.
TELL IT LIKE IT IS The Tell It Like It Is crew welcomes the author of Cancer Kickin Warrior, Inez Whitehead-Dickens, and Samaritan Hospital oncology nurse, Barbara McHale to talk about cancer survivor support services. Your calls, with comments or questions, are welcome starting at 11 a.m. 518-828-0290.
CROSSROADS Alan Skerrett's weekly jazz-and-more show, noon-2 p.m.
THE JAZZ DISTURBANCE Cheryl K's weekly jazz show, 7-9:30 p.m.
1969 The Magic Stranger takes you back to the Summer of '69. 9:30 p.m.-midnight.

Eric Anderson in the Albany Times-Union reports airlines are adding nine flights to Albany Airport, though no new locations are being added. Cleveland, Chicago, and Detroit each add an additional flight per day, Baltimore adds two, and Boston adds four. Cape Air, United, and US Airways Express are among the carriers involved. The story also says U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer claims he's trying to convince JetBlue to fly to the airport. "I would like nothing more than to see JetBlue come to Albany," he said Wednesday in the Times-Union. "I have tried to convince them many times, and I mention it to them every chance I get."

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Claverack Creek at Stottville, as seen in an image from upstateearth.com"][/caption]Mike McCagg in CCScoop has a piece up about how a proposal to construct a power plant on Claverack Creek in the town of Stockport has resurfaced after the developer put the brakes on the thing last year. The project consists of using the existing 16-foot-high, 170-foot-long Stottville Mill Dam, located under County Route 20/Atlantic Avenue where the road crosses the Claverack Creek, and the existing 305-kilowatt turbine to produce electricity with the aid of a new 145-kilowatt turbine-generator in a new powerhouse. The plan also calls for the construction of a 13.2-kilovolt transmission line, approximately 200 feet long, from the powerhouse to a nearby main distribution line on the grid.

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According to the story, Claverack Creek LLC submitted a new preliminary permit request earlier this year with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study the feasibility of the proposed power plant project on County Route 20. The project was first proposed last year, but last fall William Fay, one of the principals in Claverack Creek LLC, said that his company was dropping plans for the project “because of the modest revenues that are generated from power plants at this time.” The company allowed last year’s application to expire and efforts last month to re-open that application was denied by FERC Commissioners Jon Wellinghoff, Marc Spitzer and John Norris in a decision dated January 20. Town of Stockport officials said earlier this month that they were unaware of any activities taking place with regards to the project. According to the Federal Register, a 60-day comment period on the permit request started February 11, with comments being accepted by FERC at the following address: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington.

MidHudsonNews.com reports that the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court Wednesday voted 4-0 to declare Republican Thomas Kirwan the winner in the 100th District State Assembly race. He defeated Democratic incumbent Frank Skartados of Milton, who held the seat for the last two years, by a final tally of under 15 votes, with 58 tossed by the court and dozens more never qualified for counting. The Appellate Court will now ask the Supreme Court justice handling the case to certify the results with the boards of elections since the district is comprised of portions of Orange, Dutchess and Ulster counties. The fact of the extra seat for the GOP means it will now be harder for the assembly to override any vetoes by Governor Andrew Cuomo, as is expected on the Property Tax Cap issue, if it ever gets an Assembly vote. “Winning is better than losing,” Kirwan told MidHudsonNews.com.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="216" caption="The Greene County Courthouse, built in 1909, was recently renovated by state order, to the tune of $14 million. The county thought it had saved $1.5 million on the job but is now questioning $57,000 in new expenses."][/caption]Colin DeVries in The Daily Mail reports that the Greene County legislature's Building and Grounds committee halted movement of a two-year-old county courthouse renovation change order this week because they, "are unclear about why costs weren’t covered by the original contract awarded in 2008." Last spring, the Greene County Courthouse was re-opened after being closed since summer 2008 for state-mandated renovations. The county budgeted $14 million in bonds to cover costs that ended up coming under budget for to the tune of $1.5 million, according to Legislative Chairman Wayne Speenburgh (R-Coxsackie). Now confusing legislators is $51,221 in a construction change order, mostly having to do with electrical issues including, "an additional switch, additional fire alarms, gate changes and added voice and data cables."


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Legislator Karen Deyo, R-Catskill, asked specifically about the presence of four storage trailers at $150 each on the change order list. The last change orders of 2010, which included additional bluestone work and modifications to a family court window, were awarded during the holiday season without much ado. Meanwhile, exterior work continues at the courthouse for a sally port between the rear of the courthouse and the county jail, allowing for a gated passage for prisoners from the jail to the courthouse. And an open house and dedication of the newly renovated century-old structure is being planned for late spring.