[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Sunset Motel, Greenport, seen before it was utilized for housing the county's homeless population. "][/caption]The disparity between the actual plight of the poor and the procedural difficulties of caring for those in need, while also maintaining local housing standards, reared its troublesome head at a Hudson public hearing earlier this week on February 6, when a new local law which would strengthen the language of the definition of “transitional service facility” and “transitional service facility resident” in the city code was discussed and Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera used the occasion to spit some nails at the county Department of Social Services. Lindsay Suchow and Kate Mostaccio of the Register-Star report how things came to a head when the owner of a residence denied use as an official "transitional home" due to zoning constraints housed three homeless men, moved in from county-subsidized rooms at the Sunset Motel on Route 9 in Greenport. Scalera raised issue with the fact that DSS was giving housing money to clients without checking where they were moving to, while County Department of Social Services Commissioner Paul Mossman explained the difference between aid for those considered homeless, who are given temporary emergency housing, usually in motels or specified housing, and cash assistance grants that are given to individuals on public assistance programs, such as the county’s Safety Net where living expenses are at the recipient's discretion, and often not considerable given that the grants are only $350 to $360 a month. The emphasis, Mossman added, is to get people to share apartments when possible, which seems to have been the case in the situation Scalera was referring to at the recent hearing. Things rose to the present situation, the Mayor added, when numerous nopise complaints with the police led to eviction notices for the three men in question, at least according to what he heard. He called the whole kit and kaboodle "evidence of the dysfunctional relationship between the city and the county when it comes to housing the homeless," at least according to the two reporters. “This was an arrogant, in-your-face move by the county." Fortunately, no one seems to have used the term NIMBY anywhere in the hot talk on a chilly evening.

The Daily Mail reports that the lawsuit filed against Catskill Central School District, the Board of Education, and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Farrell by former Catskill High School Principal William Ball IV alleging improper termination has been decided in favor of the district. Ball was placed on leave by CSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Farrell on Jan. 28, 2010, for undisclosed reasons, and the BOE subsequently formally suspended “Employee No. 4” in an 8-0 vote at its Feb. 24 meeting.


Continued...

Ball’s last official day of employment with the district was June 30, 2010. In his petition before State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi, Ball sought reinstatement to the position and back pay since his leaving, stating his belief that his termination was “in bad faith and a subterfuge.” Ball has said he believes it stemmed in part from his actions as President of the Catskill Administrators Association — the negotiating unit that represents administrators at the district. The district said it was not, but was based on a need for “restructuring” — meaning to downsize — because of the economy, and that Ball’s termination was mirrored by other staff during the same action. The judge Terisi agreed with the district, writing, “Because Petitioner (Ball) failed to demonstrate that Respondents’ termination of his position was made in bad faith, his petition is denied.”

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Aerial photograph of Hudson taken February 7 by Daniel Nilsson of DA|BA. "][/caption]Both the Register-Star and The Gossips of Rivertown have reports on the Hudson Common Council meeting that took place on Monday, February 7, where a number of grievances were heard about the snow emergencies this winter, parking fines, and removal of the white stuff from city streets. The Gossip's Carole Osterink spoke at the meeting about what she called “Draconian” measures of enforcing snow emergency violations, and how several of her neighbors on Allen St. were ticketed twice, and some cars were towed just 15 minutes before the most recent snow emergency was over.

Continued...

Alderman Abdus Miah, D-Hudson 2, agreed that the snow emergency situation in Hudson was “a mess,” and that he, too, had been ticketed throughout the ordeal. Wagoner said he had dozens of constituents calling him during the last snowstorm, and agreed that “our signs are not understandable.” Mayor Rick Scalera noted that the snow emergency laws have been in effect in the city since 1996. "This year went from little-or-no enforcement to very strict enforcement,” he said. “You’re either going to enforce the snow emergency law or take it off the books.” According to the RS, Time and Space Limited owner Linda Mussmann further noted that the snow has made Columbia St. nearly impassable to tractor trailers.

The Daily Mail's Colin DeVries has a story about how Greene County has retreated from a renaming of its mental health facility to the “Greene County Center for Behavioral Wellness” after about a year of the new title. The facility is again called the Greene County Mental Health Center, and Director Margaret Graham is quoted saying that the name change, approved by county lawmakers in January 2010, was originally part of a “stigma campaign” designed to redefine the image of mental health treatment. In a new resolution presented to the county health committee Monday, February 7, it was stated that, “It has become apparent that many people, staff and patients alike, do not find the new name appealing or representative of the services being provided.” Graham, who was not director of the department at the time of the change, said the name “doesn’t lend itself well to the services that we provide... our patients don’t understand it." The resolution will be voted on by the full Greene County Legislature at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 16.

Pulvers suffers another roof collapse
The Register-Star reports that on Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 8, another portion of the roof at Pulver's Glass on Green Street in Hudson caved in, doubling the damage to the 90 year old building next to the Chinese buffet. A spaghetti dinner benefit has been planned for he Historic Blue Store restaurant in Livingston at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18.

$122M Powerball winner comes forward
More than three weeks since the Jan. 22 Powerball drawing, the jackpot winner of a $122 million haul has submitted their ticket to the New York State Division of Lottery, said Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman. The sole jackpot-winning ticket in the multi-state lottery was sold at the Clothespin Laundromat in Catskill but according to the Daily Mail, the identity of the region’s newest millionaire remains a mystery — with the Lottery not revealing gender, age, or residence of the jackpot winner until a later press conference.

Strong-arm robbery arrest in Columbia County
The Times Union has a front page story on the arrest of a man charged with the Hillsdale convenience store robbery that occurred shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve. Lellan Smith, 37, of Philmont, and on parole, was arrested on Monday on a charge of second-degree robbery and is being questioned regarding a number of other break-ins in Claverack and Philmont..

Indian casino appears dead
According to the Mid Hudson News Network, the Wisconsin Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe casino proposed for Sullivan County appears headed for rejection with a lawyer for the tribe saying Interior Department officials told him it was “highly unlikely” that the casino and resort would be approved despite the fact that former governor David Paterson signed a pact with the Stockbridge-Munsees allowing the gaming facility. "bad vibrations."

Jobless rate improves in two-thirds of U.S. metros—Albany not included
The Albany Business Journal has a piece stating that a total of 238 metros registered improvements in their jobless rates last year, according to an analysis of new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nineteen metros were unchanged, while the remaining 115 areas suffered increases in unemployment. Albany saw its jobless rate slip from 6.9 percent in December 2009 to 7.0 percent this past December 2010, a lot better than most... except in the downward trend of the numbers.

The National Weather Service says today says on and off snow flurries are possible, along with variably cloudy skies. High 28F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Snow flurries or snow showers tonight, as well. Low 12F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. The chances of precipitation, though, are close to 30 percent.

Town meetings tonight
VILLAGE OF ATHENS meets at 6:30 p.m at the Athens Community Center, 2 First St., Athens
COLUMBIA COUNTY holds a full Board of Supervisors meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at 401 State St. in Hudson.
CITY OF HUDSON Planning Committee meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Astronomical bodies

TIDES Hudson: High, 7:09 p.m./Low, 1:17 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:00 a.m./5:19 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 9:29 a.m./none

Birthdays
FEBRUARY 9 Alban Berg, Carole King, Alice Walker, Thomas Paine, and John Walker Lindh.

Alban Plotkin of Catskill and Pamela Wallace of Germantown were named recipients of the 2011 Individual Artist regrant awards through the Community Arts Grants Decentralization Program for Columbia and Greene Counties (DEC) from the Greene County Council on the Arts and Columbia County Council on the Arts.


Continued...

Plotkin holds a B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design and creates in electronic assemblage, installation, mixed-media, and paint. Most of his recognition as an artist has been achieved here in the Hudson Valley through solo and juried exhibition at galleries such as the Wilder (Catskill), the Wright (Kingston), and UpFront Art (Kingston). In 2003 Plotkin was invited to participate in the Rhine-Hudson Bridge Artists’ Exchange in Cologne, Germany. The $2,000 DEC award will enable him to undertake “The Nature of Paint and The Painting of Nature” – ten large-scale abstract oil paintings based on the landscape celebrated by Cole, Church, Durant, and others of the Hudson River School. Wallace holds a M.F.A. in Sculpture and Blacksmithing from Southern Illinois University and a BA in sculpture from Bard College. Selected awards include a NYFA Mark (2010) program invitation and a Dutchess County Arts Council Individual Artist’s Fellowship in Sculpture (2001). Exhibitions include: “Marks that Matter” at the Vanderlyn Gallery (Ulster Community College, 2010), “Sculpture Invitational” at the Kobalt Gallery (Provincetown, MA, 2009), “The New Steel II” at the National Metals Museum (Memphis, TN, 2009) and others. Contrast and rhythmic tension between industrial, and what she describes as “ephemeral,” materials are frequent elements in Wallace’s abstract and provocative compositions. The $2,000 DEC award will support the creation of “Extending off and on the way down” a mixed-media wall installation constructed of cast paper, forged iron, beeswax, and plaster. Finished, the work will be approximately 10’ X 20’ and project 12” from the wall. Studio arts students from Germantown High School will be trained and assist Wallace in casting paper sphere forms and some of the plaster molds.

MOD Gourmet Cafe in Catskill closed down its Main St. location a few months ago, and its no secret they are moving to Hudson. A Public Notice in today's local newspaper has Dana L. Wegener applying to, "sell beer and wine at MOD Restaurant, Inc. in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 20 South Front Street, Hudson, Columbia County." So Hudson's waterfront will have two places to get a cup of coffee.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Albany International Airport"][/caption]Airfares at Albany International Airport rank high among the nation’s 100 largest markets, according to an Albany Business Journal story, which notes that Albany ranked No. 18 with an average domestic third-quarter fare of $384.15, up 14.24 percent from the third quarter of 2009, according to the most recent report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Albany fares have risen 21.75 since 2000, when the average domestic third-quarter fare was $315.51. The average U.S. domestic itinerary fare for the third quarter of 2010 was $339.71, up 10.7 percent. Both the highest and lowest average third-quarter fares were in New Jersey: the highest was $469 in Newark-Liberty and the lowest was $153 in Atlantic City.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Olana Viewshed, as seen on the Rural Intelligence website."][/caption]Who'd have thought that a quadricentennial would last three years? According to the Daily Freeman, the Hudson River Valley Greenway and National Heritage Area programs have announced $50,000 has been awarded to a dozen projects around the region under the Hudson River Valley Quadricentennial Implementation Grant Program, set up to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's "discovery" of the river that bears his name, and Robert Fulton's inauguartion of steamboat travel on it 200 years later, in 2009. A pair of Columbia County projects were awarded money, including $2,500 for the Olana Partnership to hold a symposium to focus on preservation of historic viewsheds and $3,950 for Historic Hudson to host an exhibition allowing viewers to trace the evolution of business and adaptive reuse of architecture on Warren Street in Hudson. Funding also includes $5,000 for SUNY New Paltz’s Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art to produce a catalog documenting an exhibition titled “Made in the Hudson Valley,” which will consist of works from the collections of the Hudson Valley Visual Arts Collections Consortium. Friends of Senate House, which is based in Kingston, got a $2,943 grant to hold an event called “Sustainable Living, 17th and 18th Century Hudson Valley Style.” Highland Landing Park Association Inc., was awarded $3,550 for a water storage and delivery system, including a water storage tank, pump, pressure tank, and necessary piping. In Northern Dutchess, Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Museum was awarded $5,000 to create an experiential interactive display which will focus on the collection’s most significant airplanes. And the town of Hyde Park got a $4,500 grant to construct two kiosks with “interpretive panels” along the northern section of the Hyde Park Heritage Greenway Trail.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Maple syruping, seen here in its traditional format, is traditional activity stretching back to the earliest days of our region."][/caption]The Daily Mail's veteran reporter Jim Planck, a Greene County native, has a sweet story up about the coming maple sugaring season that reaps tasty benefits from the weather fluctuations of February and March temperatures in our region of aged maple trees. "One day it’s 14 degrees, and three days later it’s 37," Planck writes. "When that pattern converts to above freezing during the day, and below at night, it means one thing to certain people — the sap is flowing in maple trees and it’s time to make maple syrup — a process that not only results in a great tasting product, but offers great days outdoors, a healthy, invigorating experience, and even a potential economic boost to the individual family budget. The whole story is predicated by an upcoming workshop taking place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County Agriforestry Center in Greene County's Acra, where Cornell University maple expert Steve Childs will speak about “The Basics of Maple Syrup Production.” Childs conducts applied research in maple production, marketing, and business management and his workshop will include demonstrations and an answer to the question, "Why maple syrup?" The Agroforestry Center is located at 6055 Route 23 in Acra. Registration deadline is Thursday, Feb. 10. For more information, call (518) 622-9820.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Hudson's proposed Local Waterfront Development Program, as seen on the website for its consultants, BFJ Planning."][/caption]Carol Osterink's Gossips of Rivertown is running Hudson Common Council President Don Moore's statement on the subject of the city's long-pending Local Waterfront Development Program (LWRP), which he read at a city council meeting on Monday night, February 7. In it, he anticipates the Council will take the next month to review "responses to the comments" on a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) reviewed last year at this time, then responded to by the city and its consultants. "It can be difficult for any of us to grasp--it certainly steepens my learning curve--just how lengthy, thorough, and demanding this process is. But we are very near the end," Moore said. "Once the Council has determined its course of action on the LWRP, and if it approves, then a Final GEIS and SEQR "Findings" are prepared by the City, the Council then enacts the legislation that carries out the LWRP." Within a few days, Moore added, discussions between the state Department of State and the City may produce a final return date. Follow link for full statement.



Statement by Don Moore, Hudson Common Council President

February 7, 2011

Current Status of the Hudson Local Waterfront Redevelopment Program (LWRP)



Over the past few weeks members of the Common Council and I have been asked for an update on the status of Hudson’s Local Waterfront Development Program (LWRP). Thanks to inquiries to the New York Department of State by members of the Hudson community and from discussions with DOS by the City Attorney, the Mayor, and myself, here is a brief report on where we stand.

By way of background, in 2008 the Common Council issued a “Positive Declaration” under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) and determined that it would conduct a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) . Over the past almost year and a quarter, with the release of the Draft LWRP and Draft GEIS (DGEIS), the Common Council, the public, and affected governments and agencies have examined these two documents. During a formal public comment period from January 21, 2010 to March 15, 2010 opportunity was provided to offer comments in writing and during a public hearing. The comments then required responses by the City. Those responses were drafted by the City’s LWRP consultants and its attorney after discussions with the Common Council last July.


The next step then was for the DOS to review with the City through its attorney the draft comments and responses for conformity with the policies of the Coastal Zone Management Act and SEQR. The DOS review is almost complete. We expect to have the LWRP and the DGEIS returned for final review by the Common Council by the end of February 2011. Within a few days, discussions between DOS and the City may produce a final return date. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I anticipate a month in which the Council will have the opportunity to review responses to the comments on the GEIS and changes to the LWRP based on those comments and then pass judgment on them.

It can be difficult for any of us to grasp -- it certainly steepens my learning curve -- just how lengthy, thorough, and demanding this process is. But we are very near the end. Once the Council has determined its course of action on the LWRP, and if it approves, then a Final GEIS and SEQR "Findings” are prepared by the City, the Council then enacts the legislation that carries out the LWRP and at the same time adopts the final LWRP, and submits the LWRP and SEQR Findings to and awaits approval by the NY Secretary of State.

What then? The City and its partners in the business, environmental, and civic communities begin the work of planning and making the LWRP a reality.





Don Moore

Hudson Common Council President

Onteora schools adopt three-hour delay plan
The Catskill Mountain district has used up all its snow days plus three of its spring vacation days... meaning that from here on in, they'll be simply delaying the start of school in most cases. Look for this to become a trend.

Roof buckles under snow, ice
It may not be as bad as the collapsing barns that have killed cows and chickens throughout the area, or the partial collapse of the sports center up in the Adirondacks, but the buckling of the roof at Pulver’s Glass and Bicycle property on Green Street in Hudson, next door to the Chinese buffet, seriously hinders an almost century-old local business.

Fire reveals pot harvesting operation
After being called in for a house fire, authorities found that the former Baldwin Flowerland property in New Baltimore was the site of an extensive marijuana harvesting operation involving 700 plants, with ownership by a local man and another from Hudson. File this one as a new agriculture story?

What could it be?
Gossips of Rivertown has up a great collection of images of the Hudson Correctional Facility, in the news as one of ten state prisons possibly set for closure, back when it was first the Women's House of Refuge, and later the New York State Girls' Training School.

RPI revives business incubator program, now called Emerging Ventures Ecosystem
Talk about the power of modern semantics... the Albany Business Journal has a piece on the development of an alumni-backed angel investment fund that plans to underwrite startup grants for new businesses and ideas to the tune of $50,000 to $150,000... to create better economic ecosystems, it seems.

The National Weather Service says today will be windy., with snow this morning tapering to flurries this afternoon. Morning high of 34F with temps falling to near 25F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Accumulations of a few inches, except in higher terrains of Western Greene and possibly the Berkshires. Tonight, windy with partly cloudy skies. Low 8F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph.

Town meetings tonight

TOWN OF COXSACKIE Regular meeting second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 16 Reed St., Coxsackie.

The Columbia County Board Calendar is down...

Astronomical bodies

TIDES Hudson: High, 6:29 p.m./Low, 12:35 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:01 a.m./5:18 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 9:02 a.m./11:05 p.m.

Birthdays FEBRUARY 8

Jules Verne,
Elizabeth Bishop, and Neal Cassady.

Senator Charles Schumer is seeking an investigation behind possible price-gouging and collusion among road salt producers. “We’ve had a lot of snow this winter; they have to keep the road clean. Snow removal is something you have to do. It’s about safety,” said Schumer in Kingston on Monday, February 7. “In the past five years, it’s skyrocketed at an unprecedented pace.” In Ulster County road, a Mid Hudson News Service story on the announcement noted, salt prices have increased 40 percent in five years and 25 percent in the last two to three years. Investigations in other states have found evidence of price-gouging and collusion, said Schumer, so now he’s going to write the Federal Trade Commission and ask for a national investigation. If the FTC conducts an investigation and finds evidence of unfair business practices, Schumer said he wants the agency to crack down on offenders. Maybe he can go after fuel oil and propane dealers next, including their lock-in and add-on pricing?

Tuesday, February 8, is Arts Day in Albany. The Arts NYS Coalition, a coalition of regional arts and cultural organizations that includes the Greene and Columbia County councils for the arts, will be calling on Governor Cuomo and the Legislature to restore $2.8 million to the New York State Council on the Arts’ (NYSCA) local assistance budget, which has been cut by 10 percent, more than the 2% reduction the Governor’s administration is proposing for other agencies. And that's on top of a steady reduction in arts funding that included the killing of numerous grants two years ago that had already been promised, resulting in the ddemise of a number of key arts activities across the state. Statewide, the coalition points out, 53,085 arts-related businesses generate 335,683 jobs, which pay close to $9.8 billion in wages, which then generates $1.2 billion in taxes, and $25.7 billion in economic impact statewide. The Coalition will hold a press conference at 2 pm in the Legislative Correspondents Association (LCA) Press Room in the Legislative Office Building in Albany.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Kenneth Adams has been named the new CEO of the Empire State Development Corp."][/caption]Countering most predictions, Gov. Andrew Cuomo turned to a Brooklyn business advocate to run the state's fast-restructuring Empire State Development Corp. for the coming term, which he and Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy have been pushing to retool on a regional basis to help revive long-stagnant parts of the Upstate economy and make the entirety of New York appear more "business friendly." But according to a report in HVBiz.com, business leaders across the state are hailing the selection of Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State Inc., as showing that the state "is open for business." Adams will now face state Senate approval, for which no problem is seen, and serve alongside a separate chairperson for the ESDC, which insiders are predicting will be an Upstater.Adams joined the state Business Council as president and CEO in 2006 after previously serving as president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, where he spent 11 years, and director of the MetroTech Business Improvement District in downtown Brooklyn. He was the founding executive director of New York Cares, New York City’s leading volunteer organization, from 1988 to 1994. Noting a “disconnect” between Albany and the private sector’s heavily taxed business owners, Adams said the state Legislature was “getting in the way” of private-sector job growth “just when we need it most for the recovery of New York state.” Previously, many in the business community were expressing doubts about Cuomo's commitment to Upstate development because of the time it took him to name a new ESDC CEO. Let's see where the complaints come from next...

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo starts his push for a $2.85 billion cut in local school aid, one of his first agenda items has been to point out how much school superintendent salaries are, with over 50 around the state topping $250,000, and several on Long Island now well over $300,000. This has, in turn, prompted local newspapers to start charting local super salaries. In our area, the Albany Business Journal reports that, in Columbia County, the superintendent at Taconic Hills makes $181,701, the super at Ichabod Crane in Kinderhook makes $158,328 , the Chatham superintendent makes $153,400, the Germantown super makes $146,440, the superintendent at Hudson brings home $135,000, and the super at New Lebanon makes $134,260. In Greene County the figures for superintendent pay are Coxsackie-Athens, $155,952; Catskill, $151,938; Greenville, $140,057; Windham-Ashland-Jewett, $131,457; Cairo-Durham, $123,094; and Hunter-Tannersville, $122,548.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Columbia County transportation"][/caption]A county plan to consolidate its transportation needs and save taxpayers is going nowhere fast, according to a recent piece in ccScoop, which notes that the much-touted consolidation plan was not funded in the 2011 approved county budget, leaving no funds available to begin implementation of the initiative. County planner Ken Flood had sought $75,000 for the program, of which he had a "high degree of confidence that half would be covered by a federal grant so that the actual cost to the county would have been $37,500." Last summer, county leaders received the 130-page transportation study, which outlines a number of ways the county could reduce the cost of transporting residents, whether it be the elderly who use the Office For the Aging transportation, or the disadvantaged, who use transportation provided by the Department of Social Services. All areas of county funded transportation were included in the study, including the county bus service. In the meantime, plans are moving forward on a separate initiative to consolidate the city and county bus lines, though the plan has been stalled by what Flood terms "state bureaucracy,' with current Hudson trolley drivers saying they still haven;t been given an official final day for their runs. Maybe all this will be worked out next year if and when Columbia County gets its first County Administrator approved. And could that CA be Hillsdale supervisor Art Baer? We all promise a future report...

The Daily Mail is running an AP story on its front page today, all about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's current campaign against state police command officers and investigators' use of company cars for private use, and other mileage abuses in the agency. The governor is saying he's just looking at whether the government needs to buy, fuel and maintain nearly 60,000 vehicles in state fleets including nearly 3,500 trooper cars, almost half individually assigned to investigators and command officers because they may get called to duty from home, although some seldom, if ever, do. "State police said they don’t keep track of recalls to duty from home," the story notes. For now, Cuomo proposes a $60 million cut from the State Police and no training class for new troopers for a third year. "The Budget Division in 2009 issued a directive that prohibits personal use of state cars, except at certain times when it’s 'ancillary to official business' and allows 'occasional commuting purposes within a reasonable distance, where the vehicle is mainly used for agency business,'" the story continues. What the story does NOT go into, at all, is what happened to former governor Eliot Spitzer when he started going after, and using, state police on several issues during his brief term.