[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="A rendering of proposed county offices at the former Wal Mart in Greenport, as seen on Gossips of Rivertown website."][/caption]Carole Osterink reports on several breaking news development items effecting the entirety of Columbia County in her Gossips of Rivertown blog, following the action at recent meetings of the Columbia County Industrial Development Agency and the Columbia County Capital Resource Corporation. At the former, a huge new hotel and entertainment development, along with a new goat cheese manufacturing concern, were discussed. At the latter, plans for the county's purchase of the old Wal Mart building in Greenport were set in motion.

At the IDA, developer Harbalwant Singh requested a tax abatement for his two phased, two parcel development plan for redeveloping the old V & O Press building on Route 66 in Greenport, which he's calling Greenport Crossing, which the Greenport Planning Board approved a subdivision for late last year. Parcel One, which Singh said will be developed first, will consist of an A & W restaurant with a drive-thru, a twelve-pump gas station, and an "upscale" liquor store. Parcel Two consists of an 80-room Comfort Inn with indoor pool and fitness center, for which a franchise agreement has already been signed, plus a family entertainment center with such modernist amenities as bowling, laser tag, a ropes course, bumper cars, "laser frenzy," a climbing wall, a carousel, and an "upscale games arcade." The IDA is mulling Singh's request, but promising to help with the project's financing, possibly through bonding. Also discussed was an incomplete proposal to open a goat cheese operation in the former Entenmann’s warehouse on Route 9 in Livingston in from Hudson Valley Creamery and Couturier, originally reported by Sam Pratt on his always-fun blog.

As for Wal Mart... Osterink reports that the Columbia County Capital Resource Corporation (CRC) voted to enter into an agreement to buy the vacant Walmart building on Fariview Avenue in Greenport and "will make a $50,000 refundable deposit to keep the property off the market for 120 days, during which time the CRC will do its due diligence." Meanwhile, Gossips continues, responses to the CRC's RFP for the space needs and programming study are due next week, after which CRC will schedule a special meeting to review the proposals and select an acceptable one by May 1.

The National Weather Service is calling today a "wintry mix" with snow, heavy at times, becoming mixed with sleet or freezing rain this afternoon. High 32F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches. Tonight will see scattered snow showers early. Low 18F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 30%. Tomorrow it clears.


Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 2:37 p.m./Low, 9:13 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:03 a.m./5:08 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 6:33 a.m./5:00 p.m. (New Moon 9:32 p.m.)


Birthdays
FEBRUARY 2
James Joyce, Ayn Rand, Stan Getz, and Shakira.

Get ready for more/Snow blankets county
The weather dominates all our local papers again today, with both the Daily Mail and Register-Star leading with snow stories that are closely followed by updates on how the white stuff is starting to eat at annual budgets, and new calls for snow emergencies in our cities and towns.

Painful road to recover ahead
The Times Union offers reports and analysis of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's release of a new 2011-2012 state budget yesterday, while local papers are running with local politicos responses to the proposal, most of it respectfully "positive" towards its tough love measures.

Hospital sees increase in flu
The Register-Star checks in at Columbia Memorial Hospital and finds that because the press wasn't going on about any new strains of flu this year, fewer people got flu shots, which has resulted in more people coming down with the flu in December and January. It's not too late to get the shot now, doctors say.

Deportation of Saugerties resident on hold another year
The Daily Freeman has an upbeat update on the immigration saga of Argentinian restaurateurs Emilio and Analia Maya, who own Tango Cafe right in the center of the village, who have been given a one year stay on deportation proceedings as Rep. Maurice Hinchey moves a bill on their behalf through Congress.

Yes Virginia, there is diesel in frac fluid
The Watershed Post updates everyone on new ingredients being "leaked" in hearings on the controversial gas drilling process that's proposed for the southern Catskills and much of central New York. This story will get a full update later today.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Sean Frey, Democratic legislator from Durham, has resigned his position rather than face allegations related to mileage reimbursement, claiming he's had enough of political witch hunts against him, based on his positions. Image from his Facebook page."][/caption]Greene County Legislator Sean Frey said in an exclusive WGXC interview last night that he tendered his resignation and paid the county $2,000 to settle its charges related to mileage discrepancies because "enough is enough. I'm tired of them digging into my private life."


Frey, the former Democratic minority leader representing the town of Durham (District 9), a contractor who had never held public office before running for the county legislature in 2006, submitted a letter to the Greene County Legislature last Thursday stating he would resign effective Monday, Jan. 31. Personally, he says he made his decision at the start of the year, which is why he pushed his fellow party members to elect Harry Lennon of neighboring Cairo as his replacement in the Minority Leader post. His current term would have expired Dec. 31, 2012, and County Attorney Carol Stevens, in the news last year for having pitched a replacement appointment fight with then Gov. David Paterson after longtime County Treasurer Willis Vermilyea resigned his post in the midst of an election, has said it is now up to the county legislature to name a replacement, presumably Republican, which is now expected in March.


While a Daily Mail story on the matter today stressed the allegations against Frey, all based around his mileage charges for trips to and from county meetings that reportedly included other stops besides his home, as well as Frey's use of vehicles owned by the companies for which he's worked as a day job, the legislator himself has pointed out how he's been pegged for investigations ever since he started questioning majority actions in the legislature. The Daily Mail reports an investigation by Greene County District Attorney Terry Wilhelm and the New York State Police and Wilhelm claiming that Frey would report round trips he would not complete, noting that "criminal charges were avoided in the matter after Frey agreed to a private arrangement between his attorney and the district attorney’s office." Frey has said no charges or formal indictments were ever filed against him, and that he paid the requested $2,000 in reimbursement funds so he could end the investigation of several years and save his family, his day job with Ulster-Greene ARC, and his Durham constituents from further stress.


He also questioned why Wilhelm did not recuse himself from his case, but did from other legislator's and county officials' investigations, all Republican. “During my four years on the Greene County Legislature for Durham, I, at no time, received any monies that I did not believe I was entitled to nor were not in the usual and customary practices by members of the Greene County Legislature. However, rather than putting my family, myself and Greene County residents through a lengthy and perhaps costly public process I made the decision to resign my position as Durham’s legislator. I wish to thank the residents of Durham for the opportunity to serve them over the last four years.”


"You get elected and aim to do good," he added in his WGXC interview, "and find there's still some who will do everything they can to bring you down just because they don't like what you stand for." In the past decades, Greene County has had a series of major news stories, some involving calls for resignation and most not, including the campaign for reelection of a sheriff found guilty of DWI, the front page arrest of County Majority leader Keith Valentine and his wife for serving alcohol to minors at a party in their home, and the hiring of "interim" county officials directly out of local businesses that had had significant dealings with the county's development agencies. It seems, however awkwardly, that Greene County's 2011 legislative election season has begun.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled a proposed 2011-2012 Executive Budget that eliminates a $10 billion dollar deficit without raising taxes or borrowing, noting in a pre-speech press release that, "New York is at a crossroads, and we must seize this opportunity, make hard choices and set our state on a new path toward prosperity... This budget achieves real, year-to-year savings while restructuring the way we manage our state government." He particularly targeted high expenditures and low results for education and healthcare and highlighted "process" as the key area for reform. "More funds does not mean better healthcare, or better schools or better programs. The changes must start with a look at the programs: do they work for the patient, the student, or the New Yorker... In order to lead by example, we have made the largest percentage cuts in state operations reducing general fund spending by 10 percent. Though there is much pain to go around, this decision spares local governments the worst of the budget cuts."

More on reactions to the budget, and a look into its specifics, after the Governor has been given the opportunity to present the biggest element in his new agenda himself at The Egg in Albany, beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Feb. 1...

State Senator James L. Seward (R/C/I – Oneonta) has commented on the property tax cap and mandate relief measures adopted by the state senate on Monday, January 31, saying the legislation, which he co-sponsored, will help families "afford to stay in their homes, assist business owners including farmers struggling to make ends meet, and free local governments and schools from costly state mandates." Under the property tax cap, tax levy growth would be limited to 2 percent or 120 percent of the annual increase in the consumer price index, whichever is less. The mandate relief provision would require that the state fund any new requirements imposed on local governments or school districts. The measure's future in the state Assembly, which passed a similar but less severe-on=local-schools-and-municipalities "circuit breaker" form of tax relief last year, is unsure at this point. To hear Seward's statement, click here.

There's an odd term in old-style newspapering. Certain stories, placed for filler, are termed "bunny" pieces. Now, however, there's some real Bunny News coming out of the Ulster County town of Saugerties, very close to the Greene County border, where Lillian “Morningstar Raindance” Helfant of 171 Kate Yeager Road was arrested Saturday, January 29 and charged with 15 counts of failure to provide sustenance to animals, a misdemeanor under state law, within a week of having had to surrender another nine rabbits to the county animal shelter, according to Ulster SPCA Executive Director Brian Shapiro, who also serves as a county legislator. SPCA officials found the animals living in their own excrement. The recent search and arrest was prompted by a veterinarian's report on the animals seized earlier.

Okay, so it first appeared in the February 1 Wall Street Journal, it's still a story worth pondering as it goes viral. It seems the Internet is about to run out of new addresses, "a milestone that is spurring Web giants like Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. to develop new versions of their sites and prompting carriers like AT&T Inc. and others to upgrade networks," according to the WSJ story. "This week, the organization that oversees Internet addresses is expected to dole out its last batch of existing Internet protocol addresses, a step akin to telephone companies running out of numbers to give customers." The story goes on to note how a whole new system of Internet protocol addresses - the numerical labels that direct online traffic to the right location beneath the word-based systems most people see - is ready to go but isn't compatible with the existing system, which will force all the big companies in the biz to do some major upgrades in order to allow for a permanent shift to a new Internet addressing system in the years to come. Although the story goes on to note that the shifts will not directly or hugely affect most consumers, and are basically the same as shifting to area codes with phone numbers, as happened decades ago, the story is still something of a must-read about the shifting sands of this strange new era we're now enmeshed in. Click here...

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Church, in Greene County's Lexington, centers an Upstate community that sees their remembered Carpathian Mountains in the local Catskills, as do parishioners at St. Nicholas Ukrainian on Union Street in Hudson. "][/caption]Here's a feel-good story for a snowy couple of days, with a nice silver lining... it might inspire similar successes through the use of online fundraising tools. The Watershed Post is reporting today, February 1, that Catskill Mountain resident Linda Norris, an independent museum professional who used to run the Delaware County Historical Association, among other Upstate institutions, has announced that her attempt to fund her Pickle Project, an exhibit about Ukrainian foodways, met its $5,000 Kickstarter fundraising goal today via "more than 100 backers from all over the world." Norris founded the Pickle Project, a traveling research project about Ukrainian ways of eating, over a year ago and will now use the raised funds to return to Ukraine, where she and co-coordinator Sarah Crow will document Ukrainian foodways and create an exhibit about them that will travel throughout Ukraine and the United States, in some areas via mobile food truck. Norris' project was sparked by years of observations on similarities between the Catskills and the Carpathians, a phenomenon that has resulted in the existence of numerous Ukrainian communities throughout our region, in both Greene and Ulster counties (including the Ukrainian National Home, Soyuzivka, near Kerhonksen), as well as parts of Norris' own Delaware County.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="125" caption="Bill Cranna, a longstanding and well-liked Columbia County attorney, passed away on January 29."][/caption]The Honorable William F. Cranna, a well-known Columbia County attorney and member of many local boards, passed away on January 29th 2011. His passing is being noted this week in many settings, including a front page story in the February 1 Register-Star that quotes many in local politics about Cranna's large legacy. Born in the Bronx in 1945 to the late James P. Cranna and his surviving mother, Mary Anne Cranna, Bill came to the area at the age of eight with his parents.


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He was educated and graduated from St. Mary's Academy, Siena College and Pace Law School. In the late 1960's, he was hired to taught history for the Hudson School District, where he became instrumental in creating the Alternative Learning Program. After graduating from Pace Law School, he began a long association with the law firm of Koweek, Cranna, and McEvoy and eventually held positions in the Columbia County District Attorney's Office as well as the Columbia County Attorney's Office. In 1994, Bill was appointed as Hudson City Court Judge and most recently served as Court Attorney for the Honorable Paul Czajka. He was an active member of the Hudson Area Library for many years, and also served as a board member for Historic Hudson. He was renowned for his letter writing, as well as his dreams for eventually writing a Hemingway-like "great American novel," which he never found the time to finish. He is predeceased by his son Liam and survived by his children Brendan and McCaily (Abigail Thompson), his wife Pamela Mixa-Cranna, his four brothers Donald (Melissa), Kenneth, Thomas, and Robert, in-laws, Bernice Pugliese, Patricia and Myron Cohen, Paula Rickborn and Peter and Karen Mixa, as well as nieces and nephews Amy Clark, Serenella Randolph, Bryan, Patrick, Colin and Austin Cranna, Seth Florio, Spencer Rickborn, and Kaila and Kirstyn Mixa. In lieu of flowers and other gifts, donations can be sent to the Hudson Area Library or The Community Hospice of Columbia/Greene. A memorial service will take place at the St. Mary's School Saturday, February 5th at 2 pm.

It's National Anti-Bullying Week and as we wait for an upcoming series of WGXC stories on the ways in which new statewide bullying mandates are playing out in both rural and urban communities around our coverage area, we've noticed that neighboring Ulster County provided students with a county-wide webcast from County Executive Michael Hein’s office on Monday, January 31, in which a number of community leaders discussed the signs of bullying, what to do about it, and then related personal stories about people who have been bullied. The Daily Freeman reports that in addition, Ulster County Public Health Director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck offered some statistics about bullying, including the facts that one out of four kids is bullied, three out of 10 students in grades six through 10 are involved in a moderate or frequent amount of bullying, either as the bully or the victim of the bully, and that six out of 10 students age 13 to 18 have been verbally or physically harassed or assaulted during the past school year. Joakim Lartey, the director of training for the New York State Center for School Safety and a member of the Ulster County Human Rights Commission, said that eradicating bullying starts with the individual. Ulster County webinar on bullying

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Snow days are nice every once in a while. After five, though, they start eating at Spring Break. Uh-oh. "][/caption]It's started... student, teacher and parental worries that there will be no Spring Break at local schools this year. And maybe even a lengthening of the school season to just shy of July. Oh my! The Times Union ran a story about the issue, focused on schools in the Capitol District, on Monday, January 31... but from what we've heard from our kids' school administrators, as well as a sister and brother-in-law teaching school in Northeastern Connecticut, just out of the WGXC coverage range, it no longer makes sense to book vacations come mid-April, when schools traditionally close around the Easter holiday. "Many area districts have nearly used up their allotted snow days, which depend on the district's schedule and typically number three to five," reads the TU story, published before the two days out expected today and tomorrow, February 1 and 2. "Schools must start using their spring break or other holidays if they exceed the snow day totals, and when those run out, days can be added to the end of the school year, according to the state Education Department. Schools cannot stay in session past June 30, according to the department." With the current snow days, most schools in the WGXC area have now used up their official snow days. "In other words," concludes the Times Union, "parents might want to hold off on their spring break plans."

Republicans are once again battling to have legislative district lines drawn with prison inmates counted in their jail cells -- not at their last-known addresses -- using their regained majority in the state Senate to renege on earlier promises to leave such decisions up to a non-partisan citizen's council. They are seeking to negate the new Census Adjustment Act, which passed as part of a larger spending bill in August and directs the state Department of Correctional Services with the last known address for all 58,237 inmates in jail on April 1, 2010 for redistricting purposes. "I raised doubts then, as I do now, that this is constitutional," said Sen. Mike Nozzolio, one of the Republicans on the task force. "We're reviewing a number of options, and we're analyzing what would be the most appropriate course to block this provision." The Senate GOP is also looking into getting upstate constituents to file lawsuits to have the provision overturned. Seven GOP senators pushing the matter currently live in districts that would not meet minimum population counts without counting prisoners as residents, according to data from the 2000 census compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative.



Continued....

Without the prisoners, a finite land area would be divided among fewer legislators, while the New York City area -- the same institute estimated 43,000 inmates from the five boroughs are incarcerated upstate -- would gain. District lines are drawn every 10 years as new census data becomes available. LATFOR has performed this process since the 1980s, after court decisions in the 1960s rendered illegal New York's system of letting counties draw lines. The Times Union, reporting on the situation on Jan. 31, says the whole kit and kaboodle is now expected to result in a prolonged legal battle.

[caption id="attachment_8443" align="alignright" width="100" caption="Art Baer, captured in a news image about a Hillsdale bank opening."][/caption]Hillsdale supervisor and former Board of Supervisors chairman and budget officer Art Baer, who tussled with Republican and Conservative party chiefs at the end of 2010 over their decisions about county government precluding direct board actions, has abandoned his lifelong role as a Republican to officially change his Board of Elections party affiliation to independent. “At this point and time, even though I have a lot of respect for the Republican supervisors and the Board of Supervisors, I think the county Republican Party is off-base and wrongheaded, and are not focused on the issues that are facing the majority of residents in the county,” Baer said in a Register-Star story about his move on February 1. “From my perspective I think I can continue to serve the rest of Hillsdale by being independent.



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Baer was elected as Hillsdale supervisor in 2003 and 2007; in 2007 he ran as a representative of the Conservative and Hillhttp://www.columbiapaper.com/index.php/the-news/1804-by-diane-valdensdale First parties when his candidacy wasn’t backed by either the Democratic or Republican parties. Baer said it was “more than likely” he’d run for Hillsdale supervisor again. Columbia County Republican Party Chairman Greg Fingar didn’t return phone calls seeking comment before press time. Another supervisor, former Democratic minority leader Jesse DeGroodt, also recently changed his affiliation to no party when he resigned as minority leader in December.

According to the National Weather Service, today will be cloudy with snow. High 26F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Snow accumulating 5 to 8 inches. Tonight, snow showers early, with a steadier snow developing late. Low 23F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulating 2 to 4 inches, with quite a bit more, and additional winds, throughout tomorrow. All schools and most meetings have been canceled for Tuesday at this point.

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 1:55 p.m./Low, 8:30 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:08 a.m./5:09 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 6:01 a.m./3:57 p.m.

School district, teachers agree to 4-year pact
Jim Planck's story in The Daily Mail contains no other details except the Catskill contract covers the years 2008 through 2012.

Senate pass property tax cap
The New York State Senate voted 45-17 to pass the proposal, with both local senators, Steve Saland and James Seward, voting in favor, according to a story in Capitol Confidential.

Mixed bag in 2010 home sales
Sales of existing single-family homes in Columbia County rose last year, while declining in Greene County, according to the Mid-Hudson News. Putnam, Rockland, Ulster, and Westchester also improved, while in Dutchess, Orange, and Sullivan counties sales also fell.

Plan to end homelessness completed by CARES Inc.
A study of Columbia County homelessness, reported in the Register-Star, recommends the Department of Social Services purchase or obtain a long-term lease on one or more of the motels it’s currently paying thousands monthly to house area homeless. The CARES study suggests contracting with a nonprofit to “manage the property and provide case management to the clients," according to Francesca Olsen's report.

The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning from 7 a.m. Tuesday through 7 a.m. Thursday. Up to two feet of snow and sleet is possible in the next 48 hours. According to Hudson Common Council President Don Moore, the City of Hudson has declared a Snow Emergency beginning Tuesday at 8 p.m. and ending Thursday at 8 p.m. Vehicles must be parked on the even side of the street during the 24-hour period beginning Tuesday at 8 p.m., and then on the odd side of the street beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday. The fine for parking on the wrong side anytime during the 48-hour of the snow emergency is $25. An additional $25 administrative fee will be issued if a vehicle is about to be towed. Towing can happen anytime between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., when the Department of Public Works removes snow.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Rising fuel prices are threatening the region's remaining dairy farms."][/caption]Dairy farmers are trying to find ways to deal with rising fuel prices, according to a story focused on the dairy industry north of here, but applicable to our own farmers, found in The Post Star of Glens Falls. "There are high energy costs, especially in this area, and while UPS and everyone else can add a surcharge for their fuel costs, in the agriculture industry it’s hard to adjust to that," Brian Ziehm, president of the Washington County Farm Bureau, is quoted saying, noting how the dairy industry is especially susceptible to high fuel prices because farmers do not have control over the pricing of milk. Making matters worse, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts regular-grade motor gasoline retail prices will rise 6 percent by 2012, but it cautions there is significant uncertainty surrounding the forecast leading most to believe that the national average retail price for regular gasoline could climb 13 to 27 percent by this summer, breaking $4 per gallon.


Continued...

"While fuel surcharges have to be absorbed by dairy farmers because the cost charged for milk is regulated, when the cost of fuel rises, it affects everything from diesel-operated farm machinery to the cost of fertilizer," the story goes on, with stats that show fuel-related costs make up 5 percent of most farm's expenditures. The only way out of the current quandary, it quotes dairy industry spokespeople saying, is to cut the cost controls on milk to let its pricing rise to match that of its rising expenses.

What had first looked like a story with deep narrative elements, the death of a state corrections officer killed Friday afternoon, January 28, in a two-car crash on the Thruway north of Kingston - with a convicted murderer in transport - has turned out to be a much more banal tragedy, the Daily Freeman reports this morning. The accident was caused by a driver taking her eyes off the road to adjust the heat in her car, a final state police press release said, who then drifted from the passing to the driving lane and struck the state prison van about 1:35 p.m. near mile marker 94.3 on the northbound side of the highway, just north of the Kingston exit, causing both vehicles to go off the right side of the road and down an embankment. The prison van overturned, killing the driver, Corrections Officer Casimiro Pomales, 52, of Kerhonkson, and injuring the two passengers — Corrections Officer John Minuck and inmate Ralph Ambert, who was being driven from the Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch to an eye doctor’s appointment in Albany. Neither Minuck nor Ambert, 40, who is serving a life sentence for murder, was seriously hurt.


Continued...

State police Investigator John Kelly said on Friday that the occupants of the car are from Warwick and that it did not appear the driver would be charged. Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered flags on state office buildings flown at half-staff late Friday in Pomales’ honor. Ambert is serving a life sentence for murder. 42 years ago, a correctional officer's death along the Thruway from a discharged firearm resulted in death sentences for two men, one of whom went on to marry a local newspaper editor while serving his sentence, then was granted clemency by then governor Mario Cuomo, the current governor's father. The case resulted in the rise and fall of several political careers, and was one of the region's top news stories for decades... which accounts for the added attention Friday's accident drew, because of several of its circumstances. The most recent CO's death reportedly resulted in the cancellation of a planned graduation ceremony at Eastern Correctional for participants in the Bard Prison Initiative because of Pomales long 22 year career history at the facility.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Indian Point Nuclear Plant, on the Tappan Zee, is one of a handful of nuclear plants in New York State."][/caption]The stated wish by our region's new congressman, Chris Gibson, to build at least one new nuclear power plant in the Hudson Valley is starting to get serious scrutiny, with The Daily Freeman and other papers doing stories this weekend, and today, on past efforts in this area and the mountains of opposition that ultimately killed them. Two plants were proposed for the greater Capital Region: one directly across from Saratoga National Historical Park, and another in the Mid-Hudson Valley just below Catskill, before the whole nuclear power effort halted following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. New York currently has four nuclear plants — three on Lake Ontario and one on the Hudson River, two of those with double reactors. In the late 1970s, Consolidated Edison proposed another nuclear plant on farmland straddling the Clermont-Red Hook border but that plan was eventually "modified" to a coal-burning plant, before being dropped entirely by the utility in the 1990s.



Continued...

The story goes on to note how local officials in Massena, on the St. Lawrence Seaway, have already begun exploring the possibility of a nuclear plant as a source for jobs, but then points out how the proposal for a Smiths Landing nuclear plant ended up facing overwhelming public opposition in the 1970s. In addition to safety and environmental concerns, many people objected to the visual impact the plant’s 400-foot-tall cooling tower would have on the picturesque Hudson Valley, which has since been designated a National Heritage Corridor. Plans for that plant were scrapped following Three Mile Island. Nowadays, nuclear opponents also object to the high volumes of water plants need for cooling purposes, as well as how discharged water is often several degrees warmer and can result in significant fish kills. Gibson counters that technological advancements can overcome such problems and says he is working to create a bipartisan energy advisory panel that will consider ways to promote all types of power in his district. Another of his goals is to introduce legislation that would encourage private investment in nuclear energy and streamline a federal loan program. “Times have changed,” said Gibson spokeswoman Stephanie Valle of the congressman's view of possible opposition in the Hudson Valley these days. “It’s sort of a different game than it was 30 to 40 years ago.”