50 years ago, on January 17, 1961, then-President Dwight Eisenhower gave what is now considered to be one of the great speeches of all time, a serious look at the future of America beyond politics. In it, he introduced the idea of the "industrial military complex." Listen and hope that now, a half century on, we may finally heed its prescience.

Water gushed down Hudson's Warren and Union streets much of today, January 17, as the result of a water main break on Worth Street. A detour, lasting close to six hours, occurred as crews from the city's Department of Public Works toiled to stem the flow, which caused several icy spots in downtown Hudson, including a particularly slick intersection at the corner of 7th and Warren Sts., as well as quite a bit of confusion coming into town from outside. Repeated calls to city offices and the DPW on Monday afternoon, from 3 p.m. on, went unanswered.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Building demolition on Robinson Terrace in Hudson last Friday, January 14, may have been for a garden and not new units designed to replace Bliss Towers, the city's low-income housing recently rendered irreparable."][/caption]Thanks to Carole Osterink of The Gossips of Rivertown for bringing to life all that's really involved in urban renewal in historic towns and cities like our communities here in the WGXC coverage area. Her blog currently has a photo up (seen at right) of a house being demolished on Robinson Street in Hudson last Friday, just one of a list of buildings identified as "demolishable" to make way for the new units needed to replace Bliss Towers, the former low-income housing in the City of Hudson now rendered obsolete. Although Osterlink notes that the demolition "seems to have no connection with that project" and may actually have more to do with a neighbor's wish to "have a garden," it's an apt demonstration of how tenuous our communities really are.

The Register Star had a story on efforts to replace Bliss Towers, and all behind it, following a city Common Council meeting on the issue last week where Habitat for Humanity spoke about its plans for the site commonly known as Diamond Park (242, 244 and 246 Columbia St.). The homes Habitat is proposing with built-in approval deadlines would be constructed in a “federal style,” considerably different than the homes Habitat usually builds and similar to the attached townhouse the organization will soon finish at 444-446 Columbia Street.

In September, Hudson Housing Authority Executive Director Jeffrey First confirmed that the HHA plans to demolish Bliss Towers, ending a nearly decade-long discussion over whether to renovate or replace the affordable housing complex. The HHA wishes to gain site control, by way of a resolution from the Common Council, of a slew of “demolishable” properties — among them, the same exact site on Columbia Street which Habitat has its eyes on.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Artist Sonja Hinrichsen worked in snowshoes to create a snow art work at the Columbia Land Conservancy's Ooms Conservation Area at Sutherland Pond in Chatham this past weekend. See it before it snows again tomorrow!"][/caption]Snow artist Sonja Hinrichsen, a Millay Colony alumna who is working with various organizations around the area making snow art this winter, worked with local residents and other artists this past weekend to turn the frozen and snow-covered pond at Ooms Conservation Area into a snow painting, a process she has also undergone in the Berkshires of nearby Massachusetts in recent weeks.

Hinrichsen, originally from Germany, moved to San Francisco to get her MFA degree in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduation, she moved back to Europe for a time, and has since been returning to Millay in Austerlitz for regular retreats. The artist has done projects all over the world, and has received numerous awards and fellowships throughout her career.
Hinrichsen started her career as a visual artist, and said she traditionally worked with video, exploring various environments, filming them for a period of time, and then turning a room, or rooms, into a fully immersive work of art about what she’d learned. Such works, she said, commonly include as many as six video recordings playing at one time, structural art based on the area she was studying, and even words or sentences written on the walls. The latter, she explained, come from the short stories — almost like journal entries — she writes when beginning a new piece of art.

“What I do is explore environments,” she said in a Register-Star story on January 17, adding that she has preferred places that that were not so hospitable, such as deserts or remote mountain regions. “I like places that are a little bit difficult, places that have given people problems, but where natives have always found a way to cope.”

Intricate interconnected circles and lines now cross the pond, some of which were predesigned by Hinrichsen, while others were the work of impromptu groups of snowshoers or hikers who saw the work and began to imitate the design.

For more on the Ooms Conservation area in Chatham, visit the Columbia Land Conservancy site here...

The US Department of Health and Human Services is releasing funds to help New York seniors and families deal with heating bills this winter. Mid Hudson News Network reports on January 17 that New York will receive $473 million as part of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Due to the recession and the cold winter weather gripping the state, Senator Charles Schumer said releasing the funds “is essential for Upstate New York families and seniors who struggle to heat their homes.” Schumer added that no one should worry about affording basic necessities because rising home heating bills are “squeezing their family budgets.” With the additional federal funding, more families and seniors will be able to keep warm this winter, he said. In the Hudson Valley last winter, 128,145 households received benefits.

Columbia County has been setting its sights on the coming year by looking back at its record for 2010, recently moving from committee assignments and scheduling and basic budgeting parameters, reported last week, to a new emphasis on infrastructure. According to a report in the Register Star, Columbia County Public Works Commissioner David Robinson and Director of Engineering Dean Knox have given themselves kudos for completion, last year, of a $720,000 construction of three sand/salt buildings, one each in Copake, Kinderhook and the Columbia County Highway HQ on Route 23B on the border of Greenport and Claverack. The county also completed the reconstruction of two bridges in , using funding obtained through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds; while design work was done for two more bridges, both in Copake. The two then said the county is preparing for new construction this year, with several projects already put out to bid. Amongst those: The county has earmarked $2.7 million of its capital projects budget for bridge construction, and $3 million for highway capital projects in 2011. including Pleasantvale Road in Clermont; the Rossman Bridge in Stockport; and the Riders Mills Road Bridge in Chatham, all set for emergency repairs.

The bridges on New Forge Road in Taghkanic were both red-flagged by the DOT — one, more than 100 years old and currently closed, will be covered with a reusable, movable, temporary replacement “probably within the next three months,” Robinson said. The county will design a replacement for the other, a concrete deck bridge in better condition, this year. Block Bridge in Hillsdale and Pratt Bridge in Austerlitz are also on the replacement list, Robinson said.

Also on the agenda this year are renovations to the Columbia County Courthouse — which would be made handicapped accessible for the first time once the Office of Court Administration approves final design drawings.

The state DOT reported in 2008 that almost 43 percent of county bridges were “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete,” meaning they don’t meet federal standards for the volume of traffic they carry or have deteriorated so much that they require intensive work. The county has closed four bridges, most on back roads, over the last six years.

The story also reports that Robinson is also hoping to complete a new cell tower on the Pine Haven Nursing Home property to replace the ailing water tower that currently supports two cellular providers. The new tower will have three cell carriers, Robinson said, plus reserved capacity for a fourth if necessary. A contract for design work on the tower will be signed this month.

The potential effects of a proposed state property tax cap, mentioned by Andrew Cuomo throughout his campaign and in his recent State of the State speech, will be disastrous for New York education, school administrators and others in the education field are saying more vehemently, as reported in a Times Union piece this morning when schools are closed across the nation for the Martin Luther King holiday. The piece by staff writer Scott Waldman not only charts the numbers of teachers that would have to be cut to balance budgets in Capital District schools, but also trhe amounts of budget shortfalls already anticipated before any curb gets put on district revenues, including a possible merger between the Schodack and Ichabod Crane in Rensselaer and Columbia counties.

Without accompanying mandate relief, such as reduced pension contributions and a wage freeze, a cap could further devastate struggling school districts and force them to run out of money within the next two years, said Richard Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, an advocacy group for about a third of New York's 700 school districts. "This is the tipping point that is going to redefine public education in New York state," he said.

Waldman goes on quote the Statewide School Finance Consortium pointing out how the tax cap may be politically popular, but would do little to reform property taxes. To alleviate the burden on districts, the group is recommending that a cap be accompanied by a wage freeze for all public school employees and a limit on the amount districts spend on benefits. The group also recommends a repeal of the Triborough Amendment, which keeps existing union contracts in place during collective bargaining, and significantly weakens a district's power at the table. The cap would also mean an additional 5,000 layoffs statewide and loss of $200 million in salary, Timbs said.

Though some states spare homeowners by funding districts through income taxes, New York could achieve meaningful reform by imposing limits on government spending, said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow with the Empire Center, a conservative think tank in Albany. He said Massachusetts once had a property tax burden on par with New York, but set a 2.5 percent property tax three decades ago to rein in spending and now posts some of the best academic results of all the states. He said the cap is an essential first step. "The tax cap has to be done first and foremost," he said. "It's the essential hammer that gets people to do mandate relief."

Schodack Superintendent Robert Horan said more school districts will consolidate in the next few years. He said district officials should consider such moves now, especially since Cuomo announced that he will establish a $250 million pot of funding to reward districts that find cost savings. He said getting the difficult choices out of the way now will allow districts to once again focus on how to keep offering programs for the students who show up every September.

"We have to stop talking about doom and gloom," he said. "We have to concentrate on providing great programs. We have to start thinking differently."

For the full story, click here...

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Taconic Hills High School"][/caption]The Taconic Hills Board of Education will be holding a special meeting at 7 p.m. this Wednesday, January 19 for the sole purpose of hearing a grievance from the district's Faculty Association. The Register Star's John Mason reports today that Association President Kevin Reis said his entity had requested it be an open session, and he said as far as he knows, it’s the first time a grievance has been heard in open session. The grievance concerns the way the district is implementing a program known as Response to Intervention, which is replacing Academic Intervention Services, which Reis has called "less than they were under AIS." He did add, however, that he was glad that the board was establishing a legitimate board meeting to hear a grievance, because grievances such as this, that do not concern an individual or contract negotiations, should be heard in open session.

At the Dec. 22, 2010 meeting, New York State United Teachers representative Pamela Melville objected to the board’s intention to consider union grievances without the union being present and without providing adequate time for the union to prepare informational packets for board members. But, speaking during the public comment period, she was not allowed to complete her questions to the board. Later, board Vice-President George Lagonia told the Register-Star Melville is a counsel for the union, and the board wanted to have its own counsel present if she were going to speak.

“I have no issues with anyone making comments in open forum,” he added this week, in the Register Star. “I have an issue with the counsel for the union using the open forum as a stage to make a presentation about the union to the Board of Education. I think that’s inappropriate.” Melville, he said, had been asked numerous times to let the board know beforehand if she would be attending.

For a succinct summary of the recent brouhaha the Taconic Hills board had with its teachers union rep, check out The Columbia Paper's account here...

Amtrak: Sunday schedule.

Banks: Closed.

County offices: Closed.

Columbia Transit: on Saturday schedule; regular schedule otherwise.

Federal offices: Closed.

Financial markets: Closed.

Greene County Transit: No service.

Mail delivery: None.

Metro-North: Saturday schedule, with additional trains for morning and afternoon peak times.

Schools: Closed.

Trailways: Regular schedule.

The former bookkeeper for the towns of Kinderhook and Greenport, indicted in September on 18 felonies and two misdemeanors for allegedly stealing more than $350,000 from the municipalities she worked for, appeared briefly in Columbia County Court Friday, January 14, in anticipation of her pending trial. A report in the Register-Star by Andrew Amelinckx notes that the charges against Pegeen Mulligan-Moore, 40, are related to alleged thefts from the town of Kinderhook, which began in December 2006 and went through Dec. 31, 2009, when her tenure there ended; and in Greenport from January of this year to her suspension in July.

Authorities said Mulligan-Moore stole more than $287,000 from Kinderhook and around $53,000 from Greenport. On January 14, Amelinckx reports, Mulligan-Moore appeared in Columbia County Court in Hudson with her attorney Andrew Safranko, of Albany, before Judge Jonathan Nichols. After a conference in chambers between First Assistant District Attorney Michael Cozzolino, Sr. Ass. D.A. David Costanzo, Nichols and Safranko, the date of the pre-trial hearing in the case, originally scheduled for Jan. 21, was move, with the pre-trial hearing will now be on the morning of the first day of trial, set for Feb. 28. The change may necessitate pushing back jury selection, according to Nichols. The defendant continues to be out on bail.

Besides the criminal trail before Mulligan-Moore, the story continues, she is also facing a civil lawsuit by the town of Kinderhook filed late last year. The suit is not only seeking the money Mulligan-Moore allegedly stole, but for the salary she earned during the time period in which the alleged embezzlement occurred.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Windham Mountain"][/caption]An 18-year-old Long Island woman, characterized in most reports as a "novice skier," died after a skiing accident at Windham Mountain on Sunday, January 16. The Daily Mail and other local papers reports that Erin Clare Malloy-McArdle of North Bellmore sustained extensive head injuries Sunday morning after striking a tree off-trail, according to state police. The accident occurred around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, after Malloy-McArdle had gone off the Upper Warpath trail, which was marked as “more difficult” using the blue square symbol, according to the resort. State police said Malloy-McArdle was “a novice skier” and lost control on the trail. She was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

She was treated at the scene by two physicians and members of the Windham Mountain Ski Patrol. After on-site treatment she was transported by Windham Ambulance and Greene County EMS to the Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson where she was later pronounced dead.

“This is a tragic event,” said Tim Woods, general manager of Windham Mountain, in a statement. “We grieve along with the young woman’s family.”

The last ski-related fatality at Windham Mountain occurred more than 15 years ago. According to the National Ski Areas Association, an average of 40.6 people have died skiing/snowboarding per year in the past decade.

Two years ago, the death of actress Natasha Richardson of a head injury suffered while skiing in the Canadian Laurentians, with a helmet on, drew much attention to the sport.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Photo from Wikipedia."][/caption]Today is the observed holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Schools and government offices are closed.


Town meetings tonight
TOWN OF ATHENS First and third Mondays of each Month 6:45 p.m., at
Town Clerk’s Office, unless otherwise advertised.




Weather
COLD Sunny.


Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 12:42 a.m./Low, 6:47 a.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:21 a.m./4:50 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 2:36 p.m./5:23 a.m.


Birthdays
JANUARY 17 Cus D'Amato, Muhammad Ali, and Steve Earle.

Snowmobiles, like other vehicles, can fan flames of road rage, and in the Town of Stuyvesant they can also cause a "scrum" or "fracas" inside too. Those are the words Bob Green used in the Register-Star to describe a part of a town meeting there when a report by the Recreation Committee asked the town to enforce the terms of a conservation easement on a town park held by the Columbia Land Conservancy. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park, from Wikipedia."][/caption](Green is not clear about whether the incident took place at the Jan. 8 Recreation Committee meeting or the Jan. 13 Stuyvesant town board meeting.) WGXC's Martin Roby shared a recording of the meeting with WGXC, and listeners can hear the chaos that erupted in the room. Listeners can try to determine exactly what is said, but clearly someone is called a bozo. Listen here for yourself or copy and paste the following url into your computer's media player:
http://www.wgxc.org/media/uploaded_files/2011/01/TownofStuyvesant_snowmobiles_meetingchaos_Jan2011.mp3

Local farmers might benefit from a new US Department of Agriculture proposal to cut the sodium and fat in school lunches, Ron Plants at Buffalo TV station WGRZ reports. Linda Muldoon, Director of Food Services for the Hamburg Central School District, says her cafeteria staff has been preparing items like nutritious wraps and serving up vegetables and fruits for some time. They also offer healthier soup options for students in the cafeteria, and they try to partner with local farmers to save money and get children healthier vegatables. The federal government may try to provide an extra six cents per meal for districts which comply with their guidelines, the station reports.

An 18-year-old woman died after an off-trail skiing accident Sunday Jan. 16 at Windham Mountain, according to Fox23 TV news. Police say the accident occurred around 10:30 a.m. on the Upper Warpath trail, which is rated difficult, and that the skier was not wearing a helmet. The skier died at Columbia Memorial Hospital, the first ski-related death from a Windham Mountain accident in more than 15 years.

The Daily Freeman reports applications for funding from the Greene County Youth Bureau are available online at the Greene County website, click on the Departments tab and scroll to the Youth Bureau page. Only 501(c) 3 organizations are eligible, and applications are due Feb. 1. For more information, call Terry McGee Ward at (518) 719-3245.

Catskill hosted Martin Luther King, Jr. Day festivities Saturday, starting with a peace march from the Second Baptist Church in Catskill down the street to hear speakers at the First Reformed Church of Catskill. WNYT's newcast included short clips of several speakers, including Assemblyman Pete Lopez (R - Schoharie), and Dr. Kathleen Farrell, Superintendent of Catskill Schools.

Columbia-Greene Community College student Samantha Visconti (of Chatham), who is also president of the Student Senate, receives the organization's United Way of Columbia and Greene Counties Jim Riley Student Scholarship Fund from James Riley, second from left, local United Way Executive Director Brad Poster, right, and CGCC President James Campion, far left. Photo from United Way Facebook page.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="SUNY Chancellor Susan Zimpher"][/caption]SUNY Chancellor Susan Zimpher is saying that the state university system's 64 colleges, 88,000 professors and employees, and hundreds of thousands of students are all part of her new “Power of SUNY” plan to jumpstart the state's jobs picture and economy, while simultaneously strengthening academic excellence and meeting the needs of today’s students. The prolific Kathy Kahn of HVBiz has a story out this week about a series of recent Chamber of Commerce and other regional community meetings where she's pitched her vision for SUNY as an engine for job creation.

With the economy in the doldrums and unemployment hovering nationally at 9 percent, the state’s education system is not immune to the pain of staff reduction, where tenure does not necessarily guarantee a lifetime job anymore, and cutting programs are needed to streamline curriculum and make them more in tune with what is needed to jumpstart the economy. Zimpher is confident the schools’ $4,970 yearly tuition and newly created programs will make it economically feasible for students and see them graduating with job skills designed for the 21st century.

The story goes on to note how Zimpher has toured all 64 SUNY campuses in the past year, including Columbia-Greene and Hudson Valley community colleges, meeting with presidents, boards of trustees and personnel, taking notes and creating a vision for SUNY as an economic engine, one that will tout innovation, entrepreneurship and “jobs, jobs, and more jobs.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has tapped SUNY to be part of the regional economic councils his transition team is creating to address different segments of the economy.?With nearly a half-million students in its 64 schools – including three medical campuses, an optometry college and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany, Zimpher’s presentation to the business community outlined the course it plans to take in being part of job creation and stimulating New York’s sagging financial status.

RCC has several programs already on line for the spring and summer semesters, among them, Small Wind Energy Workshops, Introduction to Photovoltaics and Solar Hot Water System Design.

“Unfortunately, although many programs are geared toward the needs of the future, will those jobs be there?” asked Arthur Anthonisen, president of the Hudson Valley International Trade Association and deeply involved with the state’s SUNY system for two decades.

Anthonisen also pointed out that many students coming out of high school are interested in other trades that do not require a college degree. “What are we doing to meet that need?”

At the end of 2010, SUNY opened its fifth Confucius Institute for Business in the Levin Institute at SUNY’s Global Center in Manhattan, focusing exclusively on business and working professionals. It is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education and will focus on preparing the working business person with language skills and cultural knowledge.

Zimpher is bullish on business – many are hoping the “Power of SUNY,” combined with the system’s interaction with the business community and involvement in the new administration’s economic councils, will bring the jobs that New York desperately needs for its students.

“The Power of SUNY” is available in its entirety at www.suny.edu/powerofsuny.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Black Angus Elba with her three new triplets on the Punsit Valley Angus Farm in Spencertown. Photo by Lance Wheeler of Mid Hudson News Network."][/caption]Who would have thought a story about a local cow giving birth to triplets would have gone viral, at least on a regional basis. And yet the story's spread to all our local publications. Seems that at least with beef cattle, the odds are 1 in 105,000 for triplets. Which, given the storms of the past two weeks, the news from Tuscon, and all the policy stuff out of Albany, Hudson, Catskill and other county seats, makes the January 3 birth of Elba's triplets on Spencertown's Punsit Valley Angus Farm in Columbia County the feel-good story of the year to date. According to Karolyn Shepard — who co-owns the farm with her husband, Mark; mother, Dorrie Kern; and friend, Bobby Pinto — the story of these triplets began back on April 7, 2010, when Elba, a registered black angus, was bred to Select Sires bull, TC Total. On May 25, the veterinarian confirmed that Elba was expecting on Jan. 11. But then on January 2, the farmers decided to pull Elba inside the barn and set her up early. The next morning they showed up expecting to find one calf, discovering two, and then stumbling on a third behind a hay bale, getting its footing. The three are currently named A, B and C, at least until further calving completes over the coming week. For the best of the stories on Elba's little miracle, go the Register Star's account here.