Diane Valden is reporting for the Columbia Paper state Assemblymember Didi Barrett has waded into the ongoing battle between state and local officials and Larchmont resident Salvatore Cascino over various activities on his 300-acre property in Copake. In the newest installment, Cascino was fined again for damaging fragile wetlands and a protected trout stream. Barrett submitted a letter May 5, to New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball, asking that his department’s support of Cascino’s so-called farm operation be reconsidered in light of this newest development. According to a new settlement agreement dated March 31, DEC staff, representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Cascino’s engineer met February 28 and “observed the result of new unauthorized clearcutting of understory vegetation…resulting in stream disturbances in several locations of the Noster Kill.” As a result, Cascino was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $25,000. Barrett’s letter references Cascino’s “lies, deceit, crimes, cover-ups, and costs” to Copake over the past two decades. She calls the situation “desperate for my constituents in Copake who over the last year have seen the institutions that are supposed to protect small communities from deceitful and malicious actors fail repeatedly. “This is why I am writing now… to implore you to reconsider your department’s support of Mr. Cascino’s ‘farm operation.’” In addition to enumerating Cascino's ongoing violations, Barrett also enclosed a copy of a May 3 report from the Copake Conservation Advisory Committee, which found Cascino’s current master plan project “will have adverse impacts on the environment at that location.” Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.