[caption id="attachment_7827" align="alignright" width="144" caption="NY Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7833" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Schodack resident Ken Stokum."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7834" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Area resident Mary Driscoll."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7831" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Ravena Mayor John Bruno."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7829" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Elyse Kunz from CASE."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7832" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Ward Stone."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7830" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Susan Falzon of Friends of Hudson."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7828" align="alignright" width="144" caption="John Reagan, environmental manager of Lafarge."][/caption]
From WGXC Town Recorder Sam Sebren:

About 70 people attended the final legislative hearing for public comments hosted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on the Lafarge cement company's modernization proposal Thursday, Jan. 20 at the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School auditorium in Ravena. A higher percentage of the crowd seemed to be in support of Lafarge, including local resident Mary Driscoll, politicians such as new 108th District Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin, Ravena Village Mayor John Bruno, as well as a representative who spoke for Congressman Paul Tonko, and a spokeswoman from the Albany County Regional Chamber of Commerce. They primarily supported the plant because of the community's need for jobs. Several other citizens and environmental advocate groups included Elyse Kunz from Community Advocates for Safe Emissions, Susan Falzon of Friends of Hudson, and Haley Mauskapf of Scenic Hudson raised concerns over how clean the proposed modernizations will be, and whether they will be monitored.

Sebren took the photos included in the WGXC Newsroom and made an audio recording of the entire meeting, so you can hear for yourself what everyone said. Click here to listen to an mp3 recording, or copy and paste the url below into your computer's media player.
http://www.wgxc.org/media/uploaded_files/2011/01/Lafargelegislativehearing_RavenaHigh_WGXC_SamSebren_012011.mp3



Written comments about this case must be submitted by Feb 22:
Sarah H. Evans
Project Manager/Environmental Analyst
NYS DEC
Region 4 Headquarters
1130 North Westcott Road
Schenectady NY 12306
(518) 357-2069
(518) 357-2460 (fax)
r4dep@gw.dec.state.ny.us
Written comments must be received no later than 4:45 p.m. on February 22, 2011.[caption id="attachment_7834" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Area resident Mary Driscoll."][/caption]