Success or disaster?

In a recent letter to the editor (May 9, 2013), members of the League of Women Voters (LWV) reported on their recent panel discussion, “Town-Village Police Consolidation Revisited.”

The panel consisted of the Chief of Police Joseph Sinagra, Lieutenant Steven Filak as well as elected officials from the village and town. The Saugerties Village and Town board members all agreed that the consolidation was economically beneficial to the taxpayers. The LWV members remarked, “All panelists agreed that the Town and Village Police merger has been very successful. With increased training the quality and response time of the force has improved and there are plans to receive accreditation in the near future.”

Predictably, Joe Roberti Jr., chair of the Saugerties Republican Party in his own letter said, “Despite operational improvements, the facts show the police merger is a financial disaster…”. Mr. Roberti chose to continue his constant rant against Town Board members Bruce Leighton and Fred Costello Jr. for not providing “proper oversight over police spending.” Of course, Mr. Roberti fails to mention or blame Republican town Deputy Supervisor Jimmy Bruno who participated in the panel discussion and worked cooperatively with Leighton and Costello throughout the consolidation process.

Success or disaster, who will you believe? Do you trust the non-partisan LWV, our police leadership, bipartisan members of the Village and Town boards, or Mr. Roberti, and his ongoing desperate attempt to create a politically divisive issue where none exists?

Mike Harkavy
Chair, Saugerties Democratic Committee

Force of law

Dave Gordon is correct in drawing a distinction between legally adopted laws such as the zoning law, building regulations and zoning regulations which require permits for work on private land to proceed and the Comprehensive Plan which provides the foundation on which these laws are based. However, I believe that Gordon’s statement in the May 9 issue of the Saugerties Times that the Comprehensive Plan “does not carry the force of law” is not correct. McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York states quite clearly “All town land use regulations must be in accordance with a comprehensive plan.” The plan “must provide for the present and future housing needs of a town’s residents [and] examine whether a housing deficiency exists . . . and provide for the possibility of construction of such units.” The law further states that “All plans for capital improvements of another government agency [such as a highway widening] on land included in the town comprehensive plan . . . shall take such plan into consideration.” The state law adds that the plan “shall take into consideration applicable county agricultural and farmland protection plans “ Finally, the proposed plan ‘’shall” be referred by the Town Board to the Ulster County Planning Board for “review and recommendation” prior to adoption (permissible, but not required). The Comprehensive Plan clearly carries the force of law.

Barry Benepe
Saugerties

The writer is vice chair of the Town of Saugerties Comprehensive Planning Committee.

Watchdog turned St. Bernard

Over the last several years I have followed the events about the Saugerties School Board and the Saugerties Teachers Union. Needless to say, I observed an element of contention whereby agreement could not be reached about contractual items, until just recently.

I was pleasantly surprised to find both sides recently came to a reasonable contractual agreement and all Teachers Union litigious filings were dropped. Congratulations to George Heidcamp’s School Board leadership through the long period of contention. It required much negotiation whereby the teachers, students and Saugerties taxpayers benefited. I would go so far as to say that if our federal and state elected officials negotiated as well as our School Board and teachers representatives, our country would be in a better place.

Good leadership by George and the Saugerties Teachers Union leader deserve accolades and should be congratulated for a job well done.

Tony Nardo
Saugerties

Heidcamp’s accomplishments

I first took the oath of office as a member of the Saugerties Central School District Board of Education on July 10, 2007. Since that time, I have volunteered thousands of hours to serve as an officer for the board (two years as vice president and four years as president). This commitment has been made because I feel that I am able to make decisions that are beneficial to the students of our schools, but are also mindful of the taxpayers in the community. Although I don’t usually point out the accomplishments of the district during my tenure as a member of the board, I feel that now is the time to remind people of some of what has taken place.

First, when I became leader, the prior administration had created a condition where the fund balance for the school district was almost a negative $1,000,000. That resulted in the district borrowing money in order to remain solvent, at an annual cost of more than $100,000 of taxpayer money to pay interest on the loans. We now have a fund balance of approximately $2.4 million, so the interest money can now be used more productively, either to lighten the tax burden or for the children – rather than the banks.

Next, I have played a part in hiring a competent administrative team, including the superintendent, assistant superintendent, business official(s), principals, and assistant principals. I pride myself in always trying to get the best person for the job, and avoiding the issues of nepotism that had at one time existed in the district. The following administrators have been hired since my time on the board: Lissa Jilek, Allen Olsen, LisaJane Kappler, Sue Osterhoudt, Don Dieckmann, Mike Apostol, and Seth Turner. Although traditionally underrepresented in administrative positions, Saugerties has six females serving in these roles (out of 13 positions).

In an effort to ensure that taxpayer dollars were not wasted, I have been involved in the building projects and other facility improvements. This has included major renovations to every school in the district, including new roofs, removal of underground oil tanks, repair of septic systems, and security upgrades. Although maintenance of the facilities is an ongoing job, the district has addressed the big issues – and now we are on a schedule for continuing to keep them in top condition. I must compliment the maintenance and custodial crews for their work, as they are on the front line every day making sure our students and teachers are able to work in a safe environment that is conducive to learning.

One particular issue that I became involved with had benefits for the neediest children across New York State. In 2009, Governor Paterson withheld money for schools that had been approved by the New York State Legislature. I personally participated in a lawsuit against the governor, which lead to a court ruling that the governor did not have the constitutional authority to withhold money. This freed up the state aid money in time for districts across the state to maintain their programs for the school year, preventing children from having to go without.

In addition to regular meetings, I have participated in contract negotiations, labor issues (including the Public Employee Relations Board), committee meetings, and crisis response teams. I have made tough decisions, but stand on my record as a public servant who has demonstrated a pattern of success. With each action, I think of the children first, and the overall good of the community of Saugerties. I hope you will come out and support me on Tuesday, May 21 in the School Board election. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

George Heidcamp
Saugerties

Councilwoman Leeanne Thornton said the number of questions and criticisms of the proposed law raised at the hearing led the Conservation Advisory Committee to table it for further revision.

At the Town Board’s regular meeting on May 8, resident Jim Uhl offered the board a map showing state Department of Conservation wetlands and federal wetlands with the 700-foot buffers the law requires drawn around them. The total nearly covers all the land area in Saugerties. The map does not include vernal pools, which the law also protects, Uhl said. He described vernal pools, amphibian breeding grounds which form as a result of rain and snowmelt, as “basically mud puddles.”

“I don’t believe we have problems with polluted water in Saugerties,” Uhl said.

Councilman Fred Costello challenged that statement, noting the town recently spent millions of dollars installing water and sewer lines on Kings Highway because groundwater in the area was contaminated. However, Costello agreed, overall Saugerties has an excellent water supply.

As the board discusses conservation plans, “we’re going to get a reputation like Woodstock and New Paltz, and nobody will want to bring business in here,” Uhl said. “Our tax problems will get even worse.”

The Conservation Advisory Committee met following the public hearing and decided to table the plan for further revision based on the many comments it received, Thornton said. “They agreed there were several comments made that really drove home the points about the size of the area around vernal pools. They cited especially Mr. [Bill] Schirmer’s comments, Mr. [Paul] Andreassen’s comments, and they decided that there are parts of that ordinance that have good protection for water resources… they decided to table it, to take the public comments under consideration, take some things out, and eventually it will probably come back for the board to review and maybe another public hearing.”

The son of the late Austen and Grace Robbins was born April 4, 1929 in the Bronx. His family moved to Saugerties in 1931, where he resided until moving to Schenectady in 2005. He was a resident at Kingsway Arms Nursing Center since June 2010. John was a graduate of Saugerties High School, class of 1947 and Albany Business College in 1950. He served in the U.S. Army from 1950 to 1952, attaining the rank of Sergeant. Upon his honorable discharge from the Army, John began a career in banking at Sawyer Savings Bank in Saugerties. In 1959 he became the chief executive officer of the bank, and in 1975 he became president of the bank as well. He was elected chairman of the board in 1982, and retired in 1987 after 37 years of service. After his retirement, John was employed by Rhinebeck Savings Bank as a consultant.

In 1984 John was elected trustee of the village of Saugerties, and a year later was elected mayor, where he served for four terms until retiring in 1993. In addition, he was active in many community and business organizations. He was a past president of the Hudson Valley chapter of the American Lung Association, on the board as director of the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce and a former district finance chairman for Rip Van Winkle Council Boy Scouts of America. He served as a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church in Saugerties and later in life became a member of the New Apostolic Church in Saugerties. John was predeceased by his beloved wife, Rosemary Heese Robbins. Survivors include his children, Mary Beth (Douglas) Bauer of Schenectady, John E. Robbins of Hartsdale, Norman H. (Jeanette) Robbins of Saugerties and William C. (Cindy) Robbins of Tahoma, California; and grandchildren, Douglas Bauer, Jr., Benjamin Bauer, Danielle Rush, Nicole Robbins, Gabrielle Witte, Kobe Robbins and Cole Robbins. The family wishes to express their sincere gratitude for the compassionate and dignified care and the many acts of kindness provided by the staff of Kingsway Arms Nursing Center, including Dr. Vincent Luvera, nurse practitioners Danielle Dumrese and Marcella Rice, Mary Ellen Downs, R.N., many nurses and CNAs and all of the support staff. A funeral service to commemorate John’s life will be announced at a later date. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Seamon-Wilsey Funeral Home. The family suggests memorial donations be made to Kingsway Arms Nursing Center, 323 Kings Rd., Schenectady, NY, 12304.

Ninety percent of the time, though, you’re right in deciding that someone or something looks too unfriendly or unkind to learn more about. Ninety percent of the time the cautious, judging section of your brain is right. Ninety percent of the time the angry-looking guy on the bus is not secretly a gentle soul. Ninety percent of the time your first call, your gut decision, that flash of affirmation or doubt that speeds along your cerebral cortex is more right than wrong.

Like the first time you were introduced to a drug dealer or the first time you played hookie, those impulses, those strings of bad vibes, sent you for a loop. They gave you the feeling that you were meeting or doing something evil, no matter how harmless it seemed in the short term. It’s the same first impression you feel when you sit down and spend time with a water chestnut pod – a feeling of unease; a pang of confusion mingled with concern.

In the early fall of 2011, I waded out into the mighty Hudson to help my brother recover the remainder of his boat which had been torn apart by Hurricane Irene. The water was still warm, and where the river wasn’t green it was that classic Hudson color, somewhere between milk chocolate brown and the glimmering evergreen of smashed-up old Coke bottles. There were water chestnuts everywhere, stranded on the beach and sitting sinister like bite-sized Belgian gates waiting to stop an assaulting force. I walked cautiously and dragged my feet along the muck as we fished the ship’s mast from the river, trying not to step on any of the thousand million pods that had sunk into the sediment; one pierced my heel as we made for the beach once we had secured the metal pole, my punishment for daring to amble into its home turf. Rivergoers would tell me about water chestnuts and what a scourge they were, how they were eating up the Hudson, claiming it in the name of invasive species everywhere and singing the death knell of a once great river now as known for its body count, staggering PCB levels, and parasite-ridden fish as it was once for its staggering natural beauty. I didn’t believe them until I was physically harmed by one.

Valley dwellers don’t pay a lot of attention to the water chestnut, probably because it sounds boring. There are invasive species in the world that are interesting; the Burmese python has overtaken swaths of Florida swampland, giant, cat-sized cane toads have all but taken control of Parliament in Australia, Africanized bees are a real threat to insect populations and barbecues everywhere. The water chestnut cannot eat your child. The water chestnut will not assault you when you try to play catch with your buddies. The water chestnut is not a constant annoyance.

But if you take time to look at a water chestnut pod, you’ll form that first impression, a tiny seizure of foreboding that brings the distinct feeling over you that you’re looking at something that shouldn’t be at all — or at least something that shouldn’t be in the river. But water chestnuts are ruthless invaders, and they don’t care what we think of them.

If you make your way down to the banks of the river, you’ll see it — football fields of green pads stretching up and down the riverside like a sick-colored, never-ending nervous system. Watch a science fiction movie about an alien invader and in about half of them, the invaders come on sweet, hiding their true intent under a false mission of peace or the promise of human advancement; the white flower of the water chestnut, present from July until the first frost, the graceful white dot that lends the plant a subtle sense of beauty, is that mission of peace.

Below it all, under the white flower and the green nerves hugging the Hudson’s shore, is the seed pod itself, the real evil of the water chestnut plant, the hidden villain. It’s horned. Of course it’s horned. Like the Minotaur and Mephistopheles, like loads of other villains, it’s horned. Four ragged, prehistoric horns come off of the body, which is textured with baroque looking crags and valleys. If the water chestnut pod had a face, it could easily sit out front of a medieval column, all grotesque and foreboding, intricate and sinister, black like space and unlike just about anything else that grows free.

The water chestnut could be the villain in a creature feature if it could crawl out of the water, if the plant, its sick tangle of vines, was its body and the seed pod itself was its head. Imagine: legions of vegetable aliens climbing out of the river that they’ve decided to possess to conquer the earth.

That movie would probably only work if it was made in the ’80s. But in truth, water chestnuts are the attacking villain. They stall the growth of native aquatic vegetation, they make the Hudson nearly un-swimmable in places, they ruin watercraft and they reproduce exponentially. They are cruel. They take and take. They are an unfeeling and foreign conqueror. And the problem of their invasion isn’t getting any better with complacency. Water chestnuts seed pods remain viable for up to 12 years, and there are now millions of them up and down the banks of the Hudson, waiting to grow up into a full-fledged alien invader and parent more devil pods or, alternatively, shoot through the soles of the feet of anyone crazy enough to walk into their backyard river.

The bad juju flows when you meet a water chestnut pod, the sinister little death’s head that now owns the Hudson.

Nigel Redman checks the TV monitor. (photo by David Gordon)

Not that long ago, if you wanted to watch a local program, you’d have to catch it when it aired on channel 23. This month, the channel added online streaming to its website, which allows anyone with an internet connection to tune in from anywhere. The system also allows storing programs on the cloud – a large-scale dedicated server – which means viewers can watch programs any time, not just as they are being broadcast.

Manager Anastasia Redman illustrates one of the many new possibilities this creates.

“We’re talking to the high school now,” Anastasia said. “We’re trying to get them to record the graduation, and stream it live. So if there’s a family member in California who can’t get to their grandkids’ graduation, they can put it on their computer and see it live as it occurs.”

The channel broadcasts locally-produced entertainment and educational programs and public meetings recorded by volunteers.

Nigel Redman, the volunteer technical director, said the system, and renovations to the studio, installation of the electronics and maintenance are all done by volunteers. An unused area in Town Hall is now a professional studio, with equipment neatly mounted on racks and a substantial space for program production.

Lighthouse TV is using a higher grade of streaming, which doesn’t place the video screen in the midst of advertising, Nigel said. “There are streaming packages that are free, but they come with commercials and banners, and the quality is poor.”

Redman decided to get a dedicated server for the channel, where material can be stored and from which broadcasts originate, he said. To do this, the channel had to buy a coder, which converts the signal to digital form, and has to subscribe to the cloud service. “The subscription gives us the ability to save the video on demand and to have a dedicated pegtv (similar to mpeg in audio). We use Adobe Flash as our video stream.”

The server service costs about $1,500, which comes out of the channel 23 budget, Nigel said. “We’re hoping we can share some of the cost with the town, since the town will be using a lot of it,” he said, adding that the station will have to do some fundraising to keep the service going.

The streaming system also allows for video archiving, which allows viewers to watch programs at their convenience, not just as they are being broadcast, Nigel said. “Our meetings – Town Board, Village Board, Board of Education – are now available to our residents any time.”

“If they’re submitted,” Anastasia added.

The other motive for streaming was to create an “emergency action system,” which would allow emergency services, such as police, to send information out via computer through the television station, Nigel said. “They will be able to use our encoder to get their message out in an emergency.”

“We are establishing the parameters with them,” Anastasia said. “Last time we had a storm, the police and the town used TV23 to get the message out on closings and emergency situations, shelters – it’s an asset to the town and police department.”

“If there’s a news issue, we want it to become a Saugerties news issue,” Nigel said. “TV23 could always reach all the cable people through Time Warner, but now with a web stream we can reach anybody anywhere who has a computer.”

One development for the near future is a “live drop” at Cantine Field and one at the Senior Center, which will allow live broadcasting of events and meetings. “When we record a meeting, it isn’t usually available until two days later,” Anastasia said. “We won’t have that delay.”

Similarly, events at Cantine Field can be covered, with interviews and video of the events.

“The system is new, and there are still kinks to be worked out,” Anastasia said. “Sometimes when someone goes online to look, sometimes it works and sometimes it won’t work.” As she spoke, the signal cut off, and the screen went blank.

“When it goes blank like that, we have issues with Time Warner to come in and find out why,” Nigel said. “We stream through a Time Warner link, and Time Warner installed it, then left and said ‘you know how it works.’ They have not come back to say ‘let’s fix it.’”

With all the investment in the studio and equipment, Nigel said he’s a bit disappointed because “it isn’t being used the way we would like it to be used. The community hasn’t come to say ‘we would like to produce shows’ like we thought they would. So we’re going to devise other ways to enhance it and get people to access it and use it.”

Do people really watch Cable Channel 23?

“If we go out for an hour, people call up and say, ‘what happened?’ Plus some of our bulletin board subscribers call up and say we have to stop running their promo because they have too many people showing up,” Nigel said.

The channel has an active board, with five town members and five village members. Leeanne Thornton is the Town Board liaison and Jeannine Mayer represents the Village Board.

The board works well together, Anastasia said. “We might have discussions where we disagree, but in the end we all come out agreeing, which is fabulous,” she said.

“We pulled the plug for this year a while ago,” Lang said this week. “Things are looking good for next summer.”

Lang said that following a series of public meetings with town officials and news stories about his plans last autumn and winter, he and the Schaller family, which owns the 800-plus acre Winston Farm, located opposite the southbound entrance/exit from the New York Thruway, decided they simply hadn’t given themselves the time to do what they want this year.

Nevertheless, the famed rock promoter – who rose to fame with his epochal 1969 Woodstock Festival – said that site preparations were continuing to proceed accordingly.

“We’ve completed an assessment of site needs,” he said. “We took down some barns that we determined were safety hazards; we’ve assessed what needs to be done to activate our roadways and how to update the electrical grid there. And we don’t need to deal with plumbing now.”

As for the future… the promoter said that what had been planned for this year, including several weekend-long rock festivals, were currently being scheduled for 2014, along with more shows.

“We’re hoping for a more diverse array of music,” he added.

St. Joseph School welcomes transfer students with open arms. (photo by Phyllis McCabe)

After months of meetings and planning with parents, teachers and pastors, the Archdiocese of New York called off a plan to merge Kingston Catholic and St. Joseph School in Kingston while St. Mary of the Snow School in Saugerties will close in June as planned.

The plan, announced late in April, calls for Kingston Catholic and St. Joseph School to both remain open in their present form as full kindergarten through eighth grade campuses, said Fran Davies, a spokesperson for the New York Archdiocese.

The merger plan was called off after parents voiced opposition to it at Archdiocese-sponsored town hall meetings. The Times Herald-Record reported the merger plan would have seen Kingston Catholic become an “Early Learning Center” focused on pre-k and kindergarten, while St. Joseph would have hosted grades one through eight.

To deal with the parent’s concerns, the Diocese held additional meetings and created a local ad-hoc committee to create a different plan, Davies said.

“Thanks to the hard work and strong leadership of the Ulster Catholic community, these schools were able to develop a plan to address enrollment and the resulting financial issues that originally made them candidates for a possible merger this June,” Davies said.

While both Catholic schools in Kingston remain open in their present form, 132 years of Catholic education at St. Mary of the Snow School will come to an end in June. Davies cited an enrollment of only 82 students, and the ability to accommodate students at other schools as the reasons for closing St. Mary of the Snow School.

While Kingston parents were relieved the merger was called off, Saugerties parents must still make tough decisions about where to send their kids.

So far, 22 of 82 children who aren’t graduating have enrolled in Kingston Catholic or St. Joseph School, Davies said.

“More families have attended open houses and social events at our schools in an effort to select the school that best meets their children’s needs,” Davies said.

“The children have already begun to experience a warm welcome from both of the Kingston schools,” Davies added.

St Mary of the Snow students had the chance to meet students from the two Catholic schools in Kingston during open houses, afternoon teas, ice-cream socials and student dances, Davies said.

Families who live more than 15 miles from Kingston won’t be eligible for bus rides, though parents can drive children to the high school to catch a bus to St. Joseph or Cahill Elementary for a bus to Kingston Catholic, Davies said.

Option 1: Kingston Catholic

Kingston Catholic is located at 159 Broadway. It presently has enrollment of 248 students and is anticipating 263 students next September, principal Jill Albert said.

Albert was delighted by the Archdiocese’s decision to call off the merger and continue a145-year-old tradition of kindergarten through eighth grade education at Kingston, but saddened to hear St. Mary of the Snow will close. “It was a long and difficult process, but a necessary one to help sort out the future of Catholic schools in Ulster County,” she said.

The school plans to welcome St. Mary students with open arms. Events for St. Mary students included ice cream socials, tours and tickets to a Kingston Catholic student play, Albert said.

Albert plans to use a buddy system to help new students get acquainted. “We’re having a shadow day where students can spend the day and we hook them up with a buddy,” Albert said. “If they decide to enroll, the student will keep in touch with them over the summer, so when they come to school in the fall, there will be a familiar friendly face.”

Officials from Kingston Catholic plan to sit down with students from St. Mary to see what traditions they would like to see carried on in the school. “It would be great for them, but also great for our students to experience new traditions that they might not have been exposed to,” Albert said.

St. Mary students transferring to Kingston Catholic face larger classes of between 22-32 students, Albert said. Albert does not believe children used to small classes will have a big problem adjusting to the new environment.

“Thirty-two sounds like a large class, but the teachers do it with great success,” Albert said. “There’s order, discipline and high expectations for success from the teachers.

“The teachers are uniquely dedicated,” Albert said. “They come in early and stay late to help kids who are struggling get where they need to be.”

She said that for the last five years, the school has had between 94 percent and 97 percent of students reaching the NYS benchmark in both math and English Language Arts.

“On top of that, they’re happy kids,” Albert said. “It’s a joyful school building.”

Albert touted the school’s “academic excellence, spiritual formation, community-mindedness and extensive use of technology” as reasons why parents should send their kids to Kingston Catholic. Technology includes an iPad lab, smart boards and a state of the art science lab.

“This generation is a digital generation. Trying to teach them with a blackboard and chalk is a little bit reminiscent of the Flintstones,” Albert said. “They look at teachers trying to use those methods like they’re dinosaurs.”

Students in eighth grade can take accelerated ninth grade science and math and take the Regents exam, Albert said. Spanish is offered starting in kindergarten.

Albert also discussed Kingston Catholic’s intramural and competitive sports including soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis and track.

“We play St. Joseph School, other Catholic schools in our region, and other private schools like the Woodstock Day School,” Albert said. “It provides an opportunity for students to have athletic opportunities that were previously only available to public school children.”

Clubs include yearbook, student council, honor society, Mandarin Chinese, Scrabble club, musical theater, journalism, art club, student council, literary club, math Olympiads, and, coming in the fall, a debate team.

While some Saugerties parents harbored concern over crime near Kingston Catholic, Albert assures them it is safe.

“We’re located less than a quarter-mile from the police department,” Albert said. “We’ve never had a crime incident on campus. It’s a very secure campus and a very safe school. Many of our parents are state troopers, sheriff’s deputies and Kingston police, and they are very aware of areas in any city or town that are unsafe and they put their children here.”

Albert suggests parents interested in learning more about Kingston Catholic should visit their website at www.kingstoncatholicschool.com, visit the school’s Facebook page or call (845) 331-9318 to set up a tour.

(Photo by Robert Ford)

“Food trucks are cool things,” said Marc Propper at the May 6 Village Board public hearing on a law designed to regulate them.

Propper brings a unique perspective to the food truck issue, owning two village restaurants, Miss Lucy’s Kitchen and ‘Cue, both on Partition Street, and as the owner of a food truck that sells BBQ food. The village is considering a law limiting their number in the village center to two in order to protect existing restaurants.

Propper agreed with previous statements by the mayor saying the trucks shouldn’t be allowed to park in front of restaurants. But the trucks can serve a valuable purpose, he said, by offering specialty foods and items not found in any stores or restaurants.

“Food trucks are also hip,” Propper said, “and can bring international foods and attention to the village,” noting that just up river in Hudson there is a special area set aside for food trucks and the tourists and local merchants love it.

“We want to welcome food trucks to the village,” Murphy said, “we just don’t want them to run amuck. Because the brick and mortar restaurants are the backbone of the village.”

“And we’re not anti-business,” said trustee Vincent Buono, “we just want to do this right.”

Propper said food trucks are becoming more popular lately, and cited the food truck festival held at the DIY crafts center Fiber Flame on Route 212. (The publishing industry has caught on, too — the book “Running a Food Truck for Dummies” has been displayed prominently at Barnes & Noble in Ulster.)

“They are also a good way for the village to make some money through fees,” Propper added.

Permits are $250 for the year, although the board is considering a one-day fee for special events. Anyone operating without a permit is subject to a fine of up to $1,000.

The law would limit trucks in the village business district to the two locations they were set up last year: one at the Speedy Mart on Main St. and another on Ulster Ave. Others would have to be set up on village outskirts.

The law also establishes the hours of operation for the vehicles. Because many local restaurants close at 10 p.m., while the bars stay open far longer, the board decided to allow the trucks to stay open until midnight on weekends to serve the bar crowd.

At the end of the May 6 public hearing, trustees voted to leave the hearing open while they “tweak” the law to include longer hours of operation for weekends, and determine a one-day use fee. The hearing will continue at the board’s May 20 meeting at 6:45 p.m.

(Joe Morgan)

On the same day that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer joined with Ulster County Executive Mike Hein to recommend the Public Service Commission (PSC) give the proposed $1.5-billion takeover of Central Hudson by Canadian power company Fortis more scrutiny, two PSC administrative law judges assigned to evaluate the deal wrote that the proposed merger’s minuses outweighed the pluses.

Last Friday, May 3, just hours before Schumer and Hein held a press conference at the county office building in Kingston, administrative law judges Rafael A. Epstein and David L. Prestemon issued their recommended decision (RD) in the case — a 66-page legal document detailing and analyzing the arguments for and against the Fortis takeover. The major argument against? The public opposition to it, expressed through comments and at four public hearings.

“We find it relatively easy to conclude that the benefits of the merger transaction pursuant to the Joint Proposal [the technical term for the merger bid] are outweighed by the detriments remaining after mitigation,” Epstein and Prestemon wrote in the conclusion. The last sentence of the document implies the merger may not be easily modified to pass muster. “The Commission might conclude that this could be accomplished by requiring PBAs (Positive Benefit Adjustments) additional to those offered in the Joint Proposal, should Petitioners come forward with such a proposed modification. Since any such possibility is speculative, we will not address it except to state our opinion that the proposed transaction’s flaws may be inherently unsusceptible to effective remediation by means of supplemental PBAs.” The PSC is not bound by the Recommended Decision.

The judges looked at many different aspects of the transaction and weighed the various arguments by several parties both for and against. The aspects of whether the merged Fortis-Central Hudson entity would bring sufficient economic benefit, protect local jobs, provide sufficiently for low-income customers and pose any special problems due to foreign ownership.

As far as economic benefit goes, the judges found “that the $49.25 million in payments and guaranteed savings provided for in the Joint Proposal are real, will inure to the benefit of ratepayers in the short term, and may generate some additional small, continuing savings.” Later, they concluded that the best the proposal could do in hedging against the economic risks and detriments of the transaction “amount to a net zero impact.”

On the issue of foreign ownership, the judges wrote they do not consider that Fortis would ignore local concerns or sell Central Hudson to a “country less friendly to the United States” to be justified. They also dismissed concerns that the North American Free Trade Agreement could be used by Fortis to dodge local rules as unsupported by precedent, noting that NAFTA has never been used in such a fashion anywhere.

But what got the judges to recommend against the deal was, after all, the massive outpouring of public opposition to it, to an extent that they believe the public would rather keep Central Hudson as is than accept any possible financial benefits of a merger. Epstein and Prestemon acknowledged the “extraordinarily intense degree of public opposition to a change of Central Hudson’s ownership among customers, their elected officials, and labor representatives and other public organizations in the service territory.” Indeed, the document states that “all of the speakers at all of the public statement hearings [two each in Kingston and Poughkeepsie] opposed the merger.”

Through May 1, the judges report, another 316 comments were received by the PSC via e-mail, snail mail, phone and posting to the commission website. The judges also noted that 896 individuals signed a petition on SignOn.org expressing opposition to merger. No comments in support of the merger were received at all until April 24 — Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce President Charlie North was the first to support it, followed by 274 more pro-merger — “about 133 of those…from Central Hudson employees.”

The decision goes on to quote former congressman Maurice Hinchey: “Surely, in a democratic society such as ours, the decision as to what constitutes ‘public benefit’ is not unrelated to the will of an informed public and its elected representatives.” The judges wrote, “We think it is, and we find the lack of public confidence in the putative future benefits [of the Fortis takeover] to be a significant detriment of the transaction.”

Since the first draft was released late last year, significant revisions have been made, particularly to sections relating to casino gambling, rentals and affordable housing (to which speakers at public forums were largely opposed).

The town and village boards will meet Wednesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in the lower level of Town Hall to discuss what happens next. Eventually, both boards have to approve the plan. A comprehensive plan, or master plan, does not carry the force of law, however town and village actions are expected to conform to its tenets. Proposed laws often make reference to goals outlined in a town’s comprehensive plan.

Supervisor wants wider focus

Town Supervisor Kelly Myers said she’d like to get a lot of public input in the next phase. She also had some questions about the focus of the plan. She noted that it is primarily concerned with land-use and development, and while this is important, it leaves out a lot of issues that affect people’s daily lives.

“I was on the Village Board when the plan update began, and I insisted that we needed public meetings as part of the process,” she said. “The committee has put in a lot of work, but I think the public needed to be more involved. I think [the committee] should have sponsored a charrette (an open discussion at which all ideas are considered).

“There was a lot of public comment about land-use, and as a community we are involved with more than just land-use,” she said. For instance, “We’re living in a post 9/11 world, and safety and security are primary issues.” While the plan addresses climate change, the issue of more frequent flooding, partly caused by releases from New York City’s reservoirs, is an issue that needed more discussion and inclusion, Myers said.

Unemployment and job creation are issues that deserve discussion and should be part of our planning process, and the need to create a strong economy, said Myers. Also, “I didn’t see anything about community groups and the need to support them. I would like to see something that supports them (in the plan).”

The town has incredible sports facilities for a community this size, Myers said. She noted specifically the excellent ball field complex and the ice arena, which should be listed among the assets of the community, Myers said.

Much of the infrastructure, especially in the village, is more than 100 years old, and the question of upgrading it should be included in the Comprehensive Plan, Myers said. “We have a real challenge to modernize our infrastructure,” she said.

The plan could gain from a greater emphasis on education, as this is very important for the town’s future, Myers said, adding that she has attended meetings of parents’ groups and found the members well informed and active.

Latest revisions

While the committee was working on an upgrade of an existing plan, and on two drafts that had been discussed in public hearings, some of the changes made after the second hearing aroused heated discussion, said committee chairman Patrick Fitzsimmons. In particular, the section on casinos was “the most controversial,” he said. But “if you were to say the majority was against gambling, that would be an honest statement.”

Section 9:20 on gambling originally cited the potential tax and economic benefit of casinos, and suggested that only after an analysis that demonstrates these benefits should casinos be allowed and that negative social and environmental impacts are fully mitigated.

This statement has been replaced with: “The possibility of development of gaming casinos poses significant potential impacts on the community. Such impacts include social, fiscal and environmental effects. Any decision regarding casino development can only be determined after further detailed analysis of such impacts in general and those of any site specific proposal, in particular, as well as a thorough opportunity for consideration of the opinions of the citizens of the Town and Village.”

While the lower section of Partition St. between Dock and Clermont streets has seen several new shops opening and renovations begun on several others, a sentence in the plan encouraging business to “locate/remain/expand in the lower Partition St. area of the Village business district” was amended to refer to the Village Business District as a whole. The recommendation was included in Goal Nine, “Diversify Economic Base.” This section received a number of changes, including creation of an economic development plan; ensuring that new business, in addition to being compatible with nearby land uses, “enhance the small town character;” and creation of an overall development plan.

Several amendments to the traffic planning section of the document include the replacement of a recommendation for discouraging strip malls as a way of reducing traffic congestion to a recommendation that adjacent residential developments be linked through roads connecting the developments, reducing access points on major roads. Also added was a recommendation to incorporate the “Complete Streets” plan into Saugerties road development. Complete Streets is based on a concept of roads designed to accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists and other users of low-impact transportation rather than just automobiles.

One of the most contentious sections of the plan in public discussion involved housing, especially low-income housing. However, the section encouraging support of “the Saugerties Public Housing Agency and other organizations, such as the Senior Housing Project and Better Community Housing for Saugerties, as they work to maintain housing for qualified low-moderate income residents of the Town and Village” remains unchanged. (Previous drafts had already expunged more enthusiastic references to the need for a diversity of housing for all income levels.)

Read the plan

A copy of the plan can be downloaded from the town or village websites (saugerties.ny.us and village.saugerties.ny.us) and copies are available in the Saugerties Public Library and the Town Hall. The latest version of the plan is dated April 29. Changes made since the earlier version was circulated on Feb. 5 are highlighted in red to make the edits clear. While the new plan contains much that was not included in the town’s first Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 1999, a statement on the opening page notes that the plan “incorporates and builds upon the goals, recommendations and strategies set forth in the 1999 plan. Therefore, it should not be viewed as a change of direction but rather as a refinement of the course already established.”