The J'VilleTowne Crier

Flooding w/ Out River Over-Flowing Banks

2011-04-17T22:55:00.000-04:00

4/17/11 Had some minor flooding across the street at the launch area today (FERC Project 2616) and I noticed that the water was high alright but WAS NOT coming over the banks anywheres. So I asked myself "where is all this water coming from?" So I went over to investigate and found that the water was coming up through holes in the ground! Hope you can see in the pics.

NYS Property Tax Breaks for Disabled

2011-04-13T10:04:00.000-04:00

http://www.orps.state.ny.us/ref/forms/pdf/rp459cins.pdf

Fracking in NY? No Frackin' Way!

2011-04-10T15:23:00.000-04:00

WNYT.com - Easton moving forward with plans for nuclear power

2011-04-08T10:03:00.000-04:00

WNYT.com - Easton moving forward with plans for nuclear power

Talkin Trash: Albany Landfill Running Out of Space

2011-01-30T19:49:00.002-05:00

This story appeared in the Albany, NY Sunday Times Union paper on 1/30/11

Special series: Garbage is piling up, what will Albany and neighboring communities do when the Rapp Road landfill reaches capacity?

Those who don't believe that history repeats itself need look no further than the Capital Region's long and tumultuous relationship with its garbage.

Four decades ago, room at the North Albany dump was swiftly running out. New York's capital city was facing a hard deadline with state mandates to find someplace else to send its trash.

But in 1969, the year man first walked on the moon, some of the region's garbage was still being fed to pigs and a story in the Times Union speculated that in the not-to-distant future, 1984, trash might simply be sucked from homes via high-speed vacuum tubes to a central collection point.

There were calls for regional cooperation and a hopeful eye on modern technology that would revolutionize our relationship with the trash we produce.

Today in 2011, Albany's Rapp Road landfill -- billed in the late 1960s as the modern, better-regulated cousin to the city dump, despite being built in and around the environmentally sensitive Pine Bush -- is running out of space.

Stories from the series continue Feb. 3 through 6.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Exclusively-in-the-Sunday-Times-Union-print-824357.php#ixzz1CZNH3HEi

Join the Anti-Fracking Folk of New York State

2010-11-16T17:56:00.000-05:00

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2039&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=td82tr1264.app305a

Un-Stoppable

2010-11-14T11:58:00.001-05:00

The true story of a runaway train; http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm

Outraged "Bus-Dad" Avoids Jail Time: Good

2010-11-11T03:59:00.003-05:00

A father, outraged about the bullying his disabled daughter goes through during her busride to school each day, boards the bus and reads the riot act the bully,...gets arrested; Bus Surveilance footage; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvr38NJG5Bw

Afterwords;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clcKcLLOCLs

Local Guy Heats House w/ Home-Grown Corn

2010-11-01T12:37:00.001-04:00

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/11/01/news/doc4cce3c88ad8ea056407679.txt

Taxpayer Wins Reduction but Get Screwed in the End Anyways

2010-11-01T06:19:00.002-04:00

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/After-assessment-victory-higher-amount-returns-760948.php

River Front Park Plans

2010-10-26T09:52:00.001-04:00

http://recordtroytalk.blogspot.com/2010/09/riverfront-park-redevelopment.html

NYS Troopers Help Transport Bird Flu Trucks in Albany

2010-10-13T08:20:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIVI5g2y-XQ&feature=related

Backyard Wildlife / Muskrats & Turkeys

2010-09-29T06:51:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeMO9QoYstk&feature=related

What kind of animal makes this sound?

2010-09-29T06:46:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx9jJEfre38

3 Large Dog Houses

2010-08-19T18:59:00.008-04:00

$25.00 each

One large igloo style;

Two large square-type, (one w/ white top has some chew-marks on it along where it snaps together, nothing serious and does not effect integrity or functionality)

Leather "Prospector" / Cowboy Hat

2010-08-14T23:29:00.003-04:00

Size L with 6 Buffalo Nickels on band;

Babykins the Killer-Dog

2010-08-14T22:52:00.003-04:00

Two possums, one muskrat, and almost Emma (twice) but plays with cats and kitten so gently!

2 Cats & Dog

2010-08-14T22:50:00.002-04:00

Big-Eye, Poppa and Babykins (dog)

Sweet Emma

2010-08-14T22:47:00.003-04:00

AKA Jekell & Hyde

Maybe they will take our farm

2010-08-09T23:27:00.000-04:00

http://www.wlt.org/

Local Dr. Among Victims of Taliban Attack in Afghanistan

2010-08-09T16:53:00.004-04:00

Dr. Thomas Little, an optomitrist from Delmar/ Loudonville area of the Capital District, Ny; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10900338

Local Church holds memorial; http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=12945849

add this to the distinction we have of a local man charged in the first ever "fragging" incident during the Iraq War, and the local who was killed in Israels attack on the aid flotilla headed to Gaza, you will see how close to home our global wars are hitting. No small town is spared these kind of losses as long as the endless wars go on and people of all walks of life continue to die from them in one way or another.

Of Interest: Petersburg, Rensselaer Co.

2010-07-15T12:08:00.001-04:00

http://churchtree.tripod.com/index.html

NO to Fracking in NY!!!

2010-07-02T01:12:00.001-04:00

http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/alerts/view/6

Environmental Dangers of Fracking

2010-06-25T20:50:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8&feature=player_embedded

Sniper targets Ticonderoga horses

2010-06-17T05:00:00.003-04:00

New York - June 15, 2010

A 20-year-old Belgian horse is walking around as it heals at Crane Mountain Valley Horse Rescue in Westport.

"It's totally amazing he lived," said Ed Mrozick of Crane Mountain Valley Horse Rescue.

For the past few weeks, the horse has been recovering from a gunshot wound to the back of its neck.

"He's lucky," Mrozick said. "It just missed his spinal cord by an inch."

While it was lucky to survive, the horse will spend at least the next six months recovering.

"He's doing good, he has a great temper. He knows we are trying to help him," Mrozick said. "We work on him; we don't have to hold him. He likes his baths; we have to constantly give him a bath."

While the horse recovers 20 miles from its home in Ticonderoga, police are busy trying to figure out who shot the horse and two others in May and early June. The other two horses are being treated at their homes. They too are expected to survive. The first horse was shot on the Crammond Farm. Over the next two weeks the two other horses were shot in this same area.

"Really this is a disturbing case," Ticonderoga Police Chief Mark Johns said. "Personally, in my experience as a police officer, it's the first time I've seen someone target horses like this."

Police do believe the cases are related. Each horse was shot sometime at night.

"The evidence so far indicates the weapon used, a high-powered rifle, is the same for all three horses," Johns said.

While police would not comment on a possible motive, they hint an arrest may happen soon.

"We are following several promising leads, and we are expecting to solve this in the near future," Johns said.

An arrest that will help ease the minds of the owners of the horses.

Matt Henson - WCAX News

Mohican Geographic Names

2010-05-28T18:01:00.001-04:00

http://debbie_winchell.tripod.com/mohican/geographic.html

Debate Continues over Proctors Theatre

2010-05-28T17:25:00.005-04:00

This is the theatre where I saw my first movie.
Dont ask me what it was. It was also the the theatre that this lady used to frequent as a child; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Stapleton

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/05/28/news/doc4bff4c58b104c418488459.txt

Hiliary Clinton & The Kate Mullany House, Troy, NY

2010-05-26T10:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.ibtstw.org/welcome/mullanyhouse.html

Yeaaaah Troy!;

2010-05-26T10:29:00.001-04:00

Yeaaaah local historian / writer Don Rittner !

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrensse/article2.htm

Elizabeth Cady-Stanton: Giving Her Her Dues; The Real Founder of the Womans Sufferage Movement

2010-05-26T10:02:00.004-04:00

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the first women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in the United States.[1]

Before Stanton narrowed her political focus almost exclusively to women's rights, she was an active abolitionist together with her husband, Henry Brewster Stanton and cousin, Gerrit Smith. Unlike many of those involved in the woman's rights movement, Stanton addressed a number of issues pertaining to women beyond voting rights. Her concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control.[2] She was also an outspoken supporter of the 19th-century temperance movement.

After the American Civil War, Stanton's commitment to female suffrage caused a schism in the woman's rights movement when she, together with Susan B. Anthony, declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. She opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while continuing to deny women, black and white, the same rights. Her position on this issue, together with her thoughts on organized Christianity and women's issues beyond voting rights, led to the formation of two separate women's rights organizations that were finally rejoined, with Stanton as president of the joint organization, approximately 20 years later.

Childhood and family background

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the eighth of 11 children, was born in Johnstown, New York, to Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston Cady. Five of her siblings died in early childhood or infancy. A sixth sibling, her elder brother Eleazar, died at age 20 just prior to his graduation from Union College in Schenectady, New York. Only Elizabeth Cady and four sisters lived well into adulthood and old age. Later in life, Elizabeth named her two daughters after two of her sisters, Margaret and Harriot.[3]

Daniel Cady, Stanton's father, was a prominent attorney who served one term in the United States Congress (Federalist; 1814–1817) and later became both a circuit court judge and, in 1847, a New York Supreme Court justice.[4] Judge Cady introduced his daughter to the law and, together with her brother-in-law, Edward Bayard, planted the early seeds that grew into her legal and social activism. Even as a young girl, she enjoyed perusing her father's law library and debating legal issues with his law clerks. It was this early exposure to law that, in part, caused Stanton to realize how disproportionately the law favored men over women, particularly over married women. Her realization that married women had virtually no property, income, employment, or even custody rights over their own children, helped set her course toward changing these inequities.[5]

Stanton's mother, Margaret Livingston Cady, a descendant of early Dutch settlers, was the daughter of Colonel James Livingston, an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Having fought at Saratoga and Quebec, Livingston assisted in the capture of Major John Andre at West Point, New York where Andre and Benedict Arnold, who escaped aboard the HMS Vulture, were scheming to turn West Point over to the English.[6] Margaret Cady, an unusually tall woman for her time, had a commanding presence, and Stanton routinely described her as "queenly."[7] While Stanton's daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, remembers her grandmother as being fun, affectionate, and lively,[8] Stanton herself did not apparently share such memories. Emotionally devastated by the loss of so many children, Margaret Cady fell into a depression, which kept her from being fully involved in the lives of her surviving children and left a maternal void in Stanton's childhood.[7]

Since Stanton's father contended with this loss by immersing himself in his work, many of the childrearing responsibilities fell to Stanton's elder sister, Tryphena, 11 years her senior, and Tryphena's husband, Edward Bayard, a Union College classmate of Eleazar Cady's and son of James A. Bayard, Sr., a U.S. Senator from Wilmington, Delaware. At the time of his engagement and marriage to Tryphena, Edward Bayard worked as an apprentice in Daniel Cady's law office and was instrumental in nurturing Stanton's growing understanding of the explicit and implicit gender hierarchies within the legal system.[9]

Slavery did not end in New York State until July 4, 1827[10], and, like many men of his day, Stanton's father was a slaveowner. Peter Teabout, a slave in the Cady household who was later freed in Johnstown,[11] took care of Stanton and her sister Margaret. While she makes no mention of Teabout's position as a slave in her family's household, he is remembered with particular fondness by Stanton in her memoir, Eighty Years & More. Among other things, she reminisces about the pleasure she took in attending the Episcopal church with Teabout, where, as Judge Cady's daughters, she and her sister enjoyed sitting with him in the back of the church rather than alone in front with the white families of the congregation.[12] It seems it was, however, not immediately the fact that her family owned at least one slave, but her exposure to the abolition movement as a young woman visiting her cousin, Gerrit Smith, in Peterboro, New York, that led to her staunch abolitionist sentiments.[13]

Education and intellectual development

Unlike many women of her era, Stanton was formally educated. She attended Johnstown Academy, where she studied Latin, Greek and mathematics until the age of 16. At the Academy, she enjoyed being in co-educational classes where she could compete intellectually and academically with boys her age and older.[14] She did this very successfully, winning several academic awards and honors, including the award for Greek language.[15]

In her memoir, Stanton credits the Cadys' neighbor, Rev. Simon Hosack, with strongly encouraging her intellectual development and academic abilities at a time when she felt these were undervalued by her father. Writing of her brother, Eleazar's, death in 1826, Stanton remembers trying to comfort her father, saying that she would try to be all her brother had been. At the time, her father's response devastated Stanton: "Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!"[16] Understanding from this that her father valued boys above girls, Stanton tearfully took her disappointment to Hosack, whose firm belief in her abilities counteracted her father's perceived disparagement. Hosack went on to teach Stanton Greek, encouraged her to read widely, and ultimately bequeathed to her his own Greek lexicon along with other books. His confirmation of her intellectual abilities strengthened Stanton's confidence and self-esteem.[17]

Upon graduation from Johnstown Academy, Stanton received one of her first tastes of sexual discrimination. Stanton watched with dismay as the young men graduating with her, many of whom she had surpassed academically, went on to Union College, as her older brother, Eleazar, had done previously.[18] In 1830, with Union College taking only men, Stanton enrolled in the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York, which was founded and run by Emma Willard. (In 1895, the school was renamed the Emma Willard School in honor of its founder, and Stanton, spurred by her respect for Willard and despite her growing infirmities, was a keynote speaker at this event.)

Early during her student days in Troy, Stanton remembers being strongly influenced by Charles Grandison Finney, an evangelical preacher and central figure in the revivalist movement. His influence, combined with the Calvinistic Presbyterianism of her childhood, caused her great unease. After hearing Finney speak, Stanton became terrified at the possibility of her own damnation: "Fear of judgment seized my soul. Visions of the lost haunted my dreams. Mental anguish prostrated my health. Dethronement of my reason was apprehended by my friends."[19] Stanton credits her father and brother-in-law, Edward Bayard, with convincing her to ignore Finney's warnings and, after taking her on a rejuvenating trip to Niagara Falls, restoring her reason and sense of balance.[20] She never returned to organized Christianity and, after this experience, always maintained that logic and a humane sense of ethics were the best guides to both thought and behavior.[21]

Marriage and family

As a young woman, Elizabeth Cady met Henry Brewster Stanton through her early involvement in the temperance and the abolition movements. Henry Stanton was an acquaintance of Elizabeth Cady's cousin, Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist and member of the "Secret Six" that supported John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.[22] Stanton was a journalist, an antislavery orator, and, after his marriage to Elizabeth Cady, an attorney. Despite Daniel Cady's reservations, the couple were married in 1840, with Elizabeth Cady requesting of the minister that the phrase "promise to obey" be removed from the wedding vows.[23] She later wrote, "I obstinately refused to obey one with whom I supposed I was entering into an equal relation."[24] The couple had six children between 1842 and 1856. Their seventh and last child, Robert, was an unplanned menopausal baby born in 1859 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton was forty-four.[25]

Soon after returning to the United States from their European honeymoon, the Stantons moved into the Cady household in Johnstown. Henry Stanton studied law under his father-in-law until 1843, when the Stantons moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where Henry joined a law firm. While living in Boston, Elizabeth thoroughly enjoyed the social, political, and intellectual stimulation that came with a constant round of abolitionist gatherings and meetings. Here she enjoyed the company of and was influenced by such people as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Louisa May Alcott, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, among others.[26] Throughout her marriage and eventual widowhood, Stanton took her husband's surname as part of her own, signing herself Elizabeth Cady Stanton or E. Cady Stanton, but she refused to be addressed as Mrs. Henry B. Stanton. Asserting that women were individual persons, she stated that, "[t]he custom of calling women Mrs. John This and Mrs. Tom That and colored men Sambo and Zip Coon, is founded on the principle that white men are lords of all."[27]

The Stanton marriage was not entirely without tension and disagreement. Henry Stanton, like Daniel Cady, disagreed with the notion of female suffrage.[28] Because of employment, travel, and financial considerations, husband and wife lived more often apart than together. Friends of the couple found them very similar in temperament and ambition, but quite dissimilar in their views on certain issues including women's rights. In 1842, abolitionist reformer Sarah Grimke counseled Elizabeth in a letter: "Henry greatly needs a humble, holy companion and thou needest the same."[29] However, both Stantons considered their marriage an overall success, and the marriage lasted for 47 years, ending with Henry Stanton's death in 1887.[30]

In 1847, concerned about the effect of New England winters on Henry Stanton's fragile health, the Stantons moved from Boston to Seneca Falls, New York, situated at the northern end of Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes found in upstate New York. Their house, purchased for them by Daniel Cady, was located some distance from town.[31] The couple's last four children—two sons and two daughters—were born there, with Stanton asserting that her children were conceived under a program she called "voluntary motherhood." In an era when it was commonly held that a wife must submit to her husband's sexual demands, Stanton firmly believed that women should have command over their sexual relationships and childbearing.[25] As a mother who advocated homeopathy, freedom of expression, lots of outdoor activity, and a solid, highly academic education for all of her children, Stanton nurtured a breadth of interests, activities, and learning in both her sons and daughters.[32] She was remembered by her daughter Margaret as being "cheerful, sunny and indulgent".[33]

Although she enjoyed motherhood and assumed primary responsibility for rearing the children, Stanton found herself unsatisfied and even depressed by the lack of intellectual companionship and stimulation in Seneca Falls.[34] As an antidote to the boredom and loneliness, Stanton became increasingly involved in the community and, by 1848, had established ties to similarly-minded women in the area. By this time, she was firmly committed to the nascent women's rights movement and was ready to engage in organized activism.[35]

Early activism in the Women's Rights Movement

Prior to living in Seneca Falls, Stanton had become a great admirer and friend of Lucretia Mott, the Quaker minister, feminist, and abolitionist whom she had met at the International Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England in the spring of 1840 while on her honeymoon. The two women became allies when the male delegates attending the convention voted that women should be denied participation in the proceedings, even if they, like Mott, had been nominated to serve as official delegates of their respective abolitionist societies. After considerable debate, the women were required to sit in a roped-off section hidden from the view of the men in attendance. They were soon joined by the prominent abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, who arrived after the vote had been taken and, in protest of the outcome, refused his seat, electing instead to sit with the women.[36]

Mott's example and the decision to prohibit women from participating in the convention strengthened Stanton's commitment to women's rights. By 1848, her early life experiences, together with the experience in London and her initially debilitating experience as a housewife in Seneca Falls, galvanized Stanton. She later wrote:

"The general discontent I felt with woman's portion as wife, housekeeper, physician, and spiritual guide, the chaotic conditions into which everything fell without her constant supervision, and the wearied, anxious look of the majority of women, impressed me with a strong feeling that some active measures should be taken to remedy the wrongs of society in general, and of women in particular. My experience at the World Anti-slavery Convention, all I had read of the legal status of women, and the oppression I saw everywhere, together swept across my soul, intensified now by many personal experiences. It seemed as if all the elements had conspired to impel me to some onward step. I could not see what to do or where to begin -- my only thought was a public meeting for protest and discussion."[37]

In 1848, acting on these feelings and perceptions, Stanton joined Mott, Mott's sister Martha Coffin Wright, and a handful of other women in Seneca Falls. Together they organized the first women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20. Over 300 people attended. Stanton drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, which she read at the convention. Modeled on the United States Declaration of Independence, Stanton's declaration proclaimed that men and women are created equal. She proposed, among other things, a then-controversial resolution demanding voting rights for women. The final resolutions, including female suffrage, were passed, in no small measure, because of the support of Frederick Douglass, who attended and informally spoke at the convention.[38]

Soon after the convention, Stanton was invited to speak at a second women's rights convention in Rochester, New York, solidifying her role as an activist and reformer. Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis invited her to speak at the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850, but because of pregnancy, Stanton chose instead to lend her name to the list of sponsors and send a speech to be read in her stead.[39] In 1851, Stanton was introduced to Susan B. Anthony on a street in Seneca Falls by Amelia Bloomer, a feminist and mutual acquaintance who had not signed the Declaration of Sentiments and subsequent resolutions despite her attendance at the Seneca Falls convention.[40]

Although best known for their joint work on behalf of women's suffrage, Stanton and Anthony first joined the temperance movement. Together, they were instrumental in founding the short-lived Woman's State Temperance Society (1852–1853). During her presidency of the organization, Stanton scandalized many supporters by suggesting that drunkenness be made sufficient cause for divorce.[41] Stanton and Anthony's focus, however, soon shifted to female suffrage and women's rights.

Single and having no children, Anthony had the time and energy to do the speaking and traveling that Stanton was unable to do. Their skills complemented each other; Stanton, the better orator and writer, scripted many of Anthony's speeches, while Anthony was the movement's organizer and tactician. Writing a tribute that appeared in the New York Times when Stanton died, Anthony described Stanton as having "forged the thunderbolts" that she (Anthony) "fired."[1] Unlike Anthony's relatively narrow focus on suffrage, Stanton wanted to push for a broader platform of women's rights in general. While their opposing viewpoints led to some discussion and conflict, no disagreement threatened their friendship or working relationship; the two women remained close friends and colleagues until Stanton's death some 50 years after their initial meeting.

While always recognized as movement leaders whose support was sought, Stanton and Anthony's voices were soon joined by others who began assuming leadership positions within the movement. These women included, among others, Matilda Joslyn Gage.[42]

Ideological divergence with abolitionists and the women's rights movement
"The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way."

Elizabeth Cady StantonAfter the American Civil War, both Stanton and Anthony broke with their abolitionist backgrounds and lobbied strongly against ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, which granted African American men the right to vote.[43] Believing that African American men, by virtue of the Thirteenth Amendment, already had the legal protections, except for suffrage, offered to white male citizens and that so largely expanding the male franchise in the country would only increase the number of voters prepared to deny women the right to vote,[44] both Stanton and Anthony were angry that the abolitionists, their former partners in working for both African American and women's rights, refused to demand that the language of the amendments be changed to include women.[45]

Eventually, Stanton's oppositional rhetoric took on racial overtones.[46] Arguing on behalf of female suffrage, Stanton posited that women voters of "wealth, education, and refinement" were needed to offset the effect of former slaves and immigrants whose "pauperism, ignorance, and degradation" might negatively affect the American political system.[47] She declared it to be "a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see 'Sambo' walk into the kingdom [of civil rights] first."[48] Some scholars have argued that Stanton's emphasis on property ownership and education, opposition to black male suffrage, and desire to hold out for universal suffrage fragmented the civil rights movement by pitting African-American men against women and, together with Stanton's emphasis on "educated suffrage,"[49] in part established a basis for the literacy requirements that followed in the wake of the passage of the fifteenth amendment.[50]

Stanton's position caused a significant rift between herself and many civil rights leaders, particularly Frederick Douglass, who believed that white women, already empowered by their connection to fathers, husbands, and brothers, at least vicariously had the vote. According to Douglass, their treatment as slaves entitled the now liberated African-American men, who lacked women's indirect empowerment, to voting rights before women were granted the franchise. African-American women, he believed, would have the same degree of empowerment as white women once African-American men had the vote; hence, general female suffrage was, according to Douglass, of less concern than black male suffrage.[51]

Disagreeing with Douglass, and despite the racist language she sometimes resorted to, Stanton firmly believed in a universal franchise that empowered blacks and whites, men and women. Speaking on behalf of black women, she stated that not allowing them to vote condemned African American freedwomen "to a triple bondage that man never knows," that of slavery, gender, and race.[52] She was joined in this belief by Anthony, Olympia Brown, and most especially Frances Gage, who was the first suffragist to champion voting rights for freedwomen.[53]

Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and ardent abolitionist, agreed that voting rights should be universal. In 1866, Stanton, Anthony, and several other suffragists drafted a universal suffrage petition demanding that the right to vote be given without consideration of sex or race. The petition was introduced in the United States Congress by Stevens.[54] Despite these efforts, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, without adjustment, in 1868.

By the time the Fifteenth Amendment was making its way through Congress, Stanton's position led to a major schism in the women's rights movement itself. Many leaders in the women's rights movement, including Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe, strongly argued against Stanton's "all or nothing" position. By 1869, disagreement over ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment had given birth to two separate women's suffrage organizations. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was founded in May 1869 by Anthony and Stanton, who served as its president for 21 years.[55] The NWSA opposed passage of the Fifteenth Amendment without changes to include female suffrage and, under Stanton's influence in particular, championed a number of women's issues that were deemed too radical by more conservative members of the suffrage movement. The better-funded, larger,[56] and more representative woman suffragist vehicle[57] American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), founded the following November and led by Stone,[58] Blackwell, and Howe,[59] supported the Fifteenth Amendment as written. Following passage of that Amendment the AWSA preferred to focus only on female suffrage rather than advocate for the broader women's rights espoused by Stanton: gender-neutral divorce laws,[60] a woman's right to sexually refuse her husband, increased economic opportunities for women, and the right of women to serve on juries.[61]

Believing that men should not be given the right to vote without women also being granted the franchise, Sojourner Truth, a former slave and feminist, affiliated herself with Stanton and Anthony's organization.[62] Stanton, Anthony, and Truth were joined by Matilda Joslyn Gage, who later worked on The Woman's Bible with Stanton. Despite Stanton's position and the efforts of her and others to expand the Fifteenth Amendment to include voting rights for all women, this amendment also passed, as it was originally written, in 1870.

Later years

In the decade following ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, both Stanton and Anthony increasingly took the position, first advocated by Victoria Woodhull, that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments actually did give women the right to vote.[63] They argued that the Fourteenth Amendment, which defined citizens as "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," included women and that the Fifteenth Amendment provided all citizens with the right to vote.[64] Using this logic, they asserted that women now had the constitutional right to vote and that it was simply a matter of claiming that right. This constitutionally-based argument, which came to be called "the new departure" in women's rights circles because of its divergence from earlier attempts to change voting laws on a state-by-state basis,[65] led to first Anthony (in 1872), and later Stanton (in 1880), going to the polls and demanding to vote.[66] Despite this, and similar attempts made by hundreds of other women, it would be nearly 50 years before women obtained the right to vote throughout the United States.

During this time, Stanton maintained a broad focus on women's rights in general rather than narrowing her focus only to female suffrage in particular. After passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 and its support by the Equal Rights Association and prominent suffragists such as Stone, Blackwell, and Howe, the gap between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other leaders of the women's movement widened as Stanton took issue with the fundamental religious leanings of several movement leaders. Unlike many of her colleagues, Stanton believed organized Christianity relegated women to an unacceptable position in society. She explored this view in the 1890s in The Woman's Bible, which elucidated a feminist understanding of biblical scripture and sought to correct the fundamental sexism Stanton saw as being inherent to organized Christianity.[67] Likewise, Stanton supported divorce rights, employment rights, and property rights for women, issues in which the American Women's Suffrage Association (AWSA) preferred not to become involved.[68]

Her more radical positions included acceptance of interracial marriage. Despite her opposition to giving African-American men the right to vote without enfranchising all women and the derogatory language she had resorted to in expressing this opposition, Stanton had no objection to interracial marriage and wrote a congratulatory letter to Frederick Douglass upon his marriage to Helen Pitts, a white woman, in 1884.[69] Anthony, fearing public condemnation of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and wanting to keep the demand for female suffrage foremost, pleaded with Stanton not to make her letter to Douglass or support for his marriage publicly known.[70]

Stanton went on to write many of the more important books, documents, and speeches of the women's rights movement. Starting in 1876, Stanton teamed with Anthony and Gage to write the first volume of History of Woman Suffrage, a seminal, six-volume work containing the full history, documents, and letters of the woman's suffrage movement.[71] The first two volumes were published in 1881 and the third in 1886; the work was eventually completed in 1922 by Ida Harper.[72] Stanton's other major writings included the two-part The Woman's Bible, published in 1895 and 1898; Eighty Years & More: Reminiscences 1815–1897, her autobiography, published in 1898; and The Solitude of Self, or "Self-Sovereignty," which she first delivered as a speech at the 1892 convention of the National American Women's Suffrage Association in Washington, D.C..[73]

In 1868 Stanton, together with Susan B. Anthony and Parker Pillsbury, a leading male feminist of his day, began publishing a weekly periodical, Revolution, with editorials by Stanton that focused on a wide array of women's issues.[74] In a view different from many modern feminists, Stanton, who supported birth control and likely used it herself,[75] believed that abortion was infanticide, a position she discussed in Revolution.[76] At this time, Stanton also joined the New York Lyceum Bureau, embarking on a 12-year career on the Lyceum Circuit. Traveling and lecturing for eight months every year provided her both with the funds to put her two youngest sons through college and, given her popularity as a lecturer, with a way to spread her ideas among the general population, gain broad public recognition, and further establish her reputation as a pre-eminent leader in the women's rights movement. Among her most popular speeches were "Our Girls", "Our Boys", "Co-education", "Marriage and Divorce", "Prison Life", and "The Bible and Woman's Rights".[77] Her lecture travels so occupied her that Stanton, although president, presided at only four of 15 conventions of the National Women's Suffrage Association during this period.[78]

In addition to her writing and speaking, Stanton was also instrumental in promoting women's suffrage in various states, particularly New York, Missouri, Kansas, where it was included on the ballot in 1867, and Michigan, where it was put to the vote in 1874. She made an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Congressional seat from New York in 1868, and she was the primary force behind passage of the "Woman's Property Bill" that was eventually passed by the New York State Legislature.[1] She worked toward female suffrage in Wyoming, Utah, and California, and in 1878, she convinced California Senator Aaron A. Sargent to introduce a female suffrage amendment using wording similar to that of the Fifteenth Amendment passed some eight years previously.[74]

Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her later years

Stanton was also active internationally, spending a great deal of time in Europe, where her daughter and fellow feminist Harriot Stanton Blatch lived. In 1888, she helped prepare for the founding of the International Council of Women.[79] In 1890, Stanton opposed the merger of the National Woman's Suffrage Association with the more conservative and religiously based American Woman Suffrage Association.[80] Over her objections, the organizations merged, creating the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Despite her opposition to the merger, Stanton became its first president, largely because of Susan B. Anthony's intervention. In good measure because of the The Woman's Bible and her position on issues such as divorce, she was, however, never popular among the more religiously conservative members of the "National American".[81]

On January 18, 1892, approximately ten years before she died, Stanton joined Anthony, Stone, and Isabella Beecher Hooker to address the issue of suffrage before the United States House Committee on the Judiciary.[82] After nearly five decades of fighting for female suffrage and women's rights, it was Elizabeth Cady Stanton's final appearance before members of the United States Congress.[83] Using the text of what became The Solitude of Self, she spoke of the central value of the individual, noting that value was not based on gender. As with the Declaration of Sentiments she had penned some 45 years earlier, Stanton's statement expressed not only the need for women's voting rights in particular, but the need for a revamped understanding of women's position in society and even of women in general:

"The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear — is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life. The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself [...]."[84]

Lucy Stone was so impressed with the brilliance of Stanton's speech that she published The Solitude of Self in its entirety in the Woman's Journal, leaving out her own speech to the committee.[85]

Death, burial, and remembrance

U.S. postage stamp commemorating the Seneca Falls Convention titled 100 Years of Progress of Women: 1848–1948 (Elizabeth Cady Stanton on left)

Stanton died of heart failure at her home in New York City on October 26, 1902, nearly 20 years before women were granted the right to vote in the United States. Survived by six of her seven children and by seven grandchildren, she was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. Although Elizabeth Cady Stanton had been unable to attend a formal college or university, her daughters did. Margaret Livingston Stanton Lawrence attended Vassar College (1876) and Columbia University (1891), and Harriot Stanton Blatch received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Vassar College in 1878 and 1891 respectively.[86]

After Stanton's death, her unorthodox ideas about religion and emphasis on female employment and other women's issues led many suffragists to focus on Anthony, rather than Stanton, as the founder of the women's suffrage movement. Stanton's controversial publishing of The Woman's Bible in 1895 alienated more religiously traditional suffragists, and cemented Anthony's place as the more readily recognized leader of the female suffrage movement.[87] Anthony continued to work with NAWSA and became more familiar to many of the younger members of the movement.[78] By 1923, in celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, only Harriot Stanton Blatch paid tribute to the role her mother had played in instigating the women's rights movement.[88] Even as late as 1977, Anthony received most of the attention as the founder of the movement, while Stanton was not mentioned.[88]

The monument for Henry Brewster Stanton and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Woodlawn Cemetery
Over time, however, Stanton received more attention. Stanton was commemorated along with Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony in a sculpture by Adelaide Johnson at the United States Capitol, unveiled in 1921. Originally kept on display in the crypt of the US Capitol, the sculpture was moved to its current location and more prominently displayed in the rotunda in 1997.[89] The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House in Seneca Falls was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. Her house in Tenafly, New Jersey was declared a landmark in 1975, and by the 1990s, interest in Stanton was substantially rekindled when Ken Burns, among others, presented the life and contributions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Once again, attention was drawn to her central, founding role in shaping not only the woman's suffrage movement, but a broad women's rights movement in the United States that included women's suffrage, women's legal reform, and women's roles in society as a whole.[90]

Stanton is commemorated in the calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church on July 20, together with Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Ross Tubman.

Writings of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (author, co-author)
Books

History of Woman Suffrage; Volumes 1–3 (written with Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage; vol 4–6 completed by other authors, including Anthony, Gage, and Ida Harper) (1881–1922)
Solitude of Self (originally delivered as a speech in 1892; later published in a hard bound edition by Paris Press)
The Woman's Bible (1895, 1898)
Eighty Years & More: Reminiscences 1815–1897 (1898)
Selected periodicals and journals
Revolution (Stanton, co-editor) (1868–1870)
Lily (published by Amelia Bloomer; Stanton as contributor)
Una (published by Paulina Wright Davis; Stanton as contributor)
New York Tribune (published by Horace Greeley; Stanton as contributor)
Selected papers, essays, and speeches
Declaration of Rights & Sentiments (1848)
A Petition for Universal Suffrage (1866)
Self-government the Best Means of Self-development (1884)
Solitude of Self (1892)
The Degradation of Disenfranchisement (1892)
Lyceum speeches: "Our Girls," "Our Boys," "Co-education," "Marriage and Divorce," "Prison Life," and "The Bible and Woman's Rights," "Temperence and Women's Rights" and many others

Stanton's papers are archived at Rutgers University: The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Papers Project, Rutgers University; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cady_Stanton

ALS Grad to Study Hudson River Corridor

2010-05-23T14:07:00.002-04:00

Albany Law Scool Grad of ’12, was awarded fellowship to study land use on Hudson. Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 10:04am

Nikki Nielson ’12 was recently awarded a Tibor T. Polgar Fellowship to spend the summer researching conservation easements along the Hudson River corridor stretching from New York City to Troy, N.Y.

At the end of the summer, she will present her findings to the Hudson River Foundation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the two entities who administer the fellowship.

“Ulster County alone has 11 land trusts, and there are many more throughout the Hudson Valley.” explained Nielson, who operated her own grant writing and project management firm in New Paltz, N.Y., prior to enrolling at Albany Law.

“My work will be to step back and try to determine how this type of land can best be used while preserving environmental benefits.”

Many historic properties along the Hudson River - estates of industrialists, religious retreats and agricultural lands - have been converted over the years from private ownership into a mixture of public, private and quasi-public ownership. One of these conversion mechanisms has been for the landowner to grant conservation easements to restrict development of their property.

However, there is currently a lack of information about the implementation of conservation easements, as well as some confusion as to the legal implications of such a designation. Nielson will spend the summer surveying the quantity and types of easements along the Hudson River, analyzing existing case law and legal research on the topic, and developing analysis and recommendations for future implementation.

She hopes to publish a paper based on her work.

“Ultimately, my goal is to inform the public policy discussion on how best to move forward with a comprehensive plan while still protecting the land for future generations,” she said.

The Polgar Fellowship provides a summertime grant and research funds for up to eight college students to conduct research on the Hudson River. The program’s objectives are to gather information on all aspects of the Hudson River and to train students in conducting estuarine studies and public policy research.

Professor Keith Hirokawa, who taught Nielson’s Property class, will act as her advisor during the fellowship. “He’s the one who encouraged me to apply,” she recalled.

After teaching in the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto, Calif., Nielson moved to the Hudson Valley in 2001 and took a position developing grants and managing projects for municipalities and regional organizations.

She launched her own firm, Arcady Solutions, in 2008, where she provided writing, research, needs assessments, project development, fundraising and project management services for organizations in the fields of economic development, environmental sustainability through the protection of open space and educational equity.

“I’ve always wanted to go to law school,” she said. “And now, based on my prior work experience and current interests, I really feel like I have direction in terms of what kind of law I want to pursue.”

Nielson, who lives in New Paltz with her husband and their daughter, holds a B.S. from the University of Rochester, and a M.A. from Teacher's College, Columbia University, in politics and education.

Update: a Real Professional & Pacos New Feet

2010-05-18T01:20:00.003-04:00

Pacos Feet

2010-04-13T14:09:00.064-04:00

MEET PACO, 3 yr old standard-sized Spotted Jack

Click on pics to enlarge - once enlarged, click again to enlarge even more

FRONT FEET; notice vertical ridges across hoofs and horizontal concave "groove" or "indentation" just forward of heels (appears as line or "crease" in pic)

LEFT FRONT 3- Standing on Toes, Heels too High? Check out how high up bulbs are!

LEFT FRONT 4 - Also showing dark horizontal (stress?) ridges across hoof wall and vertical concave "grooves" or "indentations" just forward of the heels (appears as dark line or "crease" in pic);

RIGHT FRONT; Heels not touching ground

RIGHT FRONT SOLE; Sorry for bad pic. Wanted to show "thickness of toe" or "lamaric-fill?"

LEFT FRONT SOLE;

LEFT REAR; Same ridges and indentations

LEFT REAR 2;

LEFT REAR 3;

LEFT REAR SOLE;

RIGHT REAR 2; Notice pinkish line mid-way round hoof

RIGHT REAR x;

RIGHT REAR;

What Now for Our Little Acre?

2010-04-08T12:28:00.003-04:00

What else but Worm-Farming and Composting?
(Vermiculture)

I bought this book because I live in a city, have a moderate size backyard and know without a doubt that I can join the ranks of hundreds of other worm growers around the US by growing worms and selling them on a monthly basis. I have just started my worm farm and have found every page of this book invaluable.
Peter Bogdanov is the president of VermiCo which is the leader in earthworm information and technology. His book is one of the best on the market today for anyone who would like to understand how they, with a minimal investment, can start their own profitable worm farm in the city, the suburbs or in a rural area.

Peter's book literally takes you by the hand... He explains commercial vermiculture (raising worms for profit) and gives you a clear picture as to where it started, where it is today and where it's going. The last part really excited me - where worm farming is going is so incredible.

The next section is devoted to answering every question most worm raising nubies ask. I sense that these questions and answers come directly from Peter's willingness to educate the public for the last twenty years. Incidentally, I'm going to one of his internationally famous seminars in October 2000 where he brings the top people in the industry together for a long information packed two days.

The next section details how to get started. These details are split up for the hobbyist, medium size farmer or for the person who wants to go for the gold and be a large scale worm farmer.

Following this comes great instructions on monitoring conditions in your worm beds. This is invaluable since many folks think you can do this by just tossing a few worms in a box and seeing what happens. Worm farming is ALMOST that easy but to be successful you have to know a little more than that!

Next come details on all the different ways you can feed your worms and also eliminate and worries about pests and predators (not a big problem for most folks).

Following this comes instructions on harvesting, (all the different ways to get your worms out of their worm bin) packaging and shipping, (how to avoid things like having 40 pounds of soggy worms let loose in the back of your UPS driver's truck) .

Peter then gives a really decent explanation of castings (worm poop) that drives home the point that you can profit in so many different ways from raising worms.

The book finishes up with a summary overview of worms yesterday, today and tomorrow, how one can basically guarantee their success and additional ways to profit from this fun and lucrative business.

While brief and concise, this book is NOT shallow, not necessarily JUST for the nubie and as far as I am concerned worth every penny. If you are just getting started or if you are already keeping worms and want to move into the commercial direction than this book really might be for you.

...

One thing kind of floored me - there are very few books available on Amazon regarding worms at this time. However, there are MANY excellent books out there - MANY! You will find a number of additional titles in Peter's catalogue and I recommend reading as many sources of information as you can because like anything in life, every expert finds their unique way to "skin a cat". I know Peter would encourage you to read widely as well, so start with his book, get on his mailing list and go for it!

Schagiticoke Health Care Facility Gets Failing Grade

2010-04-03T06:23:00.000-04:00

Northwoods’ complaint rate above state average
Published: Friday, April 02, 2010

By Jessica M. Pasko
The Record

SCHAGHTICOKE — A state investigation resulted in charges against 14 former and current employees of a Rensselaer County health care facility this week, but state records show the facility has long been plagued with problems.

Documents show that from 2007-2009, the Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility in Schaghticoke had a complaint rate more than three times the state average.

There were 104 complaints about the Northwoods facility between January 2007 and December 2009, 41 percent of which were for facility-reported incidents, according to the state health department. That makes for a rate of 94.9 reports per 100 beds occupied, a rate the state determines based on daily occupancy rates to help with comparing a specific facility’s complaint experience with that of other nursing homes.

For the same time period, the statewide average rate of complaints received per 100 beds was 24.4.

The department of health investigates any allegations that a nursing home has violated federal or state regulations, or has provided inadequate care. With regards to the complaints against Northwoods between 2007 and 2009, state health officials conducted 48 on-site inspections that resulted in 30 citations, the bulk of which were in regards to quality of the care at the facility.

An updated inspection report from last month showed that Northwoods had a total of 57 deficiencies with regards to standard health and life safety code. That’s compared to the state average of 24, and of those 57, the state deemed 12 of them to be related to actual harm or immediate jeopardy.

Northwoods Health Systems, which also runs facilities in Cortland. Rensselaer and Niskayuna, was fined $6,000 last year for citations for quality of care, organization and administration, and quality assessment and assurance stemming from a Jan. 16, 2009 health department inspection of the Schaghticoke facility. That inspection found several instances of patient neglect, inadequate care and lack of proper documentation and monitoring in at least one resident’s case.

The facility was also fined $2,000 in 2008 for citations regarding quality of life and dignity stemming from a 2007 inspection. It was also fined $3,000 in 2004 for violations of residents’ rights on multiple dates, and it was fined $4,000 in 2002 for multiple violations of quality of care.

State health department records also show that between 2007 and 2009, the 120-bed facility exceeded the state and national averages for the number of patients suffering from bed sores.

Eighteen percent of high-risk patients suffered from bed sores, compared to the state average of 13 percent and the national average of 11 percent. As far as low-risk patients go, 3 percent of Northwoods residents suffered from bed sores, a slight rise above the state and national average of 2 percent.

Additionally, 27 percent of patients there for a short stay between October 2008 and September 2009 suffered bed sores, higher than the state’s 17 percent average.

The records also show that 11 percent of patients suffered from urinary tract infections from January to September 2009. The state average for this period was 8 percent, and the national average was 9 percent.

On Wednesday, 14 current and former employees at the facility were arraigned on multiple counts of neglect and falsifying business records. The charges followed a six-week video surveillance investigation by the state Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit conducted from the end of February to early April in 2009.

According to Attorney General Cuomo, a hidden camera used with an unnamed 50-year-old patient, discovered that staff “routinely failed to turn and position an immobile resident, failed to administer medications and failed to treat bed sores. The patient suffered from multiple illnesses — including multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and organ brain syndrome — and was completely reliant on staffers for all personal needs, according to the charges.

Nine of the staffers were immediately suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, which covered a six-week period from the end of February to early April in 2009, according to Northwoods administrators. The alleged abuse took place before the current administration took control of the facility in July, said spokeswoman Lisa Cupolo, and the new administrators say they’ve made significant improvements since taking over.

Several relatives of former Northwoods patients said they’ve complained to the state and facility administrators about the quality of care there before but have received little response. They’ve complained of bed sores, untreated urinary tract infections, and unanswered call buttons, among other problems.

Penny Marcy of Waterford said she put her 87-year-old mother in Northwoods in May when she suffered health problems of her own, and took her out in January after becoming disgusted with what she and family members saw as a gross lack of care.

“They wouldn’t let her walk,” said Marcy. “They filled her with pills she didn’t need so she was comatose when we got to her.”

Marcy also said her mother suffered from untreated bed sores, and that administrators lied to her about her mother having a stroke that caused the loss of the use of her left side.

“A neurologist told me she hadn’t had a stroke and it was caused by the pills they were giving to her,” said Marcy, who said her complaints to then facility officials fell on deaf ears.

Marcy’s mother is now staying with her sister in Halfmoon where she’s doing much better.

“The care that the administrators provide is a disgrace,” Marcy said. “Northwoods is the worse nursing home I’ve ever been in.”

Darcy Spencer of Troy and her sisters have obtained the services of the Martin, Harding and Mazzotti law firm in investigating their claims that Northwoods staff severely neglected their 66-year-old mother and ultimately caused her death in August.

The firm is also investigating at least four other similar cases.

Spencer and her sisters also accuse Northwoods of giving their mother, Mary Ann Poppielion, wrong medications, letting her call button go unanswered for long stretches of time and failing to properly treat a urinary tract infection that eventually led her to die of septic shock.

They said they’ve reported these and other complains to state officials and have also called the attorney general’s office.

In August, federal officials barred Northwoods from receiving Medicaid or Medicare payments for new residents following complaints that workers were ignoring the buzzer system used by patients needing assistance.

That restriction was lifted within a few weeks, according to Cupolo.

The facility suffered yet another blow in January when a former nurse’s aide pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a physically helpless 78-year-old woman in late 2007 and early 2008. Robert Gundersen, 52, of Middleburgh was sentenced to 10 years of probation as part of a plea deal.

The latest charges in Schaghticoke follow the 2007 conviction of Northwoods’ former owner, Highgate LTC Management LLC, for six misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from an undercover state investigation at its Cortland facility.

A few individual employees were convicted on neglect charges in the case as well, and Highgate was ultimately barred from the long-term care business.

Jessica M. Pasko can be reached at 270-1288 or by e-mail at jpasko@troyrecord.com.

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/04/02/news/doc4bb572b96da50508862155.txt

All Over Albany: News

2010-04-03T06:19:00.001-04:00

Click on title above for report

Troy 2 Get Food Co-Op

2010-04-01T05:46:00.001-04:00

Troy Food Co-Op Website;
http://troyfoodcoop.com/

Click on title above to go to FaceBook Page;
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Troy-NY/Troy-Community-Food-Co-op/136696392141?v=wall

IM Conversations w/ my 13yr old Neighbor

2010-03-30T18:53:00.001-04:00

Christine
I c u have the F wrd on you facebook page

6:30pmAllison
yeaa

6:30pmChristine
u think that is ok?

6:30pmAllison
my parents dont care. because its what my friend said.

6:31pmChristine
r u sure they dont care. if so, that is not a good reflection on them, or you. You are too young to use such language, I dont care what yer "friends" say

6:32pmAllison
i say it all the time

what are you gunna do? call the cops?

6:32pmChristine
And you say yur parents know?

6:33pmAllison
yea

6:33pmChristine
How about I call them to see?

6:34pmAllison
go right ahead.

even send my mom an email

6:34pmChristine
How about I call her now?

6:34pmAllison
sureee

6:35pmChristine
k

line is busy but i will check it out.

6:35pmAllison
send her an email

6:35pmChristine
It is NOT RIGHT for a young girl like you to use such language!

6:36pmAllison
have you seen jess? she does it ALL the time

6:36pmChristine
I prefer to talk to them by phone. Just know I dont want you to ever put any language like that on any of my sites.....I dont even like to be connected with children who use such language.

I dont know what she says or does "in real life," but if she is saying the F word on the internet I will tell her mom too!

6:38pmAllison
You dont need to contact them. It's my life, not yours. My parents dont even want me speaking to you or hanging out with you because your a bad influence.

Like hitting george with a chair.

6:38pmChristine
Ha! Thats it then.

Say what? When?

6:39pmAllison
like 2 or 3 years ago. when me and mariah were upstairs.

6:39pmChristine
What adults do is no concern to children...unless of course IT EFFECTS them

6:40pmAllison
But anyways, its MY mouth and MY body. I can do whatever i want to do.

6:41pmChristine
So if yer ma and dad dont want u hangin round me I suppose uyou had better not. Anyways, I dont much like NASTY little girls like you (apparently) are

6:43pmChristine
Kevin says dont bother him anymore on his facebook page either....he knows the deal

6:43pmAllison
what are you talking about? I dont even have him on facebook!!!!

6:45pmChristine
Well he is a liar too, I suppose.

6:45pmAllison
You can think what you want to, but im my case. YOU dont have to worry about me. It's my life and NO one else said anything about me saying that. SO you shouldnt worry.

Really? IM NOT A LIAR!

6:47pmAllison
infact, your a liar because he doesnt even have a facebook.

6:47pmChristine
Allie, any ADULT in their RIGHT mind would not be "ok" w/ their 13 yr old daughter using such language, particularly on the internet.....and I cant believe your parents would be ok with it. If they are, fine. But I gotta report it none-the-less

Enough of this name calling.Guess this is the end for us

6:48pmAllison
yeah, so delete me from your fucking life and NEVER fucking talk to me again!

6:48pmChristine
u got it

6:50pmAllison
Lateeerr. you bipolar syco bitch.

6:51pmChristine
So, the REAL u comes out now.

6:51pmAllison is offline.

UnSafe Bridges in Rensselaer Co.

2010-03-28T17:49:00.001-04:00

Click on title above to see

Will Rensselaer County count calories?

2010-03-26T05:27:00.000-04:00

March 25, 2010 at 5:14 pm by Kenneth C. Crowe II

The public counting of calories at fast food restaurants has become part of the effort to fight the national obesity epidemic. Albany County does it and so does Schenectady County. New York City does it and it’s included in the federal health care bill.

Now, Rensselaer County Legislator Peter Grimm, D-Troy, is proposing the county mandate it too.

Here’s Grimm’s take on the matter:

Legislator Grimm Calls on Rensselaer County Legislature to Consider Calorie Count Bill

Troy Legislator Peter Grimm has called on the Rensselaer County Legislature to consider a local law that would require chain food service establishments to post nutritional information – specifically, calories contained in menu items, at the point of consumer decisions at fast-food restaurants. Similar laws are now in effect in both Albany and Schenectady Counties affording responsible consumer choices at these restaurants. In a letter of memorandum, Grimm urged the County Executive and Chairman of the Legislature to join with him and support a local law initiative. “Calorie information is going to be in plain sight for all consumers to see, putting knowledge in the hands of people. I believe anything we can do to help children and families make wise and healthy decisions will make a difference”, said Grimm.

With the historic signing of a national heath care reform act, significant emphasis is being placed on preventative care as a means of controlling costs and promoting personal responsibility for good health. “As we await the numerous components of the new federal legislation to take effect, I believe Rensselaer County should be proactive in promoting healthy eating habits through increased consumer awareness and urge early initiation of this law”, stated Grimm. The local law will be presented to the Rensselaer County Legislature for consideration at its April meeting.

http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/6509/will-rensselaer-county-count-calories/

Emma Looses AA Rating

2010-03-24T13:22:00.000-04:00

Report title: Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, New York Emma Willard School; Independent Schools
from S&P Credit Research
1944 word report published Mar 23, 2010

Price $400.00 available for immediate download

Report Overview

Search Inside

About S&P Credit Research

Abstract: Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term rating to 'A+' from 'AA-' on Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s series 2006 civic facility revenue bonds, issued for Emma Willard School. The rating outlook is stable. The downgrade reflects our assessment of the school's recent operating pressures, which resulted in large deficits based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) including a moderately aggressive endowment draw in fiscals 2008 and 2009. In addition, management has indicated it expects similar results in the near future as well as a significant deterioration of financial resources, which are at levels more comparable to the 'A' rating category. The 'A+' rating reflects our view of the school's: Strong demand profile as demonstrated by a strong

Brief Excerpt: RESEARCH Ratings Definitions Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, New York Emma Willard School; Independent Schools Publication date: 23-Mar-2010 Primary Credit Analyst: Marc Savaria, Boston (1) 617-530-8315; marc_savaria@standardandpoors.co...

Report Type: Full Report

Issuer: Emma Willard School

Sector: Global Issuers, Public Finance

Country: United States

Region: United States

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Also from S&P Credit Research
Summary: Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, New York Emma Willard School; Independent Schools $175.00
Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term rating to 'A+' from 'AA-' on Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s series 2006 civic facility revenue bonds, issued for Emma Willard School. The rating outlook is stable. ...
Debt Rating On Emma Willard School, NY Lowered To 'A+' On Diminished Operating Performance $100.00
BOSTON (Standard&Poor's) March 22, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term rating to 'A+' from 'AA-' on Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s series 2006 civic facility revenue bonds, issued for the Emma ...
Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency Emma Willard School, New York; Independent Schools $400.00
Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'AA-' long-term rating on Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s series 2006 civic facility revenue bonds, issued for the Emma Willard School. The 'AA-' rating reflects the school's: ...
Summary: Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency Emma Willard School, New York; Independent Schools $175.00
Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'AA-' long-term rating on Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s series 2006 civic facility revenue bonds, issued for the Emma Willard School. The 'AA-' rating reflects the school's: ...
Emma Williard School, NY Civic Facility Revenue Bonds Rated 'AA-'; Outlook Stable $100.00
NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 8, 2006--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'AA-' rating to Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s $31.4 million civic facility revenue bonds, series 2006, issued for the Emma Willard ...
Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, New York Emma Williard School; Independent Schools $400.00
Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'AA-' rating to Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s civic facility revenue bonds series 2006, issued for the Emma Willard School. The 'AA-' rating reflects the school's: Strong ...
Summary: Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, New York Emma Williard School; Independent Schools $175.00
Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'AA-' rating to Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, N.Y.'s civic facility revenue bonds series 2006, issued for the Emma Willard School. The 'AA-' rating reflects the school's: Strong ...

http://www.alacrastore.com/research/s-and-p-credit-research-Rensselaer_County_Industrial_Development_Agency_New_York_Emma_Willard_School_Independent_Schools-784010

Msg. for Schumer on China Policy

2010-03-24T12:42:00.001-04:00

From Jr. Deputy Accountant
China Currency Manipulation: Careful What You Wish For

Posted: 24 Mar 2010 09:00 AM PDT

Careful what you wish for, Chuck Schumer, you're treading a very dangerous line and I'm not quite sure you want to bite the hand that feeds you. Oh sorry, make that the hand that used to feed you before China got smart and decided it would go foam up its bubble all on its own over there.

Two U.S. senators vowed on Tuesday to push for action on a bill aimed at pressuring China to strengthen its currency on the eve of a senior Chinese official's visit to Washington to smooth differences.

Arguing that China's exchange rate policies cost American jobs, the lawmakers said such pressure was necessary to make China move.

"My belief is that China will not do anything unless they're required to, and every day we wait is a day we lose wealth, we lose economic advantage, we lose jobs," said Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Schumer told reporters on conference call that he and Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, would push for a vote on the bill by the end of May. The measure would allow U.S. companies to seek duties on Chinese goods to offset China's currency policies.

"If we took the currency issue off the table, we would be more competitive in every sector," added Graham.

Yo, Lindsey, it's not your table dude.

Here's a novel idea for the honorable (?!) Mssrs. Schumer and Graham: they have the fucking Fed to babysit and have failed miserably at taming that particular beast. They'd be wise to tend to their own house before they go judging their new Asian neighbors for having cheap furniture if you know what I'm sayin.

In honor of this large oversight on the part of Congress (you know, forgetting that it's their job to keep the Fed on a short leash), I resurrect Eliot Spitzer: The Fed is a Ponzi Scheme.

Renss. Co Students: Historians in Training Program

2010-03-22T08:54:00.000-04:00

Alexander Minton
Special to The Record

“Getting There: Historians in Training

Explore Travel Through Time:”

A piece of sheet music, a section of trolley track, an elegant, if faded, carriage, and a rusting horseshoe. All of these objects are among the artifacts from the Rensselaer County Historical Society collection researched by students from Tony Rieth’s and Karen Bechdol’s Humanities class at Troy High School. These 25 “Historians in Training” are part of an exciting collaboration among Troy High School, RCHS and The Record.

In early 2009, RCHS staff provided the students with a selection of transportation-themed objects from which to choose. The Historians in Training then picked the objects they wanted to research and uncovered their stories, writing articles that will appear in The Record each Monday, starting today. These stories provide an eclectic window into the impact that planes, trains, and automobiles (as well as boats and horses) have had on the history of Rensselaer County.

Through this collaborative, the Historians in Training developed research and writing skills and had the opportunity to explore careers in history museums and journalism. Most importantly, they discovered fascinating stories from the past, and through their research and articles, are making local history accessible to our community.

People need direction in life; they always have and always will. The Handy Pocket Guide to trains was the very direction people in turn of the century Troy needed. Their lives depended on the trains that ran through their city. So this little 50 page booklet was a godsend to people who needed to catch trains often.

This small book from 1902 has a worn feeling to it and the color is faded, yet even a century later, it is still in exquisite condition; a gallant effort at keeping the history of our fair county alive by the historians at the Rensselaer County Historical Society where this book resides. The first dozen pages of the guide are dense with information including many train schedules. Troy has always been an important center of transportation activity, and dozens of trains came in and out of Troy every day in 1902! The book also has many advertisements for chemists, druggists, shops and other services. Many businesses that distributed these pamphlets usually also posted their own ads in them.

The front cover of this book has the name Minnie Hunt written on it. A search of the Troy City Directory for the year 1902 uncovered some information about Miss Hunt. She was a milliner who worked at 363 Broadway, and boarded in Watervliet. She didn’t own the shop and there was no sign of distribution of these pamphlets from the hat shop so this must have been her personal copy. In 1903, she moved out of Troy, but to an unknown destination.

This booklet was very important to everyday people. It is difficult to understand the significance of this little book since passenger train services ended in Troy in 1958. But if your life revolves around a bus or subway schedule, then you probably have a good idea of the true worth of a small pamphlet like this one.

The Historians in Training program is collaboration among the Rensselaer County Historical Society, Troy High School, and The Record. For more information, please visit www.rchsonline.org or call 518-272-7232, x17. Educational programming at RCHS is made possible by the generous support of RCHS members and donors and is supported in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/03/22/news/doc4ba6db2f55374676716978.txt#blogcomments

Monument Square to host ‘Troygle’ event Tuesday

2010-03-22T08:41:00.001-04:00

Published: Monday, March 22, 2010

By Dave Canfield
The Record

TROY — Supporters of the Collar City’s bid to become a Google test market will take to downtown streets Tuesday to show the company, literally, that they want its ultra high-speed internet.

Organizers plan on filming the event they’ve dubbed “The Need for Speed,” slated for 5 to 7 p.m. at Monument Square, for submission as part of their application to the rapidly expanding California-based company that is now a household name. Those applications seeking to prove worthiness for high-speed broadband internet are due Friday.

Lisa Powell Graham, who has been organizing the effort to bring Google to Troy, said she’s never seen as much extensive support as has been offered for the efforts of the group, which has established a Web site at troygle.org. She hopes as many people as possible will come out for Tuesday’s rain-or-shine event.

“We just need to have as big of a crowd as we can get,” Graham said. “We need to do this and have this presence now, before the applications are due.”

The Hellions of Troy roller derby team will be on hand, and the first 100 attendees will receive a free Uncle Sam hat. Organizers plan to make Google very aware that the Collar City was once home to the man behind that legend.

The video’s expected narration introduces Troy as a place “where history, culture and technology meet,” noting its architecture, 19th-century industrial prominence and its location in New York’s Tech Valley region. It references President Barack Obama’s recent visit to the city as well as the presence of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world.

The high density of technology companies and educational institutions in the area would give Google all the cooperation they needed to get the broadband system running and successful, Graham said.

“All the local colleges and schools are on board. The businesses are on board. City Hall is 100 percent behind it,” she said. “We think we’re poised to give them what they need in terms of partnership.”

According to Google, the fiber-optic broadband is capable of downloading up to one gigabit per second, which is some 100 times faster than connection speeds available to most Americans. Supporters say speed like that not only makes Troy a desirable place for residents, but could also be a deciding factor in bringing technology firms to the area.

Likely for those same reasons, Troy isn’t the only city vying to be the project’s guinea pig. Scores of Facebook pages exist to support different markets, and other cities have pulled stunts like the one Troy will see Tuesday. The mayor of Duluth, Minn., recently jumped into a chilly Lake Superior to get company’s attention, and Topeka, Kan., has temporarily and informally re-named itself “Google” for the time being.

Applications are also being submitted on behalf of other Capital District municipalities, though none have attracted the local attention that Troy’s has.

It has not been announced how many test markets Google will choose, or even if they will select more than one. But Graham said that, regardless of the outcome, supporters’ efforts won’t go to waste.

“No matter what happens with the Google application, we want to put Troy on the map anyways. We want to make Troy a Mecca for technology and arts, no matter what,” she said. “We think Google should pick us. But, regardless, we’re going to take the energy forward and really make great things happen in Troy.”

Dave Canfield can be reached at 270-1290 or by e-mail at dcanfield@troyrecord.com.

NY poverty rate tops national average

2010-03-18T07:38:00.001-04:00

Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010

By Jessica M. Pasko
The Record

TROY — Close to 14 percent of New Yorkers live in poverty, the highest rate among Northeastern states, according to a new report released by the New York State Community Action Association.

More than 2.6 million New Yorkers live in poverty, including 852,000 children. That makes for a poverty rate of 13.8 percent, slightly higher than the national rate of 13.2 percent. The city of Buffalo was ranked as the third poorest city in the U.S., with close to 30 percent of the population there living in property. The poverty rate is defined as the percentage of the population living in households below or at the federal poverty line.

NYSCAA, which represents 52 communication action committees across the state, released the annual New York State Poverty Report Wednesday. The report is based on the latest poverty data available from the U.S. Census, covering 2006-2008, and doesn’t reflect the current economic crisis. Data from 2000 had to be used for some counties, including Hamilton and Schuyler.

“The recession has hit all New Yorkers hard and while parts of the economy are beginning to recover, we still have more families struggling to keep their head above water every day,” said NYSCAA CEO Denise Harlow.

A family of three would have to make $18,310 or less to be considered living under the poverty line, based on the federal guidelines. A family of four would need to make less than $22,050 to be counted in the poverty rate according to those same guidelines.

“The current poverty levels are unacceptable and we know the number of families struggling is even greater, especially when a family of three making more than $18,310 is not considered poor and [is] therefore uncounted in the rates on poverty our report discusses.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, poverty thresholds were originally developed in the 1960s based on then assumption that 30 percent of household income is spent on food costs. In today’s economy, that’s not always the case. The federal government sets the poverty line threshold across the board, regardless of the costs of living in a particular area.

“There is work being done statewide and nationally to redefine what poverty levels are set at,” said Harlow.

In the breakdown by county, Rensselaer County has a 10.1 percent poverty rate, compared to 12 percent in Albany County, 10.8 percent in Schenectady and just 6.9 percent in Saratoga County.

The city of Troy has a much higher poverty rate, with 21.4 percent or about 9,520 individuals living in poverty, including nearly 3,200 children.

New to the report this year is data highlighting the plight of the working poor and families headed by single women.

Nearly 50 percent of all families in poverty statewide are headed by single women with children, and 70 percent of Troy’s poor families are headed by single mothers.

The report also found that a major issue continues to be what’s called working poor – those employed but still living in poverty. Close to 28 percent of those living in poverty are employed, and the state’s unemployment rate reached nine percent in December.

Race continues to play a disproportionate role when it comes to poverty statistics, according to NYSACC. More than one in five black New Yorkers and one in four Hispanic residents live in poverty, as compared to one in 10 white residents.

New York State:

Total population: 19,428,881

Number/percent of individuals in poverty: 2,603,930/ 13.8 percent

Number/percent of children in poverty: 852,700/ 19.5 percent

Percent of senior citizens in poverty: 11.8 percent

Percent of poor who are employed: 27.5 percent

Rensselaer County:

Total population: 154,939

Number/percent of individuals in poverty: 15,158/ 10. 1 percent

Number/percent of children in poverty: 4,620/ 14 percent

Percent of senior citizens in poverty: 9.4 percent

Percent of poor who are employed: 33.4 percent

City of Troy:

Total population: 47,229

Number/percent of individuals living in poverty: 9,521/ 21.4 percent

Number/percent of children in poverty: 3,192/ 33.2 percent

Percent of senior citizens in poverty: 13.7 percent

Percent of poor who are employed: 32.6 percent

—Statistics from the New York State Community Action Association

Jessica M. Pasko can be reached at 270-1288 or by e-mail at jpasko@troyrecord.com.

Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of troyrecord.com.

WellRed wrote on Mar 18, 2010 7:34 AM:

" Aint that something? And NY with the largest tax rates. Where is all the $$$ going? To the dirty politician and their friends and supporters, thats where. Thats one thing the article forgot to mention; NY has one of the most corrupt political systems in the nation too..right "up there" with Washington, DC. "

To Submit a Comment - Click on title above

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/03/18/news/doc4ba188f22b493921894906.txt#blogcomments

DEC Enviro-Awards 2010

2010-03-08T10:31:00.001-05:00

Click on title above to read more

Old S. Troy Bars; Whatever DID Become of The Old Snuggery Inn?

2010-02-25T15:55:00.001-05:00

From: "Bill and Cathy McGrath" < seamus@capital.net>
Subject: [Rensselaer] Dave's Grill, Troy, NY
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:12:49 -0500
I wonder if anyone on the Rensselaer County List or the Troy Irish Genealogy List remember Dave's Grill?

Dave's Grill was on 5 Cross Street just up from another well known Troy grill, The Snuggery Inn. Cross Street, for those not familiar with Troy streets, is the side street near Marty Burke's South End Tavern.

Owners were Dave Dufty, who was born in England and died in Providence, Rhode Island on April 6, 1961 and his sister-in-law, Mary C. O'Connor who died in Troy on October 12, 1963. Dave was married to Julia O'Connor. Mary and Julia were sisters to my grandfather William O'Connor and were my great aunts.

The grill, which was open for about twenty years, was attached to the side of the O'Connor family home. My great grandparents were Timothy O'Connor, born Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, and his wife Catherine McCormick O'Connor born in Dunbin, County Louth, Ireland. They lived at Cross Street from the 1870's until their deaths in 1912 and 1923. My mother, Mary Elizabeth O'Connor McGrath, even lived at Cross Street with the extended O'Connor family for her first few years until her parents, William O'Connor and Mary Carroll O'Connor moved behind the Cross street house onto Burden Avenue. My mother spent the rest of her life at 739 Burden Avenue and when she married James McGrath the boy next door at 741 Burden Avenue, they lived all their married life on the second floor of 739 Burden Avenue.

Dave's Grill was a popular spot for families on a hot summer night. Cars would park all over the road in front of the grill and the wife and kids would sit in the car while the husband went into the grill to get drinks. He would come out of the grill carrying a beer tray of drinks and perhaps a small box (not bag) of the old time Blue Ribbon potato chips. Does anyone remember them? The parents would sit in the cars and enjoy their drinks while the kids would play games on the quiet back street. As kids ourselves we would join in and play hide and seek, etc. with the children. There would literally be dozens of cars parked there with everyone sitting in their cars enjoying the hot nights.

As children we would leave our house on Burden Avenue and walk through our back yard to go visit Mary O'Connor, who was my great aunt Mame, and her brother Charlie. If we wanted soda from the bar there was a small passageway with a telephone that led to the bar. You had to knock on the door with a coin and eventually a bar tender would come to the door and take your order. As kids we would sometimes bring a bucket to get beer for our McGrath grandparents who lived next door to us on Burden Avenue. My grandfather, Thomas McGrath and his wife Nora Kennedy McGrath, both from Thurles, Tipperary, Ireland would enjoy their beer with friends from Ireland, sing songs like the Maid of Sweet Carew and have a good cry in their beer.

I imagine it was a hard life in the O'Connor homestead. There was no hot water, no refrigerator only a ice box and there was no central heat. In the cold weather, Charlie would have a coal fire in the stove in the sitting room where Mame presided in her rocking chair alongside a large table which was under a large colored glass dome. As the night wore on Charlie would heat bricks on the stove which would then be carried up to warm the beds in the unheated upstairs rooms. If we got a little rambunctious, Mame would give us a warning that "Charles will give you the gate" so we then would quiet down.

The O'Connor home and Dave's Grill has been torn down for over forty years now but I still have a vivid impression of the buildings and the good times we had there growing up. One memento I still have from the building is a photograph of the Burden Water Wheel when it was a ruin and most likely being dismantled. I found this photo in the O'Connor home.

All of my O'Connor's as well as my McGrath's worked at the Burden Iron Company.

Regards,

Bill McGrath
Clifton Park, NY

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NYRENSSE/2003-11/1069175569

County Waste to pay nearly $1 million trash settlement

2010-02-23T10:48:00.002-05:00

February 22, 2010 at 1:32 pm by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Tim O’Brien reports:

Clifton Park-based trash hauler County Waste has agreed to a nearly $1 million settlement in connection with trash it was accused of dumping at the Colonie Town Landfill without paying proper tipping fees.

About $736,000 will go to the town, and the remaining $250,000 is a fine associated with inappropriate waste that the company accepted at its Clifton Park transfer station, according to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

“Scams like this not only potentially impact the environment, but also taxpayers who have to bear the brunt of lost revenue,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The whistleblower in the case, former County Waste manager Ralph Hunter, will receive a total of $163,651 from the above amounts.

The amount of the settlement pales in comparison to some of the figures publicly discussed. Hunter initially contended the firm had defrauded the town of as much as $15 million.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation began investigating County Waste in February 2007. In July 2008, a search warrant was executed at County Waste’s Clifton Park facility.

Click on link to the coverage from the day the Times Union broke this story.

http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/6321/county-waste-to-pay-nearly-1-million-trash-settlement/

Mahar to Be Honored w/ Post Office Name

2010-02-23T10:43:00.001-05:00

Gillibrand, Schumer Introduce Legislation To Name Lansingburgh Post Office After Martin G. Mahar

Marty Mahar Was Born and Raised in Troy, Served in WWII, Worked For Postal Service

U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer introduced legislation that would rename the Post Office in Lansingburgh after Martin G. “Marty” Mahar. Congressman Paul Tonko introduced HR. 4425 last month.

“Marty Mahar represented the very best of Troy and all of New York,” Senator Gillibrand said. “He served his community and country with honor, integrity and dignity. Naming the Lansingburgh Post Office after him will honor his legacy in the community he loved and served so well.”

“Marty Mahar deserves to be honored for his lifetime of service to our country and to the people of New York,” Senator Schumer said. “Naming this post office in his memory will allow the citizens of Troy to remember his great example of courage and patriotism.”

“Marty was truly a public servant whose leadership and selflessness should be a model for us all,” said Rep. Paul Tonko. “From his dedication in serving our country as a Marine during World War II to his service in the postal service and our community, I am honored to take a lead role, alongside Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand, in renaming this post office in Marty’s honor.”

Mr. Mahar was born, raised, and lived in Troy, New York for most of his life. He served in World War II as a Marine in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. For his tour of duty, he received four Battle Stars, a Presidential Unit Citation, and a Purple Heart (at Iwo Jima). He was in the inaugural class of the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame. After serving his country, he was involved in many veterans’ organizations.

Mr. Mahar joined the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier in 1955. He retired in 1983 and had a long career serving as a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).

Mr. Mahar was also a respected community leader. He was Mayor of Troy from 1990-1991. He was also a member of the Troy City Council for 10 years.

Fueding Neighbors Fence Off Public Road in Property Right Dispute

2010-02-18T06:06:00.003-05:00

Wooden posts laced with barbed wire stretch down the center of Houston Avenue near Hudson

--------------------------

Feud over fence in middle of Hudson road may go to trial
By Molly Moorhead, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 10, 2010

NEW PORT RICHEY — The ongoing "fence in the street" dispute on Houston Avenue in Hudson is showing no sign of resolution.

The owners of a private landfill at the end of Houston have been locked in a legal feud with the owner of an adjacent timber grove involving property rights and trespassing accusations. The fight reached a peak in November when Barbara Ryals, DCH Timber owner, constructed a fence down the middle of Houston — on her property line — to keep Coastal Landfill's trucks off her land. Coastal objected, along with the neighbors on Houston who now have only one lane of access on that stretch of the road.

Ryals says that Coastal trucks have widened the road on her property and installed sprinklers, all without her permission. Coastal argues that they have easement rights to the road to get in and out of the landfill property. The neighbors says it's all a huge inconvenience.

Last week, Circuit Judge Lowell Bray denied a request from Coastal for a temporary injunction that would have required the fence to be removed.

And on Monday, the two sides held a mediation conference at Bray's urging, to try to find a resolution.

Mark Buell, DCH attorney, said the mediation failed and he doesn't expect there to be any further attempts.

Coastal attorney Shelly Johnson May could not be reached for comment.

So, for now at least, the fence remains. The issue likely will be set for trial.

Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6245.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/article1072038.ece

Rennselaer Co to Get 3M in Stimulus

2010-02-04T19:27:00.000-05:00

Relief for property tax

Budget proposal includes Medicaid relief that'll help with property taxes

By KENNETH C. CROWE II, Staff writer
Wednesday, February 3, 2010

President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 federal budget carries Medicaid relief for the state's counties that will help property taxpayers, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

The greater Capital Region's counties are projected to receive $21.6 million of $150 million allocated for upstate counties in additional federal funding for the first six months of 2011 to offset local Medicaid costs.
The counties are facing 2011 budget deficits at the same time as residents' demand for social services and assistance is increasing.

"Unemployment is already too high, and unless we get fiscal aid directly to our beleaguered county governments during this downturn they will be forced to raise property taxes, lay off vital workers and make things worse instead of better,'' Schumer said.

County leaders said the additional aid provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help them deal with pending budget gaps.

"It will help tremendously,'' said Albany County Executive Mike Breslin. The $5.9 million Albany County would receive would close part of a projected 2011 county budget gap of $25 million to $30 million, Breslin said.

Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino said the $3.2 million her county would receive accounts for about 25 percent of a forecast 2011 budget shortfall of $14 million.

"We're still feeling the impact of the downturn in the economy and more people needing the help the county provides,'' Jimino said.

She said the additional federal assistance would tide over the county until its sales tax and mortgage tax revenues revive.

Breslin and Jimino said the key part of the aid package is that the money goes to the counties.

Schumer said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., that he had worked for five years to get direct payment to the counties, and achieved it in the stimulus act and then in the budget proposal. New York state is to receive $3 billion.

"It does help us during very trying economic times. The number-one issue confronting counties is property taxes,'' said Schenectady County Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage. Her county will receive $3.2 million.

Saratoga County Administrator David Wickerham said the $2.2 million his county is slated to receive will help. He added he would like to see the minimum 50 percent federal match for Medicaid increased. By contrast, Arizona receives 67 percent.

"This is a budget proposal,'' Wickerham said. "I'm not ready to budget any of the money right now.''

Reach Kenneth C. Crowe II at 454-5084 or kcrowe@timesunion.com

Help on the way

New York's counties would receive additional federal funds to deal with Medicaid costs in the proposed 2011 federal budget.

COUNTY 2011 BUDGET

Albany $5.926 million

Columbia $991,000

Fulton $1.283 million

Greene $882,000

Montgomery $1.109 million

Rensselaer $3.212 million

Saratoga $2.298 million

Schenectady $3.256 million

Schoharie $529,000

Warren $1.120 million

Washington $1.053 million

Source: U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer's office

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=896354&category=SARATOGA&BCCode=&newsdate=2/3/2010#ixzz0ecINcb5G

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=896354

High Speed Trains - Buyers Beware

2010-01-29T19:57:00.002-05:00

High Speed Trains - A Long Term, Costly Commitment

Florida's High-Speed Rail Route Is Going to be Very Costly for Taxpayers

Robert Poole
January 28, 2010, 5:25pm

The old saying about not looking a gift horse in the mouth should be challenged by Florida taxpayers, when it comes to today’s announcement of a $1.25 billion grant to start development of a high-speed rail line between Orlando and Tampa. If Florida accepts this money without figuring out how to pay for the rest of the project, there could be very serious consequences for hard-pressed taxpayers.

Unlike most of the other “high-speed” rail projects receiving federal grants, this one is not to upgrade an existing rail line for a top speed of 110 miles per hour (mph) vs the current 79 mph trains. No, the Florida project is for brand new, truly high-speed rail on exclusive, new right of way, along the I-4 highway corridor. This is by far the most expensive form of high-speed rail. A 2009 GAO report that looked at recent high-speed rail projects in France, Spain, and Japan shows them averaging $51 million per mile (excluding one very high-cost Japanese line). For the 84 miles of the Tampa-Orlando route, that totals $4.28 billion. So merely to build this project is going to require another $3 billion from somewhere. Florida is facing a several billion dollar budget deficit this year, so it’s hard to see where the extra money could come from.

It definitely won’t come from private investors, since these kinds of projects do not make a return on their investment. Indeed, a December 2009 report on high-speed rail from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) helpfully points out that of all the dozens of high-speed rail projects build worldwide over the last several decades, only two are “estimated” to have paid for their capital cost out of farebox revenues. All the rest, in Japan, France, Spain, and elsewhere have been largely paid for by general taxpayers.

Then there’s the little matter of operating and maintenance costs. Both GAO and CRS note that whether such a line can cover those costs out of passenger revenues is highly dependent on ridership. The ideal situation is a corridor several hundred miles long anchored by two large, centralized metro areas. The federal fact sheet on the Florida line claims that both Tampa and Orlando are among the largest 20 metro areas; in fact, while Tampa ranks 17th, Orlando is 32nd in size—and both are very spread-out, low-density areas. This corridor does not make CRS’s list of the top 12 city-pairs for potential high-speed rail ridership. In fact, CRS estimates that the train in this corridor would likely reduce traffic on I-4 by less than 2 percent. That doesn’t bode well for high-speed rail ridership, especially since 84 miles is way too short for people to fly, so all potential riders must come from those who would otherwise drive.

Given all this, I estimate that Florida taxpayers will get stuck with an annual operating deficit that they will have to pay for, indefinitely.

Bottom line: this gift horse looks to me like a gift that will keep on taking.

Related: Reason's Report on the California High-Speed Rail Plan

Robert Poole is Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow and Director of Transportation Policy

http://reason.org/blog/show/floridas-high-speed-rail-route

Transmission Line Proposal Still A Live Wire

2010-01-29T03:11:00.003-05:00

Submitted by Elizabeth Mooney on Wed, 2010-01-13 15:38.

New York Regional Interconnection has sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, challenging its denial of the company's plan for a 190-mile power line between Marcy and Orange County.

NYRI has sought a review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, characterizing FERC decision as "arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law," the Utica Observer-Dispatch reported. In its appeal, the company took issue with "state-level rules for approving power-line projects that involve a weighted vote by power grid stakeholders," of which Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) is one of the largest.

On its Web site, the company announced that it would "reach out to leaders in the environmental community in the coming weeks and months, including people and organizations that are specifically opposed to the NYRI Project."

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente and U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, said they stand ready to do whatever they can to block the power line.

BLOGGERS NOTE: Yeaaaaah NY!

http://www.nylcv.org/ecopoliticsdaily/20100113_transmission_line_proposal_still_a_live_wire

Capital District Gets $hot in the Arm

2009-08-10T01:12:00.002-04:00

Developers, preservationists get an injection of tax credits

By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer
Sunday, August 9, 2009

$100,000 and $1 million.

The first number is the state historic preservation tax credit a developer received for converting Troy's downtown Stanley's building to apartments.

The second number is the state tax credit the very same project would receive next year, under legislation signed recently by Gov. David Paterson.

Those numbers help explain why developers and historic preservationists are giddy over the new law, and why they predict it will bring a wave of redevelopment and renovation to upstate's urban centers.

"It just opens up a whole new world for historic property owners," said Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Albany Foundation.

The program already seems to be pushing projects forward -- including the renovation of downtown Albany's Dewitt Clinton building into a Hilton hotel.

The enhanced tax credit "gave the project a shot in the arm," said Scott Townsend, owner of the architecture firm that's working on the redevelopment. "It definitely increases its feasibility."

The State Rehabilitation Tax Credit makes commercial redevelopment projects eligible for up to $5 million in tax benefits, applied against construction costs. Homeowners, meanwhile, can receive credits for as much as $50,000 for their renovation projects.

That means that if a homeowner spends $150,000 to renovate a building, one-third of that cost would be rebated. Likewise, if a developer spends $25 million on a commercial building, that work essentially receives a $5 million discount, above and beyond available federal tax credits.

There are caveats: Projects are eligible only if they're on the National Register of Historic Places, or located in a National Historic district. And they must be within a census tract where annual household incomes are below the region's median.

Still, thousands of properties in the Capital Region qualify for the help. They include most downtown Albany buildings, due to the Downtown Albany Historic District, and much of the Troy and Schenectady downtowns.

They also include residential areas -- like Clinton Avenue in Albany, The Stockade in Schenectady, and the Washington Park neighborhood in Troy.

In fact, the Preservation League of New York State estimates 2,000 homes in Albany alone are eligible for the tax breaks.

Jay DiLorenzo, president of the preservation league, predicted the program "will prove one of the most effective economic and community development programs in the state."

New York has had a historic tax credit since the start of 2007. But developers and preservationists complained that the program wasn't effective, leading to a push for an upgrade.

"It came with conflicting regulations that made it a paper program," said Joe Fama, executive director of TAP Inc., a nonprofit architecture firm in Troy. "It wasn't usable."

An enhanced preservation tax credit almost became law last year. But Paterson vetoed the legislation, citing the budget crisis. This year, he signed the bill, calling it an important program for economic development.

Among other changes, the bill increases the credit available for commercial projects from $100,000 to $5 million and boosts the help for homeowners from $25,000 to $50,000.

"We finally have an effective tool on the books," said Daniel Mackay, director of public policy for the preservation league, which pushed hard for the enhanced credits.

For homeowners, the credit is applied to the state income tax and can be rolled over to future tax returns if the amount exceeds the income tax paid. Homeowners with annual income below $60,000 can receive the amount beyond income tax as a rebate, according to Mackay.

That essentially makes it a grant program for low-income homeowners.

The state estimates the program will cost it $58 million over five years; some observers, though, believe that number is conservative by a long shot.

But proponents argue the program will ultimately return much more to taxpayers, because it will return abandoned properties to tax rolls and increase the taxable value of dilapidated structures.

Proponents also say the timing of the program is apt, as it comes during a credit crunch that has made banks reluctant to lend to renovation and redevelopment projects. Knowing the work will be backed by tax credits could lead banks to open their checkbooks.

The money could also put projects that haven't been economically feasible over the hump. Historic properties, after all, can be far more expensive to renovate than newer properties.

The credits apply to construction work that occurs after Jan. 1, which means some firms may delay starting projects this year to ensure they qualify.

It also means that the 2007 redevelopment of the Stanley's building in Troy occurred three years too early for what could have been its $1 million tax credit.

"That's going to be quite an incentive," said Jeff Pfeil, whose eponymous firm turned the building into The Conservatory apartments. "Can we apply retroactively?"

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at cchurchill@timesunion.com.

Harmony Mills

Developer Uri Kaufman used federal tax credit programs to develop part of the Harmony Mills complex in Cohoes into upscale apartments. The state's enhanced program could hasten redevelopment of the remaining part of the complex.

New York began offering historic renovation tax credits in 2007, but an enhanced version of the program will take effect at the start of 2010.

The program:

increases the credits available for residential projects to $50,000

increases the credit cap for commercial projects to $5 million, although it will not pay for more than 20 percent of all costs

targets "distressed areas," defined as neighborhoods where annual income is below the regional median.

makes credits transferrable within business partnerships to allow for greater investor flexibility.

can provide a rebate to homeowners who pay too litte in state income tax to benefit from a credit.

Source: Office of Gov. David Paterson

Clinton Avenue

Homeowners along Clinton Avenue in Albany are eligable for a credit of up to $50,000 under the enhanced Rehabilitation Tax Credit program, because the street is a National Historic District.

Stanley Building

The former Stanley's Department Store building in downtown Troy received $100,000 in state tax credits when it was rehabbed in 2007. Under the new program, it would have received $1 million.

Abandoned churches

Preservationists say the tax credits bring new hope to buildings like the former St. John's Church in Albany's South End. Many such buildings across the Capital Region are abandoned and falling into disrepair, but could be renovated for new uses.

Downtown Albany

The Art Deco skyscraper at 11 N. Pearl St. is among the many downtown Albany buildings that could receive the expanded tax break, if its owners decided to renovate, because it is considered part of Downtown Albany Historic District, which also includes Broadway and State Street.

Dewitt Clinton

The architect working on a plan to develop the Albany building, which is across from the Capitol, said the historic tax credit program greatly increased the projects feasibility. "It's a great boost for the building," Scott Townsend said. "It's a great boost for all downtowns."

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=829299&category=BUSINESS

High Speed Rail Wrong Road for America

2009-08-01T08:40:00.000-04:00

In the face of high energy prices and concerns about global warming, environmentalists and planners offer high-speed rail as an environmentally friendly alternative to driving and air travel. California, Florida, the Midwest, and other parts of the country are actively considering specific high-speed rail plans.

Close scrutiny of these plans reveals that they do not live up to the hype. As attractive as 110-to 220-mile-per-hour trains might sound, even the most optimistic forecasts predict they will take few cars off the road. At best, they will replace for profit private commuter airlines with heavily subsidized public rail systems that are likely to require continued subsidies far into the future.

Nor are high-speed rail lines particularly environmentally friendly. Planners have predicted that a proposed line in Florida would use more energy and emit more of some pollutants than all of the cars it would take off the road. California planners forecast that high-speed rail would reduce pollutionand greenhouse gas emissions by amere 0.7 to 1.5 percent—but only if ridership reached the high end of projected levels. Lower ridership would nullify energy savings and pollution reductions.

Randal O’Toole is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of The Best-Laid Plans:How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future.

More by Randal O'Toole

These assessments are confirmed by the actual experience of high-speed rail lines in Japan and Europe. Since Japan introduced high-speed bullet trains, passenger rail has lost more than half its market share to the automobile. Since Italy, France, and other European countries opened their high-speed rail lines, rail's market share in Europe has dwindled from 8.2 to 5.8 percent of travel. If high-speed rail doesn't work in Japan and Europe, how can it work in the United States?

As megaprojects—the California high-speed rail is projected to cost $33 to $37 billion—high-speed rail plans pose serious risks for taxpayers. Costs of recent rail projects in Denver and Seattle are running 60 to 100 percent above projections. Once construction begins, politicians will feel obligated to throw good taxpayers' money after bad. Once projects are completed , most plans call for them to be turned over to private companies that will keep any operational profits,while taxpayers will remain vulnerable if the trains lose money.

In short, high-speed rail proposals are high cost, high-risk megaprojects that promise little or no congestion relief, energy savings, or other environmental benefits. Taxpayers and politicians should be wary of any transportation projects that cannot be paid for out of user fees.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9753

NY growth besieges Revolutionary patriots' graves

2009-07-05T08:58:00.000-04:00

Local News;

July 3, 2009

By CHRIS CAROLA Associated Press Writer
Ed Spaeth was researching his family tree when he discovered an 18th-century ancestor likely was buried in the woods just down the hill from his Hudson Valley home.

Although he can't pinpoint Francois Martin-Pelland's grave, historical evidence has led Spaeth to the nearby grove believed to be the final resting place of hundreds of other Revolutionary War soldiers posted here when Fishkill was the main supply source for Gen. George Washington's northern army.

Today, commercial development has whittled the wooded parcel down to about 12 acres hemmed in by roads, a shopping mall, a gas station and a Mexican restaurant. A group of preservationists, history buffs and civic leaders has mustered in this Dutchess County town to try to save what could be the nation's single largest-known burial site of Revolutionary War soldiers.

"They didn't fight and die for this cause just to have a mall built on top of them," said Spaeth, a 64-year-old retired school librarian.

From 1776 until 1783, the Fishkill Encampment and Supply Depot was a bustling military post. Several thousand Continental Army regulars and militiamen toiled year-round, carrying out the logistical tasks that allowed America's first army to fight. Many, perhaps more than 1,000, died and were buried in the depot's cemetery, 60 miles north of New York City.

The Fishkill depot's complex of huts, barracks, storehouses and workshops was known to have included a cemetery during the war. But its exact location wasn't confirmed until the fall of 2007, when an archaeological survey conducted for the property's owner found several old graves in a wooded area across from the Dutchess Mall, built in the 1970s.

At the recommendation of state archaeologists, another study was done last year. Ground-penetrating radar indicated several hundred grave sites in the southern tip of the property.

"We really don't know how many are there," said Douglas Mackey, an archaeologist for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Sites.

Backed by the latest findings, town officials and preservationists are seeking government funding to buy the land and protect it from development. One idea is to turn the site into the first national Revolutionary War cemetery. Some have taken to calling the Fishkill site "New York's Valley Forge."

"This is the founding of our country," said Mara Farrell of Fishkill Historical Focus. "There's so much about this site that needs to be revealed."

Retired Army Col. James Johnson , a 1969 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and a former military history professor there, notes that the closest the Fishkill depot came to fighting was when a British force ventured up the Hudson River from Manhattan and burned a nearby village. Nevertheless, the food, clothing and armaments the depot provided to Washington's soldiers helped them keep the redcoats from gaining control of the strategic Hudson Highlands.

Historians say disease and starvation claimed most of the soldiers who died here, although some died from wounds suffered in battles fought elsewhere.

Few major battlegrounds from the war, including Yorktown and Saratoga, have sizable marked cemeteries. After Yorktown in 1781, the 156 Americans who died were buried in a mass grave in nearby Williamsburg, Va. Americans killed during two battles at Saratoga, N.Y., in 1777 were buried in unmarked mass graves or simply covered with thin layers of dirt, leaving the remains susceptible to scavengers.

"These burials were done pretty darn quick," said Joe Craig, a ranger at Saratoga National Historical Park in Stillwater. "In garrison areas, they'd have a little more time."

Even at Valley Forge, Pa., there's no single marked cemetery for the estimated 1,700 soldiers Washington lost to disease and illness while his army was encamped outside Philadelphia during the winter and spring of 1777-1778. Ranger Bill Troppman at Valley Forge National Historical Park said stricken soldiers were transported to field hospitals in nearby communities, where the dead were buried singly or in small groups.

"It surprises people that the death rate was so high here and that there's no mass burial area," he said.

The only other remnant from Fishkill's supply depot days is the old Dutch homestead American officers used as a headquarters. Washington was a frequent visitor when his army encamped at nearby New Windsor.

In June, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed legislation to make the Fishkill cemetery site eligible for federal preservation funds currently used only for Civil War battlefields.

Fishkill Town Supervisor Joan Pagones, whose Army captain son has served in Iraq, said officials hope funds will be made available to buy the site from the developers.

"I certainly, as the mother of a soldier, realize that this is sacred ground and something has to be done to preserve it," she said. "There's also the side of the people who own it and they've been paying taxes on it."

Property co-owner Scott Jerutis said his company will sell the whole parcel for at least $6 million and would sell just the section where the graves are located.

The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization, is also working with all the parties to help reach an agreement.

"We've done it in a lot of Southern states with Civil War sites and this would be a great addition,"said Matthew Shurtleff, project manager for the trust's New York office.

Other Revolutionary War sites also face development pressures.

Land adjacent to the Princeton, N.J., battlefield where Washington's army won a key victory on Jan. 3, 1777, was recently named one of New Jersey's most endangered sites.

At Valley Forge, a conservation group successfully battled a proposed American Revolution museum planned for 78 acres of private land nearly surrounded by the national park. Museum officials announced last week they would locate instead in downtown Philadelphia, about 25 miles away. In 2003, Congress earmarked $2.5 million to buy private land in the park from a developer who was planning a neighborhood of luxury homes.

For Spaeth, a Yonkers native who moved upstate more than 30 years ago, settling just uphill from his ancestor was pure happenstance. A genealogy buff since his teens, he found out in the 1980s that Martin-Pelland, a Quebecois who fought for the Americans, had died of smallpox while at Fishkill in October 1778.

When Spaeth moved into a house built near a natural spring where soldiers from the Depot fetched their water, he had no idea his ancestor was buried in an unmarked grave nearby.

"The stars must have been aligned just right," said Spaeth, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran. "One truly feels that one is walking on the hallowed grounds of one's ancestors."

___

On the Net:

http://www.fishkill-historical-focus.org

Map locates Revolutionary War cemetary in Fishkill, N.Y. ADVANCE FOR SUN 7/05.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=321630206&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090704-pf1apon-V8230

Albany's bungling politicians might learn from state Senate coup chaos

2009-06-16T10:46:00.000-04:00

Updated Tuesday, June 16th 2009, 9:23 AM

We go from three men in a room to 62 buffoons in a chamber, from the country's most dysfunctional state Legislature to a Legislature that does not function at all.

"It's gone from dysfunctional to laughable," said Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center for Justice. "It's embarrassing."

The Brennan Center conducted an authoritative study of the Legislature five years ago and found it the most dysfunctional in the nation.

"Since that time, I think particularly in the last couple weeks, it looks worse that it ever has," Norden said.

He does see one glint of hope in the two freshman senators, Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate, having thrown the established order into chaos, however questionable their motives, however influenced their actions were spurred by bumpkin billionaire Tom Golisano.

"These two guys have shown what a couple of rank and file members can do," Norden said.

Monserrate then threw the new order into chaos by deciding to rejoin the Democrats, putting doubly to lie an excuse Norden has long heard from legislators, who whine that the leadership has all the power. The whole senate was upended twice by a newcomer who left the police department after putting in for a psychiatric disability.

"Members can cause a lot of havoc and do have more power than some of these legislators have said," Norden noted.

Maybe legislators who are truly reform-minded should be a little more nutty.

"I'd like to see members start taking some risks," Norden said. "Everybody talks the talk about how much they want reform, but can't do it. Now is an opportunity to push the envelope a little."

The lesson is this:

"They can do it if they want."

Not that Norden or anybody else in their right mind would endorse the present chaos that has the 62 buffoons unable to determine who exactly is the leader. A ray of hope is not necessarily cause for optimism in the New York State Legislature.

"It's hard to be Pollyannaish when you're talking about Albany," Norden said.

There remains a remarkable fact that has people buzzing at the dinner table and on the corner and in the subway - the worst state Legislature in America has actually gotten even worse.

"We're at a complete standstill," Norden said. "It was bad enough when the leadership controlled everything and there wasn't much of a leadership process. Now, we don't even have that."

He added, "I don't think, by the way, we would be happy if we go back to ironfisted control on behalf of one person in the Senate. I'm not pining for that."

What makes this travesty all the more a tragedy is that good government advocates started the year almost optimistic.

"Whoever assumes the Senate leadership has the opportunity, the tools and the public support to enact real reform in 2009," Norden said back in January.

Malcolm Smith had introduced numerous reform resolutions when he was in the minority, but when he became the new Senate majority leader, he did next to nothing to implement them.

A rare sign of progress did materialize in May, when the Cities Committee chaired by Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn) held a "mark up session," actually allowing open discussion and amendment of a bill, just like in a real democracy.

"In every other state legislature in the country that would have been a common, everyday occurrence," Norden said. "As far as I know it's the first time it's been done in Albany. Because of that, they had to figure out the rules for doing it."

The Brennan Center was seeking others to follow Squadron's example when the coup made the worst even worse, a banana peel republic that fell right on its behind. The once dysfunctional legislature was still not functioning at all as of last night.

"I can't say that surprises me all that much," Norden said.

Even so, by the very act of bringing the Senate to a standstill, the odious Espada and the whackadoo Monserrate have proven that legislators cannot just whine that the leaders have all the power. We should bombard each and every one of these buffoons with a simple message:

"No excuses! You can do it!"

mdaly@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/16/2009-06-16_inept_albany_might_learn_from_chaos.html#ixzz0IbYDTFP1&D

Latest Stimulus Funds Include 23.6M for Capital Region

2009-06-12T08:39:00.000-04:00

June 11, 2009 at 4:49 pm by Casey Seiler
Or: “At last, a blog post that isn’t related to the state Senate!”

The latest round of releases certifying projects available for federal stimulus dollars includes a number of projects in the region — including one project of great interests to anyone who has ever tried to ride a bike to the Times Union. Namely:

$5.9 million in ARRA funding to relocate the intersection of Maxwell Road and Albany Shaker Road in the town of Colonie, Albany County, 800 feet East. The existing intersection will remain, but only for right turns to and from Albany Shaker and Maxwell roads. The move will improve safety and reduce traffic congestion on Albany Shaker Road, Wolf Road and ramps accessing Interstate 87, the Adirondack Northway. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

Here are the rest of today’s regional certifications:

$1.4 million in ARRA funding to replace the bridge carrying Caretaker Road over the Walloomsac River in the town of Hoosick, Rensselaer County. This bridge, built in 1900, accesses a historic site, the Bennington Battlefield. Without this work, the bridge would be closed, causing inconvenience to motorists who would have to travel a lengthy detour. A bridge closure also would cause an increase in response times for local emergency service providers. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
$4.6 million in ARRA funding to replace the bridge carrying Clinton Street, Saunders Street and Division Street over the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in the village of Whitehall, Washington County. The increasingly deteriorating bridge, built in 1932, does not provide enough clearance for tall rail cars. Construction is expected to be completed in winter 2010.
$11 million in ARRA funding to resurface Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties. Locations include:
State Route 9 in Halfmoon, Clifton Park and Malta between State Route 146 and Crescent Avenue.
State Route 20 in Guilderland between State Route 146 and west of Johnston Road
State Route 155 in Colonie between Shaker High School and east of State Route 9; nine miles of State Route 4 in North and East Greenbush between State Routes 43 and 151
State Route 50 in Ballston and Ballston Spa, between the southern and northern intersections with State Route 67
State Route 914D, Broadway, in Schenectady in the vicinity of Interstate 890 Exit 5.
Construction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2010.
$880,000 in ARRA funding for a project to resurface County Route 145, Oakwood Avenue, in the city of Troy, Rensselaer County. Project will address continuing pavement deterioration between the north and south city lines. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
Check out the complete press release after the jump.

Governor David A. Paterson today announced the certification of an additional $23.6 million for transportation projects in the Capital Region through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These investments will provide for essential highway and bridge repairs and other long-term improvements that will create an estimated 566 jobs. The area is expected to receive $98.1 million in economic recovery funding for road and bridge projects in Albany, Essex, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Washington and Warren counties.

“From the bridge over Caretaker Road to the resurfacing of highways in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties, these projects mean real improvement and real opportunities for the Capital Region,” Governor Paterson said. “We will continue to meet the goals that President Obama and the New York Congressional Delegation set when they allocated these funds to our State. The investments made will create jobs and help get New York back onto the road to recovery.”

The certifications include the following projects in the Capital Region:
$1.4 million in ARRA funding to replace the bridge carrying Caretaker Road over the Walloomsac River in the town of Hoosick, Rensselaer County. This bridge, built in 1900, accesses a historic site, the Bennington Battlefield. Without this work, the bridge would be closed, causing inconvenience to motorists who would have to travel a lengthy detour. A bridge closure also would cause an increase in response times for local emergency service providers. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
$5.9 million in ARRA funding to relocate the intersection of Maxwell Road and Albany Shaker Road in the town of Colonie, Albany County, 800 feet East. The existing intersection will remain, but only for right turns to and from Albany Shaker and Maxwell roads. The move will improve safety and reduce traffic congestion on Albany Shaker Road, Wolf Road and ramps accessing Interstate 87, the Adirondack Northway. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.
$4.6 million in ARRA funding to replace the bridge carrying Clinton Street, Saunders Street and Division Street over the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in the village of Whitehall, Washington County. The increasingly deteriorating bridge, built in 1932, does not provide enough clearance for tall rail cars. Construction is expected to be completed in winter 2010.
$11 million in ARRA funding to resurface Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties. Locations include:
State Route 9 in Halfmoon, Clifton Park and Malta between State Route 146 and Crescent Avenue.
State Route 20 in Guilderland between State Route 146 and west of Johnston Road
State Route 155 in Colonie between Shaker High School and east of State Route 9; nine miles of State Route 4 in North and East Greenbush between State Routes 43 and 151
State Route 50 in Ballston and Ballston Spa, between the southern and northern intersections with State Route 67
State Route 914D, Broadway, in Schenectady in the vicinity of Interstate 890 Exit 5.
Construction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2010.
$880,000 in ARRA funding for a project to resurface County Route 145, Oakwood Avenue, in the city of Troy, Rensselaer County. Project will address continuing pavement deterioration between the north and south city lines. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

Earlier this month, Governor Paterson announced that in addition to the ARRA funding, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) will award the Capital Region $87 million in highway and bridge contracts this fiscal year. The area also will receive approximately $31 million in Consolidated Highway Improvement Program funding. In total, Capital Region communities will receive more than $216.1 million in highway and bridge funding in State Fiscal Year 2009-10.

The economic recovery funds New York will receive for transportation projects must follow the same process required for distributing all federal transportation funds. The money is allocated to projects that are selected by the 13 regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) across the State, which are comprised of local elected officials, local transit operators and NYSDOT representatives. MPOs vote unanimously on projects for their Transportation Improvement Program, and the projects are then eligible to receive economic recovery funds.

Similarly, regions of New York State without MPOs are served by the NYSDOT, which consults with local elected officials and selects projects for the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. NYSDOT is working with local officials and the Governor’s Economic Recovery Cabinet to identify priority shovel-ready projects eligible for recovery funds. For more information, please visit: http://recovery.ny.gov/ .
###

The following quotes were provided in support of the Capital Region infrastructure projects:

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer said: “This funding from the economic recovery package is much-needed and a wise investment in our transportation infrastructure. These projects will help jumpstart the economy by creating and retaining jobs, and make critical upgrades to our decaying roads and bridges to make travel safer and easier. This is the best way to put federal dollars to work for our local economy because it will modernize infrastructure, create jobs and promote economic development across the region.”

U.S. Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand said: “Today’s announcement by Governor Paterson that stimulus funds we passed in Congress will be used to upgrade the Capital Region’s roads and bridges is great news for the safety of our residents and for continued economic recovery in the region. More than just making needed upgrades to the Capital Region’s transportation infrastructure, the investment of these critical federal dollars will create hundreds of good paying jobs. I will continue to work with Senator Schumer and our entire Congressional delegation to ensure that New York gets its fair share of federal dollars.”

NYSDOT Acting Commissioner Stanley Gee said: “The jobs retained and created by economic recovery funding are crucial to strengthening New York State’s economy, and it has been Governor Paterson’s dedication to using these essential federal funds that has both produced and secured steady paychecks for many New Yorkers. The lifespan of the Capital Region’s transportation infrastructure will be extended and the safety of many highways and bridges enhanced through these important State and local projects.”

Congressman Scott Murphy said: “This funding will provide critical improvements to our aging roads and bridges, putting shovels in the ground and people back to work while making our roads and bridges safer. I look forward to continuing to work with Governor Paterson to implement the recovery funds to create jobs and turn our economy around.”

Congressman Paul Tonko said: “When we passed the Recovery Act in Congress we promised that the money would be put to work quickly to create jobs and repair our infrastructure – and that’s just what is happening. These newly certified projects will soon get underway, people will be put to work, and dollars will be spent in our local communities. In partnership with Governor Paterson and local officials, we are taking steps towards improving our roads and bridges and strengthening our economy.”

Assemblyman Ron Canestrari said: “Resurfacing roads throughout Albany County and the Capital District will be a great benefit for the people of this area. Not only is the work much needed in many areas but will hopefully provide employment during this economic recession. Governor Paterson and the New York Congressional delegation deserve our gratitude for their commitment to investing in our communities.”

Assemblyman John McEneny said: “Sections of Route 20 have been in long need of resurfacing that would enhance safety and improve the overall quality of the roadway. Thankfully, these federal stimulus funds will help to accomplish these improvements. It is my hope that this project, as well as others to improve Capital Region roadways will also be a source of much-needed employment during this period of heavy job losses.”

Assemblyman Bob Reilly said: “The Governor should be applauded for his judicious and expedient use of federal stimulus funding to improve our transportation infrastructure throughout the state. I live within one-half mile of the proposed Maxwell Road project and can attest that this improvement will be a major enhancement for one of the busiest intersections in the town of Colonie.”

http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/latest-stimulus-funds-include-23-million-for-cap-region/39/

Shen student has the swine flu virus

2009-06-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Middle school pupil is second in Saratoga County with the illness

By HUMBERTO MARTÍNEZ, Staff writer
First published in print: Friday, June 12, 2009

CLIFTON PARK -- A Shenendehowa middle school student has the swine flu, the New York Health Department confirmed Thursday.

Shenendehowa school officials announced that a student at Acadia Middle School had contracted the illness, also known as the H1N1 virus. They did not specify how long the student has been out sick or when the student would return to school. The school will not be closed.

The symptoms exhibited by the student were mild and typical of seasonal influenza, including fever, sore throat, cough and a stuffy or runny nose. School administrators are asking parents if they are showing the same symptoms to keep their children at home.

As of Thursday, there have been two cases of H1N1 in Saratoga County, five in Schenectady County, one in Albany County and four in Rensselaer County, the state Health Department said. Of those, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties both reported single cases who were students.

H1N1 caused a scare two months ago when health officials nationwide worried it could spread to pandemic levels after healthy adults who contracted it in Mexico died. Since then, there have been 1,291 cases in New York.

-- Humberto Martinez

11M in Stimulus for NYs County Roads

2009-06-12T08:32:00.001-04:00

Highway projects to get $95 million in stimulus funds
Local News More>>Appeals judge temporarily blocks Senate takeoverEconomist: Recession Likely to Get WorsePolice Foundation Recognizes Community LeadersFed govt proposes fines against NH firearms makerLearning That's a BlastShelburne Teacher Shoots for the StarsMorrisville Mammal ExpertsN.Y. Senate Control Up for Grabs, Courts to DecideFree Outdoor Fun in Vt. This WeekendBikers Bear Down on Laconia
Associated Press - June 12, 2009 3:15 AM ET

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - An additional $95 million in federal stimulus money is coming to New York to allow 43 new projects to move forward.

Gov. David Paterson says the projects will create about 2,277 jobs across the state.

The stimulus funding announced on Thursday brings the number of projects funded by the program to 217. The federal stimulus package will provide $618 million of the total $777 million in project costs.

The $95 million announced Thursday includes $11 million for roads in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties; $7 million for bridges in the New York City area; and $6.5 million for Route 17 in Chemung County.

There's also $4 million for the Route 39 bridge in St. Lawrence County, and $3.6 million to replace two bridges on state Route 90 in Cayuga County.

Computer Viruses Knock Out Systems at Rensselaer County

2009-06-12T07:54:00.000-04:00

Computers are being scanned at the office of Rensselaer County (New York, USA) to remove two viruses, which invaded the systems and collapsed 200 of the total 700 PCs along with 20 servers.

Vince Ruggiero, Information Services Director, stated that it had been rather strenuous as they had been spending long hours to clean the infection, as reported by News Channel 13 on June 5, 2009.

Ruggiero further stated that although they knew when the viruses came in, they were not aware of their source. Meanwhile, computer engineers are trying to locate the infected systems, cleaning them along with the servers.

Reportedly, a power supply disruption during the end week of May 2009 resulted in the infection of a server, allowing the virus to enter the network that disrupted back-office operations such as Budget and Finance, and Central Services. However, no urgent services like Motor Vehicles, Social Services, 911 operations and the Jail were compromised because of the worms.

County spokesman Chris Meyer stated the disruption in the computers started on June 2, 2009, as reported by timesunion on June 5, 2009. The county was expecting that all the PCs would be running by June 5, 2009.

Meyer further stated that they would be restoring the offices methodically to ensure that there wouldn't be any repetition of the infection.

Meanwhile, the problem with the power supply might not be the only reason for the infection, said a team of security researchers belonging to an Internet strategy firm that had been tied to the Rensselaer County under a contract. Moreover, although the specialists made no condemnation, they questioned the extent of protection on the County's network.

The security researchers said that although they couldn't figure out everything that actually happened, one thing that was evident was the existence of a connection between the deactivation of one provider in preference for another and a few security flaws that had been exposed from their previous status of protection.

Nevertheless, the County office stated that had there been any indication of security flaws or any failure, it wouldn't have switched to a different provider.

» SPAMfighter News - 11-06-2009

Capital Affairs: Whats Goin on in Albany?

2009-06-12T07:49:00.001-04:00

Albany sure is amazing. It's a place where, within several weeks, State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx) can rocket from a position of censure - as a serial campaign-rules scofflaw and the target of a fraud investigation - to standing a heartbeat away from becoming governor.

It's a place where billionaire businessman Tom Golisano, having lost three legitimate elections for governor, can interfere with the State Senate to pursue his agenda instead. His backing - assuming this week's new leadership deal holds - turned the Senate into a different, unfamiliar animal overnight.

And it's a place where Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Dean Skelos (R- Rockville Centre), can grab power under the cloak of reform, which didn't much interest them in recent regimes when they held the majority. And in doing so, they can ally themselves with the likes of Espada and Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D- Jackson Heights), who faces domestic violence charges this month for slashing his girlfriend's face.

At the moment, New York is a place where hypocrisy thrives.

Related links
Chaos in Albany Photos
New GOP majority may be locked out of chamber
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Dan Janison: Bronx senator has led tumultuous career
New Senate leaders vow to work with Paterson
Stunning 'coup' throws state Senate back to GOP
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Dan Janison: Lightning strikes in Albany parliamentary coup
New state Senate worker faces change on job's first day
GOP, 2 Dems flip power balance in NY senate
Albany coup confuses some Espada constituents in the Bronx
Vote: Change?
Do you expect things to improve in Albany if the Republicans can keep control of the Senate?

Yes, it was time for a change

Maybe, but it will definitely be better for Long Island

No, Albany's a circus and this is just one more example

View current results
This page said in January that if Senate leaders gave in to demands by rogue Democrats selling their votes for power and money, the rogues would rule the Senate indefinitely. We were right - and if he's not careful, Skelos will be judged by the company he keeps.

And what about the governing?

But let's assume for a moment that the new Espada-Skelos majority coalition means what it says about reform. The coalition wants term limits for committee chairs and equal resources - for Democrats and Republicans alike - in staff and member items. The coalition is pledging more power for individual members to bring bills to a floor vote. These reforms would be welcome, and carry on where the recently deposed Democratic majority led by Sen. Malcolm Smith (D- St. Albans) stopped short.

The coalition is also promising a new ideology that emphasizes jobs for New Yorkers, lower property taxes, restoration of STAR rebate checks, and an end to overspending and overtaxing. Well, that's great. But we'll believe it when we see it. In recent years at the helm, the Republican majority stood for big-spending budgets and end-of-session pension sweeteners for public employees. A return to GOP leadership should not also signal a relapse to the cheap posturing, one-house bills and favors for special interests that characterized the years of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

What's important is that the coalition - or the Democrats, if they return to power - move a reform agenda forward more effectively. Burdened by the national economy, New York is in a crisis of too-high costs for residents and businesses, and nobody is leading the way out. The Senate is too immersed in internecine squabbles. Assemb. Speaker Sheldon Silver (D- Manhattan) plays defense instead of raising big ideas. And Gov. David Paterson, who launched a high-tech spending initiative on Monday that was largely ignored, is so weak that no one is listening.

Long Island may well be better off if the coalition stands. The cost-control issue is at a crescendo here, and most of our state senators are Republicans. But a change in control does not necessarily mean a change in performance. This group still has a lot to prove. hN

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NY State Assembly: No to Vested Rights

2009-06-12T07:37:00.000-04:00

Tell the NYS Assembly to Vote "NO" on Vested Rights

Dear Christine Jubic,

Don’t let the State Assembly pass a law that would put developers’ rights ahead of those of ordinary New Yorkers.

With just two weeks left in this year’s Legislative Session, the New York State Assembly is considering a bill that would undercut the ability of cities, towns and villages to stop or even limit environmentally damaging development.

Bad idea, right? Tell your Assembly member to protect New York communities by voting “NO” on vested rights.

This bill, known as “vested rights,” would permit developers to freeze (or “vest”)—for six years—the municipal zoning, planning and environmental regulations that are in place in your community only six months after filing an application to develop land. Not after receiving a permit. Not after receiving local approval. After filing an application.

Because in most cases people don't know when development applications are filed, six months could easily pass without residents even knowing about it. And if those same residents want to re-zone to prevent a big box strip mall from going up next to a school, they'd only have six months to update their land use plans. That's not enough time.

Tell your representative in the Assembly to vote “NO” on vested rights for developers.

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Your Assemblyperson (if you live in New York)

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Protect New York Communities. Vote "NO" on Vested Rights (A.3353/S.1988)

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

As a member of Environmental Advocates of New York, I urge you to oppose A.3353/S.1988, Vested Rights for Land Developers. This bill will hamstring the ability of communities across the state to prevent environmentally harmful development in their own backyards.

Under this bill, municipal zoning and land use laws and rights that are on the books six months after the day that a project's application is filed would be frozen in time for six years--even if the city, town, or village adopts more protective measures.

Please vote "NO" on A.3353/S.1988 and protect New Yorkers from harmful development. Let local people decide what's best for their communities.

Sincerely,

Christine Jubic

A Private Encroachment Upon Public Lands Or The Matter of the Old Town Road: A Need to Settle Right-of-Ways

2009-06-10T10:44:00.002-04:00

What does it mean for a town to abandon a road? First of all it helps to understand that, pursuant to New York States Highway Laws, there are TWO kinds of abandonment; complete and constructive. Complete abandonment occurs when a town abandons the road that is no longer in use by anyone, and files a paper with the State Dept of Highways indicating that in fact, the town has totally abandoned the road. The right of ways then revert to the orginal plot from which they were taken from. This creates a reversionary Interest to rights to right-of-way (by property owners entitled to same.

Constructive abandonment;

(to be continued)

No Help from Authorities to Eradicate Communitys' Mosquito Breeding Ground

2009-06-10T09:38:00.012-04:00

F.R.R.C. Project 2616 at the Johnsville (NY) Dam

Directly across from our house, just down from the public boat launch the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had installed for us by the Power Co who rents the dam, there is a stillwater inlet that is a breeding ground for insects, specifically mosquito's

Yesterday I reported this to Tom Uncher of Brookfield Power Co., who, in so many words, informed me that it was not his concern....he reasoned that since it was a "water quality" issue, he advised me to report it to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (EnCon) which I did.

The EnCon Representative I spoke with told me (I didnt get her name) that it was not their concern, reasoning that it was a "public health issue" and advising me to call the Rensselaer Co Health Dept. which I did.

Talk about the run-around. So I called the Rensselaer Co health Dept and spoke with Jennifer DeLorenzo who told me that there isnt anything they can do. She claimed a lack of funding. That is where we stand today. No help on this very important pubic health issue effecting our small little rural community. The bugs are so bad already, what with the bats being gone and all.....

Take a look at some of the pics of our Neighborhood Mosquito Breeding Grounds that I guess we are stuck living with;

Hard to tell in these pics, but the algae close to shore is sitting on muck, not floating in the water...there IS no water til you get half way out across the riverbed.

Guess my next call will be to FERC

and about the sandbags, ( a seperate issue with flood-control) these bags Brookfield Power Co put down last year cause of the flooding the "hole in the bank" they call a "launch" caused....they were supposed to come back and cover them with gravel or dirt;
now the fiberglass-weaved bags are disintegrating, breaking up and blowing all over the neighborhood. Isnt this nice?

"To the Bat Cave," Robin! or "How U can Help our Bats"

2009-06-07T09:00:00.001-04:00

NJ - Annual bat count takes on added significance
Posted by: "Maureen Koplow" mkoplow@comcast.net share112943
Fri Jun 5, 2009 9:48 am (PDT)

Forwarded message - for info, please visit
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1244174777241290.xml&coll=1

NJ - Annual bat count takes on added significance

Friday, June 05, 2009
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff

Volunteers were called on yesterday to join an annual summer bat count
in New Jersey that could further determine how many have fallen to the
enigmatic "white-nose syndrome" responsible for devastating their
Northeastern populations.

As the Congressional Natural Resource Committee in Washington, D.C.,
began yesterday to review federal responses to the dilemma, the Conserve
Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey launched an effort to monitor roosting
spots where bats spend their summers in the state. From old buildings
and barns to dead trees, checking roosts may help state biologists confirm
their worst fears -- that as many as 95 percent of the state's bats died
over the winter.

"We ask our volunteers each year to go to a known bat roost at least twice
between now and early August and count them as the bats fly out in the
evening," said Maria Grace of Conserve Wildlife. "This year, we're telling
people that not seeing bats in those roosts is just as important to note.
We'll know then how significant the die-off is due to white-nose syndrome."

After mass die-offs of bats in 2006 and 2007 in New York, the phenomenon
was named after a strange white fungus found on their snouts and wings.
Since then, it has spread to nine states from Vermont to Virginia. Bats began
dying in New Jersey in January and a pre-spring inspection of the state's
largest hibernating spot, or hibernaculum, the Hibernia mine in Rockaway
Township, revealed a 95 percent population drop.

The syndrome prompts bats to wake from hibernation in the dead of
winter, even fly from their hibernaculum, and use up crucial fat reserves.

"The exact cause of mortality of affected bats is not yet fully understood,
but the newly identified fungus is considered a likely contributor," Marvin
Moriarty, northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
told the natural resource committee yesterday.

The fungus invades the skin and underlying tissue, particularly at the bat's
wings, that help balance complex physiological processes such as body
temperature. All six bat species that hibernate in the Northeast have been
affected, and scientists fear the syndrome will spread to large bat
populations in the South and Southwest -- and that some species may
never recover even if a solution is found.

"Bats differ from most other small mammals in that they have long lives
and reproduce slowly," Moriarty said.

Bats are insect eaters and help human agriculture. The 1 million killed
would have consumed 8,000 pounds of insects in a single summer night,
scientists said.

Conserve Wildlife will assign a bat roost to volunteers who contact the
foundation at (609) 984-0621 or at maria.grace@conservewildlifenj.org

Brian T. Murray may be reached at (973) 392-4153 or
bmurray@starledger.com

More On the Hoosic Falls Animal Control Officer from Hell, or Should I say, "Moron"

2009-06-03T19:07:00.001-04:00

Animal remains found at dog warden's farm
Updated: 05/30/2009 07:41 AM
By: Web Staff

HOOSICK, N.Y. -- An investigation into an animal control officer in Rensselaer County has led to the discovery of the remains of several animals at a farm in Hoosick.

Matthew Beck, 46, was arrested on March 22 in connection with an incident in which two dogs went missing from a home in Hoosick Falls.

A woman eventually found the dogs and turned them over to Beck, the dog warden for the Town of Hoosick, who told police he returned them to their "rightful owner." But a few weeks later, the woman who found the dogs saw posters up in the area saying the dogs were missing so she called the dog's owner, April Stevens, and told her she had turned them over to the dog warden.

Animal remains found at dog warden's farm
An investigation into an animal control officer in Rensselaer County has led to the discovery of the remains of several animals at a farm in Hoosick.

Beck told State Police he had returned the two dogs to a person who stated they were the owner.

Beck was arrested and charged with second-degree forgery of a public record, official misconduct of public servant, petit larceny and false written statement.

Then on May 27, State Police executed a search warrant at Beck's farm where they found remains of several animals, including dogs. The remains are being tested by the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Beck is on an unpaid leave of absence.

http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/473279/animal-remains-found-at-dog-warden-s-farm

Another Blight on the Capital District : Local Man Robs Indian School

2009-06-01T18:13:00.001-04:00

SCCC Graduate Bilks American Indian School of $1.38 M!

Click on title above for article;
http://greedybastardsclub.blogspot.com/2009/06/ex-minneapolis-charter-school-director.html

Mid-West States Warned, "Clean up Your Stagnet Water, Junkyards, etc...Deadly Mosquitos in Around

2009-06-01T17:30:00.008-04:00

..and it aint just a "MidWest" concern. Mosquitos carrying deadly virus' are everywhere. Particularly hard-hit this summer will be the areas (like ours) where the bats have all died off (due to white nose syndrome) It is the bats that keep the bugs down!
Read more about that by clicking onto the title above; http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/02/04/news/doc49891eb38ce2c915130498.txt

-----------------------meanwhile, back to...
The Mosquitos

Virus-spreading mosquito expands its reach

State health officials said today that they have confirmed that the invasive species has now established itself in five counties -- two of them in the Twin Cities area --and could spread two virus types to humans.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: June 1, 2009 - 1:04 PM
comment

for Pete's sake, people, just dump out the standing water
this is not rocket science. put bug pellets in the rain barrels, get rid of water catchers like old tires and junk, turn watering cans … read more upside down or use and dump the rest out every couple days. get on city hall to dose the storm drains.

Close comment

Minnesota State health officials said today that they have confirmed that an invasive mosquito species has now established itself in five counties -- two of them in the Twin Cities area -- and is well positioned to expand its turf farther and carry with it the potential to spread two virus types to humans.

The Japanese rock pool mosquito has been detected in the counties of Dakota, Goodhue, Houston, Scott and Wabasha, the state Health Department said.

With the concern that the mosquito "could potentially" transmit the LaCrosse encephalitis and West Nile viruses, health officials are urging Minnesotans to rid their property of water-holding containers that become breeding grounds for all types of mosquitoes.

"Spring is the perfect time to take simple steps to prevent mosquito-transmitted disease later this summer," said David Neitzel, a department epidemiologist who specializes in mosquito-borne diseases. "Several types of disease-carrying mosquitoes use water-holding containers, such as old tires, buckets, or cans, as breeding sites. If everyone dumps the water out of these containers and removes them during their spring yard work, we can reduce the number of mosquitoes that could transmit disease later this summer."

The Japanese rock pool mosquito, an Asian mosquito that was accidentally imported into this country, has been steadily moving across the United States since it was first found in New Jersey in 1998. It was first identified in Minnesota in Scott County in 2007 and then detected in the other four counties over the following year.

This spring, it was determined that these mosquitoes' eggs had survived the Minnesota winter. "We suspect that we will soon find this mosquito in other counties as well," Neitzel said.

LaCrosse encephalitis affects the brain and central nervous system. Severe cases occur primarily in children under 16 and are characterized by high fever, headache, confusion and seizures. Since 1985, 124 LaCrosse encephalitis cases have been reported to the state. One was fatal.

Most West Nile virus victims experience fever, headache, fatigue and sometimes a rash. Severe cases tend to occur in older people. Since 2002, 451 West Nile cases have been reported to the state. Fourteen have been fatal.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

Little Known Museum in Troy Holds a Key to Capital Region's Place in the Labor Movement

2009-05-28T20:13:00.002-04:00

Fergitaboutit! J'Ville was thee most important industrial town in all of Pittstown and most of Rensselaer Co. We want a Johnsonville Railroad & Industrial Museum! The old "moms" store on Rt. 67 would be a PERFECT location, and its for sale too!
Hello! Any of you historic pres railfan / industry & labor people listening? Here is a golden opportunity for you to champion a really good cause that would help the local economies. Give me a call and I will show you around and share with you some ideas.
(518) 753 7791
EarthMa

News from New York State Department of Labor

For more information contact: Leo Rosales, 518-457-5519

Media Advisory: Little Known Museum in Troy Holds a Key to Capital Region's Place in the Labor Movement
Governor Paterson Proclaims May Labor History Month in New York State

ALBANY, NY (05/27/2009; 1316)(readMedia)--

Question: What do the Liberty Bell, the Panama Canal, the USS Monitor, George Armstrong Custer and a local Iron Molders Union have in common?

Answer: The City of Troy, of course.

On Thursday, May 28, the Department of Labor will be holding a press event at the Burden Iron Works Museum in Troy to celebrate Labor History Month in New York State. Located in the former office of one of the most important firms in the history of iron and steel, the Burden Iron Works Museum promotes the City of Troy and its rightful place as the Silicon Valley of the 19th Century.

WHEN: Thursday, May 28, 2009 - 11 a.m.

WHERE: Burden Iron Works Museum

One East Industrial Parkway

Troy, NY 12180

Map available at the following link:

http://www.hudsonrivervalley.com/images/uploaded_images/Burden%20Iron%20Works%20Map.pdf

WHO: Executive Deputy Commissioner of Labor Mario Musolino

Congressman Paul Tonko

Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino

P. Thomas Carroll, Ph.D., Executive Director, Burden Iron Works Museum

Paul F. Cole, Executive Director, American Labor Studies Center

Guests in attendance to include State Historian Robert Weible; Jeffrey Stark, Secretary-Treasurer, Capital District Area Labor Federation; and Michael Barrett, Deputy Director and Tourism Coordinator for the Hudson-Mohawk Industrial Gateway.

http://readme.readmedia.com/news/show/Media-Advisory-Little-Known-Museum-in-Troy-Holds-a-Key-to-Capital-Regions-Place-in-the-Labor-Movement/616791

Hoosic Valley CSD Raised to A+ by S&P

2009-05-28T19:55:00.001-04:00

This is MY school district and I tell you, despite what the article says, we ARE NOT doing well economically in this district....only the schools are thriving, expanding and building new annexes as we speak. Its our ever-rising school TAXES paying for these expansions, NOT a "growing" economy! Everyone, and I mean everyone I know in this district is feeling the pinch, for real.

Hoosic Valley CSD Raised to A+ by S&P

Click on title above for article;
http://www.bondbuyer.com/article.html?id=20090527S30952S7

USDA Rural Development / Low-Income HomeOwner Loans for "Credit Qualified" Only

2009-05-18T11:44:00.001-04:00

No help from Uncle Sam for the poor with bad or no credit history.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Tim Jones (315) 477-6436

timothy.jones@ny.usda.gov

USDA RURAL DEVELOPMENT’S INNOVATIVE HOME LOAN PROGRAMS

CAN HELP LENDERS AND HOME BUYERS

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Feb. 11, 2009 - Interested in a home loan that requires no down payment, no private mortgage insurance and offers low, fixed interest rates?

If so, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development agency’s home loan program might be right for you.

Rural Development’s Single Family Housing Program

Rural Development serves as the USDA’s economic and community development arm and has the mission of improving economic conditions and the quality of life in rural America.

The agency’s Single Family Housing (SFH) Program supports this mission by offering direct and guaranteed home loans to help rural New Yorkers buy or build safe, decent and affordable homes. Home ownership is an economic cornerstone for individuals and communities and owning a home is an integral part of the American dream. The direct and indirect impacts of housing development also provides a stimulus for manufacturing, trade industries and related professional services, benefitting the larger economy.

Last year, Rural Development’s SFH program invested more than $97 million in New York, helping more 1,000 families and individuals buy, build or repair homes.

Direct Loan Program

The direct loan program provides government loans to low-income families or individuals. Borrowers must be able to afford mortgage payments, including taxes and homeowners insurance, and have a reasonable credit history. Direct loans are for 33 years, although 38-year terms are available in some cases. Payment assistance also is available for many qualifying borrowers.

Guaranteed Loan Program

The guaranteed loan program is administered in partnership with private lenders and is designed to assist low- and moderate-income borrowers. In the program, the loan is made by a bank, credit union or other financial institution, and Rural Development guarantees a large percentage of the loan on the borrower’s behalf. The guarantee enables lenders to offer more affordable mortgage terms. The loans have a two percent guarantee fee and this can often be rolled into the mortgage, enabling lenders to finance up to 102 percent of an appraised home’s value.

The First Step

Rural Development operates an extensive income and property eligibility web site at http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do. Potential applicants can find out if the home they’re interested in is in an eligible area - the loan programs are restricted to rural areas - and find income limits for their locations.

Prospective homebuyers and lenders interested in enrolling in the guaranteed program can also call the USDA Rural Development Service Center nearest them or call Rural Development’s state office at (315) 477-6416. A list of local offices with phone numbers and counties served is provided on the last page of this press release.

USDA Rural Development’s mission is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for rural residents. In fiscal year 2008, the agency invested more than $273 million in rural New York, raising its total investment in the state to more than $1.75 billion since 2001. Additional information on Rural Development programs may also be found at www.rurdev.usda.gov/ny.

#

USDA Rural Development Service Centers in New York

Location
Phone Number
Counties Served

Batavia
(585) 343-9167, ext. 2200
Niagara, Erie, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming

Bath
(607) 776-7398, ext. 4
Schuyler, Chemung, Steuben, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua

Canandaigua
(585) 394-0525, ext. 4
Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Yates, Monroe, Livingston

Canton
(315) 386-2401, ext. 4
St. Lawrence, Clinton, Franklin

Cortland
(607) 753-0851, ext. 4
Broome, Tioga, Chenango, Tompkins, Cortland, Cayuga, Onondaga

Greenwich
(518) 692-9940, ext. 4
Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Warren, Essex, Hamilton

Johnstown
(518) 762-0077, ext. 4
Fulton, Montgomery, Otsego, Delaware, Schoharie, Schenectady, Albany, Greene

Marcy
(315) 736-3316, ext. 4
Madison, Oneida, Herkimer

Middletown
(845) 343-1872, ext. 4
Columbia, Ulster, Sullivan, Orange, Dutchess, Putnam, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland

Watertown
(315) 782-7289, ext. 4
Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/ny/toolbarpages/newsroom_10.04.06.htm

NY Man Dies from Deer Tick Virus

2009-05-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

DEER TICK VIRUS ENCEPHALITIS, FATAL, 2008 - USA: (NEW YORK)
***********************************************************
A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases

Date: Wed 13 May 2009
Source: Forbes.com, HealthDay News report [edited]

Man dies of brain inflammation caused by deer tick virus
--------------------------------------------------------
In what scientists say might be the 1st case of its kind, a new report
details the story of a 62 year old man in New York state who died last year
(2008) of meningoencephalitis, apparently after being bitten by a deer tick
infected with deer tick virus. This appears to be the 1st reported human
illness from the virus, although the organism was isolated in the brain of
a person in Ontario, Canada. In this instance, there was no description of
illness associated with that infection, said Norma P Tavakoli, lead author
of the paper appearing in the 14 May 2009 issue of the New England Journal
of Medicine [see reference in comment below. - Mod.CP]

"Deer tick virus encephalitis [inflammation of the brain] is rare, but
diagnostic testing is not routinely performed, so there could be cases out
there we're actually missing," said Tavakoli, who is a research scientist
with the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health in Albany.
"Certainly, during early spring to fall in areas where infected ticks have
been reported, testing should be done. It is quite a rare virus," said Dr
Geoffrey Weinberg, a professor of pediatrics in the division of pediatric
infectious diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "I would
advise people not to be overly concerned. Ticks are less commonly infected
with this than with Lyme disease. Also, the odds are 300 to one that
someone infected with the virus will develop encephalitis. The vast
majority have no symptoms at all."

For the average outdoorsman, precautions already recommended to avoid
contracting Lyme disease -- also transmitted via deer ticks -- should
decrease the odds of getting the deer tick virus as well, according to the
study. "Whether or not this will become a real problem, I don't think
anybody knows. Obviously, there is no treatment for the virus so, really,
prevention is the only thing you can do," said Dr Peter Welch, an
infectious disease specialist with Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt
Kisco, NY. "We should always be cautious to do our best to not be bitten by
ticks. Check for ticks when you come out of the woods or anywhere there are
ticks. Wear insect repellant, which contains DEET." Wearing light-colored
clothing, removing any ticks as soon as they are found, and keeping pets
free of ticks can also reduce the risk, Tavakoli added.

Deer tick virus is closely related to Powassan virus, which can also cause
encephalitis and is also transmitted by way of the deer tick, according to
background information in the study. Both are flaviviruses, a group that
includes West Nile virus, St Louis encephalitis virus, dengue, and yellow
fever viruses, all of which are transmitted by mosquitoes. Infection with
one of these viruses sometimes causes severe illness, some combination of
milder symptoms, or no illness at all.

Deer ticks also transmit Lyme disease, which is now widespread in the
United States. In the New York case, a 62 year old man from Putnam County,
NY, arrived at a local hospital in spring of 2008 complaining of fatigue,
fever, rash, and muscle weakness. Doctors first suspected West Nile virus,
but analysis of tissue samples eventually came up positive for deer tick
virus only. The patient spent a good deal of time outdoors, owned horses,
and lived in a county with many reports of Lyme disease, indicating a large
tick population. Although the man had not reported any tick bites, the time
of the year was right for such an event, and many deer ticks are so small
as to remain undetected. Unfortunately, the man's condition continued to
deteriorate, life support was withdrawn, and the man, who also had leukemia
and therefore possibly a weakened immune system, died 17 days after he fell
ill.

In general, Welch said, encephalitis cases of any sort are few, and labs
are not usually able to identify the source, unless it is the herpes
simplex virus. "Since no one has been testing, we really don't know the
incidence of deer tick virus, but it can't be very high, because we don't
have many cases of encephalitis," he said. "What happens in the future will
depend on how many ticks get infected, how easy it is to transmit to
people, and what per cent of people infected get severe disease. It could
be that people with normal immune systems are relatively resistant."

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail rapporteur Susan Baekeland

[The research described above was published in the 14 May issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine (Norma P Tavakoli, Heng Wang, Michelle Dupuis,
Rene Hull, Gregory D Ebel, Emily J Gilmore, et al. Fatal case of deer tick
virus encephalitis. N Engl J Med 2009; 360: 2099-107.
.

Summary: "Deer tick virus is related to Powassan virus, a tick-borne
encephalitis virus. A 62 year old man presented with a meningoencephalitis
syndrome and eventually died. Analyses of tissue samples obtained during
surgery and at autopsy revealed a widespread necrotizing
meningoencephalitis. Nucleic acid was extracted from formalin-fixed tissue,
and the presence of deer tick virus was verified on a flavivirus-specific
polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assay, followed by sequence confirmation.
Immunohistochemical analysis with antisera specific for deer tick virus
identified numerous immunoreactive neurons, with prominent involvement of
large neurons in the brain stem, cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalamus, and
spinal cord. This case demonstrates that deer tick virus can be a cause of
fatal encephalitis."

Deer tick virus is a newly described member of the mammalian tickborne
virus group. The members of this group are classified as the virus species:
_Gadge Gully virus_, _Kyasanur Forest disease virus_, _Langat virus_,
_Louping ill virus_, _Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus_, _Powassan virus_,
_Royal Farm virus_, and _Tick-borne encephalitis virus_. Of these viruses
deer tick virus is most closely related to Powassan virus. - Mod.CP

A photograph of a deer tick (_Ixodes scapularis_) can be seen at
. New York State can be
located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map at
. - CopyEd.MJ]

.................cp/mj/sh

R Town News : Troy Sings in Commeration

2009-05-15T10:21:00.001-04:00

Fr. Bedros Shetilian conducts Troy, N.Y., orchestra in Genocide commemoration
by D. Edward Kebabjian

Published: Thursday May 14, 2009

Fr. Bedros Shetilian, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, conducts the Troy Orchestra.

Troy, N.Y. - On the evening of April 25, the New York Capital District Armenian Genocide Committee hosted the 94th Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. This year's event was one of music featuring the Troy Orchestra under the direction of Fr. Bedros Shetilian. Fr. Bedros graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. He has worked with internationally known orchestras like the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and has toured several countries including England, Sweden, and Finland. Fr. Bedros is serving at Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church in Troy, New York, and St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Also featured in the evening performance was opera singer Chakee Kazangian, who sang "Karoon" and "Kele, Kele," both by Gomidas, and "Ororotsayin" by Parsegh Ganachian. Ms. Kazangian started singing in the Armenian schools in Beirut. She moved to Australia and graduated from the Sydney Conservatory as an opera singer. As a member of the Sydney Opera Company, she sang several operas in the famous Sydney Opera House to both Armenian and American audiences. She has toured Armenia, Brazil, and Syria and has recorded two CDs. Ms. Kazangian presently resides in the Capital District and is choir director at Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church in Troy, where she is a dedicated volunteer.

A third feature was Melynda Matheke, an elementary music teacher in a local school district who is a flute virtuoso. Ms. Matheke performed J.S. Bach's Orchestra Suite No 2 in B minor, for solo flute and chamber orchestra. Ms. Matheke graduated from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.

All performers were extraordinary. The Troy Orchestra performed many songs including the five Armenian songs "Groong," "Yerginken Amber," "Keler Tsoler," "Dzirani Dzar," and "Etchmiadzin Dance."

County Democrats seek candidates

2009-05-11T00:32:00.000-04:00

County Democrats seek candidates

First published in print: Saturday, May 9, 2009

TROY — The Rensselaer County Democratic Committee is seeking candidates for county office.

County Chairman Thomas W. Wade said the committee will interview candidates this month for county executive, county clerk and for county legislators.

County Court Judge Andrew Ceresia is the party's candidate for Family Court judge. Attorney Richard Hanft is the party candidate for Family Court judge.

The Republicans control the county Legislature. County Executive Kathleen Jimino and County Clerk Frank Merola are the Republican incumbents seeking re-election.

Anyone interested in running as a Democratic candidate for office should contact Wade at Rensselaer County Democratic Committee, P.O. Box 846, Troy, N.Y. 12181.

— Kenneth C. Crowe II

Costly Superfund dredging set for Hudson River

2009-05-10T22:25:00.000-04:00

By MICHAEL HILL – May 9, 2009

SARATOGA, N.Y. (AP) — People look funny at David Mathis when he takes a dip off his dock in the Hudson River. Health officials have long warned people not to eat fish caught from this slow-flowing stretch south of the Adirondacks and swimming here is unthinkable to many.

The reason: tons of oily PCBs — probable carcinogens — have been packed in with the river mud so heavily that the federal government named the river a Superfund site in 1984. Environmentalists and local residents like Mathis say the only way to rid the river of PCBs is to dredge out 1.8 million cubic yards of contaminated mud — a job that could take six years and cost far more than $100 million a year. Opponents along the river are just as adamant that the river is cleaning itself and that dredging will be a gigantic folly.

The argument has gone on for a generation.

Metal scoops are set to be lowered from barges this month and chomp out the first loads of river bottom in one of the largest and most complex federal Superfund cleanups ever. The dredging will be paid for and coordinated by General Electric Co.

A thin stretch of river around Fort Edward, 10 miles north of Mathis' dock, will be jammed with an armada of boats scraping away at the river bottom night and day, six days a week. A multimillion dollar, 114-acre treatment site built by GE will treat the contaminated mud and pump the clean water back into the river; the processed mud will be shipped to Texas for disposal.

"I've got a couple of kids. I don't have any grandkids yet," Mathis, 61, says as he pilots his 32-foot boat along the contaminated run of river. "But when I do, I want them to be able to swim in the river."

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were commonly used as coolants and lubricants in transformers before they were banned in 1977. Considered a probable carcinogen, they have been linked to immune, reproductive and nervous-system problems.

Over several decades before the ban, GE plants in Fort Edward and neighboring Hudson Falls discharged wastewater containing more than a million pounds of PCBs into the river. A dam at Fort Edward kept the PCBs largely bottled up. But when the dam was removed in 1973, the chemicals flowed all the way to river's mouth at New York City, concentrating along a 40-mile stretch down to Albany.

New York state environmental officials considered dredging in the mid '70s, but had trouble finding a spot to bury the contaminated mud. With the Superfund site listing in 1984, the federal Environmental Protection Agency acquired broad powers to force the cleanup on GE. The EPA initially decided against a cleanup, citing technical challenges, but reconsidered in the '90s.

What followed was a decade on the river that had the air of a political campaign. Neighbors in Fort Edward placed pro- or anti-dredging signs on their front laws. Heated arguments broke out at public meetings.

GE, on the hook for the massive cleanup cost, waged an aggressive media campaign against dredging. One typical newspaper ad said dredging would "disrupt life on the river for years, and there's no guarantee it will work."

Jack Welch, then GE's top executive, was especially outspoken. He even argued with a nun at a shareholders' meeting, telling her: "... there is no correlation between PCB levels and cancer, Sister."

While federal officials have stopped short of saying PCBs cause cancer, the Department of Health and Human Services says PCBs may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens.

GE found local allies. Many residents feared dredging would turn a quiet stretch of river into rumbling, klieg-lit construction site. Tim Haven, longtime president of the anti-dredging group CEASE, says he'll give the project "a fair shake," but still believes a full dredging could take more than 15 years and will kick up PCBs into the river.

"I have a suspicion, or a gut feeling, this baby not going to go as well as planned," Haven said.

The EPA called for dredging in 2002. The start date was pushed back several years as the sides haggled over details and legal issues. Under a GE and EPA agreement, 265,000 cubic yards of river bottom — or about 15 percent of the total — will be dredged this year under Phase 1. The results will be studied before the start of Phase 2, the final and much larger stage.

Still in federal court is a suit by down-river towns concerned about whether dredging will stir up the PCBs and contaminate their drinking water. But EPA spokeswoman Kristen Skopeck said the project is scheduled to start sometime mid- to late-May.

Twelve dredgers, using clamshell-like scoops, will scrape up to 5,000 cubic yards a day, a bite at a time. Operations manager Tim Kruppenbacher said every effort is being made to keep light and noise to a minimum, but acknowledges "you're going to hear us."

Toxic muck will be barged about a mile up the Champlain Canal to the sprawling cleanup facility. Muck will be offloaded, processed, piped and dewatered. Water will be filtered again and again until it can go back in the canal. The pressed and dried toxic sludge cake will be shipped by rail to a Texas burial ground.

There are bigger Superfund projects that are expected to cost more to clean. But GE spokesman Mark Behan said there is likely none so complex.

"What's different is the unprecedented logistics," said GE spokesman Mark Behan, "the scale of it."

The EPA estimates that the project will cost GE around $750 million. GE is not providing its own cost estimate.

Phase 1 of the work will continue through the fall.

Then comes the potential catch.

GE has yet to agree to perform Phase 2 — the vast majority of the cleanup over some 35 miles. GE reserved the right to review Phase 1 results before making a commitment. In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, GE noted blandly that after the peer review "we may be responsible for further costs."

Environmentalists — who have fought GE so bitterly for so long — remain suspicious that the company will find a rationale to stop dredging after this year. But even if GE bows out, EPA could continue with Phase 2 and seek to recoup triple costs from GE. "No matter what," said Skopeck, "we will complete this project."

On the Net:
http://www.epa.gov/hudson/
http://www.hudsondredging.com/

Click on title above to see map of dredging areas http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hauXKFpbsFFTmLBMwy-kwoj9Gz7AD982QTOG0

A Graduates Dilemma; To Shake or Not to Shake?

2009-05-08T11:52:00.004-04:00

Here's a diploma and a wave?
Updated: 05/08/2009 06:04 AM
By: Britt Godshalk

TROY, N.Y. -- “I thought it was a great idea,” said Sage graduate Felicia Bishop.

“I think it's a little excessive,” said Sage graduate Stephanie Coppa.

Soon to be Sage graduates sounded off on the latest suggestion from their President. When accepting their diploma on Saturday, she says, forgo the familiar handshake. The reason? Germs.

“I felt like that was genius,” said Bishop. “It's better to be safe than sorry.”

“That's true and I think that's President Scrimshaw's motto. And because of her background in health, she just wants to be safe,” said Sage graduate Julia Killey.

“In the past, when we talked about bird flu, I didn't care, like, it'll never happen to me. And now swine flu, we have signs all over campus and gel dispensers outside, I guess it's a lot more serious than I thought. I've been using the gel dispensers like it's my job,” said Sage graduate Samantha Hall.

“So, should we all wear facemasks?” asked Coppa. “I mean, where is the line of being cautious and being overly cautious?”

The State Department of Health says as long as you wash your hands regularly and don't have flu like symptoms that could be H1N1, you can continue with life as usual. But as a local college prepares to hold its commencement this weekend, its administration is taking an extra precaution, just in case. Our Britt Godshalk explains.

Sage Colleges say both Tufts and MIT have decided to nix the handshake. St. Rose says that college considered it as well, but decided to keep the gesture, as will Union and UAlbany.

“It's tradition that we're breaking,” said Jen Resso.

Why do we even shake hands at all? Well, the President of the Colleges, who is not only a public health expert, but also an anthropologist, says it used to be that you were checking to see if your comrade was holding a sword. She says in this day and age, not only does that not apply, it's just not healthy. It caused us to wonder what will Sage graduates being doing instead of handshakes?

“It's kinda awkward if you just get the diploma. It's like, 'thanks, see ya later!'” Hall said.

“What can we do other than smile or do we just stand there?” asked Bishop.

“Maybe like the bump,” suggested Coppa. “Or maybe, oh wait, no handshaking, so no high five.”

“Probably a nod and a thank you will be it from me,” Killey said.

After all, a handshake is nice, but the diploma is really what they're after.

---------------
My suggestion: rubber gloves. Or, in the alternative, fake hands.

http://capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/139005/here-s-a-diploma-and-a-wave-/Default.aspx

NY's Hudson Valley marks historic 1609 voyage

2009-05-08T10:52:00.001-04:00

Friday, May 08, 2009
AP

In this file image released by the Museum of the City of New York, an undated lithograph depicting a 17th century man who is purported to be Henry Hudson is shown. Four hundred years after Henry Hudson sailed his ship Half Moon up a river that would one day bear his name, historians are marking his role in the evolution of a tiny Dutch trading post into a world capital with a series of events and exhibits.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- When explorer Henry Hudson got as far north as he could go on the waterway that would later bear his name, he didn't stick around long or wander much beyond the riverbank.

"They did not venture far from shore," said William "Chip" Reynolds, captain of the Half Moon, a full-scale replica of the ship that Hudson, an Englishman, sailed for the Dutch during his 1609 voyage to the New World.

Hudson and his crew spent only four days at what would later become Albany, but others followed his route upriver, mainly Dutch merchants looking to trade for the fur of beavers trapped by local Indian tribes.

Those enterprising Dutchmen established Fort Orange (later renamed Beverwijck, or "District of the Beaver") 15 years after Hudson's voyage on "de Halve Maen." The English renamed the settlement Albany when they took control of Holland's New Netherlands colony in 1664, but the Dutch influence here and along the Hudson Valley lasted well into the 18th century, and plenty of remnants can still be found today.

Many communities between Westchester County and Albany are hosting festivals, concerts, exhibits and other events to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Hudson's voyage, along with a belated 200th anniversary celebration of Robert Fulton inaugural steamboat trip up the river in 1807.

Reynolds' Half Moon will figure prominently in several events, including a nearly monthlong cruise recreating the river voyage that Hudson took in September 1609.

Here are some of the signature events, along with listings for museums and historic sites hosting related exhibits. For a more extensive list, check the state's Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission Web site, http://www.exploreny400.com, or the Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau's site at http://www.hudson400.com.

ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY AND ART, Albany -- Current exhibit: "Hudson River Panorama: 400 Years of History, Art, and Culture." Features hundreds of artworks, artifacts, interactive displays and rare documents from the institute's own collections. Through Jan. 3, 2010, http://www.albanyinstitute.org.

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Troy -- Current exhibit: "Horseshoes & Waterwheels: NY's Tech Valley 1800s." Explores river's importance to the development of the Hudson Valley and the nation, using photographs, historical objects and video displays. Through Dec. 31, http://www.cmost.org.

THOMAS COLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, Catskill -- New exhibit featuring Hudson River views by the 19th century artist considered the founder of the Hudson River School, America's first art movement. May 2 through Oct. 11 at Cedar Grove, Cole's home and restored studio. A series of monthly guided hikes will be offered to the local scenes in the paintings beginning June 6 and ending Oct. 3, http://www.explorethomascole.org.

TULIP FESTIVAL, Albany, May 8-10 -- A state capital tradition now in its 61st year, the festival celebrates Albany's deep Dutch roots. Events include the crowning of the Tulip Queen, live music, food vendors, children's activities, arts and crafts, and 200,000 tulips on display, http://www.albanyevents.org.

NEW NETHERLAND INSTITUTE, Albany -- Traveling exhibit: "Light on New Netherland." More than two dozen panels tell the story of the Dutch colony, with period artwork by contemporary artist Len Tantillo and video featuring interviews with Charles Gehring, who has spent decades translating the state's thousands of pages of 17th-century Dutch colonial documents for the institute's New Netherland Project. Exhibit will travel from Washington, D.C. to Grand Rapids, Mich., over the next year, with stops on Long Island and Dutchess County this summer and fall, respectively. Check http://www.nnp.org for exact dates.

LAUNCHING OF THE ONRUST, Rotterdam Junction, mid-May -- The Onrust (Dutch for restless) is a full-scale replica of the first Dutch ship built in North America. Launched off Manhattan in 1614, the original ship explored the New York and New England coasts. The replica will be launched in the Mohawk River at the 300-year-old Dutch farm where it's being built. The Onrust's launching date and schedule for 2009 are to be announced.

OLD DUTCH CHURCH, Kingston, May 30-31 -- Celebration of the First Protestant Reformed Dutch Church's 350th anniversary. Presentation of plaque from U.S. Department of Interior designating site a National Historic Landmark, 11 a.m., May 30. Followed by Dutch celebration of Pinkster, or Pentecost, with re-enactors and church tours. Festival service with parishioners from 50 other Dutch Reformed churches and choir performance, 4 p.m. May 31, http://www.olddutchchurch.org.

HUDSON RIVER DAY, New York City-Albany, June 5-13 -- "Relay Flotilla" assembles June 5 in New York Harbor, then heads upriver the next day, arriving June 13 in Albany with hundreds of vessels expected to retrace Henry Hudson's voyage, including the Dutch replica ships Half Moon and Onrust, and the sloop Clearwater, a Poughkeepsie-based floating environmental education classroom, http://www.hudson400.com.

NATIVE AMERICAN ENCAMPMENT, Cohoes, June 6 -- Held at the Van Schaick Mansion, named for the Dutch family that owned the island the home was built on in the mid-1700s. Located at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers just north of Albany, the site was a military headquarters in the 18th century. Activities include a living history program of Iroquois weapons, clothing and storytelling, http://www.vanschaickmansion.org.

CEMETERY TOUR, Menands, June 13 -- Trolley tour of gravesites with stories told of the Albany area's first Dutch settlers. Starts 10 a.m. at Albany Rural Cemetery, final resting place of the Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, Bleekers, and other members of the area's prominent Dutch families dating back to the 17th century, http://www.albanyaquaducks.com

WEST POINT CONCERTS, West Point -- Continuing a tradition begun in 1817, the U.S. Military Academy Band performs alongside the Hudson. Two free concerts are scheduled, at 7:30 p.m. on June 21, and 8 p.m. on July 4, at Trophy Point Amphitheatre overlooking the river, http://www.westpoint.edu/band.

NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, Albany -- Exhibit: "1609." July 3 through March 2010. Using artifacts from the state's collection and historical images created by local artist Len Tantillo, the exhibit will re-examine Hudson's voyage, the myths that surround it, and explore the legacies of his unexpected discovery. Also, an August-September tour from Vermont to Manhattan by the Day Peckinpaugh, the museum's 259-foot, 1921 canal boat. Public tours of onboard maritime history exhibit scheduled at 15 ports, http://www.nysm.nysed.gov.

RIP VAN WINKLE'S WACKY RAFT RACE, Athens to Catskill, Aug. 16 -- 6-mile race involving about two dozen non-motorized, homemade rafts vying for prizes named after old Hudson steamships that raced against one another on the river. Starts at 11 a.m. at Riverfront Park, Athens and finishes at Dutchman's Landing, Catskill, http://www.greenetourism.com.

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY, Albany, Sept. 14-Oct. 8 -- The replica Half Moon recreates Henry Hudson's voyage on the river, with 7th-grade students serving as the crew. Ship is open for public tours during Albany's "quad" festival Sept. 26, http://www.halfmoon.mus.ny.us or http://www.newnetherland.org.

WALKWAY OVER THE HUDSON, Poughkeepsie-Highland, Oct. 2-4 -- A 1.2-mile-long, 212-foot-high former railroad bridge-turned-walkway for pedestrians, hikers, joggers and bicyclists. "Grand Illumination" of the Walkway, 7 p.m., Oct. 2., with fireworks display. Official opening, 10 a.m. Oct. 3, with rowing races, parade, fly-over by vintage aircraft from the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome, http://walkway.org.

STEAMBOAT BICENTENNIAL, Germantown, Oct. 10 -- Riverfront Trail grand opening and celebration at Clermont, estate of the prominent Livingston family whose members included a partner of steamboat inventor Robert Fulton. Activities include guided trail walks and re-enactments, http://www.nysparks.state.ny.us or http://www.friendsofclermont.org.

BATTLE RE-ENACTMENT, Kingston, Oct. 16-18 -- Re-enactment of the burning of Kingston, the British attack on Oct. 16, 1777, during the Revolutionary War, when the old Dutch settlement (founded 1652) was the first capital of New York. Activities include redcoats landing in replica wooden boats, battle re-enactments, demonstrations of 18th century military camp life and colonial ball, http://firstulster.org.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09128/964394-37.stm

USDA SEEKS APPLICATIONS FOR HOUSEHOLD WATER WELL GRANTS

2009-05-07T16:37:00.001-04:00

Release No. 0153.09
Contact:
Weldon Freeman (202) 690-1384

Printable version
Email this page

USDA SEEKS APPLICATIONS FOR HOUSEHOLD WATER WELL GRANTS

Program Provides Access to Clean, Safe Drinking Water

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of funding for applications from non-profit organizations for funds to help rural homeowners construct or upgrade household water well systems.

The funding is provided through USDA Rural Development's Household Water Well System grant program. USDA plans to award up to four grants to non-profit groups that will use the funds to establish loan program for homeowners. Loans may not exceed $11,000 and will carry a term up to 20 years at a one percent annual interest rate.

"Because many rural residents do not live in areas where a centralized water system is feasible, it is essential that their wells are safe and working properly," said Vilsack.

The Household Water Well Grant program complements President Obama's environmental initiatives and provides support for rural residents.

USDA Rural Development plans to award up to $993,000 in grants. Non-profit groups must contribute at least 10 percent of the grant request. Individuals are not eligible for grants but may be eligible for loans if their annual household income does not exceed 100 percent of their state or territory's median non-metropolitan income. Loans may not be provided for home sewer or septic system projects.

The grants to be awarded under this notice are part of USDA Rural Development's annual budget and are not funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This Notice follows the November 20, 2008, release of a Notice of Solicitation of Applications that opened the application filing window. Applications are due by the close of business May 31. The application guide for this grant program can be found at http://www.usda.gov/rus/water/HWWSP.htm. Also see the April 29, 2009, Federal Register, page 19503.

USDA Rural Development's mission is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for rural residents. Rural Development fosters growth in homeownership, finances business development and supports the creation of critical community and technology infrastructure. Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA Rural Development's web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov.

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Landfills: A Balancing Act

2009-05-03T14:34:00.001-04:00

April 1, 2009

By Dave Call and Joe Benco
The successful siting of a landfill is a multi-pronged effort that must weigh environmental and engineering issues with political challenges, economic viability and social concerns. While there has been about a 75 percent decline in the number of operating landfills from 1988 to 2008, the amount of garbage generated in the United States continues to increase, resulting in a greater need to build new regional facilities or to expand existing sites. Both processes must engage all interested parties, from beginning to end, to develop a scientifically sound and socially acceptable site.

It goes without saying that landfills are an integral component of waste management operations, and the solid waste industry provides a vital public service that ensures the health and safety of citizens across the United States. Yet despite this vital role, and even with the significant engineering design and planning that goes into a modern landfill, siting a new facility or expanding an existing landfill presents an extraordinary challenge.

To better understand the challenge, let's examine the complex process of successful landfill siting. This process doesn't happen in a vacuum or overnight, and several steps may occur simultaneously. In fact, a uniform siting process does not exist for the entire country, primarily because each state and local government has different rules and regulations for land use approvals and other entitlements. A typical landfill siting process may take as few as three years from start to finish, but often takes five or more years.

Function
The objective of any landfill development project is to ensure the site is environmentally and socially acceptable, and fills a defined and needed role. The landfill's purpose must be clearly established with the stakeholders in the community at the project's onset to ensure open communications and to address concerns.

When examining the need for a new landfill or the expansion of an existing facility, the developer must identify the long-term strategy for the market. The project proponents must consider economic justification, technical challenges and political feasibility. Some questions to address:

Is a new or expanded site needed?

When will the site be needed?

What is the area's potential for future growth?

What types of waste will the landfill receive?

How much waste should the landfill be designed to accept?

What is the desired lifespan of the facility?

Who will own and operate the facility?

Form
Once you have determined the landfill's role, you can begin to design a facility. A site should be designed to serve the needs of the community, to maximize environmental protection and to minimize impact on the broader community.

Above all, the design must be based on sound science. A good design always takes into consideration geological conditions, including soil type and hydrology. Other key considerations include access to transportation corridors, compatibility with adjacent land uses and potential visual impacts.

Today's landfill is not just a place to put your trash — it is a complex system with many complementary design features that are protective of health and the environment. These features typically include:

composite liners, which are compacted clay bases covered with plastic liners that are designed to be versatile, resistant to light, and impervious to chemicals and other liquids;

leachate collection systems, which are installed on top of the liner to capture liquid that collects after rain and liquids in the trash itself; and

landfill gas collection systems, which allow the gas produced during decomposition to be collected, cleaned and used in many beneficial ways, such as power generation.

Finally, when sections of the landfill are ready to close, they are covered with a composite cap, which consists of layers of clay, plastic liner and vegetative material. All of these systems work together to protect the environment and public health.

Fit
Managing function and form are only the beginning. Making sure that a landfill will fit in with the community is the lynchpin of the siting process.

There are some who argue that the best place for a landfill is a remote location, one that is out of the sight and mind of the general public. Realistically, however, a landfill often is unable to avoid proximity to development, and communities frequently expand around existing landfills, transforming a once quiet and remote area into a fully developed community.

Because a landfill will have neighbors, it is critical to develop a relationship and cultivate trust with local residents and businesses. It is a cooperative effort that takes time, hard work and resources.

Landfill developers should involve the public early on in any siting process. Conduct polls, hold meetings and send letters to members of the community. Talk to neighbors and local officials, and address their questions. Have regular open houses at the site, which will give the public a chance to see the facility and operators a chance to explain how much design and effort goes into a landfill.

Furthermore, encourage the management staff to be active in the community and to know their neighbors. Identify project supporters and opponents, and establish a relationship with both. Not all area residents will be pleased with the project, but they are more likely to cooperate if they are provided accurate information.

Once you have established a successful relationship, it must be continuously monitored and protected. It can take many years to build a level of trust, and one misstep can ruin all of the hard work. If you stumble, work quickly to resolve the issue — it's another opportunity to further strengthen ties to the community.

Landfill development must be a two-way street. If the community does not believe that it will receive value from the project, it is more likely to oppose it. Value to the community comes in many forms, and is not necessarily limited to financial support through host fees or subsidized disposal.

Value also includes the jobs that the landfill brings to the community, both directly and indirectly through the businesses that the landfill supports. Likewise, businesses enrich the surrounding area when they participate in civic activities, such as youth sports, the arts and local festivals. A successful landfill siting strategy should include a plan for how to become an active member of the community.

A Model Public-Private Partnership
The Newton County Landfill in Morocco, Ind., is a perfect example of how a firm's investment in its community created economic and environmental benefits for the area. When Phoenix-based Republic (Allied Waste at the time) was looking for a regional landfill site in the state, the company discovered that Newton County owned an old, unlined site that was not up to Subtitle D standards.

In partnership with the county, Republic purchased the property and built a modern, lined landfill. Republic moved the material from the old landfill into the new facility, eliminating a potential environmental liability. Republic also signed a good neighbor agreement with the county, which provided host fees that funded new medical response equipment and an improved municipal center. A new business park adjacent to the site uses renewable energy provided by the landfill, and Republic also created a pheasant habitat in the buffer zone.

The company plans to roll out additional benefits such as a community recycling center, which will allow Newton County residents to drop off recyclables free of charge. The company saw this facility as both a benefit for the community and as a reflection of its commitment to extending its relationship with Indiana even further.

The Right Balance
The need for environmentally sound waste disposal capacity is evident. Fulfilling that need by balancing science, politics and the concerns of local citizens is a cooperative effort that at times will be emotional, controversial and challenging. But ignoring any one component of the process may result in delay or cancellation of the project.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave Call is vice president of landfill development for Phoenix-based Republic Services. Joe Benco is vice president of engineering and environmental management for the firm.

Related Stories
Like a Good Neighbor: Eliminate a landfill's negative stereotypes

1 Disoriented Little Brown Bat Spotted Flying Around Our House

2009-04-24T08:20:00.004-04:00

Every year, from fall til spring, we have had bats in our attic. We used to think this was a problem and had started on a "brain-storming" campaign on what was the best way to get them out of our attic but still have them hanging around. Bats are one of natures best bug controllers. Each little brown bat eats up to 3,000 bugs, misquitos and gnats per day. We had consulted with some bat experts who were instructing us on how to build bat houses into which we had hoped our attic-dwelling bats would migrate into, once we have evicted them from our house.

Due to the bat-die off that killed 98% of our areas little brown bats,....that project has been put on hold. It just may be that there will be no more little brown bats to house.

I saw a single one flying cover our house yesterday, flying eratically in broad daylight, probably in seach of food (they are only supposed to come out at night) and it was a particularly cold day with the temps hovering just above freezing. I believe that single bat was dying....like all the rest.

Goodbye little brown bats. We will miss you. I am sure it will be a hot, buggy summer for us here on the river without you. Hope you come back someday.

FRA: Railroading the Public (again)

2009-04-20T11:57:00.000-04:00

State, railroads butt heads over private crossings

By ALAN SAYRE AP Business Writer

Amid pushes to improve safety by closing railroad-highway intersections, the state and the railroads are butting heads over the shuttering of private crossings that farmers often depend upon to travel across their property.

Unlike urban crossings marked by warning lights and automatic gates, these crossings often are on remote stretches of rail lines that separate agricultural lands, typically marked by only a crossbeam sign. Others provide crossings from public highways to private land and across closed-in industrial sites.

Farmers have been complaining for years that the crossings often are closed without any notice and getting them reopened is a costly proposition with the railroad often wanting the landowner to assume responsibility — and the cost — for liability and maintenance.

Earlier this month, the Public Service Commission, acting on a 2008 law that gained 31 Senate sponsors, claimed authority to approve or veto private crossing closures in Louisiana — a move widely expected to be challenged in court by the railroads.

"They're trying to shirk their responsibility on liability. That's what this is all about," said Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell.

In Louisiana, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, there were 3,524 public crossings at the end of 2008 and 2,864 private crossings classified as at-grade, meaning the highway and the rail meet at the same level. Since 2000, 233 public crossings and 300 private crossings in the state have been closed, the FRA said.

The dispute comes as Louisiana remains one of the highest states for highway-rail collisions. The state ranked fifth in the nation in 2008 in wrecks and sixth in fatalities, according to Operation Lifesaver, a crossing safety advocacy group.

But FRA figures show that private crossings are responsible for only a small handful of the accidents that grab public attention.

In 2008, public crossings accounted for 99 of the 113 crossing accidents reported in Louisiana. All 15 deaths involved in the accidents occurred at public crossings, along with 40 of the 43 injuries, the FRA said.

Carmack Blackmon, general counsel for Louisiana Railroads, an industry lobbying group, said railroads are under a "directive" from the FRA to close 25 percent of the nation's rail crossings.

"This is about safety," Blackmon said. "The more crossings you have, the more collisions you have."

But FRA spokesman Warren Flatau said the 25 percent figure was issued by former agency head Gil Carmichael as "a challenge to the industry." Flatau said the figure is neither law nor regulation.

State and local governments deal with railroads on public crossings. Private crossings are a matter between a landowner and a railroad, Flatau said.

Jimmy Hoppe, a Jefferson Davis Parish farmer who lost three crossings on his farmland in late 2007, said members of the public who might be endangered by such crossings likely are trespassing.

Hoppe said he received no advance warning before the 68-year-old crossings were closed and dismantled. To farm rice on a 250-acre plot, he had to drive his equipment on U.S. Highway 165 and a quarter mile through someone else's property as a result of the closings. After about six months of negotiating, he got what he called a "temporary crossing," which is still there.

"Instead of improving public safety, they're actually creating danger by forcing farmers to take that heavy equipment out on public roads to get to these isolated fields," said Jim Simon, head of the American Sugar Cane League.

Blackmon said most of the private closures are aimed at removing unneeded multiple crossings over a small area. But some farmers say one closure is enough to cause them misery.

Keith Post's family farm in Madison Parish lost direct access to a portion of their land when a 30-year-old crossing was pulled up. He had never had a contract with the railroad. Now, he said he's been told to make an application for a new crossing — along with an $8,000 fee.

"When you got this 30 years ago, you met a man at the track, you agreed and you shook hands," he said.

Under the new law, railroads must make an application at least 180 days before the proposed closure of a private crossing. The PSC will conduct a public hearing before deciding whether to allow the closure.

But Blackmon said the railroad group is studying a possible lawsuit claiming a state constitutional violation dealing with private property. The disputes involve two private property owners — the owner of the land and the railroad that has right of way, he said.

"This belongs in the courts, not with the PSC," he said.

In another conflict with railroads, the Legislature last year implemented the Federal Railroad Safety State Participation Program, already adopted by 30 other states. Railroads pay fees for inspectors, for warning devices and track maintenance.

Acting on a suit filed by Louisiana Railroads, a state judge said in January that the law unconstitutionally allowed the PSC — rather than the Legislature — to set the fees. Campbell said the Legislature might be asked this year to include fees in a new bill.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=258844505&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090419-stolfiler-la0392

The Great Northeastern Bat Die-Off

2009-03-28T10:15:00.002-04:00

We used to have bats in our attic every year. Not a one have we seen in nearly two years!
Johnsonville, NY 3/28/09

As bats die, feds ask people to stay out of caves
Posted by: "Maureen Koplow" mkoplow@comcast.net share112943
Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:31 am (PDT)
Forwarded message - for info, please visit
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090327/UPDATES01/90327006

As bats die, feds ask people to stay out of caves

By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer
March 27, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Citing an "unprecedented" crisis of bats dying
off from West Virginia to New England, federal officials on Thursday
asked for people to stay out of thousands of caves in states struck
by "white-nose syndrome."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the request to guard against
the possibility that people are unwittingly spreading the mysterious
affliction when they explore multiple caves. There is no evidence that
white nose is a threat to people.

Named for the sugary smudges of fungus on the noses and wings of
hibernating bats, white-nose bats appear to run through their winter
fat stores before spring. It was confirmed in eight states this winter
from New Hampshire to West Virginia and there is evidence it may
have spread to Virginia, according to wildlife service spokeswoman
Diana Weaver.

Some death-count estimates run as high as 500,000 bats. Researchers
worry about a mass die-off of bats, which help control the populations
of insects that can damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

The advisory seeking a voluntary caving moratorium also would cover
states adjacent to affected states -- a swath of the nation stretching
from Maine down to North Carolina and west to Tennessee, Kentucky
and Ohio, Weaver said.

Recreational cavers, who have enthusiastically supported past white-
nose control efforts, seemed bewildered by the breadth of the request.
Peter Youngbaer, white nose syndrome liaison for the National
Speleological Society, said the advisory covers tens of thousands of
caves and would affect everything from organized caving events to
equipment sales.

"The ramifications are mind boggling, and I guess we're all just trying
figure out what to do," said Youngbaer, who is based in Vermont.

"I think to great extent it will be followed, but there will be a lot of
discussion and tweaking about it," he said.

Researchers suspect a fungus that thrives in cold, moist caves causes
white nose and that it is spread from bat to bat. But the syndrome
has spread more than 400 miles from the cluster of caves near Albany
where it was first observed two winters ago.

Researchers are concerned that humans could be helping the spread,
perhaps through jackets or boots worn in an infected cave. Weaver
noted that some of the affected caves are popular with cavers.

Federal officials also ask that cavers nationwide refrain from using
gear that has been used in states struck by white nose or the adjacent
states. Officials ask that everyone avoid caves and mines during the
winter hibernation season so bats will not be disturbed.

On the Net:
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white--nose.html.

Rensselaer Plateau Gets Overdue Respect

2009-03-20T10:37:00.001-04:00

Submitted by Dan Hendrick on Wed, 2009-03-18 18:02.

Since it was founded two years ago, the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance has been working on a plan to set aside protected corridors connecting the most environmentally important portions of the area.

Only small portions of the Rensselaer Plateau currently enjoy protections.These 105,000 acres of high country in eastern Renselaer County, bounded roughly by Route 7 to the north and Route 43 to the south, comprise the fifth largest intact forest left in New York State.

"The biggest natural treasure of the entire region is hiding in plain sight, Alliance founder James Bonesteel, a Stephentown software engineer, said in a recent interview with the Times Union. "We are only about 30 minutes by car from Albany, and development is slowly creeping out here."

Rensselaer Plateau encompasses Tibbets State Forest in Hoosick, Pittstown State Forest in Pittstown, Grafton Lakes State Park, Dyken Pond Center, the Capital District Wildlife Management Area and Cherry Plain State Park in Berlin. The headwaters of seven Hudson River tributaries originate in the Plateau, including those that fill the Tomhannock Reservoir, which supplies water Troy and several other county communities.

County and municipal officials support the idea. "We are seeing a significant increase in the larger developments coming to Nassau," said David Fleming, supervisor of the Rensselaer town. "We had building permits for 72 houses last year, and for us, that is a lot."

Bonesteel said the Alliance's goal is to provide a mosaic of protected land, working forest and good stewardship of privately owned land.

Dan Hendrick's blog | email this page | printer friendly version
NYLCV Blog | Filed Under: Land Use,Rensselaer, Capital District

http://www.nylcv.org/ecopoliticsdaily/20090318_rensselaer_plateau_gets_overdue_respect

Hi-Speed Rail for Johnsonville back on track again?

2009-02-20T10:35:00.003-05:00

There is talk now that the plans for a high-speed "bullet-train" are back on the agenda since the Economic Stimulus Plan sets aside so many billions for railroad expansion. However, since this rail would run through our quaint little hamlet and ajoins many private property boundaries, the train would be running LITERALLY through our back yards. We say NO to bullet-trains running through our yards.
-------------------------------

Stimulus Breathes New Life Into Buffalo-NYC High-Speed Rail

Submitted by Dan Hendrick on Thu, 2009-02-19 15:40.

The passing of the federal stimulus package, with its $8 billion earmarked for various transportation projects, has breathed new life into existing plans to build a new high-yield rail service in New York's Empire Corridor.

According to Sen. Charles Schumer, the proposed improvement of the route from New York City through Albany to Buffalo is a prime candidate to receive part of this funding. Schumer, along with other state and federal lawmakers, have expressed support for this project given the "aging and ailing" condition of the rail system in Western and Central New York.

With the present set-up, passenger trains must share tracks with freight trains, crossings and other structural details have caused delays (and would need to be upgraded to accommodate high speed service) and the need for a second track between New York City and Albany is growing.

The project has garnered support from U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, who supports an upgraded passenger rail system to help "take cars off the road, reducing congestion, pollution and saving fuel."

40 Yrs after clean-up, Rensselaer dump still polluting

2009-02-20T10:17:00.001-05:00

40 Years After Closure, Rensselaer Dump Still Polluting

Submitted by Dan Hendrick on Thu, 2009-02-19 15:22.

A toxic dump site in Rensselaer County is still wreaking havoc on the local environment, four decades after it was closed.

Valatie Kill is one of the bodies of water affected by the PCB contamination.Local officials in the town of Nassau said they are alarmed at the high level of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that are being found in fish near the Dewey Loeffel site, according to the Times Union. The fish were sampled in Nassau Lake and Valatie Kill.

Since 1979, the Department of Environmental Conservation has monitored the 16-acre dump site off Mead Road, which operated from 1952 to 1970. The state Superfund site contains twice the volume of industrial pollutants found at the Love Canal toxic waste site in Niagara Falls.

The Citizens' Environmental Coalition has long advocated for a more stringent cleanup, but state officials say there are too many such sites around New York and not enough money to clean them and dispose of the contaminants.

Dan Hendrick's blog

http://www.nylcv.org/ecopoliticsdaily/20090219_40_years_after_closure_rensselaer_dump_still_polluting

DEC Confused about Our Comments?

2008-12-29T17:13:00.001-05:00

Christine - I was reading through your report today, and noticed a collection of articles related to California mining industries, regulations, etc., and a history and mission for the PJHRP. But I did not see any comments or concerns relative to this operation, and the regs and NY specific situation and standards, or site-specific concerns that you had that you were requesting responses on. I understand that California has ozone and air quality related problems, however, Pittstown is not on the same air quality level as California (thankfully), so I am not understanding the correlation. Did you have site-specific comments and concerns for this proposal? could you send them to me? sorry.......

----- Original Message -----
From: "QARR"
To: "Nancy Baker"
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 5:23 PM
Subject: Re: Comments / Pittstown Mining

> Nancy, I am particularly concerned about interference with our forever
> scenic green & blueway and the disruption the trucks will bring to the
> quiet enjoyment of the river and the surrounding wildlife, as well as the
> pollution the trucks and "particulate matter" from mining
> operations, -pollution of the sort that is not unique to any one
> geographical area but is common to all sand & gravel mining operations.
> Bottom line is that Mining has no place in or near residential communities,
> particularly ones like ours that are striving to preserve our rural heritage
> in harmony with nature. Despite with Mr Reeves says, the mining operations
> are LESS THAN A HALF-A -MILE from our Riverside community.
> Thanks
> CJ
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nancy Baker"
> To: "QARR"
> Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 3:09 PM
> Subject: Re: Comments / Pittstown Mining
>
>
>

Comments in Opposition to J'Ville Mining in On Time

2008-12-29T14:18:00.001-05:00

Subject: Comments / Pittstown Mining

Nancy,

Please find a link below to my commets. I hope I have submitted on time. I rushed like hell but I think I got my point across.

http://www.freewebs.com/erthma/no2mininginjville.htm

Can you confirm receipt of this for me when you get it?
Thanks!

Chris Jubic, Founder,
The Pittstown / Johnsonville Hoosic River Project
--------------------------------
From "Nancy Baker"
To:
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: Comments / Pittstown Mining

I did receive your comments, Christine. Thank you. I will keep you posted - happy new year.

Click on title above to read comments.

Pittstown Minutes; May 12, 2008

2008-12-18T20:25:00.000-05:00

Click on title for full transcript;

http://pittstown.us/PDFforms/Town%20Minutes/TB_minutes_May%2015%202008.pdf

Pittstown Problems or Why they call it "The Pitts"

2008-12-18T13:26:00.002-05:00

I have always heard it but never realized how true is was until we moved here seven years ago. Pittstown, NY is definately the junk-yard capital of upstate New York. In 1999, my husband and I had qualified for a FHA Homeowners loan and we eagerly set out to do some house-hunting for our first home. We were only qualifed for $57,000 so really didnt have too terribibly much of a choice of which homes to look at. Most of the houses we liked were way out of our range and we searched for months and months but couldnt find anything within our budget. Until one day I received a flyer in the mail about a real estate auction that would be taking place in a couple of weeks and had some nice looking reasonably priced properties advertized there. There was one in particular that we liked as it located in the country, was within our price range and we were anxious to move from the city. We made an appoint for a pre-auction walk through and when we pulled up to the house to park we were appalled to see the condition of the house right NEXT door to us, less than 20 feet away and sharing a property line. Although the "house" was occupied, , ....for all intents and purposes, judging by the delapitated run down appearance of the building iteslf, it looked like it should be immediately condemmed. The 2 acre lot on the side of the house was a total an complete "back-yard" junk yard, with EVERY MANNER of debris to be found there; old cars, boats, pallets, school buses, hundreds of tires,and litter and debris of all kinds all over the place. I knew in a heart beat the place was not for us, eventhough it was about to go on the auction block for cheap. Now we knew why. Well, since we were already there and the sale property was pretty nice looking from the outside, despite the deplorable conditions next door, we decided to have our walk around so as not to waste the realitors time. So we went in. Much to our suprise the house was really nice, had been modernized in recent years with a big room country kitchen, den, living room w/ fireplace, a full bath and laundery room down, and three bedrooms and a full bath up. All in all, for the money, it was a very nice house, and if it werent for the ramshackle house nextdoor almost ontop of us, and the two acres junk yard to go with it, we would have bought it on the spot if it were possible. It must have been the realitors first showing of that property as she looked in a bit of a state of shock also at the deplorable conditions next door. We let her know that we would have been interested in the house if it wernt for the "problem" next door. She offered that she would call the town supervisor, at that time a Mr.Salisbury, to see what the story was on all the obvious CODE VIOLATIONS regarding the adjoining property. Well, it was only a few days after that that the realitor called us back with some "good news." Mr. Salisbury had informed her that the property was currently under citation for the State Department of Environmental Servies (EnCon) and was under ORDERS to clean up the property. Through our real-eatate broker, we were assured by the town that the property was "in the process" of being cleaned up. Of course, wanting to be sure, we did call EnCon to inquire and they said "yes," indeed it was true. They were overseeing a clean up of the property, (EnCon Case #__________) . With this piece of "good news," we went ahead and bid on and "won" the property at 118 River rd. In January 2000, we moved in, and come the warmer weather of March and April, we watched "gleefully" as the clean-up next door began. Several junk cars and dozens of old tires were removed, as well as a stack of auto-batteries and some other miscellanous debree. The "clean up" "looked" as if it was going well, with bon-fires buring every day for weeks while scrap lumber and other stuff was burned off. Then around the end of April, we noticed not a slow down but a sudden cessation of all activites. Days went by and still no sign of any further clean up efforts. Curious, I called the EnCon Officer in charge of the clean up to inquire as to why the cessation of clean-up activites, and you can imagine my suprise when she told me that EnCons mandated cleanup of that property was through! Through, I thought! Yes they did take some stuff out but it still looked as bad as ever, to say nothing of the falling down house rife with serious code violations but wasent touched! For all the junk they did take out, there was 10 times that still laying all over the place. For all intents and purposes, it looked exaclty the same as before the clean up. If you didnt know there was a clean up, you would never know. The place looks as bad as ever. When I questioned EnCon as to why they would close the case before the clean up was compete., the EnCon officer asvised me that it was just a "minimal" clean up, explaining to us that EnCon didnt have any enforcement powers over junkyards, advising me that the completion of the clean up would be up to "the town" to pursure. So started our never ending battle with the town of Pittstown to get the property next door cleaned up. We went to town meetings, we wrote letters, in 2002-3, we even had the State Department of Code Enforcement open a case on this property and ORDERED the town IN WRITING to do a clean up IMMEDIATELY. However, and I was amazzed at the gall of the town,...the town just plain out ignored the State Department order "just like it never came down." When I called to question Mr. Scott, the Enforcment officer at the State Department as to why he would let the town get away with ignoring his order, he informed me that he had spoken to the town supervisor over the phone and that the town supervisor had "promiced" him he would "get busy" with the clean up. Based on the town supervisors promice to perform, the State Department "closed the case" on this property! We think a lttle premature? Imagine our dismay when several months later there was still no futher clean up on that property by the town or anyone else.....sooooo, back to the town meetings every month we went, getting accused of making a nusiance of ourselves over the nuisance property next door. "Trouble-makers" we were called, and no help from the town, the county or the state was had. Back to to the letter writing campaign, the State Dept again, the Attorney Genrerals Office, and all who else I could think of that might be able to help us get the deplorable property right next door to us cleaned up. All to no avail. During the course of our battles for a clean up, I did a FOIL request to the town for copies of "any and all" complaints that had been filed againts this property for the last 20 years. Incredibly, we received in reply a stack of complaints going back to the late 1980's!
*Any good lawyers out there looking for an easy win case against the town, the county and the state for failure to do their jobs? Contact me at: CJubic@nycap.rr.com

Fast forward to 2004. A fire. Thank God that no one was hurt but the offensive building went down to the ground "in a flash." Fast forward to 2008, and you will have to click on the title above to see what that 2 acre lot next door to us looks like today;

bear in mind as you look at the pics, this property has a documented history of complaints going back to the mid-80s, and I personally have been complaining about over the last EIGHT YEARS to anyone even remotely liable for enforcement of property maintenance codes and its clean up,...starting from the town on up to county, state and even attorney general offices. Apparently nobody gives a dam but me. Nobody wants to do their job, they are all passing the buck one to eachother but I say the buck stops here,...with the birth of Johnsonville Residents Who Really Care Campaign! We think that "Real" Smart growth begins with a dedication to natural & rural preservation FIRST and FOREMOST above ALL ELSE. That is the foundation of "Real Smart" Growth & Planning - We need more that "Smart Growth," we need "REal Smart" Growth for we are in critical times and living in a critical environmental area. Wake up ans smell the coffee Pittstown, before your rural heritage disappears as will your farm lands and open and natural spaces if you dont start appreciating them NOW!

Pittstown Minutes; July 2008

2008-12-18T07:47:00.001-05:00

Click on title above for transcript

Petition Against Mining in J'Ville

2008-12-18T06:17:00.003-05:00

You dont have to be a J'Ville resident to be for "Smart Growth," so all are invited to sign to have your say about putting mining operations so close to a rural riverside community (well within one mile) where we have created a secenic way along the river with a public boat launch and plans for a nature preserve....

SOS for J'Ville: NO to Mining Operations

2008-12-18T05:52:00.007-05:00

Comments due to DEC by December 26 (we got a one week extention)
Click on title to read more about Pittstowns proposed plans to continue and expand the sand & gravel mining operations not ONE MILE from our quiet & quaint little rural riverside community where we have created a "forever scenic green & blueway" along the banks of the beautiful Hoosic River, and with plans for a wildlife sanctuary! How well would that go with the noisy air-polluting trucks? NOT. Not to mention the effect of removing the soil, sand and gravel from the mountain behind us will have on our ground and well-water. Can you belive DECs accessment that no environmental impact studies are necessary? Geez. What waz dey smokin?
Just say NO to mining in J'Ville for all of the tiny little hamlet is a CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL AREA. Think it aint so. Come on down anytime I would be glad to show you around.