Copake Chronicle - What is the Proper Action for Copake to Take?

Last night there was a town board meeting to discuss our ongoing budgetary short fall. We hired a new accountant who is professional, experienced, and articulate in matters of municipal budgets and who also seems very able to advise us in handling the current situation. We also officially relieved our old accountant from his duties and services to Copake.

The new accountant did not have final figures, but it appeared we are $186,000 short for this year's budget due to the economy and reduced traditional revenues streams. We will most likely need to borrow money from a bank to tide us over. This type of loan is called a tax anticipation note. It means that we will pay back the loan with next year's taxes. The question is how much to borrow and when to borrow it and, perhaps most importantly, where to make cuts in the current fiscal year's budget to minimize as much as possible the amount of money we will need to borrow.

Under discussion was the borrowing of $200,000. That would mean the need to raise taxes next year not only to cover that loan but also the amount of money we are short this year. The very least that we would need to raise in order to pay for the full borrowing plan would be $400,000. And in that number there is no room for error or unexpected events. There is no cushion. I am against that plan and would prefer another more aggressive and active approach.

There was an alternative plan presented last night that is aggressive but that could save the town $128,000 this year and possibly $230,000 or more next year. This plan includes eliminating as many duplicated services and part-time positions as possible including our police force. It was agreed last night to limit the police force to four shifts a week from the current eight.

The aggressive plan will mean that town employees will have to work harder and the town's people might have to wait a little longer to receive their services. But if we follow through with this plan the amount that we would need to borrow would be greatly reduced and the tax increase would be lessened accordingly.

Both papers that cover our town were at the meeting last night and will, no doubt, cover the meeting in more detail.

It is my opinion that the town board must display aggressive, quick and thoughtful leadership in this financial time of need. We cannot wait for the 2010 budget to make decisions. Whatever budgetary cuts we are forced to make at that time must be made now.

What is your opinion? There is another budget meeting next Wednesday August 5th at 5PM at Town Hall. Please try to attend, or write to the Town Board and let us know your thoughts. You can also write a letter to the editor at the Chronicle.

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Copake Chronicle Letters click here

Just a little info on the Dinehart family

Post Card of Edgewood

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As of this issue, we have 684 subscribers to the Copake Chronicle. If you you know anyone who might be interested in getting on the list or if you have any comments, ideas or observations, please send me a note.

Bob Sacks

[email protected]

www.copakechronicle.com

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Copake Quotation Corner

Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven't.
Peter Drucker

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Eminent Domain

Proceedings in Copake

Chronicle Editors Note. This is the second half of an article from the Register Star.I am printing below only the portion of the article that relates to Copake. You can read the whole article as it appeared by clicking here

By Francesca Olsen
http://www.registerstar.com
Example of A Norway Spruce Norway Spruce tree

No notice of the committee meetings held on June 22 was made available in the Register-Star or via public notice; the Board of Supervisors' calendar, which is available online at the Columbia County web site, did not state a meeting would take place, only a tour.

In an e-mail to the Register-Star, Susan Winchell-Sweeney, a Copake resident who is a holdout property owner on eminent domain proceedings begun in January regarding a rehabilitation project for County Route 7 and 7A in Copake, said that the committee "conducted business regarding eminent domain and the county highway rehabilitation project in Copake," on July 22. Winchell-Sweeney has been present at several meetings of the Public Works committee and is following the eminent domain proceedings closely, as her property is one slated for the proceedings.

The project would involve removing 20 Norway spruce trees from Winchell-Sweeney's property at the intersection of County Route 7A and Mountain View Road. The Route 7/7A project entails reconstructing Route 7 from Route 23 in Craryville south to the intersection with Route 7A, and Route 7A from the intersection south to the hamlet of Copake. The trees present a sight obstruction when pulling out of Winchell-Sweeney's driveway.

Winchell-Sweeney told the Register-Star in January that the county offered her $350 for the land and $15,000 for indirect damages to the property.

During the meeting, Dias proposed a resolution to come to some kind of solution about the property and the sight issues. "We didn't say we were going to do eminent domain," he said. "I just said, 'let's go forward and try to get this issue resolved.'"

"We're trying to come to some kind of a resolution," Rutkey said about Winchell-Sweeney's property. "Basically, our attorney tells us that once we identify an area that is determined to be unsafe in some sort, that we really have a liability issue if we don't take care of it."

Article Seven of New York State Public Officer's Law sets the law on open meetings. According to the law, "public notice of the time and place of a meeting scheduled at least once a week prior thereto shall be given to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at least 72 hours before such meeting."

Robert Freeman at the New York State Committee on Open Government said that "Every time a quorum of a public meeting meets together with the purpose of conducting business, notice must be given in accordance with Open Meeting Law."

The law also states that "Any aggrieved person shall have standing to enforce the provisions of this article against a public body," and that "an unintentional failure to fully comply with the notice provisions required by this article shall not alone be grounds for invalidating any action taken at a meeting of a public body."

Click here for the full article

Amenia eyes funds for sewer

Amenia eyes funds for sewer
By CORY ALLYN - Staff Reporter
http://www.tcextra.com/news/

AMENIA - Two representatives from the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority (DCWWA) gave a presentation at the beginning of the July 16 Town Board meeting on the progress toward a sewer district in the hamlet of Amenia and the steps needed to move forward with that project.

Project Facilitator Ed Mills explained that the authority has been working with Amenia's Wastewater Committee over the past decade in a variety of ways, often providing advice and assistance with funding.

Recently, Morris Associates Engineering Consultants, PLLC, drafted a map plan and report for the Wastewater Committee. That document explains the recommended sewer district chosen by the committee, as well as the cost per household that would be affordable enough for the town to pursue.

Two hundred forty-four properties are outlined in the sewer district, with an estimated population of 825 people. Mills explained that the initial customer base for the district is expected to be about 220 properties, and at full use the sewer could handle around 181,000 gallons a day.

Almost all of the sewage flow would travel by gravity to a primary sewage pump on Church Street, which would convey the waste to the wastewater treatment plant on Silo Ridge's property. There may be the need for a secondary pump on Mechanic Street to collect waste in that area.

As stated in a Memorandum of Understanding with the Silo Ridge Resort Community, Silo Ridge would provide additional space in its wastewater treatment plant for the town to use, in lieu of building affordable housing. The space allocated would be available at no additional cost to the town, except the cost to build a conveyance system connecting to the plant. That memorandum has yet to be finalized.

The DCWWA is playing a significant role in the town's push for a sewer system, which many are hoping will pave the way for affordable housing in town. The proposed system is designated a "Part County Sewer District" because the Wastewater Committee and town have decided to make the water authority lead agency as the project moves forward, meaning that by extension the county would own the sewer conveyance facilities built in the town.

The county is in a better position to advance funding opportunities, Wastewater Committee Chairman Darlene Riemer explained. DCWWA Executive Director Bridget Barclay agreed.

"This is a complicated and expensive project," she said, "and an area where the authority has significant expertise."

The tricky part, a problem the Wastewater Committee has been trying to solve for many years, has always been the cost to the town to build a system, and additionally the cost on households within the sewer district to connect. With Silo Ridge building the wastewater treatment plant, the costly expense of the plant itself is covered. But as the map plan and report explains, the estimated construction costs to build a conveyance system totals approximately $10.4 million. In the first year of operation, the total cost for a single-family household would be $1,239 annually, or a little over $100 per month.

But that number is too high, according to the Wastewater Committee. The committee has set the maximum total cost per household at around $720 per year, or $60 per month. One of the stipulations of the agreement with DCWWA is that the town is only interested in moving forward with the project if that number can be reached.

"It's a challenging but possible goal," said Mills. "But it's only attainable through sufficient outside funding."

For the Complete Story Click Here

Brightening their night

at Yankee Stadium

for Craryville Kids

Brightening their night at Yankee Stadium for Craryville Kids
BY BARBARA BARKER
www.newsday.com

stars

It was 2 in the morning, and a soft, warm rain fell on the outfield of Yankee Stadium. The wet weather lent an almost surreal sheen to the after-hours on-the-field carnival that started late Thursday night after the Yankees' win over Oakland.

While most of the Bronx slept, the kids of Camp Sundown played in the rain until 4 a.m. with select Yankees players. Some took batting practice thrown by A.J. Burnett. Others watched a magician perform card tricks with Jose Molina. One camper, Meghan Fruchter of East Meadow, posed with Jorge Posada as her mother took pictures with her phone.

"It's a magic night,'' camp director Caren Mahar said. "These are kids who rarely get to play ball with anyone because there's no one to play with in the middle of the night. Now, here they are playing catch with the Yankees.''

Camp Sundown, located in Craryville, N.Y., is all about the night - because it is deadly for most of its campers to be outside during the day.

Mahar and her husband founded the camp for people with xeroderma pigmentosum - or XP, as the campers refer to it - after their daughter Katie was diagnosed with the genetic disease 14 years ago. On Thursday night, they drove a dozen campers and their families three hours to the Stadium for the game and postgame carnival thrown just for them by the Yankees.

XP is a rare and incurable disease. Those who have it are unable to repair the damage caused by ultraviolet light, meaning that even the briefest exposure to sunlight and some artificial lights can result in a deadly cancer or melanoma.
For the Complete Article Click here

Congressman Murphy seeks
balance in job
growth and fiscal responsibility

By Jamie Larson
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

Scott

HUDSON - Congressman Scott Murphy, D-NY 20th District, spoke with the Register-Star Thursday about his plans to promote fiscal responsibility in national and local government. Murphy also discussed the creation of jobs in Columbia and Greene counties and what he has done to address the milk price crisis impacting local dairy farmers.

In the House of Representatives Murphy recently co-sponsored, and voted to pass, the Statutory Pay-as-You-Go Act. PAYGO, as it is called, requires Congress to offset the costs of tax cuts or increases in entitlement spending with savings elsewhere in the budget. If the net effect of all legislation enacted during a session of Congress increased the deficit, there would be an across-the-board reduction in certain mandatory programs. Murphy says in the future government needs to take a cue from working families and "pay as they go" instead of creating budgets that send the nation further into debt.

Though the implementation of the federal stimulus package has raised the national debt to an all-time high, Murphy said that it was vital to create jobs and inevitably lift the country out of recession. Murphy says the stimulus funding of the waste treatment plant construction projects in Hudson and Greenport will create local jobs immediately and funding for faster broadband Internet infrastructure will help to grow small business in the future.

"We won't necessarily bring back jobs that went away," Murphy said, acknowledging the recent loss of manufacturing jobs in Columbia County, and the current 8.9 percent unemployment rate in Greene County, above the national average. "The Internet is a key part of how businesses get built. Its those underlying investments that facilitate small business."

Murphy said that if the counties can't count on large industry coming back to the area then an environment needs to be cultivated where small businesses can be started and grow into larger ones.

The congressman said small government has a better understanding of how to be fiscally responsible than the federal government does. He says the implementation of PAYGO will force Congress to think more seriously about the purse strings they hold. "All municipalities and counties, all of those levels of government have to balance their budgets," Murphy said, "Some of them have rainy day funds, but they are balancing their budgets. Here in Washington we're taking the first step in that direction. We don't have a balanced budget this year, and that's okay, but PAYGO is going to push us in that direction. As we look at new spending we're going to look for some kind of offset, to find some program that's not as effective that we can get rid of."

Small towns throughout Greene and Columbia are struggling with their budgets this year, however. Estimated revenue from sources like sales tax are coming in under municipality projections. Towns and villages throughout the area are dipping into their general funds for reserves, and others, like Copake, are trying to find ways out of a potential budget deficit at the end of the year. Murphy says municipalities need to make tough decisions about where they can cut costs.

"Some of the stuff I think we need to look at in terms of upstate New York, to take the cost out of the system over all, is to take a look at consolidation of services." Murphy said Thursday, "I think it makes sense for our local communities to be talking to each other and saying hey, 'can we share this service or that,' whatever it might be."

"Some of the villages in my district have gone in and shared a chief of police." he continued, "You could talk about sharing fire services, obviously you have to look at the particular situation, we want to make sure we can provide the service. But if there's a way to do it in a consolidated way, that could be a way to save money. I think being thoughtful about this stuff makes a lot of sense. Its the same thing that families do when they carpool to save money on gas. Our government needs to get thinking about how to get by on less. There's not a magic bullet. Its a matter of making hard decisions and finding ways to cut costs."

For the Complete Article Click Here

HEALTH MATTERS
Sciatica

HEALTH MATTERS
by Roberta Roll

Sciatica

One of the most common complaints I hear as a bodywork practitioner is about "sciatica." This generally refers to pain and sometimes a burning sensation in the buttock area and often down the leg and even into the foot. Sciatica is a general term connoting irritation of the sciatic nerve which travels from the lumbar spine (lower back) down the leg and branches into the foot. Nerve irritation can be caused by tight lower back or gluteal (buttock) muscles and/or a misalignment of the spine, or a narrowing of the spinal canal (from conditions such as spinal stenosis), which cause the nerve to be compressed. Emotional or mental stress can seriously aggravate this pattern. Medications may or may not relieve the pain, but do not solve the problem. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to alleviate this condition in most cases.
1. You can start by lying on your back on the floor and resting your lower legs up on a chair seat. Take some deep, slow breaths and let your legs, pelvis, ribcage, shoulders and head release into the floor. Stay here for about five minutes. (If it becomes uncomfortable, try lying on a blanket or letting your legs rest on the floor with a large pillow under your knees). This will start to relax the back and hip muscles and realign the pelvis.
2. Remember to pick up heavy, and even not-so-heavy objects by bending your knees and keeping your back relatively straight. This is true for household vacuuming as well.
This is only a start; there are several other very effective stretches and alignment exercises that must be tailored to each individual to get the best results. As that nagging pain disappears, you will find it easier to go about your everyday activities. Sciatica can be successfully cured fairly quickly in the majority of cases.

For more information, please contact Roberta Roll, registered movement therapist and yoga teacher, at Health in Motion at 518-329-0384 or email at [email protected].

The information in this articles is not meant to substitute for a medical doctor's care

Quinby's Old Post Card Corner

Titled -

Taconic Shores Development near Copake

Chronicle Editors note: I have been traveling out of town all week and did not have much time to devote to this section of the Chronicle. So I have picked an aerial photo post card of Taconic Shores taken somewhere around 1959 or so. There are very few homes, there is no Copake Park, and no Town Hall building. Sadly there also was no message written on the card.

This shot inspired me to find some other aerial shots of our town. It is always fun to see things we know very well from a different perspective.

Taconic Shores circa late 1950s

Downtown Copake

Downtown Copake Falls

Browns Damn

New York Times 1937

Copake Lake

Fireworks & Raffle

Friends of Taconic State Park Potluck Supper
July 30th at 6:30 PM

Friends of Taconic State Park Hosts Inaugural Annual Meeting and
Potluck Supper - All Park Friends Invited

Copake Falls, NY - The Board of Directors of the newly formed Friends of Taconic State Park will host its Inaugural Annual Meeting and Supper on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. The event will take place at the Copake Iron Works area of the Park, just off Valley View Road in Copake Falls. Anyone who considers him/herself a friend of the Park is welcome to attend.

Hamburgers, hotdogs and beverages will be served. Attendees are requested to bring a salad, side dish or dessert of their choosing. A short presentation about Friends of Taconic State Park and the Copake Iron Works Historic District will follow dinner.

Friends of Taconic State Park was established in the fall of 2008 when several neighbors and friends of the Park began meeting to discuss how they could help to promote recreational, historical, educational and cultural activities within the park. There are currently about thirty dues paid members of Friends of Taconic State Park.

The designation in 2007 of the Copake Falls Iron Works Historic District by the National and State Registers of Historic Places was one of the key motivating factors in the establishment of the Friends group. An historic marker identifying the Historic District will be unveiled during the Inaugural Annual Meeting. The purchase of the marker was made possible in part by a generous grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the Roeliff-Jansen Historical Society and from contributions from the membership.

Long-range plans for the Friends group include building a protective enclosure over the blast furnace, an artifact that is the heart of the old Copake Iron Works in the park.

Anyone interested in attending the Inaugural Annual Meeting and Supper is asked to RSVP to [email protected] or 518-329-2734.
We hope you'll join us!
Board of Directors:
Dick Barton Robin Bruce Deb Cohen
Jane Peck Phil Race Leslie Wood Milbrey Zelley

Friends of Taconic State Park, PO Box 82, Copake Falls, New York12517
[email protected] | coming soon: www.FriendsofTSP.org

Copake Quotation Corner

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
Bill Vaughan

New Book by Copake Author
Rebels of the North

There are some things in history we take for granted, such as Marie Antoinette and her "let them eat cake," Columbus being the first European to discover North America, and the Civil War erupting due to violent disagreement over slavery. However, these things that we take for granted aren't always what happened-a French reporter, not Marie Antoinette, said that famous line; Vikings discovered North America nearly 500 years prior to Columbus; and the Civil War started because of...land disputes?

I remember my first trip to Copake Falls in our old yellow truck. Dad sent Homer, one of our men, to pick up some supplies for our farm. I was old enough to ride along. Copake Falls was a bristling with energy. One of the four express trains from New York had just unloaded. All three stores were busy Some of the families of Mount Washington came down the steep rugged mountain roads that twisted its' way past Bash Bish Falls were there to pick up their mail and shop. Homer pointed out the old Taconic Inn where Babe Ruth would stop to have a drink or two when he came up to go hunting on the mountain. There was a ball field next door where people from the surrounding communities would gather and watch young men play base ball on Saturday night. True, the iron works had shut down by then, but if you go back to Colonial times Copake Falls, New York and Mount Washington Mass. were on the knifes edge of change. It all depended on who owned the land. Was it New York, or was it Massachusetts? For the people that settled there it was a very important question.

Click here to find out more information on this book

A Murder Mystery

Dinner Theater

"Some Show"

The Two Of Us Productions presents a Murder Mystery dinner theater evening at Lippera's Restaurant in Chatham, Sunday evening August 9th. It is "Some Show (about a murder)", a hilarious play that takes place during a talk show
Please join us at Lippera's for another enjoyable evening of theater, fun and food.

Reservations are through Lippera's by phone or at their web site.

What: Murder Mystery dinner theater, featuring "Some Show (about a murder)", by Lee Mueller

When: Sunday August 9th, arrive before 7:00pm

Where: Lippera's Restaurant, 29 Hudson Avenue, Chatham, NY 12037.

Who: The Two of Us Productions as RARE Inc. and Lippera's Restaurant

Cost: $35/$40 per person, depending on menu choice, including tax and tip, drinks excluded.

www:theChathamHouse.com
www.TheTwoOfUsProductions.org

Reservations: (518) 392-6600
Information: (518) 329-6293

Details: Have a full dinner at one of Columbia Counties' finest restaurants. Enjoy a production of the murder mystery, "Some Show (about a murder)", presented by The Two of Us Productions. You will enjoy solving the mystery!

RARE Inc. (the Roving Actors Repertory Ensemble) is a 510 (c) 3 organization.

Taste Of Columbia County Bounty Dinner

Click here for all the details

Copake Quotation Corner

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)

St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Community

St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Community
8074 State Route 22,Copake Falls, N.Y. 12517
Office & Rectory (518) 329-4711 - (518) 329-4240 E mail: [email protected]

"Land, Song, and Being" An evening of sacred song and story.. Wednesday August 12th 2009 at 7 p.m. here at St. Bridget's Church.. With Fionn Tulach of Scotland. To learn more about the concert call Melinda Gardiner at 325-5546.

Ecumenical Vacation Bible School for Kids coming this summer. Set aside the dates of August 17th thru 21st. This year we will follow St. Paul on his journey through Rome!

St. Bridget's Annual Trash and Treasure is Saturday, August 22nd and Sunday, August 23rd. We are now beginning to collect sellable items. If you have donations please contact Rose @ 329-0085 on Mondays or Tuesdays only!

Mt. Washington, MA
Church of Christ Fair

Mt Washington Church

BBQ at the Park

FILM -

"River Webs"

at the Roeliff Jansen Park in Hillsdale

Kinderhook Watershed Alliance & Farmscape Ecology
Sponsors Free Film Showing at Roeliff Jansen Park in Hillsdale

Philmont, New York - July 20, 2009 - The documentary film "River Webs" will be presented on Thursday, August 20th at 7:00 p.m. at the Roeliff Jansen Park in Hillsdale66. The 57-minute film is being offered for viewing by the general public free of charge by Hudson Basin River Watch, Inc. (HBRW) and Fran Martino, coordinator of the Kinderhook Watershed Alliance in partnership with the Farmscape Ecology Program, a research and outreach branch of the Hawthorne Valley Association that is coordinated by Conrad Vispo and Claudia Knab-Vispo.

The film was produced by Freshwaters Illustrated, and chronicles the inspiring life and work of the pioneering Japanese ecologist, Dr. Shigeru Nakano. From his boyhood exploration of Japan's mountain streams to his leadership of an international effort to understand river ecosystems, Nakano's life demonstrates the unquenchable curiosity and bold creativity that drives scientific discovery.

After the film, Ms. Martino will share results of stream assessments conducted at locations in the Kinderhook Watershed area. "Volunteers have monitored the Kinderhook Creek at its confluence with the Valatiekill at Patchaquack Preserve in Valatie, and the Claverack Creek near the former Atlantic Mills No. 4 in Stottville," commented Ms. Martino.

"The results of these studies give us good baseline information
to track trends that help us identify potential impacts to water quality," she continued. "Hudson Basin River Watch would like to help community residents learn how to monitor the physical, chemical and biological components of local streams and offer training on how to do so," she concluded.

Hudson Basin River Watch, Inc. (HBRW) works to improve the water quality of the Hudson River and all its tributaries through education, community involvement, and stewardship. HBRW provides hands-on science education programs to schools and stream monitoring workshops to environmental organizations, individuals, and agencies. Funding for Kinderhook Watershed protection efforts is made possible by means of a grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation through the Hudson River Estuary

Program.

Dr. Vispo of the Farmscape Ecology Program will also share information about surveys being done along stream corridors to study a variety of organisms in order to better understand the value of these streamside forests for conservation, and the interaction of the biodiversity and physical diversity found within them. "These sometime seem like messy, uninviting places," said Dr. Vispo, "but they are actually beautiful forests that harbor some unique plants and animals." The Farmscape Ecology Program focuses on understanding the interaction of agriculture and other land uses with the ecology of the landscape in Columbia county.

For more information, see
www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org/fep.

The film will be shown at the Education and Recreation Barn at the Roeliff Jansen Park located on Route 22 in Hillsdale one-half mile south of the traffic light at the intersection of Route 23 and Route 22. Seating is limited, so early reservations are suggested and can be made by calling Fran Martino at (518) 828-1330, or e-mail [email protected].

Forward to a friend

I hope you found this newsletter fun and useful.

If you did like it, I ask you to please forward it to your friends and neighbors. It is my hope that this newsletter will help us all be better informed about our great town.

If you would like to write an article or a letter-to-the-editor, send your emails to:

Bob Sacks
Copake Chronicle

[email protected] www.copakechronicle.com