Town of Shandaken Tentative Budget Comparison: 2014 v. 2013

Click to link to Shandaken budget document

Autumn begins in New York

Stony Creek

Labor Day weekend

Monday morning, 1 September 2013

CPOA end-of-season BBQ

After the rains:

DEP announces $9 million in new streams and creeks improvement projects

NEW YORK – The New York City Department of Environmental Protection announced several stream improvement projects:

• West Kill at County Route 6 – Lexington, Greene County: $2.4 million for channel relocation and grading; stream bank armoring; road reconstruction; and modifications to the storm drainage system along County Road 6 to address a segment of eroding bank.
• West Kill at State Route 42 – Lexington, Greene County: $1.7 million for bank stabilization; widening the overly narrow floodplain; vegetating areas of failed slope and other measures to prevent future erosion of the stream channel’s right bank.
• Stony Clove Creek at Chichester – Shandaken, Ulster County: $1.25 million to stop stream bank failure and reduce turbidity by stabilizing the stream channel.
• Stony Clove Creek at Warner Creek Confluence – Shandaken, Ulster County: $1.5 million to stop stream bank failures and stream bank erosion.
• Vly Creek at Fleischmanns – Middletown, Delaware County: $1.3 million to stabilize eroded streambanks and damaged retaining walls.
• Dry Brook at Arkville Trailer Park – Middletown, Delaware County: $400,000 to stabilize areas of erosion, and the stream bank and flood plain will be reconstructed to their approximate pre-flood locations.
• Warner Creek – Shandaken, Ulster County: $500,000 to stabilize an eroded hillside and stream bank that has exposed clay, as well as stabilize an actively eroding bank that is threatening Silver Hollow Road.

[emphasis added]

Progressive dinner 2013

As has become traditional, at the end of this year's CPOA Progressive Dinner, we gathered in the Lerner home for coffee and dessert and conversation. Here are a few pictures:

Below, a few historical pictures:

Packing the car to drive to Chichester:

Aron Felberg, Amy Lerner's paternal grandfather:

 Ellen Felberg, aged 18:

Aron Felberg's diploma from CCNY, dated 1900:

Phoenicia Voice Festival 2013

Rigoletto, by Verdi

Phoenicia Park:

coming into Boiceville

Always a welcome sight

Semi-chic

A sidebar column in the July 29, 2013 issue of The New Yorker,  begins:

If there’s any evidence (besides rising real-estate prices, of course) for the Hudson Valley’s new semi-chic status, it’s Bard SummerScape, the annual performing-arts cavalcade that Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, has commanded since 2002.

 One supposes we are, by virtue of proximity, also semi-chic.

Ashokan watershed maps

I received two emails about the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program


 Preliminary FEMA Flood Maps for the Ashokan Watershed are available for review on the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program (AWSMP) website: www.ashokanstreams.org. These maps developed by FEMA contractors utilize the most up-to-date technology to determine the watershed’s hydraulics, hydrology, as well as topographic features and elevations. The maps are more accurate than current floodplain maps, which were adopted in the 1980s. Municipal officials, real estate professionals, home and business owners, and many others, can utilize these maps to help determine the level of flood risk a particular structure or development may be exposed to near the floodplain. Once adopted, these maps and other information will be used to determine flood insurance rates and requirements for property owners in the floodplain.


New FEMA Levee Mapping Procedures FEMA Finalized Analysis and Mapping Procedures for Non-Accredited Levees The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today, released its updated procedures for analyzing and mapping flood hazards in the vicinity of non-accredited levee systems. These updated procedures are a part of an on-going effort to reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). To review the final approach document, visit:
http://www.fema.gov/final-levee-analysis-and-mapping-approach.

4th of July 2013 weekend

Several dozen attended our annual CPOA BBQ. After, a bonfire was lit, and some (very carefully) toasted marshmallows and made their own 'smores.

CPOA volunteer Saturday

Stoney Creek, Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27) 2013.

Video

Monday 5/26/13, 1.26pm

Phillipe Petit

On Saturday May 25, 2013, famed  high-wire artist Philippe Petit appeared in the Phoenicia Methodist church is a benefit for the Phoenicia Public Library. The Library details the appearance, with accompanying photos, in its Facebook page.

DEC accepts public comments on Belleayre Mountain projects

Story from Mid-Hudson News on public hearing.


The State Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments on the draft revision of the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center Unit Management Plan and its draft Environmental Impact Statement as well as the modified Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park supplemental DEIS for private development by Crossroads Ventures, LLC.

The DEC will hold an informational presentation on May 22 at 7 p.m. in the Discovery Lodge at the Ski Center on Route 28 in Highmount. A public hearing will be held on May 29 at the Discovery Lodge with two sessions, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Comments may be submitted through June 24 by e-mail to belleayre@gw.dec.state.ny.us or mailed to Daniel Whitehead, Regional Environmental Administrator, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY 12561.

Shandaken emergency

Town of Shandaken is mailing out an Emergency Prep Letter and a survey. Both are available on its Facebook page, as well as its website.

Just to remind those of us getting sick of winter that sunnier and warmer days lie ahead, here is a photo of Phoenicia taken from the Tanbark Trail on Mount Tremper.

December snow

At the end of December 2012, when New York City received half an inch of rain, a foot of snow fell in Chichester. When we arrived on Friday, the 28th, I saw evidence that the weather had changed drastically since I'd last been in Chi, in mid-November:

Phoenicia Library receives grant

On anniversary of Hurricane Irene, Pitney Bowes Foundation provides $35,000 to help school and public libraries Thanks to a generous grant of $35,000 from Pitney Bowes Foundation, the American Library Association has distributed $3,500 in donations to 10 libraries. Last year, Hurricane Irene caused widespread destruction and major flooding in the Northeast during the last week of August 2011. Libraries were not spared, with many suffering extensive damage, forcing closings, lost materials and equipment. The local communities rallied in support of their libraries over the past year, making great progress to re-establish services, but recovery is a long process. These grants will help the following ten libraries continue rebuilding their collections and resources.

A story from the Woodstock Times: Work in Stony Clove Creek may help with flooding, turbidity.

 (L) Before — an eroding streambank in Chichester near Silver Hollow Road, before stream modification. Photo courtesy of Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program.
(R) After — the new streambank, redesigned to prevent flood damage to roads, properties, and Phoenicia’s Main Street. (photo by Violet Snow)
*

Phoenicia Voice Festival

We attended two events of this year's edition of the Festival:


Puccini's Madama Butterfly
  and
Barbershop! ‘Round Midnight and Voices of Gotham

;

Jury rules against Shandaken property owners in assessment fight

Story from The Daily Freeman:  A seven-year tax squabble between 18 landowners and the town of Shandaken has ended with a jury’s finding that the town had a “rational basis” for raising the assessments of properties with more than 20 acres of undeveloped land.

City that Drinks the Mountain Sky

Story from PostStarNews.com:

On Saturday July 14, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County’s Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program (AWSMP) hosted a production of the Arm-of-the-Sea theatrical troupe’s production of “City that Drinks the Mountain Sky.” This play uses masks and puppets to tell the story of the Catskill Mountains and the development of the NYC Watershed.

Fodor’s likes Phoenicia

Violet Snow's article appears in the Woodstock Times, and begins:

“Arts and the Great Outdoors” is the first of several suheadings in the July 3 blog post entitled “Long Weekend in Phoenicia, New York” on the Fodor’s Travel Intelligence website at www.fodors.com. With commercial development in the Town of Shandaken limited by watershed regulations protecting New York City’s drinking water, and many citizens committed to maintaining the rural character of the region by fighting big projects like the proposed megaresort at Belleayre, the arts have become a means of attracting people to Shandaken.

That blog post is one of many to be found on the Fodor's website.

More space for Woodstock Library

Story from MidHudson News

The crowded and busy Woodstock Library has some room for more activities. A vacant laundromat across Library Lane will serve as a Library Annex. Ulster County acquired the building for nonpayment of taxes.

We're back, or The bonfire that wasn't

On the weekend of June 30-July 1, a few intrepid and industrious Chichesterites/Silver Hollowites trekked down to the CPOA grounds, volunteering their services to clean up the community house and grounds. Much sweat was rendered as the clubhouse floor was mopped over and over and over, weeds whacked, and the grounds groomed. The remaining detritus was collected, in order to become a bonfire the following weekend. We were to sing, eat 'Chi-made' smores, and while the evening away beside our very own bonfire. Alas, due to the very-dry conditions and lack of rain, it was decided we should be prudent and safe.

It woulda been somethin' Yet a good time was had by all who did attend.

Lawmakers call for trash monopoly

A story in the TimesHerald Record:

Two Ulster legislators have recommended establishing a disposal monopoly for all trash and recyclables generated within the county. The 16-page proposal presented Thursday by Ken Wishnick, D-New Paltz, and Carl Belfiglio, R-Port Ewen, would also transfer garbage oversight to the county executive.

The county's trash agency has needed a $1.4 million annual subsidy since 2010. Ballooning payments on $21.7 million of debt will send the subsidy to $2.5 million starting in 2013. But "flow control" — a requirement that all waste generated in the county cross the public agency's scales — would enable the agency to operate without a subsidy by 2015. That's because monopoly power enables the agency to set disposal fees as high as necessary to meet yearly expenses.

Tipping fees are expected to rise from an average of $87 per ton to $102 per ton, the proposal said, meaning a typical household would pay $16.83 more annually for garbage disposal.

"Flow control is a must," Wishnick said. "There's no other way to guarantee a profit."

The proposal would also ask the state for permission to enact flow control for recyclables. This would ensure Ulster has sufficient revenue to invest in equipment for "single stream," where all recyclable materials are collected together.

Most committee members wanted additional financial information before rendering a verdict on the proposal, but John Parete, D-Boiceville, was adamantly opposed. "The more the government sticks their hand in the pie, the worse it gets," Parete said. "You don't raise your prices to bring more businesses in." He wanted the county to sell its assets and get out of the trash disposal business.

Plumbing the depths of a sewer controversy

Story on Watershed Post website on Phoenicia sewer project. A local expresses a local's viewpoint.

Detail of a map showing the location of a proposed Phoenicia sewer district, the subject of negotiations between the town of Shandaken, the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection that broke down earlier this month. Source: Lamont Engineers's 2011 project report on the proposed Phoenicia sewer project.

A local's point of view.


This column had been on hold, waiting for another shoe to drop. Something was bound to change, and it did: New York City pulled a flawed sewers deal for Phoenicia off the table, while continuing to wave a big stick. By steadfastly ignoring all flies in the ointment it was offering, it readily assigns all blame for failing to seal a deal on Shandaken, and those ornery and ungrateful members of the proposed Phoenicia sewer district – all 200-odd potential members of it.

Of course I present a one-sided view, but this is mostly a one-sided conflict. The only power Phoenicia has is the power to say no, until we get something we can live with, not just now, but for well into the future. The CWC did what they could to develop the best plan New York City would agree to underwrite on its terms. Resistance would vanish immediately if New York City tangibly capped Phoenicia’s fears of unsustainable costs and liabilities arising now and/or down the road.

Shandaken Day 2012

Shandaken mulls sewer flush

Another story in the Woodstock Times about the (apparently) never-ending saga of the sewer, Shandaken, and NYC.

Photo © S. Weir

Shandaken supervisor Rob Stanley expressed disappointment with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), not only for pulling the remaining $15.8 million in funding for the proposed Phoenicia sewer but also for failing to respond to any of the concerns Stanley noted in his request for an extension on the timeframe for the project’s development.


The DEP’s letter of June 1, notifying Stanley that they were dropping the project after 15 years of trying to get a Phoenicia sewer system into the ground, caught the town board by surprise and caused widespread dismay.


Restaurant owner Mike Ricciardella, who has been a leader of the opposition to settling for the city’s offer, remarked, “The city wanted us to sign on to an open-ended agreement. The proposal didn’t have a concrete accounting of the costs, and the board said they needed more time to make it complete. It’s a shame the city backed out. The board did a good job. As a business person, you want to have all the costs made clear before you make a decision.”


Ironically, Ricciardella is having difficulty getting a loan to purchase Al’s Seafood Restaurant because of issues with the town’s septic systems. “I’m applying through the CWC,” he explained, “and they had concerns about the general conditions of septic systems in town,” such as the violation against Sweet Sue’s last year that resulted in the restaurant’s owner, Sue Taylor, having to install a new septic system after Main Street flooded in 2010.

Phoenicia realtor and water commissioner Rick Ricciardella commented, “The sewer system is a good idea, but if the city needs it to protect their waterways, they should pay for everything. We don’t need it — the systems we’ve had have worked for 200 years. We have good soil for filtration, sand and gravel. I have a septic system the city put in for me ten years ago, and it works fine.”

Phoenicia without a paddle

A story in the Woodstock Times (Without a paddle: City pulls the plug on Phoenicia sewer), details the fate of the funds NYC had set aside for Phoenicia.


The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has withdrawn its participation in the proposed Phoenicia sewer project, rejecting the Shandaken Town Board’s request for an extension of the deadline to establish a local sewer district. In a letter to Shandaken supervisor Rob Stanley, dated June 1, DEP commissioner Carter H. Strickland, Jr., stated that the $15.8 million block grant that has been reserved for the Phoenicia sewer for the past 15 years will be released to other towns, and that the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) “intends to terminate its contract” with Shandaken.

In his letter to the town, Strickland noted that the city has spent $1.9 million over the past 15 years to study and design a wastewater treatment plant for Phoenicia, granting several timeframe extensions, as the community considered various options.

“However,” he wrote, “with many missed milestones for action by the Town of Shandaken, it has now become clear that the community is not prepared to take the concrete steps necessary to advance a project to completion…While we view this outcome as unfortunate, DEP can no longer justify reserving funds for a wastewater treament plant (WWTP) for Phoenicia.”
The letter concludes with an expression of willingness to continue working with the town on “stream restoration projects, our septic program, and enforcement of watershed regulations.”

As pointed out in the DEP letter, New York City has built similar systems at its expense in Hunter, Fleischmanns, Windham, Andes, Roxbury, Prattsville and Pine Hill. The latest one began operations last year in Boiceville.

Phoenicia bridge open

Items in MidHudson News (Bridge Street crossing reopens in Phoenicia) and Woodstock Times (Bridges to somewhere: Ribbons cut, Shandaken spans again taking on traffic) on the re-opening of the Main Street bridge in Phoenicia.

Shandaken Supervisor Robert Stanley (podium), County Executive Michael Hein, pleased the bridge has reopened


The whole neighborhood turned out Friday morning for Phoenicia’s long-awaited reopening of the Bridge Street crossing, devastated in late August by Hurricane Irene. It was the second infrastructure  ribbon cutting this week for county officials in Shandaken, just in time for the lucrative summer season, The new bridge along Route 47 in Olivera was unveiled on Monday.

Rob Stanley and Mike Hein cut the ribbon to open the bridge. (Violet Snow) 

About 200 people showed up to celebrate the reopening of Phoenicia’s Bridge Street bridge on Friday, May 25, as Ulster County Executive Mike Hein extolled the county highway department workers for restoring the bridge after Hurricane Irene ripped down most of its guardrails and shifted the roadbed by 18 inches.