Our format is a little different today since the mail and web servers we use have been down since yesterday afternoon. If you've sent email to us over the past 18 hours or so it did not and may not arrive. The website is down as well. Please resend later today or call.
It seems like we have another victory under our belts. Last time it was by creating an environment in which the issue of a Domestic Partner Registry could be discussed and this time it's about publicly accessible health care. The County Legislature has created a citizens committee to study the issue and you can be sure we'll keep you informed. One of the problems we've had is that we're too wealthy a county to receive significant contributions from the State and the Feds towards opening a walk-in health clinic. But our success is rather phyrric for we're not all that wealthy of a community, it's just that there are so few people living in abject poverty that our overall earnings numbers are artificially high. Those numbers do not reflect the reality that too many of our residents cannot afford health insurance and that too many of our small businesses cannot afford to offer it to their employees. Hopefully the Legislature will find a way to make this happen. Any help I can offer beyond what's already been done, I'll be glad to give.
Up in New Paltz a group has formed to stop a mega-development on the eastern edge of town, just off the NYS Thruway. According to their website, "the 57 acre development includes 103,000 square feet of retail space, 250 residential units and a 120 room motel on the property. It is planned to be built at the eastern gateway to New Paltz, just off the NYS Thruway exit. If built, this project will significantly alter the character of our town. It may also have serious negative impacts on our community in terms of traffic, emergency services, schools, taxes, and dramatic consequences for our existing business base." Check them out and lend them some support.
On Wednesday night there's to be a candidates forum of a sort at the Sacred Heart Church Hall in Put Lake. The fourm will run from 6-9 pm. According to the PDF invitation I received, Greg Ball is listed as the very first invitee, above Congressman Hall and Senator Leibell. Also invited was Supervisor M. Griffith (sic) and D. LoBue, someone I've never heard of. Everyone knows that when you list public officials you name them from the top position downwards: it's just polite. Placing Mr Ball at the top of the list underscores the bias of the hosting organization.
The word "censor" was, once again, incorrectly bandied about yesterday but this time it wasn't in Carmel but in Washington, DC. And, it wasn't about the ability to speak at town board meetings or anything like that, but.... (I hope you're sitting down!) Congress is thinking about placing controls on how its members use online social network sites like Twitter, Utterz and Qik, sites that allow "instant messaging" between members. Oh, it's not about porn, but it it's supposed to be about Congressmembers using their web connects for personal business and not the business of The House. It's all silly, of course, but it does give Congress members an idea of what it might be like to allow telecoms to control what and how you use the 'net, something they've been aching to do for quite some time now. The telecoms have long wanted to set up a multi-tiered access system to the net so that those who use it a lot would pay more than others thus restricting - by economic class - access to the 'net and enlarge their profits. So, this little twittering episode in Congress is pretty amusing. Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi instant messaging Denis Kucinich?
News from Arts on the Lake
Registration is still taking place for our two week-long Children's Art Classes taught by artist Mary Schreiber this month. Budding Artists/Mommy and Me starts next Monday (7/14) and Nature's Studio, creating arts projects focusing on the natural environment for children in K-4, starts the following week (7/21). More information is available on our classes page at www.artsonthelake.org or by a phone call to (845) 228-AotL.Open Mouth: Midsummer Madness returns next Saturday, July 19, at 8 p.m. at the Lake Carmel Cultural Center, 640 Route 52, Kent Lakes, NY. We'll be joined by guitarist/singer Steve Kirkman , as well as our friends from Blue Horse Repertory. There will be new works by Ring Lardner Jr. (c. 1923) and another by James Shearwood (c. 2007) - additional acts in development. As always, reservations are advised – rsvp@artsonthelake.org or (845) 228-AotL - and the complete program will be posted moments before we begin. Open Mouth is at the popular price of $5 for AotL members and the outrageous price of $6 for all others. And yes, Open Mouth in the past has been on Fridays, but this time it's on Saturday because of the madness of midsummer.
And Now, for it's worth, (and without a clickable ToC) the News:
Putnam to study starting medical clinic for uninsured
Susan Elan
The Journal News
Health care advocates in Putnam want to determine how many county residents are uninsured or without adequate coverage and then come up with a means to provide medical services that include preventive care.
"People shouldn't have to go the emergency room for routine care," said Loretta Molinari, Putnam's associate commissioner of health. "It's such an inefficient and expensive way to get health care."
The Legislature's Health, Social, Educational and Environmental Committee, last week agreed to the formation of a citizens committee to explore the feasibility of a community health center in Putnam comparable to those in Peekskill and Haverstraw.
Dr. Paul Kaye, chief medical officer at Hudson River HealthCare and Allison Dubois, vice president of the Peekskill-based organization that runs 14 community health centers, including those in Peekskill and Haverstraw, told legislators and advocates about the services offered and how the clinics are funded.
Hall calls for credit card reforms
By Greg Marano
Poughkeepsie Journal
The 90-year-old Town of Washington resident said it took her a year to resolve the situation, which started when she misread a statement when paying a bill and resulted in late charges and over-the-limit fees compounding.
"They did settle, after a year, for the original amount," Mercay said.
It's this kind of situation that inspired the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, a piece of legislation moving through the House of Representatives. If passed, the law would amend the Truth in Lending Act to add protections for consumers when dealing with credit card companies.
U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover, is one of 155 co-sponsors of the bill, which was introduced in February.
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Selling land to towns an option to consider
The real estate market in Dutchess County is a mess.
All those owners of large amounts of land, old families, farmers and out-of-state developers looking to make a quick buck by developing land they own (sometimes their only major asset) by strong-arming local town boards into hastily approving building permits for yet more school system-stressing, energy-wasting residential units are just plum out of luck. But are they?
While many folks are smart to walk away from building in Dutchess, the county with the highest foreclosure rate in the state, others may want to think about an alternative; sell your land for open space to your town or a land trust.
The reasoning is straightforward: Many landed folks are in their golden years and were hoping for quick retirement money by constructing new homes on their property, but a real estate comeback is years away. Yet the money to purchase open space is available right now - in Beekman, Red Hook and through matching grants from Dutchess County.
Everyone wins in this situation. The landowner can at least receive some monetary compensation for the land, and there is a reduction in the amount of tax money eating services such as school, police, fire and ambulance services when land is left undeveloped. Large landowners can leave a better legacy for future county residents by preserving land and still have money to retire.
Sean J. McDermott
Poughquag
Small towns get creative as fuel costs bite
By Nancy Leinfuss
SCOTCH PLAINS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Police officer James Denman gets a cup of coffee at a local convenience store as he prepares to swap his gas-guzzling squad car for a more energy-efficient patrol vehicle -- a bicycle.
In Scotch Plains, New Jersey, police are doing more cruising on bikes, while elsewhere across America, small towns are taking unusual measures to rein in rising costs.
One Connecticut town plans to put century-old dams back to work generating electricity, while other communities are telling workers to turn off their vehicles when stopped instead of letting them idle.
Gasoline and heating oil prices have soared, electricity has grown more expensive and health care costs keep rising, prompting municipalities to do what they can to cut costs.
Despite the summer heat, police in Scotch Plains see benefits from working on bicycles.
An indelible mark
After seven-plus years in office, President Bush has left an indelible mark on the White House. Now he's looking to do the same to our New York shorelines and beaches. Congress would be foolish to let him get his way. Not 15 minutes into the nation's newly inspired but still half-hearted campaign to reduce its oil dependency, Bush yesterday reversed the prudent course set by his ex-president father and continued by Bill Clinton, announcing he was lifting a presidential moratorium on new offshore oil exploration. It was another shortsighted decision by a president allergic to the long-term view.
The president, who in his 2006 State of the Union address declared America "addicted to oil," used a Rose Garden appearance to sell his vision on how the nation could get another short-term fix: allow new oil exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. He also renewed his call to allow drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and increased access to vast deposits of oil shale in parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. These are "alternative" energy sources that only an oilman president could appreciate.
