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Good Friday Morning,
There was no column yesterday since this list seemed to have taken on a life of its own - and that's good. Great, in fact! It's when you get involved that ideas are exchanged and things can happen. In this case it seems that school funding based on income rather than property value is the overwhelming choice of readers. I just hope people in Albany are listening.
Okay, that was a joke!
They're not listening and we know it. So, what to do? Here's a quote that might give us some assistance in deciding how to move forward:
"...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." Those words are as apt today as they were in 1776 and we can see it in many of our communities, our states and even at the Federal level. Government is no longer listening to the people and has protected itself in ways that are not unlike those used by the British circa 1770. That we continue to allow this to go on without active and serious opposition will be our undoing as a people and a nation. We owe it to our Founding Fathers and to future generations to take a stand and use whatever means are necessary to undo the abuses to our democracy.
There. I've just violated the USA PATRIOT Act and it feels rather liberating. (If there's no column on Monday look for a post card from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.)
To underscore how government has been taken over by corporate interests and is no longer respecting the wishes, needs and desires of the citizenry, we only need to look in our own backyards - and in some cases - literally! We're seeing that Putnam County is about to offer Paul Camarda a mess of your tax dollars to build his hotel on Route 6 in Carmel. The Carmel Town Board can't wait to approve local, school and mortgage tax breaks for him and you know what the county will do? Yeah, you guessed it. Unless there is over-the-top opposition from you, Mr. C will build his project on your tax dollars while bringing the profits out of county. The next time Bob Bondi or the County Legislature tells you that commercial development is what Putnam County needs, ask them for some corporate welfare... see if you get it!
 Commercial developments do not need to sprawl over many acres. In New York City for example, a 485,000 sq ft development with room for more than 1200 cars will be built on a 6 acre lot, not sprawled across 30+ acres as Mr. Camarda proposes for Patterson Crossing, a development of similar size. It's only the lack of vision and political will that allows such things to happen here at home.
There's another debate raging in Carmel. This one pits the community against it's elected town board. The Carmel Town board has set some rather draconian rules concerning public comment at meetings and the opposition has, I must say this, wrongly framed the issue as a constitutional, free speech issue. It is not. What it is, is nothing more than the town acting in its capacity as an elected board under our current system. You elect these guys and gals to represent you and they're doing that as they see fit and fully within the laws of New York State. The Law makes no provision for public comments at meetings - that's not a free speech issue - that's solely a managerial issue. If the board were to place restrictions on speech and artistic impression in the community, that would be a 1st Amendment issue.
The state Open Meetings Law is what needs to be changed for it's that law the board is following. And if the opposition to the comment rules in Carmel were to frame the issue altruistically, launching a campaign to change the Open Meetings law they'd get a lot more done and a lot more support. Many town boards across the state have rules similar to Carmel's and there should be a movement to open meetings to comments BEFORE the board votes on an item, not afterwards. As well, to allow a comment period where the public can discuss any issue of interest to them before the board. Most boards do not allow such discussions to take place but they should.
That's not to say that the opposition should not be active in trying to get the Town Board to alter their current rules - they should - and must use all means necessary to do so - but they should do it by framing the issue properly and focusing their efforts on the right targets.
Congressional candidate Kieran Lalor has a solution for high gas prices: drill everywhere. Like, in your backyard, in national parks and wildlife areas. Heck, we'll drop one in the parking lot at Patterson Crossing! He's not proposing you drive less or use less energy or that the energy industry and car makers focus on renewables and energy efficiency, no... that's asking too much. So, if he gets elected don't look for windmills and green roofs, look instead for oil derricks dotting the landscape. And by the way, his campaign signs are still up all over the place, illegally.
On the other hand, our current Congressman, John Hall, has an interesting question to ask. If the price of a barrel of oil goes down, why do prices at the pump continue to rise? I'd like to know! I'd also like to know why the Senate blocked an attempt at a windfall profits tax on oil companies and still continues to provide them with billions in tax breaks using your dollars. Not only does ExxonMobil rake in the bucks at the pump, Congress writes them a check - with your name on it. If you need cash to fix a highway or repair a leaking roof at your local school or senior center, write ExxonMobil. They've got your dough.
Do you still think the government is working for you?
If you're free Saturday night, Arts on the Lake and Blue Horse Repertory Company are presenting "Take Two", a Broadway review with Nancy Johnston and Doug Coates at the Cultural Center on Lake Carmel. The musical review starts at 8 PM and more information can be found here. Both Ms. Johnston and Mr. Coates have deep backgrounds on and off Broadway and in stock productions around the country. If this is your thing, this show looks promising!
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And now, the news:
- Putnam Lake's plight
- Winery owner sues town for $30M
- Wappinger declares development ban
- Democrats endorse GOP candidate
- Paving Paradise to Put Up More Parking Lots by Carl Mrozek
- Disease Crippling Biggest Bee Hives
- Tree Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seed
Putnam Lake's plight It was a page out of the Norman Rockwell era. The notion that a newspaper company would sell parcels of land in a summer community as part of a subscription drive belongs to a bygone time that can only be called quaint. Yet that is how the summer bungalow community of Putnam Lake arose in the 1930s, courtesy of the now-defunct New York Daily Mirror. Today, the "summer community'' is a year-round one, and the problems are anything but quaint.
The Putnam Lake Community Council, a volunteer neighborhood association, has been the overseer of the lake since that distant era. The PLCC, as the council is known, collects dues that provide for lifeguards and basic maintenance for the beaches and parkland around the lake's leafy shores in the Town of Patterson. With a budget of about $63,000, it also provides recreational activities, like swimming lessons and barbeques, for those who choose to be members. The PLCC was a perfect fit for a far simpler time.
But development pressures continue to mount in Putnam Lake, as they do throughout the Lower Hudson Valley. Summer bungalows have long since been converted to year-round residences, about 1,400 in all. Putnam Lake's tiny lots are far smaller than today's zoning codes would allow, and septic tanks are often too close for comfort to drinking wells. The lake itself absorbs nitrogen and phosphorous-rich runoff that promotes weed growth and cuts down on oxygen.
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Winery owner sues town for $30M By Brian J. Howard
YORKTOWN - The developer who built a winery inside a nearly century-old stone church has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the town and several officials alleging discrimination and a pattern of seeking cash political donations in exchange for official support.
Thomas DeChiaro of Mahopac, the owner of The Winery at St. George in Mohegan Lake, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in White Plains. The lawsuit names as defendants Councilmen Nicholas Bianco and Louis Campisi, former Supervisor Linda Cooper, county Legislator George Oros, R-Cortlandt, and three high-level town employees.
DeChiaro contends those named obstructed his application to admit the winery and nearby vineyards into Westchester County's agricultural district as a working farm, a permitted use under the winery's zoning.
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Wappinger declares development ban By Michael Woyton
Poughkeepsie Journal
WAPPINGERS FALLS - For the next six months, there will be no new residential development in the Town of Wappinger.
A townwide moratorium on residential development was put into place Monday by the Wappinger town board.
Supervisor Chris Colsey said the ban on development would allow for the completion of the town's comprehensive plan, last updated in 1988.
"It is literally for the purpose of allowing the town to take a breath relative to development in its consideration of applying the best land-use principles," he said.
The moratorium only affects developments of five lots or more and will expire in six months.
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Democrats endorse GOP candidate Degnan seeks to unseat fellow Republican Ball
By Michael Risinit
Gannett News Service
SOMERS - Democratic Party leaders from northern Westchester gave Republican John Degnan another endorsement in his bid for the Assembly.
Somers Democratic Committee Chairwoman Christine Robbins said Degnan's party affiliation didn't matter. She said he is the best candidate to unseat Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson.
The endorsement comes almost a week after the Putnam County Democratic Committee voted to endorse Degnan, a former Brewster mayor and trustee who ran unsuccessfully for Southeast supervisor last year. Degnan last month announced his candidacy against Ball, who is seeking a second two-year term.
Degnan also has been endorsed by the Putnam GOP committee and Ball by the Westchester Republicans. They split the support of the Pawling Republicans in Dutchess County.
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Paving Paradise to Put Up More Parking Lots by Carl Mrozek After several months of debate, last week Amherst’s town board voted four to three to approve Benderson Development’s proposed Amherst Town Center project to be built on 33 acres of rural land on Maple Road, a.k.a. the former Buffalo Shooting Club. A coalition of opponents walked out of the meeting in protest after the decisive vote. Their key concern was that the $44 million “lifestyle center” would add to rampant suburban sprawl in Amherst while increasing traffic, carbon monoxide and noise along Maple Road and arterials. There is also the prospect of increased property assessments and taxes to pay for road widening and other infrastructure improvements required. This is all in addition to the change from a fairly quiet green landscape to a busier, browner one with even more strip development flanking the community center, i.e.-more suburban sprawl.
In his recent his Artvoice articles, Bruce Fisher discussed the footprint of suburban sprawl in Western New York since 1970: 75 percent more land area was developed at the same time that our population decreased by 180,000. Coincidentally, this drop matches Buffalo’s population decline over the same period, where net new land development has been scant. In other words, outside of Buffalo, Erie County’s population has remained fairly flat during exactly the same period that “development” there has been rampant. If you believe that somehow property taxes have remained flat during this same period you should consider joining the Flat Earth Society. It costs megabucks to lay all those new sewers and to expand and maintain all those roads to the malls and to all the far flung new ’burbs.
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Disease Crippling Biggest Bee Hives Only 5% of Beekeepers Are Affected by Colony Collapse Disorder. That 5% Matters. A Lot.
June 11, 2008 at 3:55PM by Kim Flottum
Although as many as 40+% of U.S. bees died last winter, with as many as half of them perishing from whatever causes colony collapse disorder (CCD), not nearly that proportion of U.S. beekeepers experienced these problems. In fact, our estimate is that fewer than 5% of U.S. beekeepers have had a run in with CCD. As you can imagine though, this small number of beekeepers commands a huge number of beehives, thus the disparity...
While I’m estimating, here are some recent figures we have come up with that reflect what the U.S. population of beekeepers is. Analyzing our subscribers, honey board resources, talking to beekeeping supply companies, state regulatory agents and beekeeping association leaders, we conclude that there are just under 1,000 commercial beekeepers in the U.S. These are people who make their living from honey bees... making honey, hiring out for pollination, selling bees in season, making or selling beekeeping supplies, selling beeswax, and raising and selling queen honey bees all can be part of the business. Of these, honey and pollination are generally the most practiced and the most lucrative.
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Tree Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seed Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press e-mail share bookmark print
Young Tree With Old Roots
Ancient Seeds June 12, 2008 -- Just over three years old and about four-feet tall, Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely," Dr. Sarah Sallon said of the date palm, whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at Masada some 2,000 years ago.
The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada, where rebelling Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman attackers.
Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as other seeds found with it that didn't sprout, indicate they were about 2,000 years old -- the oldest seed known to have been sprouted and grown.
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