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Good Tuesday Morning,
 There are two female hummingbirds jockeying for position at the feeder by my window this morning. They started this game yesterday afternoon and played it right into and through the thunderstorms, hail and wind that blew in last evening. The males seem to have no problem landing and drinking but the females, protectors of food sources, zip and zoom and buzz and battle. These aren't the same hummers that have lived here over the past few summers for those became quite comfortable with me around and when the feeder was empty would buzz the window demanding more. As I'd replace it after washing and refilling, at least one brazen hummer would be sitting there waiting and fly in while I was still hanging the feeder. This year they're much more timid.
In an article from the New York Journal News, County Executive Bondi has sent a memo to county Departments telling them that they must cut 6% from their budgets. He recommends additional user fees as one method of offsetting cuts.
Now hold on there just a minute pardner! Aren't user fees just another form of taxes? Didn't I just write an article about the $250 tax fee that private contractors are forced to hand the county just to be allowed to work?
Mike Piazza, the Director of Social Services, says he'll leave 14 open positions vacant and keep staff training and education to a minimum. Seems like that's one place where training and staff are essential. How about one or two less Sheriff's on highway patrol?
I've said it before and I'll say it again - Let Mr. Bondi and his commissioners, the county Legislature and their executive staffs take a 6% pay cut as a way of showing that they mean business. But no, they'll keep their money, they'll keep their bloated executive staffs and they'll raise user fees and cut services to cover costs and hide behind that when county mismanagement for the past decade causes pain to the taxpayers. Remember, one less Executive Secretary could save near $100,000 in the budget - and that's real money.
Kids drink, let's face it. It's the truth and nothing you can say or do is going to change or alter that in any way. They have sex, too. Alcohol is easy to obtain from a variety of sources and I'm willing to bet you'll be hard pressed to find a 17 - 20 year old out there anywhere who has not, on occasion had a few. Westchester County is discussing what they call a 'hospitality law' that is anything but hospitable. It would fine people who allow underage drinking on their property.
Look, at 18 you can join the Army, go to Iraq and die to enhance profits for the oil companies. At 18 you can get a credit card or a driver's license. At 18 there are many, many things you can do but if you're at a family BBQ you can't (legally) have a beer. You can't, even under parental supervision, have a graduation party.
In this nation we treat alcohol and sex the way we treat cooties and leprosy. We don't encourage people to be responsible, we treat them as criminals. We don't allow late-teens to learn responsibility for we make everything they might do illegal and treat them as children, then at 21 we thrust them into an adult world totally unprepared. And then when things go wrong, as they too often do, we punish them. This truly has become no country for sane men.
 Yesterday I posted about the Country Music Festival held in Putnam Valley on Sunday. Reader PP wrote:
"Brian and I both attended the Tomkins Corners Festival and it was just terrific. Brian played with Lora Lee and the Putnam String (Kitchen Sink) Band and they all had the audience joining in and singing. It was truely moving. The show also began with the incredible John Coen and Annabelle Lee, then David Santo, Kate Hoesktra, Judy and John Allen and the Swamptones. I don't have a program in front of me, but I think I'm getting most of the names right and of course, Alanna Amram and her band and her father, David, all played and they were just terrific. So it was neat, neat, neat. The thing about the church, well there are a lot of wonderful things about the church, esp. it's history, but the acoustics in that building are unbelievable. It was built for music for sure."
The accompanying image is from Jan Hoekstra and features father and daughter, David and Allana Amram.
Also yesterday I posted some information about White Nose Syndrome, a disease (if it is a disease) which is affecting bats in New York, killing them by the millions. Doreen T wrote back with a link to the presentation she referred to in her post. You can find that here.
And another... yesterday I posted about the Sunday evening concert with David Rovics wherein I wrote that Pete Seeger called him the "Phil Ochs of our time". David wrote back to say that was wrong, that it was the Hartford paper that called him "...the Pete Seeger of his time." But then, Folkworld Magazine said, "Phil Ochs is not dead. He's reincarnated in the body of David Rovics." and Medea Benjamin said, "If the key to building a mass movement is to make it 'irresistible,' David is opening the flood gates." So I'm not going to quibble. He's still great.
The Putnam Valley Farmer's Market is expanding to two locations on two days each week. You'll find them, starting this coming Friday, at Tompkins Corners from 3-7 PM and on Wednesday's at the Grange Hall, also from 3-7 PM.
A little bit upstate in the Dutchess County towns of Milan and Pine Plains, the Durst Development is coming to town. Originally planned as a 1000 home project which would double the population of Milan(!), there is some possible good news. From "Little Town Views" comes this:
"The sprawling 1,000-unit Durst subdivision proposed on the Dutchess-Columbia border has turned a critical corner with the developer apparently conceding to a drastic reduction in the scale of his original project and a redesign of its layout that would protect environmental resources." "Now in its fourth year of a public review led by the Pine Plains Town Planning Board, the Durst development remains a long way from approval, but recent statements from the developer, town officials and citizen leaders opposing the plan suggest that a much smaller, more compact subdivision could be up for final consideration by early next year."
Read the full report on this insane mega-project here.
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And now, the news:
- Lake Carmel man faces still fines for illegal sewage dumping
- Putnam exec wants cutbacks of 6 percent
- Main Street senior housing set to open in Brewster
- Hall heralds bill to aid 'green' school projects
- City council backs Walkway's efforts to nab state cash
- 17 Reasons Why Bicycles Are the Most Popular Vehicle in the World Today
- Market full of oil, price trend "fake": Ahmadinejad
Lake Carmel man faces still fines for illegal sewage dumping LAKE CARMEL-A Lake Carmel man and a Mohegan Lake contractor face stiff fines and possible incarceration for allegedly attempting to hook up a private waste water system into a municipal catch basin.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police arrested Servio Vasquez of Lake Carmel and Rafael Casinaldo of the Staff Contracting Company last week following a complaint received by Kent Police.
Capt. Arnold Thomas of the DEP Police told the Courier that officers responded to 41 Gateway Court off Towners Road in Lake Carmel and spoke with Sgt. Jerry Raneri of the Kent PD.
"The officers observed a 12-foot long cut in the ground that crossed the roadway. The road was wet and smelled of sewage. Following further investigation and an interview with Mr. Vasquez along with the evidence observed, it was determined that the homeowner was hooking up his residence to a catch basin that leads to Lake Carmel. The evidence was obvious so both men were issued summons for violating a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation SPEEDYS [sic] permit, as well as for violating New York State's pollution standards while a third summons charged the men with endangering the public health and safety of the environment," said Capt. Thomas. Read More
Putnam exec wants cutbacks of 6 percent Susan Elan
The Journal News
Putnam's budget season has opened with instructions from County Executive Robert Bondi to department heads: cut spending for 2009 by 6 percent from the current year.
Bondi ordered the reductions to limit county property taxes to no more than a 5 percent increase in 2009, a pledge he made in his State of the County Address in March.
"Many rising costs (are) outside of our ability to control, such as energy and health insurance," Bondi wrote in a memorandum to department heads this month. "Each and every department will have to reduce spending by 6 percent from the 2008 adopted budget if we are to achieve this goal."
The $130 million county budget for 2008 resulted in a property-tax increase of more than 18 percent.
In the memo, Bondi told department heads to suggest new user fees to increase revenues and encouraged them to consolidate or find other means to "reduce staffing and contractual costs."
Read More
Main Street senior housing set to open in Brewster Marcela Rojas
The Journal News
BREWSTER- Senior citizens may soon be calling Main Street home.
The renovation of 50 Main St., a longtime vacant four-story building in the heart of downtown, is almost finished. The 30,000-square-foot brick structure, once the home of the Bank of New York, was taken over by state Sen. Vincent Leibell's nonprofit housing agency, the Putnam Community Foundation, and will include 25 apartment units for middle-income seniors 62 and older.
"To build something takes time," Leibell said. "With the completion of this project, you will start to see that critical mass come back into the village."
The apartments will occupy the building's top three floors. Tenants are expected to move in by mid-July, Leibell said.
The ground floor, with its large windows looking out onto the street, is expected to house a bank, the village's administrative offices and either a courtroom or a meeting room, officials said. Details of that partnership have not been finalized.
"We're just waiting for the i's to be dotted and the t's to be crossed," Brewster Mayor James Schoenig said. "I'm glad that we're finally getting this done and that Village Hall will be on Main Street. That's where it should be."
Read More
Hall heralds bill to aid 'green' school projects By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
June 17, 2008
Central Valley — Local school districts could help lead efforts to reduce the nation's carbon footprint with federal aid under consideration in Congress, U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, announced Monday.
Hall came to Monroe-Woodbury High School to promote a pending bill that would provide schools $20 billion over five years for "green" construction projects. New York schools would get as much as $586 million in the first year.
The House passed the bill 250-164 last week, and proponents expect the Senate to follow suit. President Bush has vowed to veto the bill; it's unclear if supporters can muster enough votes to override his veto.
Some local districts are already planning improvements that would be eligible for federal funding under the bill.
For example, Liberty School District in Sullivan County is planning $36 million in building projects that would include sustainable energy sources, such as solar energy panels and geothermal heating-and-cooling technology.
Both technologies, though expensive, usually pay for themselves in the long run, by virtually eliminating the need for oil and power utilities.
Read More
City council backs Walkway's efforts to nab state cash By Michael Valkys
Poughkeepsie Journal
City of Poughkeepsie leaders have approved measures needed for Walkway Over the Hudson to raise another $3.2 million as it converts the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge into a pedestrian walkway.
The city-based nonprofit hopes to complete work on the $30 million renovation in time for next year's 400th anniversary celebration of Henry Hudson's voyage along the river that bears his name.
The Common Council Monday night at city hall passed resolutions supporting three separate state grants Walkway is seeking to help fund its effort to reopen the bridge, closed since a 1974 fire.
Council support was needed for Walkway to gain the funds.
"This is a massive project and we're on a tight time frame to get it done," Walkway board Chairman Fred Schaeffer said. He estimated the group has raised about $18 million so far.
Councilwoman Mary Solomon, D-6th Ward, said she hopes the refurbished bridge will bring visitors who will also patronize city stores and restaurants.
"That's what we're looking for in this project," Solomon said.
Officials hope the bridge will be part of a group of tourist attractions in the area, such as the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in nearby Hyde Park.
Read More
17 Reasons Why Bicycles Are the Most Popular Vehicle in the World Today Bicycling it isn’t always easy. Busy streets, honking horns, and inadequate city funding for bike lanes and paths can make bicycling an uphill battle. However, with green in the news, the economy in a slump, and summer on its way, it’s getting easier to find reasons why there are some 1.4 billion bicycles and only about 400 million cars in the world today.
This week, EcoWorldly authors from six continents contributed articles on bicycling in their country. With exerpts from those articles and others in the blogosphere, here are seventeen very good reasons to bicycle no matter where you live. Click the headings as you go to read more.
Read More
Market full of oil, price trend "fake": Ahmadinejad By Hashem Kalentari
ISFAHAN, Iran (Reuters) - The oil market is plentifully supplied and the rally to record high prices is "fake and imposed", Iran's president said on Tuesday, blaming a weak U.S. dollar which he said was being pushed down on purpose.
"At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech.
"It is very clear that visible and invisible hands are controlling prices in a fake way with political and economic aims," he said when opening a meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development in the central city of Isfahan.
Read More
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