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“Back before we lost our collective minds and began shrieking with horror at the thought of kids having fun on their own (as in not part of an official league or otherwise organized activity), they used to do things like find a vacant field, turn it into a makeshift diamond and spend glorious hours in the summer sun,” - Greenwich Time Editorial
Good Thursday Morning,
It hasn't rained in some time and thunderstorms promised for the afternoons seem to fall everywhere but here. The next few days are going to be hot and sunny with less humidity so take care of your gardens and outdoor plants. Water in the early mornings and water deeply.
The Stop Patterson Crossing folk have called for a public demonstration on Friday afternoon at the intersection of Routes 311 and I84. The fun starts at 5 and lasts until 7.
Last evening there was a kickoff party for John Degnan's Assembly campaign. By all accounts it was one of the more successful political events in Putnam County - ever. Anything that can bring ultra right-wing conservatives and progressives together has to be a good cause and we could certainly use more of them.
Dell Jones writes: Due to an incorrect printing in the Journal News,then picked up by North County News, the information about the Putnam Valley Farmers Markets got totally mixed up. They both promised to correct their listings but the damage is already done. So, here's the correct information:
On Fridays there is an outdoor Farmers Market at Tompkins Corners Methodist Church 729 Peekskill Hollow Rd. from 3 P.M. til 7 P.M. until mid October.
On Wednesdays there is an indoor and outdoor Farmers Market at the Putnam Valley Grange at the corner of Mill Street and Peekskill Hollow Rd. from 3 P.M. til 7 P.M. until mid December.
Both are sponsored by the Putnam Valley Residents Coalition.
Prospective vendors can contact me at 845-528-0066
At the Grange Market yesterday I picked up a loaf of whole wheat bread that was still warm from the oven. It was perfect with the zucchini, onions, garlic and tomatoes I made up for dinner.
The NY Journal News reports that one of Greg Ball's mailers contained 10 distortions and/or unfair statements. The news also reported that the sun is hot, ice is cold and water is wet.
 The US Senate finally paid their telephone bill by voting 69-28 to grant total immunity for the communications industry for illegally giving your personal information to the Fed in violation of the service contracts you have with them, contracts which specifically prevent these types of things without issuance of a warrant. Try to sue or cancel your contract and Verizon will come to court with a Senator in their pocket. Senator Obama, darling of the Liberals, voted for this egregious violation of the 4th Amendment while Senator Clinton, now out of the race for anything, voted against it. Senator McCain, taking the middle road, had other things to do.
The next time you hear a politician claim that "the terrorists hate our way of life", give them a copy of the Constitution, a can of gasoline and a match.
New DNA tests have definitively cleared the parents of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey for her unsolved murder almost 12 years ago, prosecutors said on Wednesday. In a letter to the family the DA wrote, "Oops!"
The Raleigh-Durham News-Observer reported yesterday that a North Carolina state employee, L. F. Eeson III, resigned from his position of 29 years rather than lower the flag at the State bureau he ran in memoriam for the recent death of Jesse Helms. He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The NC Department of Agriculture denies Mr. Eeson was given an ultimatum but Mr. Eeson claimed in an interview, "I was told if I lowered the flags completely or raised them up, I would be fired."
Though Mr. Eeson lost his position with the State, and all indications are that he will not ever be welcomed back, sanity has gained a new hero.
As always, visit PlanPutnam for more.
And now, the News:
- Fairness panel rules Ball campaign mailer misleading
- Blowers bad for lawns and people (NYJN Letter)
- DEC Acquires Catskill Mountain and Shawangunk Ridge Lands
- Shawangunk Ridge Expansion
- Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms
- Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come (Greenwich, CT. Where else?)
Fairness panel rules Ball campaign mailer misleading Michael Risinit
The Journal News
A political watchdog group ruled yesterday that campaign literature mailed by Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, contained many misleading statements about his opponent, Republican John Degnan.
The Westchester Fair Campaign Practices Committee took up 12 complaints filed by Degnan concerning Ball's political mailer. Most of the mailer's text attacks Degnan on illegal-immigration issues.
The independent committee found that 10 statements on the mailer were "unfair campaign practices." The committee disagreed with one of Degnan's complaints, finding it to be a fair practice by Ball, and had no finding in another complaint.
Degnan said the decision was "pretty remarkable."
Read More
Blowers bad for lawns and people Your article on the June 27 leaf-blower ban was singularly one-sided and distinctly missing a fact base. As a landscaper myself, I can say it offers no hardship to businesses and the ban has caused no increase in dollars for the client. The blower is only needed during the leaf season, when use is permitted.
Blowing the lawn is one of the worst things that can be done to it. The force of the blower damages the blades of grass and exposes the root system to burning. The blower has no part in growing and maintaining healthy lawns.
The facts about the blower are that it is a health risk to clients and operators alike. Indeed, this is the real issue. The blower, with its 130 knots of wind power, lifts natural lead, dust, soil particles and all that's in it, including any pesticides or herbicides used, and finally, molds and bacteria from the soil. Depending on the weather, these are then airborne and float in the air for up to seven days or until the next blowing onslaught. This causes major health reactions for all - but especially for children under 10, anyone with respiratory issues and those over 60.
Without touching on the impact on wildlife, the only intelligent course of action is to support the blower ban. In fact, a ban statewide should be mandated.
Ann Gaillard
Pelham
The writer operates Breath of Spring Landscaping.
Go to Original
DEC Acquires Catskill Mountain and Shawangunk Ridge Lands New York's Open Space Conservation Plan identifies Overlook Mt. as an important feature of the Catskill escarpment
A prominent and popular Catskill mountain summit has been permanently protected in an acquisition completed recently by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) with the purchase of 330 acres at Overlook Mountain in Woodstock, Ulster County. The acquisition includes three properties: the 210-acre Woodstock Guild of Artist and Craftsmen parcel, the 92-acre Berg parcel and the 28-acre Illjes parcel.
The Woodstock Guild of Artist and Craftsmen parcel on Meads Mountain Road includes Meads Meadow, an extensive open area on the mountain's southwestern flank that has long been a popular setting for experiencing the Catskills. The Berg and Illjes parcels lie on the steep southeastern side of the mountain, and their protection will ensure preservation of the scenic values of this natural landmark throughout the Hudson Valley. All three parcels are adjacent to existing state forest preserve lands. DEC paid a total of $784,000 for the parcels using the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).
The acquisitions will be added to DEC's Overlook Mountain Wild Forest in the Catskill Forest Preserve and offer recreational opportunities that include hiking, hunting, trapping, and camping. Overlook Mountain is an important feature of the Catskill escarpment that is specifically identified in New York State's Open Space Conservation Plan.
Shawangunk Ridge Expansion DEC also will be acquiring a 140-acre addition to Shawangunk Ridge. The property is a "Rails-to-Trails" initiative and will be a highlight of the Shawangunk Ridge trail system in Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties. It once included railbeds of the New York, Ontario and Western Railway and of the Port Jervis, Monticello and Summitville Railroad. It ties into the Delaware and Hudson Canal towpath to the north and west and provides a level, eight-foot-wide path across a stone culvert above wetlands and streams. The railroad right-of-way runs more than a mile into the existing DEC Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest. The parcel will form a western branch of the 36-mile Shawangunk Ridge Trail, which follows the ridge from High Point State Park in New Jersey to the Mohonk Preserve in Ulster County.
DEC will acquire the property using the EPF, with a price to be determined following completion of the appraisal process. Trail Conference volunteers will be responsible for building and maintaining the trails once they have been designed with DEC approval, and, upon completion of the acquisition, the land will be added to the Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest. Read Original
Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms By SUSAN SAULNY
CAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Ill. — In an environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, growing numbers of people are skipping out on grocery stores and even farmers markets and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms.
On one of the farms, here about 35 miles west of Chicago, Steve Trisko was weeding beets the other day and cutting back a shade tree so baby tomatoes could get sunlight. Mr. Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the four-acre Erehwon Farm.
“We decided that it’s in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,” Mr. Trisko said.
Part of a loose but growing network mostly mobilized on the Internet, Erehwon is participating in what is known as community-supported agriculture. About 150 people have bought shares in Erehwon — in essence, hiring personal farmers and turning the old notion of sharecropping on its head.
The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming. But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.
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Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come By PETER APPLEBOME
GREENWICH, Conn.
Vincent Provenzano, 16 years old, experienced his Kevin Costner moment one Sunday afternoon in May after a thrilling day of Wiffle ball in a friend’s backyard. He came home, gazed at a field of weeds, brush and poison ivy in an empty lot off Riverside Lane, turned to his friend Justin Currytto, 17, and proclaimed: “If we build it, they will come.”
After three weeks of clearing brush and poison ivy, scrounging up plywood and green paint, digging holes and pouring concrete, Vincent, Justin and about a dozen friends did manage to build it — a tree-shaded Wiffle ball version of Fenway Park complete with a 12-foot-tall green monster in center field, American flag by the left-field foul pole and colorful signs for Taco Bell Frutista Freezes.
But, alas, they had no idea just who would come — youthful Wiffle ball players, yes, but also angry neighbors and their lawyer, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in all shapes and sizes. It turns out that one kid’s field of dreams is an adult’s dangerous nuisance, liability nightmare, inappropriate usurpation of green space, unpermitted special use or drag on property values, and their Wiffle-ball Fenway has become the talk of Greenwich and a suburban Rorschach test about youthful summers past and present.
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