SusanCampriello: My Works

‘A class of compassion’
The Daily Mail
June 28, 2009, online
June 30, 2009, in print

The 112 Catskill High School students, 98 of whom began their academic career in the Catskill Central School District, were awarded their high school diplomas in front of their parents, friends and teachers Saturday morning.

Simon Felice, of the rock group The Felice Brothers, gave the keynote address before the graduates, their families and their teachers. As a graduate of Catskill High School’s Class of 1995, Felice said he had not fully appreciated the education he received in Catskill’s schools until he met a woman who, in the early 1900s, had been denied an education. He asked the graduates to thank their teachers for the gift of a good education.

Felice also reminded the graduates that success is not measured by status or wealth.
“Real success is not how wide your wallet is but how wide your smile is,” he said. “Real success is not what you have but what you give.”

Felice also spoke about living in Palenville and experiencing the Village of Catskill and the Catskill Mountains as a child and young man.

He singled out retiring teacher Edward “Big Ed” Synan as one member of the Catskill community who taught him about nature and life. More recently, he saw Synan leading a Catskill High School running team on a circuit through Olana.

Felice performed “Long May You Run” by Neil Young in honor of Synan.

Salutatorian Judy Lam thanked her mother, the parents and guardians of her classmates and Catskill schools’ faculties and staffs for their support through the years.

She said that each student in the Class of 2009, with their random assortment of passions and talents, added a special dimension to the class and the graduation celebration.

“We all not only got along, but cared for and supported each other,” she said. “We are not only former Catskill students and future doctors, lawyers, educators and writers, but people who can appreciate the value of life and every moment we live.”

Valedictorian Kedong Wang, a lover of pop music, the sitcom “Scrubs” and badminton, who will begin studying at Princeton University in the fall, lauded the many contributions to clubs, musical groups and athletic teams by his fellow graduates. He noted the particular camaraderie between his classmates given the challenges they had faced over the last few years.

Wang spoke to the memory and warm smiles of classmates Diana Zamarani and Victor Armstead, who passed away since their class began their high school journey.

“What Diana and Victor had accomplished still live inside every single one of us,” he said. “Diana and Victor will always be there to cheer us on.”

Wang asked his fellow graduates to remember that the debt owed Catskill could only be repaid through good work given to a world in need of nurturing.

“A human being is worthless unless compassion is factored into his life’s work,” he said.

Superintendent Kathleen Farrell said the Class of 2009 will be remembered for their community service through fundraisers, their close ties with each other and each student’s individual personality.

“This is a class that pays it forward every time,” she said.

She said each student will be remembered for who he or she had become during their years at the school.

“This class, the Class of 2009, is a class of compassion and of concern,” she said.

The ceremony also featured a song performed by Jamed Guildenstern.

Cheers for the class of 2009 could be heard across the Catskill Creek.

Cairo-Durham grads: Live in the moment
The Daily Mail
June 28, 2009, online
June 30, 2009, in print

Parents and friends of the 136 graduating seniors of the Cairo-Durham High School Class of 2009 gathered Saturday afternoon to witness the culmination of the students’ high school careers.

At the beginning of the ceremony in the auditorium, Principal Anthony Taibi announced that 87 percent of the class would start college programs or enter the military service later this year. He told an applauding audience his students had earned 100 scholarships for a total of $40,000 donated by various community organizations.

He said each graduate had in his or her mind a “headline” for the many special moments that made up their high school careers, including team victories, personal achievements and their graduation day.

He asked the graduates not to stop learning and to set goals for themselves.
“You are in control of writing your next headlines,” he said.

Salutatorian Jessa Suhner equated the feeling she and her classmates had on stage to how they felt walking into school on their first days of kindergarten.

They were, and are, excited, fearful and curious, she said.

The Class of 2009 came together, she said, when, as fifth graders, students from Cairo Elementary School met students from Durham Elementary School.

Suhner said she felt protected while in school from the violence of the outside world. Rap star Tupac was killed at the start of their kindergarten year and the events of 9/11 rocked the country just as fifth grade began, she said. But now, as graduates, she and her classmates had to start caring about world events that will affect their lives.

“We are adults,” Suhner said.

Valedictorian Amanda Chan asked her classmates not to forget that life after high school holds a vast sea of opportunities.

“Nothing can, and nothing will, defeat the determination and courage,” she said. “The only person who can stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.”

Cairo-Durham alumnus and Albany Medical Center cardiologist Dr. Jeffrey Uzzilia told the graduates that they should be proud of attending their small school.

Uzzilia told the graduates to always use common sense and to think before they act, and reminded them to keep a sort of balance with their lives.

Cairo-Durham Superintendent Sally Sharkey reminded the graduates that the ceremony marked a new beginning of their lives.

She told the graduates not to be content with the bare minimum, not to wait for things to happen and not to wish their time away.

“Enjoy now,” Sharkey said. “Always challenge yourself and your abilities.”

The senior chorus performed a song from the musical “Wicked,” for their classmates and teachers, singing “because I know you I have been changed for good.”

Historian looks for Catskill’s lost past
The Daily Mail
June 26, 2009

Catskill attorney Ted Hilscher will return to the Beattie-Powers House Sunday at 2 p.m. to offer visitors a look at Catskill’s past.

Hilscher’s slide show and commentary, titled “Lost Catskill,” will focus on the Catskill Creek and Eastern Paving Brick Company buildings and two gas holder plants along Water Street.
“It was unbelievable, the traffic at the creek frontage,” he said.

Hilscher said bricks made in Catskill have been used in roads and walkways as far away as Savannah, Ga.

Gas holder plants, he believes, were powered by coal and used to pump gas to Catskill homes and buildings before electricity was used.

Hilscher teaches at Columbia Greene Community College and is a former Catskill Village trustee and Catskill Village Attorney.

He is the author of many articles on local history, including “The Parking Lots of Main Street, Catskill,” a study of the impact of the automobile on small-town America, published by Marist College in the Hudson River Valley Review.

Other lectures Hilscher has given include one about the Hudson River School at Columbia-Greene Community College and a look at Hudson Valley barns.

This Sunday’s slide show is part of a larger recognition of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial at the Beatie-Powers House.

An exhibit of photographs, maps and illustrations depicting 150 years of a changing Catskill landscape along Catskill Creek and the Hudson River runs through July 5.

The collection showcases 50 images that show factories and bridges that have long since been demolished, the many touring boats and barges that visited Catskill each day and even the the Catskill Point as an island at high tide.

Items in the collection were donated by the Greene County Historical Society, Robert Carl, Catskill Town Historian Richard Philp and Bell’s Cafe.

The exhibit is curated by Philp and Friends of Beattie-Powers House President Robert Hoven. It is sponsored by the Bank of Greene County, Athens Generating Company and through a New York State Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial grant with the Town of Catskill.

Visitors can view the exhibit from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday as well as next week.

Republicans select full slate for Nov.
Coyne, Suttmeier, Ostrander, Miller and Feeney win nods
The Daily Mail
June 26, 2009

CAIRO — Cairo Republicans selected Thursday a slate of four men and one woman to run for public office this November.

The slate includes three incumbents — Town Supervisor John Coyne, Councilman Raymond Suttmeier and Tax Collector Emily Feeney — and newcomers in Douglas Ostrander Sr., who was also nominated for Councilman and Town Justice hopeful Leland Miller.

Councilwoman Alice Tunison and current Justice Thomas Baldwin are not seeking re-election.

More than 175 Republican committee members packed the Crystal Brook Resort Mountain Brauhaus before 7 p.m. to hear nomination speeches and to cast their ballots for the party slate. Roughly 250 of the party faithful attended the caucus in 2007, according to Greene County Legislator William Lawrence, R-Cairo, who ran both caucuses.

Sue Hilgendorff offered Coyne as the the first nomination of the night.

“John’s motivations and decisions are based on what is best for our town and it’s future and not on the advances of personal agenda,” Hilgendorff said.

Coyne, she said, has maintained an open-door policy and supported his department heads. He has run orderly and respectful board meetings, Hilgendorff said.

She said Coyne had implemented recommendations from the Office of the State Comptroller regarding accounting practices and accountability.

Pam O’Reilly, who seconded Hilgendorff’s nomination, said Coyne had inherited a number of problems from the previous administration and deserves a second term in office.

“John has come across with great understanding for what he is doing and he is looking forward to the future,” she said.

Coyne faced a challenge from former county legislator Michael Camadine, who was nominated by Cairo Republican Party Committeeman and Cairo Township Taxpayers Association Vice President Charles Umbach.

“As a legislator, which he was for three years, the tax rate was four, two and zero,” Umbach said, referring to Camadine. “In Cairo, it is 14 percent.”

Coyne took the nomination with 137 votes to Camadine’s 40 votes, with one blank vote, Lawrence said.

Suttmeier defeated challenger Chuck Kaiser for the nomination for the first Councilman seat on the Town Board in a vote of 113 ballots to 64.

Richard Booth nominated Suttmeier, saying the councilman embodies the traits that a member of the Town Board should have.

Suttmeier is honest, does not back down, does not compromise to get votes and is not a puppet, Booth said.

“Some people may say Ray is contradictory and outspoken but that is because Ray wants what is best for Cairo,” he said.

County Coronor Richard Vigilo also nominated Kaiser. Kaiser, he said, is learned and interested in the community and medical services in the area.

Kaiser was nominated again, for the second spot on the board as Councilman, but was defeated with 34 votes to 139 votes cast for Ostrander.

Greene County Clerk Michael Flynn nominated Ostrander, calling Ostrander a “very unique Republican candidate.”

He said Ostrander’s years of service as a teacher in New York City, as an officer with the State Police and as a member of the Cairo Town Library Board and Cairo Zoning Commission would make him a good member of the Town Board.

“Doug understand the great qualities that Cairo has to offer,” he said, “but at the same time, Doug will work for good quality development and business, which will help to relieve the tax burden we all share.”

Miller and Feeney did not face opposition to their respective nominations as Town Justice and Tax Collector.

Miller was nominated by Monica Fabiano. Miller, Fabiano said, will bring not only more than 25 years of experience as a corrections officer and hostage negotiator to the job, but a sense of fairness and honesty, as well.

Cairo Planning Board member Ed Forrester nominated Feeney for a tenth term as Cairo’s Tax Collector.

He noted that Feeney’s long service could qualify her as the ranking Cairo official.

After the voted were tallied the nominees thanked their supporters and rallied the crowd for a successful vote this fall.

Coyne said he would continue to hold himself to the statements his supporters had made. He said he was looking forward to the election season.

Ostrander said that although he has never run for office before, he was looking forward to helping the Town move toward the future while protecting its quality of life.

“I really have my heart and soul in Cairo,” he said.

Miller said he would try to follow the example of honesty and integrity Baldwin has shown.

The assembled Republicans applauded Baldwin’s years of service before the meeting was adjourned.

Feeney thanked everyone for their support over the years and said she hoped that everyone in Cairo voted for Republicans in November, a sentiment echoed by Suttmeier.

“We are at a crossroads in time,” he said. “With the slate we have nominated tonight, we will continue to move into the future.”

Angry parents write new entry in basketball diary
Residents criticize trustees for their handling of hoop complaints
The Daily Mail
June 25, 2009

CATSKILL — Catskill police asked several residents to move their mobile basketball hoops away from roadsides Monday evening and during the day in response to complaints made during a Village Board meeting about games occurring in front of Lorenzo Ivery’s home on Greene Street and in front of another home on High Street.

Several residents and parents of teenagers and younger children, Ivery included, are upset with the way the issue was handled by Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley.

“My kids have been playing in the neighborhood just like every other kid for the last 10 years and now we are being told what we can’t do in our neighborhood,” he said. “I thought this was America.”

At the board meeting, a neighbor of Ivery’s said children who use the court have been known to gesture at motorists who interrupt the sometimes loud basketball games.

Another resident at the meeting said he worried that the children playing in the streets could be harmed if a driver did not obey stop signs or skidded on wet pavement.

Ivery said police could do more to punish the motorists he sees who frequently ignore stop signs at the intersection of Greene and Broad streets near his residence.

He charged that individuals who do not want to live around children should not move to neighborhoods where children live.

Both Ivery and the neighbor have acknowledged that they have a strained relationship.

Seeley requested at Monday’s meeting that Chief David Darling dispatch officers throughout the Village to ask residents to move their hoops so that children would not play in the street.

Denise Davis of Post Avenue and Suzanne Paolino of Sunset Street, were both contacted by Catskill Police officers Tuesday.

Davis said she was asked to move their hoop to the back of her gravel driveway. The hoop was not moved, she said, because the property is outside the village line.

She said many other homes in the neighborhood have gravel driveways and roadside basketball hoops.

“The boys need to be able to play,” she said.

Davis said neighbors had never complained about her 11-year-old son Matt and his friends playing in the street. Matt, she said, always moves out of the way for traffic to pass.

“[Greene Street] was an isolated incident. Why should everybody be punished,” she said.

Paolino agreed.

She said that a number of activities, including riding skateboards and walking, could block traffic.

She wondered why Seeley had asked police to move all hoops near village roads and discuss drafting a new law or ordinance Monday night that would ban in-road games without holding an open meeting to discuss the issue. She said the games had not been raised as a problem during the most recent neighborhood meeting with the Village Board.

Seeley and Village Attorney Alex Betke discussed Wednesday the current state and Village laws that prohibit pedestrians from blocking vehicular or pedestrian traffic and decided that no new law or ordinance was needed.

Darling said Wednesday he and officers have to enforce the rules.

“I do not want kids to stop playing basketball or other sports,” Darling said, “but I do not have the authority to let people play in the street.”

He said officers would respond to any complaints regarding street courts and officers would ask children they found playing games in Village streets and skateboarding in the center of roadways to stop their activities.

He said intoxicated drivers or those driving recklessly could hit children playing in roadways.

Seeley said Wednesday that some children leisurely stroll out of roads when vehicles approach. Children could be struck by vehicles while chasing a stray ball, he said.

He said the issue presented a “Catch-22.”

“If we allow this to continue and there is an accident, we failed from a public safety perspective and if we take action, then we are the bad guys by taking a fun activity away,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Seeley said he was looking into erecting basketball hoops in a parking lot at Dutchmen’s Landing, at Elliott Park, at Catskill High School and the Catskill Community Center.

But parents argued that they like being able to keep an eye on their children while they play outside their houses.

Ivery said he liked being able to call his children into the house if necessary. He said the Community Center closed at 5 p.m. and the courts inside seemed to become wet, slippery and dangerous after an hour or so of play.

Davis also said she enjoyed seeing her 11-year-old son and his friends and worried that something could happen to them on the way to the park.

“Some kids of certain ages cannot walk a mile to the town park,” Suzanne Poalino said. “This is a community of families. Why become a community that is not child-friendly.”

Seeley suggested that adults can initiate and organize child-friendly activities such as fishing trips to Dutchmen’s Landing, walks around Catskill and hikes.

Village Trustee Angelo Amato said he did not think an “across-the-board” decision regarding the courts was an appropriate way to deal with a few isolated complaints.

He, too, noted that children may feel more comfortable playing in their own neighborhoods than they would at a park or school yard away from home.

Darling said that although the issue was raised Monday night specifically to deal with courts on Greene and High streets, his department had handled many complaints in the last few years about courts in different Catskill neighborhoods.

“This is not the first time it has come up,” he said.

Camadine bid sets up challenge at GOP caucus
Former lawmaker, incumbent John Coyne to seek party’s nomination
The Daily Mail
June 24, 2009

CAIRO — Former Greene County lawmaker Michael Camadine hopes to be the next Cairo town supervisor.

Camadine said recently that he is tired of the way the Town of Cairo has been managed.

“I am frustrated like everyone else is,” he said.

He said he sees a level of mistrust between Cairo’s officials and its residents, which he blames on a lack of clear directions.

“No one knows where the town is going,” he said.

Camadine said he can facilitate dialog toward establishing a directive for the town and can provide the common-sense leadership he said Cairo needs.

Camadine represented Cairo in the county Legislature between 2004 and 2006. During his term, Camadine worked to have the Sleepy Hollow development placed back on the taxrolls. And, he was involved in the development of the Columbia-Greene Community College multi-purpose business building, which, he said, was designed and constructed in a cost-effective way.

Camadine said his more than 30 years managing within the Burger King corporation will help him problem solve and work through the challenging decisions he could face as Cairo’s Supervisor.

He supports small-scale development in Cairo that would fit in with the town’s history and character. For example, he hopes to revitalize Main Street through the establishment of an economic development agency but wants to keep major development out of town and along the Route 9w corridor.

Camadine believes the Supervisor should be beholden to his citizenry. A Supervisor should be able to devise solutions to problems before residents demand action, he said.

“Good leadership prevents problems bad leadership reacts to problems,” he said.

In the past, Camadine has run for Cairo Trustee and County Clerk. He launched an exploratory campaign to represent the 127th Assembly District in the state Legislature.

Camadine said that Cairo residents should have a choice of Republican Party candidates for Supervisor. Camadine, who is a Conservative, hopes he will be able to win the Republican Party nomination at the party caucus Thursday evening.

To do so, however, he will have to challenge incumbent Republican Supervisor John Coyne, who has also announced his intention to run for re-election.

Former bookshop to get makeover
Village planners OK redevelopment of McDonald’s on Water St.
The Daily Mail
June 24, 2009

CATSKILL — The Catskill Village Planning Board approved a site plan for the redevelopment of the former McDonald’s Book Shop at their most recent meeting.

The Hudson River Development Corporation has been working on plans for 125 Water St. in Catskill for months.

Village Attorney Alexander Betke presented his recommendations on the plan during the meeting, saying that the HRDC plan will revitalize a blighted vacant building along the Catskill Creek in a manner compatible with the neighborhood.

“[It will] really add to the downtown experience of the Village of Catskill,” he said.

The plan for the half-acre site includes a bistro accommodating more than 70 occupants, and will feature spaces designed for commercial and professional use, an outdoor dining area and a creekside raw bar.

The raw bar will include performance space and will be partially cantilevered over the shoreline.

Plans for the site also include docks and kayak launches along the shore. A red brick walkway, accessible to the public, will connect the dock and the launches. Park benches will be placed along the walkway.

Rene VanSchaack, with Community Nature Resource Solutions, said that although structural plans and a floorplan for the building had been submitted to the Village, plumbing and electrical schematics still need to be drafted.

He said the remaining drawing sheets will be submitted soon.

Betke said that only a portion of planned work can begin until a brownfield mitigation on the southern portion of the is completed.

Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. is funding and overseeing the remedial work.

The site plan resolution included language that allowed the Village of Catskill to decline an easement through the brownfield area if environmental conditions of constraints are not in the best interest of the Village. Such a decision will not jeopardize the project, Betke said.

Village President Vincent Seeley said he was pleased with the Planning Board’s action.

“The approval of this project, a key component to our waterfront revitalization, maintains the overall momentum we need for Catskill,” he said.

Before the board approved the site plan, it passed a negative declaration on the project. The board agreed that the plan will not present a health hazard, work on the project will not significantly effect the environment or surrounding natural resources and among other issues of consideration.

Planning Board Chairman William Zwoboda said he was convinced that the overall plan would benefit the area.

“Here, we are actually improving the environment,” he said.

Village dashing hoop dreams
Police to crack down on roadway basketball courts after resident calls foul
The Daily Mail
June 23, 2009

CATSKILL — The days when children can play basketball in the streets of Catskill have ended, according to Catskill Police Chief David Darling.

At a meeting of the Village Board Monday evening, Darling and Village President Vincent Seeley discussed the possibility of creating an ordinance that would prohibit the games, which can block traffic, annoy neighbors and become dangerous.

The issue of problematic games in Catskill was raised by Lauren Levey, a Greene Street resident who lives across the street from one temporary basketball court.

Levey said the court only “opened” after new parking rules that prohibit parking on the far side of the street took effect.

The games, she said, occur frequently and have been accompanied by music.

“Sometimes it is very rough, sometimes it is very loud,” she said.

Levey said children who play basketball on Greene Street move for cars but that she has observed some of them making obscene gestures at drivers. Sometimes, she said, children pretend to throw rocks at passing cars.

She said drivers might swerve dangerously to avoid being hit with an object they might think was heading their way.

Darling said officers do not break up in-street basketball games unless the department receives complaints from residents.

He said officers had been sent to clear Greene Street last month but that games had evidently resumed.

He guaranteed that the Greene Street court would be shut down immediately and that officers would visit a court on High Street, as well.

“We have had trouble with these kids and basketball courts throughout the village where these kids take over the street,” he said.

Police said officers were dispatched throughout the Village to check for road-court activity by 8 p.m. Monday.

“Any basketball hoop near the roads will be moved,” Darling said.

Other areas known to house problematic basketball courts in the past include Broome Street, Laurel Lane and Bushnell Avenue.

Another resident at the meeting expressed his concern for the safety of the basketball players.

He said motorists may ignore stop signs or skid on wet pavement and injure a child playing the the street.

Darling suggested that an ordinance banning such in-street activities would prevent street blockage and any related injuries. He said officers could more stringently enforce a state ban on blocking traffic.

Seeley said he could look into drafting a new traffic law or an ordinance that would specifically target blocking traffic.

He noted that courts are available at Elliott Park and inside the Catskill Community Center.

Assemblymen say bill would be ‘nail in coffin’ for farms
Lawmakers deride 8-hour workday, overtime provisions
The Daily Mail
June 23, 2009

CATSKILL — A bill that could force increased operational costs incurred by local farms passed in the State Assembly earlier this month, but many familiar with farming operations and the legislation fear that such a law would harm area farms and farm workers.

The bill, if passed by the state Senate and signed into law, would require farm laborers to work an eight-hour workday and requires farms to pay time-and-a-half wages for overtime.

Columbia County Farm Bureau President Charles Larsen said the overtime wage requirements could put an added stress on both farm owners and farm workers.

“It could hurt them tremendously,” Larsen said.

Larsen worries that farms will have to add workers to their rolls while limiting the numbers of hours each picker can work to 40 per week. Laborers used to, and willing to work upward of 50 or 60 hours a week would find themselves taking a severe pay cut.

He said a starting wage for some farm workers is $10 and that he knew of one farmer further upstate who figured out that in a two-week time period he would have to pay his workers a total of $6,000 in overtime.

“That is an impact,” he said. “Agriculture cannot afford time-and-a-half.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Statistic Service, there were 455 farms in Columbia County in 2007 and 310 in Greene County.

A 2007 census by the department reported that 52 Greene County farms hired a total of 282 workers and a total of 885 workers were employed by 19 different farms in Columbia County.

The census showed a total of 36,400 farms in the state.

Eric Ooms, the vice president of the New York State Farm Bureau, said workers who come to New York State farms on the H-2A guestworker program are legally only supposed to work on one farm and therefore cannot take a second job harvesting crops or on a dairy farm to supplement their incomes.

“That limits people’s earning opportunities while they are there,” he said.

He said farm workers usually are provided housing by their employers and are offered child care services. Requiring farms to pay worker for overtime could jeopardize financial stability of some farms.

“We are talking about driving the costs up and I don’t know any business that likes that,” he said, “and can afford it.”

Assemblyman Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie, whose district includes Greene County and who led the debate against the bill, said the vote was ironic because only two years ago the Assembly acknowledged that the dairy industry was in distress. At the time, he said, the price of milk was nearly $1 per 100 pounds higher than it is today.

Lopez argued that farms cannot operate eight hours a day because animal births and crop harvests could not be scheduled in such a parameter and said the legislation forced a cookie-cutter employment model on a dynamic industry.

“It is the nail in the coffin for New York State farms” he said.

Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Red Hook, reiterated that crops had a specific window in which they could be harvested.

He explained that conditions on farms can be volatle and fragile due to weather and economy.

Rains and droughts can affect a crop’s yield, he said. Prices fluctuate.

He offered $200 million as the cost New York farms would spend on overtime wages should the bill pass a Senate vote and become a law.

Molinaro warned that farmers overseas would stock store shelves with their products if the costs of running a farm in New York became prohibitive.

“This is a localized industry that faces international competition and this bill does nothing to recognize that

Molinaro and Lopez charged that some legislators from downstate lacked knowledge of the way farms work.

Lopez said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, D-Queens, had admitted to her colleagues that she was one of those legislators.

Molinaro said no one in the farming industry of which he knew had been asking for the provisions set forth in the bill.

“It is offensive at best,” he said.

Pine Plains man charged with murder
Dutchess County resident suspected of killing a man and wounding his wife during a shooting in Greene County
The Register-Star
June 18, 2009

PALENVILLE — A man suspected of shooting a Palenville couple — resulting in one death — just before 2 a.m. Wednesday is in Greene County Jail.

The alleged shooter, 23-year-old Robert N. Wilkinson of Pine Plains, Dutchess County, opened fire with a .223-caliber rifle on the victims, Lucian Haid, 28, and his wife, Taryn, 23, in the driveway of their home at 95 Pennsylvania Ave., following a dispute among the trio earlier in the morning, according to State Police in Kingston.

Lucian Haid was pronounced dead at the scene by Coroner Richard Viglio.

An autopsy will be conducted Thursday by Dr. Michael Sickarica at Albany Medical Center.

In spite of her injuries, Taryn Haid was able to call Greene County 911 with a description of Wilkinson’s vehicle, a 2008 Nissan. She was transported by ambulance to Albany Medical Center and was treated for her injuries, police said.

Staff at Albany Medical Center Wednesday afternoon had no information on her condition.

Wilkinson was taken into custody fewer than two hours after the shooting by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Department after leading a sheriff’s deputy on a pursuit through the county. Wilkinson has been charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree criminal use of a weapon, first-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

He entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment in Catskill Town Court Wednesday afternoon in front of Judge Robert Carl.

Wilkinson conferred with the public defender assigned to the case, Dominic J. Cornelius, and stoically looked forward as he was led out of the courtroom by state police. He was transferred to the Greene County Jail.

District Attorney Terry Wilhelm said his office will be prosecuting the case. Wilkinson is expected back in court June 25, he said.

Neighbors in Palenville said the couple appeared to keep to themselves, as few knew who lived in the house 500 feet from the Saugerties town line.

Crane Davis, who lives across the street from the couple, said they were quiet and seemed nice. He said his wife had only met Taryn Haid once, when a package was mistakenly delivered to their home.

Davis said he did not hear any altercation before the shooting and that he thought the first shot could have come from a hunter somewhere.

But, he said, the successive shots hinted otherwise.

“The other four sounded like someone was out to get someone,” he said.

Davis said after the gunfire ended, he heard a woman screaming and he called 911. Emergency crews responded within 10 minutes, he said.

Davis said the couple had only moved to the neighborhood, which is mainly filled with weekend residents, six months ago.

He said it was not uncommon for at least one car to pull into the driveway on any given night but that there did not appear to be many people entering and exiting the house.

“It wasn’t like a constant stream of people,” he said.

According to the State Police at Kingston, Wilkinson was apprehended Wednesday morning after Ulster County Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Gillespie spotted his vehicle with a defective light. Gillespie called in the license plate number and was told by dispatch that the vehicle belonged to the Palenville shooter.

The deputy attempted to stop the vehicle on Route 32 in the town of Ulster. When the driver did not comply, Gillespie initiated a pursuit.

Gillespie chased Wilkinson through the city of Kingston on Route 9W and into Esopus, where Wilkinson lost control of the vehicle and struck a rock wall along Black Creek Road.

Police from departments in the town of Lloyd, Kingston, Ulster and Saugerties converged upon the crash scene, police said.

Officers from the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the Greene County District Attorney’s Office and the village of Catskill were involved as well.

Catskill police set up a roadblock at about 1:45 a.m. at the intersection of Route 23A and Route 9W in Catskill, according to Catskill Police Chief David Darling.

He said the State Police were on the scene right away.

“They were on it from the get-go,” he said, “and that is a good thing.”