SusanCampriello: My Works

We built this city
Coxsackie-Athens Middle School students win award for future city
Jan. 31, 2009

COXSACKIE — Liberty City lies next to a coniferous forest at the base of tall, snow-covered mountains.

A water filtration plant sits in the center of town. A central command center controls the city’s defense system and monitors its water flow and money circulation. The roofs of the two-story townhouses of the city’s residential district are affixed with solar panels and catchalls for collecting rainwater.

A tall tower, or Hy-Ball, filters air by collecting carbon dioxide put out by automobiles and helps propel the award winning underground transportation system.

Liberty City has a total ground area of 1,250 square inches, its tallest structure rises to only 20 inches tall and tourists can visit it by stopping by math teacher April Bergman’s classroom in Coxsackie-Athens Middle School.

Liberty City was created as the school’s entry in the National Engineers Week Future City Competition. It won the award for best transportation system at the regional Capital District competition on Jan. 17, at Hudson Valley Community College. The winning team moves on to compete in February at the national competition in Washington, D.C., during National Engineers Week. Coxsackie-Athens Middle School was the only school to represent Greene County at the regional competition.

The national competition was developed as a way to introduce middle school students to mathematical, electrical and chemical engineering. Students must also write an abstract introducing their city and present their city at their regional competition.

“These competitions teach the future president and representatives,” Tim Williams, one of the nine 8th-graders on the team said. “We’re addressing the future right now.”

In September, the students built a model of their city using the computer simulation game SymCity. Once the computer model was completed, the team set to work turning dozens of recycled materials — including keyboard keys wrapped in aluminum foil, to stand in as solar panels on the roofs of the milk carton townhouses — into a their city.

Shawn Gianola, who said he joined the team after watching other members work while he was finishing a math test, said city construction appealed to him.

“It’s like playing a video game in real life,” he said.

April Bergman organized her first Future City team shortly after she began teaching at the school in the late 1990s. She said she likes to include younger students in the design and construction process so that they have the strong background in the science and planning concepts needed to design successful city once they are old enough to compete, Bergman said.

Teams have an overall budget of $100 and judges award bonus points if recycled materials are used in construction. The cities are scored on their creativity, as well.

The competition challenge focuses on a different aspect of city planning each year, Bergman said. This year, residential water systems were highlighted.

Robert Flores, a civil engineer who works on waste water systems, was the team’s engineering mentor. He said he discussed with the students how water desalinization and greywater systems, or ways to collect dish or bath water and reuse it for activities like watering lawns, work.

The group also took a trip to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to learn about water filtration.

Bergman said that the competition forces students to think of connections between science, mathematics and technology, which is the best way to understand any concept or equation.

“It has got to go together,” she said.

Team member Jacob Petersen said that learning different applications of science was important and in that respect students around the world seemed ahead of students in America.

“We’re starting to lag behind in the sciences,” Petersen said.

Brianna Stokes said she liked how the competition allowed students to preview different career options.

“They can make up ideas they can test in a career,” she said.

She said competing can help students believe in their own minds and abilities.

“Being on the stage and hearing people clap for them helps their self-esteem,” she said.

Williams, Petersen and Cole Hilscher presented their city at the regional competition where, they said, they enjoyed seeing some of ways other teams designed their entries.

“There are a lot of different ways to do some things,” Hilscher said.

Team members agreed that they had some trouble choosing proposed designs and ideas that would work best in their city, but they managed to work through their disagreements.

“All the ideas came together,” Hilscher said.

Bergman said she hopes that next year’s team will win a higher award and compete at the national competition.

Her students offered varied advice for next year’s team.

“Don’t fight,” Stokes suggested.

“Start early,” Williams added.

Gianola and some of his teammates, who will all graduate in June, said that they want to return to mentor next year’s team. The have also begun talking about splitting up into smaller teams competing against each other, just to keep the project going.

“It’s really fun and you learn a lot from it,” he said.

Athens Village elections set
Jan. 30, 2009
Green, Halsted, June and Sopris vying for 2 trustee seats; Smallwood unopposed; Pfister bows out

ATHENS — Democratic and Republican party members have spoken.

They gathered in caucuses to nominate candidates for Athens Village Board of Trustees and mayor’s office.

Republican nominees Richard Green and Arlene Halsted and will face Democrats Bob June and incumbent Trustee Tom Sopris in an at-large election for the two board positions. The top two vote-getters win the seats.

Trustee Chris Pfister announced that he is not seeking re-election.

Incumbent Mayor Andrea Smallwood has no challenger in her re-election bid.

Trustees Herman Reinhold and Tim O’Leary do not face re-election until 2010.

Several candidates said they expected to take part in a civil race this spring.

Green, who ran unsuccessfully for trustee last year, was selected again for the Republican ticket.

Green says his loss has only made him a more viable candidate this year because he has some name recognition.

He said he is worried about the toll the economy will take on the community.

“We have got to be fiscally responsible in the village,” he said.

Green said he also wants to make sure that the new zoning rules are implemented in an open manner.

He said that he expects this spring’s election to be a clean one, without any mudslinging

Halsted said Thursday that she is running because she is concerned about the future of the village.

“Athens is starting to look like a ghost town,” she said.

She said that she wants to make sure that in the future the community can offer activities and opportunities that her grandchildren will be able to enjoy.

Sopris said he wants to continue working with the board on a number of issues facing the community, including solving the drainage problem. He said that the board has worked well together for the last year.

“I think the board has done a good job on holding the line on taxes,” he said.

Sopris was first elected in 2007.

June narrowly defeated Phyllis Dinkelacker at the caucus for the seat being vacated by Pfister.

Pfister said he decided that it was time to step back from the board and he is not sure of his next direction.

“I haven’t given up the idea of serving in another capacity,” he said.

He said that he was glad that a new firehouse was constructed and a new truck was financed during his tenure.

Smallwood said Pfister had done a lot for the community but that her running mates will make great trustees.

She said she will still campaign, even though she has no challenger.

“You can’t sit back and say I don’t have to answer to the Village,” she said.

She said meeting constituents during a campaign is important.

“You get to hear about what everyone is concerned about,” she said.

Acting FAST, Cairo discusses rescue team
Jan. 28, 2009

The Cairo Fire Department Board of Commissioners discussed creating a Firefighter Assist and Search Team at their first meeting of the year Tuesday night.

The team would go to fires outside of the Cairo district to be on call in case a responding firefighter became injured or trapped while on duty.

A minimum of four firefighters would respond to a team call. Eight firefighters in the district have been certified as team responders.

Commissioner Bill Smith said he hoped that a team could be operational by early spring.

“Training-wise, we are good to go. Equipment-wise, we are 90 percent there,” he said.

The board questioned how creation of the team would affect the district’s insurance policy.

They discussed with Fire District Chief Gerry Buckley what gear could be set aside for the team and what would be available for general calls.

The team would not need its own truck, but a truck and radios would have to be ready when needed, Buckley said.

Buckley said he could speak to members of the team in New Baltimore about how they divide and manage gear.

He said that company members have discussed starting a team in the past, but had to hold off on doing so until they could receive the necessary training.

Buckley said that in the future, all districts will need to have a team.

“It’s coming down the line and we want to get a jump on it,” he said.

Mentoring helps students succeed
Jan. 27, 2009

GREENE/COLUMBIA — When Jackie Hoffman started working as a guidance counselor at Chatham Middle School in 1992, she said, she met a lot of students she wished she could bring home.

There were 500 students in the school and only one of her, and she could not provide all the attention those students needed.

Hoffman started a mentoring program at the school the next year that matched about 10 students with 10 adults. This year, participation is at 37 — and counting. Hoffman said she had a student ask to join the program as recently as mid-January.

Many of the students also continue with the program throughout middle school.

“Mentors are just a great asset to this school,” Hoffman said, “and an integral part of the guidance program.”

Adult mentors in Chatham generally hear of the program through other mentors and through the program’s own outreach to adult groups. Interested adults have to apply for the program through the school’s guidance department in order to be cleared to come into the building and meet with students.

The program is open to any student who wishes to have a mentor, and the department tries to match students with mentors who have similar interests, Hoffman said.

Most students and their mentors meet at school, taking over an empty classroom once a week for about an hour. Hoffman said that some mentors and students do meet up off school grounds with parental permission.

Typically all of the students and their mentors get together bi-monthly. In the fall, they organize a Halloween event for younger students, and there is also a winter holiday party. In the spring they go to a show at Proctors’ Theater in Schenectady, and make rockets with the school science teacher.

Last year, students and their mentors visited an area nursing home. “I’m a real believer in intergenerational linking,” Hoffman said.

Cynthia Richardson has been a mentor with the school’s program since 1996.

Richardson, who like many mentors with the school program is a retired teacher, said the activities she does with her students vary with each participant.

Some students want to play games or go for walks and others just want to talk, she said.

Richardson said she hopes she helps her students maintain balance in their lives. “I do it on faith that any contact with a child will make a difference,” she said.

Hoffman and other local counselors, teachers and administrators have found that mentoring programs in their schools have helped students excel academically and socially.

Teachers and parents have reported back to the department that after joining the program, students with mentors have better attendance records, higher grades and seem generally happier in school than they were before joining, Hoffman said.

Corbette Russell, who co-coordinates the mentor program at Cairo-Durham Middle School, said she hopes students in her school also benefit from the program.

Mentors at her school include teachers, school aids and district bus drivers, who, like in Chatham, are screened for approval.

Russell said that 30 students participate every year on average, and roughly 85 percent of them stay involved with the program for multiple years.

She said that a few students who are now in high school volunteer with classes at the elementary school.

Russell explained that the hour-long weekly meetings between mentors and students give students something to look forward to if they are struggling in school. “Kids just want to be a part of something,” she said.

In January 2002, the Harvard Mentoring Project of the Harvard School of Mental Health and MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership launched the first annual National Mentoring Month.

Directors of the first campaign hoped their efforts would encourage adults and organizations to get involved with helping children and teenagers excel academically or lay the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle.

Susan Moses, co-director of the project, said the campaign was started as a public health initiative to combat academic and non-academic issues, including teenage pregnancy.

She said that choosing the first month of the year had many advantages. Television advertising costs are lowest after Christmas, she said, and a January campaign can tie becoming a mentor to making a New Year’s resolution.

In a departure from their past campaign featuring celebrities, the project recently launched the Reel People campaign, in which mentor-mentee pairs were asked to send in tapes of how mentioning has changed their lives. The winning pair is featured in a public service announcement on the project’s Web site.

The New York State Education Department has adapted mentor programs designed for students to help newly certified teachers pick up additional teaching or class management skills from seasoned veterans and to ease the transition into a new work environment.

Since 2004, newly certified teachers have had to be paired with a mentor during their first year of teaching or participate in a school building leadership service.

At Chatham Middle School, Hoffman said she once read that adults rarely let children talk for more than three or four minutes before interrupting them. She said that many children just want someone to listen to them.

“Kids need to be heard,” she said.

Greene County Bancorp, Inc. celebrates 120 years with student art show
Jan. 24, 2009

CAIRO — Dozens of students from Cairo Elementary School and their families were guests of honor at an artists reception at the Bank of Greene County branch in Cairo Friday evening.

More than 80 students at the school have pieces on display at the bank on Route 23, art teacher Claire Camingo said.

She said that four pieces were selected to be shown from each class at the school.

Artists at the reception posed proudly for photographs by their paintings of lizards and self-portraits in between snacking on pastries and greeting their friends and teachers.

Camingo escorted fifth grade artists Sophie Estep and Kyle Scully to the Legislative Office Building in Albany on Wednesday for the New York State Teachers Association 19th Annual Legislative Student Art Exhibition. Estep, Scully and their families met with State Sen. James L. Seward (R-Oneonta) and Assemblyman Peter D. Lopez (R, C, I-Schoharie).

“We have so many talented students and dedicated teachers throughout the district, and it is important we make sure programs like this continue,” Seward said in a press release regarding the event.

In Cairo, bank patrons can enjoy the artwork for a couple more weeks, said branch manager Kathleen Proper.

Proper said the reception was timed to coincide with the bank’s 120th anniversary.

On Thursday, the actual anniversary, Donald Gibson, president and chief executive officer of Greene County Bancorp Inc., J. Bruce Whittaker, director and former Bancorp president and Martin Smith, president of the bank’s board of directors opened trading on Wall Street by ringing the NASDAQ bell.

Proper said that the bank likes to celebrate different a community business or establishment every month and the school art show was a nice fit.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity for the students to show their work in the community,” Proper said.

Principal to resign, leaves strong legacy

Members of the Coxsackie-Athens school board have accepted the resignation of longtime Edward J. Arthur Elementary School principal Paul Snyder.

Snyder, who has served as the school’s principal for 10 years will retire at the end of July.

He called his resignation bittersweet.

“I’ve enjoyed it here. It’s a great school district,” Snyder told the board.

Snyder said that one of the goals of his administration was to improve the school’s academics. Last year, he said, the school received its best English Language Arts scores in history, and the students had done excellently on science exams as well.

One academic program he instituted at the school moved teachers with their students from first grade to second grade, and from third grade to fourth grade.

He started looping classes in this manner at his previous school, in Livingston Manor, in Columbia County.

Snyder said that although the program was not without its problems he thought it benefited the students and the teachers.

“What I’ve always looked to do was what was best for the kids,” he said.

Fourth grade teacher Darren Dusharm agreed that looping had its up and downs but said that staying with his students for two years rather than just one was helpful.

Snyder said that the majority of parents gave him positive feedback about the program and that he hoped he gave the staff and school a direction in which to go.

However, Snyder said, he also trusted his teachers to provide for their students.

“I try to let the staff do their job,” he said.

Dusharm said he appreciated that Snyder had continued the school’s tradition of holding an assembly every Monday morning and allowed teachers to ease into curriculum changes.

Snyder, who drove to Athens from his home in Mayfield, in Fulton County, every day to work, said that he would miss his students and working with their parents and the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.

Snyder said he would like to see the next principal work towards making renovations on the school building and fixing its boilers, which have failed a few times already this winter.

Snyder plans on spending time this summer with his wife and friends in Maine. He said that as an administrator, he has had to work over the summer, while his wife, a teacher, had a vacation. Next school year, he will have vacation while his wife works, he said.

Debbie Legas, Snyder’s secretary, said that she would miss her boss, who will be remembered by board members as the principal who brought food spreads to meetings held at the school.
She lauded how accessible Snyder has been during his years as principal.

“Any time a parent had a problem or good news, his door was open,” Lagas said.

She said Snyder tried to make his students enjoy school and even dressed up on Halloween. In recent years, Snyder took on the aliases of Winnie the Pooh, Shrek and the Gingerbread Man, and tried to encourage other administrators to celebrate the holiday in similar style.

“Whatever it took to get the kids through the day, Mr. Snyder made sure it happened,” she said.

“The moment you will remember”
Jan. 21, 2009

Students at Cairo-Durham Middle School were treated to a lesson of history-in-the-making Tuesday, when their regular class schedule turned to watching and discussing the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

Art teacher Justine Criswell asked her class to sit at their desks and watch a television in the room, rather than work on an art assignment.

“The moment that you watch is the moment you will remember,” she told her students.

She told them that as adults they will remember where they were and what they were doing on this day.

Students in the class said that they were excited to have a chance to watch the inauguration, for many of them the first they have seen.

Sixth-grader Kera Hunt said that she was glad Obama was the new president because he was the first black American to hold the office.

Her classmate Nina Sommer said she liked President Obama.

“He seems really nice,” she said.

The students sat silently as Vice President Joseph Biden took his oath of office.

Down the hall, the school’s cafeteria was filled with students eating and talking. A television in the corner of the room showed the crowds assembled in Washington, D.C.

Lunch monitors encouraged students to wrap up their conversations and focus on the television.

Seventh-grader Ian Metzger already sat quietly, focusing his attention on the screen.

Metzger said that he voted in the school’s mock presidential election held in the school in November. He said that he and his family talk about politics at home and he remembers watching part of the inauguration of former President George W. Bush.

At noon, Metzger, and two dozen other students, filed into room 106B for Kerry Quinn’s seventh grade social studies class.

Quinn’s curriculum, which focuses on the American Revolution, was broadened to tie in what was happening in the nation’s capital.

“That is the head judge of the United States of America,” Quinn narrated to his class as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stepped forward to the podium.

“He swears in the President. Notice how he takes out a Bible,” Quinn added.
“Try to listen to the words,” he told the students.

One student silently applauded at the close of the oath. Many other students were excited by the cannon that was fired during the ceremony.

One student in the class said that although she did not give the new president her undivided attention during his speech, the section about how race does not matter particularly stuck in her mind.

Quinn explained that for the next four years, the song “Hail to the Chief,” which was being played by the U.S. Marine Corps Band at the ceremony, would announce Obama’s arrival at all events.

He explained that the new president would spend the rest of the day at a parade in the nation’s capital as well as a lot of parties, including the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference ball, which will also be attended by two students from Cairo-Durham High School.

Quinn used the inauguration to contrast Tuesday’s peaceful transfer of power from one leader to another with the violent conflict that gave birth to the nation.

He read to the class an advertisement from a Colonial Boston newspaper that told readers to tar, feather and try to light tax collectors on fire when they came around, to illustrate his point.

He then described to his students the segregated America in which he grew up, but they have not known.

He told them a story of going swimming with a cousin in St. Petersburg, Fla. in the early 1960s. The swimming complex had two entrances, one marked “White” and the other “Colored.”

Quinn said that after he had swam in the white-only pool, which had a slide, he recalled, he entered the other swimming area, which just opened onto a rocky strip of beach and Tampa Bay.

“Is that right? Is that fair,” Quinn asked his students, rhetorically.

Several answered with a resounding, “No.”

Quinn asked his students to look at the pictures of the 44 presidents hanging in the back of the room. Forty-three of them are white, one is black, but they all are men, he said, adding that he hoped that in his lifetime, and when his students are adults, women will be elected to serve in the White House.

But like the new president, who began his job at the close of his oath, the students in Quinn’s class soon re-focused on their job as students, and they resumed preparing for the English Language Arts exam, which they will take later this week.

New members named to committees
Jan. 20, 2009

Three community members were appointed by the Athens Village Board at its meeting Wednesday to hear about waterfront projects and zoning appeals.

Two open positions on the Waterfront Advisory Committee, which looks at applications for projects in the waterfront district, were filled by Paul Petramale and Claire Parde.

Mayor Andrea Smallwood said Monday evening that Petramale and Parde would be on the board for the regular, five-year terms on the committee, even though those seats were vacated before the previous terms had lapsed.

The committee reviews plans that fall under the local waterfront revitalization plan as well as the coastal zone management guidelines as set forth by the Department of State. Although the committee is advisory and has no governing power, it does warn trustees when a project or plan is in violation of those rules, Smallwood said.

“When it comes to mega type-one actions, it does protect the village,” Smallwood said.

Michael Siciliano was appointed to the Zoning Board of Appeals at the meeting last week.

Siciliano, who is a loan officer with First Niagara Mortgage, said Monday that he is “seasoned” in zoning rules and issues in Athens. He said he is ready to listen to all sides of an argument and hopes to make good decisions for the village.

Village trustees have also begun to discuss changing the law regarding the ZBA to allow for the appointment of alternates.

Smallwood said at last week’s meeting that the ZBA has recently had trouble reaching a quorum at meetings. An alternate may step in if a board member is unavailable at a site visit or meeting.
She also said that should other ZBA members not want to continue sitting, other positions may open soon.

A number of community members expressed interest in serving on either board.

If the ZBA alternate positions are created or more seats become vacant, more of the willing, experienced and fair-minded volunteers will get a chance to serve, Smallwood said.

Cuomo, E.P.A. reach accord
Jan. 17, 2009

New York, N.Y. — The Office of the Attorney General and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have reached a settlement requiring new limits on the amount of mercury and other toxic pollutants that cement plants can discharge, according to a press released by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo Friday.

The new rules will require EPA to propose new standards for mercury and other hazardous pollutant emissions from Portland cement plants across the counrty, including three in this area, by March 31, 2009, and will be subject to public comment. Final standards will be adopted by March 31, 2010, according to the release.

The St. Lawrence plant, in Catskill, the Lafarge plant, in Ravena and Glens Falls plant, in Glens Falls, all produce portland cement, which is used in concrete, mortar and grout.

The St. Lawrence plant has been cited for exceeding EPA emission standards in the past. Last week, Lafarge announced the dissolution of 37 positions in various areas of the company.

“The EPA has made the right choice by going back to the drawing board and committing to adopt new hazardous air pollutant standards for cement plants that comply with the Clean Air Act,” Cuomo said in the release.

In 2007, Cuomo and a coalition of eight other states including Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania sued the EPA for adopting emissions rules that did not adequately control the pollutants. Arguments in the suit said that the EPA violated the act by not baseing emission standards on state-of-the-art pollution control technology.

“We are please that our work with Attorney General Cuomo and the other states has resulted in this important environmental victory,” Jim Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups that joined the coalition said in the release.

Portland Cement Association, an industry group, also signed the settlement.

Firefighters, village discuss $600,000 truck
Jan. 19, 2009

Members of the Athens Volunteer Fire Department discussed with the Athens Village Board the options for purchasing a $600,000 truck at their meeting Wednesday.

The new “quint” the department is hoping to buy, with its pumps, water tank, hose, ladder, and 77-foot aerial arm could cost as much as $600,000, Peter Alberti, who chairs the department’s truck committee, told the board. Other models, which lack some features the department desires, could cost less.

The new truck is needed to replace a truck purchased new in 1983, said department chief John Greco. At the time of purchase, the truck was slated for replacement in 1998, according to the department fire truck replacement plan. The old truck has had problems with its breaks, pump, radiator carburetor and requiring $26,000 in repairs between 2001 and 2006, Greco said.

Greco said that the truck is started and checked every week and that it did pass safety inspections last year, but that this year the “old girl” might not be so lucky.

Greco and Alberti said at the meeting that they worry about the safety of their crews who ride the truck.

So far, the truck has only malfunctioned during training drills and minor fires and the department tries not to use it when possible, Greco said. The 25-year-old truck did respond to the recent call to Stewart House in Athens’ historical waterfront district, but was not engaged during the call, he said.

“Anything over 21 should be taken out of service,” Alberti said.

Department members think that the new truck may help them attain a more favorable score when the insurance services office inspects the department.

They suggested that a public hearing could be called to address Athens citizens on the need and that a referendum on the issue might be appropriate.

The board struggled at their meeting with how best to address replacing the truck. They voiced reservations over presenting the truck, and its multithousand dollar price-tag, as a referendum item this spring.

Mayor Andrea Smallwood said she feared that burdening taxpayers with the expense might not be wise in the present economic situation.

She questioned whether a referendum item could be on the ballot in March, due to procedural time constraints on such measures.

Trustee Chris Pfister said that the board would need to agree on a bond issue before a referendum could be called.

Trustee Tom Sopris said it was obvious to him that the old truck needed to be replaced, but worried that should voters reject a referendum item, the village might be left without another option.

The board discussed other avenues from which funding might come but acknowledged that the problem was difficult. Already, the Village has been notified that State funds will not be made available to various projects and programs. The Village is also looking to update its water meter reading system and construct a new Department of Public Works building, both of which which will cost money.

The issue was left unresolved, but the board and Village Attorney Brent Stack will revisit the issue at the next meeting.

Greco advised the board that after the National Fire Protection Association updates their standards in 2010, the price of the truck could rise another $200,000, as safety features such as a data recorder, become standard features.

If the cost of the truck is prohibitive, the department may be in a position to buy a used truck from another department.

Greco warned the board purchasing a used vehicle would come with a certain amount of risk.

“We’re not too keen on purchasing used fire apparatus,” he said.

“My hope is in a better tomorrow”
Jan. 16, 2009

Dozens of students and community members remembered the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on the 80th anniversary of his birth Thursday night with a candlelit march through Catskill and a program at Catskill High School.

The program included reading of King’s words, multimedia productions featuring photographs of King’s life and the American civil rights movement as well as musical performances by the Choraliers, led by musical director James Guldenstern, and a student band.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray.

At 6:30 p.m., Second Reformed Church Pastor Richard Turpin said a prayer with the assembled crowd outside the Second Baptist Church before the marchers made their way down Main Street and across Catskill Creek to Catskill High School.

Richard Muggeo, who has helped organize the celebration for years, explained to the students that during the civil rights movement, people congregated at churches and marched to courthouses to demand a change to “the legal, but morally wrong” Jim Crow laws.

He told the crowd of that they only had to battle the cold Thursday night, but during the movement, people were beaten with clubs, attacked by dogs and sprayed with fire hoses while they marched.

Members of the Catskill Community Center Continental Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps lead the march to the Greene County Courthouse with a lively street beat. Behind them, the 60 marchers carried batter-powered candles and sang the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.”

Lorainne Ferrara, advisor for the Catskill High School Interact Club, which is Rotary International’s service club for high school students, said that the club has been around for 38 years, making it the longest sustained club in the nation.

Catskill High School teachers have a long history in honoring the civil rights movement, Ferrera said. For years, Maryann Morrison, Naomi Wiener, Ed Synan, Muggeo and Ferrara spent the holiday celebrating King’s life at the State Capital in Albany.

Ferrera honored Mel Horowitz and Andy Jones for their service to the school and to the annual event. She dedicated Thursday’s celebration to Patricia Lewis, who was a freedom rider during the movement. Ferrera spoke of the courage Lewis, and everyone else who stood for equality, showed

“Her legacy, like Dr. King’s legacy, lives on,” Ferrera said.

Catskill School District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell addressed the assembly, reminding them that King spoke for everyone.

She asked her students, their parents and community members to remember and work towards King’s legacy.

“Choose what is right and change what isn’t,” she said.

Turpin asked the young crowd to cup their hands before them, and to feel the weight the social, economic and moral decisions they would make and the lives that they would live the next 20 years.

“It’s heavy,” he said.

Turpin said he hoped the students could live in the world of King’s dreams.

“My hope is in a better tomorrow. My hope is in your hands.”

During the second half of the celebration, students from Catskill and Cairo-Durham high schools spoke the words of King regarding faith, racism, peace, justice and freedom.
They read King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech and the address King gave after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Levi Fiske and Kedong Wang, co-presidents of the club said that they cherish the freedoms they enjoy today.

“We are still pursuing the dream,” Fiske said.

The Catskill Ecumenical Council will sponsor a service to honor King’s life at Second Baptist Church, on Main Street, on Sat. Jan. 17, at 4:00 p.m.

At 84, family meat market going strong
Jan. 14, 2009

Paul DiStefano says the secret to the success of his meat market, which this year celebrates its 84th year, is personal service.

“We love our customers,” he said.

One wall in the front room of DiStefano’s Meat Market shows its long history in the area. The wall is covered by photographs of the DiStefano family, their friends and customers, overlapping each other to fit. Mary Stuart Masterson, who came to town while filming “The Cake Eaters,” poses next to Paul in one.

“It’s great,” DiStefano said of the wall. “People come in and see their cousin.”

DiStefano says his market is the last of its kind in Greene County.

DiStefano and his two employees, Cathy Backis and Thomas Kravovich, who have nearly seventy years of experience between them, generally cut meats to order.

They have been known to invite customers into the back room, where the cutting is done, to select their own pieces. Such a personal selection of food is generally not allowed in chain grocery stores, DiStefano said.

DiStefano said the was shop moved from its original location, one space most recently occupied by the MuddyCup on Main Street, in Catskill, in the 1950’s because there was no parking available to customers, and few people walked by. The market occupied space on Cairo’s Main Street until the 1990s, when it relocated to its current location off Route 23B, in Cairo, right at the intersection of Route 23. The newest location is conducive to walk-in business, he said.

DiStefano said that first-time customers come into the store every week. They say they saw the market from the road and decided to stop in, DiStefano said. But, by DiStefano’s estimate, 90 percent of his customers have been familiar faces in the shop for years.

Paul DiStefano’s father, Savario, known as Sam, came to the area from Sicily, where he first started working as a butcher. Sam continued his trade in Brooklyn before he set up shop in Catskill in 1926.

DiStefano still uses Sam’s recipes for Italian sausage and says that he has always measured its components by sight.

“We never weigh a thing,” he said.

DiStafano still uses a cleaver and two wood chopping blocks, which have been worn away from so many cleansing scrapings and washings that their legs need to be placed on blocks to make their surfaces the right hight. Wood shavings cover the cutting room’s floor. He uses a hand-operated meat stuffer to fill casings, which works by turning a crank on its side.

“It’s not the fastest process in the world,” he said.

But it works.

DiStefano’s hands move quickly and effortlessly when he twists the long sausage tubes into links.

He said he was never formally taught to cut meat, but learned the shapes of bones and cuts of meat by watching his Sam bone out. Now, meat arrives to the market already off the bone. Sam also slaughtered animals, work DiStefano has always avoided.

DiStefano said that although he sells a couple hundred pounds of meat a week, roughly 10 percent of his business comes from farmers ask him to prepare their livestock. DiStefano estimates that he custom cuts about 30 deer for hunters for year, however, that number has gone down over the last few years. He also cuts meat for several restaurants in the area.

He said the hardest cut to prepare is a veal cutlet, because the finished product has to be so thin, but working with pork and beef in considerably easier. Most of the beef he sells comes from Canada, which is generally leaner than domestic beef, DiStefano said.

DiStefano has also ordered and prepared elk, boar and alligator meat for customers with a taste for such exotic animals.

Cathy Backis, who had been serving customers while DiStefano worked with and discussed the meat, said she had one goal for DiStefano’s Meat Market this year.

“To make it to 2010,” she said.

Warm sounds on a cold night; Duo of Malcolm Cecil and Garfield Moore jazz up the classics
Jan. 11, 2009

A small but enthusiastic crowd that braved falling snow and slippery roads were treated to a evening of jazzed-up classical music played by acclaimed musicians Malcolm Cecil and Garfield Moore at Imagine That in Catskill Saturday night.

The concert was held to celebrate the relocation of the pottery workshop to its new location at 397 Main St.

Cecil, who hails from Woodstock, won a producing-and-engineering Grammy Award in 1974 for his work on Stevie Wonder’s album “Innervisions” and has been featured on albums with the Isley Brothers, Joan Baez and Little Feat.

Although he is best known for playing jazz on the acoustic bass and synthesizer, Cecil is also an accomplished classical musician.

“I’m from the Duke Ellington school of music,” he said.

Cecil said he likes to play music across a variety of musical genres.

“There are two kinds of music. The good kind and the other kind,’ Cecil said, quoting Ellington, adding, “I play the good kind.”

Garfield Moore teaches music appreciation and history at Columbia-Greene Community College.

Moore has played on Broadway, with the Pacific Philharmonic and in Eastern Europe, and has a cello duo, Duoleo. The Catskill resident studied at Stanford University and at the Institut de Hautes Etudes Musicales (Institute of Advanced Music) in Switzerland and has lectured at the Juilliard School.

Baritone vocalist and guitarist Perry Beekman was scheduled to play with Cecil Saturday night, but was unable to do so because of the weather, giving Moore a chance to play with Cecil in Catskill.

Cecil’s plucked strings juxtaposed against Moore’s smooth bow strokes made for a unique interpretation of classic pieces by Bach and Vivaldi.

The pair enjoys mixing styles like this and think it a new way to engage audiences and fans of both genres.

Moore, Cecil and violinist Gwen Laster recently teamed up to create Super Stringz, a group, Cecil said, which plays classical pieces like jazz tunes and jazz songs like classical ones.

“I think people latch onto the feel,” Cecil said of the musical outcome.

The group will be playing a concert for the University of Albany at Albany public access radio station on Feb. 10.

Cecil, who is used to playing with larger groups of musicians, said that he likes playing with one other musician, because it gives him room to experiment with styles, as he did with Moore.

“I have a lot more freedom,” he said.

Cecil is particularly interested in astronomer Johannes Kepler’s theory that musical harmonies are connected to planetary orbits.

He demonstrated on a string of his bass the vibration arc of an octave. When only lightly touched by a finger, the string is allowed to vibrate for its whole length, creating two notes. The string vibrates in one direction above the finger and in the opposite direction below the finger, both together making a circle.

Planets, as they orbit, vibrate also, Cecil said.

“Vibrations are vibrations are vibrations,” he said.

Cecil’s visit to Imagine That Saturday night was not his first. At the suggestion of his wife, who herself is an artist, he has begun creating a large plate depicting the complete theory of music, including a diagram of all the notes and harmonics.

He said that pottery is a much more permanent medium for the diagram than its original, a yellowed piece of paper.

Cairo bears get their closeup
Jan. 10, 2009

Cairo will get a first glimpse of “Aurora Bearealis” and the other 39 bears of the Bears and Butterflies project this Sunday at Gallagher’s Banquet Hall on Main Street.

Sunday’s rendering reception is a chance for the bears’ sponsors to meet the artists who will turn the statues into art. But this event is also an opportunity for the public to get a preview of the bears that may soon be coming to a sidewalk or storefront near them.

“Part of the fun and excitement of the whole project is to see what the artists will come up with,” Sue Hilgendorff, a project organizer, said in an e-mail.

Each sponsor will select the rendering they want for their bear.

“It’s first come, first served,” she said.

Once finished, the bears will not all be placed along Cairo’s Main Street, as are the cats in Catskill, but instead will be spread across the town’s hamlets.

Event organizers hope that a game they have incorporated into the bears to celebrate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River, will encourage residents and visitors alike to explore parts of the town they do not usually see.

Each bear’s pattern will include a butterfly, and each butterfly will contain a letter or symbol that will correspond to a question about Henry Hudson. Those who can answer all 39 questions will become eligible to win cash and prizes.

Unlike “Aurora Bearealis,” which has already been painted by Jim Cramer, the other bears have not been assigned themes.

“The renderings we have received so far are all fabulous and varied,” Hilgendorff wrote.

The reception will last from 2 until 4 p.m., and is open to the public at $5 per person.

Saving seniors from scams
Jan. 10, 2009

A representative of the Office of New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo met with senior citizens at the Acra Senior Center Friday to offer tips on how to avoid being caught up in money scams.

During the lively presentation, Mark Hoops, the Office’s senior consumer fraud representative, described schemes that target senior citizens, such as sweepstakes companies that offer prize money in return for an international money order, home improvement contractors who ask for cash upfront to buy supplies, and solicitors collecting for not-so-charitable causes.

Copies of the Office’s Smart Senior booklet, which outlines how to prevent and report fraud, were available as well.

Hoops warned the audience that even though as seniors, they have built up a history with banks, creditors and charities, banks might not catch abnormal activity or recognize it as fraud. Sending such orders, he cautioned, could quickly plunge a victim into debt, but is also illegal.

Hoops said that shut-ins and those who only have a telephone for company are especially at risk from these types of schemes. Hoops asked seniors at the lunch to speak with their friends who may fall into that category.

Hoops then turned the presentation to the scams home contractors pull on unsuspecting homeowners. He described the difficulty of tracking a suspect contractor, especially if the contractor was paid in cash.

Different counties across the state have different rules as to what type of contractors need licenses and training to conduct business, so the Office of the Attorney General recently launched a Web site to help inform homeowners and stop dishonorable contractors from pulling off their scams.

The site, NYKnowYourContractor.com, provides homeowners lists of which home improvement contractors and landscapers have complaints filed against them or are subject to lawsuits. It offers tips for finding the best contractor for a job, such as knowing which permits are needed for what type of work, obtaining proof of insurance for a potential contractor and interviewing multiple contractors for a cost estimate and to agree on a time frame.

The site also directs users to the state’s Consumer Protection Board as well as regional and county bureau and agency information sites.

Hoops advised the audience that charitable donations may not always end up where the donor intended.
“Anybody who wants to solicit money from New Yorkers is mandated by law to register with the Attorney General and report to them every year their collections, the name of the telemarketer they hired, and what they paid the telemarketer and what pledges they collected that actually went to the charity,” he said.

Last month, Cuomo issued a report that showed, on average, that 38 cents of every dollar brought in by a telemarketing company on behalf of a charity actually goes to that charity.

Hoops said that people considering donating to a charity with which they are unfamiliar should request its annual report before writing a check.

“When you introduce the Office’s name into the conversation,” he said, “the scammers usually hang up.”

He reminded the audience that solicitation calls from people claiming to be state troopers are from scammers, too.

Many audience members said that they had received calls from so-called troopers asking for money.

“State troopers don’t solicit funds. It’s simple, they don’t,” he said.

People can further protect themselves from scammers by taking advantage of the Security Freeze Law, which went into effect in 2006.

Under the law, people can send requests to the three major credit reporting agencies for a freeze, or lock, of their credit histories. Doing this will help prevent anyone from opening accounts or borrowing money using the information contained within.

Hoops described the benefits of a credit freeze as like becoming invisible.

“You stop getting bogus checks in the mail, offers for cruises disappear. Your mailbox lightens up,” he said.

Reports can be unlocked for legitimate reasons by the account owner and then relocked once the process is conducted.

Freezing the records will not disrupt credit card accounts or halt transactions, he explained.

Several seniors at the lunch said they were familiar with the schemes Hoops highlighted. Several said they knew of people who had been victimized by one scam or another and they would start using Hoops’ tips if they did not use them already.

Greene County Legislator William Lawrence, R-Cairo, who also attended the lunch presentation, said afterwards that the freeze law was an excellent idea.

Using the service left little option for someone to open an account using someone else’s personal information, he said.

Hoops asked the audience to tell their friends about the protective measures, saying that as the public becomes aware of certain schemes, scammers are forced to give up their game.

Hoops is scheduled to make other related presentations around the county in the coming months.

Jazz legends Cecil, Beekman team up for concert
Jan. 9, 2009

Lillian Johnson is welcoming the new year in a new location with a jazz concert Saturday night featuring two renowned artists, bassist-producer Malcolm Cecil and vocalist-guitarist Perry Beekman.

Johnson moved her pottery workshop, Imagine That, to 397 Main St. at the close of 2008. The move was the first of many changes she will make this year.

The new space is much larger than her old space, which was across the street. The store’s green, salmon and blue walls and colorful floor entice customers to come in and let their creativity show.

“The future seems to feel brighter and better,” she said.

And that is cause for a celebration, she said.

Cecil has been the principal bassist for the BBC Radio Orchestra and was the resident bassist at the Ronnie Scott Jazz Club in London. Cecil won a Grammy Award in 1974 for engineering and producing Stevie Wonder’s album “Innervisions.” Cecil, who also plays the synthesizer, has recorded albums with Stan Getz and Roland “Rahassn” Kirk. He has been featured on albums by such diverse artists as the Isley Brothers, Joan Baez, Little Feat and Gil Scott-Heron.

Cecil will be joined by Beekman, who has played venues in New York City and the Hudson Valley.

Beekman’s music is deeply rooted in the classic tradition of jazz and his repertoire includes songs from the Great American Songbook, which have also been performed by Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole and Mel Torme.

Imagine That’s night of music runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

The shop, where people can paint their own pottery, will soon offer more craftworks, like hot glass, mosaics and ceramics. Johnson will also begin hosting children’s programs, club meetings and corporate team building workshops. Other new featured events will include tea parties and Diva Nights.

 State judge says resolution violated Open Meetings Law
Jan. 8, 2009

State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi ruled Wednesday that a resolution adopted in the Town of Cairo last fall did not comply with the state’s Open Meetings Law.

The decision requires the board to review the site plan and to take another vote.

“Because the defendants’ September 3 Resolution was not issued in compliance with the Open Meeting Law or Town Law 271(16) and 274-a, the Sept. 3 Resolution is annulled,” the ruling reads according to a press release issued by Tom Roe, free103point9 program manager.

The September vote denied an application from free103point9 for their Wave Farm “Study Center” in Acra, which will include a studio for a community radio station, living areas for summer resident artists and space for outdoor performances.

“Upon reconsideration, the board will utilize the Town of Cairo Local Law 1 of the year 2006, to review the plaintiff’s site plan application, and an affirmative vote is required to approve or deny the plaintiff’s application,” Tal Rappleyea, who represents the town and planning boards, read from the decision at a Planning Board meeting Wednesday.

According to the decision, the board has to vote on the project in a timely manner.

Rappleyea called the ruling “sort of a split decision,” saying that the decision did not rule against the Town of Cairo and the Planning Board for all items in the lawsuit.

Rappleyea said that the decision held that one part of the lawsuit, alleging that the board violated the civil rights of free103point9 by not making their decision under the new law, was not applicable, because the law had not gone into effect at the time of the vote.

Rappleyea told the planning board that the court said that it was too early to make a determination on whether the board had violated the civil rights of free103point9 for not approving the plan.

The decision will not become binding until the attorneys for free103point9 file it with the Greene County Clerk’s office.

Roe said he expected that the ruling would be filed very soon so that plan review can resume.

“This project has been delayed and delayed and delayed by the town already,” Roe said.

Rappleyea said that the file has been fully submitted to the board along with comments on the plan.

Planning Board Chairman Peter Maassmann told the board that no further public hearings concerning the project would be held and no new materials would be accepted.

Planning board member Daniel Benoit suggested that the board have a special meeting to discuss the plan. Maassmann said that such a meeting could be in order if board members felt one was needed after they reviewed the file individually.

“I trust the Planning Board to respect the court’s decision and review the project under the old site law,” Cairo Town Supervisor John Coyne said.

Free103point3 is a non-profit arts group that received a Federal Communications Commission license for a 3,300-watt non-commercial FM radio station on 90.7 in Columbia and Greene counties this fall. The station will air shows with a local focus that are produced by members of the community.

“I am looking forward to working with town officials in the future, and hope that, moving forward, this project is reviewed in a manner appropriate to its small-scale and community-oriented mission,” Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter said in the release.

Power outage wreaks havoc for some

Sixteen-hundred Central Hudson customers lost power briefly Thursday morning, causing lights to go out as well as computer and phone systems to crash.

The outage occurred at 6:30 a.m. and power to just about everyone had been restored about 90 minutes later, according to Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian.

Initial reports said that the outage was caused by a transformer explosion near the Greene County Courthouse on Main Street, but, according to Maserjian, the mechanism fastening a power line to a pole malfunctioned.

“The problem did damage to the transformer. The transformer was not the cause of the problem,” he said.

The initial outage only affected about 300 customers, Maserjian said, but power to lines around the damaged fastener had to be cut, which extended the outage to 1,600 customers.

Greene County employees said they heard that computers in the building malfunctioned as a result of the loss of power.

Although many Main Street businesses said they were unaffected by the power failure, the Bank of Greene County was not so lucky.

Bank of Greene County President Don Gibson, who works in the administration center at 302 Main St., said the outage turned out to be a major inconvenience.

“It played havoc with our computer system and our phone system,” he said.

Gibson said that power fluctuations continued through the afternoon, causing issues for employees until around 4 p.m.

Bank staff in the building service 11 branches.

Phone service at the bank branch at 425 Main St. was also “screwy,” Gibson said.

Saving energy, money in Cairo
Jan. 1, 2009

Cairo town offices could close one day a week later this year in an effort to reduce the town’s heating bills.

Town officials discussed the four-day work week at their board meeting in December, but did not reach a decision.

Certain offices, such as the bookkeeper’s and the supervisor’s, could close Fridays, for example, but could extend their hours to accommodate residents who come for help when they get out of work.

Other offices, including the assessor and the building department would remain open, officials said.

The state mandates that the library stay open for 35 hours a week. Councilwoman Janet Schwarzenegger pointed out that the library needs to be open on Saturday to accommodate students. The Acra Community Center is also utilized on weekends.

Town Supervisor John Coyne said that officials were looking into various plans to save money.

“I would love to see this happen, but I don’t think it will happen this heat season,” he said.

Hours for the tax collector and assessor have already been publicized on department forms and could not be changed, he said.

Cairo officials did not respond to several attempts to learn how much the town spends on heating the building and how much money would be saved by switching to a four-day work week.

Storm ends 2008 with a chill
Jan. 1, 2009

Greene County residents celebrated the arrival of the New Year Wednesday from under a blanket of snow.

A winter weather advisory was in effect for western Greene County Wednesday until 4 p.m., warning that temperatures, already in the 20s, would feel colder as wind gusts would reach up to 40 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service in Albany said the storm dumped about 6 inches of snow in Catskill while 6.5 inches fell in Cairo.

Crews cleaned up an accident Wednesday morning on Main Street, in Catskill, where a sedan skidded through the intersection at Thompson Street and slammed into the Greene County Office Building on Main Street. The driver was uninjured, according to Catskill Police Sgt. John Lyles.

The car shattered a window and damaged a wall in the Department of Motor Vehicles’ office space, Greene County Clerk Michael Flynn said.

Flynn said that the breach had been temporarily repaired when he arrived at the office at 7:45 A.M.

“Greene County Buildings and Grounds did a great job buttoning it all up,” he said.

Greene County Highway Department crews started laying down de-icing agents and plowing at 4 a.m. Wednesday, said Deputy County Highway Department Superintendent Robert Van Valkenberg said.

“It was very slippery earlier,” he said.

Van Valkenberg said that crews would monitor roads today for snow drifts that had been moved by winds overnight.

Denise VanBuren, vice president of public relations for Central Hudson, said she was aware of only three power outages in the county. She said that a dry snow, like that which fell on Wednesday, was not likely to cause problems with power lines.

Slick roads, however, could contribute to outages, she said.

“Problems would come with the unfortunate person who does not heed the warnings and slides off the road into one of our poles,” she said.

State Police responded to several minor accidents on the Thruway Wednesday morning. Troop T authorities said that most of the accidents were minor.

Wednesday’s snow may not melt today, the National Weather Service said, as temperatures will stay below 20 degrees and wind chills will plunge far below zero.