SusanCampriello: My Works

Bat man Al Hicks on the white-nose syndrome
The Daily Mail
Aug. 28, 2009

New York State has only one expert working on the white-nose syndrome that has claimed the lives of bats in the Northeastern United States, Conservationist Alan Hicks.

(A handful of State workers do help out with research, as well as two seasonal technicians, but other than that, Al’s it.)

I spoke with Hicks this week to learn what I could about the battle against the spread of the syndrome, which was first identified in 2006 at Howe Caverns, in Schoharie County, and whether the mortality rates in Greene County had leveled off. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Greene County bat populations were killed by the syndrome during the 2006-07 winter.

Hicks told me that 95 percent of the region’s bats have died in the last two to three years. Last year, he said, the southern reaches of the fungus was Sullivan County, N.Y. Now the fungus has been found as far south as central Virginia.

Population estimates are based on winter surveys so it is difficult to know how the population has shifted over this summer. Bat populations are only concentrated during the winter. But even winter counts cannot accurately reflect a colony’s death rate, Hicks said.

“There is no point at which you could say ‘this was this year’s mortality,’ because it is a continuum right through winter, probably to mid-May,” he said.

Also, Hicks said, bats may move around to different parts of a cave from year-to-year.

Hicks said groups monitoring bat populations during the summer have reported data that fits with the winter observations: “The numbers have gone way down.”

When asked for ideas on how the fungus has been moving, Hicks replied, “quickly.”

The fungus has spread, he said, by bats from the north encountering bats from the south. But, he added, people could be carrying the fungus into caves and infecting bats.

“We don’t know how easy it is to spread that way,” he said. “It is certainly possible.”

I asked Hicks what effect the syndrome may be having on insect populations, and, in turn, organisms that depend on bats or insects. He said discerning that is difficult. Quantitative studies on the question have not taken place here, in the wooded Northeast, he said. Insect populations can shift dramatically with changing weather patterns, but they can reproduce quickly.

“To tease out the difference between those increases that are the responsibility of bats would probably cost more than it will cost to try to find a cure to his problem,” he said. “It is a huge, huge undertaking to try to do the sampling.”

He said so far, more than 500,000 bats have perished in New York State from the syndrome so far.

“That is a half-a-million animals that are not there eating night-flying insects,” he said. And a bat will eat roughly half of its own weight in insects every night.

Hicks said he and researchers in other states as well as in Quebec and Ontario have not found evidence of any kind of resistance yet, but that that evidence may just not be obvious yet.

Many hundreds of bats across the east have been brought into laboratories for all kinds of research and examinations, he said, but keeping bats alive in captivity is difficult.

“A lot of them have gone into labs, none of them have come out,” he said.

Hicks said that eventually he and other researchers will going to have large captive collections of bats.

He suggested perhaps an exotic bat species carrying the fungus was introduced into the United States from Europe.

“All the evidence we’ve collected so far suggests that it’s a fungal infection caused by a newly descried species and that this fungus is similar, if not identical, to a fungus in Europe that also lives on bats,” Hicks said. “The evidence has pointed that way more and more.”

The bat colony that long inhabited a building where I vacation in the lower Adirondacks was gone this summer. Have you noticed any new bat absences?

Seniors helping seniors
The Daily Mail
Aug. 31, 2009

Two organizations committed to helping senior citizens in Greene County held fundraising benefits this weekend. And directors from both the Greene County Aging Services Foundation and the Community Action of Greene County, Inc. Senior Companion Program reported successes but have higher hopes for next year.

Chris Pfister, president of the foundation’s Board of Directors, said Sunday that more money had been raised by the foundation’s art auction at the Athens Cultural Center than at other past fundraisers.

“We were pleased,” he said. “Everybody seemed to have a great time.”

The auction of roughly 40 paintings done by Greene and Ulster county artists brought in about $2,000 for the foundation— money that will be used to buy gasoline for those who visit and drive senior citizens to appointments and to the Greene County Department for the Aging, Pfister said.

He said the foundation would give about $5,000 this year to the county Department.

Money also is used toward buying emergency call devices for senior citizens, he said.

“We made a lot of great money for the organization and some great uses to put it to,” he said.

Pfister said the foundation, which is overseen by an eight-member board of directors, is looking to grow to help senior citizens in more ways.

The Saturday event featured a twist on a regular art auction: the 30 artists who created the paintings were all more than 50 years old.

“They were seniors helping seniors,” he said.

And that is the idea behind the Community Action of Greene County, Inc. Senior Companion Program. Through it, individuals more than 55 years old visit with and help elderly individuals make appointments. Senior companions also provide respite for home caregivers and advocate for seniors’ needs.

On Sunday, a group of 25 motorcyclists rode 90 miles from Jefferson Heights around the Ashokan Reservoir and back to Catskill by way of Lanesville and Windham as part of a fundraiser for the program.

Senior Companion Program Director and the Ride4Seniors organizer Maureen Biegner, and other riders were met by more supporters at the CreekSide Restaurant and Bar in Catskill Sunday for an afternoon of food and music by Lex Grey and the Urban Pioneers. The event also featured a raffle.

Biegner said she thought of the ride as a way to bring her love of riding together with raising money for the organization.

“As times change, you can’t do the same fundraisers year after year, you have to get with the times,” she said.

She said threatening weather Sunday morning might have kept would-be riders home and that next year’s ride will be bigger and better.

Total money raised at the event had not been tallied Sunday evening.

She agreed with Chirs Pfister that volunteer efforts are an important factor in helping senior citizens who may be homebound to remain living on their own and out of assisted-living facilities.

Biegner said the number of clients grows every year, with an estimated 30 volunteers helping 200 clients this year.

“A lot more people need our services, we need more volunteers,” she said.

Catskill hires tech firm
The Daily Mail
Aug. 31, 2009

The Village of Catskill has hired a new information technology maintenance provider to help streamline and unify the village’s computer system.

For $1,500, intelligent technology solutions, inc. will assess Village computers and servers as well as develop a five-year plan for system maintenance, according to Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley.

Seeley said costs for maintaining the system may increase.

“You really don’t know how much something will cost until you have somebody come in and evaluate the system,” he said.

The contract was approved by the Village Board last week.

I.t.s. will help the Village create backup systems and keep virus protection software up-to-date for more than 50 computers in five Village buildings and the Village court.

Only computers for the Catskill Police Department will be serviced by a different provider, Seeley said, because the State Division of Criminal Justice software in uses is unique and complex.

The Town of Catskill also has a contract with i.t.s., which, Seeley said, will benefit both municipalities should any Town or Village entities begin to consolidate services.

I.t.s., which is located in Coxsackie, was selected for the contract because of its costs and guarantee that one of its nine employees will respond quickly to Catskill’s emergency calls.

Trustees Joseph Kozloski and Patrick McCulloch agreed that speedy service was a plus.

“We need someone to be there within a reasonable timeframe,” McCulloch said.

In the past, Catskill has worked with individuals to maintain the system and that of the Police Department.

The Village also considered Catskill’s Smart Systems for the contract.

Peace Village celebrates milestone with fair
The Daily Mail
Aug. 30, 2009

HUNTER — Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center is a well-kept secret about which most visitors know through word-of-mouth, according Linda Krentzman, who helped organize the center in 1999.

This may change as the center opens for a 10th Anniversary fair running from Aug. 29 through Sept. 6.

The idea behind the fair, Krentzman said, was to allow people to come for a few hours of the day to learn about a variety of crafts and meditative activities. Children’s activities, including kite painting for Kites for Peace, and face painting are available, as well, she said.

Sister Kala Iyengar M.D. welcomed guests from around the country at an invocation ceremony saying the whole world is looking for a peaceful experience whether they know it or not.

“The hardest time we have is trying to explain to people what Peace Village is all about,” she said. “So, we made it a family affair, a fun affair and yet a very rich spiritual affair.”

Sister Mohini Panjabi, president of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization, USA and regional coordinator for North America, Latin America and Caribbean, said the fair was a good way to open up Peace Village to the community in Hunter, in Greene County and in the United States.

“It is important to have an experience of peace, it is important to have inner peace,” she said. “To have inner peace is very much connected to the lifestyle.”

She officially opened the fair, which included vegetarian cooking demonstrations, meditations and music performances, by cutting a ribbon from a colorful wheel.

“I am very, very happy that we have had a peaceful 10 years here, a lot of goodwill and a lot of support and cooperation from everyone around,” she said.

The opening ceremony included an invocation sung by Rohini Ramnathan in Sanskrit and in English and prayers for peace in every world country led by Ann Marie Williams, of the World Peace Prayer Society.

Sister Dorothy Steinfeld, Peace Village program director, recognized a group of “heroes of the Mountain Top” who serve the community in different ways.

She thanked Haines Falls Volunteer Fire Company Chief Ed Dibble along with First Assistant Chief Nathan Hommel on behalf of the entire Company for serving the area tirelessly.

State Police Sgt. Kathryn Rohde-Lasher accepted a certificate of appreciation for Police Troop F, Zone 3, which covers Ulster and Greene counties.

Hunter Town Supervisor Dennis Lucas was also thanked for his service to the community.

Mountain Top Boy Scout Troop 53 served as color guard, raising the American flag and then lowering it to half-staff in honor of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, of Mass., whose funeral was held in Boston Saturday.

Linda Krentzman, who has lived at Peace Village since it opened in 1999, said each weekend outdoor, artistic and movement retreat, as well as the events at the fair, offers people a spiritual, or non-physical gift.

“It enriches people at their own level,” she said.

Krentzman called the anniversary “quite a milestone,” and did not rule out the possibility of making the fair an annual event based on the success of the coming week.

She said several groups from around the United States collaborated to offer their knowledge and expertise at the fair.

“It really was a lot of fun to put together,” she said. “We thought it was a success before anyone came through the door.”

7th Annual Ride for Audrey overcomes rain
Family and friends hope missing Audrey Herron will be found
The Daily Mail
Aug. 30, 2009

EARLTON — Roughly 300 family and friends of Audrey May Herron marked the 7th anniversary of her disappearance Saturday with music, food and a ride through Greene County.

Herron’s brother Ray Turk Jr. said the annual “Riding 4 Audrey” benefit keeps Herron’s name in the public.

“Hopefully, somebody with information will come out and say something,” Herron’s father, Ray Turk Sr., said.

Before the ride, talk turned to Jaycee Dugard, who was reunited with her family in California earlier this week after being missing for 18 years. Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 at the age of 11. Police there are questioning suspects in that case.

Friends Marie Fahey Parker and Maria Ferencz, who runs the “Riding 4 Audrey” Web site, said Dugard’s story proves that missing persons can be found years later, and somewhat close to home.

“Maybe [Herron] is right here also and we are just not seeing it,” Ferencz said.

Rains throughout the morning caused only 17 people to ride, although, Parker pointed out, that rain has fallen on every Aug. 29 since 2002.

The ride began and ended at Brennan’s School House Inn, on Rte. 81., to be followed by a poker run and a pig roast. Half of the proceeds went to the $25,000 reward/trust fund for Herron’s three children and the other half to the Center for Hope of Ballston Spa.

Herron’s daughter, Sonsia Rae Court, was 10 in 2002. Herron’s children Katie and Quinn were 4 and 2.

In the last seven years, the event has drawn families of other missing persons, including Suzanne Lyall, who disappeared in 1998 from the area around the University of Albany, where she was a student, and Patricia Viola, a school librarian who disappeared from her home in Bogota, N.J., in 2001.

Parker has continued to organize the ride for seven years because of a promise she made to Herron’s parents never to stop looking for her friend.

“[Herron] is still missing. Her kids are still growing up without a mother,” she said. “Somebody out there knows something.”

Herron disappeared on Aug. 29, 2002 after leaving work at the Greene County Long Term Health Center in Jefferson Heights. She was last seen in the Town of Catskill at 11 p.m. driving a 1994 black Jeep Cherokee, New York registration X233UV.

The Jeep has never been found.

Catskill Chief of Police David Darling, who led the investigation until he left State Police Bureau of Investigation in 2006, said his team interviewed friends, family and co-workers as well as individuals and followed several leads including possible sightings of Herron’s Jeep.

“For eight weeks we worked non-stop, every day,” he said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was brought in, Darling said, but their efforts yielded no answers.

Herron’s photograph and information were featured in a deck of playing cards depicting missing persons created last year. The cards were distributed in area prisons.

State Police Investigator William Fitzmaurice, who took the case over from Darling, said no new leads have come to his attention recently.

Police encourage anyone with information to call them at the Catskill State Police Barracks, 518-622-8600. All calls will remain confidential.

Asphalt holding tank gets green light
ZBA, planning board approve Peckham’s variance, site plan
The Daily Mail
Aug. 28, 2009

ATHENS — Peckham Asphalt Resale Corp. will erect a towering 1.265 million gallon liquid asphalt holding tank at its facility on Schoharie Turnpike beginning in the next six months to decrease product transportation costs, according to Peckham Industries Vice President Joseph Wildermuth.

The Athens Town Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board approved a height variance and Site Plan for the 48-foot tower, respectively, at a join meeting Thursday held at the Athens Municipal Building. The tower could be completed by March.

“We have been able to secure the rail supply and it has kept us viable and competitive within the asphalt market,” Wildermuth said. “This facility has actually worked out very, very well for us. It has actually met or exceeded what we expected from it.”

Wildermuth and Jim Wilcox, who runs the company’s construction division, explained that the tank will reduce the need for the asphalt, which gets unloaded at the Schoharie Turnpike facility, to be trucked for storage to a facility on Union Street in the Village of Athens. Trucks then bring the asphalt back to the Schoharie Turnpike facility when needed. Transportation costs $6 per ton, with 20,000 tons, or about 700 trips annually between the two facilities.

Asphalt deliveries to the facility by rail began in May. Before then, supplies arrived to the waterfront facility by barge. Only three barges have made deliveries via barge in the last nine months, Wildermuth said.

The facility has two existing 30-foot by 32-foot holding tanks. The new tank will have a 67-foot footprint on same 5-acre containment area. Wildermuth said a shorter tank with a larger footprint would be possible but would leave less usable space should another facility expansion be needed. He told the boards that another expansion would probably not be needed for five years.

“This tank is not going to increase our business, it is to prevent having to bring product back into the Village,” he said.

Wildermuth agreed to investigate removing a tower at Peckham’s Amos Post facility as per the Planning Board’s suggestion.

Collaboration, technology key in C-A action plans
Objective: All students must surpass state, federal standards
The Daily Mail
Aug. 27, 2009

COXSACKIE — Coxsackie-Athens School District Superintendent Dr. Earle S. Gregory presented this year’s strategic plan at a sparsely attended Board of Education meeting.

The plan, Gregory told the Board and members of the district’s administration and faculty who attended the BOE meeting at the Coxsackie-Athens Middle School, that they would be moving ahead with various action plans in each of the district’s four schools toward completing the district’s overall strategic plan for ensuring that students exceed state and federal standards.

Gregory said faculty will begin to implement programs developed last year and monitor how students respond.

Middle school math lessons will continue to be integrated with core subjects so students can link information between subjects, he said.

“That is what we have to do. Kids need to see connections,” Gregory said.

Gregory responded to a question posed by board member Joseph Cardinale that Web seminars for teacher development are becoming increasingly accessible and already substitute teachers are required to go through an online presentation before they are allowed to teach.

“There are all sorts of opportunities for us in public education for us to capitalize on online learning,” Gregory said.

He said the state Education Department is in the process of developing a technology plan that could enable more Web sessions.

Other aspects of the action plan include looking into new options for long-distance learning classrooms and continuing reading study group exercises for elementary students and those in special education programs.

Gregory said district Chief of Curriculum Maureen Long might investigate this year how teachers could receive national board certification through a process he called rigorous, cumbersome and long-winded but is awarded to the highest quality of teachers.

“It is a very high level of certification,” he said.

He said the Board will hear in the coming months presentations regarding possible facility upgrades and the creation of an educational foundation. The action plan calls for the adoption of a BOE resolution for a proposed building project early next year.

Gregory thanked the members of the implementation team for their work since the strategic plan was approved in 2007.

“Ultimately all these things come out of the action plan,” he said, “that will lead us to realize our mission in always keeping in mind that Coxsackie-Athens Schools will provide a comprehensive education program for all students to compete successfully and to contribute to a global society,” he said.

“All of our administration has done a great job sticking to the strategic plan and going forward and developing these [ideas],” BOE President Joseph T. “Seph” Garland III said.

C-A tax levy up 1.8 pct.
Garland says figure on target with rate projected during budget period
The Daily Mail
Aug. 26, 2009

COXSACKIE — The Coxsackie-Athens Board of Education on Tuesday approved a nearly $15 million tax warrant for the upcoming school year.

District Chief Financial Officer Leslie Copleston announced to the Board that the $14.8 million levy was only 1.77 percent higher than last year’s levy.

Coxsackie-Athens School Board President Joseph “Seph” Garland III said the levy was on target with the rate projected during the budget period.

Copleston said equalization rates had remained constant in Coxsackie and New Baltimore, increased in Cairo and decreased in Athens. As a result, the tax rate of Cairo decreased and Athens’ rate increased while the rates in Coxsackie and New Baltimore stayed the same.

Copleston said the New York State Tax Relief (STAR) Program exemption had been responsible for some of the levy increase seen in the district.

“When we generate a tax bill, this is the part of the bill we have no control over,” she said.

The tax collection period will begin Sept. 1 and end Oct. 31.

According to a budget presentation made earlier this year, the levy will support 56 percent of the district’s $25.3 million budget. State aid will cover 37 percent of the budget. The remaining seven percent of the budget funds will come from an appropriated fund balance and other revenues, according to the presentation.

An estimated 1,560 students are enrolled in the district’s four schools.

Black Bridge proposal spans the arts
An artist’s rendering of how the Black Bridge could look next year. Susan Campriello/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
Village plans for safer, more attractive walks
The Daily Mail
Aug. 25, 2009

CATSKILL — Catskill’s walkways could become safer and more beautiful since the Village Board announced Monday the creation of a crosswalk and its support for an art project centering on a footbridge in the Village.

Catskill Village Department of Public Works Superintendent Lewis O’Connor confirmed with Allen Street resident Jessie Able that a crosswalk would be painted at the junction of Allen Street and Route 23B, next to Ace of Burgers.

“It is still going to happen,” O’Connor told Able, adding that the work would be done in the next few weeks.

The project could be completed within a day, he said.

Able’s husband, Brian Kehoe, approached the Board about the crosswalk and the lack of sidewalks on Allen Street in May, when he read a letter that illustrated the dangers their family and others faced while walking on the block. Shortly after, Able said, Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley met with the family to discuss the safety issues on Allen Street. And more recently, she said, Trustee Joseph Kozloski and O’Connor told Kehoe that a crosswalk was coming.

O’Connor said Monday he was unsure the final costs for paint and crosswalk signs that would be installed at the intersection.

Able also appeared in front of the Board to help friend and local artist Dina Bursztyn, of Open Studio, present a beautification project for the footbridge known as the Black Bridge that spans the Catskill Creek.

The pair said the idea was born from they enjoyment of the bridge and hope that it can be made into something beautiful through the introduction of plantings and other artistic touches.

“It would be great to have [the bridge] as a tourist destination,” Bursztyn said, adding that a beautified bridge would be nice for the children who cross it on their way to and from the middle and high schools on West Main Street.

Bursztyn created a ceramic and glass sundial for Dutchmen’s Landing park a few years ago.

She said other local artists, professionals and possibly school children will be active in the bridge project. In the future, she hopes other organizations, including the Catskill Community Center, the Catskill Garden Club, the Washington Irving Senior and the Catskill Community Garden, will be involved, as well in this and future projects.

She plans to plant decorative creeping vines that would crawl along the structure’s beams, to make and hang whirligigs from upper beams as well as to stencil birds and butterflies on the bridge’s floor next year. The garden club could hang plants on the structure as well, she said.

Then the rest of the bridge could be painted, she said, adding that she could appear again in front of the board once plans for that aspect of the project was planned. More research on how the project could be completed safely, she said, was needed.

Over the years, there has been talk about embarking on projects to rehabilitate or beautify the bridge, which carries beneath it a water and sewer pipe.

“If it looks like people are taking care of it interest in [the bridge] will grow,” Jessie Able said.

Bursztyn said she planned on funding the project through the Greene County Center for the Arts and other avenues.

Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley said research into whether existing paint on the bridge needed mitigation was necessary before the artistic embellishments could be made.

“From my perspective, I think it is a great project,” Seeley said. Village Trustees in attendance Angelo Amato, Patrick McCulloch and Joseph Kozloski agreed.

Local firm selected for Puccini/Coppola world premiere
The Daily Mail
Aug. 24, 2009

For several years, the Inter-Cities Performing Arts, Inc. company has staged musical performances at the Altamura Center for Arts and Cultures, in Round Top. This fall, the company will perform the world premiere of “La Coupe et Les Levres (The Cup and the Lips),” a transformation by conductor and composer Anton Coppola of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Edgar.”

Company and Altamura Center co-founder Carmela Altamura announced the performance Sunday during a “150th Anniversary Tribute to Giacomo Puccini” concert of the composer’s arias.

“I was just overjoyed and felt a tremor of great responsibility,” she said of the partnership between her company and Coppola. “No one living has seen a premiere of a Puccini opera. It is an historic event.”

The murder mystery will open appropriately on Oct. 31, 2009 at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.

Last year, Anton Coppola decided to rework the libretto and touch the operatic score to transform the opera, which reportedly had been a disappointment to Puccini, into a new work.

The final product, Coppola said, is a supposition or conjecture on what Puccini would have wanted. He explained that the title referred to happiness and the idea that something may happen after a cup is raised but before it touches the mouth.

Franco Alfano set a precedent for making his mark on Puccini’s music by completing “Turandot” after the composer’s death in 1924, at the age of 65.

The performance will feature this year’s winners of the upcoming Altamura/Enrico Caruso International Voice Competition and will be directed by Michael Philip Davis.

Davis, Coppola and several past competition winners presented a staging of Puccini’s “Il Trittico: Gianni Schicchi” Sunday, along with an aria from each of the composer’s other operas.

Although “Gianni Schicchi” was originally set in 1299, the cast wore modern clothes and played in a modern bedroom.

“As you can see, it is no longer 1299; it is 2009,” Coppola told the audience before raising his baton.

Coppola said that although he has conducted Puccini’s music several times, each performance is unique.

“We are not machines,” he said.

And, he said, he always learns from the performers with whom he works.

The opera’s director, Michael Philip Davis, who has spent a significant amount of time in his family’s Columbia County home, met Coppola while attending the Manhattan School of Music. Although he has worked with Coppola on other projects and has directed Puccini before, Davis said directing this show has been different.

“Everyone learns when you work with Maesro Coppola,” he said.

The afternoon ended a summer workshop featuring classes instructed by Altaumra and Camille Coppola, no relation to the conductor, and her husband John, of the New Rochelle Opera.

The group spent two weeks practicing in New York City before coming to Round Top last week. Performers lived together at the Altamura Center in the days leading up to the performance.

Altamura described to the audience that the company is run like an Italian opera, in the back, or dining room in this case, she said, indicating the rest of the house behind the stage.

Davis said the intimacy of the space allowed him work out details with the cast. Detail, he said, is very important to a comedy.

And an hour before curtain, the cast ate lasagna, meat, salad and fruit around two tables and in the kitchen, speaking in English and Italian with the Altamuras and each other. After eating, cast members disappeared to other parts of the building, their vocal warm-up routines audible in the kitchen. Davis advised one tenor on intonation of a specific musical passage after attending to another performer and dressing the stage.

Carmela Altamura said both Sunday’s performance and the upcoming premiere was a special honor for Greene County. Various local organizations and residents have provided a lot of support for the company. Greene County residents will have an opportunity to watch an abridged version of Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” in English, at the Altamura Center on Aug. 30.

“Arts have held a place from the very beginning,” she said, adding that on stage, performers represent the meaning of what it means to be human.

“If actors were excellent or transformed into their characters, the audience will leave different than they came in,” she said.