SusanCampriello: My Works

Volunteers to serve up tradition
The Daily Mail
Nov. 16, 2009

CATSKILL — For the fourth year, volunteers will be ready on Thanksgiving to serve a traditional, home-cooked meal to dozens of hungry Catskillians at the Washington Irving Senior Center in Catskill.

Center Director Anne Marie Moran said the meal offers a change for Greene County residents to get together and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal in a friendly environment.

“It is about having a Thanksgiving,” she said, “and being able to get together.”

Service of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, salad, rolls and dessert begins at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 26.

Last year about 200 people took advantage of the community dinner, Moran said, adding that there would be enough food for anyone who came through the door.

Meals were delivered to 90 home-bound seniors last year.

“Every year, the number goes up, which is a great thing,” she said.

Although the meal is served at the senior center and the majority of the guests are senior citizens, Moran said entire families spend their Thanksgivings at the community meal.

The dinner is prepared and served by volunteers including Catskill residents, business managers, public officials and students from Columbia-Greene Community College.

Moran said this year’s meal will be difficult, however, because one long-time volunteer, Victor Armstead, will be missing from the event. Armstead, who was killed in a car accident in March, was always involved with dinners. She said several of Armstead’s friends would be spending their Thanksgiving serving the community as a tribute to Armstead.

The meal is made possible through cash donations and food contributions made by residents as well as by local restaurants and businesses.

The combined efforts benefit everybody, she said.

“They are helping out without breaking their banks,” she said. “It works out so great.”

Moran said walk-ins are welcome but anyone wishing to place a reservation or to request delivery to a homebound individual can call the senior center at (518) 943-1343.

Seeley draws map of future
Action plan responds to audit citing village’s fiscal inadequacies
The Daily Mail
Nov. 14, 2009

CATSKILL — Weeks after the Office of the State Comptroller issued an audit report that pointed to deficiencies within the Village of Catskill’s bookkeeping and fiscal management practices, Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley has presented to the Village Board a corrective action plan.

He will send the plan to the Comptroller later this year.

Catskill’s property assessments have risen by about $30,000 since 2005, Seeley said at Monday’s Board meeting, a number that represented more cars on Village roads and more families requiring Village services.

“We are now faced with the reality that we need to make adjustments to our corporate structure, administration and staffing to meet current and future responsibilities,” Seeley’s plan executive summary reads.

“It is our job as a Board to sit down and map this out,” Seeley added.

The plan’s goals include ensuring that the Village Board implements proper controls for fiscal oversight. It also allows the Village to restructure the Clerk’s office and duties as well as to consider hiring a village manager, a comptroller or other business management resources.

Seeley said he is not making excuses for the problems that state auditors brought to his attention but said that managing the Village’s finances has become too grand an undertaking for the three full-time and one part-time staff of the Clerk’s office.

He explained that Clerk’s office is responsible for more than 100 subaccounts and more than 20 bank accounts.

Upon the Comptroller’s request, each capital project, such as the current sewer separation work on Main Street, has its own bank account.

The Clerk’s office also manages tax collection accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll as well as health care benefits, retirement benefits, audits and all banking.

The Clerk’s office may see thousands of invoices a year, Clerk/Collector Carolyn Pardy said.

Seeley suggested that a Village comptroller could be responsible for all things monetary whereas Pardy handles a number of requests from attorneys and others every day.

Seeley presented a financial plan timeline, as well.

The Village has upgraded information technology security, as per the State Comptroller’s request.

Effective immediately, the Clerk will present a financial update at Board meetings.

The Board has begun to conduct detailed financial reviews. Later this month department heads will start filing monthly synopses of their department’s activities.

Village employees can meet with employees of other municipalities to trade ideas for efficiency or to train using top-grade technology, Seeley said.

Before the end of the year the trustees will develop a restructuring plan, the Clerk will review the year’s filings and the positions of clerk and treasurer, which were combined through a local law in 1960, could be separated.

Invoices will be randomly audited biweekly by the Clerk beginning in December.

Seeley will schedule early next year a followup audit with the Comptroller’s Office and public financial information sessions.

Seeley said some recommendations from the Comptroller were unfeasible, including improving security around the Village’s computer servers. Currently, employees can only access the room in which the server is kept on an as-needed basis.

His response to the Comptroller also includes information about the Village’s debt-to-asset ratio, which Seeley said, is low.

The Village brings in roughly $6 million annually, Seeley said, and pays back less 12 percent of that, or about $740,000, for debt recovery. He said he believes the Village needs to keep savings in the bank but should pay cash for items when possible to avoid paying interest on loans. The Comptroller, he said, preferred that the Village take out more bonds.

The Board agreed to comply with the plan Seeley presented.

Trustee James Chewens said he found the Comptroller’s “dogging” the Village over a few voucher oversights ironic, given the condition of the State’s finances.

In storms, new rules for parking
Law allows DPW to clear snow from streets
The Daily Mail
Nov. 14, 2009

CATSKILL — The Catskill Village Board has enacted a complete but some say imperfect snow parking law that will allow the Village Department of Public Works to clear snow from roadways at all times of day and night.

The Board approved unanimously the new law requiring cars to be parked on the odd side of the street between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. and on the even side of the street between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. during snowstorms. Trustee Angelo Amato was absent from Monday’s Board meeting.

The new law, which Board members admitted might not be ideal for all Village residents, replaces parking rules enacted last winter. Last winter alternate-side parking was dictated by the date a storm began.

“The first one didn’t work that well, so we’re trying a different one,” Trustee James Chewens said, “we may back in the springtime and revise it one more time.” Chewens said,

He said residents who see problems with the new rules during the winter should contact Police Chief David Darling.

“Don’t hesitate to call,” he said.

Before the votes, residents, Trustees and DPW Superintendent Lewis O’Connor discussed possible problems with the law.

Ken Trieling said DPW employees might not clear snow from the open parking spots along Village roads within a 12-hour period, especially if the storm began overnight.

O’Connor said plowing takes employees in three hours with six trucks and said snow was not removed during only one overnight storm last winter.

Trustees Joseph Kozloski and Patrick McCulloch agreed that DPW employees could work more efficiently cars were not left in the same spot for a 24-hour period but were moved twice a day. Otherwise, Kozloski said, snowplows could not clear snow from the streets until the cars were moved.

O’Connor and Trustee James Chewens pointed out that some towns disallow parking on all streets during snow storms.

The parking rules will go into effect when the National Weather Service forecasts snow and remain enforceable after 12 hours and until snow is removed from the street.

“[Catskill Police Chief David Darling] is going to tow cars this year,” O’Connor said.

Greene County bank’s 120-year history immortalized
The Daily Mail
Nov. 15, 2009

CATSKILL — Local historian and professor at Columbia-Greene Community College Ted Hilscher has written a history of the Bank of Greene County to celebrate the bank’s 120th anniversary.

Hilscher used information found in bank records, business directories and newspaper articles to recreate the bank’s journey from its foundation as the Building & Loan Association of Catskill on Jan. 22, 1889 to the present day.

The 40-page “Wide Awake Men” also provides biographical information about the banks’ presidents and directors.

Greene County Bancorp President Donald Gibson said the company’s history had never before been compiled in one publication.

“We really found [the project] of interest,” Gibson said. “A lot of our long-term employees found [the history] real interesting.”

The history was presented to Greene County Bancorp, Inc. shareholders at their annual meeting held on Oct. 22.

Gibson, Bank Chairman Martin Smith and Director and retired President J. Bruce Whittaker presided over the NASDAQ Opening Bell to mark the bank’s actual anniversary in January.

Hilscher said the history project allowed him to look back into the Catskill community and how it operated a century ago. The booklet reflects some aspects of life in Catskill.

“Its not just the bank history but there is a lot of good local history,” Hilscher said.

For example, single women received some of the earliest loans, he said. The women used those loans to purchase homes.

Catskill’s banks and the majority of Catskill residents weathered the Depression and government-mandated bank closures because they had not invested in the stock market and were not affected by its crash in 1929, Gibson added.

Hilscher produced the history for no fee. However, the bank has donated $1,000 to the Columbia-Greene Community College Foundation Scholarship Fund and the Vedder Research Library in recognition of Hilscher’s work.

Gibson presented a check to Vedder Research Library Committee Chairwoman Linda Gentalen Monday afternoon.

Gentalen thanked Gibson and Hilscher for the funds, which will help the library modernize its retrieval system.

“It is really an honor for us to receive your appreciation,” she said.

Free booklets are available at Bank of Greene County branches. Those interested in ordering a free booklet can call bank Assistant Vice President and Director of Marketing Martha Keeler at (518) 943-2600, ext. 2004.

Teens stage fake kidnapping for YouTube
Charged with disorderly conduct
The Daily Mail
Sept. 21, 2009

CATSKILL — Four Cairo teenagers were arrested Sunday for disorderly conduct after staging a fake kidnapping in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Catskill.

The teenagers, who were all between 16 and 17 years old, said they were filming a scene for a movie to be posted on the video sharing Web site YouTube.

Catskill Police Chief David Darling said his office received a number of calls about the apparent abduction, which occurred at around 2:30 p.m. Darling said one teen was chased through the parking lot by the others, was caught, had his hands tied and was put in the trunk of a car.

“If definitely appeared that somebody had gotten abducted,” Darling said.

Catskill Police, State Police at Catskill and the Greene County Sheriff’s Office responded and other area authorities were put on alert, Darling said.

He said the teens were arrested for disorderly conduct for causing havoc in the busy parking lot.

“I don’t think they knew the severity of the situation,” he said of the prank.

Film crews are required to ask permission to film on private property and to notify authorities of filming, Darling said.

The teens, of Samm Productions, said they went to Burger King after they finished filming where their green Saturn was spotted by police.

They said they wanted to take advantage of having a car to shoot scenes at various locations. The movie does not have a fully formed plot, they said.

The teens are due in court on Oct. 8.

Police also spoke to Catskill’s Jesse Moyer, who was not involved with the prank but drove the teens to Wal-Mart to purchase tape. Moyer said the teens told him they were going to play a joke. Moyer said one teenager had a dress with him.

“I thought it would be an honest prank,” Moyer said.

The teens said the incident had taught them to be more careful in the future.

Seeley asks for patience as village economy grows
Village president tells seniors outlook is bright, but improvement will take time
The Daily Mail
Sept. 18, 2009

CATSKILL — Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley addressed the Senior Citizen Fellowship Thursday at the Rip Van Winkle Senior Citizen Center highlighting some continuing and upcoming projects around the Village.

Seeley discussed the Main Street Revitalization Plan, new housing opportunities and the urgent care facility being constructed off of Grandview Avenue.

If fully realized, the Main Street Revitalization plan could bring new restaurants and other attractions to the banks of the Catskill Creek, Seeley said.

Seeley said the plan will be funded by private business and property owners who make investments to their holdings and through them, to the Village. Seeley said the owners would be encouraged to follow lighting and landscaping guidelines.

“It is not going to happen overnight and we are going to use as little public money as we can,” he said.

Seeley announced the first sale of a unit in Union Mills Lofts and said that a local developer was interested in resuming stalled work on converting the Irving School into an apartment complex. He touted the decision to rent apartment in the building rather than sell condominiums there because rentals yield higher tax revenues than condominiums.

Seeley said a plan to construct 77 ranch-style homes off of Cauterskill Avenue could attract 77 new families to the area. These residents, he said, will shop in Catskill but also utilize the Village’s resources.

Several seniors nodded in approval when Seeley announced that an urgent care facility was scheduled to open by the end of the year.

He fielded questions about the facility, saying that open hours would be held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. but more could been added to fit the community’s needs. The facility will serve anyone in Greene County or the surrounding area, not just Catskill residents, he said.

He updated the group on repair work to sewer and water lines underneath William Street, saying the roadway would be paved soon. He warned of an upcoming line work to under Main Street near the base of Thompson Street. This work, he said, would separate bathroom sewer lines from those carrying rainwater and runoff.

Those in attendance expressed their concerns over recent graffiti recently sprayed around the Village.

Bill Ramsey said the graffiti reminded him of why he left Queens.

Seeley said he agreed that the graffiti damage detracted from the community and the pride people have in the community.

“You have to have respect for other people’s property,” he said.

He announced that police had arrested minor graffiti writers and were working to stop more graffiti from.

Fellowship President Ernie Harris suggested that printing the names of juvenile offenders in the newspaper might deter future offenders from tagging buildings and signs.

Seeley also addressed recent business closures and stalled business openings. He said would-be entrepreneurs may be discouraged from leaving a job to start a new venture during the current economic uncertainty.

He said vacant storefronts may remain empty until next year but he was hopeful that new businesses would again become fixtures in Catskill.

“In Catskill we go through these cycles where everybody moves in and then it dies off,” he said.

Police probe yields arrest
Catskill man charged with selling crack cocaine after lengthy investigation
The Daily Mail
Sept. 17, 2009

CATSKILL — A Catskill man has been arrested by village police and charged with selling crack-cocaine from the Catskill Inn, according to the department.

Gerard McCarthy, 51, who police said has been living at the inn, was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to police. Both charges are class-B felonies.

Police did not say how much of the drug had been sold.

Village police said McCarthy was indicted by a Greene County grand jury and arraigned before Judge George J. Pulver Jr. Tuesday.

McCarthy is being held in the Greene County Jail on $25,000 bail or $50,000 bond, police said.

Catskill Village Police Lt. Greg Sager said the arrest came after a months-long investigation conducted by Catskill Police in cooperation with State Police in Catskill Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the County District Attorney’s Office into the alleged sales.

“There had been a lot of complaints about activity at the Catskill Inn,” Sager said.

Greene County District Attorney Terry Wilhelm said the investigation yielded evidence that McCarthy had carried out sales of crack-cocaine on July 14, July 16 and July 22 of this year.

Wilhelm and Sager said the investigation is ongoing and could result in more arrests.

CSD celebrates renovation, construction work with ribbon cutting
The Daily Mail
Sept. 14, 2009

The 2009-10 school year got underway last week in Catskill, but the year was officially kicked-off Sunday with the Catskill Central School District’s annual “Parents, Partners and Pancakes” event. This year, the breakfast and outdoor petting zoo ended with a ribbon cutting in the High School library and media center to officially mark completion of ongoing construction and renovation work at the Catskill middle and high schools.

The more than $33 million project was approved through two $16.7 million referendum votes, one in 2005 and a second in 2009 and includes work on the media center, special education classrooms and a new entranceway. New guidance offices and a cafeteria in the Middle School as well as technological upgrades in the schools were also included in the project.

The last phase of the project, which includes work on a fitness center and playing fields as well as installation of new lockers in the High School, will begin later this year, District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell said.

Farrell noted that the “labor of love” cost roughly as much as the district’s annual operating budget.

She announced that the 2005 referendum brought only a 27-cent per $1,000 tax impact on district residents. The second brought no impact, she said.

“That is a huge, huge accomplishment and compliment for the community,” she said.

Farrell thanked the volunteers who flipped pancakes earlier in the day. She also thanked her schools’ students for living with construction without complaint and past Board of Education members who had worked to realize the project.

Sen. James L. Seward, R,C,I-Oneonta, recognized former Board President James Garafalo who, Seward said, led the charge to pass each referendum.

“This is a wonderful legacy to your leadership,” Seward told Garafalo while awarding him a special citation from the State Legislature.

Garafalo, who served on the board for 21 years and was the board president in both 2005 and part of 2009, was not reelected to the board this spring.

Seward commended the district for embarking on the project to upgrade the facility to match the quality of the school system.

He said taxpayers stepped up to the plate in each referendum and decided to invest in the district’s future.

Seward said the project fit with the state’s Expanding our Children’s Education (EXCEL) aid program designed to minimize the effect of capital projects on local taxpayers.

At the end of the ceremony, Seward and Garafalo held a pair of over-sized scissors to a red ribbon stretched across two bookshelves in the library while the ribbon was cut by Catskill High School seniors Joseph DiStefano and Nicole Lacy who stood arm-in-arm.

Book brought to life in musical, CD
The Daily Mail
Sept. 14, 2009

Author and artist Hudson Talbott called the transformation of his book, “River of Dreams,” to a musical and now a CD “a kind of a dream.”

The book, which features the Hudson River, and the musical, illustrate the history of what Talbott called “America’s first great super waterway” from its discovery by Europeans in 1609 to the more recent battles waged on pollution and polluters.

The musical version of the book was staged earlier this year. A CD of the original cast, comprised of students from the Cairo-Durham, Catskill and Coxsackie-Athens school districts was officially released Sunday at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site Cedar Grove, in Catskill.

“I’m so glad we all have the opportunity to bring these pieces together in this one wonderful place and share our heritage together,” Talbott said of the launch and accompanying concert of music from the CD’s setting.

The musical production, with music composed by Frank Cuthbert, was partially funded by money given to promote Hudson River history and culture during the Hudson-Champlain-Fulton Quadricentennial Celebration this year. Since the spring performance, the cast has traveled around the state to perform.

Casey Biggs, president of the Greene Arts Foundation and director and producer of the “River of Dreams” musical and CD, said the success of the show has given birth to a new collaboration with himself, Cuthbert, Talbott and the three schools on Talbott’s book, “O’Sullivan Stew.”

Biggs said he was happy with the CD.

“It captures the organic nature of what the show was,” he said.

Biggs said the production was also filmed and is being made into a documentary. The CD was recorded in the Catskill High School auditorium with professional equipment.

Talbott said performing the musical and launching the CD in a public venue brought the community together.

He said working on the musical and CD was also a lot of fun for the student performers.

Talbott said he, Biggs and Cuthbert collaborated well.

“The three of us — we don’t ever want to stop working together,” he said.

Village trustees OK concept for downtown revitalization
Plan, expected to take years to complete, could attract hotels and new shops
The Daily Mail
Sept. 9, 2009

CATSKILL — The Catskill Village Board approved a concept plan for the Catskill Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Strategy Tuesday evening, heralding the plan as a continuation of improvements in the Village.

The plan, which will take years to see through and is still subject to change, could bring in several lodging options, a museum featuring local history as well as shops.

The plan also calls for a revision of Hop-O-Nose and businesses along Bridge Street and West Main Street.

Each target area included in the plan has several different redevelopment options.

Other possibilities for Catskill under the plan include bringing to Spirit of the Hudson to dock on the Catskill Creek, opening a satellite campus of Columbia-Greene Community College and the creation of a trolley or bus service that would link locations in downtown Catskill with outlying areas.

Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley told representatives of Elan Planning and Design, who gave a presentation of the concept plan Tuesday, and the Village Board that the plan showed a continuation of the various safety and infrastructure improvements made in Catskill during the last few years by advertising the Village’s waterfront and historical assets.

“This takes us up to the next level,” he said.

Elan based their concept plan on feedback on what Catskill needs from business owners, residents and county government staff.

The firm worked with with municipal partners, the Greene County Industrial Development Corporation, the Heart of Catskill Association and a combination of business owners and residents.

The firm believes the market for Catskill will come from the Town and Village of Catskill, communities surrounding Catskill, such as Athens and Cairo, and an area of New York that includes Greene County and parts of Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Schoharie and Ulster counties.

According to the draft plan Elan comprised, hospitality or lodging could fit into a number of Catskill neighborhoods including at the Hop-O-Nose Marina or on Main Street, along West Main Street or at Cone-E Island or at Hop-O-Nose. The firm’s Lisa Nagle said redevelopment of Hop-O-Nose, which could include a basketball court or other play areas, would have to be made within U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development guidelines.

Under the plan, trees could be planted along lower Main Street and benches could be installed along the shopping district. Sidewalks would be fixed, curbs cut to allow handicapped accessibility and individual parking meters replaced by single-location metering stations, similar to that in the municipal parking lot at Willard’s Alley.

The plan suggests that the St. Patrick’s Academy, which currently houses the Greene County Courthouse while the courthouse building on Main Street undergoes renovation, could serve as a museum, as could a building on the creekside Dunn property, used by the Herrington’s Lumber, Millwork and Building Supply.

That property could include shops, docks for tour boats and greenspace.

Across for Cone-E Island, the building housing Mountain T-Shirts could become a cafe or beer garden, according to the plan.

A parking structure could be built on the location of Candyman Chocolates, on Bridge Street, or on an adjacent lot with new buildings fronting on Bridge Street.

Elan’s Lisa Nagel and the board agreed that owners of private property and businesses that are targeted as areas for revitalization will have to agree to any changes to their properties. The private sector would have to support the finalized plan, they said.

Seeley said the IDA could take options to buy properties. Property owners could use the plan to design future business expansions.

Nagel said involvement of municipal, private and business entities already in the concept development process shows Catskill has a commitment to building on its assets.

“It is kind of a two-way street and a lot of this plan does fall on private investment,” she said.

Trustee Angelo Amato asked how the Village could mandate that new buildings fit with the Village’s historic look and feel.

Nagel suggested that the Village could present potential business owners with guidelines of how new buildings could look or what services the Village hopes to attract.

Trustee Patrick McCulloch said he did not want adoption of any plan to force private business or property owners to modify their properties.

Trustee James Chewens said the Village’s Department of Public Works staff would need to make infrastructure changes to prepare for the plan elements as they come.

Chewens agreed with business owners in the audience who said that the business community would have to support the plan if it was to work in Catskill.

“It is going to take a lot of money, it is going to take a lot of time,” he said.

Nagel said bringing businesses together would be the next step in the plan’s development. She said the plan set forth ideas of what the Village could do in the future. She said the plan was sensitive to Catskill’s financial situation and current tax rates.

“What we tried to do is design realistically to that some improvements can be made,” she said, adding that adoption of the plan would be an approval of the idea that Catskill has a direction for the future within the vision of the plan.

Nagel said Elan was in the process of applying for a matching County grant that would help fund further research into Catskill’s needs in order to fine-tune the plan.

Greene County Legislator Keith Valentine, R-Catskill, said the county could possibly cover all the costs of a further study. He said the study would be the step between the concept plan, in front of the board, and an implementation and construction plan.

McCulloch, Chewans, Trustee Joseph Kozloski and Seeley voted to approve the concept. Amato, who owns Candyman Chocolates, abstained.