SusanCampriello: My Works

Cultural center funding in jeopardy thanks to deficit
The Daily Mail
Feb. 28, 2009

Cost of window repairs and other ongoing work covered with money from other sources

ATHENS — Last fall, the Athens Cultural Center, on Second Street, won a $10,000 grant from the New York State Historic Preservation Office for restoration work.

But Carol Pfister, who serves as a center’s treasurer, has been informed that the money may not be coming after all.

Pfister received a letter from State Sen. James L. Seward (R-Milford) informing her that as of Feb. 9, the grant money may not be delivered.

The letter explains that the legislature approved Gov. David A. Paterson’s deficit reduction plan, which “’diverted or ‘swept’ money from the funding pool set aside to pay senate legislature initiatives to the general funs in order to help with the deficit.”

Money may be available after April 1, the letter reads. It recommends that no work which would have been paid for by the grant be done until that time.

“We are OK so far,” Pfister said, adding that the center has been able to cover window repairs, casement restoration and other ongoing work with funds from other sources.

A work contract between the Athens center and a contractor outlining a 120-day work schedule was signed in January and the center has already paid $1,500.

Pfister estimates that the project will cost more than $8,000.

The loss of grant money does, however, cast a shadow on future grants and fund sources.

“We are worried about eventually,” she said.

The center will get a $2,500 reimbursement from the Greene County Main Street Revitalization Project grant once work is completed, she said.

She said that a long-term goal for the center is the completion of a classroom on the building’s second floor.

Next month, the center will put on an art show featuring works by its members. The show will run from March 28 through April.

Pfister said that she and the other center directors have embarked on a membership drive, sending letters to everyone in Athens. A fund-drive gala has been scheduled for June 13.

New businesses moving in, old ones expanding, as development diversifies
Big box stores losing ground in favor of smaller shops, educational space
The Daily Mail
Feb. 26, 2000

Residents of the Liberty Street neighborhood had the opportunity to discuss with Village President Vincent Seeley and other village and Town officials some of their grievances and hopes for Catskill’s future Wednesday night at the Catskill Senior Center.

The Liberty Street group voiced concern over on-street parking, their flooded basements and the loss of trees in the neighborhood. They also suggested that a revitalized village district should not include big box stores but could include a bookstore and a BOCES classroom to help students learn a trade.

Seeley took notes.

Seeley thanked the Heart of Catskill Association for all its hard work over the years to develop Catskill, comparing the village to a growing child.

“Now I’ve got a crazy teenager, not knowing what they want to do with their life,” he said, “so now we have to to figure out what we want to do with ourselves, as a community.”

Seeley said that without input from the community, he and the village trustees had to guess what would help Catskill’s residents and businesses.

Greene County Legislature Majority Leader Keith Valentine (R-Catskill) described Catskill’s downtown as fragile, and on thin ice.

But, he said, the village’s downtown district, and all of Greene County’s other downtown districts, has made strong improvements over the last few years.

Valentine said that Catskill’s riverfront and deep-water port offered some business opportunities in the past and could again in the future.

“We need to find the right, positive growth to go with it,” he said.

But not every newcomer is waiting for a revitalization plan.

Nancy Richards, Catskill’s community development coordinator and planning board secretary, described some of the new businesses that have either opened or are close to opening in the village.

Catskill Liquors recently opened near the village’s Price Chopper store.

Model homes and homes for sale will soon open in Cauterskill Estates, a 77-plot subdivision on Cauterskill Avenue, she said.

She said a Furniture 4 Less is coming to Boulevard Avenue, and River Street Bake Shop, which has participated in the summer farmers markets, will be opening on Brandow’s Alley, she said.

Plaza Car Wash is expanding and will soon include a place to wash large dogs, she said.

She also announced that a community revitalization workshop will be held in the Senior Center on Mar. 14, from noon to 5 p.m.

Lisa Nagle of Elan Planning and Design said the workshop will allow the people of Catskill to voice their opinions on the revitalization plan. People will be able to draw on maps of the village to indicate where they would like to see specific retailers or other attractions, she said.

Nagle said that ultimately, the strategic downtown plan will be something that will help market the area from West Bridge, West Main and Main streets from the railroad overpass to the point to potential investors.

“It is meant to enhance the existing businesses. It is meant to fill vacant storefronts,” she said.
Nagle said the plan could also help beautify the area by adding parks and benches at which families could congregate and spend time.

“We all have fond memories of where we grew up and where we live now, and it is fun to try to capture that,” she said.

Nagle said that although the economic downturn has made some residents, business owners and potential newcomers nervous, the situation is actually beneficial to community planning efforts.

“It is a good time to pause and think about our downtown,” she said.

Seward: Traffic law leaves fire truck drivers in ‘legal limbo’
The Daily Mail
Feb. 24, 2009

GREENE COUNTY — Firefighters in Greene County have found support from elected officials in their outrage against a traffic rule that states that to operate a fire truck during a non-emergency, such as during a parade or while returning from a fire, operators need to hold a state commercial driver’s license.

The special license is not needed to operate a truck during an emergency.

“This is crazy,” Catskill Fire Chief Jack Ormerod said. “Any driver can drive to an emergency but can’t drive back.”

Ormerod said volunteer departments are already strapped for manpower and requiring drivers to obtain the special license might deter firefighters from becoming drivers, which in turn could mean trucks could not be driven back to their station houses.

State Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman Ken Brown said the license is required because a fire truck was long enough and heavy enough to be considered a commercial vehicle.

Brown said he did not know why fire departments across the state did not enforce the law starting in 2005, when it was passed.

But Ormerod said he was unaware of the rule until recently and guessed that other chiefs in other departments were in the same position.

State Sen. James L. Seward (R-Milford) confirmed Ormerod’s assumption.

Seward is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1634, which corrects the language of the 2005 law by removing the qualification that a commercial vehicle designation does not apply to an emergency vehicle only during its use in an emergency operation.

He said that the Department of Motor Vehicles did not raise the issue in 2005, and its opinion only began to emerge within the last few months.

“It would have been corrected sooner than this if it had come to light,” he said.

He said similar legislation is before the State Assembly, too.

Seward said the Department of Motor Vehicle’s opinion has left fire truck drivers in what he called “legal limbo.”

“It is laughable,” he said.

Seward said Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposed budget also includes language that will correct the rule, and whether the state budget is adopted or the stand-alone bills in the State Legislature pass, the rule will be changed within a month or two.

Richard Harty, who has been active with the Hunter Hose Company No. 1 for more than 50 years and trained firefighters for more than 30 years, said that as it stands, the license rule will have a negative effect on fire companies.

“I don’t think it will deter them from volunteering, it will deter them from driving,” he said.

He said that in the future, municipalities or departments may need to subsidize the cost of the license.

According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a background check for the license costs $138.35 and a written test costs $5.

Harty said that obtaining the licenses may not be cost effective for some fire departments in the county that see only a handful of emergencies a year.

He said he is aware of only one rollover accident in Greene County involving a truck returning from an emergency.

Cairo Fire Chief Gerard Buckley said that only 20 percent of his drivers over the age of 21 had the licenses and that an emergency could be defined to include the drive back from a fire or accident.

He said the issue would be discussed at the department’s commissioners meeting Tuesday night.

Pioneers remembered during Black History Month
The Daily Mail
Feb. 23, 2009

CATSKILL - Deacon Wayne Neal asked the congregation at the Second Baptist Church on Main Street Sunday who was the first black President of the United States.

Several worshipers at the service answered, “Obama.”

They were wrong, Neal said.

Neal explained that John Hanson, who served as the President of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, was the nation’s first black president.

Hanson’s term lasted from 1781 to 1782.

As President, Hanson decided the seal, appointed the first Secretary of War and designated the fourth Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving, Neal said.

Hanson also established the first Treasury Department and the first Foreign Affairs Department as well as appointed the first Secretary of War, read Neal from a biography he prepared.

Neal told the congregation they could learn more about the first president from the Library of Congress website.

Over the past month a number of members of the congregation and youth ministry have presented biographies of noteworthy African Americans, including that of Hanson.

The list included inventors, athletes and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Velvet Tarver departed from the biographies to give the lives historical context.

“According to the 1860 United States Census, 380,000 individuals - 1.4 percent of white Americans in the country and 4.8 percent Southern whites - owned one or more persons,” she said.

She reminded the congregation that 95 percent of the black population lived in the South. Blacks made up of about one-third of the entire population of southern states, she said.

Tarver explained that the wealth of the country before the Civil War was greatly enhanced by slave labor.

Slaves were subjected to harsh treatment by their owners, were traded for profit and known as legal property, she said.

“Being that we were slaves, we were incapable of committing any civil act because we were considered as things, not persons,” she said.

She reminded the congregation that plantations were broken apart after the Civil War and that only a few years after the war ended the first African Americans were elected to serve in Congress.

Over the month of February, children in the church’s youth ministry compiled a list of accomplishments of lesser-known African Americans. The list included Frederick Jones, who held over 60 patents for different refrigeration and air-conditioning machines and techniques, Alexander Miles, who, in 1887, improved the method of opening and closing elevator doors and NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson, who founded the Johnson Research and Development Corp. and invented the super soaker water gun.

Also remembered were boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, whose 1967 convictions for a triple murder were overturned in 1988 and tennis player Althea Gibson.

Jason Owens recounted Carter’s years in the ring as well as the controversies surrounding his trial.

Gibson was the first African American woman to win a grand slam title, in 1956, Alice Jimpson said.

Sterling Swann described how Harriet Tubman led slaves to freedom, some walking over 800 miles with bloodhounds following in quick pursuit.

Tubman worked with congregations to hide slaves along their routes to freedom.

“Back then, people could keep their mouths shut,” he said, “they didn’t talk, but they did. She did and she left such a legacy.”

Allison White spoke of how Christian faith helped all those individuals remembered strive and survive through their ordeals.

“Your faith may be the only piece of black history that somebody may record and that you are recording and making black history. So look at your neighbor and say, ‘you’re making black history,’ and look at yourself and say ‘today I am making history,’” she said.

Alden Terrace takes new hit
The Daily Mail
Feb. 21, 2009

CAIRO — A Cairo citizens watchdog group is accusing town officials and developers of misleading taxpayers about the Alden Terrace residential and retail proposal.

Cairo First President Erica Gravina and former Greene County legislator Michael Camadine said developers and elected officials are using smoke and mirrors to pitch Alden Terrace to the public.

The development and the related sewer district project have proved to be divisive issues.

A lawsuit filed by Cairo First, Cairo Plaza LLC, J. Triple S., Inc, E. Slater, Inc., and the Cairo Township Taxpayers Association claims that the Cairo Town Board and the Planning Board, state Department of Environmental Conservation, state Environmental Facilities Corp., state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, developer Charles Maggio, Charles Frank & Associates, Regan Development Corp., Benjamin Buel and Richard Buoniconto failed to follow lawful procedures in relation to obtaining funding for sewer system improvements, failed to conduct proper State Environmental Quality Review Act procedures and hold required public hearings.

Great American Plaza owner Ellsworth “Unk” Slater, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, presented his views on the Alden Terrace project at a recent Cairo First meeting.

He said grocery stores like Hannaford and Price Chopper, which would be in direct competition with his own Great American store if they opened in conjunction with the project, can move to Cairo without it. The lawsuit, he said, will not stop such stores from opening in the area.

“If anybody really thinks that’s my motivation, they’re mistaken,” he said.

Slater said that if anything, the completion of Alden Terrace would help his business by increasing the town’s consumer population.

“This is not about me and Alden Terrace,” he said, “but it is about what is right for the town.”

Gravina and Camadine argued that the town should fix problems with the current sewer system before it takes steps to connect the development.

“The fact of the matter is, the sewer district has been losing money right along, but the general fund has been making it up. And what happens is, the sewer district has not been repaying the general fund,” Camadine said.

Camadine said that as a result, Cairo taxpayers outside the sewer district have been paying for it.

According to minutes filed from a special meeting to discuss the sewer rate increase on Nov. 10, 2008, Town Supervisor John Coyne explained to the Town Board that the town’s general fund has been helping the water and sewer district.

Coyne said Friday that money from the general fund is no longer used for the sewer district, because a separate sewer and water account was formed last year.

The sewer district made no reimbursement to the general fund in 2008, he said.

Camadine and Gravina said they feared that the burden on Cairo taxpayers will only increase if Alden Terrace is built.

According to the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, the development will serve families and individuals with “low and very low” incomes. Gross rents, including utilities, will range from $360 to $845 per month. The units will be affordable by households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the median income in the area.

The development will fall under assessment section 581-A of the real property tax law, which states that at least 20 percent of the residential units are subject to an agreement with a municipal, State or Federal government agency that restricts occupancy of those units to tenants who qualify in accordance with an income test.

According to the department, tax credits will produce an equity contribution of $8,944,987.

“We are going out of our way to help bring low-income housing into this town,” Camadine said, asking, “Why aren’t we taking care of the people with low incomes who are already here?”

He said that if current residents of Cairo moved into Alden Terrace, their current apartments would become available for rent by new residents. New residents would bring children, which would raise enrollment in the Cairo-Durham School District.

He worried that crime rates would rise as more low-income families moved into the area, which would force the town’s police to work even harder than they already do to keep the town safe.

Slater and other community activists visited the Village of Monticello, where, they say, a low-income housing development, build by Maggio, led to an increase in crime.

Monticello Mayor Gordon Jenkins said Wednesday that the problem in his village is that there is workforce housing but no workforce.

John Barbarite, a Monticello resident who met with the Cairo delegation, said Wednesday that the village now has a glut of vacant housing and a number of under-employed residents.

Crime has risen since the development was completed.

“Monticello has been murdered,” he said.

He said that unlike with Alden Terrace, Maggio’s development in the village did not contain retail space.

Camadine and Gravina said that while the increase in low-income residents is bothersome, it is not their real problem with the Alden Terrace development.

“Nobody is against low-income housing,” Gravina said. “What we are against is being lied to, being betrayed.”

She pointed out that the original housing plan designated units for special needs residents and specifically residents who have battled substance abuse problems.

The developers have since altered the definition of special needs to refer to elderly community members, and not people who have battled substance abuse, she acknowledged, but said she said she was told by the developer that a mistake was made on the project’s application.

“They said it was a checked box error,” she said.

Larry Regan said last week that the mistake in the application had been corrected last summer.

He provided two affidavits indicating that the inclusion of residents recovering from substance abuse problems in the application was the result of a box that was checked by mistake.

The affidavits were signed Aug. 20, 2008, by Larry Regan, of Regan Development, Inc. and the grant writer responsible for the error.

The error was found and corrected with the State in July 2008, the affidavits read.

Regan said the residents with special needs will include those living with multiple sclerosis and the very elderly.

However Gravina and Camadine provided copies of an undated project summery prepared by GAR Associates, Inc., which read that because the majority of the development’s 51 units feature two- and three-bedroom units, senior citizens “are not the target occupant for the development.”

They presented copies of a housing and service agreement from February 2008 between April Hannah Healing and Counseling and the developer that sets aside eight units for residents with special needs.

They also provided a printout from the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal Web site that outline a plan for Alden Terrace serving tenants who are recovering from substance abuse.

They asked why these documents exist if the developer had never intended to serve residents recovering from substance abuse problems.

In a surprise move, Herrington’s closes
The Daily Mail and The Register-Star
Feb. 21, 2009

CATSKILL — The economic downturn has claimed another victim. Herrington’s lumber and building materials store on Water Street in Catskill closed Friday.

“It was simply an economic decision,” said Ken Blass of Blass Communications, a spokesman for Ed Herrington Inc.

Five employees were laid off Friday and two were offered positions at the retailer’s other locations, Blass said.

The company employs more than 170 people in stores and showrooms in Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as in Hudson, Chatham, Hillsdale and Millerton.

An office in Lenox, Mass., was also closed, but its employees were moved to other locations, he said.

Mike Simmons, who worked at the store until it closed, said that the chain had laid off more than 10 employees over the last month.

“Nobody’s been buying stuff,” Simmons said.

Last July, Ed Herrington, Inc. purchased Dunn Builders Supply, which had been in Catskill for over 50 years, from owner Steven Dunn.

At the time of purchase, Ed Herrington, president and chief executive officer of the chain, said the purchase was an exciting move that would expand Herrington’s reach across the region.

“While this is not the outcome we had intended, the decision to close our Catskill location will better position our company for future opportunities and ready us to meet the changing landscape of the building industry,” Herrington said in a press release Friday.

“Our computer system allows customers to use their account at any store, so Catskill customers will experience no difficulty in transacting business at any Herrington’s store location,” General Manager Richard Herrington said in the release.

Customers can call (518) 828-9431 for service, he said.

According to the Village of Catskill Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Plan, the 1.82-acre Water Street property, which is still owned by Dunn, is considered part of the plan’s Uncle Sam Bridge node.

The property features a number of buildings of a variety of sizes and ages, as well as some docks along the shore of Catskill Creek.

“The variety in size and location of the buildings would allow water-dependent and water-enhanced uses, along with retail shops, offices, artisan and craft space museums or other tourist destination, and countless others. Planning for future uses and design of this complex of structures should be a high priority for implementation of this revitalization strategy,” the plan reads.

Dunn said he was unaware of plans to close the store. He said he had recently been in the building to see some ongoing renovation and electric work.

“Something’s not right,” he said.

Citizen advocates question supervisor over funds
Coyne: “I didn’t mislead anyone.”
The Daily Mail
Feb. 19, 2009

CAIRO — Cairo First President Erica Gravina and Mike Camadine, a former county legislator from Cairo, have accused Cairo Town Supervisor John Coyne of committing fraud to obtain a bank loan from the Bank of Greene County for $750,000 to cover work relating to the town’s ongoing sewer project.

Camadine and Gravina presented evidence — copies of a “no-litigation” certificate signed by Coyne — at a Cairo First meeting held last Thursday night.

The document certifies that there is no pending litigation of any nature surrounding the sewer project, and was signed by both Coyne and the town’s bond attorney, John R. Mineaux, of Roemer, Wallens and Mineaux, on Dec. 24, 2008. The group also distributed a photocopy of the check from the Bank of Greene County and a deposit ticket that indicates that the $750,000 was put into an account for sewer project use.

Cairo First Inc., Cairo Plaza, LLC, J. Triple S., Inc, E. Slater, Inc., and Cairo Taxpayers Association have filed an lawsuit against numerous government bodies on the local and State level, including the Town Board and the Planning Board, under Article 78 of New York’s Civil Practice Rules and Laws, which allows citizens to appeal a decision made by a government agency if they feel wronged by that decision.

Also named in the lawsuit are the state Department of Environmental Conservation, state Environmental Facilities Corp., state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, developer Charles Maggio, Charles Frank & Associates, Regan Development Corp., Benjamin Buel and Richard Buoniconto.

The lawsuit states that the Town Board’s vote to approve the project was swayed by one board member’s financial interest in the development. The town and other agencies failed to follow lawful procedures in relation to obtaining funding for the sewer system improvements related to the development project and failed to conduct a proper State Environmental Quality Review Act review and to hold required public hearings, it claims.

Camadine questioned how Coyne could not have known about the pending Article 78 suit.

Coyne, who did not attend the Cairo First meeting, said Saturday that the signing of the “no-litigation” certificate was the result of an oversight at the bond closing.

He said he had not tried to mislead anyone, and that the attorney and the Bank of Greene County were aware of the litigation when the bond was granted.

“It is really unfortunate that the Cairo First organization has to go around and tell things that are not true,” he said.

Coyne said that the bond agreement’s file included a document that states that either party has the right to change the bond agreement. He said he signed a form that will act as a substitute to the “no-litigation” certificate, acknowledging the suit, which can be added to the file, but at the present time has not.

Mineaux said Tuesday morning he drafted the substitute form shortly after Town Attorney Tal Rappleyea notified him that the certificate was incorrect, toward the end of January. Rappleyea approved the substitute form, he said.

He said the bank knew about the litigation, and the certificate probably had no bearing on the loan being issued and that inclusion of the “no-litigation” certificate in the loan closing was a clerical error.

At last week’s Cairo First meeting, which was mostly attended by non-Cairo First members, Gravina said she received invoices and paperwork from the Town. Gravina added that she invited all the town officials to attend the Cairo First meeting.

“I just have totals but the money is spent, the money has been allocated,” she said.

However, according to Town vouchers produced by the Town Clerk’s office, three vouchers for work compensation were approved last month.

On Jan. 12, 2009, board members Richard Lorenz, Janet Schwarzenegger and Alice Tunison, as well as Coyne, approved one voucher to pay the firm Delaware Engineering $64,839.68.

Lorenz, Schwarzenegger, Councilman Ray Suttmeier and Coyne signed a $187.50 voucher for Rappleyea on Jan. 20.

Also on Jan. 20, all five board members approved a voucher for $3,636.50 for the law firm of Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker and Moore, LLC.

According to the documents obtained from the clerk’s office, more than $681,000 of the funds remain.

Charles H. Schaefer, of Deily and Schaefer, who represents the Bank of Greene County, said Wednesday that because the bank issued the loan, Cairo First has served the bank with a motion to name the bank as an interested party to their Article 78 action. The motion must be returned by Mar. 3, he said.

Schaefer said that bank is not taking a position for or against development in the town, but as part of the greater community, it wanted to help the town manage a sanitary system.

“From the Bank’s standpoint, we are trying to do the responsible thing and enhance the quality of life in Cairo,” he said.

Officials hope new phones will keep lines open
System figures to be unimpaired by poor weather
The Daily Mail
Jan. 18, 2009

Athens — Heavy rain and winds will no longer disrupt phone service in the Town of Athens office.

The town board decided to upgrade their current copper-wire phone service to one that will run over the Internet, offered by CornerStone, an upstate phone company.

Fourteen phones in the office would be connected to the system.

Jackie Berry and Paul Caputo presented the system and its various features to the board members at their meeting Tuesday night.

Staff will have the ability to forward calls coming in on their official lines to a home line or a cell phone.

The system will offer an automated answering menu to callers if all the lines are busy and individual messages could be directed to e-mail, as well, Caputo said.

Each of the 14 phones that would be connected to the system would have the capability of handling four different phone lines.

Board members were impressed by the phones and the phone system.

“It gets us out of the 1950s and put us around the year 2000,” Councilman Eugene Hatton said.

Town Supervisor Albert Salvino said he liked that with the new system, because everyone could always be reached by town residents.

The company has managed technology for the Coxsackie-Athens School District and phone systems for a handful of businesses in the area, but Athens would be the first municipality to sign up for the service.

Town Clerk/Collector Linda Stacey said that inclement weather sometimes causes problems with the copper-wire system.

At least two phones and the town’s fax machine would be grounded with the old, copper-wire system so that phones would still be operable should Internet service be interrupted.

The service will cost just over $530 a month, which would be an increase over the current system by $150.

Hatton asked the board whether the services were worth paying the extra money.

“The answer to that is yes,” Councilman John Lubera answered without missing a beat.

Schumer: Tax relief is coming
The Daily Mail
Feb. 17, 2009

CATSKILL — Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer visited Catskill Monday to discuss the ways in which $5.3 million in direct budget relief will help struggling Greene County residents and business owners. The money is part of the economic recovery package, which will be signed by President Barack Obama, Schumer told an audience of County Legislators and county residents at the Greene County Office Building.

Schumer said he has heard New York state will lose an estimated 200,000 jobs within the next two years but that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are prepared to help New Yorkers, and all Americans, keep money in their pockets.

Key components of the package, he said, will put money into taxpayers’ pockets by increasing Medicaid relief for the county, offering tax credits for those paying for college and helping major infrastructure projects get off the ground. And once New Yokers have more money to spend, they will feel more comfortable spending it.

“Right now, we need money in the economy, not sitting there, doing nothing,” he said.

Although the relief measures will be temporary, they will be stretched across two years in order to allay a downward economic spiral, he said.

According to Schumer’s office, Greene County will pay $9 million for Medicaid services this year. Wayne Speenburgh, chairman of the County Legislature, said that more than 20 percent of the county’s tax levy is used to cover Medicaid costs.

“It’s a huge burden,” Schumer said.

Schumer said he wrote a provision in the bill that ensures that Federal reimbursements for Medicaid spending would go directly to the state’s 62 counties.

“It will not go through the state. The state does not take a cut. The state can not delay it. It will be money directly for you,” he said.

Overall, $12.6 billion will return to the state over two years for Medicaid relief, he said, and county and municipal governments will begin to receive this money in April.

Schumer said the relief is designed to prevent the need for major tax increases and major layoffs.

Starting in March, he said, every family with an income less than $150,000 will receive a tax break of $800. The break will be reflected by the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks in a pay period.

He also championed a $2,500 tax credit in the package for families earning less than $160,000 and are paying a college tuition.

“It is expensive to go to college, but it would be a real shame if kids dropped out of college or did not go to college because their parents couldn’t afford it,” he said.

The package will also give money to schools, which, Schumer said, will help prevent layoffs. He said that there would be no state educational cuts and that the formula for funding last year will be the same as the formula used this year.

Schumer discussed how provisions in the package will help the county and municipalities develop and maintain the infrastructure. Projects he mentioned included the water and sewer system in the town of Cairo and the sidewalks in the town of Durham.

Half of the money would go to “shovel-ready” projects, which are projects that would be ready within 180 days. The rest of the money would be saved for projects that will be ready by the beginning of 2010.

Local governments will begin to receive money for “shovel-ready” projects in May or June of this year, Schumer said.

Speenburgh said after the conference he was glad that funding for infrastructure projects would be staggered, as this would allow municipalities more time to prepare project plans.

Schumer responded to a question posed by Jim Mulligan, of Greenville, about whether funding would be available for Internet and broadband service.

“It will create real jobs,” Mulligan said of the service expansion.

Schumer answered that the bill makes $7 billion available, by application, for such expansions, but that specific details still need to be settled.

Interim County Administrator Dan Frank asked Schumer whether the package will help first-time home buyers or stimulate automobile sales.

Schumer replied that first-time home buyers will receive a $7,500 tax credit.

A proposal in the bill allows automobile buyers to deduct the interest on a purchase, he said.

Schumer also said that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will soon propose that the Federal government temporarily provide some guarantees for automobile and home loans.

Schumer said that although the package had very little support from Republicans — only three Republicans in the Senate and no Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for the bill — the two biggest amendments in the bill were proposed by Republicans.

He explained that House of Representatives is more partisan than the Senate, and whoever wins the special election for the 20th Congressional District seat on March 31 will have to work with both Republicans and Democrats.

Schumer endorsed Scott Murphy, the Democratic candidate for that seat, Monday morning in Clifton Park.

He said that Americans come together during difficult times.

“It’s time to get serious. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and do something, and that’s what I hope will happen,” he said.

 New ladder truck to roll into village
The Daily Mail
Feb. 16, 2009

ATHENS - Village of Athens Mayor Andrea Smallwood and Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley struck a deal Sunday that will allow the Athens Fire Department to purchase a fire truck from the Catskill Fire Department.

The Athens department will buy Catskill’s 1986 model truck 3-15 for $35,000, Smallwood said in an e-mail Sunday afternoon.

Catskill will pay for the truck’s aerial arm to be certified, a cost of about $2,000. Current certification lapses this May.

The agreement comes after numerous discussions and negotiations between Athens Fire Department Chief John Greco and Athens Village Board of Trustees about different options for financing the purchase of a truck to replace truck 2-3, which is 23 years old. Greco discussed the purchase with Catskill Fire Chief Jack Ormerod as well.

“I sound like a broken record,” Greco told the trustees at their most recent meeting Wednesday night, “I don’t see why we are even pondering this.”

Greco said at a board meeting earlier this month that he was disappointed that the department was unable to purchase a new truck, which would have cost up to $600,000.

“Public safety should never have a price on it,” he said earlier this month.

He said that he and members of the department sat down as taxpayers, rather than firefighters, to discuss the best way to proceed and decided to request that the village purchase Catskill’s truck.

Greco estimated that some immediate body work needed for the truck as well as a repainting would cost an additional $15,000.

The truck would not see the same heavy use in Athens as it did in Catskill, he said, but it should be either replaced or completely refurbished by 2019.

He said that the department could keep the truck, which has already received many repairs, well-maintained, as to prolong its life.

After Greco’s final presentation, trustees applauded the chief’s efforts to take into consideration the financial demands of the Village along with its safety needs.

After the deal with Catskill was reached Sunday, Smallwood thanked Seeley for working with her to bring the truck to Athens. She called the purchase a “win-win situation,” because the Village would not have to borrow money to afford the truck.

“The firemen now have a ladder truck which will help upgrade their fleet and have the capacity of dealing with multi-story structures.” she said in an e-mail.