SusanCampriello: My Works

Lesson 1 for schools:
How to stop swine flu
District officials encourage students, teachers to use common-sense hygiene practices to curb spread of H1N1
The Daily Mail
Sept. 8, 2009
The Windham Journal
Sept. 10, 2009

CATSKILL — As schools reopen, area educators and administrators are readying their buildings for learning, playing and perhaps spreading germs like those that could spread the H1N1 flu virus.

School administrations in Greene County are encouraging students and teachers to use common sense hygienic practices and are stepping up cleaning regimens to keep their buildings and grounds clean.

Hand sanitizing products will be available to students in every district, and staff will meet with health care professionals to learn the best way to keep classroom areas clean and students healthy.

School administrators said they will also follow guidelines set forth by the State Education Department and State Department of Health and keep in touch with the County Department of Health.

*
Overall, administrators said they would increase cleanings and reassess practices if students

“We are going to hope for the best and prepare for all the contingencies that we can,” Anne Rode, principal of the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School.

Each district has its own procedures in place.

Cairo-Durham Central School District

Ron Agostinoni, assistant principal of Cairo-Durham High School, said nurses will remind students the proper way to wash their hands and prevent the spread of germs.

Hand sanitizer dispensers, like the ones in elementary classrooms, have been installed in classrooms in the Middle School and High School building. Sanitizers will be available to students before lunch period, he said.

He said students and staff will be encouraged to stay home if they exhibit flu-like symptoms.

As with procedure set last spring, bus drivers sanitize buses before, after and between runs, he said.

Catskill

District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell said the daily cleaning routine will be enhanced with extra cleanings of commonly touched surfaces such as water fountains, keyboards and doorknobs. Cafeteria areas will also receive extra attention, she said.

Hand sanitizer dispensers will be installed in every classroom, school office and common area, she said.

Farrell said staff will use hand-washing solution that shows dirty spots missed to demonstrate how to properly wash hands.

Farrell said as per request of Greene County Public Health, parents would not be notified of every student who presented severe flu-like symptoms. That could change, Farrell said, if the number of students with those symptoms increases.

Coxsackie-Athens

Coxsackie-Athens Central School District Superintendent Dr. Earle Gregory said at a recent Board of Education meeting that school nurses would be vigilant and aware of any illnesses.

Students will be encouraged to encouraged to thoroughly sanitize their hands.

He said staff will follow protocols set forth by Greene County Public Health and the State Department of Health,including increased cleaning schedules, encouraging students and staff with flu-like symptoms to remain at home for 24 hours after the symptoms disappear, and encourage students not to cough or sneeze into their hands.

District schools would not be closed, he said, unless a large absentee rate was seen.

Greenville

Greenville Central School District Director of Curriculum and Communications Colleen Hall said teachers in her district had already completed a training course on showing students how to keep themselves healthy. Classrooms have been stocked with hand sanitizers, she said. Buildings and grounds crews will continue to keep the buildings clean.

Hall said parents would receive a letter that included information on when a child should be kept at home and information would be posted to the district’s Web site.

She said student health would be monitored so that the schools would know when students were kept home for flu-like symptoms or for other reasons so she schools have a sense of why a student might be absent. Additional building and bus cleanings could be added if needed, she said.

Hunter-Tannersville

Hunter-Tannersville Central School District Superintendent Patrick Darfler-Sweeney said his building is constantly being cleaned due to several varied construction projects at the school.

High School students will meet with nurses during gym period to review universal precautions. Elementary class teachers will underscore the same precautions, he said.

Darfler-Sweeney said parents would be sent guidelines on when to keep students out of school.

The district’s Web site will be updated with information as the year continues, he said.

Darfler-Sweeney said students will be provided with alcohol-free hand sanitizing products and parents will be encouraged to give their children alcohol-free products if they feel the need to give their children anything.

Windham-Ashland-Jewett

Anne Rode said teachers and staff will meet with staff from Greene County Public Health to discuss how to prevent germs from spreading in the school building and on buses. Bus drivers would have an additional training to revisit safety checks and additional cleanliness protocols.

The school has ordered bottles of hand sanitizers for distribution as well as dispensers for all classrooms, common areas and offices in the school building.

She said the school reminds students to wash their hands and be mindful that they will be around many other children every year.

Information regarding the district’s procedures and the virus will be posted on the district’s Web site, she said, adding that information will also be included in a parent newsletter.

School administrators said physical contact — hallway greetings or during athletic events and gym class — will not be prevented or banned.

As Hunter-Tannersville’s Superintendent Patrick Darfler-Sweeney said, common sense hygiene practices will prevail, echoing what other administrators said.

“If we do a really good job with that, we will take care of 99.9 percent of the other stuff,” he said.

Schools to get stimulus funds
Money will be used to support improvements to teaching methods, learning environment
The Daily Mail
Sept. 3, 2009

CATSKILL — New programs and program features could be coming to the Catskill Central School District through more than $260,000 from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 as well as from other grant sources, according to District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell.

The district will receive a preliminary estimate of $263,324 available over a 27-month period through the stimulus measure, according to the New York State Education Department and the Office of Gov. David A. Paterson. The money can be used to support teaching and learning improvement efforts. Final allotments will be announced later in the year.

“Any penny we get goes a long way,” Farrell said of the coming money.

She said the money, and additional funds through the Dyson Foundation in conjunction with Greene County Mental Health, will help implement an extended-day elementary school program that could be used for tutoring sessions or homework assistance.

She said the district will begin a search for additional staff to provide more opportunities for secondary students to prepare for Regents examinations or attend tutoring sessions, to receive counseling and to possibly pass failed courses through Online instructional services.

Farrell said further funds would come to the District through the Individuals with Disabilities Act.

According to the department, approximately 700 New York schools, mostly in lower-income areas, will receive more than $900 million through the Recovery Act.

Greene County schools will receive $788,464 in the following amounts:

- $138,042 for the Cairo-Durham Central School District;

- $263,324 for the Catskill Central School District;

- $133,728 for the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District;

- $122,019 for the Greenville Central School District;

- $85,132 for the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District;

- $46,219 for the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School District.

But, as Cairo-Durham Central School’s Business Manager Lissa Jilek pointed out Wednesday, the funding is not guaranteed. Schools must still apply for the funds, she said.

Allocations were determined based on a “No Child Left Behind” program count of qualifying children including those in families living below the poverty line, living in foster care or in institutions for the neglected and who are receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

According to program data gathered, 6.86 percent of qualifying children in New York reside in Greene County with the following break-down:

- 1.15 percent in the Cairo-Durham Central School District;

- 2.40 percent in the Catskill Central School District;

- 1.14 percent in the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District;

- 0.96 percent in the Greenville Central School District;

- 0.80 percent in the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District;

- 0.41 percent in the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School District.

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-NY, said in a statement that education is one of the most important investments that can be made for the future of New York.

“These federal dollars will help give New York students the education they need to succeed in the 21st century by providing more early education, extended learning opportunities, better training for teachers and a stronger role for parents,” she said.

Rescue squad disputes outstanding ambulance bills
The Daily Mail
Aug. 17, 2009

CAIRO—The Town of Cairo Ambulance wants the Greenville Rescue Squad to pay it roughly $16,000 owed by Greenville residents with outstanding ambulance bills that have gone into collection.

But the Greenville squad continues to refuse to pay on the basis that they do not act as an insurance company.

“If it was an obligation of ours we had agreed to in advance, we will pay it,” Rescue Squad Treasurer Jim VanAuken said. “We think it is bad policy and, from what we can tell, question the legalities of it.”

VanAuken took issue with an Aug. 5 letter from Cairo Attorney Tal Rappleyea that stated a contract Cairo had with the squad had expired.

He said the squad and Cairo had no contract that required payments to expire.

VanAuken said the squad would not have agreed to making payments without a written contract.

“It was never a contract, it was never a gentleman’s agreement, it was never discussed,” he said.

Cairo Ambulance Service and Greenville Rescue Squad, Inc. signed a Greene County Emergency Medical Service Mutual Aid agreement in 2003, which does not have an expiration date but can be terminated by either participating party.

Cairo Ambulance Chief Reay Mahler acknowledged that the 2003 agreement did not describe a payment plan, but said other emergency response services recognize the duty to pay for the services when patients do not or cannot.

“We are not asking them to do anything different than we ask other towns to do or we do ourselves,” Mahler said. “It stands to reason that if we provide a service that we get paid for it.”

VanAuken explained that the squad is funded by billing patients and through fundraising efforts and, unlike Cairo, does not bill other agencies when it responds to calls in other districts.

Squad life member Bob Lampman said the squad has no issues with services in Coxsackie, Durham and Westerlo, but only with Cairo. He said those services do not have issues with each other and again, the issues appear to surround Cairo.

The pair said the perception that they have been unresponsive to Cairo is incorrect. In a June 16, 2008 letter, they notified Cairo of their position.

“Greenville Rescue Squad does not now or expect in the future to bill other towns or EMS services for transport of patients. Since no agreement was ever discussed in regards to this situation we will not be held responsible for any bills,” the letter states.

The two services have corresponded since that time.

VanAuken suggested that perhaps towns or other services are paying Cairo for similar calls without questioning why.

According to Catskill Ambulance Chief Matthew Leibowitz, Catskill and Cairo have had a gentlemen’s agreement regarding the payments for at least five years. Representatives from services in Durham and Coxsackie did not respond to interview requests by time of press.

VanAuken and Lampman argued that by paying Cairo, responders there would essentially being paid twice for running calls in Greenville.

But Mahler said this is not the case. The money Cairo Ambulance is asking from the Rescue Squad is to offset the costs incurred they pay other ambulance services for covering calls in Cairo when Cairo’s responders are already on a call, he said.

Unless payments are received, Cairo will cancel the 2003 agreement on Sept. 1 and Greene County Emergency Control will be notified not to dispatch the Cairo Ambulance Service to Greenville except in the case of a major emergency, Mahler said.

‘Doc Drop’ raises money in memory of a ‘big kid’
Friends gather in memory of David K. Berger
The Daily Mail
Aug. 10, 2009

The memory of Dr. David K. Berger was honored Sunday through a fundraiser at Thunderhart at Sunny Hill, during which 180 golf balls were dropped from a helicopter at a target painted on the course’s driving range.

The “Doc Drop” proceeds, which totaled $1,800, will be donated by the club to the Berger Memorial Fund, which is raising money toward the construction of an educational children’s play area at the Gouverneur Healthcare Services hospital, in Manhattan.

The play area will be in the hospital’s new pediatric wing to be completed in the next two years. The fund hopes to raise $50,000 through the drop and future events.

Berger served as the hospital’s Chief of Pediatrics from 1981 until 1998. He began practicing pediatric medicine in 1979, and also wrote papers about child abuse and adolescent care.

Friends and family members said Berger, who died of liver cancer last year, would have loved Sunday’s unique event.

“He was a like this big kid,” said Beth Rosenthal, Berger’s widow.

Rosenthal said her husband had loved life, loved to help others and loved children. The two met during the 1970s, when Berger worked at a free clinic for migrant workers in Long Island and married in the 1980s.

Rosenthal estimated her husband had treated hundreds of thousands of children during his career, some of whom kept in touch as they grew older and brought their own children to see him.

She said he began playing golf once he began working in New York City. Rosenthal said Berger continued to make the drive up to Thunderhart even after he began to feel sick.

Rosenthal said her husband had taught their daughter Nipu to play at a young age. She said Nipu, now 13, would probably follow her father’s footsteps and join the club in Freehold.

Rosenthal said the choice of constructing the Dr. David Berger Play Area at Gouverneur was a fitting tribute to her husband, who had been interested in the impact of waiting room space on health care.

“That was his favorite place and where he was most remembered,” she said.

Friends said Berger tried to include everybody in whatever activity was happening on a given day.

Bob Neppl, who joined Thunderhart at the same time as Berger, in 2002, said he and his wife, MaryEllen, remembered watching the “forever young” Berger rally children for an activity once at a party.

“It was almost like the Pied Piper,” Nippl said of the scene.

And, he said, Berger gave medical advice to fellow golfers in the middle of games.

Dr. Ed Mandeville, Berger’s friend and Director of Obstetrics-Gynecology at Harlem Hospital, said Berger was far too young and far too vital when he died. Mandeville helped organize the drop.

“We wanted to acknowledge his love of golf and how much we miss him,” he said.

Mandeville recalled how he and his wife, Harriet, shared Berger’s love of New Orleans music and culture. Berger attended school and completed his medical residency in that city.

Mandeville provided some golf balls from Berger’s collection to be sold for the drop. Karen Rames, Mandeville and Rosenthal, whose balls landed closest to the target, donated their cash prizes prizes back to the Berger Memorial Fund. Instead, they took home their numbered golf balls from the collection. A fourth individual, Mark Fischweicher, whose ball landed near the target, as well, won a bag of Berger’s used golf tees. Rosenthal said the prize was only appropriate because Fischweicher’s son had received a set of Berger’s golf clubs.

Thunderhart’s owner and Superintendent Erik Nicholsen dropped the balls from a helicopter flying about 150 feet above the range.

Club Manager Kevin Smith, who also helped organize the event, which was open to the public as well as to club members, said about 95 percent of the 180 balls dropped were purchased by Thunderhart’s golfers.

“Our members have really come through,” Smith said. “It is nice that Dr. Berger’s golf club can have a hand in the play area.”

Communities spar over EMS payments
Cairo, Greenville agree on one thing: Problems are ‘ludicrous’
The Daily Mail
July 24, 2009

Cairo Ambulance Chief Reay Mahler said the Greenville Rescue Squad owes the Town of Cairo roughly $16,000 for calls covered in Greenville for patients who do not pay, or do not have an insurance company pay, the Town of Cairo Ambulance.

But Greenville Rescue Squad’s attorney Bradley Pinsky disagrees.

“We owe the town not a dime,” he said.

Pinsky, of Scicchitano and Pinsky, PLLC, said that Cairo’s bid to recover the money was “ridiculous.”

“What we will never do is pay any money to another ambulance service when we had no part in providing care,” he said. “We are just not going to do that.”

Pinsky said he has asked Cairo Town Supervisor John Coyne to provide him with a list of the call for which Cairo demands payment.

Mahler said he had sent updated information to the Greenville Rescue Squad four times, but Pinsky said he has received nothing from Cairo.

Without the lists, Pinsky said, he could not determine whether patients had mistakenly sent some of the money Cairo requested to the Greenville Rescue Squad instead of to the Cairo Ambulance.

Pinsky said Coyne had indicated during a special meeting to discuss the issue that a new mutual aid contract Pinsky had drafted was acceptable.

The agreement was rejected last week by the Town Board upon the recommendation of Cairo Town Attorney Tal Rappleyea.

The Town Board also passed a resolution to notify the Greenville Rescue Squad that it would terminate a mutual aid agreement at the end of August if the money is not paid.

Mahler said that Cairo Ambulance will still respond to mass casualty call in Greenville or if other services are unable to cover a call even if the mutual aid agreement is terminated.

Cairo will only not cover regular calls to which the Greenville Rescue Squad cannot respond due to insufficient manpower, he said.

Pinsky said the town’s threat showed its greed.

He maintained that the payments were not the squad’s responsibility.

“The Greenville Rescue Squad has no obligation whatsoever to serve as an insurance company for a patient without insurance,” he said.

But Mahler said the squad does need to finance emergency medical services in Greenville.

“We understand that they are not an insurance company but Greenville Rescue Squad, because of its Certificate of Need, is responsible for the Town of Greenville residents’ EMS,” he said.

However, Pinsky said that proposition was “ludicrous” and the certificate does not obligate the squad to pay for calls it could not cover.

Mahler said Cairo Ambulance has been paid for the majority of the calls it has covered in Greenville and a small but growing number of patients have not paid Cairo Ambulance for its service.

And in those cases, he said, Cairo foots the bill for patients in Greenville.

Mahler said other ambulance services in the area, such as Durham’s service, face the same problem Greenville sometimes has with manning an ambulance at certain times of the day. Cairo, and other mutual aid services, respond to their calls, he said.

He said other communities recognize that they have a responsibility to pay Cairo when patients in their communities do not, or cannot, make the payments themselves.

“That the taxpayers in Cairo are paying for the Town of Cairo Ambulance to go into the Town of Greenville to cover the slack because their agency is not doing it is ludicrous,” he said.

The problem with Greenville has been ongoing for two years and Cairo has never received a payment, he said.

Mahler said he and Coyne had met with representatives from the squad and the Town of Greenville to work out an aid agreement and a payment schedule. He said initially the agreement was going to expire April 1, 2009, but the deadline was extended to allow the rescue to pay some of the debt.

“We have been very fair,” he said. “But we cannot continue to provide this service for nothing.”

Communities spar over EMS payments
Cairo, Greenville agree on one thing: Problems are ‘ludicrous’
The Daily Mail
July 23, 2009

GREENVILLE — Cairo Ambulance Chief Reay Mahler said the Greenville Rescue Squad owes the Town of Cairo roughly $16,000 for calls covered in Greenville for patients who do not pay, or do not have an insurance company pay, the Town of Cairo Ambulance.

But Greenville Rescue Squad’s attorney Bradley Pinsky disagrees.

“We owe the town not a dime,” he said.

Pinsky, of Scicchitano and Pinsky, PLLC, said that Cairo’s bid to recover the money was “ridiculous.”

“What we will never do is pay any money to another ambulance service when we had no part in providing care,” he said. “We are just not going to do that.”

Pinsky said he has asked Cairo Town Supervisor John Coyne to provide him with a list of the call for which Cairo demands payment.

Mahler said he had sent updated information to the Greenville Rescue Squad four times, but Pinsky said he has received nothing from Cairo.

Without the lists, Pinsky said, he could not determine whether patients had mistakenly sent some of the money Cairo requested to the Greenville Rescue Squad instead of to the Cairo Ambulance.

Pinsky said Coyne had indicated during a special meeting to discuss the issue that a new mutual aid contract Pinsky had drafted was acceptable.

The agreement was rejected last week by the Town Board upon the recommendation of Cairo Town Attorney Tal Rappleyea.

The Town Board also passed a resolution to notify the Greenville Rescue Squad that it would terminate a mutual aid agreement at the end of August if the money is not paid.

Malher said that Cairo Ambulance will still respond to mass casualty call in Greenville or if other services are unable to cover a call even if the mutual aid agreement is terminated.

Cairo will only not cover regular calls to which the Greenville Rescue Squad cannot respond due to insufficient manpower, he said.

Pinsky said the town’s threat showed its greed.

He maintained that the payments were not the squad’s responsibility.

“The Greenville Rescue Squad has no obligation whatsoever to serve as an insurance company for a patient without insurance,” he said.

But Mahler said the squad does need to finance emergency medical services in Greenville.

“We understand that they are not an insurance company but Greenville Rescue Squad, because of its Certificate of Need, is responsible for the Town of Greenville residents’ EMS,” he said.

However, Pinsky said that proposition was “ludicrous” and the certificate does not obligate the squad to pay for calls it could not cover.

Malher said Cairo Ambulance has been paid for the majority of the calls it has covered in Greenville and a small but growing number of patients have not paid Cairo Ambulance for its service.

And in those cases, he said, Cairo foots the bill for patients in Greenville.

Mahler said other ambulance services in the area, such as Durham’s service, face the same problem Greenville sometimes has with manning an ambulance at certain times of the day. Cairo, and other mutual aid services, respond to their calls, he said.

He said other communities recognize that they have a responsibility to pay Cairo when patients in their communities do not, or cannot, make the payments themselves.

“That the taxpayers in Cairo are paying for the Town of Cairo Ambulance to go into the Town of Greenville to cover the slack because their agency is not doing it is ludicrous,” he said.

The problem with Greenville has been ongoing for two years and Cairo has never received a payment, he said.

Malher said he and Coyne had met with representatives from the squad and the Town of Greenville to work out an aid agreement and a payment schedule. He said initially the agreement was going to expire April 1, 2009, but the deadline was extended to allow the rescue to pay some of the debt.

“We have been very fair,” he said. “But we cannot continue to provide this service for nothing.”

Board halts mutual aid accord with Greenville
Cairo has not been paid for some calls in the last 2 years, chief says
The Daily Mail
July 16, 2009

CAIRO — The Town of Cairo Board voted Wednesday to cancel its mutual aid agreement with the Greenville Rescue Squad if a balance of almost $16,000 is not repaid within 45 days.

Town of Cairo Ambulance Chief Reay Mahler told the Board that in the last two years the Greenville service has not paid for calls made by the Cairo service for individuals without health insurance.

“We do not and cannot expect the Town of Cairo taxpayers to have to subsidize one of the local agencies,” he said.

Mahler explained that the Cairo service has become something of a primary backup service in Greenville although other community emergence responders have mutual aid agreements with Greenville, as well.

He said a new contract could be negotiated if Cairo and Greenville are able to resolve the financial dispute within a 45-day window.

The law, he said, requires 30-day notification of mutual aid termination.

Mahler said he had notified the Greenville service in October that the agreement could be terminated in April and that the problem, several weeks to correct the problem.

“As a result of that, we felt we need to force the issue,” he said.

He said other towns with volunteer services for which Cairo provides mutual aid have kept up with requested payments.

Malher said he has provided the Greenville squad upon request four times information regarding the calls for which Cairo needs to be paid.

He said the two services have met with each other but that the Greenville service has still refused to make the payments.

Malher said the Cairo service costs roughly $425,000 a year to operate. And, he said, Cairo must pay another service to cover its own calls when it is providing mutual aid in another town.

He said the Cairo service wanted to be a good neighbor and could provide aid to Greenville if no other service was available.

“We do not mind doing it, but just pay us for our services,” he said. “It is not fair that the Town of Cairo taxpayers need to foot that burden for another town.”

Town Supervisor John Coyne said he agreed with Mahler’s assessment of the situation.

“I think it is time that we need to get a little forceful and let them know that after 45 days, Cairo is not going to be there to help them,” he said.

Drive-ins thrive as blockbusters, DVDs flourish
Theaters defy pressure from real estate values, changing market
The Daily Mail
June 13, 2009

GREENE COUNTY — Residents of Greenville can enjoy an evening movie under the stars once again now that the Greenville Drive-In has reopened.

The theater was closed in 2007.

The theater’s new manager, Don Brown and concessions manager Patricia Creigh bring with them years of experience from running a theater in Delaware. That theater closed in 2008, allowing the pair to look for a change of scenery.

Brown said he started working with owner Mark Wilcox to manage the theater on Route 32, in Greenville, and reopened the theater earlier this month.

Creigh now serves up snacks including popcorn and candy but nachos, fries and hot dogs, as well.

Brown warns that although the box office opens at 7 p.m., movies may not begin until shortly before 9 p.m., or when the sky darkens.

Patrons familiar with the drive-in may notice that the theater has a new steel screen.

He said that already patrons who have come to the theater for the last 50 years have come to thank him for reopening.

Brown said he has known many drive-in theaters to close in the recent years due to a rise in property taxes, which made running a theater or a theater chain less efficient than it once was.

“It just wasn’t as viable,” he said. “The market was over-saturated.”

The United Drive-In Theater Owners Association boasts a membership of 178 drive-in theater operators for the 2008-2009 year.

Association members operate 151 theaters in 40 American states and territories, including 14 in New York State, and run a total of 300 drive-in screens. The Association has more than 30 corporate partners, according to its Web site.

Brown has already lined up showings of new movies at the theater all summer long.

This weekend, movie-goers can catch “Up” and “Angels and Demons.” In the coming weeks, Brown will screen ”Ice Age 3” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

“Up” and “Angels and Demons,” along with “Pelham 123,” “The Hangover,” “Terminator Salvation,” “Star Trek,” “A Night at the Museum 2” and “Land of the Lost,” will play at the Hi-Way Drive-In, on Route 9W, in Coxsackie, this weekend.

Roger Babcock, who has owned and run the theater since the 1970s, will begin screening films on a nightly basis beginning on Fri. June 12.

He is also working on adding a fourth screen to the complex, which will allow him to keep showing more films for a longer period of time.

He explained that, for example, 98 percent of ticket sales and tax during the for the movie “Spider-Man 3” during its first week run went to the production company and only a small amount of revenue came into the theater.

After the first week, cuts to production companies decrease, so the longer a movie stays in a theater, the more money a theater can make, he said.

He said most theater revenue comes in through concession stand sales.

His concession stand offers customers snacks as well as fries, Philly cheese steak and pulled pork sandwiches and chicken fingers, among other food. He is adding ice cream cones and sundaes to the menu this summer.

Babcock said his movies draw a wide range in customers, spanning from die-hard drive-in fans of the Baby Boomer generation to children, in to see kid-friendly films.

Now that theaters broadcast sound over radio frequencies, rather than through the small, tinny speakers of the past, families can settle into their cars, babies, pets and all.

“It’s just like sitting in your home theater except you are in your little car,” Babcock said.

Other changes to the complex include a new women’s bathroom and a handicapped-accessible bathroom.

More renovations in the complex are planned, he said.

Neither Babcock nor Brown are worried about their theaters competing with each other’s, they said. Babcock said he had a friendly relationship with Mark Wilcox and his family when they ran the theater. He said he expected that moviegoers will give the new management of the Greenville Drive-In a chance.

Don Brown said the Greenville Drive-In will continue to attract residents and visitors in the area.

Greene County, he said, still has a sort of road-side culture to support drive-in theaters.

The skyline shows trees and mountains, he said, and lacks big-box stores and shopping centers.

“It is a beautiful area that has not been exploited,” he said. “It is not homogenized.”

For showtimes and more information about the Greenville Drive-In, please visit www.greenvilledrivein.com or call (518) 966-8500. The Hi-Way Drive-In can be reached at www.hiwaydrivein.com or (518) 731-8672.
Both theaters charge $8 for adult tickets and $3 for child tickets.

Adopted horses show improvement
The Daily Mail
May 4, 2009, online

GREENVILLE - Nancy Caldwell was not actively looking to purchase a second horse when she learned about the malnourished horses housed at Center Brook Farm in Climax. She called her boyfriend, she said, and they discussed adopting a horse from the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCEA.

“It clicked,” she said.

On April 28, Caldwell brought Running Witch, a 10-year-old dark bay mare, to her stable a few hours away.

Running Witch is one of more than 50 horses from the Center Brook Farm that the CGHS/SPCA has adopted out to new owners.

The CGHS/SPCA was awarded custody of 67 of the 177 horses at the farm when it was raided by state police investigators and animal control officers April 3.

Ernie Paragallo, 51, of Massapequa, the farm’s owner, was arrested April 10 and charged with 22 counts of animal cruelty. He is expected to appear before Justice Thomas Fori in Coxsackie Town Court May 18.

CGHS/SPCA staff said they are hopeful that the rest of the horses will be adopted over the next week or two.

“They have done a complete 180,” CGHS/SPCA President Ron Perez said. “They’re doing much, much better.”

Caldwell said Running Witch ate an entire bale of hay her first night in her new home. Since then, Caldwell has monitored how much food the horse is given to eat.

Caldwell said the horse is still very thin and has skin problems but has no active parasites. And, after a lot of grooming, Running Witch’s mangy hair has begun falling out, she said.

Running Witch has adjusted well and can be lead around and blanketed, Caldwell said, adding that the horse has shown her calm and affectionate personality.

“She really hugs you,” she said.

Susan Kayne, breeder and owner of the Unbridled Racing Stable, in Greenville, said Friday the three horses she adopted from the farm have also shown improvements in health and spirits.

The horses she adopted- Fine Behind, Queen Burger and Lily of The Day - and others on the farm, had parasites and had not been wormed.

Kayne said her three horses had worn halters for too long and had bug infestations in their ears. Their hooves were cracked and their soles were bruised as a result of receiving poor or no hoof care, she said.

“Hoof cracks, rings and bruising are signs of extreme stress on the animal,” she wrote in a subsequent e-mail.

She said Friday her new horses were very timid when she first brought them to her stable earlier in the week.

The animals would walk away from her when she approached them.

Fine Behind, a horse she said Paragallo bought as a weanling for $80,000, was missing hair from lice and rain rot. Lily of The Day would not raise her head.

“They were generally depressed,” she said.

But, she said, the horses were eager eaters.

“They just opened their mouths as wide as they could to bite the food,” she said.

Kayne will allow one of her new horses to go out into a field with two of her other eight horses so they can get some individual attention but still feel protected, she said.

“They come out with a real spring in their step,” she said, noting that Queen Burger has rebounded the quickest of the three.

Kayne, who has worked with Paragallo to breed horses, said Paragallo used to visit the farm frequently and she could not believe he had not visited his farm in months as he has claimed.

Kayne said the horses remaining at Center Brook Farm looked much better in late April than they did when the CGHS/SPCA first stepped in. The farm looked better, too, she said, adding that CGHS/SPCA staff had done a commendable job turning things around.

“It looks like a completely different place,” she said, “it is hard work to manage that many horses.”

Fire claims barn, 2 acres of brush
The Daily Mail
Mar. 24, 2009

GREENVILLE — A portion of Route 32 in Greenville was closed Monday afternoon while five companies as well as a team from the State Department of Environmental Conservation controlled and monitored a fire that claimed a barn and two acres of brush.

No injuries were reported.

The road between county Route 35 and Hill Street was closed at 1:45 p.m. and reopened at 5 p.m.

Companies from Freehold, Greenville, Medway-Grapeville, West Greenville and Westerlo responded to the fire at 10930 Route 32, which took an hour to control, Greenville’s Assistant Chief Cliff Powell said.

The blaze started at around 12:30 p.m. when wind spread a controlled debris fire on the property to a nearby barn, according to authorities, and then to the surrounding brush.

Greenville Fire Company Assistant Chief Jim Stryker said the barn had recently been converted into a wood-working shop.

DEC Region 4 spokesman Rick Georgeson said it took the agency team two hours to extinguish the brush fire.

Georgeson said that strong winds can often quickly turn a small fire into a much more serious problem.

“We strongly suggest that people do not burn on a windy day,” he said.