SusanCampriello: My Works

Speech validates C-GCC
Register-Star
The Daily Mail
Sept. 22, 2009
(Packaged with coverage of President Barack Obama’s Monday, Sept. 21 address at Hudson Valley Community College.)

President Barack Obama’s visit to HVCC won rave reviews at a Columbia-Greene Community College Board of Trustees meeting later in the evening.

C-GCC President James R. Campion said Obama’s visit to a community college in New York State validated the important work going on at the school and others across the country.

“Although [the speech] was at Hudson Valley, all 1,200 of us were in the spotlight today,” Campion said.

Campion lauded the president’s commitment to simplifying tax credits for college tuition and streamlining student loans. He said hearing Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joseph Biden and a long-time community college professor, speak of how community colleges fit into the fabric of the nation’s economy by preparing the workforce of tomorrow made him proud.

Campion said technology firms such as GlobalFoundries will require the future accountants, human resources personnel and business managers currently attending his school.

He said the need for the nurses, automotive technicians and computer networking professionals enrolled in the school’s largest programs will increase as the population of the Tech Valley grows.

“The opportunities are going to be there not only for people going into the science and engineering fields but also in other aspects of the business,” he said.

Campion and C-GCC Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs Phyllis Carito announced to the college’s Board of Trustees that the school had scored well in a recent student engagement survey run by the University of Texas at Austin.

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) measured what students gained from their college experiences at 663 schools in 48 states, three Canadian provinces and in the Marshall Islands between 2007 and 2009. Approximately 400,800 students participated in the survey with 534 of those at C-GCC. About 1,800 students attended the school when the survey was conducted last spring.

According to survey data, C-GCC scored higher than the national benchmarks and benchmarks of other schools of similar size and program offerings.

The school scored 50.1 in active and collaborative learning, compared with a State University of New York consortium score of 48.7 and a 2009 CCSSE cohort score of 50.0. The school received a score of 50.3 for student effort compared with the SUNY consortium benchmark score of 49.8 and a CCSSE cohort benchmark score of 50.0. Students gave C-GCC a score of 51.7 for academic challenge, with the SUNY consortium receiving a benchmark score of 50.6 and a CCSSEE cohort benchmark score of 50.0. The school received a score of 52.5 for student-faculty interaction with the SUNY consortium receiving a benchmark score of 51.4 and the CCSSE cohort receiving a benchmark score of 50.0. Finally, C-GCC received a score of 54.3 for support for learners, with the SUNY consortium receiving a benchmark score of 49.9 and the CCSSEE cohort receiving a benchmark score of 50.0.

The school participated in the survey to collect data for a Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaccreditation self-study.

Reacreditation occurs every 10 years, Campion said, with the next commission visit and assessment in 2011.

Tour of the Catskills a ‘climber’s race’
The Daily Mail
Sept. 21, 2009

One thousand bike racers and their friends and families visited the Mountaintop this weekend for the second Tour of the Catskills - a more than 100-mile, three-day race around Greene County’s peaks and valleys.

Event staff said 285 bikers participated, traveling from 15 states and four Canadian provinces to bike in the Tour’s two loops and time trial. Last year, 175 racers participated.

The Tour was sponsored by the Catskill Mountain Foundation along with the Hunter Chamber of Commerce and the Windham Chamber of Commerce.

Saturday’s Catskill Epic loop took racers from Windham to Prattsville, Durham and Acra and back to Windham. Sunday’s Mountaintop Classic loop wound through Hunter, Jewett, Windham, Acra, Round Top, Palenville, Tannersville and ended at the Catskill Mountain Foundation offices in Hunter. Professional racers followed slightly different and longer routes that included laps of parts of the main loops.

Tour winners would have spent about 5 hours on the road race staff estimated Sunday, before official results were calculated. The day’s leader in the professional category, Justin Lindine, completed the 75-mile Mountaintop Classic in just more than three hours. He was followed across the finish line by Andrew Guptill, Roger Aspholm, Peter Horn and Cameron Cogburn.

Racers were divided into nine separate age, gender and skill classifications, each with their own winners.

The men’s category three winner was Pavel Gonda of the Czech Republic, who rode for the Pacifico team. Gonda raced in Europe from 2002 until 2005 and picked up the sport again this year, he said.

Gonda arrived in the United States in August to begin studying law at New York University, in New York City.

Gonda said he beat the men’s category three second-place winner Jim Komarmi by 10 centimeters.

“I came here to be first,” the racer, who was places second after Friday’s time trial and third after Saturday’s Catskill Epic, said.

Gonda said both legs presented their own challenges — Saturday’s route scaled and declined several hills and Sunday’s featured a push up Route 32A and a sprint to the finish line.

“It is a very, very beautiful race,” he said.

Komarmi, who coaches Alpine skiing at the Green Mountain Valley School in Vermont, agreed that mountains defined the race.

“It’s definitely a climber’s race,” he said.

Komarmi, who rode for the American Flatbread team, explained that racing was as much about pacing and passing strategy as about speed.

“It’s very much a chess match on the road,” he said.

Komarmi and men’s category three third-place winner Michael Boardman agreed that although the terrain was challenging, the race did not draw a hugely competitive group of riders.

Boardman, of Rockstar Video Games’ team, said he expected that competition would grow as more bikers entered the race.

Catskill Mountain Foundation Executive Director Peter Barker said he expected that participation would increase due to the success of the first two races.

He said no major incidents or injuries were reported over the weekend and that all the racers seemed happy. Happy racers, he said, would return.

Barker said the weekend’s success was due to cooperation of local law enforcement, community members and volunteers who provided food and support to the racers.

“What makes this race so successful is the volunteer effort,” he said.

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.

Students fail class period
Change at C-A forces them to choose between athletics and clubs, which could hurt college admission, they say
The Daily Mail
Sept. 18, 2009

COXSACKIE — More than a dozen Coxsackie-Athens students spoke out at a meeting of the District Board of Education against a change in class period designation.

The new class period schedule implemented this year allots time at the end of the school day for struggling students to receive academic assistance from teachers. As a result, school clubs have to meet after school and at the same time as sports practices and games.

The students complained the change forces them to choose between playing a sport and joining a club, a choice, they said, could hurt their chances for admission at their choice colleges.

Senior Madison Economos, who, along with several other students came to the meeting straight from a volleyball game, said she understood the need for the “L” period but that it comes at the expense of other students’ needs.

“As administrators, you encourage us to to be involved in all these different things and it’s impossible to be involved if there’s one set time for four different things,” she said.

She and several other students argued that they have learned how to interact with each other and the community by holding club fundraisers or working on club service projects.

They explained that clubs have brought driving safety programs to the school, clubs have purchased school supplies for underprivileged schools in Mexico and through clubs, students can learn about other cultures, technology and business in ways that cannot be taught in a classroom setting.

All of these skills, they argued, will help club members gain admission to colleges.

“Colleges are looking at how you contribute to your school community and how, therefore, you can contribute to a college community,” Lily Dayter, a senior who participates in a number of school clubs, said.

Senior Erica Goldson, who takes classes at Hudson Valley Community Collete but participates in Coxsackie-Athens clubs, agreed.

Goldson hopes to attend a prestigious college. She said her college applications have been strengthened by the various club offices she has held during her high school career.

“I know that I wouldn’t even stand a change of getting into those schools without what I’ve done [in my clubs],” she said.

Students and parents also stated that the lack of transportation home from school after club meetings certain days of the week will hurt club participation, as well.

Many parents work and cannot come to Coxsackie to pick children up from school, they said.

Student Stephanie Puorro delivered to the Board a package of 100 letters signed by students who hoped for a solution to the scheduling problem.

Board President Joseph “Seph” Garland III explained that the new schedule would take time getting used to and the administration was still trying to make everything work.

He said the issue would be discussed further at next month’s Board meeting.

Many students indicated they would attend the Oct. 20 meeting with the hope that the Board had reached a decision favorable to their position.

“The school is here to serve the students, all the students, not just the kids who need extra help,” Lily Dayter said.

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.

Parents cry foul over lack of athletes’ bus
Many Athens students denied participation in sports, they say
The Daily Mail
Sept. 16, 2009

COXSACKIE — Parents in the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District expressed their ire Tuesday to the Board of Education, saying they feel marginalized from the district by the absence of a bus to Athens after sports practices.

Athens resident Lee Palmateer said the lack of a bus denies a lot of Athens students from participating in athletic teams.

Palmateer said not having a bus was unfair to children and the entire Athens community, which, he said, makes up roughly 30 percent of the district’s population.

“Recognizing that the schools are here in Coxsackie, we would at least like to have a place where our kids can be transported to in Athens,” he said, “so there is some semblance of equity.”

A student athlete bus to the Village of Athens would cost roughly $10,000, according to C-A Superintendent Dr. Earle Gregory. The line item for the bus was discussed at several budget workshop meetings last spring before it was dropped from the final budget.

But parents said they did not know the bus had been discontinued until the first day of sports practice this summer.

Palmateer and other parents said they now have to face the hardship of leaving work early to pick up their children or discouraging their children from joining a team.

Denise Hartman worried that some parents would not be able to pick their children up from school. But Jennifer Petramale said car traffic into the school complex at the end of practice was beginning to be a problem.

Another Athens resident, Leo Palmateer, asked the Board how they made the decision to discontinue the bus while still running bus service to students who live outside Greene County.

Board President Joseph “Seph” Garland III said the decision had not been made “in the dark” but after ridership to Athens declined last year to only five or six children. Garland said the busing needs are reviewed every year during the budget process.

Lee Palmateer, who said his three football-playing children would be joined on a bus by a handful of other students in his neighborhood, suggested the district canvass teams to get an accurate count of student athletes who live in Athens and would ride a bus home.

Stephanie Puorro, a student who lives in Hannacroix, a 20-minute drive from the school, said she and her neighbors could benefit from a sports bus to their community.

Student Brittney Williams asked why the district could justify making bus runs to bring home students who had been punished with after-school detentions but not a sports bus to Athens.

Although Williams was not answered immediately, District Chief Financial Officer Leslie Copleston stated later in the meeting that buses that transport students to and from academic programs — including detention — are partially funded by aid money. Buses for field trips or athletic games and practices, she said, are not.

Co-chairman sees Greene County YMCA in 2011
Information meetings on project to be held today and Thursday
The Daily Mail
Sept. 16, 2009

COXSACKIE — Hugh Quigley hopes to open a YMCA in Coxsackie by 2011.

Quigley, who is a co-chairman of the YMCA Board of Directors, said he has already heard from a number of Greene County residents and children who share his vision.

“This is not a pipe dream,” he said.

Quigley and other board members will host two informational meetings, one in Coxsackie the other in Catskill, this week that will feature a rundown of what the Y could offer the community, testimonials from children and a few words from Catskill Central School District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell and Coxsackie-Athens Central School District Superintendent Dr. Earle Gregory.

The Y would feature a gymnasium, a swimming pool and an exercise facility as well as a Columbia-Greene Community College satellite office. Quigley said ball courts or outdoor playing fields could figure into the final facility plan, as well.

The Y would have a licensed day care facility, which, Quigley said, the county currently lacks.

Children could stay in the day care facility while their parents are using other Y facilities or while their parents are at work, he said.

Ultmately, he said, the Y could have whatever facilities and fit whatever needs the community requests.

Quigley said he got the idea for opening Y after hearing from Catskill Central School District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell how students from schools in the Catskill, Cairo-Durham and Coxsackie-Athens districts came together while working on the “River of Dreams” musical.

Quigley said a Y could continue to break barriers between towns by serving the entire county.

“We have to think like a county rather than like a little town,” he said.

The Y, which would be called the Greene County YMCA, would be a branch of the Capital District YMCA network. The facility would be located on a 15-acre area in Coxsackie’s Greene County Business and Technology Park that was donated by the Greene County Industrial Development Agency, upon whose Board of Directors Quigley also sits.

Memberships could cost between $20 and $80 depending on program and family size.

The Greene County YMCA’s Board of Directors needs to raise $5 million through private donations, corporate donations and grants over a five-year span to establish the program. Quigley said raising $1 million from private donors will show the non-profit YMCA of the United States that Greene County wants a Y. Quigley said he hopes to know by December whether the funding will be there to support a Y.

“If [people] give a dollar a day, we’d have a YMCA by tomorrow,” he said.

Village to study flooding conditions
$5,000 allotment targets eventual solution to Riverside Avenue problems
The Daily Mail
Sept. 15, 2009

COXSACKIE — The Coxsackie Village Board voted Monday to allot $5,000 to Delaware Engineering to assess and eventually solve flooding problems on Riverside Avenue.

Mayor Mark Evans said two particularly troublesome spots in the Village include the intersection of Riverside Avenue and Water Street and where a stream flows down a hill further along Riverside Avenue and crosses the street to reach the Hudson River.

“The stream follows its own path, gradually scouring the road out,” Evans said of the problem.

Evans said floods also occur near 74 Riverside Ave., where several culverts come together with no real connection. Water there flows above the roadway.

Evans said summer downpours flood an area underneath an aqueduct in the Village. The area drains naturally, Evans said, but police and fire personnel close the road for as long as waters are high.

“We are trying to figure a permanent solution,” he said, adding that he did not know what the final answer will be.

Before the vote, Evans and Trustee Greg Backus discussed establishing a funding cap so as not to allow the engineering firm to charge the Village too much for assessment work.

Evans said Delaware Engineering will have to evaluate the flooding problem before offering proposed solutions. A final cost estimate for the work will follow, he said.

Arrest sparks questions about site plan law
Business owner baffled over citation
The Daily Mail
Sept. 15, 2009

CAIRO — Cairo business owner Joanne Lettieri was arrested by Cairo police outside her Main Street resale shop in August.

The building at 465 Main St. was a restaurant before it was acquired by Lettieri and turned into McBride’s Resale Shop nine years ago. The building is approved for use as a restaurant and cannot be used for retail purposes without a review by the Town Planning Board in accordance with the Town’s Site Plan Review Law.

Lettieri, who is a substitute teacher, was brought to the police station at Angelo Canna Park in front of a practicing school football team.

“I have never been more humiliated in my entire life,” she said. “If that was their intent, they succeeded.”

The incident occurred Aug. 19.

According to the site plan review law, which was adopted last year, a change of use requires review by the Planning Board if a property other than a single or two-family residence undergoes modifications to its parking area, impervious surface area, signage, exterior lighting, facade or size.

Lettieri said she has not made those modifications and does not need to undergo the review.

But Cairo Code Enforcement Officer Stacy Sprague and Planning Board Chairman Daniel Benoit had informed Lettieri that complaints had been made about the use of the building as a store rather than as a restaurant before the Aug. 19 incident.

Lettieri said she had been told the change of use required review from the Planning Board.

Benoit said Lettieri was told in early August that she needed to fill out a Site Plan Review application and appear in front of the Planning Board.

On Aug. 19, Lettieri said Sprague and Cairo Chief of Police Chris Sprague, who, according to Lettieri, was not in uniform at the time, visited the store again. Lettieri said she was given a letter indicating she was in violation of the town’s law. A sign notifying Cairo that the business was not in compliance with the law that effectively closed the business was placed on the store’s window.

The Lettieris visited the Code Enforcement Office later that day and maintained that they were not in violation of the law. Joanne Lettieri reminded Stacy Sprague that the business had been open for several years without incident.

She questioned how existing businesses should operate under the new law.

“We have been doing this since before their law went into effect, just like every other business on Main Street who did not have to appear before the Planning Board,” she said.

Lettieri said Stacy Sprague explained that the Planning Board had received a complaint about the store and she was following proper procedure. Lettieri said Stacy Sprague warned her that she would be arrested if the store reopened.

Lettieri said her husband Michael told Stacy Sprague he was going to open the door, anyway, and police could come and arrest him.

Later that day, the Lettieris did open the door to the store and Stacy Sprague called Cairo Police. Chief Sprague, again, not in uniform, according to Lettieri, and another officer responded to the call.

Lettieri said her husband and Chief Sprague spoke while she went to her car.

Joanne Lettieri said the uniformed officer asked her to get out of the car. When she complied, she was handcuffed as the owner of a business in violation of the law and the order to close the store.

Lettieri said she would have followed the officer to the police station if asked. But police said she resisted the arrest to an extent.

“They didn’t have to put me in handcuffs,” she said.

Chief Sprague said Friday he could not comment on the incident because the case was still open.

Lettieri made an appearance in front of Justice Thomas Baldwin in Town Court Aug. 25 and has a second appearance date Sept. 22.

The Lettieris also appeared before the Planning Board hoping the board would admit its error.

Planning Board Chairman Daniel Benoit said that the Lettieris had not filled out an application for Site Plan Review and without an application the board could not consider the usage issue. He said he told the Lettieris to fill out an application so the Planning Board would have jurisdiction over the issue.

“I feel sympathy for them, but if they are not willing to participate in the process even by filing even simple application paperwork we can’t proceed forward,” Benoit said.

Joanne Lettieri said the question of whether the usage should fall under the previsions of the old Site Plan Review Law was raised at the meeting.

Again, she said, other Cairo businesses may also be subject to the review process.

“If they have to see if we’re violating to old Site Plan Law, they have to see if everybody is violating the old Site Plan Law and of course they’re not going to do that,” she said.

Cairo Town Supervisor John Coyne spoke for his code enforcement officer, saying Sprague had visited the store and followed up with complaints filed with the Town.

The Site Plan Review Law allows the town building inspector to order an appearance ticket to be served on alleged violators.

Coyne said he did not know of anyone being arrested for violating the Site Plan Review Law and the situation had gone to an extreme.

The Lettieris have closed their store and sold their merchandise at a yard sale last weekend. They have not filed an application under the Site Plan Review Law, and maintain it is not necessary.

Michael Lettieri said his wife was not guilty of opening the store after being advised to keep it closed. After all, he said, he had told police that he was going to open the door.

“Joanne’s only crime that day was that she was married to me,” he said.