SusanCampriello: My Works

Eco-Fair focuses on ecologically-friendly practices
The Daily Mail
Sept. 14, 2009

Greene County residents had a chance to learn about organic farming and products, recycling and alternative energies at Angelo Canna Park Sunday during the Cairo Area Chamber of Commerce’s first Eco-Fair.

The fair featured guest speakers ranging from representatives from the Rip Van Winkle Tobacco-Free Action of Columbia and Greene Counties, the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County and a veterinarian.

Fair co-Chairman Neil Schoenfeld said he hoped the fair would inspire attendees to live more ecologically-friendly lives.

“I hope a lot of good programs are spurred throughout the county out of this,” he said.

Lecturers and vendors had each other talking about ways they could decrease their energy consumption and lower pollution.

Joseph Siniski, business development officer for the National Bank of Coxsackie, said he was impressed by G-Oil, a non-polluting fuel that can be used in chain saws and weed whackers about which Hal Zucker, of Living Structures Realty, spoke.

Bank of America Cairo Branch Manager Elizabeth Hansen said she learned at the fair that Central Hudson Gas and Electric provides businesses and homeowners with information about environmentally-friendly construction options.

She said she was interested in installing solar panels at her Round Top home for the right price.

Hansen provided fair-goers with information about the new efficient and “green” Bank of America corporate building being constructed in Manhattan.

Venders of organic foods included Armstrong Elk Farm, Black Walnut Natural Farm and Mountain Beekeepers. Upstate Solar, Catskill Boilers and Geothermal Systems showed their solar panels, wood boilers and heating systems, respectively.

Chamber President and fair co-Chairwoman Claudia Zucker estimates that a few hundred people had attended the fair by early afternoon.

County Legislator Harry Lennon, D-Cairo, thanked the Chamber for organizing the fair, which, he said, spotlighted the future of business.

“It is the way of the future and Greene County has to step up and look at alternative energy,” Lennon said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Biggs said he was happy with the CD.

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

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

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

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

Talbott said he, Biggs and Cuthbert collaborated well.

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

Organizers hope Eco-Faire points to the future
Chamber of Commerce president says going green will, in the long run, save consumers money
Sept. 11, 2009

CAIRO — Area residents will get a chance to learn about outdoor wood boilers, electric vehicles and solar energy Sunday as the Cairo Area Chamber of Commerce hosts its first Eco-Faire at Angelo Canna Park.

Chamber President and Eco-Faire Co-Chairwoman Claudia Zucker said the event will feature residents who use and create green energy, green vendors and lecturers to speak on how green energy can be used around the house.

“Most people think that going green costs money but we are out to prove in the long run that it saves you money,” she said.

Other featured exhibits will include Greene County residents and companies who generate all their own energy, own hybrid vehicles and produce and sell organic foods. A beekeeper and herbalist will be there, too, she said.

Eco-Faire-goers can participate in animal diet and treatments, recyclable jewelry, and workplace greening workshops.

Speakers will include State Assemblyman Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie; Andy Turner, executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County; and real estate broker Hal Zucker.

Claudia Zucker said the idea for the Eco-Faire came out of a green renovation class on which Hal Zucker, her husband, was working. Other members of the Chamber shared ideas, too, she said, and the faire came together.

“Everybody got excited about it,” she said.

Zucker said the Chamber is hoping for a good turnout Sunday and are already thinking of venders and exhibitions that could be included in next year’s Eco-Faire.

Eco-Faire Co-Chairman Neil Schoenfeld said similar fairs that bring new energy technologies to communities have been held across the country.

He said the problems of pollution have to be dealt with if the earth is going to remain viable.

“This is the future,” he said.

For Cairo voters, it’s no contest
Democrats will not nominate candidates
The Daily Mail
Sept. 10, 2009

CAIRO — The Cairo Democratic Committee will not field any candidates for town office, according to committee Chairman Michael Coyne.

“The committee has chosen after thoughtful deliberation that it is in our best interest this year not to have a caucus,” Coyne said Tuesday night.

The decision leaves the Republicans — incumbent town supervisor John Coyne, incumbent councilman Raymond Suttmeier, councilman candidate Douglas Ostrander Sr., justice candidate Leland Miller and incumbent tax collector Emily Feeney — with no Democratic opposition.

Coyne said the committee’s unanimous decision was not made to stymie the democratic process. He stressed that no Democrats came forward to run for town office during the spring or summer.

The Cairo Democratic Committee is supporting the summer nominating petitions for incumbent county legislator Harry Lennon and will continue to run that campaign, Coyne said.

Lennon and incumbent legislator William Lawrence, who is a Republican, are vying for Cairo’s two seats on the county legislature, again without opposition.

Incumbent Councilwoman Alice Tunison, a Democrat who has said that she would not seek re-election, changed her mind and decided to run for re-election after last week’s Town Board workshop meeting, she said Wednesday.

Tunison said her decision came out of a desire to see through some of her efforts to improve Cairo and she did not want to walk away from the Town Board.

“This has probably been the hardest job I have ever had but I am convinced that a lot of the things I have done for the Town of Cairo have been very important,” she said. “I want to be sure that I still do my push-push there.”

Tunison unsuccessfully lobbied Coyne and the committee Tuesday night for a Council nod.

Coyne applauded Tunison’s efforts Wednesday but said the committee had decided upon their strategy to not caucus before Tunison made her appeal.

Coyne was elected chairman of the committee only six weeks ago, too little time, he said, to run a real race for credible candidates.

The deadline to file a petition as a third party candidate passed in August. Tunison said her next step is to launch a write-in campaign.

“You better believe it,” she said.

Since she took office in 2006, Tunison has worked to install an air conditioner in the Acra Community Center, to improve a speaker system and provide tents for veteran’s events and to organize parades. Tunison established the Cairo Historic Association and serves as its president.

She is currently involved with projects to refurbish the World War I memorial fountain as well as other beautification efforts and to make crosswalks more visible.

She has organized an annual memorial observance for the Sept. 11 attacks since before her election in 2005.

Tunison said she had corresponded with nearly every Cairo resident while administering Cairo’s program to provide 911 street number signs to every property owner. She said se had done her best to attend every event to which she was invited.

“I really enjoyed the responsibility I felt and good feeling I felt about representing my Town,” she said.

Cairo Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Birk said Wednesday he was surprised by the Democratic Committee’s decision not to run any candidates.

“I have been a chairman for 22 years and this is the first time I’ve heard that,” he said.

Birk said his party will still campaign for its slate of candidates by knocking on doors, posting signs and holding candidate events.

Election Day is Nov. 3.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Nature Center called ‘political football’
Panel argues that town board’s reluctance to authorize certain work has shut them down
The Daily Mail
Sept. 8, 2009

CAIRO — The Cairo Nature Center Committee and the Cairo Town Board agreed to meet with each other to discuss future plans for the center after each aired groups expressed its unhappiness with the way communication has been handled.

Members of the committee told the Town Board that they thought the Town Board had effectively shut their committee down by its reluctance to authorize certain maintenance work at the Nature Center.

The Center on Route 23, which opened two years ago, features hiking and biking trails, picnic areas and fishing spots in a reservoir. Earlier this summer, a bridge railing in the Nature Center was broken. It has since been fixed.

Committee Chairman Neil Schoenfeld said that after the park was dedicated two years ago, it closed for a year pending permit process review, some volunteers left the committee and residents seemed to lose interest, calling the progression “disheartening.”

He also said he had never run into the negativity and trouble the park has caused.

“Since this place has been open it has been nothing but a political football,” he said.

Schoenfeld said he did not mind doing maintenance in the park so long as he had support from the Town. He said such support was missing, citing past instances when he asked the Town for assistance in removing metal from the park and laying gravel in the park.

“This is a town designated park,” he said, adding that municipalities have taken over every other similar park of nature center he had built.

Town Supervisor John Coyne said he and other Town Board members did not like the tone of a letter sent by a second committee with overlapping membership to the Town Board regarding possible work on St. Edmund’s Chapel. The Town Board responded to that letter saying they did not want that committee to commence with work without speaking to the board first.

The Town Board expressed concerns that any volunteer contractors brought to the Chapel or the Nature Center might not be covered by the Town’s insurance policies.

Schoenfeld said work at the Chapel and in the Nature Center had essentially been stopped by the Town’s reluctance to allow the volunteer contractors commence work.

Cairo Nature Center Committee member Michael Esslie said problems between the committee and the Town Board should not have come to head over repairs over the bridge railing, as he believed they had, if communication between the two entities had been better.

Esslie said the committee had assumed the Town would maintain the park. The board seemed to have taken the opposite view that the committee would not ask the Town to make or finance repairs.

“We have to define roles,” he said. “If the Town has expectations, I think the Town needs to set forth what those expectations and where those limits are.”

He said once expectations are described, the committee will discuss whether they can meet the Town’s requests.

Committee members said they had tried to create interest in the park from civic organizations to use the park but few have held events there.

Esslie dispelled Coyne’s notion that the board had dissolved in the wake of the response letter saying that the committee would continue to encourage usage of the Nature Center and try to keep it and its facilities usable.

“We have not abandoned our project, we are participating here,” he said.

The committee and the Town Board agreed that as the Nature Center was used more, vandalism there would cease to be a problem.

They agreed also to hold joint meetings to discuss future plans for and work needed at the Nature Center.

Neil Schonefeld said after the Thursday meeting that a discussion with members of the Town Board on future work at either site would be impossible until the Town resolved the insurance issues for volunteers.

Music, comedy make Blackthorne Celtic Festival a hit
Grace, Cooney are crowd-pleasers
The Daily Mail
Sept. 7, 2009

Irish music could be heard all over the Blackthorne Resort in East Durham this weekend, as dancers, singers and instrumentalists performed for hundreds this weekend at the resort’s first Celtic Festival.

“It has gone phenomenally,” Blackthorne co-owner Jennifer Handel said of the event Sunday afternoon.

She estimated that 1,000 people had come to the resort solely for the weekend of entertainment.

Among the musical acts were Derek Warfield and the Young Wolftones, the Amerscot Highland Pipe Band and harpists as well as students from the Michael Farrell’s School of Irish Stepdancing.

The festival was to be closed by a six-and-a-half-hour concert by Black 47, Derek Warfield and the Gobshites, ending at 4 a.m. Sunday.

Handel said her husband and resort co-owner Dale had worked especially hard to book Irish comedian Brendan Grace for a Sunday afternoon show. Grace was scheduled to perform again later Sunday in Ireland, she said. The artist was flown in and performed, then left and flew back into Ireland, she said.

The effort’s paid off; Grace’s act brought many fans to the festival.

Maureen Schultheis said she and her husband, Gunther, had come to the festival from Pittsfield, Mass. to see Grace and famed singer Andy Cooney share the stage.

“They were great,” the Irish-born Schultheis said.

The couple came to the area just for the day but were sure to arrive in time for what Schultheis called a “wonderful” 10 a.m. Sunday Mass.

Leo Dolphin, of Glendale, N.Y., called seeing Grace and Cooney “fantastic.”

Dolphin, who’s parents came from Sligo, Ireland, said he and his wife, Irene and their son were visiting nearby Cairo for the weekend and had also enjoyed a trip to Windham during their stay.

Jennifer Handel said she and her husband decided to hold the festival at their Irish-themed resort on Labor Day as a way to bring visitors to the area in early September. She said many festival-goers were staying in several different motels, guest houses and resorts in the area. Cars filled the resort parking area and were parked along both sides on Sunside Road.

Handel wasted no time is saying whether the festival would return next Labor Day weekend.

“Absolutely,” she said.

Cash for Clunkers earns mixed reviews
Auto sales increase, but program’s management is criticized
The Daily Mail
The Register-Star
Sept. 4, 2009

Two weeks after the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS, program ended, dealerships in Greene and Columbia counties are reporting positive sales but mixed feelings toward the program’s management.

The CARS program, known familiarly as “Cash for Clunkers,” was meant to promote economic wellness by giving Americans an incentive to turn in their gas-guzzling cars for new, more environmentally friendly models.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that nearly 700,000 “clunkers” were taken off the road and replaced by newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles during the month-long program. The program began in July and ended Aug. 25.

According to the U.S. DOT, dealerships across the nation submitted rebate applications worth $2.877 billion, out of the available $3 billion, with roughly $156 million from dealerships in New York.

“We sold a lot of cars; it was a big boost,” said Peter Backlund, the general manager at Village Dodge, in Hudson, who had to replace more than 40 cars sold off the lot.

“It was much better than I anticipated,” he said.

He said the program was great because it put money back into the hands of the people on the street, “where it belongs.”

“Out of all the programs that the government has been funding,” said Backlund, “I really do not see why they had to debate about spending $3 billion on a program like this,” he said about discussions in the U.S. Congress prior to that body’s June approval of the program.

But not every dealer agreed.

Lenny Romeo, owner of Catskill Buick GMC Pontiac, which serves Greene and Columbia counties, said the way the program had been run was “disgusting” and “ridiculous” and he would not want to participate again.

“The way they ran the program was a total joke,” he said.

Romeo said the program’s false start — it had a brief hiatus in July — and computer system overload had soured him on participating.

Romeo said in August that he had not been paid for the vehicles he sold even those sold early in the program.

The government had promised dealers payments within 10 days.

By this week, Romeo had received payments for only four of the 27 vehicles he had sold through the program. He said a total of $90,000 should come to the dealership.

“If we ran our business that way, we would be out of business,” he said.

But, he admitted, the program did enable people to get financing for new cars, and that more cars moved off his lot than during a regular monthly sales period.

And, he said, about half of the customers who traded their large vehicles, trucks and sport utility vehicles for new Pontiacs and GMC pickup trucks told him they did so only to take advantage of the CARS program.

Phil Thorpe, of Thorpe’s Pontiac GMC, said more than 20 car and truck owners had tried to take advantage of the program at his Tannersville dealership. Only six “clunkers” qualified for the program, he said, characterizing his participation in the program as “limited.”

A car eligible for trade-in had to meet the criteria including being manufactured less than 25 years before trade-in date, have a combined city/highway fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon, had to be insured and registered a year before trade-in and had to be driveable.

Consumers could receive either a $3,500 or $4,500 dealer discount. The price on a new vehicle selected could not exceed $45,000.

Thorpe said last week that he was confident that the government would come through with payments for his vehicles, although he did not say how much he was owed. This week, Thorpe said he had received the entire payment owed him.

Unlike Romeo, Thorpe said he would participate in the program again if it were offered.

Dan Lacy, co-owner of Catskill’s R.C. Lacy Ford Lincoln Mercury Subaru declined to comment about the program until he had been paid by the government, offering only that he had “a lot to say” about it.

Larry Siracusano, owner of Sawyer Chevrolet in Catskill, said the program had gone “OK” and he was low on inventory, but was unavailable for further comment.

Staff at Marchese Ford, in New Lebanon, said the program had seemed to help sales, but could not comment further.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called the program “wildly successful” because of how it had helped consumers.

“American consumers and workers were the clear winners thanks to the cash for clunkers program,” LaHood said in a press release. “Manufacturing plants have added shifts and recalled workers. Moribund showrooms were brought back to life and consumers bought fuel efficient cars that will save them money and improve the environment.”

According to the U.S. DOT, top trade-ins were the Ford Explorer 4WD, the Ford F150 Pickup 2WD, the 4WD Jeep Grand Cherokee and the 2WD Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan.

The most popular vehicles purchased included the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Ford Focus FWD and the Hyundai Elantra.

Paul Crossman contributed to this report