NYRI ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS

February 23, 2008 6:00 AM

ALBANY — If the powers behind the huge power line proposed for our region think new routes or promises of economic benefits will silence their critics, they should think again.

New York Regional Interconnect, which aims to build a 190-mile line from Utica to New Windsor, yesterday unveiled a revised proposal that was required by the state Public Service Commission. As first reported in the Record, it offers several alternate routes, including one along the existing Marcy-South line; another one beneath — not above — the western Orange County village of Otisville; and one more that moves away from the Delaware River and is “barely visible” from the water, although it does cross the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway above Long Eddy. The alternates don’t include the Thruway since, NYRI says, state and federal law prohibit power lines along the highway if another route is “feasible.”

The proposal also claims the power line will bring cheaper, cleaner power from upstate to the energy-starved New York City metropolitan area. That means lower rates, says NYRI President Chris Thompson, citing studies by NYRI consultant Charles River Associates.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is opposition to the power line that would cut through Sullivan and Orange counties.

“It sounds like smoke and mirrors,” says Otisville’s Gail Heatherly, a board member of SayNo2NYRI and a representative to the statewide anti-NYRI group, Communities Against Regional Interconnect. “It’s not that it’s good for New York; it’s good for NYRI or they wouldn’t be doing it.”

Heatherly, who lives across from NYRI’s downtown route, points out that power for local residents still can’t be tapped directly from the lines. And although underground is “better” than 10-story towers, there would still be blasting and digging for months, she said.

Another NYRI opposition leader, Troy Bystrom of the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition, is also skeptical of the project that will now bury the lines near Utica.

“I doubt that much has changed,” he says of the line that now costs $2 billion. “They still haven’t proved that the state really needs the power.”

Still, Bystrom, like other NYRI opponents, wants to study the complete PSC submission — four binders, each 4 inches thick, Thompson says.

It is posted on the PSC Web site. It should be available at the new NYRI Web site, www.nyri.us, and at the towns intersected by the line within the week.

But NYRI opposition is still so strong, some see the new NYRI site — and the entire PSC submission — as a PR move.

“They’re just trying to get a whole new image out there,” says Nina Neighmond of the Town of Wallkill, which would still be sliced by NYRI.

Catskills topic of talk

 ONEONTA _ Wes Gillingham, program director for Catskill Mountainkeeper, will give a talk titled “The Future of the Catskills: Can Catskill Mountainkeeper Help?” on Tuesday.The event will be at 7 p.m. in the Strawbale House at Hartwick College’s Pine Lake Environmental Campus as part of the ongoing “Conversations at the Lake” series.

Gillingham will discuss his work with Catskill Mountainkeeper, a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission is to protect the ecological integrity of the Catskill Mountain range and the quality of life of those who live there.

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Rail trail might expand

Allen Frishman stands outside the former railway tunnel along a portion of the rail trail in South Fallsburg.For the Times Herald-Record/MICHAEL D. BLOOM

FALLSBURG — When the Ontario and Western Railway first chugged its way through Sullivan County in 1873, fewer than 30 houses stood in the hamlet of Roscoe.

“It was the railroad that built the Catskills,” Wilmer Sipple, director of the Roscoe O&W Railway Museum, said this week.

It’s now been 51 years since the O&W ran out of steam. But hiking, biking and nature enthusiasts throughout our region have worked for several years to convert the old rail beds into recreational trails.

Fallsburg rail trail public informational meeting

When: 2 p.m, Sunday, March 2 Where: Fallsburg Justice Court, 19 Railroad Plaza, South Fallsburg

In Fallsburg, a corps of volunteers and town officials are looking to eventually connect three towns by continuous trails. Fallsburg’s rail-trail advisory committee will show the public next Sunday the results of 18 months of studying the project’s feasibility.

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New brand launched for local wood products

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WALTON – Catskill WoodNet, a regional collaboration of woodworkers, artisans and sawmills, has launched the “Pure Catskills” brand for local wood products.

The new trademark for forest products is a spinoff from the “Pure Catskills: Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign that promotes more than 150 area farms, spearheaded by the Watershed Agricultural Council.

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Alliance sought to go after Route 28 funding

By Jay Braman Jr., Correspondent

02/11/2008

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The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development is trying to form an alliance of several communities along the state Route 28 corridor to hash out ideas for a $500,000 state fund earmarked for the area.

Peter Manning, a representative of the Arkville-based center, said the state has committed the money for a Central Catskill Mountains Smart Growth Program to support improvement projects that retain the vibrancy of the hamlets, villages, and town centers along the corridor – specifically in the towns of Andes, Middletown, Olive, and Shandaken, and the villages of Fleischmanns and Margaretville.

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On The Bright Side: Catskill teachers learn to connect students, history

 By Patricia Breakey
Delhi News Bureau

ARKVILLE _ A group of teachers gathered at the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development on Tuesday to learn how to connect their students with the land and heritage of the Catskills.

Teachers from Roxbury, Margaretville, Hunter and Windham/Ashland/Jewett schools participated in exercises incorporated in “The Catskills: A Sense of Place.”

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Of Drinking Water, Trout, and Floods

February 21st, 2008

The Delaware Basin Reservoirs 

New York City is catching some lumps over plans about how to release water from the Delaware Basin Reservoirs in the Catskills, the source of the city’s drinking water. Environmentalists, public officials, fishing organizations, and residents along the Delaware River are not excited about the implementation of the new plan, called the Flexible Flow Management Program. It was an agreement between New York City, New York state, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania to provide enough enough drinking water while protecting the environment and river communities.

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Who’ll stop the flood? Experts say measure can help

12:53 PM EST, February 24, 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York has endured nine floods since 2004 that were declared federal disasters _ including a deluge that ripped a crater through a highway north of Binghamton and another that scattered buildings and cars in the Catskills.
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Catskills deserve better than Exploitation

A recipe for disaster …

Ingredients:

* 1,700 acres of Catskill real estate.

* 2,500 electronic slot machines.

* Potpourri of drifters, prostitutes, footpads, sharpers, criminals (small time),organized crime (big time).

* Donald Trump.

Stir, serve, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

But wait, I can hear them saying, he didn’t mention the 3,000 jobs. Ah, yes, the jobs. There are always those promised jobs dangled as bait to tempt the wary.

A renaissance for the long-suffering Catskills that have seen hard times since the decline of the summer resorts that began some 40 years ago. That’s how this latest bid to bring a little bit of Atlantic City to Kiamesha Lake is being sold.

That’s a good thing?

According to The New York Times, Trump has joined forces with the Mohawk tribe of St. Regis, which is up on the Canadian border in case you’re scoring. The Mohawks, who have persuaded themselves that they hold legal rights to land their ancestors never claimed to own, sought permission several years ago to transform the Monticello Raceway into a combination resort, racetrack and gambling hell.

Trump, who didn’t cotton to competition that close to his own gambling hell in Atlantic City, successfully fought the Indians with the help of several obliging politicians.

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