2018 year in review: part two

FRITZ MAYER
Posted 12/28/18

MONTICELLO, NY — In 2018, local people responded to national events more than once. About 100 people turned out to a “Families Belong Together” rally in front of the Sullivan County …

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2018 year in review: part two

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MONTICELLO, NY — In 2018, local people responded to national events more than once. About 100 people turned out to a “Families Belong Together” rally in front of the Sullivan County Courthouse on June 30.

The protestors held signs that criticized President Donald Trump and his “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of undocumented immigrant children from their parents as the families crossed into the United States.

This was one of some 700 “Families Belong Together” events staged across the country sponsored by the Leadership Conference, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Move On, the American Civil Liberties Union and dozens of other organizations.

At this event, people held signs with sayings including “No Human Being is Illegal,” “Trump Kidnapper in Chief” and “ICE is a Terrorist Group.”

As was the case in many of the events around the country, some in the crowd supported the call to restructure or replace the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws.

Victory for Antonio Delgado

Antonio Delgado emerged victorious from a field of seven candidates who vied to become the Democratic nominee for the New York 19th Congressional District. Delgado, an attorney, received 22% of the vote in a seven-way race.

Delgado was the top fundraiser in the contest, bringing some $2.2 million to the race. A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Harvard Law School, he also founded a hip-hop label and is a lawyer for the country’s biggest lobbying firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP. Delgado was quick to point out that he works in the legal department in New York City and not in the lobbying arm of the company in Washington, D.C.

In the general election, Delgado ran against Republican incumbent John Faso. Healthcare was one of the most important issues in the campaign, with Delgado calling for universal coverage, with a system that would allow all residents to opt in to Medicare.

Faso, in contrast, twice voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to adopt a system that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would have kicked 23 million Americans off their health plans.

With the Degaldo win, Sullivan County gains a Democratic congressperson for the first time since Maurice Hinchey retired in January 2013.

Historic dam preserved

The Wayne County Commissioners led a successful effort to save a relic of a National Historic Landmark: the Delaware and Hudson Canal.

The commissioners last wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf to ask for help in preventing the PA Fish Commission from demolishing the 180-odd year-old Hankins Pond Dam in Mount Pleasant Township.

The old stone dam impounded a branch of the Lackawaxen River to provide water for the canal, creating Hankins Pond behind it. The 1,000-foot-long dam, which stands 26 feet at its center, was later used to propagate trout for the Pleasant Mount State Fish Hatchery. The 90-acre pond disappeared when the state first breached the dam in 2013.

Despite that breach, officials deemed the structure to be a high-hazard dam still capable of impounding enough water during a heavy downpour to cause danger to downstream residents, should the remainder of the dam then fail. The demolition would have removed 75 feet of the structure on either side of the existing small breach outlet.

So far the dam has survived and state officials are in discussions with county officials about transferring the dam from the state to the county.

Barnes Landfill poses issues

State sampling of water wells in and around the former Barnes Landfill in September 2017 showed excessive levels of nine metals and chemical contaminants, according to a June 13 response letter to the Upper Delaware Council (UDC). The letter was signed by Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regional materials management engineer James J. Lansing Jr. While various agencies are aware of the situation, none is in a position to remedy the matter.

The landfill, now closed for 25 years, was a source of controversy in the late 1980s when a Westchester County trash hauler, Robert Luguori, bought the small existing landfill with plans of creating a regional landfill. With increased use, the existing hillside landfill drew the complaints of neighboring Kittatinny Campground, located downgrade. Leachates draining from the trash eventually prompted felony water-pollution charges against Liguori, and the landfill was ordered closed in 1989.

During its use as a landfill, there was another, primary owner Emmett “Steve” Barnes. But no deed was ever filed by the Westchester waste hauler, and both men are now deceased. Taxes went unpaid, and Sullivan County declined to take title. Now, no one is responsible for maintaining the closure.

An escrow fund for maintenance of the engineered closure was originally included in the sale, but following another report of leakage in 2003, Bill Rudge, the DEC delegate on the UDC, warned that escrow money to fund maintenance of the closure was to expire in two years.

One possible solution would be for the DEC to nominate the landfill as a federal

superfund site, which if successful would provide funding for mediation.

Sullivan heroin study raises some questions

Sullivan County, like many other counties in the U.S., continued to suffer through an opioid addiction crisis through 2018. Researchers at the Rockefeller Institute of Government decided to focus a study on the county, to shed some light on the impacts that the national epidemic is having on rural communities. They called the report “Stories from Sullivan” (http://bit.ly/opioidTRR).

While there was not a lot of new information for people who have studied the issue, there were novel points brought up throughout the report, including the question as to whether or not addicts who ingest the powerful opioid fentanyl realize what they’re getting. “Although most people who are exposed to fentanyl are unaware that it was used to cut heroin, there is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that others actively seek the drug,” researchers wrote in the report. “When we asked folks in Sullivan County about whether people know they are being sold fentanyl, one retired probation officer told us that some people go looking for it. When a death occurs, rather than alert people to avoid a particular dealer, it signifies to buyers the drug’s potency. ‘If it does kill somebody they run down the road and get more,’ he explained.”

Downsized library draws protest

About 40 members of the community turned out to a meeting of the SUNY Sullivan Board of Trustees in July 19, to speak about the proposed plan for changes at the college library. Before the visitors spoke, college president Jay Quaintance read from a statement about some of the changes that have occurred with college library resources over the past decade.

In 2007, the library had 72,000 print volumes. That number dipped to 53,000 by 2016, and the new plan calls for a further reduction to 26,000. In 2007, there were 26 microfilm collections, now microfilm is no longer housed at the library. Also the library now has 143,000 ebooks.

In 2007, 2,247 books were checked out; this year that number dropped to 429.

When Sandy Oxford, president of the Sullivan County Chapter of the NAACP, spoke, she noted that many students are recruited from the five boroughs of New York City. Regarding the reduction of the print collection by 50% she said, “This will hurt many students of color, and students not having access to print resources.” She also questioned the college’s support of minority staff members, and said there was a history of minority staff, “leaving unexpectedly or being fired from crucial positions.”

College officials moved ahead with the plan to reduce the size and collection of the library.

Narrowsburg Home closes

The Narrowsburg Home for Adults was closed this summer by the New York State Department of Health (DOH). There were about 66 residents in the facility, some with mental and physical challenges. They were all relocated before the building was shuttered.

A DOH spokesperson said at the time, “A complaint inspection completed by the department last week at Kelly’s Home for Adults [the former name of the Narrowsburg Home for Adults] found that facility residents were not receiving appropriate care and living in deplorable conditions. As a result, the department issued a Commissioner’s Emergency Order to close this facility. The department is working with local health care agencies to ensure that services and support continues uninterrupted for residents. The department will monitor activities as the closure plan commences.”

Train derails in Hale Eddy

A train derailment in Hale Eddy caused about 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel to spill into the West Branch River on August 15. There were 63 cars, including four locomotives at the front. Fifteen of the cars derailed including two of the locomotives holding fuel.

All four locomotives derailed, but they did not fall into the river. Some of the cars derailed and two were partially submerged and others very close to the river and according to The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway Corp.

The fuel spill leak prompted a warning from the National Park Service that members of the public should not go into the river in a manner where skin is likely to come into contact with the water, such as in an inner tube.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), an environmental contractor used a product called Micro-Blaze on the location where the spill occurred.

A statement from the DEC says the product is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and is a “liquid formulation of several microbial strains, surfactants and nutrients designed to digest organics and hydrocarbons in soil and water as well as control odors.”

Visitors Center proposed for Callicoon

The Callicoon Business Association (CBA) worked with the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway (UDSB) in 2018 to broker a deal to bring a visitors’ center to life in the historic hamlet. Moving the project forward has been Nicole Vallance, acting on behalf of the CBA as both the secretary and as the CBA’s Train Depot Committee chairperson. She said that if all goes well, the visitors’ center would be located in the train depot in the center of the hamlet, which is owned by the New York Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW). The railroad has been working with the groups and had envisioned a community use of the depot after moving offices out of the building.

This is not the first attempt at creating a visitors’ center for the river corridor—the initiative has been championed by various groups and individuals over the years. About a decade ago, then-Congressman Maurice Hinchey secured a grant of about $500,000 to create a visitors’ center at the restored Cochecton Train Station. State Sen. John Bonacic also secured an additional $250,000 in grant money of the project. The grant from Hinchey is no longer available, but the Bonacic grant may still be used for a visitors center.

New York Health Act

The New York State Assembly has four times voted in favor of the New York Health Act (NYHA) , which would create a Medicare-for-all system of healthcare in the state.

In 2018, a study commissioned by the New York State Health Foundation and performed by the RAND Corporation said the proposed single-payer plan is feasible, and would save the state healthcare system a bit of money.

The proposed New York Health Act (NYHA), would, according to a RAND brief (tinyurl.com/yaqakenc) “provide universal insurance coverage with no copays, deductibles, or premiums for all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status, and would lead to higher utilization while lowering health plan and provider administrative costs—saving the system $15 billion, or about 3.1% by 2031, compared to current policies, according to the report.”

With Democrats set to take control of the state Senate in a few days, there would seem to be enough support to now pass the legislation. But in order to move forward the federal government would have to allow the state government to move Medicare and Medicaid funds into the state system, and federal officials have said they would not allow it.

Further, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said while he supports a single-payer plan at the national level, he does not support it at the state level.

Pond Eddy Bridge goes up, comes down

The years-long effort by some historic preservation activists to save the historic Pond Eddy Bridge came to a dramatic end on November 6, as workers toppled half of the old bridge into the Upper Delaware River. A video of the bridge actually toppling is available online (tinyurl.com/ycog7n9w) at the Lumberland Fire Department Facebook page.

The history of the proposal to replace the Pond Eddy Bridge is fraught with groups attempting to halt the project. The new bridge came at an estimated cost of about $17 million, and serves some 23 houses located in a secluded part of Pike County, which is across the Upper Delaware River from Pond Eddy, NY. Critics have long said the new bridge is not needed, is too expensive and that the construction will play havoc with the environment.

But the new bridge is a now a reality, and the old 1904 structure has been carted away. In the end, the preservationists could not sway the powers that be at the New York State Department of Transportation, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

New day for Eldred Preserve

The owners of the new Eldred Preserve, which is expected to open before the 50th anniversary of the original Woodstock Festival in August 2019, have announced details about the project.

The new Eldred Preserve will include two establishments that are based on properties that are or were previously located elsewhere. The Bradstan Country Hotel, located in White Lake, will be a part of the new Eldred project as the Bradstan Boutique Hotel. And the owners of the former Old Homestead Restaurant, which was located in Monticello, will open The Old Homestead Restaurant and Lounge at The Eldred Preserve

The Bradstan is owned and operated by Sullivan County Legislator Scott Samuleson and Edward Dudek. A press release issued by the owners of the new Eldred Preserve, Dan Silna and his wife Joan, says the new Bradstan will “include an eight-room inn, three five-room lodges and five stand-alone cabins, for a total of 28 luxury accommodations.”

Monticello, New Year

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