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The Daily Daily Mail Mail The Copyright 2019, Columbia-Greene Media Volume 227, No. 111
All Rights Reserved
The cat’s meow Catskill students have two entries in feline exhibit, A3
The nation’s fourth-oldest newspaper • Serving Greene County since 1792
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019
n WEATHER FORECAST FOR HUDSON/CA TODAY TONIGHT THU
Mostly cloudy with a shower
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State OK’s jail permits
Complete weather, A2
n SPORTS
By Melanie Lekocevic Columbia-Greene Media
Record setters The Taconic Hills 4x400-meter relay team set a new school record. PAGE B1 SARAH TRAFTON/COLUMBIA -GREENE MEDIA
n n WORLD
Anti-jail protesters line up outside the Greene County Office Building in Catskill to attend recent Legislature meeting. Several state agencies approved permits over the last week for construction of a new jail in Coxsackie.
By Sarah Trafton Columbia-Greene Media
Protests with vivid props Baby Trump and a Trump robot seated on a toilet lead London protests against president’s visit PAGE A2
n NATION A loud call for impeachment More than two dozen liberal groups call on House Speaker Pelosi to begin proceedings PAGE A2
n INDEX Region Region Opinion Opinion State/Nation State/Nation Obituaries Obituaries Sports Sports Comics/Advice Classified Classiied Comics/Advice
Partial victory for child advocate
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CATSKILL — Several state agencies over the last week issued final permits for the new Greene County jail, all but sealing the deal on the controversial proposal. With permits in hand, the project is moving full speed ahead, county officials said Tuesday. If all goes according to plan, the new jail will be built on 50 acres of former state land off Route 9W in Coxsackie. The 48-bed facility will cost $47 million. It will be built with a $39 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan at 3.5% interest and $8 million in county funds. A slew of permits from state agencies including the Department of Health, Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of State were received Thursday through Monday in one of the See JAIL A8
SARAH TRAFTON/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA
Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore, relaying a conversation with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office to the board Wednesday night. Several state agencies issued permits for the new jail over the last week, all but assuring a facility will be built.
ALBANY — The state Senate unanimously passed Erin’s Law late Monday, but the bill remains in the Assembly’s Committee on Education. Erin’s Law, named after childhood sexual assault survivor Erin Merryn and already on the books in 36 other states, would mandate training and education for students and faculty in grades K-8 in all New York public schools. New Baltimore activist Gary Greenberg, who was a driving force behind the years-long effort to pass the Child Victims Act, joined forces with Merryn to get Erin’s Law passed in New York state. Greenberg said he believes the Assembly Education Committee is not taking action because the program would be a mandate. “The Assembly has always had problems with mandates in the curriculum so we are hopeful that now that the Senate has taken bold leadership and passed Erin’s Law as a stand-alone law, the Assembly will follow and pass it,” Greenberg said. “The bill is mandated, so it would have to be part of the curriculum, and since the Assembly oversees the Regents and state Education Department, there has always been a problem with it being mandated. They don’t want to put mandates on school districts because then other groups might come in and push for their own mandates.” Erin’s Law was first passed in Illinois, Merryn’s home state, in 2009. Since that time Merryn has worked to champion the legislation through dozens of other states. In New York she teamed up with Greenberg, who worked for years to get the Child Victims Act through the New York LegSee ADVOCATE A8
Catskill seeks funds to review comprehensive plan By Sarah Trafton Columbia-Greene Media
CATSKILL — Following an informal commitment in February, the town is seeking state funds to review its comprehensive plan. Catskill will submit an application for a Community Smart Growth Grant later this week. The Environmental Protection Fund has supported this program since 2007. This year, the program has $400,000 available to municipalities and non-profit organizations in the Catskill Park. The town of Catskill has not reviewed its comprehensive plan since 2007. Other municipalities such as the towns of Hunter and Durham and village of Catskill are in various stages of evaluating their comprehensive plans. “We made an informal commitment in a verbal conversa-
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We want economic development and growth in the right areas,” a new plan would help direct the development.
tion to reserve funds for this in our 2020 budget,” Catskill Town Supervisor Doreen Davis said. “The DEC’s announcement in April accelerated a conversation we already started by applying for the grant.” The conversation in February was prompted by comments from resident Rosana Thompson at a town board meeting. “We want economic development and growth in the right areas,” Thompson said, adding that a new plan would help direct the development. Thompson said she is being affected by two projects before the planning board: The
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— Rosana Thompson, resident
Kaaterskill, a hotel on High Falls Road to get a special-use permit to host weddings, and Piaule Landscaping Retreat, proposed for Mossy Hill Road, that will have 20 mini-cabins and a main house. Both permits have been issued. “I realized the issue is much bigger than that (those two projects),” Thompson said. “We are at risk of losing the beauty and tranquility of the area. We want to make sure Catskill grows to its full potential and beauty.” A 16-year Catskill resident with experience in real estate, Thompson said she is familiar with the issue at hand.
“When there’s a rush to develop, the people that suffer the most are the people that have always been here,” she said. An evaluation is necessary because of how much has changed since 2007, Davis said. “Anything that was adopted in 2007 is cause for review,” she said. Now that the town is in good financial standing, the comprehensive plan is next on the list. “We’re now at a point where we can take a breath and can tackle what we consider the next steps,” Davis said. Having
an up-to-date plan is important as new projects and businesses come to Catskill, Davis said. “It is at top of mind on several projects,” she said. A recent controversial project was a proposed ash dump by Wheelabrator Technologies, a municipal waste combustion company. Wheelabrator planned to truck 445,000 tons of ash from its incinerator plants in Hudson Falls, Peekskill and Poughkeepsie to a former quarry on Route 9W. The company withdrew its proposal last month in a statement to the town, although its application to DEC has not yet been retracted. Despite community outrage, Davis maintained the town would remain neutral until the project had been approved by DEC.
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