An Empty Lot with a Lake
If anyone out there remembers St. Agnes Villa Camp in Wurtsboro, New York, please do share what you remember. The camp (we think) operated in the 1950's and 60's.
_____________________
Posted July 29, 2010
So who is Kingwood, LLC, why did he buy our little camp and what else does he own? It seems that Simon Gelb (Kingwood LLC) a pretty prominent land developer bought up close to two thousand acres in Sullivan County around 2006. His intention was to build 2,000 new homes, 1.3 miles of roads, a sewage treatment system and a new light industrial park.
Simon Gelb was also the developer of the Hasidic Jewish town of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, NY.
Wikipedia says, “Kiryas Joel is a village within the town of Monroe in Orange County, New York, United States. The great majority of its residents are Hasidic Jews who strictly observe the Torah and its commandments, and belong to the worldwide Satmar Hasidic dynasty. Most of the village's residents speak Yiddish as their first language. The village has the youngest median age (15.0) of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States. Residents of Kiryas Joel, like those of other Haredi Jewish communities, typically have large families. Kiryas Joel is the place in the United States with the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian ancestry in 2000. Many of the residents' ancestry actually lies in Transylvania (Satu Mare, etc.), which is part of Romania. According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation. More than two-thirds of residents live below the federal poverty line and 40% receive food stamps.”
And here’s where the clash between the economy and the environment begins. Words like Hamlet and Village conjure up romantic images of paths and streams. “Development” to anyone living in rural America means destruction.
Environmentalists said the Sullivan County project was too big and could potentially do harm to the protected Basha Kill preserve. They argued that subdivision sprawl was not needed in the Catskills. Gelb insisted that the project would preserve substantial amounts of open space and provide tax revenue and new jobs for local residents.
Score one for the environmentalists - in 2007 Gelb’s project was scaled back. And after years of planning board meetings, fits and fights Gelb’s application to build in the Town of Mamakating was withdrawn in November 2009. He still plans to develop property in nearby locations. Gelb said he is transferring about 200 acres of his Mamakating property to Camp Lakota, (an active camp about a mile from the former St. Agnes Camp) and also wants to transfer some Mamakating land to the state.
Town of Mamakating Supervisor Tony Cellini said that while he opposed the size of the former project, town officials have since had good talks with the developer.
"Simon Gelb is a decent person to deal with," Cellini said. "It makes much more sense than it did before."
Sullivan County is still a hot bed of controversy. There is talk of Natural Gas Development that may pollute precious farmland, casinos that will interrupt the quiet but bring up the economy and create jobs and tourism, and the building of a Japanese mushroom factory, opposed for years, now under construction.
Keeping things “The Way it Was” is not easy and close to impossible. The battle is on and the fight is getting uglier.
But the little plot of land that used to be St. Agnes Villa Camp is safe and sound – for now.
-- Jane
____________________________
Casino Update – July 11, 2010
News as reported to Vos Iz Neias, a Jewish On Line News Source
Monticello, NY - For the third time in 15 years, the St. Regis Mohawk tribe is walking away from efforts to build a casino at the Monticello Raceway in Sullivan County.
The termination was announced after the Mohawks and their development partners were unable to agree on key terms.
“Discussions with Empire Resorts to reach acceptable terms of a purchase agreement for the land, which is necessary to move any land into trust application forward, have not been successful,” tribal Chief Mark Garrow said in a statement.
A class III casino has both slot machines and table card games.
The tribal casino at the Monticello Raceway would have featured a $600 million, two-story casino that would house slot machines, poker and other table games, restaurants and retail spaces.
-- Jane
_________________________________________________
FRACK THIS
FRACK THIS
Chances dim for NY moratorium on fracking
ALBANY — In a victory for supporters of gas drilling, bills that would impose a moratorium on the practice are dead, at least for now.
The bill that stood the best chance of passing the state Senate and Assembly – a one-year moratorium – did not make it out of committee in either house. The Assembly has adjourned for the session. The Senate may return to pass a revenue bill, the last piece of the state budget.
But the Senate sponsor of the proposed moratorium on the controversial drilling method of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in areas like Sullivan County is not optimistic.
“It’s been thrust to the back burner,” said a spokesman for Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, chairman of the Environmental Conservation Committee. “It just doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.’’
Still, supporters haven’t given up hope. They even claim to have the Senate votes they need for the moratorium.
“It’s disappointing,” said Ramsey Adams of Catsakill Mountainkeeper, one of the chief supporters of a moratorium. “But Albany is dysfunctional, very dysfunctional. We want to believe they didn’t have the time or the juice to pass it.”
Adams hopes that if legislators return to Albany this summer for a special session, two local lawmakers – Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Forestburgh, and Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope – will muster support for the bill, even though Bonacic has yet to support it.
“But,” Adams said, with a dash of realism, “there’s no easy way to proceed.”
Still, in the unpredictable world of Albany politics, there’s no telling what lawmakers might do, says one observer whose job it is to shine a light on the Legislature.
“Anything could happen and it often does,” says Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “But obviously, there’s a lot of powerful, well-organized opposition, although it’s not at all unreasonable for environmentalists to think they have a shot.”
_______________________________________________
ABANDONED
This is, perhaps, one of the houses on the St. Agnes Villa land once a camp full of kids and fun - now abandoned.
________________________________________________
TID-BIT ON OUR BROTHER CAMP, CAMP FORDHAM
Camp Fordham was a boy's camp located about two miles from St. Agnes on Fordham Road. St. Agnes girls and Fordham boys had dances in the St. Agnes Rec Hall several times a summer known as "mixers." Summer romances were NOT encouraged! But many times Mother Nature won over Mother Superior! Here's a little article I found from 2008 describing the outcome of yet another camp in the Catskills.
By Adam Bosch
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 06/12/08
ROCK HILL — A group of Orthodox Jews paid an expensive penalty at the Sullivan County foreclosure auction Wednesday when they repurchased about 450 acres of land for $2.17 million because they had not paid taxes for three years.
The group, registered in Brooklyn as Fordham Estates 2 LLC, purchased the old Camp Fordham in Mamakating for about $3 million in 2005. Despite several certified warning letters from County Treasurer Ira Cohen, the group never paid roughly $53,400 in back taxes.
Cohen said he first heard from the group last week, which was past the deadline to repay its debt. The group tried to appeal the foreclosure in court, but a judge ruled in favor of the county, Cohen said.
That's how the property landed at the foreclosure auction in Rock Hill, where it was the most bid-upon and expensive of 160 for sale. Some bidders, like John Kaypour of New York City, wanted the land for a hunting camp. He intended to pay $1.3 million for it, he said. Others wanted to develop the parcel. Spirited bidding drove the price up considerably. A young Jewish man angrily gnawed his lip as he raised his number every time another bidder hiked the price.
Ultimately, it cost more than $2 million to buy the property back.
"How do you pay $3 million the first time, as a responsible property owner, and then not pay your taxes?" Cohen wondered. "We don't feel good about doing this, but it's in the best interest of the other taxpayers in the county."
Representatives of the group and their attorney, Jacob Billig, brushed aside a reporter when approached for comment. They said they had "paperwork to take care of." Mamakating Supervisor Bob Fiore said the group had submitted a rough plan for 150 homes on the property about two years ago, but never followed up.
Cohen said the auction took in $3.93 million, more than three times what the county made from last year's auction. That came as a surprise, given the poor local and national economy.
"Although people are always looking for a bargain," Cohen said.
About $237,000 of the auction income will go to the Village of Monticello. The county foreclosed and sold properties in Monticello this year for the first time.
_______________________________________________
Casi-no / Casin-yes
BRIDGEVILLE — Sullivan County is back in the Indian casino game. And this time — after decades of trying — federal, state and local officials are apparently behind the deal.
Gov. David Paterson, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, Rep. Maurice Hinchey and other government officials and lawmakers are due at the Sullivan County Government Center Monday for the signing of a state compact with the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans for a $700 million casino in Bridgeville, off Route 17 at Exit 107, according to officials familiar with the deal.
The casino — to be developed by the team behind Mohegan Sun in Connecticut — would be built in exchange for the settlement of the Wisconsin-based tribe's land claim with New York. The resolution of that centuries-old claim, for the tribe's land in upstate Madison County, will also be announced Monday, before the tribe and officials arrive in Sullivan.
Paterson's office acknowledged a deal was in the works.
"The Paterson Administration is working to reach an agreement with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians, the Secretary of the Interior and a number of local governments to resolve a longstanding land claim," said Jessica Bassett, acting director of communications for Paterson.
Schumer was also hopeful that gambling — and its economic impact — would finally come to struggling Sullivan.
"This is real hope for getting a casino in the Catskills in the near future — something that we've been working towards for decades," he said. "There has long been widespread community support for gaming in the Catskills, and — because it would be a big boost to the local economy, job growth and tourism — that continues to be the case. I will do everything I can to see this process through to the end."
Still, even with a compact with the state, the next step would be one that's long evaded would-be Indian casinos in Sullivan — federal approval.
That may be possible through a relatively new route. Past attempts for an off reservation casino hinged on the so-called "two part determination" — if the casino were in the best interests of the tribe and it wasn't detrimental to the community.
After meetings with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Stockbridge Munsee apparently decided to try a method that's rarely been used — settlement of the land claim without Congressional approval, which had been necessary in the past. The tribe, which could face challenges from competitors for the lucrative New York market, also had to update its environmental impact statement.
"This is what the BIA requested, and this what the tribe has done," said Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini, whose town would host the casino, which would mean 2,000 permanent jobs and a like number of construction jobs. "I'm very optimistic," he said. "Finally."
____________________________________________
CA-SIGN-O
MONTICELLO, N.Y. — Gov. David Paterson on Monday signed a land settlement with a Wisconsin tribe that could give New York state leaders something they have been trying to get for decades: a casino within day-tripping distance of the lucrative New York City market.
The deal to settle a decades-old land claim by the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans in central New York's Madison County comes in exchange for state support of a tribal casino about 100 miles northwest of New York City.
The deal's ultimate approval is no sure bet. It faces federal scrutiny and likely legal challenges, and it follows of a long line of promised Catskill casinos proposals that went bust. Residents of this economically struggling area once renowned as the "Borscht Belt" greeted the proposal with a mix of hope and hard-earned skepticism.
"It's been happening for the 40 years I've been here," Jim Collins said as he left a post office here Monday. Then, with a laugh as he walked away, he said: "I've bet on it a couple of times. I've lost."
If approved, the casino and resort could compete with ones in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Casino proponents in the Catskills hope it could bring back some glory from its tourist heyday, when the area was a prime summer destination for Jewish families from the New York City area. Paterson said the casino would create more than 6,700 direct and indirect jobs in the region and generate an estimated $900 million a year for the state economy.
"This time can be different," Sen. Charles Schumer said at the announcement, flanked by the governor, local elected officials and union leaders. "This casino is not a guarantee, but it is the closest we've come so far."
Catskill casino proponents began looking to Indian tribes after efforts to amend the state constitution to legalize casino gambling fizzled. In 2008, the Bush administration's Department of Interior rejected plans for separate Catskill casinos involving the St. Regis Mohawks of northern New York and the Stockbridge-Munsee, citing the great distance between the two tribes' reservations and the casino sites.
The Stockbridge-Munsee are trying a different route, this time joining the casino deal with the land-claim settlement. Paterson says that under the deal, the tribe will end its claim to 23,000 acres in Madison County, while getting 330 acres in Sullivan County, where the tribe wants to build a casino.
Schumer's lobbying could improve its chances before the Obama administration's Department of Interior.
But it could face other hurdles. By proposing the development by the Neversink River, Paterson is "virtually inviting litigation," said Mark Izeman, director of the New York Urban Program for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Stockbridge-Munsee President Kimberly Vele said they are very sensitive to environmental issues.
It also could face challenges from other Indian tribes, many of which have their own land claims and casinos.
Oneida Nation representative Ray Halbritter on Monday criticized a deal he said was hammered out in secret and of dubious legality. He said the Oneidas, who run a successful casino in central New York, were reviewing their options.
"This isn't going to work. It's an unworkable plan, which is not uncommon with the governor of this state," Halbritter said in an interview. "There are too many issues."
A Catskills casino also would compete with state-sanctioned "racinos" featuring video lottery terminals, such as one just miles away in Monticello, another in Yonkers and the recently approved one at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.
"It would be a real long-shot under any oddsmaker's calculation," Izeman said.
The competing operations could be one of several gambling-related issues Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo will have on his plate when he takes office with the new year. The Shinnecock Indian Nation also is considering a casino on Long Island.
Cuomo wouldn't comment on Paterson's casino proposal, saying Monday "there's only one governor at a time." But Cuomo, as attorney general until Dec. 31, said Paterson is on "firm legal ground."
"We don't anticipate any legal challenges," the governor-elect said.
__________________________________
MAKE UP YOUR FRACKING MIND ALREADY
Governor Signs Exec. Order to Delay Fracking
Governor Signs Exec. Order to Delay Fracking
ALBANY, NY (12/11/2010) Governor David A. Paterson has issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to conduct further comprehensive review and analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. The Executive Order requires that, if approved, high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing would not be permitted until July 1, 2011, at the earliest. This should allay any fears that high-volume hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling under study by DEC will commence without assurances of safety.
This is a victory, but the fight isn't over yet. We have been assured no drilling will take place before July, 2011 at the earliest, but we would like to be assured no drilling will take place at any point in the future.
The Governor, who has been a supporter of hydrofracking, has been influenced by public pressure and scientific evidence of the dire public health effects of this kind of drilling, at least for now.
This is a victory, but the fight isn't over yet. We have been assured no drilling will take place before July, 2011 at the earliest, but we would like to be assured no drilling will take place at any point in the future.
The Governor, who has been a supporter of hydrofracking, has been influenced by public pressure and scientific evidence of the dire public health effects of this kind of drilling, at least for now.
___________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment