On the ground

Democracy in action in Meredith

During the past year, several towns in the region have grappled with the issue of wind power, but none perhaps more contentiously than Meredith in Delaware County.

Regardless of how you stand on wind power, Meredith has become a great example of townspeople with the legal right to control their fate actually exercising their democratic powers to take charge of their lives.

A year ago, Meredith planners were working on an ordinance to regulate industrial wind turbines. After their work was completed, the town board made changes to their proposal, held hearings and passed a law many thought too lenient to wind-power developers.

So, in July, when it was time to file to run for town offices in the November election, the planning chairman and others who opposed the town board’s action decided to use the ballot box to get the power to rescind the ordinance they opposed.

In November, the anti-industrial turbine candidates were elected in fairly close votes, presumably with a mandate to proceed to change course on the law the town board had passed. And, indeed, that is what is happening,

New town board members, keeping their campaign promise, are proposing to rescind Meredith’s wind-energy law and ban industrial wind turbines.

Less than a month after the board overturned the ordinance adopted by the town board last summer, a public hearing on the proposed ban was scheduled for last week, but weather forced postponement until March 18.

Supervisor Keitha Capouya, who chaired the planning board last year, cited what she thought was a mandate for the board’s action.

There had “a great deal of feeling about banning industrial wind turbines in the town,” she said, noting that more than 800 people signed a petition opposing industrial wind, and of the dozens of people who spoke at last year’s hearing on the original law, only six or seven were in favor of permitting industrial wind.

She said the proposed law does not ban small wind projects.

“We are very much in favor of alternative energy,” Capouya said. “We are putting together a task force to explore small wind, solar, geo-thermal and private bio-mass energy projects.”

Capouya and her allied councilmen Ron Bailey and Dan Birnbaum readily acknowledge that they ran for office for a cause and are going to fulfill their pledges.

Though we generally have been in favor of wind development as an alternative energy source, we also respect the rights of citizens to democratically control the policies of their communities.

And the new leaders in the town of Meredith are doing just that.

(These minutes have not yet been approved by the committee)
Delaware County Democratic Committee — 2/27/08 Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:08 p.m. with Chair Cindy Lockrow presiding. There were 18 in attendance (list attached to Secretary’s copy), 0 proxies submitted. Treasurer Andrea Paternoster was absent.
• The attendance sheet was circulated
• Copies of the Minutes were distributed
• Copies of New York Dems e-mail were available. It announced Democrat Darrel Aubertine’s victory in the State Senates special election for 48th district.

MONTHLY BUSINESS:
• A motion was passed to approve the January minutes as corrected (R. Bailey/T. Schimmerling)
• There was no Treasurer’s report
• The Secretary’s report on possible meeting space in Delhi Academy will be postponed until we have more members in attendance.

OLD BUSINESS:

ISSUE UPDATES: Cindy encouraged members to post to the DCDC web site any developments regarding issues that have been reported to the committee (such as voting machines and flood mitigation). If you need help, contact Dawn Rivers Baker. DCDC web site address: www.delawarecountydems.org

VOTING MACHINES: Dick Stinson gave an update. The Delaware County Election Commissioners chose the Sequoia Voting System’s “Image Cast” 3-in-1 ballot marker. It is handicapped accessible and creates a scannable, voter verified paper ballot that can be saved for audit. The machines cost $11,500 each. Even with HAVA funding there will be an approximate $20,000 shortfall. Some election districts will be consolidated. Inspector training on the new machines will begin later this year. Many inspectors have said they’d retire rather than learn the new system. The DCDC will need to encourage existing inspectors but also plan to recruit replacements. Dick Stinson was commended for his extensive work in following this issue and keeping the public aware of its implications.

RECRUITMENT: Tom Schimmerling gave an update. We’ve succeeded in filling approximately 25 of the vacant committee seats. The goal is to fill the remaining 15 vacancies. Walton and Franklin are the next targets. Seed money will be needed for mailings and such. Tom was encouraged to put together a budget. Other plans include: aggressively pushing voter registration; learning what other counties do for recruitment and what our county Board of Supervisors’ current outreach plan is so we can model on and compliment what already exists.

GILLIBRAND CAMPAIGN: there are discussions about coordinating all the town chairs within the 20th District
(along the lines of the 20 True Blue model) rather than an independent scattershot approach. More to come.

FINANCE: Cindy spoke with Dan Birnbaum of Meredith about developing a budget for the DCDC. This will help the fund raising committee establish annual goals.

STUDENT OUTREACH: Cindy reported on the SUNY Delhi candidate forum. It was sparsely attended (about 25), but offered a first step toward student outreach. Future plans include: contacting educators like Jon Nader (SUNY Oneonta) and Peter Pawlick (Hartwick) and Terry Hamblin (Unadilla) to schedule DCDC guest speaker engagements.

VAN SOFTWARE: Cindy will find out what the deadlines are for us to phone bank BLANKs in the VAN database and will make arrangements for phone banking facilities. This project presents an outreach opportunity for area democrats not on the committee but interested in volunteering. Groups like Del4Change and 20 True Blue are still viable resources and should be kept appraised of Gillibrand support activities.

ANNUAL DINNER: Carol O’Beirne reported that several organizational meetings have been held. The dinner will be on Saturday, June 21, and the location will most likely be the Hidden Inn. Town chairs will be key to its success. They will be provided ad information and tickets in the next month or so. Andrea Paternoster will collect ad materials and money. Hilton Evans of Courier Printing will put the program book together. Cindy is arranging for a keynote speaker. Gillibrand or Hinchey are possibilities. Nominations for person of the year should be sent to Carol at: obarts@catskill.net. Traditionally, honorees alternate from man to woman each year. This year, the honoree should be a man. The dinner will have a “Get Out the Vote” theme with lawn sign and bumper sticker decorations for attendees to take home with them.

NEW BUSINESS:

RALLY: Carol O’Beirne reported that as an offshoot of the dinner discussions, a Pot Luck or Barbecue Rally was suggested as compliment the Annual Dinner. The rally would be in early September in Delhi (maybe at the American Legion Hall) and with a possible $5 cover charge. It would provide an outreach event for those who can’t attend the Annual Dinner.

COUNTY OFFICES: Russell asked if any county offices are up for election this year, such as County Clerk. Lisa Tait will ask Janice Burdick. Does the DCDC have a mechanism for recruiting candidates on the county level? If not, we should develop one.

DEMOCRATIC RURAL CONFERENCE (DRC): The DRC is scheduled for early April in Saratoga Springs. The theme is “Taking Back the Senate”.

NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: A motion was passed to recommend to the County Board of Supervisors that the Deposit Courier be designated our official newspaper of record. (L. Tait/D. Stinson) Russell Schebesta and Lisa Tait will follow up on what the next step should be.

APPOINTMENTS: Dawn Rivers Baker submitted the following name for appointment to the DCDC:
Regina Baker (Sidney Dist. #5). Appointment was approved (D. Baker/T. Schimmerling)

GUEST SPEAKER:
RUSSELL SCHEBESTA, Middletown Democratic Party Chair, gave a report on activities in Middletown. Middletown regularly holds its meetings from April through October, and will schedule additional meetings when needed. There are two focuses on fund raising. For the county, dinner book ad sales are strategically coordinated toward renewing all ads sold the previous year and targeting any businesses missed in the past. For the town, the committee takes a booth at the annual Margaretville Street Fair, selling chicken dinners, water, and 50/50 raffle tickets. The booth nets around $600-$1,000. Russell encouraged every committee to target their town’s big local event and make a presence there. Identify what the event is lacking, and fill that void, whatever it is. He emphasized the importance of door-to-door campaigning efforts, especially in escorting local and county candidates. He also encouraged chairs to let your committee people have their say. Cindy noted that Gillibrand won in Middletown.

The next regular meeting is March 26.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 pm (D. Baker/L. Tait)

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa Tait, Secretary

This afternoon, beginning at 2 o’clock, Governor Spitzer will spend an hour taking calls live on the radio, as a guest on Alan Chartock’s Vox Pop on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio.

The program can be heard over the airwaves throughout Upstate and Central New York, or online via streaming audio from anywhere in the world: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/ppr/index.shtml

You can join the discussion by calling in during the show: 1-800-348-2551.

Unofficial: Hillary Clinton is the winner in Delaware County with a total of 1,606 and Barack Obama coming in at 934.

There were 221 absentee ballots issued for Democrats, with 172 received as of yesterday per the Board of Elections.

Based on national numbers, it looks like this Presidential Nomination will be fought out on the Convention Floor. Stay tuned………

UPDATE

Late results in (more or less) show the delegate count at 744 for Clinton and 679 for Obama — only 65 delegates separate them. There is still no clear Democratic nominee and there are still plenty of primaries to go. Senator Obama surprised some by pulling out close victories in Connecticut and Missouri but Senator Clinton picked up most of the really big prizes, notably New York and California (52% to 41%, with 79% of the precincts reporting as of 5:30 a.m. EST).

This is turning out to be a very exciting race and still anybody’s game. As the Chairwoman said, stay tuned.

The Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) is the water control aspect for NYCDEP. It is as damaging to Delaware County as the extended FAD and MOA.

The FFMP came about due to the flooding and the outcry of the Basin states. The four governors directed the Delaware River Basic Commission (DRBC) to establish a task force to come up with a way to create flood mitigation. The original task force report held a meeting in Delhi but has not returned to the area with its two attempts (the original FFMP was withdrawn last spring and the new one was issued September 2007).

The full report can be found on line. It contains charts and graphs that determine the releases from the three NYC reservoirs on the Delaware. Included in the FFMP are many items of which flood mitigation is barely mentioned. Tucked on page 16 and page 9 is the more detailed “additional storage” provision of this passage. It is for fish only.

One has to think of the impact on two of the largest communities, Walton and Margretville, in Delaware County. Then think of the potential disaster as they collect this additional water. The vision of what could happen is frightening. Take the time to read this document but also take the time to read the FFMP.

Proposal to file in opposition of FFMP (PDF)