Bio Diversity

This article appeared in the Townsman, June 5 edition

Woodstock, June 3 2008

Operating under a June 27 deadline the Woodstock town board agreed unanimously to the formation of a task force to write a grant seeking up to $60,000 from the Hudson River Estuary program sponsored by New York State to be used for a bio-diversity study and mapping of the town with a total cost approaching an estimated $140,000.

The action came immediately subsequent a presentation to the board by Gretchen Stevens, a botanist from Hudsonia, a non profit organization that gathers and disseminates biological information and which has worked with the town previously on a much smaller bio-diversity study.

The proposed project, which could take up to fourteen months to complete, would lead to the creation of a map of the town showing each type of ecologically significant habitats, including wetlands, different forest types, water bodies, meadows and other distinct botanical and biological features. The mapping can be used as a tool to guide zoning laws and comprehensive planning. It can also, according to Ms Stevens, “facilitate development” by providing applicants and planning boards with readily accessible information to implement better subdivisions or site development.

Grace Bowne, member of the Woodstock environmental commission (WEC) but “wearing my hat as a realtor” pointed out that some real estate buyers look for distinct or rare habitats when considering where to purchase land and that such mapping would be an asset. Mary Burke, WEC chairwoman, said the mapping would help her board when considering recommendations concerning land acquisitions by the City of New York, and also perhaps help pressure entities such as the cities of New York and Kingston to implement best management practices on their lands.

Voices representing the Woodstock planning board and the Woodstock Land Conservancy also spoke favorably on the proposed study.

In answer to questions from supervisor Jeff Moran Ms Stevens indicated the study and mapping includes tools for planning, and that although excluding lands owned by the state and other municipalities (areas not targeted for development) may be a sensible way to hold down costs, it is still best to know and see how habitats interact.

Ms Stevens, who offered to help write the narrative for the grant application, will work with members of the planning board, the WEC, the Land Conservancy and private citizens to help meet the June 27 deadline. The supervisor set June 10 for a meeting in his office to assess the progress and determine what Town resources can be used to help.

Bio diversity maps have a shelf life of approximately ten years, according to Ms Stevens.

Councilwoman Simonson secured a $15,000 grant from the Hudson River Estuary program in 2005 for a Sawkill Stream assessment. Simonson reported as late as April 15 of this year, as she had since January, that she still did not convert the data from the Sawkill study into electronic format, nor has she submitted the paperwork to the state for reimbursement. The $15,000 grant has so far cost the Town $15,225, minus a partial reimbursement of $2596 received in June 2007. The townships of Ulster and Kingston have backed out of their previous commitments to pay a share toward the grant, which expired at the end of '07.

The town board meeting had begun at the unusual hour of 5:00 pm at the Town Offices with Cassia Berman urging the board to extend a formal welcome to Amma Sri Karunamayi, a teacher who will be providing a free lecture at the Bearsville Theater on June 10 at 6:30 pm. No motion was made. There was also an announcement for the annual Company Four firehouse bazaar to be held on June 7 from 4:00 pm “to the end” at the Zena Firehouse.

The only bid for drilling the geo-thermal wells for the proposed Town Hall renovation project came in at $75,665.60. The Town Hall project, with bids exceeding estimates by almost four hundred thousand dollars, is in abeyance until town officials finish investigating the feasibility and practicality of buying and renovating the building on the Bearsville Flats that had once been a bowling alley and more recently the Elna Ferrite light industrial facility.

The supervisor was successful in persuading the Open Space Institute to accept the Town’s proposal to redraw the California Quarry subdivision to allow the Town continued access to quarry rubble, which can be used for emergency road repairs. The approximately 190 acre parcel, minus the Town’s portion, is slated for sale to the Institute, which will then convey the parcel to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation. The supervisor was given unanimous consent to sign an option extension agreement with the Institute so that the Town can re-draw the sub-division lines.

The Town will sponsor the annual blood drive to be conducted at the Woodstock Rescue Squad facility on June 18 from noon to 7:00 pm.

The town board unanimously adopted a fourteen point “rules of order” that for all the discussion over them the past several meetings look suspiciously similar to the rules they replaced. All the suggestions offered by former Document Coordinator Joan Schwartzberg made their way into the final document.

The highway superintendent Mike Reynolds got the go-ahead to purchase a truck cab and chassis for $34,871.70 from low bidder Johnson Ford.

There raged a forty- minute argument over councilman Jay Wenk’s proposal for a process of setting town board meeting agendas. Wenk’s proposal in essence dilutes the supervisor’s authority to set the agenda, and Moran wasn’t buying it. Resisting councilwoman Liz Simonson’s attempt to read through the proposal line by line, Moran said the board was attempting to “micromanage the supervisor.” Councilman Collins called the supervisor “disrespectful and unprofessional.” Simonson called upon the supervisor to “not be an obstructionist,” and complained of being interrupted. Her often used address to “you guys” was met with a sharp rebuke from councilwoman Terrie Rosenblum, who interrupted to say, “’you guys’ doesn’t work with me.” During the squabble Wenk meandered onto other topics.

But then it was near 6:00, and the town board sat up, finished other business and behaved for Ms Stevens’ scheduled presentation on bio-diversity.

The meeting adjourned at 7:30.