Tuesday "News on The Run"

To Sullivan County...This Bridge Needs Repaired

OK, tired of brisk, lets get on with Spring time.  The sun is out, the sky is blue, but with the wind it is still a bit nippy out, the weather seeming more like a day in mid March than a spring day in April.  For the week, word of the day seems to be cloudy, so look for rain in our forecast here in downtown Mountaindale New York.

Seems that our little hamlet is about to become the travel to place for food if the scuttlebutt in town is all for real.  Mountaindale's first restaurant, Ed's Mountaindale Inn is just about to open for the season...they have been serving lunch this week as they do a shake down of the place.  For the coming summer season Ed is boasting a brand new lunch menu, and the bar restaurant is looking pretty good with a complete new coat of paint inside.  If you are looking for a really good burger and a cold beer after a round of golf, stop by and say hello.  For all our local musicians, look for the Wednesday Night Open Mic to be back up and running around the 18th of April!

Around the corner, seems that Chef Robert over at Uccelli's Restaurant also has some big plans afoot.  First up, a new 16x16 deck is going to be built so that patrons can dine outside.  His establishment will now be open six days a week, and serving brunch on Sundays, as well as a lunch menu Tuesday through Saturdays.  I've seen the menu, and there are some tasty treats waiting to be tried.  Wish he would get a beer and wine license, but if you are looking for some really good food with a Northern Italian flair, dinner at his place is worth the trip over.

In other news of a local nature...Fracking is on the "Town of Fallsburg" agenda for their April 16th work session.  I would encourage everyone OPPOSED to Fracking to show up and encourage our board to amend our zoning rules/regulations to ban fracking within the geographical footprint of our town including or small hamlet of Mountaindale.  

Drove by Skyway on my way to Ellenville, and it seems they have started the task of getting the campground up and ready for the season which opens on May 1, 2012.  There is also camping available here in our hamlet at our own Mountaindale Park, and then there is also Morningside.

Also, please join the petition drive asking Walmart to stop purchasing Monsanto's genetically altered sweet corn.  The petition can be found here.   It is also suggested that you not buy sweet corn (corn on the cob) from Walmart until such time as they assure the buying public that the corn being brought in is not grown with Monsanto's genetically altered seed.

Town of Fallsburg "Rails to Trails" Committee Applies For Grant

The Town of Fallsburg "Rails to Trails" Committee has spent the past few weeks racing to meet a grant deadline, are pleased to announce they have completed the necessary tasks, and have successfully gotten the application timely filed. The grant is offered by Parks & Trails New York, and if approved for the grant, the Committee will have the necessary funds for a new Trail Map/Membership brochure, be able too create a Town of Fallsburg "Rails to Trails" logo, and launch a fully interactive website.

The Parks & Trails New York "Capacity Building Grant" provides local parks and trails groups with grants of up to $3,000 to strengthen not-for-profit organizations that are working to build and protect parks and trails in communities across the state. The "Rails to Trails" Committee has paired up with Sullivan Renaissance who graciously agreed to act as our 501 (C) (3) sponsor, making it possible for us to be eligible for the "Capacity Building Grant". The committee would also like to thank our elected officials in the area, Alan Sorenson, Leni Binder, and Steve Vegliante who provided the group with letters of support. Hats off also go to the Brochure sub committee members, with special thanks to Allen Frishman.

Award recipients will be notified in mid January of 2012.

Finding Fault, Placing Fault is Not A Path To Solutions

Does not matter where you look, there is one simple reality...America is broken. There seems to be a lot of finger pointing going on as this group and that one looks to place blame, to find fault. The now generation, kids just getting out of high school and college who are looking for jobs that just do not exist want to blame the Baby Boomers. The Baby Boomers want to say, "not our fault, we played by the rules, and just want what is ours, the government saying they spent all our money, cannot meet their obligations." Those who are involved in the "Occupy Wall St" movement want to blame the one percent who keep getting richer, while those in the Tea Party are upset about TARP and Obamacare, want to talk about personal responsibility rather than collective responsibility.

Fact is, all this fault faulting, all the time spent placing blame is not solving the basic problems that we all face in the UNITED States of America. There is not one example I can find where the energies spent in assigning blame, finding fault in another has solved a problem. It is said America has become a litigious society, and we are...broken down to its simplest essence, a litigious nation is one obsessed with placing blame, finding fault in others, rather than searching for and finding solutions, rather than taking some personal responsibility, rather than realizing we all contributed to problems that we as a nation are facing today.

We all can agree that Social Security is broken...does it really matter who broke it? Question should be, what can we do (individually and collectively) to fix it for those on it, those about to be on it, and for those future citizens who will be on it decades from now? Imagine all our politicians in Washington DC setting aside partisan politics, putting aside their personal agenda (getting re-elected) and sitting in a room together looking for, and exploring solutions. Imagine the media supporting these efforts, and being the catalyst for a national conversation centered around finding solutions, paving a path to the future. No finger pointing, no sacred cows, but instead everyone focused on one question, "What needs to be done to save and preserve Social Security?"

All for one, and one for all. Shared responsibility, shared pain, and when the ship is turned around and heading into a prosperous tomorrow, shared gain for one and all.

In one of our local papers the other day, there was an article on the decline of our bridges here in Sullivan County. The article listed several reasons for this decline of our public infrastructure including shortage of staff, work crews down to less than half of previous levels from what they were say five years ago, as well as a lack of funding. There was a price tag associated with bringing those bridges back to a point of being safe, quotes from people busy wringing their hands as they mused, 'What are we going to do?"

How about looking at the simple facts on the ground. The bridges need fixed. The price to fix and repair all of our bridges, including the replacement of several of them in danger of collapsing is around $16-20 Million dollars. Furthermore, to repair and replace those bridges, keep them in good shape requires a larger staff than the county currently has. Working with round numbers, we have 80,000 citizens in Sullivan county, and it will cost around $16 Million dollars to repair all of our bridges working with the low number. That is a cost of $200 for every man woman and child for our county to have safe bridges, for our county to stop the decay in its tracks, eliminate the worry that one of our bridges could collapse with one of us on it.

Sure, none of us relishes having to cough up $200 for every member of our household, but all of us would love to have safe bridges today, rather than say waiting another 5-10 years for either the state or federal government to come up with the funding to make those repairs, not to mention that by the time the money is found, the price tag for repairs is going to be much higher.

Our county taking on such a public infrastructure restoration program would bring with it a lot of benefits that could go a long way to offsetting the costs incurred...being pro-active is always a good thing. We would be putting out of work people back to work. We would be improving our image outside of the county, and with proper publicity focused on this locally grown solution to a serious problem, we could possibly attract the attention of companies looking for a place to call home, and those companies locating into our county would bring with them new jobs, additional tax revenues. Consider such an investment an investment in our future, putting our money into actions today that will provide a better community for our children tomorrow.

Remembering some of the sayings I grew up with, "You have to spend money to make money" and "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Like it or not, our nation and its communities are broken, and we need to stop talking about the problems, and instead start focusing all of our time and energy on the task of finding solutions, and a lot of times, finding solutions means some short term pains for long term gains. As out mothers have always told us, "You have to take your medicine." We individually and collectively need to take our medicine, have to make the hard choices today to create a better tomorrow. We need less finger pointing, and more efforts focused on the task of finding solutions, locally and nationally.

Town of Fallsburg Issues Limited State of Emergency Through Friday

Town of Fallsburg Supervisor Steven Vegliante has issued a limited State of Emergency, and all citizens are encouraged to be CAREFUL OUT THERE, and to watch for water on the roads in low lying areas. In related news, there seems to be some very serious concern about the dam in our Mountaindale Park failing...sources are saying said dam is on the verge of complete failure, so those down stream need to be VERY VIGILANT.

A walk down the park road showed a very large amount of water flowing over the roadway (see picture) making further investigation too risky.

August was a record setting month for total accumulated rain in our area, and the ground is saturated, making flash flooding a very real danger. Another danger area is the wood retaining wall that directs the water under Main Street...that wall really took a beating in Hurricane Irene, and it might not be a matter of if, but rather when the retaining wall blows out, the stream then overflowing its banks and heading straight down Main Street here in our small hamlet.

If you see flooding, or have questions/concerns about the limited State of Emergency for the Town of Fallsburg, you can contact the Town Clerk's office at (845) 434-8810.

Rails To Trails Project Making Great Strides Forward

First, a reminder...don't forget to put this upcoming Sunday, July 17th 2011 on your calendar! The Sullivan Striders are hosting the Second Annual Rails to Trails Run and Walk here in Mountaindale, and we hope all our readers will join them in the walk or run, with the proceeds benefiting the Rails to Trails corridor, the money being used for maintenance and improvements.

For all of our summer visitors (waving to all my friends from Skyway), want to let you know you can rent bikes from the Cinder Track Bike Shop in Mountaindale. Charlie is a great guy, and his rental bikes ARE TOP OF THE LINE! He also has a full service repair department, and can tell you from first hand experience that he does wonderful work...he tuned up both of my bikes this year, and they have never pedaled better.

It's been awhile since I have done a update on Mountaindale Community Development Project's Sullivan Renaissance project, so let's jump right into it.

Yesterday we had a volunteer work day, and it was a huge success with lots of work getting done on the trail, and around town as we race to put things in pretty good shape for all the guests we are expecting on the trail this upcoming Sunday. People young and old showed up at various times throughout the day to lend us a hand on various projects, and when we put our tools away at around seven in the evening, you could see the bounty of everyone's efforts. *A special thanks to Eric Lynch, a fellow camper at Skyway and a New York City Fire Fighter who showed up and worked on the difficult task of figuring out how to attach certain additions to our train. We also want to thank Master Instructor Alexandra Th. Lalieu and her Upstate Karate students for all the help they provided yesterday in the task of spreading yards and yards of mulch...their discipline and ability to stay focused were very apparent and appreciated.

A check list of sorts...

1. We have already put out ten hanging baskets on Main Street to compliment the flowers boxes. Hanging baskets are a experiment in progress as we learn what does best hanging seven feet up in the air...some plants do a lot better than others, and all the baskets require a lot more watering than the flower boxes do.

2. Thanks to some of our local Girl Scouts, who were in attendance yesterday, we were able to complete a new flower bed on the side of our community Mountaindale Art Center located at 58 Main Street. The girls were fast learners, and as always, their help invaluable as we move through our projects this year. Cannot wait to get the mulch down this morning so that this item can be crossed off our to do list as completed.

3. The BASIC TRAIN is now officially up on the trail in the old O&W siding across from the old lumber yard.

4. We HAVE WATER! A very special THANK YOU to Steve Vegliante, Will Illing, the Water Department, and the entire Town of Fallsburg government for making this happen. We appreciate all the help we are receiving in doing some of the heavy lifting that needs to be done, and water was a crucial component! *Another special thanks goes out to Allen Frishman for his work on the trail this past week.

4. The basic framework for our Litter Control station is in, and with luck that part of our project will be completed and in use just in time for the Second Annual Rails to Trails Run and Walk on July 17th.

5. The workout station areas have been completely weeded (Aaron Schmitt, our summer intern can be thanked for this) and re-mulched...we are hoping to start repainting and staining this week at some point.

6. One of our O&W Railway relics is now surrounded by a beautiful new flower bed, and we have brought in some beautiful stones that beautify the area, while at the same time make it harder for all terrain vehicles (which are NOT allowed on the trail) to access/exit the trail from our Mountaindale entrance.

As of right now, we are hoping to be doing a MAJOR PLANTING on Tuesday afternoon evening, so if you are looking to volunteer, you can call Sherwood at 845 346-6523 (cell), or just show up with a shovel or trowel. Again, thanks to our many volunteers...you are the force that makes community improvement and beautification possible.