The Kingston Report: Ulster County Happenings

In Friday’s Times Herald-Record you’ll read a story about Ulster County’s  new tourism ad campaign that’s playing on WABC.

Here’s the ad for your viewing pleasure:

Two quick notes.

*** Big props to Jeremy Ellenbogen and his crew at the Seven21 Media Center in Kingston for filming this commercial.

*** Pay close attention to the farmer’s market segment. That’s Ulster County’s Health Director La Mar Hasbrouck and his wife. Who knew the doc was an actor!

On Sunday, I wrote a story about Evan Stauble, a 24-year-old with a history of mental illness who had disappeared July 1 from his family’s home in Hurley.

I’m now sorry to report that Stauble’s body was found Sunday by his father, Guy Stauble, who called early this week to let me know his son was dead.

Guy Stauble said his son had been suffering suicidal thoughts since he was 16. His older brother died of leukemia and his mother followed by overdosing on pills, Guy Stauble said.

Evan Stauble

Evan was in and out of mental health facilities, but could never put his life on smooth ground. Guy Stauble thought it might help to bring his son closer to the family he had left, so he put him on a train from New Jersey to Rhinebeck, and drove him home to Hurley.

Kingston police were the last to see Evan Stauble, walking across the Route 9W bridge that connects Kingston to Port Ewen. He told police he was just out for a walk. After a few days passed, Guy Stauble began putting fliers up around Kingston and Port Ewen, hoping that someone, anyone, might see his boy.

Then, on Sunday, Guy Stauble decided to look around the bridge where his son was last seen. He found Evan’s body under the bridge, where he had apparently hanged himself from a chain-link fence.

“It appears he was there for the full 10 days he was missing,” Guy Stauble told me.

State police said no foul play factored into Evan Stauble’s death.

That’s about all we’re going to say here. Suicide is the grayest of areas for journalists. How we cover them is so murky that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention puts out an entire guidebook on when and how journalists should cover suicide.  We used this guide, and others, when writing about the spate of deaths by suicide off our local bridges last summer.

Thanks to all of you who posted our story about Evan in hope that he might be found. And our best thoughts go to the Stauble family.

-AB

A colonial nail, made by one of the interpreters at the New Windsor Cantonment.

On Saturday, I visited the New Windsor Cantonment on Route 300. There, in memory of our forefathers, historic interpreters were shooting muskets and cannons, lecturing on Revolutionary War history and showing some old-school medical equipment that looked like it jumped off the screen of a horror movie.

But the one demonstration that hit me was the blacksmith station, manned by Ulster County’s own Sean Winchell.

As you might have read in my story, Sean explained that Gen. George Washington’s army had to build 600 houses in three months. Each log-construction house needed a roof, and each roof needed 1,000 nails. That meant blacksmiths were busy.

Blacksmiths worked back-to-back at two fires, where they heated iron rods to temperatures exceeding 1,200 degrees. Then they fashioned the nails by hammering a point and a head into them.

A of blacksmith could make two nails every minute.

And if they kept that pace, a team of blacksmiths could make enough nails for one house in one day.

Here’s my point: Sometime between my hamburger eating and Wiffle ball game today, I’m going to take a second to think about that hard work. Our independence was born of sweat and blood and incredible sacrifice that is worth remembering. Sometimes, that appreciation doesn’t come easily when you can drive to Home Depot and buy a few thousand nails instantly.

Thanks to the New Windsor Cantonment and other local groups that keep us humble by preserving our remarkable history.

I hope you and your families have a great Independence Day.

-AB

As you can see, Kingston school policymakers are planning to meet with district residents on May 18.

That’s important becuase May 18 is budget-vote day. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the budget, you can click here to read a little about it.

The meeting, to be held in a coffee house directly across Broadway from the Kingston High School, could prove insightful. Will the $140 million budget pass? Will it go down? You might get the forecast over coffee that morning.

-AB

When Ulster County’s Budget & Finance Committee met Tuesday night, one of the items on its agenda was the new union agreement with the Ulster County Staff Association.

For those of you who haven’t been following the news, this is a group of about 40 mid-level managers who haven’t gotten a pay raise since 2005. You can read a brief about their contract by clicking here.

The discussion took some weird twists and turns–as contract talks often do–and somehow turned into a conversation about this: What’s the definition of retro-pay?

Retro pay is generally a one-time payout that’s given to union members when they settle a contract after long negotiations. It’s a way of recognizing that they did not get a pay hike during years when their peers saw wage increases.

Ulster County Personnel Director Brenda Bartholemew said the UCSA’s first-ever contract DOES NOT have retro pay.

Some lawmakers said it DOES have retro pay.

Legislators sit around the meeting table Tuesday night and talk about the UCSA contract. Members of the union surround them along the wall. (Photo taken on terrible cell phone.)

Confusion settled over the room because part of the UCSA’s contract is very unusual and hard to understand.

No matter what you call it, the 40 members are going to receive a one-time payout that recognized they went five years without a pay increase. Actually, the back payments are expected to cost the county $520,000, Bartholemew said. They’re going to have to dip into the county’s savings account to pay that money.

Here’s how it’s calculated….step by step:

Members of the union will receive a 13 percent pay hike. Their back payment is calculated by taking 60 percent of 13 percent of their base salary?

See! It’s confusing.

Here it goes. If a member of the unit made $50,000 in 2005, the raise would take them to $56,500.

Take 60 percent of that $6,500 different and that’s the amount they’ll receive. If the worker was there for three years between 2005 and 2009, he receives 45 percent. Here only half that time? You get 30 percent. And so on.

No calculators were present at the meeting.

-AB

Grievance day is still about six weeks away, but a residents’ association in Kingston is offering guidance for those who think their assessments are unfair.

The Kingston Uptown Residents’ Association will host a forum called “How to Appeal Your Property Assessment” on April 20 at 7 p.m. The group will gather at the Old Dutch Church on Wall Street.

Guest speakers include Ken Brett, a member of the city’s Board of Assessment Review, and Mark Grunbatt, a local real estate attorney.

Assessments are bound to be a hot topic in Kingston this year.

When Kingston adopted its 2010 budget last December, city officials promised that the average home would see a 2.62 percent tax hike, even though the tax rate was climbing by 9.12 percent. That’s because most of the city’s property values had fallen, officials said.

Most, but not all.

Some neighborhoods in Kingston were not reassessed, driving residents to online forums where they’ve screamed about unfair treatment. Their screams will ultimately be heard at grievance day, which this year falls on May 25.

For more information about the KURA forum, call 338-3237 or e-mail info@UptownResidents.org.

-AB

Friends of Historic Kingston is looking for some volunteers to help with a sweep of the city later this month.

After all, it’s spring. And when you think spring you think….baseball. Or cleaning.

Here’s the group’s appeal for help:

KINGSTON – A spring clean-up of litter lying along the newly instituted “Kingston Corridor” will take place on Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m. to noon. The Kingston Clean Sweep is being sponsored by the Friends of Historic Kingston with support from the City of Kingston and more than 20 other local business and service organizations. 

From left to right: Hayes Clement, Award 9 Alderman; Gerry Soldner , Kingston Uptown Residents Association; Jeannine Tully, Ulster Garden Club; Patricia Murphy, President, Friends of Historic Kingston; Steve Noble, City of Kingston Environmental Educator; Jane Kellar, Executive Director, Friends of Historic Kingston; Nancy Donskoj, City of Kingston Main Street Manager; Kevin Quilty, President, Kingston Uptown Business Association.

        The city will be divided into eight sections, each overseen by one or more of the participating organizations. Volunteers will be provided with City-supplied trash bags that will be collected by the Department of Public Works following the event.  People are asked to bring their own work gloves and a broom, if possible, to sweep dirt piles from the sidewalks.  The event will take place rain or shine.

     Volunteers are still needed in several sections along the “Kingston Corridor” which runs from the Thruway Circle down to the Rondout Creek.  Anyone who wishes to volunteer can call the Friends of Historic Kingston at (845) 339-0720 or e-mail fohk@hvc.rr.com.

Ulster County has applied to a national competition to win Google Fiber, super-fast Web infrastructure that would boost connection speeds by 50-300 times. Below are the two videos Ulster County and the Kingston Digital Corridor are using to convince Google that we deserve to win.

Here are a few of the other applications from around the United States.

The mayor of Duluth, Minn., decided to plunge into the frigid waters of Lake Superior:

The mayor of Sarasota, Fla., swam with sharks.

To view more applications from around the country, just to to YouTube and type in “Google Fiber.” You’ll find old hippies, housewives and even senators making their pleas for faster Web service.

-AB