Stewart Forest has officially grown
In return for widening Drury Lane, much of the adjacent forest will be
forever protected
The Stewart State Forest to the west of
Stewart Airport is now 7,000 acres. The state Office of General Services
has signed the order transferring additional land from the state Department
of Transportation – landlord for the airport – to the Department
of Environmental Conservation, which has jurisdiction over the forest.
The transfer was part of a deal worked out
between the Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition and its two co-plaintiffs,
and the state. The SPARC coalition had tied up in court the construction
of a new Drury Lane entrance to the airport.
A significant part of the deal that settled
the legal battle and allowed the road project to begin was to place an
additional 1,600 acres of land along Drury Lane permanently with the 5,400
acre state forest that was created a number of years ago.
SPARC President Sandra Kissam said the
story of the Stewart lands has been “a saga” that began with
then Governor Rockefeller’s “ruthless land grab in 1971.”
Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition
Box 90, Blooming Grove, N.Y. 10914
phone/fax 845 564-3018
Press Release: for immediate release. July
9, 2006
Historic Land Transfer
The
state of New York has just formally transferred agreed-upon additional
lands to Stewart State Forest; in effect, the promise to SPARC and
co-plaintiffs has been fulfilled. With the Drury Lane Interchange
project in full construction, precious open lands are being permanently
protected.
This past June 29, 2006, Commissioner Robert
J. Fleury of the NYS Office of General Services (OGS) signed the order
transferring jurisdiction of lands from the NYS Dept. of Transportation
to the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation.
Quoting from the document, "The parcels
of land comprise approximately 1,600 acres, more or less, and are a portion
of the lands acquired by the NYS DOT for the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) for the purposes associated with the development of Stewart
International Airport pursuant to Chapter 472 of the Laws of 1971 . .
. . . Transfer of the property is a condition of the December 7,
2005 Consent Decree settling Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition v. Slater,
et al., Civil Action No CV-00-1606 (Northern District, N.Y.)."
The order was accompanied by
a map and description of the transferred lands, with the Consent Decree
attached, the same Consent Decree that was signed last November 2005 formalizing
a settlement that SPARC, the Sierra Club and the O.C. Federation of Sportsmen
reached with NYS DOT and the NYS Thruway.
This action has resulted in the expansion
of Stewart State Forest to a total of almost 7,000 acres, the 2nd largest
open space area in Orange County after Sterling Forest. The OGS
order caps an incomparable victory by SPARC and co-plaintiffs, the culmination
of a 19-year struggle to save these public lands as open space.
In 1987, Newburgh citizen Ben Kissam heard, while training
his English setter Star on the lands, that massive industrial and commercial
development was planned for these thousands of acres. He thought
it was a shame to destroy these beautiful lands, including farmlands he
had hunted with his own father, Ben Kissam Sr.
He first spoke against the development
plans at a meeting of the Stewart Airport Commission in April of that
year, and the rest followed: the building of the first coalition of sportsmen's
and environmental groups, unheard of before. His wife Sandra joined
his efforts, and when he died in 1992, she assumed the leadership in the
fight for the lands, fostering alliances with groups as diverse as Orange
County Audubon Soc., the Balmville Citizens Association and the Orange
County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs.
Through all those years, SPARC and supporters
attended meetings, held rallies, wrote testimony, lobbied Albany officials,
held demonstrations, wrote letters, collected documents, brought legal
action---in sum, fought to save the land in every way possible.
Regarding the signing of the OGS order
on June 29th, Legislative Chair of the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra
Club John Stouffer said, "The Stewart Airport Buffer Lands are an
incomparable resource for the people of Orange County and all New Yorkers.
The preservation of these lands will make the County a more attractive
place to live and work. Because of the efforts of SPARC, the O.C.
Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, the Sierra Club and many, many others,
we will continue to have a natural retreat within minutes of our homes
and workplaces. It grieves me though, that some of the people like
Frank Hartmann, Rudy Vallet, Frank Ruggero and Ben Kissam, who worked
so hard to protect the buffer lands, have passed on and did not witness
the successful achievement of their efforts."
Orange County Sportsmen's Federation President
Carmen Heitczman said, "With the creation of Stewart State Forest,
the sportsmen of Orange County and the State of New York have now preserved
a jewel within our urbanized lower Hudson Valley. This sportsmen's
paradise has been created through the efforts of SPARC, the Orange County
Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, and the Sierra Club. This final
act of signing the lands over to the NYS DEC guarantees its existence
for future generations."
SPARC President Sandra Kissam said, "What
a saga the story of these lands has been. From Governor Rockefeller's
ruthless land grab in 1971, with the displacement of about 400 families,
to these same residents' struggle to retake their properties, to the unsuccessful
campaign to stop the expansion of the airport's east/west runway onto
the lands, to the successful effort of neighbors (in 1984) to end the
dumping of sludge on the lands, to SPARC and the Coalition's success in
saving 7,000 of the original 8,657 acres seized and transferred
to the MTA, now set aside as a recreational and wildlife habitat treasure
for all."
SPARC is an entirely volunteer grassroots
organization. Currently it is fundraising to retire its legal debt and
is overseeing the implementation of the provisions of last November's
settlement.
Contact: Sandra Kissam, 845 564-3018 or John Stouffer,
518 426-9144
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More on Orange County's Illegal Pistol Amendment Fees
Early in 2005, the Pistol License Department
started charging $5 per gun per when you put in an amendment. Unfortunately,
this change does not comply to NY law that only allows the counties to
charge $3 per amendment. Several other counties have also raised
their fees so people started looking at it because the NY Penal Law Section
400 section 14 seems quite clear: "... for each amendment
thereto, three dollars, ... "
SCOPE had sent letters to all county clerks
asking about the fees that they charged for an amendment and stating that
if the county clerk was charging more than $3 it was illegal. Several
counties changed their fees back to $3. John Darney sent a letter asking
about the changes and I called Orange County on 4/25/06 they said that
they had sent the question to the legal department. (I wish that they
had done that BEFORE that had raised the fees.)
CLICK HERE FOR THE APRIL/MAY
ARTICLE AND MORE INFO
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In part:
Your question concerns an interpretation
of subdivision 14 of section 400.00 of the Penal Law, which governs
the fee for amendments to firearm licenses. You have asked whether
the County may charge the statutory fee of $3.00 for each proposed
change to a firearms license that is contained in one application
to amend the license, or whether the County may charge only one
$3.00 fee for each amendment, regardless of the number of proposed
changes to be made by the amendment. We conclude that Penal Law
§ 400.00(14) authorizes a fee of $3.00 for each amendment to a firearms
license, even if the proposed amendment will result in more than
one change to the license, such as the addition or cancellation
of more than one weapon. |
PL § 400.00 Licenses to
carry, possess, repair and dispose of firearms.
14. Fees. ... Elsewhere in the state, the licensing officer shall
collect and pay into the county treasury the following fees: ... ;
for each amendment thereto, three dollars, |
UPDATE 8/3/06
The Orange County Clerk's
Office has decided to roll back the fee from $5 to $3 effective
Monday, August 7th, 2006. The $3 fee will get you the old style
green slip that you have to carry with you when you have the gun.
For $2 more or $5, they will update your plastic pistol permit
card if that is the kind that you want and you want to spend the
money to update it.
While it is still not as much as we wanted, it is something
and they are going to do more research on the "per gun" fee. I hope that in the
next few weeks we will resolve this "per gun" fee issue. |
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NY CITY COUNCIL PASSES GUN LEGISLATION
PACKAGE Includes possible ban on camouflaged guns.
Don't worry, Hillary and UpChuck Schumer voted against the bill. Sen.
John Kerry actually voted against the bill and then changed his vote
to for the bill after he saw how bad the bill was going to loose.
This is the first "pro-gun" bill that Sen. Kerry has voted
for while in office.
to the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Foundation for the Decorative Arts. Hartford,
CT is about 2 1/2 hours away from Orange County so it is a good time to
shock your family and offer to take them to a Museum.