Why does New Jersey—New Jersey!—have three times the amount of solar energy systems installed as mighty New York?

New York was once considered a U.S. leader in the area of solar energy policy, but as the world's solar markets have developed, New York hasn't kept pace. A critical issue is net metering—a policy that allows solar systems to get credit for excess energy fed back into the grid. New York law currently caps net metering at 10 kW—which is fine for residences, but a major barrier for putting solar on large commercial applications such as schools, stores, and government buildings.

We are working on fixes to help open markets for large-scale solar in New York. Click here to help solar go big time.

Assembly Bill 9902 and Senate Bill 7171 would raise the state's net metering cap to 2 MW (the same level as the leading solar states), opening the market for large-scale solar in New York.
This is a defining moment for the future of solar in New York. Without net metering, solar in New York will always be playing second fiddle to New Jersey. It's just embarrassing.

Show your support for pollution-free solar power by sending an email to your state's representative today.

Onward-

Adam Browning
The Vote Solar Initiative
www.votesolar.org

Click here to view the latest news from Morton Memorial Library, including upcoming events. Or, go to http://www.morton.rhinecliff.lib.ny.us/ to go directly to the library's website.

Portrait of Catherine Rutsen Suckley

Wilderstein Historic Site in Rhinebeck, New York is dedicating its 2008 special exhibition to art of, for & by women. The exhibit will bring to life the social, cultural and economic contributions the women of Wilderstein have made, and their profound impact on the history of the Hudson Valley.  Many of the featured pieces will be on public display for the first time ever.

The women featured in this exhibition represent a period of over 200 years from the 1697 Beekman Patent to the death of Margaret Suckley in 1991.  Their stories are told through their paintings, drawings, needlework, and silver created, given or purchased for their homes and family.  Throughout the first floor rooms of the Wilderstein mansion, visitors will have the opportunity to see these objects and better understand the significant role of these women in the history of the Hudson Valley.

This exhibition runs from May 1 to October 31, Thursdays through Sundays, from noon until 4 PM.  Sponsorship that made the exhibit possible was provided by Barbara Boccuto & Darrelyn Brennan of Wachovia Securities.  Wilderstein Historic Site is located at 330 Morton Road, Rhinebeck, NY. 

For more information, call 845-876-4818 or visit www.wilderstein.org.

The DEC has lifted the ban on open burning. 

Anyone with a valid burn permit may burn within the regulations of the permit.  Permits are available at the Town Clerk's Office.

We have received notice from the Poughkeepsie-Dutchess County Transportation Council that they will be conducting a traffic count on Kelly Street, between Morton Road and Orchard Drive during the week of May 19-23, 2008.

Please be aware that this is one of 4 locations in the Town (plus 2 locations in the Village) that will be part of the annual traffic counts conducted at various locations throughout the County. These counts are conducted at varying sites (800 of them) throughout the County, each year. It is part of the County's annual traffic count records and is not an indicator of a specific project or a proposal. It is just data for the countywide study at 800 previously selected spots on 26 state, 100 county and 161 local roads throughout the county. These counts have been
conducted every year (rotating the locations among the 800) since 1999.

The other locations within the Town are Miler Road between 9G and 308 White Schoolhouse Road between Hilltop Road and Cedar Lane Mt Rutsen Road between Old Post Road and River Road.

The two Village locations are:
South Parsonage Street between North Park Road and East Market Street Montgomery Street between Route 9 and Old Post Road (not quite sure where they mean by that description)

Posted: April 26th 

The Rhinecliff Volunteer fire Co. is cleaning house and has the following items availabe for free as is.
2 hospital beds,have mattresses but would probably want new - 1 manual, 1 electric
4 Black Jack tables, can be taken apart for storage.
1 box misc. radio parts.
 
 
Call Cynthia Baer 845-876-5738 for info and to arrange pick up. Firehouse located at the corner of Shatzell Ave, Rhinecliff. NY.

The Hudson Valley Green Fair is a major environmentally conscious event, hosting businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies dedicated to being “Green”. Just in time for Earth Day this show is being held on the beautiful Dutchess County Fairgrounds in historic Rhinebeck, NY.

READ MORE

Registration for the Rhinebeck 2008 Summer Youth Program is at Town Hall on the following

http://snurl.com/256u8

Click here to view the Highway Department's Spring 2008 Newsletter.

The Rhinebeck Town meeting held at the Rhinecliff Firehouse on April 14th featured a presentation by The Rhinecliff Advisory Council on alternatives to the Comprehensive Plan’s proposed “Rhinecliff extension,” previously known as the “Rhinecliff TND.”

Geoff Sanborn (of the Advisory Council) gave a slide presentation and discussion on the four key concerns of the council. These included: The narrow streets and need for safe play areas, limited parking, challenging infrastructure, and the increased flooding that has occurred in recent years.

Some of the details discussed by Mr. Sanborn included the near impossibility of installing a sewage system in Rhinecliff due to the expense needed to overcome the complex geography and the significant historical significance of the region.
The slide presentation included recent photographs of the terrible flooding Rhinecliff has seen in the last few years. This is worth mentioning given the Comp-Plan’s proposed “Rhinecliff extension” is situated on wetlands and steep slopes.

Recognizing the need for growth, the council presented alternative locations be considered at the Laidlaw/Butcher Boys property to the North. Currently zoned commercial, they recommended the zoning be changed to residential.
In order to improve upon the Comp-Plans current recommendations, the council supported the use of Conservation Subdivisions to determine the best areas to place new development.

This practice relies on four key steps to define the best place to build. (i) identifying primary and secondary conservation areas, (ii) design open space to protect them, (iii) arranging houses outside of those protected areas, and (iv) finally lay out streets, lots and infrastructure.

In addition, the council laid out an ambitious plan for connecting the Village of Rhinebeck with the hamlet through a Greenway and connecting trails. This would allow residents to walk and bike from the Village to the hamlet on trails and foot paths.

While most of the presentation was focused on better alternatives to the Comp-Plan’s proposed “Rhinecliff extension,” there were some additional points worth noting. The council proposed capping the size of new homes in the hamlet at 2,800 sq feet in an effort to maintain the character of and feel of existing homes in the historic hamlet. The council also suggested that where appropriate, accessory housing be allowed such as converted garages. This would of course be dependent on septic approval etc.

Few questions were posed to the council after the presentation. The Town Board seemed very receptive and requested printed copies of the presentation for further review.

We hope to post the slide show presented by the council as soon as we receive a copy.

We will be adding all the Town Meetings from January and February shortly. Please note that there are some sound problems in this video but the sound improves after the first five minutes.

We would like to make note that towards the end of the meeting Dennis McGuire, the Town Supervisor from several years ago, expressed his dismay over Rhinecliff's leaf pickups. Mr. McGuire went on to say that this had never happened before and it was "not fair" to the rest of the town.

We found this particularly odd as Mr.McGuire allowed this very practice while he was Town supervisor. We reviewed old copies of Town minutes during Mr. McGuire's tenure and found multiple examples of meetings he supervised that mentioned Rhinecliff leaf pickup day. Click HERE to view one example from the November 14, 2005 Town Board Minutes.

Some feel the strong tug of the land. On March 1, KayCee Wimbish, 32, a former second-grade teacher, moved from her Harlem apartment up to Tivoli to raise sheep and chickens with Owen O’Connor, 22, a Wesleyan dropout who helped come up with the name of their enterprise, Awesome Farm.

READ MORE in Sunday's New York Times. (March 16th)

Also read more about this new movement HERE.

(Photo: NY Times)

The town had sent abandoned vehicles to a Newburgh scrap yard later cited for pollution.

At a Town Board meeting Monday, officials said the extension is part of a $49,000 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which found the town liable for a portion of the $27 million cleanup of the Consolidated Iron and Metal scrap yard on the Hudson River.

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Tanya Hollander, the woman charged with arranging prostitutes for the Emperor's Club VIP, appears to have been leading a secret double life as both a hippie-ish holistic healer and a power broker's madam.
Tanya, as the media has been spelling her name, is alleged to have booked girls for New York Governor-for-the-moment Eliot Spitzer. Meanwhile, Tania, an alias listed in charges unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's office on March 6, appears to have maintained an extensive "health counseling" website (now taken down but cached below) and a MySpace page (last login February 8), where she describes herself as "a grounded, creative, adventurous, and wise spirit," a practitioner of holistic healing in the Manhattan and Hudson Valley area who is "known to get lost in health food stores and wander for several hours."

Read More

Tanya Hollander is a health counselor and ran a web site to promote her services. The site has since gone down. Here is our cached copy of her front page:

Pure acoustic show featuring Lisa Dudley, Rod Owens, Split the Bill, The Riches, Annie Fox, Todd Young, Ze Luis and Richard Padron. Click here for more information.