Daily Archives: March 3, 2011

Talkin’ Code with Andrew Getty

Is Winter Ending?

Not Yet.

Here in the Code Office, the winter season is kind-of weird. From Thanksgiving through January, the phone doesn’t ring too much. Very few permits are going out the door, things are a little quiet. This time of year is always a great time to do those things that seem to be set aside. After January, things start to change.

This year has proven to be the same. The phone has been ringing more. Property owners, potential property owners and contractors are asking questions, requesting applications, finding out the requirements. Even though there is still lots of snow out there, and the sounds of snowmobiles are everywhere, here in this Code Office, winter is fading and spring is moving in.

I guess this is a good thing. Hopefully it means a busy year for local contractors and suppliers. Hopefully it also means that people may be spending a little extra cash on that summer vacation right here in the Adirondacks as well.

Asking questions now, for that anticipated big or small project this summer is prudent. Our job here in the Code Office is to guide you through the regulatory process in a manner that encourages compliance at all levels, without the need of any special requests or need of variances. Occasionally this tends to be a challenge, especially on smaller lots, lots with unique restraints or existing conditions or restrictions.

Recently, there was an application made by an home owner, to the Town’s Zoning Board of Appeals requesting relief from the minimum front yard [road side] setback for the construction of a garage. Although the lot was encumbered by some interesting features including wetlands, and an encroachment onto the property by a private road [which seemingly has been there for sixty years], there were alternatives to the proposed location that would comply with the Town’s Zoning Ordinance.

This office discussed at great length the application with the home owner, and looked at all possibilities. There was no doubt that the lot was interesting, and there were very limited areas a garage could be placed. But the home owner wanted to move forward with his idea, that of having a detached garage in a location which did make some sense….but it needed a variance granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The Zoning Board of Appeals always tries to understand all potential alternatives and then balance the request to potential negative aspects regarding those alternatives. In this case, it was clear that a garage could be attached to the house and be fully compliant without the need of a variance. Although the Board understood the home owner’s reasons to have a detached garage, that reason did not out-weigh the fact that no variance was needed to enable them to have a garage. There were reasonable compliant alternatives.

Before the Board had to officially deny the application, the home owner said they would reconsider their request and either re-apply or move forward without the need of a variance. That whole concept is exactly what this office tries to do with applicants during the application process. Guide the applicant forward, seeking compliance, without the need of any variances, if possible.

This review process takes time. If an application must be made to the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Planning Board, it takes more time. Due process requires legal notices in the local paper, which means even more time.

Thus the reason the start planning for your project now, not the week before the contractor is scheduled to start, only to find out it may take 30 – 60 days to get the permits required to do what you want. And, as with any variance request, there is never a guarantee of approval……… Shall we see you sooner than later??

Share Button

The Tradition of a St. Paddy’s Parade

The 12th annual St. Paddy’s Parade will be Friday, March 18, 2011 at 5:00 in Old Forge. The Parade is being sponsored by the Central Adirondack Association, Souvenir Village and the Foley Law Firm.

The Parade will begin at Keyes’s Pancake House in Old Forge. Owner, Tom Timmerman, has supported the Parade over the years by allowing the floats and groups to gather in his parking areas before the Parade, where most groups have fine- tuned their entries. Tom’s parking lot and the surrounding streets have been needed in recent years, because the Parade has grown each year.

The first Parade started in the parking lot of the Old Forge Post Office. That year, in bitter cold weather, there were about 15 groups of participants. Tim Foley, co-chair of the event with his wife Patty, Chip Kiefer, and his wife, Katie, remembers that first year well. “I think that we counted every fire truck, every dog, and every person in the Parade to come up with our final total of 15 groups. We had very few people watching the Parade because those brave souls were in the Parade”.

Kiefer also remembers those early Parades and how important each and every entry was in the Parade. “Tim and our wives always had the New York City Parade as our model of a really big St. Paddy’s Day parade. To that end, every fire truck, green pickup, or motorized vehicle was important to our Parade, and they all helped make our Parade longer”.

Very soon, the committee discussed how to make the Parade even longer, so the change from the Post Office parking lot to the parking lot at Keyes Pancake House was finalized. This didn’t make the Parade longer, just the Parade route. But the Parade was slowing growing.

So many other changes have taken place over the years. Politicians weren’t in the Parade in the beginning. However, a young upstart politician named Robert Moore saw the annual parade as an opportunity to jumpstart his political career. Carrying a sign and walking by himself, he ran for the Supervisor’s position that had been vacated by the retiring George Hiltebrant.

Another politician that was an early participant was Herkimer County Legislator, Bernie Peplinski from West Winfield. As he has said many times over the years of participating in the Parade, his green heritage comes from a Polish background, but he always feels Irish in Old Forge. Bernie has only missed one or two parades since the beginning.

A tall politician became an early annual participant. He saw the Parade as an essential way to stay in touch with his northern voters. Assemblyman Marc Butler has made the Old Forge parade a part of his March travels for most of the last decade. In recent years, he has also brought along Senator Jim Seward to march up our Main Street.

Many other participants have been in the Parade year in and year out, like leprechaun Bill Corrigan (owner of Wilcor Distributing in Schuyler) and the late Dr.Bill Christy (tuba player extraordinaire). A bagpiper has led the Parade almost every year, along with Old Forge police officer Kevin Birtle. Each year the Parade is blessed by either the priest of St. Bart’s Catholic Church, or Reverend Jim or Reverend Lawrence of Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church. In recent years, parade judging has taken place, most notably by the Syracuse ladies headed up by our own Karen Kellogg (daughter of Ash and Linda Kellogg). With judging, came announcing, done by the likes of Jeff Craig, Nick Bankert, and Gary Staab. Video recording of the Parade was begun some years ago by Dave Langworthy, and now includes production work by Travis Kiefer, showing from year to year the growth of the Parade.

The Parade in 2010 marked the longest parade yet. Not only were many, many local groups and politicians in the parade, but the Parade had all four national snowmobile manufacturer’s trailers, fire equipment from Old Forge, Eagle Bay, Otter Lake, Inlet, Big Moose and Raquette Lake, and several groups of people from outside the area, that have made Old Forge a vacation destination throughout the year.

The Parade has become a part of not just Old Forge, but of the local communities. Inlet, Eagle Bay, Big Moose, Otter Lake and Raquette Lake have had members of their communities in the Parade since the beginning. Since the beginning, the Old Forge Fire Department has been the site of the after Parade Irish Stew contest.

As our St. Paddy Parade grows, so does the tradition of participation for many people, young and old alike. May we always stay green in March each year.

Share Button

Growing up Adirondack by Mitch Lee

 1970 Was a Great Start

In 1970 my parents got me Ed Emberly’s Drawing Book of Animals. It was a very basic step by step book that let anyone with any talent draw several types of animals. I laid the book out on the living room floor pulling back the crisp new pages and drew each animal one by one. As the last of a February storm was giving us some fresh snow I propped a couch pillow under my chest and put pen and pencil and crayon to paper making a zoo full of animals then a circus train and finally a jungle forest filled with these animals.

Countless winter hours were already employed in my young five year olds fingers creating drawings and sketching. When this book came into my hands it was the first “Art” teaching styled book I had ever seen and was the beginning of my love for books about Art, Art History and Art Methods. I will never forget the dedication in this book   just below a photo of Emberly when he was a boy, “For the Boy I was, and the book I could not find” and it makes me cry even today. Evidently, Emberly’s instructive drawing books were born out of his frustration over the lack of good, simple drawing books when he was a boy. He just wanted to learn how to draw. That’s all he wanted and he wanted to share this love with small children just like me.

Well it worked and I can say that there are people, places, happenings in a life that shape and changed me growing up Adirondack but Emberley’s believe that anyone can draw, and his books providing step-by-step instructions for basic drawing were strategic in my formation as an illustrator.  The snow continued to fall for more than a month at our Limekiln Lake home that February of 1970 and it afforded me many afternoons to begin my life long pursuit of creating works of art. A quote from his book I used for the next forty years in many illustrations “You can make people and animals look sad, happy, mean embarrassed or grumpy by changing their eyebrows and/or mouths like this…” It was Ed’s belief that “Every one in the world should know how to draw a weenie dog wearing a sweater!”

I laughed at the simple steps and often altered them as I went making any animal I wished but I came back to the pages of his book time and time again to help me interpret the world I saw around me. Many people who read my column often ask how I got started drawing so early and why I took the time to keep all of those works. I think that a little bit of Ed’s love for drawing rubbed off on me and I chose to keep my journey as a record of my progress.

The best part for me is that Ed Emberley’s drawing books are available everywhere. They’re in paperback now, and quite affordable! Wrap up one with a set of colored pencils and you have a great gift for a child who wants to start down the road to recording the world around us all.

Share Button

Just Call me Mrs. Lucky by Jan From Woodgate

hello march!!!

 

It’s finally over – the dreaded month of February.  However, once again there has been some scarring and loss, and even though Mr. March has arrived there appears to be some definite residual effects.

Dear Frontier:  Your service (or lack thereof) has been despicable for almost an entire month now.  The lines you have buried here in Woodgate clearly do not appear on your radar screens.  Our entire community has been fighting with you on a daily basis with few results.  Many of us have been assured that the “problem” has been rectified – I’m here to tell ya you have FAILED.

Dear DISH:  I just knew my gut feeling about paperless billing and uninterrupted signal reception would result in  bold faced lies, yet I willingly signed on the dotted line.  Thanks so much for informing me that even though I signed a contract enabling me to purchase your services for “12 MONTHS AT $24.99”, there has been a rate increase of five dollars per month, starting NOW.  Your rep was quite clear – “YOU DID NOT READ ALL OF THE FINE PRINT – WE CAN RAISE THE PRICE WHENEVER WE WANT TO” – you too have FAILED.  Miserably.

Dear Charlie Sheen:  Wow.  Just wow.  Two and a half men has been one of my faves since it started.  I now feel you have been grossly over compensated for playing yourself, cuz it’s just not so funny when it’s real life.  Have a good time self destructing with your oh-so-charming gold digging nanny/prostitute/whatevers – I smell a big fat FAIL in your future, and when you wreck yourself cuz you didn’t check yourself I may grin a bit.  Hey, we’ve still got reruns, so see ya.

Dear Libya:  Kudos to you brave souls – but gee, it sure took ya long enough.  Please, can we stay outta this civil war Mr. Obama?  I’m just not sure why we feel the need to fight everyone else’s wars – their FAIL will no doubt become ours in the near future.

Dear State of New York:  You’ve been a great place to live for almost eight years, but your really really high taxes and extremely fat cost of living is coaxing us to move on – and out.  A hog is a hog but a pig ya slaughter – we don’t want to become winter whiners or unhappy old folks and the great south is calling.  The vision of our golden years is growing increasingly dim – time for a new adventure, new home, and almost year round motorcycles.  Bye bye snowmobiles, your expensive danger is no longer enticing.  Not a true FAIL, just a change of heart and strong desire to live cheap.

Dear Mom and Dad:  Thanks for the bloodline that enables me to enjoy Italian Alzheimer’s Disease, where one forgets everything but the grudges.  Very special.

Dear Mother Nature:  Let’s just move on here.  There’s life after snow and I can feel the weight lifting like a good roof dump.  There will be flowers and grass once again, I will feel the sweet glow of sunshine upon my face, we will sell this beautiful home eventually, and life will spiral into a daily dose of happy.  Carolina’s here we come, tho I hardly picture myself as a sweet southern belle.  A bit too late for that I fear, but I did feel it was necessary to address this issue before Bob Rieth has the opportunity.

Dear Mr. March:  We will not accept a FAIL from you, although it is definitely snowing as I write this.  Better days are coming, and they’ll no doubt start with a shovel in my hand.  Gotta love it!!!

Share Button

Nourished Living by Dietician Kelly Hamlin MA, RD, CDN

Gluten Part 1

Holy cow! Everywhere you look in the stores these days you see claims of “gluten free”. This may lead some of you to scratch your heads and wonder “what is gluten” and “who cares?”. The answer is that a lot of people care. The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 100 people worldwide have celiac disease. Again you’re asking…. “and….???”.

Celiac disease is an auto-immune disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food due to the inability to properly digest the protein gluten (combination of the proteins gliadin and glutenin) which is found in wheat, rye and barley and related food products. You may be surprised to learn that there is also gluten in products such as medicine’s, vitamins and lip balms. When people with celiac disease eat foods or use products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi—the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Without healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much food one eats. So what that means is that Celiac disease is both a disease of malabsorption—meaning nutrients are not absorbed properly—and an abnormal immune reaction to gluten. Celiac disease is also known as celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, and gluten-sensitive enteropathy. It is genetic but sometimes the disease is triggered—or becomes active for the first time—after surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, viral infection, or severe emotional stress.

Sometimes people may be tested for Celiac disease and have the results come back negative. The test may include blood tests or multiple samples that are taken from the small intestine using an endoscopic procedure. However, to my knowledge, there is no 100% accurate testing. So, for people who go through the testing and are not found to have Celiac disease, they may still be deemed as non-celiac gluten sensitive. A gluten free diet helps these people feel better.

Often, you hear of people who suffer from Celiac disease complaining of bloating and diarrhea if they consume something with gluten in it. However, there are symptoms such as: anemia, behavioral changes, osteopenia/osteoporosis, bone or joint pain, bruising, chronic fatigue, delayed growth in children, discolored teeth and enamel problems, depression or irritability, canker sores, dry eyes and edema, dermatitis and the list goes on. Granted, many of us have had these symptoms and are not gluten sensitive. I just wanted to show how you may have a few of these symptoms and attribute it to aging or another health issue and never have anyone realize that you are actually gluten sensitive.

I’m sure at this point your wondering what kind of medication these people can take to help alleviate the symptoms from Celiac disease. The answer is none. The ONLY treatment for celiac disease, gluten sensitivities and gluten intolerances is 100% removal of gluten from your diet. Hence, the flood of gluten free items in the stores.

Some foods that contain gluten are: barley (malt), beer, breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, Brewer’s yeast, bulgur, couscous, farina, graham crackers, malt vinegar, matzo, pasta, rye, soy sauce, wheat, wheat germ, wheat bran, wheat starch and Worcestershire sauce. This is not a complete list, but you can see from the items such as soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce that gluten may be used as fillers. READ LABELS!!!!! Some hidden sources of gluten may be: some toothpastes, mouthwash and flavoring agents, broths, bouillon cubes, seasoning agents, salad dressings, BBQ sauces, meat tenderizers, coated and marinated foods, self-basting meats, meal replacement shakes and thickening agents. Again, READ LABELS.

By now you must be wondering what foods you CAN have?!?! Some gluten free foods (without fillers and/or gluten containing products added to them) are: beef, pork, poultry, fish, tofu and most soy products, eggs, dairy products, fruits and juices, vegetables, all legumes, beans, nuts, amaranth, buckwheat, corn, millet, gluten-free oats, quinoa, sorghum, teff, tapioca, potatoes, rice, homemade stocks/broths, butter, margarine and vegetable oils, pure spices and herbs, distilled vinegars that do not contain malt and wheat free soy sauce.

OK, that’s probably enough information to digest (no pun intended) for today. For more information, check out www.celiac.org, www.americanceliac.org, www.gluten.net, and www.celiaccentral.org.

Next week I’ll go over menu planning and cross-contamination of gluten vs. non-gluten containing foods.

Side note: March is National Nutrition Month. More will be written about that later in the month. Even more important is that March 9th is National Registered Dietitian Day!!!!! And no, candy is NOT an appropriate gift for National RD Day….lol…

Share Button

Gary Lee’s Daybreak to Twilight

Looking through the short month of February I find that we had 21 days with snow and three days with rain and sleet so that doesn’t leave very many days with sunshine. Two of those clear days it was way below zero each morning and a blustery cold wind for most of the day. A couple of days there were temperature changes of more than thirty degrees in just a few hours, which came with very windy conditions. This week I know I’ve cleared the driveway each day and once twice. Believe it or not it’s still showing the gravel and the Turkeys can still get grit to break down the food in their crop. I watched them tonight as they picked some while going out the driveway on the way to their roost.

I thought about them swaying in the wind those couple of nights when the wind was blowing forty and fifty miles an hour. One night they were roosted right in back of the house and when I looked out the next morning they were all still sitting out on their branches, swaying in the wind. You would think they would get in closer to the tree trunk and not sway so much but they don’t. I guess they know that a Fisher or Bobcat can go up a tree and reach them if they were close to the trunk. My flock has gone from 32 down to 26 this morning so some have died during the winter, which is normal. If you saw them come flying in when the snow was very deep, weaving through the trees it’s a wonder any of them survived. As big as they are they can maneuver like a big hawk coming through the woods. I’ve tried to catch them on my camera while in flight but not so far.

I did go down to the fireworks in Inlet the other night and got some good shots. I also shot Matt’s Draft House as the cars and snowmobiles were leaving the area from the event, which came out pretty good. It’s a little tricky getting good night shots but fun to try. The Old Forge Camera Club meets at the Art Center the second Thursday of each month at 7PM. Different instructors have been at the meetings giving out tips on how to take better pictures and also how to download and change them on the computer. This month photographer John Timmis will be visiting and giving us tips on both, March 10th.

The precision snow plows in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade will have had plenty of practice this winter and the drivers maybe even to tired to get in the parade after all the plowing this winter. Most have run out of places to put the snow. I know my banks where I push it by hand are mountains around the yard and bird feeders. I can’t even see if there are birds in the Potter Traps or the two bottom parts of my nets unless I look out from upstairs. I just put up the net on Friday and started catching Common Redpolls, one Hairy Woodpecker and an Evening Grosbeak when a white out came through. The net was quickly full of caught snow so I took it down. I have banded over fifty Redpolls in the last week. It won’t be long and they will be headed north again.

A woman up in Tupper Lake wrote me that she had been feeding two Gray Fox, food scraps in her driveway for about a month. One night when she went out a Barred Owl came down and picked up some of the food and flew away. This went on for more than a month each night and the owl got so it would come down while she was still scattering the food. I had one last year that would pick up a mouse I would leave for it but not while I was there. It’s been around this year but I haven’t seen it in a couple weeks or so.

The Great Backyard Bird Count held last weekend and they will post the results soon. It’s amazing how many folks report their birds both in the backyard and also while on hikes during the period. My sister-in-law Ruthann did both as she saw over two hundred Robins while driving into town and they have lots of birds at their feeder. Redpolls didn’t show up at their feeder until the day after the count. Brother Bob saw over three hundred Robins while going out to ice fish one morning at a different location. When they reported these big counts of Robins on line they got questioned whether they saw that many.

I only did my backyard feeders where I had 46 Common Redpolls, 26 Turkeys, 25 Black Capped Chickadees, 15 Evening Grosbeaks, 5 Hairy Woodpeckers, 3 Downy Woodpeckers, 5 White-breasted Nuthatches, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 3 Blue Jays, 2 American Crows, 2 Common Ravens, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Tufted Titmouse, and 1 Northern Shrike.

Poor mans fertilizer, the white stuff but that’s another story. See ya.

Share Button

A Column of News & Comment by Senator James L. Seward

MARCH IS RED CROSS MONTH

March is American Red Cross Month, a time to recognize the efforts of the professionals and volunteers who constitute the caring and compassionate organization.

Inspired by the International Red Cross, Clara Barton founded the American version of the humanitarian agency in 1881. Early efforts centered on assisting the U.S. military with various relief programs along with serving as a medium of communication between members of the American armed forces and their families. Prior to World War I, the Red Cross introduced its first aid, water safety and public nursing programs. A national blood program, for use by the armed forces, was initiated during World War II. Following the war the Red Cross introduced the first nationwide civilian blood program that now supplies nearly 50 percent of the blood and blood products in this country.

The American Red Cross has maintained a significant presence in nearly every New York community for more than 100 years. Currently comprised of 31 chapters and the New York-Penn Blood Region, the Red Cross helps prepare New Yorkers for disasters, provides assistance when disasters strike, and is the primary provider of blood products in 46 counties in the state. Almost twenty-two thousand volunteers work with the Red Cross in New York alone.

Last year, Red Cross chapters in New York responded to almost four-thousand local disasters assisting twenty one-thousand people. Over $3.3 million in direct financial assistance was provided to disaster victims for food, clothing, shelter, baby supplies, and other basic but essential needs.

Along with providing vital disaster response, the Red Cross is also responsible for readying communities before tragedy strikes. Chapters prepare New Yorkers for both natural and manmade disasters offering programs that teach families, school children and businesses the steps to take to prepare for disasters and how to react during and after disasters occur.

Chapters also teach how to prevent injuries and respond calmly when an emergency strikes. Last year nearly 600,000 New Yorkers took courses in adult, child and infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), basic first aid, babysitting, and water safety.

The Red Cross also continues its work with those serving in the military. Through the American Red Cross in New York State’s Services to the Armed Forces program, emergency messages and urgent news are delivered to service members and/or sent to their families. The program also assists service members that require immediate leave in the event of family emergencies. Last year, chapters in New York assisted nearly seven-thousand service men and women and their families through this program.

Of course, many people come into contact with the Red Cross by donating blood. Last year the New York-Penn Blood Services Region collected more than 400,000 units of blood and distributed approximately 740,000 blood products to 120 hospitals throughout the state. Donating blood is a simple thing to do, but can make a big difference in the lives of others.

While the Red Cross is always in need of blood donors, due to recent winter storms, blood collections in the month of January were the lowest in a decade. You can help ensure an adequate blood supply by signing up to donate at a nearby drive. Information on drive dates and locations can be found on-line at www.redcrossblood.org.

Red Cross helps those in need during their darkest hour, along with providing many vital community services. When families, senior citizens and entire communities have nowhere else to turn, local Red Cross volunteers are there to help. Whether responding to disasters, collecting and distributing blood, teaching lifesaving skills or supporting military members and their families, the Red Cross is a trusted partner offering compassionate and skilled assistance. I am proud to join in recognizing the Red Cross during the month of March.

Senator Seward’s office web site is www.senatorjimseward.com.

Follow Senator Seward at www.facebook.com/senatorjimseward.

Share Button