False alarm warns of hazards

MINISINK — Scanners went crackling. Ambulances came rushing and New York State police sped to the scene.

“A man was retrieving a ball in the river, got out too far and lost his control,” said Trooper Tim Dowling, who was called to the scene. “He came out of the water on his own and refused any treatment when the ambulance arrived,” Dowling said.

The man, John Resdercto, 28, of Patterson, NJ, is staying at the Kittattiny Campground north of Barryville on Route 97 He is reported to be doing fine.

The Eldred American Legion Ambulance service was called to the noontime incident and a secondary ALS Mobil Medic response was cancelled.

Gov. Schweiker signs ‘zero-growth’
PA budget

HARRISBURG — Gov. Mark Schweiker on June 29 signed a $20.7 billion, 2003 state budget for Pennsylvania.

Budget highlights include a $242 million increase in appropriations for public schools statewide, a $200 million investment in Homeland Security and $50 million for the state’s “Growing Greener” environmental initiative.

The state closed a $1.3 billion revenue shortfall by spending cuts, including aid to state colleges, and by new taxes including a $4 increase in landfill tipping fees and a tripling of cigarette taxes to $1 per pack.

In Pike County, Delaware Valley School District will get $6.9 million in basic education subsidies, a 4.5 percent increase.

River council supports federal funds
for DRBC

NARROWSBURG — The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) on June 27 approved a letter requesting Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY26) to seek reinstatement of federal funding for the interstate Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC).

Federal funding has been cut for the DRBC since the 1997 federal budget. Federal representation was then scaled back, with the closing of the federal DRBC representative’s office and a shift of representation from the Interior Department to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Hinchey is a member of the House Interior Appropriations Committee.

Supervisor: Forest exemptions
hurt schools, town

NARROWSBURG — Tusten Supervisor Richard Crandall has proposed that New York State share the tax burden it creates on local towns and schools by funding localities losses from the state’s Forest Tax Exemption program.

Based on the 2000 tax roll, Crandall estimated Tusten and Sullivan West exemption losses in Tusten at more than $305,000.

He called the program “a support for middle class recreation, ie: hunting clubs and large landowners of 50 acres or more.”

Crandall said the state should make up the difference, since it is their program. “It’s unfair to senior citizens and ordinary taxpayers,” he said.

Assemblyman Jacob Gunther (DC-98) has regularly sponsored legislation to address Crandall’s concern, but the legislature has never passed it.

More than 19 percent of Sullivan County’s assessed property is exempt from property tax.

PA has toll-free tobacco quitline

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Robert S. Zimmerman Jr. on June 26 launched the state’s first toll-free 24-hour tobacco quitline.

By calling the toll-free number, tobacco users will receive counseling from highly trained intake specialists and cessation counselors. After that initial call to the quitline, callers will receive five scheduled follow-up calls. And, if there are those who are not ready to quit, materials such as a self-help quit guide and tailored fact sheets along with local cessation-service listings will be provided to them.

The number to call is 877/724-1090.

New law would require defibrillators
in schools

ALBANY — Governor George E. Pataki on June 27 signed legislation requiring schools across the state to purchase and maintain defibrillators and to provide for staff trained in the use of the devices on school grounds during curricular and extra-curricular activities and at all school-sponsored athletic events.

Pataki signed the bill at Northport High School on Long Island, where Louis Acompora, a 14-year-old lacrosse goalie, was tragically killed in March of 2000 after he blocked a shot with his chest.

Automated electronic defibrillators reportedly saved 17 lives in New York last year.