Highland keeps its roads

ELDRED, NY — There will be some seasonal road closures, but none of Highland’s town roads will be abandoned, town officials announced last week.

After several months of consideration, the Highland Town Board accepted Town Attorney Andrew Boyar’s recommendation on October 14 against abandoning portions of the Bower and Clark roads. Instead, the board agreed to direct Highway Superintendent Norman Sutherland to make seasonal closures on portions of the Bower, Corkscrew, Clark and Orson Davis roads.

The board also authorized Sutherland to install a stop sign on York Lake Road at the Dry Brook Road intersection and announced the reopening the Old Brook Road (Dollhouse) road after Sullivan County’s installation of a new bridge.

The board also scheduled its first budget workshop to take place on October 21.

Bethel budget shows near 10 percent decrease

WHITE LAKE, NY — At the October 9 meeting, Deputy Supervisor Vicky Simpson presented the 2004 Town of Bethel tentative budget, which shows a 9.8 percent decrease in highway and town spending, a reduction Simpson said should please taxpayers.

The new property development in Bethel created a $20 million increase in the town’s tax base over the past year.

The tax base counterbalanced other significant increases in municipal costs, including 18 percent in health insurance costs, 12 percent in property liability, 14 percent in retirement costs and three percent in salaries, Simpson said.

The town board will schedule a public hearing at its next meeting on Thursday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. For more information call 845/583-4350.

Contractor arrested for defrauding senior citizen

MILFORD, PA — Pike County District Attorney Doug Jacobs announced the arrest of Douglas J. Hall, age 43, of White Mills, PA for allegedly agreeing to perform home improvement work and never performing any work or ordering any of the necessary supplies.

Hall allegedly agreed to install windows, a glass sliding door, and enclose the porch on the senior citizen’s home in Hemlock Farms in November of last year. Hall told the victim that work would be started by January of this year. The victim paid Hall a deposit of $3,000 for materials to start the work. No record of any purchase was found with the supplier.

The Pike County Detective Bureau filed a criminal complaint charging Hall with one count of theft by deception on October 15. Hall was arrested on October 17 at his residence in White Mills. He was arraigned before District Justice Charles Lieberman and placed in the Pike County Correctional Facility in lieu of $25,000.00 bail.

New terminal and hangars for regional airports

HARRISBURG, PA — Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport was granted $1,937,656 last week to help finance construction of a terminal facility as Governor Rendell announced the release of $5 million for improvements at five Pennsylvania airports.

In the same announcement, Rendell also provided $500,000 to Monroe County for construction of new hangars at the Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport.

Other funding went to Pittsburgh International, Altoona-Blair County and Arnold Palmer Regional airports.

Pataki signs protection against serial stalking

ALBANY, NY — Last week Governor George E. Pataki signed into law legislation that toughens penalties against offenders who engage in serial stalking. The new law enhances the penalty to a class E felony for individuals convicted of the crime of stalking in the third degree against 10 or more people in separate incidents.

This legislation comes in response to a situation on Long Island where a man telephoned women and threatened to rape their female relatives unless the victim engaged in certain sexual behavior. The man is known to have called 72 women in Nassau County and investigators believe that the number of victims in the region could total 350 or more.

Grant for Metro NY-Pocono rail service announced

SCRANTON, PA — Pennsylvania’s federal legislators last week announced a $5 million grant to complete an engineering study for restoring passenger service between metropolitan New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The study could lead to renewed passenger service by 2007. Initial service could include three daily commuter trains in each direction, plus one off-hour train.

A new rail line would be expected to carry some 684,000 passengers a year and reduce peak hour road traffic in Morris County, NJ by up to 4,000 cars.

Macrini contesting Johnson in Tusten

NARROWSBURG, NY — Rita Macrini will make a run for Town of Tusten Supervisor as a write-in candidate. She will run against Republican Ben Johnson.

Macrini has served Tusten’s Zoning Board of Appeals for the past 10 years, and she aims to provide town residents with more opportunities to express opinions in an open governmental environment.

Macrini said her goals include inviting new small businesses into the town to stimulate the economy, while maintaining small town charm and culture.