ECS student wins $20,000 scholarship

ELDRED, NY — Eldred senior Catlan Sardina has been named an Embry-Riddle Scholar at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Sardina will receive an academic scholarship in the amount of $5,000 toward his tuition upon his enrollment for the 2005-06 academic year, which will continue throughout the four-year undergraduate program.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida and Prescott, Arizona. For the past five years, “U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges” guide has named the school number one in Aeorspace/Aeronautical Engineering.

Sterling pans business park

STERLING TOWNSHIP, PA — By a two-to-one January 12 vote, the Sterling Township Board of Supervisors voted to deny conditional use zoning approvals sought by the Wayne Economic Development Corporation (WEDCO) to develop a 252-acre site into a business park.

The supervisors said the project was declined because it failed to meet township zoning ordinance performance standards. WEDCO had applied for 23 separate conditional use permits.

WEDCO officials, who received a $4.55 million state financial aid package for the project in December, reportedly remains committed to the project.

Theft arrests at Sullivan Care Center

LIBERTY, NY — Two patient care employees were arrested by Sheriff’s Department deputies on January 13 following a three-month investigation of larceny of money and personal property from residents of the Sullivan County Adult Care Center.

Sandi Ramirez, 44, of Kauneonga Lake, was charged with one count of petit larceny and Christine Beach, 22, of Liberty was charged with criminal possession of stolen property and petit larceny.

Stolen jewelry was recovered and returned to the resident from whom it was taken.

Sheriff Dan Hogue said the investigation is continuing and further arrests are anticipated.

Both women were issued appearance tickets to be returned in Town of Liberty court.

New York awards Main Street grants

ALBANY, NY — The Sullivan County Partnership and the Village of Monticello last week were awarded a $200,000 downtown revitalization grant as part of a statewide $11 million grant announcement from the New York Main Street Program.

The state program, patterned after one originated by former Sullivan County Planning and Community Development Commissioner Alan Sorensen, is designed to stimulate downtown revitalization in communities across New York State by providing funding for building renovations, streetscape enhancements and downtown business or cultural anchors.

Kingston and Newburgh also won grants in like $200,000 amounts.

Hospital denies wrongdoing in justice department probe

HARRIS, NY — Officials at the Catskill Regional Medical Center say their payment of a $1.5 million settlement related to a U.S. Justice Department investigation is no admission of wrongdoing.

Responding to a newspaper report, the medical center issued a January 12 statement that said the center agreed to the settlement “to avoid a costly and protracted litigation, at a time when the hospital is moving forward with positive accomplishments in many areas.”

Catskill and two other hospitals were part of a Medicaid fraud investigation of a New York City vendor, which had provided patients to the hospital’s substance rehabilitation unit.

Catskill’s statement said all those treated “were in need of medical care and they received appropriate services.”

Comptroller predicts one-third property tax jump from Medicaid

ALBANY, NY — County property taxes would have to increase by an average of almost one-third by 2010 to keep pace if Medicaid costs continue to rise at the current rate, according to a research brief issued on January 13 by New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.

From 2004 to 2005, Medicaid costs are expected to increase 8.6 percent, a major factor in the 5.9 percent increase in total county spending that resulted in a 4.5 percent increase in property taxes.

Hevesi said that while last year’s Family Health Plus takeover offered some relief, Medicaid costs are still a major burden for county governments.

“In 2003, Medicaid alone amounted to 19 percent of county spending and equaled 73 percent of property taxes. Preliminary numbers indicate those shares continue to grow,” Hevesi said.

For a copy of the research brief, including county-by-county data visit www.osc.state.ny.us

Pataki introduces $105.5 billion state budget

ALBANY, NY — Governor George Pataki delivered his annual budget address on Tuesday, January 18, introducing his 2005-06 executive budget, in which spending totals $105.5 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion or 2.4 percent over the current fiscal year.

According to a statement, the new budget includes caps on local Medicaid costs to provide relief to county property taxpayers, a $526 million increase for schools—the largest ever proposed by a governor, funding for Operation SPUR, a new economic plan to create new jobs upstate, the “Co-STAR” property tax relief rebate program for county property taxpayers, $160 million in new aid over two years for cities, towns and villages, new incentives for local government consolidation, reforms to make the health care system more affordable and efficient, a series of new and expanded home and community-based care initiatives for seniors and reform of the state’s much criticized budget process.