Get Your Tickets Now

If you haven't already, get your tickets now for the Great American Irish Festival. In just three short years this has grown into one of the largest musical events in the state thanks to the hard work and dedication of an immense number of people. I don't even like Irish music and I've always had a great time.

Voting With Their Feet

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has a great article about why people are fleeing upstate in droves.

Garcia is among the 30 percent of residents between the ages of 25 and 34 who have departed upstate New York during the past decade, according to Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office. A survey of 1,000 graduates of State University of New York campuses during the spring found that two-thirds of students from upstate preferred to stay in the region, but less than 40 percent of them had been able to find jobs, and less than 30 percent expected to be living in upstate New York in 10 years.

I'm sure you'll be shocked to discover that high taxes are one of, if not the, primary motivator for people leaving the state.

Karen Joba, who moved from Hamlin to North Carolina with her husband, Bruce, in 2005, said New York would continue to lose residents until significant changes are made, "especially tax-wise." The Jobas pay about $1,400 in property taxes on their $200,000 home in Hendersonville, N.C., compared with $5,000 in property tax on a $147,000 home in Hilton.

When your property tax bill is in the same league as your mortgage payment there's a serious problem.

Once again, people aren't leaving the area because there aren't enough parks, or because the Stanley doesn't host enough Broadway shows, or because there aren't enough coffee shops, or because there aren't enough sidewalk art shows. They're leaving because the tax burden of living here far outweighs any possible benefit derived from the quality of life.

Onward And Upward

The Rebellion against the Empire grows.

New Hartford, N.Y. Online and Concerned Citizens for Honest & Open Government have joined forces.

In addition to our blog, there are now 2 websites to visit for information relating to the Town of New Hartford.

This is good news for both New Hartford and the area as a whole.

Homework

Strikeslip has started an excellent explanation of the sewer system consent order over here. Read the whole thing.

More Utica, 1941

More amazing footage from 1941, posted by a Youtube user that I think is Lou Barile. This one features some great scenes from the Matt Brewery.

The Walesville Incident

I'm a complete skeptic when it comes to the paranormal, but I find the subject fascinating nonetheless. Particularly when the stories have a local angle like this one.

On 1105 LST 2 July 1954, F-94C aircraft 51-13559 took off on a routine training mission. GCI requested the aircraft to change mission to intercept an unknown aircraft at 10,000 ft. The pilot identified a C-47 aircraft by tail number, and was then requested to check a second unidentified aircraft that was at low altitude and apparently letting down to land at Griffith AFB. The AF account states:

As the pilot started a descent, he noted that the cockpit temperature increased abruptly. The increase in temperature caused the pilot to scan the instruments. The fire warning light was on and the pilot informed the radar observer of this fact. The fire warning light remained on after the throttle was placed in "idle" so the engine was shut down and both crew members ejected successfully.

The aircraft crashed at the "Walesville Intersection," and was destroyed. The aircraft struck a house and an automobile, fatally injuring four persons.

The above account is from the official USAF accident report ("Summary of Circumstances"). There is no Blue Book file because no UFO was involved.

From one point of view this was a tragic accident caused by a false radar return and a faulty cockpit light.

From another point of view it's evidence that an unknown object, presumably an alien spacecraft, used a directed energy weapon against a pursuing jet from Griffiss AFB, leading to the deaths of four innocent people.

The fact that people believe either version could be true appeals to the writer in me.

Update: Here's a CNY UFO sighting from within the last month.

Da Law!

The DEC/Oneida County consent order is now online. There's some interesting stuff in there, including the revelation that the defective pumping station is overflowing an average of 7 times a month, sending 24 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Mohawk River every thirty days.

Oh, and this fiasco has been going on since 2003. Let's give Joe Griffo a big round of applause.

Grrrr.

I just spent twenty minutes blogging the Rome-Sentinel's story on the DEC/Oneida County sewage agreement, only to have Blogger eat the damn post. I'm too lazy to rewrite the whole thing, so I'll jump right to the end:

Picente said the $66 million figure is a "guesstimate, if you will." It could be higher or lower than the preliminary number compiled based on projects elsewhere.

Crap. Less than a day has gone by and I already have to revise my graphic.

Keeping Secrets

As the ongoing Fecal Follies demonstrate, our area is afflicted with a political class that prefers to operate in total secrecy. There's no legitimate reason why citizens should have to deal with endless legal appeals and FOIL requests just to find out what their government is doing. Public disclosure is the cheapest and most effective way to insure government does it's job, which handily explains why our politicians are so enamored of secrecy.

After reading our appeal letter, four of the five board members agreed that since legally they are required to give us a copy of the assessment database, they were in favor of releasing the information. Everyone voted "aye" except Ward 1 Councilman Robert A. Payne, III who vehemently voted "no" even after the town clerk made it clear that Robert Freeman, Executive Director of the Committee on Open Government, agreed that legally the information should be released to us. Our appeal even included an Opinion of Counsel from the ORPS website that said that the information was FOILable. But Ward 1 Councilman, Robert A. Payne, III apparently has a disdain and disrespect for the law and he continues to choose to place his personal vendetta above doing what is legally required of him in his job as Ward 1 Councilman. Strange that this would be the first time in almost two (2) years that Councilman Payne chose to vote no on any resolution, particularly given all the shenanigans that have been pointed out on this blog.

It only takes three mouse clicks to burn a data CD. It's taken months of wrangling to get someone to make those clicks.

Anyone see the problem here?

Ka-Ching!

More details about the secretive sewer agreement between the DEC and Oneida County have started dribbling out. It looks like the residents of the area are going to be stuck with a $60,000,000 bill.

A deal was reached yesterday between Oneida County and the state concerning repairs at the Sauquoit Pumping Station.

Fixing the pumping station will help the entire county, but only nine municipalities using the station will have to pay.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said the reason is simple: “It’s the law.”

According to Picente, the nine municipalities which include New York Mills, Town of Paris, and Whitestown, among others, entered into a pact 42 years ago forming the part county sewer district.

The sewage flow problem arose from excess storm water overburdening the pumping station. The waste then goes to the water treatment center, and discharges into the Mohawk River.

Wednesday, Picente announced a deal the county reached with the state that will lower fines levied against Oneida County and give it three years to study the problem, and four to fix it.

The cost is estimated to be around $60,000,000, much of which will be paid by those in the Park County Sewer District.

I hope you folks living there really enjoy all those big box stores, because you're now subsidizing them to the tune of $545 dollars for every man, woman, and child. It's another Big Win(TM) for Oneida County!

The Fecal Fountain, Having Flown, Flows On

Smell that? That's the smell of Oneida County's "government". And you're going to be smelling it for at least seven more years.

The Oneida County Board of Legislators had one day to see a revised state-and-county agreement crafted to address a $66 million sewer problem, but the short time frame didn't stop legislators from unanimously supporting the deal.

Although County Executive Anthony Picente could have signed the agreement without the board's consent, he said he wanted legislators to be involved. They voted 29-0 to support the terms of the deal at their Wednesday board meeting.

Some legislators, however, questioned whether they had enough time to properly review the problem and order before voting.

"We should have been allowed to have more time to review this," said Legislator William Goodman, D-Whitesboro.

It's absolutely amazing how quickly these folks can work. Of course, raw sewage flowing into the Mohawk River is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible...which is why we need to study it for three more years. Then we get to fiddle around for another four years figuring out how to actually, you know, fix the problem.

You know what the best part of this "deal" is? It's going to pump even more feces into the Mohawk River. Oh, and it's going to make the already serious surface water problems in the Whitestown/New Hartford area even worse.

Yes, you heard that right.

From the terms of the agreement, such as they are:

•For new sewer permits and those that were pending, the county has to show the state that for every one gallon of wastewater that will go into the sewer system, five gallons will be removed.

The problem being that the new connections to the defective sewer system will be pumping "black water" into the system. That's water contaminated with human waste.

The "five gallons" of water the County plans on "removing" from the system? Since none of the permitted projects are installing their own own waste treatment facilities that water is going to be "grey water", essentially rainwater and surface runoff.

Which means that every time the defective Sauquoit pumping station overflows it will be dumping sewage with an even higher concentration of feces and urine into the Mohawk River than ever before. The grey water? Instead of going into the pipes of the sewage system it will have to be diverted to surface holding ponds and ditch works. The residents of the area that have already seen their back yards, driveways, and landscaping washed away by uncontrolled surface flow can now look forward to having even more water to deal with.

Another fine bit of work from our talented government officials in Oneida County.

What's Up With Christian Garramone?

Since Friday I've had over twenty search hits for "Christian Garramone". I assume they're looking for Judge Garromone's son, since they also use search terms like Utica, but I haven't a clue why everyone would be so interested in him now. Did his case go to court last week without any publicity?

Utica, 1941

This is some amazing black and white film footage Utica's WIBX from 1941. The comparison between what the radio station was then and what it is now is is illuminating. Sad, but illuminating.

Fireworks

The suspense is killing me.

Update: No, it's not a spelling mistake. I'm told that's what the actual tape is titled.

The Doldrums

Back when a trans-Atlantic trip was something that took months and had a very high likelihood of being fatal, as opposed to the "Thank you, sir. Gate 4. Would you like the chicken or the veal for your in-flight meal?" convenience of today, the center of the ocean was inhabited by a merciless killer: the doldrums. Stick to the northern or southern reaches and you could rely on a more-or-less continuous wind to propel your fragile little conglomeration of canvas and wood across the waves. Wander off course and you risked straying into a nightmarish stretch of ocean where the wind was a weak and whimpering beast, unreliable at best and dangerously absent at worst.

Today we call it the Intertropical Convergence Zone, but to the leathery scallywags who sailed the seas back then it was a death sentence. Get becalmed in the doldrums and your carefully laid-up month long supply of food and fresh water suddenly had to last five weeks. Or six. Or...well, that was the trouble. You never knew how long you had before Boreas finally took pity on you and blew a gust your way. After a few days the hot, unrelenting sun would turn the fresh water in pitch-sealed barrels foul, making your already un-palatable diet of hardtack and salt beef impossible to digest.

And still the wind refused to blow...until the moist, fatty thighs of your crewmates started looking awfully tasty.

I doubt we'll have to resort to cannibalism, but the inconvenient presence of the 4th of July smack dab in the middle of the week has surely taken the wind out of our sails. It's hard to work up any momentum when you know you'll crash into the holiday emptiness of Wednesday, and on Thursday...well, it's practically the weekend, isn't it? Worse, the doldrums mean there isn't anything other than the Boilermaker really making news, and even that reporting is the usual "Rah, rah!" bring-everyone-together and isn't-it-wonderful stuff we've read for at least the last decade.

It's enough to make a man want to head out of state and smuggle back some illegal fireworks, just to liven things up. Bwahahahaha!