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Onondaga County Republicans go to second ballot to choose new chair

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DeWitt, NY -- Onondaga County Republican Committee members are casting a second round of ballots trying to choose the party's new chairman. Out of a field of four, only Thomas Dadey and Bill Tassone made it to the run-off ballot out-going part Chairman John DiSpirito announced around 9:30 p.m. Former County Legislator Jim DeBlasi and Manlius Republican Town Committee Chairman...

DeWitt, NY -- Onondaga County Republican Committee members are casting a second round of ballots trying to choose the party's new chairman.

Out of a field of four, only Thomas Dadey and Bill Tassone made it to the run-off ballot out-going part Chairman John DiSpirito announced around 9:30 p.m.

Former County Legislator Jim DeBlasi and Manlius Republican Town Committee Chairman Len Manfrates were eliminated after the first ballot.

In speaches, candidates pledged to raise more money, recruit stronger candidates and reach out to younger voters.

Today's votes take place with the backdrop of a split between DiSpirito and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney.

Speakers mostly skirted the issue of the split, but in on-one-one discussions committee members readily identified Dadey with Mahoney and Tassone with DiSpirto.

In making a nominating speach for Tassone, former Assemblyman William Sanford called for unity. "I want peace in the party," he said.

Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com.


Dadey wins on second ballot, will lead Onondaga GOP

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DeWitt, NY --It took two ballots, but Onondaga County Republicans chose Thomas V. Dadey Jr. as their leader for the next two years. Dadey, former candidate for the state Senate, beat out Bill Tassone, chairman of the Salina town Republican committee and husband of County Legislator Judi Tassone. Tassone and Dadey were the top vote getters on the first ballot...

DeWitt, NY --It took two ballots, but Onondaga County Republicans chose Thomas V. Dadey Jr. as their leader for the next two years.

Dadey, former candidate for the state Senate, beat out Bill Tassone, chairman of the Salina town Republican committee and husband of County Legislator Judi Tassone.

Tassone and Dadey were the top vote getters on the first ballot in the race for county chairman. The contest also included Manlius town Republican committee Chairman Len Manfrates and former County Legislator Jim DiBlasi.

DiBlasi and Manfrates were eliminated after the first ballot, outgoing Chairman John DiSpirito said around 9:30 p.m. as he announced the runoff to more than 300 committee members who attended the meeting at the Doubletree Hotel in DeWitt.

“The Republican Party is alive and well,” Dadey said after DiSpirto announced his victory.

After thanking the others who ran and the committee members who voted, Dadey said it was time for “a new future and a new direction for our party.”

He called on party activists and donors “to move this party forward.”

And he warned Democrats that come Election Day, “there’s going to be a new message: We’re taking it to the Democrats.”

He said Republican candidates would beat Democrats who had stood in the way of reforming Albany. “We’re going to start it here in Onondaga County,” he said.

Afterward, Dadey said his first action would be to assess the party's financial situation. He said he knew the party was in debt, but didn' t know exactly how much.

After that, he said he would work with donors to get support for candidates in next month's elections. "I believe we can have an impact with our donors and immediately help our candidates."

Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com.

Tiny cemetery in Sidney, NY, is ground zero in Islam debate

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Questions and answers from town supervisor, spokesman for Muslim group

muslimgrave2.JPGSheikh Abdul Kerim prays after a burial is complete at the Muslim cemetery in Sidney.

Last week, the national media discovered the town of Sidney. Officials of the Delaware County community recently told Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani Dergahi — an Islamic spiritual center — to dig up two graves and stop future burials in a cemetery on its 50-acre property.

The issue quickly became a flashpoint, tethered to public debate over the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” in Manhattan. Within hours, a Huffington Post article generated 1,700 comments. MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann named Sidney Town Supervisor Robert McCarthy “the Worst Person in the World.” Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert joked about sleeper-cell terror coffins.

By mid-week, the Islamic center had released a 2005 letter from the Sidney town zoning officer, approving the site for a cemetery, plus a copy of the zoning law that also seems to indicate compliance. The town is mulling its options. Hart Seely spoke with two key players in the dispute, McCarthy and Islamic center spokesman Hans Hass:

Robert McCarthy, supervisor, town of Sidney

BobMcCarthy.JPGRobert McCarthy

What is the town’s concern here?

We have a number of abandoned cemeteries, and they’re mostly from 100 years ago. There are cemeteries that are funded, they take care of themselves. ... When we have an abandoned cemetery, the town has to take it. Not only are we responsible for the upkeep, but the use of the land is affected forever.

As I’ve explained to people, you can’t bury Grandma in the back yard in New Jersey, and you can’t do it here, either. These people came up and just buried a body last November and then another one this summer. They got no permission, no nothing, no contact with the town, they just did this.

Does the town have the legal authority to move those graves?

You’d have to speak to the attorney about that. I’m not an attorney.

Do you have a basic sense of it, though?

If we didn’t think we had a case, we wouldn’t do this.

Have you reached out to the community to settle this?

That would be for an attorney to do, not me.

But you know what I’m saying, right?

I’ve settled a lot of things since I’ve been in office here, but this isn’t — you’re not talking about whether you want to cut down a bush or not.

How are relations between the neighbors and the Muslim community?

I don’t know. Look, it’s not like they’re around. You don’t see them in their garb or anything.

Not a high profile presence?

No. Also, (one online article) said people throw rocks at the house. Look, if you could throw a rock that would hit that house, the Yankees would want you. This is just a lot of baloney.

Some are saying it’s anti-Muslim sentiment. What’s your sense of that?

My sense of it is that if they didn’t bury a body in their yard, I wouldn’t know they were there.

You were named “Worst Person in the World” by Keith Olbermann.

I’ll have to have a Worst Person in the World party.

What do you do at a “Worst Person in the World” party? Get special T-shirts?

I’m 70 years old. I don’t wear t-shirts.

So it’s up to the attorneys?

No one has served them with anything yet. As far as I know, we have not filed any papers, nor have we served them with any ... We verbally at a meeting instructed the town attorney to look into this.

If you send a court-ordered backhoe in there and dig up graves, will you ever be able to restore good relations?

You know, this is the kind of thing where, if you’re breaking the law, you’re breaking the law. If you’re trying to do this on the backs of the local taxpayers, your relations aren’t very good anyway. You know, if people come in and mind their own business and do things to help the community, no matter who they are, people will like them.

When will it be decided? Any idea?

Somebody from (Associated Press) asked me that question. I said, “Have you ever dealt with an attorney?”


Hans Hass, spokesman, Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani Dergahi

The town supervisor says the issue is simple: You didn’t get a permit for a cemetery.

hans.hass.JPGHans Hass

Mr. McCarthy doesn’t know his own zoning law. He doesn’t know his job.

...I went to the last (town board) meeting, and I confronted him, after they had voted to file this lawsuit. I showed him the law. I said, this is the town of Sidney zoning law. He didn’t want to look at it. He kept saying, “I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know.” He kept saying, “You’ll have to talk to the town attorney,” who hasn’t responded to our lawyers, he hasn’t responded to anyone.

Why do you think this issue has come to the forefront?

Because of the times, because of all the other issues going on out there, with the so-called Ground Zero mosque. A lot of public officials seem to think they can openly disparage Islam — that it’s OK to do so. I think they’re giving cues to local officials to basically do whatever you can. I think outside people have kind of put him up to this, to push this. The town board went along, and I don’t know why.

What makes you think outsiders swayed him?

It’s just an impression. I’ve heard things. I can’t prove anything. ... They claim they’re doing this because one day (the cemetery) could be a liability to the town, which is just ridiculous. I mean, this town is full of present-day liabilities: abandoned houses, septic systems leaching into the water table — you name it, everything — and they’re afraid that one day we might abandon this, and they’ll have to cut the grass three times a year? That’s why they’re doing this? It’s absurd. No one believes them.

The center has been in Sidney for eight years. How have relations been?

We have generally good relations with people around here. We’re part of this community. I’m a member of the local EMS squad. Other members of our community are in the fire department. We’re part of this town.

There’s a small minority that just doesn’t like us, because we’re Muslim. We’ve had people drive by and yell things, throw rocks or throw trash. Someone shot our dog one time. We expect that kind of thing from some people. ... But we never expected it from the town government.

Have you received any formal papers from the town?

No, but he’s insisting they’re going to pursue it. They did vote unanimously to file a lawsuit. The town attorney was there at the August meeting, and he said, well, there was some real estate law that says something about having a mortgage on a property, and so forth. We just spoke to our lawyer, and he said there’s no problem. ... They’re making this out of nothing.

Are you steeling yourself for a court fight?

No. We’re not worried about this at all. In fact, the only question is how much taxpayer money they’re going to waste before they lose. We’ve done everything legally. I set up the cemetery myself in 2005. We went to the code enforcement official, who McCarthy refuses to talk to. I brought him out to the property.

... He showed me the zoning law, and it said if you have 15 acres, you can have a cemetery on it. We have 50 acres. He wrote a letter saying this is an approved use and
he stamped it. I’ve been showing it to reporters.

Is the cemetery there to stay?

It’s not going anywhere.

How does this get settled?

We’re hoping it will be settled. All they have to do is admit they made a mistake and drop it. We’ve gotten calls from lawyers and civil rights groups who say they’re willing to take up a civil rights case against the town, if we want. And we could do it. We know we’ve got a case. This is clearly harassment.

What happens next?

I don’t know. They’re stonewalling. They’re not saying they’re dropping anything. We’ll go to the next town meeting and see what happens. I imagine there will be lots of press there. ... A lot of people are upset about this. It’s not good for anybody. I mean, no one wins in this.

I live in Sidney too. I don’t want to see the town look like a bunch of bigoted jerks. And all across the country, that’s what people are saying.

Festival of Races Sunday will close some streets on Syracuse's east side

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Syracuse, NY - The Festival of Races will close streets for several hours Sunday morning in Syracuse's University and Meadowbrook neighborhoods. Drivers can avoid the course entirely by using Comstock Avenue to travel north and south and Euclid Avenue to go east and west. Drivers are also encouraged to use Crawford Avenue, between Euclid Avenue and Nottingham Road, between...

2009-10-04-mg-fest8.JPGPatty Murray-Albo of Boulder, Colorado, approaches the finish line of the Women Masters 5K in the 2009 Festival of Races. This year's race will close several roads in the city's east side on Sunday.

Syracuse, NY - The Festival of Races will close streets for several hours Sunday morning in Syracuse's University and Meadowbrook neighborhoods.

Drivers can avoid the course entirely by using Comstock Avenue to travel north and south and Euclid Avenue to go east and west. Drivers are also encouraged to use Crawford Avenue, between Euclid Avenue and Nottingham Road, between 8:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. when Meadowbrook Drive is closed.

The closures from 8:45 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Sunday are:

• East Colvin Street, between Comstock Avenue and Nottingham Road.

• Meadowbrook Drive, between Lancaster and Euclid avenues.

• Lancaster Avenue, south of Broad Street.

• Buckingham Avenue, south of Broad Street.

More than 3,000 people are expected to participate in five races, starting at Manley Field House. Participants will hail from 22 states and Canada in the 18th annual event, according to a news release.

Memory Walk raised $123,321 for Central New York Alzheimer's Association

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The event attracted 987 walkers.

2010-10-02-pc-memory2.JPGThe Memory Walk sponsored by the Central New York chapter of the Alzheimer's Association attracted 987 walkers this morning. They assembled in Long Branch Park in Geddes.

By Lyndra Vassar

Geddes, NY -- The Memory Walk sponsored by the Central New York chapter of the Alzheimer's Association drew 987 walkers this morning.

The three-mile walk at Longbranch Park in Geddes raised $123,321.

David Lysack of Syraucse, whose father-in-law has Alzheimer's, was impressed by the turnout.

"You see that you are not alone in this thing," he said.

2010-10-02-pc-memory3.JPGBecky Knapp (left), of Syracuse and her friend, Anne Mills, of Rochester, were among those taking part in today's Memory Walk. Knapp's grandmother and Mills' mother suffer from the disease.

Syracuse, Alliance Bank officials join Congolese natives in launching community garden

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Syracuse, NY - Mayor Stephanie Miner will join members of the Congolese immigrant community on Monday to break ground on a new community garden. At 10:30 a.m., volunteers will begin building raised plant beds on the vacant city lot at 1812 Lodi St. Planting is expected to begin in the spring. Miner will be joined by Alliance Bank president...

2010-06-23-db-Miner1.JPGSyracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and Alliance Bank officials will join members of the Congolese community in launching a community garden Monday.

Syracuse, NY - Mayor Stephanie Miner will join members of the Congolese immigrant community on Monday to break ground on a new community garden.

At 10:30 a.m., volunteers will begin building raised plant beds on the vacant city lot at 1812 Lodi St. Planting is expected to begin in the spring.

Miner will be joined by Alliance Bank president and chief executive officer Jack Webb, members of the Northside Collaboratory and other neighbors. Alliance is paying for the project.


Palestinians: No peace talks unless Israel stops building settlements

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not extend settlement moratorium

Mideast Israel Palestinian.JPGPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting with the leading members of the PLO Saturday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas sought the backing of dozens of senior Palestinians for his refusal to keep negotiating with Israel without a slowdown in West Bank settlement construction.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Senior Palestinian politicians on Saturday backed President Mahmoud Abbas’ demand to link peace talks to restrictions on Israeli settlement building, delivering a new setback to bogged down U.S. efforts to salvage the negotiations.

The announcement came after a three-hour meeting Saturday of dozens of leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Abbas’ Fatah movement.

“The Palestinian position is clear,” said senior Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh. “There will be no negotiations as long as settlement building continues.”

However, this may not be the last word from the Palestinians. A final decision is only expected at an Arab League summit in Libya next weekend. This gives U.S. envoy George Mitchell a few more days to try to broker a compromise. Earlier this week, he shuttled between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for four days, but made no apparent progress.

Israeli government officials had no immediate comment Saturday.

Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah leader, said the Palestinians will now begin to prepare for the potential collapse of the talks. PLO and Fatah officials formed a joint committee to discuss the possibility of asking the U.N. Security Council to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.

The committee will also discuss ways of reconciling with the Islamic militant Hamas, Abbas’ main rival, Dahlan said. Hamas wrested the Gaza Strip from Abbas in a 2007 takeover and has repeatedly urged him to quit negotiations. Hamas considers such talks pointless.

As Abbas heads into a fateful week of diplomacy, the backing from the PLO and Fatah is bound to strengthen his hand.

Netanyahu is adamant about not extending a 10-month-old moratorium on West Bank housing starts that expired a week ago, despite appeals by the U.S. and the European Union to keep the building curb in place. Abbas says there’s no point in negotiating while Israeli settlements keep taking over more of the lands the Palestinians want for a future independent state.

Israel Settlement Revisite.JPGA Jewish man holds banners opposing temporary settlement freeze, during a rally last week in the Jewish settlement of Revava, near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Mitchell, meanwhile, is moving to enlist the help of Arab leaders, and met with Qatari leaders on Saturday. He then traveled to Cairo for talks with senior Egyptian officials, including Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

In remarks published Friday, Aboul Gheit issued surprising criticism of the Palestinian position of making talks contingent on the settlement building restrictions, saying the sides should concentrate on drawing the borders of a Palestinian state.

In the West Bank, PLO and Fatah officials have overwhelmingly spoken out against continued negotiations.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said the international community’s failure to get Israel to halt settlement expansion does not bode well for the talks, where much more explosive issues will be on the table, such as the partition of Jerusalem. President Barack Obama wants Abbas and Netanyahu to negotiate the terms and borders of a Palestinian state within a year.

Ashrawi said there’s a limit to Palestinian flexibility.

“The whole world is demanding that he (Netanyahu) stop settlements, and he is telling the world that Israel is above the law,” she said. “If things continue like this, if before beginning final status negotiations the U.S. says it is unable to pressure Israel, and if the world is looking on, and no one is able to tell Israel to stop settlements, then what is the benefit of negotiations?”

The international community maintains that the settlements on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, now home to half a million Israelis, violate international law.

Briefing his staff on Friday, Netanyahu voiced frustration with the Palestinian position, noting that Palestinians didn’t insist on a settlement freeze during the past 17 years of intermittent negotiations. He said it wasn’t easy for him to get his hard-line coalition to back the initial moratorium, and that some construction during the next year is unlikely to affect the negotiations.

» Washington Post: Five myths about Middle East peace

» YNet News: Hamas leader: Israel fears our next generation


State of emergency still in effect in Pulaski

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The treatment plant, which officials initially had worried about after the record rain Thursday, continues to operate.

2010-10-01-gw-flood075.JPGFlooding of the Salmon River in Oswego County washed out a concrete retaining wall and banks along the river in Pulaski.

Pulaski, NY -- A state of emergency remains in effect in Pulaski where the Salmon River swollen by heavy rains washed away a retaining wall near the Route 11 bridge threatening a pumping station for the village’s sewage treatment plant.

Crews worked this morning dumping boulders to stop the wall’s erosion completing a job begun yesterday, said Mayor Ernest Wheeler. The work was expected to be completed at noon and the bank appears to be holding, he said.

The treatment plant is still working, Wheeler said, adding “we can flush toilets.”

Officials had worried yesterday that the bank would wash away, compromising the pumping station and possibly sending 1.2 million gallons of raw sewage a day into the river.

Wheeler said he wants to make sure the stones and fill are taking care of the erosion before lifting the state of emergency. The order could be lifted as early as Sunday, but it could stretch into Monday or Tuesday, the mayor said.

The stones are a temporary fix allowing the village to get a price for the repair and possible state or federal funding to pay for the work, he said.

Wheeler said he’s hopeful that the governor will declare the funding a disaster, making the cost of the repairs eligible for state and federal funding.

A record 2.66 inches of rain was recorded Thursday at Syracuse Hancock International Airport. The previous record for Sept. 30 was 0.82 inches, set in 1950.

Click here to see our previous flooding coverage.


What's going on: Pakistani officials say 16 killed by US drone-fired missile

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Plus: Tyler Clementi's family hopes son's death will serve as call for compassion

CORRECTION Europe Terror P.JPGIn this Jan. 31 file photo, a U.S. Predator drone flies over the moon above Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two suspected American missile strikes killed 16 alleged militants in a northwestern Pakistani tribal region Saturday, intelligence officials said, a sign the U.S. is unwilling to stop using the tactic despite heightened tensions between the two countries over NATO’s recent border incursions.

A surge in drone-fired missile strikes in Pakistan along with coalition operations along the frontier suggest Western forces are cracking down on insurgents who easily move across the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan — something Islamabad has been slow to do despite pleas from Washington.

Western officials say some of the recent CIA-controlled, unmanned drone-fired strikes — which in the past five weeks have reached an unprecedented rate — were aimed at disrupting a terror plot against European cities.

The missile strikes Saturday struck two separate houses in Datta Khel village in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing eight suspected militants at each site, three Pakistani intelligence officials said.

Continue reading

» Militants set fire to NATO tankers in Pakistan (Reuters)

» Pakistan: Friend or Foe? (FoxNews)

What else is going on:

» Schwarzenegger, top California lawmakers announce budget deal (Los Angeles Times)

» Tyler Clementi's family hopes son's death will serve as call for compassion (ABC News)

» Chicago, get ready for Rahm Emanuel's charm offensive (Washington Post)

» Liberal coalition rallies in Washington, urges jobs spending, takes aim at Tea Party (CNN)

» Raw video from the Associated Press: Train crash in Indonesia kills 36

Jordan-Elbridge to hold special meeting, executive session, Monday

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Elbridge, NY -- The Jordan-Elbridge School Board has said it will hold a special meeting Monday, that includes an executive session. The board did not say on its website what the executive session will be about. It was criticized Friday by state Supreme Court Justice Donald A. Greenwood for not being specific enough in stating to the public the...

Zehner1.JPGFrank Miller (left), lawyer for the Jordan-Elbridge School District, stands in state Supreme Court Wednesday with Stephen Ciotoli (right), representing suspended J-E High School principal David Zehner, who is in the background. Zehner successfully sued the district, saying it improperly hired Sue Gorton to be superintendent.

Elbridge, NY -- The Jordan-Elbridge School Board has said it will hold a special meeting Monday, that includes an executive session.

The board did not say on its website what the executive session will be about. It was criticized Friday by state Supreme Court Justice Donald A. Greenwood for not being specific enough in stating to the public the need for executive sessions.

In a voice mail message left at The Post-Standard, School Board President Mary Alley said she will be consulting with the district’s attorney about the exact wording for the need for the board to go into executive session.

“I don’t have the wording right now,” she said.

The remaining members of the school board did not return phone calls seeking information about the special meeting.

Notice that a special meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the high school library was posted on the district’s website Friday evening at about 9 p.m.

The regularly scheduled board meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the high school’s auditorium.

Friday state Justice Greenwood threw out whatever action the board took to appoint Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sue Gorton as interim superintendent Nov. 1.

David Zehner, the district’s suspended high school principal, had challenged the appointment saying that it was made in executive session and violated the state law.

This is the second time Greenwood has ruled in favor of the public's right to know what's going on in the district.

On Sept. 24, the judge ruled that a severance agreement between the district and outgoing superintendent Marilyn Dominick must be made public. She leaves at the end of the month.

To see our previous coverage of the school board click here.

Former firefighter is in critical condition after collapsing at Geddes fire

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He was helping other firefighters at the scene.

2010-10-02-ll-fire1.JPGFirefighters work at the scene of a fire at 363 Lakeside Road in Geddes this afternoon. A former firefighter collapsed while helping at the scene.

Geddes, NY -- Firefighters carried a former firefighter from the scene of a burning house at 363 Lakeside Road.

The Greater Baldwinsville Ambulance Corps took the man away.

Lakeside Fire Chief Timothy Wolsey said the man, whom he did not identify, is a former member of the fire department. He was helping out at the scene when he collapsed.

Wolsey said the man is in critical condition at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center.

Four people, including one who was asleep, were inside the home when the fire broke out in a room at the back of the house about 3:30 p.m., Wolsey said. All four were able to leave the house safely, he said.

Lakeside, Liverpool, Baldwinsville and Solvay are among the many departments responding to the fire. Firefighters opened a hole in the roof of the two-story, cement-block building and were venting smoke from the building at 4:20 p.m.

Because of the construction of the home, it was easy for the fire to work its way through the structure because of empty spaces inside the structure, Wolsey said. It took about 40 minutes to get the fire under control, he said.

"It's very easy for the fire to extend floor to floor," Wolsey said.

2010-10-02-ll-fire2.JPGSmoke pours from the rear of 363 Lakeside Road in Geddes.

Alec Baldwin makes appearance at Wegmans in Fairmount to make holiday commercial

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Baldwin films with his mother, Carol.

0515alec.JPGIn May, actor Alec Baldwin talked Wegmans with late-night TV's David Letterman, with Letterman quipping, "The center of the cultural universe, Wegmans."€

Customers at the Fairmount Wegmans got a celebrity sighting along with their groceries this afternoon.

Alec Baldwin and his mother, Carol, were in the store filming a holiday-themed commercial, employees and shoppers reported.

The famous family put the supermarket chain on the map earlier this year, when Alec Baldwin joked on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" that his mother would never consider trading her home in Camillus for the West Coast, where her two sons live.

He said her reaction to the idea of moving was an incredulous, "And leave Wegmans?"

Store officials said that Alec Baldwin was polite, friendly and "looked exactly the same as he does on television."

Election deadlines loom: Friday is last day to register to vote

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Absentee ballot users can apply in person for their ballots up to Oct. 26.

If you’re not registered to vote in the Nov. 2 general election, there’s still time to do so.

Here are the registration deadlines, according to an elections board official:

Eligible voters have until Friday to register in person. Registration forms that are mailed must be postmarked by no later than Friday.

Absentee ballot users can apply in person for their ballots up to Oct. 26. Mailed requests must be postmarked by Nov. 1.

Voters have until Oct. 13 to change their addresses.

Not sure if you are eligible to vote or where your polling place is? Call your county’s Board of Elections or visit its website. Here’s how to reach them:

Onondaga County: 315-435-8683 or www.ongov.net/elections.
Cortland County: 607-753-5032 or www.cortland-co.org/election/ccboe.html.
Cayuga County: 315-253-1285 or www.co.cayuga.ny.us/election.
Madison County: 366-2231 or www.madisoncounty.org/boe.
Oswego County: 349-VOTE or www.co.oswego.ny.us/boe.

Contact Scott Rapp at srapp@syacuse.com or 289-4839.

Auburn wins its division in 30th annual Harvest of Sound band competition

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Auburn, NY -- Auburn High School won its division at the 30th annual Harvest of Sound field band competition Saturday night at Holland Stadium in Auburn. In the Harvest of Sound, Westmoreland posted a score of 65.85 in Small School 3. Auburn posted a score of 77.10 to Greece High School’s score of 75.60 in Large School 3. Norwich High...

Auburn, NY -- Auburn High School won its division at the 30th annual Harvest of Sound field band competition Saturday night at Holland Stadium in Auburn.

In the Harvest of Sound, Westmoreland posted a score of 65.85 in Small School 3. Auburn posted a score of 77.10 to Greece High School’s score of 75.60 in Large School 3.

Norwich High School scored a 79.90 and East Irondequoit High School posted a 79.40 in Small School 1.

In the National Class, Webster High School scored a 84.5 and Oswego High School scored a 83.50.

Victor High School wins National Class at West Genesee's Tournament of Bands

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Camillus, NY -- Victor High School tasted victory Saturday night at the West Genesee High School Tournament of Bands field band competition. Mohonasen High School scored 70.85 and Phoenix High School posted 65.50 in the Small School 2 class. Baldwinsville High School scored 77.7 as the only school in the Large School 2 class. In the Small School 1 class,...

Camillus, NY -- Victor High School tasted victory Saturday night at the West Genesee High School Tournament of Bands field band competition.

Mohonasen High School scored 70.85 and Phoenix High School posted 65.50 in the Small School 2 class. Baldwinsville High School scored 77.7 as the only school in the Large School 2 class.

In the Small School 1 class, New Hartford High School scored 79.90, East Syracuse-Minoa High School scored 77.95 and Jordan-Elbridge High School 72.95.

In the National Class, Victor High School won with a score of 87.80, while Liverpool High School scored 84.90, Cicero-North Syracuse scored 85.15 and Central Square scored 80.85.

West Genesee High School performed an exhibition at its show, while an audience estimated at more than 2,000 people attended the event.


Former Cayuga County Red Cross employee files sexual harassment lawsuit

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In her federal lawsuit Auburn’s Pamela Anderegg says she was sexually harassed almost from the time she started working at the Cayuga County chapter of the American Red Cross to when she was let go five years later. Anderegg, an ordained United Methodist minister, is suing the Red Cross, Susan Marteney, the former executive director of the Auburn-based chapter, and...

In her federal lawsuit Auburn’s Pamela Anderegg says she was sexually harassed almost from the time she started working at the Cayuga County chapter of the American Red Cross to when she was let go five years later.

Anderegg, an ordained United Methodist minister, is suing the Red Cross, Susan Marteney, the former executive director of the Auburn-based chapter, and Christopher Malloy, a former co-worker, for undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages.

Anderegg alleged that Malloy constantly subjected her to unwanted and unwelcome sexual harassment -- often in the presence of Marteney. Anderegg said she complained to Marteney many times but said Marteney would usually laugh at Malloy’s sexual innuendos and jokes and did nothing to stop his behavior at work.

In her lawsuit, Anderegg said Malloy made sexual references in front of her all the time, once imitated a female co-worker giving oral sex, talked in graphic terms about pornographic films he watched at home and had affairs with female employees that worked under his supervision.

“We’re seeking an amount to compensate Pamela for her emotional pain and suffering … and to punish the wrongdoers for their conduct,’’ said Evan Foulke, Anderegg’s New York City lawyer.

In court papers, the Red Cross denied Anderegg’s allegations against the organization and Marteney. Red Cross spokesman Richard Blansett would only say the Red Cross is aware of the lawsuit and would mount a defense.

Marteney declined comment, as did Anderegg and Malloy, who was the emergency services director, was unavailable.

Anderegg’s case will be heard in U.S. District Court, Syracuse, but had yet to be assigned a trial date, Foulke said. Last year, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled the Red Cross subjected Anderegg to a sexually hostile work environment and in March issued a “notice of right to sue’’ to his client, according to Foulke.

The Red Cross is defending Marteney but not Malloy, both of whom no longer work at the organization’s Cayuga County office, according to Foulke.

The Red Cross hired Anderegg in March 2002 to advocate for the elderly. She was let go in March 2007.

You can reach Scott Rapp at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839

Jordan-Elbridge: A lesson on connections in the school district's upheaval

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School board and top educators create a case study in human psychology. District is abuzz about board secrecy and two rebukes in court in the last week.

2010-09-26-mjg-JE2.JPGAbout 200 residents of the Jordan-Elbridge school district attend a meeting Sept. 26 in the Elbridge Fire Department to express concerns about the district and the school board.

By John O'Brien and John Stith
Staff writers

Elbridge, NY - Bill Hamilton wrote a memo in 2005 criticizing the job performance of the Jordan-Elbridge school district treasurer he supervised.

Hamilton, the assistant superintendent for business and finance, never got to deliver it. The treasurer, Diana Foote, walked out of a meeting that summer day and never returned to the job.

But she came back to school. Foote won election to the school board, and was still there this summer when the district suspended Hamilton. Two months after that, the board fired the man working in Foote’s old job.

The lesson, Hamilton says: If you cross the wrong people in Jordan-Elbridge, expect payback.

He and three other employees who were fired, suspended or reassigned found out the hard way over the past year, he says. Superintendent Marilyn Dominick also will step down in November, two years before her five-year contract was to expire. On Friday, for the first time, she cited a rift with the board as the reason.

In Jordan and Elbridge, instead of talking about Homecoming next weekend, people are buzzing about the shake-up in the school leadership, the board’s secrecy and two rebukes in court for the district in the last week. About 200 parents jammed a fire hall last week to demand answers from the board. The Elbridge town board even rescheduled its meeting so members could attend Wednesday’s school board meeting.

The battles in the administration feature some unusual small-town intrigue: Two weeks before his first reprimand, Hamilton wrote a memo questioning the bills of the school district’s lawyer — who is dating a board member. Before he was suspended, high school principal David Zehner complained to the Onondaga County Bar Association about the lawyer’s handling of Zehner’s private adoption.

School board members say there is no campaign or vendetta. The board members say they were doing their jobs, handling specific situations as they arose and holding employees accountable.

“The perception that the board is ‘house cleaning’ is simply that, a perception,” the board said in a statement Friday. Its demand for excellence “includes making some extremely difficult decisions that we know are important to the integrity of our district and to the future success of our district and students.”

The school district is the second-largest employer in the area, behind Tessy Plastics, so even a little scandal affects everyone, said Ken Bush Jr., the Elbridge town supervisor, lifelong resident and graduate of Jordan-Elbridge schools.

There’s a sense that the school board has an agenda of vengeance, said Bush, whose five children graduated from the district.

“People hear that sort of stuff and they wonder, ‘Who’s in charge?’” Bush said.

Connections overlap

The district listed 128 charges as its reasons for wanting to fire Hamilton. Each is either false or frivolous, Bush said.

An example: The district accused him of using the school’s credit card to pay for a $72 parking ticket he received on his car while he was in a conference in New York City in 2008. But Hamilton said neither he nor his car was there, and that the traffic ticket was for a district school bus at a cross-country meet.

The ticket, which identifies a yellow school bus, was in the district’s records, according to Fred Weisskopf, an accounts clerk in the business office.

The other charges say Hamilton exhibited sexist behavior by such acts as having his secretary retrieve documents from his car and that he violated the competitive bidding policies on a tree-removal job, which he disputes.

Hamilton said he’s never been micromanaged in his seven years as assistant superintendent the way he has been recently.

He said he felt Foote’s animosity shortly after she was elected to the board in 2008. At every board meeting, she focused on something to do with business and finance, he said. She questioned Hamilton’s purchase of an $8 wire folder rack for his desk, he said.

Dominick and the school board deny that he is being punished for his conflict with Foote.

Foote agrees that she left the treasurer’s job on bad terms with Hamilton five years ago. But that has nothing to do with his suspension, she said. Foote and other board members said it’s their job to question his work. The $8 rack was mentioned in an internal audit because he improperly paid sales tax on it, they said.

The board also says his suspension is unrelated to his complaints about district lawyer Danny Mevec.

Mevec is dating school board member Jeanne Pieklik, according to board president Mary Alley.

Alley and other board members said they don’t know how long the relationship has been going on, but that Pieklik has voted each July to reappoint Mevec. In recent weeks, the board told its special counsel, Frank Miller, to research whether there was a conflict.

In a recent interview, Mevec would not talk about the relationship, saying any relationship would be “personal.” Neither he nor Pieklik responded to phone messages for comment since the board discussed it.

Three board members interviewed last week had no problem with Mevec dating Pieklik.

“There’s nothing that she could’ve influenced ... to benefit her personally or to benefit him personally,” Foote said.

Mevec has noted that he receives his work from the entire board, not any specific board members.

The lawyer also has said he did not know Hamilton questioned his bills until after Hamilton was suspended.

Mevec was also at the center of another suspended administrator’s claim of retaliation. Zehner, suspended last month, filed a complaint in May with the bar association over Mevec’s handling of Zehner’s adoption case.

Every layer of the conflict reveals another connection. Mevec used to work for Dennis O’Hara, the district’s former lawyer who now is representing Hamilton and Zehner in their lawsuits against the district.

2010-09-26-mjg-JE1.JPGDavid Zehner

Suddenly in hot water

Zehner was granted tenure in February 2009, but by that summer he knew he was in trouble. That’s when he started getting notes in his personnel file from Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sue Gorton.

In June 2009, he was accused in an audit of the district’s computerized grade record system of altering grades. He denies that. He says teachers corrected several rounding errors caused by the system’s software and teachers gave affidavits confirming that.

But, Zehner said, the board chose to believe the auditor’s report and rejected the response he prepared with Dominick’s help.

The write-ups started after that, he said.

“I was getting something in my personnel file every two or three weeks,” he said. “I’ve never had anything in my personnel file in the previous ... 24 years, and all of a sudden I’m getting written up.”

2010-08-23-sdc-gorton1.JPGSue Gorton

By this spring, high school teachers caught on. Two dozen tenured teachers at the school signed a letter of support and sent it to the board.

Superintendent’s rift

Some board members came to Dominick more than a year ago about a rift between them and her, she said Friday. She would not say what the rift was over. The members said they’d talked it over with the full board before going to her, Dominick said.

“I enjoyed a decade of no rifts at all with the board,” she said. “I was surprised to be approached by the board officers and asked to consider an exit plan.” She told them she wanted to stay in the job at least until her granddaughter started kindergarten, which she did this year.

Dominick said it became uncomfortable for her to go to work. She does not believe the board retaliated against the other administrators, she said.

The board members won’t talk about Dominick’s departure. “I don’t feel it’s my position to hurt anyone who I consider a professional,” board member Connie Drake said.

A difficult time

Weisskopf, the business office clerk, wrote a letter to all the school board members in July, accusing them of having a hit list of administrators they wanted to pay back. He was the longtime owner of a hardware store in Elbridge, and took the part-time job in the business office to keep busy and help out, he said. What he’s seen in the district has astounded him, he said.

“Certain board members have somebody they don’t like and want to get rid of,” Weisskopf said. “It’s like they’re combining forces and saying, ‘If you help me get rid of this person, I’ll help you get rid of that person.’”

Board members say the publicity over the district’s troubles over the past couple weeks has been difficult for them.

“It’s difficult when your integrity and your honesty are constantly being challenged,” said Alley, the board president. “But I know who I am and I know who the other board members are, and we’re people of integrity.”

The board members said state law prohibits them from talking publicly about actions they took against employees, or any discussions in executive session.

The administration’s lack of openness has contributed to the idea some unspecified campaign is under way.

The district announced in July that the assistant superintendent for instruction, Gorton, would be the interim superintendent Nov. 1. Zehner challenged that appointment in court, saying the board never voted in public on it. Last week, Miller, a district lawyer, was left to tell a judge Gorton’s appointment never happened, that nearly two months of public notice about it were in error.

On Friday, a judge in that case found the district violated the state Open Meetings Law in several ways.

A week earlier, in a case brought by Hamilton, the same judge ordered the district to stop withholding Dominick’s severance agreement from the public. The judge ordered the district to pay Hamilton’s legal fees of $2,500.

Another example of secrecy cited by lawyers for Hamilton and Zehner: In response to a Freedom of Information Law request for Mevec’s legal bills, the district supplied dozens of pages of heavily redacted bills. Under “services rendered,” one section reads, “Attend meeting with client, re: pending (redacted) matters.” The word “legal” can just be made out behind a blackout line.

The community needs someone from the outside to lead the district once Dominick is out in November, Bush said. Gorton should withdraw her name because she’s an insider, then the board needs to reevaluate, he said.

“We need an interim superintendent who is not connected to this school district at all,” Bush said. “Because the community is so divided, the staff and faculty would feel a lot more comfortable being led by someone who doesn’t have a history.”

Previously: Ongoing coverage of the Jordan-Elbridge school board.

Up Next: J-E school board calls executive session for Monday.

Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187, and John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or 315-251-5718.

State tax money spreads broadband all the way to ... Solvay

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There is no shortage of broadband in Solvay or Geddes. Cable company Time Warner Cable first offered high-speed Internet service there a decade ago. Phone company Verizon started selling its high-speed FiOS service there in 2006. Yet state taxpayers are spending $1.46 million to help a small startup company build a new broadband network in Solvay and Geddes, under...

2010-06-23-jb-fibercable1.JPGJim Hyatt, of Cazenovia, a technician for New Visions, installs high-speed Internet and digital telephone cables along Rolland Terrace in Geddes.

There is no shortage of broadband in Solvay or Geddes.

Cable company Time Warner Cable first offered high-speed Internet service there a decade ago.

Phone company Verizon started selling its high-speed FiOS service there in 2006.

Yet state taxpayers are spending $1.46 million to help a small startup company build a new broadband network in Solvay and Geddes, under a grant program to “facilitate increased physical access to broadband Internet services statewide.”

The company that won the funding, New Visions Powerline Communications Inc., of East Syracuse, is almost finished building a fiber-optic network to provide Internet, telephone and cable TV service. The wires will pass 12,000 homes.

The immediate result: Two Syracuse suburbs have a new low-cost competitor against Verizon and Time Warner Cable.

But another goal of the grant, according to state and company officials, is to improve broadband access in areas where there is little or none available.

New Visions officials said in their grant application that building a network in Solvay and Geddes would be the first step in their plan to bring high-speed Internet to rural areas where access is limited.

“The project will help bring universal high speed broadband to economically disadvantaged rural areas and to populations that would not otherwise have access to these technologies if deployment was driven exclusively by the market,” company officials wrote.

Carmen N. Branca Jr., the founder and president of New Visions, said his company is now in a position — thanks to the state grant — to raise money from private investors to expand into neglected rural areas. Branca said he is negotiating to raise as much as $50 million from investors.

“Our model has always been to take this and to go into rural areas that have limited access,” Branca said. “That’s the next step.”

The state grant does not require New Visions to expand beyond Solvay and Geddes.

New Visions told the state it would offer free Internet service to Solvay Public Library, but the library director said she didn’t need it.

“We get Time Warner/Road Runner for free,” said Cara Burton, library director. “I get FiOS really cheap. And then, through the county library system, I get another fiber connection. So I just don’t need it.”

061209POWERLINEDL.JPG"Our model has always been to take this and to go into rural areas that have limited access," said New Visions president Carmen N. Branca Jr. "That's the next step."

Plan to use power lines

New Visions is among dozens of companies nationwide that have received state or federal grants to expand the use of broadband, on the premise that high-speed Internet should be as ubiquitous as electricity or phone service.

New York implemented a Universal Broadband Access Grant Program in 2007. So far, the state Office for Technology has awarded nine competitive grants totaling $5 million. The largest went to New Visions.

In 2009, the federal government launched a $7 billion broadband stimulus program. Some $140 million has been awarded to 12 projects in New York state.

Federal officials have targeted rural areas exclusively, but New York has not. In an effort to expand Internet use in poor urban areas, for example, the state subsidized a free wireless network in Albany and a digital literacy program in the Bronx.

Officials at the Office for Technology say New Visions has a unique business model with potential to reduce costs and to reach remote areas previously considered too expensive to serve.

New Visions applied for money under a section of the state broadband grant program devoted to increasing “physical access” to broadband. The facilities-building program was not limited to rural communities, but targeted any areas with limited broadband options, said Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, chief information officer and director of the Office for Technology.

“We tried to look at where there were still neighborhoods or pockets that were underserved, or totally unserved,” she said.

State officials did not choose projects based solely on location, said Angela Liotta, speaking for the Office for Technology. Projects were scored on a variety of criteria.

New Visions won support in part because its technology had potential to support a “lower cost model” that might make broadband more affordable in urban or rural areas, Mayberry-Stewart said.

New Visions’ grant application, submitted in January 2008, said the company planned to save money by using existing power lines to deliver broadband service. Since power lines reach even the most remote areas, state officials wanted to see whether New Visions’ technology could make rural broadband more affordable, Mayberry-Stewart said.

“One thing we do know is that every home we think has electricity,” she said. “That’s why we thought that that would be an interesting one to see if that worked — at an affordable price, and (if) the customers were satisfied with that service. Is that not also a way to get to some of these remote homes that still do not have coverage?”

But New Visions’ business model has evolved since 2008. By the time the company won final grant approval in August 2009, its plan was to connect most customers to its network using fiber-optic lines rather than electric wires — especially in densely settled areas like Solvay and Geddes. A “very high percentage” of customers in Geddes and Solvay will get fiber to the doorstep, Branca said.

In a 2009 federal grant application, New Visions sought funding for a fiber-to-the-home network throughout Cortland, Oswego and Schoharie counties.

“Our model of fiber deployment across the county with end-to-end coverage is critical in order to accomplish the e-government, distance learning and telemedicine programs that our rural residents read about, but have yet to benefit from,” the application said.

Branca said New Visions maintains a flexible strategy that can still make use of power lines.

In remote areas, where houses are far away from utility poles, New Visions could reduce costs by using a customer’s electric drop wire as a connection to the fiber network — as long as the customer didn’t want cable TV, which requires more bandwidth than power lines can support, Branca said.

The “meshed” approach — fiber with the option to use electric drop wires — gives New Visions flexibility to compete in both rural and urban networks, Branca said.

“That’s huge,” he said.

Changes direction

Branca, 59, started his telecom career in 1975 as a salesman at American Dynatel, a Syracuse company that helped pioneer the sale of customer-owned phone equipment. Branca later became a partner. After Dynatel was gobbled up by larger companies — first Tel Plus Communications, then Siemens — Branca served as Siemens’ regional vice president of operations, supervising a work force of more than 700.

Branca later spent several years in management at Telergy, a start-up fiber-optic telecommunications company that raised $130 million from investors during the tech bubble before going bankrupt in 2001.

Not long after founding New Visions, Branca made headlines in 2004 after reaching an agreement with the Solvay Electric Department with the goal of delivering Internet service over the village’s electric wires. That fledgling technology, called power line communications, had not been widely used for Internet service, but was seen by many experts as a possible solution in rural areas.

State officials were quick to seize on the new technology. Just three months after the Solvay announcement, then-Gov. George Pataki came to Syracuse to award a $300,000 capital grant to New Visions.

Branca, who had five employees at the time, said the grant would help build a network operating center, enabling New Visions to hire more than 150 new workers by 2007.

But power line communications was not quite ready for prime time in 2004. The Federal Communications Commission did not finalize regulations paving the way for commercial deployment until August 2006, Branca said. New Visions eventually declined the grant and regrouped.

“We said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” Branca said.

The technical challenge of implementing power line communications includes the need to circumvent electric transformers, which depress Internet signals, Branca said. As New Visions tried various solutions, technology evolved rapidly. The price of fiber-optic cable dropped, and demands for bandwidth grew.

Over time, Branca decided to build more and more of his network with fiber-optic cables, not power lines. Electric wires don’t have enough capacity to carry video, a critical piece of the “triple play” most consumers want, he said.

Potential employees

In January 2008, New Visions applied for a state grant to finish building its fiber network in Solvay and to extend the network into Geddes. The application listed four company leaders, each with many years of experience in telecommunications.

In addition to Branca and another senior executive, the application listed William Haddad as vice president of marketing and Macklin Zukoff as vice president of field operations.

Both men said they did not work for New Visions.

Haddad, of Canastota, said he discussed with Branca the possibility of joining New Visions, but the two never came to terms.

Zukoff, of Buffalo, said he agreed to help construct a network for New Visions if the company won federal stimulus funding, under terms yet to be negotiated. He has not been employed by the company, he said.

In a recent interview, Branca said he has known both men professionally for years, and that both were planning to join New Visions when he filed the state application.

“Both of them have been involved with the company, in ways that they’ve helped us,” he said. “They were going to come on board.”

Because the state did not finalize New Visions’ grant until August 2009, neither man ultimately joined the company, Branca said.

‘This is the reverse’

There is no consensus yet on the best strategy to make sure everyone has broadband, said Harold Feld, legal director at Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C., public interest group focused on digital culture.

But some experts say government should resist giving subsidies to private companies in areas where other companies already offer service.

Scott Wallsten, a Washington, D.C., telecommunications analyst, said public money is too precious to spend in communities that already have two wireline providers, such as Solvay and Geddes.

“It’s hard to imagine how this could possibly be a good use of funds,” he said.

Wallsten, vice president and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute, a think tank, recently served as economics director for the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Task Force. In his opinion, broadband stimulus programs should spur investment where there has been none from private companies.

“This is the reverse,” he said of the New Visions project. “You’ve already got the private investment — and then you do the public investment.”

New Visions offers low prices in Solvay and Geddes. The company charges residents just $29 a month for a super-fast, 25-megabit-per-second Internet connection. Stand-alone broadband service typically costs $50 from Verizon or $55 from Time Warner Cable.

“It’s really a good price,” said customer Rena Oriend, of Solvay, who signed up with New Visions more than a year ago.

New Visions had 200 subscribers as of June 30, according to its most recent report to the state. But the company, which has focused on building the network this year, plans to step up its marketing efforts soon, Branca said.

New Visions also plans to apply for cable TV franchises in Solvay and Geddes, so that it can offer the “triple play” of Internet, phone and TV, he said.

Red Creek can wait

The Federal Communications Commission estimates that as many as 24 million Americans — just under 8 percent of the population — live in areas where they can’t get broadband, defined as Internet download speeds of at least 4 megabits per second. The federal government is still working with states to map out where the dead spots are, but New York state is assumed to have fewer than most.

Still, you don’t have to travel far from Syracuse to find areas where dial-up Internet is the only option short of an expensive satellite connection.

David Sholes, superintendent of the Red Creek school district 35 miles west of Syracuse, estimates that half of the students in his schools have dial-up at home. That includes Sholes’ own children.

“You really can’t download anything with dial-up,” he said.

Some rural communities are clamoring for better broadband. For more than two years, Branca, of New Visions, has met with town and county officials around the state — including Cayuga, Cortland and Oswego counties — to gauge consumer interest and to develop strategies for collaboration.

In Oswego County, New Visions proposes to combine consumer broadband service with a project to install fiber connections to the county’s emergency communications towers to enhance radio communications.

The company applied this year for federal stimulus money — a $12.8 million grant and $29.8 million loan — for the Oswego County project. The application did not receive funding.

Last year, New Visions applied for a $39 million grant and a $41 million loan to supply fiber-to-the-home throughout Cortland, Oswego and Schoharie counties. The project did not receive funding.

Ready to branch out

Thus far, New Visions has been reimbursed $1.1 million of the $1.46 million state grant, according to the comptroller’s office. The money has paid for equipment such as fiber-optic cables and computer servers, as well as attachment fees that New Visions pays to connect its cable to poles owned by National Grid and Verizon.

Branca said the grant helped New Visions reach critical mass — with a network passing 12,000 homes — and to hone its methods of construction and customer service. The company is ready to grow, he said.

“This grant has helped us do all the things we needed to do to take this to the rural market,” Branca said.

Rural broadband can be expensive.

In the Port Byron area of rural Cayuga County, telephone company TDS Telecommunications recently won a federal grant of $639,218 to extend its DSL service to 166 rural households. That comes to $3,850 per household.

Dave Mason, who lives in Keene, a mountainous 1,000-person town in Essex County, is well acquainted with the cost of rural broadband. Mason helped organize a grass-roots project to attract broadband.

Under the auspices of the High Peaks Education Foundation, of which Mason is secretary, organizers raised nearly $300,000 in private donations so that the local mom-and-pop cable TV company could extend broadband lines to more than 90 percent of local households. The effort also received a $100,000 state grant, obtained by state Sen. Betty Little.

Even after all the fundraising, a 3-megabit connection in Keene costs $100 a month. If the government has money for broadband, it should focus on rural areas, Mason said.

“That money should go to areas where people have nothing,” he said.

Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.

Potential terrorist threats prompt travel alert for Americans in Europe

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Washington — The Obama administration on Sunday warned Americans of potential terrorist threats in Europe and urged them to be vigilant in public places, including tourist spots and transportation hubs. A State Department travel alert advises U.S. citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions about their personal security. The alert is one step below a formal...

APTOPIX France Europe Terr.JPGFrench soldiers patrol around the Louvre museum in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010. The State Department has cautioned Americans traveling in Europe to be vigilant because of heightened concerns about a potential al-Qaida terrorist attack aimed at U.S. citizens and Europeans.

Washington — The Obama administration on Sunday warned Americans of potential terrorist threats in Europe and urged them to be vigilant in public places, including tourist spots and transportation hubs.

A State Department travel alert advises U.S. citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions about their personal security. The alert is one step below a formal travel warning advising Americans not to visit Europe.

"Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks," it said. "European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions."

It noted in particular "the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure."

"U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling," the department said.

U.S. and European security experts have been concerned for days that terrorists may be plotting attacks in Europe with assault weapons on public places, similar to the deadly 2008 shooting spree in Mumbai, India.

"The terrorist threat exists, and could hit us at any moment," the French defense minister, Herve Morin, said in an interview published Sunday. "Networks organizing themselves to prepare attacks are constantly being dismantled around the world. It is good for the French to know this," he was quoted as saying in the daily Le Parisien.

The U.S. notice said terrorists "may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests" and noted past attacks against subways, rail systems and aviation and maritime services.

Spain Europe Terror Threat.JPGTourists sit on the ground with their backpacks as a person in a Mickey Mouse costume tries to sell balloons in Madrid, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010. The State Department cautioned Americans traveling in Europe to be vigilant because of heightened concerns about a potential al-Qaida terrorist attack aimed at U.S. citizens and Europeans. The travel alert is for travelers' guidance, is general in nature and isn't intended to focus on any specific country, location or tourist sites.

"U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling," according to the alert.

The alert fell short of a formal travel warning, which could have broader implications including a stronger likelihood of canceled airline and hotel bookings, and wasn't intended to urge travelers to stay away from public places. Europeans and some members of the Obama administration had viewed that as an overreaction.

The alert could hurt European tourism and affect business travel. But there hadn't been strong opposition to the proposed alert from European leaders, who privately have been advised of the impending action, a European official said.

There are hundreds of thousands of Americans in Europe at any one time, including tourists, students and businesspeople. For insurance and liability reasons, many U.S. college and university study-abroad programs will not send students to countries for where a warning is in effect.

U.S.. intelligence officials believe Osama bin Laden is behind the terror plots to attack several European cities. If true, this would be the most operational role that bin Laden has played in plotting attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

Eight Germans and two British brothers are at the heart of an al-Qaida-linked terror plot against European cities, but the plan is still in its early stages, with the suspects calling acquaintances in Europe to plan logistics, a Pakistani intelligence official said Thursday. One of the Britons died in a recent CIA missile strike, he said.

The Pakistani official said the suspects are hiding in North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal region where militancy is rife and where the U.S. has focused many of its drone-fired missile strikes.

Legislature committee wants 60 changes to Onondaga County budget; county executive sees them as "gimmicks"

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Sheriff says the cuts would result in 29 fewer deputies and officers and eliminate the department's helicopter.

Onondaga County legislative leaders have pledged to slash at least $50 million from the proposed 2011 county budget to avoid major property tax hikes. And they’ll come close to meeting that goal if they adopt the recommendations of the Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee.

Late Thursday night, the committee approved more than 60 changes totaling $45.5 million in reductions to the $1.2 billion spending plan County Executive Joanie Mahoney proposed.

They amount to a recommendation to the full Legislature, which will vote on the budget Oct. 12. But they are important, because the final county budget traditionally looks more like the one recommended by the Ways & Means Committee than it does the one proposed by the county executive.

The committee’s recommendations generally reflect the desires of the majority party in the Legislature — in this case, the Republicans, who outnumber Democrats 12-7.

But how the committee reduced the budget is already a point of debate between Republican legislative leaders and Mahoney, a fellow Republican.

Of the $45.5 million cut, only about $10 million was from “real” spending cuts that would generate savings every year, according to Mahoney’s staff. The rest, about $35 million, is the result of tapping the county’s reserve funds, delaying purchases of such things as cars for the Sheriff’s Department and simply raising estimates of the money the county will collect next year in sales taxes, room occupancy taxes and other revenues, they said.

Minutes after the committee finished voting, Mahoney criticized its actions as “irresponsible.” She said many of the recommended reductions were budgetary “gimmicks” that will result in even bigger fiscal problems — and property tax increases — in 2012 and future years.

Her staff was working Friday to determine how many county jobs would be eliminated if the committee’s recommendations are adopted by the full Legislature — and how many of those reductions would require layoffs.

Legislature Chairman James Rhinehart, R-Skaneateles, defended the committee’s plan. He said the use of surplus government money to balance budgets is a legitimate practice, one that has been used by county executives and legislatures numerous times. He noted the Legislature took $8 million from the county’s general fund balance for its 2010 budget, and he said spending reductions and revenue increases will replenish the fund by the end of this year.

“I just don’t see a problem with that,” he said.

Rhinehart said legislators may not be finished making changes to Mahoney’s budget. They’re still looking for ways to bring the total reductions to $50 million, he said.

Nevertheless, he said the Legislature was open to negotiations with the county executive.

Mahoney was not the only county official upset with the committee’s recommendations. Sheriff Kevin Walsh said a $1.76 million cut from his department’s police division and the elimination of the department’s helicopter would threaten public safety.

The cuts would result in 29 fewer deputies and officers, a 13 percent reduction in the force. Walsh said such a cut would harm the department’s ability to patrol the county and to play a role in the consolidation of town and village police departments.

Walsh said the department’s Bell 407 helicopter provides an important role in search-and-rescue operations, locating fleeing criminals and transporting seriously injured accident victims to hospitals from far-flung locations.

“That’s when lives are saved,” he said. “It’s been able to make a difference.”

Walsh also questioned the committee’s estimate that the county could sell the helicopter for $1.8 million. A surplus of helicopters on the market and the need for an engine overhaul in the next two years makes it unlikely the county could get more than $1.5 million, he said.

Rhinehart said the state police helicopter and a private air medical service could provide the same services that the Sheriff’s Department helicopter provides. He estimated the county would save $1 million a year.

Walsh said the state police helicopter, which is based at Hancock Airport, could not possibly provide the same level of service.

The Ways & Means Committee will hold a public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. Thursday in the ballroom at the Onondaga County Convention Center, 800 S. State St.

Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.

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