Priced out: Affordable housing scarce

By AMANDA BENSEN
Published in The Post-Star (A1) 5/28/07

There’s a downside to economic upturn — housing costs can go through the roof.

The Glens Falls/Saratoga region has experienced significant growth in the past decade, and that’s good news for landlords, business owners and the local tax base.

But for people who live in the uncomfortable gap between government assistance and economic self-sufficiency, average rental prices of $700 a month can often mean choosing between paying the rent and buying other necessities.

"There is definitely an affordable housing problem, and it’s getting worse ... I’ve been here for 19 years, and I have been watching this change drastically," said Lee Cleavland, a case worker at the Salvation Army. "It’s truly pushing many of our low-income families completely out."

Federal guidelines for calculating assistance state that "total shelter costs," meaning rent or mortgage plus utilities, should be 30 percent or less of a household’s income. But Cleavland said those numbers don’t match the reality of the market.

"Most of the families we see pay at least 50 percent (of their income) just for rent, not to mention the skyrocketing cost of utilities," she said.

Limited help available

People who struggle to pay rent can get federal assistance through a program called Housing Choice (formerly dubbed "Section 8"), but they may spend up to two years on a waiting list first. About 600 people in this area currently receive rental vouchers through the program, with 200 more waiting, said Bob Landry, executive director of the Glens Falls Housing Authority.

Even for those who receive vouchers, finding an apartment can be a major challenge, Landry said. The program covers housing costs that exceed 30 percent of a recipient’s income — but only up to a point.

"For example, the most we can pay for a one-bedroom apartment is $525 a month, including utilities, and it’s next to impossible to find a $525 apartment in this area," Landry said. "Those places exist, but there’s not enough to satisfy the need."

Federal funding for the Housing Choice voucher program has been cut three times in the past five years because the government was "trying to get a handle on fraud," Landry said.

"They were afraid that there were a lot of tenants who had income they weren’t reporting, but in our case, locally we didn’t find a lot of fraud. And I think they’ve found overall that it wasn’t as rampant as they thought, yet the funding cuts have stayed in place."

The effect has been a kind of "double whammy" for low-income residents who have moved to Glens Falls from other parts of the county to gain better access to the hospital, public transportation and entry-level jobs, Landry explained.

"When those people migrated into this area, apartments were affordable," he said. "Now, the rents have gone up, and the funding (for Housing Choice) has gone down."

Affordable housing projects

The Henry Hudson Town Houses in Glens Falls are among the largest-scale affordable housing projects in the region, with 136 apartment units located between Hudson Avenue and Broad Street. The federally subsidized complex has a reputation for being rundown and crime-ridden, but many residents there said they are simply grateful for a place to call home.

"They work with you on the rent, based on your income ... so it’s good in that way," said Jack Newman, who lives at the townhouses with his fiancee and two kids. He had to give up his previous apartment because he couldn’t keep up with bills after getting sick and being out of work temporarily.

Across the cul-de-sac, a young couple with three children said they had spent about six months on a waiting list to get into the townhouses. Before that, they said, the only local apartment they could find in their price range was so small that the couple slept in the laundry room, while the kids shared two bedrooms.

The mother of the family, 25-year-old Katherine Kelley, said she doesn’t think their situation is unique.

"When I first moved out, when I was 18, you could find a four-bedroom for $500. Now, they’re more like $900," said Kelley, 25. "A friend I work with has two jobs and no car, and she still can’t afford her place. She just told me she’s two months behind on rent."

The one major drawback of the townhouses is the high cost of utilities. The buildings have little or no insulation, and many residents said they have paid $400 a month or more for heat during the winter.

The complex is slated for a major renovation soon, but Landry said that’s not a solution to the affordable housing issues facing the city.

"The quality of the structures is going to improve by 1,000 percent, but there’s 136 apartments and they’re going to be replaced by 136 apartments — it does nothing to ease demand," he said.

Learning from Saratoga

The housing crisis is even more dire in Saratoga Springs, where it’s becoming "virtually impossible" to live in the city on minimum wage or a fixed income, said Windy Wyczawski, case manager at Shelters of Saratoga.

"We’re dealing with more people who are simply working low-income jobs and are unable to keep up with expenses, and getting evicted," she said. "There are some more affordable apartments in outlying communities, but unless they can afford a car, that doesn’t help, because there’s not much public transportation."

Restaurants and hotels have faced staffing shortages at the height of tourist season because of the lack of affordable housing in the region. Landry said he heard of one case in which a restaurant owner actually bought an apartment building in Schuylerville and an old school bus to provide employees with affordable housing and transportation. (A waiter at the restaurant confirmed the story, but the owner did not return several phone calls requesting an interview.)

Landry and other housing advocates hope Glens Falls will learn some lessons from its wealthier neighbor before following its footsteps.

"I think we as a community sometimes get all wrapped up in our economic development efforts, the beautiful buildings, and how successful we are — but there’s another side of that, too," Landry said. "I want to make sure we look at this problem now, because the economy is starting to explode. And because it’s tourism-based, there are a great number of entry-level jobs. Those workers need to be able to afford to live here."

He could be talking about Jessica Thompson, 23, who works as a waitress in Glens Falls and Lake George. She and her boyfriend have been searching for an apartment for several months, but can’t find anything in their price range that’s centrally located.

"For a one-bedroom, I don’t think it should be anything over $500. But it’s not available in Glens Falls, South Glens Falls — I haven’t see it around here," she said. "And it’s hard being young ... landlords have told me that tenants my age don’t pay rent."

The housing authority manages four low-income housing projects in the region, three of which are exclusively for senior citizens. Among Stichman Towers, Earl Towers and the Cronin Hi-Rise, there are 256 senior apartments, Landry said. The fourth project, LaRose Gardens in Queensbury, is open to families and includes 50 units.

Claire Dingman, a spunky 78-year-old with a bad heart, has lived in Stichman Towers for 12 years and said she loves it.

"I’m a very lucky girl. You can live on a small amount comfortably in a place like this," she said. "But if it wasn’t for this place, a lot of people probably wouldn’t have a home. ... When I was married, years ago, we rented a whole house for $55 a month. Young people get married today, and it scares you to think about how much money they need to live."

Residents of LaRose Gardens describe their apartments as safe, well-maintained and conveniently located near stores and schools.

Jessica Thompson’s mother, Sheila Ellis, moved in about five years ago with her husband, who is disabled and out of work.

"We’ve lived here four or five years, and it’s ideal, but it was a long wait to get in," she said. "The housing shortage is crazy around here, it’s hard to find someplace affordable where you don’t mind living."

She looked at her daughter.

"I wish she could find a place like this, too."

---
SIDEBAR: Where the homeless sleep out of sight

It isn’t common to see people sleeping on the sidewalk in this area, but there’s more to homelessness than meets the eye. A recent study by the National Alliance of Homelessness estimates nearly 400 homeless people live in this region.

Lisa Coutu, co-chairwoman of the Warren/Washington Housing Coalition, said that number might even be too low.

"I hear about a lot of people who are staying temporarily with a friend or relative, and those people would not meet HUD’s definition of homelessness. But for all intents and purposes, they are homeless," she said.

Coutu helps place people in Shelter Plus Care, a federally funded program that assists those who are homeless and disabled by mental illness, substance abuse or HIV/AIDS. But she often gets calls about people who are homeless for purely economic reasons and have exhausted the resources available from other agencies.

"Those phone calls are hard for me, because the person will say, ‘Well, do you know of any other program that’s available?’ And I have to say no, I don’t. It’s really an issue of affordable housing," she said.

She wishes there was an emergency shelter in the Glens Falls area open to the general homeless population, rather than just specific groups like youths, veterans or battered women. The Department of Social Service and other agencies "do an excellent job," she said, but "the need is greater than what these agencies are able to provide."

In Glens Falls, emergency housing usually means a few weeks in a cheap motel room. The Department of Social Services, Salvation Army and Community Action Agency all offer emergency housing assistance, but case workers said that gets harder as motels raise prices for the summer.

"You can usually get a family into lower-cost motels in the area, but come Memorial Day, that option will no longer be available. I remember one year when someone donated a bunch of camping equipment and we set up tent communities," said Lynn Ackershoek, executive director of Warren/Hamilton Community Action Agency. "Housing disappears in summer, but that’s also when they can find jobs ... and it’s hard to get up out of a tent in the morning to go to work."

Michael Lajeunesse, one of the agency’s case managers, said he sees at least one case a week involving homelessness.

"They’ve just run out of options," he said. "They can get on a list with the Housing Authority and wait for a voucher, but it could be a year or two. In the meantime, they’re really struggling ... we can do a week or two in a motel room, but it’s really just a Band-aid solution."

Lee Cleavland, a case worker with the Salvation Army in Glens Falls, said her agency faces similar challenges.

"Yesterday, I had four different homeless people to deal with, and it took several calls to different motels to find a weekly room we could afford," she said. "When your budget from FEMA is only $5,000 a year, there’s no way you can afford $300 a week for a motel...and even when we have the money, I can’t find a place sometimes."

Currently, Shelters of Saratoga runs the only general-population emergency shelter in the three-county region, on Walworth Street in Saratoga Springs. Apart from the sign in the yard that says "Saratoga Neighborhood Development," it blends into the residential neighborhood and offers a homey environment complete with bookshelves, a television room and a kitchen.

Case manager Windy Wyczawksi said the shelter’s 15 beds are almost always full. Homeless individuals can stay there for up to 60 days — paying $10 a night or 30 percent of their income if they are not eligible for county services — and often use that time to work and save money toward an apartment.

That’s what Stephanie Desadore, 29, did after series of bad decisions and bad luck left her homeless recently.

She was evicted from her apartment, separated from her children (she sent them to live with other family members), out of work and out of options when the shelter offered her its last available female bed. But during her two months there, she got a full-time job as a housecleaner and saved enough to move into her own one-bedroom apartment.

"Not everybody that comes to the shelter has an addiction. Sometimes they just fall short, or fall flat, like me," she said. "If it wasn’t for the shelter staff pointing me in the right direction, I never would have gotten a job. ... I’d probably just be bouncing around from place to place, blowing my money, because I didn’t know how to budget. I get it now."
--

20something column: Leave me alone...I think

By AMANDA BENSEN
Published in The Post-Star (G2) 5/24/07

I went to see a play by myself a few weeks ago, and got a free serving of pity with the candy bar I bought at intermission.

"You're all alone," said the guy behind the concession booth, in a tone of voice that suggested this was perhaps the saddest thing he'd ever witnessed.

As I headed back to my seat, I looked around. He had a point -- everyone else in the room was part of a couple or group of friends. Heck, even the play itself was about a couple. I started feeling a bit self-conscious. Was I supposed to have stayed home because my boyfriend had to work?

I remembered feeling this way at other times, often while traveling. Last time I went out to dinner alone, the waiter treated me like I was naked in public and should be ashamed.

"I'll rush your order, so you don't have to stay here alone for long, sweetheart," he promised.

So after the play, I decided to prove to the world (or at least myself) that there's nothing weird about a young woman going out by herself. I went to my favorite jazz bar and ordered a glass of wine, prepared to just relax and people-watch for a while.

Of course, I forgot that it was around 10 p.m. on a weeknight, and there were only about three people there to watch. Within about two sips, my bravado was completely gone, and my desire to disappear was battling with my innate sense of thrift (you shouldn't waste an $8 glass of wine).

I imagined that the two girls engrossed in conversation at the other end of the bar were peering at me with disdain, as though I was a kind of spider lying in wait to entrap hapless boyfriends. I've seen that look whenever I show up alone at parties.

I tried not to stare at the man chugging expensive scotch a few seats down -- you don't chug scotch unless you've got some serious problems -- and focused intently on the television instead. That is, until I realized that the object of my faux fascination was one of those embarrassing medical commercials.

Eventually, I caved. I reached for my cell phone, and texted a friend to see if she would join me.

"No, I have a headache," came the reply.

Okay, I thought, chugging my wine. Time to back out with my tail between my legs.

Suddenly my wine glass was full again.

The bartender's shift had ended, and he was on my side of the bar now, buying me a drink. I realized that my misguided attempt at singles empowerment appeared nothing short of pathetic, and I had to laugh. It was a relief to have someone to talk to.

My friend changed her mind and arrived a few minutes later. Maybe she figured that only a serious crisis could have landed me at a bar by myself on a Wednesday night. I was OK, but I'm still glad she showed up. Because, in the end, there's a reason people tend to go out in groups: Friends are fun.

-- Amanda Bensen is a features writer for the Post-Star. She's not trying to steal your boyfriend.

For the love of dance

By AMANDA BENSEN
Published in The Post-Star (D1) 5/19/07

When choreographer George Balanchine hand-picked Pamara Perry to attend his prestigious School of American Ballet in New York City, the 14-year-old Perry didn’t know how lucky she was.

"I was in a master class taught by Robert Joffrey, and George Balanchine was there — I didn’t know who either of them were, really," she said. "Mr. B spotted me and said, ‘I’d like you to come study with me in New York.’ My teacher said I was too young, wait a year, so
I did. And everyone was like, ‘You turned who down?’ "

Perry was still just 15 when she left her home in Cleveland to attend the school on a full scholarship. A teenager living independently in 1960s Manhattan might seem destined for trouble, but Perry said she was oblivious to everything but dance at the time.

"I never saw anything wrong, I never did anything wrong — I felt like I floated around New York in a bubble," she said, although "everyone around me was on LSD and poppy seeds."

After school, she spent two years with the New York City Ballet’s educational department, traveling around the state to perform for schools and other groups, and was a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet from 1966 to 1970. She moved upstate after marrying Rick Leach, whose father was the executive director of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and soon had two children. Now, she’s married to Tim Hangarter, lead pastry chef at Mrs. London’s.

Looking back, she thinks age 22 might have been too young to retire from professional touring.
"Some dancers go on too long, but I think I stopped a little too soon," she reflected, her perpetual smile fading for a moment. "But then, everything started young for me."

The spotlight may have shifted, but dance still takes center stage in Perry’s life. Now 59, she has been artistic director of the Adirondack Repertory Dance Theatre for the past 26 years. Some of her former students have followed in her footsteps, like Stephen Satterfield, a 20-year-old Glens Falls native who now performs with the Miami City Ballet.

"I feel incredibly lucky to have found her, because there’s really no one else like her around this area ... I mean, she knew Balanchine!," Satterfield said last week, during a break from rehearsal at ARDT’s Glen Street studio.

He and a fellow Miami City Ballet dancer, Kristin D’Addario, will dance as guest artists in the ARDT spring dance concert tonight.

Satterfield trained with Perry from age 9 to 15, when he left to attend Perry’s alma mater, the School of American Ballet. He credits his success largely to Perry’s influence.

"She really pushed me when I was young, was really hard on me," he said. "But she’s really sweet."

Perry’s petite, pastel-clad frame is hardly what you’d call commanding. With sparkling eyes and a long, silvery ponytail, she looks more like a friendly fairy than a tough taskmaster, but there’s a bit of both in her.

"High energy, please!" she called out to her dancers at rehearsal Wednesday night.

As the first note of the practice music pierced the silence, the dancers’ arms flew up in a flurry, not quite synchronized.

"Nope," Perry declared. "You get one chance."

The dancers turned around and tried again, this time lifting their arms in time to the music.

"Better," Perry said, beaming.

Tonight’s performance will feature live music, something Perry has always insisted be part of ARDT’s productions, and, for the first time, it will include an added visual element. Roger Hangarter, Perry’s brother-in-law and a professor of biology at Indiana University, uses time-lapse movies and photographs to depict natural scenes like unfolding flowers and pulsing jellyfish. Those images will play in the background during several of the dances.

"Mr. B would always say, when you watch the ballet, you’re watching the music," Perry said. "This was a challenge, because I had two things to choreograph to — the music and the movie, but I think it turned out well."

Perry said she’s not sure what the future might hold for her, or ARDT.

"I’m 59. I probably could go on forever, but I need to listen to the needs of the community. How long is ARDT needed?" she asked. "That has to do, unfortunately, with money and commitment."

She fears that her particular brand of instruction, which emphasizes personal dedication and hard work, is at odds with the values that young people are learning in other areas of life.

"Ballet doesn’t come quickly, and that’s one of the things people find hard to swallow these days — it’s the fast-food era," she said. "Kids today are too busy, and have too many things offered to them to focus on just one thing and really get it."

Personally, Perry has been so focused on dance that she finds it difficult to imagine her life without it.

"It’s been such a huge passion in my life. I’d have to replace it with something else pretty big," she said.

IF YOU GO The Adirondack Repertory Dance Theatre presents its spring dance concert tonight at 7:30 in Queensbury High School on Aviation Road. The performance will include live music by local musicians Jonathan Newell, George Wilson, and members of the Lake George Chamber Orchestra conducted by Vincent Koh, along with time-lapse nature photography by Roger Hangarter. Stephen Satterfield and Kristin D'Addario of the Miami City Ballet will appear as guest artists. Tickets $20 at the door. Call 761-0873 for more information.

20something column: Why are women on TV so weak?

Published in The Post-Star (G2)
5/10/07
By AMANDA BENSEN

Where have you gone, Clair Huxtable?

I have to agree with a New York Times article I read recently critiquing the lack of strong female characters in current TV fare. There are plenty of women with powerful careers -- doctors, lawyers and cops -- but they've got some powerful neuroses, too. Do scriptwriters
believe viewers only like women with obvious vulnerabilities?

In "Grey's Anatomy," it's easy to forget that the leading lady, Meredith, is actually a doctor -- she's the one who usually needs to be taken care of. Her self-centered fragility has quickly morphed from endearing to annoying. Another main female character, Izzie, defies the stereotype of "dumb blonde," but seems to have the emotional impulse control of a 2-year-old.

And now Addison, the red-headed Ob/Gyn who showed signs of developing real character strength as she coped with the disintegration of her marriage, is crumbling into the kind of chick who talks to herself in elevators.

Rumor has it that she'll be the star of a new spin-off, and if last week's episode was a prelude to that drama, I probably won't be watching.

In that episode, Addison faced her own fears about ending up in middle age without a family, and tried to get pregnant by artificial means. When she couldn't, she wept that she was "all dried up."

The underlying message is: It doesn't matter if you are a highly skilled doctor with a shiny red convertible, good friends and posh jobs falling into your lap. As a woman, you need a baby to be fulfilled.

And if you can't have a baby -- because, in Addison's case, biology refuses -- well, you can settle for having sex appeal. That's right, her midlife crisis was miraculously resolved by a kiss from a handsome near-stranger in a stairwell. (To give her some credit, though, she turned him down when he offered a repeat performance later).

That will only work for another decade or so, maybe more if she gets some help from her ex-lover the plastic surgeon. But someday, Addison, and the rest of us women, are going to get old. It would be wise to base our self-worth on something less transient than sexiness.

And that's just "Grey's Anatomy." Don't get me started on "Desperate Housewives."

I don't mean to downplay the importance of motherhood, of course. Let's go back to Clair Huxtable for a minute, on "The Cosby Show," played by Phylicia Rashad.
She never experimented with drowning herself to get attention, although with five kids, her personal life was at least as challenging as Meredith Grey's. And although she was a warm, loving character, her brain had just as much power as her heart when it came to decision-making.

She embodied the marvelous notion that a female could be strong and successful -- and still be likable.

-- Amanda Bensen is a features reporter for The Post-Star. She thinks her mother deserves her own TV show.

Lost momentum

Report says many Superfund sites not being cleaned
By AMANDA BENSEN
Published in The Post-Star (A1) 5/15/07

A new report by the Center for Public Integrity depicts the federal Superfund program as underfunded and sluggish, failing to clean up many of the hazardous waste sites that threaten communities nationwide.

CPI, a Washington-based, nonpartisan, nonprofit group that investigates public policy issues, used data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and interviews with government officials to study the effectiveness of the federal Superfund program.

In a report titled "Wasting Away," researchers concluded that the program has "lost both momentum and funding" since its inception in 1980, especially under the administration of President George W. Bush.

"Nearly half of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of one of the 1,304 active and proposed Superfund sites listed by the EPA," the study stated.

There are four federal Superfund sites in our area: the General Electric-Hudson River PCB site, a former GE plant in Malta where rocket fuels and weapons were tested and made, the Niagara Mohawk coal gasification plant in Saratoga Springs, and the former GE plant in Moreau. There are also numerous state Superfund sites in the region.

The study notes that cleanup work was started at about 145 sites in the past six years, but the startup rate was nearly three times as high in the previous six years.

Similarly, an average of 42 sites a year have reached what the EPA calls the "construction complete" phase of cleanup under the Bush administration, with twice as many sites reaching completion in the previous six years.

Joel Singerman, the EPA's chief remediation officer in central New York, suggested that the slowing rate of cleanups is actually a sign of the program's strength.

"The worst sites were probably captured in the beginning," he said.

New York has the third-most Superfund sites of all U.S. states, with 110 listed and only 23 of those completely cleaned up. Seventy percent of the state's sites contain at least one of what the government ranks as the top five most hazardous chemicals found on Superfund sites: arsenic, lead, mercury, vinyl chloride and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Singerman's division oversees the four sites in Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties that fall under federal Superfund jurisdiction on what is called the National Priorities List. The other 41 hazardous waste sites in this region are supervised by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Superfund program, rather than the EPA.

Taking the 'fund' out of Superfund

The budget for the state Superfund program has risen 25 percent in the last four years, with two-thirds of that funding drawn from "responsible parties," the companies responsible for pollution at specific sites.

But at the federal level, Superfund seems to be drying up. In fact, the fund itself is largely a figure of speech.

It contained $3.8 billion at its peak 11 years ago, but lost its source of revenue in 1995 with the expiration of a law that levied fees and taxes on corporate polluters.

Now, the EPA has only general tax dollars to channel toward the nearly 400 "orphan sites" where no one else has taken responsibility for cleanup work, and those dollars are dwindling.

The EPA's budget for the Superfund program was $1.47 million in 1993, and shrank slightly in nearly every year since then, falling to $1.24 million in fiscal year 2006. That represents a 15 percent decline -- closer to 35 percent when adjusted for inflation.

Elizabeth Sutherland, director of the EPA's Superfund assessment and remediation division, said she disagrees with the CPI's claim that the program is underfunded.

"If you look at the statistics, our budget has stayed constant, relatively speaking, over the years," she said. "Of course, like any big public works project, we could absorb more money."

Singerman agreed that federal funding for the program has diminished, but said that hasn't affected sites in this region so far. He said that's because most of the funding at these sites comes from the polluters, not the government.

"We've been fairly successful in getting responsible parties to do most of the work," he said. "We haven't had to pinch any pennies at these sites, although I can't guarantee it in the future."

Even when the companies responsible for pollution agree to fund cleanups, however, the EPA has to "front the money" for certain oversight costs, Singerman said.

"So if we can't afford to send a contractor to the work, go to meetings, etc., that would be a problem," he said.

On the local level

The most publicized Superfund cleanup in this region is the Hudson River, which had been on the National Priorities List for 23 years before construction began this spring on a facility to process PCB-containing sediment dredged from the riverbottom.

General Electric Co., the company that released the PCBs into the river, is one of the top 12 "potentially responsible parties" linked to the highest number of Superfund sites nationally, according to the Center for Public Integrity's recent study. The study identified 98 sites at which General Electric may be at least partially responsible for pollution, plus 18 which have been cleaned up and de-listed.

Locally, General Electric is linked to three of the four federal Superfund sites, including its plant in Moreau, the Hudson River, and a 165-acre Malta site once used to test and produce rocket fuels and weapons.

Remedies are in the "construction complete" phase in both Moreau and Malta, but treating contaminated groundwater at the sites could take many more years, said Singerman.

"We can't delete a site from the National Priorities List until everything's cleaned up, including the groundwater, and that's not easy," he said. "There are very few sites where we are able to identify and dig up the contamination and be done in a short amount of time."

The Malta site is within the proposed Luther Forest Technology Campus, where Advanced Micro Devices is considering building a major facility.

The EPA's most recent five-year review of remediation efforts at the site recommends that any changes in the land's use should be carefully evaluated, "especially if a facility such as a day-care center is included in the redevelopment plans."

It also notes that developers may need to find off-site potable water supply sources, because new wells are prohibited near a major plume of contaminated groundwater on the site.

The fourth local site is a former Niagara Mohawk coal gasification plant in Saratoga Springs, where the soil was highly contaminated with coal tar and toxic chemicals like benzene and napthalene. It was placed on the National Priorities List in 1990, and construction of a permanent containment wall and groundwater treatment system began in 2001.

Looking forward

If any other hazardous waste sites in the region are added to the list, they are not guaranteed to receive federal funding, said Pat Carr, a regional EPA press officer.

"It's the new cleanups that compete for the dollars," she said, explaining that the EPA's regional offices must compete with each other for federal dollars left over after all ongoing cleanups have been funded for a given year. "So it's possible that there could be a site somewhere that doesn't get funded."

The CPI study asserts that many Superfund cleanups have been completed more slowly than necessary because existing funds are spread too thin among other sites, and sometimes delayed intentionally.

Carr argued that it just isn't realistic to expect each site to be fully funded simultaneously.

"You cannot fund 100 percent of the sites all at once," she said.

Singerman said he would like to see the Superfund program keep shrinking, but not because of budget cuts.

"Hopefully, there's an end," he said. "When you have identified and investigated all the sites, and you're out of work -- then you've been successful."

LOGGING ON:
Center for Public Integrity report: www.publicintegrity.org/superfund
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's listing of federal Superfund sites, searchable by county: http://www.epa.gov/region2/cleanup/sites/
New York Department of Environmental Conservation's listing of state Superfund sites, searchable by county:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/cfmx/extapps/derfoil/index.cfm

First-time fishing

Published in The Post-Star (G1)
5/3/07

The last time I was anywhere near a fishing pole, I threw a tantrum.

I cried and staged a PETA-worthy protest as my father smacked a writhing, gasping rainbow trout down on the dock during a family vacation to Colorado.

"Put it back! Put it back! It's dying!" I screamed.

"Well, you didn't want to eat it alive, did you?" he asked with infuriating logic.

It smelled delicious at the dinner table that night, but I refused to eat even a bite of the "poor little fish." Well, except the bite I snuck from my brother's plate when he wasn't looking. Darn. It did taste as good as it smelled.

About 17 years later, I decided it was time to confront my childish squeamishness. I've always enjoyed eating fish -- why shouldn't I enjoy catching them? Besides, people who fish talk about it like it's some kind of religion.

I wanted to be hooked, too.

CE Skidmore and I headed north on Monday for an afternoon of fishing with Michael West, whose family runs The Crossroads store in Chestertown. After buying a license, a basic rod and reel combo, and a cup of live "dilly" worms, we set off for Mill Creek, a few miles up the road in Wevertown.

I started by getting hooked a bit too literally, jabbing my own fingers several times as I struggled to work the barb through the body of a wriggling worm. I thought I was being terribly mature, but looking back at the pictures, I see I actually looked more like a 5-year-old concentrating fiercely on learning to tie her shoes.

West, a friendly outdoorsman who looks like an L.L. Bean model, must deal with a lot of first-time fishers. He didn't seem at all bothered by my basic lack of hand-eye coordination when it came to tying the hook onto the line. He didn't snicker when I closed my eyes as I ripped a worm in half. And he was thoughtful enough to point out that I should only remove my index finger -- not both hands -- from the pole when I cast it into the river. (Seriously, that's something I can see myself doing.)

I wasn't very good at aiming into the spots he suggested, but I was thrilled every time I simply managed to land the hook in the river. And on a sunny spring day like that, it was easy to fall in love with fishing.

West told us it was going to be tricky to catch anything, since the water was running so high and fast, but he was wrong. We caught a lot of things: the river bottom, some rocks and leaves, several tree branches, and even each others' lines. No fish, though.

No tantrums, either, on the plus side.

--

GEARING UP:
Fishing doesn't have to be an expensive hobby; first-timers can get started for under $50. You'll need:
-- A license, unless you are under 16 years old. A one-week license for New York residents costs $12, but it's a better deal to get the whole season for $19. Senior citizens cost just $5.
-- A basic rod and reel with line, $20 and up
-- Hooks, $1 and up
-- Sinkers or split-shot (non-lead metals), $1 and up
-- Bait, such as live worms (type depends on fish)
-- A cooler, or at least a plastic bag, in case you catch something
-- Pliers or a pocketknife to cut tangled line and remove hooks


WHAT'S IN SEASON:
-- Trout, landlocked salmon, kokanee, shad, sunfish, American eel, lake whitefish, crappie, striped bass, black bass (catch and release only until June 15). Opening May 5: walleye, northern pike, pickerel and tiger muskellunge.


LOGGING ON: More information on freshwater fishing is available from the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/fish/