Upstate NY Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Many ALB parks to possibly close
This is very sad-
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=900638&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=2/15/2010
The list includes
Schuyler Mansion and Peebles Island State Park, in addition to Thacher in Albany County.
Cherry Plain, Grafton Lakes, Schodack Island, Hudson River Islands and Bennington Battlefield state parks and the Fort Crailo historic site, all in Rensselaer County.
Max V. Shaul and Minekill state parks and the Schoharie Crossing historic site, in Schoharie County.
Re: Many ALB parks to possibly close
My first haircut!
Severe MFI - on to IVF w/ ICSI
IVF#1-2: BFN
IVF#3: BFP! - 1/24: ET - 5d - 2 blasts - 2/02: Beta #1: 16.2 ...... 2/04: Beta #2: 35 ...... 2/09: Beta #3: 401.5 - I'm pregnant! - 2/13: u/s #1 - baby boy, due 10/12, born 10/16! ...... 8 lbs 0 oz, 22 inches!
Yes. I feel a little goofy responding to this since it's what I work on, but since I'm an environmental advocate, I'm going to go into work mode for a sec with my nestie gang... hope that is ok!
This is a terrible year for the environment in the state budget. Both Parks and Dept of Environmental Conservation took disproportionately large hits to their budgets when compared with other agencies. Capital funding for parks and environmental programs is being reduced at levels far greater level (percentage wise) than other sectors we hear a lot about in the news.
The Environmental Protection Fund, which pays for open space (parks) protection and the stewardship and maintenance of parks, as well as recycling programs, farmland protection, water quality projects and more, is facing a cut of more than 33% (1/3). The open space program has been completely eliminated. The sad part is a lot of these programs actually create jobs and raise revenue for the state, including in the agriculture and tourism industries, which are the state?s #1 and 2 industries respectively.
The good thing is that these are just proposals and they can be changed by the Legislature. If you want to help, you can write letters to your Senator and Assemblymember talking about why parks (any other environmental programs you may care about) are important to you and your family, and ask them to:
--Restore funding for Parks capital and stewardship programs to keep our parks open to the public, and
--Restore funding for the Environmental Protection Fund, including the open space protection and state land stewardship programs
If you want to find out who represents you, you can visit the following links and enter your zip code.
Assembly: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
Senate: http://www.nysenate.gov/
If anyone wants more info, I am happy to share more regarding the issues I'm working on if htat is helpful.
I am enraged over this. But with a little insider government perspective and maybe a little bit of naivety on my part, there's no way all these parks will close. Especially not the Victoria Pool, Thacher and Grafton, all three have been tremendously packed every time I've visited.
So yes please everyone call the Governor's office and your legislators and tell them how much you object to this. I've been on the receiving end of those calls and I'll tell you, it can make a difference.
My Blog
...just read the article... yesterday, the Syracuse paper had an article mentioning some possible closures around here, with a quote from someone from the parks dept who said that the list hadnt come out though, and any park names that were being mentioned were just speculation and rumors... Perhaps this is the case in Albany.
I have two thoughts on all of this though.... 1. If the close a park like Grafton Lakes, I would be concerned about possible drownings... just because its closed, doesnt mean people still wont try to sneak in to swim - that could be dangerous.
2. I (flame away) would rather see parks closed than see schools lose budget money. Ideally, Id rather see the Legislature take a pay decrease (or at least not ANOTHER raise), and I also dont mind the soda tax, or wine in grocery stores, or raising of the cigarette tax.... (but this is all sort of selfish on my part... i kinda need to find a teaching job for my MAT program next year, and Social Studies jobs are hard to find as it is....so who knows if ill be able to get one with this ridiculous budget crisis)