Search Results for: Van Ward Street

Ward Stone — NYS Wildlife Pathologist Worked for the People

Editor’s Note: Ward Stone died on February 8, 2023 at the age of 84. Ward Stone was a friend of Save the Pine Bush and often spoke at SPB vegetarian lasagna dinners. Here are two letters which describe Ward. The first letter was written by long-time friend, Lewis Oliver and sent to many media outlets, but, never published. The second letter from Tom Ellis was published in the Altamont Enterprise. Dear Mr. Seiler: The front-page article about the death of…

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Willow Street Again

Willow Street Again   Our Friends Visit FORCE Is Here To Stay By Daniel Van Riper Carl Letson and Donald Csaposs of Guilderland, two of the principle organizers of Friends Organized to Resist Crossgates Expansion (FORCE) spoke to the January Save the Pine Bush vegetarian lasagna dinner at 1st Presbyterian Church in Albany, and neither had anything good to say about the Pyramid Corporation or about the Crossgates expansion. “Pyramid wants to destroy the quality of life in Guilderland and…

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Willow Street Again

Willow Street Again   Willow Street Again SPB Sues over Sewers Built in the Preserve DEC Caves in to Developer by Lynne Jackson Ten months after filing a ground-breaking suit that forced a developer to remove water lines from the Preserve along Willow Street in Guilderland, Save the Pine Bush has filed a second suit against the same defendants, this time seeking removal of the sewer lines. Lewis B. Oliver, Jr., attorney extraordinaire for SPB said, “We were successful in…

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Willow Street Again

Willow Street Again   Letters The following excellent letter appeared March 21,1999 in the Hearst-owned Times Union under the title, “Improve Downtown and Preserve Pine Bush”:   To the Editor: Why is the Albany Common Council approving Pine Bush development (Drumlin Fields office building) when there are plenty of vacant parcels in downtown and on Henry Johnson Boulevard that are screaming for development? I thought the goal of Mayor Jennings was to rebuild and improve downtown and Arbor Hill, making…

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Ward Stone Gives ‘Em Hell! Declares Support for Save the Pine Bush

Ward Stone Gives ‘Em Hell! Declares Support for Save the Pine Bush Ward Stone Gives ‘Em Hell! Declares Support for Save the Pine Bush by Daniel W. Van Riper, Aug./Sept. 90 At the June 20 Pine Bush dinner, NYS Wildlife Pathologist, Ward Stone, avowed enemy of polluters and brain-dead bureaucrats, offered praise and encouragement to the members of Save the Pine Bush. "We need more groups like Save the Pine Bush," he said. "New York State would be destroyed rapidly…

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Verified Petition, Januar 17, 2006

STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF ALBANY                   SUPREME COURT _________________________________________________ In the Matter of the Application of                                                SAVE THE PINE BUSH, INC., REZSIN ADAMS, SANDRA CAMP, SHARON CASTERLIN, LUCY CLARK, LYNNE JACKSON, MARTHA MASTERS JOHN WOLCOTT, PETER VAN NOSTRAND and RUSSELL ZIEMBA,                                                                               Case No. 1 VERIFIED PETITION                                                             Petitioners,                                                                                                                         Index No.                            for judgment pursuant to Article 78 of the CPLR                                         RJI No.                        -against-                                             …

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Save the Pine Bush Comments on Proposed Hotel

written by Lynne Jackson << Previous Begin Next>> Read the Developer’s outrageous response to this issue that says "walking or bicycling . . . should be discouraged." Public Health Issues The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Residence Inn says the following about bicycle and pedestrian access: d. Bicycle Access – Page 19 “There is no convenient bicycle access to the site through the use of dedicated or shared bicycle lands. The Applicant does not anticipate either employees or…

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Memorandum of Law, January 17, 2006

STATE OF NEW YORK   COUNTY OF ALBANY                   SUPREME COURT _________________________________________________ In the Matter of the Application of                                                SAVE THE PINE BUSH, INC., REZSIN ADAMS, SANDRA CAMP, SHARON CASTERLIN, LUCY CLARK, LYNNE JACKSON, MARTHA MASTERS JOHN WOLCOTT, PETER VAN NOSTRAND and RUSSELL ZIEMBA,                                                                               Case No. 1                                                             Petitioners,                                                                                                                         Index No.                            for judgment pursuant to Article 78 of the CPLR                                         RJI No.                        -against-                                                                                                                                                         …

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SPB Newsletters Listed by Date – 1990s

2020s 🦋 2010s 🦋 2000s 🦋 1990s Search Newsletter Archives: 1999 🦋 1998 🦋 1997 🦋 1996 🦋 1995 🦋 1994 1999 December 1999, January 2000 Garbage in the Pine Bush – City Proposes Landfill Expansion SPB Files Most Unpopular Suit Yet – Sues the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission The Thruway Authority Comes Across Royally Thank You to All Who Responded to the Emergency Appeal 1st Annual Pine Bush Walk-a-Thon a Sucess! October/November, 1999 Save the Pine Bush Sues…

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Proposed Lincoln Park Sewage Treatment Plant

by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Dan Van Riper spoke about the proposed Lincoln Park sewage treatment facility at the May 16 SPB dinner. His wife, Lynne Jackson, introduced him saying Dan has studied the sewage issue for more than ten years and written about it extensively on his blog Dan began saying, “This is a really complex issue and if you don’t understand it, I don’ blame you.” He said the city wants the treatment plant in the ravine along…

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Letters to Save the Pine Bush

Letters to Save the Pine Bush   Letters to Save the Pine Bush Here is a sampling of letters written to Save the Pine Bush and some responses written by Lynne Jackson: From: rngeorge@gw.dec.state.ny.us (Richard Georgeson) To: pinebush@aol.com To Lynne Jackson:   Lynne – In your history of Save the Pine Bush section of your web page, you incorrectly state, “In September of 1978, there were no environmental laws in effect in New York State.”   However, in 1978 there…

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Location Is Everything – Kunstler Offers Solutions

Location Is Everything – Kunstler Offers Solutions Location Is Everything Kunstler Offers Solutions By Daniel Van Riper We are living in "the national automobile slum. That is the human ecology of the United States." Thus spoke novelist and reformer of architecture James Howard Kunstler, who returned to speak at the May 13, 1998 Save the Pine Bush dinner at 1st Presbyterian Church in Albany. Since we last saw him two years ago, he has been "lecturing across the country for…

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The Two Month Debate – Jennings and McEneny In A Death-Grip

The Two Month Debate – Jennings and McEneny In A Death-Grip The Two Month Debate Jennings and McEneny In A Death-Grip By Daniel Van Riper Part 1: The Challenger State Assemblyman and Albany mayoral candidate Jack McEneny found himself being interviewed by the editors of the local media outlet for the Hearst Corporation, the Times Union. After the usual questions they asked him, "How do you get along with the business community?" " Well," said McEneny, "I have a number…

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Pushing and Pulling West: Pending Extensions of the Boundaries of the Pine Bush Preserve

Pushing and Pulling West: Pending Extensions of the Boundaries of the Pine Bush Preserve   Pushing and Pulling West: Pending Extensions of the Boundaries of the Pine Bush Preserve By John Wolcott A Little Background When I first started mulling over the notion of a Pine Bush Preserve in 1971, it was with the thought of the opportunity to set aside a large, more or less, continuous bi-city forest for the benefit of car-free city dwellers, stretching between Schenectady and…

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Air Pollution in Albany’s South End

ALBANY, NY: On November 6, I attended a combined NYS DEC and NYS DOH community meeting about a study they did concerning the health of Albany South End residents. About fifty attended at the Albany Housing Authority office on South Pearl Street. The just-completed study looked at hospitalization rates of South End residents compared to (1) the county as a whole and (2) Arbor Hill/West Hill. The information was not very useful to South End and Ezra Prentice Homes (EPH)…

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Draft Environmental Impact Statement

Draft Environmental Impact Statement DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT for Avila House Independent Senior Campus Lead Agency:   City of Albany Planning Board 21 Lodge Street, Albany, New York 12207 Contact: Nicholas Dilello (518) 434-2532 ext. 28   Project Sponsor:   First Colun1bia, LLC 26 Century Hill Drive Latham, New York 12110-2128, (518) 213-1000   Report Contributors:   Hershberg and Hershberg 40 Colvin Avenue Albany, New York 12206 Responsible for "Pine Bush" Contact: Daniel Hershherg (518) 459-3096 Transportation Concepts, LLP 152…

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Unhealthy Choice

Thanks to anthrax, our new national hobgoblin, the federal Centers for Disease Control have been in the news a lot these days. Yet a report released by the CDC late in 2001 on a very different public health menaceÑurban sprawlÑhas gone largely unnoticed. According to the striking findings of the report, ÒCreating a Healthy Environment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health,Ó unless you are U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, sprawl almost certainly poses a far greater…

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Garage Sale Sucess!

A snow-covered field near Crossgates Mall may become a battleground over the effect of building in the Pine Bush and on that ecologically fragile area’s bellwether symbol, the Karner blue butterfly. Environmentalists are trying to fend off the nation’s largest independent hotel developer, which wants about four acres west of the mall’s movie theaters for a 124-room project. A fight is brewing because that site along Washington Avenue Extension is next to a protected preserve — surrounded by the mall…

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The 1996 Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act

The 1996 Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act The 1996 Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act What It Is, What It Isn’t, And What Some Of It Might Be An Exposé by John Wolcott First of all, New York State’s "Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act" is, on the surface, just about what it’s title says it is. Unlike the Environmental Bond Act promoted by Governor Cuomo in 1990 (which was defeated by the voters- ed.) , Pataki’s Act is…

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Land Crunch in the Pine Bush

Land Crunch in the Pine Bush Land Crunch in the Pine Bush by John Wolcott We’d Rather Have Been Wrong Save the Pine Bush knew that unresolved difference between development desires and acquisition wish lists were heading toward a major clash in the Pine Bush. Even so the present situation of 85 "hot spots" has taken us by surprise in its extent and immediacy. It proves us more right than we thought we were, whereas we’d rather have been wrong…

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How fares the Karner Blue?

by Lynne Jackson The first part of this series was printed in the February/March, 2005 newsletter and is a summary of a presentation given by Neil Gifford at the October, 2004 SPB lasagna dinner. The Karner Blue Butterfly Federal Recovery Plan has three priorities. In New York State, scientists are focussing on priority one, which is doing those things necessary to prevent extinction of or the irreversible decline of the species, everything from monitoring populations to creating and implementing a…

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Looking For Trader’s Hill A Sand Hill Lost and Forgotten in a Sea of Sand Hills

Considering the major economic engine of early and later frontier North America; Trader’s Hill is anything but a unique name. Trader’s Hills, Bays, Coves, Points, Inlets, Islands, etc. abound here and there and all around. Usually referring to the fur trade. Doubtless too, by now; there is a Trader’s Hill line of East Asian made men’s clothing trying, typically, to sound American or Canadian. I first encountered the Pine Bush’s own Trader’s Hill some years back. This was in a…

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Charette a Charade

by Lynne Jackson SCHENECTADY: Volunteers for Save the Pine Bush (SPB) were invited by the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) to participate in a charette regarding eliminating the at-grade crossings at Morris and Cordell Roads in Colonie. The stated goal of the charette was to come up with ideas to allow safe passage of high-speed trains through the Pine Bush by eliminating the dangerous at-grade crossings. Volunteers for SPB were told over and over that DOT had no…

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From the newsletter of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission

Winter Programs: Saturday, February 14: 8:30am-10:30am: Tracking Wildlife with Dr. Roland Kays & Carl Herzog. Meet Madison Avenue Pinelands Trailhead #7. Friday, February 27: 6:30pm-8:00pm. Owl Prowl. Bring a flashlight. Meet Great Dune, Trailhead #8 (end of Willow Street). March 26-28: Capital District Garden & Flower Show at HVCC. For more information: 785-1800 x100. News Briefs: A four-member crew from the Student Conservation Association were hired for 12 weeks focusing primarily on eradication of black locusts. They worked at 25…

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City Strangles Downtown Growth

City Strangles Downtown Growth City Strangles Downtown Growth Yet Council Encourages Suburban Sprawl By Daniel Van Riper As far as Save the Pine Bush can determine, the City of Albany Common Council has not denied a single application by any large corporate entity that has wanted to erect buildings in the Pine Bush for more than 20 years. At the same time, both the Council and the Board of Zoning Appeals routinely turn down applications by small businesses that want…

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Exploring Bus Service to the Pine Bush

Exploring Bus Service to the Pine Bush Exploring Bus Service to the Pine Bush by John Wolcott One can reach the Pine Bush from Albany by bus. However, it is, at one point, difficult and unsafe. At another point, it is awkward, and, as yet, uncertain. A couple of weeks ago, I tested part of the bus system in person. I took the Number 12 Crossgates bus to Wall-Mart on the Washington Avenue Extension. This is the nearest stop to…

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Meat Will Kill You…Just More Good News

Meat Will Kill You…Just More Good News Meat Will Kill You …Just More Good News By Daniel Van Riper Howard Lyman was a 4th generation rancher and feedlot operator from Montana. Once, he had 7000 head of cattle and 30 employees, wrote million dollar checks, and was named farmer of the year. Today he is the Director of the Eating With Conscience Campaign of the Humane Society of the United States. His job is to "travel around talking to people"…

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Earth Day Update

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: The First Presbyterian Church was the location of the April Save the Pine Bush vegetarian dinner which featured representatives of five environmental groups telling us about the state of the environment. Bobbi Chase, of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CEC), gave us an update about toxics. The state superfund has run out of money and has not been re-funded by the state. There are 770 toxic waste dumps around the state that have no…

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Words Over Lasagna – Recent Dinner Speakers

Words Over Lasagna – Recent Dinner Speakers Words Over Lasagna Recent Dinner Speakers April/May 1995 By Daniel Van Riper We’ve had some excellent presentations at our monthly lasagna dinners at First Presbyterian Church in Albany over the past five months. All were well attended. Here’s a roundup: November 94 – Dr. George Robinson of the SUNY Albany biology department talked about plant and animal surveys in NY State. "I am interested," he told the crowd, "in preserving biodiversity and keeping…

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The Good News, The Bad News And The Ugly Truth

The Good News, The Bad News And The Ugly Truth The Good News, The Bad News And The Ugly Truth June/July 1995 By Daniel Van Riper Like it or not, Pine Bush preservation has become one of the major defining issues in the Capital District. Perhaps this is because it is a black and white issue. Are we in favor of maintaining and enhancing our quality of life, or should we close our eyes and let corrupt politicians give our…

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Oral Argument in Hotel Case Heard in Appellate Division

Go directly to Common Council Members Download a PDF of this announcement ALBANY: Tharaldson Development Company of North Dakota, wants to construct a Residence Inn Mariott hotel on Washington Avenue Extension, adjacent to a known Karner Blue butterfly site and a site that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service recognizes as occupied by Karner Blues. Sound familiar? Save the Pine Bush has been fighting this development since the hotel project was first proposed in 2003. We won in NYS Supreme…

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Bonding that threatens historic Stanford homestead

Bonding that threatens historic Stanford homestead Stanford Home Hearing Information Hearing Notes January 23 Hearing Canadians are Coming! Archeological Information Photos – Outdoor Photos – Indoor Bonding Editorial Preservation   Donate Contact   December 15, 2006 Dear Concerned Citizens, Friends of Stanford Home, Health Care Advocates, and Niskayuna Neighbors, Bonding that threatens historic Stanford homestead on State Street and Balltown Road, and its parkland, is going forward. As soon as this coming Tuesday night, the Schenectady County Industrial Development Authority…

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Yes, the King’s Royal Yorkers are Coming!

Yes, the King’s Royal Yorkers are Coming! Stanford Home Hearing Information Hearing Notes January 23 Hearing Canadians are Coming! Archeological Information Photos – Outdoor Photos – Indoor Bonding Editorial Preservation   Donate Contact   Yes, the King’s Royal Yorkers are Coming! Well, one man is representing the Captain Richard Duncan Company. Background: In the 1777 and 1783, Captain Richard Duncan commanded a company in the 1st Battalion of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, under Sir John Johnson. Richard…

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Waste to Energy Seems Like A Good Idea, But Is It Good For The Environment?

Jim Travers, a resident of Coeymans, NY, attended the February 15 Save the Pine Bush dinner and heard Jack Lauber speak about Waste-to-Energy. These are Jim Travers’ comments. – Ed Please forward this email to all those on the Save The Pine Bush mail list. Feedback is welcomed. Thanks. Jim Travers I do not think incineration of garbage is healthy for anyone or our environment, whether it is used to create electricity or only to eliminate a portion of the…

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Save Holy Innocents Church, Albany, New York

Letter to the editor, Times Union, July 21, 2015 Photos by John Wolcott of Holy Innocents Fate of Albany’s historic Holy Innocents church unclear An opportunity to save the former Church of the Holy Innocents Seriously Endangered Church of The Holy Innocents Section of former Church of Holy Innocents collapses Read excerpts from a book about Holy Innocents Floor Plan of the Church of the Holy Innocents Read the story of Holy Innocents Church in Albany, New York, and why…

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An Albany County Environmental Mystery

by John Wolcott A great unanswered environmental acquisition mystery of the Capital District is the long failed Albany County Historic and Nature Preserve and Historic and Nature Preserve Trust Law of 1976. This law was never implemented. About the only thing ever done with this well designed and well intended law was to place the Ann Lee Pond and one or two other properties, already owned by the county, in the projected preserve system. This law, however, specifically authorizes acquisition…

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Fighting the Crossgates Expansion

Dear All, The proposed apartment complex on Rapp Road in Guilderland is back.  Pyramid sold the 19 acre parcel to a local developer.  This new developer has proposed some modifications to the project.  The new name for the project is Apex at Crossgates. The area where the proposed apartment complex is to be built is recommended for partial protection by the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission. The public hearing: Wednesday, July 13 at 7:00 PMGuilderland Town Hall5209 Western TpkGuilderland, NY…

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Newsletters Articles Ordered by Subject

Search Newsletter Archives: What is Full Protection, Partial Protection and who is the Pine Bush? – By Lynne Jackson – June / July 2022 Newsletter A Tribute To Lew Oliver, our wonderful lawyer The Pine Bush’s Most Famous Resident – The Karner Blue Butterfly Save the Pine Bush Victories and Fights The Thruway Authority Comes Across Royally, Dec 99/Jan 00Save the Pine Bush is 25!, Mar/Apr 03 Legislation regarding standing in court We Need the Environmental Access to Justice Act,…

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