December 2023

Table of Contents

From the Supervisor's Desk

Solar Update

Mohican Allyship Committee

Help Wanted

Copake Iron Works Painting

EV Chargers

Copake Ironworks

Knit Club

Grange Events

Copake History

What's Happening at the Library

Copake Outdoors

Columbia County Mental Health Center

Memorial Bricks

From the Supervisor's Desk            

Copake’s bicentennial year began with the swearing-in of two new members of the Copake Town Board. Joining Stosh Gansowski, Jeffrey Judd, and me are Bob Haight and Will Morningstar. The new councilpersons came to the board via different routes: Bob was elected in November; Will was appointed unanimously by the board members to fill the vacant seat created by my election as supervisor. 

Bob’s experiences as chair of the Planning Board and the Roads Advisory Committee will be invaluable as we prepare for the county’s 2025 hamlet roads reconstruction project. To minimize the inconvenience to homes and businesses that the project is bound to cause, we have been proactive in enlarging and reopening the municipal parking lot on Church Street. Bob will oversee additional work in the spring, including final paving, painted parking spaces, lighting, and landscaping. He also will help plan the reconstruction of the Main Street lot, situated between the Copake General Store and Copake WineWorks.

Will is an experienced farmer, whose deep interest in agricultural issues will be equally invaluable to the board as we establish working groups to revise and update the Comprehensive Plan (2011) and to revisit Copake’s Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan (2014). 

The year 2024 will be a very busy one for the board. In addition to planning for the roads project and revising critical town planning documents, more work is needed to refine Copake’s new Affordable Housing Law. Also, Copake’s new Short-Term Rentals (STRs) Law takes effect on May 1. We intend to contract with a “host monitoring” company that will identify owners who operate STRs and educate them about the new law, including the need for them to obtain permits from the town. Of course, issues surrounding the proposed Shepherd’s Run solar facility will continue to require significant attention from the board.

I am hopeful that in 2024, Copake will be able to submit a new application for a NY Forward grant. Despite the excellent application written by River Street Planning & Development – and the Herculean efforts and support provided by Roberta Roll and former Supervisor Jeanne Mettler – Copake did not receive a NY Forward award this year. The projects outlined in our 2023 application are promising and exciting, and very deserving of grant support.   

Even as we anticipate a very busy 2024, we all are looking forward to celebrating Copake’s bicentennial. Since February 2023, Chair Kellie Nardin and the dedicated and creative Bicentennial Committee volunteers have been planning events to mark the town’s 200th birthday. These include an opening ceremony on April 4, marking the date in 1824 of the first Copake town meeting, followed by an original play about the first meeting, and - later in the summer - a Rail Trail art project, a “Come Home to Copake” picnic, and a parade, followed by fireworks and a party at Catamount. Several presentations will take place at the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society, which will open a Copake bicentennial exhibition in July. The bicentennial promises to be informative, fun, and community-building. Special thanks to Kellie and the committee. 

Transitioning from councilperson to supervisor has been, and continues to be, a learning process. I want to thank former Supervisor Jeanne Mettler for her continuing guidance and advice. Special thanks, too, to Town Clerk Lynn Connolly who has been so generous with her time and knowledge, even as she is in the midst of tax season. Copake’s wonderful Highway Superintendent Bill Gregory and the highway department staff did their usual amazing job, promptly clearing the town roads following last weekend’s snowstorm.

I’m excited to be working with all of my colleagues at Town Hall.  

Richard Wolf

Copake Supervisor

Solar Report

On January 9, hours before public comment hearings on the Shepherd’s Run Solar Project were scheduled to begin in Town Hall, the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting’s (ORES) Executive Director abruptly postponed the hearings until further notice. His decision granted Copake’s motion for an expedited appeal of an Administrative Law Judge’s ruling (and the recommendation of ORES staff) that the hearings should proceed. 

The town successfully argued that the sale of a 60-acre parcel that was to have been an important component of the project’s footprint required Hecate to redesign the project; hearing participants would be unable to address potential impacts of the project on the environment because they could not know what a redesigned project might look like.

The draft siting permit issued to Hecate on October 24, 2023 by the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) is for a 267-acre, utility-scale solar factory, sited mostly south of State Route 23 along County Rt. 7 in Craryville. Hecate’s permit application contained a map of the project footprint. The developer asserted that it had obtained property rights for each of the parcels that together would constitute the “inside-the-fence” location of its project, which it named Shepherd’s Run. Hecate proposed to install almost 200,000 solar panels, inverters and other equipment, collection lines, laydown areas, and access roads within the footprint — mostly on the east side of Rt. 7 to Cambridge Road. with a substantial number placed in the large field adjacent to the Taconic Hills School campus, west of Rt. 7, between Route 23 and Birch Hill Road.

We now know Hecate’s most recent application was inaccurate. It failed to disclose that the southern-most land parcel, almost 60 acres of prime farmland, was no longer under Hecate’s control. Hecate’s option-to-lease agreement with the landowner expired in mid-September. Hecate was unsuccessful in its efforts to renew the option, but it never told ORES that it no longer controlled the parcel. On January 2, the parcel was sold. The buyer announced that the land would not be part of Shepherd’s Run.  

Copake’s solar attorney, Ben Wisniewski, filed a motion with ORES to dismiss Hecate’s application because it described a project that no longer existed as described. The now-unavailable parcel was to have been the site of many solar panels, several inverters, collection lines, a laydown area, and the only access road to some of the other parcels inside the project footprint. The motion urged ORES to cancel or postpone the in-person public comment hearings ORES had scheduled to conduct at Copake Town Hall on January 9 and 10, and the virtual hearings scheduled for January 11. The logic behind the town’s request was obvious: if the hearings proceeded as scheduled, participants would be invited to comment on the impacts of a project that no longer existed — a project that could not be built as described in the draft permit.

   

Much to our surprise and dismay, ORES’ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) rejected Copake’s request to cancel, or at least postpone, the hearings. The ALJ’s ruling came in a virtual procedural conference, after she had received proof of the sale and heard our argument that it constituted a major revision to Hecate’s application. Following the ALJ’s verbal decision, Mr. Wisniewski filed an expedited appeal to the executive director of ORES. Our attorney asserts that the ALJ’s refusal to cancel or postpone the public comment hearings creates, under the ORES regulations, an “inefficiency”, because ORES presumably would be receiving comments on a non-existent project proposal.  

Should ORES subsequently allow Hecate to revise its application, relocate the equipment, laydown area, and access road that were to have been located on the unavailable parcel, the potential impacts of the revised project would require a new round of public comments — the inefficiency argument of Copake’s expedited appeal.

The deadline for the parties to provide responses to the town’s expedited appeal motion was Monday, January 8. The ORES postponement was issued at 10:10am on January 9, less than three and one-half hours before the first hearing was to begin.

Copake has until Tuesday, January 16 to file its brief in support of our motion seeking to have ORES dismiss Hecate’s application. It is the town’s position that ORES regulations prohibit any amendment to an application that ORES has deemed complete, which it did in late August 2023, and that a redesign of the project would be a major amendment. All other parties have until January 22 to serve and file a response to Copake’s appeal.

Richard Wolf

Town Supervisor

Positions Available on Mohican Allyship Committee

The Mohican Allyship Committee (MAC) is looking for members.

Members should have a strong interest in the mission of the committee, the time and willingness to work on MAC tasks, and the ability to work cooperatively with other committee members, municipal agencies, community organizations, and Tribal Nation representatives. A background in social justice and/or American Indian Studies would be helpful, but an eagerness to learn is equally valuable.

Please send letters/resumes by noon on February 1, 2024, to Lynn Connolly, Town Clerk, 230 Mountain View Rd., Copake, NY 12516 or by email to copaketownclerk@townofcopake.org

Help Wanted

The Town Board of the Town of Copake will be accepting letters of interest and resumes for the following positions:

Zoning Board of Appeals Clerk

Park Commission Member

Letters/resumes may be sent to: Town Clerk, 230 Mountain View Road, Copake, NY 12516, or emailed to: copaketownclerk@townofcopake.org

Copake Iron Works Painting is Hung in Town Hall

An oil painting of Copake Iron Works, circa 1860, has been loaned by the Church of St. John in the Wilderness to the Town of Copake in honor of the town’s bicentennial. The painting, which depicts Copake Falls as it appeared in the mid-nineteenth century, was painted by Hillsdale native John Bunyon Bristol. 

Mr. Bristol was born in Hillsdale in 1826 and died in New York City in 1909. He was self-taught but studied briefly with landscape artist Henry Ary in Hudson. He was part of the Hudson River School painters and was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1875. He received medals for his painting in 1876 in Philadelphia and Paris.

The painting is significant in size – the canvas is over 36 inches high and 60 inches wide. The frame, which is gold leaf on gesso on wood, is commonly known as a “Hudson River School frame” and measures over 52 inches high and 76 inches wide.  

The painting was donated by the Church of the Heavenly Rest to the Church of St. John in the Wilderness in 1952. It was originally displayed in St. John’s Church and was later moved to the Rectory. The work was on loan to the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society for their 2023 summer exhibit, and members of the Historical Society were instrumental in arranging for the loan to the town. 

The town is grateful to Mike Fallon for transporting the painting from the Historical Society Museum to Town Hall, and to Bob Callahan, who hung the painting.

EV Chargers Come to Copake

Copake continues to improve and update infrastructure. 

Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers have been installed in the Church Street Municipal Parking Lot (next to KeyBank).  The chargers will be activated and fully operational sometime in January.  There will be capacity and designated parking spaces to charge four EVs simultaneously.  Councilperson Jeffrey Judd led the town’s effort to obtain the EV chargers and obtain substantial funding support for the acquisition. Members of the Climate Smart Task Force, led by Dan Haas, were involved and instrumental in bringing this project to fruition.

This project was made possible by funding from NYSEG, NYSERDA and a Clean Energies Communities grant, with little or no cost to the town.

Copake Iron Works Railroad Makes the Grade

The Taconic Region of New York State Office of Parks has published Taconic Magazine to describe and promote the state parks and historic sites in Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester counties.  The cover story of the new magazine features our own Copake Iron Works Railroad and the new construction at nearby Olana.

Grange Events

Friday, Jan. 5, 7-9pm - Open Mic Night. Live open mic is on and it’s great! The first Friday of every month. Come on down to the Grange and join us with your instruments, songs, poems, stories, skits, etc. Or just come to relax, have fun and be inspired. We have a piano. For more information, contact copakegrange@gmail.com.

Sunday, Jan. 14, 3:30pm - Classic Movie & Soup Night. “In the Heat of the Night” A 1967 mystery drama, directed by Norman Jewison, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. A black Philadelphia police detective is wrongly accused of a local murde while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town.   After being cleared, he is reluctantly asked by the white police chief to solve the case. Lee Grant and Warren Oates round out the cast and the music is by Quincy Jones. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Lenny Barham will offer commentary before the film. Stay for conversation and a delicious dinner of soup (veg. options available), salad and dessert afterward.  Movie by donation. Dinner $10. Tickets at the door.

Saturday, Jan. 20, 5-7:30pm - Chili Cook-off. Our second annual favorite chili cook-off. Tastings, prizes, chili to go. Bring your entries by 4:45pm-go to copakegrange.org/events for more info. Snow date - Jan. 27.

Saturday, Feb. 3, 7pm - Copake Quintet. The fabulous jazz quintet right here in Copake!  Connie Lopez (vocals), Steve Turowski (drums), Debbi Conti (keyboard), Jeff Wurster (bass), Steve Sanborn (winds) and Nike Vanderhoofen (trombone) bring skill and energy to the American Songbook, Latin and Bossa Nova tunes, plus classic rock. Come hear live, acoustic music in a relaxed and friendly setting! Tickets at the door: $15 or pay what you can. Made possible in part by Stewart’s Shops and The Ackerman Foundation.

Saturday, Feb. 17, 7-9pm - Local Musicians Showcase.  Join Slink Moss and friends for a great evening of live music. From bluegrass to rock these bands will get you smiling and your feet tapping: Home on the Grange with Jamie Purinton, Lake Foundation, Michael “Chops” LaConte, and Blind Owls. Tickets at the door: $15 or pay what you can.  Make possible in part by Stewart’s Shops and The Ackerman Foundation.

For more information about the Grange and events or to join, go to copakegrange.org. The Copake Grange is located at 628 Empire Rd., Copake, NY 12516. Parking for Grange events is limited - please park at the Municipal Lot on Church St. if the Grange parking area is full.

Copake History

Those Old One Room School Houses

Copake's rural nature influenced its schools in some interesting ways. In at least the late 19th and early 20th centuries, attendance was heavier in the wintertime, because in the spring and fall the older boys had to work on the farms. In the winter they came back to school to study bookkeeping. Still, on very cold winter days when the ice on local lakes became thick enough to harvest, schools sometimes closed. Interested students could observe the harvesting with stocked ice houses at the Copake Inn, at farmers’ houses, and elsewhere. In any case, it was an exciting phenomenon to observe horse-drawn sleds and wagons hauling the ice blocks and children often hitching rides.

On Arbor Day, in the spring, schools were cleaned and scrubbed, yards were mowed and clipped, and the students were taken on nature walks and treated to picnic lunches. Also in the spring, students competed in a wildflower contest to see who would find the first specimen of a particular flower.

The opening of the Roe Jan School on Route 22 in 1933 brought about the closing of all of the town’s small elementary schools except for the “Little School” on Empire Road, which lasted into the 1970s.

Photo: From Robin Bruce’s collection; The Copake Falls School which though radically altered, is on Route 22 near the funeral home.

[I’m always looking for Copake folks’ stories for this page and for the Copake History Facebook page. Consider emailing me one about a school experience in one of the town’s schools].

Howard Blue

copaketownhistorian@gmail.com

What’s Happening at the Library?

Saturday, January 13, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

A Musical Book Talk with Howard Lieberman. Have you created art or music, invented anything, started a company or a department, and felt the desire to evolve from a creative outlier to an innovator? Do you want to turn your vision into value, your insight into income, and commercialize your concepts? Hear a unique musical book talk by Howard Richard Lieberman, a local author and concert artist.

Howard Lieberman is a local musician, writer, and lapsed tech guy who moved full-time to the Berkshires ten years ago. An entrepreneur, teacher, speaker, and involuntary innovator for fifty years in industry, government, and academia, he has had the good fortune to work in and around world-class innovation cultures, including Apple, Bose, DARPA, MIT, Juilliard, and the National Science Foundation. Howard founded SVII, the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, in 2005 to help creative outliers become sustainable innovators. He developed the first electroacoustical pianos, the first integrated computer sound systems, and the first speech recognition microphones. Mr. Lieberman has physics and electrical engineering degrees, has studied composition and orchestration at the Juilliard School, and continues to compose and perform as well as speak globally about innovation.

Thursday, January 18, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Book Marks! Book Club. Join our nonfiction book club, Book Marks!, led by Circulation Librarian Robin Gottlieb; meets the 3rd Thursday of every month. We will be reading Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip. Copies are available through the Mid-Hudson Library System, Libby, and Hoopla. For more information, email circulation@roejanlibrary.org.