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The
People, Unplugged
“I
feel like they are robbing me and my family of our life savings,”
said Anne Ball. “And we have no voice. There is nothing that
we can do about it.”
Ball, a Scotia resident who has been fighting to stop Glenville
Energy from building a power plant in her neighborhood, is
outraged by a proposed power-plant siting bill that was discussed
last Wednesday during a public hearing before the state Assembly
Energy Committee. This law is intended to amend Article X,
the Public Service Law that regulates all power-plant proposals
in New York state, which is scheduled to expire on January
1, 2003. Two versions of the bill were discussed in the hearing:
an industry-backed version and another backed by environmental
groups.
The industry-backed version, Ball said, would make it harder
for residents to prevent unwanted plant sitings in their communities.
It seeks to shorten the review process for a siting application
from 12 months to eight. In addition, she said, it prohibits
residents from testifying to the siting board about “speculative
matters,” including the impact that approval may have on adjacent
property values.
“If
New York state is going to build more power plants, it cannot
be done by trampling on the rights of its citizens,” said
Ball. “We do not deserve to be robbed of the use and value
of our property while an out-of-state merchant plant developer
makes millions of dollars at our expense.”
Eric Durr, spokesman for the Independent Power Producers of
New York, said the idea behind the siting process is to look
at the issues that can be quantified—such as environmental
and health impacts that a facility could have on a neighborhood—and
not matters that cannot be proven.
“We
only want to deal with factual information,” said Durr. “We
don’t want to get bogged down in ‘what ifs’ that could go
on forever.”
He also pointed to a study put out by the New York Independent
System Operator that states that New York needs at least 7,100
megawatts of new power by 2005 to avoid blackouts like those
that happened in California last year. Unless New York works
to entice power companies to build new facilities, he said,
power companies will take their business to other states where
the laws are less stringent and the application process is
shorter.
Article X is expected to go up for a vote before the legislative
session adjourns this year.
—N.G.
Into
Africa
A
fund raiser was held at the Albany Free School last Friday
[June 7] to raise money and bid farwell to Lily Mercogliano
and Megan Schmidt. The two women left on Tuesday for a two-month
trip to Malawi, Africa, where they will volunteer at the Malawi
Children’s Village.
Malawi Children’s Village, located in the district of Mangochi
in Malawi Africa, cares for more than 3,000 children who have
lost their parents to AIDS. This area is the one of the hardest
hit by the AIDS epidemic and is known as one of the poorest
districts in central Africa. Mercogliano, 18, a sophomore
at Northeastern University in Boston and an Albany High School
graduate, and Schmidt, 27, who first went to Malawi in 1997
when she was a junior at Grinnell College in Iowa, hope to
start a peer outreach program that will educate at-risk youths
about HIV/AIDS and teach them to be peer educators as well.
The two are pulling on prior experience to get this program
off the ground. Schmidt ran the Equinox HIV/Aids peer outreach
program in Albany just last year, and Mercogliano worked with
the Equinox Street outreach team.
“I
think we have to get the message about HIV/AIDS to the younger
generations if we hope to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS,” said
Mercogliano. “The most effective way for kids to learn about
HIV/AIDS prevention is to have other peers talk to them about
it. That is how I learned, and I think it is a much more effective
method than to have an adult stand there and lecture to them.”
In a presentation Friday night, the two women explained that
in Malawi there are now 500,000 AIDS orphans, and it is estimated
that there will be more that 1 million by 2003. These orphaned
children are often placed with families in the surrounding
villages that have also lost loved ones to AIDS. The organization
provides food, medical care and money for schooling to orphans
in the surrounding 37 villages.
“I
have always wanted to go back to Malawi,” said Schmidt, who
helped set up the children’s village in 1997. “When I was
first there, the programs were just beginning, and I am looking
forward to see how they have changed and grown. It is an amazing
project that affects so many people. I can’t wait to just
jump back in.”
—N.G.
Calling
Off Hunger
In
its first week of existence, the Emergency Food Helpline directed
only one phone call—a single meal served from a buffet of
food services available to those in need.
The recently developed helpline, modeled after the recipe
used by New York City’s Human Resources Administration, was
initiated by the Hunger Action Network of New York State to
refer individuals and families to the 98 registered food pantries
and soup kitchens in the Capital Region.
Sheila McCarthy, upstate community food coordinator for HANNYS,
has been preheating the oven: gathering information for the
helpline’s database and working to publicize the helpline’s
services.
“It’s
really important that word about the helpline gets out so
we can direct a greater volume of calls,” McCarthy said. “Food
pantries and soup kitchens are the first line of defense against
hunger in New York, and we’re really excited about what this
helpline can do.”
HANNYS’ helpline connects residents of the Capital Region,
Plattsburgh and Hudson to food banks and soup kitchens registered
with Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York; the organization
plans to expand the helpline’s reach to the entire state by
the fall.
“Hunger
has been increasing in New York, and some 900,000 people go
to soup kitchens each week,” McCarthy said. “This helpline
can play a major role in getting food to people who need it
in this state.”
McCarthy urges those interested in donating food to contact
the helpline as well.
“The
helpline should act as a referral service really, connecting
people to resources and services in their community,” McCarthy
said.
The helpline, which can be contacted toll free at (866) 526-2978,
is staffed Monday through Thursday from 9 AM to 5 PM, and
Friday from 9 AM to 1 PM. Calls received in the evenings and
over weekends will be returned on the next business day.
—Travis
Durfee
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