“Toxic fumes, blisters and brain damage: The cost of doing business?” — Ithaca Times, April 2, 2008
Karen Strecker is bracing. She’s about to turn on the faucet, and there’s a chance liquid manure is going to stream from the spout.
“I’ve been taking a bath and actually had cow shit pour into the tub,” Strecker says, matter-of-factly. She uses well water. “It’s nasty.”
Yet the threat of a sewage bath pales in comparison to a more dangerous problem: Breathing poisonous fumes. After years living next to Willet Dairy, the largest industrial farm in the state, Strecker and her neighbors in Genoa are reporting the kinds of health problems eco-watchdogs lose sleep over, from blistering eyelids to brain damage. Manure is known to release gases that, in high concentrations, are linked to those scary symptoms.
Strecker’s plight takes on national relevance as the EPA prepares to roll back air-pollution-reporting requirements for industrial animal farms like Willet in October – even as environmentalists warn that regulation is already too lax in New York.
MORE …
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“Monroe official shot dead,” April 6, 2007, Home News Tribune
Township Construction Official Ronald C. Appleby, 60, was found dead
of a gunshot wound to the chest on his front lawn Thursday,
authorities said.
The shot appeared to be self-inflicted and there was a note nearby,
said Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.
Sources within the township administration said Appleby had recently
been visited by government officials looking for records. The Clerk’s
Office and the Planning Office also were visited by government
investigators, sources said.
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“Monroe school estimate up $30M,” Dec. 21, 2006, Home News Tribune
The new high school at Thompson Park could cost the township an additional $30.4 million, according to a document obtained by the Home News Tribune yesterday. The increase comes on top of $82.9 million approved by voters in a December 2003 referendum.
The document, a letter dated Sept. 27, was sent from James E. Morton of North Brunswick-based MRM Architecture to schools Superintendent Ralph Ferrie.
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“Monroe demand for IDs illegal,” Dec. 12, 2006, Home News Tribune
Township officials violated state law by requiring people seeking government documents to identify themselves, according to open-government advocates and township residents.
Township officials acknowledged the practice as “an error” by the township clerk’s office and say it has ceased.
Some residents called it an intimidation tactic, but township Attorney Joel Shain emphasized that it was “not the policy of the administration.”
After he was contacted by the Home News Tribune last week, Shain issued an order to township employees to “immediately cease and desist” asking for identification in public-records requests.
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“Monroe H.S. size is an issue,” June 8, 2007, Home News Tribune
Explosive development in the township is driving up the cost of the Thompson Park high school and may lead to more trailers in the meantime, school officials said Thursday.
The new high school is budgeted to hold 1,800 students, but demographic figures show the district will have 2,200 to 2,400 high school students when the building opens in September 2011.
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