Daily Numbers:
Midday 6, 4, 9 Lucky Sum 19
Evening 0, 6, 8 Lucky Sum 14
WinFour:
Midday 2, 5, 3, 5 Lucky Sum 15
Evening 0, 8, 6, 4 Lucky Sum 18
Pick 10: 1, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 33, 38, 41, 44, 63, 68, 69, 71, 73, 74
Take 5: 12, 19, 25, 31, 38
Lotto: 1, 3, 10, 24, 35, 56 Bonus 47
Powerball: 5, 28, 33, 38, 42
Powerball 19
n Due to a reporter’s error, an article in Tuesday’s Times gave incorrect names for three of the four owners of a new Nonna Dina Pizzeria in Sackets Harbor. Paolo Cannella, owner of the Original Italian Pizzeria in Watertown; Joseph Cannella; Nick Ciambra, who owns New York Pizzeria in Gouverneur; and Vita V. Ciambra, who owns and manages Nonna Dina Pizzeria in Brownville, will own the restaurant.
WATERTOWN — Erin E. Gardner isn’t relying on the weather cooperating for this year’s Snowtown USA.
It seems like it never does. Either there’s no snow or it’s too cold, sometimes wreaking havoc on the winter carnival’s schedule.
With Snowtown kicking off with fireworks on Friday night, organizers already have decided to cancel an outdoor ice rink at the J.B. Wise parking pavilion and snow sculptures.
That’s because temperatures are expected to reach the low 40s this weekend and hover in the high 30s for the remainder of the nine-day festival.
“It might be 40s outside, but we’ll bring Snowtown inside,” said Ms. Gardner, the city’s Parks and Recreation superintendent, who co-chairs the festival.
Scheduled from Friday until Feb. 26, the festival — which pays homage to the north country’s winter weather — is in its fourth year since it was brought back in 2014 after a 20-year hiatus.
David Daily chaired the event for 12 years the first time around, when it got residents out of their homes for some winter fun, he remembered.
One of his favorite memories is seeing sledders coming down the hill at Thompson Park a short distance from snow sculptures and outdoor skating at Park Circle, all at the same time.
He hoped to bring back the outdoor skating in the middle of Park Circle this year, but it didn’t work out.
“Maybe next year,” he said.
He got involved in Snowtown again after attending a meeting a couple of years ago and advising organizers about which activities worked and which didn’t. He’s now a board member and volunteer.
This winter, the activities are purposely scheduled for this week, when students are on February recess from school, Ms. Gardner said.
Organizers design Snowtown with some events outdoors and some indoors because the north country’s weather can be unpredictable. In the past, some events were canceled because the weather was too cold. Other times, they were canceled because it was too warm. February tends to be the most wintry month.
Despite the absence of snow sculptures and outdoor skating, Snowtown will feature more than 30 events and activities. Many of them are returning, while others have been added.
The opening ceremonies and fireworks are set for 7 p.m. at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds and a public skating period from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Watertown Municipal Arena. Admission is free with a donation to the Watertown Backpack school-lunch program.
This weekend, a winter softball tournament will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. So far, six teams are scheduled but others can still sign up. The Watertown Wolves hockey team is to play the Cornwall Nationals at 7:30 Saturday night.
Mr. Daily is overseeing the softball tournament, an event in its third year. It’s fun to watch players brave the cold or thigh-high snow, he said.
At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, a breakfast with superhero and princess characters will be held at the Italian-American Civic Association building, 192 Bellew Ave. Tickets are $5 for adults and children get in for free.
The popular Snowtown Bowling at Seaway Lanes, Seaway Shopping Center, will be expanded. Bowling will be free from noon to 5 p.m.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department spearheads Snowtown USA with a 10-member board, volunteers and several sponsors involved.
Events will be held at the fairgrounds, at the Roswell P. Flower Memorial Library downtown and at Thompson Park. As in the past, there also will be a Thompson Park Day, with dog sleds, snowshoeing and horse-drawn-wagon rides scheduled on Feb. 25. The New York State Zoo at Thompson Park also will host activities that day.
It was nearly 40 years ago when “CBS Evening News” anchor Walter Cronkite coined the phrase “Snowtown USA” when reporting how the city received some 220 inches of snow during the winter of 1976-77, which included the blizzard of 1977. A few years later, organizers used it for the name of the then-new festival.
All Snowtown events are subject to cancellation. Visit the Watertown Daily Times website for the full schedule of events.
LOWVILLE — Lewis County officials received bids from four firms interested in designing a planned Jefferson Community College extension campus building.
“That’s not bad,” Lewis County Director of Planning Frank J. Pace said following a bid opening early Wednesday afternoon, noting that eight firms had made inquiries about the project. “That gives us four to review.”
Mr. Pace said he had been in contact with eight firms that had inquired about the project.
Officials from the county and JCC are to look over the submitted proposals and ultimately come up with one to recommend to the full Legislature for approval at its special meeting at 4 p.m. Friday.
The chosen firm is to develop a site plan for a 22,000-square-foot educational center and 24-by-32-foot maintenance garage, help solicit construction bids for a pre-engineered building and oversee the project.
Those submitting proposals were Watertown firms GYMO Architecture, Engineering and Land Surveying and BCA Architects, Buffalo firm Clark Patterson Lee and Endwell firm Delta Engineers, Architects and Land Surveyors.
Barton & Loguidice, Syracuse, additionally sent a letter of interest but did not send a full proposal as requested.
County officials did not disclose specifics about the proposals, including price, as Mr. Pace noted it will be a professional services contract, where lawmakers will be asked to determine the one with the best value, not just the best price.
“There are a lot of factors,” he said. “They have to be able to check a number of boxes.”
County officials plan to build the center — slated to offer noncredit courses in manufacturing and agribusiness that would complement but not duplicate those at JCC’s main campus in Watertown — at Maple Ridge Center off East Road, with hopes of completion by this fall.
Legislators have approved spending up to $4 million on the project. Funding is to come from $1.6 million in payment-in-lieu-of-taxes money from the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in 2017 and 2018 and $2.4 million in repayments from Lewis County General Hospital, also in 2017 and 2018. The repayments stem from county loans to the hospital several years ago when it was having cash-flow problems.
ALEXANDRIA BAY — As Alexandria town officials tried explaining the current finances of the Redwood Sewer and Water District, they acknowledged there were still lingering questions.
Members of the Town Council said they want the town’s annual audit to focus on the district.
Among the issues they want resolved is how the district’s finances faltered in 2012 and 2013, and the status of a $116,453 savings CD account from 1998 connected to a lawsuit against the district’s developers.
“We need to look at this from the past,” said Brent H. Sweet, deputy supervisor.
The district’s finances dominated the council’s meeting, which stretched for about three hours as residents like Daniel B. Peterson rattled off budget line and bank record questions to accountants from Furgison & Co., Pulaski.
“I’m just trying to get clarity,” Mr. Peterson said. “It’s a large amount of money that’s going to have an impact on people’s lives.”
Much of the confusion appeared to center around what the district was paying to the town general fund, and what it owed previously.
Jonathan D. Furgison said the district needed to reimburse the town’s general fund pooled checking account, which paid the bills.
The council’s discussion of finances comes as it looks to increase sewer rates in the district, which currently sit at $450 annually per equivalent dwelling unit.
Though the town is holding off setting new rates for 90 days until the financial picture is clarified, one potential rate under consideration is $610 annually, a 35.5 percent increase.
“We have to put the brakes on it until we figure it out,” Mr. Sweet said.
However, the urgency of the town was stressed by accountant Sherry Furgison, who said problems with special districts could endanger support from entities like U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
“You’re going to jeopardize it for this town,” Mrs. Furgison said.
Earlier in the meeting, council members said they received an email from Mr. Peterson earlier in the week that contained a bank record with account numbers for four district accounts listed, three of which were still active.
The council froze the accounts upon advice from the state Comptroller’s office, and early in the meeting voted to create new accounts to hold the money, which totaled about $21,200.
Mr. Peterson said after the meeting he was not sure which record he obtained that included the numbers, and called it an honest mistake.
The council also approved a $30,000 grant for engineering work in the district, which required a 20 percent match rate from the town.
Town Clerk Jessica Hudon said she would adjust her handling of accounts, directly transferring money received for special districts to the town general fund monthly. Before recently receiving guidance from the state Comptroller’s office, she had kept the funds in separate accounts until receiving specific monetary requests. from Supervisor Dale D. Hunneyman.
“It’s all your’s,” Ms. Hudon told the council.
The council also set a town policy requiring two signatures on bank transfers.
FORT DRUM — Soldiers from the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade formally marked the launch of its deployment to Europe on Wednesday.
The deployment, a part of Operation Atlantic Resolve 2.0, will have soldiers mostly in Germany, with others spread to Latvia, Romania and Poland.
Col. Clair A. Gill, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade commander said the brigade will have “a dynamic presence from the Baltics to the Black Sea” during its deployment.
The Army has said that aviators will hold medical transport, exercise support and aviation operations roles during the deployment.
The mission will involve about 85 aircraft from the brigade, including Chinooks, Black Hawk and Apache helicopters, along with 700 pieces of support equipment were transported by the brigade for their mission.
Personnel from the 1st Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Texas, will also join brigade forces.
WATERTOWN — Property owners will pay the same amount this year for sidewalk improvements under a longtime city program.
As they have done during the past two years, property owners will pay $5.75 per square foot to replace sidewalks in front of their properties.
The city’s Engineering office has selected the 500 block of Lansing Street, 500 block of Mundy Street and 100 block of East Lynde Street to complete this year. They were picked due to the repeated sidewalk repair complaints that the city receives for those streets, according to a City Engineering office memo.
After further inspection, more than 80 percent of the sidewalks need to be replaced; some of the conditions are so bad that the sidewalks have deteriorated to the point of not existing, according to the engineering staff.
Letters have been sent out to notify residents that the work will be completed this year.
Last week, council members unanimously authorized spending $125,000 on this year’s version of the assessed sidewalk district.
Under the sidewalk program, property owners can pay the city for needed repairs, hire a contractor or do the work themselves. Property owners are required to pay for the repairs over a 10-year period if the city does the work.
Each 4-foot-by-4-foot sidewalk square costs $92 to repair. The size of the district and how many sidewalks are replaced changes year to year. The project is scheduled to begin in early July.
The city will use its own labor, which will consist of three Department of Public Works employees, two temporary seasonal workers and an engineer, to do the work.
Offered for about 15 years, the sidewalk program consisted of improvements to the 800 and 900 blocks of Mill Street and the 100 block of east Division Street last year.
In 2013, budget constraints prevented the city from implementing the program, but it was put back into place the next year.
The city is also using $120,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding to install about 2,350 linear feet of sidewalks along Huntington Street this summer.
WASHINGTON — The organizers behind the Women’s March on Washington are calling for a general strike next month to show the country what a day without women would look like.
The strike is planned for March 8.
“In the spirit of women and their allies coming together for love and liberation, we offer a Day Without A Woman,” a statement from the organizers read. “We ask: do businesses support our communities, or do they drain our communities? Do they strive for gender equity or do they support the policies and leaders that perpetuate oppressions.”
The terms of the strike and how it would work are unclear, but organizers said they would be sharing more information and actions over the coming weeks.
In the wake of the Women’s March on Jan. 21 - when millions of women (and men) rallied around the world on President Trump’s first full day in office - the organizers have been releasing actions online for people to take in the first 100 days of the new administration.
The actions so far include writing to senators, strategizing how to build off the energy of the Women’s March and planning grass roots protests and other events engaging with Congress next week, which includes Presidents’ Day.
The “Day Without a Woman” strike follows the “Day Without Immigrants” strike Thursday in D.C. and across the country.
That strike calls for immigrants not to go to work, spend money or even send their children to school. The strike comes in response to Trump’s comments against immigrants and pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border and to “extremely vet” those who enter the country. It aims to show the effect immigrants have in the country on a daily basis.
RENSSELAER FALLS — An older, two-story house on Front Street is being gutted and fixed up by volunteers from Raquette Valley Habit for Humanity, marking the first time the local chapter has renovated a home rather than build from scratch.
“I think this is the way we will go moving forward,” said Habitat Board President William J. Fassinger, Canton. “It’s much less expensive than building new and it gets a piece of decaying property back on the tax rolls.”
The organization is seeking a partner family to reside in the 347 Front St. home which offers two bedrooms, a large backyard and 1.5 bathrooms. Renovation work is expected to finish in September and involves installing new flooring, plumbing, electrical upgrades, new exterior siding and other improvements.
“We completely gutted the house,” Mr. Fassinger said Wednesday. “It will be energy efficient and brought up to code.”
Habitat volunteers have been working with students from St. Lawrence University and SUNY Canton who have also donated their time toward the project.
On Friday several students from SUNY Canton’s Canino School of Engineering Technology are scheduled to install electric lines. In the coming weeks, others will do plumbing work.
“We’re doing everything we can to get the building trade students involved,” Mr. Fassinger said. “They learn first hand how to do this work and they’re also learning how they can give back.”
He said the home was purchased in late November for about $14,000 during a USDA property foreclosure auction. Over the past several years, Raquette Valley Habitat has built three new homes on Front Street for partner families who qualified for the program.
After attending a training session last year in Owego, Mr. Fassinger said it became clear that a growing number of habitat chapters are deciding to stretch their dollars by renovating existing homes rather than building new ones. Recycling older homes eliminates the time and cost involved with purchasing a parcel of land and when necessary, the expense of installing a well and septic system.
He said it’s expected to cost between $50,000 and $60,000 to renovate the Front Street home, but that could change depending on how much volunteer work and materials are donated toward the project. Building new would cost an estimated $85,000 to $90,000.
Bryan Washburn, Canton, is serving as construction manager and site supervisor. Don Lustyk, Norwood, is another habitat board member who has been at the home regularly since renovations started in December. Mr. Fassinger estimated that about 416 volunteer hours have already been spent at the house, which saves an estimated $11,477 in labor costs. However, he said more help is always needed.
“We’re always looking for volunteers and we’re always looking for partner families,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty eclectic mix of people coming out to help. One is an airplane pilot, one is a biology professor at SLU.”
Raquette Valley is works with other agencies, including the North Country Housing Council and the USDA which works handles the financial part of the application process. Families interested in learning more about securing a habitat home should call 244-1335. The organization is also seeking new board members.
A hearing in the El Paso County went from ordinary to “unprecedented” last week when half a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at a courthouse where an undocumented woman was seeking a protective order against the boyfriend she accused of abusing her.
The woman, a citizen of Mexico who was living in El Paso, Texas, had been driven to the courthouse by a victim’s advocate from the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse where she had been living.
She left under arrest.
“This is really unprecedented,” El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal told The Washington Post.
It was the first time in her 23 years at the courthouse, Bernal said, that she can remember ICE agents making their presence known during a protective order hearing. The agents had come to stake out the woman, identified by her initials I.E.G., because, Bernal speculates, they likely received a tip from the only other person who knew the time and place of the hearing - the woman’s alleged abuser.
The woman had a prior criminal record and had been previously deported, but, according to Bernal, had no current outstanding state warrants.
“It really was a stunning event,” Bernal said. “It has an incredible chilling effect for all undocumented victims of any crime in our community.”
It is county policy not to ask about citizen status, Bernal said, because officials want to make clear that all victims of crime in El Paso are entitled to the same protections within the criminal justice system.
The arrest of the domestic violence complainant comes at a time of considerable unrest and anxiety within the immigrant community nationwide as President Trump begins to make good on the strict immigration policies that defined his campaign. Since taking office just four weeks ago, Trump has threatened to cut off federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities and, he says, started the planning process for his Mexican border wall.
Already the policies have led to the deportation of an undocumented mother from Arizona who, rather than dodge her check-in with immigration officials, dutifully went and was detained. In Seattle, a 23-year-old man who had been living legally in the U.S. under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was arrested and detained last week by ICE officials who claimed he was a gang member, something his lawyers deny.
And in Denver, an undocumented mother of four who had been living in the U.S. for 20 years sought refuge in the basement of a church this week rather than check-in with authorities, for fear she too would be deported.
In El Paso, Bernal said her office, which prosecutes criminal cases and represents alleged victims of domestic violence, like I.E.G., has felt the weight of this policy shift in recent weeks. Call volume has increased from concerned El Paso residents, she said, who have reported checkpoints in certain parts of town and the appearance of ICE agents at routine traffic stops.
What concerns her and other local officials most of all, though, is how last week’s courthouse incident could have a greater impact on the way crime is - or isn’t - reported within the immigrant community.
“An incident like what happened in the courthouse last week really puts fear in people,” Bernal said. “One of the things that really worries me is that it only takes one isolated incident like this.”
Whether the courthouse stakeout was indeed an isolated incident remains unclear. An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday in response to questions from El Paso Times reporter Marty Schladen, who first wrote about the case.
Bernal is trying to mitigate the situation and ease anxiety, she told The Post, by reaching out to Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, an El Paso native. The county attorney asked Beto Wednesday to set up a meeting with her office and the local ICE director to get “assurance from ICE that this is an isolated incident and that this isn’t going to happen again,” Bernal said.
After the courthouse incident last week, Bernal’s office launched an investigation, which unearthed a narrative of the day’s events that differs from the one outlined in court documents filed by ICE.
Based on eyewitness accounts from several attorneys in Bernal’s office, the judge who granted the undocumented woman’s protective order and the victim’s advocate assisting her, there were six ICE agents inside the courthouse that day - one inside the courtroom and others standing by the door and stairwells. They escorted her down the hallway, into the elevator and outside the building, where they detained her, Bernal said.
The narrative of the ICE affidavit, however, does not mention any contact inside the courthouse or the courtroom.
The affidavit claims that agents were “conducting surveillance” at the courthouse “in attempts of seeing” the woman. At 9:30 a.m., the affidavit says, agents saw the woman “exiting the El Paso County Courthouse and proceeded to walk along the side walk on San Antonio Avenue.” Agents identified themselves and questioned I.E.G., who admitted to being a Mexican citizen who was in the U.S. without legal status.
According to the affidavit, I.E.G. has a criminal and immigration history that dates back to 2010 and includes numerous deportations and arrests for assault, violating probation, domestic violence, false imprisonment and possession of stolen mail.
Even so, Bernal said “it’s hard to imagine how they would justify the rationale” for staking out a courtroom that deals in granting protective orders.
“If that person was that dangerous, state law enforcement would have been looking for her,” Bernal said. “It doesn’t make sense why the resources would be used to go after a victims of domestic abuse . . . it seems to be they are continuing to victimize our client.”
The six largest U.S. banks could see annual profit jump by an average of 14 percent if President Donald Trump delivers on his promise to cut corporate taxes.
The lenders, which stand to benefit more than other industries because they typically have fewer deductions, could save a combined $12 billion a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Trump has called for cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent.
While investors have focused on Trump’s campaign pledge to relax bank regulations, tax cuts could happen faster and their impact could be greater. The effective federal tax rate for the biggest banks averaged 28 percent for the three years ending in 2015, data compiled by Bloomberg show, twice the 14 percent rate paid by all large companies.
Bank shares have rallied since the election, with the KBW Bank Index up 29 percent and Goldman Sachs hitting record highs this week.
“Tax reform is difficult, but raising or cutting taxes is easy,” said Fred Cannon, head of research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “A lower tax rate would be a boon for banks, more so than other sectors, because banks don’t get many of the deductions industrial or retail firms get and end up paying a higher effective rate.”
Wells Fargo’s savings in 2015 would have been $3.8 billion had the tax rate been 15 percent and existing deductions were disallowed. The San Francisco-based bank is poised to reap the biggest benefit because its earnings are overwhelmingly in the U.S. and taxed at the 35 percent rate. The savings could boost Wells Fargo’s earnings by 16 percent. JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest lender, would save about $3 billion a year and see net income go up by 14 percent.
Citigroup would save less because more of its earnings are outside the U.S. Bank of America currently pays a lower effective tax rate in the U.S. and would benefit less if existing deductions no longer applied. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would see profit jump at rates similar to Wells Fargo and JPMorgan, even though the dollar amount of their savings is smaller. Spokesmen for all six banks declined to comment.
While bank deregulation faces opposition from Democrats, who can block changes because Republicans lack the 60 Senate votes needed to pass most legislation, tax cuts can be done within the budget process, which requires only a simple majority. Trump said on Feb. 9 that he’ll be releasing a tax overhaul outline within weeks -- an effort that’s said to be led by his chief economic adviser, former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn.
Taxes have been high on lobbyists’ agendas as well. The Financial Services Roundtable, which brings together chief executive officers of the biggest banks, listed “fixing a broken tax system” on top of its 2017 wish list published last week. Leaders of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association talked more about potential tax reform than regulatory changes in its state-of-the-industry meeting in December.
Trump’s campaign pledge to lower corporate taxes goes further than a plan put forward by House Republicans last year that would cut the rate to 20 percent.
Trump said last week that he was working with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on potential tax measures. Ryan was an author of what’s known as the House blueprint, which also calls for eliminating companies’ ability to deduct the interest they pay on deposits and other debt. Although the House plan exempts financial firms, KBW’s Cannon says there’s a risk banks will be included if Republicans decide they need to raise revenue to counter other cuts to keep tax revenue neutral.
Eliminating that deduction would hurt banks because their business model relies on borrowing from depositors and markets, and then lending to companies and consumers. The interest banks pay is typically one of their biggest costs, and disallowing that expense would inflate taxable income and threaten their ability to make money by lending.
While the cost of borrowing has been low since 2008, interest expenses can be much higher. Banks incorporate net-interest income -- interest earned on assets less interest paid on deposits and other debt -- in their revenue calculations. Revenue would balloon if interest expenses were excluded from this calculation.
“Without the interest-expense deduction, many mainstream banks would go out of business,” said Mark Roe, a professor at Harvard Law School. “They’d be paying tax on gross revenue, not profits.”
For that reason, it’s hard to imagine lawmakers eliminating the deduction, said Alan Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit organization analyzing tax policy.
It “would be too disruptive,” he said.
In 2006, JPMorgan’s income before taxes was $20 billion. If interest expenses were excluded, it would have almost tripled to $58 billion.
Roe and others have argued that interest-expense deductions from taxes have wrongly encouraged public companies to rely more on debt than equity. While a company can deduct the interest it pays on its debt, it can’t deduct dividends paid to shareholders. In a June paper, Roe suggested eliminating that incentive to borrow by allowing banks to deduct their cost of equity as they do interest expenses.
For some large banks, a rate cut would mean a one-time loss because of a reduction in the value of their deferred-tax assets. Those are benefits that build up because losses are recognized earlier in public company accounting than they can be in tax returns. Citigroup and Bank of America, which had the largest losses in the financial crisis, still have large amounts of such benefits that they can’t fully use in a lower tax-rate environment.
Citigroup has estimated its hit would be about $12 billion. KBW’s estimate for Bank of America’s upfront loss is $4 billion, and about $1 billion each for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
While those writedowns could wipe out the potential benefit from a lower tax rate, the elimination of deferred-tax assets would bring reported profits for some banks closer to what analysts and investors already look at, according to KBW’s Cannon. They generally ignore the impact of deferred-tax assets on earnings, adjusting reported figures to understand the true nature of a firm’s profitability. Writedowns on deferred-tax assets would be considered cosmetic, while the benefit from lower tax bills will be seen as concrete and permanent.
When Mary Efurd woke from her surgery, she couldn’t stand.
Crippling pain shot through the 74-year-old’s body.
It shouldn’t be like this. The surgery to fuse two of her vertebrae, performed in 2012 at the Dallas Medical Center, wasn’t a difficult one. Her surgeon, Christopher Duntsch, had 17 years of training and experience under his belt.
Still, something was clearly wrong.
Days later, she underwent surgery again, this time under the scalpel of Robert Henderson. What he found shocked him.
Spinal fusion hardware was left in her soft tissue. One of her nerve roots - the segment where a nerve attaches to the central nervous system - had been severed. Another nerve root had a screw in it. He found multiple screw holes, meanwhile, on an area of Efurd’s spine where they had no business being.
How had Duntsch messed up this badly?
Efurd didn’t know the surgeon’s background.
Duntsch, as described to Dallas magazine by his colleagues, was a confident man, perhaps too confident. He’d make statements like “Everybody’s doing it wrong. I’m the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state,” according to fellow surgeon Mark Hoyle.
Hoyle quickly learned this wasn’t true during the first and only surgery he conducted with Duntsch that became so botched, the incision so pooled with blood, it looked like Duntsch was “fishing in a pond at night, saying he was working by feel, not sight.”
That was a November 2011 surgery on Lee Passmore, which left him a partially broken man. As Matt Goodman wrote in D Magazine:
---
Lee Passmore can’t feel his feet. His right leg is as stiff as his pressed blue jeans, and when he walks, he appears to use his hips to heave it forward. He also vibrates - his chest shakes, his right hand jitters.
---
Hoyle canceled the remaining operations the two had planned together and refused to work with Duntsch ever again.
Now, no one will.
On Tuesday, after just four hours of deliberation, a Dallas County jury convicted Duntsch of aggravated assault for deliberately maiming Efurd. According to the Dallas Morning News, he faces life in prison.
Efurd, for one, felt justified by the verdict.
“I think it’s going to be like a floodgate that’s going to really open, crying. I’ll do some crying. And I’ll reflect back on how difficult those first months were afterwards. I had so much anger, because my life changed so much. I was very independent and I had to become dependent on others for transportation, for my meals, for a lot of things,” she told reporters at the court.
But she’s far from the only one who considers Duntsch’s conviction a deserved retribution.
Police originally accused Duntsch of causing the death of two patients and crippling four others between July 2012 and June 2013. In July 2015, he was arrested on five aggravated assault charges, but prosecutors eventually chose to focus solely on Efurd.
But there may have been many more. As Goodman wrote in the Dallas magazine article that gave Duntsch the chilling nickname Dr. Death:
---
There was Kellie Martin, who died from massive blood loss after a surgery at Baylor Plano. There was Floella Brown, whose sliced vertebral artery triggered the stroke that killed her at Dallas Medical Center. There was Duntsch’s childhood friend, Jerry Summers, who woke up from a procedure unable to move his arms and legs. There was a dissection of one patient’s esophagus, and screws that an indictment labeled “far too long” that caused significant blood loss in another patient. One surgeon described these as “never events.” They shouldn’t ever happen in someone’s entire career. And yet they occurred in Duntsch’s operating rooms over a period of just two years.
---
Somehow, though, many of these were passed off as accidents, random mistakes. His medical license wouldn’t be suspended until 2013. Lawsuits besieged him; almost everyone quickly settled after signing nondisclosure agreements. Bizarre as that might be, it’s only half as strange as the conviction that ended up sticking.
“I cannot recall a physician being indicted for aggravated assault for acts committed during surgery,” Toby Shook, a Dallas defense attorney who spent 23 years working as a Dallas County prosecutor, told Dallas. “And not just Dallas County - I don’t recall hearing about it anywhere.”
What Duntsch’s motive might have been is anyone’s guess. Ex-girlfriends and former friends relayed to Goodman stories of abuse and a social life (which often allegedly blurred into his work life) loaded with bottles of vodka, mounds of cocaine and sheets of LSD.
He reportedly behaved erratically. In a particularly long, rambling email he sent to one of his employees, which was published by the Dallas Morning News, the doctor sounded delusional.
In one excerpt, he compared himself to both God and Satan:
---
Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god, Einstein and the antichrist. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its a playground and never ever lose. But unfortunately, despite the fact I am winning it is not happening fast enough.
---
In another, he announced plans to become a murderer:
---
You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side. I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.
---
Whatever his motive, his alleged victims may have finally found peace. In a taped interview with the Dallas Morning News, 45-year-old Philip Mayfield, who awoke from a surgery paralyzed, said, “I am very well pleased that he will remain in jail and that justice will eventually be served for the crimes he committed.”
The mysterious death of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother removed a potential avenue for China to press the North Korean leader to rein in his nuclear ambitions.
Kim Jong Nam, 45, lived out of North Korea for many years and had close links to China. He started families in both Beijing and Macau, and had the protection of Chinese authorities, according to a South Korean lawmaker who was briefed on intelligence reports.
His murder at an airport in Malaysia this week in circumstances akin to a spy novel adds to concern that Pyongyang’s actions risk a major geopolitical miscalculation. Kim Jong Un’s repeated nuclear and missile tests -- most recently on Sunday -- have caused unease both in the U.S. and China, and put Beijing in a difficult spot as North Korea’s prime benefactor and ally.
While Kim Jong Nam was out of favor in Pyongyang for years before he was murdered -- his brother reportedly had a standing order for his execution -- he would have been a potential replacement for Kim Jong Un, and was an implicit point of leverage for China while he was alive.
“Kim Jong Un has been testing China’s patience,” said Deng Yuwen, a public affairs commentator in Beijing and a former deputy editor of a journal of the Communist Party. “If Beijing wouldn’t want to see the total collapse of the Kim regime, it would hope for the replacement of Kim Jong Un. This is why Kim was increasingly worried about his half-brother.”
Beijing provides most of North Korea’s food and fuel. The nations had solid relations from the 1950s, when they fought together in the Korean War. Leaders from both countries often say they have a bond built with blood.
Still, ties became strained after Kim’s ascension in 2011, a year before President Xi Jinping took power in China. The two have never met as leaders.
High-level dialogue was also cut back after the 2013 execution of Kim’s uncle Jang Song Thaek, who was an advocate for Chinese-style economic reform in North Korea and had been the major go-to person for leaders in Beijing. Kim Jong Nam was raised by Jang’s wife.
China has watched North Korea’s nuclear development with concern. Its leaders released a new list of items banned for export to North Korea in January, to comply with a new round of United Nations sanctions and address international criticism -- including from U.S. President Donald Trump -- that it isn’t doing enough to rein Kim in.
Trade data show that relations have cooled. Total commerce has fallen for two straight years to $5.4 billion in 2016, according to numbers released by China’s Ministry of Commerce. While China imported 14.5 percent more North Korean coal last year despite the sanctions, Yonhap News Agency reported this week that Beijing had rejected a $1 million shipment a day after North Korea’s latest missile test.
Even so, it would be hard for China to totally abandon North Korea, which it has long seen as a geopolitical buffer to U.S. forces, said Yang Xiyu, former director of the China Foreign Ministry’s Office for Korean Peninsula Issues. China is wary that the U.S. and South Korea will view the murder as a sign of internal instability in North Korea and seek to challenge Kim further, he said.
“It becomes even harder for China to restrain North Korea with a delicate bilateral relation like this,” Yang said. “Beijing won’t be happy with the death of Kim Jong Nam, but it will not overact either.”
Kim Jong Nam was seen in Beijing as an elite who envied the success of China’s economic reforms, Yang said. The eldest son of former dictator Kim Jong Il reportedly traveled with his father in 2001 to Shanghai, a coastal city that spearheaded China’s market reforms, and met with senior officials in information technology.
Part of China’s concern with North Korea’s behavior is a U.S. plan to deploy a high-altitude missile defense platform known as Thaad in South Korea later this year. China opposes the system, which it says could be used to counter its own weapons.
China would be more willing to prod North Korea if Trump addresses its worries about Thaad and reduces military drills with South Korea, according to Shi Yongming, an associate research fellow at the Foreign Ministry-run China Institute of International Studies in Beijing.
“The Kim regime is a real security risk for China, and the Chinese interests will be better served by divesting from it than by continuing to enable it,” Shi said. “If the U.S. side really treats the Korea peninsula as one of its top international priorities, there is a lot of room for the Chinese-U.S. cooperation.”
A Southern California college student has been suspended for recording his professor’s anti-Trump rant, which went viral and led to violent threats against the instructor.
According to a copy of the suspension letter posted by Campus Reform, the student must also apologize to the professor and submit a double-spaced essay about “why you decided to share the video” and “the ensuing damage to Orange Coast College students, faculty and staff.”
The essay is due by the end of the month. The suspension will last all semester, though 19-year-old Caleb O’Neil will appeal.
The Orange Coast College freshman said Wednesday that he file a lawsuit in federal court if his appeal is rejected.
“We think this is a clear example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination that targets conservatives and we’re going to challenge it,” O’Neil’s attorney, Bill Becker, said at a news conference in Costa Mesa, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Becker told the Orange County Register that the suspension “is an attack by leftists in academia to protect the expressive rights of their radical instructors.”
Shortly after Election Day, Olga Perez Stable Cox told her human sexuality class that Trump was a white supremacist.
His victory, she said, was “an act of terrorism.”
“We’re really back to being in a civil war,” the psychology professor said as O’Neil and others listened from their desks.
She didn’t mean a real war, but rather a divided country in which “we are the majority. More of us voted to not have that kind of leadership.”
The professor said “we” - but O’Neil thought otherwise. He recorded the speech and showed it to a campus Republican group, who complained to administrators that Cox was abusing the power of her grade book.
“It’s scaremongering,” a lawyer for the group told the Register. “It’s irrational. It’s a rant. And it doesn’t belong in the classroom.”
Frustrated that the administration did not act on their concerns quickly enough, the Republicans posted clips of the lecture online.
O’Neil’s video prompted headlines across the country and drew a ferocious backlash to the Costa Mesa, Calif., campus.
“I pulled my phone out, because I was honestly scared that I would have repercussions with my grades because she knew I was a Trump supporter,” O’Neil at the news conference Wednesday, according to the Orange County Register.
“I thought Olga was a good teacher,” he added.
Cox, who often turned her classes into open forums on sensitive issues, told The Washington Post that she’d been trying to comfort students scared by Trump’s rhetoric against Muslims, undocumented immigrants and other minority groups.
After weeks of threatening messages in her inbox and voice mail about the video - “Marxist,” “nutcase,” “vile leftist filth” - she became frightened herself.
“Now, at 66, I’m paranoid,” she said in December. “I feel like I’ve been attacked by a mob of people all across the country.”
Campus security began dropping by Cox’s classroom. Sympathetic students escorted her to class, worried about her safety.
She fled her home and turned her class over to a substitute after getting an email that listed her home address, phone number and salary - and threatened to spread the information “everywhere.”
Several weeks later, on Feb. 9, O’Neil got a letter from a dean.
“When we spoke, you stated that you felt badly about the things that had happened to individuals as a result of this incident,” it read.
But the student had also broken campus rules against using recording devices. Thus: a semester-long suspension, which would only end if he apologized to Cox and wrote a three-page essay about what he did.
“It is my hope that this experience will lead you to truly think through your actions and the consequences of those actions.”
Orange Coast had also been investigating whether Cox’s comments were appropriate, the Register reported. A spokesman for the school told The Post it couldn’t comment on student or personnel matters: “The student made the decision to go to the media; we cannot.”
O’Neil’s attorney said his client would keep attending class while appealing the punishment.
“I’m disgusted that they imposed such excessive sanctions,” the founder of school’s College Republican group told the Register. “The student was just trying to document a case where he personally felt targeted by a faculty member.”
Fred M. Whitaker, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, called O’Neil’s suspension “abhorrent,” adding that the college administration’s decision “clearly affirms their disdain for one of our nation’s most cherished freedoms: freedom of speech. The Republican Party of Orange County categorically opposes this administration’s attempt to trample over its students’ civil rights and we will be doing everything in our power to support Caleb O’Neil in his effort to appeal the decision.”
One day after President Donald Trump shook up U.S. policy toward the Middle East, his pick for envoy to Israel will confront senators seeking clarity on the administration’s strategy for helping resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer whose support for Israeli settlements and opposition to a two-state solution run counter to previous U.S. positions, will be the first of Trump’s ambassadorial nominees to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he heads to Capitol Hill on Thursday. He was nominated by the president even before Trump announced his pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.
While Friedman, 58, will likely be approved by the Republican-led Senate, he’ll face tough questions over Trump’s position on a two-state solution for the conflict and his support for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a shift opposed by Arab allies who say it will kill prospects for peace. He’ll also draw fire for his slur against a U.S. Jewish group that’s frequently critical of the Israeli government, likening them to “kapos” -- Jews who oversaw fellow concentration camp prisoners under the Nazis during World War II.
“He has no experience and strong ideological views,” said Gerald Feierstein, a former deputy assistant secretary of state and now a resident expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “I’m skeptical that he has enough understanding and sensitivity to the issues of the region.”
The hearing comes a day after Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. During a joint news conference on Wednesday, Trump said he would be open to a Mideast peace agreement that doesn’t include separate states for Israel and the Palestinians, abandoning a U.S. position that has underpinned more than a decade of failed negotiations between the two sides.
“I like the one that both parties like,” Trump said of the path to peace. “I can live with either one. I thought for a while that two states looked like the easier of the two. If Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I like the one they like the best.”
Trump’s statement was hailed by conservatives in Israel, with Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home Party, calling it a “new era.”
But the president also said Israel should “hold back on settlements for a little bit” in areas Palestinians believe should be part of their territory in any peace deal. The international community, including the United Nations, regards Israeli settlements as illegal.
“Both sides would have to make compromises -- you know that, right?” Trump said to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is trying to recalibrate ties with Israel’s top ally after eight years of high-profile clashes with former President Barack Obama, in part over Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. He sees a chance for a warmer relationship with Trump, who shares his alarm over the Iran nuclear deal and Islamic extremists.
In the lead up to Thursday’s hearing, J-Street, a U.S. Jewish organization that has lobbied for the two-state solution, published on its website some of Friedman’s more controversial views and statements. Friedman is prepared to apologize in his hearing for his most inflammatory comments, according to a State Department official who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public.
As the head of an organization that raises several million dollars a year for the controversial West Bank settlement of Beit El, Friedman knows well the concerns of Israeli settlers. His pugnacious approach may also appeal to the Israeli government, said professor Eytan Gilboa, expert on U.S.-Israel relations at Bar-Ilan University outside Tel Aviv.
“He’ll be able to present the Israeli position to the Trump administration, more than a professional ambassador would,” Gilboa said. However, he’ll still follow orders, he added. “Ambassadors are civil servants -- they fulfill what the president tells them to do. They’re not independent entities.”
President Donald Trump on Thursday aired his grievances against the news media, the intelligence community and his detractors generally in a sprawling, stream-of-consciousness news conference that alternated between claims that he had “inherited a mess” and the assertion that his fledgling administration “is running like a fine-tuned machine.”
“To be honest, I inherited a mess,” Trump said, in news conference that lasted more than an hour and was at times rambling, combative and pointed. “It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country.”
Yet moments later, the president seemed to acknowledge the widespread reports of turbulence and upheaval emanating out of his West Wing, only to claim that his White House - which so far has been marred by staff infighting, a controversial travel ban, false statements and myriad leaks - was operating seamlessly.
“I turn on the TV, open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos - chaos,” he said. “Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my Cabinet approved.”
Asked about recent reports that Mike Flynn, his former national security adviser who resigned Monday evening, had improperly discussed Russian sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump was sworn in, the president defended Flynn as a “fine person,” saying he had done nothing wrong in engaging the Russian envoy.
But, Trump said, Flynn had erred by misleading government officials, including Vice President Pence, about his conversations, which is why the president ultimately demanded his resignation.
“He didn’t tell the vice president of the United States the facts,” Trump said. “And then he didn’t remember. And that just wasn’t acceptable to me.”
Trump was asked several times about whether his campaign had contact with Russia and grew testy as reporters pushed him for a yes-or-no answer.
He said he certainly hadn’t and that he was not aware of such contacts during the campaign.
Trump also used the questions to press his case that the United States would be well-served by a better relationship with Russia and to mock his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, for her efforts to “reset” the relationship between the two countries while she was secretary of state.
Trump derisively referred to that “stupid plastic button that made us all look like jerks,” a reference to the red “reset” button that Clinton presented to the Russian foreign minister early in the Obama administration.
Trump also pushed back on reports that members of his campaign and other associates had repeatedly been in contact with senior Russian intelligence officials during the campaign, saying “nobody that I know of,” and adding, “I have nothing to do with Russia.”
The news conference was ostensibly billed as a chance for Trump to announce his new pick to head the Labor Department -Alexander Acosta, who would be the first Latino in Trump’s cabinet - after Andy Puzder, his original choice, withdrew from consideration Wednesday amid mounting opposition on Capitol Hill. But for one hour and 17 minutes, the president offered the verbal equivalent of the brash and impetuous early morning Tweets that have become the alarm clock for much of Washington, taking aim at everything from “illegal immigrant violence” to the “criminal leaks” within his intelligence community.
Though the president began on a subdued, almost melancholy note, looking down repeatedly to read from prepared remarks on his lectern, he became more fiery and animated - joyful, even - when he began to banter and joust with the assembled reporters. At times, he seemed to reprise some of his favorite themes from the campaign trail, complaining about Hillary Clinton and criticizing President Obama’s policies, from his Affordable Care Act to his failed reset with Russia.
Trump repeatedly lambasted the “fake news” media - which at one point he upgraded (or downgraded) to the “very fake news” media - while promoting some dubious claims and fake news of his own.
Pressed on his incorrect assertion that he had the largest margin of victory in the Electoral College since former President Reagan, Trump blamed faulty facts.
“I was given that information,” he said. “Well, I don’t know, I was given that information.”
During the news conference, Trump alternated between showering the media with scorn and taking a more playful tone.
At one point, he insisted he was enjoying himself. “I’m not ranting and raving - I love this,” he said. “I’m having a good time doing this.”
Trump’s Thursday performance seemed an acknowledgment, by the president, that he may be his own best press secretary and adviser, and allowed him to appear both confident and comfortable. While many of his comments, as well as the sometimes disjointed nature of his delivery, are certain to alarm official Washington, they are also the sorts of red-meat talking points t
hat delighted his base during the campaign and helped propel him to victory.
“I won with news conferences and probably speeches,” he told the assembled reporters. “I certainly didn’t win by people listening to you people.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate former Justice Department official R. Alexander Acosta as labor secretary after his first pick, fast-food executive Andy Puzder, withdrew.
If confirmed, Acosta would be the only Latino in Trump’s Cabinet.
“I think he’ll be a tremendous secretary of labor,” Trump said in announcing the pick at a White House news conference.
The Miami native and son of Cuban immigrants was assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under former President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2005. Acosta was the first Latino to serve as an assistant attorney general.
He then became U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, holding the job until 2009. Among his most high-profile cases was the prosecution of Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jack Abramoff on conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Abramoff pleaded guilty and served 43 months of a five-year, 10-month sentence.
Since 2009, Acosta has been dean of the law school at Florida International University in Miami.
Before joining the Justice Department, he served as a member of the National Labor Relations Board from 2002 to 2003. He began his legal career specializing in employment and labor issues in the Washington, D.C., office of the Kirkland & Ellis law firm.
“He has had a tremendous career,” Trump said, noting that Acosta has been confirmed by the Senate three times before.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will consider Acosta’s nomination, praised the pick and promised to “schedule a hearing promptly.”
“Mr. Acosta’s nomination is off to a good start because he’s already been confirmed by the Senate three times,” Alexander said. “He has an impressive work and academic background.”
Puzder, chief executive of Carpinteria, Calif.-based CKE Restaurants Inc., parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s chains, withdrew the day before his Senate confirmation hearing after several Republicans opposed him because of a series of controversies, including admitting he had for years employed a housekeeper who was in the United States illegally and decades-old allegations of spousal abuse.
Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said the Senate needed “to conduct a thorough review” of Acosta after Puzder’s failed nomination.
“Our next secretary of labor must fully respect our laws designed to protect American workers,” Henderson said.
Democrats, unions, workers’ rights advocates and civil rights groups strongly opposed Puzder’s nomination.
If confirmed by the Senate, Acosta would lead a department that includes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks and reports on job growth, wages and unemployment benefits.
Under President Barack Obama, the Labor Department was aggressive about protecting workers through new rules and enforcement actions. The Trump administration is expected to take a much different approach.
In January, the administration froze a regulation that would have extended overtime pay to 4 million more workers. This month, Trump issued a memo to the acting labor secretary calling for a review of a pending rule affecting retirement advisors. Known as the fiduciary rule, it requires investment brokers who handle retirement funds to put their clients’ interests ahead of other factors, such as their own compensation or company profits.
Republicans and key players in the financial industry have opposed the rule, saying it would drive up the cost of investments by forcing asset management firms to spend money on implementation and make it more difficult for average Americans to get retirement advice.
One issue from Acosta’s past that Democrats could jump on is a voting rights case in Ohio shortly before the 2004 presidential election. As assistant attorney general, Acosta filed a brief that supported the rights of citizens to challenge the eligibility of voters.
A civil rights lawyer representing the plaintiffs said at the time “the letter was highly irregular.” Bush narrowly won the state, which determined the outcome of his race with Democrat John Kerry.
FORT DRUM — Soldiers from the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade formally marked the launch of its deployment to Europe on Wednesday.
The deployment, a part of Operation Atlantic Resolve 2.0, will have soldiers mostly in Germany, with others spread to Latvia, Romania and Poland.
Col. Clair A. Gill, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade commander said the brigade will have “a dynamic presence from the Baltics to the Black Sea” during its deployment.
The Army has said that aviators will hold medical transport, exercise support and aviation operations roles during the deployment.
The mission will involve about 85 aircraft from the brigade, including Chinooks, Black Hawk and Apache helicopters, along with 700 pieces of support equipment were transported by the brigade for their mission.
Personnel from the 1st Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Texas, will also join brigade forces.
RENSSELAER FALLS — An older, two-story house on Front Street is being gutted and fixed up by volunteers from Raquette Valley Habitat for Humanity, marking the first time the local chapter has renovated a home rather than build from scratch.
“I think this is the way we will go moving forward,” said Habitat Board President William J. Fassinger, Canton. “It’s much less expensive than building new and it gets a piece of decaying property back on the tax rolls.”
The organization is seeking a partner family to reside in the 347 Front St. home which offers two bedrooms, a large backyard and 1.5 bathrooms. Renovation work is expected to finish in September and involves installing new flooring, plumbing, electrical upgrades, new exterior siding and other improvements.
“We completely gutted the house,” Mr. Fassinger said Wednesday. “It will be energy efficient and brought up to code.”
Habitat volunteers have been working with students from St. Lawrence University and SUNY Canton who have also donated their time toward the project.
On Friday several students from SUNY Canton’s Canino School of Engineering Technology are scheduled to install electric lines. In the coming weeks, others will do plumbing work.
“We’re doing everything we can to get the building trade students involved,” Mr. Fassinger said. “They learn first hand how to do this work and they’re also learning how they can give back.”
He said the home was purchased in late November for about $14,000 during a USDA property foreclosure auction. Over the past several years, Raquette Valley Habitat has built three new homes on Front Street for partner families who qualified for the program.
After attending a training session last year in Owego, Mr. Fassinger said it became clear that a growing number of habitat chapters are deciding to stretch their dollars by renovating existing homes rather than building new ones. Recycling older homes eliminates the time and cost involved with purchasing a parcel of land and when necessary, the expense of installing a well and septic system.
He said it’s expected to cost between $50,000 and $60,000 to renovate the Front Street home, but that could change depending on how much volunteer work and materials are donated toward the project. Building new would cost an estimated $85,000 to $90,000.
Bryan Washburn, Canton, is serving as construction manager and site supervisor. Don Lustyk, Norwood, is another habitat board member who has been at the home regularly since renovations started in December. Mr. Fassinger estimated that about 416 volunteer hours have already been spent at the house, which saves an estimated $11,477 in labor costs.
However, he said more help is always needed.
“We’re always looking for volunteers and we’re always looking for partner families,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty eclectic mix of people coming out to help. One is an airplane pilot, one is a biology professor at SLU.”
Raquette Valley is works with other agencies, including the North Country Housing Council and the USDA which works handles the financial part of the application process. Families interested in learning more about securing a habitat home should call 244-1335. The organization is also seeking new board members.
ALEXANDRIA BAY — The village’s Zoning Board of Appeals delayed a decision on approving a new River Hospital building as it continued its review of parking regulations.
The proposed hospital design includes 200 parking spots, 28 more than it currently has. However, the design is at least 40 spots away from complying with the village’s standing zoning policy, set in 1990.
Hospital advocates looking for a variance said the number of spots laid out in the design suited the hospital’s needs and helped the village.
“The parking situation is going to be better than it was last year, the year before and the year before that,” said hospital board member Ronald G. Thomson.
However, opponents argued the site didn’t meet existing zoning rules, the hospital’s application was incomplete and that the project may exacerbate parking issues in the village’s downtown.
“There’s deficiencies through the application,” said attorney Matthew Norfolk, of Briggs Norfolk, Lake Placid, who represents C.A.P. Marina Inc., which owns Horizon Marina on Sisson Street, near the hospital.
There was also disagreement about whether the project, which combines offices for primary and behavioral health care currently housed in nearby modular units, was a consolidation or an expansion of the hospital.
Village attorney Mark G. Gebo told the board not to rush the decision Thursday night.
“Have you given yourself enough time to review this?” he said.
The board agreed to take up the matter again on March 1, and called on the hospital to provide additional paperwork about the project.