And oh what a winter it was…for the meeting on Saturday 1/25/03.  It had already snowed 2 feet plus for Christmas and New Year's.  It was the perfect time to discuss some of our issues with spring flooding - which we did, as a small but very interested group of Stony Clove residents met at the Phoenicia Elementary School.

Frank Falatyn chaired the meeting.

Greene County Soil & Water Conservation District was represented by René VanSchaack and Amy DeGaetano.  Mark Vian was there for NYC DEP.

Amy filled us in on work that had already been done in some of the trouble spots we identified at the October
meeting. 

René discussed the demonstration project at Broad Street Hollow in partnership with Ulster County and area residents.  This is the type of effort we hope to see for the Stony Clove watershed.  René explained how the demonstration project was selected - a remedial project big enough to make a difference but manageable enough to be finished within a certain timeframe and budget allowance.  These criteria will be used in selecting our project as well. 

Mark emphasized that the project would not have been successful without the interest and input of the Broad Street Hollow residents.

We had many questions about the status of our watershed project at this time.  Mark provided the following information:

· The Management Plan for Stony Clove should be finished by this Fall (2003).
· Several objectives are covered in the plan -- property threats (e.g. bank erosion), reservoir water quality, and habitat for fish and other wildlife.
· Each of the 21 management segments in the plan will have its own chapter addressing these issues.  It is important that we provide input for the stream sections that apply to our individual properties.  Those of us at the meeting passed the map around and marked our homesites - at future meetings, we would like to get all residents' sites marked on the map.
· This Spring, the DEP and Greene County will be mailing to property owners in designated target sites regarding streamside planting.  DEP will make some planting recommendations for these sites along the Stony Clove and will have monies available to help with the purchase of plants.  Similarly, there are several alternative sources of labor assistance including volunteer help from organizations like the Boy Scouts, Trout Unlimited and eager neighborhood residents.  We need to make sure that we respond to this mailing in order to take advantage of this opportunity.

We also discussed landowner rights and responsibilities and agreed that this should be covered in more depth at a future meeting.  As part of this topic, Robyn Awand is providing a list of contacts in the various local, county, state and federal regulatory agencies that we deal with as property owners in the watershed.

We discussed the availability of funds to hire a part time Association Coordinator to provide the professional energy and skills for our group.  Mark Vian emailed potential funding sources which can be discussed at the next meeting.

We also continued the discussion of the mission and the structure of our Association.  We agreed that it will take some time for us to finalize our thoughts on this topic.

The next meeting of Stony Clove Residents Association will be Saturday April 12, 2003 from 10am - Noon at the Phoenicia Elementary School.  Coffee and tea will be served.  Please feel free to bring "breakfast treats."  Let us know if you're coming or if you have any questions - call Meredith Altman at 845-688-7293.