Untitled (13)Reprieve For Stony Kill
Stony Kill will stay open.
The two state legislature
ommittees responsible for
eviewing New York's 1978-
9
97&9 budget last week allocated
100,000 to the Department of
,nvironmental Con-
ervation to run the 700 -acre
ducational center located
ff Route 9D in Wappinger
,nd Fishkill.
DEC officials earlier this
aonth had threatened to
-lose down the center if at
east $50,000 was not
allocated to Stony Kill by the
egislature.
They said that they could
A operate the center at
!ven a minimum level
without the money.
Bill Reiner, the head of the
citizens foundation for Stony
Kill and a leader in the fight
for funds, says that the state
senate's finance committee
and the state assembly's
ways and means committee
agreed to add the ap-
propriations to the budget
last week.
Both houses of the
legislature are expected to
vote on the budget later this
week. Reiner says he sees no
reason why the Stony Kill
appropriation will be
changed.
"We got the money thanks
to the efforts of Senator
(Jay) Rolison and an old
friend," Reiner commented
Saturday. The `old friend"
is Jim Biggan, the secretary
of the senate finance com-
mittee and a former head of
the DEC. Biggan was DEC
commissioner when the
department took over Stony
Kill four years ago.
The money will be used to
hire several teaching and
farming personnel for the
farm, and will allow the
department to initiate new
agricultural education
programs there.
The fight to gain funding
for the center has lasted
several months, and ap-
peared to have been won
earlier in the year when
governor Hugh Carey in-
dicated that he would include
at least $50,000 for Stony Kill
in his tentative budget.
For reasons that have
never been fully explained,
the $50,000 was not in the
budget when it was sub-
mitted to the legislature
earlier this month.
The fight to have the
money appropriated began
anew, with DEC officials
vowing to close the center
and saying that they would
consider giving up the farm
if the money wasn't ap-
propriated.
DEC officials also leaked
word that the state Division
For Youth was interested in
using the property as a home
for juvenile delinquents.
While it was true that other
state agencies were looking
at the property, it appears
that the rumors were merely
part of the campaign to get
full funding for the center.
-Jim DeFelice