The Fonda Blog

Atlantic Energy Solutions Exceeds Expectations for Fonda-Fultonville Schools

Ascribe News – September 02, 2008

Minneapolis, MN – Atlantic Energy Solutions announced that its guaranteed savings projections for the Fonda-Fultonville School District have been exceeded by over 25 percent.

Energy Efficiency Excellence

The Co-Generation project was the first off-grid Co-Generation plant approved by the New York State Education Department and built by an Energy Services Company (ESCO) in New York State. In addition, Atlantic Energy Solutions was able to help provide the school district with a grant of over $500,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the company said.

Tim Brock, CEO, of Atlantic Energy Solutions, said, “As a result of the sharp increase in utility rates over the last several years, businesses have been aggressively searching for new ways to become energy efficient. Co-generation plants have emerged as a cost-effective alternative, resulting in thousands of dollars in savings”. Brock went on to say, “The most gratifying part for my job is to see such huge savings realized for each and every one of our customers.”

In the Fonda-Fultonville project, the company said, Atlantic Energy Solutions installed four 330KW gas driven generators that produce 100 percent of the school’s electrical needs. This enables the school to produce 100 percent its own electricity and frees them from being connected to the local utility electric grid. The heat that is generated from the units is recycled into the facility’s heating and cooling systems, resulting in an additional 55 percent savings on its total energy budget.

The Co-Gen units, manufactured by Cummins and the control system, manufactured by Invensys, produce electricity from natural gas while simultaneously providing heating and cooling for the buildings as well as heating the pool year around, saving the district thousands of dollars annually, the company said.

written by admin \\ tags: Buildings, Education, New York, News, Schools

Lawyer violated stream protection law, police say

The Daily Freeman – August 30, 2008

Mount Tremper, CT – A Mount Tremper man was arrested after operating a backhoe in a protected stream, despite repeated warnings from state Environmental Conservation Police to cease his activities, police said Friday.

Esopus Creek in Mount Tremper

On Aug. 6, Environmental Conservation Police received a complaint from the Shandaken Town Zoning Office about a backhoe in the Esopus Creek, which is protected by the state, off Plank Road. Police charged Algernon Reese, an attorney, with the misdemeanor of disturbing a protected stream, punishable by up to a year in jail or a $10,000 fine, and released him with an appearance ticket for Shandaken Town Court.

Police received another complaint on Wednesday, and found Reese again working at the stream with construction equipment and a small team of contractors. Police said Reese obstructed Environmental Conservation Officer Vernon Fonda‘s investigation, and was arrested.

Reese was charged with the misdemeanors of obstructing governmental administration, disturbing a protected stream, and violating a general prohibition against pollution. “The charges are pending, and he’s right back there 20 days later,” said Lt. Deming Lindsley. “The blatant disregard for what the law indicates makes us very concerned.”

When Fonda attempted to interview the contractors, Reese prevented him, saying he represented them as counsel and forbade them from speaking to him, Lindsley said. Lindsley said that it appeared that Reese was trying to control the stream and prevent flooding from reaching his property. His property lies in the Esopus floodplain.

“He’s put in concrete barries, built mounds, dug trenches,” Lindsley said. “He’s fighting against Mother Nature.” Lindsley said Reese had been “observed comitting violations” for nearly 10 years, but had used his skills as an attorney to fend off accusations. Reese was arrraigned in Shandaken Town Court and released on $5,000 bail.

written by admin \\ tags: Environmental, Government, News

Senate Passes Legislation to Change Political Science Academic Policy

The New Paltz Oracle – March 27, 2008

Legislation recently passed by the student senate might help political science students double majoring in an outside department gain dual credits for shared electives in two majors.

SUNY New Paltz Student Government

On March 4 Sen. Jeff Fonda proposed Resolution 3 at the student senate meeting that could reverse the political science department’s policy of not allowing elective classes to be counted twice for two different majors.  “A lot of students weren’t aware of the policy until I brought it to their attention,” Fonda said.

“Students should be rewarded for putting in the extra work to have dual majors. Sometimes it’s not possible to have dual majors without having overlap unless they want to spend extra time and money in college.”  The legislation says that the political science department is the only department to have a policy listed on its Web site that, “Courses used to meet the requirements of any other major or minor may not be used to meet the requirements of this major.”

It is unclear whether or not this policy is unique within the university. The only defined college-wide policy can be found in the Student Advising Handbook, stating that in all departments there must be a 15 credit difference between the first and second major.  (…)

written by admin \\ tags: Education, Government, News

Visit the Fonda DNA Group and be one of the first to compare your chromosomes!

By comparing your DNA Ancestry test results with others, you can determine to what extent you are related. For example, the more closely your result set matches another’s, the narrower the range of generations between the two of you and your common ancestor.

What can DNA do for Genealogy?

The type of testing performed by DNA Ancestry is limited to areas of DNA that have the greatest application to genealogy which reveal insight into family relatedness. The portion of DNA tested is within the non-coding regions and do not provide distinguishing information about an individual such as hair color.

DNA Strands

While DNA testing in general has a promising future as a tool for predicting one’s chances for developing disease such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer; DNA Ancestry does not perform medical diagnostic testing on any of its DNA samples.

DNA Ancestry protects your privacy by allowing you to make your DNA results anonymous. Doing so hides your Ancestry.com username, but allows your DNA results to still be matched with others in the DNA Ancestry database. So even if you have chosen to keep your username hidden, you can still discover genetic cousins and, if the match is close enough, contact them safely and anonymously.

As the DNA Ancestry database grows, we will automatically compare your result against each new entry. If a close match is found, you will receive an e-mail with a link to a page that describes how your two test results match. You can now begin communicating with your genetic cousin using Ancestry.com’s Connection Service as the first step towards comparing the genealogies of your two families.

Links: Eye on DNA – How will it change your life?; Family Tree DNA Tutorial; Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation; The Genetic Genealogist;

written by admin \\ tags: DNA, General, Medical

Marriage of Jelles Douwes and Hester Douwedr

This is a microfilm copy of the original Banns (marriage vows) between Jelles Douwes and Hester Douwedr in 1641. Surnames were not used at the time in Holland. Douwes means son of Douw, Douwedr means daughter of Douw… they were not related, that we know of. The first image is the Baans certificate and the second is the register (Jilles and Hester are the second of three couples shown). Can anyone translate this into English?

written by admin \\ tags: Holland, Marriages, Surnames