BREWSTER, THE HUB OF THE HAft l 'M VALLEY

VOL. CV1 NO. 6 Brewster, Putnam County, Thursday, July 13, 1978 Established 103 Years Price $7.00 Per Year

T Utility cancels plansfor new service center

New York State Electric & GasCorp. has dropped plans for anew service center for the Brew-ster area because constructionbids were considerably higherthan the estimate of the com-pany's consulting architects, saidJoseph J. Lucia, general man-ager - Southeast Area.

"We cannot justify spendingthe additional dollars necessaryfor the Brewster Service Centerwhile we are striving to keepenergy costs reasonable for ourcustomers," said Mr. Lucia.

"The bids were higher thananticipated because of inflationand extraordinary site develop-ment costs," he added. "Alter-natives such as reducing thebuilding size or quality wererejected after examination."

The multi-million dollar servicecenter, first proposed in 1973,would have consolidated the com-

THE BEST IN PUTNAM COUNTY-The color guard of the Brewster Volunteer Fire Department wasvoted the best over-all in the county following judging at the third annual parade of the Putnam CountyVolunteer Firemen's Assn. The two-and-a-half hour parade took place Saturday afternoon along Rte. 6in Mahupac. The Mahopac Fire Department hosted the county firemen's convention last week.COURIER Photo by Sonny Cohen

Court hearing to determine if public

to be excluded from Motti bail hearingMurder suspect Serge A. Motti

will be held in Ulster County Jailin Kingston without bail until at.least Friday, July 21, whenPutnam County Judge Frank C.Bowers will conduct a hearing todetermine whether the press andpublic should be barred from abail hearing for Motti.

Assistant District AttorneyStephen L. Greller applied toJudge Bowers last Friday to closethe bail hearing to protect therights of the defendant. Grellersaid that at the bail hearing theremight be testimony, which mightnot be admissable in the trial,that could prejudice propsectivejurors.

"I cannot and will not try ourcase in the newspapers," Grellertold Judge Bowers. The assistantDA said the state has a re-sponsibility to fully consider therights of defendants to a fair trialand that his application to closethe hearing was designed toprotect Motti from publicity thatcould prejudice his case.

Defense attorney Frank Luci-anna of Hackensack, N.J.. saidGreller had indicated In" con-ferences Friday that he wouldattempt to elicit information thatmight, be detrimental to Mottitrom several character witnessesthe defense planned to put on thestand at the bail hearing. In viewof that, Lucianna said he wouldjoin Greller in his application, "toprotect the rights of my client."

The bail hearing had beenscheduled originally for 1:30 p.m.Friday in the Putnam CountyCourthouse in Carmel, but wasdelayed as the lawyers were inclosed door conferences for anhour and a half. When thehearing was convened, Grellermoved to close it to the press andpublic. Judge Bowers then set ahearing on the closure motion forthe following Friday, but changedthe date to July 21 after Grellerand Lucianna conferred with himat the bench. The judge said thebail hearing will take placeshortly after the closure hearingon July 21. •

Judge Bowers then asked thefour press representatives at thehearing to give their names andaddresses to the court steno-grapher so they can receiveofficial notification of the closurehearing, and of their right to berepresented by counsel at thathearing. He also asked the courtclerk, the assistant DA and de-fense counsel for the names ofany media organizations or re-presentatives who had contactedthem on the case so notificationwould be sent to them also.

At the beginning of the hearingFriday, New York City attorneyHoward Cerny applied to haveLucianna be admitted as trialcounsel for Motti. Cerny, aformer chief assistant districtattorney for Queens County, saidhe would be counsel to Luciannato advise him on New York law.

Lucianna is a member of the NewJersey bar.

Under questioning by JudgeBowers, Motti declared that hewanted Lucianna to representhim. Greller told the judge thatthe district attorney's office hadno objection to the application.Lucianna told Bowers that he hasbeen involved in murder cases inNew Jersey and and is a memberin good standing of the NewJersey bar. Judge Bowers thengranted the application to permitLucianna to represent the murdersuspect.

Motti was arrested four daysafter he allegedly shot and killedRosemarie Robert, an interna-tionally known dog breeder, andher assistant, Rosalie Ramos, atMrs. Robert's Dinro Kennels inKent Cliffs on March 21.

Benefit party

for societyThe Putnam County Historical

Society riverfront cocktail partywill be held at the home of Mr.and Mrs. Taylor Belcher on theGarrison shore Friday, July 14, at6 p.m.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Vroomanand Mr. and Mrs. MichaelLangevin will be assisting Mr.and Mrs. Belcher in arranging fora most pleasant evening for thosewho wish to support the society inthis fundraising activity.

pany's complex of operations andoffices now located in Brew-ster and vicinity. The companyowns a 24-acre tract in NorthSalem off Field's Lane in thetown's industrial park, which ithad proposed as the site of thenew service center.

"We regret not being able tobuild this service center for ourcustomers in the Brewster area,"Mr. Lucia said, "but our desire to

. keep energy costs as low aspossible prevents us from spend-ing money beyond our originalcommitment to this project."

The proposed 90,000 square-foot service center would have'replaced the present Brewsteroperating center and Would havehoused the garage, storeroom,engineering, operating, line andmeter departments with about200 employees.

Enoch Crosby DAR thanks

Sybil Ludington supportThe Enoch Crosby Chapter of

the Daughters of the AmericanRevolution wish to thank all thosewho have responded to theirappeal for help with the SybilLudington Statue liability insur-ance.

In 1977, when the demand forinsurance was first made, theCarmel Jaycees were the first tooffer help. Since then they havekept the grass cut around thestatue and provided periodicclean up of the trash thrownbehind the statue and theirPresident, Clifford Oster, Jr.,cleaned Sybil's mouth.

In 1977 the DAR also had a verygenerous anonymous donor fromMahopac.

Since the appeal in 1978, theDAR has had a generous re-sponse from the Knights of

Columbus, Our Lady of the LakesCouncil 6318; the Kiwanis Club ofPutnam County, Inc., the LakeCarmel-Kent Chamber of Com-merce, which will be an annualdonor; the Catholic Daughters ofAmerica Court, Our Lady of theLake, and three private citizens;Mrs. John F. Power Jr. Miss

-Alida C. Agor and Mrs. CordeliaInman and last but not leastthanks to the men who put thesnow fence.around the statue toprotect it during the St. JamesBazaar.

It is very gratifying to theEnoch Crosby Chapter, NSDARthat so many people consider thebeautiful statue of Sybil Luding-ton on the shore of Lake Gleneidato be a symbol of Putnam Countysaid Faith Healy, DAR agent.

Woman killed, 3 injuredas car crashes into train

A woman was killed and threeother persons were injuredseriously Saturday nieht when thecar in which they were ridingcollided with a Conrail commutertrain at Towners Crossing on Rte.164 in Patterson.

The dead woman was identifiedas Marguerite Orr of FortLauderdale, Fla. The PutnamCounty Sheriffs Office said thewoman reportedly was thrownfrom the car when it collided withthe train as it went through thecrossing. Conrail officials saidwarning lights were flashing atthe crossing when the trainapproached it.

Investigators said the train'sengineer reported he never sawthe car, but heard something hitthe train as it crossed Rte. 164.

There were no injuries to passen-gers on the train, bound fromDover Plains to Brewster, policesaid.

Injured were Maurice Johns,70, reported in critical conditionat Putnam Community Hospital,Carmel; Raymond Vogt, 54, ofLong Island, reported in stablecondition at Putnam CommunityHospital, and his wife, Gertrude,also reported in stable conditionat Phelps Memorial Hospital inNorth Tarrytown.

HEADS CONSERVATION

David L. Weld of Katonah,has been named Lower Hudsonfield director of the NatureConservancy, the national landconservation group.