After a year in office, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens told his staff in a memo issued on February 23 that he was "especially proud of the DEC's response to Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee." But he forgot to mention Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in a list of the agency's disaster accomplishments.
The staff at Belleayre housed and fed 160 people during the floods last fall, working around the clock as a refugee center, shelter, and medical center. To people made homeless by the flood in Delaware, Ulster, and Greene county, Belleayre was a lifeline.
But while Martens praised DEC forest rangers, remediation staff, dam safety workers, water division staff, central office staff, and solid waste staff, somehow Belleayre staffers weren't on the list.
DEC spokesperson Emily DeSantis calls the omission "an oversight." As soon as it was discovered, she said, Commissioner Martens revised his letter "to recognize all DEC divisions involved with the storm response."
Indeed, a new letter was sent out on March 1, this time praising Belleayre's role in the aftermath of the floods.
You can read both the new letter and the revised version below.
