Rhinebeck Museum trouble

[Whosaidrats]

While I'm at it, the article in question (Homeland Security?? Do they think anybody with any brains will believe that? It casts doubt on anything they say). I think it will eventually go in the archives and you won't be able to access it from the web site, so here it is. I'm also researching Poughkeepsie Journal archives for other Rhinebeck related stories in the last 6 or 7 years to see what else I can find--


Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Aerodrome looks to fix cash crisis

Several employees are fired

By Rasheed Oluwa
Poughkeepsie Journal

RED HOOK -- Changes are in the wind at the Old
Rhinebeck Aerodrome.

While aerodrome officials said the changes are designed
to improve the facility and make it more financially
stable, recent firings have prompted questions about
whether or not the aerodrome has a future at all.

Ken Cassens, a longtime mechanic and pilot at the
aerodrome, said he was fired and escorted off the
property by police this month.

''They hadn't given me a reason or written notice,'' he
said of aerodrome officials. ''They just said 'You're
terminated.' ''

The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome has been a national
fixture in the world of aviation and has replicas on loan
to several institutions, including the Smithsonian Institute
and USS Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.

The museum's collection dates to the early 1900s, with
pieces ranging from planes, engines and books to
motorcycles and clothing.

Air shows attract crowds

Weekend air shows, featuring vintage aircraft, and other
events typically draw thousands of spectators during the
warm weather months.

Cassens said he has completed about 90 percent of his
reproduction of the famed Sprit of St. Louis, the plane
Charles Lindbergh used during his historic 1927
transatlantic flight. He was gearing up for another
off-season of maintenance and repair work when he and
several other employees were let go.

Tom Daly, the museum's managing director, said the
firings were made partly because of dwindling funding
for the Spirit of St. Louis project. It was unclear how
many employees were fired.

And although the shop had been left open in recent
winters to allow for the completion of the Spirit project,
the aerodrome grounds typically have closed during the
offseason, with repairs taking place in Georgia.

''Every year at this time we close up and reopen the next
year,'' Daly said.

Now, the aerodrome is looking into ways to diversify its
funding streams and become less reliant on its popular,
but weather-reliant, air shows.

Terry McClinch, a member of the Aerodrome's board of
directors, said the museum plans to draft a new master
plan within the next 18 months. Likely changes include
expanding internship opportunities, community programs
and educational co-ops with local colleges. Other factors
also are contributing to the change in climate at the
aerodrome.

''We are undergoing several changes outlined in the new
homeland security measures,'' Daly said. ''It's all in line
with law enforcement. We wouldn't want our field to be
responsible for anything that affects everyone else.''

[Reggiemon]

Well I'm very sad to hear about this situation.
After Frank Ryders tragic loss, it would be a real blow to WW1 aviation lovers for Rhinebeck to "evolve" into something other than Cole Palens vision.
My best hopes that there will be a turnaround of events although I fear another WW1 institution will be scattered to the winds.
Best regards to all,
Reg Hinnant

Terry McClinch, what a joke! Terry is the proud President of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Museum Board of Trustees ( I personally think we should drop the trust part of trustee). Yet another wise decision by the board to elect such a person. Now Terry may not be such a bad guy, but he is not fit to be the president of the board. The year before he was elected as president, he attended only one board meeting in person, and a few on the phone. He was given the task of coming up with a long range plan. Now credit should be given to him because he agreed to take input from volunteers and employees. So Tom Polapink and I put together a long range plan based on all the Aerodrome Staff's ideas and opinions and submitted it to Terry McClinch. He was supposed to have a long range plan done in October of 2001. Then November 2001... Then December 2001. No plan. And now he is saying another year and a half? That'll make it about 3 and a half years overdue! And they complained about the Curtiss Jenny Restoration taking too long! And to my amazement they elected him president! And he accepted!
I was also a member of the fund raising committee. We had to stop raising money because we had no long range plan. We couldn't raise money because we had no direction, no concrete plans on what to raise money for.
The Article said that funds had run out for the spirit project. The governor's office donated $25K to the project. The donation was arranged so that the ORA was to submit receipts to the State, and the Sate would reimburse the ORA. Terry was in charge of this, and fell behind in submitting receipts. I've heard that the whole amount was not utilized. And I believe that there was a time limit by when the project was to be completed.
Another reason funds ran out is because one board member wanted the spirit account to be empty by the time the project was completed. So about 16,000 was taken from the Spirit account and put in the general fund. This board member said if that money was later needed for the spirit fund it would be made availiabe. He since has no recolection of that. Just another example of the board trying to kill the spirit project, and stomp on Cole's dream.
And as Paul Harvey says: Now you know the rest of the story.

[StolenCub]

From the Poughkeepsie Journal .... an editorial letter from someone who has been there - Thanks Kurt !

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/sunday/...p113003s4.shtml

You will all want to pick up a copy of the December Atlantic Flyer as well. It will have an article about ORA's trouble. I understand that "The Flying Farmer" tried to get it pulled, but to the AF's credit, it will run anyway.

Must be something the Board does not want people to look into if they are worried about a little piece of journalism which just asks questions......

Keep up the letters to the AG. Things are starting to snowball but we must keep up the effort.

[Paul Revere]

Glad to see that others find helicopter rides at ORA incompatible with its
tradition...and they ARE obnoxiously noisy.

I am also glad to see messages supporting Tom Polopink. Many of us know Tom through modelling as well as through ORA, and we know what an honest and hardworking man he is. He certainly put in twice the hours of a parttime job..the midnight oil really burned in the carriage house...but he was constantly undermined. Mean-spirited seems an understatement for the way he was treated when he was dismissed: no notice in the Rotary Ramblings newsletter giving him credit for what he had done and wishing him well, his name removed from the last articles he wrote which appeared in the newsletter, and, finally, adding insult to injury, a letter was sent to him requiring him to get permission to step foot onto the Aerodrome.

Mean-spirited is definitely too mild a word to use when describing what
went on that November Friday afternoon a few weeks ago. Staff were treated like dangerous perpetrators right out of "NYPD Blues". Locks were changed, sheriffs were called, entry was, and still is, forbidden to everyone, not just Ken and Scott, without an escort, and Scott and Ken were fired with no notice in the most brutal way. You've seen enough in these postings to know that neither deserved such a lack of consideration. It was a cop's style coup, but, obviously, with the Board's backing.

Tom Daly, current director, was quoted in the Poughkeepsie paper as
saying that Rhinebeck's shop has always been shut down in winter. NOT TRUE. Since Cole hired 3 full time mechanics in the late '70's, the shop has always been open in the winter, staffed by from one to three A&P's, and has done restoration on, among others, the New Standard,
the Jenny, the Triplane, the Davis, the Great Lakes and, of course,the Spirit. Tom Daly knows this, so why did he say the opposite to the newspaper? And as far as the "maintenance in Georgia", two airplanes have been sent there in the last few years, a New Standard, which was finished at least a year behind schedule, and was poorly finished and flew much worse than the other New Standard, eventually crashing with a full load at Oshkosh, resulting in a lawsuit against the Aerodrome-- and the Fokker Triplane, which was also delivered late. It was supposed to come back to Rhinebeck in the spring of 2002, ready to fly, and instead came back in the fall of 2002, missing a whole season, and requiring months of work to make flyable, partly because of poor work by the shop in Georgia, and partly because of work that they were supposed to have done but didn't.

The current lockdown has been explained by Daly as in line with Homeland Security precautions. Anyone who has ever been to ORA, especially if he has flown in between the trees onto its 2000 ft. bumpy grass strip, anyone familiar with its vintage collection, must be chuckling over that claim. Those who believe it must not be able to distinguish between a Jenny and a 747.

So..keep the emails coming. Let's see if those who care can make a
difference and save Cole's dream from the revisionists.

[rc-notyme]

The Pipe hit on something when he mentioned the WRAM event. Obviously the "board" won't be sending any ORA reps down there, so why don't as many of "us" as possible meet there in support of the real ORA. I don't know what the ORA's status will be at that time - we could be celebrating or it could be a defensive/ offensive ( to the current "board" for sure)strategy session. Hey Tom P. can we do an "unauthorized" presentation ?
That Saturday is good for me.....

Scott

[Paul Revere]

Here's another great quote from one of those people who think they know how to lead the ORA:

"Cole Palen was a dictator. That's not going to happen again."

I am a little late getting to the list but I found a great deal that I agree with. As a point of introduction I am a former Aerodrome employee from the days of Cole. My UserID "HereKat" is a reference to a wondereful memory of something Cole said so many times upon exiting the shop looking to give the Aerodrome's resident cat his/her breakfast. He was a wonderful man and a tremendous inspiration to all that were able to bask in his glow for a time. I can still hear his voice, still see him in the fading light out in the middle of the runway flying his peanut scale models, carefully recording the flight times for posterity (sp?).

Anyway I agree the "Board" is really screwing the pooch. I wonder what may come of the Aerodrome. As for Tom Daly the last time I was at the Aerodrome he was a very rude person to myself and my Wife and Children. As a result I have sent a strongly worded letter to the Aerodrome identifying him and Gene DeMarco as the reasons that I will no longer financially support the Aerodrome. No more money, no more mis-allocation of funding.

It has long been mystery to me how the Board can give so much support to someone like Gene DeMarco. Has anyone remembered the disgrace he brought on the Aerodrome with the "stolen Cub" incident. There are other instances of illegal activity in his past, I suppose for legal reasons I should not mention them here.

And as far a s the Helicopters go. Whether you think the fit in or not, I seem to recall that Cole really did not like having them at the Airport. I recall more than one occassion when someone showed up in a helicopter and Cole made it obvious he did not think they belonged at the Aerodrome.

The place is in trouble. The Vipers have moved in and the "long term plan" is - us the Aerodrome the further the lives of the Board members and the people they feel are on the inside.

[rc-notyme]

Has anyone been in touch with Mayer Costa ? He bailed not too long after the Standard incident at Oshkosh. Remember that he was acting pres. of BOTH boards at the same time. He literally assumed the role of Museum Pres. when A.K. resigned-I know, I was there to see it..... The charter was set up to prevent conflict of interest - to prevent the very problems that have emerged - an ultimate demonstration of the distain that the current "core" group apparently has for "checks and balances". Don't forget to include players from the Airshows board who MAY have been involved/ are involved - Stanley Seggala (sp?) and Jim Kick come to mind.
You know. I am really hoping that Mayer Costa was just blinded by his idealism and thus played like a fiddle by the others, sincere yet grossly misdirected........lets see if he has the decency to come forward. John, if you are listening you know this whole thing is NOT just going to quietly go way..... call me and lets have coffee..... better yet call the Att. Gen.

[dbahn]

Can someone link me to information on the Homeland security issue with ORA? It may be buried in here, but a direct link would help.