Earlier this month, schoolchildren across the Catskills learned about fire safety during National Fire Prevention Week. Here's Gianna Muellerleile, daughter of Shandaken ambulance captain Rich Muellerleile, suiting up for the cause. Rich, who sometimes writes a safety column for us, advises sagely: "No matter what calamity you deal with, it is much more easily addressed by preventing it altogether than having to deal with its aftermath." As the kids say: True dat. Photo by Jake Millman.
It's been a gorgeous October, Catskills, but it looks like the cold weather is upon us at last. Time to break out the winter sweaters, fire up the woodstove (safely!), and make sure your kid's Halloween costume isn't too skimpy. (Remember Snowtober 2011?)
The November elections are just around the corner -- and so is New York State's referendum on casino gambling, which recently survived a legal challenge that sought to block it from appearing on the ballot. The New York Times has a story today on the opposition to the ballot measure, which they describe as a motley crew of underfunded but hopeful crusaders:
The opposition is a ragtag array of religious conservatives who associate gambling with social ills, liberal intellectuals who see gambling as a form of regressive taxation, and skeptics who believe that Mr. Cuomo has overstated the economic promise of his casino plan. They are trying to fight a feisty but largely cost-free campaign involving data, debates and the occasional sledgehammer.
“We’d love to have a white knight ride in,” said Dave Colavito, a former microchip engineer, a current deer hunter and an unpaid spokesman for the Coalition Against Gambling who lives in Rock Hill, in Sullivan County. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Also in the Gray Lady today: A story about the Cuomo administration's effort to lure downstaters north, with a series of splashy subway ads featuring various upstate attractions. Looks like we've got an uphill battle on our hands:
Alexa Johnson, 20, from the Bronx, said she had enjoyed past journeys north, to a point. “I like it, but not for really long,” she said. “Maybe two, three hours.”
For others, doubts persisted. Alex Fernandez, 18, from Harlem, who aspires to be an international chef, suggested the train’s shots of majestic foliage would not fool him. “Upstate is grass, houses, Fourth of July fireworks,” he said. “I’d rather go to Spain.”
Trick and treat: A Saugerties High student recently admitted to baking a batch of pot brownies and feeding them to classmates on a school trip to Salem. Five teenagers ended up in the hospital, including the baker; he will face felony drug charges in a Massachusetts court.
Congressman Chris Gibson visited SUNY Sullivan on Monday for a symposium on rural broadband. The Times Herald-Record, which covered the event, reports that 5 percent of Ulster County residents and 6 percent of Sullivan County residents lack access to broadband. That's bad, but elsewhere in the Catskills, it's worse: According to data from New York State's Broadband Mapping Project, 8 percent of households in Greene County, 18 percent in Delaware County, and 21 percent in Schoharie County don't have access to wired data networks.
Local hero of the month: 25-year-old Catskill resident Joseph Distefano, whose lightning-fast action saved a man trapped in a burning car on Route 145 in Cairo last week:
“He was screaming, ‘Dont let me die.’ He was panicking,” said Distefano. “It was scary. I thought the car was going to blow up or something. I was just thinking, ‘My God, please let me get this guy out.’”
In local small-town government news: Town of Ulster officials say if they stop hiring their own brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins, they won't be able to keep the town running. Supervisor John Quigley tells the Freeman, somewhat testily:
“If the town were to stickily enforce ... a prohibition against hiring family members of current town employees, we would cut our workforce in half,” Quigley said.
We see a lot of mugshots in our line of work. But we've never seen any as smiley as these NYSP shots of two young Delhi men, who were recently charged with "unlawfully dealing with a child" after a party that featured a fair amount of underage drinking. These guys are really working the camera. (Especially Mr. Schenck, who looks absolutely delighted with himself.)
If you ran an insurance company, would you insure Monticello? The Sullivan County Democrat reports that Sullivan County's most dysfunctional village recently lost its second insurer since 2007, and has had to enter into a contract with an insurer that specializes in "troubled municipalities." The village has been the target of no less than 118 lawsuits since 2007, the paper reports.
Speaking of dysfunction: The Schoharie News has been doggedly following the progress of the "Fitzmaurice Report," a hefty tome compiled by a law firm that interviewed hundreds of Schoharie County employees about discrimination, harassment and intimidation on the job. The report was slated for public release last Friday, but the county Board of Supervisors opted to delay it. Stay tuned for this Thursday, when it is due (again) to be released.
The Watershed Post is working on a Release Protocol for the NewsShed, our sporadically-erupting roundup of news, weather and hot bloggy goodness from around the Catskills. Got a hot tip or a photo for the NewsShed? Email us at [email protected].
