Body found in Delaware River identified from dental records

By Lissa Harris
5/17/13 - 4:31 pm

A man whose body was found floating in the Delaware River near Tusten on Saturday, May 4 has been identified from dental records.

Police say the man, whose body was found by canoeists, is 56-year-old James Estes of Nicholson, PA. Estes was reported missing to Pennsylvania state police on April 25.

An autopsy conducted by Dr. Margaret Prial on May 5 was unable to determine the cause of death. Police do not suspect foul play in Estes's death.

Earthquake in Canada rattles upstate NY

By Lissa Harris
5/17/13 - 10:39 am

Above: A screenshot of the USGS's "Did You Feel It" map for an earthquake that struck northwest of Ottawa on Friday morning.

Update, 10:43am: The USGS has revised their initial 5.0 estimate for the earthquake down to 4.4. 

A 4.4 earthquake that struck northwest of Ottawa, Canada at 9:43am on Friday, May 17 was felt far and wide. 

Dozens of upstate New Yorkers are chiming in on the National Weather Service in Binghamton's Facebook wall to report feeling tremors. Reports of the quake are also flooding in on Twitter. A few:

   Read more

Margaretville man charged with Woodstock burglaries

By Lissa Harris
5/17/13 - 9:35 am

A Margaretville man is facing burglary charges for allegedly breaking into two Woodstock businesses and stealing property. 

On Wednesday, May 15, state police arrested 25-year-old Joshua Nava, who is charged with burglary in the third degree. Police did not name the businesses, but said the burglaries occurred on Sunday, May 12. The stolen property was recovered, police said.

Nava was arraigned in the Town of Woodstock Court and released on his own recognizance. Town of Woodstock police officers assisted with the investigation.

This weekend: New Paltz Bike Swap

By Lissa Harris
5/16/13 - 3:14 pm

Photo from the 2012 New Paltz Bike Swap, from the event's Facebook page.

Old bikes, new bikes, red bikes, blue bikes: On Saturday, May 18, the New Paltz Middle School will play host to a huge sale and swap meet for all manner of two-wheeled devices.

Admission is free, and participants can buy or sell bicycles, gear, parts, or cycling apparel. Volunteers will be on hand at the swap meet to help price and tag items -- so if you have a bike to sell, bring it along. 

Now in its sixth year, the New Paltz Bike Swap is a fundraiser for the Fats In The Cats bicycle club. Of each sale at the swap, 20 percent goes to the club's community work: Fats In The Cats builds and maintain local trails, promotes bicycling in the region, and holds a holiday bicycle giveaway for children.

6th Annual New Paltz Bike Swap. New Paltz Middle School, 196 Main Street, New Paltz. Saturday, 5.18.2013, 9am-3pm. Free admission. For more information, see newpaltzbikeswap.com.

Tkaczyk proposes ban on out-of-state fracking waste

By Lissa Harris
5/16/13 - 12:38 pm

State senator Cecilia Tkaczyk, an outspoken opponent of hydrofracking, is proposing new legislation that would prohibit out-of-state drillers from disposing of fracking waste in New York State.

On Wednesday, Tkaczyk held a press conference about the proposed bill. In a prepared statement, Tkaczyk argues that if New York State is still on the fence about whether to allow hydrofracking, it doesn't make much sense for the state to accept toxic waste from Pennsylvania drill sites. From the statement:

Senator Tkaczyk’s bill would ban “the treatment, discharge, disposal, transportation or storage of high volume hydraulic fracturing waste products in New York State.” While this type of fracking is not currently being conducted in New York, landfills and treatment facilities in the state are accepting tens of thousands of tons of fracking waste from sites in Pennsylvania.  Read more

Crash that killed Prattsville town justice under investigation

By Lissa Harris
5/15/13 - 11:24 am

Longtime Prattsville resident Donald Olson -- a Prattsville town justice, former clerk of the Greene County Legislature, and deeply involved member of the close-knit Prattsville community -- was killed in a head-on collision on Route 23 in Windham on Thursday, May 9. He was 71.

The driver of the second car, who was badly injured in the crash, has been identified as 48-year-old Kathleen McNeil-Blount, the Daily Mail reports. Nearly a week after the fatal crash, police are still investigating the horrific accident:

Police said Tuesday they are still trying to determine what caused a vehicle driven by Kathleen McNeil-Blount of Jewett to cross the yellow line and smash head-on into a car driven by Donald Olson, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

No charges have been filed, the paper reports.  Read more

Apple blossoms in Monticello

By Julia Reischel
5/14/13 - 8:38 am

Frost? What frost? 

If the blossoms and buds made it through the last night's cold temperatures, they'll come out looking like these apple blossoms, shot by John of Catskills Photography in Monticello on May 5 and submitted to the Watershed Post Flickr pool. 

Snow today, hard freeze on the way

By Lissa Harris
5/13/13 - 1:56 pm

Proof that there really are only two seasons in the Catskills -- winter and the Fourth of July. Photo taken at 1:45pm on Monday, May 13 at the Watershed Post's headquarters in New Kingston. 

As if the snow falling out of the sky wasn't warning enough: Gardeners across the region should be alert for fast-dropping temperatures. A freeze warning has been issued by the National Weather Service covering a large swath of eastern New York and western New England.

The tune that saved the Ashokan Center

By Lissa Harris
5/13/13 - 9:52 am
See video

Above: The Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band performs "Ashokan Farewell" at the Folk Alley studio in 2011.

You know the tune. The first two notes give it away. By the third note, it has you already transfixed in some haunting memory, whether you've heard it a few times or a few hundred.

In a recent feature, New York Times reporter Dennis Gaffney tells the story of how fiddler Jay Ungar's bittersweet "Ashokan Farewell" -- a modern composition with the soul of a Civil War ballad -- rescued the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge from the brink of oblivion. 

('Oblivion' being, in this case, New York City's watershed land acquisition program, which was poised to swallow the old SUNY New Paltz environmental education center until Ungar stepped in to broker a deal.)  Read more

Man arrested after burglary and car chase in Shandaken

By Lissa Harris
5/13/13 - 8:42 am

A burglary at the American Legion Post 950 in Shandaken and a car chase down Route 28 on Saturday ended with the arrest of a Dutchess County man, police say. 

On Saturday, Shandaken police and New York State troopers responded to a burglar alarm at the American Legion hall at 1045 Old Route 28, and found that the hall had been burglarized.

According to a New York State Police statement, after arriving on the scene, police broadcast a description of a suspicious vehicle to responding officers. State troopers saw a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle on Route 28, and attempted to stop it. Driver Daniel P. Touhy fled eastbound on Route 28, pursued by troopers, and was taken into custody in Kingston. 

Touhy, a 45-year-old resident of Lagrangeville, is charged with possession of stolen property in the third degree, unlawfully fleeing a police officer in the third degree, driving while intoxicated, and several traffic offenses. He was arraigned in Town of Hurley Court and remanded to the Ulster County Jail without bail.  Read more