The other Catskill: A village with a branding problem

By Lissa Harris
4/15/13 - 2:04 pm

Catskill: Not a bunch of mountains in upstate New York. Photo by Flickr user Doug Kerr; published under Creative Commons license.

You've got to feel for the village of Catskill. It's forever getting confused with the Catskills -- a region that the little waterfront village of Catskill, perched on the west bank of the Hudson River at the feet of the mountains, isn't quite part of.

To make things even more confusing, it's one of those upstate New York villages that shares a name with the much larger town that surrounds it. (The region is full of them: Coxsackie, New Paltz, Cobleskill, Schoharie, Middleburgh.)   Read more

This weekend: Woodstock Writers Festival comes to town -- and to your living room

By Anne Pyburn Craig
4/15/13 - 11:05 am
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Above: Filmmaker Dennis O'Clair offers a sneak peek at what's in store at the fourth annual Woodstock Writers Festival. 

The fourth annual Woodstock Writers Festival takes as its mission “bringing the hottest names in literature to the coolest town in the world" -- and just as when a warm and cold front collide on high, expect sonic booms and pyrotechnics.

Martha Frankel, the festival's executive director, says Woodstock is the perfect scene for all these literary goings-on.

“There’s the laid-back thing,” Frankel said. “And Woodstock is very small -- there’s no getting away from things. If you want to come and meet writers you’ll meet them; there’s nowhere for them to hide…Planning this is like playing with a chemistry set; sometimes things ignite and you never know what will happen."

There's a matchmaking element to the festival, too.  Read more

Water main break in Coxsackie shuts down Route 385

By Lissa Harris
4/15/13 - 9:29 am

A water main break in the village of Coxsackie that occurred around 2am Monday has shut down Route 385, put the village under a boil-water alert, and delayed the opening of schools in the village.

A message posted on NY-Alert this morning states that Route 385 (Mansion Street) is closed between Route 9W and Apple Blossom Lane, and instructs drivers to use Plank Road and Bailey Street.

An emergency alert system message from the village sent out to subscribers at 7:15am states that it may be a day or two before the main break can be fixed:

Temporary water supply to the Village is be made by the FD, lower pressure may be experienced. Engineers are on site determining a permanent fix to the 18” main line which may take between 24-36 hours from now.

Mansion St. is closed is the area of Apple Blossom Rd. and a detour is in effect. The boil water remains in effect for the Village only.

Additional alerts will be sent as information becomes available.  Read more

This weekend: Green energy on display in Rosendale

By Anne Pyburn Craig
4/12/13 - 4:52 pm

Above: Retrofitters at work transforming a Rosendale home into a model of energy efficiency. Photo courtesy of Manna Jo Greene.

The Festival Town -- site of the first green-built, geothermal community center in the state -- will be ahead of the enviro-curve as usual this weekend. The 2013 Rosendale Energy Expo takes over the Rosendale Recreation Center on Saturday with “Retrofitting For Resilience: Preparing our Homes and Businesses for the 21st Century.”

Co-sponsored by NYSERDA, Central Hudson, and the upstate New York chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Expo will focus on a deep energy retrofit pilot project underway right now that’s transforming a leaky, creaky older home into a lean, green, energy-efficient machine. Those in attendance will enjoy an afternoon of education about the project from the builder, the homeowner, and experts on building science and the financing that helps make it all possible. After the Expo, from 5 to 6pm, there will be a site visit and group tour of the retrofit project.  Read more

Heroin and pot bust on Route 32 in Saugerties

By Lissa Harris
4/12/13 - 3:13 pm

The area around Vinnie's Farm Market on Route 32 in Saugerties just got a little safer, cops say. 

An investigation into ongoing complaints of heroin sales near the fruit stand has yielded an arrest. On Tuesday, the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team executed a search warrant at the Route 32 home of 29-year-old John Tyler Kuhn, just down the street from the Saugerties farmstand, after an undercover officer purchased heroin from Kuhn.

The search at Kuhn's house turned up 190 bags of heroin, an indoor marijuana grow operation, packaged marijuana, drug packaging materials and electronic scales. Police are also holding $5000 in cash and a 2003 Mercedes Benz, which are pending seizure. 

Kuhn faces charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, criminal possession of marijuana in the second degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and two counts of criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree.   Read more

DEP to clean up hundreds of Sandy-felled trees at Ashokan Reservoir

By Lissa Harris
4/12/13 - 10:31 am

Photo of Ashokan Reservoir Fountain by Flickr user ianbckwltr; published under Creative Commons license.

Part of the public area near the Ashokan Reservoir Fountain will be closed until April 25 while a contractor cleans up hundreds of trees damaged or felled during Hurricane Sandy, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection announced Thursday. 

The closed area is on the east side of the park near the fountain, off Route 28A in the town of Olive. The unaffected portion of the park will continue to be open to the public from dawn to dusk.

According to the DEP's announcement, Sandy caused widespread damage to the trees in a 15-acre area near the reservoir, mostly Norway spruce and white pine. The tree removal will be done by a private timber harvester, who will remove the trees at no cost to the city, and pay the DEP for the harvested trees. The agency says the trees will be recycled into lumber -- enough to build almost 25 homes.   Read more

WJFF manager resigns amid controversy

By Lissa Harris
4/11/13 - 4:40 pm
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Above: Part one of a video of a contentious WJFF board meeting held on March 20. You can see part two below.

A public spat over the management of WJFF, a community public radio station broadcasting at 90.5 FM from Jeffersonville, came to a head Wednesday night when station manager Winston Clark resigned at a station board meeting. 

In March, the Times Herald-Record reported, a simmering dispute over programming between the station's board of directors and a large group of volunteers erupted in outright conflict after a popular program was abruptly pulled off the air.

At a WJFF board meeting last month, several dozen volunteers crowded into the station to demand change in the station's management:

"Don't just ask me for money, ask for my opinion when you're going to change a program," former station manager Christine Ahern said. "You're not listening to us. That's why a lot of us are here."  Read more

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This weekend: Local writers let loose at the Peekamoose

By Anne Pyburn Craig
4/11/13 - 11:25 am

Photo from Peekamoose's Facebook page.

Storytelling and good food have gone together since time immemorial. This Sunday evening, the Peekamoose Restaurant in Big Indian celebrates both, with “Talking With Our Mouths Full: An Evening of Stories about Food."

Sunday's adventure in locavore lore will feature Catskills writers Carrie Bradley Neves, Tony Fletcher, JD Louis, Jennifer Kabat, Jessie Koester, Bethany Saltman, Eric Steinman, and Kitty Sheehan, each of whom will get 8 minutes to wax lyrical about their relationship with food. Admission is free, though we suggest you pony up $10 for wine and snacks -- which, knowing the Peekamoose's reputation for lovingly crafted and locally-sourced food, are sure to be savory.  Read more

Crossing the aisle: Local gun control advocates meet with Rep. Gibson

By Lissa Harris
4/10/13 - 6:14 pm

An old rule of etiquette: Don't discuss religion or politics at the dinner table. In upstate New York, one might banish two more incendiary topics from polite dining conversation: Fracking and gun control. 

Since the hasty and controversial passage of New York State's SAFE Act, the question of how the state ought to regulate gun ownership has become an especially divisive issue in the Catskills region, and across upstate New York. Most of upstate New York's counties, and many of its towns, have passed non-binding resolutions condemning New York State's new law.

One such town was Shandaken, whose town board's recent passage of an anti-gun-control resolution has sparked a backlash and petition drive from the town's more pro-regulation residents.   Read more

Ulster County firefighter dies in accident

By Lissa Harris
4/10/13 - 4:28 pm

The Daily Freeman reports that Frederick Schussler Jr., life member and former assistant chief of the Lomontville Fire Department, was killed on Wednesday when a car he was working on fell on him:

The man — identified by his sister as Frederick Schussler Jr., 59 — was working under the car on his property on Lapla Road in the Marbletown hamlet of Lomontville when the jack holding up the vehicle slipped and the car fell, according to Ulster County Undersheriff Frank Faluotico...

In a post on their Facebook wall, the Lomontville Fire Department writes that they will let the community know when Schussler's memorial service is scheduled:

We lost Life Member and Former Assistant Chief Fred Schussler today. He was a great friend. May he Rest in Peace. Arrangements will be posted as they become available.