| Watershed Post

Catskills ski mountains get creative during no-snow December

Above: The slopes at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Highmount on Dec. 16. Photo by Rebecca Andre.

Snow guns are blazing at all four Catskills ski resorts as unusually warm weather—and a distinct lack of snowfall—puts a damper on the start of the ski season.

This year’s December has been unseasonably warm, thanks to a strong El Nino effect.

The weather is upending normal activities during beginning of winter in the Catskills, which started on Tuesday, Dec. 22. Skiers aren’t flocking to the mountains as they normally do right after Thanksgiving.

Instead, flocks of geese are floating peacefully on the unfrozen waters of the East Branch. Daffodils are sprouting, golfers are playing on snowless greens and salt piles remain untouched in Delaware County as the Highway Department concentrates on getting ahead of 2016’s tree program.

“It’s been a bleak beginning to December,” said Jesse Tolz, the communications manager for Windham Mountain in Greene County.

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Belleayre Mountain Ski Center

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A 12 Days of Christmas Catskills Gift Guide

Gifting is so much fun. But the classic ideas can always stand an update. After all, a partridge in a pear tree takes up the entire living room, shipments of milkmaids and drummers need to be housed (to say nothing of a gymnasium space for all those leaping lords), and calling birds just keep calling...and calling...and calling.

But you, you lucky soul, have the Catskills at your disposal. And these hills are packed with delicious foods, life-enhancing objects, fantastic fashion, life-changing experiences and mouthwatering edibles. So we’re hoping you’ll do your shopping locally, among the small independent merchants where your dollar makes a big difference.

Here are 12 local Catskills gift ideas for this holiday season.

On the first day of Christmas the Catskills gave to me:

A massage with aromatherapy

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This weekend: Woodstock's everyday history and other holiday events

Above: Santa Claus in Woodstock. Photo by Julia Reischel.

On Saturday, Dec. 19, Woodstock Town Historian Richard Heppner will discuss his brand-new book, “Woodstock: Everyday History,” at the Catskill Interpretive Center in Mount Tremper from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free.

Heppner, who is the author of several other books about Woodstock and the Catskills, uses this book to explore the lives of not-so-famous Woodstockers like Elias Hasbrouck, Woodstock’s first town supervisor, and Alf Evers, the definitive historian of the Catskills, and Phillip Buttrick, a soldier who served with the French army in WWI.

Heppner has an encyclopedic knowledge of Woodstock history. He'll regale you with tales lesser-known episodes in the town's history, like the great Swim-In of 1922 and the history of the Woodstock Playhouse, which burned down in 1988.

Other events this weekend:

DELAWARE COUNTY

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Neversink toasts its first legal beer in 80 years

Above: Kenny Curry, left, toasts the first beer to be legally sipped in Neversink since 1935, along with Tim Dugan, Eureka Market owner Jennifer Grimes and Ed Sykes. Photo by Niva Dorell.

Eighty years after the town of Neversink in Sullivan County banned the sale and public consumption of alcohol, Kenny Curry took the first legal sip of beer at the Eureka Market and Café in Grahamsville on Thursday, Dec. 17.

Curry won the honor through a contest Grimes ran that asked, “Why you should be the first person in 80 years to legally purchase alcohol in the Town of Neversink?”

“I wrote about how my father was probably one of the last ones to buy a beer in Grahamsville before it went dry,” Curry said. “I thought maybe I could be one of the first to legally again buy a beer.”

Above: Kenny Curry takes the first legal public sip of beer since 1935. Photo by Niva Dorell.

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Crowd gathers in Franklin as pipeline unveils plans for compressor

Above: A pair of compressors are part of a complex that is included in the proposal for the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, as seen in this artist's rendering. The complex would straddle the line between the Delaware County town of Franklin and the Otsego County town of Otego.

With approval of the proposed Constitution Pipeline possibly imminent, Franklin residents got information on Wednesday, Dec. 16 about a second natural gas pipeline that may pass through their town.

Kinder Morgan, a gas infrastructure company, held a public meeting at Franklin Central School about the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline. A large crowd, including both supporters and opponents, attended the gathering, overseen by several officers of the New York State Police and the Delaware County Sheriff's Office.

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Department of Environmental Conservation

Constitution Pipeline

ferc

Kinder Morgan

Northeast Energy Direct

Trains and trails make peace in Ulster County

Above: The Catskill Mountain Railroad during a Polar Express event in 2015. Photo via the CMRR's Facebook page.

It's a holiday miracle: Railroad fans, trail enthusiasts and Ulster’s County’s executive have decided to end a three-year feud over a county-owned railroad right-of-way.

On Tuesday, Dec. 15, the Ulster County Legislature unanimously voted to approve Resolution 488, a carefully-crafted “rail with trail” plan that gives both the Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) and the Friends of the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail what they really want for Christmas.

Neither railroad fans nor trail enthusiasts, who have been at each others' throats for years, will get an unbroken corridor of trains or trails all the way across Ulster County from Kingston to Shandaken on the old Ulster & Delaware railroad tracks.

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catskill mountain railroad

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Friends of the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail

Four years after the flood, Schoharie officers still stuck in FEMA trailer

Above: The FEMA trailer that has housed the Schoharie County Corrections Office since Tropical Storm Irene flooded the Catskills in August 2011. FEMA trailers are intended to serve as temporary housing for up to 18 months. Photo by Timothy Knight.

It’s been over four years since Hurricane Irene inundated communities across Schoharie County, and many of the flood-damaged businesses and homes have been rebuilt.

But the Schoharie County Corrections Office is still housed in a dilapidated FEMA trailer with a portable outhouse for a bathroom.

During the August 2011 hurricane, the county's Public Safety Facility, located in the village of Schoharie, was ravaged by raging floodwaters. The county jail in the first floor of the complex was completely destroyed.

Most of the staff of the Schoharie County Sheriff's Office was moved to the relatively undamaged second floor, but the corrections department were put in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer in the parking lot.

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hurricane irene disaster relief

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Schoharie County Board of Supervisors

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This weekend: Christmas season in the Catskills

Above: Photo by Nannette Turner, via Flickr.

Ring those bells and light those lights: It’s Christmastime in the Catskills. Public festivities abound. Come out and revel with your neighbors this weekend. Here’s our five-county guide to what’s doing.

DELAWARE COUNTY

On Friday, Dec. 11, there is a free holiday wine tasting at Roxbury Wine & Spirits—try four different holiday wines.

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Catskills organizations awarded $26 million in state grants

Above: The Ulster County town of Shandaken will receive $415,000 in state funds to fix broken pipes in Phoenicia, part of $26 million in state grants won by Catskills organizations and municipalities today. Photo via PhoeniciaNY.com.

The winners of the annual battle royal for New York State’s grant funds were revealed on Thursday, Dec. 10 at a press conference by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the Catskills took home about $26 million, according to our quick and dirty calculations. (See the state's list of grant winners here.)

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Regional Economic Development Council Initiative

CFA grants

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This weekend: Fundraiser for repairs to the Delaware & Ulster railroad

Above: Ben Rounds. Photo by Rebecca Andre.

The Delaware & Ulster Railroad, a tourism railroad that runs from the hamlet of Arkville to the town of Roxbury in the Delaware County, was forced to end its season early this year after mechanical troubles derailed three of its engines in September. Now a group of locals is banding together to raise funds to help the railroad back on its feet.

This Sunday, Dec. 13, local musician and railroad fan Ben Rounds is throwing a free "Locamotive Benefit Concert" in Fleischmanns to raise money for the D&U. You can stop by La Cabana Restaurant to listen to some tunes and contribute between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. While you're there, consider joining the Ulster & Delaware Railroad Historical Society, which oversees many projects related to the D&U. (Watershed Post contributor Rebecca Andre is one of the event's organizers.)

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