This weekend: Snowmobile drag races
Above: Image via the Delaware Valley Ridge Riders Facebook page.
Snowmobiles are usually found high on snowy ridges, running single file on a huge network of groomed trails around the Catskills.
Two outdoor deaths in Delaware County in one day
Two Delaware County men were found dead on Wednesday, Feb. 25 -- one on his property where he had been cutting a tree for firewood, and the other a few blocks from his home after he was reported missing.
Seventy-year-old Ralph Hunt was attempting to cut a tree near his home on County Road 14 in Delhi on Feb. 25 when the tree fell on him, killing him, Delaware County Undersheriff Craig DuMond told the Daily Star. Hunt, a longtime member of the Delhi Fire Department, was declared dead at the scene, the paper reports.
In a press release sent on Thursday, the Delaware County Sheriff's Office gave more details about Hunt's death. Hunt, who was a retired dairy farmer, had spent Wednesday morning gathering firewood on a wooded hillside on his property. He had skidded a tree down to his farmhouse in the morning. When he didn't return home for lunch, his wife became worried and called a friend to investigate.
Two new eateries open in Woodstock, serving local comfort food
Above: Tuna skewers at Commune Saloon. Photo via the Commune Saloon website.
With Woodstock still reeling from the closure of beloved Mexican restaurant Gypsy Wolf Cantina in December, it’s a good time for the Ulster County town to have something of a restaurant boom. Two new restaurants have opened in Woodstock this winter, both aiming to serve comfort food made with local, seasonal ingredients.
Above: Shindig, via the Shindig website.
On Dec. 4, Shindig opened for business in a tiny storefront right in front of the town square. The location couldn’t be better: through the restaurant’s plate-glass windows, you can watch the regular Sunday drum circle and keep an eye on the arrival of the Trailways bus all at the same time.
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Woman stabs boyfriend with kitchen knife in Hancock
A Delaware County man has serious injuries after his girlfriend stabbed him with a kitchen knife in a home in Hancock on Monday, Feb. 23, police say.
Left: Niki M. Patire. Photo via the New York State Police.
Twenty-seven-year-old Niki M. Patire is being held without bail in the Delaware County Jail on first degree felony assault charges, according to a State Police press release. She assaulted her 35-year-old boyfriend early Monday afternoon, police say.
Nathan Riegal, a state police spokesman, said that the victim's identity is being withheld to protect him, and that there is currently no more information available about the case.
As it switches to digital, Coxsackie drive-in movie theater stars in its own film
Top: The sign for the Hi-Way Drive-In. Photo courtesy of “Enjoy Your Intermission.”
Some Catskills families run farms or general stores; for Roger and Sharon Babcock, the family business is the Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre on Route 9W in the Greene County town of Coxsackie.
Like a family farm, a drive-in is an anachronistic business. There are only 400 or so drive-in theaters left in the United States, and some, like the Hi-Way, are still showing movies on 35 millimeter film, a format that movie studios are abandoning.
But nostalgia for artifacts of the 1950s (the Hi-Way opened in 1951) is strong, especially in the Catskills. The Babcocks told the Daily Freeman last year that their audience is loyal and growing, with regulars coming weekly to park their cars and watch a film outside under the stars.
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Garage burns in Shandaken, adding to toll on local volunteers
A Mount Tremper resident's garage caught fire on Friday morning, in a two-alarm blaze that drew upwards of 50 firefighters from several local volunteer fire departments to the scene.
The garage fire, near a home at 5283 Route 28, was reported at 9:39 a.m. on Friday. By the time firefighters arrived a few minutes later, the building had already collapsed, according to Phoenicia Assistant Fire Chief Teddy Byron. No one was injured in the fire.
"When we pulled up, it was fully involved," Byron said.
With temperatures hovering around five degrees and a raw wind blowing, firefighters struggled with freezing trucks and equipment to fight the blaze.
"All our trucks are freezing," Byron said.
The collapse of the garage made it difficult for the water to penetrate the structure, Byron said. Firefighters had to use foam to smother the fire and help water reach the interior of the blaze.
Responding to the incident were fire companies from the towns of Shandaken, Olive and Hurley, along with the Shandaken Ambulance Service, Shandaken and Ulster County police, and Ulster County fire investigators.
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As Phoenicia's Key Bank fire reignites, investigators silent on cause
This story has been updated with information from fire investigators. See bottom for new info. - Ed.
The Key Bank building on Main Street Phoenicia that burned on Monday, Feb. 16 reignited briefly on Thursday, Feb. 19, prompting firefighters to respond to reports of smoke rising from the burnt-out structure, according to the Daily Freeman and sources at the scene. The re-ignition happened just before another fire began at a trailer nearby on Old Route 28, forcing firefighters to respond to both.
Town and county officials have not released the results of the investigation into the cause of the fire at Key Bank, and have not responded to repeated requests by the Watershed Post about whether arson is suspected.
Drez Jennings, a Vice President at Key Bank, said that the bank could not comment on the cause of the Key Bank fire or the fire's re-ignition.
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Third large fire in one week burns in Shandaken
Above: Firefighters respond to a fire near Phoenicia Thursday, Feb. 19. Photo by Sara Loughlin.
A structure in the Ulster County town of Shandaken is on fire on Thursday, Feb. 19, according to eyewitnesses.
A neighbor down the street reports that a large number of first responders began fighting a fire on Old Route 28 in Shandaken, just outside the hamlet of Phoenicia off Route 28, beginning around 5 p.m.
A passerby reported seeing a large column of smoke rising from a residential structure around that time. Scanner traffic indicates that a large number of Ulster County fire departments have been mustered to fight the blaze.
The fire occurred in a metal trailer in Woodland Valley, and appeared to be under control by 7 p.m. Jay Braman at the Daily Freeman has more photos.
Crash in Andes sends two to hospital; closes Route 28 for two hours
Above: The portion of Route 28 where a head-on collision occurred on Feb. 18, 2015. Image via Google Street View.
Two cars slammed into each other almost head-on in the Delaware County town of Andes on Wednesday, Feb. 18. Both drivers were injured, and one woman had to be extracted from her vehicle with the jaws of life, said Dale Tait, the Andes Fire Chief.
The collision was a "driver-to-driver almost head-on" crash that jammed the door of the woman's car completely closed, Tait said. Her vehicle appeared to have spun around on impact, ending up crossways on the road, blocking traffic.
A third car that happened on the scene was forced to drive into a snowbank to avoid colliding with the other two, Tait said. There was no damage to that third vehicle or its driver.
Both drivers were taken to various hospitals with injuries, and the woman who was extricated was eventually airlifted to a regional hospital, Tait said. The male driver of the other car appeared to have minor injuries.
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This weekend: Art.Write.Now.Tour in Livingston Manor
Above: "Finn Does Not Like Bowling," by Elinor Hills, one of the works being exhibited in the Art.Write.Now.Tour 2014-15. Image used with permission from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.
Over 100 teenage artists from around the country will exhibit their work in Livingston Manor beginning this weekend when the national Art.Write.Now.Tour comes to the Catskill Art Society. The month-long show features the young winners of the the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, an annual national competition that has been running for 92 years.
The Catskill Art Society is the last stop on a three-city tour for the exhibition, which features a stunning array of visual art and a selection of written works, including works by five national student poets. You can see all of the visual works in this photo collection on Flickr -- but they'll be better in person.
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