Above: Benton, the kitten that took over the front page of the Chicago Tribune for 16 minutes on July 30, 2013, thanks to a website goof. We feel your pain, Trib.
If you visited the Watershed Post today and got an error message instead of a piece of juicy Catskills news, it's not you, it's us. Thanks to a site update that went awry, most of the links on our site were down throughout the morning and early afternoon.
Above: Rush hour traffic in Andes, New York. Photo by Flickr user charltonlido, taken in 2010.
With a unanimous vote, the town board of the Delaware County town of Andes passed a local law banning oil and natural gas waste on Tuesday, Dec. 9, according to Tom Joyce, the Andes town board member who drafted the law.
The new law bans the sale, acquisition, storage, handling, treatment and processing of natural gas waste and oil waste within Andes town limits. It includes specific provisions on applying fracking waste to all roads within the town and disposing of such waste in the town dump or in the town wastewater treatment plant.
Winter storm warnings are in effect for Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster counties for Tuesday, Dec. 9 through Thursday, Dec. 11. Forecasts are calling for eight to 14 inches of snow, often accumulating at one to to inches per hour. The heavy snow is slated to begin on Tuesday afternoon and to last all day Wednesday and into Thursday morning.
Above: An excerpt from a letter sent to to landowners along the route of the Constitution Pipeline on Dec. 3. Read the full letter at the bottom of this story or by clicking here.
The day after receiving federal approval, the Constitution Pipeline sent letters threatening to use eminent domain authority against dozens of landowners who are reluctant to allow the 124-mile natural gas pipeline across their land.
The pipeline, which has been in the works for two and a half years, will run from Pennsylvania through New York's Delaware, Schoharie, Broome and Chenango counties. It received conditional approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the pipeline’s law firm, Saul Ewing, began playing hardball with landowners who have not accepted the pipeline’s offer of compensation in exchange for pipeline access.
Above: Carts full of holiday shopping were abandoned in the checkout line at Walmart on Saturday, Dec. 6 after shoppers evacuated the building after a "threat call." Contributed photo.
Several stores in the town of Ulster shopping center on Route 9W near Kingston were evacuated for several hours on Saturday, Dec. 6 after Walmart received a "threat call," according to the Daily Freeman. A Watershed Post reader sent us this photo of abandoned carts left by evacuating shoppers in the Wal-Mart checkout line, taken after the Walmart re-opened around 6 p.m.
A winter weather advisory is in effect for Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster counties today, Friday, Dec. 5, beginning this afternoon and lasting through tomorrow morning.
The high roads in the Catskills will be icy tonight, according to a weather advisory issued by the National Weather Service in Binghamton:
Above: A festive bovine bust at Lucky Dog Farm Store in Hamden.
Challenge: Spend every holiday shopping dollar at a Catskills merchant this month. To help you do it, here's the third installment of our holiday shopping guide. (Want even more things to do? Check out our ever-updating Catskills events calendar.)
Here's what's happening over the weekend of Dec. 5 to 7:
DELAWARE COUNTY
Above: Justin Behan, the owner of Green Wolf Brewing Company. Photo used with permission.
Three and a half years ago, Justin Behan was standing in an old house on his property when he had a revelation. “It dawned on me,” he said, “this building has electric, and plumbing, and heating. Oh my God, I could turn it into a small brewery!”
That was the beginning of the “insane idea” that led to Green Wolf Brewing Company, which opens the doors to its new tap room in the Schoharie County village of Middleburgh on Friday, Dec. 12.
Green Wolf isn't Behan’s first experiment with beer. Like many other small brewers, he began by homebrewing. The sensory aspects of the process first drew him in.
Below: Ales from the Green Wolf Brewing Company. Photo courtesy of Green Wolf.
“The smells of the brew day, working with the wonderful ingredients, the aroma of the hops, the magic of it--it’s pretty magical!” he said. “I still can’t believe that yeast does what it does.”
Above: The door to the Gypsy Wolf Cantina. Photo by Flickr user satemkemet.
Every year since 1989, the sign in front of the Gypsy Wolf Cantina in the Ulster County town of Woodstock has changed. One year, a stylized wolf howled at the moon. Another, a terrifying lupine face growled in closeup. Eric Brown, a local artist, has painted 25 different signs for the restaurant over the years. But this year's edition is the last.
The local Mexican restaurant, owned by Bill Durkin and Jorge Perez, is closing on Sunday, Dec. 28. The business partners have sold the two-acre property on which the restaurant sits to their next-door neighbors. Now they plan to take some time off.
Above: A natural gas pipeline being constructed. Photo courtesy of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Constitution Pipeline received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a 124-mile natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania through New York's Delaware, Schoharie, Broome and Chenango counties on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
FERC's certificate of public convenience and necessity gives the Constitution Pipeline the power of eminent domain, which allows it to force landowners along the route to accept the pipeline's path through their property.
The pipeline's new powers are setting it up for a fight in the Catskills. Over half of the landowners along the route haven't agreed to allow the pipeline across their land. If they continue to resist, the pipeline can take them to court.
Construction can begin as soon as the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issue permits for the project, which could happen early in 2015.
