The VW Parts building owned by infamous Fleischmanns junkyard operator William Hrazanek caught fire around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 26. The former junkyard, located at 717 Wagner Avenue, is in the process of being purchased with federal disaster funds as part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) buyout program. 

"FEMA is going to tear it down anyway," said Hrazanek as he stood watching the flames. "It's less work for them."

The fire was in full swing at 5:30 p.m. A tall column of smoke loomed over a crowd of students who were watching the fire from the grounds of a yeshiva next door. Multiple fire departments were on the scene.  

Hrazanek said that he has no idea what started the fire, and that he was in the process of selling the contents of the building, mostly auto parts, to Euro Nutz Inc. in Saugerties.  He said that he believed that workers from Euro Nutz had been inside the building earlier today, but that when he arrived at the scene, the door was locked and the fire was in progress. 

Above: A mudslide on Route 10 in the Schoharie County town of Sharon on August 21, 2014. Photo via the Schoharie County Fire Wire Facebook page. 

Heavy rains caused flooding and a mudslide in the town of Sharon in Schoharie County Thursday night, according to Sheriff Tony Desmond. 

A shale and slate rock embankment north of the village of Sharon Springs washed out around 9:30 p.m. on August 21, blocking Route 10 for about three hours, Desmond said. 

Route 20 in the village was also flooded, he said. "There was over a foot of water in the middle of town by the school."

The water drained away in a few hours, and the displaced gravel and debris was cleared away by 1 a.m. on Friday, Desmond said. There is some damage to the shoulders of the roads, which were open today. 

Lighting struck the bell tower of the United Methodist Church in Fleischmanns at 8:45 a.m. on August 21, blasting off siding and blowing out six windows.

"Somebody said it sounded like a bomb went off," said Adrian Todd, the pastor of the church, which is also known as the Fleischmanns Community Church. "It was loud."

Todd wasn't at the church at the time of the strike, but several people were driving by and witnessed it.

"The windows blew out just as they were right in front of the church," Todd said.

The windows were plain glass, not stained glass. Todd said that the church's insurance company is investigating and determining whether it will cover the damage. 

There were no injuries. Todd said that the tenants who live in the adjacent building were not affected.

Volunteers helped clean up the shattered glass off the church lawn yesterday, and today the broken windows are covered with plywood.

The church building dates from 1884, and as far as Todd knows, this is the first time it has been struck by lightning.

Is there a theological explanation?

Above: A promo photo for the Pig Mountain Pig Roast and Veggie Fest in Narrowsburg on Saturday, August 23. Via the Pig Mountain website.

Main Street Narrowsburg plays host this Saturday to an all-out celebration of local food, the Pig Mountain Pig Roast and Veggie Fest.

As the name implies, the headliner is pork: specifically, a herd of 15 roasted pigs prepared by a herd of 15 high-profile chefs. 

Above: Catskill Mountain Railroad equipment repairing a portion of the track on the old Delaware & Ulster corridor last week. Photo by John Marino and posted on the CMRR's Facebook page.

In the long-running battle of rails versus trails in Ulster County, the trails just won big. 

In an 18 to 4 vote, the Ulster County Legislature passed Resolution 275 on Tuesday, August 19, supporting the conversion of an old Ulster & Delaware railroad right-of-way between Kingston and Boiceville into a hiking, walking and biking trail.

The Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR), which runs a tourist railroad on the rail corridor and holds a lease on the right-of-way that expires in 2016, has been lobbying hard to keep railroad tracks running all the way from Kingston to the town of Shandaken at the other end of the county.