It's not easy being a little post office in the rural Catskills. The U.S. Postal Service is forever threatening to cut your hours or shut you down. And as if that weren't enough: Local post offices seem to be weirdly prone to car crashes.
On Wednesday, a pickup truck helmed by an elderly male driver smashed through the front wall of the Hurley post office, shattering glass and knocking the wall off its foundation.
Five corrections officers at the Greene Correctional Facility, a medium-security state prison in Coxsackie, have been placed on leave amid allegations that they forced inmates to fight one another, according to a story in today's Times Union.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which is handling an investigation into the issue, declined to give any details to Times Union reporter Brendan Lyons, but the paper dug up some more information from an unnamed source:
A person briefed on the matter, but not authorized to comment publicly, said the officers are alleged to have encouraged the fights in a special housing unit, known as "S-200." The allegations are that the officers in some instances opened the cell doors of inmates who were then attacked by other inmates, according to the person familiar with the investigation.
Above: The awards that were given out at the annual awards dinner of the Ulster County EMS Council. Photos by Rich Muellerleile.
Last Friday, Makalia Ouellette, an Onteora High School volleyball player, was reunited with the eight citizen rescuers who saved her life when she went into full cardiac arrest mid-game last October.
During a volleyball game at Wallkill High School, Ouellette approached her coach, Brittany Alexander, and told her that she felt like she might pass out. A time-out was called just as Ouellette collapsed. She had gone into cardiac arrest.
Nicole Saunders, Brian Vegliando, Julie McLaud, Amanda Murphy, Nick Panieleone, Michael Latino, Stephen Glen Ryther, and Brittany Alexander responded quickly.
They were trained in CPR and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) use, which allowed them to use the AED to “shock her back to life,” according to Richard W. Muellerleile, the president of the Ulster County Emergency Medical Services Council.
Above: Ouellette, second from left, stands with her rescuers at the awards ceremony.
Above: Video of hail falling in the Delaware County town of Hamden on Thursday afternoon, taken by local videographer Jess Vecchione.
Intense, fast-moving thunderstorms are moving through the Catskills region, bringing rain and, in some places, hail.
Around 3:39 p.m, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Albany declared a tornado warning for parts of Albany, Montgomery, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie counties, in effect til 4:15 p.m. A second tornado warning was issued, in effect until 4:30 p.m.
Severe thunderstorm warnings have been posted for Delaware and Schoharie counties, where forecasters were calling for quarter- to ping-pong-ball-sized hail. The rest of the Catskills region is under severe thunderstorm watch.
Got hail or other intense weather in your neck of the woods? Let us know at [email protected].
Below: Live social-media reports of weather in the Catskills and Capital Region. A tornado may have touched down near Delanson, where a home was destroyed, and two tractor-trailers were overturned on I-88.
Everybody knows when summer really starts: this weekend. Monday will be marked by official Memorial Day observances in many towns, but all weekend long, there’s plenty of unofficial fun to be had, from music fests to boat races to town-wide yard sales. Here’s our five-county guide to the good times.
AROUND THE CATSKILLS
The five restored fire towers of the Catskill Park open for the season this weekend: Balsam Lake Mountain in Hardenburgh, Red Hill in Denning, Tremper Mountain in Shandaken, Overlook Mountain in Woodstock and Hunter Mountain in Hunter. Volunteer staffers will be at the towers every weekend from now through Columbus Day, to help fill you in on fire tower history, mountain know-how and more. Lace up your hiking boots and dust off the binoculars for those 100-mile views.
Above: The VW Parts property at 717 Wagner Avenue in Fleischmanns that is owned by William Hrazanek. Photo by Julia Reischel.
Developer Kenneth Pasternak has cancelled a foreclosure sale of two Fleischmanns junkyard properties owned by William Hrazanek, who owes Pasternak more than $1 million in unpaid mortgage payments. The parcels are eligible to be purchased with federal disaster funds by FEMA, but are also allegedly contaminated with pollutants that may bump them out of the buyout program.
The foreclosure sales were scheduled to take place on May 20 on the courthouse steps in Delhi.
"It was cancelled," said Dennis Metnick, Pasternak's lawyer in the foreclosure case. "That is all I can say."
An April 2 foreclosure judgement against Hrazanek for his unpaid debts is still in force, Metnick added.
It's not even Memorial Day yet, and it's already begun: The season for reminding boaters that placid-looking local rivers and creeks can pack a deadly wallop.
Local firefighters got a chance to put their swift water rescue training into action on Tuesday around 11 a.m., when Downsville and Walton first responder crews were called to the scene of a capsized boat on the East Branch of the Delaware River near Corbett, in the Delaware County town of Colchester.
Three people had gone out fishing in a rowboat and got stranded on a small island in the middle of the river when their boat flipped over, said Steve Hood, director of the Delaware County Department of Emergency Services. Luckily for the trio, someone who lived nearby heard them yelling for help and called 911.
"They were lucky enough to get to that island," Hood said. "They did not have life vests on."
At least one of the three could not swim because of health issues, Hood said. The river was running unusually high and fast, he said, because of spillover from the Pepacton Reservoir.
Voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of local school budgets, and elect members to school boards.
In the five counties of our Catskills coverage area -- Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster -- all school budgets passed, most with wide margins.
In last year's school elections, voters rejected school budgets in Marlboro, Middleburgh and Cairo-Durham. All three districts saw their budgets pass this year; the narrowest vote of the three was in Marlboro, whose budget passed 1,102-1,026.
Here are a few links to detailed coverage of local school election results:
All Ulster budgets get voter approval - Times Herald-Record)
Above: Heather Williams of Pippy's Hotdog Truck greets customers in Palenville. Photo by Clancy Nolan.
Above: A rock that slid from a steep bank above Route 42 in Lexington last week lies next to the road's damaged guard rail. Photo taken Thursday, May 15 by Lissa Harris.
A stretch of Route 42 in the town of Lexington, which was shut down last week after a landslide, will reopen on Wednesday morning, the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) announced.
Since the morning of Thursday, May 15, Route 42 has been closed to traffic from the intersection with Spruceton Road -- near the area of the landslide -- to the Ulster County line. Officials were concerned about the stability of the bank after the landslide, which sent a cascade of large rocks tumbling down from a steep bank overlooking the roadway.
DOT spokesperson Bryan Viggiani said that repairs to the roadway are scheduled to be finished by Wednesday:
Motorists are advised that Route 42 in the Town of Lexington, Greene County, is scheduled to reopen by Wednesday morning.
