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The upside to the freeze: Ice boating

Top: The Aurora, an ice boat that spent the day on the frozen Hudson River on March 3, 2014. Above: More photos of ice boating on the Hudson. Photos by Julia Reischel.

This winter is special. Not only did it give us the Polar Vortex and more snow than the Catskills have seen in years, it's given the Hudson River a glassy, foot-thick ice surface that is perfect for ice boating. This week, the ice just north of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge has hosted an ice-boat revival of the likes that hasn't been seen in a century.

On March 1 and 2, an impromptu festival popped up on the river, with scores of people, dozens of ice boats, dogs and campfires and a brass band all on the ice.

The stars of the show were two 50-foot-tall one-ton ice boats called the Jack Frost and the Rocket, which hadn't shared the ice together since the early 1900s, according to the New York Times:

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hudson river

ice boating

ice yacht

Catskills casinos threatened by Orange County rivals

Above: The Nevele resort in Ellenville, one of several Catskills sites jockeying for a casino. Photo by June NY and shared in the Watershed Post Flickr pool.

Would-be Catskills casino operators in Sullivan and Ulster county got a nasty shock last month: They've got rivals further south who might knock them out of the running in the contest for new casino licenses in New York state.

The New York State Gaming Commission is expected to put out a call for casino applications this month. One or two of the winning projects, which will be announced in the fall, are slated for the Catskills.

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The once and future Parksville

Above: Snow drifts pile up around Parksville's abandoned drug store, once a jewel of Main Street and still clinging to derelict grandeur. Photo taken last week by John of Catskills Photography, and shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.

Parksville has seen brighter days: The little Sullivan County hamlet, just a few miles from downtown Liberty, was once a prosperous tourist destination, before the shutdown of the O&W railroad and the long decline of the Borscht Belt took their toll. Later, in the 1990s, Parksville enjoyed a brief revival, led by the owners of the now-shuttered Dead End Cafe. A massive construction project to re-route Route 17, which for years ran right down the middle of Parksville, has been rough on some businesses, and good for others.

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Hollywood vet Bill Pullman chairs the Catskill Mountains Film Festival

Top: Bill Pullman with Jessica Vecchione, the founder of the Catskill Mountains Film Festival. Photo by Riikka Olson, via the CMFF Facebook page. Above: Bill Pullman explains his relationship to the Catskills. Video shot by festival founder Jessica Veccchione.

Bill Pullman, a Hollywood vet whose best-known role is a stalwart president facing down aliens in the 1997 blockbuster Independence Day, is the honorary chairman of the new Catskill Mountains Film Festival, which is launching this May.

The festival, which was founded by local videographer and filmmaker Jessica Vecchione, is accepting submissions until March 21. (Pullman has an adorable call for submissions on the festival's website.)

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Catskill Mountains Film Festival

Bill Pullman

Saugerties' stolen Gumby makes the Colbert Report

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Above: "Colbert's Very Wanted: Who Took Gumby?" From the Colbert Report, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014.

An unsolved local mystery made national television on Wednesday, when the Colbert Report aired a segment about a 7-foot-tall Gumby statue stolen last fall from a Saugerties backyard.

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Catskills junkyard operator faces criminal charges

Above: William Hrazanek. Courtesy of the NYS DEC.

State environmental officials have filed criminal charges against junkyard owner William Hrazanek, 68, after the discovery of leaky drums of oil and gas found last year on his properties in Fleischmanns and Arkville.

The charges are not related to a spill in Mount Tremper that has been linked to Hrazanek, which officials say they are still investigating.

In May 2013, a routine inspection by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Region 4 office turned up hundreds of tires and 12 leaky barrels of waste oil and gasoline at Hrazanek's property at 717 Wagner Avenue in Fleischmanns, known as the VW Parts building.

When Hrazanek failed to report the leaking gasoline at Wagner Avenue, DEC agents raided the property and two other junkyards owned by Hrazanek in the town of Middletown, leading to the current charges.

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Crime

New York Department of Environmental Conservation

New York City Department of Environmental Protection

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Boiceville bank robbed

The Boiceville branch of Community Bank, at 4141 Route 28, was robbed on Wednesday morning, according to a report from the Daily Freeman.

The bank -- formerly a branch of the Wilber National Bank, a company that was acquired by Community Bank in 2010 -- is across the street from the Onteora Middle and High School, and the Bennett Elementary School. As of around 12:15 p.m., the buildings were on lockout, along with the Phoenicia Elementary School.

During a lockout, school continues inside the building as usual, but all doors are locked, and no one is allowed to enter the school building until authorities give an "all clear" signal to the school.

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American Glory BBQ soon to open in Tannersville

Can you smell those ribs, Tannersville? Photo from American Glory's Facebook page.

Joe Fierro loves to hear how his devoted Catskills diners drive a long distance over the mountain to eat at his downtown Hudson restaurant, American Glory BBQ. At the same time, he hates to hear that they would come more often if it weren’t such a long drive home.

So this spring, he’s bringing the smoked pork belly and brisket westward, opening a second location in Tannersville, in the heart of Greene County’s mountaintop ski region.

“I was looking to widen my footprint, and I knew the business was already there,” Fierro said. “I know I have a lot of customers who come from Woodstock, Tannersville, Windham and Hunter.”

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Frostbitten Summit man rescued from unheated home

An elderly man in the Schoharie County town of Summit was rescued from his unheated home on Mud Lake Road on Tuesday afternoon, according to several news reports.

The man was suffering from frostbite, hypothermia and dehydration when rescuers found him, the Daily Star reports:

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winter

emergency

welfare

Schoharie County Department of Social Services

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DEP to remove 15,000 storm-damaged trees near Cannonsville Reservoir

Above: Storm-felled trees on New York City-owned land on Houck Mountain, northeast of the Cannonsville Reservoir in Beerston, NY, in May of 2013. Photos courtesy of NYC DEP.

Blame it on the rain -- and the wind, and the torrential flooding. In the past several years, extreme storms have taken a toll on Catskills forests, leaving many trees in the region toppled or damaged.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which owns and manages thousands of acres of land around the city's upstate reservoirs, recently announced the start of a major forestry project to remove about 15,000 storm-damaged trees from 120 acres of land on Houck Mountain near the Cannonsville Reservoir.

About 60 percent of the trees at the site have been felled or damaged by Irene, Lee and Sandy, said DEP spokesperson Adam Bosch.

The trees will be harvested by a local contractor who bid for the job, Ostrander Logging of Walton, and milled into lumber. Many of them are valuable hardwoods, like black cherry.

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lumber

NYC Department of Environmental Protection

forestry

Cannonsville Reservoir

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