Photo of armed officer by Flickr user grendelkhan. Published under Creative Commons license.

Security will soon be beefed up at a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Schoharie County. Prompted by fears of mass shootings like the recent school killings in Newtown, and worries about the security of the DMV's temporary space, county supervisors voted at their regular board meeting last week to install a security camera and hire two new part-time deputies to guard the office.

Since the fall of 2011, when their Schoharie village office was damaged in the Irene floods, the Schoharie County DMV has been located in a temporary space in the Lancaster Development office in Richmondville. The Daily Gazette reports in a story about the decision that security has been an increasing problem at the Richmondville DMV for some time, but that the Newtown massacre made it a more pressing issue:

In the country, a little snow often reveals that you have more neighbors than you think you do. John of Catskills Photography captured this shot yesterday in Monticello, before last night's snow obliterated the evidence.

Readers: Any thoughts on what kind of bird left these tracks?

Photo shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.

Above: A map showing snow forecasts for Central New York, the Southern Tier and northeast Pennsylvania from the National Weather Service in Binghamton.

Snow is already falling across much of New York State, and is expected to keep falling throughout the evening and into Thursday. In some areas, sleet and freezing rain is expected in the mix along with snow. Forecasters warn that snowfall will be heavy at times this evening, possibly reaching rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour, so please be careful on the roads.

According to a recent NWS forecast, 8 to 10 inches are expected to fall in the Western Catskills and Twin Tiers, and 4 to 6 inches in the southern Catskills.