| Watershed Post

Freshtown announces reopening

The owners of the Freshtown supermarket in Margaretville, which has been closed since the Irene flooding last summer, publicly announced today that the store would reopen before June 1. They also say that the CVS pharmacy at the site, which was completely destroyed in the flood, will be rebuilt after the supermarket is open.

The announcement confirms earlier statements made by the company to local officials. Last month, owners Dan and Noah Katz told a meeting of the new East Branch Flood Commission that they would be open by June 1.

The Katzes state in the release that work is moving forward now because of a preliminary settlement on an insurance claim for building damage sustained in last year's floods.

The announcement from the Katzes:

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Spring celebration gallery show opens this weekend

George Ballantine and Robert Selkowitz have been friends for 30 years. Both men, who paint in oil and pastels, have a show opening at 768 main in Margaretville this Saturday with a party that is also doubling as Ballantine's 90th birthday party. Come celebrate spring's arrival, and the beauty of an enduring friendship. More details in the listing on our calendar. -- Andrea Girolamo

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Deadlines loom for Irene recovery programs

Two programs that have been helping with the local effort to rebuild and restore the region after the Irene and Lee floods announced application deadlines this week.

A $2.5 million program for funding debris removal from streams in the New York City watershed, launched by the Catskill Watershed Corporation in December, is nearing the end of its funding and will be closed to new applications next week. The CWC announced today that the Stream Corridor Protection Debris Removal Program will continue taking applications until 4pm on Monday, April 16.

From a press release from the CWC:

“There was no deadline imposed when the program was launched, but the demand for assistance from municipalities and property owners has stretched staff and monetary resources nearly to the limit,” said CWC Executive Director Alan Rosa in explaining what prompted the imposition of an end date for the program.

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Stayin' Alive: Rules of the Road

Above: Stayin' Alive columnist (and Shandaken Ambulance Service captain) Rich Muellerleile properly geared up for a spin around town with local bike blogger Mike Wentland.

I could try to scare you with a diatribe citing national statistics on mortality regarding any recreational activity that we enjoy up here in the Catskills, and I would generally lose your attention about a sentence or two into this article.

So in lieu of a raft of data, we’ll start out with a short, self-deprecating story about a maiden trek onto a few of our local roads in Catskill Park on something with less than four wheels, as the weather is starting to become more conducive to such activities. A bicycle is a popular way to save money, and maybe to go slightly "green,” as using a full-sized SUV to grab groceries a mile away tends to get expensive after a while. Resolved to be lighter on the planet and the wallet -- and maybe look a little better for wifey in the process -- I went on Craigslist and bought a bicycle.

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shandaken ambulance service

Sneak peek at a feature documentary about the Catskills: "To Be Forever Wild"

The Catskills are catnip for artists, and have been ever since Thomas Cole painted his first majestic waterfall. Filmmaker David Becker is the latest aesthete to respond to the lure of the mountains, and he's making a whole film about the subject. In his documentary, "To Be Forever Wild," he talks to fly-tiers and astronomers, geologists and railfans, historians and Tibetan Buddhists about the siren song of the Catskills and the great outdoors.

Becker is sharing two exclusive sneak peeks of the film with the Watershed Post. You can watch them above and below on this story page. [Update 6/11/12: Becker has made one of the videos, of a cliff jumper, private, so we have removed it from this post. -- Ed.]

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Catskills Center for Conservation and Development

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Massive fire rages at former Borscht Belt resort in Wawarsing

Above: Video of fire at the Tamarack Lodge from the Times Herald-Record.

Wildfire raged across the property of the former Tamarack Lodge on Route 52 in Greenfield Park over the weekend, destroying dozens of buildings and calling hundreds of firefighters and other emergency first responders to the scene.

The Times Herald-Record reports that police believe the fire was caused by an intentionally-set brush fire that got out of control. The property's owners, an Indian tribe that once had plans to build a casino on the site, are not suspected of arson.

[Chief Ron "Golden Eagle"] Roberts said his tribe did not start the fire, explaining that the bankruptcy and sale of a portion of the property would have allowed him to save his struggling tribe's land holdings, including the 10 homes where members of his tribe lived. He added that he did not have insurance on any of the buildings damaged by the fire.

"Why would I destroy something I tried to save?" he asked.

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Greene County landlord jailed on charges of polluting Catskill Creek with sewage

A Westchester County man was arrested and jailed last week for allegedly pumping hundreds of gallons of raw sewage into Catskill Creek.

James Sheerin of Ardsley, NY was arrested last week after an investigation by the state Department of Environmental Conservation into his three-unit rental building at 1114 Main Street in Leeds, the agency announced today. Over the course of several months, a DEC press release stated, Sheerin pumped raw sewage into the municipal storm drain system from the septic tank of the building.

The press release:

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This week around the blogshed: hunting for eggs, doin' the Hokey Pokey & getting passed over

Above: Scenes from a Mall, specifically the abandoned Apollo Mall in Monticello. Taken by Catskills Photography, and part of the Watershed Post's Flickr community.

Roxbury Central is set to receive a large gift to improve technology for students and the larger community.
Put your right foot in, take your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about...

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New Paltz man injured in Kerhonkson plane crash

An experimental plane struck a tree and crashed in a Kerhonkson field late in the afternoon on Thursday. Its pilot and sole occupant, 50-year-old New Paltz resident Mark Thomas, was injured in the crash, but according to a New York State Police press release, "conscious and alert" when found:

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Todd Pascarella appointed mayor of Fleischmanns

In an abrupt about-face, the Fleischmanns village board has appointed trustee Todd Pascarella as mayor, to fill a vacancy left by former mayor Dave Morell's resignation.

In February, the Catskill Mountain News reported that a motion by trustee Ben Fenton to appoint Pascarella mayor failed when trustees Harriet Grossman and Fred Woller would not second it.

Last month, just before a village election in which Grossman and Woller faced write-in challenges for their seats on the board, Grossman publicly blasted Fenton and Pascarella for holding "secret meetings" about flood recovery.

But it appears the two halves of the bitterly divided village board have buried the hatchet, at least for now. Pascarella told the Watershed Post he was appointed mayor this morning, in a meeting held in executive session -- somewhat ironically, given Grossman and Woller's objection to village business being conducted out of the public eye.

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