Above: The Times Herald-Record films the first cast of Opening Day on the Willowemoc Creek, with Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and actor Olek Krupa joining the crew of eager flyfishers.

April 1 was the first day of trout season in New York State -- and for the Catskills, land of a thousand trout streams, that means our creeks and kills will be prime habitat for anglers in waders from now til October.

That's good news for the Catskills, where many towns are still putting the pieces back together after last year's devastating flooding. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the tourist dollars spent by visiting trout fisherfolk are a vital piece of the local economy in trout-rich parts of upstate New York. YNN of Central New York ran a rather crass, but accurate, headline yesterday: "Trout season starts, money to follow."

Freshtown, the Margaretville supermarket that is still closed seven months after it was heavily damaged in the Irene floods, announced to local officials this week that work is being done in the building, and they hope to be "fully operational" by June 1.

Freshtown's news was announced in a prepared statement, read to local officials at a meeting on Thursday, March 29 of the newly-formed East Branch Flood Commission.

The commission is a group of local officials and stakeholders, convened in the wake of the Irene and Lee floods, who are seeking to fund flood mitigation projects in the East Branch river basin. The March 29th meeting was their third.

Middletown supervisor Marge Miller chairs the commission.

At the meeting, the commission also adopted the following mission statement:

·      Identify flood risks in the Town of Middletown, Villages and outlying areas including the Towns of Roxbury, Halcott & Hardenburgh

·      Educate and inform residents, businesses, government officials and local agencies of flood risks

Above: Video taken by YouTube user mjanensch1 on Monday, August 29, 2011, showing heavy flood damage to Bridge Street and the Bridge Street Bridge in Phoenicia.

Phoenicia's Bridge Street Bridge over the Esopus Creek, knocked out of commission by the Irene floods last summer and thought to be un-fixable, will be put back in service after all, Ulster County officials say.

A press release issued today by the office of Mike Hein, Ulster County executive:

Phoenicia, NY – County Executive Mike Hein is extremely pleased to announce that a preliminary assessment by the independent engineering firm Peak Engineering indicates that the damage caused to the Bridge Street Bridge in Phoenicia by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee is not irreparable as originally thought.   As such, the Ulster County Bridge Crew is expected to be able to provide the necessary repairs in order to reopen this vital link to the Hamlet of Phoenicia.

Still waters run deep. Photo of New York City's Ashokan Reservoir by Flickr user Doug Kerr. Published under Creative Commons license.

Ulster County's battle with NYC over the muddy Esopus has made the pages of the New York Times at last. Reporter Mireya Navarro tells it like it is:

For years, the resentment simmered as residents of Ulster County endured development bans, flooded basements and ruined crops, all for the sake of protecting New York City’s water supply.

But the last straw in a string of grievances was the browning of a cherished tributary that is vital to recreation and agriculture in this corner of the Catskills. Discontent has given way to full-throttle fury against the city, which has always called the shots on reservoir management in the region.

On Monday, April 2, the Olive town board will hold a special public meeting to discuss hydraulic fracturing and the prospect of passing local legislation to ban it in the town.

Supervisor Berndt Leifeld said that there is broad agreement on the town board that the town should take some kind of action on the issue soon. The purpose of the meeting, he said, is to discuss ideas with local residents.

"It's just to get everybody's opinion as to what they think should be in it, and then we'll draw something up," he said.

Leifeld also said that at the most recent monthly meeting of the Ulster County Association of Town Supervisors, on March 20, he asked Ulster County executive Mike Hein if the county would consider drafting model legislation to ban gas drilling that any town in the county could adopt.

"I made a suggestion that the county come up with a model resolution so that the towns could all be on the same page," Leifeld said. "He seemed to be in favor -- he kind of was in favor of the fact that we should all be talking about it."