A small plane went down near Jennings Road in New Baltimore on Sunday, March 18, leaving its solo pilot with minor injuries, several news outlets are reporting.
The Daily Mail has an account of the crash, and a photo of the crashed plane -- a 2/3-scale WWI-era biplane replica.
The Albany Times-Union reports that the pilot walked away from the crash.
The Daily Freeman reports that officials believe the crash was caused by engine failure.
Above: Flickr user Ben Helmer captures a moody shot of bystanders watching the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Kingston, March 11, 2012. Posted to the Watershed Post Flickr group pool.
Above: The Old Blenheim Bridge in 2008. Photo by cg-realms at en.wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Mountain Eagle writes this week that Paul Loether, the head of the National Register of Historic Places, has promised that the federal government won't strip the now-destroyed Old Blenheim Bridge of its National Historic Landmark designation anytime soon.
The announcement was made in a letter to Schoharie County Historical Society Director Carle Kopecky, the paper reports:
From the Hudson Valley Film Commission: A film company shooting in Sullivan County later this month is looking for cast members on short notice to play several roles in their short film, "My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain."
One very specific role they're looking to fill: The company needs a Caucasian arm or leg amputee, 18 to 23 years old, to play the role of "Frank Jr."
The film is based on a short story published in the January 2010 of Harper's Magazine, by writer T.C. Boyle. (The story can be read here, if you have a subscription to Harper's.)
The Hudson Valley Film Commission often posts on their blog about local casting calls, film jobs, and inquiries by film companies looking for shooting locations and housing for cast members.
Above: Raw video from a fire at a yeshiva in Kiamesha Lake from the Times Herald-Record.
On the evening of Thursday, March 15, a massive fire broke out in the dormitory of a boys' yeshiva (a Jewish religious school) in Kiamesha Lake near Monticello. The yeshiva building is the former Gibber Hotel, in the town of Thompson.
The blaze drew firefighters from all over Sullivan County and neighboring Orange County, the Times Herald-Record reports:
Roughly 125 firefighters from 19 Sullivan and Orange County departments were called to the scene just after 7:06 p.m. when the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office was notified by 911. County fire investigators will return to the scene Friday. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The fire burned for hours, Mid-Hudson News reports, but by a stroke of luck, no one was injured:
The campus was unoccupied as the students were paying a condolence call in Rockland County.
Above: Making syrup. Photo by QUOI Media Group, via Flickr.
Two weeks of maple syrup mania begin this weekend, and maple producers across New York State will be celebrating with open houses, pancake breakfasts, and lots of the sweet stuff.
It would take the whole two weekends to list every mapley Catskills event and tidbit, so here are some highlights:
Born to depreciate. Photo by Flickr user Benjamin Golub; published under Creative Commons license.
Q: How is a milk cow like a fax machine?
A: She can be written off as a business expense. And under a new federal law proposed by U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY, more of New York State's roughly 600,000 working dairy cows would get deducted annually from the farm bottom line as "capital expenses."
The bill, which Schumer plans to introduce, is aimed at helping not just dairy farmers, but several New York State Greek yogurt manufacturers that have been growing rapidly over the past several years, and showing an insatiable appetite for New York State milk.
Currently, the only time a cow can be written off as a capital expense is when she's just getting started in her dairy career. Once she's already producing milk, even if she changes hands, the buyer cannot write her off as a business expense. (That's a difference between cows and fax machines: A business can buy a used fax machine and deduct it as a "capital expense" on the company's taxes.)
Photo of card catalog by Flickr user Aaron Schmidt. Published under Creative Commons license.
In a small town, everybody's entangled with their neighbors, even those whose job it is to stay out of the fray: News reporters. Every community newspaper eventually comes up against a story that defies their best efforts to play the role of neutral observer.
This week, the Catskill Mountain News met theirs. Reporter Pauline Liu's juicy account of a spat between Middletown supervisor Marge Miller and Margaretville's Fairview Library, in the issue published Wednesday, March 14, carried this whopping disclaimer:
With 102,023 votes, Schoharie High School has won the Community Choice Award in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Grant Competition! 
School officials announced the good news at an assembly held on Wednesday, March 14. (See photo at left, from the Schoharie Central School District.)
The victory, which celebrates the students' use of science and math to help their flood-damaged neighbors recover from Tropical Storm Irene, will bring the school $100,000 in classroom technology.
Readers of the WP can give yourselves a huge pat on the back -- we know that many of you voted early and often. Thanks.
Read the full celebratory press release from Schoharie Central School District below:
Photo by Flickr user K's GLIMPSES. Published under Creative Commons license.
Selling secondhand items in Greene County? Not so fast, lawmakers say.
Some Greene County legislators want to pass a law requiring secondhand shops, auction houses, and scrap metal yards to hold goods for ten days before reselling them, the Daily Mail reports.
Public Safety Committee Chairman William Lawrence, R-Cairo, introduced the concept of the law to legislators and said putting a hold period or waiting time on items that are either pawned or sold to second hand stores before they can be resold can be useful to authorities.
Still in the draft stages, the law would potentially require dealers to register with the county at no fee, something Lawrence said, is an attempt to make the transition as easy as possible.
