Screenshot of the Walton Reporter's new website at waltonreporter.com.

Congratulations to the Walton Reporter on rolling out their new website this week.

The paper, which covers a wide swath of Delaware County along with their Walton home base, has been making forays into the digital world for some time, posting sneak previews and PDFs of the current front page on their Facebook wall. Today, the paper unveiled their fully-functional new website.

At first glance, it looks clean and user-friendly, with a simple layout, RSS feeds for different kinds of stories, and a local event calendar. Access to full stories is subscription-only.

Photo: The Wanatuska Moguls at Belleayre on Tuesday, March 13. From Belleayre Mountain's Facebook page.

The New York State Senate has staked out a position on the Belleayre Ski Center in their budget proposal: They're willing to let ORDA have Belleayre, if the authority adds a few Catskills representatives to their board and advisory council.

The state senate passed its 2012-2013 budget resolution earlier this week. All three budget proposals -- the Senate's, the Assembly's, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's -- are now on the table. Cuomo and state legislators will have from now until April 1 -- and possibly beyond -- to agree on one final budget, a process that is likely to involve plenty of backroom deals and public chest-beating over the next several weeks.

Above: Larry Reilly and Martin Morales, who recently announced write-in campaigns for the Fleischmanns village trustee race. Photos from campaign flyer.

A few weeks ago, the upcoming election in Fleischmanns was shaping up to be like most village elections: A sleepy affair where a few dozen voters send a couple of unopposed incumbents back to the village board of trustees.

Then a couple of things happened. First, mayor Dave Morell resigned, with a year left in his term. Then, at the next board meeting, a motion to appoint trustee Todd Pascarella as mayor split the board 2-2, leaving the board deadlocked and the village mayor-less for the forseeable future.

Trustees Fred Woller and Harriet Grossman, who voted against Pascarella's appointment but did not suggest a mayoral candidate of their own, are both up for re-election next Tuesday.

Above: Sunrise over Belleayre this morning. Photo from Belleayre Mountain's Facebook page.

Not included in the New York State Assembly's 2012 budget proposal: Money for ORDA to take over the management of the Belleayre Ski Center, currently operated by DEC.

The Assembly has not yet passed its budget, but a press release from Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, who represents most of Ulster County and Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, claims that the budget proposal rejects the Belleayre transfer.

Cahill is quoted in the release:

The issue at Belleayre is funding, not administration. Putting it in an under-funded regional authority with little or no connection to the Catskills does nothing to assure the Ski Center will receive the resources it needs to thrive.