The hour of decision approaches for the Onteora School Board, which is facing a choice later this month on which money-saving reconfiguration plan it should put in place for its elementary schools.

Among the three options before the Board is one that would close the Phoenicia School, and cluster elementary grades in Woodstock (K-2) and Bennett (3-6). Another plan, dubbed the "bookends" plan, involves the clustering of elementary grades, but no school closures. And a third plan would close the Phoenicia School, but leave Bennett and Woodstock as K-6 schools.

Clustering grades -- which superintendent Phyllis McGill is an advocate of -- means that some children will have long bus rides, especially from Pine Hill, at the western edge of the district.

The Freeman's Kyle Wind reports in today's paper that Onteora's transportation department is trying to work out a plan so that no child would have to get on a bus before 7am.

The Delaware County town of Sidney will hold a public hearing on the town's proposed moratorium on gas drilling and heavy industry tonight (February 9) at 7pm, at the Sidney Civic Center on 21 Liberty Street.

Gas drilling has been a contentious issue throughout the region. But it has been particularly fierce in Sidney, where an October 2011 meeting in which the town board voted to allow a gas pipeline to be built erupted in chaos. The pipeline will supply gas to a manufacturing plant operated by Amphenol, the county's largest employer, and its supporters claimed that building it was critical to keep Amphenol from relocating elsewhere.

Photo of a Shandaken ambulance, from the Shandaken Ambulance Service's Facebook page.

Like much of the rural Catskills, the town of Shandaken is a virtual black hole for cell phone coverage. Despite years of efforts by the town and its citizens to lure cellular providers to the region, most of the town is a cell-phone dead zone.

For most residents, it's an inconvenience. For emergency first responders, it's a life-or-death issue, especially when a patient is suspected of having a heart attack.