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51-year-old Clifton Park man dies while hiking in Hunter

Above: The beginning of the Escarpment Trail. According to a post on the Catskill Mountaineer Forum, the hiker's body was found on this trial on Monday. Photo from Catskill Mountaineer.

10/16/11 Update: A man died while hiking on the Escarpment Trail in the town of Hunter over the weekend died. The state police reported late yesterday that the hiker was 51-year-old Paul Dodway of Clifton Park, whose body was found on the Escarpment Trail in the North-South State Park trail system on Monday. Dodway was reported missing by his family after he failed to return from hiking over the weekend. His body was found by a fellow hiker. An autopsy conducted yesterday at Albany Medical Center concluded that Dodway died of natural causes.

The full press release from the State Police is below. Below that is our previous coverage.

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Middletown supervisor candidates square off at forum

Above: Video footage of the entire hour-and-a-half-long forum, which was also broadcast on WIOX 91.3 FM in Roxbury. Video by Fred Margulies.

With incumbent Len Utter stepping down after over a decade in the position, and three independent candidates on the ballot, the race for supervisor in Middletown was already getting interesting before Irene blew through town.

But on August 28, widespread flooding and destruction in the town's villages of Fleischmanns and Margaretville its hamlet of Arkville dramatically upped the stakes in the Middletown supervisor race. The flooding also flushed out yet another candidate: Current deputy supervisor Jake Rosa, who is now running as a write-in.

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More Catskill Park signage cropping up

Photo of new street sign in Allaben sporting a Catskills Park disc logo. Photo by Aaron Bennett.

Stalwart Watershed Post correspondent Aaron Bennett has noticed a new crop of Catskill Park signage going up in Shandaken this week. (The first batch of new signs went up in June.) Above is his photo of an Allaben street sign with the new disc logo, which you can see large-scale below.

Bennett writes:

The new brown and whites with the placard on top continue to go up - saw a whole new swath today on my drive in, I also noticed this new street sign with the Catskill Park disc which will eventually make it to all of them - at least in Shandaken where the green/white signs on town-maintained roads are being replaced by brown/white.

In other signage news, Bennett reports that most of the uphill-skiing skiers along Rte. 28 are still skiiing uphill.

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Hurricane Irene and Beyond: Coping with Personal Trauma, Loss and Grief

More stops on New York State executive tour of flood-damaged region

Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo's office announced more stops on his administration's ongoing tour of flood-damaged communities in upstate New York.

This afternoon, Environmental Facilities Corporation CEO Matthew Driscoll will visit Sidney and Margaretville, in Delaware County. Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Darrel Aubertine will tour flood-damaged farms in Schoharie County.

Yesterday, Lieutenant Governor Bob Duffy visited Hunter and Prattsville in Greene County. The Daily Mail covered his stop in Prattsville, where local officials pressed him for financial help from the state for the recovery effort:

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Candidates spar about flood response at Olive forum

The Olive Meet-the-Candidates Forum at the Olive Town Meeting Hall, October 22, 2011. Photo by Julia Reischel.

About 40 Olive residents turned out on Saturday morning on October 22 to meet their candidates for various town offices at a candidates' forum sponsored by the Watershed Post and moderated by the League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Valley.

All but one of the candidates running for office this year in the town of Olive were able to attend the forum. (Donald VanBuren, who is running for a seat on the Olive Town Council, was unable to make it because of a last-minute work emergency.)

Both candidates for town supervisor -- challenger Cindy Johansen and 22-year incumbent Berndt Leifeld -- were in attendance, as were town councilmen Peter Friedel and Henry Rank and their challenger for town council, Ternice Winne. Even town justice Ronald Wright was there, despite the fact that he is running unopposed for re-election.

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Sewer 2.0: A new plan for Phoenicia's wastewater is unveiled

Detail of a map from Lamont Engineers showing how much of Delaware Engineering's 2007 design for the Phoenicia wastewater treatment plant they can build with existing funds. Green lines show Lamont's proposed sewer connections; red lines show connections that could be built in future if the sewer district decides to expand the plant. The original 2007 sewer district is shaded in blue. To see the complete map, see the Scribd document embedded at the bottom of this post.

The latest plan for a Phoenicia sewer system has been unveiled at last. At a cost of $15.8 million, and with 127 hookups serving 194 businesses and households, the system is smaller -- and cheaper -- than the proposed system that was rejected by voters in 2007. Whether that will convince skeptical residents of the hamlet to give the plan the green light remains to be seen.

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NYC Department of Environmental Protection

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Lamont Engineers

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Video: Andes Meet-the-Candidates Forum at the Andes Hotel, October 23, 2011

The Watershed Post sponsored a meet-the-candiates forum for candidates running for office in the town of Andes on Sunday, October 23, 2011. The forum was moderated by Presbyterian pastor Steve Swanson and timed by Andes resident Jack McShane. The Andes Hotel (a Watershed Post advertiser) generously donated its back room for the event.

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Andes Candidates Forum

Cuomo administration to tour flood-damaged towns this week

Governor Andrew Cuomo's office announced this morning that several members of his administration will be touring flood-damaged communities in upstate New York this week, beginning this afternoon.

Today, Lieutenant Governor Bob Duffy and Environmental Facilities Corporation CEO Matthew Driscoll will visit Prattsville and Hunter to assess the progress of the recovery efforts there. Meanwhile, Darrel Aubertine, Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, will be touring farms in Ulster County throughout the afternoon.

The press release (with schedule):

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Local color

Photo taken October 15, 2011 by Flickr user scottnj. Published under Creative Commons license.

The fall foliage may be on its way out, but there's vivid color in the Catskills landscape if you know where to look for it. For instance: This proud, Pepto-Bismol-pink barn in Tannersville. Not what you might call traditional -- but just the thing to get us through those gray, dreary days from the end of autumn til the snow starts sticking.

Want to see your local photos on the Watershed Post? Email them to [email protected], or post them to our Watershed Post Flickr group.

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