Oklahoma investor Joey Abbo, who failed in his bid to buy the ailing Friar Tuck Inn in Catskill last year, says he's still interested in buying, if he has time to put the financing together. From the Times Union:

Abbo says he had been working with several commercial lenders to pay for the Friar Tuck deal, but he was not given enough time by the court to put a financing package together. He said he wanted an exclusive window of 60 to 90 days to close, instead of the 48 hours he was given to wire the money, which was supposed to total $5.3 million to also pay for auctioneer fees and unpaid taxes.

As with other real estate deals involving bankrupt hotels in the Catskills, the proof is in the pudding.

The DEP is holding a hearing in the Bronx tomorrow to discuss soaring water rates.

The New York City Water Board is expected to enact a 14% rate hike in May, bringing water rates to double what they were 12 years ago, and making the average single-family residential bill more than $1,000 for the first time.

Behind the rate hikes, the NY Daily News reports, is not just the cost of maintaining the vast NYC water system, but also deadbeat landlords not paying their bills and, ironically, successful conservation efforts.

Hungry young entrepreneur shares a ski lift with multi-million-dollar venture capitalist; gets a few minutes suspended in air to make a pitch for funding. It sounds like a movie plot. But it's a networking event at Hunter Mountain next month: Peak Pitch 2010.

Is skiing the new golf? Pairing off entrepreneurs with VCs on the ski lift is pretty genius. It's got everything: adrenaline, terror and GoreTex.

The FAQ on Peak Pitch's website says you don't have to know how to ski.

Peak Pitch is not a skiing competition. Ability to ski will not reflect on your abilities as an entrepreneur or investor. The spirit of the event is based upon enjoying the great outdoors to create an informal and constructive environment to share business ideas and interests.

Perhaps. But it seems bad form to creep down the bunny hill, knees locked in a snowplow, in front of a guy you're going to hit up for half a mil over hot chocolate.

The former governor will be speaking at SUNY New Paltz on March 11. Jeremy Blaber's excited about it.

Who likes Gov. Eliot Spitzer more then me?!?!

Definitely not "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis, who announced recently that she's running for governor.

"I was valedictorian of my high-school class," said the golden-tressed Davis, sporting a modest black suit but wicked Christian Louboutins with 5-inch heels. "I worked 10 years in finance. I was vice president of a hedge fund. I went on to build a multimillion-dollar business from scratch."

**Update: Contrary to what the first story linked below says, no agreement has yet been reached on the Catskills signs, Peter Manning of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development tells us. While the Adirondack signage has been resolved, plans for the Catskills are still under discussion, and public meetings will likely be held to get input from stakeholders in the region.

We will be covering this issue as it unfolds. --2.17.2010

Even though their color scheme makes them hard to read, those brown-and-yellow road signs are here to stay, thanks to a valiant stand by the New York State Department of Transportation.

The Federal Highway Administration had been pushing the Adirondack and Catskills state parks to change their sign colors to a more readable "white-on-brown." But the state DOT pushed back, according to the DOT Region 2 Director Michael Shamma. From the Adirondack Daily Enterprise: