Middletown

Margaretville's Cheese Barrel, gutted by Irene, re-vamps and re-opens

By Julia Reischel
5/21/12 - 11:39 am

Above: A small customer visits the Cheese Barrel on its first day in its renovated old location, Saturday May 19. Photo by Julia Reischel.

The Cheese Barrel, a cafe and gourmet grocer on Main Street Margaretville, was inundated by Tropical Storm Irene's floodwaters on August 28, 2011. (Full disclosure: The Cheese Barrel is a Watershed Post advertiser.)

Sue Ihlo, the store's owner, moved her cafe across the street and re-opened for business last fall. On Saturday, the Cheese Barrel moved back across the street to its old location, which has been completely renovated with hardwood floors and a new layout. We visited that day to see the new space and took these photos.

Below: A gallery of photos of the Cheese Barrel's renovated space on Main Street.

This Memorial Day, bike the Catskills

By Andrea Girolamo
5/18/12 - 6:26 pm

Above: Cycling on some Catskills roads. Photo via the Catskill Mountain Cycling Club Facebook page.

Cyclists who ride the Catskills know this is a perfect place to get on the bike for a quick 20-miler. And what better time to do it than this Memorial Day weekend, when two of our local cycling clubs are offering planned rides for cycling enthusiasts?

'Tour de Pepacton'

Billy Allison, of the Catskill Mountain Cycling Club, is the organizing brains behind this year’s Tour de Pepacton, a ride to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, on Sunday, May 27.  Read more

School elections today

By Lissa Harris
5/15/12 - 9:57 am

A reminder: New Yorkers go to the polls today to vote for school budgets and board members. To find your local polling place, check your school district's website.

Problems at the polls? Let us know at editor@watershedpost.com.

Thousands of rural post offices to reduce hours under new USPS plan

By Lissa Harris
5/10/12 - 11:33 am

Above: A Google map of New York State post offices that will have reduced hours under the new plan. Click on a red dot to get information about a post office's current hours and their planned reduced daily hours. Use the controls on the left to zoom in or out, or click and drag the map with your mouse. For a larger view, click here. Data from the United States Postal Service.   Read more

Obituary: Clive MacDonald, "carpentrepreneur" and "a rebel without a cause"

By WP Newsroom
5/10/12 - 8:29 am

The following is a reader-submitted obituary.

Clive George MacDonald died on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at his home in Arkville, NY surrounded by his family and friends. The cause of death was cancer.

Born July 8, 1945 in Coventry, England, the son of George and Kathleen (née Northover) MacDonald, he moved to Canada with his parents and three of his five brothers in 1951. The family then moved to Long Island in 1957 where he attended Farmingdale High School. Clive served in the US Navy from 1965-1969 as an electrician on the aircraft carrier Kearsage. He married Elizabeth Kuless Shaw in 1990.  Read more

  • 447 reads

Tour de Pepacton; charity bike ride (not a race)

By Lucci607
5/9/12 - 7:59 am

On Sunday, May 27 The Catskill Mtn Cycling Club, Inc. will sponsor, at the Margaretville Pavilion, the Tour de Pepacton (it's easier to ride it than to say it), will begin at 9a.m. This is NOT a race, rather a fun ride to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, Inc..2 routes to choose from: a 25mile fairly flat ride around the newly opened Pepacton  Reservoir  and also a Metric Century, 60miles around the entire reservoir. Both rides begin and end at the Margaretville Village Pavilion. water,fruit, and snacks will be provided. In addition, "SAG wagons" will be along for the ride to ensure the safety and comfort of all riders. This means that if you are unable to complete these rides, someone will be there to pick you up and bring you back to the pavilion no matter how far you have gone! As this ride is sanctioned by USA Cycling, you can register by going to usacycling.com(or the link through Watershed Post). $25 in advance, or $35 the day of the event.  Read more

  • 24 reads

From the Publisher: Memorial Day. It's coming.

By Julia Reischel
5/7/12 - 4:23 pm

In the Catskills this year, Memorial Day is going to be epic.

For the first time in history, four of the six west-of-Hudson New York City reservoirs will be open to boating and paddling for the masses. A new bike event will bring the spirit of the Tour de France to the Pepacton. There will be festivals, parades, street fairs, and general partying all over the region.

And we're going to keep track of it all in our soon-to-be-published Catskills Memorial Day Guide.

Advertise in the Memorial Day guide by May 15. To advertise, check out our rate sheet and get in touch with me at sales@watershedpost.com or at 845-481-0155.

To get your event listed in the guide for free, click here to enter your event into our calendar system. (You need to register for an account with us first.)

Our goal is to list every single parade, barbecue, and get-together in the Catskills. Help us make it happen.

  Read more

The week in ATV news: Two bad accidents and a theft

By Lissa Harris
5/7/12 - 11:29 am

Last week saw a couple of catastrophic ATV accidents in the Catskills.

On Thursday, May 3, two local residents were fatally injured while riding an ATV in Andes: 32-year-old John W. Morris and 45-year-old Julie M. Manon. The Daily Star reports:

Manon died Friday at Albany Medical Center from injuries sustained in the crash, while Morris died Thursday night at Margaretville Hospital.

The Daily Star has obituaries for both Manon and Morris in today's paper.  Read more

New Shaolin temple in Fleischmanns opens its doors this Saturday

By J.N. Urbanski
5/4/12 - 4:31 pm

Above: A recent photo from the ongoing construction of the new USA Shaolin Temple, on Breezy Hill Road in Fleischmanns. Photo from USA Shaolin Temple's Facebook page.

The Catskill Mountains are famously a magnet for people who want to create their own reality. But of all the quixotic dreams that have taken root in our craggy slopes and stony soil, none may be as ambitious as the plans of the USA Shaolin Temple, an international group of kung-fu-fighting Buddhists under the tutelage of the charismatic Shi Yan Ming. (The Shifu, or "master," is known for shouting cheery affirmations like "Merry Christmas! More Chi!" while delivering a punch that could crumple the hood of a Volkswagen.)  Read more

Waitin' for a supermoon

By Lissa Harris
5/4/12 - 10:45 am

Above: A comparison of last year's "supermoon," on March 19, 2011, with a more average full moon from December 20, 2010. File from Wikimedia Commons.

Cross your fingers for clear skies this Saturday night, when a phenomenon called a "supermoon" should make for some stunning skywatching.

This Saturday evening, the moon turns full at 11:35pm. At midnight, the moon will reach its perigee -- the point at which it is closest to the Earth during its regular orbit of the planet, which takes 29.5 days. Full moon at perigee happens about once every 14 months.

Astronomer Joe Rao writes in the Christian Science Monitor that the best time to see Saturday's supermoon will be right around moonrise (which, here in upstate New York, should be just before 7pm):  Read more

Syndicate content