Hurricane Irene

Editor's note: The Freshtown supermarket in Margaretville, owned by the Katz family, was flooded during last August's Tropical Storm Irene. Six months later, it is still closed. -- Julia Reischel

Dear Editor,

I took a ride today, to Prattsville. I haven't been that way in over two years. I had no reason to go there. Due to what I like to refer to as the Freshtown Fiasco, I decided to check out the Great American Supermarket there. I've gone to Stamford (Grand Union) and Delhi (Price Choppers), as well as the mega stores in Kingston and Oneonta, so I figured, why not the Great American. Surely they can use my business.

I was so impressed with what the owner there has done. I don't know what the store looked like before the floods, but it sure was attractive today. The staff was friendly, the customers all had smiles on their faces, and the prices were extremely fair and the selection very very good.

I know from reading the WP and the other local media that this store, indeed the whole town, was affected by Irene and Lee. Driving through Prattsville was heart-wrenching. Margaretville has rebounded so much more quickly.  Read more

Today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office announced the awarding of grants of roughly $50,000 each by the New York Department of State to 13 towns and villages in upstate New York, for rebuilding from the Irene and Lee floods.

The list of awardees includes the Delaware County town of Middletown, along with its two villages, Margaretville and Fleischmanns; the Delaware County village of Sidney; the Schoharie County town of Blenheim; and the Greene County town of Prattsville.

In the announcement, Cuomo's office said that towns can submit applications for another round of similar grants to the Department of State until March 1.

A press release from Cuomo's office:  Read more

Schoharie High School is one of 12 finalists in a nationwide contest sponsored by Samsung. Just by being in the top twelve for the "Samsung Solve for Tomorrow" contest, the school will receive a prize -- but the size of the prize depends on how many votes it gets from the public between now and midnight on March 12.

At the moment I write this, the Schoharie students are in second place with 1661 votes, trailing only Sutter Middle School in Folsom, California, which has 1746 votes. (To vote for Schoharie, go to the contest page and click the "Vote" button under the Schoharie video.)

All of the contest's finalists have produced videos describing "how science and math can improve the environment in their community." The students in Schoharie, which was devastated by Tropical Storm Irene last August, documented their work helping Schoharie Valley recover from the ravages of flooding.  Read more