small business

Online craft marketplace opening upstate outpost

By Julia Reischel
1/19/11 - 3:25 pm

Hand-dyed yarn made by Witch Hazel Feltworks, an Etsy user located in the Catskills.

News broke this week that Etsy.com, an online marketplace that allows craftspeople to sell their wares online directly to customers, is opening a call center in Hudson, in Columbia County.

The company is a hipster favorite -- something like an online crafts bazaar, with over 100,000 sellers peddling everything from crocheted stuff animals to corsets. Devotees of handmade goods spent $41.1 million on Etsy last month, according to the company's CEO.  Read more

"Blood, Sweat, and Shears"

By Julia Reischel
1/13/11 - 5:18 pm

A Main Street Stamford hair salon has a new owner and an excellent new name, the Mountain Eagle reports today. Reporter Rosie Cunningham writes that the new name was inspired by proprietor Shanda Whitbeck's dicey experience with elbow surgery.

Fresh: Reprise

By Julia Reischel
11/27/10 - 5:29 pm

Jon and Tiffany Kalupa in their new Margaretville store, Reprise. Photos by Julia Reischel.

A dingy storefront that has stood empty on Main Street in Margaretville for over a year has been transformed into a men's clothing boutique that wouldn't look out of place on 5th Avenue.

Reprise, the brainchild of Jon and Tiffany Kalupa, is a gleaming white window box stuffed with specimens of what the Kalupas call "up country style." That means chunky knit sweaters, bright tartan jackets, and rugby jerseys, along with natty shaving supplies and underwear that comes in an oversized cigarette pack.

Starting a retail fashion boutique has been a longtime dream for the Kalupas, who, in addition to owning a wholesale fashion supplier in Manhattan called The Avalon Group, also own a house in Roxbury near Plattekill Mountain, in what they refer to as "storm alley."  Read more

Middletown, this is your comprehensive plan

By Julia Reischel
10/26/10 - 1:57 pm

Tonight at 7pm in the town hall on Rte. 28, anyone interested in the Delaware County town of Middletown will have a chance to weigh in on its 112-page draft comprehensive plan. The plan attempts to outline how Middletown, which contains the villages of Margaretville, Fleischmanns, Halcottsville, Arkville, and New Kingston, will govern itself in the future, down to the tiniest detail. 

We skimmed the plan and posted it in its entirety below. Here are some of the things that town planners want:

--"Fair taxes" on New York City. (p. 8)

--More "agri-tourism." "There are many opportunities for agri-tourism, organic, and other niche farms to play a much bigger role in the economy of the area. (p.12)

--"Modern telecommunications services," including universal cell phone service. (p. 53) (In the Catskills, as we've reported, this is easier said than done.)  Read more

Ulster County Legislature says no to biodynamic farm

By Julia Reischel
7/23/10 - 3:57 pm

On Tuesday, Linda Borghi's feud with her Shawangunk neighbors over her Walker Valley biodynamic farm intensified when Ulster County legislators declined to grant her an agricultural exemption to the local zoning laws.

Pointing out that two other farms were denied zoning exemptions at the same meeting, Adam Bosch at the Times Herald-Record took a big-picture view of the conflict:

Their vote Tuesday night will become the latest chapter in a statewide struggle between farmers who want protection and special exemptions from zoning laws, and towns that are fighting to retain local control.

In recent years, these rifts have popped up in Forestburgh, Deerpark and New Paltz.

"It's a trend that's just going to continue," said David Church, Orange County's planning commissioner. "Some farmers are shoehorning onto small parcels, some of them are trying to get around local regulations, but most are relatively thoughtful, new operations."  Read more

No farms allowed in Walker Valley

By Julia Reischel
6/25/10 - 2:09 pm

In the town of Shawangunk, you can't have a farm on less than ten acres, according to the town's zoning law. That means that Linda Borghi, who wants to do intensive biodynamic farming on her 2.7 acre plot on Saxton Rd., is out of luck, according to the town government, which is opposing her attempt to get agricultural district status from Ulster County, according to the Times Herald-Record:

Now Borghi has applied to become part of an agricultural district, which would largely exempt her from town rules. Ulster County lawmakers will vote on her application in July. The Town Board voted unanimously to oppose the move and wrote a letter asking the county Legislature to vote it down.

But the real issue is that no one in the hLinda Borghi and partner Barry AdelmanLinda Borghi and partner Barry Adelmanamlet of Walker Valley, which is located in Shawangunk, wants to live near a farm. According to the article, Borghi's neighbors moved to Walker Valley to get away from industry, small-scale farms included:

Nick Hoffman grew up on farms in Montgomery before he moved to Saxton Lane for its quiet setting. "I'm all for farming, but it's the wrong place," Hoffman said. "If she wants to be a hero, she should go down into the valley and save some farm and down there — I'd even give her a donation and buy from her."  Read more

A bassline runs through it

By Julia Reischel
6/25/10 - 12:32 pm

If it rains this weekend, the town of Roxbury could have another Woodstock on its hands.

“That's the joke,” said John Burrows, the owner of Stone Tavern Farm, which is hosting the Desiderata festival, an annual celebration of arts and electronic music, on its 400 acres from Wednesday to Sunday this week.

Burrows is expecting Desiderata, described on its website as “an outdoor art, music, film and yoga festival,” to draw about 2,000 people to the farm for five days of camping, revelry and nonstop oontz-oontz.   Read more

Cha Cha Hut BBQ planning a move to Andes

By Lissa Harris
6/24/10 - 6:59 pm

Since their tiny Roxbury BBQ joint was destroyed by fire last month, Cha Cha Hut owners Cherie and Frank Davis have been scouting nearby hills and valleys for a new location. (They're parting ways with their former landlords, Bridge Street Roxbury LLC -- a recent post on the Cha Cha Hut's blog indicates there's no love lost there.)

Their new location: Hogan's General Store in Andes, whose owner, Don Hogan, is welcoming them with open arms. Hogan says he heard of the Cha Cha Hut's search for a new home via a bit of gossip at the golf course, and immediately thought his place would be a good fit.  Read more

Murphy in M-ville

By Simona David
6/21/10 - 11:37 am

Peg Ellsworth, center, the executive director of the Margaretville-based MARK Project, asked U.S. Representative Scott Murphy a question after his speech in Margaretville on Saturday. Elsworth asked Murphy for funding for the National Housing Trust Fund and the Preserve America grant program. Photo by Simona David.

Margaretville, NY –  06/19/10, 3:30 pm, Village Pavilion

On Saturday, June 19, Congressman Scott Murphy (NY-20) spoke at the Village Pavilion on Main Street about his plan to revitalize the upstate economy, dubbed Renew Upstate New York.

“We’ve got to do economic development, but you’ve got to do it thoughtfully, with an eye toward what the impact on the environment is going to be,” he said, when asked about how to reconcile economic development with environmental conservation in the Catskills. 

“I don’t think they have to be opposed to each other,” he said. 

When Murphy won a special election last March to serve as the U.S. Representative for the the 20th Congressional District, he promised to hold public town hall meetings in each of the 137 towns in his large, rural district, which spans ten counties and runs from Dutchess County all the way up to Lake Placid. On Saturday, he said that he has been to 65 towns so far this year.    Read more

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