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Feb. 24, 2010
The letter below is from Calvin Tillman, mayor of DISH, Texas. Tillman has been touring New York and Pennsylvania talking about the problems his small town has been having with natural gas drilling.
My new friends in the Marcellus,
As I return from... Read more
Feb. 24, 2010
The New York Times's Property Values real estate column features a house in Woodstock today: a converted 1861 church on the market for $879,000.
Feb. 23, 2010
DEC biologist Carl Herzog is speaking at SUNY New Paltz on Thursday about the great American bat die-off. From the Hudson Valley Geologist:
If you don't know, bats have been dying off in record numbers locally (and throughout the northeast) from a fungal... Read more
Feb. 23, 2010
The New York legislature passed a bill today expanding net metering for renewable energy systems.
Translation: If you're generating your own electricity, you can sell it to the electric company. The law previously allowed net metering, but made it... Read more
Feb. 23, 2010
On eBay: A 1956 clipping from Coronet magazine, with a long article about Catskills violinmaker Harry Stoughtenburgh.
50-plus years later, this probably still holds true:
In Ulster County, boys aren't encouraged to be luthiers.
Feb. 23, 2010
State senator John Bonacic is stirring populist ire against the MTA payroll tax.
"The MTA is virtually useless to the overwhelming number of Orange County residents, and the MTA tax amounts to taxation without transportation," said Bonacic, whose... Read more
Feb. 23, 2010
Dean Sparks wants to get upstate food on downstate plates. The Central New York food distributor, who's behind regional milk coop Nymilk, is using social media to connect with farmers and eaters. The ultimate goal: Building a distribution system to... Read more
Feb. 23, 2010
It's been the worst year for dairy farmers in memory--a year of catastrophic prices in which many farmers went deep in debt just to stay in business. Will 2010 bring any relief?
Maybe so. Prices are picking up. And New York's dairy outlook is brighter... Read more
Feb. 23, 2010
Coyotes. You've got questions. They've got answers.
On March 4, SUNY Ulster and the Catskill Institute for the Environment are hosting a talk on coyote ecology, featuring a panel of local scientists.
The panel will include Dr. Roland Kays, Curator of... Read more
Feb. 23, 2010
The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development named its new executive director at their meeting last week. Here's the press release: Catskill Center for Conservation and Development appoints Alan White executive director
White was... Read more
Feb. 22, 2010
Capital Region enviroblogger, truck driver and all-around mountain man Andy Arthur climbed Hunter Mountain yesterday--and came back down with some marvelous photos. Above: The Hunter fire tower looking like something out of an Ingmar Bergman film.
Feb. 22, 2010
The headline department is having a little too much fun over at the Legislative Gazette today: Pulled pathologist program prompts push for public-private partnerships.
Feb. 22, 2010
The Daily Star reports that the site of a fatal accident in Davenport last week, in which a tractor-trailer ran off Route 23 and into a house, has been the scene of other crashes as well.
[Charles] Harford was driving east on Route 23 at about 5 a.m.... Read more
Feb. 21, 2010
A small-town Texas mayor from deep in gas country has been making the rounds of several upstate counties this week, warning rural New Yorkers about the toll horizontal gas drilling could take on their towns. The mayor made a push for heavy regulation,... Read more
Feb. 21, 2010
Galvanized by the mugging of a neighbor, a Kingston resident is organizing a community crime watch. The group held its first meeting today.
Feb. 20, 2010
Ulster Common Sense blogger Jeremiah snaps a picture of a horse tied to a parking meter outside Rosita's in Kingston.
This does raise a lot of questions. 1) Does the owner have to pay the same amount at the meter? 2) If the owner has a couple of drinks,... Read more
Feb. 20, 2010
Developer Dean Gitter presented a revised plan for the Highmount resort to the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce this week. The Times-Union reports that the new design calls for fewer units.
"Crossroads' proposals have been literally all over the place... Read more
Feb. 19, 2010
Reuters has been doing a great job lately of following the debate over natural gas drilling in New York State. Their latest article takes a look at the growing problem of disposing of frack water, which is too salty and contaminant-laden for most... Read more
Feb. 19, 2010
That's what the Times Union says. Basement Bistro owner Damon Baehrel got a phone call about the prospect:
“They asked if we would be interested in hosting — of course I said yes — and they’re going to give me some possible dates,” Baehrel tells me.... Read more
Feb. 19, 2010
Upstate New York has bountiful open space, a great climate for raising grassfed meat, and a long tradition of local agriculture. So why is it still hard to find local pasture-raised meat at the grocery store?
Brooklyn food writer Adriana Velez had a... Read more