Andes's newest business is looking pretty green. Photo by "Story Laurie" McIntosh, who writes: "Morena of Grayson's Organics, selling fresh garlic scapes, salad greens and baby garlic to Annette, a happy customer. The farm store is at 27 Delaware Ave., Andes, NY (2 doors up from the blinking light). She'll be open Thur-Sat ~11-6 (except [today]. sorry), and will also have lots of herbs to sell...and soon Mexican food, good coffee...and more good stuff! Go meet Morena & buy some greens."
Good morning, Catskills!
On tap for today: More rain. The weather geeks at Hudson Valley Weather are getting excited today about "orographic lift" -- a phenomenon that involves clouds cooling down and releasing rain as they are pushed up the sides of mountains. Guess which mountains they're talking about.
A flash flood watch is in effect for Delaware and Sullivan counties, starting at 2pm and in effect through Friday afternoon. Greene, Schoharie and Ulster counties have a flood watch in effect from noon today through early Friday evening. Torrential downpours could yield three or four inches of rainfall in some spots. We'll keep an eye on local river forecasts, and if you alert us to flooding or road closures in your area, we'll pass it on.
Ulster County's train wars rage on, with both sides accusing each other of refusing to negotiate. The Catskill Mountain Railroad has one word for county executive Mike Hein: "Nuts." Ulster County attorney Bea Havranek had a few choice words of her own for the railroad in today's Daily Freeman.
The tough-talking railroad execs didn't go toe to toe with Kingston's notoriously pottymouthed mayor Shayne Gallo -- but the Kingston Times' Hugh Reynolds wishes they had.
The plot sickens: News from a fire in a Monticello apartment building on Monday morning has gotten progressively worse. The body of owner Celestino Valverde was found in the blaze. The latest: Investigators believe Valverde booby-trapped the house, set the fire and then then shot himself.
Psst. Rural Catskills phone users. That fancy new Voice Link wireless gadget Verizon wants to sell you? They're just too cheap to fix their landlines, says the NY AG's office. (More background from Mashable on the tech -- and the headaches it's causing on Fire Island.)
Want to keep your sales tax, Ulster County? Okay, but you'll have to take over local welfare and election costs, says Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, who has been wielding a big state-legislation-blocking stick in an effort to get the county to take over Safety Net.
In case you were wondering what local talking heads think about the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling yesterday: The Daily Star is on it.
Unacceptably poopy: 44 percent of water samples taken in a recent study of Catskill Creek.
Unacceptably shabby: Seasonal storefronts in Fallsburg, where the town board is requiring businesses to put down a $1,000 deposit to make sure they keep things neat.
Catskill's giant wooden bobcat sculpture, which is "attracting young people late at night," won't be torn down just yet, thanks to the concerned citizens at Save The Cat In Catskill.
Colchester still doesn't have a town police officer, but they're looking. (Certified officers only, please. After what happened with the last one, they're not taking any chances.)
What's the difference between "notify" and "consult" worth? About 900 words in the Catskill Mountain News, which took Middletown supervisor Marge Miller to task last week for making a one-word change to a town sewer law without following proper procedure.
Don't worry, Middletown: If town board member Brian Sweeney doesn't like Marge Miller, it's not because she's a woman, writes Doris Warner of the Catskill Mountain News in a letter to her own paper. (Huh? What? We're still hung up on the fact that Sweeney writes for the town paper while serving on the town board and running the town PR agency.)
Only in Windham: Windsockgate! Windhamites were warned that windsocks -- no matter how patriotic -- cause too much "wibble-wobble" to be allowed on town lampposts. But the Windham Chamber of Commerce likes its windsocks, and they're fighting back at tonight's town meeting.
Butternuts Beer and Ale buying the former Guilford Mills plant in Cobleskill? Not likely, the Times Journal reports, since Schoharie County supervisors won't agree to hold a second mortgage on the $2.5 million building for the brewers.
But not to worry, Schoharie County: You can still have a luxury Korean bath spa in Sharon Springs. Maybe.
Onteora's school board is confused about the numbers for the proposed Belleayre Resort. (Welcome to the club, guys.)
Plattekill Mountain owner Laszlo Vajtay has also been doing some math, and figures that if the state pours $74 million into the Belleayre Ski Center, it may put him out of business.
And you think you've got water problems: A house in Saugerties is being swallowed up by a sinkhole caused by collapsing sewer pipes. Yikes.
NewsShed, our weekday digest of news and bloggy stuff from around the region, is a new item here at the WP. Readers, what do you think? Let us know in a comment, or email us at editor@watershedpost.com.
Correction: We misspelled Laszlo Vajtay's name in an earlier version of this post. (See his letter to the editor.) Our apologies!
