Above: The remains of Sundae's, a restaurant on Route 23 in Grand Gorge that was destroyed by an early-morning fire on Monday. It's the second time in a month a business has burned down in Grand Gorge; in the wee hours of September 27, Becker's Tire Service on Route 30 was destroyed by a fire. Investigators say neither fire is considered suspicious. Photo by Jennifer Strom.
Happy Thursday, Catskills -- and happy End Of Shutdown Day, too. Late last night, Congress passed a bill to fund the government until January 15 and raise the debt limit until February 7, so we've got at least a few months of reprieve from all the Sturm und Drang in the Capitol.
Voting "Aye" on the deal that ended the shutdown: Local Congressman Chris Gibson, a fairly moderate Republican who's played to both sides in this ongoing brouhaha. In a statement on his website, Gibson explains his vote.
The end of the shutdown will be welcome news to some local businesses. Last week, we reported that the shutdown was keeping Green Wolf Brewing Company, a new brewery that plans to open in Middleburgh, from moving forward. Since that story was published, we've heard from another local business that was being held up by the shutdown: Hubbell Inc., a Middletown business that has been working on many federally-funded stream restoration projects in the region. With the shutdown in effect, the business was unable to get paid for work they'd already completed, said Burr Hubbell, who wrote to us:
Were the project "in progress", we could get progress payments, but, in the mystifying logic of the furlough, projects which are beyond the as-built drawing phase get no funding, and those contractors, such as ourselves, get hung out to dry. Our expenses on this contract are close to $270K so this leaves us floating $135K for the benefit of the federal government.
Here's hoping the folks at the Natural Resources Conservation Service are back at work and ready to cut some checks.
Parents of schoolchildren in Walton are buzzing today over the release of convicted stalker Jennifer Morris, who in June was arrested and charged with making a series of sadistic online threats against children in the Walton Central School District, her second arrest on similar charges. In September, Morris pled guilty to one count of falsely reporting an incident, in exchange for a plea deal that gave her six months of jail time and five years of probation, under which she is not allowed to access the Internet. Looks like Morris got out earlier than expected; local parents are hoping she stays off Facebook.
Tragedy struck at the Kutsher's resort in Thompson last week, when a young Hartwick College student who was helping to prepare for the annual Harvest Festival -- a pro-marijuana-legalization event and concert -- fell off a roof to her death. Town officials closed down the event, declaring that Kutsher's, a famously decaying Borscht Belt resort that used to host beloved indie music fest All Tomorrow's Parties, was unfit for occupation.
It's been a rough week in accidents. On Monday, a Kingston 19-year-old was killed when the bicycle he was riding on was struck by a vehicle on Route 32 in Saugerties. And on Wednesday, a Highland Falls man was fatally injured in a two-car crash in Wawarsing.
There's some good news out there too, though. A giant metal elk that was reported stolen from the lawn of the Tyron Inn in Cherry Valley is on its way home again. Apparently it was all just an 800-pound misunderstanding. (We thought about writing "misundeerstanding," but that was too much even for our admittedly tacky Pun Department.)
Not so lucky: The owners of a seven-foot-tall Gumby statue in Saugerties that has apparently been swiped by miscreants. They're offering a $100 reward for his safe return, no questions asked.
We missed this a couple of weeks ago, but it's too good to pass up. New York Magazine has a terrific profile of the astonishing success of local yogurtmaker Chobani:
As one analyst has noted, if you examined Chobani’s fiscal returns and 'blocked out its name, you’d think it’s a software company.'
New favorite blog: The Schoharie News, a website launched this summer that has been faithfully tackling the ins and outs of Schoharie County politics as local-election season heats up. Nota bene: Its founding editor, SUNY Cobleskill student and Middleburghian Timothy McKnight, is an active member of the Schoharie County Young Republicans. Given the site's partisan leanings, we're taking their reader polls with a grain of salt, but it's great to have another local news outlet on the scene.
Let there be light: The Catskills water headed for New York City's taps is now being treated with ultraviolet light to keep Cryptosporidium and Giardia pathogens at bay, thanks to a new treatment plant that recently opened in Westchester County. The new UV plant is by far the largest in the world, but even at $1.6 billion, it's a bargain compared to the potential cost of building a filtration plant.
Coxsackie's Hi-Way Drive-In movie theater was hoping for an major grant from Honda to help them make the $300,000 conversion to show digital movies this year, but alas, it was not to be. Digital conversion isn't optional: All movie theaters, large and small, must convert by next year, forced by major film distributors who are no longer willing to deal in 35mm film reels. The theater isn't throwing in the towel yet, the Daily Mail reports; they may get a bank loan, or stick to showing older movies.
Headline of the week goes to the Daily Mail, for their story about the exasperated officials of the town of New Baltimore, who are struggling to keep up with a deluge of Freedom of Information Law requests: "FOILed again...and again."
Acquitted: A former SUNY Delhi student who was accused of raping a fellow student in 2009, after a wrenching jury trial that included the testimony and cross-examination of the accuser.
Rural towns, represent: The western end of Sullivan County has been languishing without proper public services and adequate healthcare for too long, says Lumberland supervisor Nadia Rajsz. At a recent town board meeting, Rajsz told her fellow Lumberlandians about her efforts to speak up on behalf of Western Sullivan to the county Economic Steering Committee:
"The western end is truly different from the east and (county officials) seem to forget that the west exists, except for my big mouth."
The Watershed Post is working on a Release Protocol for the NewsShed, our sporadically-erupting roundup of news, weather and hot bloggy goodness from around the Catskills. Got a tip for the NewsShed? Let us know at editor@watershedpost.com.
Correction: Cryptosporidium and Giardia organisms are parasitic protozoans, not bacteria, as they were referred to in a previous version of this post. D'oh.
