NewsShed: Cats and dogs

Ed Potokar, instrument-maker and consummate sonic tinkerer from Accord, shows off the Peg Leg, named in honor of Peg Leg Bates. (He was a Catskills local, too.) Potokar and friends will be making gorgeous electro-percussive noise at Roxbury's Orphic Gallery on Friday, July 5 at 6pm, when the gallery hosts an eclectic lineup of musicians to kick off "Potophonics," a two-month gallery show of Potokar's musical sculptures. On hand for Friday's show: Alice Molloy, Frank Coelho, Michael Suchorsky, Chris Butler, Mark Schaaf, Paul Badger, and of course Potokar himself.

Happy July 3, Catskills. Today kicks off the Dog Days of summer -- so named, according to ancient lore, for the period when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises with the sun.

Skies are still cloudy, and scattered showers are in the forecast for the region, but at least we aren't under any current flood watches at the moment.

The Sullivan County town of Fallsburg got some flash flooding yesterday, closing a piece of state Route 42 in Old Falls briefly. Watch out for traffic delays in the area while the DOT works on the road.

Oxy is foxy, but heroin is cheaper -- and on the rise in Ulster County.

Bearsville is full of huge leaky private underground fuel tanks. Good news: The town of Woodstock is convincing property owners to get rid of them. Bad news: They keep finding more.  

Go to your happy place: The Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz just got voted the second-best hotel spa in the country by Travel and Leisure.  

ORDA order: The Olympic Regional Development Authority has been ordered by a judge to enact a 2012 union contract that was never put into place, the Times Union reports. Still unresolved: Complaints by Belleayre workers dating back to the Paterson administration.

There's been a great deal of mudslinging at Delaware County Board of Supervisors meetings lately. Attendees who plan to sit in the front row might want to bring raincoats in future. 

Quote of the day goes to Dennis Valente -- Davenport town supervisor and the face of the Great Tractor Nap Incident of 2013 -- for his frank assessment of $96,000 in local grants given out by the company behind the proposed Constitution Pipeline. "It'll burp that much money in five seconds in gas," Valente told Delaware County supervisors last week.

First Colchester, now Hancock: Three of Hancock's five village police officers have resigned, and some local residents are asking if the village needs a police department at all. 

The Catskill Action Team has a cheeky new billboard in Hudson to entice visitors to the village: "It's only a river. Get over it." 

Kaufman's Bungalow Colony has til 4:30pm to satisfy the town of Thompson's code inspector, or they forfeit $10,000.

Jerry Seinfeld is a member of the Monticello Motor Club. Who knew?

A Napanoch dad owes $106,000 in back child support, say Ulster County sheriff's deputies, who arrested the man on Tuesday.

SUNY New Paltz wants a $56.2 million student housing project at Park Point. New Paltz town officials want to know what's in it for the town.

Arkville is getting a fancy new rec center, thanks to local philanthropist Kingdon Gould Jr. Who's going to pay to keep the lights on and the pool filter running, we're not sure yet.

On Instagram: A super-cute photo of kids getting epically rained on at the Margaretville Firemen's Carnival on opening day yesterday.

NewsShed, our new weekday digest of news, weather and hot bloggy goodness from around the region, will be taking a break for fireworks and fried dough on the Fourth. See you Friday, Catskills.

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