Above: Detail from a map showing the route of the proposed Constitution Pipeline, a 122-mile, 30-inch natural gas pipeline that will connect gas from hydrofracked wells in Pennsylvania to a larger network of pipelines serving New York and New England. From an application filed by pipeline developers with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 13, published in the Federal Register on July 2. The entire application is available from FERC's eLibrary; follow the instructions in the Federal Register notice linked above to find the documents. Anyone who wants to comment on the application -- or file to be considered as an "intervenor," a status that allows more input on the process to parties affected by it -- can do so until July 17.
It's official: The weather cannot possibly get any weirder. Across the river in Columbia County, two people were struck by lightning at Lake Taghkanic Park on Sunday. What are the odds?
Hot: Local speed dating.
Hotter: The battle over Windham's patriotic windsocks, which promises to rage on long past the Fourth of July.
Hottest: Olive's Democratic caucus this Thursday. Rawr.
Settled: A $26 million dustup between Ulster County executive Mike Hein and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill over Safety Net funding and the county sales tax. And no fisticuffs, even.
The comptrollin' Thomas DiNapoli released a bunch of municipal audits last week. Among those caught ridin' dirty: Bloomingburg Fire Company #1, which hasn't been properly documenting its cash disbursements, and the Delaware County town of Hamden, which has been relying a little too hard on its general fund lately.
Also dinged by the Comptroller: The state Department of Environmental Conservation, for not cracking down hard enough on the owners of dams with structural problems. (Hmm. Think they're ready to be New York's hydrofracking police?)
The Haines Falls post office will stay open. (And there was much rejoicing.)
Neither weekender nor local: A Catskills blogger, caught in the middle, frets about taxonomy.
Quote of the day goes to Paul Nickerson, proprietor of the legendary Dope Jams record store in Brooklyn, which just moved to the tiny Greene County hamlet of Oak Hill. Nickerson tells the Daily Mail why he left Brooklyn: It's too nice.
"Brooklyn and New York are not what they were. It’s a really terrible place. It’s just like one big yuppie shopping mall now. That’s sort of the best way to describe it. Everything’s just really nice. And there’s no reason to live in a city if it’s like that. That’s not why you go to the city."
Delaware County might start charging 30 cents a month to cell phone users to fund its 911 system. Hey. It's your own fault for getting rid of your landline.
In recent chicken-and-egg problem news: Local meat farmers need more local slaughterhouses to succeed. But local slaughterhouses need more commitment from farmers too, says a new report on the industry.
Riverkeeper is trying to diagnose the cause of Catskill Creek's unacceptable poopiness. So far, it's still a mystery -- but we're looking at you, failing septic systems of Leeds.
In three unrelated incidents, three children nearly drowned in Jewish bungalow colonies and camps in Sullivan and Ulster County over the weekend: An 18-month-old, an 8-year-old and a 14-year-old.
A 17-year-old girl from Yulan died in a one-car accident on Saturday when the car she was riding in hit a utility pole in Lumberland.
It's been a long, crimey weekend around the Catskills. A few police-blotter highlights from the Fourth and its aftermath:
- Burglar on the grass, alas: A disoriented man was found sitting on the lawn of a burgled home in Narrowsburg, and charged with breaking in to steal prescription drugs.
- Four arrests were made last week in a multi-agency crackdown on drug trafficking in Greene County: Three in Catskill, and one in Prattsville.
- A Summit man was arrested in Cobleskill on Sunday on charges of rape and forcible touching, and remanded to the Schoharie County jail.
- Three women face gang assault charges for allegedly beating another woman at the Rondout Valley Campground on Sunday morning.
NewsShed, our weekday digest of news, weather and hot bloggy goodness 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.
