Phoenicia Festival of the Voice organizers thankful for NY grant but ...

Article on the Voice Festival.

The organizers of the annual Phoenicia Festival of the Voice are pleased to be getting a $90,000 grant from the state but say more money is needed. “Of course we are thrilled,” said Festival of the Voice co-founder Maria Todaro. “The grant does indeed help, but only partially. We are producing 22 events at seven venues within five days” at the August 2014 event.

“This will cover about 20 percent of our costs,” said festival Trustee Justin Kolb.

Now entering its fifth year, the festival, largely an opera event, relies on free labor and talent to accomplish its goal of bringing world-class performers to the stage.

The state grant will go toward a production of “The Barber of Seville” and two world premieres.

Daily Freeman article: Kingston-to-Phoenicia scenic train plan abandoned

With the New York City Department of Environmental Protection embracing a proposal for a recreational trail along the Ashokan Reservoir, the Catskill Mountain Railroad has abandoned its dream of a tourist railroad stretching from the city of Kingston to Phoenicia.

The turnabout came hours after an announcement by Ulster County Executive Michael Hein that New York City was putting up $2.5 million for the creation of a trail along 11.5 miles of rail line on the north shore of the city’s Ashokan Reservoir.

The Catskill Mountain Railroad, which offers scenic train rides in the Kingston area and between Mount Tremper and Phoenicia, has been embroiled in a fight with the county over the use of the tracks since 2012, when Hein first announced plans to convert the railroad bed into a walking and biking trail from Kingston to Mount Tremper. Hein now says he’s willing to allow railroad operations from Boiceville, at the western end of the planned reservoir trail, to Phoenicia — about twice the length of the Mount Tremper-to-Phoenicia route.

Woodstock Times article: Ulster County and New York City announced last week that the city will pitch in $2.5 million to build an 11.5-mile rail-trail along the north bank of the city-owned Ashokan Reservoir. The move appears to fundamentally change the rules of access to local New York City-owned reservoir land. The city also plans to connect the trail with other recreation facilities at the reservoir. “This will include establishing a dedicated lane for recreational use across the dividing-weir bridge when it is reconstructed — a project that is tentatively scheduled for the year 2019,” the DEP stated. A lane along the dividing weir would allow walkers, joggers and cyclists to safely access the proposed rail-trail, and also the “frying-pan” trail along Ashokan’s east basin and the promenade off Route 28A.

early December 2013 snow

Sales tax in Ulster County set to drop 1% Dec. 1

Story in the Daily Freeman:

The battle that raged through summer and fall between Ulster County and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill over paying for the Safety Net welfare program and the county’s request to continue to levy an additional 1 percent in sales tax appears to be resolved. However the ramifications of that fight are only just beginning to be felt.

At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 1, the county’s authority to impose the additional 1 percent sales tax will expire. As a result, sales tax in Ulster County will drop to 7 percent from 8 percent. Of that, 3 percent is levied by the county and 4 percent is levied by the state.

Sales tax in Ulster County set to drop 1% Dec. 1

Story in the Daily Freeman.

The battle that raged through summer and fall between Ulster County and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill over paying for the Safety Net welfare program and the county’s request to continue to levy an additional 1 percent in sales tax appears to be resolved. However the ramifications of that fight are only just beginning to be felt.

At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 1, the county’s authority to impose the additional 1 percent sales tax will expire. As a result, sales tax in Ulster County will drop to 7 percent from 8 percent. Of that, 3 percent is levied by the county and 4 percent is levied by the state.

County businesses, which must collect the tax on all taxable sales, services, deliveries and uses in the county, were notified late last week by the state Department of Taxation and Finance of the change to the sales tax rate.

No trespassin' means no trespassin'

From a story in the Daily Freeman:

WEST HURLEY >> A New York City Department of Environmental Protection officer was treated for shoulder and arm injuries Tuesday after a scuffle with a man found urinating on city property near the Ashokan Reservoir not far from state Route 28, according to a spokesman for the city agency.
At about 10:50 a.m. Tuesday, the officer approached the man, who appeared to be “trespassing and urinating simultaneously” at the Woodstock Dike near Route 28, according to agency spokesman Adam Bosch.

 Emphasis added.

Making bread on the mountain slopes in Roxbury

Story in Woodstock Times:

When William Pollien, a.k.a. “Billy the Baker,” completed a three-year apprenticeship in a bakery near Stuttgart, he told his German colleagues that he hoped to open his own bakery in the U.S. They laughed. “It was like I said, ‘I’m going to put up a sign in front of my house that says I’m a doctor and start practicing medicine,’” he recalls. “In Germany, you have to pass tests, and then the government gives you a license to open a bakery.” Pollien did get a commercial license, but there were several twists in the road on the way to establishing his Machu Picchu Organic Bakery in Roxbury, Delaware County. He now supplies artisanal, traditionally made bread to Hurley Ridge Market near Woodstock, Boiceville Market, Hanover Farms in Mount Tremper, and supermarkets in Margaretville and Prattsville. From mid-May to mid-October, Pollien also sells at the weekly Pakatakan Farmer’s Market at the Round Barn in Halcottsville.

Machu Picchu Bakery: http://machupicchuorganicbakery.com/

Faye Storms, Tim Malloy win Town Board seats

Story from Daily Freeman on 11/5/13.

SHANDAKEN >> Residents on Tuesday ousted Republican incumbent Councilman Jack Jordan and defeated his running mate Frank Stapleton in favor of Democratic candidates Faye Storms and former Councilman Tim Malloy.

Malloy with 533 votes returns to the board after a two-year absence. Storms, a town Planning Board member, received 479 votes.

Jordan, who was also on the Conservative line in seeking a second term, received 372 votes, while Stapleton, who also had Conservative backing, received 310 votes.

Republican incumbent Supervisor Rob Stanley received 698 votes in winning an uncontested race for a third two-year term. He was cross-endorsed on the Democratic and Conservative ballot lines.

Construction on 214 at CPOA

Town of Shandaken Tentative Budget Comparison: 2014 v. 2013

Click to link to Shandaken budget document

Autumn begins in New York

Stony Creek

Labor Day weekend

Monday morning, 1 September 2013

CPOA end-of-season BBQ

After the rains:

DEP announces $9 million in new streams and creeks improvement projects

NEW YORK – The New York City Department of Environmental Protection announced several stream improvement projects:

• West Kill at County Route 6 – Lexington, Greene County: $2.4 million for channel relocation and grading; stream bank armoring; road reconstruction; and modifications to the storm drainage system along County Road 6 to address a segment of eroding bank.
• West Kill at State Route 42 – Lexington, Greene County: $1.7 million for bank stabilization; widening the overly narrow floodplain; vegetating areas of failed slope and other measures to prevent future erosion of the stream channel’s right bank.
• Stony Clove Creek at Chichester – Shandaken, Ulster County: $1.25 million to stop stream bank failure and reduce turbidity by stabilizing the stream channel.
• Stony Clove Creek at Warner Creek Confluence – Shandaken, Ulster County: $1.5 million to stop stream bank failures and stream bank erosion.
• Vly Creek at Fleischmanns – Middletown, Delaware County: $1.3 million to stabilize eroded streambanks and damaged retaining walls.
• Dry Brook at Arkville Trailer Park – Middletown, Delaware County: $400,000 to stabilize areas of erosion, and the stream bank and flood plain will be reconstructed to their approximate pre-flood locations.
• Warner Creek – Shandaken, Ulster County: $500,000 to stabilize an eroded hillside and stream bank that has exposed clay, as well as stabilize an actively eroding bank that is threatening Silver Hollow Road.

[emphasis added]

Progressive dinner 2013

As has become traditional, at the end of this year's CPOA Progressive Dinner, we gathered in the Lerner home for coffee and dessert and conversation. Here are a few pictures:

Below, a few historical pictures:

Packing the car to drive to Chichester:

Aron Felberg, Amy Lerner's paternal grandfather:

 Ellen Felberg, aged 18:

Aron Felberg's diploma from CCNY, dated 1900:

Phoenicia Voice Festival 2013

Rigoletto, by Verdi

Phoenicia Park:

coming into Boiceville

Always a welcome sight

Semi-chic

A sidebar column in the July 29, 2013 issue of The New Yorker,  begins:

If there’s any evidence (besides rising real-estate prices, of course) for the Hudson Valley’s new semi-chic status, it’s Bard SummerScape, the annual performing-arts cavalcade that Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, has commanded since 2002.

 One supposes we are, by virtue of proximity, also semi-chic.

Ashokan watershed maps

I received two emails about the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program


 Preliminary FEMA Flood Maps for the Ashokan Watershed are available for review on the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program (AWSMP) website: www.ashokanstreams.org. These maps developed by FEMA contractors utilize the most up-to-date technology to determine the watershed’s hydraulics, hydrology, as well as topographic features and elevations. The maps are more accurate than current floodplain maps, which were adopted in the 1980s. Municipal officials, real estate professionals, home and business owners, and many others, can utilize these maps to help determine the level of flood risk a particular structure or development may be exposed to near the floodplain. Once adopted, these maps and other information will be used to determine flood insurance rates and requirements for property owners in the floodplain.


New FEMA Levee Mapping Procedures FEMA Finalized Analysis and Mapping Procedures for Non-Accredited Levees The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today, released its updated procedures for analyzing and mapping flood hazards in the vicinity of non-accredited levee systems. These updated procedures are a part of an on-going effort to reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). To review the final approach document, visit:
http://www.fema.gov/final-levee-analysis-and-mapping-approach.

4th of July 2013 weekend

Several dozen attended our annual CPOA BBQ. After, a bonfire was lit, and some (very carefully) toasted marshmallows and made their own 'smores.

CPOA volunteer Saturday

Stoney Creek, Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27) 2013.

Video

Monday 5/26/13, 1.26pm

Phillipe Petit

On Saturday May 25, 2013, famed  high-wire artist Philippe Petit appeared in the Phoenicia Methodist church is a benefit for the Phoenicia Public Library. The Library details the appearance, with accompanying photos, in its Facebook page.

DEC accepts public comments on Belleayre Mountain projects

Story from Mid-Hudson News on public hearing.


The State Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments on the draft revision of the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center Unit Management Plan and its draft Environmental Impact Statement as well as the modified Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park supplemental DEIS for private development by Crossroads Ventures, LLC.

The DEC will hold an informational presentation on May 22 at 7 p.m. in the Discovery Lodge at the Ski Center on Route 28 in Highmount. A public hearing will be held on May 29 at the Discovery Lodge with two sessions, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Comments may be submitted through June 24 by e-mail to belleayre@gw.dec.state.ny.us or mailed to Daniel Whitehead, Regional Environmental Administrator, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY 12561.

Shandaken emergency

Town of Shandaken is mailing out an Emergency Prep Letter and a survey. Both are available on its Facebook page, as well as its website.

Just to remind those of us getting sick of winter that sunnier and warmer days lie ahead, here is a photo of Phoenicia taken from the Tanbark Trail on Mount Tremper.

December snow

At the end of December 2012, when New York City received half an inch of rain, a foot of snow fell in Chichester. When we arrived on Friday, the 28th, I saw evidence that the weather had changed drastically since I'd last been in Chi, in mid-November: