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.