Saturday, April 09, 2005

Catching Up

NOSTRUMS Dept. Successful Catskill Village Trustee candidate Joe Kosloski advocated exempting fire-fighters from Village taxes. This would compensate, in effect, for their service as volunteers. Kosloski acknowledged problem of equity as between firefighters who do and don’t own taxable Village property. He needs also to ponder issue of equity as between firefighters and other people who perform voluntary community services.

STILL UNCLAIMED: jewel-encrusted “Captain Kidd” crown that has been target of treasure hunters (well, a few are still at it) in GreeneLand since 1991. Find a certain gold doubloon, and you can collect crown worth around $10,000. To find that coin, follow clues that are imbedded in story distributed from Greene County Promotion Dept. (943-3223) or from Tourist Information office at Thruway Exit 21. Project’s history is well told in story by Paul Grondhall in Albany TimesUnion of March 27; text may be retrievable at http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story/asp?storyID=345518&category=REGION@ne wsdate=3/27/2005. According to Marge Stabile, head of GreeneLand’s tourism promotion office, Grondhall’s story attracted about a hundred requests for copies of Clues. Supply has not run out.

OPENING, April 16, at 402 Main St, Catskill, from noon to 6 pm, by artists Dina Burstyn and Julie Chase: Open Studio, second of new GreeneLand galleries. “Sculptures, totems, prints, assemblages…” with emphasis on art of everyday life, or treating commonplace objects so as to endow them with uncommon suggestions. A cellphone for interior monologues, for instance; and a Dream Processor. For more information: 943-9531 &/or Catskillstudio@aol.com.

<>THAT GALLERY previously was trashy Kentucky Broiled Chicken. But farther back in time-it was Modern Bakery & Delicatessen, operated by parents of Ruth and Arthur Kay. The Kays (original name Kosakevitch, from Ukrainian village of Zvengerodkae by way of New York City and of Pine Grove House in Palenville) set up shop and home there in 1925, two doors up from Tice’s barber shop (40-cent haircuts) and four up from Berkingoff tailor shop. In 1929, recalls Arthur (from Tucson retirement), they sold milk for 12 cents a quart, sliced ham for 60 cents a pound, a dozen kaiser rolls for 20 cents. And they tolerated customers who came in after first shopping at A & P or Grand Union where they bought packages of factory-made, bleached, square, soggy Wonder Bread. COMING SOON, to 396 Main St, Catskill (=former Party Time): sophisticated country furniture and furnishings store, operated by Harold Gondrez and HonieAnn Peacock. They are retailing veterans from >LowerManhattan (E. 9th St). And she is Functional Art Klein’s sister.

ALSO COMING, next door at 394 (erstwhile Catskill Fry Shack): bakery and premium coffee shop, operated by Robert and Janet Lugo, who in another life are Special Edifiers at Cairo-Durham. In anticipation, Bob will go to Seattle for classes sponsored by Specialty Coffee Association of America. When business gets going, Main Street will swoon to scent of coffee beans a-roasting.

YOGA classes “in Svaroopa style” have started, on main floor of Wilder Gallery at 375 Main St, Catskill, on Tuesdays, 5:30-7 pm. Instructor Nicholas Dalton promises “safe and gradual release of chronic pain and discomfort” by way of “well-supported poses designed to release core tensions in the spine and throughout the entire body/mind.” (“…throughout the entire…” shows need for release from redundancy). It’s not too late to join the six gorgeous women who turned up last Tuesday or inaugural session. (Gallantry pays). More information: (845)235-2545.

CROWNED as Small Business Persons of the Year for all of New York State, by Small Business Administration of the United States: Michael Grosso and Hugh Quigley, chieftains of GreeneLand’s own DynaBil Industries. Award ceremony to be held May 10 at Desmond Hotel in Colonie. Our enterprisers then journey to Washington DC for title shot: Small Business Person of the Year for all of USA.

ACCUSED(?): Village Justice candidate (and victor) Veronica Kosich; by opponent Christine Ulscht, in campaign advertisement; of being--gasp--“lawyer with phone book ads” and of having “relative in the Public Defender’s office.” Those are faults? performance handicaps?

SELECTED for inclusion in summer tour of Europe with Honor Band recruited (via audition) by American Music Abroad: Catskill High School flautist Leah Hart. France, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany will be visited by her troupe of musical ambassadors. But it’s a $4000 privilege. Let’s share the burden. Local groups (Kiwanis, etc.) have helped but have not filled the cup. Donations are tax-deductible. Make checks payable to Leah Hart-A.M.A. Account and, for tax purposes, put fund raising donation-A.M.A. on memo line of check. Mail to Leah Hart at 1750 Rt. 23B # 22, Leeds NY 12451.

HONORED at Harriet Tubman Humanitarian Awards Jubilee in Albany last month, for 32 years of service to inner-city youth (emphasis on marching bands—and his legs do ache): GreeneLand’s Moses Chestnut.

RECOGNIZED, tardily, by me (et al.): presence on Main Street, Catskill (#388; former home of Adventure Travel) of monthly Northeast Journal of Antiques & Art. Founder/Publisher Harold M. Hanson brought the periodical—foremost publication of its kind in New York State--over from Hudson 14 months ago, along with marketing director Diane Schmitt (of Athens) and other staff. Lead story in March issue (48 tabloid pages) covers Freehold auction house Carlsen Gallery. April issue can be obtained from Northeast office or across street at Townhouse Antiques. Web site is www.northeastjournal.com.

SOLICITED from Governor Pataki’s Office for Small Cities, by Catskill Village Trustees, as drafted by Steve Kirk: $400,000 grant to help create an artisans’ center in renovated complex of buildings at 393-401 Main Street. There’d be studio/workshop spaces on ground floor for 20 artisans, who would receive rental discounts, with remainder paid from Village treasury. Also envisioned for this $1.3 million complex (as reported in 4/4/05 Daily Mail) are offices, apartments, up-scale market.

CONVICTED of—would you believe?—arson: John Gallagher, former chief of Kiskatom Fire Department. In guilty plea before Judge George J. Pulver Jr, Gallagher admitted torching 1991 Ford pickup at request of owner Erin Rodriquez of Palenville, as part of insurance swindle. Rodriquez also was convicted of felonious arson. Gallagher used Kiskatom fire truck to douse blaze and thereby to further fiction of accidental fire. Slated for sentencing—at least two years in prison—on May 24. First offense?

SENTENCED, for welfare fraud on scale exceeding $4000, on March 22: Danielle Farace-Irvis of Catskill. She’ll do at least 18 months in prison, and is required to make restitution, via inmate bank account, of $4520; and 7 cents.

SACKED: Deputy Sheriff Joseph Myer of Coxsackie. He was involved in crash outside tavern in Kiskatom on March 20, according to District Attorney Terry J. Wilhelm (according to Daily Mail of 4/6/05), initially claimed he was only riding in his Dodge pickup, not driving, but eventually copped to minor traffic charge as driver. Tied to plea bargain was requirement that Myer cease law enforcement work in GreeneLand.

BUSTED on drug-trafficking charges: William Hoskins and Sheila Rowell, of Brookside Mobile Home Park in South Cairo. After sustained investigation followed by raid allegedly yielding stocks of heroin, methadone, marijuana, hydrocodone, drug paraphernalia and substantial cash, they were arraigned before Catskill Town Judge Robert Carl, jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail or $100,000 bond. Which by April 7 they had not posted.

TROUT FISHING season is well under way, as of April 1. State Department of Conservation officially expects a bumper crop (so to speak), what with 2004’s cool, wet summer. And supply will be augmented by stocking, to extent of 35,000 yearlings dumped into 10 GreeneLand streams and ponds. For more information, go to splendid web site www.dec.state.ny.us. Some advice therein: early season anglers do best “by fishing deep and slow, and by using natural baits…. Fly-fishing purists should consider heavily weighted, large, flashy streamers and nymphs, possibly coupled with a sink-tip line.” Use of lead sinkers weighing more than half an ounce is prohibited, as ingestion of lost sinkers brings death to loons and waterfowl. But “Sales of jig heads, weighted flies, artificial lures or weighted line are not included in this prohibition.” Of course you’ll need a license ($19). That requirement, now taken for granted. was regarded until at least the mid-1930s as an outrageous imposition. Or so says local history buff Barbara Votta.

EUPHEMISM Dept: “Hunters in New York State took about 208,000 deer during the 2004 season…” (Associated Press).

GARBLE Dept: “Experience the improvisational sharing of the in-the-moment music and origianl poerty [sic.;sic.]and other words with the artistic duo of Gus Mancini and Patricia Martin at the Windham Galleria this Sunday, April 10” (Daily Mail, 4/8/05). From 3 pm.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Small Business Person of the Year... Hmm. Wouldn't a really successful Small Business Person be ruled out of the competition by becoming a Medium or Large Business Person?

Anonymous said...

I'm finally here and you know who DM