Heaps of Happenings

LOCAL HEROES: a nameless customer in, and the proprietor of, the Palenville Market. Mr Nameless (by choice) found a large sum of money—greenbacks; a sackful-- in the store. He handed it over to proprietor Rick Van Buren, who told authorities and the local Press about the find, and held the money in the expectation that its owner would return and make a credible claim. Mr Van Buren waited from early March until just the other day. No claimant. So he gave the stash--we are not talking just about hundreds--back to Mr Nameless.

LOCAL BENEFACTORS: Elizabeth and Eric Rasmussen, of Acra. They gave their 142-acre Siuslaw Tree Farm to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County. The acreage (formerly Lange’s Groveside Resort) is located along Route 23 just across from Cornell Cooperative’s Agroforestry Center--property which the Rasmussens previously had given to that conservation organization. The transfer of ownership was celebrated last Friday (and was nicely written up by Claude Haton in the 4/22 Daily Mail).

CASTING CALL. Actors are needed now for this summer’s performance, at Catskill Point, of the renowned and locally relevant play by Thornton Wilder, “Our Town.” It will be staged six times in July, in the Old Warehouse, under the direction of veteran GreeneLand thespian Joseph Capone, thanks to an Arts Council grant that was bestowed on a project aptly dubbed Classics@thePoint. Auditions will be held tomorrow (4/29) and Sunday, from 10 am.- 1 pm., at Columbia-Greene Community College. For details, ring 943-2680. To learn more about the play, google “Our Town.”

POSTPONED, from today (4/28) until August 14th , in Federal district court in Albany: sentencing of GreeneLand swindler Martha Ivery. Length of the prison term meted out by Judge Frederick J. Scullin (it could be as long as 35 years) will depend in no small measure on contents of a probation report covering multiple acts of fraud perpetrated in the guise of book publisher and literary agent. We may learn then whether it’s true that, even after being indicted, Martha tried to con another author. That would affect the credibility of her “contrition” plaint.

STALLED: that ambitious “Hamlet on Hudson” project—up-scale condominiums flanking an up-scale riverside golf course. It is by no means a done deal. The required approvals have not been granted by Coxsackie authorities, and promoter Mark Salomon, we understand, is rather far from being ready to apply for them. In the meantime, his Sleepy Hollow Lake neighbors are not enamored of Mr Salomon. It has to do with how he treated the residents’ association in connection with another development project.

INSTALLED, as of April 1 (as reported in Wednesday’s Daily Mail), as Catskill’s new postmaster: Leon Griffin, former customer service manager of the Newburgh post office. For Catskillians, a liberal dose of postmasterly customer service would be a treat. Mr Griffin’s predecessor, Don Stegall, was notoriously self-sequestered on the job. And his version of being community-minded consisted of operating extra-curricular businesses, such as trading cards and (until it was closed following a murder) a night club.

EXPIRED, of exhaustion, after 31 years at four different Catskill sites: Birdland Music. Proprietor Bill Trotman sold what remained of his retail stock to Mark Gordon, who owns seven music outlets in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Bill moved to Pittsfield, but plans to maintain the Internet part of Birdland’s business with the help of veteran Catskill assistant Missy Welsh. Next tenant of the storefront he vacated last Saturday, in the former Community Center building, could, might, may be, gulp, a book store.

STAYING, for the foreseeable future, contrary to local rumors, at 5 Old Main Street in Catskill: Tatiana’s. Proprietors Jimmy & Angie Giurgi do have ideas about putting condominiums on the present creekside location, and re-opening the restaurant on a Route 9W site in Athens, but those are long-term notions. So rife were the rumors about an imminent closing that the Giurgis resorted to advertising just to publicize the fact that they are still open. Nightly except Mondays. 943-1528.

DEPARTED, on April 14, for Orlando, after 42 months as executive director of GreeneLand’s Chamber of Commerce: Debbie Zetterlund. She was lured away by the glowing terms of an offer from former employer Emerson International, a commercial development company. Ms Zetterlund’s successor will not be Linda Overbaugh, who declined the offer; she’s too wrapped up in the accelerating transformation of ever-improving Catskill. To wit:

OPENING SOON in Catskill: A Muddy Cup outlet, across from the County office building. A MOD coffee shop in the Colterman Building. Retriever Roasters coffee-grinding and baked goods. Beginner’s Mind, an art gallery run by LeeAnne Morgan. City Lights (as in lighting). A Bower Bird tabletops (household goods) store. A bed & bath. A plumbing supplies store. And a promotional campaign touting Catskill as the mid-Hudson Valley’s home improvement Mecca.

OPENED, in a creekside cottage on Water Street, Catskill, that served in the nineteenth century as starting point for tourists heading by railroad to the Mountain House: a state-of-the-art recording studio, operated for Frank Cuthbert, the musical entrepreneur, by Bobby Eichorn, veteran recording engineer and record producer.

DAILY MAUL. ”The 110 Republicans showing up…was a good turnout, …Bogardus said.” *”Many of the bonnets were very unique….” *”Followed by Carolyn Kasper, who had eggs dangling from hers.” *The most unique was Elena DiPrima who used pastel bath scrubbies and hair clips.” *”Lashley stated he wrote his name on the check as if DSS had wrote the check in his name.” *”Karen explained that Brandy had been scene in the Catskill and Cairo areas….” *Wanted, for Hudson Valley Newspapers: clerical assistant in the Circulation Department. Part of the job, says the Daily Mail advertisement, is “computer imputing.”