Friday, March 16, 2007

Main Moves

GALLERY NUMBER EIGHT will open soon in downtown Catskill. Terenchin Fine Art, says proprietor Patrick Terenchin of Athens, will specialize in “contemporary work by regional artists, emerging and established.” Some items displayed at 462 Main Street will come from the stock that Patrick has been marketing on his web site, Citypictures. His landlords, Hudson Talbott and Rudie Berkhout, will not also be leasing their adjoining storefront, at 460 Main; that is reserved for their own art work, in what will become, by mid-year, the Village’s ninth gallery.

FINGAR INSURANCE also is headed for downtown Catskill, just a couple of doors up from the incipient Terenchin Gallery. The office will be managed by Tammy Vincent, with frequent cross-Hudson visits from Greg Fingar and his brother Mark.

OSCAR’S is the eponymous name by Oscar Myint for the sushi bar that he will be opening soon at 396 Main Street. Landlady Michele Saunders has given the place a glowing makeover, replete with a bit of Rudi Berkhout’s holographic art.

MOVING IN soon to an office at 48 West Bridge Street, meanwhile, will be a Coldwell Banker Prime Properties office, installed in what has been Michelle Harm’s Hair Razors salon. Manager Lesley Smith (who also runs the firm’s Greenville branch) says they’ll start with three agents and they expect to grow.

FURLOUGHED: Barbara Valicenti, director of GreeneLand’s Probation Department. This being a personnel matter, authorities are tight-lipped about whys and wherefores. We hear that it’s all about (a) compensatory leave, or (b) “nasty, difficult person” management, or (c) other. According to its official web site, the Probation Department has a full-time staff of 14. Its officers “supervise over 100 felony offenders, 230 misdemeanor offenders, and 75 juvenile respondents.” Internal evidence, however, indicates that the site’s information is not current. Thus, readers are told that “probation supervision in Greene County saved more than $3 million in jail and residential placement costs”—in 2004.

IMMINENT. Striped bass fishing season opened today. Classes on “Dealing With Wildlife” and “Making Maple Syrup” will be given tomorrow, at 12:30 and 2:30, at Cornell Co-operative Extension’s Agroforestry Resource Center in Acra. (518 622 9820). A primer on preserving historic resources, archaeological and cultural, will be given by Julian Adams, of the NYS Preservation Office, on Sunday, from 2 pm., at Beattie-Powers House in Cataskill. Information: (518)9434764 or www.friendsofbeattiepowers.org

AUDITIONS for roles in a GreeneLand production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” will be held this weekend and next at Columbia-Greene Community College. Artistic director Joseph Capone says all roles are open. Performances will be given June 22, 23, 29 and 30, and July 6 and 7, at Historic Catskill Point. Inquiries: (518)943-2680.

CHOPPED: the work force at Stiefel Laboratories in Oak Hill. The number will be cut, according to a Daily Mail story (3/8) from 362 to 337 employees, and nine vacancies will not be filled. Stiefel Labs is a venerable, cosmopolitan, family-owned company, with a global work force numbering about 2500, specializing in skin medications, such as Acne-Aid, Brevisol, Claripel, Dermavite, ZNP. TOO MUCH. Could one person (i) be expelled from a reputable club; (ii) incite fellow members of another club to disband and get a new charter, just to be rid of that pest; (iii) sue his or her club because its leaders failed to send flowers when her or his dog died; (iv) sleep for three nights with the expired dog? DAILY MAUL. “Maintaining our distinct quality of life is central and our goals in short, enabling the city to take advantage of new opportunities by keeping Hudson true to its nature.” “As Hudson continue to reconnect it people and places in the community for generations to enjoy, community wide interaction and dialogue are critical.” --Richard F. Tracy, mayor of Hudson, in display ad in Hudson-Catskill Newspapers, 3/15/07.

LEADING QUESTIONS What’s the speed of dark? How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges? Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

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