Thursday, June 28, 2007

Hot Days&Heads&Ideas&Deal&Words&

NEW HEAD. For the first time, as of Monday (6/25) the governing board of Columbia Memorial Hospital is led by a GreeneLander: Stephen B. Dunn, president of Dunn Builders Supply (of Catskill and Chatham). He is not the sole GreeneLander guiding that institution. Also serving are some of the heaviest of our heavy hitters: Don Gibson, Jim Warren, Bill Van Slyke. High among Mr Dunn’s priorities is spreading the word about “tremendous improvements” in the hospital’s “quality of care,” its “breadth of services,” its “investments in new technologies,” and its range of “satellite centers.” In GreeneLand those facilities include family care centers in Cairo, Jefferson Heights and Hensonville, as well as dermatology, wound care, imaging, infectious diseases, and skilled nursing care centers in Catskill.

NEW SUB-HEAD. For the first time, the Catskill Mountain Foundation is being steered not only by Peter Finn but also by an Executive Director: Peter Barker, an early-retired financial whiz who lives in Onteora with artist wife and two children. Mr Barker will be nurturing a burgeoning operation, what with expanding programs at the Sugar Maples center, the imminent opening of the Doctorrow Center for the Arts in Windham (cinema, piano museum, concert hall), the reconstructed, ambitious Orpheum Theater in Tannersville and, we hear and hope, thoughts of greater outreach to riverine communities of the Hudson River Valley.

NEW GUY. For the summer, Catskill’s Community Center will have Patrick Hernandez as operating director. He is a teacher of business at Catskill High School, is well known locally, and succeeds popular Matt Hitchcock who is moving with family to SF.

PINCHED by State police last Thursday (6/21) on a misdemeanor charge: Gina Legari, former mayor of Tannersville, who allegedly used Village money to buy personal goods. According to Daily Mailer Andrea Macko (6/26) and to District Attorney Terry Wilhelm, Ms Legari is suspected of using Village checks to buy items worth about $600 from Home Depot and Wal-Mart back in March 23, three days after being defeated for re-election to the Village board. Her main purchases, Mr Wilhelm noted, were two barbecue grills; she gave one to the Village, kept the other for herself, after she had loaned one earlier to the Village, and it got broken. Ms Legari works for the county Elections Commission and was out of town yesterday (6/26) for a conference on balloting.

HOT IDEA: transform Catskill’s now-former St Patrick’s Academy into a civic center. The Hudson-facing site, already built and capacious, becomes the home of Town government + Village government + the Community Center +, perhaps, the public library, as well as a park. It’s eminently feasible physically. The Main Street sites now occupied by those public offices, once vacated, could become big revenue earners whether rented for commercial operations or sold outright. Off-street parking at the Woodland Avenue center would suffice. Traffic would not be heavy; complaints and apprehensions would be muted by recollections that of the bustle when the lace was a school. Top price for its acquisition would be $2 million. (That’s the figure put out by the Catholic Diocese’s real estate agent). Properties vacated on Main Street would readily cover that cost. Daily encounters at the civic center, meanwhile, would subtly abet the cause of eventual Town-Village consolidation.

HOT DEAL: golf club membership for the remainder of 2007 for half the regular annual rate. Also, immediate payment of the full year's fee covers play until the end of 2008. The deals are offered by Catskill Golf & Country Club. For single players, those prices are $590 and $1180.i Swimming and tennis included. Two lessons with pro included. Extra breaks for new recruits who are under 35 or over 75. The course is in marvelous condition. To inquire, telephone 943-0302. In years past, this kind of bargain has been available only near the end of a season.

HOT NEWS. “The Town of Catskill will be holding a Special Meeting at 6:00p.m. with the town Board at Catskill Town Hall,” said a Daily Mail calendar of events item (6/26). That would be hot news if Towns actually could meet with town Boards. Translation: Town Supervisor Joseph Izzo and the three extant Town Councilmen met in the Town Hall courthouse where, after a stumbling, technically-challenged start, they appointed Elizabeth Izzo as interim Town Clerk, succeeding the departing Karen Sprague Johnson, and Patrick Walsh as interim Town Councilman, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Joseph Hanusik. Total time for business: 4 minutes. Total attendance: 8 persons. Those appointments reflect decisions made last week by the Town Republican caucus to support Mr Walsh and Ms Izzo for those offices at the November general election. In addition, the caucus backed Joseph Leggio for re-election to the Council and Peter Markou for Town Supervisor, to succeed Mr Izzo, who is retiring. Whether the Democrats will endorse challengers remains to be decided at a mid-August meeting.

HOT SHOW. Tonight (Thursday, 6/28), at Dutchman’s Landing, from 7pm: Lex Greyt & The Urban Pioneers. (We added the tee so it sounds like Great. Even for devotees of Debussy and soft ballads, she rocks). Thanks to the Catskill Chamber of Commerce, admission to the show is free.

HOT DAUBS. “Paint the Mountaintop” is a Windham Fine Arts project in which participants create plein air (=outdoor-painted) landscapes, starting this Monday (7/2), and delivered to the gallery (5380 Main St, Windham) by 3pm on Saturday (7/5), just ahead of the barbecue. For more information: www.windhamfinearts.com or curator Victoria Alten at (518) 734-6850). (Alternative headline: Painters, Prep Your Palettes).

TO ANONYMOUS commentator who, in connection with our Martha Chronicles, said (message of 11:35am Wednesday, 6/27) “I never imagined that someone could con me the way she did. [Martha Ivery] is evil. I have a feeling she will be back”: Tell us your story, in full.

AWOL ALDO. Greenville Town Supervisor Aldo Cardomone, reports Linda Fenoff (Greenville Press, 6/21), has not attended a town council meeting since January.

HOT WORDS. Ignoranus=person who's both stupid and an asshole. Intaxication=euphoria at getting a tax refund. Foreploy=misrepresentation utilized for purpose of getting laid. Glibido=all talk and no action. Hipatitis=terminal coolness. Beelzebug=satanic mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3am. and cannot be cast out. Caterpallor=color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

--entries in Washington Post game calling for neologisms based on adding, subtracting or changing one letter from a regular word.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Windfall News

Grants totaling $1.28 million for projects designed to enhance public enjoyment of scenic resources in Greeneand Columbia counties were announced today by the Hudson River Foundation.

Money for the grants came from a $2.5 million Catskill-Olana Viewshed Mitigation Fund which Athens Generating Company had consigned to the Foundation, a New York City-based conservation-focused non-profit, under the terms of an agreement with the environmental organization Scenic Hudson. The 13 funded projects, according to a Foundation news release, “will restore and preserve legendary landscapes, provide access to scenic outlooks, and enable both members of the local communities and visitors to the area to experience the spectacular scenic opportunities in and near the Catskill-Olana Scenic Area….”

As announced by the foundation’s executive director, Clay Hiles, at mid-day ceremonies in Greenport’s Conservation Area and then in Athens’s Waterfront Park, the various grants attest to “determined effort and creative vision” on the part of “municipal and civic leaders” who devised the projects and pressed the applications that will yield fresh “opportunities for appreciation and enjoyment of the physical and cultural landscape of a significant stretch of the Hudson Valley.”

The GreeneLand amounts and grantees include the following:

*$250,000 to the Village of Athens, as a supplement to its earlier authorized but not allocated award of $500,000, for comprehensive rehabilitation of the Athens waterfront, including development of a promenade, stabilization of the river’s edge, and improved boating access. (For reasons not immediately explained, the check handed to Mayor Andrea Smallwood was for $825,000. Ms Smallwood said later that the additional sum was for a previously authorized kayak launching facility).

*$215,000 to Greene County, as a supplement to an earlier commitment of $285,000 for the development of a Catskill Creek boardwalk in the heart of Catskill Village.

*$275,000 to the Greene County Land Trust for acquiring and restoring the historic riverbank home at Brandow’s Point near Athens, in connection with other restoration measures at that property.

* $60,000 to the Village of Catskill for constructing “pocket parks” at Canal Street and Greene Street, providing ready access to Catskill Creek for kayaking, canoeing and fishing.

*$45,000 to the Catskill Central School District for its “Greater Sense of Place” program. The funds will be used to improve the pocket park that is used by the program, expanding the work that was funded by a previous award from the Fund of $40,000.

$4,750 to the Village of Catskill, bringing to $25,000 the Mitigation Fund’s support for the Hudson River Trail Development Project connecting Dutchman’s Landing to the historic Beattie-Powers House, where the trail will join another system leading to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, thereby allowing people to walk all the way to Olana.

$75,000 to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site for relocating utility wires underground, thereby restoring the viewscape from Cedar Grove, the celebrated landscape artist’s Catskill home and workplace..

$60,000 to the Friends of Beattie-Powers Place, for restoring this historic house and its surrounding parkland, including a linkage to the trail from Dutchman’s Landing to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.

$68,500 to the Greene County Land Trust for renovating a historic riverbank barn on Thorpe Road, Catskill (in the Olana viewshed).

Projects funded in Columbia County include the following:

*$138,500 to the Columbia Land Conservancy for developing a handicapped-accessible trails program within the 714-acre Greenport Conservation Area. The project includes the purchase of three all-terrain wheelchairs.

*$50,000 to the Columbia Land Conservancy, in partnership with the City of Hudson, in addition to a previous commitment of $100,000, for transforming the site of a former waterfront landfill into a publicly accessible North Bay Scenic Recreation Area.

*$75,000 to The Olana Partnership, for restoring Olana’s carriage trails, providing access for over 100,000 visitors per year.

*$50,000 to the Town of Germantown for improvements to Dales Bridge Park, on the Roeliff Jansen Kill, including provisions for access for swimming, fishing, kayaking, canoeing and camping.

In the statement issued by Mr Hiles, Hudson River Foundation Chairman Edward Ames was quoted as saying “These grants, in addition to more than $1.3 million awarded by the Foundation over the past three years, complete the work of the Fund in accordance with the agreement that established it. We are pleased that the $2.5 million provided by the Athens Generating Company through its agreement with Scenic Hudson has been turned by the Foundation into over $2.6 million in extraordinarily worthwhile projects with long-lasting impacts on the benefited communities.”

Today’s grants came in the wake of stinging complaints from Athens Generating Company about Foundation management of the Mitigation Fund. As reported in June 15th's Seeing Greene, Athens Gen's attorney spoke in strong terms, in successive letters, about alleged laxity in soliciting and processing grant applications, in making timely reports, and in heeding allocation guidelines.

Speaking to a Seeing Greene reporter this afternoon at the Athens ceremony, Mr Hiles said those complaints were factually deficient and “we never misused a dime” of Mitigation Fund money.

Athens Gen and Scenic Hudson representatives were not invited to the awards ceremonies.

More information: www.hudsonriver.org

www.@athensgen.org

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Scoop!

HE’S IN THE RACE. Sheriff Richard Hussey says he “definitely” will collect papers that set in motion a primary election in September for the Republican nomination for the office he now holds. He accordingly will test his pulling power among rank-and-file Republicans against the vote-getting clout of the party’s official Committee, which (along with the deputies’ union and the Democratic Party Committee) has endorsed Lt Greg Seeley. At a later date, Sheriff Hussey told Seeing Greene, he’ll make a full statement on the subject.

IMMINENT. Town of Catskill Democrats and Town of Catskill Republicans caucus this evening (Thursday, 6/21) (at Retriever Roasters and at the Elks Lodge—which gives some idea of relative numbers). They will make decisions about who to back for election to Town Supervisor, Town Councilor and Town Clerk. Maybe they’ll be finished soon enough to get down to Dutchman’s Landing for the season opener of the Music in the Park series, this one featuring the rockabilly Lustre Kings and brought to us, gratis, by the Catskill Chamber of Commerce.

IMMINENT. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” will be performed by a sterling local cast at Catskill Point Park, Friday (6/22) from 8pm. Subsequent performances will be given night and next two weekends (6/29 and 6/30, 7/6 and 7/7). No, it’s not just happenstance that a cat is featured, so to speak, in Classics @ the Point director Joseph Capone’s choice of what to stage this year. (After the play, incidentally, live music will be available at nearby Stella’s Lounge as well as at The Creekside. For more weekending information, google welcometocatskill.com).

IMMINENT, Saturday night: to open the Windham Chamber Music Festival’s 20th season, Trio Solisti perform(s) at Windham Performing Arts Center. Info: www.windhammusic.com.l

BUSTED, on drug charges, at the Mountain Jam music festival during June 1-3 at Hunter Mountain: about 50 individuals (out of some ten thousand attendees). Most of the cases, we understand, had to do with peddling psychedelic mushrooms. (That marks a change from last year at Hunter’s Acid Rock festival, when the main drug of choice was laughing gas). The alleged perpetrators came from far and wide: Ohio, Connecticut, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, , Massachusetts and Maryland as well as New York. Most of them won release on bail of around $5000. But Dirk Glover of Colbrook CT set himself apart. Thanks to multiple drug-related charges, he needs $100,000 in bail money, lest he remain indefinitely in GreeneLand jail.

REMINDER. Would-be Comments on Seeing Greene postings must be signed. We mention this again because an impassioned contributor of publishable verbiage about the late Firehouse Tavern did not sign his/her submission and thus shall remain unread.

NAME GAME. Lolita LeBruise. B F Skinnher. Bully Holliday. Puffy Bangs. Burgundy Bedlam. Pinky Shears. Candi Catastrophe. Carnage Miranda. Private Fister. Kill Her Skillet. Chilli Knoxx. Those are some of the pseudonyms adopted by Hudson Valley ladies who are reviving the wild sport of Roller Derby. So says Roy Volkmann in the May-June issue of InsideOut magazine (of which GreeneLand’s Owen Lipstein is now CEO/Editor-in-Chief, and whose Food editor is billed as Eton Drinkwell).

“LOSS OF SEMEN is loss of blood,” warns the Rev. W. J. Hunter, Ph.D., D.D. That heads-up is contained in an advertisement for Manhood Wrecked and Rescued. How Strength and Vigor is Lost, and Manhood May be Restored by Self-Treatment, as published in Physical Culture magazine, a copy of which recently tumbled from an interior wall of the former Oren’s Furniture Company warehouse in Catskill. “For want of the knowledge on sexual subjects this contains, many men are on a downward course,” says the ad, “and by the use of it many could be saved from sexual weakness, restored to manly vigor and made capable of properly filling life’s duties and becoming strong manly men, instead of physical and social wrecks.” Several chapters expound on the wreckage inflicted, on men and on civilizations, by “sensuality.” The “ruinous results” of a certain “solitary vice” are “impossible to exaggerate.” Reverend Hunter will reveal “where masturbation and marital excess do their most deadly work” and, in his concluding chapter (“The Rescue”) will identify “an absolutely infallible remedy” for “seminal [sic.] weakness.” At the time of publication, Manhood Wrecked and Rescued could be purchased for one dollar. That was in 1900.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Mid-June Meat

REPUBLICANS WAIT. Noteworthy at last night’s meeting of the Catskill Republican Town Committee, at the Senior Center, is what did not happen. The members opted to not choose among would-be Republican nominees for election to the offices of Town Supervisor, Town Councilperson and Town Clerk. The usual practice has been for the Committee members to adopt candidates whom they recommend for endorsement by the party Caucus. The Committee members held off, we understand, because of anticipated heaving and straining over Council endorsements. There are three active candidates for two seats: Gary Kistinger, Joe Leggio and Pat Walsh. Although Mr Leggio is a Republican incumbent seeking re-election, his re-nomination is not a slam dunk. By way of contrast, Peter Markou seems to be the sole candidate for the Republican nomination for Town Supervisor, since incumbent Republican Joe Izzo is retiring. As for the Town Clerkship (which is indeed an elective public office, like that of County Clerk but unlike that of Village Clerk), a contest between Elizabeth Izzo (Joe’s daughter) and Barbara Pollack Bloom has been foreshadowed, but the latest word is that it will not happen. The Caucus takes place Thursday at 7pm at the Elks Lodge. All registered local Republicans are eligible to participate. The Democrats will be mulling their own choices an hour earlier at at Retriever Roasters.

LOGJAM BROKEN? Persistent, scathing complaints about how a New York City foundation has managed funds entrusted to it for midHudson scenic enhancement projects may have produced results. The complaints (“repeated delays,” “profound disappointment,” “utter and complete disappointment,” “snail-paced” allocations,“utterly failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement,” “multiple” phony “excuses,” misfeasance and lots of non-feasance) dating from early 2003, relate to how the Hudson River Foundation has managed a $2.5 million fund that Athens Generating Company gave it to support scenic enhancement projects within the Olana State Historic Site’s viewshed. According to Athens Gen attorney Ruth Leistensnider, the Foundation has been “snail-paced” about soliciting grant applications, evaluating applications, and dispensing grants. It has failed as well to make promised periodic reports to Athens Gen and to Scenic Hudson, and to get proper authorization for grants it actually has made. Ms Leistensnider demanded (in a letter of June 4th) that the Foundation’s Board either “approve a complete expenditure of the remaining monies in the Fund” by the end of the month, in keeping with the five-year-old agreement, “or else approve transfer of the remaining monies” to another non-profit chosen by Athens Gen and Scenic Hudson. A Board source told Seeing Greene today that the Board did indeed agree to allocate all the remaining monies--more than $2 million, according to another source--so that some “wonderful” projects will be supported by the end of this month. That version of the outcome, however, has not been confirmed by the Hudson River Foundation’s executive director, Clay Hiles. As of noon today, Mr Hiles had not returned our call. [No return call by 4:30 either]

PIG OUT. The deal to transform Catskill’s quondam Firehouse Tavern into a stylish bistro is off. Several factors, we understand, contributed. The two-story building at 353 Main Street now is offered for sale by owner Michael Sanders (845-246-7962). His asking price in March was $425,000; the agreed price before the deal came unglued, we hear, was in the high 300’s. That’s a hefty advance on what Mr Sanders accepted in 2002 from mortgagees Dennis Izzillo and Kathy Passaro, namely, $135,000. According to court documents, the buyer(s) failed to make payments of $1161 for at least three months in 2005 and for all the months since. They also allegedly failed to pay the agreed 10% deposit. And they owe gobs of State and property taxes. Anyhow, in days not so long past, the place was run by Santa and Ozzy Nehr, and old customers fondly recall sandwiches, such as The Yankee Clipper and The Pilgrim, that were concocted by chef Alke Pittas. At that time it was called The Village Tavern. The original sign is in the basement.

BOOKSTORE IN. Just down the street, meanwhile, the new bookstore space is almost ready for occupancy, and proprietor Tony DeVito plans to use it for “a range of related activities: books, readings, performances, art, etc.” For starters, in July: A Play-ful Evening, in which “the audience are the actors, switching roles from act to act.” Tony solicits ideas about a suitable name for the place. Is BiblioCat too cute? Tony’s Wordshop? Send suggestions to allartsmatter@juno.com

BTW, prospective buyers of other commercial properties in GreeneLand may welcome the news that our leading real estate agency touts a “centraly” located building that is “currantly used as a candy store,” along with a “great investment oppertunity” in “Jefferson Hiehgts,” and a Cairo establishment that in better days was a “restraint/bar.”

RE-OPENING tomorrow (6/16), at Historic Catskill Point, at 9:30am., for the first of 20 Saturdays this year,is the Riverside Farmers’ & Artisans’ Market. Musical entertainment provided by Michael DeBenedictus.

CARNEGIE TO CATSKILL. Fresh from his Carnegie Hall recital (Wednesday night), the hot young classical pianist from Italy, Michelangelo Carbonara, will perform tomorrow night here. He’ll do a benefit concert for the Community Center, at 7 pm., at BRIK. A few tickets still are available ($20) from the Community Center or at the gallery.

HARMONY HUNT. Currently under way is a program of facilitated dialogue between Catskill Village Trustees and firefighters, as well as among the fire-fighters (active and formerly tive). It’s an initiative launched by Village President Vincent Seeley, conducted by Common Ground, in hope of healing wounds and reviving the spirit of brotherhood. Although they have a rich history of quarreling, the firefighters also respond to sentiments of the sort that are encapsulated in these words (which I found posted on a wall in the Greenville fire station years ago, & applicable to many services):

It’s not for money, it not for fame. It’s not for any personal gain. It’s just for love of fellow man. It’s just to give a helping hand.

It’s just to give some of yourself. It’s something you can’t buy with wealth. It’s not for medals worn with pride, It’s for the feeling deep inside.

It’s your reward down in your heart, It’s feeling that you’ve been a part Of helping others far and near, That makes you want to VOLUNTEER.

Friday, June 08, 2007

It's Friday Again

FOR SALE, by the Roman Catholic Dioceses in Albany, after 117 years of operation: St Patrick’s Academy, on Woodland Avenue in Catskill. The soon to be erstwhile school sits on a 10.6 acre parcel running down to the Hudson River. Market value of the complex ($2 million?) is unclear; since the place has been exempt from property tax, its officially assessed value is not a clear guide. According to reporter Andrea Macko (Daily Mail, 6/6/07), Town Supervisor Joe Izzo has voiced interest in the idea of converting it into a Town-Village park. The complex also has been eyed as a possible headquarters for a far-flung performing arts operation. Perhaps its best use would be as a non-sectarian charter school, funded by taxpayers but independent of the regular public school system.

LEAVING his post next Friday as manager of Catskill's Community Center, after playing a vital role in the revival of that institution, is Matt Hitchcock. He’s returning to San Francisco, where he worked previously and where his wife has deep roots and an important job with the Nature Conservancy. It’s a more than amicable parting, much lamented by the kids and the directors. And in Matt’s words, “I love this place; I’d like to take it with me.”

THE WEEKEND. GreeneLanders who participate in what’s on offer here could experience exhaustion. To see a rich menu of choices, google Greene County Chamber of Commerce (then click Calendar of Events and then Greene County Events) or go to http://www.greenetourism.com as well as www.welcometocatskill.com The latter site not only covers the local scene, but also contains a stunning ‘portfolio’ of Cat ‘n Around pictures, in a ‘book’ whose ‘pages’ can be ‘turned’ by cursor, disclosing 15 images, each of which can be enlarged or reduced or up-ended….

Anyhow, among Mountain-ward events tomorrow is the Mountain Top Arboretum’s Garden Fair (plant sale, plant exchange, plant advice). The Arts Council’s Mountain-Top Gallery offers a show of works by Arts & Crafts Guild members. At Riedlbauer’s Resort in Round Top there’s an all-day gathering of adult soccer teams from all over. In the Catskill Mountain Foundation’s movie theater in Hunter, films and videos selected from entries by young makers from around the world will be screened at the Reel Teens Mountain Festival. And across the street, in the Red Barn, Darcy Dun & Mark Singer & Robin Kaiser entertain with an “Ain’t We Got Fun” show (together with dinner, from 7pm) recalling the days of Prohibition-spawned speakeasies

In Athens tomorrow, there’s an opening reception for the “Many Eyes, Many Views” show of photographs by County Camera Club members, and attendees also can buy chances on a raffle of Hollywoodish gift bags stuffed with fragrances, cosmetics, CDs, DVDs, toys. That’s at the Cultural Center (24 Second St.). Meanwhile, Babe Ruth League boosters down the road will be dispensing barbecued chicken dinners. At Riverside Park in the evening there’s a jazz concert and a fireworks show.

In Catskill tomorrow, a Village-wide yard sale commences in the morning. In the afternoon and evening, Main Street will be hopping with the Saturday Stroll events (galleries, shops, eateries) plus those astounding cat sculptures AND a Classic Cars show. After dark, Catskill Point, the Creekside Restaurant and La Conca d’Oro restaurant will offer live music. Moreover, Friends of Beattie-Powers Place, and prospective friends, will gather for a fund-raising dinner, spiced with a showing of landscapes recently painted, in oils, by Patrick Milbourn.

MAN REMEMBERED. Another kind of event will take place in downtown Catskill tomorrow. It’s a celebration of the life of the late Manuel J. Cominos. As old-timers will readily recall, Mr Cominos presided for many years over the Mayflower Sweet Shop. In the words of his widow, Patricia, he “loved the kids” who flocked to the Mayflower after school. Indeed, “He loved people of all ages. He loved to converse, to inquire, to argue politics.... He made you angry sometimes, but in the end he made you want to seek him out for another conversation, another witticism, another piece of advice, another wink...." He died on April 16th, after prolonged confinement to a wheelchair in a nursing home. On Saturday he would have been 87 years old. The celebration will take place at 3pm in the old ice cream parlor, now operated as Catskill+Co.

MAN RECOGNIZED.

C M H – WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU?

YOUR HEART IS LARGE AND WIDE

C M H – WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU

GREENE AND COLUMBIA’S PRIDE

HOW LUCKY WE’VE GOT A GUY CALLED AL SCOTT

A MONEY-RAISING WONDER

IF OTHER HOSPITALS JUST HAD WHAT AL’S GOT

THEY’D NEED NO ANNUAL FUND ... OH ...

C M H – JUST HOW DO YOU DO IT?

“AL SCOTT, LINE ONE --

HE’S CALLED TO DUN !”

WHAT FUN FOR C M H !

C M H – WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU?

YOU CARE – YOU SHARE AL FILLS THE TILL HALF-A-MIL FOR C M H !

--Musical tribute to Al Scott, honored at the Columbia-Greene Hospital Ball last weekend, written by Eric Comstock to the Charles Strouse tune “NYC” from the show “Annie.”

I Love You Greene! = writing/discussion salon/publication? project for GreeneLand authors and wannabes, managed by Doreen Perrine. For more information: Doreenperrine@netzero.net

RICK PICKS NIX DICK PICS = apt headline for a locally relevant story which we will not be telling.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Hail June

TRANSFERMATION. That digging and scraping behind the weighing scale at the county Transfer Station (=trash collection site) on Route 385 is in aid of a change in collection arrangements. When the job is completed, all household waste—newspapers and magazines, bottles and cans and plastics as well as garbage—will be collected there, with demolition materials being dumped up hill, as before.

ACHIEVERS. For one of the three male parts in the East Coast/Broadway production of “I Love a Piano,” a strenuous, demanding song-and-dance review based on music by the great Irving Berlin, the producers recruited a veteran GreeneLander. Details to follow.

EXTENDED to March of 2012, by the Board of the Catskill Central School District: the contract term of Superintendent Kathleen Farrell. The Board’s present members acted without waiting for the imminent arrival of their three newly elected colleagues. (When notifying Dr Farrell of the extension, incidentally, Board President Jim DiPerna read a letter saying “The evaluation of your performance…is commendable.” Taken at face value, that sentence commends the board’s evaluation, not the superintendent’s performance.)

DATA DEPT. 431=number of anglers participating in River Basin Sports Shop’s 20th annual striped bass fishing competition (according to a Daily Mail report). 43.5 inches=length of striper caught by top prize winner Gerard Uhrik of Tannersville. 3655=dollars Uhrik collected. 7246=dollars collected in admissions to Cedar Grove, GreeneLand’s Thomas Cole National Historic Site, in 2003. 17,800=admissions dollars in 2006. 3858=book store dollars earned at Cedar Grove in 2004. 20,824=store dollars in 2006. 163,500=median dollar price of single-family homes sold in GreeneLand last April. 185,000=median sale price in April 2006.

NUTTY BUSINESS DEPT. Walgreen’s apparently will build, after all, on the site of the former Grandview Elementary School. According to The Daily Mail’s Andrea Macko, the original developer, after demolishing the school building, sold the site to another company, and with it the Walgreen contract. In prospect then is a superfluity of drug stores that are within walking distance of one another—even after the merger of RiteAid and Eckerd. Local governing boards lack the authority to disapprove a construction project just because, from a business standpoint, it’s stupid.

HOT & LIVELY is the likely character of GreeneLand this weekend. For guidance, go by keyboard to http://www.greenetourism.com then click Calendar of Events. >>A three-day musical Mountain Jam starts at 5:30 today at the Hunter Mountain Resort; check details at www.mountainjamfest.com Saturday >>A three-event Spring Rush (running, pedaling, paddling for prizes) starts tomorrow (Saturday, 6/2) at 8am; for inquiries call 943-7872 or e-mail phernand@catskillcsd.org >>Coxsackie is the setting for this year’s Tour of historic homes, organized by the Greene County Historical Society (http://ghistory.org ). Tickets and guidance are available from 10am at the Second Reformed Church on Washington Avenue. >>In connection with National Trails Day, Barbara Delaney and Russell Dunn will lead hikers along the Hudson River School Art Trail, starting from Cedar Grove (=the Thomas Cole National Historic Site) at 10am; information at (518)943-7465 or www.thomascole.org. The leaders wrote Trails With Tales: History Hikes Through the Capital Region.

Sunday >>Paintings by Hudson River School stalwart Asher B. Durand will be on view at Cedar Grove from 10am, and at noon, Kevin Avery, who is curator of American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, will give a talk on 19th century American painters.

>>At the Mountain Top Historical Society in Haines Falls, Thomas Locker and Robert C. Baron will talk at 2pm about their new book Journey to the Mountain. On Living and Meaning. mttopinfo@mths.org or 589-6637. >>In Catskill, starting at the Community Center at 2pm, the local Ecumenical Council leads a ”Walk for Hunger.” >>“Listen! Hear the Music” is maestro Bob Tyrrell’s topic at Gallery 81 in Greenville, from 2pm. For more information: www.allartsmatter.org, or call (518) 966-4038.

THE FAREWELL.

More than a memory, is a love etched in my heart. Bright as a symphony, like a song-bird piercing the dark.

With each sunrise…you come to me. I see your eyes, in star lit skies. A sea breeze whispers and you’re with me.

More than a memory, like a rainbow painting the sky. A great gift of destiny, to be blessed by the spark of your smile.

My dear, I’ll always love you, as long as heavens thunder. The music of your laughter, the spell you put me under.

More, your spirit fills me. More, I know we will be two… Who share eternity, not memories.

--Lyric of song written by Frank Cuthbert, and sung on the occasion (5/26) of celebrating the life of Carol T. Savage. APOLOGY. The formatting of this post, like the formatting of so many others, bears little resemblance to what I pasted onto the blog site, and it seems to be impervious to repair.