Predicates First

>>RECOGNIZED as producer of Outstanding Regional Literature, by the Barnes & Noble book store company: GreeneLand's Black Dome Press, run by Deborah Allen in Hensonville (www.blackdomepress.com). It's the first award (to be conferred at the Kingston B & N on September 19th) of its kind. And it is peculiarly timely. It coincides with Black Dome's imminent distribution of A Kayaker's Guide to Lake Champlain. Exploring the New York, Vermont and Quebec Shores, whose appeal is much broader than the title indicates. Authors Catherine Frank and Margaret Holden, like the authors of Black Dome's recently distributed Adirondack Trails With Tales, combine practical guidance for regional outdoor activities--in this case, paddling--with zesty recollections. Readers get nuggets of information about once-native persons who once were called Indians, as well as about formative naval battles, smugglers, shipwrecks, the French & Indian wars, the Revolution, the war of 1812, environmental issues, and the fossil-rich geology of an area that once was oceanic. (Not explained, we regret, are how Fort Blunder, Cole Bay and Cole Island got their names). The writing, though marred by an invitation (p. 231) "to image," is solid. >>SELECTED by heads of the aforementioned Barnes & Noble chain, for special promotional effort during September-October, in stores flanking the Hudson River: River of Dreams , by GreeneLand author and illustrator Hudson Talbott. Big posters of the cover will be displayed next to extra stacks of the book. (Hot tip to managers of the 12 selected stores: put plentiful copies of United Tweets of America and other Talbott titles near the Dreams display). >>DUMPED by fellow Democrats in Jewett, at their party caucus last week: long-serving Town Supervisor Michael Flaherty. By a vote of 30 to 18, the co-partisans endorsed Georgette Kraus, former Town justice and sole assessor. Mr Flaherty has been a Town Board member for 13 years and Supervisor for 11 years, in addition to being local chairman of the Democratic Party. According to Daily Mail reporter Michael Ryan, the repudiation was triggered by recent clashes between Mr Flaherty and Highway Superintendent Robert Mallory. >>CHALLENGED in State Supreme Court, by Catskill Democrats, in connection with the November election contest over Catskill's four seats in the county legislature: validity of petitions filed on behalf of candidates seeking to appear on the ballot as nominees of the embryonic Have A Voice Party. The applicants are Karen Deyo and Keith Valentine (incumbents) along with Joseph Izzo and Linda H. (!) Overbaugh. Their drive to establish another party line on the ballot arose from the earlier, partly successful, Democratic challenge to the validity of their petitions to stand as Republicans. That challenge was based on a GOP blunder whereby avowed candidate Linda H. (!) Overbaugh, the well known Heart of Catskill manager, was mis-identified on the petitions as Linda L. (!) Overbaugh , who is an actual Catskillian with a different address and no interest in holding public office. Judge Richard Platkin ruled that the 'correct' Linda Overbaugh's name could not appear on the ballot,but the names of the other three candidates could be presented to the voters. In an attempt to salvage the Overbaugh candidacy,local Republicans mounted a petition campaign on behalf of a Have A Voice slate including Ms Overbaugh. The new Democratic challenge is based on the claim that the persons who claimed to have witnessed the signatures that appear on the Have A Voice petitions did not in fact see those signings. The defendants will argue that the witnesses were in fact present and the signatures, in any event, are authentic. The court hearing, before Acting Supreme Court Judge Jonathan O. Nichols of Columbia County, is slated for next Friday (9/11).

>>APPOINTED by GreeneLand's legislators to succeed the late Frank DeBenedictus as Republican representative on the county Board of Elections, amid questions about propriety, effective August 19th: Brent Bogardus. Mr Bogardus is chairman of the county's Republican Party. The combination of party chairman with Elections Commissioner is not unusual; the government job is part-time ($15,841 per year plus benefits) and is meant to be partisan. But Mr Bogardus also is Senior Special Advisor to Dean Skelos, who leads the Republicans in the State Senate. Some county legislators (Democrats all), while not voting Nay, and while acknowledging that the choice of Commissioner is the prerogative of the local party organization, voiced concern about the compatibility of Mr Bogardus's ultra-partisan, full-time ($90,000 per year) job in Albany with Election Board duties here (amid an accursed transition to electronic voting units).

>>CLEARED to stand for election to Durham’s seat in the county legislature, as standard-bearer of the Grassroots Of Durham Party: elk farmer Les Armstrong. This candidacy came about after Mr Armstrong submitted petitions aimed at enabling him to appear on the Republican primary election ballot in September, pitted against the endorsed GOP candidate, Elsie Allen. Republican chief Bogardus challenged the validity of Mr Armstrong’s petitions, and won the case. The revival of Mr Armstrong’s candidacy under the Grassroots banner enhances the re-election prospects of the Democratic candidate, Sean Frey.

>>WITHDRAWN by County Legislator Ken Dudley: application for an $80,000 Quantum Fund loan in support of improvements for his Tip Top Furniture store in Freehold. His application required approval by the legislature, since its below-market interest rate amounts to a subsidy for what qualifies as a local economic development-fostering program that reaches down from the Federal government through the States to local government allocators. Mr Dudley's application evoked criticism from some legislators on account of his dual role as applicant and authorizer. The case may come up again after Mr Dudley (R, Greenville) retires from office in December. >>GOUGED by elusive price manipulators: GreeneLand motorists. Prices of gasoline here still are higher than the national average (of $2.61 per gallon of regular recently--and that figure incoludes the radically expensive West Coast, at $2.96). Prices here also are higher than in neighboring counties. Moreover, prices at inland and upland stations here have been lower this week than prices in traffic centers. On Wednesday, regular in Palenville cost $2.70 per gallon while in Catskill, at the Hess and Cumberland Farms stations on West Bridge Street, the price was $2.78. The latter figure was higher than for Athens, Greenville, Hunter and Windham as well as for Hudson and Saugerties. >>ELECTED to presidency of the New York State Podiatric Medical Association: GreeneLand's Dr Mark Schilansky. >>ELECTED to presidency of the Cairo-Durham Board of Education, after a series of evenly split votes: Susan Kusminsky. >>PILFERED from the Blackthorne Resort, during August 22-23 festivities: the fiberglass pirate and cannon (called a "canon" in Please Return advertisements). 634-2541. >>DUBBED a "Preserve America Community" by Michelle Obama, as honorary chair of the Preserve America Initative: the Town of Hunter. >>CLOSED, after 31 years of operation between Leeds and South Cairo, on Route 23B, as restaurant and convenience store, in the wake of the loss of Frank and Joan Ann Gifford: The Place. >>CLOSED, after just six months of unpublicized, barely visible, operation in the former Aubuchon Hardware building on Boulevard Avenue (who devised that name?) in Catskill: Furniture For Less. >>ACKNOWLEDGED by the staff of Seeing Greene: dependence, for most of the foregoing items, on The Daily Mail.