>>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WITHDRAWN by County Legislator Ken Dudley: application for an $80,000 Quantum Fund loan in support of improvements for his Tip Top Furniture store in Freehold.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.
1 comment:
The Galtieri's of The Place are lovingly missed.
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