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 20^th 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 19^th 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.