New & Newer

NEW BUSINESS. The site vacated by Dollar Tree in Catskill’s Price Chopper Plaza is now a Label Shopper outlet. According to Manager Tracey Hicks and Assistant Manager Heather Viccaro (L74”), the Peter Harris affiliate sells name brands of ladies’, men’s and juniors’ apparel, plus shoes and some home furnishings, at a quarter or a third of regular retail. Among the brands are American Eagle, Columbia, Liz Claiborne, Levi Strauss, Nine West, New York & Co., Woolrich. And they do clearances of clearances; we saw intact, wearable slacks for women marked down to one hundred and fifty cents, as well as jeans and khakis for $15. They are having a $100 drawing next Friday (10/26) from tickets dropped in the box by Sunday (10/22). AND SPEAKING of new businesses, a big shoe retailer will be opening a store soon next to the Pomadora restaurant in the strip mall opposite Wal-Mart. And incorporation papers have been filed of late for various GreeneLand enterprises, including an Accent Group (in Windham), a Gwen Design Studio, Bellabrink, Compliance Advantage (Athens), Green Earth Farm in Palenville, Lighthouse on the Hill (Prattsville; Michael J. Conforti), Pervasive Technology Ventures (Freehold; Phillip Content), Total Fitness Group (Sleepy Hollow Lake), Patty & Kenny (Athens) and--what you’ve been waiting for—Garden of Eden (“11111 Route 23, Windham” says the legal notice). "KILL" PLEA. "Please go KILL these people…..please please please.” That request was voiced in an e-mail message last week (Wednesday, 10/3) by Catskill’s Superintendent of Schools, Kathleen Farrell. Its intended recipient was John Willabay, director of school facilities, but a little key-stroke error blasted it far and wide. The superintendent was venting over communications about doors. That subject, as it happens, is a big, fraught policy matter, having to do with security against berserk gunslingers, foreign and domestic. Anyhow, in an e-mail on the morning of October 3, a teacher, Lenny Collins, had asked Selma Friedman, the Catskill Elementary School principal, “why the children’s bathroom doors are propped open and unlocked. For safety and security reasons shouldn’t those doors be locked shut too?” Ms Friedman relayed the question to Mr Willaby, who advised that the rooms in question “do not meet the requirements as they are not considered ‘occupied’ spaces. The only time they are closed and locked is in the event of a lock down or shelter in place in which case they are inspected for occupants, cleared and locked.” That message in turn prompted another teacher, Terri Dubuke, to ask why “the copy and faculty rooms” are classified as ‘occupied’ spaces” when they “receive even less traffic than the ‘gang’ restrooms?” Those messages in turn came in the wake of discontent with standing orders that classroom doors be shut when occupied and locked when vacant. Why the Wednesday messages triggered a nominally homicidal reaction from Dr Farrell is not clear. In any event, when she inadvertently hit the wrong key, transforming private message into public broadcast, Consequences ensued. About the range and nature of those consequences, we are not sure. According to unconfirmed sources, Dr Farrell flew to Florida just after the episode; she went on family business but turned off her Black Berry; the school district trustees in emergency session meted out a letter of reprimand and a vote of confidence; teachers’ union members are mulling legal action; some teachers and staff members see the incident as a chance to strike back at what they take to be an autocratic, micro-managing, punitive style of administration.

When a Seeing Greene reporter approached her on the subject of “the incident,” Dr Farrell responded “What incident?” and “No comment.”

BOB PORTER was buried yesterday in Coxsackie. He died last Wednesday (10/10), at 71 years of age, after a sudden hospitalization. He was a retired State Department of Taxation supervisor, a professional saxophone player, president of the Catskill Kiwanis Club, Lieutenant-Governor of the Hudson River Division of Kiwanis, and a collector of Masonic Knights Templar titles. Among those titles were Worshipful Master, High Priest, Potentate (of Al Tabri Temple No. 121, Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of North and South America and Its Jurisdiction), Worthy Joshua, Royal Chief Engineer, Deputy Prior, Deputy Master, Deputy Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, Most Eminent Grand Commander, and Eminent Grand Master. To his Kiwanis friends, among others, he recited those titles with characteristic dry humor.

SATURDAY TREATS

Riverside Farmers’ and Artisans’Market, at Historic Catskill Point, from 10:30am with music by one-man band Paul Slusar. >>> Bounty of Greene County, a “50-mile” fund-raising dinner, plus silent auction of selected local art, at Cornell Co-Operative Extension’s Agroforestry Resource Center in Acra, prepared by Ric Orlando (New World Home Cooking) and composed of foods grown locally, from 6pm. Queries to Angela Tallarico, (518) 622-9820 ext. 21. >>>Saturday Studios in downtown Catskill, from mid-afternoon. ”Interpreting Paradise: Views of the Catskills” at M Gallery, with autumnally accented landscapes by six artists, most of whom will be there for the opening reception. At DREAM Annie Fox, “healing stone” jeweler,” adumbrates “the deeper meaning of gemstones” and “what stones you should wear next to your skin and why.” Terenchin Fine Arts offers *”Fractions” by Andrew Amelinckx and by mid-century cubists. BRIK unveils ”Red October” qua 6 “emerging artists” who, according to the welcometocatskill web site, are “celebrating the creative either where the muse lives.” Chromogenic prints by photographic artist Susan Wides (“Kaaterskill” and “Mannahatta” series) bedeck the Beginner’s Mind gallery. At Gallery 384, four artists demonstrate painterly “nocturnes” showing “darkness in a whole new light.” Books & More offers photographs and words by William Gale Gedney on "Other Lives." The Open Studio displays works by members of Veronamerica, who hail from the Hudson Valley and from the Veneto and Lombardy regions of Italy. And chocolate samplings from Catskill + Co. will be dispensed at Main Street sites, along with wine. In the exact words of welcometocatskill.com, “Sip and nibble as you admire this moth’s events.” >>>“Cole, Church and the Panoramic Landscape” is the title of a lecture to be delivered by Prof. Alan Wallach (College of William and Mary), using Thomas Cole’s The Oxbow and Frederick Church’s Niagara to elucidate changes in once-established conventions of landscape painting. From 4pm at Temple Israel, followed by reception in the Old Studio at Cedar Grove, 218 Spring St, Catskill. Free of charge, thanks to the Raymond Beecher Fund for Programming at Cedar Grove.

LATER >>>Sunday. “German Songs for an Autumn Afternoon” performed by Bard College students trained by Dawn Upshaw, from 2pm at Beattie-Powers Place, off Prospect Avenue in Catskill. >>>Tuesday (10/23). Michael Hayes, author of Oak Hill: Voice from an American Hamlet, Oak Hill resident and farmer, and Oak Hill Preservation Association president, will expound on and illustrate his favorite subject, at Greene County Historical Society’s Vedder Research Library in Coxsackie, from 7:30pm. 731-1033 >>>Thursday (10/25). Tour of Athens Generating Plant, 4-8pm but it may already be too late to sign up. To find out, try 945-3706 or khattersley@athensgen.com.