B's & C's

BANTAMWEIGHT now reigns over the historic Cus D’Amato Gym, and is—gulp—female. Sandra Lewis Smith, a Catskillian with much experience running New York City jails, aims to bring a resurgence of community support to Cus’s creation, along with programmatic variety and attractions for out of towners. (Not specifically anticipated is retraining program for punch-drunk journalists, such as the one who depicts Mike Tyson as “the boxing world’s most explosive ad fascinating figure,” who deems it possible to “surge toward new horizons” and to “implement innovative concepts as [a place] moves forward,” and who imputes to somebody “looking to expand the therapeutic applications to various demographics” as well as aspirations to “bolster the presentation and vibrance of this local iconic living museum.” Perhaps that scribbler belongs to the cohort he has identified as the “underslept” people.) B & B. The big Catskill house on the big lot at 174 Spring Street, associated in local memories with the Post family, will become a Bed & Breakfast, with four of its 18 rooms adapted for that purpose. Members of the Village’s Zoning Appeals Board, after collecting expressions of opinion from neighbors and from people who attended a public hearing Wednesday night in the Senior Center, voted last night to grant the variance that was required to authorize mixed (commercial and residential) use of the property. It was an easy decision, since all the expressed opinions were supportive. -----The Appeals Board’s action cleared the way for sale of the historic house by Gabrielle Brown and John Lippert, through real estate agent David Ludwig, to the intending hosts: Gilbert and Mary Ann Bagnell. The Bagnells plan to take up residence soon after moving up from Lexington, South Carolina. Ms Bagnell is a retired teacher, Mr Bagnell is a lawyer and sometime restaurateur, and both of them originally came from the northeast. BOOK NOTES II. Our overview last week of GreeneLand-related books was incomplete. We failed to include Wide Awake Men, Ted Hilscher’s brief and illuminating history, from its founding as a building and loan association in January of 1889, of the Bank pf Greene County. Copies are available, free, at BOGC branches. CHIEF. The Village of Catskill could be getting a new police chief in 2010. That could happen even though the Village Trustees would like to keep the present chief, Dave Darling, and he would like to stay on, and no other candidate is in sight. The problem, as reported in The Daily Mail by Susan Campriello (12/4/09), has to do with Chief Darling’s eligibility to remain in office while also retaining the retirement benefits he accumulated in the course of a career as a State policeman. Eligibility hinges on the granting by the State’s civil service commission of a waiver. The commission did grant the required waiver for a two-year stretch when Chief Darling was hired in 2005. It renewed the waiver for 2007-09. This time, however, it has only agreed to grant a six-month extension, terminating in June. Chief Darling’s draws a Village salary of $69,000 per year, to which benefits amounting to about $14,000 are not added. CLOSED, without even waiting until after Christmas: the Hallmark Cards shop in the Catskill strip mall called Grandview Plaza. CORRECTION. Last week’s item under the heading “Launched” suggested that the recording of Town Council proceedings, and placement of the recordings on the internet, began on December 1. Not so. It was new only for Durham. Community radio station WGXC has been doing this work for many months in many GreeneLand towns, and the results are accessible on www.WGXC.org. When the station goes live next year on FM 90.7, we will be able to audit the proceedings as they happen. (BTW: some WGXC personnel are leading members of a society that is devoted to a little known cause: Acoustic Ecology. See http://nyacousticecology.org) COMING TOMORROW. GreeneLanders are offered an embarrassment of riches, which we will not attempt to enumerate here. Especially rich with attractions are Athens and Catskill. Best sources of information: http://greenetourism.com ; http://welcometocatskill.com ; http://catskillmtn.org ; http://athensculturalcenter.org