Shut & Open

-----A landmark GreeneLand business has expired. For 50 years it was Dunn Builders Supply, foremost provider of materials to the county's contractors. Seven months ago, after company president Steve Dunn sold the stock and the operation to Columbia County's Ed Herrington, it acquired a new name. From the Herrington standpoint,however, the timing was terrible. It came in the midst of tough competition from the new Home Depot outlet and from the newer, nearer Lowes, along with a construction slump. Mr Herrington shuttered the business--two big lumber-crammed buildings on Catskill Creek, another big supplies-stuffed building on the east side of Water Street in Catskill--last week. Remaing inventory has been trucked across the Hudson to other Herrington sites. The shutdown here, Mr Dunn told Seeing Greene, came as "a total surprise; no warning at all." But although he sold the Catskill business, Mr Dunn retained ownership of the 1.8-acre site. The county's Industrial Development Agency owns an option to buy the site eventually (as part of a dream to transform the whole east bank of Catskill Creek, from the Point to Uncle Sam Bridge?). Meanwhile, Mr Dunn is "actively looking" for new tenants. A warehouse? Sure. But what about a dance hall? an indoor sports pavilion? a marine micro-brewery? -----Another longestablished Catskill business will close tomorrow. After 20 years on West Bridge Street, Dan Berkowitz is terminating The Whole Donut. He traces the decline of business partly to the drop in appetite for his trademark product. That decline is illustrated by coupons distributed by competitor Dunkin' Donuts. Discounts are offered on coffees, hash browns, breakfast sandwiches, flatbreads--but not doughnuts. [Oops! A newspaper insert on Saturday 2/28 does tout deals on donuts] Anyhow, looking to the future, Mr Berkowitz plans to not be a couch potato at home and to not be a kibbitzer at wife Laurie's flourishing Pomodoro's restaurant. -----The news is not all about closings. As previously reported here, Catskill will soon host a new bakery, a new liquor store and a new furniture design shop. Also in prospect is a Furniture 4 Less outlet in the former Aubuchon Hardware building on Boulevard Avenue (whose name is as redundant as, say, Catskill Creek). NAMESAKE NEWS (1) Mark and Christine Richardson were arrested last month on suspicion of growing marijuana commercially--130 thriving plants, with sophisticated cultivation gear--in their basement at 1025 Route 23A in Catskill. That pavedthe way for additional charges of defrauding the Department of Social Services by drawing Medicaid benefits while concealing (self-)employment income. Another local Richardson--Patrick, of Coxsackie--was busted by sheriff's deputies last year on multiple drug charges. (2) Waldemar (or possibly Wilaelm) J. Zahn, of Ira Vail Road in Leeds, was charged last Saturday with vehicular assault and drunk driving after he evidently crashed his pickup truck into an oncoming vehicle driven by Kevin Nicewonger of New Jersey. (Reported in Times Union 2/22 & Daily Mail 2/23). Another local Zahn--Bernard J.--is the cited defendant in a foreclosure auction (lien amount $153,258.29) coming on March 5 against property at 7857 Main Street, Hunter. RECOGNITIONS (as reported mostly in local newspapers). >>Richard Selner, by his peers, as GreeneLand Deputy of the Year. Sheriff Greg Seeley credited Investigator Selner with "uncanny ability to develop information, locate witnesses and generate leads." >>Richard Hilgendorff, by the Cairo Town Board, for 40 years of service to the Round Top Fire Company. >>Neil Golub, president of the 116-link Price Chopper supermarket chain, by Grocery Headquarters magazine, as Retail Executive of the Year, for "enthusiasm, boardroom smarts and merchandising savvy." >>Richard Roberg, veteran Coxsackie Town Justice, elected to the presidency of the New York State Magistrates Association. >>The Athens Street Festival Committee (led for the past eight years by Herby Blasewitz), by the GreeneLand legislature, with the EllenRettus Planning Achievement award, for work going back 35 years. >>United Stationers Supply Company of Coxsackie, by the New York State Rehabilitation Association, giving employment to evelopmentally handicapped workers. >>Maira Kalman, Palenville- (and New York-)based artist, in the form of a two-page color spread in the January 29th New York Times, celebrating, under the heading "And the Pursuit of Happiness," the Obama presidential inauguration. >>Bonnie Maranca of GreeneLand, editor of PAJ, The Journal of Performance Art, with a Leverhulme Trust visiting professorship at the University of London, for lecturing, interviewing, theatre-going, and work on a book about "performance drawings." >>GreeneLanders Tom Bellino and Gary Bielske, by indirection, when "Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard" won a Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble album of 2008. Mr Bellino (of www.planetarts.org ) produced some of the tracks. Mr Bielske did the double CD's design and packaging. >>The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, by the Hudson River Valley Greenway and the H.R.V. National Heritage Area, in the form of a $5000 grant to enhance the Hudson River Art Trail experience with markers, leaflets, and pictures. >>Duane K.Dixon of Catskill, spotted by State police in Albany after being sought for two weeks as fourth suspect in that home invasion case in Leeds. He reposes now in Greene County Jail along with his alleged confederates. Each faces 26 criminal charges relating to treatment of multiple victims. >>A GreeneLand school trustee, by specators, for playing hookey. Out of 13 board meetings since last July, (s)he has attended seven. TOMORROW, among other events: --"A Nod to the Past," composed of art, antiques and textiles, opens at the Kaaterskill Fine Arts gallery in Hunter. gallery@catskillmountain.org --The Nerds (soul,rock, pop) entertain at Windham Mountain's Legends bar. SUNDAY --First session of art classes for teenagers, on painting with acrylics, opens under direction of Robert Lahm at the Athens Cultural Center. 945-2136. --A Bard College wind ensemble plays a free 2pm concert at Beattie-Powers House. www.friendsofbeattiepowersplace.org

By the Numbers

57=number of Hudson Quadricentennial cat figures that, thanks to $500 sponsorships by local enterprisers, will ornament the sidewalks of downtown Catskill this summer. Among names assigned by submitting artists for designs exhibited at BRIK gallery: Half Moon Cat, Cat Van Winkle, CemenTom, Hyde Park Purr, H.A.L., Clearwater Cat, Cathexis, Hudson Hornet, Purr-lesque Dancer, Old Kaatskillian, Thomas Cole Copy Cat, Timeless Hudson Cat, Main Coon, Tiffany Tom,Bannerman CAsTle, Catue of Liberty. 61=Mexican dinners sold last night at the MOD Cafe in Catskill, on the occasion of the sixth trial of Thiusday night service. That's a new record. Average turnout, according to Dana and Mary, had been about 40 customers. We happily attest to the quality of the arroz con pollo and the Grande Mama burrito. In the same spirit, we heartily recommend the recently instituted Wednesday night fare at Bell's Cafe and the week night specials (chicken, veal, pasta...) at Tatiana's. 16=number of days, plus 7 hours, since Heart(of Catskill)throb Linda Overbaugh has smoked a cigarette. Citing a $225 laser therapy treatment (www.smokefreetimes.com) she reports "pretty comfortable progress so far, and no weight gain" in battle against a 43-year addiction. 5=number of days per week that The Daily Mail will be published henceforth. Instead of an issue a day there will be a weekend edition, delivered on Saturday, and then weekday editions on Tuesday through Friday. That change may bring about a reduction in memorable images generated by GreeneLand's foremost news organ: residents gathering "to satiate their interest in...drainage system contamination"; "decadent" fiberglass cats "unleashed" on Main Street; a "pinch" that is being felt "on many fronts"; a judge who "sentenced Maceo Jones to...prison after being convicted of...grand larceny"; an "ordinance that will lift burden off" a subject's shoulders; an "amendment to village traffic" that "eliminates vagueness out of a law"; a "grimalkin quandary" that "has only been exasperated." 13=anticipated number of days before the inventory of DVDs at the new Wayne's World Video (65 West Btidge St, Catskill) grows from moderate to big. In the meantime, proprietor Wayne Murphy's new store is open daily from noon to 9pm, offers a few snacks, and does have a stock of new movie releases ($2.75 per night), regular movies ($1.49 for two nights), games ($1.99 for two nights) and naughty stuff behind the curtain. http://waynesworld77.parks.officelive.com. 39=number of days left until voters in the 20th Congressional District of New York (GreeneLand included) decide who shall succeed Kirsten Gillibrand as United States Representative. Activites and backgrounds of the main candidates, Scott Murphy and Jim Tedisco, are chronicled, less or more, on their campaign web sites: www.scottmurphy09.com and www.jimtedisco.com. They evidently agree in assigning paramount importance to jobs. They also evince special solicitude for "the middle class," to the point of implying that its membership encludes the whole population. They have accepted invitations to engage in "debates" but they have accepted different invitations. Mr Tedisco alone has said Yes, so far, to pospective encounters on March 3 (Saratoga Springs; AARP), March 9 (Poughkeepsie; P. Journal) and March 24 (WROW AM from a motel in Colonie). Mr Murphy alone has said Yes, so far, to a proposed match-up on March 19 (sponsored by The TimesUnion; broadcast on WMHT). UPDATE: According to a message from the Columbia County Democratic Committee, Mr Murphy, Mr Tedisco and Libertarian Erik Lundwal have agreed to take part in a "town hall" encounter on March 26th, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, broadcast on WROW (590 on AM dial) from a motel in Latham starting at 7pm. ----- On substantive issues, one difference has emerged so far: Mr Murphy endorses the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment law that the Congress adopted (over heavy Republican opposition) and President Obama signed; Mr Tedisco, according to a TimesUnion editorial (2/19), delivered a "filibuster-length non-answer" (whose full text was memorialized in a 2/18 New York Observer story). Meanwhile, Mr Tedisco touts unidentified "values we share" and his record, as chief of the State Assembly's Republican minority, of leadership in "the fight for tax relief, a real property tax cap, a stronger economy, more jobs and a better quality of life." -----In recent years, candidates for national office were subject to evaluation by reference to their stands or evasions on all sorts of issues or problems: climate change, embryonic stem cell research, foreign wars, Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage, Affirmative Action, school vouchers, guns, illegal immgrants.... What happened? COMING EVENTS ---Tomorrow in downtown Catskill. Scott Murphy visits Democratic headquarters (Main Street at William) at about 2pm. Later, the Catskill Gallery Association's 'Saturday Studios' promotion animates Main Street. ---Tomorrow in Windham. "re," a new show of art objects made by re-cycling, re-conditioning, re-designing, re-integrating and re-interpreting opens at the Arts Council's Mountaintop Gallery, from 2pm. ---Tomorrow and Sunday in Hudson (but we choose to mention it here): clown workshop for women. Led by Laura Geilen (North American Nose to Nose Clown Facilitator Team) and Benedicta Bertau (outreach director, Walking the Dog Theater). it promises help that "lets your challenges become opportunities, your mistakes celebrations, and your confusions states of enlightenment." So: "...live haplessly ever after." 518 929 5392. ---Tomorrow night: dinner dance with silent auction at the Elks Lodge in Catskill, to raise funds for needy and deserving Community Action of Greene & Columbia Counties. www.cagcny.org ---Early March. Opening of custom furniture business (indoor and outdoor; original designs) at 396 Main St, Catskill (former home of Imagine That!) by international veteran (with Diane von Furstenberg) Kurt Andernach. His new shop (518 943-WOOD) adds more than a mite to downtown Catskill's appeal as a home improvement Mecca, what with furniture restoration, antiques, custom tiles and kitchen cabinets, carpets, original textiles, upholstery, Indonesian furniture, appliances, plumbing supplies, homewares and art. ---July 1. "Merger" of Immaculate Conception Church (Haines Falls) with Sacred Heart (Palenville) "with both to stay open." That elusive change is part of a comprehensive plan (see www.rcda.org and then Called to BE Church) announced by Howard Hubbard, archbishop of the sprawling Roman Catholic diocese of Albany. Also in prospect is a "merger" of "parish facilities" of St Patrick's Church of Catskill with its namesake in Athens). But consolidating the congregations could be difficult. The Athens church is too small. The Catskill church, though capacious, has been unusable since the collapse of the interior ceiling. Worshippers meet in the annex's basement. Cost of restoring the church, we understand, would exceed one million dollars.

Not Ahead in '09

-----Having just described some likely ups and downs for GreeneLanders this year, we venture some noteworthy unlikelyhoods. ----*Teejay Wins Again. Timothy J. ("Teejay") Hall Jr returned to GreeneLand last Monday to participate--so it seems from police reports--to participate in a drugs-related burglary, armed robbery, assault and kidnapping at an apartment in Leeds. He was arrested along with his cousin, Tyquan Hall, 30, of Catskill, and Melvin Lett, 32, of Coxsackie, after an incomplete 911 call, a manhunt, and a roundup based on idneitifcations provided by the putative victims, Caryl Juste Jr and Richard Lebon. The arrest follows by ten years Hall's trial in Greene County court for murder. According to the prosecutor on that occasion (District Attorney Ed Cloke), shortly after a scuffle at the Quarterback night club in Catskill (at West Main Street and Maple Avenue, now the drug rehabilitation center) Hall shot to death Lensley "Panther" O'Connor. Thanks to story-changing witnesses and to ace attorney Richard Mott, however, the jurors returned a Not Guilty verdict. In subsequent years, in Albany and Columbia counties, Hall was convicted of lesser crimes. In the present case, his suspected confederates, both of whom have done prison time on drug-trafficking convictions, have been charged with multiple felonies and are presently in jail pending payment of $500,000 bail or $1million bond. But "Teejay" is at liberty, charged so far--pending further police investigation--only with parole violation. (Incidentally, Melvin Lett's defense attorney in the present case is Greg Lubow, former chief public defender, who represented Teejay Hall's sweetheart, Holly Bagshaw, in the Quarterback Club case. After refusing to repeat, on the stand, incriminating testimony that she had given to the police, she was jailed briefly by Judge Daniel Lalor for contempt of court).

-----*Revenues Rise. Tax collections in GreeneLand grow, in keeping with growth in the assessed value of properties. -----According to official Collector Michael DeBenedictus, however, tax payments in the Town of Catskill lag behind the same period in 2008 by 30 percent.

-----*Republicans Surge. On March 31, in the special election to decide who shall succeed Kirsten Gillibrand as United States Representative for New York's 20th Congressional District, the Republican candidate wins a lop-sided victory. That outcome, coming in the wake of multiple appearances by outside speakers, is hailed far and wide as a sign--the first since November 2006--of Republican Party revival. -----The more likely outcome, however, is a closely fought contest, with voters bemused by the candidates' affiliations: the former high school teacher whose vocation for many years has been politics is the Republican; the venture capitalist of humble origins, who touts himself as a seasoned job-creating enterpriser (see http://youtube.com/watch?v=bs7WgKpBa1E) is the Democrat.

-----*Bank Saved. The Bank of Greene County gets Federal bailout money. It accordingly joins other regional banks--First Niagara, Legacy, Berkshire Hills, M & T--at the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) trough. -----Actually, Greene County's eponymous bank won't get a crumb. Won't get help because hasn't asked and doesn't need. Its expansive little operation (11 branches in three counties; enlarged commercial lending) is thriving. Net income for the last half of 2008 ($1.8 million) surpassed the previous half-year by 54 per cent, and the final quarter of 2008 was historically its biggest. The new Ravena branch, according to President Donald Gibson (in Seeing Greene interview) has doubled its target on deposits. Lending to fire companies is a new, solid niche business. Defaults? Well, the bank did experience an increase over 2007 in "charge-offs," to $293,,000. But its conservative policies (no sub-prime loans, no sell-offs of mortgages) have paid off. On January 22, incidentally, the bank's 120th birthday was marked in New York City when President Gibson, flanked by Board Chairman Martin Smith and by former president Bruce Whittaker, rang the opening bell at the NASDAQ trading fllor in Manhattan. No other company in Greene or Columbia county could have done that, as none is listed on a major stock exchange.

-----*Muddy Cup Replenished. According to a sign on the door, that coffee shop on Main Street in Catskill will reopen "after restructure and renovation." The nominated return date is "mid-January." The sign also says "We appologize [sic] for the inconvienance" (sic). -----Actually, no renovation work has been done. Let's pray for a conversion: a Mexican restaurant, an Indian restaurant, a rathskeler with mini-brewery(dispensing Catskale? Rip's Tipple? Greene Brew?).

-----*Gitmo to Hudson. Most of the international prisoners who are housed now at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will be transferred to the spacious, under-utilized Hudson Correctional Facility. This transfer, which enlarges the ranks of warders and thereby boosts the local economy, comes about because local politicians wield more power than Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who argues for stashing the prisoners at the moribund Federal prison on San Franciso Bay's Alcatraz Island. -----And pigs will fly.

-----*Auctions Continue. Foreclosed properties will be sold at auction, as advertised, in the lobby of the Greene County Courthouse, at 411 Main St in Catskill. Thus, 151 Featherbed Lane, Hannacroix (James Lomanto, defaulter) will go to the highest bidder there next Friday (2/20) along with 309 North Lake Road, Haines Falls (Raymond C. Meyer et al. defaulters; liem of $245,377.29). On March 10th comes 42 Panicola Lane in Cairo. And so on. -----Except that the courthouse is closed for repairs. However, a foreclosure auction that is billed in standard legal advertisements as scheduled for February 25th "on the front entrance" of the courthouse may actually take place.

-----*Preacher Returns. Pastor Jim Finn will return to Catskill for the tenth anniversary of the End-Time School of Evangelism. That earlier drive "to compel lost sinners to come to the house of God," as recounted in a contemporary church bulletin, yielded multiple "miracles and healings," including a return to hearing for a woman who had been deaf for 45 years, abrupt ambulation for wheel-chaired believers, a spina bifida-afflicted child's return of ability to defecate and urinate, and even a homosexual who "hit the altar and was delivered from his lifestyle." -----Actually, Pastor Jim left town after bankrupting his church with extravagant spending. His former Full Gospel Tabernacle Church (originally the First Baptist Church of Catskill) has undergone a conversion whereby, as Snap Fitness, it is now, uh, consecrated to the saving of bodies.

----*Newspapers Rebound. Subscriptions rise, news stand sales go up, advertising lineage surges, doors are reopened. Yes, employees of the gigantic Gannett Newspapers group have been ordered to take one-week unpaid furloughs. Yes, Columbia County's semi-weekly Independent (often wrongly called a bi-weekly) got folded on February 8th (four days after its editor, Perry Teasdale,, won first prize in a national editorial-writing competition). Four days later, seven weekly newspapers (s-e-v-e-n) in Dutchess County and one in Putname County were closed, along with three magazines. All those publications were victims of the parlous financial state of the parent Journal Register Company, which also owns The Daily Freeman in Kingston, whose GreeneLand bureau has been closed for months. As for The Daily Mail (Catskill) and The Register-Star (Hudson), a complete merger, succeeding the current close integration, may at last eventuate, but an economic pay-off, ensuring survival, would not necessarily result. The financial condition of theiir parent company, Johnson Newspaper Inc. of Watertown NY, is not a matter of public record. Meanwhile, the ad-stuffed Mountain Pennysaver is owned (along with a Saugerties weekly and a shopper) by a big chain, GateHouse Media, whose share price has sunk from $10 in 2007 to a dime. -----So OK, there won't be an early revival of print journalism. Eventually, however, more enterprisers will notice the formula that works for provincial and small-town news. It is the content-loaded giveaway. It is the news- and features- and photo- and advertisement-loaded newspaper that, like the Pennysaver, goes to every household by mail and is given away at shop counters. Loaded with local news, it would not be discarded, unread, by recipients. Loaded with local news and distributed to everybody, it would fetch higher advertising at higher rates than a throw-away shopper could sustain. It also would earn the bedrock financial support that goes with being designated by local governments as classified legal advertising outlets. It's a viable formula, but it's not likely to catch on here in 2009.

Down and Up in '09

----For GreeneLanders, this year promises abnormal doses of grief and joy. We will experience a shortage of bread (even though a new bakery will open) along with a feast of circuses.

-----The shortage of paid work already is severe. According to the State Labor Department, our unemployment rate is close to 8 per cent of the work force. The official figure of 7.7% last December, as compared with 5.7% in December of 2007, is the mid-Hudson region's highest, and it tops the State-wide figure (6.8%--highest since 1994) and the national figure (7.1%). Eligible job-seekers can collect unemployment insurance checks for 26 weeks, with emergency extensions that can add 33 more weeks. Service agencies, private and public, are coping with rising needs for help. Real estate sales are down, mortgage payments are being missed, and ambitious subdivision projects--in Greenville, Coxsackie, Catskill, Cairo--may be stalled, or abandoned. ----While the new Obama Administration is promoting an ambitious national recovery package in Washington D.C., a plausible stimulus idea has been broached here. The mayor of Catskill Village, Vincent Seeley, proposes that property owners be incited to make improvements now by being relieved of the raises in assessed values and hence of tax liability. Eligibility for the break would be contingent on using local tradesmen and suppliers. That could nudge owners to get going with improvements before the deal expires. -----In the meantime, for GreeneLanders this year will be extraordinarily festive. Along with riverbank communities from Albany down to Manhattan, we will be drawn into celebrations of the four hundredth anniversary of European discovery of the Hudson River. The roster of Quadricentennial events is far from complete. Certainly it will include visits from the replica of the sailing ship, The Half Moon, that brought Henry Hudson and his crew to this section of the New World. It will include a heightened emphasis on landscape and riverscape art in our many galleries (including the Agroforestry Research Center in Acra, where the extraordinary photographic work of Tom Teich will soon be on exhibited. A play written by GreeneLand thespian Joseph Capone, about Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River school of landscape painting, will be performed by the Classics @ The Point troupe. The County Historical Society's annual tour of historic homes, instead of being concentrated on one community, will put a string of river-hugging GreeneLand estates on show. Scores of high school students will take part in every stage of developing a theatrical production based on River of Dreams, the illustrated book by GreeneLand's illustrious Hudson Talbott, with songs composed by GreeneLander Frank Cuthbert and direction provided by GreeneLand's (and Hollywood's, and New York's) Casey Biggs. -----"Greene County USA," a documentary crafted by veteran film-maker Jonathan Donald, will be screened in two GreeneLand venues during September 12-13, before its two half-hour segments, tracing local history from the Paleo-Indians (11,000 years ago) to the present, are televised on WMHT. And this Sunday (2/8/09) a Harvard University superstar, Prof. John Stilgoe, author of Landscape and Images and eight other books, will be at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site talking about the years, the hundred years, between Cole's artistic eminence and his re-emergence from oblivion. That talk (see www.thomascole.org) will be followed not by the usual on-site reception but rather by multiple receptions at galleries along Catskill's historic Main Street. At one of them, Gallery 384, Cole's birthday will be celebrated (a week late) with this Cole-tribute landscape painting by Roberta Griffin and with a cake whose frosting simulates the painting. -----That is just a sampling of things to come in '09, along with Irish and bluegrass festivals, and Mountain Foundation events. Winter sports at Hunter Mountain and Windham are thriving now. So, after a long time lapse, is ice boating off Athens's Riverside Park. So are Cornell Co-operative Extension's training programs in Acra: In this month alone, there have been or will be sessions on managing forests during climate change, beekeeping, pollen detection, bulb-forcing (to yield spring flowers before spring comes),, rural crafts, landscape maintenance, tractor operation and renewable energy. (http://arc.cce.cornell.edu). -----Springtime in GreeneLand will be punctuated by the usual village and school board elections, augmented by what shapes up to be a momentous special election to decide who shall succeed Kirsten Gillibrand as Representative in the United States Congress. Libertarian Party chairman Eric Kundle of Kinderhook says he'll join the race as an independent candidate. The National Republican Campaign Committee has already taken heed of the contest by finding fault with Democratic nominee Scott Murphy's tax payments, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has returned fire by accusing the Republican nominee, State Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, of gaming the taxpayers on his expense account. Mr Murphy made a quick trip to Washington D.C. in quest of campaign funds and a meeting with Senator Gillibrand. Mr Tedisco has announced that tomorrow (2/7/09) he will make appearances in four counties, outlining what he calls (inaccurately) his "principles for promoting economic recovery: real tax relief, a stronger economy and more jobs." (Those are not principles). His final scheduled stop is at the Duocommun Aerostructures plant (formerly DynaBil Industries) in Coxsackie. -----In Catskill, meanwhile, Lalli Vermani soon will open Catskill Liquors on West Bridge Street. Restoration of the Little Red Schoolhouse in Jefferson Heights will be celebrated. A bakery and a pub will open off Main Street. And Doug Kleeschulte is adding new bays to his Plaza Car Wash facility, plus a booth for washing dogs.

The Special Election

----Contestants for the special election contest to succeed Kirsten Gillibrand as U.S. Representative from the 20th Congressional District, which includes Greene County,have been selected. The Republican nominee is James Tedisco of Schenectady, leader of his party's minority bloc in the State Assembly. The Democratic nominee is Scott Murphy of Glens Falls, a venture capitalist. ----(Eric Sundwall of Kinderhook, who is chairman of the Libertarian Party, has voiced an intention to stand as an independent candidate. To get on the ballot he will need to submit, to the State Commission of Elections, petitions containing signatures of 3500 eligible voters). -----The major party candidates were selected by the chieftains of party committees in the ten counties, or portions of counties, that compose the District. On the Republican side the main contenders, in addition to Mr Tedisco, were Elizabeth Little, State Senator from the northern end of the district, and John Faso, former State Assemblyman and former G.O.P. candidate for governor and for comptroller of New York. On the Democratic side, Mr Murphy emerged from an initial field of more than 30 prospects,from whom the ten selectors chose a short list of six contenders, two of whom withdrew from consideration just before the interviewing phase. The finalists in addition to Mr Murphy were Tim Gordon, the State Assemblyman whose district includes the northern part of Greene County (an independent who caucuses with the Democratic bloc); Ronald Kim, Saratoga City Councilman; and Carol Schrager of Hunter,an attorney. -----Mr Tedisco launched his career in politics in 1977, with election to the Schenectady City Council. In 1982 came his first of many elections to the heavily Republican 110th Assembly District. In November 2005 his fellow Republicans picked him as leader of their conference in the Assembly. Before entering politics, and after graduating from Union College, he was a high school basketball coach. -----On his newly established campaign web site (www.jimtedisco.com) > ( Mr Tedisco emphasises "fighting for real property tax relief, fiscal responsibility and more jobs." (He also commits the literary sin of Dangling Construction: "Serving as your voice in the House of Representatives,you can count on me to keep fighting the good fight..."). In the estimation of political scientist Alan Chartock, Mr Tedisco characteristically copes with the problem of being out-gunned in the Assembly by the disciplined Democratic majority by adopting a "fire and brimstone" approach to advocacy. (Best compilation of material on Mr Tedisco is contained in the Wikipedia biography, with links). -----A Round Top resident, Chuck Kaiser, opined in a recent letter to newspapers thatAmerica is currently embroiled not only in a war against "a radical group of militants" who would slay all non-believers but also in a domestic "battle for the soul of the nation." The latter is a "culture war" wherein sound "traditional ideologies" are being "assaulted" by "liberal socialistic ideology." Fortunately, "In the rising tide of socialistic ideologies stands one bulwark," one "God-fearing man who is sound in principle, strong in character and powerful in leadership." "His name is Jim Tedisco." ----Mr Murphy, 38, is a newcomer to elective politics (as was Kirsten Gillibrand just three years ago)but not to election campaign work. According to his campaign web site after graduating from Harvard College, Mr Murphy worked in his native Missouri as staff aide to two governors, then worked for Bankers Trust on Wall Street, started up two dot-com firms, and in 2001 joined Advantage Capital Partners. -----As affirmed on its web site,that venture capital firm uses "a dual bottom line" to measure success: "excellent investor returns" plus "significant community impact." It raises private funds "to invest in states and communities that are underserved by traditional sources of risk capital. [It] built a...record of public-private partnerships with state and federal economic development organizations, facilitating the flow of billions of dollars of investment capital into these communities. [It]provides equity and debt capital, along with value-added counsel and other support, to operating businesses...." "The 20th Congressional Discist," says Mr Murphy, "needs innovative leadership that will bring smart economic development and good jobs to our communities. That's what I've done in the private sector, and that's what I'll do in Congress." The by-election is bound to be closely fought. Mr Tedisco starts the race with greater name recognition. He also stands to gain from a big edge in Republican Party registrations in the district. He may benefit as well from the prospect that party stars--Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin--will jump at the chance to play visible roles in what could turn out to be a first sign of Republican resurgence. Favoring the Democratic candidate, on the other hand, is recent electoral history. The majority of 20th District voters, just two months ago, supported the Democratic nominees for Congress and for President. On this occasion, in the current climate of economic anxiety, the voters may be drawn to Mr Murphy's record as a job-creating enterpriser. -----One more factor could shape the election's outcome. It has to do with tangible favors. Delivering the goods. Supporting constituents' pet projects. Bringing home the bacon. It is seldom mentioned in campaign rhetoric,apart from vague "has done a lot for the district" remarks. -----To express the matter in brutally direct terms, rival candidates for elective office differ in prospective abilities to win government grant, subsidies and other material favors for their constituents. The crucial difference between candidates stems not from their skills, their diligence or their principles, but from their alliances. Of supreme value in this matter is affiliation with the majority party (in the legislature and, ideally, in the Administration as well). For many years, accordingly, the incumbent Republican Congressman was positioned to do more for the 20th Congressional District,in the way of material favors, than his successive Democratic challengers. In November 2006, and more completely in November 2008, that situation was reversed.

Kirsten Kapers

Gov. David Paterson’s choice of Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton may turn out to be a mis-step, politically, but not for the reasons touted by New York City (and hence national) news media mavens.

Commentators in the Press and on the Tube have suggested that the governor fumbled procedurally, made a choice that came as a shock, dumped and dissed the best candidate(s), put his own political needs ahead of the State’s needs (but miscalculated), spurned the preference of the Clintons and the President, and bestowed high office on a person whose “conservative” record offends the sensibilities of civilized New Yorkers.

Those assertions vary. They are counter-factual, presumptuous or/and implausible.

For sound political reasons, Governor Paterson sought to appoint a candidate who, in addition to being eminently qualified by experience and stature, would broaden the sociological representativeness of his party’s office-holders. As reported persistently in the news media, his ideal appointee would have been a well-credentialed person who also is female, is Hispanic, and is from up-State.

Nobody passed those four tests. Ms Gillibrand alone met three. Although she is almost a rookie politically, and thus seems short on experience and stature, she has proved to be an extraordinarily effective vote-getter. She has won two successive Congressional up-State elections, by increasing margins, in Republican territory. She has won not only against a bibulous, feckless incumbent (and the Botch Administration) but also against a wealthy, personable Republican (who was indirectly encumbered by the Botch Administration).

Caroline Kennedy, as the daughter of a martyred hero, brought to the table a special kind of stature. She also brought a record of earnest involvement (from her Park Avenue base) in good causes. But her history, including her December-January performance, gave every indication that for the rigors of self-exposure, appearances, staff management, policy analysis, bargaining, listening, speech-making—in short, of politics, much less of politics at an elevated level—she was not ready.

Andrew Cuomo, while being richly endowed with appropriate experience and stature, did not pass the gender, ethnicity and geo-political tests. His appointment would not have served to broaden the appeal of Governor Paterson’s party. What is more, his appointment would have been a snub to Ms Kennedy in a way that the appointment of Ms Gillibrand was not.

Nevertheless, Governor Paterson’s choice could turn out to be, for the Democrats, expensive.

One possible cost would be loss of the Senate seat. Ms Gillibrand’s senatorial appointment runs through 2010. To retain the seat she must then win the Democratic primary election in September and the general election in November (and then do it all again in 2012). She is likely to encounter opposition in the primary. The challenger(s) will assail her Congressional record as a “conservative” Blue Dog Democrat on gun control, the rights of illegal immigrants, and economic stimulus measures. She will try to blunt this internal opposition by way of her conduct in 2009-10 and an accumulation of endorsements. Although she would likely win the primary election, an exceedingly bitter, divisive battle could pave the way for a general election victory for the Republican nominee.

Another cost of the Gillibrand senatorial appointment, from the Democratic standpoint, could be loss of her erstwhile House seat. That could happen soon, in the special election that will take place in March or April. It could be momentous politically. As the nation’s first inter-party contest since the Obama-led Democratic triumph of November, it could be interpreted as evidence of Republican revival. It would surely be interpreted that way by Republican leaders, no matter what the Democrats say, however credibly, about special circumstances. Accordingly, this by-election will attract big investments by national campaign committees along with immense national publicity.

The risk of loss for the Democrats is serious. While Ms Gillibrand won it in November by a comfortable margin (61%), the seat had been held easily by Republicans before 2006. In registered voters the district is preponderantly Republican. Most of the State Senators, State Assembly members and county legislators who represent pieces of the district--four counties and portions of six other counties--are Republicans. Consequently, many Republicans possess the credentials that go with being a plausible, viable, fund-worthy candidate for election to the United States Congress. The same is not true for the Democrats.

That contrast in credentialed prospective candidates was made evident yesterday (Tuesday, 1/27), at a meeting of the ten Republican chairmen who are authorized legally to decide who shall be their standard-bearer in the special election (whose date remains to be determined). Among the candidates they considered were a former State official and State party chairman, who had been Ms Gillibrand’s challenger last November; a former leader of the Republican minority in the State Assembly, who also had formerly been the Republican nominee for Governor and for State Comptroller; a sitting State Senator; and the current leader of Republicans in the State Assembly. They chose the latter candidate: Jim Tedisco (whose Schenectady residence is just outside the the 20^th Congressional district’s boundaries).

Similar backgrounds on the Democratic side do not exist. Within the precincts of the 20^th Congressional District, the only State legislator who is not a Republican is independent. That legislator (formally, an Independence Party member) is Assemblyman Tim Gordon, whose district occupies portions of Albany, Columbia, Rensselaer and Greene counties. Mr Gordon, elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2008, caucuses with Assembly’s Democrats. He has voiced interest in running for Congress in the special election as the Democratic nominee.

So have at least 20 other individuals. Among them are a county legislator or two, a county party chairman, a town supervisor, lawyers, and persons who have been active as campaign volunteers. (Among GreeneLanders who have been mentioned in dispatches are Alexander Betke, who is Coxsackie town supervisor and Catskill Village attorney, and Carol Schrager of Hunter, an attorney who practices mostly in Manhattan--as Kirsten Gillibrand did before her 2006 campaign).

Responsible for picking the Democratic nominee are the ten people who chair Democratic committees in the four counties and the portions of six counties that make up New York’s 20^th Congressional district. The group’s members (including GreeneLand’s Tom Poelker of Windham) are currently receiving and processing applications. By means of conference calls, we understand, they will try to compile by this Saturday an agreed short list of candidates for interview and vetting.

For making the final nominating decision, their votes are not equal. Party rules, as recognized by State law, prescribe that the deciders’ votes on choosing their special election candidate shall be weighted in proportion to numbers of popular votes received in their bailiwicks by the party's candidate in the last gubernatorial election. (Republican Party rules also prescribe weighted voting as between counties, but the formula is different). In practical terms, this system gives about a third of the decision-making power to the party chairman from populous Saratoga County. The Democratic conferees, we understand, will try to forestall ill feelings that could arise from their inequality of power by reaching a decision that is unanimous.

The Democratic and Republican nominees will contest a popular election whose date remains to be chosen by Governor Paterson. The date must be no fewer than 30 and no more than 40 days after the governor proclaims that an elective office has become vacant. As to when he must issue that proclamation, Mr Paterson seems to be at liberty.

Perhaps he will try to link the special election with regular local elections. For GreeneLand, the preferred date then would be March 18 (Athens, Cairo, Hunter, and Tannersville Village elections) or March 31(Catskill Village election). Such a linkage would help to boost voter turnout. It also would achieve a small reduction in the enormous cost to the taxpayers of replacing Senator Gillibrand in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Last '08 Post

DYNABOUGHT. GreeneLand’s aerospace technology company, DynaBil Industries, has been sold. The buyer is another aerospace specialist, California-based Duocommun Inc. As announced by Duocommun president Joseph Berenato and reported in various news organs, the purchase price is $46.5 million in cash ($39.5 million) and promissory notes.

That sum will be paid to four private investment funds and to GreeneLanders Hugh Quigley and Michael Grosso They started DynaBil in 1977 in a Coxsackie garage, built it into a substantial fabricator of titanium firewalls, bulkheads, and nacelles for aircraft, and sold control of the 200-employee facility in March 2006 to venture capitalists while retaining a 20 per cent equity interest.

DynaBil will become part of the buyer’s Ducommun Aerostructures division, which, according to the company’s web site, “designs, engineers and manufactures the largest, most complex contoured aerostructure components in the aerospace industry. Our integrated processes include stretch-forming, thermal-forming, chemical milling, precision fabrication, machining, finishing processes, and integration of components into subassemblies.” “We are also the largest independent supplier of composite and metal bond structures and assemblies in the US, including aircraft wing spoilers, helicopter blades, flight control surfaces and engine components.”

Duocommun Incorporated’s 1865 employees work at 12 sites in six States and in Mexico and Thailand. Sales in the past year, with Boeing as the biggest customer, reached $396million. Company shares, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (as DCO) have ranged in price from $12.03 to $38.53. In early November, Ducommun shares were touted in a Forbes magazine column as a “cheap growth stock.”

AWARDED to Cairo-Durham Middle School, as a prize in Samsung Electronics of America’s Hope for Education program: $61,000 worth of electronic digital hardware and software plus cash. The award was one of 30 First Place prizes given to schools around the country. Winners were chosen on the basis of essays responding to the question “How has technology educated you on helping the environment and how or why has it changed your behavior to be more environmentally friendly?” Authorship, on behalf of a school or a school district, could come from anybody. In this case the author was Cairo-Durham Schools Superintendent Sally Sharkey.

GRANTED to the Greene Arts Foundation, for use in creating the Quadricentennial musical show “River of Dreams” based on Hudson Talbott’s book, with songs by Frank Cuthbert and stage parts performed by high schoolers: $1000 from the Athens Cultural Center and $2000 from the Department of Environmental Conservation. Those awards are fractions of what was requested. More grant applications, says impresario Casey Biggs, still are Out There.

LITIGATION FRONT. Law partners Eugenia Brennan and Edward Kaplan are suing the Trustees of Coxsackie Village. The plaintiffs want to be paid for representing Mayor John Bull in connection with his contentious firing, many months ago, of the police chief, Robert Helwig. As reported in The Greenville Press (12/18), the Board majority has refused to pay the fee out of Village funds because Mr Bull retained the firm and incurred the debt without being authorized to do so. The lawsuit is an “Article 78” action, like those brought recently by “Unk” Slater and by Galen Joseph-Hunter against Cairo officialdom. Those cases are slated for court hearings early in 2009, along with volunteer firefighter Joel Shanks’s long-stalled suit against the Village of Catskill.

NAY SAYERS in the Coxsackie-Athens School District voted down, by a whopping margin of 1066 to 426 (in an electorate of about 6000), a $20million construction and renovation project (euphemistically priced at at $19,954,420). According to a Daily Mail report (12/17; Billie Dunn), preponderantly negative votes, in about the same proportions, were cast in Coxsackie and in Athens. Disappointed advocates pointed out that much of the contemplated work was in nature of mandated repairs, and that much of the State money that was available for the work will not be, or may not be, available. That portion amounted to $14.5 million. Did the voters understand that?

GREENVILLE now has an official web site: www.townofgreenvilleny.com. In contrast, Cairo’s official web site is defunct. And www.coxsackie.com leads to the Antiques Center.

RUMOR has it that a GreeneLand man has lodged a complaint alleging to his employer that a female colleague harassed him sexually, when it really was the other way around. Rumor also has it that a GreeneLand teen-ager rented a room at the Friar Tuck resort, invited friends in for a bibulous party, led or joined them in trashing the place, will be facing charges. Rumor has it too that a recent shuffle of administrative staff in a GreeneLand public organization was not driven altogether by the quest for efficiency. But then, “Rumor has it” is bafflegab.

MADOFF JUNIOR? Just as many victims of Bernard Madoff’s monumental swindle remain to be counted, so do victims of the late-December stunt by Catskill Buick Pontiac GMC Cadillac. GreeneLanders galore received an advertising card to which a key, resembling an ignition key, was pasted. Recipients were invited to play Scratch Match. “If your number matches the wining number below,” the dealer promised, “you’ll definitely win one of the four prizes!” Available to win, specifically, were $5000 cash or a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am, a Flat Screen TV, $500 cash, or a Golf Spa Package. Eureka! Catskillian Jerry Sarlin’s uncovered number, 78425, matched the winning number! But then so Valerie Johnson’s number. And her neighbor’s. And his neighbor’s. And yours. Let’s hope for better dealings in 2009.

Remembering Ray

In addition to being GreeneLand's official historian, Raymond Beecher was the county's foremost benefactor. His death on October 11th, at the age of 91, preceded by two weeks an event at Cedar Grove, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, that he had planned to attend, as usual: the annual Raymond Beecher Lecture. As a prelude to that lecture, a member of the Cole Site's board of trustees, David Barnes, drove 13 hours from Columbus, Ohio, to deliver this eulogy.

Through Thomas Cole’s eyes, we were given a vision of our natural heritage and cultural identity. 160 years later, through Raymond Beecher’s eyes, we were given a vision of what Cedar Grove could be today. Simply put, without Ray’s hard work, his determination, his ability to inspire others and--yes, as he loved to say, plenty of his beer money--there would be no Cedar Grove today, to celebrate Thomas Cole and the birthplace of the Hudson River School.

Ray was adamant that Cedar Grove must never become just another “historic home” filled with period furnishings. He wanted Cedar Grove to be a vital, dynamic force in education and in scholarship, those touchstones of Ray’s career. And that’s why, in addition to saving Thomas Cole’s home, one of the many gifts Ray gave Cedar Grove was this lecture series that bears his name. Today is the third annual Raymond Beecher lecture, but the first without him. Ray passed away two weeks ago, peacefully, at his family home overlooking the Hudson River in Coxsackie. Of course, when someone lives to be 91 years old, as Ray did, we’re not supposed to feel cheated. But because of the kind of person Ray was, I think he could’ve lived to be 191 and we’d still feel cheated. I don’t think we feel too differently today than William Cullen Bryant felt when he said, in his funeral oration for Thomas Cole, that "His departure has left a vacuity which amazes and alarms us. It is as if the voyager on the Hudson were to look toward the great range of the Catskills, at the foot of which Cole, with a reverential fondness, had fixed his abode, and were to see that the grandest of its summits had disappeared – had sunk into the plain from our sight."

Ray’s life was full of accomplishments, none greater than his 50-year marriage to Catharine Shaffer Beecher. He earned degrees from Hartwick College and Boston University, including a Doctor of Humane Letters from Hartwick College, his undergraduate alma mater. And he led men into battle in two theaters of operation in WWII, displaying an ability to get people to do things that would become very familiar to those of us he led in the battle to save Thomas Cole’s home.

For over 50 years he was a proud member of the Greene County Historical Society, and his love for this beautiful area was unsurpassed: he learned more about it than anyone, and devoted his life to preserving it and educating people about it as historian, preservationist and author.

His undying passion was Cedar Grove. He knew more about it than anyone else. The last thing he ever wrote, found on his desk after he died, were four shining paragraphs of what would’ve been a superb article he was writing about Cedar Grove for our Winter Newsletter.

To the end, he was the very embodiment of a gentleman and a scholar. With Ray’s passing, we’ve lost a dear friend, an irreplaceable inspiration, and an enormous amount of knowledge. But what inspired him, and the gifts he gave us, are still here, to inspire us, and future generations. It’s a legacy I know he’d be proud of.

Found!

The gold doubloon that entitles its finder to claim the gem-encrusted “Captain Kidd crown” has been unearthed. Its discovery marks the culmination of a GreeneLand treasure hunt that had baffled searchers over the past 17 years.

Taking possession of the glittering prize this morning at a ceremony in the Greene County building was Michael Reid of Catskill. He and members of his extended family, organized as Team Ria, set out in early October to decipher clues embedded in the story Captain Kidd and the Missing Crown and then, on weekend forays, to test hunches.

According to the story they deciphered, in 1699 the notorious Captain Kidd and his crew sailed up the Hudson River, landed somewhere along the Greene County coastline, buried a hoard of piratical loot in a secret spot, sailed away, and were caught and hanged in 1701 before they could return.

That story, seasoned with Da Vinci Code-like clues and written in florid Elizabethan style, was concocted back in 1991 by the mystery writer Jack Hashian. It was devised in support of a promotion organized by civic leaders, including county attorney George Pulver (now county judge) and fuel oil supplier Martin Smith. They were looking for a way to reprise a previous treasure hunt that had engaged locals and visitors in a search for the gem-laden ninepin that ostensibly had been left behind by Rip Van Winkle. That lucrative project had lasted until 1990, when a sleuth from Connecticut, Gerald Park, after seven years of trying, traced the ninepin to a spot in the Evergreen Mountain in Catskill Park.

The Captain Kidd story, as characterized by Greene County Historian Raymond Beecher (to a TimesUnion reporter, back in 2005), was “hokum”; but “Why let the facts get in the way of an entertaining story?” It served well as a promotional stunt, funded mainly by the TrustCo bank. In early years it attracted plenty of publicity and of tourists. Hundreds of copies of Captain Kidd and the Missing Crown, duly illustrated, were distributed. Some hunters returned year after year. But gradually, as failures multiplied, interest faded. A local antiques dealer, George Jurgsatis, opined three years ago “we’re not clever enough around here” to decipher the clues.

Team Ria’s quest for the coin, as explained by Mr Reid and his wife Laura, came about in the wake of the death, after an abrupt illness at an early age, of Laura’s sister Maria Ciancanelli-Kelly. In tribute to Maria’s partiality for pirates, and as a therapeutic exercise, the 15 adults and children set out to succeed where so many others had failed.

From clues planted in the Hashian story they reasoned that thedoubloon, representing the buried treasure, must be located somewhere close to a sailing ship’s mooring site: not in the mountains, then, but near the river or a navigable creek. And so it was. The hiding place actually was a short walk from what had been Martin Smith’s place of business, a fuel oil company fronting on Catskill Creek. The gold coin reposed for 17 years under a rock occupying a strip of tidal beach that was close to where, in the course of the years, thousands upon thousands of people had congregated for picnics and concerts and children's: Dutchmen’s Landing.

At this morning’s press conference, Warren Hart, director of Economic Development, Tourism and Planning, hailed “a highly successful tourism promotion effort.” “Although no one discovered the coin until last week, almost everyone who came discovered, in the process of looking for the treasure, something wonderful about Greene County.”

In a similar vein, Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley said “the treasure hunt did what it set out to do: draw visitors….” Discovery of the treasure, moreover, qualifies as a timely “bright light” at a time of economic gloom.

What will the Reids plan to do with their prize? The golden crown, ornamented with diamonds and other precious stones, has appreciated considerably since its cash value was appraised back in 1997 at $10,600. The Reids downplayed the idea of displaying it at the family’s incipient new place of business: a bakery and café on Brandos Alley in Catskill, to be opened next Valentines Day. Mr Reid said the goal is to “unlock” the crown’s value in a way that “will do something wonderful to commemorate Maria’s life.”

At this morning’s news conference, Martin Smith, who is now the chairman of the Bank of Greene County, was asked if another GreeneLand treasure hunt might be in the offing. “Nothing definite,” he said; “but there’s been vague talk about a Legs Diamond stunt or a Thomas Cole event.”

(For a rich chronicle of the quest, richly illustrated and with links to reports in The Daily Mail and The TimesUnion, go to http://teamria.blogspot.com).

Wintry Greene

ATHENS, says Lisa A. Phillips in today’s New York Times (“A River Town with Restoration in its Bones”), “has the feel of a living museum of American architecture.” First settled in the late 17th century, the village “became a thriving hub for shipbuilding, brick making and ice harvesting” and, through the 18th and 19th centuries, became the home as well of exemplary “Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Stick, Second Empire, Folk Victorian and Queen Anne” houses. But it “fell on hard times” when the Rip Van Winkle bridge, opened in 1935, eliminated Athens's value as a ferryboat port. In recent years, however, its vintage homes—-more than 300 are listed on national and state historic registers-- have attracted a growing population of restoration-minded newcomers, especially “Lawyers, journalists and other professionals from New York City and North Jersey.”

ETHICALLY HANDICAPPED? In Cairo, establishment of a Board of Ethics has been authorized but not achieved. The problem is staffing. It’s difficult to find willing candidates who do not hold other governing offices (Town Board, Planning Board, Zoning Commission) and who are disinterested with regard to hot local issues (Alden Terrace, sewer systems, taxes, site plan regulations, firematics, party affiliations).

Meanwhile, the Town’s official web site, www.townofcairony.com, has gone blank. And local feelings seem to be of such a character that strictly technical explanations evoke skepticism.

PRICE WAR NEWS. Inserts in local newspapers on Wednesday (12/10) from Rite Aid and new Catskill rival Walgreens do not, in most cases, permit direct price comparisons. However, Walgreens offers 4 2-liter bottles of Pepsi for $5, and Rite Aid makes the same offer, except that use of a manufacturer’s coupon, valid through today (12/13), yields a further $1 discount. In print advertisementss four days earlier, on the other hand, Folgers coffee was $2.99 at Rite Aid, vs. 2 for $5 at Walgreens. On the other hand, Rite Aid will part with Russell Stover Chocolates at the price of 2 boxes for $8.99, vs. Walgreens’s $4.99 per box. As for over-the-counter drugs at these two putative drug stores, well, a 50-pack of Excedrin Extra Strength goes for $3.99 at Rite Aid, while Walgreens offers 100-packs at the price of 2 for $12 less a “register rewards” discount of $3. Meanwhile, both stores offer putative discounts on house brands of aspirin, acetaminophen and naproxen. The discounts are phrased in exactly the same way: “buy 1, get 1 50% off” the regular price, which in no case is specified.

RACKET? New York State’s vaunted Empire Zone program gives tax breaks of various kinds to companies that place new enterprises in selected locations, in return for promises way of job creation. According to Elizabeth Lynam of the non-partisan Citizens Budget Commission, that program is a hopeless failure. Companies take the breaks (in sales tax, property tax, credits) without providing the jobs. The program should be scrapped. See www.cbcny.org/Ending_Empire_Zones .

BUST-UP. Termination of an amorous relationship led to the rupture of a business relationship and then to the wreckage of a GreeneLand business. That’s the story that emerges from court papers submitted by Carl E. Lundell, of Tannersville, asking Acting State Supreme Court Judge Daniel Lalor to dissolve what remains of the business of NorEaster Heating & Cooling, whose headquarters is at 4431 Route 32, Catskill. Mr Lundell owns 25 per cent of NorEaster. The majority owner is Gail J. Curry of Kiskatom. They lived and worked together until late in 2007. Invoking the terms of Business Corporation Law 1104, Mr Lundell contends that after he jilted her, Ms Curry committed “illegal, fraudulent and oppressive” acts whereby NorEaster’s assets were “looted, wasted and diverted for non-corporate purposes.”

SATURDAY (12/13): Holiday Strolls (=multiple events) in Windham, from 2pm, with Santa in attendance, and in downtown Catskill (late afternoon and evening, with galleries and Santa and fireworks). Details: http://windhamchamber.organd www.welcometocatskill.com plus www.catskillgalleryassociation.com And in Hunter, the Catskill Mountain Foundation presents, at the Doctorow Center, an evening of song (Ball In the House quintet; Greene Room Players choir) and dance (Catskill Dance Theater).

SUNDAY (12/14). “Christmas Carols You Never Heard” are described and played, at the Village Square Bookstore & Literary Arts Center in Hunter, from 2pm, by Jim Planck, musician, pedaler and ink-stained wretch.

>>>Tannersville Christmas tree-lighting and menorah (!) ceremony, with music and Santa and gifts, from 5pm at the Veterans Memorial. 589-5850.

>>>”Follow That Dream,” an original musical devoted to the history of Catskill’s Mayflower Sweet Shop, performed by local children along with rock diva Lex Grey ((Gray?)), opens at 6:30pm at the Community Center and moves across the street to the original café, where the finale is followed by light refreshments served by cast members.

NIMBY NEWS. Jurors in the trial of the Democratic Party’s county chairman were dismissed after failing to reach a verdict on the charge that he attacked a woman at a campground in Greene County, Indiana.

APOLOGY. Due to the recent economic crisis--stock market crash, bank failures, budget cuts, rising unemployment, unstable world conditions, outsourcing of business to foreign lands, the hysterical cost of insurance and electricity and petroleum and housing and taxes of all kinds--the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.