Elaine Fernadez at her WiThePeople blog continues to interview folks about their reactions to economic conditions in the Hudson Valley, and currently features this interview with the Foreclosure Work Group of Occupy Poughkeepsie. The group has been canvassing in Poughkeepsie and Kingston to inform homeowners under foreclosure of their legal rights, and to help them keep their homes. Occupy Poughkeepsie and Kingston are using the Springfield and Boston, Mass., model known as Project No One Leaves to initiate similar actions in the Hudson Valley.
You are currently browsing Tom Roe’s articles.
Tags: foreclosures, Occupy Poughkepsie
Ariel Zangla in The Daily Freeman reports that Greene County took in $26.66 million in sales tax in 2011, up $1.26 million from county forecasts, according to Greene County Treasurer Peter Markou. He said the county benefited from folks repairing damage from Hurricane Irene and buying things such as lumber and new appliances, and that vehicle sales were also strong locally. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.
Tags: budgets, Hurricane Irene, Peter Markou, sales tax, taxes
Baby Atlantic sturgeon, which could grow to as much as 14 feet and 800 pounds over 60 years. From Hudson Riverkeeper Facebook page.
“Riverkeeper commends the National Marine Fisheries Service for taking this critical step to protect one of the Hudson River’s iconic species. Atlantic sturgeon are magnificent, long-lived creatures which have been an integral part of the Hudson River ecosystem for millennia, but have suffered terribly from overfishing, habitat destruction and power plant intakes, decimating their numbers.”
Tags: Atlantic sturgeon, endangered species, fish, fishing, Hudson River
Andrea Macko reports in the now-biweekly Greenville Mountain View Pioneer (no website) that Rensselaerville Town Supervisor, Democrat Marie Dermody, quit Jan. 24, citing the “political culture” in the town was making it “impossible” to get anything done. In November elections, Democrats lost control of the Town Board. Deputy Supervisor Victor La Plante also resigned. At an emergency meeting the next day, the board appointed Valerie Lounsbury deputy supervisor. The board will appoint a supervisor, and another election will be held in November to fill the seat. At that meeting, Conservative Robert Bolte ripped the yellow tape line off the floor, where Dermody made anyone speaking to the board stand at meetings.
Tags: Marie Dermody, Robert Bolte, Valerie Lounsbury, Victor La Plante
Ariel Zangla in The Daily Freeman reports that Greene County lawmakers will borrow up to $20 million to pay for repairs to the county’s infrastructure as a result of Tropical Storm Irene. At a special meeting Wed., Feb. 1, the Legislature voted to issue $20 million in bonds. The Federal Emergency Management Agency should reimburse 75 percent of costs to municipalities under a disaster declaration, and the state should cover another 12.5 percent of those costs. “We’re going to have a cash flow problem,” County Administrator Shaun Groden said. “So, this whole issue right now is just to get us through cash flow issues. As soon as FEMA makes reimbursements to us, we use that money to pay down these bonds and hopefully by year end, they go away.” Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Ryan Holdridge with his English teachers, Mrs. Erin Murphy, left, and Mrs. Donna Howell.
Tags: Cairo-Durham School District, education, Ryan Holdridge, schools
Governor Andrew Cuomo is sending his minions around the state to sell his budget plan to voters. Greene County Democrats are announcing that New York Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald will be in Cairo at 5:30 p.m. Thu., Feb. 2 in the Town Hall (on Main St.) meeting room to explain Cuomo’s 2012 budget proposal.
Tags: Andrew Cuomo, budget, Joan McDonald, state budget
Most gamblers do not send out press releases announcing their bets. Politicians around Super Bowl time are another matter. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick both announced on Tue., Jan. 31, that they are betting on the Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. They are betting quantities of specialty foods unique to their states, greek yogurt, bagels, and cheesecake from New York, clam chowder, pie and chips from Boston. Both leaders have also pledged that if their team succeeds, they will divert their illegal winnings to a local food bank. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, also sent out a press release announcing his gambling, a Super Bowl bet with New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen with local beers, including one from Troy’s Brown’s Brewing Co., in the bet. Cuomo is also considering allowing casino gambling in New York.
Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Deval Patrick, gambling
Jim Planck in The Daily Mail reports that 40 soldiers with the New York Army National Guard left from the New York State Armory in Leeds, Saturday morning for an eventual security detail in Kuwait. The men of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment left as part of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which left for training in Camp Shelby, Miss. before leaving in April for Kuwait. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail reminds readers that tolls over the Hudson River rose Mon., Jan. 30 from $1.25 to $1.50 over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge that links Catskill and Greenport. EZ Pass tolls go from $1 to $1.25 over the Mid-Hudson, Newburgh-Beacon, Kingston-Rhinecliff, Rip Van Winkle and Bear Mountain bridges. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Tags: bridge tolls, Rip Van Winkle bridge, tolls
Earlier this fall, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and many others watched a devastating “60 Minutes” story about how Congressional representatives are allowed to profit on information they might be briefed on in conjunction with their job. Gillibrand has championed reform since then, and last week during the “State of the Union” speech President Barack Obama asked Congress to send him the bill to sign. Mon., Jan. 30, that bill that Gillibrand has advocated for since, the STOCK Act, passed s procedural vote in the Senate 93 to 2, sending the bill to the Senate floor. “The American people need to know that their elected leaders play by the exact same rules that they play by. They also deserve to know their lawmakers’ only interest is what’s best for the country, not their own financial interests. Members of Congress, their families and staff shouldn’t be able to gain personal profits from information they have access to that everyday middle class families don’t,” Sen. Gillibrand said in a press release.
Tags: Congressional insider trading, Kirsten Gillibrand, STOCK Act
Cara Matthews in Politics on the Hudson reports that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will introduce legislation Monday to increase the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour next year, and tie it to inflation. Currently, New York’s minimum wage is $7.25, the same as the federal minimum wage. “New York’s minimum wage is more than $3 less than what it would be if it had kept pace with inflation in the past four decades, according to the National Employment Law Project Action Fund,” Matthews reports. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ spokesman Scott Reif said Sunday that, “Senate Republicans will continue to promote policies that encourage job growth and make New York a more business-friendly state, just as we did last year partnering with Governor Cuomo.” Read the full story in Politics on the Hudson.
Tags: Dean Skelos, minimum wage, Sheldon Silver
Margaret Roach at the “Away to Garden” blog reports on the new USDA Hardiness Map, and half of the nation’s 80 million gardeners are now a half-zone warmer in the first update since 1990. “The increase in our computing power today allows the research team to build into their algorithms things they knew were important factors in 1990, but couldn’t include,” said Catherine Woteki, Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics for the USDA, in an interview yesterday. Factors such as elevation, the slope of land, or how close to a body of water a location is, can cause sharp variation despite close adjacencies. “Taking those into account now provides a lot more detail,” Woteki said, “and people will be able to see islands of heat, and also cool ones, on the new map. As a scientist and a home gardener, I love seeing this so much more clearly.” Read the full story at Away to Garden.
Mountain conditions
All three mountains got a little snow this week. Catamount Ski in Columbia County was closed Friday because of the rain, but reopens Saturday with 16-36″ of snow. Windham Mountain has a snow base between 16″ and 48″ on 40 trails with five lifts open. Hunter Mountain‘s snowtubing is closed Friday, but back open Saturday. The mountain has up to 18″ to 72″ of snow on 45 trails with six lifts.
Tags: Catamount Ski, Hunter Mountain, snow, Windham Mountain
Ivan Lajara at The Daily Freeman thinks it is no joke that LAFTOR is the acronym for the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Their “proposals are laughable” according to Lajara’s headline in the paper, over a story about the redistricting proposals released Thu., Jan. 26. Common Cause/NY Executive Director Susan Lerner said, “These maps appear to continue the long tradition of partisan gerrymandering we’ve come to expect. There are major demographic changes that are simply not reflected on these maps.” Governor Andrew Cuomo has vowed to veto any redistricting that is not created by an independent body. This plan was created by the the legislators themselves, so, as almost everyone is pointing out, they have drawn the lines to ensure their own re-election. Republican-leaning districts, now lean more. Democrat-heavy districts are heavier. They have created a new 63rd Senate seat, pairing Greene County with Albany and other points north in Senate District 46. Lajara quotes an AP news account and says, “The story continues, ‘The added Senate district would include part of Ulster County (including the city of Kingston), all of Greene County and parts of Albany, Schenectady and Montgomery counties.’ So imagine my surprise when a total of zero public meetings were scheduled in the area.”
Local effects
• Ulster County may be in the worst situation in the entire state. The proposal cuts the county into four Senate Districts, up from two. The people of Ulster County will have almost no representation in the Senate, as those four politicians will care little about its collective well-being, and not even cater much to the few voters they will have there, focusing on their majorities elsewhere.
• Greene County would see much change. Republican James Seward would, under the plan, not be Greene County’s senator anymore, but would retain a very safe seat to the west. The new seat includes all of Greene and Montgomery counties, and most of Albany and Schenectady counties, and several towns in Ulster County to the south. In the Assembly Greene is being split into two separate districts. Assemblyman Pete Lopez would continue to represent Ashland, Windham, Durham, Greenville, New Baltimore, Coxsackie, and Cairo in the proposed 102 District which now also includes Coeymans, Westerlo, and Rensselaerville in Albany County, all of Schoharie County, and towns in Otsego, Herkimer, and Oneida counties in what will continue to be a very safe district for him. The southern half of Greene County — Athens, Catskill, Hunter, Jewett, Lexington, Halcott, and Prattsville — would be in the proposed 101st Assembly District, which also includes much of eastern Delaware County, four Ulster County towns, and two Orange County towns, and Germantown and Clermont in Columbia County. 
• In Columbia County, the Senate District used to be dominated by Dutchess County, as Poughkeepsie Steve Saland currently represents the area in Albany. In this proposal, Columbia County moves to Senate District 43, paired with all of Rensselaer County and parts of Washington and Saratoga counties to the north. In the Assembly, most of Columbia County is represented by the 106th District including Stuyvesant, Stockport, Hudson, Greenport, Ghent, Claverack, Livingston, Taghkanic, Copake, Ancram, and Gallatin. Millbrook in Dutchess County, interestingly, is no longer in the district, and the candidates (Republican Richard Wager and Democrat Didi Barrett) trying to replace Marc Molinaro for the 103rd Assembly, which is similar to the proposed 106th, live in Millbrook. So while they may fight for the seat in March, they may be in 105th District election in the fall. As mentioned before, Germantown and Clermont join the proposed 101st District, stretching across southern Greene County to parts of Delaware, and Ulster and Orange counties. The rest of Columbia County — Kinderhook, Chatham, Hillsdale, Austerlitz, Canaan, and New Lebanon — join most of Rensselaer County and two Washington County towns in the proposed 107th district, which is similar to the area Republican Steve McLaughlin represents, though without any of the Greene County towns it used to include. 
Public hearings
No public hearings between Albany and New York City. The closest public hearing to our area is this Mon., Jan. 30 at 10:30 a.m. in the Legislative Office Building, Second Floor in the Hearing Room. (See the complete list of all public hearings after the link below.)
Tags: Didi Barrett, elections, James Seward, LAFTOR, Marc Molinaro, New York State legislators, Pete Lopez, redistricting, Richard Wager, Steve Saland
The 2nd Annual New York Shout OUT! youth media festival took place on April 30, 2011 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. Over 40 young media makers from across New York State came together, including WGXC youth producers from the “Radio Explosion” show (Weds., 3:30 p.m.) and the Catskill Community Center. New York Shout OUT! was a day filled with hands-on media workshops and an evening youth film festival featuring the best short films produced by youth from all over the state. Please click on this link to see the “Message In A Minute” short videos produced during New York Shout OUT!: tinyurl.com/3lh3yfq WGXC’s youth producers will be participating at this year’s NY Shout Out, in April. If you would like to participate with WGXC in this youth media festival, contact sara@wgxc.org
“Main St. market encore favored” is the unfortunate headline on Doron Tyler Antrim’s story in The Daily Mail about how Catskill officials, for the third year in a row, are going to spend a lot of time talking about where the Farmer’s Market should be located. Antrim quotes only one official, Trustee Brian Kehoe, saying he wants the market to move back to Main St., where it was in 2010. He also quotes Trustee Jim Chewens, who says the businesses in Catskill do not want it there. He also quotes Village President Vincent Seeley, who says it did not work well at its 2011 location, a parking lot adjacent to Church Street. The long public argument over the location may be cut short early this year, as the Catskill Region Farmers Association meets Thursday to discuss the market’s future. They may not want to come back to a town that moves the market to a different location each year. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Tags: Brian Kehoe, Catskill Farmers' Market, Jim Chewens, Vincent Seeley
Jimmy Vielkind in Capitol Confidential reports that Rep. Chris Gibson (R-Kinderhook) raised $245,395 in the last fundraising quarter, and now has $702,022.21 cash on hand to fight off opponents, according to the latest Federal Elections Commission filing. Senior employees of Elliott Associates and Elliott Management, a hedge fund founded by Paul Singer, the chairman of the board of the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank, gave the most. The Congressman, who represents both Greene and Columbia counties, also received $4,000 from the PAC controlled by Goldman Sachs investment firm. Vielkind then relates an old Gibson campaign press releases from his 2010 campaign, when he complained that then-Congressman Scott Murphy accepted money from “Wall Street special interest donors” including Goldman. Gibson’s spokeswoman Stephanie Valle focused on the other half of Gibson’s war chest. “We’re fortunate to receive over half of our contributions from individuals, who include seniors, small business owners, farmers and many others from all walks of life,” she told Vielkind. So far, only Dutchess County legislator, Democrat Joel Tyner, has announced an interest in taking on Gibson in the fall. Read the entire story in Capitol Confidential.
Tags: campaign donations, Chris Gibson, Goldman Sachs, Joel Tyner, Paul SInger
Prattsville is indeed rebuilding, after the devastating floods associated with Hurricane Irene last August. This March 3 the town is bringing in government, non-profit organizations, green building groups, mortgage lenders, historic preservationists, architects, real estate agencies, housing specialists, landscapers, and contractors in building, painting, electrical, plumbing, and masonry for a “Housing Expo & Home Improvement Show.” A Housing Resource Center will open early to mid-spring to provide ongoing assistance to local homeowners. Annie Hull, the Committee Chairperson says, “the Expo will be a tremendous benefit for homeowners at all phases of rebuilding,” as, “homeowners will benefit by being able to meet and discuss projects with many vendors at one time.” The Housing Expo & Home Improvement Show will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 3. For more information, contact Annie Hull, Prattsville Housing Committee Chair at 518-299-3278 or email her at dadmhull@aol.com.
Ariel Zangla in The Daily Freeman reports that Greene County is paying an Leisure Business Advisors of Richmond, Va. something less than $10,000 of taxpayer money to audit financial prospects for the proposed Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park in New Baltimore. County Administrator Shaun Groden told Zangla that he should have a report Feb. 3 on the prospects for $115-million 400-room hotel and 80,000-square-foot indoor water park, restaurant and lounge, large conference center, arcade, and gift shop. The Greene County Industrial Development Agency wants to borrow up to $15.6 million to pay for infrastructure improvements for the Kalkberg Commerce Park in New Baltimore, where the water park would be one of many businesses. That loan would be repaid through a fee on room rentals and sales tax at the hotel. The owners of Zoom Flume, the outdoor water park in Durham, are among the projects critics. Read the entire story in The Daily Freeman.
Barbara J. Robinson of Red Apple Realty in Claverack.
Tags: Barbara Robinson, Columbia-Greene Board of Realtors, Ted Banta
Jimmy Vielkind in the Albany Times-Union reports that State Senate Republicans have a cash advantage of nearly five to one as they try to hold their slight majority later this year. The Senate Republican Campaign Committee has $4,914,003.82, compared with $305,556.71 for the Democrats. The New York Public Research Interest Group combined those central campaign committees with the accounts of individual candidates, subtracted debt, and pegged the GOP edge at $15,041,583.91 to $3,226,155.62. Read the full story in the Albany Times-Union.
Tags: campaign cash, elections, New York Public Research Interest Group
The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association hopes Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to end the Combined Ballistic Identification System (CoBIS) passes the state legislature. The program inventories spent shell casings at an estimated cost of nearly $44 million since March, 2001, and the gun lobby, NYSRPA, says no crimes have been solved because of the information collected. Dick Nelson, in the Register-Star, reports, “records show that it only documented 1,150 matches of ballistic evidence between multiple crime scenes out of nearly 168,000 bullets and casings which were entered nationwide.” The state legislature is currently considering A-1131/S-459 bills.
Tags: Combined Ballistic Identification System, guns, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association
There’s another major rally against high-impact hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Albany Mon., Jan. 23 at 11 a.m. at The Well at the Legislative Office Building. Actress Debra Winger is the celebrity du jour, and Josh Fox, the director of the Oscar-nominated “Gasland” film about the subject, will be there too, as will as all sorts of regional and national organizartons such as Catskill Mountainkeeper, Riverkeeper, New York Public Interest Research Group, the Sierra Club, and others.
Kenneth C. Crowe II reports in The Albany Times-Union that, faced with a federal lawsuit later this week with the New York Civil Liberties Union, the city of Troy settled with The Sanctuary for Independent Media in their lawsuit accusing the city of shutting them down for code violations for free speech reasons. Then Troy Public Works Commissioner Robert Mirch, now a Rensselear County Legislator, got upset about the political content of an art show and led pickets outside the media center March 10, 2008. The next day, as Public Works Commisssioner, he closed the center for a few code violations. The Sanctuary for Independent Media had agreed to host an art installation by Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal, after Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute cancelled the show there due to complaints. While Mirch delayed the show temporarily, now his actions are causing the city to establish a fund for programming there involving the city and the media group. “We’re looking forward to moving forward in a positive way with the (city’s) new administration,” said Steve Pierce, executive director of the Sanctuary for Independent Media. Read the full story in The Albany Times-Union.
Tags: Robert Mirch, Steve Pearce, The Sanctuary for Indendent Media, Wafaa Bilal
The Mid-Hudson News Network reports in The Daily Freeman that employment rose 1.4 percent in Columbia County in 2011, and fell 3.9 percent in Greene County. Ulster County gained 2.6 percent in employment last year. Statewide employment grew 1.3 percent, with 90,100 new jobs. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.
The New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in overtime Sun., Jan. 22. The play the New England Patriots in two weeks in Indianapolis. In 2007, the two teams played in the Super Bowl, and the Giants defeated the the Patriots to win the title that year.
Tags: New York Giants
The National Weather Service issued a Freezing Rain Advisory for all counties in the WGXC listening area from midnight until noon Mon., Jan. 23. Temperatures in the upper 20s overnight will turn to the mid-30s in the morning, and roads could be icy or very slick. Watch for possible opening delays Monday morning.
Tags: Freezing Rain Advisory, weather
Newt Gingrich handily won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina Sat., Jan. 21. Mitt Romney finished second, Ron Santorum third, Ron Paul fourth, Herman Cain (who dropped out, but who let comedian Stephen Colbert run under his name) fifth, and Rick Perry, who dropped out earlier in the week, sixth. In the only vote that matters, the delegate count it is now a tie according to The New York Times, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich both with 19 delegates; Rick Santorum has twelve; Ron Paul, 3; and since-out Jon Huntsman has two. CNN has a different delegate count: Romney 31; Gingrich, 26 Paul, 10; Santorum, 8. They both agree it takes 1144 to win, and many of those come from party insiders, sitting politicians, and others, and not just primary and caucuses results. South Carolina was winner-take-all, but most states this year split delegates proportionally. New York voters go to the polls April 24.
Tags: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for all areas south of Greene and Columbia counties. Delaware, Ulster, Dutchess, and points south may get hit with up to eight inches of snow tonight, while the forecast for Greene and Columbia counties is just an inch or two.
Tags: snow, Winter Weather Advisory
The Daily Mail reports that the Catskill Village Police Department implement their snow emergency plan Friday, January 20, at 8 p.m. “All vehicles should be parked on the odd side of Village streets from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., vehicles should then be parked on the even side of the street from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vehicles should continue to switch sides of the street every 12 hours, until the snow emergency has been canceled. Parking enforcement will remain in effect for a period of 72 hours for clean up purposes.” The statement says there will be no parking on Main Street from Green Street to Summit Avenue beginning at 7 p.m. on January 20. Read the full announcement in The Daily Mail.
Tags: snow, snow emergency, weather
Listen to Jack Ross-Pilkington with an audio ski report here. PLAY CLIP
Meanwhile, Chris Valdez in the Windham Journal reports that at Windham Mountain this weekend, the Adaptive Sports Foundation holds its eighth annual Learn to Ski and Ride Festival for the veterans of the Wounded Warriors Project. The free festival, formerly known as Support the Troops, is a three-day event introducing disabled veterans to skiing, snowboarding, tubing and ice skating on the slope side of Windham Mountain. “It’s one more step for our vets to transition back into civilian life,” volunteer ski instructor and media coordinator Karen Feldman said. “It gives them confidence to try other things, expand their comfort zone and understand their abilities. When they see that they can do this, it empowers them to try other things.” Read the full story in the Windham Journal.
Mountain conditions
All three mountains got a few inches of snow this week. Catamount Ski in Columbia County reports 25 of 33 trails are open, with four of six lifts running, and 16-32″ of snow. Windham Mountain has a snow base between 16″ and 44″ on 41 trails with six lifts open. Hunter Mountain has up to 12″ to 50″ of snow on 41 trails with six lifts.
Tags: Catamount Ski, Hunter Mountain, skiing, snow, Windham Mountain
A staff report in The Daily Mail says a third bullet was found at a local school in recent weeks on Thursday, this one at the Cairo-Durham Middle and High School. Superintendent Sally Sharkey told the newspaper there is information leading officials to believe it is a copycat of the incidents at both Catskill and Coxsackie-Athens Central School. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Tags: Cairo-Durham High School, Catskill High School, Coxsackie-Athens High School, schools
Hilary Hawke in the Ravena News-Herald reports that in Coeymans in Albany County, “a group of local business owners had asked for reconsideration of several issues, among them rezoning parts of [Route] 144 to industrial use.” Hawke does not say what the possible industrial use might be, but does report that Town Supervisor Steve Flach is going to ask attorneys and the planning board how to proceed. Flach is also asking business owners in Coeymans to contact his office about any laws that find unfair. Flach hopes to hold a public hearing on any proposed changes in local laws in February. Read the entire story in the Ravena News-Herald.
Tags: rezoning, Steve Flach
Patricia Doxsey in The Daily Freeman reports that U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat who represents an area just south of Greene County, will not seek re-election this fall. Hinchey, 73, was elected to a 10th two-year term in November 2010. Hours after his announcement, his wife, Allison Lee Hinchey, was charged with drunken driving for the second time in eight months in Albany. That story is also in The Daily Freeman.
W. T. Eckert in The Daily Mail reports that 41-year-old Brian Mattice of Gilboa, a Hunter Mountain Ski Resort staff member, died Wednesday, falling 200 feet from a ski trail. Working with snow-making equipment in the morning, Mattice slipped on ice, slid down an embankment near the Milky Way ski trail, state police said. striking a tree and rock. “Mattice was wearing a helmet and ‘crampon’ style foot gear attached to his boots,” Eckert wrote. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Tags: Brian Mattice, Hunter Mountain
Kinderhook Republican Supervisor Pat Grattan recently announced he wants to televise local Kinderhook town board meetings, and now that he is also the chairman of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, he wants those meetings on local cable access channels too. During a pre-recorded interview that airs Wed., Jan. 18 at 10 a.m. on “@Issue” with host Victor Mendolia, Grattan said he hoped to make the meetings more transparent for both the public and the supervisors. Click here to listen to an mp3 audio excerpt of the interview with Pat Grattan on “@Issue.” PLAY CLIP
Tags: local audio, local video, Pat Grattan, town meetings
On The Air
WGXC is on 90.7-FM now, at full-power, 3300 watts. We cover all parts of Greene County except parts of the mountaintop, and all of Columbia County except for a bit of Western Columbia County south of Germantown. WGXC also covers a large part of southern Albany County. We have heard reports that the signal is getting from Delaware County to Great Barrington, from Selkirk to Saugerties, from Pine Plains to the I-90 extension.
Local weather/webcams
National Weather Service, Albany
Hawthorne Valley Farm Weather Page
When the computer is turned on, the Hawthorne Valley Farm Weather Page reports weather information in Harlemville. Check dates and times to see whether reports are live or from when the computer was turned off.
Greene County webcams:
Catskill webcam: Thomas Cole House Claude Mirror
Nearby webcams:
Recent Comments