The Register Star reports that unemployment rates in Columbia County rose slightly at the end of last year. The New York State Department of Labor figures released on Tue., Jan. 24, reported that unemployment rose to 7.2 percent in December, up from 6.9 in November. The numbers in Greene County also rose slightly, with the unemployment rate up from 8.4 percent to 8.8 percent and total number of unemployed from 1,900 to 2,100 from November to December. Read the article in the Register-Star.
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Tags: jobs, NYSDOL, unemployment rates
Doron Tyler Antrim in The Daily Mail reports that New York Spring Water, a bottled water company in Halcott, is getting a $264,000 loan and grant package for new machinery and equipment and will add a third shift, according to the Greene County Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Planning. The expansion creates 23 new jobs in manufacturing, shipping, and sales for the largest manufacturer within the Catskill Park in Greene County. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Tags: jobs, New York Spring Water
Hudson Studio Manager
WGXC 90.7-FM
Term: Full-time, 1-year contract (with opportunity for long-term renewal)
Salary: 1,650/monthly (19,800 annually) + benefits
Website: http://www.wgxc.org
WGXC 90.7-FM: Hands-on Radio is a creative community radio station serving Greene and Columbia counties in New York’s Hudson Valley. WGXC launched its FM signal February 2011, and transmits 3,300 watts to 78,000 potential listeners in the two counties, and southern Albany County. WGXC is a creative community media project, re-envisioning radio as an innovative platform for local participation with special exhibitions and events, media training for our community’s youth and adults, a news blog, and a community calendar of events. WGXC operates out of studios in Hudson, Catskill, and Acra, and is a program of the nonprofit arts organization free103point9, whose mission is to define and cultivate Transmission Arts: creative and experimental use of airwaves.
In addition to managing WGXC’s most active studio location, the Hudson Studio Manager is a leadership position that will play a major role in the day-to-day operations of the station-at-large. The Hudson Studio Manager works closely with a small passionate staff. The position will include the following responsibilities:
Operations
· Oversee the day-to-day operations at WGXC’s Hudson Studio
· Manage WGXC communication and contacts
· Work with Council Coordinator to prepare council agendas
· Manage FCC filings, compliance, and Public File
· Manage WGXC reporting calendar, and budget working with staff to ensure compliance
· Ensure station policies are followed; manage proposed revisions to the policy handbook
· Coordinate weekly staff meeting
Fundraising
· Coordinate two annual pledge drives, with staff participation and support
· Assist Executive Director with development work
· Manage station memberships and merch sales
Volunteers
· Organize monthly volunteer meetings & orientations
· Maintain current volunteer information
· Connect volunteers with appropriate committees and events
· Track required programmer volunteer hours
Programming
· Assist programmers who visit the Hudson studio and need support
· Serve as emergency Day Contact on specified days
Qualified candidates will have experience in community media. Training in radio, non-profit organizational management, strong writing skills, and enthusiasm for experimental media art is desirable. Candidates must be highly organized, energetic, passionate about community and creative radio, and able to work well with a diverse range of personalities and perspectives.
Please submit a cover letter, resume, and references to info@wgxc.org.
Please reference the position title in the subject line.
Resumes will be accepted until December 23, 2011.
Only qualified candidates will be contacted. No calls please.
free103point9, WGXC’s parent organization, is an equal-opportunity employer.
*****
Employment Availalble:Archivist
Pacifica Foundation, North Hollywood, CA
The Pacifica Radio Archives is looking to hire a regular full time Archivist who will oversee the preservation and cataloging activities of a collection of 55, 000 reel-to-reel tapes.
Responsibilities include cataloging current archival holdings. Performing in-house preservation tasks including, but not limited to re-boxing and re-spooling tapes, preservation transfers, and creating derivatives from master tapes.
Required: ALA-accredited M.L.I.S. degree or a related M.A. with a specialization in audiovisual preservation with at least two years archival experience.
Preferred: Experience handling a variety of audio formats, especially ¼” reel-to-reel analog audio tape, in an archival context, experience with cataloging, including file-naming conventions; demonstrated grant writing experience; familiarity with the PBCore metadata standard; experience with word-processing and database systems (Word, Excel, etc.); Demonstrated interpersonal skills and the ability to work both as part of a small team and independently.
Please send resume to pacarchive@aol.com fax to 818-506-1084.
Brian DeShazor
Archives Director
Pacifica Radio Archives
3729 Cahuenga Blvd. West
North Hollywood CA 91604
800 735 0230 ext. 263
A new AFL-CIO report claims that 126,000 New Yorkers will lose unemployment benefits on December 31 unless Congress extends unemployment insurance again. Unions across the country are holding protests on Thursday, December 8 to get Congress to extend the unemployment benefits, including New York actions in Cortland, Goshen, Syracuse, and Utica. New York’s unemployment rate for young people 20 to 24 years old is 13.8 percent, the report points out, and 14.5 percent for African Americans and 11.8 percent for Latinos.
Tags: employment, jobs, unemployment
The Daily Freeman reports that the unemployment rates for counties in the WGXC listening area all ticked up slightly from August to September. Greene County unemployment went from 7.8 to 8.3 percent, and Columbia County went from 6.8 to 7 percent unemployed. Ulster County rose from 7.7 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September, Dutchess County increased from 7.1 to 7.2 percent, and in Delaware County the jobless rate went to 8.1, up from 7.5 percent. Hurricane Irene hit the area in the last week of August. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.
Tags: Hurricane Irene, jobs, unemployment
Photo by Tom Roe.
Tags: Columbia-Greene Community College, economy, Flanders, jobs, Kaz
Adam Sichko in the Albany Business Review reports New York state regulators have cleared Lafarge North America Inc. to modernize its aging cement plant in Ravena. Permits have been issued after months of review, draft reports and public comment periods, all conducted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC announced the permits on Thursday. Lafarge says up to 800 workers wil be involved in the construction there, costing a few hundred million dollars. John Reagan, environmental manager for the Ravena plant, told the Business Review he expects Lafarge to break ground this fall. Lafarge calculates the construction project will generate $170 million in wages for construction workers, purchases from local supplies, and other spending. “Environmental watchdog groups and other interest groups have criticized Lafarge’s pollution in the past. Federal data show Lafarge had the fifth-largest mercury emissions of any site in New York in 2009, in any industry,” Sichko writes. and then quotes New York DEC commissioner Joseph Martens saying, “Lafarge has demonstrated its commitment to some of the most rigorous environmental standards in the country. In addition, this new facility will ensure a continued local supply of a critical building material.” Read the full story in the Business Review.
Tags: business, DEC, environment, jobs, Joseph Martens, Lafarge
The New York State Department of Labor released unemployment figures for April on Tue. May 24 that show joblessness fell in both Greene and Columbia counties, as well as Ulster, Dutchess, and the Capitol Region. In Greene County, the unemployment rated was 8.6 percent, down from 8.8 percent last month and a year ago. In Columbia County, the rate was 7.3 percent, down from 7.9 percent in March and down from 7.5 percent a year ago. In Ulster the rate was 7.7 percent, and Dutchess it was 7.3 percent, down from 8.1 and 7.7 a month ago, respectively. The Capitol Region (Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schoharie counties) fell to 6.8 percent, the lowest in two years, and down from 7.2 percent last month, and 7.1 percent last year. Looking closely at the numbers, there were fewer employed as well as fewer unemployed in Greene County in April. Now, only 20,900 roughly are employed, where in March there were 21,600 jobs, and a year ago 21,400. In Columbia County the number of employed rose slightly to 27,500 from 27,300 in March, but down from 28,500 jobs a year ago.
Tags: jobs, unemployment
Here’s some good news from the January 30 Sunday Times Union, sort of. Seems that New York now ranks number seven in the nation for the most jobs created within the past year, according to data released by Business First. But then the real numbers sink in, along with the hard lessons of raw data. Texas is at the top of the list with a whopping 230,800 jobs created last year, followed by California with 87,500 and Pennsylvania with 65,600 jobs, then Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida and New York with 37,000, just ahead of Virginia, Washington and Arizona. The top ten worst states for job growth were New Jersey, which lost 30,700 in 2009, Nevada which lost 16,600, and Missouri, which lost 15,800, followed by Michigan, Georgia, New Mexico and Rhode Island also in negative numbers.
In the meanwhile, WGXC is still looking for volunteers.
Tags: business, job creation, jobs
Mid-Hudson News reports that private sector employment in the Hudson Valley increased 2,700, or 0.4 percent, to 723,000 for the 12-month period ending on Dec. 31 2010, according to the state Labor Department. “Hudson Valley employment gains last year were greatest in leisure and hospitality (up 1,700 jobs), educational and health services (up 1,500) and professional and business services (up 1,400). Job losses were concentrated in trade, transportation and utilities ( down 1,200), manufacturing (down 600) and natural resources, mining and construction ( down 500),” the article said. The Labor Department defines the Hudson Valley as Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties. Greene County’s jobless rate ticked up in December from 8.4 percent to 8.5, and Columbia rose from 7.1 to 7.3.
Tags: jobs, unemployment figures
Doron Tyler Antrim of The Daily Mail reported earlier this week that
Cement producer Holcim, formerly known as St. Lawrence Cement, is “temporarily” cutting 70 hourly positions at its Catskill plant effective until January, according to a Tuesday, Nov. 16 announcement from Plant Manager Deon van den Berg. The layoffs will affect 65 workers — nearly two-thirds of the Catskill plant’s current workforce — and five others on short-term disability or workers compensation. The recent layoffs were the second such action taken by Holcim in as many years. In May 2009, 35 workers were temporarily laid off. Two months earlier 26 positions were eliminated.
“The reason for this temporary layoff include slow market conditions, the normal seasonal slowdown in construction and escalating costs,” van den Berg said in an e-mail to members of the Holcim Community Advisory Committee, a regular gathering of local leaders and plant officials. Dennis Smith, an equipment operator and chairman of the local International Brotherhood of Boilermakers union, said in an e-mail that the layoffs are effective until Jan. 3, “but could be longer.” Earlier this year, Smith said layoffs and combining of responsibilities have contributed to worsened safety at the facility — a charge that plant management has denied.
An analysis of federal records compiled by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, however, show the Catskill plant has been hit with more than 300 safety violations since Holcim took over in 2008 — 97 of which were deemed serious enough to cause injury or illness. Fines levied with the violations totaled more than $493,000.
Read the rest of this entry »
Unemployment rates were little changed from September to October in Mid-Hudson Valley counties, according to state Labor Department data released on Thursday. The jobless rate in Greene County was 7.7 percent last month, up from 7.5 percent in September but better than the 7.9 percent rate of October 2009. In Columbia County, joblessness stood at 6.8 percent in October, compared to 6.7 percent in September and 7.2 percent in October 2009.
Unemployment rates in other local counties in October were:
• Ulster County: 7.4 percent last month, unchanged from September and down from 7.6 percent in October 2009.
• Dutchess County: 7.3 percent in October, the same rate as in September and a slight improvement from the 7.8 percent rate of October 2009.
• Delaware: 7.7 percent, compared to 7.6 in September and 8.1 in October 2009.
• Orange: 7.6, compared to 7.7 and 7.7.
• Sullivan: 8.5, compared to 8.2 and 8.5.
The Daily Freeman is reporting this afternoon that New York’s unemployment rate in August was 8.2 percent, down from 8.4 percent in July, according to state Labor Department statistics released Thursday. In Greene County it was 7.5 percent, down from 7.7 and in Columbia County it dropped to 6.8, from 7.1 percent. Read the entire story in The Daily Freeman.
Capitol Confidential and the New York Civil Liberties Union just tweeted that the Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act was defeated tonight 31-28 in the New York State Senate. Capitol Confidential quotes, in a tweet, New York State Senator Steve Saland, who represents Columbia County, on farm workers bill: “Why would you want to dance on the grave of upstate New York?” Both local senators, Saland and James Seward voted against the bill. and local Assemblymen Tim Gordon, Pete Lopez, and Marc Molinaro all oppose the bill. The NYCLU was quick with this statement: “Today’s Senate vote is painfully disappointing given our state’s proud tradition of supporting justice and equal rights,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “The Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act is basic civil rights legislation. Farm workers are New York’s least protected laborers. Our farm workers deserve the same labor rights that workers across New York have enjoyed for 100 years.” The bill would have mandated minimum salaries and maximum hours, and benefits for farm workers.
Tags: agriculture, James Seward, jobs, Steve Saland, Tim Gordon
The Daily Mail has a story without a byline (although contact info for reporter Susan Campriello is listed at the end of the article) about how the Greene County Legislature voted last week to oppose the Farm Worker Fair Labor Act. The bill before the New York Senate would mandate farmers allow laborers at least 24 consecutive hours off, a 10-hour work day, overtime pay at 1.5 times the normal rate and provisions of unemployment insurance. The article never says what the legislatures vote was, or who voted for or against the for-show resolution. The article does say, “Greene County’s state representatives Sen. James L. Seward, R,C,I-Oneonta, Assemblyman Tim Gordon, I-Bethlehem, and Assemblyman Pete Lopez, R,C,I-Schoharie, have all voted against earlier versions of the legislation.” The article quotes a spokesman for farmers, but does not quote a similar representative for farm workers. Read the entire story in The Daily Mail.
Tags: agriculture, James Seward, jobs, Pete Lopez, Tim Gordon
From Dick May’s Seeing Greene blog:”…in GreeneLand, as usual, the job situation is worse than other nearby counties. Percentages of unemployed persons in relation to total membership of the “work force,” in April of this year as compared with the previous month and with the same month last year:
| 4/10 | 3/10 | 4/09 | |
| USA | 9.9 | 9.7 | 8.9 |
| New York State | 8.4 | 7.7 | 8.0 |
| Upstate NYS | 7.5 | 7.6 | 7.6 |
| Dutchess County | 7.2 | 7.7 | 6.8 |
| Ulster | 7.2 | 7.9 | 7.0 |
| Albany | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.2 |
| Rensselaer | 7.0 | 7.9 | 7.0 |
| Columbia | 6.9 | 7.8 | 6.9 |
| GREENE | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.5 |
Tags: business, jobs, Seeing Greene
On Tuesday the State Senate’s Agriculture Committee voted down the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act. Among features of the bill, farmers would have had to pay over time to laborers who work more than 60 hours a week or 10 hours in a day and farm workers would gain the right to form a union if they work at the state’s largest farms. Some farmers protested that the mandates in the bill would be costly. Six of the committee’s nine senators — Darrel J. Aubertine, Michael H. Ranzenhofer, James L. Seward (who represents Greene County), David J. Valesky, George H. Winner Jr. and Catharine M. Young — voted against the bill. On Seward’s website he says, “Defeating the so-called, farm worker labor bill is a clear victory for our upstate farmers, farm workers and the agriculture industry,” said Senator Seward. “The bill, supported mainly by New York City politicians, would have forced farms to close, while driving up costs for the few survivors.” The bill would have granted collective bargaining rights to farm laborers; required employers of farm laborers to allow at least 24 consecutive hours of rest each week; provided for an 8 hour work day for farm laborers; required overtime rate at one and one-half times normal rate; made provisions of unemployment insurance law applicable to farm laborers; provided a sanitary code that would have applied to all farm and food processing labor camps intended to house migrant workers, regardless of the number of occupants; provided for eligibility of farm laborers for workers’ compensation benefits; required employers of farm laborers to provide such farm laborers with claim forms for workers’ compensation claims under certain conditions; required reporting of injuries to employers of farmworkers.
Tags: agriculture, James Seward, jobs
From Chris Churchill in the Times-Union:
GlaxoSmithKline announced this evening that it would shift its toothpaste manufacturing from New Jersey to Greene County preventing the shutdown of its plant in Oak Hill. The British pharmaceutical giant had planned to shutter the Oak Hill plant by 2012, following its $3.6 billion acquisition last year of Stiefel Laboratories, which made skin products there. Glaxo will still shift skin-product manufacturing to a plant in Canada, as originally planned. But it will invest $56 million to remake the Oak Hill factory to manufacture Aquafresh, the company and Greene County officials said. The move will not save every Glaxo job in Greene County. After the transition, the Oak Hill plant will employ about 200 workers, down from the more than 260 who work there now. And some of the jobs will be taken by workers transferring from the plant in Clifton, N.J., which will close in 2012. “It’s going to be a mix and match of current employees and new employees,” said Alexander “Sandy” Mathes, the executive director of the Greene County Industrial Development Agency, which worked to save the plant. Glaxo’s decision to close the plant stunned Greene County officials, who have depended on the factory as a stable source of employment in the mostly rural area. Officials described Thursdays announcement as a victory resulting from a long effort by several local and state agencies including Empire State Development, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal and others to keep the factory open. In part, they did that by targeting the factory for nearly $7 million in grants designed to boost energy efficiency and modernize the plant. Also, the Greene County IDA will freeze property taxes at the site and exempt Glaxo from some sales taxes. The Oak Hill plant consists of 250,000 square feet of manufacturing and laboratory space along Route 145.
Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.
Tags: jobs
Brown replaces Scheer as deputy on county board
From Parry Teasdale in The Columbia Paper
HUDSON — Chairman of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors Art Baer (R-Hillsdale) shuffled the leadership of the board, with Germantown Supervisor Roy Brown (R) replacing Gallatin Supervisor Lynda Scheer, as a deputy chairman of the board. Baer’s announcement of the move Friday said that Ms. Scheer resigned from the post “for personal reasons.” Brown stood with Baer on his controversial plan to buy the Ockawamick School building on Route 217 in Claverack and, initially, move much of the Department of Social Services there from Hudson. The change takes effect September 1.
Copake board finds ways to agree except on the deficit
From Diana Valden in The Columbia Paper
COPAKE – This is the sort of amazing story about local town meetings that is almost never written ’round these parts. Instead of deciding one of the night’s actions constituted a story and the rest did not, Valden bullet points 10 items that the usually contentious-across-party-lines town board agreed on last week. Then she writes how Councilman Bob Sacks, who has advocated cutting the town’s police force to cover the recently discovered large deficit, reported he was told by the Sheriff’s Office that patrols from that office cover Copake and all of Columbia County 24/7. Sacks also quoted the supervisors of other towns saying they could not afford their own police force and had no need for one because of coverage by the Sheriff’s Office and State Police. Copake Town Police Commissioner Jeff Nayer, then shouted, “Other towns don’t set what we do!” Mr. Nayer said that the Police Department had offered to cut 17 percent of its budget to help the town deal with the deficit, while other departments offered nothing.
New parties make ballot for November
From Jim Planck in The Daily Mail
Have A Voice candidates Karen Deyo, Keith Valentine, Linda Overbaugh, and Joseph Izzo will appear on the November ballot, as will Grassroots of Durham candidate Les Armstrong. The Have a Voice folks are Republicans, joining fellow GOPer Overbaugh in this bid to stay on the ballot for the four Catskill Greene County Legislature seats, after errors in her previous petitions kept her off the Republican line. Likewise with Armstrong, a Republican attempting to primary against Elsie Allan but now facing Allan and Democrat Sean Frey for the Durham seat on the legislature. Overbaugh and Armstrong’s third-party bids went unchallenged by opponents.
State parks in Columbia County fare better than most
From Mike McCagg in ccScoop
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation shows attendance at parks in the Taconic Region of the state park system, which includes Columbia County, is down 3.7 percent in the period from July 2008 through July 2009. Across New York, park attendance is down 4.5 percent, to 27.2 million visitors. Attendance dropped at the Clermont State Historic Site 18.5 percent to 43,456 visitors, at the Clermont State Historic Site 4.1 percent to 61,896 visitors, at the Olana State Historic Site 14.1 to 61,896 visitors, and at Lake Taghkanic State Park, 5.2 percent, to 95,862. At Taconic State Park in Copake attendance was up 12.9 percent to 13,313, and in Copake Falls attendance rose 5 percent to 73,066 visitors.
Farmland Protection on the way
From Francesca Olsen in The Register-Star
Last Tuesday the Planning and Economic Development Committee passed a resolution to apply for state grant funding for developing a Farmland Protection Plan, with matching funds to be provided by the Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), as Columbia County is one of the few in the state without such a plan. The Columbia County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board submitted drafts of a plan to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, but was not approved.
Mario’s moves forward with new warehouse
From Paul Crossman in The Register-Star
VALATIE — Mario’s True Value Home Center is planning a new 20,000-square-foot lumber supply warehouse, and hopes to have closed on the new location by sometime in early September, with winter construction.
Tags: Bob Sacks, Col. Cty. DSS, jobs, Joseph Izzo, Karen Deyo, Keith Valentine, Lake Taghkanic State Park, Linda Overbaugh, Sean Frey
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:
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