Our Town, the quarterly co-published and edited in Claverack by Enid Futterman and John Isaacs, is finally online. The magazine covers Columbia County, and sometimes mentions Greene and Dutchess counties, and the Berkshires.
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Village orders ash tree removal to avoid scourge
Doron Tyler Antrim in The Daily Mail reports that the village of Catskill will cut down three ash trees on Greene Street because of an infestation by the emerald ash borer, the destructive beetle killing New York’s ash trees.
Village Department of Public Works Superintendent Lewis O’Connor said (at the village meeting Monday, presumably) removing the trees is cheaper than inoculating them with a pesticide every in two years. Elizabeth D’Auria of the Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership (CRISP) reported the group’s preliminary April 18 inventory of ash trees this spring:
• Two of the 27 trees found showed a potential sign of EAB damage or general stress.
• Seventeen trees were located near an electrical wire.
• Twenty trees were deemed to be generally or very healthy.
Read the full story in The Daily Mail.
Daily Freeman’s parent company sold to investment firm
Lissa Harris in the Watershed Post reports parent company of the Kingston Daily Freeman, The Journal-Register Company, was sold to investment firm Alden Global Capital. Harris quotes CEO John Paxton, who writes, “Alden has been an investor in our Company for some time and they have had a courtside seat to the Journal Register Company’s radical makeover following our Digital First strategy. They know what we do, they like what we do, and today they are putting their money behind our efforts.” She also quotes The Wall Street Journal, which has a different view. “Newspaper acquisitions are a species rarer than the Yangtze River dolphin. But today, for one of the few times since 2007, a newspaper company was bought. For money. Really….We’re still scouring our databases, but it appears the only post-2007 acquisition of a significant newspaper company was the purchase of a duo of Philadelphia dailies in a 2010 bankruptcy auction.” Read the full story in the Watershed Post.
Sentence reduction raises questions for DA
Jimmy Vielkind in the Albany Times-Union first broke the story, but Jamie Larson of the Register-Star does an excellent job following up on all the local angles of the story of a criminal sentence reduction of a Columbia County political insider. In 2009, Timothy McEachern, 46, of Spencertown, was arrested and charged under Leandra’s Law, which made it a felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, to drive drunk with children in the vehicle. McEachern is Columbia County District Attorney Beth Cozzolino’s brother-in-law. “McEachern’s wife, Andrea Gabel, is the sister of D.A. Cozzolino and the couple’s home was the registered campaign headquarters for Cozzolino’s 2007 run for her position,” Larson writes. McEachern pleaded to a misdemeanor DWI in May 2010, with a $700 fine and a $400 court fee, and 40 hours of community service, according to state Department of Transportation records. The Times-Union report showed that was a light sentence compared to others convicted of the new law. Greene County DA Terry Wilhelm took the case after Cozzolino recused herself, and he has not returned any reporters calls on the issue. As the story broke last weekend, Cozzolino kicked off her campaign for Columbia County judge at McEachern’s house. The event was attended by numerous Republican party officials, though Larson reports, “U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-20th District, was billed at the top of the event invitation as a host of the fundraiser, but the congressman’s office said Tuesday that he did not attend, never promised to attend, and has not offered an official endorsement.” Read the full story in the Register-Star.
Lopez in Greene County for hunting and boxing Saturday
Republican New York State Assemblyman Pete Lopez, who represents Greene and several other counties west of the Hudson River, makes two area appearances Saturday, first speaking at 5:30 p.m. at the Greene County Federation of Sportsmen‘s Annual Dinner at the Quarry Steakhouse, 100 Grapeville Road in Coxsackie. At 8 p.m. Lopez will be Guest MC at the “Rumble in the Catskills” boxing event, in the Catskill Elementary School’s gymnasium.
Tags: Andrea Gabel, ash trees, Beth Cozzolino, boxing, Chris Gibson, emerald ash borer, Greene County Federation of Sportsmen, media, newspapers, Pete Lopez, Terry Wilhelm, The Daily Freeman, Timothy McEachern, trees
KINGSTON – Ira Fusfeld, publisher of the Daily Freeman in Kingston, has penned a heartfelt summary of where newspapers stand these days, along with an announcement that starting this Tuesday, December 7, the peper will be printed on the presses of the Freeman’s sister newspaper in Troy. “Closing the pressroom and mailroom in Kingston, as well as changing the manner in which the newspapers are delivered,” Fusfeld writes, “will result in the elimination of 58 full- and part-time, union and non-union jobs.” Consolidation will also mean that the paper will be printed about three hours earlier each evening, thus pushing more breaking stories to the newspaper’s website.
“When news breaks, you’ll see it first on one of our many Twitter feeds and on our Facebook page. Then it will show up on our website, initially as a short story, which will expand throughout the day until press time for the print edition,” writes Fusfeld, publisher since 1987 and with the Freeman since 1970. “We currently offer links to a variety of local bloggers on our website, with more to come. A Community Media Lab is planned. We’ll be doing more of what’s become known in the business as ‘crowd sourcing.’”
Sounds like what we’re doing here at WGXC, without the radio component we’ll have on air come next month. Our hats off to all in this field working to stay afloat, and keep the news we read pertinent and truly spin-free.
For Fusfeld’s full Publisher’s Note, click HERE…
Tags: crowd sourcing, Ira Fusfeld, job cuts, media, newspapers
2.1 percent tax hike in Greene County, no layoffs
Colin DeVries in The Daily Mail and Ariel Zangla-Girard in The Daily Freeman both report the Greene County Legislature‘s 2011 budget includes a 2.1 percent tax increase, and no layoffs in a tentative $99.7 million budget. “A budget hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18 in the Cairo-Durham High School, 1301 Route 145 in Durham, at 6 p.m. Copies of the budget are available in the legislature office on the fourth floor of the Greene County Office Building at 411 Main St., Catskill,” DeVries reports. The The Daily Mail story includes tax rates for each town.
Greene biomass study results coming
The Daily Freeman reports the results of the Greene County Forest and Agriculture Biomass Resources Study will be presented at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Agroforestry Resource Center, 6055 Route 23. “Dan Conable from Cato Analytics will present the study, which was prepared by Cato Analytics and Clark Patterson Lee. The full report is available online at www.greeneida.com,” the paper reported.
Road closures
The Columbia Paper reports The Columbia County Department of Public Works closed the county bridge that carries Stone Mill Road Extension over the Taghkanic Creek (locally known as Hildebrandt Bridge, in the towns of Greenport and Claverack) November 1, after the DOT deemed it unsafe. Since alternate routes are available and county funds low, the bridge will not be rebuilt and the nearby intersection of Yates Road and State Route 9H will also be closed to traffic. The Register Star reports, “The northernmost section of Mt. Merino Road may soon be closed to traffic, Greenport Highway Superintendent Mark Gaylord said Wednesday. He has authority to close the road if travel on it is not safe. The three-mile-long road has only two outlets, the other being west of the intersection of Route 9G and Route 23.” The story reports recurring flooding problems there.
Hole in the news
On Saturday, The Daily Mail reported about journalist Amy Goodman’s talk and book-signing for WGXC at the Community Theatre of Catskill last Thursday without mentioning WGXC. On Monday, The Daily Mail, in a story about the Sunday showing of Tobey Carey’s film “The Catskill Mountain House and the World Around” at the same Catskill theater reported, “The film was a production of Willow Mix Media, a not-for-profit arts group, and proceeds of DVD sales go to the Greene County Council on the Arts.” The Goodman appearance was a production of WGXC, and proceeds from admissions at the talk went to the station. “Democracy Now!” will air live on WGXC Monday through Friday at 8 a.m.
First snow
WGXC heard reports of snow throughout Columbia and Greene counties, with a bit of accumulation on the ground in higher altitudes, with salt trucks spotted spreading in both counties.
Birthdays
Today is the birthday of Lou Ferrigno, Spiro Agnew, and Ejiah Parish Lovejoy.
Tags: Greene County Council on the Arts, media, Steve Saland, The Daily Mail, WGXC
Amy Goodman spoke for WGXC tonight at the Community Theatre of Catskill (photo by Galen Joseph-Hunter). Kaya Weidman, Christina Malisoff, Brian Kehoe, and Carline Murphy introduced the “Democracy Now!” host before her talk, which can be heard here, or copy and paste the following url into your computer’s media player:
http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/11/AmyGoodman_CommunityTheatreofCatskill_WGXC_110410.mp3
“Democracy Now” will air on WGXC-FM 90.7 live at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday.
The Greene County News and Ravena News-Herald both now have websites, styled the same as other Hudson-Catskill Newspapers Corp.’s websites (The Daily Mail, Register-Star, Windham Journal, The Mountain Eagle, and Chatham Courier). Hudson-Catskill Newspaper Corp. purchased The Ravena News-Herald and The Greene County Local Courier (which covers Greenville, Coxsackie, and Athens) April 1, and both print on Thursdays like other HCN papers.
Tags: journalism, media, newspapers
Lissa Harris in Watershed Post tipped WGXC off to three local webcams:
Cairo webcam.
Hunter Mountain webcams.
Windham Mountain webcam.
Do you know about others? Let us know?
Tags: media, weather alert
This September, Prometheus Radio Project and WGXC will hold Prometheus’s 12th community radio barnraising. Radio barnraisings are weekend-long radio and movement-building events. Individuals from the local community, participatory media advocates, and artists from around the country will converge in Hudson, NY to share ideas, experiences, and skills in the launching of WGXC’s full power community radio station.
“For the past ten years, we’ve been fighting to take the airwaves out of the hands of the powerful few and place them in the hands of communities. We’ve supported many groups in starting low-power and full-power FM radio stations that serve as tools for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression,” says Andalusia Knoll, Community Radio Coordinator with the Prometheus Radio Project.
The Prometheus Radio Project has helped many groups, including farmworker unions, civil rights groups, and rural arts organizations build their stations while training a new generation of radio organizers across the country. The collaboration with WGXC, which will broadcast at 3,300 watts as opposed to the 100 watts of low power stations, will be Prometheus’s first full-power barnraising. This new station will be uniquely decentralized with three main studios spread out across the listening range, allowing broader participation from residents of New York’s Greene and Columbia counties. Partnerships are already forming with schools, music venues, and town halls to create live feeds from various locations, furthering the scope of the station.
WGXC: Hands-On Radio will be much more than just a radio station, with regular exhibitions and events, ongoing media trainings, a news blog, and community meetings. “We are all aware of the urgent importance of protecting and supporting our local resources, food system, watersheds, farmland, and local arts and cultures,” explains Kaya Weidman, a member of WGXC’s Radio Council and co-founder of Germantown Community Farm. “WGXC is simply local media, a key tool for all these crucial issues.”
The WGXC Prometheus Barnraising will take place in Hudson, NY with workshops and events from September 24-26. To register for the Barnraising go to http://www.prometheusradio.org/WGXC_barnraising
Registration is now open!
* LOCAL REGISTRATION: Local registration is open for folks attending the WGXC barnraising who live in Greene, Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster, Albany, Rensselaer, or Delaware counties in New York or Berkshire County in Massachusetts.
* GENERAL REGISTRATION: If you do not live in one of the above counties, please go the general registration page.
From Matthew Lasar in Radio Survivor:
The Prometheus Radio Project will run its 12th community radio barn raising by launching a new station: WGXC in Hudson, New York on September 24-26. This is the first such event, however, that will involve setting up a full-power station—3,300 watts as opposed to the usual 100 watts of low-power FM. “This new station will be uniquely decentralized with three main studios spread out across the listening range, allowing broader participation from residents of New York’s Greene and Columbia counties,” says Prometheus. “Partnerships are already forming with schools, music venues, and town halls to create live feeds from various locations, furthering the scope of the station. WGXC: Hands-On Radio will be much more than just a radio station, with regular exhibitions and events, ongoing media trainings, a news blog, and community meetings.” The station already streams at www.wgxc.org. We tuned in and, no big surprise, got a Gamelan tune from the composer Pauline Oliveros and the Berkeley Gamelan Ensemble. If you want to help out and live in Greene, Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster, Albany, Rensselaer, or Delaware counties in New York or Berkshire counties in Massachusetts, click here to register. Otherwise click here.
The Chatham “Village chalkboard” reports there will be a public hearing for Charter Communications cable contract in Chatham at 7 p.m., just before the regular Village Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Tracy Memorial Village Hall, 77 Main St.
Tags: media, town meetings
Rep. Scott Murphy got attacked from the left last week, for a letter sent to the FCC that net neutrality proponents claim was parroting big Telecom. Murphy and 73 other Democrats allegedly, “sold you out to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast,” targeted e-mail messages sent to constituents in the districts of Murphy and the other members of Congress who signed a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on May 24 asserted. A letter from Working Assets, the progressive long-distance service, and their “CREDO Action” group says, “They signed industry-backed letters telling the FCC to abandon efforts to protect Internet users by prohibiting big companies from blocking Internet traffic.” Another e-mail from Timothy Karr at Free Press Action Fund said, “Almost every one of these representatives has accepted massive contributions from the phone and cable lobby. Now the industry is demanding a return on its investment.” Murphy’s staff lined up to defend their boss last week, with chief of staff Todd Schulte sending out an e-mail to supporters saying, “Congressman Murphy is in favor of an open Internet to benefit consumers and technological innovation. The email claims the letter states Scott is opposed to net neutrality – the letter says no such thing.” Yes, the letter Murphy signed is vague, but can easily be read as threatening to net neutrality proponents. Schulte also says Murphy favors, “dramatically expand[ing] broadband access, and that we need an internet regime that protects and benefits consumers first and foremost. Scott has concerns about using a decades old provision to regulate a medium totally unimagined when the telephone network first expanded across the nation.” Search Murphy’s website for the phrase “net neutrality” and “No documents match your query.” But search the OpenSecrets website, and Karr seems wrong about at least Murphy’s campaign coffers. Here is the top twenty list of Murphy’s largest contributors, sorted by industry:
Democratic/Liberal $414,467 $3
Securities & Investment $341,621
Leadership PACs $236,900
Candidate Committees $189,450
Lawyers/Law Firms $149,000
Retired $144,451
Misc Finance $101,013
Public Sector Unions $84,750
Commercial Banks $63,850
Building Trade Unions $62,350
Real Estate $61,944
Transportation Unions $59,500
Industrial Unions $50,000
Insurance $48,000
TV/Movies/Music $42,550
Misc Unions $42,500
Pro-Israel $41,598
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $39,946
Lobbyists $38,459
Health Professionals $34,300
His top contributors:
ActBlue $307,407
Advantage Capital Partners $40,750
JStreetPAC $39,598
Goldman Sachs $34,150
JPMorgan Chase & Co $26,550
AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America $25,500
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $25,000
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte $20,410
American Federation of Teachers $20,250
BRIDGE PAC $20,000
New Democrat Coalition $20,000
Impact $20,000
PAC to the Future $20,000
National Venture Capital Assn $20,000
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $20,000
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union $20,000
IntercontinentalExchange Inc $17,100
DE Shaw & Co $15,400
Service Employees International Union $15,000
American Resort Development Assn $15,000
Teamsters Union $15,000
Blue Dog PAC $15,000 $0 $15,000
United Food & Commercial Workers Union $15,000
American Crystal Sugar $15,000
Metalmark Capital $15,000
Attacks on Murphy from the right may begin again, as on Friday, he voted to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which passed the House, 234-194.
WGXC checked in with the staff of Murphy’s Republican opponent this fall, and Chris Gibson opposes net neutrality and the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Tags: media, Scott Murphy
The Greenville Mountain View Pioneer debuted this week, and the Greene County Local Courier morphed into the Greene County News, after its recent purchase by Hudson-Catskill Newspaper Corp, and it is great to read more local newsprint. Both papers are fighting for territory best covered by The Greenville Press which closed early this year, and neither has a website. With the Pioneer focusing on Greenville and the News citing Greenville, Coxsackie, and Athens as target markets, the debut and remake make for a side-by-side comparison. The Pioneer wins the first count, as this week’s issue includes results of Tuesday’s school board elections, while the News does not (both papers have Thursday street dates). Both have little news — the Pioneer reveals a new Greenville bakery, while the News covers NY State Senator James Seward‘s appearance at the opening of Coxsackie beverage distributor Empire Merchants North. The Pioneer has a much cleaner layout, though the News improves from its Courier days, and now looks more like its HCNC sister papers The Daily Mail and Register-Star. Both publications include lots of unnecessary filler with the News even printing a verbatim press release from WGXC about a radio station event with the Agroforestry Center twice, on pages 20 and 23 (extra thanks!). But the Pioneer has much larger problems. Thirteen by-lines include the name “Macko” (the publisher and former Daily Mail writer Andrea Macko authors most), while only six others contribute articles. Of those six, the owner of the new Greenville bakery writes about his own store, and another is a campaign donation in the form of an article by Greenville County Legislator Kevin Lewis. While the News makes a similar donation to the campaign of Seward with his “column,” the Pioneer gives away advertorial disguised as editorial more often. Publisher Macko also gives a free campaign ad/column to Greenville Town Supervisor Paul Macko (she is his niece). The first issue ever also has two letters to the editor about how Peter Margoulius would make a swell County Court Judge, and on the next page there is a larger press release about how one local group endorsed his campaign. Virtually no local Democrats are mentioned anywhere in the Pioneer. Both papers print an awful lot of verbatim press releases, and the Pioneer seems one-sided so far. And the Pioneer’s debut editorial makes odd boasts, saying that seeing names and pictures in a publication and an accompanying feeling of being a, “part of something bigger” is something “that you won’t find on any website.” That’s pretty funny!
Tags: Kevin Lewis, media, Paul Macko, Peter Margoulius
Recently testing began on where [the WIOX] signal can reach. The signal is strong in Fleischmanns, Margaretville, and Andes….tests [continue] over the next few weeks in the other directions….WIOX will have a booth at the Roxbury Sidewalk Festival.
The Hudson-Catskill Newspaper Corp. — the company that runs the only daily newspapers in each county (The Daily Mail and Register-Star) as well as weekly papers in Chatham, Windham, and on the mountaintop — bought Greene County’s only remaining weekly, the Greene County Local Courier, and The Ravena News-Herald, from George McHugh, today’s issue of the Courier reports. The story names frequent contributor Melanie Lekocevic as new editor, and says H-CN plans to continue publishing both weeklies. The story does not say whether the purchased papers will now get web sites. Earlier this year The Greenville Press ceased publication.
Seeing Greene’s Dick May was the first to track down Linda Fenoff, who ran the Greenville Press newspaper until the last three issues have not shown up on newsstands. She hopes to return, May writes, “Ms Fenoff told Seeing Greene… she suffered a collapse from exhaustion and was hospitalized for several days. Now she is resting at the home of a friend, is still weak and depressed, but is ‘absolutely’ determined to get back to the job.
Tags: media
Monday Albany Broadcasting began simulcasting light-rock station Magic FM (100.9 FM) on 590-AM, killing WROW and the talk radio format that had been there 16 years, Chris Churchill in the Albany Times-Union reports. The station had a few Capitol Region-based hosts and also ran syndicated shows from conservative talk show hosts such as Glenn Beck and Dennis Miller.
The Greenville Press is a great independent local newspaper, and what it lacks in a web site it makes up with thorough reporting. Unfortunately, there was no issue this past weekend, and their are rumors circulating about its status. A call to the office this morning found an answering machine, where a message was left. This post will be updated when we get further information.
Tags: media
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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