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Hamlet expansion plan draws little comment
Michael Ryan in the Windham Journal writes an in-depth story about development in Windham that looks 40 years into the future as the town looks to expand now. Town board members recommended that 2,797 acres be added to the 1,148 acres set aside as off limits to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is buying land in the Catskills to protect the New York City watershed. Lands the DEP controls through fee simple or conservation easements are permanently restricted from development, and the Coalition of Watershed Towns, an advocacy group for towns and villages throughout the watershed, has a study that says the town of Windham has a land area of 29,009 acres, but might only have 1,100 acres of land that could be developed by 2048. As of July, 2009, the DEP had locked up 2,889 acres in Windham and could purchase an additional 2,127 acres between now and the end of 2022, if the current trend continues, the CWT report states. “If you are an ordinary landowner in this town, you are practically precluded from developing your land anyway by having to jump through all the [watershed regulatory] hoops, and what I want to know is will we be subjected to future regulations promulgated by this board?” said Stanley Christman, from Christman’s Windham House resort, at one of the public hearings about the land acquisitions. Read the whole story in the Windham Journal.

Columbia County’s population ages: Now the third oldest in NYS
Mike McCagg in ccSCOOP News reports the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 results show Columbia County’s median age is 45.3 years, the third-oldest median age in New York State. “The county’s median age is seven years older than the state median age of 38,” McCagg writes. “But, while the state’s median age grew by three years since the 2000 census, the median age of Columbia County’s population advanced five years in the past decade, up from 40-years-old at the turn of the century.” Those aged 45-49 accounted for 8.4 percent of the county population, as did those aged 50-54, and 55-59-years-olds made up 8 percent of the population. Those 60-64 made up 7.5 percent of the population. Of younger demographics, the 40-44 age group, with 6.9 percent, and the 15-to 19-year-old age group, with 6.6 percent of the population, led. The Associated Press reported last week that a NY1-YNN-Marist College poll finds one in three New Yorkers under age 30 plans to move to another state at some time, while one in four adults overall plans an exodus from the Empire State within five years.

Ethics panel reprimands councilman
Hilary Hawke in The Daily Mail reports that the Greene County Board of Ethics admonished New Baltimore Councilman Art Byas for violating the town’s code of ethics. From the story:

According to documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Town Attorney David Wukitsch read into the public record a letter from the county board censuring Byas. The letter was addressed to 11 New Baltimore complainants including the highway superintendent, the assistant highway superintendent, the town clerk, the town supervisor’s husband and six other town employees. It stated Byas obtained private information — social security numbers — of 54 town employees in an email. It went on to state Byas admitted to having the information and had refused to return or destroy it.

The story says county ethics board members say Byas did not respond to their questions and they had “no other choice” than to base their findings on a Nov. 24, 2010 Daily Mail article. Three New Baltimore councilmen, including Byas, wrote a letter to the editor of The Daily Mail published on Dec. 4, 2010, that claims the Nov. 24 article is full of inaccuracies. “How can the Greene County Board of Ethics issue a ruling based on an inaccurate article without making direct contact with me, or attempting to subpoena me?” Byas asks in The Daily Mail’s latest article on the subject. Read the entire story in The Daily Mail.

Hudson River fishing report
River Basin Sports in Catskill continues its striped bass contest, and continually updates its website with the latest fishing conditions. Its current report says:

“The river, at 57 degrees, is still running off color with plenty of debris floating down – gotta be careful out there!… Latest fishing reports we’ve received show the Kingston area to be on the slow side; Glasco flats, just to the south of Saugerties, has been good; Malden to Cheviot has been good; Germantown, very good; upper Catskill Creek (head of tidewater), excellent; Stockport, very good; 4 Mile Point to Coxsackie, excellent; New Baltimore to Coeymans fair; Bethlehem spotty but improving; Albany to Troy poor but with water conditions improving and herring abundant. With the water temp running about five degrees below the optimum for spawning it looks like we should get another two weeks or more of good fishing before the run starts to dwindle away.”

Greenville High School announces top ten graduates of 2011
A staff report in The Greenville Mountain View Pioneer (no web site) lists the top ten graduates at Greenville High School this year: 1) Vaeldeictorian Emily Bobrick; 2) Salutatorian Kerry Brown; 3) Michelle Jackson; 4) Matthew Marshall; 5) Dixie Oullette; 6) Patrick Ostoyich; 7) Scott Goodfellow; Marta Kelly; 9) Bonnie Harvey; and 10) Steven Nevins.

Fresh starts
Scott Baldinger in the Word on the Street blog covers the changes in Hudson’s home furnishing stores of late. He reports that Chris Lehrecke, who creates contemporary light fixtures, tables, and shelving with wood, has moved from 428 to 415 Warren St; Lillie K. Traders has been “sprucing up” 444 Warren St.; and Hudson Home’s building at 356 Warren is getting a new coat of paint. Read the entire post on Word on the Street.

AUDIO CLIPS

• A Very Incomplete Calendar
Terry Doyle’s weekly roundup of area music events for his “Imprint” show about Hudson Valley music on Sundays at 11 p.m. on WGXC. Click here to listen to the mp3.