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Friday headlines

May 20, 2011 1:17 am
Copake planners wrestle with tower details
Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper reports that the Copake Planning Board is considering whether there is currently adequate cell phone coverage in the Columbia County town. If not, then Mariner Tower, II, may be allowed to build a 150-foot lattice tower on the West Copake farm of Ezra J. Link, Jr., at 3124 County Route 7 with the tower east of Route 7 between Pumpkin Hollow Roads North and South. Radio experts may fly a literal trial balloon to determine where the tower would be seen from if allowed. The farmer and tower company are asking for variances for the proposed tower as 125 feet is the town's maximum height, and a 1,500-foot setback from residences is required, but this tower has about 1,200 feet of setback from two residences. The applicants have to appear before both the Planning Board for site plan review and the Zoning Board of Appeals for the variances, and the Planning Board will next discuss the issue June 2. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

Graduations
Both local colleges hold graduations Saturday: Columbia-Greene Community College at 10 a.m. in the gym, and Bard College at 1 p.m. with a live webstream here.

Board resigns
There's this from the Public Notices in the Register-Star about the Catskill gym where Mike Tyson learned to fight: "The Board of Directors of the Cus D’amatos Boxing Gym have resigned from their positions as members of the board. The board is no longer responsible for any activity in the gym or any indebtedness."

At Home on the Farm and in E-Books
Julie Bosman in The New York Times profiles Columbia County writer Susan Orlean in the Thu. May 19 edition, around the publication of her new e-book “Animalish,” about the animals on her 55-acre spread. They include one dog, three cats, eight chickens, four turkeys, six guinea fowl, one fish, two snow-white ducks, and 12 Black Angus cattle. Orlean, who writes for The New Yorker, published “Animalish,” as an e-book Thursday exclusively by Amazon as a "Kindle Single," one of their excerpts of original, long-form writing. Read the entire story in The New York Times.

Windham's Zipline construction begins
Windham Mountain's Facebook page says that construction has begun on a Zipline there. From a post: "2 race at a time. I leg goes from the top of the Adventure Park lodge down to a tower by the berm on the snowtubing park; 2nd leg goes to a tower by the skating rink; then a rope bridge back to the Lodge." Hunter Mountain has the longest and highest zipline in North America, with four miles of the hanging rides.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Rebecca Anderson, a member of the new student garden club at Columbia-Greene Community College, readies the soil for planting. From CGCC."][/caption]College plants garden club
Twelve students are taking turns tending to a garden on campus at Columbia-Greene Community College through the new student garden club. Students are growing corn, sweet peas, kale, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, wild strawberries, and basil, according to one of the club's founders, Lizzy Winig. The students may get the food they grow served in the college's cafeteria. "The student garden is dedicated to growing green this summer, working with the land to produce a healthy variety of vegetables," says club member Rebecca Anderson. "We students are also hoping to donate a good portion of our harvest to the local food pantry and college cafeteria, keeping the impact on the environment light, and the impact on the community powerful." Assistant Professor of History Ted Hilscher is the club's advisor.