Greg Hudson is reporting in The Daily Mail Hunter village water customers have been ordered to cut back on water consumption after the village issued a mandatory conservation notice, Wed., Sept. 7. Village Water Department Chief Operator Joe Myers said the village’s primary water supply is severely depleted due, in large part, to the regional drought since last winter. "The main problem has been a lack of precipitation. We don’t have much of a reservoir and our primary water source is running a little low," Myers said. Customers have been advised to take shorter showers, water their gardens less, and to stop washing cars, filling swimming pools and watering lawns. Water can also be conserved by fixing leaky faucets and toilets, and running washing machines and dishwashers with only full loads. While strongly advising resident to conserve, Myers said the village is not at risk of running out of water. "We do have alternative water sources we can use, which are wells," he said. Myers said ultimately the solution will be rainfall for the mountaintop. He said, "What we’ve been missing is rain and hopefully we’ll get some soon." Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Greg Hudson is reporting in the Windham Journal the future of a local landmark restaurant is at risk. The popular Captain's Inn Point Lookout on Route 23 in Windham may be forced to shut its doors permanently if it does not hire more employees. The restaurant and hotel owner Wayne Hamilton said, “There just aren’t enough people available to hire.” The inn was established 70 years ago and is best known for its panoramic view of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. Hamilton said business is good, but he currently employs only one waitress and two busers. Hamilton is concerned about the long-term sustainability of the restaurant without a larger staff, including a line cook, bartender and two wait staff. “I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to find some good employees that will be able to make sure we can stay open and keep our customers happy,” he said. Read the full story in the Windham Journal.

Scott Waldman is reporting at Politico New York the state is still without a plan to conduct blood tests for the thousands of Newburgh residents who likely consumed polluted water over the years. in Newburgh, the public water supply tested for more than twice the federal safety limit of PFOS, a toxic, cancer-linked chemical in May. No one knows the contamination levels of the 30,000 people in Newburgh, which has a largely minority and low-income population, because widespread blood testing has not been conducted, as it has in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh in Rensselaer County, two towns affected by PFOA pollution. Newburgh's city manager has been calling for the tests for months. So has the environmental group Riverkeeper. Dan Shapley, Riverkeeper's water quality program manager, said the city's residents deserve to know if their health is at risk. “Comprehensive health screening, consisting of blood testing, and bio-monitoring, has not been made available to city residents,” he said. Shapley drew a comparison to how the situation has been handled in Hoosick Falls and in Petersburgh. He said, "It is unconscionable and unjustifiable to treat these impacted communities differently.” On Wed., Sept. 7, state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said he was awaiting guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine what to do about biomonitoring in Newburgh. Zucker said the state’s priority was to get the city’s water supply off of water tainted with PFOS. Read the full story at Politico New York.

The Town of Catskill got complaints about the Meltasia Music Festival held last weekend at The Old Game Farm near Kiskatom. At the Sept. 6 Catskill Town meeting, during the public comment period, several local residents complained about the very loud music that lasted until 3 a.m. Organizers of the festival had met with the board in June and promised the festival would be neighborly. Kool Keith, Murphy's Law, and Neil Hamburger were among the performers at the festival Sept. 2-4. Click here to hear the complete public comment period at the meeting. Go to the WGXC Newsroom to hear most of the full meeting here (very beginning missing).

Melanie Lekocevic reports in The Daily Mail that a nature trail has been installed, linking Brandow Point and the neighboring Cohotate Nature Preserve, near State Route 385 in Athens. The Greene Land Trust built the trail, as it owns the historic home The Willows, built in 1788, and maintains the Brandow Point land, which is owned by the state. “The trail gives people a wider area to take a walk in. If you walk through Cohotate, here and then back, it’s probably a good couple of miles to walk,” said Bob Knighton, president of the Greene Land Trust. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Construction began Sept. 6 on part of Route 23 in Catskill near the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, and there have been traffic delays during rush hours since. On Sept. 7, drivers reported 30 minute delays heading into Greene County over the bridge in the afternoon, and the morning commute on Sept. 8 was also delayed. 511ny.com has no information about when construction will be complete.

Mark Weiner reports at Syracuse.com that U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer's office has a list of 4,366 wireless dead zones in New York State. A Schumer crowdsourcing campaign created a map of where there is not wireless cell phone coverage in the state. The Hudson Valley led with the most dead spots in the unscientific survey, followed by the Southern Tier, Western New York, and the Capital Region. Schumer, known for using an old flip phone instead of a smart phone, said, "When it comes to cell service across Upstate New York, these dead zones are proof carriers need to, quite frankly, raise the bar.... The entire Upstate New York area should not be home to over 4,000 dead zones." Read the full story at Syracuse.com.

Watch video from Kyle Hughes of NYSNYS.com of the joint legislative hearing about water quality issues from Sept. 7 with a heated exchange between state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin and state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.

Local weather forecast:

Today: Partly sunny. High near 85. Friday night, a chance of showers, mainly after midnight. Partly cloudy. Low around 64.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
SATURDAY: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 10 a.m. Mostly cloudy. High near 83. Saturday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 68.
SUNDAY: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8 a.m., then a chance of showers between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mostly sunny. High near 78. Sunday night, mostly clear. Low around 52.

Sunrise today: 6:30 a.m.
Sunset today: 7:14 p.m.

LENGTH OF THE DAY: 12:43 hrs.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

Today is the second Friday of the month.
WGXC suggests calling ahead to confirm time and location.
All numbers are in the 518 area code unless otherwise noted.

HUDSON Historic Preservation Commission meeting, 10 a.m. at Hudson City Hall, 520 Warren St., Hudson (828-1030).

David Oxenford reports in the Broadcast Law Blog that as of Sept. 9 there are 60 days until election day, and commercial broadcasters must now charge the “lowest unit rate” for political advertising. Any candidate for any office anywhere buying late-night ads, gets charged the lowest rate for those ads, and candidates buying time during NFL football games are charged the lowest rates for those events. If Coca Cola buys 50,000 ads in bulk and gets a cheap rate, political candidates only have to pay that same rate without buying ads in the same volume. State and local candidates have no right per se for stations to air any ads, as they can refuse, Oxenford writes. Rarely, though, do broadcasters turn down advertising, and they do have a bonanza coming, monetary incentive to keep contests considered close so more money is spent. Only candidates get the discount rates, as political action committees and issue-oriented advertisers pay in full. So count the dollars local TV stations and national news networks are making each time you see or hear a political advertisement this fall.

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local news update for Thursday, September 8 (2:31). (Produced by Alanna Medlock.)

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