Katie Kocijanski is reporting in The Daily Mail the Catskill Town Board has approved the Leeds and Jefferson Heights Sewer District project. “I am the fifth supervisor this project has gone through since the town began talking about making the sewer improvements in 2008. The residents of Leeds and Jefferson Heights need this,” said Town Supervisor Doreen Davis. She said the proposed improvements include upgrades to the Allen Street pump station, five pump station upgrades and a sanitary and storm sewer separation project in the village’s sewer collection system. Davis said the sewer district project is making good progress. In August 2013, an inter-municipal agreement was signed by both the village and town boards allowing the town of Catskill to connect to the village sewer system. That cleared the way for providing sewer service to households in Leeds, and opened up the Route 23B corridor between Jefferson Heights and Leeds for future economic development. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Daniel Zuckerman is reporting in The Daily Mail Cairo town officials held a special meeting Mon., Jul. 25, to discuss the repaving and resurfacing of town roads in the coming weeks and months. Town Highway Superintendent Robert Hempstead announced Tuesday that Frank Hitchcock Road, Canniff Road, Vernal Butler Road, Ross Ruland Road, Rudolph Weir Jr. Road and the lower part of Broad Street will be repaved beginning in August. The Pine Tree development in South Cairo will be resurfaced. The repaving work will cost the town nearly $700,000. Hempstead said signs have been posted since April on the roads to be repaved, informing drivers of the upcoming work. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Rick Karlin is reporting at Capitol Confidential the members of a special commission assigned to come up with pay raises for state lawmakers met in Albany, Tue., Jul. 26. Following the meeting, the commission floated a suggested salary of $116,900 for elected legislators, up from the current $79,500 in base pay. The governor’s pay would go from $179,000 to $263,200. Agency commissioners would be paid as much as $200,000, depending on the size of their organization. The commission did not make a recommendation on whether limits should be placed on outside income by lawmakers. The seven-member commission has four months to make recommendations on pay for lawmakers and other top officials. Their recommendations would then go into law unless they were rejected by the legislature. At least one outside observer said he would be disappointed if lawmakers receive substantial raises without enacting extensive ethics reforms, as well. “That’s mind boggling,” NYPIRG [NIE-PERG] Legislative Director Blair Horner said when told of the $116,900 figure floated on Tuesday. “A year in which two legislative leaders get convicted of corruption and the only thing that happens is they get a pay raise?” The commission will next meet in early September. Read the full story at Capitol Confidential.

The 62nd Greene County Youth Fair starts Thu., July 28 in Cairo's Angelo Canna Park, behind Main St. The fair's main attraction is the children and their animals: cows, pigs, goats, chickens, and more. There's also a Sunday morning talent show, a Saturday arrival by fire truck from Santa Claus, and all sorts of vendors, magicians, bands, and food. The fair starts at 9:30 a.m. July 28, and ends at 3 p.m. July 31.

Ellyn Gaydos reports in The Columbia Paper that New Lebanon is the latest locality proposing to re-write their solar laws after the state made solar farming more profitable. At the July 12 meeting Town Supervisor Colleen Teal proposed changing the way the town regulates solar panels, signs, and industrial zoning in New Lebanon. Town Attorney Dan Tuczinski said, “Some of these solar farms are huge.... Do we want to allow them, if so where do we want to allow them?” The board said it will schedule two public hearings about regulating solar panels in New Lebanon. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

The Daily Freeman reports that gasoline price fell another 2.9 cents per gallon last week in New York, to average $2.34. In the Kingston-Ulster area, the newspaper surveyed most stations selling 87-octane unleaded for $2.17 per gallon on July 25, according to the gasoline price website GasBuddy.com. “I foresee that, excluding a major hurricane or other disruption, we are very likely to see many more states with average prices falling under $2 per gallon by Halloween,” said Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.

Mid-Hudson News reports that on July 25 the Columbia County Health Department began closing its Certified Home Healthcare Agency. Interim County Public Health Director John Mabb said state laws have allowed non-governmental home healthcare services to compete, and now the county has just four clients. The State Department of Health has signed off on the closing. Read the full story in Mid-Hudson News.

Local weather forecast:

Today: Sunny. High near 89. Wednesday night, mostly clear. Low around 65.
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
THURSDAY: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2 p.m. Increasing clouds. High near 89. Thursday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 68.
FRIDAY: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. High near 83. Friday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 66.

Sunrise today: 5:44 a.m.
Sunset today: 8:19 p.m.

LENGTH OF THE DAY: 14:34 hrs.

PUBLIC MEETINGS


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

ANCRAM Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall, 1416 County Route 7, Ancram (329-6512).
CATSKILL Village Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Washington Irving Senior Center, 15 Academy Street., Catskill (943-1343).
CHATHAM Village Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 77 Main Street, Chatham (392-5821).
CHATHAM Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 488 Route 295, Chatham (392-1651).
COLUMBIA County Board of Supervisors Airport Sub-committee meeting, 4 p.m.; Public Works Committee meeting, 5 p.m.; at 401 State Street, Hudson (828-1527).
COPAKE Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 230 Mt. View Road, Copake (329-1234).
HUDSON Common Council DPW Committee, 5:30 p.m.; Legal Committee, 6:15 p.m., at City Hall, 520 Warren St., Hudson (828-1030).
HUNTER Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 7955 Main St., Hunter (589-6150).
WINDHAM Town Board meeting, 8 p.m. at Town Hall, 371 State Rt. 296, Hensonville (734-4170).

The New York Times reported last week that the Federal Communications Commission will trust a foreign company, Ericsson, to route billions of U.S. cellphone calls and text messages. A New Jersey subsidiary of Ericsson, Telcordia, presented the lowest bid, to manage the system that American company Neustar has since the 1990s. The Times reports that several months ago Telcordia used a small number of foreign nationals, including one Chinese citizen, for computer coding after Telcordia was given preliminary approval for the job. But only “vetted U.S. citizens” were allowed to work on the project, so the FCC made the company discard the work and start over. The paper points out that, "In 2006... a $6.8 billion deal that would have allowed a company in the United Arab Emirates to manage six American port terminals set off outrage in Congress and was eventually killed." Now, critics says, the FCC is putting communications infrastructure into foreign hands.

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local news update for Tue., July 26 (2:14). (Produced by Tom Roe.)