Proposal leaves DSS in Hudson
From The Register-Star

HUDSON - Columbia County Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer (R-Hillsdale) and Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera stood together at a press conference Tuesday and announced a new proposal that would keep the Department of Social Services in Hudson. The county would buy the One City Centre building on the corner of State and Green streets in Hudson; departments currently in the County Office Buildings at 401 and 610 State Street would move to City Centre. The total square footage of 401 and 610 State Street is 36,000 square feet, 24,000 at 401 and 12,000 at 610 State Street. DSS would stay in its current building on Railroad Avenue for the duration of its lease, which ends in 2011; and then move to One City Centre. Baer called the proposal “a great solution for a difficult problem” and said “I’m looking forward to implementing it.” “The logistics of the planning -- there’s a lot to discuss,” said Scalera. “The commitment to keep DSS in the city of Hudson is what we’ve been working for.” Baer previously opposed such a plan, but switched positions because of falling real estate values. The Register-Star says One City Centre was going for $5 million last year, but now is selling for $2 million. “This is not a done deal,” Baer said. “We are only in discussion with the bank. There are still many pieces that have to be put together in the puzzle.”

Copake Green project set to sprout again
From CCScoop

COPAKE - Large developers bring big projects to small towns in this area, and often get special treatment. Like in Copake last week, where Housing Resources Executive Director Kevin O'Neill got to re-introduce his 139-unit Copake Green project to a Copake Planning Board meeting even though he was not on the agenda. From the CCscoop story:

"Although O’Neill did not request to be put on the agenda ten days in advance of the meeting — the Planning Board requirement — [Planning Board Chairman Marcia] Becker explained that, because there was a light agenda in July and because Housing Resources owns land in the town, she believed allowing O’Neill to make his twenty-minute presentation was the right thing to do.'It caused an uproar that we let him speak. . . . So from now on we are adhering to the ten-day rule,' Becker said."

Medical center, bank storage get green light
From The Daily Mail

CATSKILL - The Catskill Planning Board approved site plans for the 3,000 square-foot Urgent Care facility proposed for Grandview Avenue and for a Bank of Greene County storage facility on Windsor Street after hearing brief presentations on each proposal. The medical facility used Architect Josh Pulver, a relative of planning board member Michelle Pulver. She recused herself when it came to the vote, but as an anonymous reader commented on the story, "Nothing assures the approval of a project better than hiring the relative of a judge and town planner as your architect, and paying him astronomical fees."

Copake opts for outside budget review
From The Columbia Paper

COPAKE--The Copake Town Board hired a second accountant to make sure the first accountant's figures of a estimated $175,000 budget shortfall are correct. “We all agree that our first course of action should be an independent audit to verify the numbers or find out if they are not correct. We have to know where we are,” Town Supervisor Reggie Crowley told the audience at the Town Board's regular monthly meeting July 9.

Court Sides With GOP On Ravitch, Paterson Vows To Appeal
From The Daily News' The Daily Politics

ALBANY - State Supreme Court Justice William R. LaMarca granted the Republican Party's motion for a preliminary injunction that prevents just-appointed Lt. Govenor Richard Ravitch from "exercising any of the powers" of the LG's office, pending a final judgment, noting there is no provision in the Constitution that allows the governor to appoint a replacement LG when a vacancy occurs in that office.

New Department of Social Services proposal?
From The Register-Star

"There will be a press conference at 4:30 p.m. today in the Supervisors' Chambers at the county office building on 401 State St., Hudson, on the future placement of the county Department of Social Services. Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, the Board of Supervisors, the Hudson Common Council, and Mayor Richard Scalera will discuss the future of a new home for the DSS staff and facilities."

Nonprofit's report cites lack of slaughterhouses in New York
From The Register-Star

Andrew Amelinckx writes an excellent story based on a report by Washington D.C. based consumer watchdog group Food and Water Watch that finds not enough slaughterhouses in New York state and blames federal policies that, it says, favors larger operations. There are two USDA certified slaughterhouses in Columbia County, Van Wie in Stockport and Hilltown Pork, Inc. Robert Beckwith of Hilltown Pork says he is backed up with animals until 2010. “People want to know where their meat is coming from,” he said. “There aren’t enough USDA facilities to meet the demand.”

Murphy plans steps to help dairy farmers
From The Columbia Paper

With milk prices falling to 1979 levels and New York dairy farmers expected to lose $650 million this year, new U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy plans to introduce legislation to help. The proposed legislation would further subsidize dairy farmers, and create a herd retirement program meant to curtail supply. “This proposal works two-fold, by providing immediate relief to our struggling dairy farmers today, and stabilizing the dairy industry for tomorrow. Before more small farmers are forced out of business, we need to bring fast relief and stability to the industry.”

Lates poll: Maloney 33% Gillibrand 27%
From Rasmussen Reports

In a very early poll, New York City congresswoman Carolyn Maloney leads appointed Senator Kristen Gillibrand with 33 percent of the vote to 27 percent and nine percent preferring some other candidate. Thirty percent are undecided.

City wants to charge for parking at Amtrak
From The Register-Star

HUDSON - Jamie Larson writes that the Hudson Common Council will consider a new tax on mass transit use, charging for parking at the city's Hudson train station to bring in $197,000 to the city. He only reports the interests of the city, though, and fails to mention which of the two parking lots will feature the up-to-$3-a-day charges, and how the city will deal with folks who stop by for a few minutes to pick someone up and will now, I am guessing, be waiting in the street causing a bit of a traffic mess.

Copake accountant now puts everything in writing
From The Register-Star

COPAKE - Jamie Larson writes that Copake Town Accountant Brian Fitzgerald is now only reporting town budget issues in writing after mysterious town officials who are never indentified in the story blamed him for the town's estimated $175,000 2009 shortfall. These mystery officials, Larson reports, say Fitzgerald never warned them of the impending deficit. Fitzgerald says they were warned and spent too much money. Why no one else is quoted in this story is the real mystery.

PCBs (not) in the Hudson River
From CCScoop

The Environmental Protection Agency’s current clean-up of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the north Hudson River has not polluted the river downstream, CCScoop reports. "There hasn't been any significant change in the concentrations in the lower river," said Patrick Palmer of the New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Water Supply Protection. The EPA is monitoring the river's PCB levels at Green Island, Poughkeepsie, Port Ewen, and Rhinebeck. Those municipalities were selected for monitoring every two weeks because they rely on the river for their water supplies.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Local housing groups get $650,000 in grants
From The Daily Mail

The Hunter Foundation, in Tannersville, and the Catskill Mountain Housing Development Corporation, in Catskill, were notified Thursday that they are each a recipient of grants — $300,000 and $350,000, respectively — from NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), the administrator agency for federal U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds. The money is part of a statewide package of $31.4 million in housing grants announced by Gov. David A. Paterson Thursday.

Wilzig track foes win latest round in court
From The Columbia Paper

State Supreme Court Judge Patrick J. McGrath handed down an interim decision last week denying Alan Wilzig's petition for dismissal of a complaint filed by the Granger Group in regard to his private motorcycle track. Mr. Wilzig received site plan approval and designation as a permissible recreational use from the Town of Taghkanic's Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board earlier this year. But he was unable to proceed with paving the track because of an injunction against further construction on the facility. The injunction was obtained by the Granger Group, an association of citizens opposed to the track and concerned about enforcement of town zoning law, and by neighbors to the Wilzig property who believe that the track is not allowed under the zoning laws.

Hudson antique dealers struggling
From The Register-Star

Antique sales in Hudson are down around 20 to 30 percent, according to Hudson Antiques Dealers Association president Frank Rosa. Jennifer Arensksjold, co-owner of Arenskjold Antiques Art and Modern Design says sales actually fell more after the recession associated with the World Trade Center attack, which also coincided with a change in buyers' tastes.

Falling dairy prices strain farmers
From The Daily Mail

A top official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture defended his agency’s response to tumbling milk prices as “extremely aggressive” but showed little appetite Tuesday for immediate and far-reaching measures that some lawmakers say would keep thousands of dairy farmers in business. The Daily Mail story does not mention New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's work on this issue:

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is introducing legislation that would increase the amount farmers get through the Milk Income Loss Contract -- or MILC --program. MILC pays dairy farmers cash when milk prices fall below certain levels. When demand is up, prices tend to be up as well. The program is aimed at helping small and midsize dairy farmers weather low prices. But Gillibrand says that under the current pricing structure, farmers aren't receiving enough income to cover the costs of staying in business. She's introducing a bill this week that would double the amount of money farmers get from the MILC program retroactive to the low point of the pricing crisis in March. Another bill would increase the MILC rate to account for inflation.

Outbreak of Fungus Threatens Tomato Crop
From The New York Times

A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants has quickly spread to nearly every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, and the weather over the next week may determine whether the outbreak abates or whether tomato crops are ruined, according to federal and state agriculture officials.

Trippi's weird "apology"
From The Albany Project

"Joe Trippi, who has been working secretly for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) in her primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for more than a month, posted an odd "apology" for his deception (which occurred at Daily Kos, Huffington Post and with several reporters) on his website yesterday." This comes after PolitickerNY found Maloney's second quarter FEC filing and found a $10,500 check to Trippi dated June 5, well before he stopped writing about Maloney as if he was an unpaid observer.

LIVE TONIGHT:
Mark Eitzel will perform at 8 p.m. Jason's Upstairs Bar, 521 Warren St. in Hudson.

Greene Supports Cement
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/07/16/news/doc4a5e963a75857373047517.txt

CATSKILL — Greene County lawmakers on Wednesday roundly endorsed operations of local cement manufacturers to remind state and federal officials that the industry is important to the local economy. The support was given in a unanimous vote, with one absence, during a county Legislature meeting, where officials asked that funding for modernization be considered for Holcim U.S. and Lehigh Northeast Cement Co. in Catskill as well as LaFarge North America in Ravena in Albany County.

Ulster has first swine flu death
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/July09/17/swineflu_UC_fatal-17Jul09.html

KINGSTON – Ulster County Thursday reported its first swine flu associated fatality. The individual was a man from Saugerties who had been hospitalized with underlying medical conditions in addition to the flu.

Hudson Valley Job Losses
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/July09/17/unemp-17Jul09.html

The Hudson Valley lost another 18,300 jobs year over year in June, bringing to 746,400 the number of people who have become unemployed in the last 12 months, the state Labor Department reported Thursday. Putnam is feeling the least relative pain, with a 7 percent jobless rate last month. At the bottom, Sullivan and Greene, close to 9 percent.

DOT: Portions of Route 23 to close
http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2009/07/16/windham_journal/news/doc4a5e4e126cd25036863359.txt

ASHLAND - The Department of Transportation will be close a section of Route 23 between the towns of Ashland and Prattsville starting July 20 to address long-recognized slope stabilization problems adjacent to the old Catholic church. Both lanes will be shut down to fix the road. This is the first of three jobs, totaling $2.2 million, on Route 23, though the other two will not shut down both lanes. A detour will be set up on Route 296 in Windham and then onto Hensonville and Hunter, where they can connect with Route 23A into Prattsville, more than 20 miles out of the way.

Utility ratepayers could get stuck for millions in unfunded stimulus program
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/July09/17/util_rates-17Jul09.html

ALBANY – The federal stimulus package is going to providefunds for New York utilities – including Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation and Orange and Rockland Utilities – but the money would only pay for half of the cost of the $1 billion program. Smart grid utility projects proposed by the utility companies may qualify for stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. The term smart grid refers to the application of various digital technologies to, among other things, modernize and automate transmission and distribution assets to anticipate and respond to system disturbances, enable greater use of variable energy sources, including renewable energy, and provide the capability for customers to control their energy consumption effectively.

Greene Lawsuit Settled
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/07/17/news/doc4a5fe6fec5bb0085621011.txt

CATSKILL — Greene County lawmakers have agreed to pay an engineering firm $35,000 to settle a lawsuit over disputed bills for services. At a Legislature meeting Wednesday, officials said the county had withheld $24,899 from Crawford and Associates Engineering for services on the county Mental Health building in Cairo and $30,368 from the firm for its alleged failure to include required electrical services in the design of the county Highway Department building in Athens. The firm had sought $95,000 in its lawsuit against the county.

Artist and musician Roger Mason moves studio into Chatham’s clock tower
http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2009/07/16/chatham_courier/news/doc4a5e0592ac5c1176339793.txt

CHATHAM - Musician Roger Mason, who has played with Bob Dylan, Itzhak Perlman, John Denver, members of The Band, the Carradine Brothers and Larry Campbell, who produced Levon Helm, is moving his studio into the third floor of the clocktower in Chatham.

The Town of Cairo may end up suing the folks behind the Alden Terrace project. Developer Charles Maggio withdrew the project -- retail stores and housing on a large empty lot with stunning mountain views -- in May from the Cairo Planning Board. It turns out, though, that the Planning Board and the town didn't properly secure an escrow account from Maggio, and now they are due thousands of dollars for work done on the project. At Wednesday's Town Board meeting (click here and turn the "audio" triangle around to download or listen to the meeting) Unk Slater -- who owns a grocery store in Cairo that might have been run out of town by the project, and who sued the town over its long-broken sewer system -- asked why the town might need to litigate, since the Planning Board law mandates an escrow account, town attorney Tal Rappleyea didn't really have an answer. "At the time the project was ongoing with a lot of work that was happening week to week and month to month and it fell into a deficit situation," he said. Town Board member Janet Schwarzenegger said, "I don't think he gave us any money in escrow, it was specifically for the sewer and water study." Near the end of the meeting, while signing checks, Schwarzenegger was told that there was no signed agreement between Maggio and the town. Clearly, Alden Terrace was getting different treatment than other projects before the Town Planning Board. The Town may have decided in executive session what to do about the issue, but no announcement was made. In other news, Town Board member Raymond Suttmeier said he visited Cairo's new reservoir park and complained about, among other things, folks visiting the park without first getting the required permit. Town Clerk Tara Rumph confirmed Suttmeier did not get a permit for his visit.... Down Main St. in Cairo the Dragonfly Performing Arts Center has started theater workshops for local youths. They are still facing the Cairo Planning Board for approval to turn the empty former department store on Main St. into a theater with plays, movies, perrformances, and other workshops and activities for young people and adults. Rita Carver's Dragonfly Performing Arts group just put on "Cats," but had to do it at Columbia-Greene Community College. The Planning Board will host a public hearing on the project Aug. 5.... The Daily Mail and The Register-Star, the area's two largest newspapers which also publish The Mountain Eagle, Windham Journal, and Chatham Courier, relaunched their web sites today, with many new features including blogs from reporters; most popular, most commented, and most e-mailed festures; and other expanded services.... As the local economy has cratered, more people are turning to Columbia County's Department of Social Services for help, according to The Register-Star. There has been a nine percent increase in cases for temporary assistance, 17 percent in cases for Safety Net, a 27 percent increase in food stamp cases and an eight percent increase in Medicaid cases, and an 82 percent increase in temporary assistance.... The Register-Star also reports that Housing Resources of Columbia County owes the city of Hudson $34,873.94 in unpaid water and sewer bills dating back to 2007. They say they do not have any money to pay it back, yet have spent almost $400,000 on the “Copake Green” development which will put 138 housing units a Copake corn field.... Capitol Confidential says Howard Dean has endorsed Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and links to the YouTube video (see below) as proof.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd-A1pfcWxs&hl=en&fs=1&]

Carolyn Maloney is now getting some push-back from the press for her decision to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from New York. PolitickerNY has a profile of Maloney headlined that she is "all over the place" and that implies she is a bit difficult to work with. The Albany Project compares Maloney and Gillibrand political positions and finds that while Maloney charges Gillibrand with being too conservative for New York, she doesn't exactly have a progressive voting record. "As Swing State Project revealed back in March, Carolyn Maloney is among the top 30 Democratic members of Congress whose records are significantly more conservative than the voting patterns of their districts," the site says. For instance, Maloney believed the Bush nonsense and voted for the Iraq war and The Patriot Act; she also voted to repeal part of The Glass Stegall Act, which many observers think led to much of the current financial mess; she criticizes Gillibrand for being anti-immigration but voted for the silly Mexican border fence; and voted to formalize long-term trade with China, despite their many human-rights abuses.... The Ancram Town Comprehensive Plan Committee completed its work Monday and will present the finished Comprehensive Plan to the Town Board at its Thursday meeting, according to The Columbia Paper.... The Daily Mail reports Republicans in the Town of Hunter endorsed Dolph Semenza for a board seat, incumbent James Volker for Town Justice (beating Hunter businessman Paul Solodar 59-21), incumbent councilman Daryl Legg, who last ran on the Democratic ticket, for the second seat on the council, and Democrat John Farrell, the incumbent Highway Superintendent.... The Daily Mail also reports that the Catskill Village Board approved a new, two-year $1,051,000 contract with the Catskill Police Department Monday night, though the story fails to mention whether this is an increase or decrease.

Organizing for this year’s 15th Annual CCCA ArtsWalk is already underway. The CCCA would like to take this early opportunity to inform its artist members of its plans in order for them to have advance notice of the criteria for submission, if they intend to participate. Download the PDF application here.

THE MEMBERS OPEN SHOW will include a minimum of 1 piece to be shown from any member artist submitting. Each member will be represented provided that the guidelines for submission have been met.

MEMBERS’ OPEN SHOW
1. Artist must be a current member of the CCCA.* (No artist has ever been excluded from ArtsWalk for lack of ability to pay.)
2. All work submitted should have been created from 2006 to the present.
3. Work should not have been shown in the previous ArtsWalk exhibits.
4. SUBMISSIONS FOR CONSIDERATION MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN SATURDAY, JULY, 25 2009. NO EXCEPTIONS!
5. Artists may submit representations of up to 6 pieces of painting, photography, sculpture, video, installation or original works on paper in the form of digital / photographic prints, or CDs .
6. Each submission should be marked with artist's name, title of work, framed size, medium, price, and date.
7. All work MUST BE WIRE HUNG AND READY for installation, and sale.
8. CCCA charges a 30% commission on sales for all work shown during ArtsWalk
8. Artists are responsible for delivering selected artwork to their designated exhibition location by, drop off deadline, to be determined, sometime in September. Artists are also responsible for the timely pickup of work after the Exhibition closes.

THE PERFORMING ARTS AT ARTSWALK are being expanded this year; the Performing Arts Showcase will be back as well as other theatrical, dance and music offerings. Proposals and questions concerning The Performing Arts at ArtsWalk may be directed the same as visual art submissions. For more information and to be considered, please contact ArtsWalk Co Chairs Chad Weckler and RobRoy MacGregor at chadweckler@earthlink.net or kweetak@yahoo.com.

For more information, contact CCCA at 518-671-6213, info@artscolumbia.org or the office and gallery at 209 Warren Street in Hudson.

*A “hanging fee” of $30 or three-hours of volunteer time during ArtsWalk is also required. This is not a “fee”, but a correction of a situation in which some artists have donated uncountable hours of work and others have not. Some artists happily opt to pay the fee rather than to work. This allows us to hire youngartists desirous of work to help out with the enormous logistical task of mounting ArtsWalk.

If unmuffled, Lynn Sloneker's reporting on the Hudson school system, isn't the best blog in Columbia County, I do not know what is. Sloneker relentlessly reports the raw data about what is going on in Hudson's troubled schools like no other reporter in the area. Like last Tuesday the Hudson Board of Education approved vacation day buy backs for district administrators, going back to the 2006-07 school year: Daniel Barrett (district Business Manager) - $5,401.50; Thomas Baumgartner (principal) - $8,840.86; Mark Brenneman (assoc. principal) - $4,769.98; Barbara Boyce (Director of Student Services) - $2,461.28; William Clark (admin, technology) - $2,995.92; Thomas Gavin (principal) - $5,680.20; Ryan Groat (principal) - $15,622.44; Terry Harcleroad (admin, technology) - $4,130.70; John Howe (superintendent) - $2,812.50; Derek Reardon (assoc. principal) - $3,799.40; Steven Spicer (principal) - $4,961.88; Maria Suttmeier - $4,807.24. She also reports that New York State Education Department has awarded the Hudson City School District Afterschool Program $3.5 million in 21st Century Community Learning Centers Round 5 grant funds (one of 60 winners out of 387 applicants), and that the Hudson school board is moving its meetings back to the second and fourth Mondays this year. Best is her reporting of last Tuesdays board meeting, where Emil Meister was elected BoE president, Jeff Otty was voted vice-president, Maria J. Suttmeier was appointed Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Derek Reardon was promoted to fill the newly created junior high school principal job, and the board considered creating a curriculum committee:

Meyer then put forward a separate resolution to establish curriculum as the fifth board committee. A vigorous conversation took place, during which Superintendent Jack Howe, Fout, Daly and Abitabile all opined that the time was not right for the board to get involved with district curriculum.

"I think it's best to wait," said Howe. "We can revisit this after the [district] reorganization."

"This is too important to put off," Meyer said. "It's the perfect time to do it. It will send a message to the district that the board is serious about curriculum."

In the end the vote to establish the curriculum committee was 4 to 3, with Fout casting what appeared to be a tentative -- and decisive -- "yes" vote. (Meister, Otty, Meyer and Fout voted in the affirmative.)

Read the rest of her post to see all the appointments, and other news.... CCScoop says the new Wal-Mart in Greenport is scheduled to open on September 7, and the 103,000-square-foot Lowe’s, both in the Widewaters development, is scheduled to open on September 28 or 29. This reporter heard that Hudson's long-delayed Club Helsinki has bookings in early October, so should be ready by then.... The Columbia Paper reports that about $15 million in stimulus money is reaching Columbia County.... ccScoop also reports that the Village of Valatie saw a 9.4 percent increase in residents, up to 1,882 residents, between 2000 and 2008. Philmont recorded an 8.1 percent decrease, down to 1,366 residents, while Hudson reported a 7.7 percent decline, down to an estimated 6,925 residents. The Village of Chatham lost 4.2 percent of its population, with 1,682 people residing in the village.

The Greenville Press (no web site, no links) reports that opponents (read: neighbors) of a proposed motocross track in Durham will sue the town for not applying the town's site plan law.... Sam Pratt's Facebook page reports results of Friday's Taghkanic Democratic caucus: 144 Democrats voted Loretta Hoffman 116 to Betty Young 26 for Town Supervisor; Town Board Seat #1: Thompson 122, Romaine 20; Town Board Seat #2: Kadish 118, Romaine 24; Town Clerk/Collector: Koran 108, Rogers 32; Highway Supervisor: Youhas 113, Waldron 30; Town Justice: Tallackson 119, Dalrymple (not present) 21....Red Hook Democrats this week nominated Bill O’Neill, a registered Republican who served as deputy supervisor under former Democratic Supervisor Marirose Blum Bump, for Town Board and also endorsed Robert McKeon for re-election to a second term on the Town Board, according to The Daily Freeman. McKeon had been a Republican until 2007, but recently switched to the Dems.....The Seeing Greene blog says Darby’s pub in East Durham is slated for sale at a foreclosure auction on August 5.

The New York State Senate finally got back to work Friday, with the Democrats doing a deal with the devil in the same way the Republicans did last month, according to The Register-Star. They gave Pedro Espada Jr. the majority leader role, even though both parties should not want anything to do with the corrupt Senator.... Jim Folz, commissioner of Public Works in Hudson and director of grounds and buildings at Columbia Greene Community College who served on the Claverack Comprehensive Plan Committee has announced he will run for a seat on the Claverack Town Board, according to The Register-Star. Folz has the Conservative Party endorsement, and is looking for the Republican line come July 17.... The village of Athens is seeking a loan to make a nearly $50,000 debt payment on water system improvements, according to The Daily Mail.

LIVE SATURDAY:

A Socialist Perspective on the Health Care Debate with Billy Wharton of the Socialist Party USA and Jonas Sjostedt, former member of thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif European Union Parliament for the Swedish Left Party, for a talk on our nation's health care crisis at 3 p.m. at Jason's Upstairs Bar, 521 Warren St., Hudson.

Forest Cotton kicks off his re-election campaign for the Greene County Legislature at 7 p.m. at Union Mills, 361 Main St. in Catskill.

Alexander Turnquist and Wires Under Tension celebrate the release of Turnquist's new album "As the twilight Crane Dreams in Color" at 8 p.m. at Carrie Haddad Photographs, 318 Warren St., in Hudson.

The local and statewide deadlocks took tiny steps toward resolution Wednesday. The Register-Star reports that Supervisor Doug McGivney, D-Kinderhook, introduced a resolution at the last minute at the Columbia County Board of Supervisors Full Board meeting Wednesday that the Board of Supervisors will “endorse the concept of exploring the obtaining and retention of the services of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) for the purposes of review, study and recommendations concerning all aspects of building or capital needs of Columbia County.” It passed unanimously. But don't think this means the kerfuffle between Columbia County Supervisor Art Baer (R-Hillsdale) and the city of Hudson, largely over where the Department of Social Services ends up, is over. “That’s one of the areas I think they would provide us potentially with some assistance,” he said. “I think we’re going to expose them to the process that the Board went through, let them take a look at the data, and if they can come up with some other option, then we’re certainly going to listen to it....At the same time, we’re not going to pull the emergency brake and stop all our actions with respect to engineering and design with respect to Ockawamick,” said Baer. “How could you invite people in to study something while you are moving forward? I don’t think that’s acceptable to this problem,” Linda Mussmann of the Bottom Line Party and TSL said. “The reality is we need a plan that’s going to work. That, I think, finally, everybody has understood.”... New York Govenor David Paterson appointed Richard Ravitch to fill the vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor, according to Capitol Confidential. Ravitch is a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. There will clearly be legal challengers to whether the Governor is allowed to appoint a lietenant governor, as potential Governor candidate Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has already announced the move is illegal. Columbia County Assemblyman Marcus J. Molinaro (R,C,I-Red Hook) wasted no time calling the move unconstitutional, and said, "Ravitch...masterminded the $2.3 billion MTA bailout plan that include[d] a devastating payroll tax which disproportionately hurts Hudson Valley businesses, school districts, municipalities and not-for-profits."... The Town of Athens implemented a resolution to add a $150 fee to all 50-foot non-commercial wind turbines, according to The Daily Mail.... The Times Union gives Hudson's Baba Louie's a "pretty serious rave."... The Times Union terminated 15 full-time and three part-time employees, including 11 full-time employees in the newsroom, according to the paper. Among the employees let go were Monica Bartoszek, a senior editor and the newspaper's reader representative; Alan Wechsler, author of a regular column about the outdoors; Bill Callen, sports editor; and Marlene Kennedy, business editor and a weekly columnist. The Newspaper Guild said, "the Company’s actions come while the parties are supposed to be negotiating layoff criteria, talks that resume at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Last week, the Guild filed two information requests over the proposed criteria, which the newspaper has yet to answer."

Columbia County Board of Supervisors holds its regular meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at 401 State St. in Hudson. Protesters will be back voicing opposition to the Board's proposed moved of the Department of Social Services from Hudson to Ockawamic. "As a direct result of the public outcry and resistance, a key member of the Board of Supervisors has now reversed his position on the project," writes Linda Mussmann, of the Bottom Line party and TSL in Hudson. "Longtime Claverack supervisor James Keegan announced his "change of heart" in the July 7 edition of the Register-Star.... The Coxsackie Village Board has joined Cairo as the second local jurisdiction with a troubling audit from the State Comptroller. Coxsackie lacked sufficient oversight between 2004 and 2008, leading to a number of “unplanned operating deficits” in its general, water and sewer funds, according to an audit, as reported in The Daily Mail.... David Deutsch's Parks Arts Recreation Culture group will not be constructing outdoor spaces, housing, a grocery store, a year-round indoor pool, an ice-skating rink, a inter-generational center, bike paths and other improvements in Hudson, as they cannot raise money for the ambitious plan, according to The Register-Star....Twenty seven homes were sold in Columbia County in May 2009 compared to 13 sold in April 2009; this is a 107.7 percent increase. In Greene County, the number of existing single family homes sold decreased 32.1 percent, with 28 homes sold in April and 19 sold in May, The Register-Star reports. From May 2007 to May 2009, the number of homes sold in Columbia County decreased 37.2 percent, and decreased 40.6 percent in Greene County.... Common Cause is organizing a campaign to get the New York State Senate back to work instead of their continued efforts to play "pretend" Senate....Vice-President Joe Biden will speak at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the The Daily Gazette.... Elvis Costello mentions the Hudson Valley on “Sulphur to Sugarcane” from his new album, “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” (via Nippertown!):
“The women in Poughkeepsie
Take their clothes off when they’re tipsy
But in Albany, New York,
They love the filthy way I talk
Until they gargle with the finest champagne
They can´t get the grape and the grain
It´s not very far from Sulphur to Sugarcane”

Claverack Supervisor James Keegan changed his mind Monday, telling The Register-Star that the Columbia County Board of Supervisors should not move the Department of Social Services out of Hudson to the old Ockawamick school in his district. Previously, Keegan voted to move DSS to Ockawamick. “Maybe the satellite should be in Claverack,” Keegan told the paper, “and have the main building in Hudson.”...Greene County lawmakers have scheduled a 6 p.m. Aug. 5 public hearing in the Greene County office building at 411 Main St. in Catskill for comments on the $2.03 million being requested under a $14.96 million Columbia-Greene Community College budget, according to The Daily Freeman....The New York State Senate continues to act like fourth-graders who do not know all the rules to playing Model UN. They failed again Monday to act on any of the people's business, and instead filed more lawsuits, according to Capitol Confidential....Hudsonia, the nonprofit environmental research institute based at Bard College, is offering a one-day workshop July 21 for developers, environmental consultants, engineers, biologists, site managers, regulatory officials, and policy-makers who want to include biodiversity concerns in land use planning and site design. The workshop will be from 5-8 p.m. at Norrie Point Environmental Center in Staatsburg, The Daily Freeman reports.

LIVE TONIGHT:

William Murray and Patrick Landewe perform at 7 p.m. at the Saugerties Lighthouse, 845-750-5260.

The New York State Senate continued to pretend to play "senate" instead of actually doing the people's work on Sunday, according to Capitol Confidential. Casey Seiler of the Times-Union's blog believes the two sides are nowhere near reaching any agreement....Kaatskill Condos, a housing project at the former Irving Elementary School in Catskill, is in foreclosure, according to The Daily Freeman. Rhinebeck Savings Bank is seeking to cover more than $2 million in mortgage debt from the project from Estate Capital LLC, formerly Hudson Valley Development Group. The 1907 school building would have been turned into 12 condos....The Columbia Paper largely rehashes the current kerfuffle between Columbia County Board of Supervisors chairman Art Baer (R-Hillsdale) and the city of Hudson, but reports that the county may buy the former Charles Williams School from the city for $400,000. The county may turn the property into temporary emergency housing for the homeless....The Town of Cairo is making more moves move away from open and transparent local government. The Daily Mail reports that comments made during public hearings at Cairo Planning Board meetings would be limited to five minutes. They say they are doing this to shorten the meetings, which have been consistently running past 11 p.m. The Town Board is also considering a proposal that would redact the names of anyone making a complaint in town documents. They may vote on that proposal at their regular meeting July 22.

"A Sound Map of the Hudson River" by Annea Lockwood CD cover image. (Lovely Music)

July 5, 2009: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
at Catskill Point
1 Main Street, Catskill, NY 12414


Curated/Organized by: WGXC/free103point9

Join WGXC and free103point9 for an evening of listening at Catskill's Historic Catskill Point on the Hudson River. Sound Mapping will feature a live performance from members of the New York Society of Acoustic Ecology (NYSAE), a conversation between artists Alexis Bhagat and Annea Lockwood, and Annea Lockwood's canonical work “A Sound Map of the Hudson River.” Free admission. Audiences are encouraged to bring picnics. This is a family-friendly event, children are welcome.

This event is presented in conjunction with WGXC: Hands-on Radio in Greene and Columbia Counties, a project of free103point9. Special thanks to Patty Austin, Dick Brooks, and Greene County Economic Development, Tourism & Planning for facilitating the use of Catskill Point.

6 p.m.: Moving Water, New York Society of Acoustic Ecology (NYSAE)

Moving Water is a two-part interactive performance. The first part is a tuning of the audience-- NYSAE members will guide participants through "Ear Cleaning" exercises and help to activate their ears for focused listening to the immediate soundscape. In the second part, NYSAE conducts the audience in an improvised sound-making performance, documenting the resulting mixture of gestures and sound in the field of shared space. The audience will be split into groups and instructed to make sounds of varying timbre and texture around the theme of moving water. Through the listening exercises and performance, NYSAE aims to provide the audience with listening tools to take away from the event as well as preparing them for Annea Lockwood's subtle and beautiful work.

Performers from NYSAE: Andrea Callard, Jamie Davis, Jonny Farrow, Todd Shalom and Andrea Williams.

6:40 p.m.: Introduction and interview with Annea Lockwood conducted by Alexis Bhagat.

7 - 9 p.m.: A Sound Map of the Hudson River: Annea Lockwood, recording, mixing; the Hudson River

A Sound Map of the Hudson River is an aural journey from the source of the river, in the high peak area of the Adirondacks, downstream to the Lower Bay and the Atlantic Ocean; Lockwood traces the course of the Hudson through on-site recordings of its flow at 15 separate locations. Annea Lockwood has recorded rivers in many countries to explore the special state of mind and body which the sounds of moving water create when one listens intently to the complex mesh of rhythms and pitches. The listener will find that each stretch of the Hudson has its own sonic texture, formed by the terrain, varying according to the weather, the season and downstream, the human environment whose sounds are intimately woven into the river's sounds.

At Catskill Point (July 5, 2009,) interviews conducted by Lockwood about the Hudson River are simultaneously transmitted and accessed by attendees though portable radios with headphones. Note: a version of this project is available on CD through Lovely Music. See: http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd2081.html.

About the Artists

The New York Society for Acoustic Ecology (NYSAE) is a membership organization that advocates listening and promotes public dialogue about the urban sound environment. NYSAE creates and encourages new ways of encountering sound and provides resources and information on acoustic ecology. Through projects, lectures, performances, exhibitions, festivals, publications and broadcasts, NYSAE addresses historical and contemporary local, national and international sound issues. Please visit: www.nyacousticecology.org.

Alexis Bhagat's work is dedicated to the destruction of authorship and authority through the cultivation of new forms for radically poly-vocal sound, transmission of promiscuous conversation, and obsessive never-ending correspondence. He is the curator of ((audience)), a nomadic festival of surround sound compositions.

Annea Lockwood was born in 1939 in Christchurch, New Zealand where she received her early training as a composer. After completing a B.Mus (hons) she went on to study composition at the Royal College of Music in London, with Peter Racine Fricker (1961-63); at the Darmstadt Ferienkurs fur Neue Musik (1962-63); and with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Musikhochschule, Cologne, Germany and in Holland (1963-64). Returning to London in 1964, she freelanced as a composer-performer in Britain and other European countries until moving to the USA in 1973. There she continued to freelance and teach, first at CUNY, Hunter College, then, from l982 and at present on the faculty of Vassar College, NY.

During the 1960s she collaborated frequently with sound-poets, choreographers and visual artists, and created a number of works which she herself performed, such as the Glass Concert (1967), later published in Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, and recorded on Tangent Records, then on What Next CDs. In this work a variety of complex sounds were drawn from industrial glass shards and glass tubing, and presented as an audio-visual theater piece. In synchronous homage to Christian Barnard's pioneering heart transplants, Lockwood created the Piano TranspIants (1969-72), in which old, defunct pianos were variously burned, "drowned" in a shallow pond in Amarillo, Texas, and partially buried in an English garden.

During the 1970s and '80s she turned her attention to performance works focused on environmental sounds, life-narratives and performance works using low-tech devices such as her Sound Ball (a foam-covered ball containing 6 small speakers and a radio receiver, originally designed to "put sound into the hands of" dancers). World Rhythms (l975), Conversations with the Ancestors (1979, based on the life stories of four women over 80), A Sound Map of the Hudson River (l982), Delta Run (1982, built around a conversation she recorded with the sculptor Walter Wincha, who was close to death), and the surreal Three Short Stories and an Apotheosis (l985, using the Sound Ball) were widely presented in the US, Europe and in New Zealand.

She turned to writing for acoustic instruments and voices, sometimes incorporating electronics and visual elements, in the 1990s, producing pieces for a variety of ensembles: Thousand Year Dreaming (1991) is scored for four didgeridus and other instruments and incorporates slides of the cave paintings at Lascaux; Ear-Walking Woman (1996), for pianist Lois Svard, invites the pianist to discover a range of sounds available inside the instrument, using rocks, bubble-wrap, bowl gongs and other implements; Duende (1997) a collaboration with baritone Thomas Buckner, carries the singer into a heightened state, similar to a shamanic journey, through the medium of his own voice.

Much of her music has been recorded, on the Lovely, XI, ?What Next?/OO Discs, Rattle Records (NZ), Harmonia Mundi, CRI and Finnadar/Atlantic labels. -http://www.lovely.com/bios/lockwood.html

The Town of Copake is currently $7,200 in the hole, and may face a $160,000 deficit, according to The Columbia Paper. The story lists several reasons for the shortfall in revenue, but this is the most startling: "Fines and forfeiture revenues for the year were expected to come in around $105,000, but halfway through the year only $11,220 has been received, with an $82,000 shortfall expected by the end of the year." Huh?....The Register-Star reports that Republican and Conservative John Porreca will face Democrat Donald Moore to replace Hudson Common Council President John Cody, who is not seeking re-election....The Shamrock House of East Durham may face be auctioned off due to a foreclosure caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis, Dick May reports in his Seeing Greene blog....Greene County may lose $700,000 in tax revenue they have already budgeted because of the New York State's Senate's continued play-acting, according to The Daily Mail. Instead of doing any actual work on Friday, the Senate worked together for a few minutes Friday to wish one of their own Senators, Owen Johnson, a happy 80th birthday, according to Capitol Confidential.

LIVE TONIGHT:

Angus Martin 9 p.m. at the Black Swan 66 Broadway in Tivoli, 845-757-3777.

Nearly two decades after the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Columbia County Courthouse in Hudson still is not accessible, reports The Register-Star. Judge George Cerisia, the chief administrative judge for the Third Judicial District, threatened county supervisors and officials with the state fixing the building. This comes after a physically disabled reporter recently crawled up the stairs to cover the murder retrial of Warren Powell....Former Athens village trustee Chris Pfister, a Democrat, will challenge Ray Brooks, R-Athens, for his seat on the Greene County Legislature, according to The Daily Mail....Meanwhile in Albany, the State Senate continues to play pretend senate. Capitol Confidential says Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is looking into withholding senators pay until they start acting like senators. CCScoop reports that Columbia County and its municipalities will lose more than $7.5 million in sales tax collections if the State Senate cannot resolve its leadership squabble, though the story does not say when this loss of revenue will begin.....Karen Feldman, a Columbia County lawyer and political activist, is among 60 New Yorkers that sent a letter to the U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney warning her against a “divisive primary fight which forces voters to choose between two tremendously capable, hard-working women,” Capitol Confidential reports. Maloney just announced she will challenge U.S. Senator Kirstin Gillibrand next year....The New York Times reviews New York artist Rachel Harrison's “Consider the Lobster” show at The Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College.

NYC Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is officially challenging Senator Kristin Gillibrand in the 2010 Democratic primary, according to The Daily News. Politicker NY reports that Joe Trippi (in 2004, he was National Campaign Manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign) will be her chief strategist and media consultant....Capitol Confidential reports that Gov. David Paterson has called the New York State Senate into extraordinary sessions through the holiday weekend until July 6. The blog also says the Senate held another one of its pretend sessions on Wednesday....Chronogram Magazine's July issue is out, with reviews of exhibits this summer at Art Omi and the “Ahoy: Where Lies Henry Hudson?” at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild....Catskill Republicans endorsed incumbent Councilman Robert Antonelli and former councilman Joseph Leggio to run for positions on the Town Board, and Town Justice Robert Carl according to The Daily Mail....The Salvation Army soup kitchen, on Third Street in Hudson, has been serving 2,000 meals a month recently, according to The Register-Star.