Local News
Local news from Wave Farm‘s WGXC 90.7-FM in the Hudson Valley, New York for Sat., July 25. PLAY AUDIO (3:20)

Local weather forecast
Today's forecast is specific to Acra, in Greene County.

• Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. A 40 percent chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible, after 2 a.m., with a low around 59.

• Sunday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 78, and a low around 60.

• Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 83.

Sunrise 5:42 a.m.
Sunset 8:21 p.m.
Other celestial rises/sets
Moon 2:54 P.M. 12:46 A.M.
Mercury 5:47 A.M. 8:38 P.M.
Venus 8:19 A.M. 9:18 P.M.
Mars 4:40 A.M. 7:46 P.M.
Jupiter 7:46 A.M. 9:31 P.M.
Saturn 3:33 P.M. 1:27 A.M.
Uranus 11:28 P.M. 12:30 P.M.
Neptune 9:56 P.M. 9:00 A.M.
Pluto 6:58 P.M. 4:27 A.M.

WGXC Programming

12:05am
Radio Stew: Playing Telephone
6:00am
This Week in Radio News: Don Joyce
6:30am
The RAIN Report: Ron Kochanowicz
8:00am
Amateur Radio Newsline: Hidden Transmitters
11:00am
Saturday Morning Serial: Jäh Division
2:00pm
Radius Sketchpad: Carver Audain
4:00pm
Saturday Afternoon Show: Kyle Eyre Clyd
6:00pm
This Week in Radio News: Don Joyce
7:00pm
Framework: Stefan Paulus
8:00pm
Saturday Night Special: Ed Bear + Samara Lubelski and Marcia Bassett
11:00pm
Saturday Night Séance: Negativland

Emilia Teasdale reports in The Columbia Paper that the Kinderhook Village Board has received a petition from residents who want a committee to consider sharing the village Department of Public Works services with the town. The residents’ petition also asks that discussions about the DPW be open to the public and involve community input. The Kinderhook village DPW building burned down May 25 in an accidental fire, with the village losing most equipment. Since then, the village has borrowed equipment from the town and other municipalities. “We’ll get our figures together and I would like to talk to the Village of Valatie and the town,” Mayor Carol Weaver said. The next Kinderhook village board meeting is at 7:30 p.m. August 12. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

Full audio of local headlines and weather for Friday, July 24 (6:16). (Produced by Tom Roe.)

https://data.wavefarm.org/r/ep/3d/1y/WGXC_local_news_20150724.mp3

John Mason is reporting in the Register-Star Hudson Mayor William H. Hallenbeck Jr. Thu., Jul. 23, vetoed a Common Council resolution to initiate an Article 78 proceeding to compel Columbia County to enforce the city's ward boundaries, and reassign voters to their correct voting districts. In rejecting the Council action, the mayor recommended instead that ward boundaries be changed to reflect where voters currently vote. Approximately four years ago, it was discovered some Third Ward and Fourth Ward voters should have been voting in the Fifth Ward, according to the boundaries drawn by the City Code. The decision by the Council Tue., Jul. 21, to take legal action was based on the fear that chaos would result if the problem was not resolved quickly. In his veto letter, the mayor referred to the "stress and confusion" voters would experience if they were forced to switch districts before an election. “I strongly believe it would be fair and just to allow these voters the opportunity to have the boundaries changed to reflect where they vote currently, in an effort to not change their status from one ward to another at this time,” Hallenbeck wrote. In an email to the paper, Common Council President Don Moore called the veto message “two pages of contradictory fog and finger pointing.” Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Ryan Anglim writes in The Daily Mail the Greene County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public of a reported phone scam. Residents of Greenville and Catskill recently received phone calls from an individual claiming to be an IRS employee, Sheriff Greg Seeley said Thu., Jul. 23. The caller demands payment of a specified amount of money, and threatens arrest if the recipient does not comply. The calls were received during the past two weeks. A police investigation into the calls is ongoing. Residents who receive similar calls are urged to contact the Greene County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Unit at (518) 943-3300. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Scott Waldman is reporting at Capital New York nine municipalities along the Hudson River held a candlelight vigil Thu., Jul. 23, to put pressure on General Electric and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to remove more pollutants from the river. Vigils were held in Beacon, Newburgh, New York City, Mechanicville, Schuylerville, Ossining, Kingston, Coeymans and Nyack. Officials from the communities conducting the vigil said GE is leaving behind millions of pounds of heavily tainted sediment. More than 70 communities on the river have passed resolutions calling on GE to conduct a more extensive cleanup. The company is completing a six-year dredging of the Hudson River for PCBs it dumped there for decades. Under an agreement with the federal government, General Electric consented to dredge PCBs from the river along a 40-mile stretch from Troy to Fort Edward. Read the full story at Capital New York.

Dartunorro Clark in the Albany Times-Union reports that University of Albany researchers are creating a desktop and smartphone app to provide election information for voters. Alex Muro of Albany and Eric Krans of Altamont, researchers at the Albany Visualization and Informatics Lab at UAlbany, have created Electorate, to put campaign information in voters' computers. "Electorate literally puts information on elected officials into the palm of your hands," Krans said. "The biggest impact comes when we marry easily accessible voting information with the power of existing social networks. Imagine if you could see who your friends, family and neighbors were endorsing in your local elections, or if your friends could see your endorsements. This is the goal of our application." The app placed second in the recent AT&T Tech Valley Civic App Challenge, and includes information on local, state and federal elected representatives. The alpha version of Electorate is available for use through desktop or smartphone, with a beta version in August. See the full story in The Albany Times-Union.

[caption width="348" align="alignleft"] DEC's turkey hunting map.[/caption]Public commenets about declining populations have led regulators at the Department of Environmental Conservation to shorten turkey hunting season to two weeks. The fall season for the state’s Northern Zone (the Adirondacks) is Oct. 1-14; Oct. 17-30 in the Southern Zone, which includes the WGXC listening area; and Nov. 21-Dec. 4 in Suffolk County. The DEC received about 120 comments on the proposal, almost all expressing concern over the smaller turkey populations. “Declining wild turkey populations across the state make it necessary to shorten the hunting season,” DEC commissioner Joe Martens said in a statement. “It is important to responsibly manage New York’s wild turkey populations to ensure that future generations of hunters have the opportunity to go afield.”

Weather right now


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="128"] Cairo: High 82F; low 56F.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="125"] Catskill: High 81F; low 57F.[/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAR LEFT: The temperature on the far left is from the Hawthorne Valley Farm Weather Page.
MIDDLE TEMP: Cairo from Weather Underground page.
FAR RIGHT: Catskill from Weather Underground page.

Local weather forecast
Today’s forecast is specific to Catskill, in Greene County:

Today: Isolated showers after 1 p.m. Mostly sunny. High near 81. Chance of precipitation is 20 percent. Friday night, patchy fog after 2 a.m. Otherwise, partly cloudy. Low around 58.

Saturday: Patchy fog before 8 a.m. Otherwise, mostly sunny. High near 84. Saturday night, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 63.
Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny. High near 82. Sunday night, a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 63.
Monday: Mostly sunny. High near 87. Monday night, partly cloudy. Low around 64.

Sunrise today: 5:41 a.m.
Sunset today: 8:23 p.m.
Length of the day: 14:41 hrs.

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

CLERMONT Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 1795 Route 9, Clermont (537-6868).
HUDSON Historic Preservation Commission meeting (tenative), 10 a.m., at City Hall, 520 Warren Street, Hudson (828-1030). Common Council Diversity Sub-committee meeting canceled.

Full audio of local headlines and weather for Thu., Jul. 23 (5:11). (Produced by Philip Grant.)

https://data.wavefarm.org/r/56/s4/xy/WGXC%20Daily%20News%20Thursday%2007232015.mp3

Audrey Matott is reporting in The Daily Mail the Greenville Town Board and the Greenville Volunteer Rescue Squad met again Mon., Jul. 20, to continue the effort to convert the squad into a paid service. It is believed that with a paid squad, ambulance service in Greenville would be far more reliable because paid staff would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, according to the latest numbers, the paid squad would cost more than a quarter of a million dollars, and have to be raised through additional taxes. That could make the plan cost prohibitive for town taxpayers. At the meeting Monday, the town board agreed to meet with the Durham Town Board to discuss the possibility of combining Greenville's rescue squad with Durham Ambulance, first to determine if the idea was feasible and then to decide if it was something worthy of pursuit. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Diane Valden is reporting in the Columbia Paper the state Department of Transportation has plans to fix a retaining wall supporting state Route 82 in Ancram, but not for six weeks, but officials are concerned that won't be soon enough. The wall is located on the south side of state Route 82 behind and west of the Simons General Store, which sits at the crossroads of Route 82 and county Route 7. The top of the wall is supposed to be level with the road surface, but part of the wall’s crown is now bowed out and dips below the road surface. The retaining wall is made of field stone and mortar and is believed to date back to the late 19th century. The declining condition of the wall was reported to the DOT three years ago. The department intends to install a berm that would extend past the wall three feet from the guard rail. A section of the stone wall will be cut and removed. A DOT Public Information Officer Gina M. DiSarro said in an email to the paper the department expects the work will begin in the next six weeks. Read the full story in the Columbia Paper.

Rick Karlin and Matthew Hamilton are reporting in the Times Union New York's fast-food workers are on track for a raise to $15 an hour. On Wed., Jul. 22, a wage board empaneled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo recommended the increase, which will affect roughly 200,000 workers statewide. The panel's decisions are subject to approval, rejection or modification by the state Labor Commissioner. Beginning Dec. 31, the minimum wage would increase to $10.50 in New York City, and to $9.75 in the rest of the state. Annual increases would follow until the hourly rate hits $15 in New York City in 2018, and in the rest of the state in July 2021. Progressive leaders hailed the announcement as a net win and a first step toward a higher wage for all sectors. Business groups and those representing fast-food operators criticized the decision, predicting it would lead to job cuts in the industry. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Julia Reischel in The Watershed Post reports that between 150 and 200 people turned out for the "Broadband Pep Rally" in Lexington July 18, as activists there try to bring better internet access to the mountainous Greene County town. Lexington resident Bonnie Blader organized the rally, timed with efforts to win a state grant to fund half of a $3 million project to lay 76 miles of fiber optic cable to 90 percent of the town’s 805 residents. Read the full story in The Watershed Post. (The group covered "Rawhide" as their "Broadband Anthem" on the YouTube video above.)

The Daily Freeman reports that the Valatie Research Farm and Woodstock's Stang Farms will get two of the state's planned mesonet early warning weather detection systems. Nineteen locations, out of 125, have been announced so far, with real-time weather condition data available for emergency management, research, and condition-dependent industries. For more information about the system, visit the website http://nysmesonet.org.

Weather right now


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="128"] Cairo: High 81F; low 54F.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="125"] Catskill: High 81F; low 55F.[/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAR LEFT: The temperature on the far left is from the Hawthorne Valley Farm Weather Page.
MIDDLE TEMP: Cairo from Weather Underground page.
FAR RIGHT: Catskill from Weather Underground page.

Local weather forecast
Today’s forecast is specific to Catskill, in Greene County:

Today: Mostly sunny. High near 79. Thursday night, mostly clear. Low around 53.

Friday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Mostly sunny. High near 81. Friday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 p.m. Partly cloudy. Low around 58.
Saturday: Sunny. High near 82. Saturday night, a chance of showers after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 63.
Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. High near 82. Sunday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 64.

Sunrise today: 5:40 a.m.
Sunset today: 8:23 p.m.
Length of the day: 14:43 hrs.

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

CHATHAM Village Board meeting, 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall, 77 Main Street, Chatham (392-5821).
COLUMBIA COUNTY Board of Supervisors .1 [point one] Committee meeting, 1 p.m.; Finance Committee meeting, 1:30 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).
DURHAM Task Force meeting, 7 p.m., Town Building, 7309 St. Route 81, East Durham (239-8260).
GERMANTOWN Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 50 Palatine Park Road, Germantown (537-6687).
GREENVILLE Board of Education meeting, 7 p.m. at high school, Route 81, Greenville (966-5070).
HUDSON Community Development and Planning Agency board meeting, 12 p.m. at 1 N. Front St., Hudson (751-1044).
STUYVESANT Greenway Committee meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 5 Sunset Drive, Stuyvesant (758-6248).
WINDHAM Town Board meeting, 8 p.m. at Town Hall, 371 State Rt. 296, Hensonville (734-4170).

Full audio of local headlines and weather for Wed., July 22 (5:40). (Produced by Tom Roe.)

https://data.wavefarm.org/r/qs/mz/cb/WGXC_local_news_20150722.mp3

John Mason is reporting in the Register-Star after five months of deliberation, the Hudson Common Council chose Tue., Jul. 21, against a detailed environmental review of the city's plan to separate its stormwater and sanitary wastewater lines on North Front Street. The measure considered by the council would have declared the project a Type II action under the state Environmental Quality Review Act, meaning it would not have significant environmental impacts. Only First Ward aldermen Nick Haddad and Rick Rector voted "no" on the resolution. The Council made its decision after member questions were fielded by Public Works Superintendent Robert Perry and two engineers from Delaware Engineering, and after Common Council President Don Moore prevented comment from South Bay Task Force member Timothy O'Connor. O'Connor has consistently disputed the city's assertion that the proposed separation project is mandatory, and he has also been a strong advocate for a detailed environmental review. Nick Zachos, a member of the Conservation Advisory Council, took issue with Moore's decision to move forward with the vote without public comment, Tuesday night. In an email to Mason following the meeting, Zachos wrote, “Tonight, he [Moore] censored the public by not allowing commentary from outside the council or its chosen guests, no opposing views were heard....For the public [not] to be heard on this important issue feels like a failure of democracy." Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Jim Planck is reporting in The Daily Mail the town of Catskill has been approved to provide Advanced Life Support services on its ambulances. Catskill Ambulance Department Administrator George June said Mon., Jul. 20, the town’s application was approved at the June meeting of the Regional Emergency Medical Organization of the Hudson-Mohawk Valley. That agency coordinates emergency medical services systems for six Capital Region counties, including Greene County. The approval means that paramedics who already staff the town’s ambulances are authorized to treat individuals at a higher level of response. The next step in the process is for the town to acquire the necessary supplies and equipment, such as defibrillators, monitors, EKG machines and other items. June said the plan is to have the ALS service functional before the end of the year, possibly as early as October. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

The Times Union is reporting a study performed by a private consulting firm has found Columbia County received the most economic boost per capita from tourism in the last year, among the six counties of the Hudson Valley region. Nearly seven percent of all wages paid in the county were derived from tourism, compared to less than five percent in the other counties, according to Tourism Economics. Overall tourism spending totaled approximately $123 million, or the equivalent of roughly $562 per household, the report found. The state Department of Labor reported Tue., Jul. 21, Columbia County had the region’s lowest jobless rate in the month of June, at 3.9 percent. That was, for the second month in a row, the best in the state among the 24 counties not classified as part of a metropolitan area. The cunty’s unemployment rate in June 2014 was 4.4 percent.