At approximately 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, January 18, the Hudson Police Department received a call for an armed robbery in the area of 37 N. Fifth St. While investigating the incident the police located two of the involved suspects along with two firearms, according to a published press release in the Register-Star on January 19. One firearm was reported stolen out of the New York State Police Barracks in Livingston. Charges are pending, investigation is still ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Detective Bureau at the Hudson Police Department at 518-828-3388 or 518-828-9900.

The National Weather Service Winter Storm Warning continues through 7 a.m. The village of Catskill is under snow emergency rules effective until further notice, according to The Daily Mail. "Alternate side parking rules shall be observed. All vehicles should be parked on the even side of village streets from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on the odd side from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. Odd and even sides of the street are marked by house numbers. Violators will be ticketed and towed." Traffic everywhere may be a problem Wednesday morning.


Live on WGXC Wednesday
*6-8 A.M.: WGXC Morning Show Hosted by Casson Kennedy, and Mark Lacoy. A mix of news headlines, audio features, and conversation. This morning there will be updates about the storm, possible closings, and more.
6:30 A.M.: The Farm Report
6:45 A.M.: Obituary for Germantown playwright Romulus Linney.
7 A.M.: WGXC Newsroom Headlines
7:15 A.M.: Paul Smart calls in with live news update.
7:30: Preview of Lafarge legislative hearing Thu. Jan. 20 in Ravena.


Town meetings tonight
CITY OF HUDSON Hudson Industrial Development Agency board meeting at 5 p.m. at City Hall; and Hudson Zoning Board of Appeals meeting (tentative) at 7 p.m. at City Hall.


Weather
A LITTLE RAIN AND SNOW Temperatures forecast for 36 degrees, today's average is 33 degrees and record high 57 degrees in 1996.


Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 2:14 a.m./Low, 9:18 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:21 a.m./4:52 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 5 p.m./6:58 a.m. (Full moon begins at 4:22 p.m.)


Birthdays
JANUARY 19 Robert E. Lee, Edgar Allan Poe, and Cindy Sherman.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="324" caption="Image from S&F Technologies website."][/caption]Chris Simonds in The Columbia Paper reports Philmont Trustee Laurence Ostrander presented two estimates from S&F Technologies of Greenport for security surveillance systems, at a Mon. Jan. 10 town board meeting. "The pricier option, at just under $11,000, provides two video cameras, one atop the village office building and the other pole-mounted elsewhere, each controllable from a central location and providing video recordings of everything it 'sees.' Less costly, just under $3,000, is a vehicle-mounted video recorder with interchangeable lenses and memory card storage of images." A few recent incidents of vandalism, including smashed windows at the Village Hall spurred the initiative and Trustee Ostrander and other officials visited Catskill where a similar S&F system is already in place. Simonds entire story reports on other Philmont news in The Columbia Paper.

The Associated Press via The Daily Freeman reported Monday that 80-year-old playwright Romulus Linney died Sat., Jan. 15, at his home in Germantown. Linney's wife Laura Callanan told AP the playwright died of lung cancer. From the AP story:

"Linney, father of actress Laura Linney, wrote more than 30 plays that covered a number of subjects. Some of his works were set in Appalachia, which he was familiar with through his youth growing up in the South. Others were historical dramas, some looking at moments in time like the Nuremberg trials or the Vietnam war and others taken from the lives of public figures like the poet Lord Byron or Frederick II, a king of Prussia."

Linney's work appeared mainly in regional theater and off-Broadway, with one play appearing on Broadway. He also taught at Columbia and Princeton universities, Hunter College, and The New School. The YouTube video above includes Linney, Austin Pendleton, and Kristina Valada-Viars discussing Mr. Linney's "Love Drunk" during rehearsals for its production at Abingdon Theatre Company, March 2009.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="374" caption="Image from 511ny.org shows current traffic accidents in the area."][/caption]This image of accidents in Greene and Columbia counties at 4:49 p.m. Tue. Jan. 18 shows that the weather -- a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain -- is making driving conditions spotty in some areas.

All Over Albany posts about a new study that ranks the New York City to Albany route as one of the corridors with the most potential for high-speed rail. The report, from the planning/policy organization America 2050, ranked the route along the Hudson River among the top one-percent of all routes in the nation. Washington DC-NYC was the top-ranked route with a score of 20.15, while NYC-Albany route scored 19.29. The U.S. Department of Transportation has begun releasing funds for preliminary work on the Albany-NYC route to make it faster, but not the high-speed touted by this study, that would reduce the commute to one hour. Currently, the route is the fifth-most-traveled in the country, with a stop in Hudson.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Lafarge Cement's plans for changes to its Ravena plant culminate, for now, with a legislative hearing at the Ravena High School on THursday, January 20 at 6:00 PM."][/caption]A formal legislative hearing on proposed changes at the Lafarge cement plant in Ravena, billed by the major company as an updating but seen by opponents as an expansion, will take place at the Ravena High School at 6 p.m. on this Thursday, January 20. Barring written comments, which can be submitted through the coming month, this is currently the last major scheduled public event involving the plant plans from Lafarge, whose Ravena facility was named the state's top air polluter by the federal Environmental Protection Agency late last year. WGXC has been recording all hearings on this subject, including a presentation by the Harvard University School of Health, commissioned by main plant expansion opponents CASE (Community Advocates for Safe Emissions) given earlier this month. Friends of Hudson, which came together to challenge growth plans by St. Lawrence Cement in Columbia County last decade, is also becoming a major element in this process.

For a record of the public hearing Lafarge's plans from December 8, click here, or copy and paste the following url into your computer’s media player:

http://www.wgxc.org/media/uploaded_files/2010/12/LafargeEnvironmentalImpactPublicMtg_120810.mp3

For audio of a hearing on Phase 1 of a state Department of Health study on the plant and its plans, which took place on Thursday, December 9, 2010, click here, or copy and paste the following url into your computer’s media player:

http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/12/RavenaDOHhearing_WGXC_12090.mp3

For a record of the Jan. 6 Harvard Pubnlic Health College study presentation on Lafarge and its surrounding community, click here, or paste the following url into your computer’s media player:

http://www.wgxc.org/media/uploaded_files/2011/01/Harvardhealthprelimstudy_RavenaHigh_010611.mp3

Finally, for an earlier story on how all this is playing out in the local media, including us, check our earlier story on the subject here.

Community Blood Services is in need of Type O CMV negative blood donors to regularly donate and help save the lives of newborns and babies in need at the community hospitals it serves. According to a story from this morning's Mid Hudson News Network, more than 60 donors are needed every week to treat babies who need transfusions, as noted by Patrice Foresman, director of recruitment at Community Blood Services, which supplies blood to more than 30 hospitals in New York and New Jersey.

Type O donors can schedule appointments or find convenient donor sites and hours by visiting www.communitybloodservices.com, or by calling 845-220-2030. CMV negative donors who join CMV, or cytomegalovirus, is a common virus found in the environment that is not generally a serious infection except for patients like newborn babies, Foresman said. Type O is the most needed blood type, because it can be transfused to patients with other blood types who need emergency blood transfusions and whose blood types are unknown.

Start-of-year government business continues to take up the front pages of local papers this week as county officials give reports on their successes of the past year, if continuing their jobs, as well as quieter plans for 2011. A Register Star story this morning charts Columbia County Controller Ronald Caponera's recent statements in this area, emphasizing his goals and objectives for county spending and ability to better oversight in the past year.

"A primary responsibility of Caponera’s in 2010 was bringing the county into compliance with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s GASB 34 and 45," reads the article, noting that GASB 34, published in 1999, requires state and local governments to report all their financial transactions including the value of their infrastructure, while GASB 45, published in 2004, requires governments to measure non-pension costs associated with their workforce, including post-retirement medical, dental, disability costs, etc.

After talking about all he's fdone to comply with such oversight legislation in the past year, including a corporate compliance plan fthat includes whistleblower protections for employees, Caponera said that for the coming year he hopes to see complete computerization of "almost every county system," including the county’s payroll system, and a streamlining of travel expenses, with "Advantage Travel as, basically, the county’s travel agency.”

Could it be there are some worried about the recent wave that swept over so much of the nation's politics?

Danny Donohue, president of the 300,000 member CSEA, New York’s leading union, posted an editorial that a number of the state's newspapers ran yesterday, tying Martin Luther King back to his undying support for the nation's labor movement. "The recent horrific events in Tuscon have saddened us all. However, from every tragedy lessons can be learned and the attention given by many to the contribution of violent rhetoric as cause for the shootings may be just the opening to bring civility back to our public discourse," Donovan wrote, setting the stage for a call back to civility from all those who have taken to attacking public employees in the last year. He goes on to talk about how basically un-historic, and un-American, it is to vilify a portion of our working populace for the jobs they take, and the rights they ask for as workers.

"I am further bolstered by the genuine joy expressed by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in her account of the awakening of her friend and colleague Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords during a visit to the shooting victim’s hospital room.

Add to this the eloquent and poignant comments of Congresswoman Giffords’ intern Daniel Hernandez who is credited with saving her life and being called a hero. He said, “We must reject the title of ‘hero’ and reserve it for those who deserve it, and those who deserve it are the first responders and the public servants and the people who have made sure they have dedicated their lives to helping others.”

What a stark contrast to those who have vilified public servants. It’s time to bring honor back to those who choose to dedicate their working lives to bringing service to others. The school bus driver, the nurse, the caseworker and the sanitation worker and all who toil every day deserve our respect for committing to helping bring quality to our lives and communities.

On this Martin Luther King day let’s all take a moment to reflect on what is truly important and pledge to treat each other with courtesy and consideration even when we disagree. We owe that much to the real meaning of this holiday and those who have suffered so greatly in Tuscon.

Danny Donohue is the president of the 300,000 member CSEA – New York’s leading union.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Farm fencing may be the latest local zoning battleground."][/caption]Down in the neighboring Dutchess County town of Red Hook, a new review of fence regulations to determine whether amendments are needed to exempt farm use of fencing intended to keep cattle contained and crops safe, augers the sort of zoning and planning changes expected throughout the area as land use changes from an agricultural to a second home and bedroom community demographic. The Daily Freeman has a story this week on a request for such review by increasingly upscale Red Hook's Agriculture and Open Space Committee, which has recommended that recently enacted permit and fee requirements be taken out of zoning laws.

“About eight or 10 years ago the Town Board amended our zoning to address the question of fencing,” the resolutioon read. “This was based upon concerns of the public associated with building of walled fences (which) would obstruct the views. ... So the feeling was the matter of fences should be subject to someone taking a look at them and seeing that they were consistent with the requirements of our zoning law.”

“If I have to come down here every time I want to move an electric fence, I am leaving,” one farmer is quoted saying in the story. “I can’t even believe there would be a permit to put up an electric fence. ... It’s a single strand of wire we move around.”

Town Code Enforcement Officer Steve Cole said state law could be used to determine the type of barriers used for farms. “This goes back to the 1800s when you had rock walls and they were not being cared for,” he said. “There is a whole series of statutes on fences.”

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="David Woodin, seen here in a WGXC file photo with election opponent Charles Tailleur, has returned to private practice after 28 years in public service following his November election loss."][/caption]Former long-term Greene County law clerk David Woodin, who lost a bid to become county judge, last November, has a new job, has shifted into private practice with attorney Sean Doolan, a local practice with offices in Windham, Catskill and Rockland County. In an interview with the Daily Mail published today, January 18, Woodin said he’s eager to start his new career in private practice. A Democrat whose career as a law clerk to the last four Greene County judges spanned 28 years, as well as conductor of the Catskill Community Orchestera, Woodin was defeated by Republican opponent Charles “Chip” Tailleur, the county’s chief assistant district attorney, in last November’s race to succeed the retiring Judge Daniel K. Lalor. Woodin received almost 5,500 votes. Tailleur received more than 8,700.

Woodin, 55, lives in Catskill. He was born in Vermont. In 1976, he graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts with a degree in physics and music. He received a master’s degree in teaching from Reed College in Oregon a year later. In 1981, Woodin received a law degree from Albany Law School. He holds a second-degree black belt in Shiya-Do karate and has in the past served as an instructor at the American Dojo Martial Arts & Fitness Center in Cairo. Among the highlights of his law career, Woodin created software that advises judges and attorneys on plea bargaining restrictions. He also served as a member of a subcommittee for the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform.

Etsy, who some have called E-Bay's "funky little sister," is moving to Hudson's Cannonball Factory in the coming months, shifting a portion of its business center from Brooklyn, where the entity was founded by three NYU students in 2005, and adding 50 local jobs, according to a letter sent to local business people by Etsy principal Rob Kalin on January 17. "I started Etsy to create opportunities in the world -- for myself, for small business owners, for people who make things, people who find things, and more," Kalin wrote in his e-mail on MOnday. "I love that we are be able to bring jobs to Hudson. Right now we're working to get things setup. (As of this email, the building doesn't even have heat! But that's happening quickly.) Our plan is to start with customer support positions, and grow from there. Etsy HQ will remain in Brooklyn, and I hope to grow our Hudson office to 50 employees or more. Jobs at Etsy come with a salary, benefits (medical, dental, vision) paid for in full by the company (including family plans). We'll be posting actual job descriptions soon."

A huge online marketplace stuffed with handmade, one-of-a-kind products, Etsy is named for a term found in Frederico Fellini's classic art film, 9 1/2, and now features 100,000 creators and designers worldwide selling everything from jewelery to jumpers through the site. Etsy tripled its gross sales in 2008 to $90 million, while simultaneously becoming as much a community as an e-commerce site, with actual and virtual meetups organized by location (Singapore, Saskatchewan), medium (papier-mâché, mosaic), and interest area (Chainmailers Guild, Lizards and Lollipops). The company just noted that the company just came off its best month ever, selling $41.1 million of goods in December, 10.1% higher than November's $37.3 million... and over 2,152,992 items. 468,814 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, up 70,603, or 17.7%, from November.

"My family is from New York (from Tarrytown up to Syracuse), and I've spent many a night in a lean-to amongst the Catskills," Kalin wrote, explaining his fast-rising company's latest move. "Etsy currently employs 175 people, most of them in our Brooklyn office. As we continue to grow, it makes a lot of sense to me to open up an office in Hudson.
I love the town, we found an incredible building (thank you Chris at the Cannonball Factory, and Theresa at Keystone for helping), and as everyone here knows -- better than I do, I'm sure -- there are so many great people."

Talk about a perfect match for Hudson's core of small retail businesses, as well as the region's fast-changing profile.

The National Weather Service predicts 3-8" of snow, freezing rain, and maybe .10" of ice today and tonight. WGXC's Newsroom will have closings, weather warnings, and other news on the storm.


Live on WGXC Tuesday
*6-8 A.M.: WGXC Morning Show Hosted by Casson Kennedy, Kaya Weidman, Mark Lacoy and others. A mix of news headlines, audio features, and conversation. This morning there will be updates about the storm, possible school closings, and more.
*NOON-2 P.M.: Vocal Chords Andrew Sosnowski hosts two-hours of many types of singing.


Town meetings tonight
CITY OF HUDSON Hudson Common Council Finance Committee Meeting at 5:30 p.m., and Hudson Common Council Formal Meeting at 7 p.m., both at City Hall.





Weather
A MESS Snow, freezing rain, sleet, and more in the forecast.


Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 1:29 a.m./Low, 8:31 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:21 a.m./4:51 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 3:45 p.m./6:14 a.m.


Birthdays
JANUARY 18 Robert Anton Wilson, Ray Dolby, and Jim O'Rourke.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning from midnight Monday/Tuesday through 7 a.m. Wednesday morning for the Mid-Hudson Valley to Lake George and into western New England. In the Mid-Hudson Valley, snow and sleet are expected, with snow accumulations of 3 to 8 inches, with .10" of ice. The NWS warns travel could be dangerous, and wet snow or freezing rain could cause tree branches and power lines, so power outages may occur. Temperatures should start out Tuesday Tuesday between 10 and 20 degrees, and rise to around freezing by late in the day and the evening.

50 years ago, on January 17, 1961, then-President Dwight Eisenhower gave what is now considered to be one of the great speeches of all time, a serious look at the future of America beyond politics. In it, he introduced the idea of the "industrial military complex." Listen and hope that now, a half century on, we may finally heed its prescience.

Water gushed down Hudson's Warren and Union streets much of today, January 17, as the result of a water main break on Worth Street. A detour, lasting close to six hours, occurred as crews from the city's Department of Public Works toiled to stem the flow, which caused several icy spots in downtown Hudson, including a particularly slick intersection at the corner of 7th and Warren Sts., as well as quite a bit of confusion coming into town from outside. Repeated calls to city offices and the DPW on Monday afternoon, from 3 p.m. on, went unanswered.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Building demolition on Robinson Terrace in Hudson last Friday, January 14, may have been for a garden and not new units designed to replace Bliss Towers, the city's low-income housing recently rendered irreparable."][/caption]Thanks to Carole Osterink of The Gossips of Rivertown for bringing to life all that's really involved in urban renewal in historic towns and cities like our communities here in the WGXC coverage area. Her blog currently has a photo up (seen at right) of a house being demolished on Robinson Street in Hudson last Friday, just one of a list of buildings identified as "demolishable" to make way for the new units needed to replace Bliss Towers, the former low-income housing in the City of Hudson now rendered obsolete. Although Osterlink notes that the demolition "seems to have no connection with that project" and may actually have more to do with a neighbor's wish to "have a garden," it's an apt demonstration of how tenuous our communities really are.

The Register Star had a story on efforts to replace Bliss Towers, and all behind it, following a city Common Council meeting on the issue last week where Habitat for Humanity spoke about its plans for the site commonly known as Diamond Park (242, 244 and 246 Columbia St.). The homes Habitat is proposing with built-in approval deadlines would be constructed in a “federal style,” considerably different than the homes Habitat usually builds and similar to the attached townhouse the organization will soon finish at 444-446 Columbia Street.

In September, Hudson Housing Authority Executive Director Jeffrey First confirmed that the HHA plans to demolish Bliss Towers, ending a nearly decade-long discussion over whether to renovate or replace the affordable housing complex. The HHA wishes to gain site control, by way of a resolution from the Common Council, of a slew of “demolishable” properties — among them, the same exact site on Columbia Street which Habitat has its eyes on.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Artist Sonja Hinrichsen worked in snowshoes to create a snow art work at the Columbia Land Conservancy's Ooms Conservation Area at Sutherland Pond in Chatham this past weekend. See it before it snows again tomorrow!"][/caption]Snow artist Sonja Hinrichsen, a Millay Colony alumna who is working with various organizations around the area making snow art this winter, worked with local residents and other artists this past weekend to turn the frozen and snow-covered pond at Ooms Conservation Area into a snow painting, a process she has also undergone in the Berkshires of nearby Massachusetts in recent weeks.

Hinrichsen, originally from Germany, moved to San Francisco to get her MFA degree in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduation, she moved back to Europe for a time, and has since been returning to Millay in Austerlitz for regular retreats. The artist has done projects all over the world, and has received numerous awards and fellowships throughout her career.
Hinrichsen started her career as a visual artist, and said she traditionally worked with video, exploring various environments, filming them for a period of time, and then turning a room, or rooms, into a fully immersive work of art about what she’d learned. Such works, she said, commonly include as many as six video recordings playing at one time, structural art based on the area she was studying, and even words or sentences written on the walls. The latter, she explained, come from the short stories — almost like journal entries — she writes when beginning a new piece of art.

“What I do is explore environments,” she said in a Register-Star story on January 17, adding that she has preferred places that that were not so hospitable, such as deserts or remote mountain regions. “I like places that are a little bit difficult, places that have given people problems, but where natives have always found a way to cope.”

Intricate interconnected circles and lines now cross the pond, some of which were predesigned by Hinrichsen, while others were the work of impromptu groups of snowshoers or hikers who saw the work and began to imitate the design.

For more on the Ooms Conservation area in Chatham, visit the Columbia Land Conservancy site here...

The US Department of Health and Human Services is releasing funds to help New York seniors and families deal with heating bills this winter. Mid Hudson News Network reports on January 17 that New York will receive $473 million as part of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Due to the recession and the cold winter weather gripping the state, Senator Charles Schumer said releasing the funds “is essential for Upstate New York families and seniors who struggle to heat their homes.” Schumer added that no one should worry about affording basic necessities because rising home heating bills are “squeezing their family budgets.” With the additional federal funding, more families and seniors will be able to keep warm this winter, he said. In the Hudson Valley last winter, 128,145 households received benefits.