Ted Remsnyder reports for Columbia-Greene Media that the upgrades for the Hunter Transfer Station are costing taxpayers more money, as Greene County Legislature’s Finance Committee unanimously approved spending an additional $17,758 on the project at its meeting May 16. The full legislature still needs to approve the additional funds. Scott Templeton, the county’s Highway and Solid Waste Department superintendent, is blaming the state. “Unfortunately the state of New York did not review and approve the plans until October,” Templeton said. “Because of those (state) delays, the cost of materials, the cost of construction and the cost of everything has risen.” After various legislators bashed the state government at a May 9 meeting, Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden defended the state. “Because of COVID the state basically went remote and things just got slowed down,” he said. “It’s difficult to criticize that so much, but I don’t know if they are fully back to the office or are they still doing a combination of remote work?" Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Monday, May 30 is Memorial Day, and Porcupine Soup rounds up where there are events for the holiday in Greene County. Catskill starts thins off on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m.with a Memorial Service at the Catskill Veterans Cemetery, North Jefferson Avenue. Greene County hosts the Honor a Vet Memorial Ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21 at the Warehouse on the Historic Catskill Point with a posthumous honoree: WWII POW SSGT Rudolph Phillips of East Durham. Windham has a Memorial Program at 9 a.m. Friday, May 27 starting at the Windham Ashland Jewett Central School front bus loop, then heading to the Ashland Cemetery, Windham Cemetery, and Hensonville Monument near the Town Hall. On Memorial Day itself there are events in Athens, Greenville, Cairo, New Baltimore, Coxsackie, and Prattsville. In Athens, a parade starts at 9 a.m. on May 30 at at Wheat Street/Rt. 385, with stops at the Triangle to lay wreaths, and then proceeds up Franklin Street to TGM American Legion Post 187 with speakers and refreshments. Greenville's parade begins at 10:15 a.m. at St John’s Church, then heads down State Route 81 into the hamlet with a Memorial Service following parade at the Greenville Veterans Park Gazebo. Cairo's parade steps off at 11 a.m. near Schindlers auto shop on Main St. and heads to Angelo Canna Town Park with a Memorial Service with American Legion Mohican Post 983. There's also a Memorial Day ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Coeymans Hollow Fire Department at 1290 Route 143. Coxsackie's parade begins at 1 p.m. on Apple Blossom Lane, and proceeds down Mansion Street, with stops at the WWII Monument, the Mansion Street Cemetery, and the WWI Monument at the church corners before ending at Village Hall. And Prattville's Virgil E. Deyo American Legion Post 1327 hosts its annual Memorial Day parade at 1 p.m. with a Memorial Ceremony to follow at the Town Green. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.

Today's daily news update.

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Voters in all 12 school districts in Greene and Columbia counties on Tue., May 17, overwhelmingly approved the districts' proposed 2022-23 spending plans. and ballot propositions. Parry Teasdale is reporting in The Columbia Paper the margin of victory in the New Lebanon district was so large for the budget and a bus purchase proposition that, in a brief website letter to the community, schools Superintendent Andrew Kourt referred to the victories as “80 percent” and “70 percent” respectively. The budget for Ichabod Crane received strong support, winning approval with 1,155 yes votes compared to 597 voting no. The proposition to purchase four school buses for $444,000 was green-lighted by voters with a margin almost as large as the budget vote tally. In Hudson, the $54 million budget was easily approved and in the Board of Education election, incumbents Willette Jones, Lakia Walker and Mark DePace were re-elected to three-year terms; Kjirsten Gustavson received the fourth highest number of votes and will be awarded one of the partial terms ending in June 2023. The fifth open seat, with a partial term ending in June 2023, was won by Calvin Lewis, a write-in candidate. In Greene County, the story was similar. Ted Remsnyder is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media budgets in the Catskill, Coxsackie-Athens, Cairo-Durham, Hunter-Tannersville and Windham-Ashland-Jewett districts, were all approved by wide margins. Catskill Central School District Superintendent Ronel Cook wrote in an email Wednesday, “We thank our taxpayers for their support with helping us to maintain our current level of staffing, while providing students with the highest quality of academics and extracurricular programs. ... I am extremely happy for our students, staff and the community.” Voters in the Greenville district approved the proposed budget as well as a $1.1 million proposition to purchase 10 new vehicles. In the Cairo-Durham board election, Incumbent Todd Hilgendorff was re-elected to a three-year term, with James H. McManus III and Cheryl Moore also earning seats on the board. All local districts kept their tax levy increases at or below the state-mandated cap.

Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup Stephen Baker, owner of Moore’s Homes in Prattsville, pleaded guilty this month in Prattsville Town Court to one count of offering a false instrument for filing, a misdemeanor. As part of the plea deal, federal fraud charges were withdrawn, said Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione. In November 2019, Baker and former Prattsville Town Supervisor Kory O’Hara were indicted in federal court for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and theft. O’Hara was also charged with bank fraud and making false statements in a loan application. In March, Baker agreed to plead guilty to a state misdemeanor, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to then dismiss the federal charges, thereby satisfying the federal government's case against Baker. “He was sentenced to pay a fine and was granted a conditional discharge; the condition being that he engage in no further criminal activity,” Stanzione said. In August 2011, Hurricane Irene tore through northeastern New York. O’Hara was serving as the town supervisor at the time and under his administration, the town secured millions of dollars in federal rehabilitation funds. It was alleged that O’Hara and Baker used phony invoices from Baker’s modular home business to bill for work on O’Hara’s Service Station that was never done. According to authorities, O’Hara and Baker engaged in the fraud from 2013 through 2015. Both men were accused of profiting from the fraud by collecting funds through the New York State Main Street Program, the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program and applying for a business loan with NBT Bank. As part of the plea agreement reached in March, O’Hara is expected to plead guilty to one count of the federal indictment, but exactly which charge O’Hara will plead to has not been disclosed. Also in March, Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin agreed to a 90-day continuance for the parties to finalize the agreement. Read more at porcupine soup [dot] com.

Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics state lawmakers are pushing for the merger of the Office of Addiction Services and Supports, and the Office of Mental Health with the intention of better serving those facing both addiction and mental health crises. The state Senate on May 17, approved a bill that would merge both offices, creating the new Office of Addiction and Mental Health Services. “Not a week goes by that I don’t get a call from a family who has lost a loved one, who said their family member was in and out of treatment six, seven, eight, nine times, but because they never treated their underlying mental health disorder, they kept self-medicating until fentanyl caught up to them,” said state Sen. Peter Harckham. He said the measure will break down existing barriers in treatment programs, and follow the federal government’s recommendation for integrated care. Seventy percent of people who have a substance abuse disorder also have an underlying mental health disorder. That overlap rises to 90 percent when a person is in crisis. Half of those living with a mental illness also have an underlying substance abuse disorder. Harckham also wants to create a seven-person standing advisory committee on addiction and mental health programs for the purpose of crafting policy for prevention, care and treatment for people facing mental illness and addiction as well as a comprehensive plan for implementation. There has been a record rise in overdose deaths statewide over the last two years, coinciding with the COVID pandemic. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Anyone who needs to know what time it is, and does not have a clock, or a watch, or any sort of computer, can still find out. The U.S. Naval Observatory still maintains a phone number, 202-762-1401, where anyone can call and hear the exact time. The Navy has several other time numbers, some just for modems. And Jock Elliott reports in the SWLing Blog that there are several shortwave radio stations also set up with only the time of day, repeating endlessly, as content. "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) maintains a couple of stations devoted to broadcasting time announcements, standard time intervals, standard frequencies, UT1 time corrections, a BCD time code, and geophysical alerts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Elliott writes. WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado, is one station, radiating 10,000 watts on 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 15 MHz; and 2500 watts on 2.5 MHz and 20 MHz. WWVH, based in Kekaha, Hawaii, transmits 10,000 watts on 10 MHz and 15 MHz, and 5000 watts on 2.5 MHz. "WWV uses a male voice; WWVH, a female voice. They are staggered in time so that they don’t talk over each other. While doing research for this blog, one afternoon on 5 MHz and 10 MHz, I could hear the female voice, followed by the male voice, so I was hearing both Hawaii and Colorado," Elliott writes. There is also a Canadian time station, CHU, transmitting 3000 watts on 3.33 and 14.67 MHz, and a 5000 watts on 7.85 MHz in English and French from Barrhaven, Ontario. And there is also a time station beaming from Moscow, Russia that transmits on 9996 and 14996 kHz. Read more about this story at the SWLing Post..

Today's daily news update.

Democrat Josh Riley switched where he is running for Congress on May 15, just after the district maps were announced, Syracuse.com reports. Riley, born and raised in Endicott, just west of Binghamton, was going to run in the 22nd District, but the lines shifted May 15, when the court-appointed special master released new maps for the state's Congressional District. Instead, Riley is going to run in the 19th District, which next year will stretch from Columbia and Greene counties west through Binghamton and Ithaca to Tompkins County. Riley says he has experience as Rep. Maurice Hinchey's staff assistant, and worked on unemployment insurance at the United States Department of Labor before going to law school. He has also been a law clerk for Judge Kim Wardlaw on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California, and as General Counsel to U.S. Senator Al Franken on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Riley, though, will have one of the oddest election season's ever. Delgado is expected to resign soon, as Gov. Kathy Hochul recently picked him to be her lieutenant. Depending on when Delgado resigns, there will be a special election on August 23, or thereabouts, for the seat in the old district between Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, a Democrat, and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican. Riley could be in a primary election for the new district seat on the same day. Then Ryan will run for the 18th Congressional District seat in November. And if Riley makes it to the general election, he will face a Republican, most likely Molinaro, who could be an incumbent by then.

Paul Kirby reports in the Daily Freeman that the new state Senate district lines released this week by the court-appointed special master. The new maps have some incumbents moved out of their districts, and has other candidates switching their previously announced plans. State Senator Michelle Hinchey, for instance, currently represents the 46th District. But Hinchey is based in Saugerties, and the 46th District, under the new maps, is now moved to Albany County, and other areas farther north. So, instead, Hinchey has announced she will compete in the 41st District, which under the new maps covers all of Ulster and Columbia counties, and the northern half of Dutchess County. Currently, Republican Sue Serino of Hyde Park represents that district, and Jamie Cheney, a Democrat from Rhinebeck, was set to oppose her. Now Hinchey and Cheney face each other in the August primary election, before the general election in November. Republican Rich Amedure was running against Hinchey in the 46th District. Republican Daphne Jordan currently represents the 43rd District, which will now represent all of Rensselaer County, a tiny portion of northeast Albany County, and southern Washington County. Greene County will get a new representative, switching from the 46th District to the 51st District. Republican Peter Oberacker, from Schenevus, is the incumbent there, with the new district similar to the new 19th Congressional District, stretching west to Binghamton. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman .

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Columbia County resident Emily Nooners tore down two White Lives Matter banners over Interstate 90 on May 14. The banners read, “Stop White Replacement” and “Wake up White New Yorkers.” The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center both call the White Lives Matter group racist. “I’m driving down the highway and I just see these banners up and I immediately felt sick,” said Nooners. “I almost didn’t believe that that was what it had said because from a distance it was quite small. I just kind of notated where I thought it was, being familiar with the area. Then I saw a second one, and I was like, Oh yeah, we’re going to get those. I could just not fathom the idea that some people would have to drive under them.” One of the banners was on the overpass in Chatham and the other on the overpass near Exit B1. “I had no idea that at the very same time that I had been compulsed to cut these down the shooting was happening in Buffalo,” Nooners said. “I returned to my house around 2:40 p.m., which means I was pulling those banners down just before and during. Which I didn’t find out until later in the evening.” Ten people were killed and several others wounded by a gunman in Buffalo who posted on online screed with the same conspiracy theory about white replacement mentioned in one of the banners. “I have a really sick feeling. The shooting happened in Buffalo. These signs were posted along 90, and 90 is the route that leads to Buffalo,” Nooners said. “Some people kind of thought that maybe it might have been a trail. It’s just uncomfortable to think about the proximity, it’s so close to our community, it’s disturbing.” Read more about this story in HudsonValley360.com.

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Patricia R. Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro will face off in a race for a seat in Congress that will cease to exist after December. They both said on May 17, they will run in a special election for the 19th Congressional District once U.S. Rep Antonio Delgado resigns to become lieutenant governor. Ryan is a Democrat and from Gardiner. He announced his candidacy in a video posted to social media. Molinaro, a Republican from Red Hook, announced his candidacy in a telephone interview with the Freeman. The 19th Congressional District will no longer exist as currently configured on December 31. On Mon., May 16, Ryan announced his candidacy for the newly created 18th Congressional District, which now covers much of central and southern Ulster County, all of Orange County and all but the southeastern portion of Dutchess County. Molinaro announced the very same day that he will run for the newly created 19th Congressional District, a district in which he does not live and includes none of Dutchess County. The U.S. Constitution requires a member of Congress to live in the state, but not necessarily the district they represent. Ryan said he will run in a special election in August, but no special election has yet been called by Gov. Kathy Hochul; the timing of a special election is dependent on when Delgado resigns. In order for a special election to be held on August 23, the same day congressional and state senate primary contests will be held, Delgado must resign between May 25 and June 4. If he resigns outside that timeframe a special election would have to be held on a date separate from the August 23 primary election. If he fails to resign by June 30, no special election will be held and the seat will remain vacant. Read more in the Daily Freeman.

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Columbia County has reported its first COVID-related deaths in more than two months. According to information released by the Columbia County Department of Health, there have been three COVID-related deaths during the past five days, the first since March 3. “All three were elderly individuals,” Columbia County Department of Health director Jack Mabb said. “One was in an assisted living facility.” He said two of the three had been vaccinated. The first two deaths were reported late last week, and the third on May 16. Columbia County has recorded 144 COVID-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, with 21 of those deaths occurring in 2022. The county’s rate of new COVID-19 cases is in the high-risk category, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are in a different place now, even though we’re in the high-risk,” Mabb said. As of Monday, the county reported 91 new positive cases, the highest number reported by the department since January. “We ended up with 91, but that’s still the highest number that we’ve had in quite a while,” Mabb said. He said it is unlikely the county’s COVID numbers will go down in the near future. “Dr. Fauci this morning was on TV imploring people, ‘Please don’t think that we’re done with this.’ And I think that’s exactly right. People aren’t wearing masks, they are not socially distancing, they are going about their business, they’re done with it....," he said. Mabb said there are currently 20 county residents hospitalized because of the virus, one in the intensive care unit. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics state lawmakers on May 17 moved legislation meant to aid people who have been wrongfully convicted in court in addition to measures meant to aid immigrant New Yorkers in the legal system. The items are being pushed at the end of the legislative session as lawmakers ponder a potential package of criminal justice law changes. One bill would change how people who have been wrongfully convicted are able to return to court and clear their name based on evidence that was not available to them at trial. The proposal is yet to be voted on by the full Assembly or state Senate. Meanwhile, lawmakers on the Assembly Codes Committee approved a measure intended to ensure immigrant New Yorkers facing criminal charges have access to immigration advice. The bill protects immigrants' procedural rights and will prevent wrongful deportations. Having already passed the Senate, it should be brought to a vote immediately in the Assembly so the governor can sign it into law. Read more at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Radio World reports that at its May 19 meeting the Federal Communications Commission is set to allow FM broadcasters to use computer modeling software for their directional antennas. Currently, FM radio stations using directional antennas must provide physical measurements to verify their directional pattern. So stations, or more often antenna manufacturers have to build a full-size mockup of the antenna or a scale model, which is very expensive. WGXC, for instance, needs a directional antenna for a signal that is sandwiched between the Christian station WPGL north of Schenectady, and New York City's WFUV, and hemmed in by the Catskill and Berkshire mountains. But technology has improved since WGXC first went on the air in 2011, and after this proposal is approved stations can instead submit computer-generated proofs of FM directional antenna patterns instead of the more expensive models. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said that this draft order would, “decrease regulatory costs and bring our FM regulations in line with other broadcast services.” Read more about this story at Radio World.

Today's daily news update.

Luke Parsnow and Kate Lisa are reporting for State of Politics on May 16 the court-appointed special master charged with drawing New York's new congressional and state Senate maps released a preliminary draft of the new boundaries the state will have for the next decade. Carnegie Mellon University Fellow Jonathan Cervas as special master drew lines for the state's 26 House seats, with 15 leaning Democratic, three leaning Republican and eight falling into the 45-55 percent competitive range. The new map splits up 15 counties compared to 34 county splits under the Legislature's plan that was struck down in April by the state's highest court for unconstitutional gerrymandering. The biggest changes from the maps drawn by state Democratic lawmakers in February include the 22nd District in Central New York and the 19th District in the Hudson Valley. The 19th now extends from Columbia County to Broome County and Cortland County. The district is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado. He has said he will resign and be sworn in as the state's next lieutenant governor, but has not said when. Republican Marc Molinaro, currently the Dutchess County Executive, said May 16 he will continue his campaign for the 19th Congressional District, even though he now lives outside of the new district. The 21st District, currently represented by Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, extends south to include all of Montgomery and Schoharie counties and north to include Saratoga County. "The map maintains Democratic strongholds in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany, and also maintains a Southern Tier district," said Jeff Wice, senior fellow at the N.Y. Census & Redistricting Institute at New York Law School. "Overall, the districts are very compact across the state. The downstate districts are very compact." Greene and Columbia counties, though, are split from the Capital District, and paired with far-off Binghamton and Ithaca. MidHudson News is reporting the new 18th District now includes Orange County, southern Ulster, and most of Dutchess County. Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan announced on Twitter that he will run for that seat rather than competing in the 19th District, where he had previously entered a primary election. State Senator James Skoufis, also a Democrat, tweeted that he is “seriously considering” a run for the new district seat. Republican Colin Schmitt previously announced he was running for this seat, and confirmed he still would after the new maps were announced. The new 17th District would encompass much of the lower Hudson Valley and incumbent Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney will run in that district. Rep. Paul Tonko's Amsterdam home is now in Stefanik's 21st District, rather than the 20th District he now represents, so he will also be running in a district where he does not live. Republican Liz Joy opposes him in the 20th District. Primaries for U.S. House and state Senate races were pushed back to Aug. 23. The primary election for the statewide offices and state Assembly races will take place June 28.

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge reports for Columbia-Greene Media that on May 9 the State Office for Renewable Energy Siting issued its notice of incomplete application for the Shepherd’s Run Energy Project in Copake. Hecate Energy, the developer behind the planned 22-acre, 60-megawatt solar farm, now has to complete a long list of items for approval. “On hearing that ORES has marked the application incomplete the town of Copake is cautiously optimistic.,” Copake Town Supervisor Jeanne Mettler said. “We are hopeful that this means they will actually require Hecate to make the changes recommended by the Working Group. The burden is on ORES to convince the town that they are not just a rubber stamp. The State has claimed that ORES will listen to citizens’ concerns. Now let them prove it.” Hecate project developer Alex Campbell said, "I don’t have data on how many applications have been deemed incomplete, but we’re just going to work through the deficiencies hat they found to submit a response.” The proposal for the large solar farm has seen much opposition in Copake. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.