William J. Kemble reports in the Daily Freeman that Saugerties town officials last week approved a $14.21 million 2022 budget carrying a 6.5 percent increase of $867,524 with most of the increase coming from ambulance expenses. The $11.65 million property tax levy means an 8.78 percent increase of $940,000. Resident Susan VanWagenen was not happy that her taxes will go up. “You would have to be living under a rock if you aren’t feeling the financial pinch already, so there’s no need to make a point of how much more we are spending for basics like food and gas,” she said. “Heating fuel is projected to increase this winter by 30 to 55 percent. …We are going to be paying more for everything and most people will not be taking home more pay.” Ambulance service costs are up 65 percent to $1.32 million, mostly to pay for personnel to take on calls when there is the need for a third crew member. Elected officials are getting a raise too, from five percent for the town supervisor and more than four percent for town board members to just over three percent for the two town justices. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

Today's daily headlines.

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Sam Raudins is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media that the proposed development of the former pocketbook factory located at 549 Washington Street on Hudson's north side was approved by the city planning board on November 18. The price tag for the project is estimated to be $25.6 million and will include the creation of a hotel with 40 guest rooms, a wellness center, a restaurant and bar, a public indoor lounge, and outdoor courtyard as well as commercial spaces for the arts, retail and creative office, and nonprofit uses. The lone dissenting vote, against site plan approval, was cast by Laura Margolis, over enforcing public access to the project's proposed green space. The granting of permanent public access was not made a condition of approval. The developers have indicated their intention to provide the requested access and have been encouraged to work with the Common Council to enter into a license agreement. The project is being developed by the building's owners, Sean Roland and Gabriel Katz. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Patricia R. Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman state Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman, Fri., Nov. 19, allowed state trooper Christopher Baldner to post bail, overturning a November 4 decision by Ulster County Judge Bryan Rounds ordering the Greene County resident be held without bail. The state Attorney General’s Office argued against the trooper’s release both before Rounds and again before Hartman, claiming that holding him without bail was necessary to ensure his continued appearance in court. Hartman rejected the argument. Baldner, 43, was indicted in late October for second-degree murder, manslaughter and reckless endangerment in connection with the December 22, 2020, crash that killed Monica Goods, a Brooklyn girl who was a passenger in an SUV driven by her father, Tristan Goods, on the Thruway in the town of Ulster when Baldner stopped the vehicle for speeding. The indictment, handed up by an Ulster County grand jury, alleges Baldner “used his police vehicle to ram a car occupied by four members of the Goods family — causing it to flip over, resulting in the death of 11-year-old Monica...” Authorities have said the chase that preceded the crash reached speeds of 130 mph. Baldner has been suspended from the state police without pay. The judge ordered that he be placed on electronic monitoring and ruled he cannot leave home, except for necessary medical appointments or to meet with his attorney or probation officer. Baldner must also surrender his passport. Authorities say Baldner similarly rammed his police vehicle into cars on the Thruway in Ulster County on two previous occasions, in 2017 and 2019. He is next scheduled to appear in court on February 18, 2022. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Megan Brenan is reporting for Gallup [dot] com Americans' support for stricter gun control has decreased by five percentage points to 52 percent, the lowest number since 2014, according to data reported last week by the Gallup organization. At the same time, 35 percent of U.S. adults think laws covering the sale of firearms should be kept as they are now and 11 percent favor less strict laws. Gallup has been tracking public opinion on this subject since 1990 when the nation's crime rate was high and a record 78 percent of Americans supported stricter laws for gun sales. Since then calls for tougher gun control have generally increased following mass shootings and then faded as the memory of each receded. For example, after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting three years ago, support for more gun control rose to 67 percent, the highest since 1993. That support began to fall last year. The latest decline in support for stricter control comes after an overall seven-point drop last year, which was mostly attributable to a 14-point drop among Republicans, to 22 percent. The decline this year is driven by a 15-point plunge among independents. At the same time, Democrats' desire for more restrictive gun laws has increased to 91 percent. Read more at news [dot] gallup [dot] com.

Joshua Solomon reports in the Times Union if you work in a grocery store more than 40 hours a week, you get overtime. But if you work on a farm, say, picking the same fruit sold in that grocery store, you only get overtime wages after 60 hours of work. The New York State Wage Board is meeting sometime before Dec. 15, and voting by the end of the year, about whether farm workers should get the same 40-hour work week as everyone else. Farmworkers only got the 60-hour work week in New York in 2020, after having not been entitled to any overtime pay previously under state labor law. New York’s 33,000 farms cover 6.9 million acres and make $5.7 billion annually. While 20 percent of farmworkers are migrants just 125 farms are run by Native Americans, 139 by Blacks, and 606 by Latinos, according to a recent report from the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets. Some in farming contend a 40-hour overtime threshold would lead to layoffs and shut down farms. "Reducing the overtime threshold will close farms and make the barriers to entry even greater,” said Grow NY Farms, which is supported by the New York Farm Bureau. But groups representing farmworkers have a different opinion. “Do we agree that there are some troubling economics about farming in New York state? Yes,” said Jessica Maxwell, executive director of Workers Center of Central New York, a Syracuse-based nonprofit focused on workplace and economic justice. “Do we think that should be solved on the back of the people who have the least amount of resources and are doing the hardest work, the workers? No. We think we should be looking in the other direction to solve those economic challenges in the industry.” Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Today's daily news update.

Shaniece Holmes-Brown reports in the Times Union that Albany County announced another COVID-19 death Nov. 20, as case counts around the region have risen dramatically this week. Nationally, case counts across the country have risen 30 percent in the last two weeks. In, Albany County announced 131 more coronavirus cases Nov. 19, the fourth straight day with new infections over 100. Albany County only said that the latest death was a man in his 60s. “I continue to stress how important it is that everyone follow CDC recommendations to mask when indoors, stay six feet apart, wash your hands frequently and cough and sneeze into your arm to help prevent the spread,” McCoy said. “We also need more people to get vaccinated and to get their boosters, especially as we start the holiday season. No one wants holiday gatherings to turn into super spreader events.” Greene County announced 54 new cases on Nov. 19, in a week with rising numbers there: 34 new cases Nov. 15, 21 more cases Nov. 16, and 25 more cases Nov. 17. Columbia County announced on Nov. 17 38 new cases, 50 more on Nov. 19, and and another 33 new cases on Nov. 20. In Saratoga County, a family of four all recently contracted the disease. The mother and one son were vaccinated, and recovered. The father and another son were not vaccinated, and died. “It’s a cautionary tale that I don’t want to accentuate,” Julie Martin said. “My husband and son were vaccine-hesitant.... They didn’t have any physical health problems and they were not at particular risk.” On Nov. 19 the Centers for Disease Control announced booster shots are now available for anyone who got their Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines at least six months ago. Pfizer is also asking the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its antiviral pill to treat unvaccinated people with COVID-19 who are at high risk of becoming severely ill, the company said earlier in the week. The new drug, Paxlovid, could be available within weeks if authorization is granted. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Ted Remsnyder reports for Columbia-Greene Media that ten of 14 Greene County legislators voted Nov. 17 to do a little something about the Hudson Valley housing crisis. They voted for some funding to a proposed workforce housing project in the village of Tannersville. Currently there are fewer apartments and homes to rent or purchase throughout the Hudson Valley, and more people trying to rent or buy homes in the Hudson Valley. When supply falls, and demand rises, prices go up. Part of the reason supply is down is that people are converting apartments and houses from long-term rentals or purchases, to short-term rentals. That trend is fueled by a lack of local hotel rooms. Local governments have few options: create incentives to build hotel rooms and apartments, and regulate short-term rentals. While local public officials lament that so many job openings remain unfilled locally, it may partially be due to low-wage workers no longer being able to afford a home or apartment in the Hudson Valley. In Tannersville, the Hunter Foundation and the nonprofit RUPCO organization are seeking state funding for a $20 million-plus project, for 80 units of affordable workforce housing in Tannersville for ski resort workers. Greene County voted to kick in $350,000 from the county’s $9.1 million federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. Legislators Michael Bulich, Matthew Luvera, Greg Davis, and Thomas Hobart voted against helping the housing project, and Bulich believes local businesses should be responsible for paying the costs of housing their own workers. “If this is what’s required, then you need to factor that into your costs of doing business. That’s just part of a business plan. Labor is a huge component of most businesses. So I don’t know how people get caught flat-footed in not planning for that,” Bulich said. Why didn't the ski resorts forsee that a global pandemic would drive thousands to move to the Hudson Valley and drive up housing costs, and dry up housing stock? Bulich argued that the Hudson Valley housing crisis was caused by people leaving the state. "I would argue that this crisis was caused by government. Whether you want to call it the highly regulated State of New York that pushed people out with families to southern states where the taxes and regulations are low, that’s where the people are going to go,” Bulich said. Greene County Legislator Jack Keller voted for the housing funding, and pushed back against Bulich's claims. “Hunter is in dire need of workforce housing, as are other towns in Greene County,” he said. “Catskill is one, especially in the village area. This is something that’s in progress, it’s not a theory. They’ve been working on this for years. I feel that if that money is granted to Greene County, then let’s start using it on projects that look like they’re going to go through. This one should go through. Let’s start, because if we don’t use what’s been allocated for us, eventually when the time comes we’re going to lose it. So let’s use it to enhance our county and take care of some problems.” Bulich argued that low-wage workers needing government help to afford living in this area were the problem. “I worked my tail off my entire life to have what I have. To see that my taxes are going to pay for somebody who quite honestly doesn’t want to work as hard as I do work their 40-hour week and have their housing provided for them.... I don’t like rewarding complacency that way where people think ‘I work 40 hours so I should be entitled to an apartment that costs $1,500 a month even though my job can only pay me $15 per hour.’ No, that’s not how it works.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that local environmental groups continue to oppose a proposal for a biofuels plant along Route 23 across the Schoharie Creek from Prattsville from the Yonkers-based Hughes Energy. The proposed 115,000-square-foot, seven-story “organic waste high-speed composting facility” would turn food waste and other types of garbage into biofuel pellets. But the activist groups Catskill Mountainkeeper, Riverkeeper, and the new citizen coalition group Don’t Trash the Catskills, say it is not good for the environment. According to Catskill Mountainkeeper: “Waste-to-energy proposals are rarely a good thing; they’re usually false solutions to our state’s waste problem, creating as much, if not more, pollution than they’re claiming to address.” Hughes says the facility would require 25,000 gallons of water per day from private, on-site wells. They are seeking permission to connect into the Town of Prattsville’s wastewater treatment plant for about 4,800 gallons of industrial wastewater and 1,100 gallons of sanitary wastewater daily. The proposed industrial plant would be located less than 2,000 feet from the Schoharie Reservoir. “Industrial wastewater produced at the facility is planned to be discharged into the Schoharie Creek via the Prattsville Wastewater Treatment Plant, which likely will not be able to remove all of the chemicals from the wastewater,” Riverkeeper officials say. Hughes Energy estimates 101 vehicles per day will access the facility, including 42 semi-trailers hauling municipal solid waste on local roads from a 50-mile radius. The facility will be open 24 hours a day, and seven days a week, with waste hauled in six days per week from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wes Gillingham, co-founder and the program director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, asked the community what they thought of all that at a public forum in Grand Gorge this week. “You guys are the experts, you shouldn’t be relying on Catskill Mountainkeeper, Riverkeeper, some lawyer from Albany, or wherever,” he said. “You guys are the experts in your community… you know the landscape, you know the people here, you know the traffic, the issues that will affect you.” Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.

Today's daily news update.

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge reports for Columbia-Greene Media that the country, and the upper Hudson Valley, has seen a week of troubling COVID-19 statistics reported, including:
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that average daily COVID-19 case counts have risen 35 percent across the country in recent weeks,.
• Columbia County schools reported COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled since Oct. 1.
• The number of active coronavirus cases in Ulster County jumped 118 percent since Nov. 4, and in Dutchess County, case counts are up 62 percent since Nov. 1.
• The Public Works Department in Hudson canceled the Nov. 18 recycling collection because of a staff coronavirus outbreak.
• Albany County reported its highest single-day total of COVID-19 cases since late January, a time when few people were vaccinated. On Nov. 18, Albany County reported 191 new coronavirus cases, and the last time the county reported that many cases was Jan. 28.
Now, Columbia County is reporting yet another death from COVID-19. “It was a man under 40 who was unvaccinated,” Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said. “It’s another sad case, and the unvaccinated part, as always, kind of gets to you.” Besides two deaths in the past month, Columbia County is also seeing high case counts. “It is a lot, the numbers we’re seeing,” Mabb said. “We had 42 when we came in on Monday, it was 25 this morning. It has been building. Everyday we get a base number and then it builds from there. There are a lot of students involved in this.” And as the numbers of the diseased grow, people are becoming less helpful, he says. “That’s scary, it’s all hands on deck again because we’re getting so many cases,” Mabb said. “The difference, of course, is we’re encountering a lot more resistance from people who we’re calling, from giving up any of their contacts. They don’t want their friends quarantined, hangups, getting sworn at. It’s become a much more common thing.” More people are testing positive throughout the region. The rolling seven-day average positivity rate in Columbia County is 5.7 percent, while it is at 4.3 percent in Albany County, 4.6 percent in Greene County, and 4.6 percent in Rensselaer County. The numbers are about as bad as a year ago. Last November Columbia County had four deaths and 292 cases; this November Columbia County has had two deaths and 277 cases. Only 68.4 percent of Columbia County residents are fully vaccinated. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Kenneth C. Crowe II reports in the Times Union that two more water wells in Poestenkill have tested above the state levels of 10 parts per trillion for PFOA. That's now 10 wells poisoned with "forever chemicals" since PFOAs were first discovered in January in water at the Algonquin Middle School in Rensselaer County. Judith Enck, a former Region 2 administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Poestenkill Councilman Eric Wohlleber, who are both on the steering committee of Concerned Citizens for Clean Drinking Water, met with Gov. Kathy Hochul Nov. 18 about the issue. I am hopeful that Governor Hochul and her administration are taking this issue seriously, and (are) committed to ensuring a more open and transparent approach between [the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Health], and local residents. To date, the DEC and DOH are failing the residents of Poestenkill and wasting time, resources, and New York state taxpayer dollars while these officials are still not looking for the source of the contamination,” Wohlleber said. The Rensselaer County Health Department, the DEC, and the state DOH will hold a public forum from 3-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at Algonquin Middle School to discuss the issue. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics that New York's economy continued to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate in October in New York fell from 7.1 percent to 6.9 percent, with more than 40,000 jobs added in the private sector, according to the state Department of Labor. New York still trails the rest of the nation, which has just a 4.6 percent unemployment rate. And New York Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced Nov. 19 that state sales tax revenues are up 12.9 percent compared to the same time period a year ago. “Sales tax collections came in strong in October, boosting local revenues,” DiNapoli said. “The consistent growth over the last few months is a positive sign of our economic recovery and life moving forward as we deal with the ongoing reality of COVID-19.” There was more than $1.5 billion in sales tax last month, an increase of $175 million from October 2020. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.

Click above to download or play today's "Better Weather." Produced by Joe Demanso of the Catskill Makers Syndicate.

Today's daily headlines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that average daily COVID-19 case counts have risen 35 percent across the country in recent weeks, as the holiday season approaches. And COVID-19 is roaring back locally too, with Columbia County schools reporting COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled since Oct. 1. The number of active coronavirus cases in Ulster County jumped 118 percent since Nov. 4, and in Dutchess County, case counts are up 62 percent since Nov. 1. And the Public Works Department in Hudson canceled the Nov. 18 recycling collection because of coronavirus. Now the Times Union reports that Albany County is reporting its highest single-day total of COVID-19 cases since late January, a time when few people were vaccinated. On Nov. 18, Albany County reported 191 new coronavirus cases, and the last time the county reported that many cases was Jan. 28. “While we don’t know if this is a sign of an even worse trend, it should be a wakeup call as we head into the holiday season when many families and friends are coming together to celebrate,” Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said. “This virus is spreading at an alarming rate and we know that more infections often lead to more hospitalizations and deaths further down the road.” In the past month, Albany County reported 19 deaths and 136 hospitalizations. Last year during the same time period, there were 11 deaths and 99 hospitalizations in Albany County. “We need everyone to do their part by getting vaccinated, getting the booster shot, wearing masks indoors, staying home if you’re feeling sick, and if you’re celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends next week, consider getting tested beforehand,” McCoy said. Meanwhile, the Berkshire Eagle reports that in Pittsfield, Massachusetts second graders at Morningside Community School are being forced to quarantine until after the Thanksgiving holiday, because of a coronavirus outbreak there. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Sam Raudins reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Catskill Town Supervisor Dale Finch indicated support for cannabis sales there, though he did not rule out holding a board vote opting out getting the tax revenue that comes with a retail store in town. He said he was “on board” with allowing sales in Catskill, but did not say if he wanted to opt-out of lounges where cannabis could be consumed. New York legalized cannabis use in April, but it will be at least until next year before sales will begin. Towns and villages have until Dec. 31 to opt-out of allowing retail sales or consumption sites. Cannabis is legal everywhere now in New York, and municipalities cannot opt-out of legalization. Finch, a Republican, held a forum Nov. 17 to gauge local opinions on the issue, which were largely positive. Lester Ostoyic said he did not want to drive to Great Barrington, Massachusetts, or Hudson, to spend his money. “I think that there’s a real growth opportunity on a broad scale for the town, if it gets in on the ground floor of this sort of thing,” he said. An unidentified Catskill resident also favored allowing lounges. “For those that are like ‘nay on the cafes,’ just think of all the bars that are in our town, all the liquor stores that are in our town. There’s more liquor stores than there are parks for kids, right? There’ll be way more trouble or danger coming out of a bar than there would ever be coming out of a cafe,” she said. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Jeanette Wolfberg reports in The Columbia Paper that Hudson Housing Authority Commissioners believe the local housing crisis has spilled over into Bliss Tower in Hudson. “People are sleeping in the stairway, people are sleeping in the hallway, people are sleeping in the laundry room,” Commissioner Robert Davis said about Bliss Tower during a Nov. 10 meeting. Davis is one of the two commissioners on the authority that live in the Hudson housing complex. Davis reported seeing “people sleeping on the counter in the laundry room, at 5:30 in the morning, when I’m going to work.” Board Chair Revonda Smith called that news "devastating” and thought the it was due to Hudson’s housing crisis. She said that Columbia County Adult Services should be notified. Commissioner Rebecca Borrer said that the housing authority’s Housing Choice Vouchers for housing outside of Bliss but in the Hudson area, are going unused, because there is nowhere in the city with sufficiently low rents. Read more about this story in The Columbia Paper.