MidHudsonNews [dot] com is reporting Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus is touting the proposed one-million square foot Amazon distribution center in Montgomery, on the Newburgh town line, as a positive development for New York Stewart International Airport. Amazon will need to ship its products and Neuhaus said air transport is the way to go. “What it comes with eventually is 12 to 14 planes for Prime new airlines. They do their own transportation and that’s their plan to do more and more of that, so that’s what that whole deal comes with,” he said. Neuhaus said with the loss of Norwegian Air flights because of the problems with the Boeing 737 Max jets, the airport is actively recruiting other services. “I feel very optimistic,” Neuhaus told the Goshen Chamber of Commerce January 22. The Port Authority has hired a new group to manage the day-to-day operations and airline recruiting efforts for the airport. Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.

Click above to download or play the audio version of the local news for Thu., Jan. 23. Produced by Philip Grant.

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

Stephen Williams reports in the Daily Gazette that Jeff Stark ended his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the 46th State Senate District on Jan. 21. That leaves just Michelle Hinchey of Saugerties and Gary Greenberg of New Baltimore in the June Democratic primary, and no announced Republicans so far to replace incumbent Republican George Amedore, who declined to run for another term. Stark gave his support to Hinchey, the daughter of former Congressperson Maurice Hinchey. "I believe Michelle Hinchey has been a great role model and will do her best to represent the 46th Senate District with the same vigor" as her father, he said. Stark, from Amsterdam, called himself a conservative Democrat and said "I'm not progressive enough for some of the Democrats in the downstate counties like Ulster and Greene." Whoever eventually wins the seat will represent all of Montgomery and Greene counties and parts of Albany, Schenectady, and Ulster counties. Read more about this story in the Daily Gazette.

Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics reports that Democratic legislative leaders in Albany have been meeting with New York county sheriffs about the bail reform law that took effect Jan. 1. Previously only people with money who were arrested, but not convicted of misdemeanor and non-violent felony offenses, would be released before trial. Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa was among the group meeting with legislative leaders. Giving judges discretion to determine if a person is too dangerous to be released before trial has been proposed, though criminal justice reform advocates, predict that would negatively affect defendants of color. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics..

Amanda Purcell reports for Columbia-Greene Media that First Ward Alderperson Rebecca Wolff is the new Hudson Common Council minority leader. Wolff is the city’s first Working Families Party member to serve as Minority Leader and Second Ward Alderperson Tiffany Garriga, who is the Majority Leader, said she was the first Minority Leader in the whole state from the Working Families Party. Democrats are in the majority on the council, and there are no Republicans, and Wolff, and Third Ward Alderpersons Calvin Lewis and Shershah Mizan ran on the Working Families Party line. Fifth Ward Alderperson Dominic Merante is registered as no official party. Besides naming Wolff minority leader, the Common Council changed the procedure for choosing majority and minority leaders. Now Common Council members not enrolled in a political party will be ineligible to lead a minority or majority. Merante, not a party person, was not happy he lost his minority leadership post.. “This process in my opinion was unfair and non-transparent, and if the outcome of today’s opinion is correct, this should have been the starting point of this process,” Merante said. “I will respect the city attorney’s opinion but express that moving forward there should be change to the process so it’s clear and concise with the goal of transparency and fairness. This unfortunate display has shattered some trust and members of the council who have participated in this event.” The minority leader gets to be on the boards of directors of the Hudson Industrial Development Agency and the Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Joseph Spector reports for Press Connects that Price Chopper supermarkets will charge a nickel for paper bags beginning March 1. That's also when a state ban on plastic bags goes into effect. "In order to discourage reliance on disposal bags, a deterrent must be placed on them — otherwise paper will replace plastic, and the noble intent of the law, sustainably speaking, will be lost," Mona Golub, a company spokesperson, said. Wegmans is also charging for the paper bags in New York. Counties are also allowed to force businesses to charge for paper bags. Ulster County is charging for them, but Greene County recently announced it will not charge for paper bags. Read more about this story at the Press Connects website.

Click above to download or play the audio version of the local news update for Wed., Jan. 22. (Produced by Philip Grant.)

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media downtown Coxsackie is slated for a $10-million rehabilitation, beginning later this winter or by early spring. Local developer and property owner Aaron Flach will restore most of the buildings located on South River Street, transforming them into a boutique hotel called The Newbury, an event center called The Wire, restaurants and more. Phase 1 of the project will include renovations to the former Becker Electronics building and the long green structure behind it. Flach said the total cost to bring back the two buildings is expected to be just over $10 million. He received a $2 million grant through the Regional Economic Development Council to help with a portion of Phase 1 construction. Flach hopes to stimulate tourism with the project by maximizing the use of the town's waterfront. He said one of the items under development is a water taxi service to travel back and forth to Hudson. Coxsackie Mayor Mark Evans noted the project targets an area that has a great deal of potential. He said the plan could be a game-changer for Coxsackie. The architectural plans are currently being finalized for Phase 1, which has already been approved by the village planning board. Phase 2 of the project will focus on the vacant storefronts on South River Street. Flach owns all of the buildings in the Dolan block, those located to the right of The Yellow Deli. The buildings will be renovated into apartments or storefronts. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Kenneth C. Crowe II is reporting for the Times Union former Rensselaer County Legislature chairman and convicted felon Martin Reid has landed a job in the administration of County Executive Steve McLaughlin. The Sand Lake Republican was arrested in 2015, and then convicted of charges that he hid his $30,000-a-year government salary when he received $15,000 in unemployment benefits. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to first-degree offering a false instrument and was ordered to serve three days in jail and pay a $5,000 fine. Reid currently works in real estate and was recently appointed to a newly created $60,000-a-year position as the county's property resource coordinator. McLaughlin is currently facing an investigation of his financial dealings by the FBI and the attorney general's office, as is Richard Crist, the county director of operations and McLaughlin spokesperson. In explaining Reid's hire, the county noted January 21, that he worked as a real estate professional for 12 years. Crist explained the county created the position to facilitate the seizure of abandoned properties to "...effectively get them back into productive use..." Reid's appointment stunned county Democrats, but at the same time, they were not surprised. "This is what we've come to. Until something changes with the leadership in Rensselaer County, the administration has a free hand," said Legislature Deputy Minority Leader Peter Grimm, a Troy Democrat. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Patricia Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman less than half of the registered voters in Ulster County cast ballots in the November 2019 election, according to county Board of Elections. A total of just under 54,000 people, or 45.2 percent of those eligible, participated, despite early voting and a highly contested race for district attorney. Among those who did vote, 999 left the DA column blank. Democrat David Clegg won that race by only 78 votes. Republican Elections Commissioner Thomas Turco said the number of people who who did not vote in the DA race seemed "extraordinarily high." Democratic Committee Chairman Frank Cardinale said, "Without doing a comparison [to the number of blank ballots in other countywide races], it is striking." County Republican Chairman Roger Rascoe was a little more philosophical about the whole thing. "I don't have an explanation as to why there were so many blanks on the DA race. It's just the nature of elections." Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Teri Weaver is reporting for Syracuse [dot] com Gov. Andrew Cuomo January 21, proposed the addition of five more days to the New York State Fair's current 13-day schedule. Cuomo announced the idea during his annual budget presentation. The New York State Legislature would have to approve the change. The governor says the additional days would encompass an additional weekend and allow for new programming, including a motor show. Cuomo incorporated an extra $4.9 million in his budget proposal to pay for the five-day extension. If the plan gets the green light, the fair would run from Aug. 21 to Sept. 7 this year. Read the full story at Syracuse [dot] com.

Click above to download or play the audio version of the local news update for Wed., Jan. 22. (Produced by Philip Grant.)

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

The Times Union rounds up proposals Gov. Andrew Cuomo put forth in his $178 billion budget announced Jan. 21. Locally, the biggest news is the creation of the Hudson Eagles State Recreation Area, a park connecting five boat launches between the cities of Rensselaer and Hudson. Cuomo also proposed legalizing recreational marijuana, though not allowing home growing. The governor is also proposing a three percent increase in education funding. Cuomo's Medicaid proposals may be the most controversial. The governor announced the state will only assume the local share of Medicaid spending growth if local governments contain annual growth at three percent, shifting more costs to local governments. In a briefing after the budget announcement, Cuomo’s Budget Czar Robert Mujica said it’s possible the state will save $2.5 billion from Medicaid costs by raising taxes on health insurance plans. An outside panel will make that decision, Mujica said. Cuomo's budget counts on those Medicaid cost savings and rising tax income to close a $6 billion budget deficit. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Could Greene County avoid building its new jail? Maybe! The governor’s #nybudget would remove a county jail mandate in state law. pic.twitter.com/5Dk3IYWeSt

— David Lombardo (@poozer87) January 21, 2020

In Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget announced Jan. 21 in Albany is a line to "Authorize Shared County Jails." The paragraph included with that line in the budget proposal would allow counties to share jails or jail services. Last year, Greene County officials and state officials both seemed confused about whether Greene County could share a jail with a neighboring county, with jail populations crashing and the Catskill jail crumbling and unusable. Instead of spending less money and sharing a jail with Columbia County, Greene County officials took out a $39-million bond and spent another $8.1 million of taxpayer money to build a new jail in Coxsackie. The 80-cell, 64-bed jail is currently being built and expected to go into use in the summer of 2021.

Melanie Lekocevic reports for Capital Region Independent Media in the Greenville Pioneer that someone, or something, inflicted $5,000-$8000 in damage to the Town of Greenville's Highway Superintendent's truck, but town officials don't know how it happened. Terry Williams was Greenville's highway superintendent before Jan. 1, when town officials first noticed the damage to the 2015 Dodge pick-up truck. Williams would not return calls from Lekocevic. He did not tell town officials either what happened to the truck. “It was never reported to me. It was never reported to [the town’s insurance company] Marshall and Sterling. To the best of my knowledge, it was never reported to any of the board members,” Town Supervisor Paul Macko said. He did not say if the town would take any legal action because of the expensive damage, but said the incident is being reported to the town’s insurance company, Marshall and Sterling for investigation. And he said the town should consider some new policy about town vehicles. Read more about this story in the Greenville Pioneer.

The Altamont Enterprise reports that an anonymous group set up a GoFundMe page for the Berne planning board member who was illegally demoted and replaced by someone who was not on the board and who, previously as a judge, was convicted of extortion and bribery. At Berne's organizational meeting earlier this month Emily Vincent was demoted from a full member to an alternate midway through her five-year term without a public hearing, as state law requires. Vincent was replaced by Thomas Spargo, who was made the board’s chairperson, after spending more than two years in prison in 2009. The GoFundMe page for Vincent, was created anonymously by a group called “Team Emily." It raised over $5,000 in one day. Vincent says she will use the money to pay for upcoming brain surgery and to file an Article 78 lawsuit against the town. “People in power think they can do whatever they want and get away with it,” Vincent told The Enterprise. “Someone needs to take a stand.” Read more about this story in The Altamont Enterprise.

The Catskill Wal-Mart posted on Facebook Jan. 20 they would no long stay open 24 hours a day. "Wanted to let our loyal customers know that starting February 1 we will no longer be 24 hours," the Facebook post said. Instead, the Catskill Wal-Mart will be open from 6 a.m. until 1 a.m. daily. The Greenport Wal-Mart made no such announcement. But when called, a customer service representative at the Greenport Wal-Mart said they have not been told when yet, but they also expect their hours to be cut back.

City of Hudson regular Common Council meeting from Jan. 21, 2020.