[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Ockawamick School in Philmont was bought by Columbia County in 2008 for eventual renovation as a county facility. Nothing, the Register Star reports today, has happened for the past year, with nothing also predicted for the coming 2011 year. Photo from Register-Star."][/caption]The Register Star is running a story this morning reminding everyone that, "For all of the year 2010, the county Board of Supervisors passed no resolutions mentioning or pertaining to the county-owned Ockawamick School on Route 217 in Philmont."

Purchased by the county for $1.5 million in 2008, the 77,000 square foot building has remained mostly vacant since then. Copy paper and other tools of county government are stored there, and the county’s facilities workshop is located there. County cars and Medicaid transport vehicles are parked in the parking lot. If the old school, once earmarked for the county Department of Social Services, didn’t see any action this year, there’s even less hope for 2011. The county’s adopted 2011 budget cuts Ockawamick completely out of its capital projects list — a decrease of $1.6 million, county controller Ronald Caponera confirmed Monday. That leaves zero funding earmarked for any potential renovation of the building.

The story goes on to note how the fate of the former school has gotten caught up in that of the county's Department of Social Services, which advocates have been fighting to keep in the City of Hudson. Most recently, county discussions have centered on possible renovation of the former Wal Mart facility on Fairview Avenue in Greenport. Read the entire story here.