Euro-tent looks to bring a new vibe to Midtown
The advent last summer of the Midtown Farmer’s Market, which sells fresh local produce every Tuesday afternoon on the site of the former vice-epicenter King’s Inn on Broadway, planted a seed on a depressing stretch of Broadway, a seed that a few weeks ago led to a second, spectacular blooming — the erection of a...
Fortis foes allege eco-misdeeds
In pressing the case that the proposed $1.5 billion acquisition of Central Hudson by Canadian holding company Fortis would be bad for ratepayers, Citizens for Local Power (CLP), an Ulster-based grassroots group which has risen to oppose the merger, is pointing to what they say is Fortis’ poor record in dealing with projects in Belize...
Editorial: Energetic encounters
So, I’m with my fiancée at the home show in Lagrange on Sunday, and we’re talking with someone about solar panels. She’s redoing her house and is interested in solar because a.) she’s a good person and conscientious about the environment and b.) she heats with electricity — not by choice, that’s just how the...
Editorial: The fading dream of Cuomo as Uniter
Here in America — strife-torn, hopelessly partisan-ized America — many of us yearn for a Uniter. A leader who can, by dint of charisma and/or courage, persuade and/or inspire us to pull together, dammit, like we did in the war or in some other mythologized period of long-lost American history. It may never truly happen...
Hugh Reynolds: Fire away
Every now and then a legislature stumbles onto an issue that really turns constituents on, and boy, then it hits the fan! That’s what happened last week at the Ulster County Legislature. Last year anti-fracking forces packed the Senate Gym at UlsterCountyCommunity College. Now gun control has taken the stage. It would appear the legislature...
Letters to the editor: Jan. 10, 2013
Pastors: Ban fracking New York is debating the possibility hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), a method of natural gas exploration and extraction. Recognizing that this issue is heavy with disputed studies, emotional issues, and economic aspirations, we, the undersigned, active and retired pastors of the Hudson Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, stand with those...
Editorial: Who we like next Tuesday
(Editor’s note: The Ulster Publishing editorial board consisted of Woodstock Times editor Brian Hollander, who wrote the above endorsements in consultation with the other board members; Kingston Times editor Dan Barton; and Ulster Publishing columnist and reporter Hugh Reynolds.) It’s been a tumultuous election season, one where it appeared that the president was headed for...
Hugh Reynolds: He shot the sheriff
Before astonished and perplexed Ulster County legislators last Wednesday, an obviously agitated Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum put a beating on Comptroller Elliott (“BS”) Auerbach unheard of (by me, anyway) in the annals of county government. Was this the classic case of the sheriff killing the messenger, or was the comptroller’s report on drug-cops project URGENT...
Breaking: DEC commish nixes independent study on fracking’s health impact
This just in from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Statement of Commissioner Joseph Martens: DEC has been reviewing approximately 80,000 comments submitted concerning the Department’s review of high volume hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking). While a wide variety of issues are addressed by the comments, many focus on the potential public health impacts of high volume...
Editorial: Tyner or Schreibman?
Raging like the battle for the local liberal soul that it actually is, the race between Joel Tyner and Julian Schreibman for the Democratic line for this fall’s 19th Congressional District seat in the House of Representatives will be decided this coming Tuesday, June 26. There are a lot of different angles to this contest,...
Hugh Reynolds: Time for Tyner?
Before making any predictions on Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Congress between Julian Schreibman of Marbletown and Joel Tyner of Clinton in Dutchess County, let me say that I like Tyner’s game plan. I just don’t think it’s going to work. Tyner is hoping for a low turnout, maybe 16,000 of the 130,000 registered Democrats in...
Commentary: Nothing good about CH-Fortis deal