Preamble to the Kingston to come
Editor’s note – our full report on Monday’s comprehensive plan meeting will be in the print edition of the Kingston Times, but for now, here’s the text of the “Vision for Kingston” in the draft of the “Public Visioning Report and Needs Analysis” of the Kingston 2025 comprehensive plan: In 2025, Kingston will be a...
Hugh Reynolds: Cuomo road show
Sometimes it’s not the message but the messenger. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s gun-control law, passed as a “message of necessity” in January, has upstate up in arms. Now there’s been a sharp backlash to the governor’s Tax-Free NY, his plan to save upstate New York from further decline. Cuomo’s plan, unveiled with the usual fanfare last month...
BREAKING: Public Service Commission approves Fortis takeover of Central Hudson
The New York State Public Service Commission on Thursday, June 13 voted to approve the $1.5 billion takeover of CH Energy Group Inc., owner of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, by Fortis, Inc. of Canada. The proposed merger, first announced in February 2012, came under significant local public criticism, with residents and lawmakers on...
City Hall, KFD working together to fund new, needed vehicles
In a letter to the Common Council last month, then-Kingston Fire Department chief John Reinhardt warned that the age and condition of the city’s fleet of firefighting apparatus was “on the verge of creating a public safety crisis.” His replacement, Chief Mark Brown, however, said that he is hopeful that a mix of taxpayer-backed bonds...
Hugh Reynolds: Grudge rematches
Campaign 2013 has produced two potentially interesting Ulster County rematches. After a five-year hiatus, county comptroller foes Elliott Auerbach and Jim Quigley will tee it up, this time in an off year. In Saugerties, former town supervisor Greg Helsmoortel will likely face off again against Kelly Myers, the village board trustee who trounced him in...
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...
Hugh Reynolds: All about the Benjamins
With their condemnation of corruption in state government before the League of Women Voters in New Paltz last week, political sage Gerry Benjamin and his daughter, Capital District YNN-TV host Liz Benjamin, were preaching to the choir. Fact is, their act would probably have played well anywhere but in Albany. The distinguished duo blamed most...
World War C: Cicadas are coming
This might be the ideal summer to finally acquire that long-coveted outdoor furniture at yard sales for next-to-nothing — because after the cicadas emerge from their 17 year-hiatus and start molting, droning and dying all over the place, many of us will abandon anything that has to do with the outdoors. With as much drama...
Quigley gets GOP nod for county comptroller
In a surprise development, Town of Ulster Supervisor Jim Quigley has been nominated as the Republican candidate for county comptroller, going up against two-term incumbent Democrat Elliott Auerbach. Unofficial nominations took place at the Republican convention at Ulster County Community College on Wednesday night. Quigley lost by 174 votes to Auerbach in 2008 and did...
Hugh Reynolds: Political party time
Ulster County’s major political parties will gather in annual nominating conventions next week, the Republicans on Wednesday, May 29 at Quimby Theater at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, Democrats on Thursday, May 30 at the Garden Plaza Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn) in Kingston. Both events begin at 7 p.m. Party conventions, while sometimes colorful,...
Editorial: Why we wrote that story
Can’t we just let the angry mayor story drop? Hope for the best, go back to reporting on other things and at least wait until something new happens to rip off this scab? We’d like to, but we can’t. The mayor’s apology implied that his outburst on Blaber was just due to his fractured relationship...
Neither politicians nor public safe from Gallo’s rages
In a public apology issued a few days after a recording surfaced of him unleashing a torrent of verbal abuse and threats against a city employee, Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo called the outburst a product of his “passionate” nature, a result of his near-familial relationship with now-suspended parking enforcement officer Jeremy Blaber. In a series...