Rural businesses: Cluster and prosper

Julia Reischel in the Watershed Post: National rural-issues website The Daily Yonder ran an article yesterday exhorting rural businesses to form “clusters” if they want to thrive. The thrust of the story is counter-intuitive — the author, Stuart Rosenfeld, argues that rather than competing for customers, similar small businesses operating near each other seem to [...]

Greene gains, Columbia barely loses population

Marist College’s Bureau of Economic Research just released an “Economic Report of the Hudson Valley.” Some interesting facts: “During the two-year period ending in 2008, total migration into and out of Columbia County resulted in a net loss of 31 households and a $27.12 million increase in adjusted gross income (AGI)” and during that same [...]

Taghkanic tales

Sam Pratt‘s blog reprints a press release from Tivoli resident Ardith Truhan (a co-founder of the local community group Taghkanic Neighbors), and, as Pratt points out, it is a story so far unreported. An excerpt of the press release follows, take it for what it is worth: A former Taghkanic resident has charged the town [...]

Speedway owner sues town over camping

From From Gail Heinsohn in The Columbia Paper: As he stated he would at the April 5 town board meeting, Lebanon Valley Speedway owner Howard Commander has filed suit against town officials, seeking a state Supreme Court determination as to whether the campers parked on his property trigger state requirements for a campground. The effect [...]

Cairo voters approve new library

Cairo voters today approved a bond to finance a new library for the town, 53 to 47 percent. Totals: 283 yes, 248 no, 531 total voting. The vote at Resurrection Lutheran Church today determined Cairo will build a new library. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has offered the town a $3.07 million low-interest loan (4.25 [...]

Cairo voting now on library bond

Voters in Cairo today are turning out to Resurrection Lutheran Church until 9 p.m. to determine whether Cairo will build a new library. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has offered the town a $3.07 million low-interest loan (4.25 percent) and, if the town accepts the loan, a $200,000 grant with a local share match of [...]

Historic Hudson

Carole Osterink continues her tour of properties in Hudson owned by Eric Galloway, whose group the Lantern Organization was proposing developing a building with “permanent supportive housing” for the mentally disabled, the homeless, and those with substance abuse problems on the corner of Warren and Fifth Sts. in Hudson. Read about the empty lot at [...]

PS/21 seeks to make tent permanent

Fran Heaney of the Chatham Courier reports that PS/21 requested Special Use Permit for permanent use of their temporary tent at a Jan. 28 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, as they do not have the $11 million needed to construct a sound proof structure. Located on Route 66, the cultural center has hosted classical music [...]

Taghkanic board votes for mine moratorium

Molly Salisbury in The Register-Star reports the Taghkanic Town Board last night voted to set the process in motion to enact a six-month moratorium on any new gravel mine permit applications in areas zoned R-2 and R-3. The moratorium, which will only take effect after a public hearing March 1, comes largely because of the [...]

Maggio moves on from Cairo to Coxsackie, but Cairo has other plans

Cairo’s old development suitor, Charles Maggio, has moved his plans up the road from Cairo to Coxsackie, The Daily Mail reports. But Cairo may now have a second supermarket on the site where Maggio’s Alden Terrace project would have been, according to The Greenville Press (no web site). Susan Campriello’s Daily Mail story outlines the [...]

Durham motocross may roll

We always complain that The Greenville Press lacks a web site, since the reporting is high-quality. In this week’s issue editor Linda L. Fenoff reports that Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi gave a declaratory judgment, saying that the Town of Durham board has discretion to apply its codes. A ruling is expected in “a few [...]

Ghent planning board to unveil plans for Price Chopper store

The public can view the plans for a proposed Price Chopper store on Rt. 66 in the Town of Ghent at the Ghent Planning Board’s next regular meeting on February 3 at 7 p.m., according to an article in ccScoop by Mike McCagg. The 43,000 square-foot store, on land adjoining the existing Price Chopper Plaza, [...]

Judge McGrath rules permanent injunction against Wilzig race track

Sam Pratt is reporting Judge Patrick McGrath gave a ruling granting, “the Granger Group’s petition for a permanent injunction against the mile-long, 40-foot-wide racetrack which Alan Wilzig began bulldozing way back in the Summer of 2006.” McGrath wrote: “Petitioners request for a permanent injunction is granted enjoining the Town of Taghkanic, Zoning Board of Appeals [...]

Today’s local headlines

Proposal leaves DSS in HudsonFrom The Register-Star HUDSON – Columbia County Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer (R-Hillsdale) and Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera stood together at a press conference Tuesday and announced a new proposal that would keep the Department of Social Services in Hudson. The county would buy the One City Centre building on [...]

Today’s local headlines

Local housing groups get $650,000 in grantsFrom The Daily Mail The Hunter Foundation, in Tannersville, and the Catskill Mountain Housing Development Corporation, in Catskill, were notified Thursday that they are each a recipient of grants — $300,000 and $350,000, respectively — from NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), the administrator agency for federal [...]

Today’s local headlines

New Congressman Scott Murphy (D-NY20) voted for H.R.2454 (the American Clean Energy and Security Act) Friday, which passed the House 219 to 212. It was the first time Murphy’s vote mattered, as 44 Democrats voted against the measure that works to slow the pace of global warming. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth also opposed [...]