News

“Pagliacci” and Opera Choruses will be presented as the Belleayre Festival Opera celebrates a 10th anniversary opera gala on Saturday, Aug. 2 at 8 p.m at Belleayre Mountain in Highmount. Producer and Stage Director Donald Westwood’s Belleayre Festival Opera will be joined by the Community Chorale of the Catskills, under the direction of Richard Tucker, in presenting Ruggero Leoncavallo’s most famous and popular work, “Pagliacci” (Clowns). The performance will be preceded by famous opera choruses.

How does a young girl adapt and adjust to the disappearance of her parents when a new regime takes over on a Pacific Rim Island? How do our intelligence, imagination and faith enable us to survive and gain strength when our worlds become unrecognizable?
“Cecilia’s Last Tea Party” by Russell Davis, making its New York debut at The Roxbury Arts Group, will show us how one spunky preteen struggles with these questions. Part Alice in Wonderland and part coming of age story, it will take audiences on a wonderfully theatrical, mysterious, humorous and moving ride.

For the 40th time, the Auxiliary of Margaretville Memorial Hospital/Mountainside Residential Care Center will hold an Antique and Flea Market on Saturday, Aug. 2 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Margaretville Village Park, behind the A&P.
The event will feature approximately 150 vendors selling antiques, crafts, and countless other interesing finds.

By Matthew J. Perry
In an attempt to collect the biggest available slice of DEC Smart Growth money, the Town of Andes is digging back into its history and unveiling an ambitious plan to showcase it—in calico.

By Julia Green
The president and principal broker of Coldwell Banker Timberland Properties recently opened a new office in Stamford, upping his locations to three. The office, which was previously CB Lawrence Real Estate, was officially acquired in May and opened for business under its new owner last month.

The 2008 RCS Alumni Association Annual Banquet was held Saturday, July 19 at Shephard Hills Golf Course outdoors on the patio under the tent. Sixty-seven alumni and 29 guests gathered to catch up on old times, with plentiful conversation and good food, provided by Mary’s Cookin’ Again and dancing under the stars.

Local homeowners and small business owners will meet with energy efficiency professionals in August to begin taking steps to reduce the hardships of soaring fuel costs in the coming winter heating season. The Catskill Center for Conservation & Development will host the 6 p.m., August 18 meeting. The evening will be sponsored by Mid-Hudson Energy $mart Communities, an outreach arm of the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority, with its local partner, the Margaretville Energy $mart Partnership and the Greater Margaretville Chamber of Commerce.

Nearly 20 Main Street, Delhi businesses have delightful additions to their display windows this week: solar spinning sculptures. The sculptures, which use solar energy to power their rotating bases, are novel pieces constructed by area artists. They are for sale by means of a silent auction sheet at each participating business. The silent auction began on July 26 and will end at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9.

By Julia Green
You can bet your bottom dollar on it. There is a signed agreement and it’s coming.
That was the assurance of Lawrence Tillick of Canandaigua, the developer of the Family Dollar store that has been proposed to be built next to the post office in Margaretville. Tillick, who also developed the Family Dollar store in Stamford, added that the initial lease has a term of 10 years.

By Brian Sweeney
An 80-year-old Margaretville resident was killed Thursday when a huge explosion and subsequent fire destroyed her home on West Hubbell Hill Road.
Florence Mathis, well-known in the community for her many years of volunteerism, was killed instantly in the explosion that erupted about 6 p.m. and was reportedly heard for miles.