Train depot rehab among considerations for development funds By Matthew J. Perry The Andes Planning Board has taken lead agency role in the town‚  application for a share of the state‚ Smart Growth funding plan, which will spread $500,000 among six townships in the Central Catskills. Before the June 20 deadline, the town must drum up a project that suits the details of the grant. Several complications, not least of which is a tight time constraint, will have to be faced down.

By Jay Braman Jr.
It was a feel-good evening Tuesday in Margaretville at the headquarters of the Catskill Watershed Corporation.
Many local mover and shakers joined with New York City counterparts, both current and former, to congratulate the CWC’s longstanding president, Perry Shelton, who was retiring that night from the position and from his tenure as founding father of the movement to protect the watershed region when the trouble began back in the early 1990s.

By Brian Sweeney
Margaretville Central School District voters will be asked to approve a new budget on May 20 that shows a 4.8 percent tax levy increase.
The proposed 2008-2009 budget totals $10,673,038, up from $9,983,603, an increase of 6.9 percent. The district expects an increase in state aid which will help reduce the increase in the tax levy.

Deadline extended for New York City system to serve the hamlet

By Jay Braman Jr.
As the clock ticks toward a June deadline for the Shandaken Town Board to make a decision about the Phoenicia sewer project, it remains unclear whether any steps will be taken at the next board meeting, slated for Monday, May 5 at 7 p.m., to determine one way or the other if the busy hamlet should take the plunge and build infrastructure to replace the inadequate septic systems that lace the landscape.

By Jay Braman Jr.
Commissioners at the Adirondack Park Agency this month approved a three-phase, mega-ski resort development project in the Town of Johnsburg, Warren County that is being described as a public/private partnership between developers and the State of New York, which owns and operates Gore.

Suspect had shot girlfriend, fled cops

By Julia Green
Exactly one week short of a year after he was shot by Travis Trim at the Sunoco Country Store in Margaretville, New York State Trooper Matthew J. Gombosi was once again the target of gunfire, this time in Stamford where he and his partner, Trooper David J. Morgan, confronted a distraught gunman who had just shot his girlfriend.

By Brian Sweeney
Six communities along Route 28 will soon have $500,000 in “smart growth” funds available to be used toward capital projects.
The funding was included as part of the recently adopted New York State budget. Communities that have committed to participate in this Catskill corridor initiative include the townships of Andes, Middletown, Shandaken and Olive, plus the villages of Fleischmanns and Margaretville.

Business proposed for Grand Gorge spurred concerns

The Roxbury Town Board unanimously passed a local law “regulating construction and demolition debris processing facilities” after a short public hearing on April 14 to take comments on the law.
The impetus for the law came when a C&D transfer station was proposed for Grand Gorge, and area residents expressed concerns about the possible negative impacts of such a facility.

By Brian Sweeney
Margaretville Memorial Hospital has scored high marks for patient care in an independent national survey. The HCAHPS (Health Care Acquisition and Performance System) survey conducted by Press Ganey for Margaretville Hospital is a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perceptions of their hospital experience.

James Eisel Sr., chairman of the Delaware County Board of Supervisors, has issued a state of emergency for Delaware County. Effective immediately, a do not burn order has been issued for the entire county.