By Joe Moskowitz
One week ago, Margaretville Village Treasurer Beth Bush dropped a bomb shell, saying that village taxes could go up by as much as 25 percent in the coming fiscal year.
Bush, and the village’s budget committee members, are working to try and reduce the hike to 14 percent, but she says that will be the lowest increase possible. There just isn’t any more room to cut.

By Joe Moskowitz
It was a Wednesday, usually a quiet day at Roxbury’s Plattekill Mountain Ski Center. Plattekill is not usually open midweek, but as much as a foot of new snow was expected. When that happens, it doesn’t matter what day the calendar says, it’s a “Powder Daize” at Plattekill and the lifts are filled with skiers and snowboarders.

By Brian Sweeney
The Town of Bovina needs to exercise tighter internal controls over its bookkeeping practices, a state audit has determined.

The audit, released last week by the NYS Comptroller’s Office, listed four recommendations for the township to improve bookkeeping methods.

The findings included:
• The board should adopt written policies and procedures that include segregating incompatible functions over the cash receipts and disbursements, where possible, or implement compensating controls where segregating incompatible functions is not possible.

By Jay Braman Jr.
The attorneys representing the Town of Shandaken against a lawsuit filed over the expansion of the Phoenicia Library have fired back a scathing response to the allegations made by the neighbors of the property who want to stop the project.

At the same time, library officials have launched a pubic relations campaign designed to drum up support at a hearing this month for plans to expand the library building.

By Jay Braman Jr.
Non-profit groups that that suffered damage during tropical storms Irene and Lee back in late summer 2011 and got left holding the bag for repairs can now get up to $10,000 each from the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC).

By Geoff Samuels
At the Margaretville Village Board meeting last Thursday, Beth Bush, village treasurer, told the board that a large loss in revenue due to the recent re-valuation of flooded properties, as well as lower valuations for the sewer plant, would result in a steep hike in property taxes for village residents this year.

Even though this year’s budget came in at $30,000 less than last year’s, “We’re looking at a huge change…25 percent,” she told the board, as they listened in silence.

By Jay Braman Jr.
The Main Street property owners on either side of the Phoenicia Library, which was destroyed in a March 2011 fire, have filed a lawsuit against the Town of Shandaken over the recent Zoning Board of Appeals decision to grant the library a variance to rebuild on a larger scale.

By Joan Lawrence-Bauer
Known alternatively as “Mr. Fix It,” “Mr. Legion” and “Mr. Boy Scout,” Bob Hill was remembered fondly this week for a lifetime of service to his country and his community. 

By Jay Braman Jr.
Fleischmanns Village Trustees authorized the spending of almost $60,000 of taxpayer’s funds last week on specialized swift-water rescue equipment for the village’s fire department.
At a special meeting held last week Tuesday, the trustees accepted bids for the purchase of two swift water rescue boats along with equipment and training with funds to be disbursed from the Fleischmanns Volunteer Fire Department Capital Reserve Truck Fund.

By Brian Sweeney
The rebuilt and reconfigured CVS Pharmacy in Margaretville is expected to be open by May.
Dan Katz, vice president PSK Supermarkets, which owns the shopping plaza, told the News this week that he anticipates that the new store will be open in several months.

“We are trying to get the construction finished as quickly as we can and CVS would like to open in the spring (around May),” Mr. Katz stated.
He said that the new store will have a footprint of 4,500 square feet with a 1,500-square-foot mezzanine.