Andes

Andes — The Village of Andes kicks off the holiday season with its annual tree lighting celebration on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 4 p.m. Residents will gather at Bohlman Park, adjacent to the library.  When the tree it lit, everyone will join in singing Christmas carols while they wait for Santa to arrive by fire truck.  He’ll be bringing gifts for all the children and taking careful note of their Christmas wishes.

Andes — Chace-Randall Fine Art Gallery in Andes announces the last weekend for: New:Hampshire/Orleans paintings by Patrick McCay and quilts by Nat Thomas through Nov. 23 only.
New at the gallery beginning November 28 will be “Curator’s Choice: Winter” showing work by Mark Beard, Mariella Bisson, Rimer Cardillo, Keith Cardwell, Grant Collier, Michael Fauerbach, Judith Lamb, Inverna Lockpez, Patrick McCay, E. Ira McCrudden, Jenny Nelson, Alberto Rey, Christine Rodin, Meredith Rosier, Christie Scheele, Nat Thomas, Marie Vickerilla and Sharon Wandel.

By Matthew J. Perry
Andes Supervisor Marty Donnelly used a quiet town board meeting on Tuesday to raise community awareness of an Environmental Impact Study that has been commissioned by the county to assess the affects of New York City’s land acquisition program.
A final draft of the study, which is being conducted by the Downeast Group, a consulting firm based in Nova Scotia, is expected in February 2009. This month, Downeast representatives are conducting informational meetings in Delhi, Walton, Middletown and Stamford. Preliminary study findings will be presented, and county residents will have the opportunity to comment and voice their concerns.

Andes — Pure Catskills and the Slow Food Catskills Convivium are hosting a special event dinner at the Slow Down Food Company in Andes. Six delegates from the Catskills delegation are returning with insight and stories from their recent trip to the Terra Madre Conference in Turin, Italy.  The dinner is open to the public and will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 15.

An alumna of Andes Central School received distinguished athletic attention last month with her induction into her college’s athletic Hall of Fame.
Jennifer Ruff Osborne, a 1990 graduate of ACS and the daughter of Mel and June Ruff of Andes, was inducted to the St. John Fisher College Hall of Fame on Oct. 2. Osborne, a 1994 graduate of the college, was a four-year basketball player at St. John Fisher, where she helped guide the Division-III Cardinals to the NCAA tournament in four consecutive seasons.

By Matthew J. Perry
The Andes Central School (ACS) Board of Education passed a resolution last Wednesday voicing support for the continuation of the Otsego Northern Catskills (ONC) Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), which serves Andes as well as the schools in Roxbury, Margaretville and South Kortright.

By John Bernhardt
The Margaretville boys’ soccer team was backed up against the wall. With the clock showing less then 10 minutes to play, Margaretville trailed Roxbury, 2-1, in Friday’s Section IV quarterfinal contest, and you could feel the Blue Devils’ season slipping away.
But conditions changed with lightning-like ferocity.

By Matthew J. Perry
The core of the Andes business community turned out for a Sunday brunch at the Andes Hotel to celebrate and bid farewell to Brooke Alderson, who is closing her Main Street store after 12 years.
Brooke’s Variety has been the place to “find things you didn’t even know you needed until you stopped in,” according to Gary Simmons, an old friend of Alderson’s who now runs the Mountainbrook Inn in Bovina. With its well-stocked candy counter, eclectic inventory and its owner’s engaging, entrepreneurial spirit, the store has been essential to the hamlet’s commercial growth in the past decade. Its closing brings some in Andes to imagine the end of an era.

By Matthew J. Perry
The Town of Andes presented a preliminary budget for 2009 at a public hearing last week Tuesday.
A figure of $2,253,814 is projected for town’s general fund, highway department, and water, sewer and lighting districts. The fire district budget was not included in the totals.
The town’s tax revenue is expected to increase by approximately five percent. There is one noticeable increase in residents’ fees: 128 customers of Andes Water District #1 will pay $425 in fees per dwelling unit in 2009, a $50 increase over the ’08 budget.

Students in grades 2 through 6 from Andes Central School will perform scenes from five plays about nature, environment and animals on Monday, Oct. 27 at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. The production is the culmination of five classroom projects in the Empire State Partnership between Andes Central School and The Open Eye Theater, a not-for-profit professional company based in Margaretville. Project Director is the Open Eye Theater’s producing artistic director Amie Brockway. The performance will be on stage in the Andes Central School gym.