Phoenicia

By Jay Braman Jr.
An early Sunday morning struggle between two visitors, reportedly brothers, and the owner of a Town of Shandaken home, ended when one of the visitors was shot in the groin inside the home on Route 214 in the Hamlet of Phoenicia.

Phoenicia Phirst Phriday features Mark Brown, the Sunburst Brothers and The Shoe String Band on Friday, July 3.
The door opens at 7 p.m. with music beginning at 7:30 p.m.

By Jay Braman Jr.
The cost of building and operating a sewer system in Phoenicia, along with related technological issues, has kept the project at a controversial standstill for years, but new technology has now appeared that may convince voters in this hamlet that installing a system is the right thing to do.
Three years ago voters in the district turned down plans for a conventional system that would have cost $17 million.

By Jay Braman Jr.
The owner of the property behind the site of the former Phoenicia Hotel has had enough of the waiting and hoping for a clean up of the rubble next door. She wants to build an oversized fence between her land and the heap of debris that was the former hotel.
Trouble is, the law only allows for a fence to be six feet tall, and Lawrence Webster, who bought her property just one month before the historic hotel went up in flames two years ago, told the Shandaken Zoning Board of Appeals that she needs one to be eight feet high to shield the unsightliness.

By Jay Braman Jr.
You can buy gas in Phoenicia again.
The Country Store in this hamlet opened Monday following a three-month closure while its owners investigated potential environmental problems.
Closed since January, the owners, Verona Oil Inc., suffered schedule set backs due to the discovery of fuel contamination underground at the site. Originally expected to be open within two weeks, the store remained closed for three months.

By Jay Braman Jr.
At a meeting Monday night, Shandaken Supervisor Peter DiSclafani told those attending that he had just received that day the long-awaited response from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on the latest wastewater plan. The new plan uses vegetated sand beds instead of the conventional concrete and chemical version that Phoenicia voters turned down two years ago.

By Jay Braman Jr.
The Country Store in Phoenicia should be able to reopen soon.
Closed since January, the owners, Verona Oil Inc., have suffered schedule set backs due to the discovery of underground fuel contamination at the site. Originally expected to be open within two weeks, the store remains shut down three months later.

By Jay Braman Jr.
After months of mulling over some very tricky legal language and hearing several opinions from lawyers, judges and residents, the Shandaken Zoning Board of Appeals reached a verdict this month on whether water harvesting is an activity covered in the town’s zoning code.

By Jay Braman Jr.
Smack in the middle of Phoenicia’s business district, another massive blemish appeared with little notice several weeks ago.
That blemish, a dug up parking lot where Verona Oil Company’s Country Store sits, was supposed to be a two-week event in a community already suffering from blight from the now infamous Phoenicia Hotel site next door. But immediately after an inspection by the New York State Department of Conservation (DEC) two weeks ago, all work suddenly stopped, leaving a gaping hole in the ground and a large excavator perched precariously atop a pile of gravel at the site.

Margaretville — The Town of Walton will receive funding for three storm water improvement projects following action by the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) Board of Directors on Feb. 3.
A total of $290,742 from the CWC’s Storm Water Retrofit Program will assist the town in stabilizing road banks and ditches, installing culverts, and improving drainage infrastructure on Bob Gould and Walton Mountain roads, and the Oxbow Hollow drainage basin, which includes Oxbow Hollow, Budine Hill and Crawford roads.