By Jay Braman Jr.
The Village of Fleischmanns is considering a plan to build a new central heating facility that could heat the entire village. Not just municipal buildings but homes and businesses too.
This Saturday, about two-dozen people from the village and members of the Catskill Forest Association (CFA) will visit the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT, where a new biomass heating plant is set to take on its first heating season.

By Jay Braman Jr.
Officials with the Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District want people thinking about flooding.
Sure. The streams are low right now and it looks like there won’t be a hurricane this year like there have been for the past two, but according to Graydon Dutcher, the district’s Coordinator of Stream Programs, now is the time to be thinking about how to prepare.
Dutcher was on hand at the meeting of the Coalition of Watershed Towns (CWT) Monday night in Margaretville to talk about flood mitigation efforts in Delaware County.

Forget emotions

By Joe Moskowitz
Within hours last Tuesday after the count of absentee ballots had assured incumbent Town of Middletown Democratic Supervisor Marjorie Miller that she would remain on the job for another two years, Miller, and the rest of the town board, met to approve the 2014 fiscal year spending plan the supervisor had prepared. Miller, the plans author, also wears the hat of Middletown’s Budget Officer.
The board, with Republican Jake Rosa casting the lone dissenting vote, approved the $3,800,000 budget. 

By Brian Sweeney
Former Hardenburgh Supervisor Jerry Fairbairn won his job back on the strength of a big push from absentee voters whose ballots were counted on Tuesday.
Mr. Fairbairn trailed 49-31 following the Election Day tally, but rebounded to win the supervisor’s post when he received 37 absentee ballots in his favor. The final vote count was 68-61.
Paul Ohsberg has served the past two years as supervisor after Mr. Fairbairn chose not to seek re-election in 2011.

Roxbury Central School Superintendent Thomas O’Brien submitted the following op-ed piece to the NYS Rural Schools Association, of which he is a member of the board of directors. He requested that the article be reprinted in the Catskill Mountain News.

As we enter into our third year of the new tax levy legislation, it is time for it to be reviewed. Like all new laws, after time, there are evident unintended consequences. As this discussion continues about a logical means to adequately fund schools this issue is timely.

By Joe Moskowitz
A wind turbine, proposed to be built in one of the least populated regions in the Catskills, is making news in the big city. That’s because the man who wants to build it is a celebrity.
Actor Judd Hirsch, perhaps best known for his role on the TV series “Taxi”, wants to construct a turbine to generate electricity on top of the 96-acre parcel of land he owns in Claryville in the Town of Denning. That’s near the Frost valley YMCA Camp in Ulster County.

By Jay Braman Jr.
After drawing criticism last month for proposing a large raise for himself, Shandaken Supervisor Rob Stanley dialed that plan back a little in time for the public hearing on his tentative 2014 spending plan.
Even though he lowered that raise from the previous $5,000 increase to a $3,000 bump, some in attendance at the public hearing on the budget still called for more of a drop.

By Joe Moskowitz
Teachers have different tastes and different styles. They may teach different subjects, but one thing they seem to have in common is a strong dislike for “Common Core.”
Common Core’s full name is the Common Core State Standards Initiative. It is often called the Common Core Curriculum. Roxbury Central School Superintendent Thomas O’Brien calls it, “The ultimate unfunded mandate.” Margaretville Central School Superintendent Tony Albanese says, “It’s an airplane which is being built while it is in the air.”
But both educators say it isn’t a bad idea.

By Joe Moskowitz
In a race so close that it took an extra week to determine the winner, incumbent Marjorie Miller has been re-elected to serve a second two-year term as Supervisor of the Town of Middletown.
Miller, a Democrat, trailed Republican challenge Nelson Delameter by 22 votes after last Tuesday’s election, but when 82 absentee ballots were tallied at the Board of Elections in Delhi yesterday, Miller had made up the deficit and more, winning by an unofficial count of 523-513.

By Jay Braman Jr.
Representatives for Crossroads Ventures LLC appeared before the Shandaken Planning Board Thursday to get the ball rolling on local review of their $365 million resort project.
The sparsely attended meeting was quite different from the last time Crossroads appeared before the board 13 years ago.