By Joe Moskowitz
The Margaretville Rising Community Committee held a fourth and final public hearing Monday evening.
The committee, chaired by Glen Faulkner and Carol O’Beirne, has spent months doing everything it can to get the public involved in the process, and the effort seems to have paid off spectacularly.
The public involvement so impressed the state that New York is increasing the money it is giving the village for flood recovery from $3 million to $6 million.

By Jay Braman Jr.
Area residents will get a chance to speak up on Al Higley’s efforts to reopen his store in Mount Tremper, which is now shut down by State Supreme Court order.
On Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m., the Shandaken Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing at town hall on Route 28 in Allaben.

By Joe Moskowitz
Fleischmanns businessman and property owner William Hrazanek is racing against a clock that is about to tick down to zero.
On May 20, two of his Fleischmanns properties, the former Bailey Manufacturing plant on Depot Street and the VW Parts facility on Wagner Avenue, will go on the foreclosure auction block on the steps of the Delaware  County Courthouse in Delhi.
Fleischmanns native and former Wall Street tycoon Kenneth Pasternak holds first mortgages on both properties and has won judgments totaling more than $1 million against Hrazanek for non payment.

A complete schedule of the Catskill Mountains Film Festival this weekend is attached as a PDF file here. It also appears on the back page of this week's Catskill Mountain News' print edition. Future auteurs of the world, take note!

By Cheryl Petersen
Delaware County Supervisors moved forward last week to implement a bed tax. Funds garnered from the proposed two percent hotel, motel, and bed and breakfast room occupancy tax in Delaware County will be used to promote tourism. “But, we must understand, the funds will help prevent us from increasing property tax,” said Stamford Supervisor Mike Triolo.

By Joe Moskowitz
It took a village and its school to impress the governor. But in the end, Margaretville is $3 million richer for the effort.
During a ceremony in Albany last Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the village would receive an additional $3 million in Rising Community funding.

By Joe Moskowitz
A special meeting of the Margaretville Village Board was called on Monday to deal with some rather routine business, but in an age when governments have to be careful with every dollar, and tough choices have to be made, a simple task like buying a truck means something else may not get done.

By Brian Sweeney
Roxbury Central School sophomore Danielle Fichtner is the winner of a photo contest and her work will appear on the 2014-15 Margaretville Telephone Co. directory.
MTC Plant Manager Steve Finch and Danielle Fichtner display a sample of the new phone book cover. — Photo by Dick Sanford

Bovina — On Thursday afternoon, April 17, a DEC Wildlife staff member killed a bear on Lee Hollow Road in the Town of Bovina that was attempting to enter a structure that contained honey. DEC officials believed that it was same bear that had previously entered the structure and destroyed approximately 120 pounds of honey.
The staff person attempted to scare the bear away but was unsuccessful.
The last-resort killing of nuisance bears is allowable under New York State Environmental Conservation Law § 11-0523.

OPENING DAY GOBBLER — Angela Davis of Margaretville shot this old tom turkey while hunting with her father Pat on Saturday morning on the Utter farm in Millbrook.  The turkey had a nine-inch beard and one and one-eighth-inch long spurs. The tom weighed approximately 20 pounds. — Contributed photo