The IDA may be aggressive in its pursuit of jobs, but in my view it’s hardly “confused.” I’ve sat in on some of their board meetings, and these people are anything but disorganized. Under IDA Chairman Dave O’Halloran, this organization is focused and aggressively proactive, qualities I find rarely attributed to Hein’s in-house economic development shop headed by Deputy Planning Director March Gallagher. Neither organization, however, has attained much. That’s a pox on all of us.
O’Halloran, a successful businessman and Republican operative who some see as executive timber — could that be the reason for this pre-emptive strike? — chose not to rise to the bait offered by a reporter (moi).
“He does good work as the county executive,” O’Halloran said of Hein. “He’s been a conservative county executive, which works for us because we’re a very conservative board. They (the executive wing) are doing a good job with economic development.” While pandering to the exec — everyone does at budget time — O’Halloran gave no indication the IDA would be any less committed to job recruitment. Good. This county needs a lot more of that.
As for politics, the former Rochester Republican town chairman and school board member declared, “I have no intention of running for any office in Ulster County.”
That’s his story, and I’m sure he’ll stick to it.
Mud in our eye
It being perfect convertible weather, we motored northwest through the “always-in-season Catskills” to Prattsville via Phoeniciaon Sunday afternoon. We found the first annual Prattsville Mud Festival in full swing.
Only a year ago, Hurricane Irene sent walls of water and mud some estimated at eight feet high down Prattville’s main street, demolishing just about every other structure and leaving several feet of brownish red mud. Ruination is still very much in evidence, with vacant abandoned buildings looking something like Berlinafter the war. The storm spared few. The historic home of Prattsville founder Zadock Pratt (1790-1871) on the main street had been five feet deep in water and mud.
And yet the spirits of townsfolk we talked to were high, something we’re seeing all over a region so hard hit by Irene. A 19-year-old girl was selling dollar cloth bracelets she had made to help her grandparents rebuild their home. “We Survived Irene” T-shirts were everywhere.
Uplanders spared the storm flocked to help their creekside neighbors. Insurance companies didn’t get very high marks, but rescue personnel did.
“All you folks seem to know each other,” I said to a man handing out free chocolate [naturally] homemade ice cream. “We do now,” he replied.
On Sunday, Prattsville celebrated a year of hard work and recovery, with guarded optimism about the future.
“There’s an awful lot left to do,” a dairy farmer’s wife told us. “Some people just won’t be coming back. We just hope that people don’t forget us.”
Yo, baby
The ultimate symbol of hope, of course, is a newborn and so for the first time in her life, Isabella Rose Parete appears in her parents’ very favorite political column. Isabella, a healthy six-pounder who may have a brother Ferdinand some day, was born to county Legislator Rob Parete and wife Nicole Tucker of Saugerties on Aug. 15 at Northern Dutchess Hospital. After some anxious moments, the family has settled back in their home in Stone Ridge.
