Next on tap, the Polar Express hits the rails in December. Advance ticket sales have already exceeded 5,000, say CMRR officials. The county executive might have some explaining to do when he faces voters in a primary or general election next year.
The columnist Reynolds.
Dots all
Ulster County’s 15 Democratic delegates to this Friday’s state Supreme Court judicial nominating convention in Albany could be decisive in the contest to determine the Third District’s next judge. Thirty-eight votes are needed for nomination. Two-term Albany County Family Court Judge Peggy Walsh is pitted against Justin Corcoran, an Albany attorney. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill leads a 10-person delegation from Ulster; Assemblyman Frank Skartados will bring three delegates from his district. Beth Murphy will represent the 104th (Saugerties) A.D.
If Walsh is nominated, she will relinquish the Family Court nomination she secured at convention in June …
Cahill’s annual “funraiser,” still only $15 for beverage and homemade dishes, was switched from Hasbrouck Park to the Town of Ulster’s Robert Post Park on the river. About 250 attended, including Ulster’s Republican supervisor, Jim Quigley, who was cross-endorsed by Democrats for re-election last year. Quigley reminded me that his town was one of three to reduce property taxes after getting safety-net relief from the county.
Though around 3:30 somebody thought they spotted Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo’s fundraising cruise boat drifting off shore, it was only a mirage. (Gallo and Hein did not attend their assemblyman’s funraiser, nor he their fundraisers.) Gallo’s cruise, on the 20th anniversary of the annual mayoral summer fundraising cruises his late brother inaugurated (a.k.a. “the ship of fools”), drew only about 100 passengers. T.R. Gallo ran two cruises a night with at least 250 on board. So did former mayor Jim Sottile …
Construction has finally begun on the Sophie Finn School conversion project in Kingston, way late and over budget. At last official count, what had been projected as a $4 million conversion for an adjunct to the community college, has run past $7 million. Not to worry, say officials, “state grants” will pay for everything.
These guys are whistling past the debris pile. Do they really think the state is going to fund a mismanaged project that could be that much over budget? Hope is not a plan.
County Clerk Nina Postupack will lecture on the life of Christopher Tappen, the county deputy clerk credited with saving vital records when the British burned Kingston, this Friday night at 5:30 p.m. at the Senate House Museum.
To set the record straight, I called city historian Ed Ford’s brother “Bob” in a recent piece. Boo. His name is Bill. Just plain Bill.
As a local history buff, this one smarts: “Nobody gives a [blank] about Thomas Chambers (a 1650s founder of Kingston),” a newsroom pundit pronounced. “Everybody likes Thomas the Tank Engine.”
State Senate candidates Cecilia Tkaczyk and George Amedore face off at the Kingston chamber’s monthly breakfast at the Garden Lounge in Kingston Tuesday morning. Chamber candidate forums are known for civility, but given the tenor of early exchanges between the candidates this one might be different.
“Daily Echo”? Good one.
Given the dire predictions about the upcoming winter, perhaps that train should be called the “Polar Vortex Express.”
11,000+ Thousands of families with kids is what the Railroad brought to uptown kingston. What most people and politicians don’t realize is that number could/would have been more, a lot more. The railroads infrastucture at that point allowed for pre ticket sales that would fill 4 cars/coaches to carry kingstons visitors. Late inquiries I’m sure found sold out trains. To the railroads credit, the 11,000 provided for a safe, block party style atmosphere that lasted 2 weekends. Next year, add more coaches and those numbers will go way up.
I hope Mr.Hein understands that the vendor that worked with the Catskill mountain Railroad in setting up “Thomas” surveyed the sites Mike Hein mentioned. I am under the assumption that the railroad was told that the only site that the vendor would consider operating these events, is the site at Kingston plaza. So, if Mr. Hein succeeds in ripping up the tracks in Kingston, The tens of thousands of visitors, families with kids, looking to visit uptown Kingston and “Thomas The Tank”, “Polar Express” “Peanuts” along with other events that are planned, Will go with it. Can, Uptown Kingston really afford to lose that?