Opioid fatalities fall in Ulster
Opioid deaths in 2019 in Ulster dropped 41 percent in 2019 with only 33 compared to 2018’s 56, Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan and the Ulster County Department of Health announced Feb. 18.
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The limestones of Noah’s flood?
The best place for you to visit limestones is along Rte. 9W where it passes through the Kingston malls. Almost all the rocks there are limestones. You can see more limestones along Rte. 32, just north of Saugerties.
Anti-domestic violence program to be widened
For the past three years, Kingston has served as a proving ground for a cutting-edge initiative aimed at preventing domestic violence using “focused deterrence.” Now, armed with data showing its effectiveness, District Attorney Dave Clegg said this week he wants to take the “Intimate Partner Violence Intervention” [IPVI] program countywide.
Time Traveling at Willow Automotive
Arthur Vogel’s Willow Automotive, nestled on Route 212 in Willow, is as close to time travel as you’ll get in these parts. A couple dozen vintage automobiles in various stages of repair (or disrepair), surround the faded yellow-with-green-trim circa 1934 building. An ancient gas pump (ornamental now) stands sentinel on the cracked pavement out front. Distinguished Mount Tremper overlooks the terrain, just as it has for millennia.
Ulster County public defender resigns after investigation showed failure to seek $2.5m in state reimbursements
Attorney Andrew Kossover, the Ulster County public defender since 2006, resigned this week after an analysis showed the office failed to seek $2.5 million over six years in state reimbursements. During that time, the county budgeted and spent $1.9 million that could have been reimbursed but was instead absorbed by county taxpayers, according to a release from County Executive Pat Ryan.
A rising tide for Ulster County real estate?
The overall increase in real estate sales lifted some Ulster County property prices more the others, and in some localities more than others. In Kingston, the median sold price of residential properties in 2019 was $191,750, up almost 20 percent over the previous year’s median price. In Woodstock, the median sold price was $420,000 in 2019, a hefty sum by most Ulster County standards but a gain of only four percent over the previous year.
Sales-tax budgeting 101
Sales tax makes up the largest share of county revenue, but it can vary from year to year, making accurate forecasting important.
Sofranko gets going in Olive
On the eve of his second town board workshop and meeting as Olive supervisor, we asked Jim Sofranko how things were going in his new job.
Woodstock Town Board will oversee renovations to town offices
Woodstock Town Supervisor Bill McKenna surprised some town lawmakers by announcing at the end of the regular meeting February 11 that he’s stepping back from the Comeau renovation project and leaving it largely up to the Town Board.
Book tackles early racial injustice in Upstate New York
Back in December, 1905, when Kingston still got its water from the Zena reservoirs and Cooper Lake was twinkling in the city’s eye, Oscar Harrison was murdered near the water supply. An African American man, Cornell Van Gaasbeek, in whose house the body was found, was charged with the crime and tried in Ulster County Court. He was defended by a local reformer, part politician Augustus H. Van Buren, as the trial unfolded amid the charged racial climate of the early 20th Century.