The Empire State Railway Museum, the former Phoenicia train station, has undergone a major sprucing up and reorganization as it prepares to serve as the terminus for the Rail Explorers rail bikes, which were chosen by Ulster County to take over the Phoenicia run of Catskill Mountain Railroad.The museum reopens Memorial Day weekend, as Rail Explorers launch their local operation, offering rail bike tours from Phoenicia to Mount Pleasant and back.
To get help from a Habitat for Humanity, a household needs to be making less than 60 percent of local median income; in Ulster County, that’s about $48,000 for a family of four. Habitat seeks to help families that are living in unsafe or overcrowded housing, or paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent. That’s a description that fits a shockingly large slice of the local population.
Land conservancies succeed in protecting land when they engage the communities they serve. In Woodstock, where the arts reign, the Woodstock Land Conservancy is highlighting creative people in this year’s programming. Their annual fundraiser, the Vernal Fling, will honor writers Michael Perkins and Will Nixon on Saturday, May 26, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the Byrdcliffe Barn.
The town will get electricity for the Youth Center, Rock City Road bathrooms and the Supervisor’s Cottage from Hopewell Junction-based Natural Power Group Inc, a company owned by Sarah and Harry Terbush with plants in Wallkill, Wappingers Falls and Salisbury Mills.
When police found Queens resident Keith Johnson, 46, in the woods near Phoenicia on May 12, he was alive but unresponsive. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police reports. The New York Daily News reported that Johnson, a music teacher in a Queens public school, had been showing signs of distress recently.
A few days before he and fellow Geezer Corps members Lorin Rose and Jim Hanson were set to release Paul Wesley Arndt’s 32 foot six inch long canvas painting from the Bank of America wall it has made beautiful for decades, town historian Richard Heppner had a slight note of apprehension in his voice.
On May 11, Peter M. Mayer, international publishing legend, founder of The Overlook Press, and Woodstocker of more than 50 years, succumbed to amyloidosis at the age of 82.
More than 900 voters in the Onteora Central School District braved the storms accompanied with power outages on Tuesday, May 15 to support the district’s 2018-2019 budget and school bus propositions.
The proposal is to build a new store and breakfast/lunch spot where the Lake Hill General Store, popularly known in its last incarnation as Murphy’s, once stood at the corner of Mink Hollow Road and Route 212 in Woodstock.
The Woodstock store is making use of the former Rite Aid space. “There’ll be a bigger and better produce section, and we’ll be setting up a new coffee and juice bar over the summer.”