The Olive Press

Technical Dismissal... Blumstein's Lawsuit Over Tongor Pines Still Leaves Unanswered Questions By Tree McElhinney A lawsuit filed by town resident Charlie Blumstein against the Town of Olive Zoning Board of Appeals was dismissed last month on a technicality. The suit challenged an area variance that the ZBA granted last October to the SHARP Committee, a Shankdaken-based non-profit development agency, for the expansion of the Tongore Pines senior housing complex in Olivebridge. Continue>>> Just Call It Wendigo... Larry Fessenden's Local Horror Show By Annie Nocenti It was while dangling his fantastic, handmade, seven-foot tall half-man half-deer creature over the gravel pits behind the Olive town buildings, shooting the climactic scene in his movie, that filmmaker Larry Fessenden got to know the locals. "They were very amused by my monster," he laughs. Continue>>>	PLAY BALL... The Onteora Babe Ruth League is for boys in the 14-15 year range. They play regularly at the fields near Bennett and the High School. On page 15 inside you'll see them all playing Marlboro on a recent sunny afternoon. Where Do We Shop? The Town, Like Its Geography, Splits Its Shopping Between Four Corners By Tree McElhinney For most of us in the town of Olive, picking up a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread involves getting in our cars and driving - a couple of miles, if we're lucky, to the local general store, or over 10 to the nearest grocery store. With a population nearing 5,000, Olive consists of 40,000 rural acres spread across both sides of the Ashokan Reservoir. The one grocery store - the Boiceville Market - is located near the northern tip of town, adjacent to Reservoir Natural Foods, a health food store. There are a few general stores - Tetta's located in Samsonville, the American General Store in West Shokan, the Fill'n Station in Shokan and the soon to be opened Jacobson's Tongore Country Store (see story in the News in Brief) in Olivebridge. Continue>>> Homes, Not Houses... A Personal Examination Of How and Why Olive's Real Estate Looks The Way It Does By Martha Frankel I grew up in a garden apartment in Queens, NY. My apartment had a stoop out front and a sidewalk around it; so did every other house within ten miles. The stoop (3 concrete steps and enough room to put two chairs, knee-to-knee) was great- you could sit on it and talk with your friends late into a summer night;you could throw a ball against it (hoping to hit that sweet spot where the riser and the step met) and watch the Spalding sail out into the street, where other kids would catch it and fling it back to you; you could sneak out there when no one was looking and just dream. Continue>>>