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We
know the story by now... The Phoenicia
Hotel suffered irreperable harm in a middle-of-the-night fire
July 28. The story’s right there. More pictures are on page
12 inside...
Phoenicia
Hotel Burns
Major Fire Draws A Wide Firefighting
Effort As Community Ponders Its Future
8/2/2007
By Phoenicia Times Staff
A humid summer Saturday in July. A man stumbles around town, drunk,
angry that he’s being refused service at the establishments
he knows, that know him. Another man settles in for his own nightcap
at an abandoned gazebo behind the Phoenicia Hotel. Later, he says
he say someone scurrying out from the building.
Then a little before one someone sees flames and lots of smoke.
The Hotel, legendary as a former haunt of the likes of Babe Ruth
and Dutch Schultz, is on fire. The alarm goes out. It seems concentrated
in back, taking over the upper floors. It’s as if you could
see it breathing, says one of the firemen who then spent a long
evening fighting its raging flames later.
Continue>>>
How’s
The Summer Going?
Most Businesses Are Saying It’s Not Bad, But Not Really
All That Great, Either
8/2/2007
By Phoenicia Times Staff
Most are aware of the tricky tightrope walk those in business
must do in order to survive: make all your money, or most
of it, in the crucial summer season, the cash lined weeks
between Memorial Day and Labor Day when the tourists are in
town and the summer folks have opened the doors to their mountain
retreats that were shut tight during winter.
But just how well the summer is treating the restaurants,
shops, realtors and lodgers around depends who is doing the
talking.
Continue>>>
 
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Large
Parcel No Vote
Onteora Majority Decides Discussion Of Onerous Law’s
A Waste Of Its Time
8/2/2007
By Paul Smart
The Onteora School Board quickly and efficiently passed
a resolution 5-2 Tuesday night, July 31, once again
ducking a yes or no vote on implementing the Large
Parcel law it faces periodically based on state legislation
passed five years ago.
“Be it hereby resolved that the Board of Education
of the Onteora Central School District will not entertain
a vote on the Large Parcel Legislation, thus sending
a clear message to the New York State Legislature,
the Ulster County Legislature and the Onteora Central
School District that we, the Trustees feel that this
type of legislation fractures the cohesiveness of
a school district and that this type of legislation
fractures the cohesiveness of a school district and
that no school district should be involved in political
decisions,” read the resolution, which was also
passed by a split vote last year under the same wording.
The
FAD’s A Finality Now
EPA Counters Upstate Concerns
By
Saying Need Outweighs Other Worries
8/2/2007
By Paul Smart
Despite upstate protests, the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency has given the City of New York a
full ten year waiver from spending billions to filter
its water supply.
“I’ve always thought that New York City
has some of the best water around, and now we’ve
got confirmation from Washington. We’re grateful
to the EPA for recognizing our watershed protection
efforts,” said an elated New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg. “This is a vote of confidence
that will save our city money, and that we’ll
use in our efforts to spread the word to New Yorkers
that you should be drinking tap water instead of expensive
bottled water.”
Continue>>>
Shooting
A New Thing
City Kids Join Local Teens For
A Week Documenting The Reservoir System
8/2/2007
By Paul Smart
A group of 20 students, evenly split between high
schoolers from Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Manhattan,
and students in the Onteora, Hunter-Tannersville,
and Catskill school systems, are talking about the
three weeks they’ve been spending from July
14 through August 2 shooting stills and creating a
20-minute documentary film about how New York City
gets its drinking water from the Catskills, and how
this arrangement has impacted the Catskill region.
Continue>>
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