A chance dinner changed everything
This December will mark 35 years since Peggy Schwartz and former business partner Mary Federoff opened up the wine and spirits shop in the CVS plaza. Back in 1978, the shopping center was just being built when the two women found themselves driving up the Thruway together one evening with their husbands, one a CPA...
Test of wills
Parents of third through eighth grade students in Saugerties have been warned by state education officials that the new, tougher standardized testing their kids began undergoing this week is going to result in low test scores and that parents should expect poor results from their children. “What kind of message is that sending to our...
What to see in local art galleries
This past week saw the opening of “I Have a Place in Mind” at Imogen Holloway Gallery on Partition St., with work by Nina Katchadourian, Bobby Davidson, Michel Alhadeff-Jones and Keiko Sono. As the title of the exhibit suggests, each of the artists represented has a distinct take on concepts of time and place. This...
Rebuilding the primordial wall
‘There’s no other thing like it anywhere else in the world, but it takes maintenance’ Last September, a stone wall collapsed on the southwest side of the quarry at Opus 40. It was the first such incident in the over-70-year history of the site. At the time, the collapse was believed to be the...
With demand high, food pantry gets help
Most of us have probably held jobs where at times it felt like we were doing the work of two people. For Marilyn Richardson, manager of the Saugerties Area Council of Churches Food Pantry these past 20 years, it turns out she’s been doing the work of five. That’s how many people will be on...
Stewards of the Bend
When someone drove up Susan Bolitzer’s driveway back in 1999 to hand her a flyer about a piece of land coming up for auction, she probably could not have imagined the changes it would make in her life in the years to come. By 2003, she’d helped to form the Esopus Creek Conservancy (ECC) and...
Saugerties artists team up for winter exhibit
Once a year, for 10 years now, the artists of the annual Saugerties Artists Studio Tour have welcomed the community into their studios on the second weekend of August. Visitors have the opportunity to experience the artists’ work in the environment it was made in and to meet the person who made it. The tour...
The most important Saugerties stories of 2012
A divided town board For most of the first decade of the new millennium, the town board was a quiet place. The knock-down, drag-out fights of the past were replaced with officious administration. Unanimous votes were so common that the Republican chairman eventually began keeping a tally of consecutive 5-0 votes than ran into the...
Local places to donate
Food Pantry “We’re always grateful for any donations, especially in these very hard times,” says Marilyn Richardson, manager of the Saugerties Area Council of Churches Food Pantry. The need for food assistance is there, she says, but donations are down because times are hard for so many right now, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane...
Marie Post: Compassion counts
Town of Saugerties Animal Control manager Marie Post, 88, was born in Mountain View, New Jersey but grew up in Jersey City. She first came to Saugerties as an 11-year-old, to attend the Jersey City Sunshine Camp held in the area. She went to the camp for about four years, and during that time met...
Pete Lopez has a plan
On Tuesday, Nov. 6, incumbent New York State Assemblyman Peter Lopez, 51, defeated Democratic challenger James Miller, earning a fourth two-year term. He will represent the newly formed 102nd Assembly District, comprised of Greene and Schoharie counties, parts of Otsego, Delaware, Columbia and Albany counties and Saugerties in Ulster County. In January, 2013, Saugerties will...
What to see at local galleries
An afternoon in a local gallery can go a long way toward adding some color to bleak November days. Several new exhibits of art opened this week at Partition Street galleries in the village, and the Saugerties Performing Arts Factory is displaying the ongoing group show “Blue” through the end of the month. The Saugerties...