For more than a year, the LGBTQ Community Center of Hudson Valley in Kingston has been facing a barrage of criticism for alleged “racist, oppressive, and imperialistic behavior” from a coalition of LGBTQ+, Black rights and social justice groups centered in Newburgh. The Center has undertaken various reforms, held “listening town halls’’ and even apologized — but the call for accountability continues unabated.
The Town of Kingston Planning Board has determined that construction of the proposed steel and concrete fabrication plant at 850 Route 28, next to the Bluestone Wild Forest, Lake Onteora and Pickerel Pond, would have a significant impact on the environment and requires a complete Environmental Impact Statement.
Proposed drag strip in Southern Ulster would be a mecca for speed lovers, but not if neighbors have anything to say about it.
At a recent rally in front of Kingston City Hall, Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, along with some five dozen political, union and community leaders, called on the state to deny WMCHealth permission to eliminate inpatient psychiatric and substance abuse beds from Ulster County. The rally came several weeks after the announcement of over 40 layoffs.
Prosecutors say Ashley Dixon, 31, a member of the Sex Money Murder street gang, was lured from his Kingston home on February 11, 2020 by Corey Q. Smith, a member of G-Shine, a gang that, like Sex Money Murder, is a subset of the Bloods. Smith, 36, who grew up in Kingston but lived in the Bronx, called Dixon and arranged a meeting at Stuyvesant Charter Apartments.
Ulster County comptroller March Gallagher says the chairman of the county legislature David Donaldson set a dangerous precedent when he took the unusual step of intervening in her attempts to audit the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA). He calls that silly, as the Great Ulster County Compost Standoff continues.
RRA sues to halt audit; Gallagher thinks something is rotten in the state of the county’s garbage operation.
Monday, June 21 was the first time in more than a year that the public had the opportunity to weigh in on a proposal to construct two cement and steel fabrication plants on Route 28, a few hundred feet from Onteora Lake and Pickerel Pond in the 3000-acre Bluestone Wild Forest. And weigh in they did. More than one hundred members of the public logged on to a virtual meeting of the Town of Kingston Planning Board that evening, and dozens spoke, with all but two opposing the project due to its environmental impacts.
The body of Andy Neiman, whose May 21 disappearance sparked a region-wide search by local officials, family, friends, and volunteers, was found Thursday on the shore of the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie. The Dutchess County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed his identity based on dental records provided by his family on Friday afternoon. No official cause of death has been determined yet.
The Bluestone Wild Forest, three miles west of Kingston off route 28, comprises 3000 acres of hemlocks and oak, laced with 29 miles of gently rolling hiking and mountain biking trails, lakes, ponds and old quarries, making it ideal for fishing, hunting, trapping, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Within its borders lies one of the only publicly accessible lakes in the Catskills, Onteora Lake, a swimming and paddling mecca for nearby Woodstock residents. Now nature lovers find themselves at odds with a businessman who plans to build a steel and concrete fabrication plant adjacent to the forest and just 100 meters from the lake.