Radio Chatskill

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has declared a drought watch for 15 counties across the state, due to significantly reduced rainfall and declining water levels in streams and groundwater, including Delaware, Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster.

While no mandatory restrictions are in place under a drought watch, the DEC is urging residents, particularly those relying on private groundwater wells, to conserve water immediately.

NYC Environmental Protection Deputy Commissioner Paul Rush appeared on Radio Chatskill with an update on the drought watch, its impact on the watershed and the Delaware Aqueduct repair.

In the wake of a long election season and the transition to a new administration, Janus Adams, host of The Janus Adams Show on Radio Catskill, shared her thoughts on the election outcome and her vision for the nation's future. In a conversation with Radio Catskill’s Tim Bruno, Adams discusses her personal reaction to the results and offers her perspective on what lies ahead. Her show airs every Saturday at 11 a.m., where she continues to explore critical social and political issues.

Nina Burleigh is a journalist, best-selling author, documentary producer, and publisher of a substack on politics called American Freakshow, a weekly newsletter keeping an eye on MAGA extremism.  Appearing on Radio Chatskill, Burleigh reacts to the 2024 Presidential Election and tells listeners what to expect in a "Trump 2.0" administration. 

Burleigh will be in conversation with journalist Illya Marritz on November 10 at 3pm at The Darby just across the bridge from Narrowsburg, NY about her debut novel, "Zero Visibility Possible." 

Artists and arts organizations in Sullivan County can now apply for funding through the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA).  The DVAA, which serves as the arts council for the county, administers Arts for Sullivan, a regrant program funded by the New York State Council for the Arts.  

Three grant programs are available: community arts, arts education, and individual artist fellowships.  Community arts grants, ranging from $500 to $5,000, support nonprofits presenting arts and cultural programming throughout Sullivan County. Eligible projects include theater, music, dance, literary arts, folklore, installation and visual arts.  

Arts education grants also support nonprofit organizations and artists working with community partners to provide arts education programs for pre-K to grade 12 students and community members.  These grants require a curriculum and assessment tools. 

Six artist fellowships, each providing $3,000, will be awarded to artists living and working in Sullivan County to support the creation of new work in visual, literary, and compositional arts. A community engagement component is required for fellowship recipients. 

The deadline for fellowship applications is January 30, 2025. All other applications are open until November 30, 2025. 

Mini-grants of $500 are also available to first-time Arts for Sullivan applicants for new or existing cultural projects. 

For guidelines, grant information, information session registration, and one-on-one meetings, visit delawarevalleyartsalliance.org (under “Empower”). 

For further information, contact Tanner Simon at 845/252-7576 ext.1004 or @ArtsforSullivan on Instagram.

Residents and local officials in the Catskills are celebrating an agreement that puts an end to part of a decades-long land acquisition program by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to protect the watershed of the city’s reservoirs in upstate New York.

For more details, we spoke to Meg McGuire, the founder and publisher of Delaware Currents, the news project dedicated to telling the story of the Delaware River from its headwaters in the Catskill Mountains of New York to the Delaware Bay, where it meets the ocean.

Ric Coombe, chairman of the Coalition of Watershed Towns, which was formed in 1991 to bargain with the DEP, confirmed that the parties had reached an agreement for the city to stop purchasing land in the majority of the Catskills watershed.

“This will be a turning point in reducing” land purchases, Coombe said. “It will take away that pressure to upstate communities that the city’s purchasing land has applied.”

The DEP also confirmed the decision to Delaware Currents.

“There will be no more priority three and four acquisitions, which is most of the Greene County land area in the watershed, but additional focus on priority areas one and two,” John Milgrim, a DEP spokesman, said in an email. “Through a collaborative process and guided by science, DEP intends to focus resources on programs and acquisitions most beneficial to water quality protection while continuing investments to enhance the socio-economic vitality of our community neighbors.”

Priorities are shifting
Priority areas three and four make up the majority of the Catskills, including Greene and Schoharie Counties.

The majority of Delaware County is also part of these areas, as well as smaller chunks of Sullivan and Ulster Counties. Priority areas one and two are smaller in size and include parts of Ulster and Sullivan Counties near the Roundout Reservoir and in Delaware County near the Cannonsville Reservoir.

Read more: How the town of Cannonsville became the Cannonsville Reservoir

“The priority areas have been identified based on the location and makeup of the lands and the direct potential to threaten the New York City water supply,” the Delaware County Board of Supervisors said in a statement.

“Priority areas one and two include lands that are contiguous to the reservoirs and the infrastructure supporting the water transmission systems, making them more sensitive and therefore requiring substantially greater protection,” the supervisors said. “Therefore, the program will allow for NYC DEP to solicit lands for acquisition and advance contracts from willing sellers in these priority areas.”

Coombe attributed the long-awaited breakthrough to a change in New York City personnel.

“The city recognized that the core land-acquisition plan did need to change, which they had told us previously that they were going to change it … but they were seeking patience because they needed to change their approach to watershed protection,” he said.

Read more: Marist College students create a video about New York City’s reservoirs

Land purchase plans stirred opposition and concerns
New York City in 1997 rolled out the program across Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Schoharie and Ulster Counties to protect its drinking water supply, which serves over nine million people and provides 1.1 billion gallons of water a day to the city and Hudson Valley communities.

From the beginning, critics worried about stunted economic growth of the area and a loss in property tax revenues. A lot has changed since a landmark memorandum of agreement was reached in 1997 after many years of complex and difficult negotiations between the city DEP and the affected counties.

One of the biggest turns in the process came when the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine conducted a full review of the watershed protection program that revealed that approaches like stream bank protection work and riparian buffer plantings could be more useful in protecting the city’s water than land acquisition.

The findings aligned with concerns of local residents and served as the backbone of continuing conversations.

“It was a good third party that led all parties to understand the science behind it,” Coombe said. “The report helped reinforce our position, especially when it came to the lower priority land of areas three and four.”

The Delaware County Board of Supervisors said that “the shift in policy is a result of many years of analysis and a comprehensive understanding of how land acquisition benefits water quality and the impacts it has had on community vitality.”

Read more: Tensions persist over NYC reservoir land protection more than 25 years after pact

Talks continue
Earlier this year, officials nodded to a light at the end of the tunnel between New York City and Catskills localities about the city’s land-buying to protect its watershed in the region.

Coombe told Delaware Currents in February that negotiations were “moving in good faith” and that both sides had made “very encouraging progress.”

Now, they can celebrate the changes that affect large portions of the Catskills, but talks are not over.

“Talks are continuing but the major land acquisition pieces have consensus agreement among stakeholders,” Milgrim said.

Coombe doubled down that there is still a lot more to consider. “We’re partners for life, whether we like it or not,” he said.

The agreement doesn’t eliminate other pressures, like the next generation of land management, which the Coalition of Watershed Towns hopes includes swapping lower- priority land for higher-priority land.

“This agreement stops them from filling their bucket, but we need to have them also let some out of it, which will take a much longer time,” Coombe said.

This article originally appeared on Delaware Currents. 

The White Sulphur Springs (NY) Fire Department is hosting its annual clam chowder soup sale on Election Day, as residents make their voices heard in the polling location for Liberty District 4. 

Beginning at 9:30am until sold out, the fire station will be serving up clam chowder, made by fire department members and local volunteers. The White Sulphur Springs Ladies Auxiliary will be hosting their bake sale at the same time. 

One fire department member said, "We start serving in the morning, but I wouldn't wait too long." 

During last year's Election, Jason Dole visiting the White Sulphur Springs Fire Department for a first hand report. 

Proceeds from the soup sale will go towards funding new equipment for the fire department and supporting local outreach programs. 

One Small Step brings strangers with different political views together to record a 50-minute conversation—not to debate politics, but to learn who we are as people. Created by StoryCorps, One Small Step is an effort to remind the country of the humanity in all of us—even those with whom we disagree.

Radio Catskill is one of just seven stations selected nationally to host One Small Step in 2024. With participant permission, these conversations will be preserved for future generations at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Participants Camille and Brett recorded a One Small Step conversation at our Liberty studios earlier this summer. We spoke to them on Radio Chatskill about their experience and listened to a clip of their conversation.

Listen to Alex and Tom’s full conversation and others on the StoryCorps Archive HERE

Image: One Small Step participants Camille and Brett at our Liberty studios.

Family caregivers in the Mid-Hudson Valley are stressed and cutting work hours or even leaving jobs because they do not have enough help, according to a new A-A-R-P New York survey

The survey of voters 40 and older in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties paints the same picture as in the rest of the state, where family members shoulder much of the responsibility for keeping an aging loved ones at home, while all too often doing so without adequate support from the state. 

Tim Bruno spoke to David McNally, AARP New York’s Senior Director of Advocacy.

Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger joins Radio Catskill as the community heads into election season and the county gears up for its 2025 budget discussions. Metzger  outlined the county's plans for community-centered investments and share insights on early voting trends, which indicate a high turnout so far.

Metzger recently highlighted Ulster County’s financial health, underscored by a solid “AA” bond rating from S&P Global—a positive signal for the county's fiscal stability heading into the next budget cycle.

A coalition of nearly 250 environmental and community groups released a letter last week calling on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to cap low-income residents’ energy bills.

The letter also asks the state to reduce fossil fuel use by ending a policy that requires ratepayers to subsidize the cost for gas companies to expand gas pipelines.

Those were both elements of a previous piece of legislation called the New York HEAT Act. Parts of the bill received support from Hochul and the state Legislature during the last legislative session, but it ultimately failed to pass.

The HEAT Act is meant to encourage utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. It would also cap the cost of energy bills at 6% of household income for low-income New Yorkers.

Some lawmakers have said that Hochul’s last minute decision to cancel congestion pricing, which would have charged fees to vehicles entering certain parts of Manhattan, derailed negotiations over the bill earlier this year.

The letter asks Hochul to ensure that the HEAT Act passes next year. It also asks her to prioritize reducing New York’s dependence on fossil fuels and to meet the commitments laid out in the state’s climate law.

“We write to express our frustration with ever-rising energy costs driven by irresponsible fossil fuel infrastructure spending,” the letter reads, which is addressed directly to Hochul. “We urge you, therefore, to take immediate action to protect struggling families and businesses by ending wasteful spending on fracked gas pipelines and instead make smart investments in building decarbonization.”

The state’s climate law, which passed in 2019, requires New York to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. Recent reports have found the state is behind on meeting that target.