Orange County, NY | featured news

“There is a love for this place that I can’t explain,” says Norma Schadt, one of two Town of Deerpark historians.She is standing in the Huguenot Schoolhouse, which dates back to 1863.“We have no idea who built it,” she says. “But we do know that the bricks were native clay taken from the Swartwout property along the Neversink River, so it’s soft brick.”Which makes it one of the few brick one-room schoolhouses built [...]

TOWN OF CRAWFORD - Imagine if someone who needs addiction treatment could just walk into a police station, ask for help and get it.In a small but growing number of places in our region, that’s now a reality, courtesy of the Hope Not Handcuffs program.“This is a movement,” said Annette Kahrs, president of the Tri-County Community Partnership, which manages the Hope Not Handcuffs program.She and Laura Beck, one of the program’s "angel" [...]

NEWBURGH - Carlos Lebron never intended to become a barber.He lost his job in manufacturing 13 years ago, and a friend of his, the owner of Los Barbaros on Broadway in Newburgh, offered to show him how to cut hair.Lebron, now 43, was skeptical he could do it at first, but he took his friend up on it. Now it's his career."The best part is talking to the customers," Lebron said."A lot of people come to you with their problems, and you're the counselor."A [...]

ALBANY — New York's Democrat-controlled Legislature on Sunday passed a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags and planned to approve tolls for driving into the busiest sections of Manhattan starting in 2021 as part of a $175.5 billion state budget agreement worked out with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.The Assembly and Senate passed the plastic bag ban legislation Sunday afternoon to start what was expected to be an all-day session. The spending plan for the 2019-2020 state fiscal year [...]

From most appearances, Foxfire La Colina in Goshen is open for business as a B&B and wedding venue.Its website encourages inquiries for event bookings and overnight stays at the 4,400-square-foot Spanish-style property on 46 acres; eight weekends in June are already sold out.On Friday, workers were speedily clearcutting .6 of the 46-acre grounds for a new 50-car parking lot.What’s missing from this picture is the town's approval - in the form of [...]

HURLEY - Officers found 165 bags of heroin mixed with fentanyl in an Ulster County man's home on Saturday, police said.Louis D. Little, 58, of Hurley, faces two felony counts of third-degree possession of a controlled substance and one felony count of criminal possession of a controlled substance.He also faces a misdemeanor charge of second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, according a news release posted to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Facebook page. [...]

ALBANY — Teams of scientists, students and community volunteers are counting baby eels in the Hudson River as part of a long-term research program.The Hudson River Eel Project is coordinated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and partner agencies.The tiny, transparent fish known as "glass eels" swim into North American estuaries along the Atlantic coast each spring after hatching in the Sargasso Sea.The migratory American eel is in [...]

ALBANY— A new law will affect the types of smoke detectors on sale in New York state.Starting Monday, all new or replacement smoke detectors sold in the state must either be powered by a non-removable battery good for at least 10 years or be made to be hard-wired to buildings.State officials say these types of smoke detectors can be safer because they do not require periodic battery replacements, reducing the chances of human error.The law does not [...]

CITY OF NEWBURGH - Two sections of Liberty and Grand streets will be closed to through-traffic beginning on Thursday for work on gas main replacement by Central Hudson utility company, according to an announcement from the City of Newburgh.The affected areas of Liberty Street will be between Second and Catherine streets. Third Street will be closed from Grand Street to Liberty Street. The closure will remain in place until further notice, according to the announcement. [...]

MONROE — One of the men organizing a proposal to create a new village next to Kiryas Joel was assaulted outside Monroe Town Hall on Thursday morning by two fellow Hasids who oppose those plans and who grabbed the revised petition he came to file.Herman Wagschal told the Times Herald-Record by phone after the attack that he had gone to Town Hall to resubmit the petition for the Village of Seven Springs after making a small alteration. He said the two men approached him from [...]