Orange County, NY | featured news

Montgomery voters decided Tuesday they wanted Steve Brescia to serve another four years as mayor.Brescia, who’s been mayor for 28 years, fought off a challenge from Maria Beltrametti, the owner of a vintage clothing store, who also ran against him in 2015.Montgomery voters also chose to stick with the status quo in the race for trustees, picking veteran incumbents Darlene M. Andolsek and JoAnn Scheels over challenger Don Berger.Montgomery residents also elected [...]

LIBERTY — Four hundred plus 5th and 8th-grade students from Sullivan County school districts attended the Career & Tech Expo at Sullivan BOCES from Jan. 25-27. The expo was a perfect opportunity for students to see first-hand what programs the Career & Tech Center offers when they enter 11th grade.Each of the Career & Tech programs allowed the students to take part in hands-on exercises tied to that program. The activities included everything from handling animals [...]

CORNWALL — Join the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum for a day of outdoor fun after a long winter stuck inside! Grab some gardening gloves and head to Outdoor Discovery Center, at Muser Drive off of Angola Rd in Cornwall, for not one but two wonderful events on March 30; Grasshopper Grove Clean-up and Composing Workshops.Help spruce up Grasshopper Grove, the Nature Museum’s popular nature play space, in preparation for its opening day of the season on April 13. This day of [...]

NEWBURGH - The Newburgh Free Library will join other libraries across the state in offering programs inspired by the book “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.”The Drawdown program, spearheaded by the New York Library Association, aims to connect New Yorkers with information on how they can help prevent climate change.The first program at the Newburgh Free Library, 124 Grand Street, takes place on March 21 at 7 p.m. [...]

GRAHAMSVILLE – The public is invited to a Maple Weekend Tour at the Catskill Mountain Sugar House from 1:30-3 p.m. March 24.The tour will be followed by a short snowshoe/hike, depending on conditions, around the mountaintop farm.Participants will meet at 1:30 p.m. at the Catskill Mountain Sugar House, 227 Glade Hill Road in Grahamsville, to witness syrup production with an oil-fired evaporator at this organic maple syrup farm. Then everyone is invited to enjoy [...]

CORNWALL – Cornwall Public Library, at 395 Hudson St. in Cornwall, will once again welcome Brian Conway on fiddle, John Walsh on guitar, and students for the library’s annual Irish Music Concert. The concert will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday at Munger Cottage, located up the hill directly behind the library.This is a free concert and no registration is required.Brian Conway, an Irish-American fiddler, has won numerous All-Ireland fiddling competitions, and was [...]

Happy first day of spring! Here are five things to know about this year's spring equinox, which falls on Wednesday, March 20.The third and final supermoon of 2019 will take place on the first day of spring.That's right, it's only March, but it's the last chance to see a supermoon this year. The next won't appear until Feb. 9, 2020."Equinox" roughly translates to [...]

Two incumbent village trustees lost their seats in Liberty and Wurtsboro on Tuesday night, while the Liberty mayor cruised to re-election by a wide margin.Former trustee Joan Stoddard and challenger Victoria Ferguson won seats on the Liberty board, ousting incumbent Corinne McGuire and beating out Troy Johnstone, according to unofficial results from the Sullivan County Board of Elections.McGuire received the least amount of votes out of the four candidates.Liberty Mayor [...]

MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown Police SWAT team smashed open the ground-floor studio apartment door of William Nott at 54 Cottage St. after 10 p.m. Tuesday, following a neighbor’s police report of a funny smell that turned out to be his deceased long-time partner.Middletown Police Chief John Ewanciw said the SWAT team broke down the door after throwing loud flash grenades after a male resident wouldn’t open it, and they found a female’s body, but he [...]

ALBANY — Education advocates are urging New York lawmakers to leave the discussion of recreational marijuana out of the state budget process.Several groups sent representatives to Albany Tuesday, including the PTA, Rural Schools Association and Association of School Business Officials.The rally came a day after the New York State School Boards Association issued a similar call. Association Executive Director Timothy Kremer says that rather than consider whether to [...]