Orange County, NY | featured news

PORT EWEN — Ulster BOCES Electrical Construction & Maintenance student Jordan Corvin, from the Rondout Valley School District, is not only an exceptional student, but he is a shining example of humanity. Since a hospital stay at the age of six, he has been lightening the emotional toll that being hospitalized can have on patients.While hospitalized, Corvin received an electric train set as a gift. This act of kindness started him thinking about how to improve hospital stays [...]

LIBERTY — Daily care is necessary to monitor the health of young pheasants and to ensure that there is adequate feed and water for the rapidly growing chicks. Youth interested in participating in the Department of Environmental Conservation’s annual pheasant “raise and release” program have the unique opportunity to experience rearing pheasants and releasing them into the wild.The rearing of pheasants requires a great deal of responsibility by youth and a [...]

GOSHEN — The annual Orange-Ulster BOCES County Spelling Bee co-sponsored by the Times Herald-Record, the Orange County School Boards Association and the Community Foundation of Orange will be held on March 14 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Emanuel Axelrod Education Center at Orange-Ulster BOCES on Gibson Road in Goshen. Seventh and eighth grade students attending public schools in Orange County participate in this annual oral spelling bee. The event is organized by Library [...]

Three homeless people from the Livingston Manor area have been charged with burglarizing an unoccupied residence in the Town of Rockland.Amanda L. Mead, 40, Robert Mead, 38, and Erin P. Smith, 38, were charged with second-degree burglary, a felony.Police said Amanda Mead possessed a needle containing heroin, and also charged her with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.The arrests were made as the result of a two-day [...]

The total number of non-farm jobs rose to 706,700 in January in the Orange-Rockland-Westchester metro statistical area, a 0.5 percent gain from last year, according to new federal data.Sullivan County led all New York metro statistical areas in growth, with total non-farm employment skyrocketing 7.9 percent to 28,600 jobs in January compared with last year.In the Kingston metro statistical area, which includes Ulster County, the number of non-farm jobs climbed 2.8 [...]

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Let's put it this way, George Garrison said, the roads that don't need any work are the ones that were paved last year.Garrison, the City of Newburgh's Department of Public Works superintendent, is looking toward the approaching spring paving season.He hopes to repair 10 to 15 roads this year, he said.The city is a few years deep into a 15-year, phased pavement improvement plan.New York state mandates that streets with sidewalks must [...]

COOPERSTOWN — Several area museum programs and individuals have earned 2019 Awards of Merit from The Museum Association of New York. The awards were announced Friday and will be presented April 8.• Kara Augustine received the Rising Star Award for "her work and thought-provoking approach to public programming"  at Historic Huguenot Street, a district encompassing 30 buildings across 10 acres in New Paltz. The award recognizes a museum professional under 35 and [...]

MIDDLETOWN — A downtown anchor building will reach a new state of equilibrium by late summer or fall, or at least Equilibrium Brewery will.The city’s economic development officials announced on Thursday that the popular local brewery has closed on the former TD Bank building at 2 South St.The deal, made with the city's help, allows Equilibrium to begin expanding brewing at the site almost immediately, while building a new beer garden to begin selling brews [...]

GOSHEN — Nursing homes and hospitals in the Hudson Valley and Catskills are bracing for millions of dollars in Medicaid cuts that state officials have proposed to help close a shortfall in the budget that lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are due to enact by the end of the month.The biggest financial hit in the region could be felt at the 360-bed Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation, which calculates it stands to lose $4 million in annual Medicaid funding [...]

Assembly members Aileen Gunther of Forestburgh and Kevin Cahill of Kingston both broke ranks with fellow Democrats by voting against a bill passed by both the Assembly and Senate on Monday that will require gun owners with children in the house to lock up their firearms. Both chambers have large Democratic majorities and easily approved [...]