Orange County, NY, Middletown | featured news

TOWN OF WALLKILL — Organizers of "A Gathering for Peace and Unity" at Monhagen Middle School on Sunday want to provide an outlet for area youth to express their thoughts and views on the world.The "youth rally for a harmonious tomorrow," organized by the Town of Wallkill Police Youth Coalition and the American Legion Post 1181, will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday."The idea of the peace rally is to give the kids a venue," said Jim Scali, representative of the [...]

Francois Barcomb, a high school physics teacher from New Paltz, has the lead after Thursday's first round of the two-day finals of the "Jeopardy!" Teachers Tournament.Barcomb finished with $20,400. Conor Quinn, a world history teacher from Albany, was second with $5,600 and Sara DelVillano, a music teacher from Lanham, Md., was third with $4,800.The player with the highest two-day total wins $100,000 and a spot in the next "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions. [...]

The state Senate passed bills this week to quash more than $19 million in total fines the state imposed on the Newburgh, Chester, Roscoe and Monticello school districts for late or neglected reports about past building projects that received state aid.The bills, approved by every senator except one on Wednesday and now awaiting passage in the Assembly, represent a third attempt by the fined districts and their representatives in Albany to undo what they see as draconian penalties for [...]

MONTICELLO — It may be just a large, brown sign on the side of a highway, but symbolically, it's much more than that.After 50 years, Sullivan County has finally fully embraced its history as the home of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair and is capitalizing on it.On Thursday, politicians and county stakeholders unveiled a new sign on the side of Route 17B, renaming it "The Woodstock Way."When more than 400,000 people flocked to Max Yasgur’s dairy [...]

NEW WINDSOR — A property where electronic components used to be manufactured on Walsh Avenue has been added to the state’s Superfund list of inactive hazardous waste sites, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.The site at 251 Walsh Ave. is about 1,000 feet south of Quassaick Creek, and water draining from the site runs downhill toward the creek. The creek flows into the Hudson River, about two miles to the east.The site was used to [...]

NEW HAMPTON — As a steady rain fell Tuesday night, water pooled in cornfields and around flowering trees on farmland along Onion Avenue.By Wednesday morning, water still ran high in the drainage ditches alongside saturated cropland here in this corner where the northwest edge of the fertile black dirt region meets the northeast edge of the Town of Wawayanda.“I’m losing a lot of plants over there,” said Kostas Theofanis, owner of Major Blossom [...]

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I live in a nice home in the desert Southwest with an in-ground pool and guesthouse. Our friends and relatives from back east have an open invitation to visit whenever they please. We enjoyed these visits until recently.The problem is their ever-present compulsion to be connected to an electronic device. We are not yet retired, but in the past we didn't mind taking a few days off work to spend time with folks who came all the way out here to [...]

NEW WINDSOR - Grab your mountain bike or hybrid and gear up to ride the rolling ridges, old country roads and forest trails of the Stewart State Forest on June 2 in the 20th Stewart State Forest Annual Bike Tour.Stewart Park And Reserve Coalition (SPARC) has teamed up with the Wheel and Heel Bike Shop, Boy Scout Troop 125 and other area Scouts in presenting this iconic bike tour.This scenic green oasis is just minutes from major highways, and is open for all levels of riders. [...]

WARWICK — In celebration of National Arthritis Month, St. Anthony Community Hospital will present an informational event, “Complementary Herbal Remedies and Therapies,” along with a free food demonstration and tasting.The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. May 21 in the Greenbriar Room at Mount Alverno Center, 20 Grand St., Warwick.Mount Alverno is just a quarter mile past the hospital and there is ample parking space. Seating, however, is limited and [...]

Through his writing and his fundraising efforts, Port Jervis native and longtime Times Herald-Record columnist Chris Farlekas (1929-2015) raised more than $4.5 million dollars throughout the tri-state area for charitable causes, including the arts, hunger, domestic violence, veterans, homelessness and others. An iconic mentor to thousands of students, his work in the community earned him numerous “Man of the Year” Awards and an honorary PhD from Mount Saint Mary College. [...]