Orange County, NY, Middletown | featured news

HARRIS — On May 3, the staff of Catskill Regional Medical Center (CRMC) in Harris treated a slew of interesting patients. One managed to break his back and foot, and also suffered a large laceration to his arm after a mishap while making breakfast. Yet another sprained his arm and leg while hopping from one lily pad to another. Fortunately, the prognoses were all favorable — likely because the patients were all stuffed, and because the injuries only existed in the imagination [...]

NEWBURGH – Over 100 community members gathered at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Jewish Federation Annual Meeting on May 19 at Temple Sinai in Middletown, celebrating a year of accomplishments. A new slate of Officers and Trustees was installed, with Harvey Kallus of Goshen coming in as President and Rissa Cutler of Newburgh as first Vice President. The following exceptional community volunteers, selected by Orange County synagogues and Jewish organizations, were recognized for their [...]

Among the proposals pending in Albany with three weeks to go in the session is a bill that would let upstate cities like Newburgh and Kingston opt for the same sort of restrictions on rent increases now in effect in New York City and offered to municipalities in three suburban counties.The bill, sponsored in the Assembly by Kingston Democrat Kevin Cahill, already has been endorsed by the Newburgh and Kingston councils, each of which passed resolutions in support of the bill. [...]

GENEVA — A team of students from the Mount Academy in Esopus won first place in New York state’s Envirothon competition for the seventh consecutive year.The team of five 10th- and 11th-grade students will represent New York at the national competition at North Carolina State University in Raleigh this summer. The Mount Academy’s team won the U.S. title last year and in 2013.“Our students tend to do well in this because the topics are very much a [...]

NEWBURGH — Orange County officials will hold a gun buy-back event on Saturday, June 22, District Attorney David Hoovler, state police Maj. Pierce Gallagher and Newburgh city police Chief Doug Solomon announced Friday.The gun buy-back program will run from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the City of Newburgh Community Center, 401 Washington St.Those who turn in guns will get Walmart gift cards, with the value depending on the type of gun surrendered. A working assault weapon [...]

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Jaylah Luna is 8 years old and already knows she wants to be a nurse when she grows up.On Saturday mornings, Jaylah and her family head to the Newburgh Armory Unity Center on South Williams Street where she and her younger siblings take part in an array of courses offered by volunteers. She just started her third term of nursing and health classes there."I love being in this class," Jaylah said. Jaylah, with her mother, Yomaria Luna, nearby, [...]

NEWBURGH — If you stopped by the Newburgh Historical Society booth at the huge Newburgh Illuminated fest Saturday, you might have heard about it.But there was an awful lot to do, see and absorb — not to mention dogs to pet and causes to understand — during the all-day festival, which, though the numbers aren’t in, was probably the biggest in its seven-year history. So you might not have paid attention to Urban Archive Newburgh, a new program [...]

CIRCLEVILLE — Growing up in the Scotchtown area and working on area farms, reflecting on the details of the Mills Orchards and the telephone company. How about the dances at Townley Hall and riding horses down an unfinished Route 17 freeway. These are all topics that Jack Foster will be speaking about at the June 8 Town of Wallkill Historical Association meeting taking place at 2 p.m., at the Circleville Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 890 Goshen Turnpike in Circleville. [...]

"I used to take my boat and paddle upstream when I was a little boy," says Zion Duke, of Warwick. "I lived in the village and it was nice to get out on the water for a few moments of peace.""But this is better," he says, looking upstream. "You can enjoy the river more now that it’s clean."Duke is sitting in a shiny aluminum canoe under a rusted bridge in the middle of the Wawayanda Creek. The stream cleaning he is praising is the result of a group of volunteers [...]

NEW PALTZ – A father and son are dead following an apparent murder-suicide on Saturday.New Paltz police said they responded to the Plaza Diner in the New Paltz Plaza shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday after they received a report of shots fired there.Police found Andrew W. Kaartine, 58, of Salisbury Mills, lying unresponsive on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. Police administered first aid and the New Paltz Rescue Squad then took him to an area hospital, where [...]