OUR annual look back at the people and events that made headines during the past 12 months in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
January
2: Newly sworn in, Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams Jr. tells more than 250 spectators, including several judges, that he will be both tough and fair on the bench. Also, the town of Ulster’s new supervisor, James Quigley, says despite a dysfunctional transition by the previous administration he has found ways to save the town money, including nearly $100,000 for insurance coverage.
5: A fire destroys a two-family house on Pine Grove Avenue in Kingston and displaces seven people.
5: Eight new and 17 incumbent lawmakers are sworn into office during the Dutchess County Legislature’s 2010 reorganization meeting. The new makeup gives the body a Republican majority after two years of Democratic rule.
6: An anonymous donor offers to pay for the replacement of the artificial turf at Dietz Memorial Stadium in Kingston.
6: An experimental small plane piloted by a Rhinebeck man skids off a runway and strikes a fence at the Dutchess County Airport. The pilot and his two passengers are unhurt.
8: Kingston Police Chief Gerald Keller reports that serious crimes in Kingston jumped nearly 6 percent in 2009.
14: Broome County Republican George Phillips launches a second campaign to try and unseat U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley.
18: A crowd of more than 600 packs a Kingston church sanctuary and raises voices in songs of redemption, freedom and spirituality in support of a society re-entry program for ex-convicts.
19: Seven students and their teacher are injured in an Onteora High School chemistry classroom by an explosion strong enough to damage windows.
19: The Saugerties Village Board unanimously endorses abolishing the village police department, pending a public vote on the matter.
20: The Legionella bacteria — which infected two residents of the Golden Hill Health Care Center in Kingston, including one who later died — is found in the hot water system at the Ulster County-owned nursing home.
20: Catskill Middle/Senior High School is placed in lockdown after a teacher reports seeing a student with a gun. The student, a 16-year-old boy, is caught a short time later, several blocks away, in possession of a BB gun.
28: Some positions cut as part of midyear layoffs to help close a budget shortfall in the Saugerties school district are restored by the Board of Education.
February
3: Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. unveils a proposal to increase its rates over a three-year period.
3: A state Supreme Court judge rules a city union can seek arbitration on whether Kingston Mayor James Sottile must fill three firefighter positions left vacant through a retirement incentive program.
4: The Ulster Town Board votes unanimously to abolish a police commission made up of elected officials and residents.
9: Charles King Jr., 21, of Henry Street, Kingston, is shot dead on Cedar Street in the city. It is the city’s first homicide in more than three years.
9: New Paltz school district voters reject a proposed $49.8 million middle school expansion project, 2,561-983.
10: State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Red Hook, says he has decided against running for New York’s 20th Congressional District seat.
12: A man’s body is discovered in a barn in Marlborough after a fire destroys the structure. State police say the man apparently had been living in the barn and that foul play is not suspected.
14: Daniel Pawlik, 40, of Stamford, Conn., dies of injuries suffered in a 60-foot fall while ice climbing on cliffs at Kaaterskill Falls in Haines Falls.
16: Ulster County Executive Michael Hein gives his annual address to county Legislators, announcing a spending freeze and possible job cuts.
16: A group of Saugerties village residents submit a petition calling for a referendum to be held on the proposed disbanding of the municipality’s police force.
16: A certificate of occupancy is issued to the new Palmer Center on Flatbush Road in the town of Ulster. The new facility will house people with physical and developmental disabilities for Ulster-Greene ARC.
18: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announces it will put on hold until February 2011 plans to deport Emilio Maya, an Argentine immigrant and former government informer. Maya and his sister, Analia, were facing deportation from the United States for over-staying their visas and had become confidential informants for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in a bid to remain in the country.
23-25: A storm with heavy, wet snow — nearly 2 feet in some locations — leaves more than 90,000 Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. customers without power.
24: The Catskill Board of Education appoints Patrick Wemitt interim high school principal.
March
2: Ulster County Legislature Chairman Fred Wadnola, R-town of Ulster, lays out his priorities for 2010, including conducting a comprehensive review of the Golden Hill Health Care Center and developing a plan to further reduce the size of the county Legislature.
2: The Catskill school district’s top business official says the district will need to overcome a $2.2 million difference from a rollover budget between rising costs and lowered revenues as school officials begin crafting the 2010-11 budget.
3: Kingston school district Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger presents a $144,907,375 budget draft for 2010-11 to the school board that calls for cutting 48 jobs. Also, school board President James Shaughnessy says the district has received final approval from the state Education Department for the voter-approved project to convert the Carnegie library building into an art and technology center.
5: Business and government officials announce solar panel manufacturer Solartech Renewables has moved into TechCity, the former IBM complex in the town of Ulster, and that the new tenant plans to create 100 jobs there within a year.
5: Immigration Court Judge Robert Weisal adjourns the immigration hearing for siblings Analia and Emilio Maya by six months, until Sept. 3, giving the Argentine citizens and owners of the Tango Cafe in Saugerties more time to prepare their case.
10: James J. Healy, 44, of Rhinebeck, is pronounced dead at Northern Dutchess Hospital shortly after a fight with police in which he was Tasered by a sheriff’s deputy during a domestic dispute. An investigation later concludes the Taser did not cause Healy’s death.
16: Village of Saugerties residents vote 659-344 to abolish the village police department.
18: A Kingston police officer shoots a teenager in the hip after the teen grabs the cop’s Taser and fires one of its darts at the man’s head. Neither is seriously injured in the incident, the first in nearly 30 years in which a Kingston officer has to shoot a criminal suspect.
19: The House approves a proposal by U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, to study whether the Hudson River Valley should become a unit of the National Park Service.
20: The final version of a state Commission of Correction report says poor supervision and the failure to provide a timely mental health assessment helped to create an environment in which Ulster County Jail inmate Richard Vandemark hanged himself in April 2009.
21: Kingston Mayor James Sottile says he is directing city Comptroller John Tuey to audit payments the city made to the Ulster County Department of Social Services’ Safety Net program over the previous three years after he found out 40 of 400 people who received city-paid benefits in January did not live in the city.
26: Ulster County Executive Michael Hein says the county has paid $142,000 in sick and vacation time to Dean and Deborah Palen, ending the relationship between the county and the couple that was ousted from their jobs at the county Health Department.
26: The Rhinebeck Board of Education trims the district’s proposed 2010-11 budget to $28.83 million, bringing the projected tax levy increase to 9.3 percent and spending increase to 6 percent.
April
1: Explosives maker Dyno Nobel announces it will close its Port Ewen manufacturing operation and lay off 39 employees.
2: Jarrin “Phat Boy” Rankin of Kingston, a member of the “Sex, Money, Murder” gang member is indicted for orchestrating the Feb. 9 execution-style killing of Charles King Jr., 21 on Cedar Street in the city. Also indicted in connection with the homicide are Trevor Mattis, the alleged triggerman; Gary Griffin, Jermaine “Maino” Nicholas; Rondy “Ski” Russ; Amanda “Blazer Bitch” Miller; and Damitria “Meatie” Kelley.
6: The Golden Hill Health Care Center in Kingston lifts a water-use ban three months after two female residents of the county-run nursing home contracted Legionnaires’ disease.
7: 42-year-old Ghent resident Franklin Handerson shoots his 5-year-old son, Khaliff, before taking his own life.
8: Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline announces it will transfer the manufacture of oral care products from New Jersey to its plant in Durham.
12: A powerful explosion at Steyer’s Hudson Valley Automotive Inc., 468 Malden Turnpike, Saugerties, injures three people.
13: Bronx resident Curtis Williams is arrested for firing a shot in Midtown Kingston on Nov. 21, 2009, that set off a series of events leading to the Feb. 9 execution-style killing of Charles King Jr. on Cedar Street in Midtown.
15: Forty-five people lose their homes when Kingston officials condemn 16 co*ckroach-infested apartments in the Broadmor building at 628 Broadway.
15: Tivoli resident Stacy Behan receives a Carnegie Medal for heroism for reaching into a burning car on April 26, 2009, to free a 26-year-old Germantown man trapped inside.
16: Poughkeepsie resident Richard F. Schneider dies in a canoeing accident on South Lake in Haines Falls.
19: The parents of Ulster County Jail inmate Richard Vandemark file a $10 million lawsuit against county Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum, Correctional Medical Care Inc. and three corrections officers as a result of Vandermark’s suicide in the jail on April 7, 2009.
23: SUNY New Paltz President Seven Poskanzer announces he will leave the school his to assume the presidency of Carelton College in Northfield, Minn.
28: Benedictine Hospital in Kingston closes its emergency room as part of its affiliation with nearby Kingston Hospital.
29: Lindsey Latourette, 24, of Saugerties, is sentenced to up to four years in state prison for giving 15-year-old Evan Wisniewski a lethal dose of methadone on June 14, 2008.
May
4: Kingston building inspectors close an illegal boarding house at 59 Gill St., forcing more than a dozen tenants to find temporary housing.
5: Officials announce that five months into the new year, Dutchess County faces a $1.7 million shortfall due to the loss of expected mortgage tax revenues.
10: The Kingston Planning Board unanimously approves AVR Acquisition of Yonkers’ erosion-control and road-grading plan for the proposed Hudson Landing housing development.
11: Kingston Alderman Robert Senor, D-Ward 8, says he will introduce legislation to limit the number of cats allowed per property in the city.
13: Ulster County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. George Goodwin, 44, says he plans to run for sheriff in the fall against his boss, Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum.
14: Authorities announce the arrests of two Greene County men in connection with a string of thefts from motor vehicles in the village of Athens.
18: Voters in 16 of 18 local school districts approve proposed budgets for the 2010-11 school year. Only the Rondout Valley and Saugerties plans are rejected.
19: Two men are found with stab wounds and a third is arrested on drug charges — all in the same Midtown Kingston neighborhood, but possibly in unrelated incidents.
19: Donald P. Christian is nominated by State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher to be interim president of SUNY New Paltz.
19: Greene County lawmakers adopt a resolution urging the state to consider renaming a portion of state Route 32 for a state trooper, David J. Lane, who died in a car accident on the road while on duty in November 2009.
20: For the second time, the Kingston Library’s Board of Trustees tells operators of the “Read and Write” program for at-risk children that they must find space other than that being used at the Franklin Street library.
27: Members of the fledgling group Kingston Neighborhood Watch take an hourlong walk through Midtown to introduce the initiative to residents of a troubled area seeking an extra layer of protection.
27: A Hyde Park man — William M. Schaller, 51 — faces multiple criminal counts, including weapons charges, for refusing to comply with police during a standoff at his home and leading them on a chase through town.
June
3: The Rondout Creek waterfront promenade in the city of Kingston formally opens.
4: Farm To Table, a food-processing and packing business, starts operations in a 21,000-square-foot facility at TechCity in the town of Ulster.
4: Saugerties High School senior Olivia Rose Belfiglio, 17, dies from injuries she suffered in a 100-foot fall from a cliff in the area of Red Falls near Platte Clove Road in the town of Hunter.
7: An Ulster County Court jury convicts Michael “Mike-Mike” Hawkins, 17, of Prince Street, Kingston, on two counts of felony criminal possession of a weapon stemming from the summer 2009 shooting of a 15-year-old on Smith Avenue in the city in a dispute over a girl.
8: The Kingston Common Council approves a contract with Church Communities for the replacement of the turf and track at Dietz Memorial Stadium. Under the contract, Church Communities is to pay for the turf, while the city and the Kingston city school district will pay for the track.
11: Ground is broken for the Diamond Mills hotel and conference center project on Partition Street in the village of Saugerties. The development, commonly called the Partition Street Project, is to comprise a 30-room hotel with a 400-seat catering hall, a 100-seat restaurant and 215 parking spaces.
14: Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus tells county legislators during a closed-door Republican caucus that he will withhold funding for projects within the legislative districts of anyone who votes to reappoint Republican Elections Commissioner Dave Gamache.
14: The Kingston Planning Board delays a decision on an environmental study that, if approved, would clear the way for a waterfront housing project known as Sailor’s Cove on the Hudson.
15: Rondout Valley school district residents approve a revised $60.14 million budget for the 2010-11 school year by a vote of 1,679-1,377. Voters defeated the originally proposed budget on May 18 by a margin of 261 votes.
16: Kingston school district Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger’s contract is extended for one year, through June 30, 2012, by a unanimous vote of the Board of Education.
19: The Rhinebeck High School softball team, which repeated as state Class C champion, is honored with a parade through the village and a ceremony and community picnic at the school.
24: The New Paltz Town Board lifts a moratorium on building in town floodplains.
28: Catskill Village Board member James Chewens says he would oppose the dissolution of the village, a topic discussed at a joint meeting of representatives from the village and town of Catskill and Greene County.
29: The drivers of two trucks escape with only minor burns after their vehicles collide on U.S. Route 9W in the town of Esopus, resulting in an explosion and a massive fire that spreads to, and destroys, a nearby warehouse. One of the vehicles involved in the crash is a Bottini Fuel truck carrying 3,000 gallons of fuel.
30: A bank in the center of Woodstock is robbed at gunpoint shortly after a barn several miles away is set ablaze. Police say the two crimes appear to have been committed by the same man because a car he is suspected of stealing earlier in the day is seen at both locations.
July
2: A majority of members of the King’s Inn Review Committee who toured the former welfare motel on Broadway in Kingston say the building should be torn down.
4: Kingston Police Department statistics show reports of serious crimes in the first five months of 2010 totaled 232, down 34.6 percent from 355 reports during the first five months of 2009.
7: The Kingston Board of Education picks Trustee James Shaughnessy to be its president for the 2010-11 school year, Also, the Saugerties school board re-elects George Heidcamp as president and Thomas Ham as vice president.
9: Leslie Ford works her last day as Onteora school district superintendent after having the last year of her contract bought out for $83,769 plus a year of family health insurance.Charlotte Gregory becomes interim superintendent.
12: The Kingston Planning Board decides unanimously to halt its review of the Sailor’s Cove on the Hudson housing project.
12: An inquiry into state authority employee bonuses finds Alexander “Sandy” Mathes, executive director of the Greene County Industrial Development Agency, received $175,000 in performance bonuses in 2009.
19: Officials report that the Kingston school district and Kingston Teachers Federation leadership have reached an agreement in principle on a new contract.
21: The Kingston school district’s Master Plan Facilities Committee unanimously recommends the Board of Education advance an $86 million construction project to overhaul Kingston High School.
27: Robert Wilkinson, 24, of Pine Plains, pleads guilty to second-degree murder, admitting he killed Lucian “Luke” Haid by shooting him with a semiautomatic rifle on June 17, 2009.
28: Michael Vaughan, 17, of Athens is killed before dawn when he is struck by a car while walking along U.S. Route 9W in Athens. It is the region’s fourth traffic fatality involving a teenager in a span of about 28 hours and the third in Greene County. A day earlier, 15-year-old Michael White of Palenville and 17-year-old Jennifer O’Brien of Catskill died after the all-terrain vehicle they were riding struck a tree on Pennsylvania Avenue in Palenville; and 17-year-old Natalia Gorgen of Poughkeepsie was killed when the car she was driving crossed into oncoming traffic on state Route 299 in New Paltz and collided with tractor-trailer.
28: Officials report that the Highland Board of Education and Highland Teachers Association have ended a nearly seven-month impasse with a contract agreement.
29: Anthony J. Riccardulli Sr., 55, kills his wife Linda, 47, in the couple’s home on South Quaker Lane in Hyde Park and then kills himself as police close in.
30-31: The Northern Dutchess village of Rhinebeck spends two days in the world media spotlight as it hosts the wedding of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and investment banker Marc Mezvinsky. Highlights of the weekend include former President Bill Clinton, the father of the bride, strolling through the village and having lunch at a local restaurant; Bill and Hillary Clinton arriving at the Beekman Arms Inn for a prewedding party; the sightings of numerous celebrities and political power brokers; and the wedding itself on the Astor Courts property overlooking the Hudson River.
August
3: Kingston lawmakers ban smoking on the City Hall property.
4: The Kingston Board of Education approves a contract with teachers that increases salaries 4.47 percent over two years and requires the union’s health trust fund to absorb the cost of health insurance for 2010-11 and return $1.2 million to the district.
7: The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that found Milan Town Justice Francis Christensen overstepped his bounds when, in 2008, he allowed a woman charged by state police with speeding to plead guilty to a lesser infraction.
10: The Saugerties school district receives a $150,000 donation to restore athletic programs that were cut under the district’s austerity budget.
12: Ten Kingston educators take a retirement deal that could save the district more than $1 million.
17: Seventeen people are arrested in a sweep of illegal drug activity in Kingston.
18: Ulster County lawmakers approve a pact under which three towns will take over some road work for the county.
19: Republican state Assemblyman Peter Lopez goes on record opposing a moratorium on hydrofracking.
20: A 19-year-old Bard College student dies after falling from a cliff while hiking at Kaaterskill Falls in Greene County.
24: The Mid-Hudson Bridge, connecting Highland and Poughkeepsie, turns 80.
25: St. Joseph’s School in Kingston declines to renew Sister Carol Melsopp’s contract as principal.
26: An elderly couple from Shandaken is killed when their car is smashed from behind by a tractor-trailer on state Route 28 in Olive. The victims are identified as George Un, 86, and his wife Vera, 83.
27: The Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team (URGENT) announces the discovery of 170 pot plants growing throughout Ulster County.
September
2: Bob Conklin, executive director of the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County for the past three-and-a-half years, announces he is leaving his post at the end of the month to become president and chief executive officer of a YMCA in North Carolina.
7: In a 7-2 vote, the Kingston Common Council adopts controversial cat-control legislation intended to reduce the number of feral felines in the city.
8: Police question a “person of interest” and seek two other suspects in connection with the shooting of man on Deerfield Road in Boiceville, near Onteora High School. A man suffers bullet wounds to an arm and leg in the incident, and two teenagers are charged the next day.
9: Former volunteer firefighters who filed a lawsuit against the village of Catskill and the Catskill Fire Department claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated win an $85,000 settlement in U.S. District Court in Albany.
15: Daniel L. Malak is convicted of second-degree murder in the 1996 bludgeoning death of Kerhonkson teenager Joseph Martin. (Malak already is serving time for a murder he committed after Martin’s death.)
15: Town of Rhinebeck Supervisor Tom Traudt questions whether Daytop Village has exceeded its charter as a drug-treatment facility and become a repository for criminals who are able to cut deals in court to avoid jail time. He notes the arrest of 22-year-old Justin Tadiello by state police for a parole violation, criminal possession of stolen property and burglary after a home on Ackert Hook Road in Rhinebeck is broken into.
19: A man who was found dead earlier in the week in a quarry pond off Fording Place Road in Marbletown is identified as 29-year-old Ryan Panchak of Kingston.
21: A federal judge rejects the city Kingston’s motion to dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by two current and one former employee of the city Department of Public Works.
23: Town of Ulster Police Chief Paul Watzka announces he is retiring after 38 years in law enforcement, including nine years at the helm in Ulster.
23: Kingston Mayor James Sottile vetoes cat-control legislation approved by the Common Council.
25: Thousands of people attend the 22nd annual Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties.
27: Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus asks the county Legislature to consider bonding $75 million to build a new 300-cell county jail.
October
2: A gun buyback program held in the city of Kingston results in 25 weapons being collected during a three-hour stretch.
6: Ulster County sheriff’s deputies arrest Richard N. Giga, 24, ending a 15-hour manhunt for the rehab facility patient suspected of killing a guard there and wounding another employee while fleeing. Giga is charged with murder in the stabbing death of Leland Wood, 61, of Napanoch at the Renaissance Project drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility on Ulster Heights Road in Wawarsing.
12: Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency Executive Director Michael Bemis is fired after five employees go behind closed doors with the agency’s board and accuse Bemis os sexual misconduct, falsifying safety reports and harassing employees.
12: Robert Wilkinson, 24, is sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison for the June 2009 shooting death of Lucian “Luke” Haid in Palenville.
13: Dutchess County legislators vote to override two executive vetoes of funding for the Dutchess County Jail.
14: Freeman correspondent William J. Kemble and U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, get into an altercation prior to a League of Women Voters debate in Saugerties between Hinchey and Republican challenger George Phillips. The dustup occurs after Kemble asks Hinchey questions about a local development project, prompting Hinchey to tell him to “shut up.”
15: Lt. Matthew Taggard, 42, is chosen to succeed Paul Watzka as chief of the town of Ulster Police Department. Taggard is a 20-year veteran of the force.
18: Delise F. Ames, 45, of Saugerties dies from injuries suffered in a head-on crash on Kings Highway with a school van carrying four special-needs teenagers.
19: A Dutchess County Court jury convicts Christopher Craft Sr., 43, of Stanfordville, of several charges, including felony burglary and criminal use of a firearm, stemming from a Nov. 10, 2009, incident in which he held a middle school principal hostage in Pine Plains.
20: Greene County threatens to sue the state if more than $540,000 in funding for the county’s Department of Social Services is not released.
21: One man is shot and another pistol-whipped in an incident on Henry Street in Midtown Kingston. The injuries are not life-threatening.
23: Musician Billy Joel and his daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, have diner at Savona’s Trattoria on Broadway in Kingston in the city’s Rondout district.
25: The principal backers of the proposed $400 million Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park announce a new timeline for the project.
November
1: Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus unveils a $399 million county budget for 2011 that calls for laying off 63 county employees but not raising the property tax levy.
2: U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, is elected to a 10th two-year term in the House, but the area’s other two congressmen, Democrats Scott Murphy and John Hall, are unseated by their Republican challengers. In state Legislature races, virtually all local incumbents are re-elected. Also re-elected are Kingston City Judge Larry Ball, Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach and county Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum.
4: Stanfordville resident Walter Jablonka is sentenced by Stanford Town Justice Dennis Smith to six months in jail for shooting to death a blind and deaf Harlequin Great Dane owned by Woodstock resident Tracy Sturgess.
8: Greene County unveils a $99.7 million budget plan for 2011 that increases spending by less than 1 percent and raises the property tax levy by 2.1 percent.
9: Authorities raid a gas station/convenience store on Broadway in Midtown Kingston where they allege a $1 million food stamp scam played out. Two employees are arrested.
10: Jahson Marryshow is indicted by an Ulster County grand jury for allegedly setting fire to a barn and robbing a Woodstock bank on June 30. (Marryshow remains at large.)
11: State assessment tests administered to students at Zena Elementary School in Woodstock are voided after the state declares the tests were “misadministered.” Kingston school district Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger refuses to detail what went wrong or who might be responsible.
15: Red Hook police charge Kenneth L. Douglas, 29 of Elizaville, with endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly trying to lure two eighth-grade girls into a van with drugs.
16: Supporters of St. Joseph School in Kingston launch a pledge drive in an effort to convince the New York Archdiocese to remove the 100-year-old institution from the list of Catholic schools at risk of being closed.
17: Authorities say a 16-year-old who died at the Highland Residential Center, a state detention facility, apparently killed himself.
17: Greene County legislators unanimously adopt a resolution appointing county Treasurer-elect Peter Markou to the post effective Dec. 1.
18: Two people die in a fire that consumes a trailer on the grounds of the Rockmount Equestrian Center in Saugerties.
19: Twice-convicted killer Daniel Malak is sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for the 1996 bludgeoning death of Kerhoknson teenager Joseph Martin. (Malak already is serving time for a murder he committed after Martin’s death.)
23: Richard N. Giga, 24, accused of the Oct. 6 fatal stabbing of a security guard at the Renaissance Project, a rehab center in Wawarsing, is indicted by an Ulster County grand jury for murder and assault.
27: A 13-year-old boy suffers a fractured skull and broken leg after being struck by a freight train near the YMCA in Midtown Kingston. Police say the boy either was trying to cross the tracks or was playing chicken with the train when he fell and was struck.
December
1: Kingston school district Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger tells the expanded Master Plan Facilities Committee that closing one of the district’s 11 elementary schools would save an estimated $680,000 per year.
2: The board of the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County announces Heidi Kirschner has been chosen as the Y’s new executive director.
6: The Freeman starts printing on the presses of its sister newspaper in Troy, the Record.
7: Documents show Hudson Valley Housing Development Fund Co. has proposed constructing a 60-unit apartment building for senior citizens behind the Kingston Holiday Inn.
9: Ulster County Executive Michael Hein signs the county’s $352 million budget for 2011.
9: Kingston Mayor James Sottile proposes the city borrow $1.2 million to buy new police cars and equipment for the Department of Public Works, put a new roof on the City Court building and rehabilitate the City Hall tower.
13: Stanfordville resident Christopher Craft is sentenced by Dutchess County Judge Gerald Hayes to seven years in state prison for holding Stissing Mountain Middle School Principal Robert Hess hostage at gunpoint in November 2009.
13: Michael Shaughnessy, executive vice president of Ulster Savings Bank, says the successful bidder in an online auction of the former Friar Tuck Inn in Catskill has failed to come forward within the required 15 days to submit a down payment for the resort on state Route 32.
14: Kingston Mayor James Sottile signs a $35 million city budget for 2011 that raises the residential property tax rate by 3.2 percent.
14: Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus declines to veto any changes that lawmakers made to his 2011 county budget proposal.
14: Voters in the Highland Library District reject bonding $6.6 million to build a new library.
15: Greene County lawmakers approve a $99.35 million county budget for 2011 that decreases spending by 0.01 percent, raises the property tax levy by 2.78 percent and eliminates 25 jobs.
16: Steve Svidro, 49, whose mother is about to evict him from the Athens house they share, sets fire to the structure, then flees and commits suicide with a gunshot to the head. His mother, who is in her late 80s, escapes the fire unhurt.
18: A town of Ulster police officer prevents a suicide on the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge by pulling back a 40-year-old man who had climbed over the railing in an attempt to jump into the Hudson River some 200 feet below.
20: A fire destorys five rooms and damages 10 others at the Capri 400 Motel in Port Ewen. The blaze, deemed a possible arson, displaces at least 20 residents of the motel, which housed social services clients.
21: A fire damages the former St. Peter’s School on Adams Street in Kingston — an unoccupuied building that was being renovated by Catholic Charities for use as a community center. The fire is so large that it can be seen from across the Hudson River. Investigators rule the cause accidental.
This report compiled by staff writers Patricia Doxsey, Paul Kirby, Kyle Wind and Ariel Zangla-Girard and City Editor Jeremy Schiffres.
