Hank Gross

Several top state and local leaders sailed aboard the Rip Van Winkle tour boat Thursday morning, as Governor Andrew Cuomo kicked off his economic development tour of the Hudson Valley with a visit to Kingston's downtown historic district.

Cuomo was joined on his Hudson River voyage by Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro, Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo, Lt. Governor Robert Duffy, and a host of other officials from various organizations.

Sandra Fluke, thrust into national prominence when Republicans blocked her from testifying before a House Committee, and who was subsequently attacked by talk show pundit Rush Limbaugh, was in the area giving enthusiastic support to Democrat House candidate Sean Patrick Maloney.  

Polls show Maloney is in a very close contest with incumbent Republican Nan Hayworth for the 18th District seat.

Both Fluke and Maloney found Hayworth an easy target, especially on women’s issues.

It was anything but sunny on Wednesday morning, but a crew from Kirchhoff Green Energy in Pleasant Valley was installing solar panels on the roof of the Scenic Hudson kayak pavilion at its Long Dock Park on the Beacon city waterfront.

When completed and connected to the nearby River Center, a restored barn, the array will provide 25 percent of the electricity to power the barn, said Margery Groten, Scenic Hudson’s senior project manager.

Congressional incumbent Nan Hayworth and challenger Sean Patrick Maloney addressed environmental issues Tuesday night at a forum in Westchester County.

The event was held by New York League of Conservation Voters, featured questions from the audience and from panel members representing Riverkeeper, the National League of Conservation Voters, and Scenic Hudson. 

The broken sewer main that dumped between three million and five million gallons of raw sewage into the Quassaick Creek that feeds the Hudson River late last week, could wind up costing the City of Newburgh as much as $7 million once all of the repairs and old pipes have been replaced.

The temporary fix, which was completed Friday night with a temporary pipe installed to continue the service, will cost an estimated $1 million.

Effective next weekend, Metro-North train service on weekends and off-peak periods will get a big boost with the addition of 79 trains each week in the first round of service implementation that was announced last month.

The new trains will provide increased frequency in the most popular off-peak and weekend time periods, as well as faster travel times and improved customer comfort by adding cars on weekend trains that are usually crowded.

Another 151 new trains each will be added in April of next year.

 The City of Peekskill is faced with laying off 31 full time employees in 2013 and Mayor Mary Foster and the Common Council are putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of state officials in Albany for failing get control over the skyrocketing cost of mandatory pension payments.

Those costs will total about 10 percent of the city’s $50 million spending plan for next year and Foster said Peekskill is truly between a rock and a hard place.

The American Planning Association has designated Wall Street in Kingston as one of 10 Great Streets for 2012 under the group’s Great Places in America program.

The Great Places program is designed to note exceptional character and highlight the role planning and planners play in adding value to communities, including fostering economic growth and jobs.

The organization singled out an eight-block stretch of Wall Street in Kingston between Franklin and North Front streets for its historic character, many well-preserved buildings, pedestrian scale, and variety of uses.

A probable case of West Nile virus has been identified in Ulster County, County Health Commissioner Dr. Carol Smith said Monday. The case is under investigation by the state Health and County Health departments and involves a person who had recently traveled out-of-state; therefore, it is uncertain exactly where the infection may have been acquired, she said.

West Nile virus is most often spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds.

The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion released a poll Monday regarding the region's economy after interviewing 4,443 respondents in the seven Mid-Hudson counties, and residents say it's been a tough five years since the last poll  was conducted in 2007.

The poll was conducted with residents from Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Orange and Sullivan counties, and 69 percent are disappointed with the quality of their jobs, and 76 percent are pessimistic enough that if they lost their job, they doubt they'd be able to land a similar job.