The best source for local news from Marbletown, Rochester & Rosendale
Published the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month | Vol. 26, Issue 15
August 6, 2021 | 75 cents
High Falls' Grady Park makeover Ann Belmont BSP Reporter Plans for upgrading and expanding the area known as Grady Park in the center of High Falls have been gathering steam. The board has been developing conceptual designs for the project since 2018, in consultation with the engineering firm GPI as well as the D&H Canal Historical Society and the High Falls Conservancy. Board member Eric Stewart, who has
been spearheading this initiative, gave a public presentation about it at a Marbletown town board meeting last June. “Last year,” he explained, “the Town of Marbletown purchased a 99-year lease from the D&H Canal Historical Society for Grady Park, the formerly neglected strip of land between Route 213 and Old Route 213 in the center of High Falls. The idea was to create a welcoming public space that would provide an area for folks to relax, gather and learn about the history
of the canal and its impact on the community … Last fall, the town hired a local landscaping company to do an initial cleanup of the park, and we hired another local company to complete a much-needed survey of the entire area. Just recently, the town’s highway department began removing dead, diseased and misshapen trees in order to make room for better things to come.” The proposed project envisions a community gathering space, ADA-compliant
accessible pathways, possibly a sculpture garden, and a relocated Veteran’s Memorial Plaza, all west of the flea market (which will remain where it is). Improved pathways will connect the park to Five Locks Walk. Stewart said that a “large conifer” will be planted at a site indicated on the architectural rendering of the plans as Christmas Tree Plaza. This is just a con-
See Grady Park, page 18
Swim kids are happy to be back at the pool Page 10
The changing demographics of the here and now Page 7
Ribbon cutting for new commercial kitchen at CTK The Rev. Marcella Gillis, incoming rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Stone Ridge, cuts the ribbon at the celebratory opening of the church's new commercial kitchen. The kitchen is one of a number of improvements made to the church property as a result of a $700,000 capital campaign. Depending on the status of the Covid-19 resurgence, the church will hold a community celebration in the fall. The Rev. Gillis' first Sunday service at CTK will be at 9 a.m. on Aug. 15. Photo by Janet Vincent
‘Help Wanted’ everywhere Ann Belmont BSP Reporter
Kaete Brittin Shaw's new exhibit space lets the art shine Page 20
Like much of the nation, Rondout Valley business owners are experiencing a pervasive shortage of people looking for work. The following is a series of conversations with a few of them about how, or if, the situation is affecting them personally. Mark and Roni Usvolk, who own and run Lydia’s Cafe in Stone Ridge, have weathered every storm that threatened their business in the last decade and a half plus, but they have finally decided to call it quits – mostly. No more breakfast, no more lunch.
“Ironically,” Mark Usvolk wrote in the Lydia’s newsletter recently, “we managed to survive the recession, Covid-19, financial, physical and emotional hardships only to be brought down by the labor shortage that is currently plaguing our nation.” As of this writing Lydia’s will be open regularly only on Saturday nights for live music, adding occasional dates for special events. Usvolk wasn’t shy in blaming his scarcity of workers on “a rampant sense of entitlement … The administration is
See Help wanted, page 4
Sign posted at Emmanuel’s Market in Stone Ridge this week.