In the current issue of the Phoenicia Times: an "unscientific and sort of comprehensive" roundup of local websites, both official and otherwise. Kudos to the PT for giving a few local towns a much-needed poke in the undercarriage for their meager web efforts:
Headed west and crossing over the Ulster/Delaware County line at Highmount, web presence falls off considerably in the Village of Fleischmanns, despite plans announced over a year ago by first term mayor Dave Morrell, who intended to launch a full scale website when first elected in March, 2009. Although the site still points to special meetings that happened back in October, 2009, and lists Village Trustees, even though some are deceased, it at least has a link page that is as good as those in Olive and Shandaken.
Glaring omission in their tour through Ulster/Delaware cyberspace: The Watershed Post. (Halloooooo, Paul Smart! Can you hear us yelling all the way from Delaware County?) Clearly the editorial staff of the Phoenicia Times is hungry for a website like ours:
One disappointment during this informal trek through local cyberspace is the clear divide between Ulster County and Delaware County, a divide that at least the Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce is trying to erase. It is not hard to imagine a Woodstocker wanting to know about that Draft Beer Festival in Andes and easy to see an Andes resident or visitor making plans to head for the garlic festival in Saugerties. Unfortunately the sites that serve both locations are few, despite all the talk of the region being unified as the watershed for the City of New York.
Count us (and our astute readers) in as the demographic that cares hard about beer, garlic and common ground on watershed-wide issues, wherever in the absurdly balkanized Catskills region they may be found. Clearly we've got to show our smiling faces in Sweet Sue's more often.
Oh, and Shandaken bloggers: We know you're out there. Drop us a line at editor@watershedpost.com and we'll add you to the blogroll.
