Noah Eckstein

It was the kind of brilliant October day that speaks to life, not its end. The temperature was in the mid-60s and the sky an unblemished blue as Jim Reynolds gathered with family and friends on the second Saturday of the month at Woodstock Cemetery to bid farewell to his life partner. It was only […]

Woodstock will mark Earth Day this year by multiplying it sevenfold. From April 18 to April 25, the town will host its first “Earth Week,” a series of events that aims to bring together the community’s many environmental efforts. “I was thinking about all the different groups in this town that are fighting so hard […]

Woodstock officials are raising concern about mounting safety risks at Big Deep and Little Deep, the local swimming holes that draw swarms of local and out-of-town visitors in the summer months. Members of the Woodstock Environmental Commission said at their March 18 meeting that visits to the sites off Zena Road and Route 212 last […]

Woodstock officials stepped back from a potential hike in summer camp fees, saying they want to avoid a “hardship” for families even as the program’s budget gap widens.  “What I want to start off with is to assure the public and parents that the town board has heard that increasing the cost of the camp […]

The owners of Happylife Productions bought the former Tinker Street Cafe at 59 Tinker St. from local entrepreneur Lizzie Vann for $999,000, securing a long-term future for their Woodstock-based arts and culture store after several years as tenants. Artist Mike DuBois and his wife and partner, artist Kelly Sinclair, said their lease was nearing its […]

Woodstock’s town board voted unanimously to name former Councilman Reggie Earls to fill a vacant seat on the Town Board on Tuesday, plugging a spot left vacant when Anula Courtis was sworn in as town supervisor on Jan. 1. Before the vote, Courtis opened her first meeting as supervisor with a brief declaration that the […]

Anula Courtis was sworn in as Woodstock’s town supervisor during a New Year’s Day ceremony at Woodstock Town Hall on Jan. 1. Laurie Osmond and Lily Korolkoff were also sworn in as members of the Woodstock Town Board. The oaths of office were administered by Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher, marking the start of a […]

Philip Sinagra, the Woodstock police officer who sued town officials in March over how he’d been disciplined, put the town on notice that he intends to file a new lawsuit claiming town officials defamed and retaliated against him. Sinagra’s Notice of Claim, a legal prerequisite to suing a municipality in New York, seeks more than […]

For 15 years, Martha Frankel has treated the Woodstock Bookfest like a writerly dinner party, inviting authors from around the world into town, feeding them well with her cooking, goodie bags and wit, and building a literary weekend centered on conversation and ideas. Next year, Frankel will pause the festival to re-center her attention closer […]

Incoming Woodstock Supervisor Anula Courtis filled two key roles in her administration and roiled local politics by rejecting weeks of work by a Town Board colleague to redesign the town’s website. Courtis named Daniel Gallant, 49, a development consultant to arts organizations, as deputy supervisor, and former Saugerties Art Commission Chair Yvonne Rojas-Cowan, 51, as […]

Efforts by Bearsville Center owner Lizzie Vann to redevelop the former Woodstock Library site moved closer to reality Tuesday as the Town Board set a Dec. 16 public hearing, even as the meeting devolved into sharp disputes over federal relief money, infrastructure spending and control of town technology assets. The unanimous vote on Vann’s project […]

A $30 million project to rebuild the full length of Tinker Street, from the Village Green, got a show of conditional support this week, as the Environmental Commission heard from supporters who described a project aimed at improving traffic safety – especially for pedestrians and bicycle riders.  “Tinker Street has been determined not safe,” Complete […]

Bearsville Center owner Lizzie Vann’s plan to redevelop multiple parcels, including the former site of the Woodstock Library, cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle last week as the town’s planning board endorsed a proposal to redraw a zoning line so that the entire project falls within the Hamlet Commercial District. Vann’s Project Regeneration aims to convert […]

A small brushfire that erupted in Bearsville on Monday prompted warnings by Woodstock firefighters that ashes from wood stoves can stay hot for days, sometimes even igniting full house fires. This week’s fire started after ashes were dumped over a bank into a stoney area filled with old ash, brush, and leaves. Firefighters arrived quickly […]

The Woodstock Environmental Commission is urging the Town Board to take immediate action to remove what it estimates to be roughly 200 truckloads of contaminated construction debris at 10 Church Road in Shady—material the group says poses a potential threat to the public water system and nearby private wells. No scientific analysis to date has […]

A routine public hearing this week about Woodstock’s 2026 budget spiraled into a broader clash over power, pay and transparency, as board members questioned Supervisor Bill McKenna’s authority to put forth a resolution seeking to reclassify the town’s first deputy town clerk as town clerk. Meghann Reimondo was appointed first deputy clerk on Aug. 19, […]

A long-running debate over a proposed 30-home subdivision off Eastwoods Drive continues after the state Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed in late October that the Town of Ulster—not Woodstock—will oversee the project’s environmental review. The decision, announced just before the Woodstock Planning Board’s Nov. 6 meeting, leaves Woodstock with authority over road and wetlands permits […]

It’s 7:30 on a Thursday morning, and Gail Bradney flicks on the lights inside the kitchen of the Woodstock Reformed Church. The smell of coffee mixes with the steam of green beans as volunteers shuffle in, tying aprons and stacking foil trays. It’s become routine for the six retired core volunteers who gather here most […]

Town Clerk Jackie Earley announced Tuesday she will retire at the end of the month after 39 years with the town, surprising members of the Town Board during its Oct. 14 meeting. “I am writing to formally announce my retirement as town clerk for the town of Woodstock, effective October 31st, 2025,” Earley said via […]

A summer-long debate over the leadership of Town Supervisor Bill McKenna took a bizarre turn as former supervisor candidate Erin Moran—who lost her bid for the Democratic nomination to town board member Anula Courtis in June—accused him of leaving an envelope on her car containing a Ten of Swords tarot card, a glass knife, and […]

Ulster County District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji stepped up at a packed Woodstock Town Board meeting Tuesday to urge residents and officials to cool a summer-long fight over the hiring of a convicted sex offender. By supporting the town’s attorney, he may have instead muddied the waters even further. “I do not want this tearing the […]

The Woodstock Library will close Friday for about a month before reopening in a larger space that will feature more room for children’s programs, archives and community events, the final phase of a $3.3 million project that has showcased both the promise of expanded services and the financial strains that small-town libraries face across the […]

The removal of a 125-year-old silver maple in front of the Old Forge building on Tinker Street has renewed debate about Town Supervisor Bill McKenna’s singular leadership style, Woodstock laws, and how to balance public safety with preservation. J&J Tree Works of Saugerties cut down the tree on Thursday after Highway Superintendent Donald Allen determined […]

Woodstock Town Supervisor Bill McKenna filed paperwork to reinstate maintenance worker Michael Innello, the Level 3 sex offender whose hiring sparked weeks of pushback by town board members and calls by residents for the supervisor’s resignation. McKenna, asserting that Innello had been wrongfully terminated, sent reinstatement paperwork to Ulster County’s personnel department last week. After […]