News

In a video posted to Instagram on Monday, Sept. 21, Woodstock Supervisor Anula Courtis said she encouraged Michael Innello, the Level 3 registered sex offender hired by the town as a maintenance worker in 2025, to find another job and leave town employment. Innello resigned from the Custodial Department on Sept. 11 after obtaining a […]

Water has leaked into the residential building at Woodstock’s Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery for more than a decade. Now, the Buddhist community is preparing for a nearly $300,000 copper roof project intended to stop the recurring water intrusion. The monastery has signed a contract with the Hudson Valley-based J&A Roofing and Siding Company and is […]

The Woodstock Planning Board is reviewing Zena Homes’ application to extend and widen Eastwoods Drive in Woodstock, which would serve as the sole access road for a proposed 30-home subdivision in the Town of Ulster. Alec Gladd, an attorney with Cuddy & Feder representing Zena Homes, presented the developers’ latest sketch plan to the board […]

The Woodstock Town Board has requested a 35 mph speed limit along Glasco Turnpike within town boundaries after residents raised concerns about speeding, pedestrian safety, and difficulty pulling out of their driveways. The board passed a resolution Sept. 8 requesting the limit, or a lower speed if evaluating agencies recommend it, from Route 212 in […]

The Woodstock Town Board has accepted the resignation of Custodial Department laborer Michael Innello, a convicted Level 3 sex offender who was hired last year and retained despite public outcry over his criminal history. His resignation takes effect Friday, Sept. 11. “This is a parting of ways,” Woodstock Supervisor Anula Courtis said. “He’s going to […]

Meira Blaustein is preparing to leave the Woodstock Film Festival after 26 years spent building it from a four-venue gathering into one of the Hudson Valley’s signature cultural events. “It feels to be the right time,” Blaustein said. “We had a great run and the festival is only going to continue to grow from here.” […]

Meira Blaustein, a co-founder of the Woodstock Film Festival, will step down as its executive director and head programmer at the end of the year, the organization said Wednesday. Blaustein intends to remain involved as an adviser. The festival’s board is searching for her successor and expects to announce its next executive director in the […]

The future of Levon Helm Studios is uncertain amid more than 15 concert cancellations, a calendar listing only three upcoming performances, and a cash shortfall that has left some ticket holders awaiting refunds. When Brian Parillo took control of the company in May, Levon Helm Studios had roughly $50,000 in its bank account despite having […]

The Woodstock Film Festival will begin its 27th edition with a screening of “American Zoo,” a documentary that examines the complicated history of the Catskill Game Farm. The Hudson Valley premiere will be held at 7 p.m. on Oct. 13 at the Community Theater, 373 Main St. in Catskill. A conversation with director Tim Travers […]

Construction on a multiyear, $25 million overhaul of Tinker Street and Route 212 is expected to begin in fall 2027, bringing new bridges, wider sidewalks, additional crosswalks, and curb extensions to the busy street. The Woodstock Complete Streets Committee outlined the timeline for the state Department of Transportation project during a committee meeting on Tuesday, […]

Woodstock residents will soon be able to sign up for emergency and community alerts after the Town Board authorized a contract for a new notification system last week. “It’s not just a weather alert. It can be anything,” said board member Laurie Osmond, who spearheaded the initiative. Residents could receive alerts about road closures, downed […]

The Woodstock Town Board has dropped a proposal to spend $15,000 in federal pandemic relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act on an affordable housing design competition, leaving officials to decide how to use the town’s remaining $60,000 before the end of the year. The Housing Committee proposed the competition at the board’s Aug. […]

Opponents of Zena Homes are weighing two potential court challenges and focusing on Eastwoods Drive, the development’s proposed access route through Woodstock, after the project cleared two hurdles in the Town of Ulster last week. The Woodstock Land Conservancy and Stop Zena Development, a community group, held a meeting for residents and supporters in Woodstock […]

Woodstock redesignated its Bear Task Force as a five-member BearWise Committee that will advise the town on bear awareness, public education, and conflict prevention. The town board named the committee’s members at a business meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18. They are Woodstock Supervisor Anula Courtis, Rachel Jackson, John Milo, Hannah Birenz, and Iris Permenter. The […]

Susan Brown was working in an upstairs office overflowing with books, papers, and photographs on Aug. 9 when she heard her 8-pound dog, Blue, barking downstairs. Brown, 80, walked toward the living room and found an adult female black bear and one of her cubs inside. Blue was trying to confront them. “There is a […]

Levon Helm Studios sued musician Amy Helm and seven other defendants in federal court Monday, alleging that she used company money to support her personal life and music career, concealed financial transactions from other shareholders, and caused the Woodstock venue to sustain at least $2 million in damages. The lawsuit also alleges that Amy Helm, […]

Bangkok Market, the Thai pop-up eatery on Woodstock’s Dixon Avenue that said it drew 3 ½-hour wait times when it opened July 10 for a month-long run, shut down 12 days early last week after running into financial and staffing difficulties. Award-winning Brooklyn chef Elizabeth Calvo, who was born in Thailand, said on Wednesday morning […]

Musician Amy Helm broke her silence on the intra-family dispute over Levon Helm Studios, accusing her stepmother’s advisors of executing a coordinated financial shakedown. “The hustlers who think they can manipulate her and further cash in on my father’s legacy will be exposed,” Helm, 55, said in a statement posted to social media Thursday. “Their […]

Not Fade Away has reopened in Woodstock after eight months without a storefront, giving the music-inspired retailer its 11th local home in 35 years. The shop opened this month at 5 Tannery Brook Road, steps from Tinker Street and next to a municipal parking lot. “We’re back,” co-owner Marty Leffer said. Leffer and co-owner Lindsey […]

The Barn at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, home of the Midnight Ramble, has had 13 concert dates confirmed as canceled or postponed since a late-May management change. Eight additional concert dates have been canceled at Levon Helm Studios, bringing the number of confirmed disruptions since a late-May management change to 13 as a public […]

Levon Helm Studios, the storied and intimate Woodstock venue founded by the legendary late drummer of The Band, is in turmoil after a shift in voting control removed Helm’s daughter, musician Amy Helm, from management and put longtime shareholder Brian Parillo in charge. The change intensified a dispute among the family and business partners behind […]

Dawn Neal-Ellsworth, a longtime Woodstock Rescue Squad volunteer who rose to captain and kept responding to emergencies while battling cancer, died Wednesday, July 1, at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. She was 51. Neal-Ellsworth was captain of Woodstock Fire Department Company 5, better known as the Woodstock Rescue Squad, where she had served for more […]

Robert A.F. Thurman, a Woodstock-area resident who became one of the country’s best-known interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism and helped build Menla Retreat & Dewa Spa in Phoenicia into a Catskills center for Buddhist teaching and healing arts, died Tuesday, June 16, in Woodstock. He was 84. Thurman, a professor emeritus at Columbia University, was the […]