Hummingbird Happiness

Ed Frampton Hummingbird Photo

In the next few months, our area will have a number of visitors known as Leaf Peepers who come to see the spectacular colors of autumn as our trees prepare for winter. However, those who visit Mountaindale now will be in for a very special treat. Our resident ruby throated hummingbirds LOVE their neighborhood, with the numerous hummingbird feeders on Main Street and hummingbird attracting flowers in town,

This month, the 'hummingbird ballet' will particularly delight our Hummingbird Hailers because the immature babies that hatched this summer are now able to seek their own food, and are doing it in droves. Certain feeders in town are especially popular and it's possible to see several feeding simultaneously while others are chirping, hovering and jockeying for position. A deliveryman who was visiting Eddie's Mountaindale Inn was quite impressed recently and remarked that Mountaindale seems to have more hummingbirds than he sees anywhere else on his Mid Hudson route. The other day at Upstate Karate of Mountaindale, a child exclaimed, "I see hummingbirds!" His mother replied, "Yes, Dear," in that mommy way. So I explained that her child REALLY was seeing hummingbirds so they sat for a bit on the karate school porch to watch the acrobatic antics.

Now that our community has a new business, Mountain Charm Market Cafe & Deli, you can now pick up a delicious cup of steaming coffee or tea, and even a sandwich while you relax and watch the non-stop entertainment provided all day by these ruby throated jewels. The cafe also offers free WiFi to customers so you can even enjoy nature outside while you work comfortably on your laptop. We hope to see you in town to enjoy our wonderful hummingbirds before they start their big trip down South in early October. Then you can come back and enjoy our fall foliage,

Mountaindale Hosts Chamber of Commerce

Terri Ward & Cathy Paty

The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce has been serving the Sullivan County business community for more than 35 years. Their Mission Statement includes: "... bringing together the business and professional interests of the county, permitting them to accomplish collectively what none could do individually. The focus and objective of the Chamber shall be the growth and retention of its member businesses and other enterprises in Sullivan County."  Their challenge is that the businesses are spread out over the 970 square miles of our sprawling county. They tried to reach everyone from offices that were based in Monticello and Liberty at different times over the years. Chamber President Terri Ward and Vice President Cathy Paty were concerned that too many members weren't availing themselves of all the numerous Member Benefits and only viewing the Chamber as an organization to wite a check to once a year.

The Chamber Staff and Board of Directors were deeply concerned about how to remain relevant in these changing economic, technological, and environmental times. They made a bold, creative move on September 1st, by eliminating their physical office and creating the world’s first completely mobile chamber of commerce. They purchased a 37' Coachman RV which is now the Chamber's sole office, moving throughout the county servicing each township for a minimum of two-weeks at a time while appearing at many county events and festivities. They post their weekly location and hourly schedule on the homepage of the Chamber website to ensure that community businesses know where they are. A video blog of the journey is on the Chamber’s Facebook page.

Mobile Chamber on the Run

Next week, Main Street Mountaindale will proudly be hosting the Chamber. Diversified Realty Services will be supporting our guests by donating electricity, parking and whatever else might be needed. Although the Chamber Staff seems pretty self sufficient. They are extremely "green" and have begun the process of going paperless and communicate with their member base electronically or face-to-face in The Chamber on the Run TM. The RV currently runs on diesel fuel but plans to eventually run their electricity off mounted solar panels and a small wind turbine as a backup. The office utilizes laptops and cell phones, allowing the Chamber Staff to move from town to town and business to business at ease.

The RV will be parked in position on Main Street to take advantage of the strong Verizon WiFi signal we have. So far, the Chamber has been experiencing the significant savings in expenses that were projected under this Mobile Chamber initiative. This savings will enable the Chamber to continue to provide valuable services to their members while keeping its membership, sponsorship, and attendance fees low. If you are already a Member, please stop in to visit next week to find out more about what the Chamber can do for you and how you might better utilize your membership. If you are not yet a member, Terri and Cathy will be glad to let you know more about what they do in our community and how they try to attact more positive growth with tools like the Relocation Guide and their Shop Local Campaign.

Town of Fallsburg Politics...There Does Not Seem To Be Any!

Walking around, driving around, I am struck at the lack of PRESENCE politics has in and around Mountaindale this close to an election. This confuses me for numerous reasons, the least of which is the huge issue of fracking looming over our community...where are people and more importantly, where are the politicians, those in office seeking re-election, and those looking to get elected? Shouldn't they be more visible and accessible, or is the problem far bigger than one of visibility and accessibility?

I would love asking those running for office in Fallsburg, in Sullivan County a few questions, find out where they stand on the issues...it is the 22nd of October, I know people are running for office, but have not seen any politicians here in Mountaindale knocking on doors introducing themselves, have not seen a "Meet the Candidates" night scheduled for the five percent of Fallsburg residents that reside here in our hamlet. I have not seen political campaign signs in the number and variety I am used to seeing. Thinking maybe I was missing something, or perhaps blind to our local politics, wanting to know who was running for office and what their positions are on the issues before I go to the fire house and vote, I did a Google search for "Fallsburg NY Politics"

What I found, or more appropriately did not find truly shocked me. There is not one single politician, one single article on Fallsburg politics on the first page of the Google Search. Thinking there had to be some kind of a mistake or that my search terms needed improvement, I did a second search for Town of Fallsburg Politics and the first entry on page one in the sixth position was actually our own Mountaindale News blog that happened to mention the Democratic Party...the article really had nothing to do with politics.

Looking at my search results, I find myself pondering...

What does it say about our community when local politicians seem to be so absent on the internet? How can we as a community compete in a 21st Century Global Economy when our own local politicians seem so behind the times? No Democratic or Republican blog for the town of Fallsburg, no party web sites, the town seemingly devoid of an internet presence when it comes too all things political in a community of some 10,000 people. One has to wonder...right now the Town of Fallsburg, its elected officials are negotiating a new contract with Time Warner...how well equipped are they to negotiate when they themselves do not have an internet presence, do not seem to grasp the importance of being plugged into Social Media in 2011?

Do not want to paint a picture of a barren desert, as there is some light out upon the Horizon. Our town supervisor Steven Vegliante does have a LinkedIn page, though it is more for his personal business and reputation than for anything related to our local politics. If any of the other town supervisors are plugged in on the internet, their presence is so well hidden as to not exist. As mentioned in an earlier article, our community, Sullivan County needs far greater, more reliable internet service if we are going to compete for jobs and industry moving forward. For that access to occur, we need elected officials who not only see the importance of world class internet access, but are themselves fully plugged into and using the internet in acting as our advocates when it comes to renegotiating contracts with the Time Warner's of our world.

I would challenge all of our elected officials to begin using the power of the internet...start up a blog that allows you to communicate and have dialogue with the citizens you represent. Get yourselves a twitter account so you can send out important messages and notices instantaneously to the populace. Not sure where to start? Drop me a note, will be more than happy to hold a seminar here in Mountaindale for any politicians wanting to plug in and avail themselves to the new dawn that is Social Media and the World Wide Web...come next election season, let my Google Search for Fallsburg NY Politics find a first search page filled top to bottom with our local elected officials.

Internet Access For All Should Be National Priority

Here in Mountaindale, it is not hard finding people who do not have internet access...can almost see all those who live over on Church Road jumping up and down waving their hands shouting me, me, me when the question is posed, "Who does not have reliable internet service in our area?" Was tweeting from the Mountaindale Inn 's Open Mic night this past Wednesday night when a young man sitting beside me lamented his own lack of internet access over on Church Road...three small start up businesses are over there that he knows about, all of them without reliable access to the web, Global Net at best spotty if rumors are too be believed, and so slow as to be worthless for anything more than checking one's email. Another Church Road resident's children do their homework in downtown Mountaindale, rather than at their house for one simple reason...they can get online in town, but not in our out lying areas.

Mountaindale Park has neither cable or broadband access to the internet...how much more profitable would this Town of Fallsburg campground be if it did? Internet access is a commodity, but it is also a necessity in our modern times, and even more important it is the must have ingredient in building a road to tomorrow as Steve Israel so eloquently pointed out in his "Times Herald Record" article in yesterday's paper. In today's modern day society, internet access should not be a privilege, but a right, access to it a necessity in our homes, in our businesses.

A young woman can't take online college courses because her part of Sullivan County doesn't have high-speed Internet.

Scores of flooded, stranded Ulster County residents can't find out where to get food or shelter because they don't have that high-speed connection to download the Watershed Post blog.

How can our children compete when they cannot access something as basic as an online college course? Should scores of stranded residents have their lives unnecessarily put at risk because they do not have basic reliable access to the internet? Surely we as a nation can do better than this?

In Fallsburg, our elected officials are in the process of negotiating a new contract with Time Warner, and with luck they will be able to plug in a few more of the holes in our community where internet access at best is a shaky hope...should it have to be like that? Is it time for the Federal Government to step in and deem Internet Service Providers are Public Utilities, and make it mandatory that they provide fair and equal access to the internet to EVERY AMERICAN? Has the time come for our nation to eliminate discrimination based upon where you live? Has the time come for our congress to provide equal rights (and equal access) to Rural Americans, has the time come where our future depends on America linking up every home in the United States, providing internet access to one and all?

As Steve Israel says about internet access, "It's the difference between merely surviving or thriving."