THE YEAR IN REVIEW
January
1: For the fifth consecutive year, walkers gather at Dietz Stadium in Kingston to commemorate the New Year with a “Day 1” walk through the city.
4: Ulster County Executive Michael Hein says he is resigning to take a job in the administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Hein, a Democrat who’s been county executive for 10 years, is to become commissioner of the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
7: Ulster County Legislator Tracey Bartels, who is not enrolled in a political party but long has aligned herself with Democratic lawmakers, is elected chairwoman of the county Legislature.
8: Kingston Mayor Steve Noble says in his State of the City address that his agenda for 2019 seeks to move the city forward while addressing issues that range from building new sidewalks to creating housing policy initiatives.
9: Ulster County resident Michael Lang — a copromoter of the Woodstock music festivals in 1969, 1994 and 1999 — announces a multiday concert marking the 50th anniversary of the original event will be held in August at the Watkins Glen International speedway in New York’s Finger Lakes region.
11: Kingston Mayor Steve Noble says he will not run for Ulster County executive despite some people urging him to do so.
15: Three Kingston residents are indicted for murder for a Dec. 1, 2018, fatal shooting on Sawkill Road in the town of Ulster. An indictment charges Maurice
Stansberry Sr., 39, his son, Maurice Stansberry Jr., 17, and Kevin Gardener, 18.
17: Kingston Mayor Steve Noble announces he is running for second, four-year term as the city’s chief executive.
18: Authorities say Pine Plains native Shannon M. Kent, 35, a Navy chief cryptologic technician, has died in a suicide bombing in Syria.
19: An estimated 800 women, men and children walk, sing and dance along Mill Hill and Rock City roads in Woodstock during the third annual Woodstock Women’s
March.
23: Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner abruptly announces his resignation amid sexual harassment allegations. Tyner, D-Clinton, posts on his Facebook page: “I’ve made far too many stupid mistakes and 15 years is long enough. Time for me to step aside and let someone else serve.”
24: Kingston lawmakers take the first step toward allowing Ulster County to take over Kingston’s bus system. During a meeting of the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee, members vote 3-2 to advance a resolution that would dissolve the Citibus system and authorize Mayor Steve Noble to sign a memorandum of agreement with the county.
29: Ulster County Executive Michael Hein says he believes politics might be holding up the release of a report about allegations that his office and that of county Comptroller Elliott Auerbach hacked each other’s computer files.
February
1: Addressing concerns of opponents, GlidePath Power Solutions announces its planned power plant in the town of Ulster will be powered by batteries rather than fossil fuels and that the proposed site has been moved farther away from the nearest homes.
4: Representatives of The People’s Place in Kingston say the food pantry/thrift store has doubled the number of times per month that people can receive free food from its pantry. Executive Director Christine Hein says the increase in allowable visits from once to twice per month is driven by need.
5: Organizers say the annual Mountain Jam music festival won’t be back at Hunter Mountain in Greene County in the summer 2019, ending a 14-year run. It ultimately is held at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Sullivan County.
6: Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright says he will not seek election to a fourth fouryear term in November.
6: State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, says that he found it “offensive” that some of his fellow lawmakers cheered upon the recent passage of New York’s Reproductive Health Act and that it was wrong for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to have the Empire State Building bathed in pink light after the vote.
8: A fire captain and a member of the board of commissioners of the West Hurley Fire District face felony charges, accused of abusing their authority and costing the district more than $30,000 since 2012. Arrested are David Gutierrez, 52, the former fire chief and current captain, and Michael “Bucky” VanValkenburgh, 44.
11: Michael Hein becomes commissioner of the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance after serving 10 years as Ulster County executive. He is succeeded as executive on an interim basis by his chief of staff, Adele Reiter.
13: Just days after announcing he will not seek re-election, Ulster County Legislator Hector Rodriguez posts an apology on Facebook for communicating with women in a way that “made them uncomfortable.” 14: Bruce Chargois, 59, of Saugerties, who hid a cache of weapons from police investigating online posts by his son that praised the Columbine High School killers, is sentenced to six months in Ulster County Jail.
15: Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams says he will retire from the bench at the end of his 10-year term in December.
19: After losing one of its producers, a planned festival at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Sullivan County to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock festival is scaled back.
19: The proposal to build the Irish Cultural Center in Kingston’s Rondout district is approved for a second time by the city Planning Board.
20: Pat Ryan is nominated an Ulster County Democratic convention to run for county executive in the April 30 special election.
22: Environmental group Scenic Hudson says it has secured the rights to buy a 500-acre waterfront site in the city of Kingston and the town of Ulster that once was to be the location of a large housing development.
28: Shannon Kent, a U.S. Navy cryptologist from Pine Plains who was among four Americans killed in a January suicide bombing in Syria, becomes only the third woman to have her name engraved on the National Cryptologic Memorial at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md.
March
1: State police announce the arrest of New York City Department of Environmental
Protection Police Sgt. Gregg Marinelli, 38, after troopers and members of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives execute a search warrant on his home and find gun parts, tools used to manufacture weapons and numerous firearms.
4: Kingston Mayor Steve Noble proposes a park in a parcel bordered by Broadway, Grand Street and Prince Street that formerly was home to Kingston’s main post office (and most recently a Planet Wings restaurant), along with reconfiguring the intersection nearest to the site to improve safety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.
6: The Kingston Common Council votes 7-1 to dissolve Citibus and authorize Mayor Steve Noble to sign a memorandum of agreement with Ulster County to provide transportation services in Kingston.
7: The Caring Hands Soup Kitchen serves its last meal at the Clinton Avenue United Methodist Church in Kingston. A new soup Kitchen at the Salvation Army building on Cedar Street fills the void.
10: Kingston St. Patrick’s Parade and Shamrock Run go on as scheduled despite several inches of snow and slush lining the route. 11: The Ulster County Republican Party announces that county Conservative Party Chairman Jack Hayes will run on the GOP line in the April 30 special election for county executive.
14: Opponents of the planned Irish Cultural Center in Kingston drop a lawsuit against the city. Three neighbors of the site had challenged the Planning Board’s approval of the proj
ect.
16: Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa announces he supports making driver’s licenses available to undocumented immigrants in New York state.
18: Health food retailer Mother Earth’s Storehouse says it has fired an employee from its store at Kings Mall for alleged antiSemitic comments and actions toward a co-worker.
22: Gov. Andrew Cuomo comes to the state police barracks in the town of Ulster to announce the arrest of William Sullivan, 21, of Saugerties, on a misdemeanor aggravated harassment charge in connection with alleged anti-Semitic remarks and actions directed at a co-worker at Mother Earth’s Storehouse in Ulster.
26: Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack says she’ll abide by a state law, if passed, that allows undocumented immigrants to get New York driver’s licenses.
28: Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro signs legislation limiting the county’s 25 lawmakers, the county executive and the comptroller to a maximum of 12 years in office.
April
2: Kingston lawmakers approve spending up to $165,000 to demolish and replace one section of the Uptown sidewalk canopies on North Front Street but do not decide whether to authorize repairing the remaining sections or tearing them down.
2: The Kingston Common Council unanimously adopts resolutions authorizing the city to pay $450,000 for the former Kingston Post Office site at 500 Broadway and up to $25,000 to demolish the vacant Planet Wings restaurant that stands on the site. The goal is to realign the adjacent Broadway intersection and create a park on the post office site.
4: Ellen DiFalco, who worked for former Kingston
Mayor Shayne Gallo, files petitions to run on the Republican line against Democratic Mayor Steve Noble in November.
5: Former Saugerties
High School student Conner Chargois, who had praised the Columbine High School killers in online posts, is sentenced by Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams to two years in state prison and five years of postrelease supervision after pleading guilty to a felony weapons charge.
16: The Ulster County Legislature votes 18-1 to approve the planned county takeover of Kingston’s public bus system, Citibus.
16: City of Kingston Engineer John Schultheis sends a violation notice to the developer of the Irish Cultural Center property on Abeel Street after a 7-yearold child narrowly escaped injury when some ground at the site gave way.
19: Movies return to Hudson Valley Mall in the town of Ulster when NCG Cinema opens a 12-screen multiplex in the former Regal Cinemas location, which closed in August 2018.
22: Demolition work nears completion in the project to transform the vacant Macy’s store at Hudson Valley Mall in the town of Ulster into a multi-discipline medial complex operated by Health Quest.
22: The Kingston Planning Board votes 3-2 in favor of affordable housing agency RUPCO’s plan to create apartments at the former Alms House site on Flatbush Avenue in the city.
30: Democrat Pat Ryan is elected Ulster County executive by a 3-1 margin in a special election over county Conservative Party Chairman Jack Hayes.
May
2: Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach announces he is leaving his job as the county’s fiscal watchdog in mid-May to take a position in state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office. He has been comptroller since January 2009.
7: Two former West Hurley Fire Department officials plead guilty to reduced charges and are ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution apiece for abusing their authority and costing the fire district thousands of dollars since 2012.
8: Kingston Mayor Steve Noble signs a Common Council resolution that supports state legislation to allow rent control throughout New York.
9: Cammron Robinson, 24, of New Paltz, is sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting four boys. Robinson admitted he convinced the boys, ages 11 to 13, to engage in sexually explicit conduct and livestream their acts to him over the internet.
17: State Department of Environmental Conservation police raid three Saugerties properties being used by Joseph and Rachel Karolys for the processing and dumping of construction-and-demolition debris.
17: New Paltz resident Francois Barcomb, a physics teacher at a high school in Westchester County, wins the $100,000 Teachers Tournament on the TV game show “Jeopardy!”
21: Ellenville Regional Hospital is awarded $350,000 from the New
York Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services to treat drug addictions.
21: The Ulster County Legislature adopts a law that makes single-use plastic straws an on-demand commodity in restaurants. The “Skip the Straw” law prohibits eateries from routinely offering single-use plastic straws, requiring patrons to ask for a straw instead.
23: The Kingston Land Trust purchases a 19th-century African burial ground at 157 Pine St. in Midtown for $140,000.
June
1: Jeremy S. Kaartine, 22, of Saugerties, fatally shoots his father in a New Paltz diner parking lot. After police give chase, Kaartine crashes his car in Saugerties, where he is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
2: The city of Kingston starts offering municipal ID cards to residents.
2: Thousands of participants and spectators converge on New Paltz to celebrate in the 15th annual Hudson Valley LGBTQ Pride Parade & Festival.
4: Che Spiotta, a Boiceville resident and seventhgrader at Onteora Middle School, wins the seventh season of Fox TV’s “MasterChef
Junior,” defeating 23 other young cooks to claim the trophy and a grand prize of $100,000.
10: The Watkins Glen International speedway in New York’s Finger Lakes region announces it will not host the planned Woodstock 50 music festival in August. The festival’s lead promoter is Ulster County resident Michael Lang.
11: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan announces that measles vaccinations or proof of immunity from the disease will be required for everyone who attends or works at day and overnight camps in Ulster County unless they have a valid medical exemption.
12: HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley announces the state Department of Health has approved the planned $93 million expansion of HealthAlliance’s Mary’s Avenue hospital campus in Midtown Kingston.
27: A New Paltz official announces that town businessman Luis Martinez has been released after more than five months in federal immigration custody. Councilman Daniel Torres, who helped lead the effort to free Martinez, says in a social media post that the 40-year-old husband and father of three “is now home
with his family.”
July
1: Riders express confusion and frustration and trips take longer than scheduled as Ulster County Area Transit begins operating former Citibus routes in Kingston.
1, 2: The state Department of Environmental Conservation orders the shutdown of a controversial construction and demolition debris processing facility on state Route 212 in Saugerties and two remote landfills, all operated by Joseph and Rachel Karolys. 2: Ryan Williams, a Poughkeepsie man who led police on a high-speed chase before crashing into an oncoming vehicle, killing its driver, is sentenced by Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams to 25 years to life in state prison for seconddegree murder.
5: A late-night fire at the
Tivoli Fire Department in the Northern Dutchess village damages the building, a fire engine and an ambulance.
8: The central New York town of Vernon denies a permit for the planned Woodstock 50 music festival to be held at the Vernon Downs harness racing track, saying the application is too late and incomplete.
10: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan unveils an aggressive effort to reduce opioid fatalities in the county by 50 percent over the next two years.
11: Ulster County Legislator James Maloney, who also was the town of Ulster’s
full-time assessor and the town of Kingston’s parttime assessor, dies at age 61 following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
16: Ulster County lawmakers adopt a law setting 12-year limits for how long the county executive, comptroller and all 23 members of the Legislature can serve.
17: The town of Saugerties, which hosted the Woodstock ‘94 music festival, dismisses any notion that it could take on the planned Woodstock 50 festival in the wake of that show being denied a permit by the central New York town of Vernon.
19: Kevin Gardener pleads guilty to seconddegree murder, admitting in Ulster County Court that he fired the shot that killed Kingston resident Mark Lancaster in December 2018 on Sawkill Road in the town of Ulster.
25: The planned Ulster County Fair performance by country and Southern rock band Confederate Railroad is canceled amid concerns about its name and the image of a Confederate flag in its logo.
26: Maurice Stansberry Sr. is convicted of murder, robbery and weapons charges in Ulster County Court for the Dec. 1, 2018, shooting death of Mark Lancaster on Sawkill Road in the town of Ulster.
30: Two people are injured and four vehicles are damaged when rocks being used for ballast fall from a CSX freight train as it crosses the trestle above Abeel Street in the city of Kingston’s Rondout district.
31: The Ulster County Department of Health announces that a Gardiner resident has died from the Powassan virus, a rare disease spread by infected ticks.
31: The troubled Woodstock 50 festival is called off just 16 days before the planned start of the event, having lost two venues and numerous performers along the way, and with tickets never put on sale.
August
1: John A. Coleman Catholic High School in the town of Ulster will close at the end of the month due to declining enrollment and mounting costs, the president of the school’s Board of Trustees says.
8: Brenda Maloney, the widow of former Ulster County Legislator James
Maloney, is appointed to the county Legislature to serve out the remainder of her husband’s term.
12: The state Commission on Judicial Conduct announces it has closed an investigation that led New Paltz Town Justice Jonathan Katz to resign, writing that Katz had been charged with taking two judicial actions in a criminal case against a man whose wife he was representing in a divorce case.
12: Lance J. Ferguson, a 36-year-old Kingston man, is charged with murder for the stabbing death of a man whose body was found near the Thruway Exit 19 traffic roundabout in the town of Ulster,
13: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan signs a bill limiting the amount of time the county executive, comptroller and legislators can serve to 12 years.
14: New York Attorney General Letitia James launches an investigation into NYCharities.org, the online fundraising platform used for more than a decade by charitable organizations, including the United Way of Ulster County.
14: St. Joseph’s Church in Kingston is named as a defendant in a lawsuit that alleges sexual abuse by Rev. James LeBar, a priest who served there in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
14: Kingston
lawmakers grant initial approval for the city Water Department to borrow $7 million, clearing the way for the department to apply for grants to help pay for statemandated improvements to the Cooper Lake reservoir dam and water supply intake.
17: A small plane crashes into a home in Union Vale, Dutchess County, killing one resident and one person on the aircraft and causing a massive fire.
20: Monique S. Dibble, 33, of Marlboro, is charged with criminally negligent homicide for the May 2018 death of Celina Maldonado, 25, of Plattekill, from an overdose of heroin laced with the synthetic opioid fentanyl. This is the first time in Ulster County that an alleged drug dealer has been charged with a homicide offense for a fatal opioid overdose.
27: A preliminary longterm solid waste management plan prepared for the Ulster County Resource Recovery
Agency says creating a local landfill would be the least-expensive disposal option for the next decade.
31: Longtime state Sen. William Larkin Jr., an Orange County Republican who ended a 40-year career as a state lawmaker with his retirement in 2018, dies at age 91.
September
4: Lizzie Vann, the founder of an organic baby food brand in England, is the director of the company that paid $2.5 million for the property on Route 212 in Bearsville that includes the Bearsville Theater, Bear Café and radio station WDST, according to the real estate broker who managed the sale.
10: Joshua Stuart, of Kerhonkson, who in September 2018 stole 18 vials of a powerful opioid painkiller at gunpoint from Ellenville Regional Hospital, then fired his gun several times during a foot chase by police, is acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of 10 other charges by an Ulster County Court jury.
11: Brooklyn Bottling threatens to move out of New York state, and take more than 100 jobs with it, if it doesn’t get $1.1 million in tax breaks from the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency for its planned expansion in the town of Marlborough. Agency board members are unhappy about the ultimatum, though one of them suggests it’s a case of “posturing.” (The tax relief is granted in October.)
14: The Kingston Common Council clears the way for the city Water Department to seek up to $3 million in grant funding to help pay for state-mandated improvements to the Cooper Lake reservoir dam and water supply intake. The bonding authorization from the council allows the Kingston Water Department
to apply for the grant funding through the state’s Water Infrastructure Improvement Act program.
17: Lance Ferguson, 36, of Kingston, is indicted for second-degree murder for the August fatal stabbing of a homeless man near the Thruway Exit 19 traffic roundabout in the town of Ulster.
18: The Kingston Board of Education approves a five-year agreement that allows the school district to retain 50 percent ownership of Dietz Stadium but give up operational control of the facility to the city of Kingston.
23: Michelle Hinchey, daughter of late former U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, launches her campaign for New York’s 46th Senate District seat on the grounds of the Senate House State Historic Site, the same place her father first announced his candidacy for Congress and where, in 2012, he announced he was retiring after 38 years of public service.
October
1: Affordable housing agency RUPCO agrees to pay more than $2.8 million in property taxes for its Landmark Place apartments project under a 32year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the city of Kingston.
4: Maurice Stansberry Sr., who authorities say fired the shot that killed Kingston resident Mark Lancaster on Dec. 1, 2018, in the town of Ulster, is sentenced in Ulster County Court to 25 years to life in state prison.
7: Embattled Ulster County Legislator Hector Rodriguez is removed from the Legislature’s two most powerful committees over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women but says he won’t resign from the lawmaking body before the end of his term.
9: Ulster and Dutchess counties file a motion in court in an effort to join a state lawsuit objecting to the federal government issuing a certificate of completion for the Hudson River cleanup.
9: Msgr. William Williams, a former vicar of Ulster County, dies at age 85, five months after being
cleared by a Vatican-authorized tribunal of sexually abusing a child. Williams was on an April 2019 list released by the Archdiocese of New York that contained the names of 120 priests who had been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. He was among 12 in the MidHudson Valley who appeared on the list.
15: The Ulster County Legislature adds plastic stirrers, plastic cutlery and single-serve condiment packets to a local law that already makes plastic straws an on-demand only commodity in county restaurants.
18: Most of the longplanned recreational trail along the north rim of the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County opens to the public.
18: The U.S. House of Representatives approves naming the Pine Plains Post Office in memory of Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, who grew up in the Dutchess County town and was killed by a suicide bomber in January in Syria.
22: A campaign mailer for David Clegg produced by a political action committee backed by George Soros rattles the race for Ulster County district attorney because it features the Democratic candidate shaking hands with a Kingston activist who is a convicted felon.
24: A groundbreaking ceremony marks the official start of HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley’s $93 million expansion of its of Mary’s Avenue hospital campus in Kingston. The project is funded largely with state money..
24: The developers of the proposed residential and commercial project in Uptown Kingston known as The Kingstonian say they will make the complex one floor higher to add 14 “affordable workforce housing” units.
24: Daniel Thomas, 27, is fatally shot near the intersection of Cedar and Prospect streets in Midtown Kingston. Police say a “lack of cooperation” from people who live near the scene is making the investigation difficult.
31: Admitted murderer Kevin Gardener is sentenced to 17 years to life in state prison for the Dec. 1, 2018, fatal shooting of Mark Lancaster in the town of Ulster.
November
1: The homicide of Myron T. Moye Jr., 36, on West O’Reilly Street in Kingston is the second killing in Midtown in a span of just over a week. Police say they do not believe the cases are linked.
2: Ulster County begins taking possession of two large parcels at the TechCity business park in the town of Ulster as a result of foreclosure proceedings against developer Alan Ginsberg. The properties include all of the buildings formerly used by Bank of America on the western side of the industrial complex in the town of Ulster that once was home to IBM.
3: The Alan Ginsbergowned company Ulster Business Complex LLC starts Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for the portion of its TechCity property that used to be leased by Bank of America, stalling Ulster County’s plans for the property it was awarded in foreclosure proceedings.
5: Local election highlights include the race for
Ulster County District Attorney ending in a near dead heat between Republican Michael J. Kavanagh and Democrat David Clegg; Democrats clinging to a majority in the Ulster County Legislature; Democratic Kingston Mayor Steve Noble winning reelection; and Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, a Democrat, coasting to victory. A medical emergency at the Ulster County Board of Elections office in Uptown Kingston leads commissioners to stop counting votes, delaying results in several key races.
6: State Supreme Court Justice Richard Mott nullifies a determination by the Ulster County Ethics
Board that county Legislator Joseph Maloney violated the county’s Ethics Law by voting for a CSEA contract that gave the legislator’s wife a pay raise and by advocating for additional staff in the county Comptroller’s Office, where Maloney’s wife works.
8: Former Prattsville Supervisor Kory O’Hara and town business owner Stephen Baker are indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and theft for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars in state grant money intended for Tropical Storm Irene recovery efforts.
14: William Sullivan of Saugerties agrees to an educational process that, if completed successfully, will end with the dismissal of charges against him in relation to an alleged anti-Semitic incident against a coworker at Mother Earth’s Storehouse in the town of Ulster. The process includes reading a Holocaust-related book, watching a TV documentary about the Holocaust, meeting with the child of a Holocaust survivor and attending a Holocaust remembrance service.
15: Keith M. Potik, 26, of Wappinger is charged with two counts of attempted murder after firing a gun at two Red Hook police officers investigating a property dispute in the College Park housing development in the town of Red Hook.
15: Francois Barcomb of New Paltz finishes in third place and wins $50,000 in the Tournament of Champions on the TV game show “Jeopardy!”
18: Katherine Vollmer, 20, a SUNY New Paltz student, dies after falling 150 feet from a cliff at the top of Hasbrouck Park in Kingston while hiking with other students.
19: The Ulster County Legislature censures one of its own, Hector Rodriguez, D-New Paltz, for inappropriate behavior toward several women with whom he came in contact while working as a legislator.
27: A Kingston man who sued two city police officers for allegedly violating his constitutional rights in a tasing incident reached a financial settlement with the officers, his lawyer says. In an August 2018 lawsuit filed in federal court in Albany, Fabian Marshall had argued his civil rights were violated by Officers Jeremy Arciello and Michael Mills when he was tased and arrested in September 2015 on Albany Avenue, near Broadway, in Kingston.
27: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan vetoes a resolution that would have barred elected municipal officials from holding appointed offices within county government, calling the measure a political vendetta that would undercut the public’s faith in government.
29: Three-term state Sen.
December
2: A chartered bus carrying extras for the Showtime TV series “Billions” slides off Mountain Rest Road in New Paltz and into a ditch during the region’s first major snowfall of the season, injuring four passengers.
3: The Kingston Common Council unanimously adopts a $44,464,333 city budget for 2020 that increases spending by 1.1 percent, keeps the property tax levy at the 2019 level, reduces tax rates, and raises the salaries of the mayor and council members.
3: Affordable housing agency RUPCO announces it has secured the financing it needs to create a senior housing project called Landmark Place at the site of the former Alms House on Flatbush Avenue in the city of Kingston.
4: Ulster County legislators unanimously approve a $342.28 million budget for 2020 that increases overall spending while reducing slightly the amount to be raised by property taxes.
6: Joshua Stuart, 43, of Pine Hill is sentenced in Ulster County Court to 25 years in state prison for felony robbery, along with 10 years each, to be served consecutively, for two separate residential burglaries. Stuart was convicted for the September 2018 armed theft of opioids from Ellenville Regional Hospital.
6. State Supreme Court Judge Richard Mott reinstates the town of Saugerties’ ban of illegal dumping at a debris-processing facility on state Route 212 owned by Joseph and Rachel Karolys. 9: Former Saugerties businessman Robert T. Bruno, 58, is charged with rape and course of sexual conduct against a child. It was his second arrest for rape in a span of just over three months.
9. Chazy Dowaliby, a former executive editor of the Daily Freeman and a longtime journalist and consultant, dies at the age of 69 after a long battle with cancer.
11: Democrat David Clegg of Woodstock ekes out an apparent 77-vote victory over Republican Michael J. Kavanagh in the closely watched Ulster County District Attorney election after the last remaining absentee and affidavit ballots are counted. Kavanagh, though, later requests a hand recount of all ballots.
13: Maurice Stansberry Jr., 18, of Kingston, is sentenced in Ulster County Court to five years in state prison and five years post-release supervision on a felony robbery charge related to his role in the fatal shooting death of Kingston resident Mark Lancaster. on Dec. 1, 2018, in the town of Ulster.
16: Department of Motor Vehicles offices in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and elsewhere in the state teem with activity on the first day undocumented immigrants are allowed to apply in person for driving privileges in New York under the new Green Light Law.
16: The Kingston Planning Board unanimously declares the proposed mixeduse development known as The Kingstonian will not have a significant environmental impact, moving the project closer to reality.
17: Michael J. Kavanagh, the Republican candidate for Ulster County district attorney, says he will not waive the mandatory hand recount of ballots in his race against Democrat David Clegg, meaning it could be mid-January before a winner of the election is certified.
18: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan says the TechCity property in the town of Ulster has been declared a federal Superfund site, which mandates the removal of asbestos and related contaminants from the multibuilding complex by owner Alan Ginsberg.
18: U.S. Reps. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, and Sean Patrick Maloney, DCold Spring, the Mid-Hudson Valley’s two congressmen, both vote in favor of the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.