WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen

There's a 50-mile biking/walking path being built that will span the entire length of Sullivan County, north to south. It's a feat of design and community cooperation, and it's (slowly) moving closer to becoming a reality. But that's just part of a larger, regional project that may transform the way we think about accessibility and recreation in our rural area. This episode is an update to our piece in early 2021 on the O&W Rail Trail project, and it features Heather Brown, Sullivan County's Commissioner of Planning, Community Development & Environmental Management; Heather Jacksy, Sullivan County's Chief Planner; Annie Bergelin, Design and Capital Projects Manager at the Open Space Institute; and Tatum Justice, Northeast Land Project Manager at the Open Space Institute.

Have you noticed geese flying back recently? Or robins plucking worms and berries from your snow-less yard in the middle of the winter? Locally and globally, bird populations and migration patterns are changing. Today, we're asking why. (Spoiler: your house cat knows.) In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Andrew Farnsworth, Senior Research Associate in the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Mark Dedea, President of the John Burrows Natural History Society, and Wendy Tocci, Regional Coordinator for the Third New York State Breeding Bird Atlas.

How do all of those public school meals get made every day? What regulations govern what food can and can't be served to K-12 students? This week, we sit down with Sullivan West Central School District Food Services Director Dara Smith to get the inside scoop on what happens behind the school lunch counter.

What's the status of rural food insecurity in (sort of) post-COVID rural America? "A Single Bite" Executive Director Audrey Garro drops in to talk about the current state of food insecurity in the Catskills and to share some exciting news about the burgeoning local nonprofit. We also ponder what impact Dollar General and transit systems like "Move Sullivan" have on rural access to nutrition.

In 2021, overdose death rates in Sullivan County were 108% higher than the New York State average. How did we get here? Are our efforts to fight this epidemic keeping things from getting even worse, or are we missing the mark? What policies actually make a difference? Dr. Patricia Strach from the Rockefeller Institute of Government at SUNY Albany and Dr. Katherine Zuber from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice have been working to answer these big questions since 2017 when their team launched the "Stories from Sullivan" project, which seeks to develop a better understanding of how our communities respond to the opioid crisis through a mix of quantitative data analysis and 200+ on-the-ground interviews with local stakeholders.

What if we could solve our landfill problem and power our homes with a single solution? In this episode, Dutchess County Executive Bill O'Neil and Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency Executive Director Kerry Russell drop by to talk about the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Facility, a waste-to-energy plant that eliminates most of the county's garbage while also generating enough electricity to power 10,000 homes in the Hudson Valley.

New York City's water is internationally renowned for its crisp freshness straight from the tap. Pizza shops in California and Florida have it shipped thousands of miles at great expense just to make the perfect slice. And it all comes from the Catskills. In this episode of Close to Home, New York City Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Commissioner Paul Rush talks about the fascinating history and record-holding engineering of the Catskill and Delaware Aqueducts - the system in the Catskills that carries a billion gallons of fresh water nearly 100 miles to New York City every day. Deputy Commissioner Rush also provides an update on the ongoing work to repair leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct; a hundreds-of-feet-below-ground problem that has necessitated its own feats of ingenuity over more than a decade just to fix.

What's the deal with Catskills real estate? As home prices and interest rates fluctuate and the region undergoes a rapid resurgence on scales unseen for decades, it's time for an update on the landscape for buyers and sellers alike. Leif is joined by Heather Quaintance of Country House Realty, Lynne and Joe Freda of Matthew J. Freda Real Estate, and Travis O'Dell of Land and Water Realty to get the latest on how an influx of visitors, second home owners, and full-time new community members are impacting the local real estate market.

What's the deal with the hiking trails that are...everywhere? Who's taking care of them? And how did those stone steps that are built into the side of mountains for our convenience end up there? New York-New Jersey Trail Conference New York Program Coordinator Melissa Cascini drops in to talk about the organization responsible for many of our favorite summer excursions. Feeling inspired to explore? Check out the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference interactive hiking map: https://www.nynjtc.org/hike-finder-map

Sullivan 180 CEO Denise Frangipane and Youth Economic Group Researcher Angel Burgos drop by to give us the latest updates from two Liberty-based organizations that are finding innovative ways of supporting Sullivan County youth.

Why are egg prices so...weird? This week, we're talking about eggs, economics, and influenza with Daniel Brey, owner of Brey's Egg Farm in Bethel, New York, and Karyn Rispoli, Egg Market Reporter and Editor/Analyst at Urner Barry in Toms River, New Jersey.

So what's the break-down of our local composting efforts? (Pun indisputably intended.) In this episode, we're joined by Thompson Sanitation Owner Krissy Walsh, Delaware County Solid Waste Coordinator Tyson Robb, and Sullivan County Recycling Coordinator Kassie Thelman to talk about the science, economics, and politics of organics disposal in our communities.

Eight-time Emmy-nominated meteorologist Joe Rao drops in to give us the rundown on why we've had such weird weather lately, how the weather-forecasting industry has changed over time, and what we can do to prepare for weather-related natural disasters. Check out the Joe and Joe Weather Show Mondays through Thursdays at 7:35pm and Sundays at 11am here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSCL5PFFQEDEHrPk9zWNDnGZGtnU7B94l Learn about emergency preparedness here: https://www.ready.gov/plan

Jackie Broder from the Basha Kill Area Association and the Mamakating Environmental Education Center and Samara Ferris from the Bashakill Vinyards stop by to celebrate the environmental and economic significance of the Bashakill Wetlands to the Catskills and northeastern United States. Leif takes a trip to the Bashakill to ring in the new year.

How is hard cider made? What's its history in our region? Aaron Burr Cidery Co-Founder Andy Brennan drops in to give us an inside look at a product whose story is as interesting and complex as the product itself.

In this episode, we tackle an issue impacting rural communities with declining populations nation-wide. Superintendent of the Livingston Manor and Roscoe Central School Districts John Evans drops in to talk about the effort to merge the two districts together. We consider why it needs to happen, and why it isn't. And if that wasn't exciting enough, we even get a cameo from Leif's dad, Russ.

Is hunting on the decline in New York? Are we managing the deer population? New York State DEC Game Management Section Head Jeremy Hurst drops by to give an update on the state of hunting in our community.

Our local airport caters to the wealthiest members of our community. So why do we all pay for it? Leif has his first in-person CTH interview with Sullivan County Airport Superintendent James Arnott, and learns a thing or two about the economics of regional airports along the way.

We might know what the US Census is, but how on earth does it work? And what is this gerrymandered redistricting stuff all about? In his inaugural episode as co-host of Close to Home, Nate DePaul dives into some of the most important topics impacting local, state, and federal politics today with Jennifer Reichert, the chief of the Decennial Census Management Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, and Jeffrey Wice, an adjunct law professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the New York Census and Redistricting Institute.

It's not a sexy topic, but it might be the most important human rights issue we discuss on this show: housing. In this episode, we take a look at the roots of--and possible solutions to--rural homelessness, and a relatively new program that aims to thread the needle of decreasing property blight while trying not to contribute to gentrification. We're joined by Kathy Kreiter, the Director and Program Administrator for the Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless, and Jill Weyer, the Executive Director of the Sullivan County Land Bank and the Deputy County Planning Commissioner.