Latest Articles

Plenty to Do at Landis This Month

Warriors in Motion Event This Week

Introduction to Birding Workshop

Bassett Healthcare Network Announces Appointment of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer

Your Guide to Energy Savings Workshop

Opus 40: Chemical Weathering

THE CATSKILL GEOLOGISTS BY PROFESSORS ROBERT AND JOHANNA TITUS Chemical weathering at Opus 40 This week we at last bring to an end our series of columns about the quarry at Opus 40, near Woodstock. We have spent a lot of time wandering the grounds at Opus 40 and we have seen a lot of things. So much of that required a trained eye. Take a look at our photo. It shows something that we have written about before so your eyes may already be trained to see what we saw. We were looking at a shelf of rock in the northeast corner of the quarry. That makes up most of our photo. Above is the blue of a pool of water. We liked that ledge; it kept us busy looking at it. We found a lot of trace fossil burrows there. You can just make out some of them in this week’s photo, especially in the lower left. If you look carefully, you will see some reddish-brown and yellow stripes that roughly parallel a fracture at the edge of the ledge. We saw the same thing in that earlier column, our January 3rd, 2021, column. (You clip and save all these columns, right?) Back then, we described similar stripes on a similar rock. We had surmised that this rock had been fractured sometime in the distant past. Water had soaked into the fracture and that water carried dissolved iron with it. Iron can be chemically active, especially in its interactions with water. What happened is that, probably during a drought, that water evaporated. As the rock, itself, dried out, the iron reacted chemically with the remaining water and formed some tiny crystals of iron oxides. The orange and yellow ones were composed of the mineral limonite and the brown ones were goethite. That’s how those stripes formed. During the years when Opus 40 was an active bluestone quarry, the layers of rock above that fracture were peeled away. That’s when the stripes came to be exposed. Well, we have told this story before and only bring it up again because of the new context – this chemical weathering is in the Opus 40 quarry. But it only makes sense for us to try to add more to the story. We pondered this for a while and then we did come up with a new “angle.” It has to do with how those fractures opened up in order to let that water into the rock. We have to understand that these strata were once lying beneath thousands of feet of more rock. The weight of this overburden was enormous. It compressed the rock. That was more than 300 million years ago. Throughout all of that time that has since passed, those rocks have been very slowly weathering and then eroding away. Over the vastness of that time all that rock above Opus has slowly disappeared. It mostly and literally has dissolved. As the Opus strata were approaching the surface, the rock expanded, their fractures opened up, the water soaked in, and the crystals formed. Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net . Join their Facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.com.”

Law Enforcement Training

Law Enforcement Drills in Delhi 3843 During the training class this scenario "man with a gun on the bus" is handled as fast, and discreetly as possible. It could be a good guy or a madman. You won't know until you clear the bus. Guns are ready just in case. Photos by Robert Duso. 3876 After each event the officers and people go through, they are critiqued. What worked well, and what they should have, or could have done differently? 7215 In this scenario a person moves upon an officer, and is in his space. The officer keeps calm and at the ready, just in case this person becomes a threat. 7232 Knife attack! Being prepared is a must. In this scenario, the officer fends off the attacker and fires his weapon stopping the attacker. On Saturday, April 29 th , the Delhi Police Training Division held a one day practical training exercise for law enforcement, security officers and civilians. This event was based on the Reality Based Training protocols to instruct officers how to respond to active shooter incidents. The scenarios included; church setting, school bus, shopping mall, high rise apartment and handling emotionally disturbed individuals. Verbal de-escalation was stressed as a way to defuse any situation, before having to resort to any use-of- force. Five NYS master police instructors coordinated this class and provided up to date training for the following agencies; Delhi Police, Cairo Police, Cooperstown Police, Dolgeville Police, Durham Police, Elmira Police, Fallsburg Police, Hancock Police, Oxford Police, Walton Police, Nassau County Sheriff, Sullivan County Sheriff, Windham Police, Spring City Police, N.Y. Racing Association Police and Allied Security. Church Safety Teams were represented from Otego Christian Church, Delhi First Presb. and the Hill City Church, Oneonta, NY. School bus and staff provided by Delaware Academy School, Delhi.

Canine Week in Delaware County

Delaware County Sheriff’s Office 280 Phoebe Lane Suite #1 Delhi, New York 13753 Craig S. DuMond Kim Smith Sheriff Undersheriff PRESS RELEASE 04/28/2023 Delhi – Today, Sheriff Craig DuMond announced that Corporal Jeffrey Clark and his K9 partner Edge, continue to hone their Explosion Detection Skills. Beginning on Monday April 24 th 2023 the K9 team attended a week long training hosted by the Department of Homeland Security at the New York State Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany, NY. The training event known as “Canine Week” brought together over 50 Explosive Detection Canine Teams and 33 instructors/trainers from across NYS. Also in attendance were teams from other States, two teams from Canada, and one from the Country of Belgium. This was the third annual Canine Week held at the state of the art one of a kind facility. Canine Week gives every handler and his partner real world experiences throughout the entire week by utilizing reality based training scenarios consisting of 9 skill lanes; special event security, discharged firearms searches, initial EDC response to managing critical incidents, EDC Team coordination with accelerant detection assets, helicopter socialization flights, bomb technician/EDC team integration, effective search strategies, medical support operations for K9’s and odor recognition testing. This was an amazing opportunity for Corporal Clark and his partner to test their skills in real world situations, helping their development into a more effective K9 team better prepared to serve the citizens of Delaware County and their fellow Law Enforcement professionals. Homeland Security covers all cost associated with this weeklong training including lodging. Through residential courses, third party facility usage, and mobile training programs, the State Preparedness Training Center (SPTC) provides contemporary, cutting-edge training to thousands of first responders each year.

The NYS Cancer Services Program Saves Lives

5 Financial Considerations When Moving to a New State

Music Beyond any Limitations

Legislation Gives New York Power Authority Additional Authority to Advance Renewable Energy Generation and Decarbonization in New York State