Extension service will hold
seminar
on alternative energy heating
MILLBROOK — Cornell Cooperative
Extension Dutchess County is holding a seminar and discussion
about alternative energy heating with emphasis on wood and other
biomass sources at 6:30 p.m. July 17.
Attendees will learn where and how to get quality wood
reasonably priced; how to safely process wood and prepare it for
a furnace or stove; and about alternatives to wood.
The meeting will be held at the Farm & Home Center in Millbrook,
two miles east of the Taconic Parkway on Route 44.
It is free and opened to the public. To make a reservation, call
845-677-8223 ext. 115 or e-mail
lch7@cornell.edu.
Public meeting next
week on proposed electrical licensing Dutchess County law
The Dutchess County
Legislature's Government Services & Administration Committee
will have two public meetings on the proposed electrical
licensing law in the next two weeks.
Residents can go to a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Rhinebeck
Town Hall, at 80 East Market St. to discuss the law.
People can also go to another meeting at 7 p.m. July 16, at the
Fishkill Town Hall, 807 Route 52.
The proposed law would require electricians to apply for
licenses to be able to work in Dutchess County. Proponents say
the law protects consumers. Opponents say it would become a
burden on some independent contractors.
More people, not enough jobs,
housing prices through the roof, Marist economic report says
POUGHKEEPSIE – While the
population of the Hudson Valley continues to grow, there are not
enough jobs in the region to go around. The Marist College
Bureau of Economic Research Thursday released its report for
2007 and found that the labor force has grown, but at a faster
pace than the number of new jobs, forcing more people to find
work outside the region – people in Columbia and Greene counties
are gravitating toward the Capital region and residents of the
Lower Hudson Valley are finding jobs in New York City.
We are going to see more of an integration with New
York City and therefore with New York City prices, and I think
that is basically the future, unless there are monumental
changes and I don’t know what they would be,” said Bureau
Director Christy Huebner Caridi, who authored the report.
The report found that employment gains in the service
sector compensated for the ongoing loss in manufacturing jobs,
but service sector jobs are lower – 62 percent – than the
average wages in manufacturing.
Across the region, the bureau found the cost of buying
a home in rising faster than income. At year-end 2007, the
average selling price of an existing home in the region was more
than $601,000, or 126 percent above the national average, and
more than 73 percent above the average for New York State.
Average wages ranged from a high of $58,000 in
Westchester to $28,000 in Greene County. “The consequence of
this mismatch between income and housing costs is increased
outward migration – 28,653 households left the Hudson Valley
since 2000, said Caridi.
The credit crisis is also impacting the housing market,
she said.
Early indicators point to slower retail sales and an
increase in commercial and consumer loan delinquencies in the
Fed’s Second District, which includes the Hudson River Valley.
Early indications for 2008 are that the economy won’t
get better, but in fact, may get worse, Caridi said.
06/27/08 -
MidHudsonNews.com
