Area News Roundup

February 25, 2008 07:32 am

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Catskills topic of talk

ONEONTA _ Wes Gillingham, program director for Catskill Mountainkeeper, will give a talk titled "The Future of the Catskills: Can Catskill Mountainkeeper Help?" on Tuesday.

The event will be at 7 p.m. in the Strawbale House at Hartwick College's Pine Lake Environmental Campus as part of the ongoing "Conversations at the Lake" series.

Gillingham will discuss his work with Catskill Mountainkeeper, a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission is to protect the ecological integrity of the Catskill Mountain range and the quality of life of those who live there.

Through a network of concerned citizens, the organization works to promote sustainable economic growth and the protection of natural resources essential to healthy communities, he said.

Gillingham is program director at Catskill Mountainkeeper, as well as the leader of its volunteer program. He lives in the Catskills, where he and his wife Amy have been growing organic vegetables and herbs commercially since 1997.

For more information, contact Pine Lake program coordinator Dan Morse at 431-4520 or morsed@hartwick.edu, or visit the spring 2008 events listing online at www.hartwick.edu/x22674.xml.

Robbery arrest made

COBLESKILL _ A Stillwater man was arrested Thursday after an investigation into a home-invasion robbery that occurred in the village of Cobleskill on Jan. 18, Cobleskill police said.

William B. Shafer, 21, was arrested Thursday for second-degree robbery, second-degree burglary, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and petit larceny, police said.

The arrest stems from Shafer's alleged participation in the crime that involved forcibly entering a person's residence and restraining him with duct tape, striking him and threatening him with a Taser gun, police said.

Vincent L. McGrath Jr., 37, of Glenville, was arrested Jan. 24 on the same charges as Shafer and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said previously. Police could not give his status Friday night.

Shafer was sent to Schoharie County jail on $25,000 bail pending appearance in Cobleskill Village Court, police said.