APRIL 7, 2011 - Thursday

COMMUNITY ACTIVITY: BCS & Optimists - Community Clean up! Saturday, April 9 - 11am-2pm (weather permitting). Those interested in volunteering to clean up the area & get ready for SPRING should meet at the Academy Street Park, Brookfield. REMODELING AT THE OLD "DEERPATH" - Rt. 8 - Check out the improvements being made to this local landmark. Front porch and new roof in process. Understand Roaches? now owns. Food and liquor license pending. GAS NEWS: Pennsylvania seeks more tests to determine if hydrofracking contaminates drinking water. Pennsylvania is expanding the scope of water tests to screen for radioactive pollutants and other contaminants from the state’s booming natural gas drilling industry. The tests would check for radium, uranium and the salty dissolved solids that could potentially make drilling wastewater environmentally damaging. Pennsylvania allows partially treated drilling wastewater to be discharged into rivers from which communities draw drinking water. Most treatment facilities are unable to remove many of the pollutants in the often-toxic drilling water. See the full article at: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011 FARMING & BUSINESS NEWS: In the New York’s Creative Core’s $250,000 Emerging Business Competition today. Fisher Electric, of Munnsville in Madison County, won a $15,000 Innovations in Agri-Business prize. Fisher has developed a working prototype for a small-scale mechanical hops harvester. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011 AUBERTINE - Agriculture Commissioner Confirmed - The state Senate confirmed Darrel J. Aubertine as Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Markets. Aubertine owned and operated the sixth-generation heritage Triple-A Farm in Cape Vincent. He has been a member of numerous farm cooperatives and organizations, Most recently he served as state Senator of the 48th Senate District in Central and Northern New York comprised of Oswego, Jefferson and part of St. Lawrence counties. He served as chair of both the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Rural Resources Commission.