Check out the Monticello Motor Club’s website for information about the 2010 season.

Monticello Motor Club

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts announced some concert dates. For tickets and more information check out the link below.

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

MONTICELLO – The Peachtree Building at 457 Broadway in Monticello has been granted a $25,000 New York Main Street grant for the beautification of the two-story, 25,000 square foot facility.

Owner Jeremy Gorelick has spent over $1.1 million to rehabilitate the building which now houses 10 offices.

“What many property owners along Broadway, including Jeremy, are doing is precisely what the Village of Monticello needs more of, smart investment and proper planning,” said Sullivan County Partnership President Timothy McCausland.

The Sullivan County Partnership Annual Report is ready.
Download the Annual Report »

July 29, 2009 Courtesy of The River Reporter

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — If all goes as planned, come spring of next year, there will be a new micro distillery in Bethel, producing an array of locally made spirits.

At the Bethel town meeting on July 22, supervisor Dan Sturm announced that the Dancing Cat Distillery would be breaking ground in September. The project will be helped by a $295,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA). In order to take full advantage of tax incentives, the IDA will use part of the grant to purchase distillery equipment, which will then be leased to Dancing Cat.

The owners of the distillery, Monte Sachs and Stacy Cohen, released a statement, saying they intend to be in production this winter. Once completed, the 5,000-square-foot facility will produce spirits using crops from local farmers, as well as from fruit grown on the property.

The distillery will offer tasting tours and will produce vodka, gin, whiskey, brandy, grappa and baby bourbon for sale to visitors and local establishments. (What’s baby bourbon? The federal government requires bourbon to be aged for two years. Bourbon aged less than that amount of time is called baby bourbon.)

This is all possible because in 2007, New York State passed a law that allows for small-scale distilling, as long as the ingredients are grown in the state. Since the passage of the bill, several small distilleries have opened. Locally, county officials have seen the opening of a micro distillery as a way to boost the local agricultural industry, which remains the largest industry in Sullivan County.

Lawmaker Elwin Wood, chairman of the IDA, said, “To ensure this grant benefits as many farmers and agribusiness owners as possible, the lease payments will be put into a special revolving loan program to be used exclusively for future agricultural development projects.”

Sachs added, “I am still amazed at the way everyone came together to make this happen. There were so many people on the state, county and town level who are behind this project and played a part in the grant process. In the end, everyone in the county wins because of this renewed support of agricultural development

Cohen added, “We hope this will not only be a tourist destination, but a place for local residents to gather as well. We will have events throughout the year that everyone will be able to enjoy.”

The Dancing Cat will be constructed on Route 17B, a few hundred feet east of Hurd Road.

At the Bethel meeting, councilman Robert Blais noted with some amusement that when he was young, people who operated stills in the county were not welcomed; now they are helped with federal grant money.

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