As seasons change we think of how early we can have some winter…The heart of winter is in Barnes Corners where Highway Super Cooke tells us the earliest that has had to plow in his tenure was October 20 in 2018….The latest was in 2022 when a heave spring snow came on April 16.
Time to put out fall decorations at the bar……The prediction for peak leaf season here is the second week of October.
No Crown Royal ? It is a popular brand, so best stock up…..Oh, and we got our beer order…a week late but as a small NY business not right to expect better.
Heard word of another downtown closing of a restaurant today but it looks like Colesantes is getting close to reopening and I am told the inside is very nice….The cats are gone.
Council got uppity last night and rejected a proposed penalty on late water bills..
https://www.wwnytv.com/2026/09/09/watertown-city-council-rejects-water-late-fee-amendment/
A reader asks if Anthony Constantino will go to the GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas ? People in close races will be featured in addition to the President speaking both nights.
I'd skip it , but he may feel obligated......Speaking there acquires no more votes up here and local media here won''t cover it anyway...Which would be a blessing. Concentrate of 9/11 activities instead.
It's Hump Day and the NFL season starts today...Wonder if LSU will become an NFL team as their payroll likely exceeds many.
The JETS open Sunda against the Titans. Hope the season isn't over by October again this year.
Eight million dollars is the price tax for a new water line on Huntington Street..It Repairs the line that broke and nearly shut off water citywide in 2023.
I'm not arguing about the price. These things are costly , but when you add all the projects being bonded for and add in the $1.3 or more on recent settlement and superimpose that on a population of 23K and a tax base, 40% TAX EXEMPT.
Then there is the $60M+ for the water plant. You don't have to be a government bean counter to realize the tax rates will soar in the years to come, especially after the Hydro deal ends.
Maybe it is the fault of those of us in the past...Or maybe the current people can't help themselves. Whatever, a Day of Reckoning looms and getting a grant or cobbling together a "lease" called a license on the golf course won't change that.
Lot of employers give something extra to employees at Christmas...Usually it's money, but it's only logical a wealthy man will give larger Christmas bonuses. But the media is obsessed and it was Natalie who got a gift and that's salacious so we must know about it.
Canadian products are being banned as the tit for tat trade war continue between the US and Canada.
Hard to say what effect it has on us as individuals or businesses.....
A second bar folded this week. This one due to a roof collapse. Apparently the 1869 is closed as its license expired last week. A neighbor says a portion of the room fell in.
A friend of mine who is friends to the family of assault victim Albert Scott showed me video of the 27 year old in the hospital. The family had said she could show it to people but not electronically share it.
Face looks pretty good but you can see feeding tubes and his eyes dart around and he looks scared...Relatives say he has talked...What was said I don't know.
I suspect some kind of brain trauma from the head beating, but obviously don't know..
It's too bad this victim can't be humanized by the media who long ago moved on...
Watertown's club scene has shrunk with closure of the Paddock Club and the apparent closure of the after hours night club called the Eclipse.
I'll grant you the bar scene is not as it was during days of Alexander's Lounge, the French Quarter, The Golden Lion, the Pumphouse, Yesterday's, The Clock Grill, the Club Escapade, and the list went on...
But among those still looking for some wild dancing, skimpy outfits and a place you can drop a roofie, pickings are slim. Todays world is not centered on a Club 54 but more on weed and blow at a house party.
City Council wants to lease out the golf course for the stated reason they are losing money and want someone in there who won't have to employ public employees with all their benefits and legacy costs.
After they do that they will have to get the Democratic dominated State Legislature to approve home rule as this is parkland protected under the NYS Constitution.
And they want someone with a fleet of carts or the good credit to lease or buy them...Same with landscaping equipment although City Hall says they will lease it to the successful bidder.
In short, someone with golf club experience who will run and improve the links while allowing the City to zero out the golf line item in the budget.
And who will analyze the submissions ? People with no business experience or acumen. There will be many billable hours drafting the agreement.
And all this will be done by Halloween as no plans for next year have been made. Hope the new operator can provide proof of insurance, proof of comp and disability insurance, a demonstrated record of paying people on the books.
Then there is the clubhouse...Food experience ? Alcohol and beverage experience? Ability to get licensed.
How about marketing experience. No one providing free ads like now.
And if this produces no credible bidders...Is it closure or city operation next year. Oh, and how long a lease....I'd want something that would justify the expenditures needed and with a public park, it's dicey to assume all will go well for the term.
Council is seeking an easy answer to a difficult challenge
https://www.wwnytv.com/2026/09/08/watertown-looks-lease-out-golf-course/
The Blakeman campaign says a new poll has him down by four in his bid to unseat Governor Hochul…..Siena has him down by ten….Problem is what has Blakeman done to change the race ? Nothing, so that ten points is probably closer.
Was talking to a local on premise account this morning who said his plan to deal with the sale of Eagle Beverage is to drop all the brands and only carry the necessary Bud and Labatts which he will buy elsewhere....The new distributor won't care as they are selling product and have no interest in the little guy.
A story that affects hundreds of area businesses but the MSM won't cover it.
Both the GOP and Dem candidates for NY 21 marched in the Labor Day Parade in Massena...Some union activists were incensed Anthony Constantino was invited by the United Steelworkers to March with them....
The local unions generally want all candidates marching but the head of the Internationals were apoplectic about the MAGA endorsed candidates..
Tense words on the sidelines but for Constantino a chance to be seen and introduced to voters generally assumed to be in the Blake Gendebien camp.
Constantino spent the night at the Res where he got a warm reception...Seems the Mule is getting the hang of campaigning for public office..Thanks to Russ.
https://www.wwnytv.com/2026/09/07/massena-labor-day-parade-draws-large-crowds/
Turns out the Town of LeRay is the shithole....Declining property values, few jobs prospects, and other factors place LeRay on the AARP list of worst ten places to live in America....The only NY entry on the list. Bad drinking water and lack of things to do also contributed to the low score in of Jefferson County's most populous political subdivision.
Of course the town is not really a community, it's just lines on a map.
The Saudis were tough guys when they killed that journalist a few years back but the Houthis attack , maim and destroy, the men in white robes do nothing....All their F-16s remain on the sand....The Saudi Kingdom is under attack....Shouldn't they grow a pair ?
https://apnews.com/article/saudi-arabia-yemen-houthis-4ad9446f0bb8c096750c84b6e1ba86b8
The closing of the Paddock Club has a lot of on line chatter but the people involved have had little to say save a written statement from the licensee.
The spot will not likely survive as a bar and more likely will be split back up into individual storefronts.
The Arcade is actually a covered street built in the 1800s as a de facto shopping mall in its day....
The facility deteriorated over time and as downtown faded so did the Arcade. In the 1990s John and Roxanne Burns purchased it and attempted to breathe life into it...That's when a friend of mine and I opened the pub called the Paddock Club.
The maintenance issues and isolation from the street prompted us to sell to Jim Peterson who later sold it to Robert Dalton. Gradually improvements were made to the Arcade and Mr. Dalton built out his business to include its own kitchen and rest rooms. It became the It venue for many social, bridal , political and business events , but also evolved into a busy and sometimes raucous nigh club. That is what led owner Jake Johnson to end the lease, forcing the closure.
Other tenants saw the problems which included broken display windows and frequent police calls...
Any business will have the occasional incident, but frequent problems can lead to state scrutiny although most of what went on here was glossed over.
The gossip mill says the operator was told he had to close at 11AM and he declined. The money was after 11.
There's more nuance and intrigue for sure, but this was a case of something that had run its course.
I'd put some of those video slots in their now that they are legal.
Councilman Doug Osbourn gets a new street as the Richards Drive sewer fix has ballooned to a complete reconstruction. Years of flooded basements and complaints over them put the Southside street higher on the City Hall agenda.
Maybe if that guy on Francis Street can get elected and he'll get those sidewalks he pines about on the show
Now he is renaming New Mexico as New America……How About West Texas ?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/09/07/is-new-mexico-now-new-america/91648210007/
The family of the victim of the Jefferson Street beat down is posting on Facebook on his condition Albert Scott was tailed by a group and beaten about the head and apparently left on the road about a month ago.
He is out of the coma and working on basic skills and struggling with memory. There were no arrests in the case....The Facebook post says they are working on weening him off a feeding tube....Tough situation but the violence was palpable.....Not just a perception of violence.
In his letter of thanks to customers , Paddock Club operator Robert Dalton says building owner Jake Johnson refused to renew his lease which ends this month...The bar and nightclub is closed except for a sayonara party later this month.
Jake only said to me he will look for new tenants for the storefronts.
The Paddock Club is closed....27 years after a friend and I opened the nightspot as a small pub nestled in what used to be the Catholic Store.
Current owner Robert Dalton has owned and operated it for 21 years. He expanded it to occupy most of the north side of the indoor shopping spot.
This is going to disperse a lot of drinkers on weekend nights..,the closure statement says the contents will be auctioned off...There is no "selling" a rented space like this....
Jake Johnson owns the building. He has declined comment.
https://www.wwnytv.com/2026/09/07/paddock-club-closing-downtown-watertown/
Last night at the epicenter of crime, a report of a man on Mechanic Street with what was reported as an AR style long gun. Police were on it quickly....This is the area of a fatal knife attack, other knife attacks and a brutal beating...
We still have not and likely will not hear further of the report of a nude woman in the Public Square fountain on Friday night. If true Jake would have video.
Our local news media needs to declare what their style books require for the Great Lake located nearby. I will refer to the body of water as Lake Ontario.
The second week of October is peak leaf time for Watertown as the colors of fall sweep across NYS.....Predictions, such as they are, call for a good season of color.
It's worth a drive into the hinterlands to see this.
The nanny state has convicted and sentenced woman to jail time and seven years on a child abuse registry because she allowed her five year old to walk alone to a pond in the gated community they lived in. A security guard called the police who called CPS.
As a non breeder, I should not opine on whether a five year old should have that much autonomy. But to criminalize this ? If mom had submitted her child for some gender affirming care that would be fine
A system that allows one person who may not even live in the community to assign property values for the purpose of taxation is always going to crate feeling of inequity. But that's the system...The rich can fight it in court, you can just pay or lose your home.
Property tases are loved by government...A fixed asset not going anywhere and if you don't pay the tax you lose it.
It does undermine the notion of property ownership and is it unfair ? Yes, but it won't change.
We must have missed this one...Two summers ago a bear and two cubs were publicly euthanized in downtown Old Forge...Now the popular vacation village values its bears and urges their protection and tells visitors they are not pets and should not be fed.
With Ring cam, not a guy goes by when we don't see a bear ravaging a car or entering a house.
Sometimes public execution of animals sends a message , like blowing away swans in front of screaming children or taking away and killing a pet squirrel.
Who would publicly execute a bear family ?
As the sun rises on Labor Day 2026, I am readying to open the Pearl Street Pub. Commerce, serving the public, generating sales tax....Wheels of business in motion, providing employment What a beautiful thing this capitalism.....
But on the other hand, maybe socialism and the government owning my business would be nice too...Higher wages....living wages by God....Lower prices...and all building maintenance on the public dime. Close down for a rainy day or endless obscure holidays..
It's the choice ahead
The State Fair ends today and vendors are complaining at the cost of doing business there....Then don['t do business there..
Aren't you tired of rich business people complaining about NY and its regulations and taxes.
Go somewhere else.
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2026/09/06/food-new-york-state-fair
Tomorrow (Monday) is Labor Day….Should all businesses be closed ? Clearly many are. And the argument that people should not have to work is common these days as workers rights is more of an issue. I grew up in the culture if you worked a real holiday you got paid double time and obviously you work with employees on what holidays they want to work.….
But if everything is closed, where do people go for things they need ?
This Friday marks 25 years since 9/11... What's that? For many this means little including anyone in school or college nowadays.
HOTLINE listeners remember and should call in Friday to recount the experience.
There will be some commenting on President Trump not going to NYC....He should, so now you don't have to write that comment.....
It was a frightening and unsettling day....May God bless those lost and their families left behind. Just get through the day without nastiness or recriminations,
`A friend texted me about her holiday weekend experience.
I decided to spend some time in Alex Bay on this Blues in the Bay Labor Day weekend...
Total North Country retail experience.
Places closed,, One place only serving half the menu and was out of pineapple juice and vodka for drinks. The next place was out of pizza...The pizza parlor was out of pizza. This was before noon...
You can't make half the drinks and are not serving entrees...Never go there again≥
Now this is one impression and surely some places are serving people properly...But its so typical of an area bitching about Trump chasing away Canadians and then they chase away people who expect a roll out o a holiday weekend.
Over on Lynda Street another household on the curb and on a holiday weekend the decision makers are in Dexter, Chaumont Henderson, Lewis County...Anywhere but the abode we live in.
A apologists will just say, oh its an eviction so this is OK...Maybe the neighbors could bag it up and put some stickers on it all...Make sure it's in a container.
In the old days the City would clean it up and bill the property owner.
Nearly 2200 migrants were arrested in NYS during a just completed round up...Democrats couldn't stop them , I guess.
Not a lot of people out of 19 million and they didn't get the ones housed in my basement.
Columbia County is very rural and isolated and some want to keep it that way as they protest the local Sheriff's office buying a bunch of flock security cameras.,.,
But they did it with a grant !
Not everyone is comfortable with losing all privacy...But enough don't care the cameras will continue to breed a larger flock.
