This is the Delaware County Newscast, where we've got some of the latest news from around the county. I'm Andrew Cantor. For almost 53 years, the county has paid Delaware Opportunities to provide meals for seniors, and now county officials have decided to sever that relationship. But they never actually told Delaware Opportunities they were doing that. The organization read about it in the newspaper. County officials claim that Delaware Opportunities just cost too much to use, and Delaware Opportunities says the county still owes it 300 grand. So county officials' solution? Somehow bring the program in-house and run it themselves. And if you're wondering where the county is going to get the equipment and people to do all this, your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, Delaware Opportunities is now in a bit of a bind. No one there knows what's supposed to happen to its building lease, all its equipment, not to mention the staff. The county said it wants to hire some of those folks, but the employees apparently say they're not interested. But who knows, maybe the county government will step up, make the meal program work as well as it did with the organization that's been doing it for more than half a century. But hey, miracles happen. Just a reminder, folks, the Red Cross really needs people to step up and donate blood. Donations kind of slack off this time of year because of travel and graduation, stuff like that. If you donate by May 17th, you can get a $20 Amazon gift card, and if you can't make it until the back half of the month, you can score an oversized Red Cross beach towel so you can look smug while chilling on the sand. Just go to redcrossblood.org and you can schedule a donation. Over in Hancock, there has been an ongoing dispute between residents and the Johnston Rhodes Bluestone Company. Apparently, Johnston Rhodes has been dumping stone muck over an embankment on its property. Residents complained to the town that the dumping wasn't legal and it was contaminating their water, and town officials were refusing to do anything about it as state law requires them to. The latest, Hancock supervisor Jerry Vernald, has claimed that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent the town a letter saying there wasn't a big problem with the dumping, so it was okay that the town didn't do any kind of enforcement. But if you read the DEC's letter, that's not what it actually says. The DEC didn't say the dumping was legal, just that it's longstanding. In fact, the subject of the letter is, and I quote, action required. You can read the letter. There's a link in the show notes. The DEC made it clear that either the fill that was dumped has to be removed, or the town's going to have to pay an engineer to inspect the site to make sure that the dumping hasn't exacerbated the risk of flooding. And if it has, the dump site has to be cleared, or the town will have to try to get FEMA to update its flood zone map, and good luck with that. And if it doesn't happen, well, if there's a flood, residents might not be eligible for federal assistance or be covered by federal flood insurance. And you can imagine how big a deal that would be. Two county libraries, Fairview Library in Margaretville and the Skeen Library in Fleischmanns, are hoping to change the way they're funded, because right now they're both on shoestring budgets and can barely stay open. Instead of just being part of the towns and villages' budgets, they're asking for a direct tax that's part of the school levy. And that would give the libraries more money to repair aging infrastructure, to hold new programs, and it would do it pretty cheaply. If residents approve the change, it'll cost each property owner something like $32 a year, give or take. And heck, in theory, the town and the villages should lower their taxes a bit, since they won't be funding the libraries anymore. But first, residents will vote on this idea of a separate tax. Do they want some nice libraries or to save two and a half bucks a month? For the first time ever, the media was barred from covering the Delaware County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner. Well, technically not barred, but only allowed in if they promised positive coverage. And that is not how the media works in the U.S., so the reporter didn't cover the meeting, and we'll never know just what secrets were discussed. Probably something to do with the Illuminati. A bunch of towns and villages in the county have volunteer fire departments, and they are having trouble recruiting volunteers. How bad is it? Well, county public safety folks, they don't really know, so they want to hire a professional to figure that out and maybe offer some suggestions for doing that recruiting. They're gonna get some bids for the process, but it ain't cheap. SUNY Newpaltz offered to do it for 50 grand, and the public safety folks, uh, they're waiting to hear back from some private consultants too. The good news is that however they decide to do it, it's gonna be paid for out of the existing budget, so taxpayers won't take an extra hit. And that's your quick look at some of what's been happening around Delaware County. Did you know you can hear us weekends on WDLA at 92.1 FM or anytime at Delkonewscast.com. Until next week, I am Andrew Cantor. Thanks for being here.