The Hurley Town Board agreed Tuesday evening to review an agreement with Archtop Fiber, a local high-speed internet and phone provider. The partnership through ConnectALL NY, a state initiative to provide affordable digital access, would allow Archtop Fiber to build connection lines across the town.

“It's designed to bring fiber-optic and connect underserved audiences,” said Town Supervisor Melinda McKnight.

In the past few months, Ulster-based Archtop has taken the Hudson Valley by storm with proposals of multi-gigabit fiber-optic internet and phone services for under-reached areas. The towns of Ulster and Woodstock have already signed agreements allowing Archtop to build network lines there. At Tuesday evening’s Hurley Town Board workshop meeting, Ulster County Legislature candidate Jeff Collins lauded Woodstock’s partnership, which was finalized late last month.

“We’ve been horribly undeserved for a long time in areas of our town,” said Collins of Woodstock. “I’m assuming Hurley has the same thing.”

McKnight and several board members agreed that internet and phone services in the more rural areas of Hurley have been lacking. According to McKnight, Archtop’s proposal to Hurley closely matches its agreement with Woodstock, which would provide internet and phone coverage for over 6,200 potential locations across the town. Last October, Archtop’s presentation to the Ulster Town Board showed the potential for coverage for 120,000 connections across Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia and Greene counties.

Transmitting information through pulses of infrared light, fiber-optic connections are faster than those going through copper or hybrid wiring and can handle much more data. As a result, it’s more complex and often more expensive to install. However, Archtop has stated that it has about $350 million in private funding to use towards running fiber optic lines on existing infrastructure throughout the Hudson Valley. In addition, it has suggested local towns use federal funding, like the ConnectALL NY initiative, to support the networking project.

The board seemed to be in favor of the Archtop agreement and decided to review it for further consideration at the next board meeting.

New Highway Dept. Building

At the same meeting, Supervisor McKnight addressed finding a new location for the town’s highway department. In January, Town Code Enforcement Officer Tom Tyrone declared the department’s building at 1035 Dug Hill Road unsafe due to some structural integrity, mold and high levels of noxious gas. A report from Lockwood Architecture recommended the building’s demolition.

McKnight suggested asking the town planner to conduct a feasibility study on town-owned land to find a suitable location for new building. The rest of the board agreed.

In Other Hurley News:

Volunteers Sought for Hurley CAC

The Hurley Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) has openings for up to three additional volunteer members.

The council advises the town regarding the development, management and protection of natural resources. It comprises a maximum of nine members, each serving a nine-year term.

Town residents interested in serving on the council should email CAC Chair Joan Paccione at cac@townofhurley.org.

Online Lecture to Explore Lives of Colonial Women

In recognition of Women’s History Month, the Hurley Heritage Society presents its next online public lecture on March 23 at 7 p.m. titled “Imagining Colonial Women in the Hudson Valley.

The term “Colonial Women” conjures up visions of quaintly dressed women of European extraction going about daily, domestic chores — like churning butter or hanging over a fireplace stewpot. But the women who lived in what would someday become New York State were in fact a diverse group in terms of race, culture, religion, national background and socioeconomic class. New York’s colonial women ranged from indigenous people to those of Western European descent (Dutch, English, French, Belgian, and German, among others) from religious refugees to enslaved Africans to capitalists. As in all periods, age and marital status also created diversity among women. Beginning with an overview of Colonial New York, this Hurley Historical Society talk will focus on the many ways in which women shaped the history of the Hudson Valley between 1609 and 1775. We will end with a short addendum on New York women’s experiences in the American Revolution.

Dr. Susan Ingalls Lewis is professor emerita in history, and a former affiliate faculty member of the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at SUNY New Paltz, where she taught courses in American history, women’s history, and New York State history. With Emily Hamilton-Honey, Lewis is the co-author of Girls to the Rescue: The Impact of World War I on Girls’ Series Fiction (McFarland & Company, 2020). She is also the author of Unexceptional Women: Female Proprietors in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Albany, New York, 1830-1885 (Ohio State University Press, 2009), and co-editor of Suffrage and its Limits: The New York Story (SUNY Press, 2020). A Rosendale resident, Lewis is a fellow of the New York Academy of History, and creator of the blog New York Rediscovered. To pre-register, click here.

Benefit Show Set for March 31

Renowned local band Professor Louie and the Crowmatix will perform live at the Hurley Dutch Reformed Church in a benefit concert for the Hurley Heritage Society on Friday, March 31 at 7 p.m.

The concert will include upbeat music with driving grooves from their 2022 release, Strike Up the Band. Favorites from their classic album Music from Hurley Mountain and earlier releases will also be played, as well as classic covers of The Band and other top artists.

Professor Louie & The Crowmatix’s latest recording was released on The Woodstock Records label has received raving reviews and been on The Roots Music Radio Charts in the top 30 since its release. Their single “Work It Out” has been number one on the New York State charts.

The Hurley Dutch Reformed Church is located at 11 Main Street in Hurley. Tickets are $25 in advance purchased online or $30 at the door. Seating is at 7 p.m. with a 7:30 start. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. For tickets and more information visit hurleyheritagesociety.org.

Kingston Wire's new coverage of the Town of Hurley is underwritten by Hurley Up. Kingston Wire has complete editorial control of what is reported and published.