I was , in the ’60s , a staff ,member for Representative Joe Resnick from Ellenville (he’d made a million in Channel Master- remember those rooftop antennas?). I met several times, in 66-68, with members of the hotel families and their lawyers searching for ways to revive the business – nothing ever came of our efforts. (The possibility of gambling in the Catskills was a barely mentioned subject, now it seems that it just might bring back some action to the area.

As to Williams Lake in Rosendale; (not part of the Catskills, and definitely not part of the Borstch Belt – the place was run by a Finnish family and tended to rely on NYC public employees ( see Irish) for its clientel – the place has been sold, for $7.9 M to a developer who has plans for a few hundred houses, etc., etc., etc. on the property. There seems to be a growing opposition, based mainly on the fact that the developer has fenced the local people off the property, to his plans in the Town of Rosendale- we’ll see…

I remember a photo that used to hang in a lobby at Williams Lake picturing "Gus" Williams, son of the owners, and now a lawyer, with, I think, a silver medal from the Olympics. Our neighbor here in New Paltz, Art Stegen, was also, I believe, on that Opympic team.

Back to the Catskills; some small towns up there are doing quite nicely as second home communities for NYC professionals. And, some of those towns are coming alive again as full time homes for artists and others who can run successful businesses from their homes. Towns on the edges of the Catskills, like New Paltz, Rosendale, Stone Ridge, Shandaken, and even as far west as Roscoe have active and vital arts and professional communities based on the NYC market.

Cheers, John