Local Services
Local Services
Olive Fire Department
IN AN EMERGENCY – PLEASE CALL 911
OLIVE FIRE DEPT. No. #1, Inc.
PO BOX 1309
Olivebridge, NY 12461
On April 1, 1948, the Town Board formed a Fire Protection District and entered into contract with the Olive Fire Department No. 1. to supply fire protection for the entire Town. The not-for-profit corporation currently consists of five companies with approximately 80 active volunteer fire persons. The department is overseen by a Board of Directors which is elected from the membership. As per the contract, the Olive Fire Department provides equipment consisting of seven pumpers, one tanker, one mini-pumper, one emergency truck, one Fire Police vehicle, and one Chief vehicle. The company houses, as required by the contract, are located in Olivebridge, Shokan, West Shokan, Boiceville, and Samsonville.
To visit their web site click here Olive Fire Dept. opens in a new window
Olivebridge Fire House
Company #1 (Central House)
9 Mill Road
Olivebridge, NY 12461
Shokan Fire House
Company #2
3064 Route 28
Shokan, NY 12481
West Shokan Fire House
Company #3
53 Watson Hollow Road
West Shokan, NY 12494
Samsonville Fire House
Company #4
1578 County Road 2
Olivebridge, NY 12461
Boiceville Fire House
Company #5
4067 Route 28
Boiceville, NY 12412
Olive First Aid Unit, Inc.
PO BOX 151
Shokan, NY 12481
The Olive First Aid Unit was organized in 1973 and contracts yearly with the Town of Olive to furnish general ambulance services to persons within the Town. This not-for-profit corporation operates on an around the clock basis and consists of paid members who are trained in emergency medical procedures. They currently maintain two ambulances at 19 Church Street in Shokan.
EMT’s and drivers and always needed.
Olive First Aid Employment Application 2016. opens in a new window
Disaster/Emergency Preparedness
The following page has many useful links to help point you in the right direction in case of an emergency. We can not stress enough that planning and education on your part is of the utmost importance.
NYS has an alert system that will notify you in case of an emergency.
To be prepared for all disasters and emergencies, please go to the following websites:
Open to go to Flood Smart website opens in a new window
Open to go to Ready website opens in a new window
Open to go to FEMA website opens in a new window
Art Snyder, Director of Ulster County Emergency Management, has a blog that includes information on various Ulster County departments such as Emergency Communications/Emergency Management and the Fire Coordinator’s Office, with links to various organizations, training opportunities, meeting schedules and preparedness tips.
Open to sign up and recieve information from Art Snyder's blog. opens in a new window
We can not stress enough, during an emergency, if you need to evacuate, you are to go to your local Fire House. The Town has five fire houses. Now is the time to familiarize yourself with their location. Here are there numbers:
Company 1, Olivebridge 657-3311
Company 2, Shokan 657-8668
Company 3, West Shokan 657-6444
Company 4, Samsonville 657-6663
Company 5, Boiceville 657-2020
To obtain more information about shelters, please call the United Way at 211. Or the local Red Cross- 2012- Sadly, The local Red Cross has closed due to funding.
Ulster County Highway 340-3137
NYS Department of Transportation 331-5533
Central Hudson: to report and outage 452-2700
Central Hudson: to report a natural gas odor 942-8274
Ulster County Sherriff’s Office 338-3640
Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Ulster County is extremely helpful with many stream and disaster prepping questions. Check out there website at: www.cceulster.org or call: 340-3990 or 688-3047
The following is an important brochure from Cornell Cooperative’s Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program. Please take a moment to download and familiarize yourself with the Flood Emergency Preparedness Guide. Cornell Cooperative has a wealth of information regarding streams and safety. Click here for the guide
The Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program promotes a coordinated approach to stream protection and management within the Ashokan Reservoir Watershed, which covers portions of Ulster and Greene Counties in New York. Towns in the watershed include: Shandaken, Olive, Hurley, Woodstock, Hunter and Lexington. They offer lots of information regarding stream management.
This website has useful information regarding Catskill Stream Basics: Catskill Streams
A excellent resource on NYS streams (ownership, debris removal, permits, etc) can be found here. Go to the Chemung County Site and Download the stream guide in pdf format.
The Town Supervisor’s Office also has the entire 1600 page NRCS Stream Restoration guide if you would like to sign it out for viewing. Please let us know if you are interested in borrowing it. Also, if you live along a stream and have post flood questions, it is best to contact the Ulster County Soil and Water Department for best practices for stream bank restoration. They will point you in the right direction. Visit them here
Post Disaster Funding Options: Residents should know, if a disaster has not federally declared, the following resources may be utilized: Flood insurance (if applicable), Catskill Watershed Corporation, Department of Social Services, Red Cross or United Way. If a disaster has been federally declared, the following may be utilized: FEMA, the Small Business Administration for SBA loans, Department of Labor and the USDA. (This is only a guide and in no way a guarantee of services.)
Please stay tuned. We hope to have lots more on this page in the near future.
Olive Free Library
Director: Chrissy Lawlor
Contact Information
4033 Route 28A
PO Box 59
West Shokan, NY 12494
The plan for establishing a library in the Town of Olive grew out of an idea in the minds of Claire and Joseph Friedberg. In early 1951 the Friedbergs felt that the Town of Olive needed a library, just as it needed a governing body, school, and church. After months of working through informal discussion, in 1952 a large group of residents met at the Friedberg’s home for an organizational meeting. They contacted the State Education Department to become accredited, formed a Library Association, and elected officers and trustees. District No. 8 West Shokan Schoolhouse was turned over to the Library Association and in 1959 the Olive Free Library became a member of the Mid-Hudson Libraries System (Mid-Hudson Library System opens in a new window).
In 1963 the Onteora Central School District voted tax aid to the libraries in the district (Olive being one of several) and in 1965 the first tax aid was received from the Town of Olive. In August of 1967, the family of the Helen Kelsey Chase made a substantial memorial contribution to the Library’s Expansion Fund. This led to a complete re-evaluation of the expansion program and suggested the possibility of obtaining more meaningful funds from the community. Donald and Edna Bishop of West Shokan are acknowledged for envisioning and helping to achieve a modern, functional home for the library and a cultural and social center for the community by establishing a Trust Fund. Substantial contributions were received from Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Bishop, Mrs. Olive B. O’Connor, Mrs. Olive Bishop Price, Mr. Bishop’s aunt and sister respectively. They also enlisted very generous financial support from the O’Connor Foundation of Hobart, NY. Thus what had originally been a plan to add another room to the old schoolhouse, became a program for building the current Olive Free Library which was dedicated on June 3, 1972.
Starting with a few hundred donated books, today the Olive Free Library offers thousands of volumes of books, still-in-demand publications, leading weekly and monthly magazines plus audio and visual entertainment, and free computer internet access for Olive citizens. As a member of the Mid-Hudson Library System they can obtain books and items on loan from other libraries throughout the mid-Hudson area. One of the favorites for pre-school children is the Story Hour at 10:00 am every Tuesday which includes Crafts and Music Activities. During the summer months there is a Summer Reading Program for children ages 3-12.
Library Hours
Monday: 10am – 8pm
Tuesday: 10am – 8pm
Wednesday: 12pm – 8pm
Thursday: 12pm – 8pm
Friday: 1pm – 5pm
Saturday: 10am – 4pm
Sunday: Closed
Story hour and Crafts & Music Hour
Tuesday 10 am
Location
The Olive Free Library Association is located on Route 28A, in West Shokan about 1/4 mile from the Post Office. Parking is available.
View Map
Contact Us
Olive Free Library Association
4033 Route 28-A
West Shokan, New York 12494
About the Library
The library was founded in 1952. The library has the special features of a local history museum, a large community room and a continuous book sale.
The mission of the Olive Free Library is to provide our community and its surrounding neighbors with materials and services that meet educational, informational, cultural and recreational needs. It also provides a site for community activities that meet the same needs.
The general goals of the library are:
- maintain a core collection of materials that are:
- useful and current whether for general educational, basic skill development or recreational needs
- culturally important to the community, e.g. local history and culture, classic core literature, etc
- maintain services that widen the resources available in the larger worlds of materials available regionally and state-wide
- investigate new developments in providing services and adopt them if appropriate
- maintain, and advance, the role of the library and its building and lands as a center for our community so long as these community activities relate to the same needs as the library’s collections and services and are appropriate to our legal condition and physical environment.
Board of Trustees
Rebecca Balzac-President
David Edinger-Vice President
Nathalie Andrews-Treasurer
Kimberly Daley-Secretary
Thomas Hammang
Donna Elberg
Felice Castellano
Klaus Buchele
Susan J. York
Lisa Klein
Board of Trustees meetings
The Olive Free Library Board of Directors meets on the third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the library’s community room. Meetings are open to the public.
Board Meeting Dates:
January 15, 2020
February 19, 2020
March 18, 2020
April 15, 2020
May 20, 2020
June 17, 2020
August 12, 2020
September 16, 2020
October 21, 2020
November 18, 2020
December 16, 2020