The adorable little hamlet of Phoenicia, nestled in the Catskill Mountains in the western Ulster County town of Shandaken, recently was voted one of the 10 coolest small towns in America by Budget Travel magazine. But not much else has gone right for the community lately.

* Twice in recent months — once in October and once in December — Phoenicia was beset by serious flooding when heavy rains caused the Stony Clove Creek to overflow.

* The hamlet's most popular restaurant, Sweet Sue's, has been forced to close for an undetermined amount of time because of a septic problem caused by — what else? — flooding.

* And in the predawn hours of Saturday, the local library, in a converted two-story house on Main Street, lost all of its contents to a fire.

That's a lot of bad luck in a very short amount of time for such a small place.

Here's hoping things get better soon for Phoenicia — and stay that way for a long time.