The Altamont Enterprise

Wednesday 19 June

Laurel Dover Searle

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Pulling For History

img 7714-web The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Just like the old days: The restored grader is put to work during a demonstration at the Altamont Fair. It was made by Climax Road Machine in Marathon, N.Y., north of Binghamton, a factory that ran from 1887 to 1890. Andrew Tinning plans to display the horse-drawn grader in June at the Gas-Up in Gallupville, and in August again at the Altamont Fair.

img 7717-web The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Period piece: “Little Winner,” the antique road grader restored to its former glory by Andrew Tinning, looks right at home in front of the also restored village train station, now home to the Altamont Free Library. The grader will be at the station at least through April 9 when, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Judith Wines will give a presentation called “Tours and Trains in Altamont.”

img 7712-web The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Rallying round the antique grader restored by Andrew Tinning, second from left, holding a whip, are, two grandsons of Casper Wagner, the grader’s original owner — Merlin E. Wagner at far left, and Bernard H. Wagner, at far right. The grader, which Tinning discovered, forgotten and neglected, on property behind his house on Dunnsville Road, was originally used to groom Guilderland’s roads before it was used for ditching at the Wagner farm. At center, is Steve Oliver, Guilderland’s current highway superintendent. Next to him is Judith Wines, the director of the Altamont Free Library, now housed in the village’s historic train station. The grader originally arrived in Altamont by train.

Guilderland

A Sure Thirst Quencher Continues The Fight Against Cancer

Details: Published on Tuesday, 18 June 2013 19:27

img 9232-web The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Waiting for customers: Kennadi Ellin, right, and William Hausler are ready to fill the empty cup before them with sweet lemonade. The Altamont Elementary kindergartners, students of Kristen Johnson — all of them wearing yellow scarves — set up their stand on the village green last Thursday as part of the Alex’s Lemonade Stand movement. Alexander Flynn Scott, who was diagnosed with cancer, set up a lemonade stand in 2000 in the front yard of her Connecticut home and raised $2,000 to fight the disease. She and her brother kept up the annual tradition until she died in 2004 at age 8. The foundation named for her has since raised over $55 million.

Garage gone, mystery remains

Details: Published on Friday, 14 June 2013 20:51

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

new biz picture 001-web Happier times: Geoffrey Brown, right, and Kevin Willsey posed in front of what used to be Ron’s Service Center on Altamont’s Main Street after opening a new business in November 2010. Brown was planning on buying the center from Ron Gizzi but, he said, Willsey and his mother, Maura Willsey, doing business as Twilight Management, made a deal with Gizzi behind his back, leaving him out.ALTAMONT — As villagers mourned the loss of Altamont’s landmark garage this week, speculation was rampant about the cause of the June 5 fire that gutted the long-time repair shop.

Corky Bruckman remembered getting his first job there at age 10 or 11, changing oil and pumping gas, which led to his career as a mechanic.

“They just don’t make them like that anymore,” he said of the brick and block four-bay garage that was built at 127 Main Street in 1946 by Bill Makarowsky, who had returned from fighting in Europe during World War II.

Robert White, chief of the Altamont Fire Department, which battled the blaze in the wee hours of last Wednesday morning, described it as “one big fireball.”

“It’s still under investigation,” said Daniel McNally, a lieutenant with the Guilderland Police Department, when asked on Tuesday if the fire was accidental or set intentionally. We haven’t ruled in any way at this point.”

Rothenberg wins Tony: Diverse Altamont boyhood echoes in the sound of success

Details: Published on Friday, 14 June 2013 20:55

By Anne Hayden

293654 10151341851192236 1443468559 n-web — Photo from Facebook
A sound victory: Leon Rothenberg, an Altamont native, won a Tony Award for best sound design in a play on Sunday night. Rothenberg said his parents exposed him to local music and art in the Capital Region, and he took music lessons locally and participated in school theater, all of which he says helped him in setting up his career.GUILDERLAND — Leon Rothenberg’s mother, Carol Rothenberg, said it wasn’t always apparent to her that her son would go into the music or theater business, even though he showed interest in it from a young age. Now that he’s won a Tony Award, however, she said she hopes he continues to find his career “intellectually and emotionally challenging.”

Rothenberg won the Tony Award for best sound design of a play, for the show The Nance, a recreation of the burlesque shows of the 1930s. The play, written by Douglas Carter Beane, stars Nathan Lane, and tells the backstage story of his character, Chauncey Miles.

“When I was asked to do this play, I felt like it was the right decision,” said Rothenberg this week. “It really felt like it could be a great, special thing.”

Town approves parking lot for Stuyvesant Plaza despite objections

Details: Published on Friday, 14 June 2013 21:17

By Anne Hayden

GUILDERLAND – Stuyvesant Plaza, last week, got approval from the town to add a parking lot with 26 spaces behind T.G.I. Friday’s, despite protests from the McKownville Improvement Association.

The McKownville Reservoir Park, nearly five acres of green space behind the plaza and adjacent to Western Avenue, will lose half of an acre to the new parking lot.

“Taking away a large piece of the park is bothersome,” said Don Reeb, president of the McKownville Improvement Association. “It is a terrible hardship for McKownville.”

“It actually isn’t parkland,” said Janet Kaplan, vice president of real estate for Stuyvesant Plaza. “We have an easement from the town.”

The town approved a project to improve stormwater drainage and build the reservoir park in 2009, to help alleviate flooding issues on Western Avenue, near the plaza. The project, in addition to replacing drainage pipes, turned the former McKownville Reservoir into a pocket park, by adding trails around the small pond, benches, and picnic tables.

Up in smoke: Altamont’s auto garage explodes into flames

Details: Published on Friday, 07 June 2013 20:49

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

race fire 1-web — Photo by Joseph Race
“It was one big fireball,” said Robert White, chief of the Altamont Fire Department, which battled the blaze at 127 Main Street early Wednesday morning. The auto service station, built 67 years ago, was totally destroyed.

ALTAMONT — A village landmark — a cement block and brick garage built on Main Street just after World War II — went up in flames in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Ron Gizzi, 61, who has retired to Tennessee, ran Ron’s Service Center from 1982 to 2010 and still holds the mortgage on the property.

“It was difficult for me to leave,” he told The Enterprise, by phone, yesterday. “I had generations of customers coming in. People in Altamont always supported me. It’s sad to see the building burn down.”

Gizzi sold the building and grounds to a management company in 2010; it was then leased to Altamont Extreme Auto, run by Kevin Willsey. Willsey was fined $1,250 in February for zoning violations, including glare, inappropriately parked vehicles, and exterior storage of parts and equipment.

Elite runner from Africa teaches lessons for life

Details: Published on Monday, 10 June 2013 19:43

img 9327-web The Enterprise — Michael Koff
“Running is fun,” says Diane Nukuri Johnson, an elite runner in the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K, as she answers questions from fifth-graders Friday morning at Guilderland Elementary School as part of an initiative started in 1993 to let local schoolchildren hear from world-class athletes. In the three days before Saturday’s race, nine runners visited 18 schools, speaking to over 5,000 kids.

img 9335-web The Enterprise — Michael Koff
“Do your best”: On Friday morning Diane Nukuri Johnson, from Burundi, spoke at Guilderland Elementary School — where the walls in the school gym feature silhouettes of kids in action. She told the attentive fifth-graders that doing your best in each race is more important than winning. Growing up in Africa, Johnson said, she was one of eight siblings but the only runner. She came in 16th in Saturday’s race with a time of 16:58. (See her picture, racing, in the sports pages.) Johnson was in a small pack that gave chase to the three 5K leaders, all from Kenya — winner Emily Chebet at 15:26, Esther Chemtai at 15:32, and Isabella Orchichi at 15:35.