The Altamont Enterprise

Saturday 25 May

Laurel Dover Searle

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Eye of The Hawk

young coopers hawk img 5974-web The Enterprise — James E. Gardner
On the lookout: This Cooper’s hawk recently perched near the bird feeder at a Knox home, was not looking for sunflower seeds. The strong reddish-orange around its pupil means this bird is a juvenile; the eye turns to full red in adults. The pronounced white in the feathers is another indication of a young bird.

Hilltowns

BKW budget passes in a landslide, votes vandalized

Details: Published on Friday, 24 May 2013 21:40

By Marcello Iaia

dsc07681-web The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Levers of change: School board candidates Earl Barcomb, left, and Amy Wright, right, speak before the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District election results were announced Tuesday night. Barcomb received the highest number of votes and Wright was edged out of one of three open seats by 28 votes. A voter had crossed out Wright’s name in one of the two lever voting machines in the background. Vasilios Lefkaditis, president of the board, said 14 possible votes were made on the vandalized machine.BERNE — The landslide passage of a $22 million budget with no tax-levy increase was announced quickly Tuesday night at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, read from the back of lever voting machines where a voter had crossed out the name of a school-board candidate — one of five in a race for three seats.

“The concern is, if I walk into that machine, they changed their mind and chose not to run,” said Vasilios Lefkaditis, president of the school board.

Alan Zuk, chairman of the annual meeting, said the name was Amy Wright’s.

The 15 possible votes cast with the vandalized machine — as determined by Lefkaditis — would not make up the difference between the 336 votes for Wright and 364 votes for Chasity McGivern, who was sworn in as a board member immediately following the announcement, Tuesday night.

“That made me think, when does it become official?” said Wright on Wednesday, noting the results for the Schenectady School City School District, where she works, were described on its website as unofficial.

Zuk said Wednesday the results he announced were the total given to him by the head election inspector.

“The word ‘official’ wasn’t used; it was, again, the total of the machine and the absentees,” he said, when asked whether the inspector called them official. “The affidavits, I’m not certain where they enter into the count.”

Tree for Tribs: Roots put down for smarter streams through Rensselaerville

Details: Published on Friday, 24 May 2013 21:47

By Marcello Iaia

dsc07571-web The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Catskill creek flows by the Preston Hollow park as volunteers pack roots in topsoil and stretch across weed mats. About 20 volunteers — town officials, Greenville High School students, and Rensselaerville residents — planted trees and shrubs along the bank that was inundated during tropical storms Irene and Lee in August 2011. Highway Superintendent Randall Bates said he hopes to have a board at the site to explain the importance of a riparian buffer for a healthy stream and surrounding flood plain.RENSSELAERVILLE — Where boulders and debris were washed into the baseball field nearly two years ago, a score of volunteers planted native shrubs and trees this weekend along the stream bank of Preston Hollow Park.

Three other sites are being planted in Rensselaerville to restore the natural landscape to areas damaged when local streams raged with tropical storms Irene and Lee in August 2011.

The May 18 planting was part of a broad outreach, called the Hudson Estuary Watershed Resiliency Project, to help municipalities prepare for flooding. It involves the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Lower Hudson Conservation Districts, and the Hudson River Estuary Program of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Democratic majority on Berne Town Board passes resolution against SAFE Act process

Details: Published on Monday, 20 May 2013 15:27

By Marcello Iaia

BERNE — A fourth Hilltown resolution on the state’s gun-control law was passed at the Berne Town Board meeting on May 8 calling for more public comment.

The Berne resolution urged the state legislature to hold public hearings on the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, as did a resolution passed in Knox last month. The SAFE Act was passed and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo one day after it was introduced in January, when the governor issued a Message of Necessity that waived a three-day review period.

Westerlo and Rensselaerville passed resolutions in recent months declaring the law a restriction on the right to bear arms and calling for it to be repealed.

Passed in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., the SAFE Act bans assault weapons with at least one military feature and requires current owners to register such guns in a statewide database. It further limits magazine capacities, strengthens punishments for gun-related crimes, and requires mental health professionals to report patients they deem dangerous, among other regulatory measures.

Bonnie Conklin, the one Republican among Democrats on the Berne board, cast the only opposing vote. The other resolutions on the SAFE Act passed unanimously in the Hilltowns.

Strong roots, no nests for elderly

Details: Published on Monday, 20 May 2013 15:31

By Marcello Iaia

HILLTOWNS — A spate of housing developments targeted to people over 55 has spread through Albany County in the past decade, with the Hilltowns now poised to hear about two — in Knox and Berne.

For Linda Carman, who serves on an advisory board for the county’s Department of Aging, the timeless importance of location in real estate holds true for people facing fixed incomes, and changing health and lifestyles.

She volunteers with the Hilltown Seniors and has been a strong advocate for housing for elderly people on the Helderberg escarpment ever since her mother was in a Guilderland nursing home where she died in 2001.

“People stop me when they see me outside and they say, ‘When is that senior housing going to be done?’” said Carman.

Developer Jeff Thomas said Wednesday his site plans and elevations will be ready within 90 days. Years ago, he purchased land on Canaday Hill Road, just outside of the Berne hamlet, to build apartments designed for seniors.