The Altamont Enterprise

Thursday 20 June

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

Fracking referendum nixed in Westerlo

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

By Marcello Iaia

WESTERLO — The town board will make any final decisions about laws addressing hydraulic fracturing. The board agreed at its June 4 meeting to release next month its report on the process of extracting natural gas.

Councilmembers originally supported having a referendum on the issue in November, arguing that such a controversial and important issue as hydraulic fracturing should be decided by residents.

“We informed them that there’s no legal basis for them to put that on the ballot,” said Aline Galgay, the town’s attorney, on Wednesday.

Leonard Laub, a former planning board chairman, noted from the gallery during the Tuesday meeting that state law allows for referenda only in certain circumstances.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo to go public on teachers’ union negotiations

Details: Published on Friday, 14 June 2013 21:16

By Marcello Iaia

BERNE — The Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board is planning to present details of its negotiations with the Teachers Association at its June 17 meeting, two years after an impasse and four years after the last extension of their agreement.

“It could lead to some feedback, good or bad,” board President Vasilios Lefkaditis said Monday. “It’s just for the interest of transparency.” He said the district met with the Teachers Association, one of four bargaining units at BKW, about four times since an impasse was declared in March 2011, last meeting a year ago.

The union, which is affiliated with New York State United Teachers, has about 75 full-time-equivalent members. It includes nurses, guidance counselors, and part- and full-time teachers.

Lefkaditis called the past year a “discovery period” where both sides requested information from the district business office and exchanged e-mails. The state-mandated Annual Professional Performance Review, for evaluating teachers’ work, was negotiated with the Teachers Association in 2012 as well.

Numbered votes still secret, County now prints ballots

Details: Published on Friday, 14 June 2013 21:15

By Marcello Iaia

HILLTOWNS — When Vasilios Lefkaditis was told a school board candidate’s name had been crossed out in a lever voting machine on Election Day, he went down a list of voters’ names with corresponding numbers where they had signed in.

The Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board president called people he knew with higher numbers to narrow a range of possible votes made with the altered machine, determining 15 votes that ultimately weren’t enough to close the gap between the winning and losing board candidates.

The practice of numbering the names of voters as they sign in doesn’t pose a threat to voter secrecy, but numbering voters’ names helps election inspectors keep track of their order in case any number of scenarios play out.

Practices carried out by election inspectors demonstrate a careful balance between the accuracy of an outcome and the right to vote set by legislators and people at the polls on Election Day.

With state legislators currently focused on how elections are financed, many bills addressing the elections process are not expected to reach final consideration before session ends later this month.

For 35 years, Mrs. Tiffany has pieced together community and school

Details: Published on Friday, 07 June 2013 20:58

By Marcello Iaia

dsc07233-web The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Mrs. Tiffany: Second-grade Berne-Knox-Westerlo teacher Marlene Tiffany looks down at a quilt made by Ruth Norray for Parents As Reading Partners. Tiffany, who has taught at BKW for 35 years, has, over the years, invited many guests into her classroom to excite her students. Some of her guests were once her students.

BERNE — Andrew Albert stayed quiet as Natalie Kinsey Warnock read the story he had written aloud to second-grade classmates.

It was summer, she read, and all four of Albert’s grandparents were at his house to celebrate his birthday.

“We have dinner before we have cake,” read Warnock. She asked what kind of cake.

“A fire truck cake, because I love fire trucks,” responded Albert. He rolled his eyes: “I love ambulances.”

Second-grade teacher Marlene Tiffany was sitting to their right with a wide grin. She had invited Warnock, an author of children’s books, to give writing workshops for elementary students at Berne-Knox-Westerlo in May.

Lonnie Palmer, who fills in where needed, looks for ‘happy accidents’

Details: Published on Monday, 10 June 2013 19:53

By Marcello Iaia

dsc09421-web The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Lonnie Palmer, a storied school administrator in multiple Capital Region districts, looks on during the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Board of Education June 3 meeting where he was appointed as interim superintendent. Palmer is taking the place of Paul Dorward, BKW’s superintendent for the past three years who has been hired for the same role in Beacon City School District, Dutchess County.

BERNE — Within four years, Lonnie Palmer graduated from Union College with a physics degree, taught science in Poughkeepsie and Albany, and was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War.

At the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, Palmer calibrated radiation detection devices using different-sized polyethylene spheres to slow neutrons enough for an electronic counter, to inform how people should be protected.

Palmer has calibrated himself to schools — with high and low wealth or large and small size — and become known as a reformer. He says that, at 64, he still likes the education field because he gets to figure out ways to motivate people and orient them in a common direction.

Palmer has been a consultant in education since 2007, after two years as Troy City School District’s interim superintendent. In July, Palmer will take an interim post at BKW.

Route 85 in Hilltowns to be repaved this summer

Details: Published on Monday, 10 June 2013 19:45

By Marcello Iaia

RENSSELAERVILE — New asphalt will cover seven miles of Route 85, a major artery through the Hilltowns now scarred and patched near its end in Rensselaerville.

The project is planned for this summer, from the junction of Thacher Park Road (Route 157) with the route west until Cass Hill Road for an estimated $1.9 million, according to state Department of Transportation spokesman Bryan Viggiani. He said that next year the rest of the route would be paved eight miles westward to the hamlet.

“It’s more of a maintenance kind of job, so it didn’t follow a design process,” said Viggiani, describing how the top four inches of the road would be removed and mixed with stone, called cold in-place recycling. After the recycled stone sits for 10 to 30 days, Viggiani said, an inch-and-a-half of new asphalt is paved over.

The exact date of the work depends on when a contractor is secured, Viggiani said.