To the Editor:

Adam Greenberg is running for re-election to the New Scotland Town Board in November. Knowing very little about the workings of local politics, over the last year I have come to realize what an amazing selfless effort many of our local politicians give with very little return in financial gain (or gratitude).

They are highly committed to serve their communities and just keep plodding along, despite often strong headwinds. I have recently been serving on the Town of New Scotland Comprehensive Planning Committee and have seen Adam attend every one of the many meetings, even though he has no direct part in the process.

He has served on the town board with great dedication for two years, and before that, 14 years on the town’s zoning board (the last four as board chairman), helping to keep the town of New Scotland the beautiful place to live that it still is today.

About two years ago, the Hilton barn on Route 85A was threatened with demolition because the land on which it stood was being developed for luxury housing. After extensive, futile attempts to preserve and find a home for the barn, it was within weeks of demolition.

I do not presume to be able to fairly assign credit to all the people who saved the barn, but Mark King of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy along with Adam Greenberg, Bill Hennesey and Doug LaGrange of the town board all came together to make it happen. Mark had the difficult task over many months of buying the land on the opposite side of Route 85A from a very unwilling and hard-bargaining seller.

Adam and Bill had an even greater task of finding a company that could move such a huge structure, negotiating delays in the barn’s scheduled demolition, securing permits for the move, elevating the power lines, removing asbestos, rerouting cables, clearing and preparing the destination site, all in parallel with trying to obtain a large amount of grant funding (close to $150,000) to finance the move itself.

With much effort, money was promised from the county, state, and local authorities for the move (a very dramatic event when it finally happened). The whole process was within a week of collapse, but with enormous effort on Adam and Bill’s part, and with a deadline of three months to accomplish everything, suddenly all the pieces fell into place.

If it were not for Adam’s continued commitment to saving and moving the barn, it would now be a pile of big timbers in some wrecking yard somewhere. What an enormous loss that would have been.

So the Town’s next task is to put a new roof on the barn (the current slate roof weighs 60 tons and has many leaks). It needs to be renovated to become an exciting destination on the Helderberg Hudson Rail Trail.

It should have a public restroom, perhaps a little eating kiosk, an exhibition and performance space, picnic tables, and all the imaginative things that our community wishes it to have. Just entering the barn will inspire awe of those farmers in 1898, who had the vision and energy to create such a magnificent structure.

It will surely become a tourist destination for many visitors to Albany County in the future. The town now has 14 acres on which the barn sits to create an imaginative town park around it. Adam and the other board members are enthusiastically supporting this new undertaking.

But our immediate task is to get Adam re-elected to continue this exciting journey. How he still has the energy and commitment to want to serve another term after 16 years of town service, I have no idea. But let’s take full shameless advantage of his altruism, elect him by an overwhelming majority, and look forward to seeing some of these exciting developments become a reality.

Peter Kelly

New Scotland