KNOX — With the close of 2015, forty-two years of Supervisor Michael Hammond’s leadership of Knox will end. Hammond was ousted in the November elections by Vasilios Lefkaditis who launched an energetic campaign after being rejected at the Democratic caucus.

Discontent had roiled in town over issues of planning and zoning as Knox works to update its 20-year-old master plan.

Death took a heavy toll this year in Knox with the death of Jean Forti, a community pillar active in school and Scout projects, and with the death of Robert Delaney, the town’s building inspector and a volunteer firefighter.

Grief from the murder of a 5-year-old boy in December 2014 also hung heavy this year as custody battles over his siblings played out in court and his cousin confessed in November to murdering him.

Mainstays mourned

Robert Delaney died on Aug. 23 after battling an aggressive brain tumor. He was 68. He had been a member of the Knox Volunteer Fire Department for 45 years, often serving in leadership roles.

“He was a caring man,” said Chief William Vinson. “He would help someone first before himself.”

Vinson said that Delaney didn’t talk about his years in Vietnam — he was a member of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 58 — except to say, not infrequently, why he wouldn’t shave his distinctive beard. “No,” he’d say, “that’s been on me since ’Nam.” Vinson added, “I wouldn’t recognize him if he didn’t have it.”

Delaney liked marching in parades, carrying the American flag. “His uniform had the most badges,” said Vinson, signifying the different fire company offices he had held. “He wore them proudly.”

Delaney led Boy Scouts as well as firefighters. Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s Troop 1079 grew to more than 30 members, many of whom became Eagle Scouts, when he was the scoutmaster.

When Delaney was given the Firefighter of the Year award in July, Vinson was too choked up to speak. “I just cried,” he said. “What I wanted to say was I hoped he could come back to the department...He was stubborn. He would be a thorn amongst all of us roses.”

Jean Forti died just two days later, on Aug. 25. She had been diagnosed with liver cancer the year before, on her 51^st birthday.

“Jean is literally the best person I know on the face of this Earth. If anything needs to be done for someone, she’s the person there,” said her friend Mary Ellen Nagengast as she helped to organize Jean Forti Day in Knox. “It’s like throwing a party for her just to show how many lives she’s touched, how many people love her.”

As a young woman, Forti had worked with troubled children at St. Catherine’s, and then with Senior Services of Albany. After her wedding, she and her husband, Tony, raised their three children in Knox, where she helped lead Girl Scouts and a 4-H club, and organized many school events. She was instrumental in the Knox Youth Council and summer camp, Knox Food Pantry, Fox Creek Farm, Meals-on-Wheels, and many other community functions.

“Jean brought a feeling of excitement and adventure into everything, always wanted to include everyone and bring any stranger into her circle,” her family wrote in a tribute. “She taught her family and friends how to get the most out of every moment.”

After a memorial service on Aug. 29, a well-attended celebration of her life was held at the Knox Town Park. “True to Jean’s spirit, this will be a potluck, open to all,” her family wrote. In the fall, 148 runners participated in the inaugural Jean Forti 5K Run For Education.

Murder aftermath

On Dec. 18, a year to the day after 5-year-old Kenneth White was murdered, a vigil was held in his honor. Several hundred people gathered to light candles along Thacher Park Road. A white cross marked the place where Kenneth’s broken body was found, pitched over a snow bank across from the trailer where he lived.

A large, plastic-coated sign also marked the spot.  “Our baby, you are gone but never ever forgotten,” says the sign with pictures of Kenneth and a note that reads, “Tiffany [heart symbol]s you.”

On Nov. 24, Tiffany VanAlstyne had confessed in court to killing her cousin in their Knox trailer home and dumping him in a snow bank. She pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and faces 18 years to life in state prison. VanAlstyne is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 14, 2016.

“It’s a very sad case,” said James Milstein, the Albany County public defender for VanAlstyne. “Tiffany truly loved Kenneth and his sisters, and she took great pride in how she cared for them.”

VanAlstyne was arraigned in Knox Town Court on Dec. 19, 2015 the day after the murder, and pleaded “not guilty” before Justice Jean Gagnon. She was 19 at the time.

“I take lithium for my bipolar,” VanAlstyne told Gagnon as she began to cry.

Her mother, Brenda VanAlstyne, was at the arraignment. “It was a shock to me,” she said then of being told her daughter had killed Kenneth White. She said Kenneth was Tiffany’s “favorite” and she frequently looked after him.

Tiffany VanAlstyne has been in Albany County’s jail since the arraignment.

Kenneth White, a kindergartner at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, had been left in his cousin’s care on Dec. 18, 2014.  She called her mother and said that two men in ski masks had broken into the trailer they shared, held her down, and took the boy, Albany Sheriff Craig Apple said when first announcing VanAlstyne’s arrest. They called 9-1-1 to report what Mrs. VanAlstyne thought then was an abduction. Police then issued an Amber Alert for three states.

But interviews with relatives later were contradictory, and Kenneth White’s 45-pound body was found that night across from his family’s trailer at 994 Thacher Park Road when a police dog picked up the scent.

He was asphyxiated and strangled, Apple said, and the boy’s head showed blunt-force trauma.

In November, an Albany County Court judge, Stephen Herrick, recounted that VanAlstyne became frustrated with her 5-year-old cousin as they reviewed math flash cards and he gave wrong answers. But VanAlstyne cannot remember what led to her next memory, when Kenneth was in her lap and unresponsive with her hand around his neck.

Kenneth White had been legally under Brenda VanAlstyne’s guardianship for several months, since September, Apple said; his biological mother, Christine White, lived in Amsterdam, New York, and his biological father, Jayson White, lived in western Massachusetts. Kenneth’s twin sister, Cheyanne, and another sister, a year younger, Christine, were also under Brenda Van Alstyne’s care. After Kenneth’s death, his sisters were placed in the care of Child Protective Services.

A candlelight vigil was held at Kenneth White’s elementary school in Berne the week he died.  As snow fell in the dark, about 900 people, among them Kenneth’s parents, heard prayers and sang carols.

His father, Jayson White, told The Enterprise at the vigil, “It was amazing. It shows Kenneth has got a lot of friends.” His mother had this message about her 5-year-old boy who loved the superhero Spider-Man: “Let everyone know that Spider-Man is looking down on them.”

One of those at the vigil was Katrina Stevens, a Berne-Knox-Westerlo alumna who had known Tiffany VanAlstyne at school. “She was always quiet,” said Stevens. “She never talked to anyone. She wore a lot of princess clothes,” she said, referring to the Disney princesses. “People thought it was strange.”

Following Kenneth White’s murder, a series of court hearings to determine the placement of Cheyanne and Christine White as well as to establish if their aunt, Brenda VanAlstyne, and their parents could visit them, revealed problems in the VanAlstyne household. Brenda VanAlstyne was not allowed to visit her nieces, and the Whites were granted supervised visits.

Attorney James Green, representing the county’s Department for Children, Youth and Families in Family Court, said the girls’ parents hadn’t gone to their scheduled family assessment appointments ordered by the court in January, and hadn’t called to reschedule; their supervised visits to the girls in foster care had been intermittent, he said.

Two other children of Jayson White, Jaydon and Jaylize, were removed by child protective services in Berkshire County after the investigation into Kenneth White’s death, Green said, with similar court proceedings in Massachusetts.

The girls’ foster mother testified in family court that one of them reported the other was beaten with a baseball bat by their cousin Tiffany VanAlstyne. The reports of abuse were echoed in testimony by the family’s caseworker.

“Christine had bruises from her cheek pretty much covering her entire body, right down to the bottom of her legs,” the foster mother, Linda Dunn, testified in March.

Brenda VanAlstyne faced abuse and neglect allegations brought by the Albany County Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Family Court Judge Gerard E. Maney in March cited Brenda VanAlstyne’s awareness of her daughter’s mental health issues and that she and her daughter were not involved in adequate treatment while Tiffany VanAlstyne was left with the children and Kenneth White was murdered.

The trailer where Kenneth and his sister lived with Brenda VanAlstyne was described by Sheriff
Apple as unsuitable for children; he said clothing was dangerously near space heaters and a woodstove was poorly ventilated. Dan Sherman, Knox’s assistant building inspector at the time, visited the trailer on Dec. 20 and found it in violation of 14 sections of state property maintenance law.

A group called “Kenneth’s Army,” led by Michelle Fusco formed; members raised funds for a gravestone for Kenneth White, and frequently a half-dozen members would stand outside the courthouse during hearings involving White, holding signs. The group also organized the recent vigil.

The annual 5K run held by the sheriff’s office to raise funds for a Christmas program that gives toys and clothes to needy children — a program Kenneth White participated in— was named in his memory this year.

And, legislation was signed by the governor in November that would make it easier for police to get records from Child Protective Services if a child is missing or thought to be kidnapped, as Tiffany VanAlstyne first alleged Kenneth White was.

Zoning and planning

Part of the unrest that played into the Knox elections this fall was caused by zoning and planning issues. Knox is working on updating its comprehensive plan, which guides zoning regulations, among other decisions by the town’s boards. The public was surveyed over two years ago and some residents have voiced disapproval of the slow progress.

Critics of Hammond’s administration were frustrated with the way the town handled a towing business on Township Road where there is no business district. The board had recently created a business district in the Knox hamlet but was waiting for the comprehensive plan before possibly proceeding with a second business district, on Township Road.

Citizens had in 2014 petitioned the town board to amend the zoning law and allow Hitmans Towing to operate legally.

Kristen Reynders, who owns Hitmans Towing, was charged with a zoning violation and a jury trial was scheduled for January but was canceled after Reynders pleaded guilty to operating a business in a residential area and paid a $300 fine on Jan. 21, ending a legal challenge to the town five days before a trial was scheduled to start.

Elections

Hammond, retired from a teaching career, ran this past fall on his record, a record he built over more than four decades — low taxes, a new town hall, a recently designated business district, a new website and social media presence, and work underway on a revised comprehensive plan.

Lefkaditis, 43, an entrepreneur who has lived in Knox for a decade, campaigned on his stances as “pro-business, pro-growth, for low taxes and transparency.” He owns the former Knox Country Store and adjacent building in the hamlet that once housed a post office as well; he has been frustrated in his attempts to revive the vacant property.

During the campaign, Lefkaditis said the government needed “new blood” and, if things aren’t done differently, the town will “continue to see empty houses, empty buildings, and people leaving Knox.”

In the last supervisor election two years ago, Pam Fenoff, an Independence Party member, ran a close race against Hammond, also stressing the need for change and growth.  She had the Republican and Conservative lines and came within 78 votes of Hammond. Fenoff has since moved to North Dakota because of her husband’s job.

Lefkaditis lost his bid at the Democrats’ caucus and made his run solely on the Conservative Party line. Knox has only 68 enrolled Conservatives but Lefkaditis garnered 478 votes, 54.5 percent.

Hammond, 72, accepted his defeat with civility and grace. As results were read at Town Hall on Election Night, after it became clear Hammond had lost, he told The Enterprise, “It looks like the end of a beautiful run.”

Earl Barcomb, a Democrat and Knox native making his first run for town board, was the top vote-getter in a three-way race for two seats, earning 40 percent of the vote. Democratic incumbent Dennis Barber retained his seat with 35 percent of the vote. And the sole Republican running for the board, Howard Brown, garnered 25 percent.

Other Knox Democratic incumbents faced no opponents — Town Clerk Tara Murphy, Tax Collector Diane Champion, and Justice James Corigliano. Highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury ran unopposed on five party lines, and was the town’s top vote-getter with 839 votes.

Asked, with his victory on the Conservative line, if he was still aligned with the Democrats since he is enrolled as a Democrat, Lefkaditis said, “My allegiance is to the town of Knox, not to a political party.”

He went on, “When you label candidates, you divide the country. Nothing good comes from division.” Asked how voters would make choices without party platforms, Lefkaditis said, “You would have a platform.” He said it would be based on an individual’s goals and values.

Lefkaditis and Barcomb are both members of the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board. Barcomb said, during his campaign, that, if he were elected to the town board, he would relinquish his seat on the school board and also his seat on the Knox Planning Board. Lefkaditis said that, by law, he could not stay on the school board once he became supervisor.

Lefkaditis owns and runs a hedge fund called Shaw Fund. After winning the election, he said, “I’m going to keep going ahead with the hedge fund. It’s my primary source of income.” He said he’d ask the other board members about his working on the hedge fund from town hall, to extend the hours there.

Hammond drafted his 42^nd and final town budget this fall, for $2.2 million with no tax increase. “Budgets are tough when there’s something unexpected,” Hammond told The Enterprise in November. “This is pretty much bullet proof. Fiscally, we’re in good shape...The new town board will have a good budget to work with...The board will have an easy time.”

“Voters of Knox were looking for some change,” Barcomb said after the election, explaining both Hammond’s loss and his victory. “I’m not an incumbent,” he said.

He went on about Hammond, “Mike has a wealth of knowledge and experience we’ll lose. That will be a challenge. We’ll miss that. But,” he went on, “Vas has an energy about him.”

While both sides described campaigns in the town elections as clean, there was bitterness between the two candidates, both from Knox, vying to represent the 31^st District in the Albany County Legislature — Republican incumbent Travis Stevens and Democratic challenger Nicholas Viscio.

An election flyer caused a stir just before voters went to the polls. The flyer pictured rusty gas pumps, referencing a parcel that had been owed by Stevens’s great aunt, Margaret Stevens, and, before that, by her father, Daniel Stevens. It stated, “You’ve already paid $45,012.57 of Travis Stevens’s back taxes for this property. Now you own it and he’s setting you up to pay over $100,0000 to clean it up.”

The owners of record on the county’s foreclosure notice list only Margaret Stevens and Daniel Stevens, both deceased.

“I personally had no liability in the property,” Stevens said. “Nick Viscio owes my family an apology. It’s shameful he would blatantly lie to win an election.”

Viscio said he did not send the flyer and did not know who did. He also said, “No one talks about the eyesore. It’s like the emperor’s clothes,” he said, alluding to the Hans Christian Andersen tale where a king parades about in his new clothes, which are invisible, but no one dares to tell him he is naked. “Pretend it’s something else. I’m tired of that,” said Viscio.

Told that county records show Travis Stevens has no legal connection to the property, Viscio said, “Why doesn’t Travis step up to the plate and take responsibility, buy this out of the family?”

Travis won the election, retaining his county seat.

At the Knox Town Board meeting in December, Hammond announced that Viscio had resigned from his councilman’s post on the board, not quite half-way through his four-year term. He said he had missed grandchildren’s birthdays and stated, “I think we’ve left the board in good order.”

Viscio had served on the town board for 22 years. On Jan. 1, three of the five board members will be brand new.

In addition to Barber, Amy Pokorny serves on the board. “I think there’s a lot to the job,” Pokorny told The Enterprise after Viscio’s resignation. “Dennis Barber and I are both fairly new as well. Nick and Mike are just a phone call away.”

Barber said a celebration of Hammond is planned for Jan. 10.

“He was a leader,” Barber said of Hammond. “He knew what to do. He got along with everybody and involved everybody. He didn’t play politics.”