New Scotland Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, May 22, 2008

V’ville voters okay two budgets, three candidates

By David S. Lewis

VOORHEESVILLE – When the polls closed at the middle school at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, voters had approved two budgets and elected three new representatives.

The $22 million school budget for Voorheesville passed with 61 percent of the vote, 620 to 391. 

Mike Snyder lost the lone seat open on the board to Lisa Henkel who garnered 65 percent of the vote.

Henkel, a former elementary-school principal, received the personal endorsement of Kathy Fiero, president of the Voorheesville Teachers’ Association.  Making her first run for the board, she said she was thankful for everyone’s support, and she said she was looking forward to doing the best job she could.  She will fill the seat vacated by Thomas McKenna, who served on the board for a decade.  Snyder, the president of a meetings-professional group, was making his second run for the board.

On a proposal to shorten the length of terms for members of the school board, voters made their strongest statement.  The proposal passed by an overwhelming 81 percent.  The terms for new members of the board, including Henkel, will be four years; the proposal will not affect the current board members, who were elected to five-year terms.  Board members hoped to increase interest in the unpaid posts by shortening the term. 

The proposition to acquire two new school buses for the district passed, as did a proposition to transfer $95,000 from the general fund into the district’s school lunch fund, by just over two-thirds.  The money will be used to pay debt accrued by the lunch program over the last five years. 

The $1 million Voorheesville Public Library budget passed with 64 percent of the vote 647 to 356.  The budget, which represented a 1-percent increase of the library’s operating costs, was raised 4.4 percent; the remaining 3.4 percent represented an annual payment of $30,000 on the land the library purchased last year for its expansion.

Rebecca Pahl won the most votes in the tightly-contested three-way race for two seats on the library’s board of trustees.  She received 492 votes, or 37 percent.  Incumbent Richard Ramsey, a retired state worker, won the other seat, acquiring 457 votes, or 34 percent of the vote; challenger Bryan Richmond, a Voorheesville attorney, was defeated but won 371 votes or 28 percent.

Pahl, mother and former teacher, said she was thrilled.

“I’m looking forward to improving the excellent services the library provides, and I’m looking forward to a time of growth for the library,” she said.

Advice sought: Board picks five to shape town’s future

By David S. Lewis

NEW SCOTLAND – Public uproar over a developer’s plan to build a big-box mall led the town board to adopt a six-month moratorium on commercial building over 30,000 square foot.

Last Wednesday, the town board appointed a five-member advisory committee which includes long-time New Scotland residents with experience in feasibility studies and real-estate law: J. Michael Naughton, Liz Kormos, John T. Biscone, Cynthia Eliot, and committee chair, Roselyn Robinson.

The town board, through phone conversations and e-mail correspondence, determined that each member would make a personal appointment to the committee, in an attempt to create a well-rounded board with the collective experience to help the town update its commercial-zoning code, bringing it in line with the comprehensive plan adopted in 1994.

“It was not a perfect solution,” Thomas Dolin, the town supervisor, said of the process of appointing the board.  “Realistically, it was probably the only way we would have been able to agree on five people.  There are three lawyers; I don’t know if that’s good or bad.  Being a lawyer myself, I am not going to comment.”

Dolin expressed confidence in the committee.

“They certainly have the qualification and abilities to deal with the subject matter.  I think they were all listening to the public; they’ll certainly be able to reach a consensus and come up with something the town board can work with.”

Dolin said that, with commercial application being suspended for only six months, there was an urgency to get the committee off the ground. 

Taking resumes and applications “would have been the ideal and normal way to go about it, if we had more time; but, for instance, this board is going to meet tonight,” said Dolin.  “It would have been a luxury, in my opinion.  We would have easily consumed a month, assuming we could agree on them, and that we wouldn’t just revert back to this format.

“I don’t know what the likelihood of success would have been; I suspect we would have returned to this method,” he concluded.

“I see this as a tremendous opportunity for the town to re-examine the zoning laws,” said J. Michael Naughton, Dolin’s nominee, of his role on the committee.

“I want to be responsive to the views expressed by the people at the hearing, regarding the commercial district and what the want in that area,” said Naughton, a lawyer.  “I heard a lot of people talk about the need for mixed-use and the concerns that big-box or power-center development of that scale would not be appropriate for that site.”

The 179-acre site is at the intersection of routes 85 and 85A.  Naughton was a leading voice of New Scotlanders for Sound Economic Development, the citizen-activist group that formed in response to the Sphere Group’s interest in developing the Bender melon site.  His background is in land-use and zoning law and includes a 1998 case between Wal-Mart and the town of North Elba in the Adirondacks.

According to Naughton’s biography, available on the town’s website, Wal-Mart sued North Elba, the town in which the village of Lake Placid is located, when its planning board denied the mega-retailer permission to build.

“There was a separate case challenging a local law that limited the size of the retail establishments in the area,” said Naughton during a telephone interview on Wednesday.  “I believe that case was dismissed as moot, because the planning board decided to deny the permit.”

“He asked me if I wanted to be on it a day or two before the last town board meeting,” said Naughton of Dolin’s invitation to be a member of the advisory committee.  “I had offered to be on the committee before the public hearing; I let him know that I was interested.”

Dolin said that Naughton had come highly recommended, and that his résumé spoke for itself.

“She has a tremendous amount of knowledge when it comes to lining up developers for a specific area and situation.  She’s one that, though some people might disagree, factually she’s ideal for promoting some kind of commercial growth in that area that fits, and she has the expertise of working all over the country,” Councilman Douglas LaGrange said of Liz Kormos, of Kormos and Company, LLC, his appointee.

“That’s a lot of applicable knowledge that will lend itself to tailoring just what needs to be in the zoning with what is in the comprehensive plan,” he added.

Kormos agreed with LaGrange’s assessment, and pointed to her knowledge of market feasibility and modern development trends.  She is a member of the Congress for New Urbanism, the association devoted to promoting mixed-use walkable communities.

“I think I can specifically address viability from my experience in working with developers, and I know a fair amount about other projects that have been developed in other parts of the country,” she said.

Kormos said that LaGrange had approached her with the idea of a committee during the town’s push for a moratorium.

“When there was discussion about the whole committee idea, I responded that I would be happy to serve,” she said.

Kormos said she thought the committee had been given a clear direction and plenty of guidance from the various studies that had already been conducted.

“I am taking a very open approach; I think our charge is very clear, and we are going to start with the comprehensive plan,” she said.  “I think the comprehensive plan has some clear direction, and there’s also the RPAC study, which was completed,” she said of the Residents’ Planning Advisory Committee.  “And I think there’s a visual impact study that has been done, as well.

“All those will give us directions as to what kind of development should be allowed, and encouraged, in that corridor.”

The Enterprise asked whether Kormos believes the current zoning code to be a beacon for large-scale commercial development.  She said yes, it is.

“I think, by the lack of having any kind of detail in what types of commercial development we want in the corridor, leaving it wide-open the way it is, we inadvertently attracted a big box because we didn’t have anything in the code indicating we didn’t want that kind of development,” she said.  “The comprehensive plan and the RPAC said one thing, and the zoning code didn’t say anything; it was actually silent.” 

When Councilwoman Peg Neri asked John T. Biscone to serve on the committee his response was, “It would be an honor to serve,” Neri said of the long-time New Scotland resident and attorney.

Formerly the town attorney for New Scotland, Biscone has served for nearly 30 years on the Albany County Planning Commission, said Neri. He was also the town supervisor for Coeymans before moving to New Scotland three decades ago.

“He seems to have a tremendous amount of experience, real estate and real property issues in his law practice; he brings a wealth of knowledge,” said Neri. “The committee was charged with a very particular task; I think you need to have people who are experienced in zoning law.

“I think John’s experienced in zoning and land use, he’s open minded, and I think all of his experience enables him to see the big picture,” she said, and added that he is someone who believed in “giving back.”

Neri indicated that she hadn’t taken the nomination lightly.

“He wasn’t my first choice, to be honest. I talked to lots of different people,” said Neri. “I talked to Bruce Houghton, an architect by training who has done some development, and is a long-time resident. He declined for personal reasons, but he would have been an asset to the committee.”

Neri said she also approached John Egan, who has headed the RPAC.

“He was been involved in the RPAC committee years ago. He would not have been able to serve, under this rule of [Governor] Paterson’s administration, because he is the commissioner of the Office of General Service for New York State, and would not have been allowed to serve.”

She said she had also considered Dean Sommer, who was involved with NS4SED, and with ChucK Voss, a senior planner with C.T. Male Associates, P.C. Voss, who is on the town’s planning board, worked with Doug Lagrange and others to design a potential concept plan for the Bender site that would have included mixed-use residential and commercial development.

Neri drafted the advisory committee’s handout for the May 14 board meeting, which detailed the committee’s charge. Neri said she got much of the language regarding the governance of the committee from the RPAC commission, and the charge came from the wording of Local Law D, the resolution that defined the goals of the six-month moratorium.

Neri said the committee hadn’t been rushed, and that she felt the project was conducted openly.

“I don’t think it was rushed at all. I think the public asked us to do something, and we’re responding,” she said. “I think the committee was formed with the utmost regard for the people of New Scotland, so that the committee would be considered objective by fair minded people.

“That was the objective,” she concluded.

Councilman Richard Reilly nominated a member of the planning board, Cynthia Eliot. The decision caused some controversy at last week’s town board meeting, as Eliot had voted against the moratorium.

At the time, Reilly said that Michael Welti, a senior planner with Behan Planning Associates, LLC, had advised the board that a member of the planning board be included on the committee. However, Welti told the board that the recommendation had been made in case the comprehensive plan was found deficient. The moratorium was enacted to give the town time to realign the zoning code with the comprehensive plan, not to change the plan itself.

Reilly decided to stand by his nomination. He explained his reasoning in a phone interview.

“I think it is appropriate to have someone on there with a detailed knowledge of our zoning laws,” said Reilly. “It’s not unusual; when we had the RPAC, Doug LaGrange, who was on the planning board at that time, was on the committee,” he said.

“I’ve been liaison to the planning board for more than eight years, and during that time I have been very impressed with Cynthia,” he said. “I believe she always brings an open mind to issues.

“She’s articulate, and she is able to work well with others,” Reilly said of Eliot. “I think it’s important to have at least one member of the committee that has some significant experience not just with land-use issues generally, but with our code and our comprehensive plan specifically,” he said.

Reilly also said it was important to have different perspectives on the committee. “I think it is important that it is balanced, that no one perspective should dominate the committee,” he said. “I think it is a good, and well-rounded committee…And I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

“It’s a committee of five people. It reflects a number of different perspectives. Will these five people represent precisely each and every individual’s perspective?” he asked. “Probably not, but I think they can provide a perspective that is well-rounded and balanced.”

He concluded, “I’m very optimistic that they will. Not only do they represent a variety of perspectives, they are also reasonable individuals…They will seek common ground.”

Councilwoman Deborah Baron chose Roselyn Robinson for the advisory committee. “She’s eloquent and articulate, and very experienced,” said Baron of her nominee, a former president of the Voorheesville Parent-Teacher Association, and a member of the town’s board of assessment review.

“She’s very fair-minded…Her personality speaks for itself,” she said. “I appreciate her intellect.

“My family ran a grocery store; we were here when Duffy Mott was making applesauce,” Robinson said of her history with the town.

At its May 14 meeting, the town board selected Robinson to chair the committee. When The Enterprise asked why she felt she had received the leadership position, she said casually, “Someone had to do it.”

She went on, “I would consider myself very organized…Probably to a fault, if you ask my husband.”

Robinson said that the advisory committee’s first meeting, scheduled for May 21, the day she was interviewed, was a chance for the committee to get organized right out of the gate.

“I would like to get a calendar set up for the next few months so people can plan their summers,” she said. “Already, it’s hard to get five people together, particularly busy people, so tonight will be more of an organizational meeting. Handing out these packets, which include the RPAC report, the town’s zoning laws, the comprehensive plan…It’s quite a thick packet,” said Robinson. “I wanted everyone to have it, to look over it before the next meeting.”

Robinson said her plans for the meeting also covered reviewing the committee’s charge and establishing rapport within the committee.

“I think we have to go through the charge given to us by the town the other night,” she concluded, “and make sure we are all on the same page; and again, everyone has the same material.”

Dolin said he met with a planning consultant in early April.

“I met with him at that time, merely to see if he was interested and would have the time,” said Dolin.  “That was based on my personal feeling that, following the February board meeting, we needed some outside professional advice.”

The planner, Mike Welti of Behan Planning, LLC, introduced himself at the May 14 town board meeting.  Welti said that both he and the principal of the company, John J. Behan, were formerly employees of Saratoga Associates.

The planner would, if hired, perform in a consulting capacity, as a resource for the town board and the advisory committee.  Several board members agreed that having an outside perspective could be valuable.

The Sphere Group contracted Saratoga and Associates to engineer the concept proposal presented at the April 30 special meeting of the town board.  The firm is also involved with developing code for open spaces in neighboring Bethlehem as a result of the Vista development project there.

 “Half the planners in AlbanyCounty have worked for Saratoga Associates,” said Welti.  Kormos said she was comfortable working with Welti.

“I used to work for a developer.  Does that make me too developer-friendly?” she asked.  “I don’t think so.  I think it allows me to know more about how a developer works, and I think that’s useful.”

Dolin concurred, and said that Welti’s job was so specific as to preclude any possible conflicts of interest.

“I think he has very defined tasks, he is being retained for a very specific purpose, and those won’t involve him making judgments that would be in conflict,” he said. 

School’s cracked stonework to be repaired

By David S. Lewis

VOORHEESVILLE – The cast-stone ornaments are cracked and deteriorating above the main entrance to Voorheesville’s elementary school, but school officials say there is no danger to the students passing underneath.

Located on the top of the school’s façade, the adornments are part of the original structure, built in the late 1920s, and the addition, built in the 1940s. They depict emblems of education, like books and the Torch of Knowledge, but, due to winter freeze-thaw cycles and improper repairs made to the school’s exterior in the eighties, the manmade rock is now falling apart. 

The school is being refurbished as part of a $5.8 million bond issue passed by voters last year; school officials expect the repairs to the Art Deco façade will cost about $150,000.

According to school officials, custodians noticed last August that portions of the large stones appeared to be loose.  School officials hired an engineering firm, Ryan-Biggs Associates, P.C., which made an assessment of the damage in early August of last year.  Ryan-Biggs recommended that a “sounding” test be conducted.

Sounding is a method of checking for faults in concrete or stone by tapping the surface with a hammer and listening for the tone produced; a hollow noise indicates a fault deep inside the rock.  Masonry workers for Bast-Hatfield last performed the test in August, and removed the loose pieces; during the procedure, the main entrance was closed and cordoned off.  After the pieces were removed, the entrance was re-opened.

Further assessments of the structural integrity of the façade were made in February of last year; a report dated April 17 said that steel window lintels had rusted inside the façade and expanded, putting pressure on the surrounding stones and causing them to crack and deteriorate.

The report identified three phases of construction based on the levels of urgency for the repairs.  According to Assistant Superintendent for Business, Sarita Winchell, the cost of the work is covered by the $5.8 million school renovation project, which passed last year’s bond vote; the district has only used $5 million  Winchell said that, while the New York State Education Department allows schools to take care of safety issues, “You then have to jump through hoops getting project approval, for which the district is currently waiting.

Architect Michael S. Fanning, a partner with Dodge, Chamberlin, Luzine, Weber Associates, said the project is also getting approval from the State Historic Parks and Preservation Organization because of its historic nature.

“It’s an older building, that’s important to the community,” said C. James Coffin, vice president of the school board, who serves on the facilities committee.  The goal, he said, is to make the school “totally safe and totally comfortable for the learning process.

“Whatever we do here, we’ve got to do it right,” he said.

Coffin concluded, “Nobody is giving any of this any short shrift…It’s been a monumental task.”

Jack Healey, an engineer with Ryan-Biggs, told The Enterprise that, once the loose pieces had been taken down, the remaining stonework was structurally sound.

According to one expert in cast stone, however, the problem didn’t go away when the loose pieces were removed.  Jim Havilla, of Concrete Designs, LLC, suggested using a fine mesh to ensure no pieces fall off the building.

“Cosmetically, it is kind of ugly, but from a safety standpoint it might be a good idea to put mesh up there to catch anything that might fall,” Havilla said.

Havilla has repaired cast stone in area schools before; currently he is working on the McNabb Elementary School in Gloversville.  He said that cast stone has limitations, and, in the climate of the Northeast, one limit is simply time.

“This stuff lasts for about 60 years or so, and then you’ve got to replace it,” said Havilla. “I think you are all right fixing it this summer, but I wouldn’t try to go through another winter with it like that.”

Havilla agreed with the school board’s conclusion that the damaged pieces could pose a danger, and said that simply removing the pieces was like brushing the flakes of rust off a car body. 

“You’ll get rid of the biggest pieces, but that car’s going to keep rusting,” said Havilla.

Havilla said that, while all he had seen were the photos, he concurred with the Ryan-Biggs engineers that the problem wasn’t an immediate hazard.

“I think if they are planning on fixing that this summer, they should be fine,” he said.

District officials and architects say the building does not pose a safety hazard to students.

“I’m not concerned that there is a safety issue,” said the school’s principal, Kenneth Lein.  “What I saw was a very pro-active, thoughtful approach.  Someone had noticed the cracking over the summer and brought it right to the attention of the people who were on site.”

Engineer Jack Healey concurred.  Although the last sounding was taken before the freezing and thawing cycle of winter, Healey was confident that the danger had been removed.

“We didn’t notice anything loose, but I must qualify that by saying that we didn’t do a sounding survey,” he said.  “Based on the fact that the work was done, and based on what can be seen from the ground, I wouldn’t hesitate to send my children there.”

Dunston’s salvage yard looted by area youths

By David S. Lewis

NEW SCOTLAND – An Altamont teen charged with theft eluded capture for a day and half. After a brief chase on Western Avenue, attaining speeds greater than 75 miles per hour in his Toyota Scion, Bryan M. Livingston left his car and entered the woods, where he escaped pursuit from both the Albany County Sheriff’s deputies and a State Police helicopter. 

The Huey II was performing training exercises with new night vision equipment.  When the chase was heard over the scanner, the crew abandoned the training exercise and gave pursuit, but to no avail.

The chase began at 12:40 a.m. on May 14.  Livingston, 17, remained on the lam until he was apprehended May 16 at a pre-arranged probation hearing in Albany. 

Livingston and William H. Russell, 18, of Loudonville, are charged with two counts each of grand larceny, and two counts of criminal possession of stolen property— all felonies – as well as two counts of criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.  Police say they stole car parts and rims from Dunston Brothers Inc., located at the corner of routes 85 and 443 in New Scotland, on at least two occasions.

The Sheriff’s department says the pair loaded a pickup truck with the parts and approximately 100 steel rims, valued at $2,500, and drove the truck to the Hudson River Recycling Company in Albany, where they sold the parts for scrap.  The suspects received $400 for the stolen goods.

Russell was arrested on May 14 after authorities were able to identify him from surveillance camera footage provided by Dunston’s.  Russell made a statement indicating his involvement, and said he hadn’t operated alone: he implicated Livingston in the crime.

Diane Dunston, manager of the Dunston facility, said that, while theft has not been a major problem, they had noticed parts missing several months ago and installed cameras. Dunston said that she expected to see more incidence of theft while the value of scrap is rising. 

She said the cameras were also prompted by the rising value of scrap metal, and that Dunston’s was not the only scrapyard that had been burglarized.

The Enterprise asked Dunston whether she expected to get the stolen goods back; she seemed less than confident.

“Frankly I would be surprised if we do.  I haven’t spoken to the sheriffs yet about whether or not that will happen,” said Dunston.

Hudson River Recycling gave no indication that the goods would be returned.

“It all depends…it might not even be here,” said Gary Chace, plant manager for Hudson Rive Recycling.  “It might be in a steel mill, melted down, by now.  I’m not even sure what they brought in.”

Senior Investigator Ron Bates, with the Albany County Sheriffs Department, said that typically the materials would not be returned, as recycling plants usually melt them down immediately.

The suspect’s father, Jeffrey Livingston, said that the case was full of discrepancies; he said this was a case of over-policing.  He told The Enterprise that his son was on years of probation for resisting arrest, and said now that the police were going too far.

“It was like a murder investigation or something.  It just seemed like overkill, seemed like there could have been other crimes that were more important,” observed Livingston.  “They’ve had a few too many doughnuts right now, and for some reason they don’t like my son, and they are going way out of their way.”

Albany County sheriffs produced a warrant and searched the Livingston residence, and seized Jeffrey’s 2001 Dodge Ram pickup truck, the vehicle allegedly used by the suspects to transport the stolen metal, the department said.

“I’m not sure how long they are going to keep my truck, either, or what it has to do with the investigation, but I’m going to have to pay the storage and towing fees,” he said. 

Livingston said he couldn’t understand why helicopters and search warrants were necessary.

“You’re not guilty until you’ve been proven guilty, you know?” said Livingston.  “But that’s not what this feels like…as far as getting search warrants, and all of that.  I am sure it’s legal, but is it really necessary?”

Livingston also said that the authorities were getting involved with his son’s friends, and asking them questions.

“They are badgering his girlfriend right now, and they are trying to get any information they can out of her,” he asserted. 

“We’re being harassed by the police,” said Livingston. “This is what we’re facing here and I’m getting a little mad.”

Poets to perform at open mic on Sunday

By David S. Lewis

VOORHEESVILLE – “Poetry makes nothing happen.  It survives in the valley of its saying,” according to the English poet W. H. Auden.

Perhaps that is true, but several Voorheesville writers are making poetry happen, and they have arranged a “valley for its saying” on South Main Street.

The first Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic will be hosted at the Old Songs on South Main Street in Voorheesville, and one of its chief coordinators, Dennis Sullivan, is expecting a turnout from across Albany County.

“I am sure we are going to draw people from the cities of Albany and Schenectady, and I believe there are many poets hiding in the Hilltowns,” said Sullivan, a local historian and poet who also edits an academic journal on restorative justice.  “I think there are many poets up in the hills, in Berne, Knox, and Westerlo…Not necessarily hiding out, but looking for a venue in which to share their work with others.”

Sullivan, a connoisseur of poetic performance, said he has been to many open mics and found more than a few wanting.

“There is an open mic at the Log Cabin, for example, and poets read while there is an active bar in the other room,” explained Sullivan.  “It becomes difficult to attain the kind of quiet and attentiveness that is required for poetry at that venue.”

Sullivan said that he hopes the attitude at the Sunday Four gathering, which will take place on the fourth Sunday of every month, will allow poets a respectful audience.

“It is interesting to note that most of the open mic venues, in my opinion, are personality-driven, in the sense that the host exudes a major presence on the evening,” said Sullivan.  “We hope to have less of that, for we have three co-hosts.”

Local poets Michael Burke and Edie Abrams will share with Sullivan the duties of introducing the poets.  Each open mic session will include a featured area poet, who will read their poetry for 15 to 20 minutes; thereafter the microphone will be turned over to the audience, whose members will read his or her own poetry. 

Sullivan hopes to draw on the talents of the local Voorheesville poetry circle, a group of which meets Thursdays at the Voorheesville Public Library for a writer’s workshop; there the poets apply a critical eye to the work of everyone in the group.  Sullivan said the levels of criticism are left up to the reader.

“You do have a choice about what level of criticism you hear.  Some people ask for the straight-ahead criticism, as it were; the five-dollar job,” said Sullivan.  “Others say they would like ‘gentle nods’ as to whether the group found something interesting in the poem.  Ninety percent of the people are looking for the five-dollar job.

The group has not been hesitant to offer the full five dollars worth, I might add,” he concluded.

Sullivan said that efforts had been made to reach out to newcomers, and not just voices already familiar in the local scene.  He has contacted several area high schools and encouraged young, aspiring poets to lend their ears and efforts to the group as well.

Although the Sunday Four sessions “welcomes all poets, those striving to be poets, and lovers of language,” Sullivan said that there are some principles to which the group shall adhere.

“We expect to have a sophisticated core…so, if your idea of poetry is the sowing of oats in chaos, you might not feel well among us,” he said. 

“We do hope to follow, to the degree we can, the Dutch principle of ‘gezelligheig,’” said Sullivan, referring to the Dutch word for “sense of community.”

“We envision and hope to achieve a venue, where people dedicated to poetry feel at home,” he said, “a place to experiment, and perhaps fail, with their new work.”

The first featured poet will be Voorheesville librarian Barbara Vink, who is also one of the founders of the poetry group that meets at the library.

“I’ve been writing an Alzheimer’s book for my parents, who both have it, and I have a series of poems on the same subject,” said Vink on her plans for the performance.  “I am going to read from the book, and then some of the poems, alternate them a bit.

“So I guess the theme is crazy people.”

Vink said that performing poetry has certain advantages over simply reading it.

“You reach a wider audience; people are not reading poetry, and particularly when you can get a topic that is timely, I think it may draw some people who have an interest in that,” she said.  “Dennis’s idea of having this at Old Songs is innovative and will draw a different crowd.”

The first Sunday Four will be at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 25, at the Old Songs center, 37 South Main St., Voorheesville.  Admission is free and open to the poetry-loving public.

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