ALBANY COUNTY — Twelve percent of people, nearly 16,000, living in the 110th Assembly District, which includes Colonie, Niskayuna, and parts of Guilderland and Schenectady, are food insecure, according to Phil Steck, who represents the district.
In the end, the draft budget restored 70 percent of the first-grade teaching assistants. It also restored two-tenths of a librarian’s position at Altamont Elementary School, another cut that had spurred protests from a committed Altamont contingent.
ALBANY COUNTY — Governor Kathy Hochul is urging New Yorkers to prepare for snow, freezing rain, and ice beginning Friday night and continuing through Sunday for parts of the North Country, Mohawk Valley, and Capital District.
Berne-Knox-Westerlo is looking at a roughly $700,000 shortfall in its 2025-26 budget despite a 3.3 percent property-tax hike, due to widespread cost increases and decreases in state aid. The gap will have to be closed through “creative” reductions, Superintendent Bonnie Kane said.
The withdrawal came as a surprise to both IDA board members and staffers as attorneys for the agency were negotiating with Pyramid over the subsidy right up until the day before IDA Chief Executive Officer Donald Csaposs received the March 20 letter informing him that Pyramid would forgo the multi-million dollar exemption.
The town of Knox has hired attorney Daniel Rubin to represent it against Albany County, which has accused the town of misappropriating a shared salt supply and is demanding $18,000 in compensation.
The town of Rensselaerville appointed Jason Wood as deputy highway superintendent after the previous one, Warren Bashwinger, was let go for undisclosed reasons.
ALTAMONT — The judge presiding over the defamation suit filed by Jackie Silvestri-Edwards, former owner of Farmhouse Tap + Tavern and founder of the 518 Foodies site, on March 20 denied a defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, an indication that the court found Silvestri-Edwards’s initial claims to have a sufficient legal basis.
On March 18, Mayor Kerry Dineen, trustees John Scally and Sandra Serafino, and Justice James Greene each received new four-year terms, but most saw unforeseen opposition.
There will be four seats open for the May 20 election with the top three vote-getters winning three-year terms and the fourth-place candidate filling out Judy Slack’s term, which ran through June 30, 2026.
Federal maps in the 1930s, Wanda Willingham said, “redlined housing markets and said they were too risky for investment … Generations of people were disconnected, disenfranchised, and deprived of family wealth by buying homes.”
This year, Hilltown residents will vote in a majority-number of town board members in each town, including Berne, where all five seats will be open due to the number of vacancies that need to be filled.
Heyer had served as interim director of the Guilderland Public Library as staff suffered widely covered allegations of racism last year, lodged by the owner of a library café, that proved to be unfounded.
Citizens raised their concerns about the impacts of federal decisions on state programs at a March 19 “town hall” hosted by State Senator Patricia Fahy and Assembly members Garbriella Romero and John McDonald.
