ALBANY COUNTY — Thacher Park is among the state parks that will hold special events leading up to the total solar eclipse on April 8.

Thacher will hold what is billed as an “activity hour” on Saturday, March 23, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

The district has spent $5.7 million to pay tax refunds after court challenges, and drained its reserve for tax certiorari cases. So it made a strategic decision to pay Crossgates Mall, once the most recent tax challenges are decided, not entirely out of the operating budget but rather by borrowing the money and paying off the bond over a decade.

The pandemic has heightened food insecurity nationwide, said McCoy. Albany County, he said, has worked with United Way, the Food Bank of Northeastern Regional, and “nearly 60 food pantries and soup kitchens to get healthy food to families within our neighborhoods that need it most,” committing a quarter of a million dollars to the effort. Also, the county has provided $109 million in food-stamp benefits to 19,000 families county-wide, he said.

Only one of the incidents occurred in Albany County: On Nov. 24, the day after Thanksgiving, a 68-year-old hunter with 20 years of hunting experience “unintentionally discharged one round from their firearm and struck their left foot,” the DEC reported. No violations were noted.

GUILDERLAND — Seema Rivera, the president of Guilderland’s school board, will be moving on to a more powerful board.

She has been named a Regent-Elect of the state’s Third Judicial District, consisting of seven counties: Albany, Schoharie, Rensselaer, Greene, Columbia, Ulster, and Sullivan.

Both the men’s clothing store and the Mediterranean restaurant will open on the south side of Stuyvesant Plaza, next to Felthousen’s Florist.

Guilderland has been allotted more money by the state than it has been able to use for pre-kindergarten because it does not have the means to run the program in-house and so relies on outside partners with limited spaces, usually in the neighborhood of 100 total.

GUILDERLAND — In 2021, soon after Kyle Delhagen became pastor of Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, he told us a sort of riddle.

The pandemic has heightened food insecurity nationwide, said McCoy. Albany County, he said, has worked with United Way, the Food Bank of Northeastern Regional, and “nearly 60 food pantries and soup kitchens to get healthy food to families within our neighborhoods that need it most,” committing a quarter of a million dollars to the effort. Also, the county has provided $109 million in food-stamp benefits to 19,000 families county-wide, he said.

School board candidates must be 18 or older, able to read and write, and have lived in the district for at least one year but not be employed by the district. Forty-three signatures of qualified district voters must be submitted to the board clerk by April 22.