There had been discussion for some time about bringing the New Scotland Building Department, “essentially [into] the 21st Century, where we have more of a planner handling some of the planner duties. Because in our town, historically, with our zoning, the building inspector has handled all of these duties,” Councilman William Hennessy said.

On May 18, voters in the Voorheesville Central School District will be asked to approve a $26.95 million budget for the 2021-22 school year, an increase of approximately 3.58 percent over this year’s spending plan.

Enrollment in the Voorheesville Central School District is projected to increase to 1,300 by 2025-26, a nearly 100-student increase from its current count, 1,204.

The proposed tax rate for Voorheesville property owners will increase about a half-penny next year, from $1.2866 per $1,000 of assessed value this year to $1.29151 per $1,000.

Robert Baron filed his lawsuit in March 2018, alleging the Voorheesville Central School District fraudulently induced him to resign as the longtime head coach of the girls’ varsity basketball team.

Voorheesville Trustee Richard Straut said that he and Superintendent of Public Works Brett Hotaling had been talking in recent weeks about the impact of inflow and infiltration on the sewer system in the Salem Hills neighborhood, “about some of the troubles we’ve been having,” in particular during heavy rains and when snow melts. 

The owner of Stonewell Plaza has acquired an attorney who in turn has reached out to New Scotland planning and zoning board attorney Crystal Peck and is now trying to come up with a compromise that might work instead of paying for a parking analysis that is only going to show what is already known by nearly everyone involved: The site has too few spots to accommodate plaza businesses or to meet what is called for in the code.

“It’s just a lot of chance to take ...,” said Wendall Thayer of holding the Voorheesville Memorial Day parade despite COVID-19 still in the community. “It would be awful  somebody caught something because we had the parade.”

The last day for Laura Schmitz, principal of Clayton A. Bouton High School for the past six years, will be April 16. 

Before coming to Voorheesville, Southard worked for 13 years in the 333-student DeRuyter Central School District in Madison County, about 33 miles southeast of Syracuse; he had worked for Syracuse schools for four years prior to DeRuyter.