The Guilderland School Board was chosen for the “nice” list because it filled a board vacancy by conducting interviews in a public videotaped session. Mark Grimm was lauded for his push for government transparency.

No formal application has been submitted to the town, but members of the development team looking to build the project at 6 and 10 Mercy Care Lane met this week with Guilderland’s Development Planning Committee.

The negative SEQRA declaration from the Guilderland Planning Board places one step closer to the ultimate goal of subdivision approval.

While the waiting list for Guilderland is long, James Mastrianni explained that just 76 of the 333 applicants on that list either live or work in town and those applicants move up the list faster than out-of-town residents.

The town board agreed to hire Core & Main to install about 10,000 water meters in homes across town for just under $5 million and also agreed to a table of updated fees, requiring building permits for the first time for projects like replacing windows, roofs, and siding.

Sarecha has enlisted two of his Hindu friends to help him gather signatures for a petition to recognize Diwali as an academic holiday, a day off from school so they can pray and celebrate with their families.

Rich Straut, the village’s engineer, said Altamont has for the last year been exploring the treatability of the manganese at the Brandle Road wells.

“We have a high level of [residents] below the poverty line in this district …,” said Meredith Brière. “We have a high number of renters and we have to remember, when giving exemptions, those tax implications end up on the entire population including renters because rents will go up.” Bringing the ceiling up to $50,000, she said, “just seemed really high” while at the same time $29,000 “is really a difficult number to live on.” She went on, “So we came to a compromise of $35,000.”

“The historical anomaly here is the health-insurance increase,” said AndrewVan Alstyne. “We’re projecting a $2.2 million increase in health insurance. That is unusually large.”

The goal is to announce the new superintendent by July 1.