The spending plan comes right up against the state-set levy limit but does not pierce it. This means a simple majority vote can pass the budget. While spending is up 1.88 percent from last year, the tax levy is up 2.3 percent.

Jason Southwood of Albany is seeking permission to convert the former seasonally-operated Cone Zone at 2028 Western Ave. to a year-round retail cannabis dispensary. 

An Enterprise compiling of Crossgates’ property-tax payments show the mall is due to save millions of dollars due to successfully lowering its assessed value.

Supervisor Peter Barber went through a long list of events happening in town near Earth Day, which is on Tuesday, April 22, this year.

 Laviano is naming his newly completed complex on Western Avenue the Joseph J. Laviano Plaza in honor of his father.

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.

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 proposed levy increase is 2.41 percent, which is just under the state-set tax cap, meaning a simple majority will pass the budget. 

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.