“The last time I talked to my sister we agreed the vultures are just waiting to pounce,” Herman Picard said.

The property has an historic house and barn, which are to be demolished, and is also in the midst of the Helderberg Conservation Corridor.

Charles Gehring who lives in New Scotland goes each day to work at the New York State Library in Albany where he travels back in time several hundred years. His life’s work has been translating the records of New Netherland, which the English claimed at the fort in New Amsterdam when they took over from the Dutch in 1664.

The new world Charles Gehring is discovering and charting for us to follow isn’t like the continent unknown to Europeans that explorers like Henry Hudson claimed for the Dutch. Rather, Gehring’s work is giving us the tools to better understand our history.

Dennis Sullivan describes a grand gathering in 1917 — a fundraiser for the Red Cross during World War I, which attracted 2,000 people to the Bender farm, where Charles’s wife, Elizabeth Bender, had hit upon the idea of serving slices of melon topped with ice cream.

Voorheesville will hold a public hearing on the proposed Historic Preservation Law on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m., at village hall. 

“I’ve always had a reverence for the old,” Timothy Rau said, likening his work to a “rebirth” for historic buildings — “putting it back the way it had been.”

Villagers with long memories gathered at the Altamont Free Library last Friday night, on the eve of the village’s first Founders Day, to share memories and swap stories.

As we approach budget-drafting season in our towns, we urge our municipal leaders to set aside some funds for their town historians to carry on worthwhile work.