ABOUT US
The Altamont Enterprise has been covering Guilderland, New Scotland, and the Hilltowns in Albany County, N.Y. for 121 years. Editor D. H. Crowe wrote in the first issue of The Enterprise in 1884: “Today a guest visits the citizens of Knowersville [as Altamont was called then], an unknown, strange guest. Not a visitor of flesh and blood but a silent speaker of true things that will each week go to every home where its presence is welcomed.”
The Enterprise is no longer an unknown, but we are still a speaker of true things. We can come into your home in the traditional way — on newsprint, through the mail — or like this — through your computer.
“We seek the truth and print it” is our byword; that’s what we do week after week. We report local news not available elsewhere, fairly and in-depth, and we provide a forum for the open exchange of ideas important to our community. By informing citizens, we empower them.
For instance, how do you decide who to vote for in local school board or municipal elections” We supply thorough coverage of the issues and in-depth profiles of the candidates and their views so you can choose who best suits you.
The Enterprise has been recognized for its outstanding work with scores of awards from the New York Press Association over the last 15 years — for coverage of education, agriculture, sports, government, crime and courts, and the arts, among others. In recent years, we have ranked several times among the top 10 weekly newspapers in the state. Also this year, for the third time in recent years, we were named to the Golden Dozen for our editorial writing by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.
We are following a tradition our first editor started when he asked, “Will the people of Knowersville and the surrounding towns support and sustain a journal which is ready for a square knockdown with wrong each week””
Our readers have contributed to a lively community dialogue over the years by responding to our news stories and pieces on our opinion pages. Citizens and community leaders — including school superintendents, police chiefs, town supervisors, and head coaches — have helped solve problems and right wrongs by contributing to our editorial pages.
We are an independent weekly, owned by James and Wanda Gardner. James and his son, James Gardner Jr., run a first-rate print shop in the same building that houses the newspaper and has an equally long tradition. James Gardner was raised in Guilderland; Wanda Gardner was raised in the Hilltowns. They have lived in and cared about our community all their lives. Instead of expanding to other areas, they’ve added staff to cover this area in depth.
We help to make separate people in separate places into a community in the way we cover local news. If you’ve found us on-line, you should pick up a copy of our paper at a local newsstand, listed elsewhere on this site, so you can appreciate our full depth and breadth of coverage. In addition to staff stories, we also carry columns on local libraries, senior organizations, community events, and announcements of births, marriages, and engagements as well as obituaries.
We provide local news you can’t get other places. Read our pages, and you’ll learn about your neighbors. You’ll also be able to find out about local events in our community calendar and about local shops, restaurants, and services from our advertisers.
We’re hoping yours is one of the homes where, as Editor Crowe wrote well over a century ago, our presence is welcomed. We look forward to communicating with you each week.
Melissa Hale-Spencer
Editor