This Week In News

GUILDERLAND — Stormwater problems that have plagued McKownville for over 30 years may finally get some attention. Supervisor Kenneth Runion announced on June 29 that he will propose comprehensive engineering evaluations for the area at the July 7 town board meeting.

The stormwater system has been an issue in McKownville for at least 34 years, the amount of time Don Reeb, president of the McKownville Improvement Association, has been involved with the organization. The concerns have become more urgent over the past three or four years, as flooding and sinkholes have gotten more frequent and abundant, Reeb said. He e-mailed members of the neighborhood association, urging them to attend the July 7 meeting, to encourage board members to approve funding engineering studies, as a first step.

The project has not moved forward because it will be so costly; according to Runion, the total price tag from start to finish is somewhere around $5.75 million.

The town has applied for stimulus funds for the storm water project, but Runion said there has been no word on that front.

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GUILDERLAND — Conflict in the community garden over the humaneness of trapping and transporting voles has been resolved, after Supervisor Kenneth Runion discovered that trapping wildlife in New York State is illegal, unless it is done by a licensed wildlife service.

Margaret Rusch, a lifelong gardener, and a member of the community gardens for 13 years, became distressed when she saw the community gardens coordinator, Gerard Houser, shaking a Havahart trap that contained a vole.

In a letter to The Enterprise editor published this week, Rusch explained her various concerns with the way voles were being dealt with in the gardens. According to Rusch, when she saw Houser shaking the trap, she asked what he was doing, and he said that he was killing a vole. Houser told The Enterprise this week that he was being facetious when he made that comment, and he was actually trying to free the vole from where it was stuck in the trap.

Houser, who had been trapping and moving voles prior to learning it was illegal, said he rarely kills voles. When he was trapping, he would re-locate the voles at least a half a mile away from the gardens, he said.

“We have voles eating hundreds of pounds of produce, and we need to keep the numbers down,” said Houser. “They multiply fast.”

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GUILDERLAND — With the fall election less than six months away, Supervisor Kenneth Runion has decided to form a committee to review the town’s zoning code. He announced the decision on June 26.

When the comprehensive land-use plan for Guilderland was adopted in 2001, one of the committee’s recommendations was to review the zoning code after a variety of neighborhood studies were done, said Runion. The studies are now complete, and the code document is 20 years old, and outdated, according to Runion.

A comprehensive plan by itself has no effect on development; a town board must adopt compatible zoning legislation to carry it out.

As of right now, Guilderland’s special committee will consist of eight people, although Runion said he might add a ninth, and will be bi-partisan. Runion has chosen Bruce Sherwin, a Democratic former town board member, to chair the committee. Sherwin was not backed by the Democratic party for re-election in 2005, and so only served one four-year term. He has worked with zoning laws in the past, said Runion, and that is the reason he was chosen.

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Concerned with potential special ed cuts
GCSD board pleased with recent report card

Photo: The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer

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Listening intently, Mary Helen Collen, data coordinator for the Guilderland School District, and Demian Singleton, assistant superintendent for instruction, hear questions from the school board after presenting a glowing report on state-required test data.

GUILDERLAND — School board members said they were pleased with and proud of the results of required government testing, presented in the annual School Report Card.

They expressed some concerns on how special-education students would fare if cutbacks were made.

“I do not think this is the time to start eliminating special-education administrators,” said board member Colleen O’Connell, a sentiment echoed by several other board members.

“I’m really concerned about their raising the bar,” said board member Gloria Towle-Hilt.

The board members’ comments followed the June 23 presentation of results from tests taken in the 2007-08 school year. The inch-thick school report card is available, in printed form, at the district office; data is also available at the state’s website — http://nystart.gov/publicweb.

Each of Guilderland’s seven schools — five elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school — are schools “in good standing,” reported Demian Singleton, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction.

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A cast of 69 will perform in the Family Players of Northeastern New York production of Titanic at the Guilderland Performing Arts Center this month.

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A touching moment: Janice Walz and Keith Searles play Mr. and Mrs. Strauss in the musical Titanic, which will play from July 8 to 12 at Guilderland’s Tawasentha Park.

GUILDERLAND — People often say there is no point in seeing the musical Titanic, because they already know how it ends: The ship sinks.

So says Jeffrey Hocking, who is directing the popular play, which will run from July 8 to 12 at the Guilderland Performing Arts Center in Tawasentha Park.

“I tell them, this play is not about the end, it’s about the journey. And that’s completely true about the process of watching the play come together, too. It’s my favorite part,” Hocking said.

Hocking, a board member of the Family Players of Northeastern New York, will present the story of the doomed ship in a slightly different way than the popular movie.

A cast of 69 people, ranging in age from 8 to 80, will act out eight or nine different story lines about passengers on the ship — the roles will examine the experiences of first-class through third-class travelers, according to Hocking.

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GUILDERLAND — A low turnout for a Guilderland Center Fire Department vote, to bond a $400,000 fire truck, was nothing out of the ordinary.

The vote took place on June 9, when 21 people cast their ballots, resulting in a 17-4 approval.

Chairman of the board at the fire department, Donald Albright, said that, while he was disappointed with the turnout, he was not surprised, and he believes the outcome of the vote would have been the same even if a greater number of people had voted.

There have been some complaints from Guilderland Center residents that there was not enough publicity on the vote, but Albright said the fire department did exactly what it was required to do for notification.

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NEW SCOTLAND — In an election crowded with candidates who are wary of commercial retail development, the number of candidates claiming to be proponents of property rights is quietly keeping pace.

Peter Belenchia, who had chaired the Republican Committee in town but changed his enrollment to Conservative in 2007, will be seeking the Conservative line in his run for town board — there are two seats open in November.

“I am against a big box,” he said, referring to the large chain retail stores that have been at the center of debate since Cazenovia-based Sphere Development proposed a Target-anchored shopping center at the corner of routes 85 and 85A. “But I’m also leery of a size cap,” he added. Many of the candidates who are cautious about retail development support a 50,000-square-foot limit on single retail stores in the commercial zone, an idea opposed by candidates who say they are advocating for property rights.

Belenchia would support an 80,000-square-foot Target, he said, defining it as a “medium-sized retail store.” He’d like to see Route 85 become a commercial corridor, Belenchia said of the area that is currently used for agriculture but is zoned for commercial development. He envisions a “green” development that might serve as an example to other municipalities, Belenchia said.

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Clustering in the village: Eighteen new homes are proposed to fill in part of a large empty parcel near the center of Voorheesville in a cluster-style development. It will be located on a 23-acre plot, marked by the star, across from Smitty’s pizza tavern on Maple Road. Seventy percent of the land will remain open.

VOORHEESVILLE — A 23-acre parcel of land on Maple Avenue will eventually be the site of a new cluster- style housing development in the village.

According to Glenn Hebert of Voorheesville’s building department, the development will entail nine double-unit buildings on a single street for a total of 18 new housing units. The units will be connected to the village’s sewer system.

Hebert said that, while the owner is Claude Rodrigue, of CR Drywall in the village, he is considering selling the property to a developer instead of developing it himself. Mayor Robert Conway confirmed that the property may be sold prior to development and added that there is nothing unusual in doing so.

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VOORHEESVILLE — The Albany County Therapeutic Riding Center is calling for volunteers to help disabled children and adults ride horses.

No equine experience is necessary as training is provided and the time commitment is flexible. Volunteers can work one or two hours every week or every other week, but more hours are available, according to Chris Lehman, who runs the riding center.

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KNOX — After much research, the town’s planning board is about ready to start drafting an ordinance on large-scale wind development.

Daniel Driscoll, a certified sound engineer on the Knox Planning Board, told The Enterprise this week that a law specifically regulating large-scale wind turbines in town is on the horizon.

Towns in Albany County have been looking to refine their zoning ordinances for protection from companies like Shell WindEnergy, which approached landowners last fall, behind the backs of their respective town governments, looking to line the crest of the Helderbergs with 50 wind turbines, each hundreds of feet tall.

While Knox’s zoning ordinance bans all towers, Resolution 89, adopted in 2006, allowed for the construction of meteorological towers, no taller than 180 feet, and windmills, no taller than 125 feet, and not producing more than 10 kilowatts of power, Driscoll said, though the construction of either still requires a building permit.

“We’ve been studying all different types of industrial-scale wind turbines, and we’re to a point now where, at the next meeting, I think we’ll decide what sort of ordinance to adopt,” Driscoll said this week. “I expect it’ll take us at least several months to draft the ordinance, and we’ll borrow heavily from other communities.”

The planning board’s next meeting will take place Thursday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall.

At the June town board meeting, Amy Pokorny made a presentation on behalf of Helderberg Community Energy, asking that the town board direct the planning board to create an ordinance that would regulate large-scale wind turbines. Pokorny, a wind-power proponent, lives in an entirely off-the-grid home on Beebe Road with her husband, Knox Assessor Russ Pokorny.

Helderberg Community Energy has had a small-scale community wind project in the works for two years. It plans to place three 1.5-megawatt wind turbines along Middle Road, back from roads and away from houses.

Pokorny spoke at the June meeting about Article 10, a piece of legislation that will allow for state control over placement of wind-energy projects.

“If we take the initiative and write a law to promote responsible wind development under local control, there may be no need for state-controlled development in Knox,” she said. “The threat of state government, federal government, and giant corporations using clean-energy initiatives to ignore local concerns is realistic,” she said later, adding, “A carefully thought out local plan that is supported by the community and that also can overcome challenges by outsiders hoping to take control of our resources is important if Knox wants to control its own destiny.”

Pokorny also emphasized the importance of creating a set of guidelines that addresses concerns that are unique to Knox.

At the same meeting, the town board discussed with Planning Board Chairman Robert Price its difficulty in obtaining the wind data generated by the meteorological tower for use in the Helderberg Wind Project, which plans to place three 1.5-megawatt wind turbines along Middle Road, questioning who owns the data, and why the town has seen only two out of the expected 18 monthly reports.

Loren Pruskowski of Helderberg Community Energy, the group at the center of the Helderberg Wind Project, told The Enterprise this week that the town now has all the data it has requested.

“The town has been sent everything agreed to, and documented it,” Pruskowski said. “I re-sent it to them in an e-mail…I sent everything that we’d completed, including data summarization, to Price and [Supervisor] Mike Hammond, so, I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

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Daniel Driscoll has been active in Hilltown planning for decades. Here, he talks in Knox about the Helderberg Escarpment Planning Guide, which he co-edited in 2002.

As towns form committees to draft legislation on wind turbines, a major concern is sound generated by the whirling blades. Daniel Driscoll, a certified sound engineer working on such an ordinance in the town of Knox, has suggestions as to how this sound should be measured and regulated.

In June, Driscoll took part in an environmental discussion at the Empire State Plaza, hosted by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Driscoll was on one of three panels of experts that answered questions that day.

Driscoll was asked to join the panel, he said, because of his lengthy career as a board-certified noise-control engineer, which included work at the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Noise Bureau, the Noise Control Engineering Society, and over 20 years at the New York State Public Service Commission, where he eventually led a team that assessed the environmental impacts of noise produced by power plants.

In the weeks following that discussion, Driscoll wrote a report that summarized his answers to questions pertaining to sound generated by wind-power structures that were asked at the June discussion. In his report, he prefaces his answers to these questions with a series of broad guidelines for the creation of zoning regulations for towns like Knox.

Some towns, Knox included, prohibit “excessive” noise, Driscoll said in his report.

“While suitable for neighbor-to-neighbor disputes, the prohibition is vague and may not be enforceable in court,” said Driscoll. One solution to this is specifying a numerical noise limit. “This allows for changes in wind-turbine technology, but towns must hire qualified noise-control engineers to help with creation and enforcement of the limit,” he said.

Also important is controlling how the noise source is operated, for example, with specified hours of operation, or with setbacks from residences or property lines.

Driscoll cited examples from research he had done on setbacks in ordinances of other nearby municipalities:

— “The town of Cohocton (Steuben County, N.Y.) wind-turbine ordinance has a 1,500-foot setback for wind turbines from residences, adopted pre-2007;

— “In January 2007, the town of Bethany (Genesee County, N.Y.) committee recommended 1,500 feet, based in part on Cohocton's ordinance;

— “A Richmondville (Schoharie County, N.Y.) committee recommended a 2,500-foot setback in a May 2009 report;

— “The town of Meredith (Delaware County, N.Y.) adopted a wind-turbine ordinance in 2007 with a 3,000-foot setback. In 2008, they rescinded the 2007 law and adopted a new law prohibiting industrial-scale wind turbines, but they kept the 3,000-foot setback in case the prohibition was overruled by the courts;

— “Schoharie County has a recommended law for their towns that appears to copy Meredith's 2007 law with its 3,000-foot setback; and

— “A Clayton (Jefferson County, N.Y.) committee recommended a setback of 4,500 feet from hamlet and village boundaries.”

Equally crucial is limiting the permitted increase in sound levels above the background-noise level, Driscoll added.

Explaining “background noise,” he said, “If you went to a rural community, and were to observe a sound-level meter, you would see that the sound was fluctuating around, say, 28 dBA [decibels], within a very small range. That is, until a dog barked, or a bird chirped, or a plane flew over, and then the sound would increase from that baseline of 28 dBA.”

That baseline is the background sound level. Similar is the L90 — the sound level that is exceeded 90 percent of the time, in the absence of intrusive sounds, like birds, dogs, and airplanes — also called the residual sound level.

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RENSSELAERVILLE — The highway department is inching closer to repairing its roads. A report from Superintendent G. Jon Chase, read aloud by Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg at the June town board meeting, outlined recent work, and work still to be done. Chase was absent from the meeting.

The long-planned Pearson Road culvert project is still in its early stages, Chase said this week.

“We’ve been cutting brush, getting it ready for the contractor,” he said of Dan’s Hauling and Demolition Inc., which placed a $298,000 bid that was unanimously accepted by the town board at its Jan. 8 meeting. Dan’s Hauling is set to undertake the project, but has not yet started its work there.

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Several roads, including this section of Route 146, were closed due to floodwaters yesterday.

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Making their way through a flooded Lewis Road, these cars cross over to Route 156 since Route 146 was impassable due to rainwater.

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As the rain starts pouring again, Altamont firefighter Bill Hoogkamp takes cover while he pumps out a basement on Prospect Terrace in Altamont.

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Awash in water, this backyard in Altamont was one of many to flood during yesterday’s fierce rainstorm.

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Curtain of water: Rain came down in sheets yesterday, filling up this municipal parking lot off of Maple Avenue in Altamont.

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Cleaning up after the storm’s first round, Guilderland Highway Department worker Steve Oliver, works on Leesome Lane.

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Full force: Guilderland Center firemen expel water from the basement of an Altamont business during yesterday’s storm.

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Like many of his neighbors’, Gary Kleppel’s driveway turned briefly to a stream yesterday as rainwater charted its course.

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As rainwater flooded Lewis Road in Knox yesterday, Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Kopec kicks rocks and debris that had been washed into the road. The heavy rainstorm began mid-afternoon on Wednesday and continued through the night. For more pictures, turn to pages 14 and 15.

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Rushing across Route 146: Floodwater keeps traffic from passing through one of Knox’s main arteries.

Driveways bled onto the roads across the northern face of the Helderbergs yesterday as a fierce summer rainstorm forced gravel and muddy streams downhill.

Starting mid-afternoon and continuing through the evening, with a brief spot of sun in the middle that lured cautious residents from their homes to assess the damage, the storm flooded basements and closed roads around Altamont and the Hilltowns.

Firemen and highway workers estimated that a storm of that magnitude happens every few years and the National Weather Service issued flash-flood warnings throughout the area with rain forecasted through Saturday.

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Continuing what has become an Altamont Enterprise tradition, Melissa Hale-Spencer, the newspaper’s editor, has been named to the Golden Dozen again this year.

The award was announced Saturday by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors at its annual conference, held this year on Prince Edward Island in Canada.

ISWNE was founded in 1954 to encourage and promote high standards of editorial writing, to facilitate the exchange of ideas, and to foster freedom of the press in all nations. Each year, it holds a competition for non-daily opinion and editorial writing. The top entry is given the Golden Quill, and 11 others are chosen to make up the rest of the Golden Dozen.

This year’s award marked Hale-Spencer’s fifth recognition by ISWNE; last year she was given the Golden Quill.

Her award-winning editorial this year, “Does New Scotland want a big-box mall?” ran in the March 6, 2008 edition soon after Enterprise reporter Saranac Hale Spencer broke the story that Sphere Development had plans for a large retail center in New Scotland.

“This is a thorough and thoughtful look at the issues surrounding the development of agricultural land and the policies in the community of New Scotland,” wrote the contest judge, Kim Kierans. “While it is focused on a particular area, this editorial echoes the debate going on in many rural communities throughout North America and the need to involve community in the discussion ‘to develop a new comprehensive land-use plan.’”

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On her way: This Independence Day, Jennifer Cooper, a Voorheesville native now living in Virginia, will begin a 3,000-mile walk across the United States to raise awareness about the growing problem of homelessness and poverty and the need for affordable housing. An editor for Environmental Health News, she plans to continue her work as she makes her trek.

Jennifer E. Cooper is walking across the country to raise awareness of homelessness and poverty.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m excited about what I will encounter along the way,” said Cooper, a Voorheesville native who now lives in Alexandria, Va. “I’ve never been much of a person to try crazy adventures like this, but I decided to go for it.”

The trip will begin in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial on July 4 and Cooper hopes to make it to San Francisco by the end of October.

“I should make it to San Francisco on time if I walk my 25 miles per day,” Cooper said on Wednesday. “I’ve planned it all out and I built myself a little bit of a cushion.”

Cooper will spend her first night in Germantown, Md. and make stops in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, and Sacramento along the way. She will rely on a network of friends and relatives, and also hopes to stay in homeless shelters.

Cooper told The Enterprise that she’ll use Couch Surfing a lot, a network of people around the country who agree to have visitors stay with them.

“Money isn’t really an issue on this trip,” said Cooper. “I would be spending the same amount of money if I wasn’t walking across the country.”

Cooper, 35, grew up in her parents’ Salem Hills home in Voorheesville and graduated from Clayton A. Bouton High School. After getting a degree from the State University of New York College at Oswego, she became a reporter in the Hudson Valley area.

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