To the Editor:

In the discussion of a quiet zone in Voorheesville, everyone can agree that safety comes first. A quiet zone, for those who may not know, is an area in which the locomotive engineer will not sound the horn as the train approaches the railroad crossing.

With respect to vehicular traffic, the Federal Railroad Administration has shown that quiet zones are safer than regular crossings because the safety improvements that are required more than compensate for any increased risk that comes with silencing the train horns.

Examples of safety improvements include median barriers and four-quadrant gates, both of which prevent motorists from pulling out of line once the gate is lowered. Gates, flashing lights, and bells remain in a quiet zone. Signs are also placed at the crossing to indicate the train will not blow its horn. Importantly, federal regulations clearly state that a locomotive engineer may blow his horn in a quiet zone any time an emergency arises.

To the Editor:

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Dean Whalen and all members of the Altamont Community Tradition Holiday Decorating Committee for awarding our home first prize in the 2012 Holiday Decorating challenge.

Every year, we look forward to seeing the beautiful decorations throughout the village, and enjoy taking tours of the holiday homes. We are always impressed with the wonderful ways that residents find to brighten our streets and infuse a warm and welcoming holiday spirit to our village.

It’s part of what makes living in Altamont so special, and we feel very gratified to be recognized as a part of that effort.

Jean and Gary Guyon

Altamont

To the Editor:

The town of Knox and the Knox Volunteer Fire Company are working to raise public awareness about help that is available in extreme weather emergencies and other disaster situations.

A letter recently went out to residents of Knox that lists contact information for resources and services that can be called upon when needed.  Please contact me if you would like a copy of this letter. 

We are also asking for volunteers to host daytime shelters at the Knox firehouse or the Knox Town Hall when needed.  Training will be provided. 

This would not be a large commitment of time.  Volunteers would spend part of one day for training, and would be called to serve only in emergencies. 

Duties would include:

—Answering phones;

—Helping with food and access to supplies and amenities;

—Providing company and conversation to displaced community members; and

—Helping with entertainment (board games, movies, reading, crafts, etc.).

Additional volunteers are needed to host overnight shelters in and beyond Knox.

If you would like to consider serving in one of these ways, please contact me. Any help you can offer will strengthen our town’s emergency preparedness.     

Mary Sherman

Knox Volunteer Fire Co.

Ladies’ Auxiliary

To the Editor:

For the past several years, the Women’s Auxilary to the Knox Volunteer Fire Department has been sending packages to our men and women in the military overseas.

Our events held to support funding our “We Care” program include: the Memorial Day Bake Sale, Town-wide Garage/Lawn Sale, various dinners, and private donations.

During the past seven years, Mary Sherman reported that 445 packages have been sent. Each box weighed approximately 25 pounds, totaling 11,000 pounds or more than five tons. Postage for these packages amounted to $6,210.48.

During the Christmas holiday, Christmas trees and decorations, filled stockings, gifts, cookies, brownies, fudge, and of course candy canes were sent.

In order to continue this valuable service to our military, we need help with donations and items. For further information concerning this program, please call Mary Sherman at 895-2795. Thank you for your support.

Again, “We Care.”

Pat Lightbody

Knox

By John R. Williams

On a rather cold Tuesday, Jan. 22, the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh. Most of the OFs said that they came through Schoharie (and not over the mountain) to get to Middleburgh. That is the long way around for most of the OFs but Cotton Hill can be a little tricky to navigate in the winter months.

As the OFs talked about maneuvering the hills, they noted the beautiful vistas that come into view, especially the views that pop up when traveling some of the tertiary roads in the hills. Many are spectacular, equal to any place in the country.

What brought this about was the sun shining on Vroman’s Nose early in the morning with a tad of snow on that outcrop of rock. The view was wasted on the OFs who had their backs to the windows of the diner.

The OFs hope that they are right in the name of the hollow off to the left when going down Treadelmire Road from Cotton Hill Road toward Abrams Road and Gallupville. (This road is not recommended for the squeamish.)

The OFs think it is Rundy Cup. There is a Rundy Cup mountain. The OFs think a nice ride would be to have breakfast at the Middleburgh Diner, take a right out of the parking lot about 800 feet, maybe less, to Cotton Hill Road.

Make a right on Cotton Hill. (You have to make a right; making a left will place you in a driveway going into an equipment shed.)  Then, just past the top of the hill and a little bit on the way down towards Dutch Settlement, Treadelmire Road is on the left.

Good luck, and, oh, bring jacks, towing cable, and a couple of sandwiches to go from the diner (just in case you become hung up on one of the ledges that cross the road) and a camera.

What’s expired?

The OFs began talking about expiration dates on food and how much food is thrown away that is still perfectly good.

Milk was the first example. None of the OFs pay any attention to that, except one OF who said that either his daughter, or daughter-in-law — oh-oh. (This scribe has a very tiny notebook, and makes very tiny notes, and sometimes they are hard to translate when putting words on this white screen. When the notes are really bad, this scribe skips them altogether because everything that is in this report is real, you know).

Back to the milk, and the daughter (or daughter-in-law) who chucks it even if it is three-quarters full because of the expiration date printed on the package. The same goes for cereal.

The OFs said that your nose, or the curdling in coffee, will let you know when milk is bad. If an egg is black or slimy, or has a blood spot, or smells rotten, it probably is, then it is bad. When bread has spots of mold on it, then it is bad.

The shelf life on peanut butter is pretty short, according to what is on the label, but the OFs say that some of the peanut butter they have used is a year old and older.

Syrup is another thing. One OF reported finding some syrup in the back of the cupboard and used it on pancakes, then looked at the price sticker and it was nine years old but it was just as good as when they bought it.

Cheese is also another thing — hard cheese, that is.  Just cut the mold off and go ahead and put the rest on that piece of apple pie.

The OFs asked how much good food is thrown away because some people pay too much attention to the use-by labels.

Good neighbor

Most of the OFs are gregarious and giving people, and this was pointed out Tuesday morning because, from out of nowhere, an OF started mentioning that he gave something away that he had no use for, and a friend of his knew someone who could use it. This OF knew the friend, of course, but had no clue who the recipient was but gave it away anyway.

The recipient went to use it and it didn’t work. The friend came and thanked the OF for letting his friend have the machine but it didn’t work.

The friend wasn’t complaining nor was his friend; it was just a point of information. The OF who had the machine in the first place did one of the standard, hmmm — O.K. — and then the OF went to the fellow who had the machine and the OF spent half a day getting it going, then took the time showing him how to operate it.

All this was done in the name of being a good neighbor and for no other reason — not money, not I am a good guy, not for bragging rights. The OF just did it because it was the right thing to do.

This story came about by the OF asking a simple question of another OF at the breakfast if his fix was right. (The last sentences were this scribe’s thoughts).

Calico Indians

Guns were still a topic, however, as one OF put it, “Now that we are all criminals, and have to fear the police knocking on the door, the OF bond is tighter; the OFs still remember the Calico Indians.”

Again, enough of that.

Condolences

The Old Men of The Mountain offer their condolences to Ted Willsey, and his family in the passing of his wife, Dottie.

Dottie had been ill for quite awhile and is now at peace and in the hands of the Lord.

20 is plenty

The OFs that made it to the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh and who noticed that cars today seem to start right up no matter how cold it is were: Roger Chapman, Roger Shafer, Harold Guest, Harold Grippen, John Rossmann, Frank Pauli, Robie Osterman, Glenn Patterson, Steve Kelly, Jim Heiser, Jim Rissacher, Bill Krause, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Mace Porter, Gary Porter, Mike Willsey, Elwood Vanderbilt, George Washburn, and me.     

As a newlywed, I was full of helpful advice. I had, for example, read a magazine article on body language and territorial defense that suggested if a driver were to get out of his car when stopped by a police officer and meet the cop halfway, things would go better. I shared this advice with my husband as he was being pulled over for speeding. My husband obliged.

The cop slammed him against the car, spread-eagled, and patted him down.

Clearly, I had given him bad advice.

This didn’t mean the police officer was doing anything wrong. He had no way of knowing if my husband was armed or dangerous. The officer was following a prescribed procedure to protect his own safety.

How was he to know my husband was harmless? It would be tempting to blame the cop for my husband’s humiliation, but really it was my advice that was at fault.

I’ve since learned the best thing to do when stopped by an officer is to sit patiently in the driver’s seat with my hands visible on the wheel.

I thought of this long-ago incident as I read the words spoken this month at an Altamont Board of Trustees meeting by a driver who was outraged at the way village police had treated her. It was clear she felt humiliated, as most anyone would in her situation, especially since she had her 4-year-old son in the car when she was stopped.

Because she was late paying her car insurance, her policy had lapsed for 13 days. Although the policy had been restored, she hadn’t responded to the suspension from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles by either surrendering the plates or paying the required penalty.

So a license-plate reader signaled the problem to an Altamont Police officer who stopped her very near her home. The driver had no proof of insurance in her car, so the standard procedure for uninsured cars was followed. Her car was towed and she was driven to the police station. She was allowed to call someone to watch her child before she was taken to the nearby station.

We regularly run news of arrests in our paper for motorists who are driving despite suspension — a misdemeanor charge. Sometimes they are unaware of it; sometimes it is willful. The courtroom is the place for pleas to be worked out, for justice to be served.

The police officer is not wrong for making the arrest. The state law is in place for good reason: If someone without insurance is in an accident, the injured parties are left without the recourse they deserve.

The driver in this case, along with her husband, tied their complaints over the arrest with the need to abolish the village police. The issues are separate and distinct. Their view is that a village officer should know the driver involved and make an exception. Village police arrests on this matter should be no different than town, county, or state police arrests.

The couple also makes the point that, since Altamont is covered by Guilderland Police, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, and the State Police, no further coverage is needed. We’ve editorialized on that very subject in years past, and we agree. Maybe now, as the recession lingers on, the time is right to examine the matter once again.

Before the recession, in 2004, a committee polled Altamont businesses and residents and found overwhelming support to keep a police department, but to restructure it, cutting down on the large number of part-time officers.

According to the 2012-13 village budget, salaries for the Chief and several part-time officers total $136,477, independent of maintenance and other operational expenses.

In May 2009, The Enterprise looked at New York’s criminal justice statistics and found, except for 2007 when larceny bumped the reported crime total up to 10, Altamont’s level of crime had remained essentially flat over the five previous years, fluctuating between three and five crimes a year.

Half of Altamont’s police activity is for traffic stops. The Enterprise did an in-depth analysis of two years of dispatch data — over 1,300 dispatch calls were assigned to the department in 2007 and over 1,100 in 2008 — and found the next most frequent activity was answering complaints, followed by property checks for absent homeowners, and arriving at the scene when an ambulance is called.

The fact that half of Altamont’s police activity is for traffic stops may not bode well for its financial future. Governor Andrew Cuomo this month proposed limiting plea deals for motorists caught speeding and expanding the state surcharges on traffic tickets to cover parking violations that speeders currently plead down to, bringing the state $16 million the first year and $25 million annually after that. While the state would gain revenues this way, local municipal courts, like Altamont’s, may well lose revenue without the fees that come with the pleas to lesser offenses.

If Altamont does decide to examine the value of having a police force, it should not be because the police have made an arrest that was warranted. “What is the role of the Altamont Police Department?” the distraught, arrested motorist asked the village board. “Shouldn’t they be taking an active role to get to know and help the 1,700 law-abiding members of this community?”

Our answer to her question is a simple one: Like any other police, the role of Altamont Police should be to enforce the law.

The question for Altamont is: Is there enough law-breaking in the village to warrant a police force?

— Melissa Hale-Spencer

To the Editor: 

I wanted to write to thank fellow Albany-area residents who generously gave of their time and means to help impact thousands of hurting kids this Christmas. Together we were able to pack 12,385 shoeboxes — filled with toys, school supplies, and basic necessities — for Operation Christmas Child.

Our packed shoebox gifts, joined by millions of others, are now on their way to needy children in 100 countries. During the 2012 collection season, Operation Christmas Child reached a milestone — since 1993, more than 100 million children have been impacted by the power of a simple gift.

I would like to thank the volunteers at our local collection sites and all those who packed an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift. For many of the children who receive these gifts, this shoebox will be the first gift they have ever received.

Although our local drop-off locations in the Albany area are closed, gifts are received year-round at Samaritan’s Purse by mailing them to 801 Bamboo Road, Boone, N.C., 28607.

There are also year-round volunteer opportunities available to serve with Operation Christmas Child.  Find out how you can use your gifts and talents to make a difference in children’s lives around the world by visiting www.samaritanspurse.org or by calling the Northeast regional office at 437-0690. 

Thank you again to everyone who participated in this project. A simple gift, packed with love, can communicate hope and transform the lives of children worldwide.

Gaye Newlun

Northeast Regional Director

Operation Christmas Child

To the Editor:

Photo by Daniel Driscoll
Cats and dogs: Maureen Ramirez, left, from the Altamont Rescue Squad, smiles as she is presented with stuffed animals by Marty Herzog, president of the Kiwanis Club of the Helderbergs. Ramirez told the Kiwanis members a touching story about a girl who still had a stuffed toy she had saved from an ambulance ride years earlier.At its regular meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 23, the Kiwanis Club of the Helderbergs welcomed Maureen Ramierez from the Altamont Rescue Squad. During her visit, the club was pleased to present her with a supply of small stuffed animals for use when transporting injured and special-needs children to help calm any fears they may have.

Maureen filled in the club on the current activities of the service, in particular, its building improvements and the efforts to raise the money necessary to purchase a new ambulance. Altamont’s territory borders the area served by the Helderberg Ambulance Squad and the two groups work well together. The Altamont squad receives funding from Knox, Altamont, and Guilderland, and handles about 800 calls per year.

To the Editor:

On a quiet residential street in Delmar lays a building known to only a few. It’s home to the Nathaniel Adams Blanchard Post of the American Legion.

Nearly 800 members comprised of Legionaries, the American Legion Ladies’ Auxiliary, and the Sons of the American Legion remain constantly busy serving and giving back to the community. From breakfast buffets, to free dinners for vets, to music concerts, to rentals of their banquet hall, it’s all done by volunteers.

“I have a stepladder. It’s a very nice stepladder, but it’s sad that I never knew my real ladder.”

— Comedian Craig Charles

By Frank L. Palmeri

Photo from Frank L Palmeri
Lesson from a ladder: This stepladder collapsed, leaving Frank Palmeri with a scraped knee and sore shoulder. Rather than suing, he reflected on words from a town judge: Any mechanical device, new or old, can fail at any time. He decided to buy a new one, take good care of it, and test it before getting on it.When you marry, you not only acquire a partner, you acquire some of their stuff. For example, my lovely wife married into a pair of really nice stereo speakers with woofers big enough to rattle the glass on the family-room windows (though she never let me play them that loud).

Similarly, one of the things I married into was a six-foot aluminum stepladder. This stepladder was always just there; I’m not even sure my wife remembers where she got it. It wasn’t pretty but it got the job done.

So, the other day, I needed to adjust the Christmas lights I’d hung from the eaves on the front of the house. I got out the old stepladder, climbed up, and proceeded to work on the lights. Then, all of a sudden, with no warning at all, the stepladder started to collapse.

Uh-oh.

Impending injury is one of those things where time seems to slow down. When the stepladder started to collapse, I’d been standing on the second step from the top, about five feet above the ground; then, just like that, I found myself in a mid-air horizontal position. In that initial moment I remember thinking, “This could turn out really badly.”

By Anne Hayden

GUILDERLAND — Two men robbed a bank in Hamilton Square on Wednesday, Jan. 23, and the Guilderland Police Department so far has no leads, although the suspects may be linked to robberies in northern New York.

The men entered the Berkshire Bank, near the intersection of routes 20 and 155, at approximately 2:50 p.m. in the afternoon, and each went to a different teller with a demand note, according to a release from the Guilderland Police.

“They claimed they were armed, but no weapons were shown,” said Captain Curtis Cox this week.

The suspects left the bank on foot with an undetermined amount of money.

By Tyler Murphy

VOORHEESVILLE — Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his executive budget last week, proposing a statewide increase in education spending by 4.4 percent, but the plan will cut aid to the Voorheesville School District by 5.9 percent.

The governor said his 2013-14 budget would increase education aid spending in New York by $889 million from last year, with the state spending on average an extra $300 per student.

Of all the school districts in Albany County, Voorheesville saw the greatest percentage drop in its projected aid revenue from last year, but Superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder said the reduction looks so large because the district had received this year a conversion grant to change kindergarten from half-day to full-day classes.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

GUILDERLAND — A decade ago, about thirty students were learning English as they attended Guilderland schools; today, there are 173. The languages spoken in their homes include Chinese, Korean, many Indian dialects, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, French, Bengali, Vietnamese, and Hebrew.

The English as a Second Language — ESL — program that teaches these students continues to expand.

“I say that with pride,” said Demian Singleton, Guilderland’s assistant superintendent for instruction, at the start of a presentation to the school board on Jan. 22. He conceded that the instruction takes a lot of resources and energy but concluded, “It’s a wonderful population of students.”

The students come to Guilderland because of jobs in the region, like those at the Nano Science Center and Global Foundries, said Marcia Ranieri, the instructional administrator for the ESL program who is also the supervisor for the district’s World Languages and Cultures.

By Marcello Iaia

HILLTOWNS — Photos of a male student’s nude ex-girlfriend were discovered by the school principal on his cell phone after it was confiscated at Berne-Knox-Westerlo on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Both are 14 years old.

An investigation is still ongoing, but criminal charges are not likely, according to Inspector Mark DeFrancesco of the Albany County Sheriff’s Office. Whether secondary school Principal Brian Corey searched through the phone or had reasonable suspicion to do so is unclear.

“Child pornography doesn’t have an age limit, but obviously you have to take into account, I think, when the laws were made; there probably wasn’t even texting, let alone to this extent, with pictures being e-mailed back and forth,” DeFrancesco said Tuesday.

KNOX — The town board here held its first informational meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 22, regarding the need to update Knox’s comprehensive land-use plan.   

A meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 11, at the Knox Town Hall to solicit input to form a committee for this project. 

Residents of Knox who would like to participate on the committee or who would like to know more about the tasks that will be involved are encouraged to attend.  The town board is looking for a cross-section of people from the community to represent different age groups and backgrounds. 

Information about the comprehensive plan is available online at the town’s website at www.Knoxny.org. Additional information about the project may be obtained by contacting either Michael Hammond, Knox supervisor, at mhammond2@nycap.rr.com or Robert Price, chairman of the town’s planning board, at gearknox@nycap.rr.com.

The Thacher Nature Center is looking for artists interested in participating in the  10th Annual Nature Art Exhibit,  on display  at the Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center  from Saturday, March 9, to Saturday, March 23.

The exhibit showcases artwork with the theme of nature.  Artists may submit up to three pieces of artwork for consideration. Original artwork in any medium will be considered.  All submissions must be nature inspired or created using natural material.

The hanging fee for the exhibit is $10 per artist.

The opening reception for the exhibit is March 9, from1 to 4 p.m.

Call 872-1237 for more information and application. 

St. John’s Sunday schedule

St. John’s Lutheran Church at 140 Maple Ave. in Altamont has the following schedule for Sunday, Jan. 27:

— 8:30 a.m. there will be an informal worship including modern and ethnic hymns plus a discussion of format for a sermon;

— 9:45 a.m. Sunday school for preschool through high school children. There will also be an adult discussion; and

— 11 a.m. there will be a traditional worship with traditional pipe organ accompaniment.

The Rev. Gregory Zajac, will present a sermon on Jesus beginning his public ministry, based on Luke 4:14-21.

For more information contact the church at 861-8862 or check out the website at www.stjohnsaltamont.org.

ALBANY — Maureen “Reenie” C. Stow, a long-time postal worker who loved her family, died unexpectedly at her home on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. She was 55. 

She was born in Louisville, Ky., the daughter of the late Alan T. and Mildred A. Spaulding Schwartz. She has lived in the Albany area most of her life, and was employed by the United States Postal Service for 30 years. 

“Maureen was a kind, generous soul, often putting others before herself.  She would make sure to have a card or present for anyone’s special occasion,” her family wrote in a tribute. “Garage sales, flea markets, and estate sales were some of Maureen’s favorite hobbies.  She also enjoyed watching old-time movies and spending time at the beach. Maureen loved spending time with her family, especially her granddaughter, Camarria, and her great nephew, Luke. They were one of her greatest joys.”

RENSSELAERVILLE – As an accountant, dancer, and fighter for what is right, Irene S. Tanner had a good sense of balance.

She was promoted through the ranks of the New York State Division for Youth, and of the American Legion Auxiliary to become department president. And she raised a family.

She died on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, at St. Peter’s Hospital after a sudden illness. She was 87.

Mrs. Tanner was born on May 12, 1925 at home in Livingstonville, to Orlando and Ida Fancher Scoville. Mrs. Tanner’s father owned a mercantile store, where his granddaughter, Candace Ruland, said her mother’s watchful eye for finances was honed.

She graduated from Middlburgh High School and worked at an Army depot in Schenectady as a young woman.

Mrs. Ruland suspects her parents met at one of the most popular social gatherings in the area: the Livingstonville dance hall on a Saturday night, where her grandmother ran food concessions.

“They would go from Catskill out to Livingstonville and dance the night away,” she said.

Niles C. Tanner, her husband, had just returned from World War II’s Pacific Theater, working as a plank man on the U.S. North Carolina.

The Tanners formed the “N&I Express” trucking company, using the intials of their first names, after getting married. Mr. Tanner would work with Mrs. Tanner’s brother, Raymond Scoville, trucking freight, while she handled the bookkeeping.

“Before I became a parent, I thought they should be more involved in my life than they were….Now I realize what a gift they gave me, because they weren’t so darn involved and had to know every little dissected thing that we did,” said Mrs. Ruland. Her mother was independent, Mrs. Ruland said, and she described her as a “strong woman,” and a “fighter for what’s right.”

After raising her family, Mrs. Tanner worked at Camp Cass, a juvenile detention center in Rensselaerville, for the New York State Division for Youth.

“I can remember the day that [Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller broke ground for it, because the whole town was up there,” Ruland said. “When it was in its heyday, it was a really good program. And she really enjoyed working there.”

Mrs. Tanner won awards for her work and was promoted to the central office in Albany. She retired in the early 1990s as assistant supervisor of finance.

Mrs. Ruland said deficits and mishandled budgets bothered her mother.

“She would have to go out with their business agent if their bookwork wasn’t coming back right, to get them on track,” her daughter said of Mrs. Tanner’s work with Division for Youth institutions.

BERNE — Helen Ruth Laraway Proper, a long-time lunch lady for the school in Berne who was active in community groups, died on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, at the Rockingham County Hospice in North Carolina after a brief illness. She was 91.

She was born in Huntersland on Oct. 15, 1921, the daughter of the late Carver and Ruth Weidman Laraway.

Mrs. Proper worked for the Berne-Knox Central School in the cafeteria for 22 years. She was a lifetime member of the Ladies’ Auxiliary for the Berne Fire Department and a long-time member of the Hilltown Seniors.

“Helen spent 62 years caring for her beautiful home on the Berne-Altamont Road in Berne,” her family wrote in a tribute.

Her husband, Freeman Proper, died before her as did her grandson David Laxton in 1991.

BERNE — To succeed at Pitch, a card-game of trumps and bids, one needs to be a keen player and a dedicated worker. Dorothy Lorraine Willsey was both.

Mrs. Willsey died peacefully after a long illness on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013.

The daughter of Chester E. and Sarah Eva Thompkins Pitcher, Mrs. Willsey was born in Albany on April 8, 1931. Her father owned a candy and cigarette store on Clinton Avenue in the city.

She was a cheerleader for Berne-Knox High School and played baritone horn in band with her two best friends, Violet and Irene.

Later in life, the three would take road trips every two years to St. Cloud, in central Florida, to visit old relatives. They would play intense card games of Pitch or Rummy.

“It was a standard Willsey game,” Mrs. Willsey’s daughter, Sally Meduna, said of Pitch.

GUILDERLAND — Trained as a nurse, Mary Catherine Becker tended to those she loved all her life.

She died with family by her side on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in St. Peter’s Hospice in Albany. She was 93.

She was born on Sept. 18, 1919, to the late Elbert and Laura Miller in Peru, Ind.

As a young woman, Mrs. Becker went to nursing school and was a Girl Scout leader and a Cub Scout den mother. She volunteered at Albany Medical Center Hospital for 30 years.

She sang in the choirs of Altamont Reformed Church and McKownville United Methodist Church. She served as a deacon on the Consistory of Altamont Reformed Church.

Richard D. Kelly, a man who “dedicated his life to the pursuit of learning and the dissemination of knowledge,” his family said, died, after a long illness, at his home on Lakeview Road, in East Berne, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. He was 77.

RENSSELAERVILLE — The devotion Mary Kuhar had to her Russian Orthodox Church burned as bright as the anthracite coal mined from the fields of her native Olyphant, Penn.

Mrs. Kuhar was raised by Dimitri “Mitro” and Efrona “Frances” Koropehak Swatkowski in the small town within Lackawanna County, through which the Northern Anthracite Field runs; it is one of the few places in the world where such a high grade of coal is found.

Mary Kuhar died on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, at the Guilderland Center Nursing Home after a long illness. She was 96.

Born on Oct. 26, 1916, Mrs. Kuhar carried throughout her life the frugality of the Great Depression that devastated the coal industry her father worked in just around the time she moved to Bridgeport, Conn.

To the Editor:

We were at the basketball game Jan. 19 at Voorheesville and would like to say the Voorheesville fans didn’t bother to read their book about conduct at the games.

Why, when the Berne-Knox-Westerlo players were on the foul line, did the Voorheesville fans have to make as much noise as possible?

Do they call that good sports

manship? I call it being a poor loser.

Oh, they did lose — 89 to 85 in overtime.

Go, Bulldogs!

Roy C. Wilcox

New Scotland

To the Editor:

To the good people of Guilderland Central School District: We are the executive board of the GCSD Employees Association. We represent the custodians, food-service workers, maintenance workers, mechanics, groundskeepers, bus drivers, and attendants.

We see the result of the press release in last week’s Enterprise and are not surprised.

[Editor’s note: After receiving a press release last week from the GEA’s attorney, Thomas J. Jordan, The Enterprise, wrote a story about the impasse between the GEA and the district, “GEA goes to fact-finder hearing” available online at www.AltamontEnterprise.com.]

The GCSD administrators put their usual spin on the facts to make it seem as if they are being just and fair with us.

It had all their typical talking points, sounding completely rational, understanding, and sympathetic, and seemingly ever mindful of taxpayer money. Yet, they are misleading you.

To the Editor:

Our SGS — Schenectady, Guilderland, Scotia rowing program — is seeking seventh- and eighth-grade modified rowers and high school rowers in grades nine through 12 for the spring season. 

We are having an informational meeting for parents and students, old and new, on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at the Schenectady Library from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

The program is club rowing for middle school and high school rowers.  We meet in Schenectady on the Mohawk River for spring rowing. Details can be found on the website www.sgsrowing.org, or come on Jan. 29 to the McChesney Room for more information.

Winter training starts on Feb. 4 at the Union Boathouse in Schenectady. 

All rowers are welcome.

Cheryl McNamara

Guilderland 

To the Editor:

The Altamont Free Library’s seventh annual “I Love My Library” Gala will take place on Saturday, Feb. 23, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Altamont Village Community Room.
This year’s theme will be “Celebration!” to mark the opening of the library’s new home in the fully renovated 1897 Delaware & Hudson train station. The library has had a tremendous first six months.

Our circulation is up 25 percent and many people who couldn’t visit the library in the basement now do. Proceeds from this year’s gala will help us meet this increase in demand, and help cover the expenses that come with having a home of our own.

To the Editor:

I can’t stand around any longer and watch as our school (Berne-Knox-Westerlo) is being destroyed by the people we elected to the board to “help us.” We have supported and voted for these members and what have they done for the students?

To me, it seems like nothing. Where on earth is the interest in the children who attend?

The school is not a place for politics, or résumé building. If you come here for a job, then you should want to teach or help students grow, not just make some money and then move on.

It is a teacher’s job to teach tomorrow’s citizens to succeed in life. It is an educational institution that should be focused on making our children the best and brightest.

To the Editor:

For many years, the Altamont Fair Association in Albany County has had a Model 45-EL 400 HP center cab #1 switcher in storage. This unit is one of three that were built by the Midwest Locomotive Works and formerly used at Albany’s Port District Railroad.

This is a twin gasoline engine General Electric unit that produced 400 horsepower, weighs 45 tons, and was built in July of 1931. It has long been replaced by S2s from Alco’s nearby Schenectady plant.

Her twin sister, Cab #2, was sold in the late 1940s to Brown Paper Co. in Castleton-on-Hudson, NY. Cab #3 was believed to possibly haul concrete materials in Forreston, Ill.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Frequent flyer: Voorheesville’s Noah Crawford drives the lane for a lay-up as Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s Garrett Pitcher, right, and Tristan Wilson, left, defend during last Saturday’s game at the Blackbird Invitational tournament. The Bulldogs won, 89 to 85, in double overtime. Crawford scored 17 points, Pitcher scored 29 points, and Wilson scored 27.VOORHEESVILLE — The previous game between Berne-Knox-Westerlo Bulldogs and Voorheesville Blackbirds went to overtime. Last Saturday’s rematch was decided in double overtime. And, this time, the winner was BKW.

Basketball is taken to thrilling levels whenever the Bulldogs meet the Blackbirds. This can happen with a cross-county rivalry.

Emotions ran high during the most recent match-up between the small, neighboring schools at last Saturday’s Blackbird Invitational tournament in Voorheesville. With both teams in foul trouble in double overtime, BKW was able to survive, 89 to 85. The Bulldogs took advantage of costly turnovers by the Birds and made key foul shots down the stretch.

With BKW starters Tristan Wilson, Tanner Laurie, and Maclin Norray fouled out of the game, freshman Justin Houck came to the rescue.

The Bulldogs had an 80-to-76 lead, and Houck was able to steal the ball and then get fouled on two shot attempts. He made all four of his free throws to put the game out of reach for the Blackbirds.

BKW Head Coach Andy Wright, who turned 36 on Saturday, said that getting into foul trouble showed what his team is made of. “You have to figure out the guts of the team,” he said. “What we found out is that we have more of a team than one would immediately think.”

Valencia FontenelleValencia Fontenelle won first place in the local Hoop Shoot Contest at the Guilderland Elks Lodge last month, sending her to the District Level Hoop Shoot competition this past weekend.

Fontenelle competed against girls from Albany, Cobleskill, Colonie, Esperence, Rotterdam, and Watervliet.

Fontenelle came in first place at the District Level Hoop Shoot event last weekend. She will compete at the Regional Level competition on Feb. 9 in Clintonville.

Junior B

Guilderland found its stride against Saratoga in a rematch last Saturday.

The Lady Dutch served up some tenacious defense, snatching up 15 total steals, led by Alexa DiCaprio and Margan Kieley with three each. Guilderland stifled Saratoga’s offense, keeping the team to a mere 12 points.

Pine Bush Girls Softball will now be known as Guilderland Girls Softball. The website (www.pbgsl.com) and contact information will remain the same until further notice.

The league will be hosting a special event in March at Farnsworth Middle School to kick off the season and reveal the new logo and jerseys. This will be an event for everyone in the league to come together and have fun. There will be games, snacks, and entertainment.

Guilderland Girls Softball is looking forward to another great year of softball and is very excited about the changes and many opportunities that this season will offer.

Registration for the spring 2013 season can be made at www.sportssignup.com/Pinebush-Girls-Softball-Online-Registration.start.

By Anne Hayden

William WestGUILDERLAND — After 30 years in a job he calls “very rewarding,” Bill West, superintendent of the town’s Water and Wastewater, is retiring.

“I want to start working more around my farm, and maybe do a little more golfing, hunting, and fishing,” said West, who turns 58 this year. “I’d like to do some volunteer work, too, like Water for the People; I have expertise in that field.”

West started working for the town in 1977, when he was in college; he did part-time work during his summer breaks, while earning his associate’s degree in mathematics and then his bachelor’s degree in environmental science.

“I kind of always wanted to become a forest ranger, but life happens when you’re making other plans,” West said.

By Marcello Iaia

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Radio demo: With a base radio in his office, Knox Highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury describes how Knox transmissions are “covered” by other users during times of heavy use in the Hilltowns. All four Hilltown highway superintendents have reported their radios are usable, but three said they have experienced problems with interference and that River Valley Radio Inc. is continuing to make adjustments or repairs.KNOX — During a snowstorm, Knox plow drivers can hardly communicate, overpowered by nearby highway departments and businesses sharing the same radio frequency. Their radios are scheduled for repair in the coming week.

Highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury says chatter from other users interferes with Knox transmissions, even on their second channel, which is meant to communicate only between Knox two-way radios.

Tom Diederich of River Valley Radio Inc. said Wednesday that Knox radios should be working after a week and that drivers would be trained on how to use them.

“They have an operator issue and one defective piece of equipment that’s going to be repaired,” said Diederich, adding that the equipment needs its monitor function fixed. He said Knox radios have not been serviced in two years.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

“Let Us Be Heard” was the name of a Jan. 15 session held by the Guilderland School District to encourage advocacy from the community. Here, Kim Angus, the parent of an elementary student who misses his Spanish lessons, which were cut to close a gaping budget gap, makes her views known by writing the governor.GUILDERLAND — Kim Angus had a determined look on her face as she sat before a computer at a Guilderland High School lab, composing a missive to the governor.

She was joined by a handful of others who had attended the school district’s latest community conversation — this one aimed at advocacy.

Angus belongs to the Parent-Teacher Association at Lynnwood Elementary School where she was encouraged to come to the Jan. 15 session.

She attended the district’s last community conversation as well. “It made me want to show my support and try to help out,” she said.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Michael Koff
One lane: The Guilderland bowling team is 6-6 on the season after a 19-to-13 victory over Saratoga at Town ’N’ Country Lanes last Thursday. Here, junior- varsity bowler, Kailyn Taber, one of two girls on the team, winds up for a shot. Taber scored a 501 triple. For the varsity, Travis Losee was the top scorer; he bowled a 658 triple with a high game of 257.GUILDERLAND –– Bowling may not have the same intensity as some contact sports, but bowlers say it’s intense nonetheless. Sometimes, the outcome of a match is decided by one frame.

The pressure of a big shot can break a bowler down. The 10 pins seem to gawk at the bowler.

“Football is the most intense sport, but bowling is just different,” said Guilderland senior bowler A.J. Indovina, who also played football for the school. “You just get into it,” he said of bowling. “It can turn into a screaming match sometimes. You just get that rush.”

The Dutchmen bowled against Colonie at Town ’N’ Country Lanes on Jan. 15, and it was one of those “screaming match” instances, Indovina said. Guilderland and Colonie are two of the best teams in the Suburban Council.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Miss Fix-It: Emily Benson, a senior cross-country skier for Guilderland, props a ski up on a work bench on Tuesday. The Dutch have had a good racing season so far, but there wasn’t enough snow outside to practice on, so team members found other activities to do, like running and readying skis.GUILDERLAND –– This winter has produced more snow for the Guilderland cross-country skiers than in recent years, but there was no skiing to be had on Tuesday. With temperatures dipping into the single digits, the Dutch went for a run in the bitter elements.

Being told to run in extreme cold may seem cruel, but Guilderland would be skiing if there were enough snow coverage anyways. After practice was over, a dusting of snow moved through town.

“We have to prepare our bodies for those cold race days,” said senior Laurie Knapp, Guilderland’s top skier.

Head Coach Barb Newton watched the kids run while following them in her car. Knapp said that Newton would run with them if she were able.

“It’s the weather we ski in, so we have to get our breathing right,” said Sarah Barton. “I got pretty warm today. It’s not that bad.”

By Marcello Iaia

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
“Len”: The Berne-Knox-Westerlo Dean of Students, Leonard Kies, introduces himself to those attending the Jan. 22 board of education meeting. Kies has been with the district for about two weeks and said he has already begun to build rapport with select students. He taught elementary and middle school for seven years and worked as an administrator for 10 years in Long Island school districts, where he grew up.HILLTOWNS — Leonard Kies, the new dean of students for Berne-Knox-Westerlo, is a Mets fan.

“Unfortunately for me — but I am what I am,” said Kies.

For the Long Islander, athletics have been a keystone in both his 17-year-long career in education and growing up in a disciplined family where each of his siblings connected with something, like music or baseball.

Kies, known as “Len,” started two weeks ago in a broad administrative position that he views as fluid and fortifying for the BKW community.

While the job description is focused on discipline, it also includes teacher evaluation, interviewing new faculty and staff, curriculum development, and budget preparation and implementation. It is a 10-month position, with a week of work before and after the school year.

By Tyler Murphy

NEW SCOTLAND — After overseeing New Scotland’s building and zoning departments for more than two decades, Paul Cantlin retired from the town at the start of the new year.

When he was first hired in 1988 he was the only employee for both departments’, working on a typewriter from an office in a converted two-story home in New Salem.

When Cantlin retired on Jan. 1, the combined departments had three employees, an electronic filing system, and offices in the town hall.

“As far as the town, there really hasn’t been a ton of change. I don’t think so anyway. New Scotland is primarily rural and that character hasn’t seemed to change,” said Cantlin.

Cantlin worked as building and zoning administrator from January 1988 to July 1999, when he first tried to retire. In August of 2002, town leaders asked him if he would again resume the post and he agreed, serving until the end of 2012.

By Anne Hayden

ALBANY COUNTY — Nearly three months after Election Day, Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk was sworn in as the new Senator of the 46th District.

Until the week before she was sworn in, her competitor, Republican George Amedore, had been leading the race for the seat by 37 votes. When the state’s top court last week decided not to hear appeals, the decision by the state’s Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, stood and 99 more ballots were opened opened, making Tkaczyk the ultimate winner, by a margin of 18 votes.

“This is a very humbling experience, and I thank the voters and many volunteers who generously offered their time and support to help elect me,” said Tkaczyk, a sheep farmer from Duanesburg, in a statement on Jan. 23, shortly after she was sworn in.

By John R. Williams

Tuesday, Jan. 15, the Old Men of the Mountain met in the hills of Rensselaerville at the Hilltown Café.

The bridge across the creek that flows out of Myosotis Lake going out of Rensselaerville towards Huntersland or Preston Hollow or Livingstonville or all points (well, sort of southeast) was still decorated for Christmas. Many OFs hate to take the decorations down because now the house for some reason looks less cheery.

The OFs think that we all need some winter color; snow should fall in colors like red, green, blue, white, and various tints of these colors — wouldn’t that be great? It would not be necessary to decorate the outdoor trees, just let the snow fall on them and then shine a spotlight on the trees.

Gun-law bullies

This scribe is having trouble trying to encapsulate the discussion on guns that pervaded the table. To sum it up: The governor, at least with this group, is not speaking for New Yorkers, at least as he implies that it is “all” New Yorkers.

The statements should be preceeded by the adjective “some” New Yorkers, and, with most of the OFs, it should be “a few” New Yorkers, again at least as far as north of Route 84 is concerned.

The governor is not speaking for us. One OF put it nicely when he said the governor is a lackey for Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, and the governor in this case is really representing only the boroughs of the city and not the state of New York.

There was much more to this and the process by which it was done, whether it is guns, knives, or cows. It was political railroading with many sidings.

One OF said that many people harp on bullying and have extensive campaigns against bullying but, as this OF said, if you want to see a prime example of bullying, it was on display by Governor Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and the bullies from New York City — and most of the other legislators caved in.

Enough of that.

Flu news

and views

We discussed the current flu epidemic and how many people are getting the flu. The OFs are a microcosm of the general population in that some have had the shot, some have not, some had no reaction at all, and some became sick within a few hours after the shot with mild flu-like symptoms.

The OFs who have had the flu say it is something they wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy, although some withdrew that statement and said it would be better than wishing they had boils.

One OF who was at the emergency room with his wife over the weekend said that the number of flu cases, or people with the flu, was filling up the place.

The OF said that, if anyone was at the emergency room with a broken leg and had to wait very long, not only would he or she have the broken leg, but probably would get the flu to go along with it, and that little problem he or she would have picked up right there in the emergency room. The OF said there was almost a fog in the waiting room because of all the flu germs floating around in the air.

The art of plowing

Many of the OFs still have their own tractors (or Doodlebugs) with plows on them for plowing out their drives when it snows. These OFs reported that the ground is still soft, and the OFs have to be very careful or they would have their lawns all dug up from the plows digging in. These OFs say that there is not much frost in the ground and the last snowfall sucked up whatever was there.

The OFs, in their discussion of plowing snow, turned the subject of plowing into an art form with varied opinions on how best to plow, what type of blade, ease of attaching the plow, and the way it is attached to whatever type of equipment is being used to push the plow.

There were a few smart OFs who said they don’t worry about it; they didn’t put the snow there and whoever did can just take it away.  These OFs said they will just leave it where it is until whoever did it takes it away.

Those OFs who made it to the Hilltown Café in Rensselaerville (and if anyone uses Bing maps and clicks on Rensselaerville, and follows Delaware Turnpike out of town, they will see the Hilltown Café marked on the map as a landmark and this might be because of the time early on that a carload of OFs became lost trying to get there) were: Harold Guest, Frank Pauli, Roger Chapman, Carl Slater, Miner Stevens, Jim Heiser, Glenn Patterson, Mark Traver, Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Arnold Geraldsen, Don Moser, Mace Porter, Gary Porter, Jack Norray, Lou Schenck, Henry Whipple, Harold Grippen, Elwood Van Der Bilt, Mike Willsey, Jim Rissacher, and me. 

Newspapers, it has been said, deliver the first take of history.

History, though, can be more than printed words. Two recent visitors to our newsroom impressed upon us different ways of knowing the past and relating it to the here and now, which, in turn, may shape our future.

Earlier this month, Alice Begley, Guilderland’s town historian, brought us a column on Theodosia Burr Alton, daughter of a vice president and wife of a governor. Alice calls her Theodosia and has a personal relationship with this little-known figure from history who lived a life of great privilege and great sadness. Alice has brought her to life by writing a play about her.

Alice’s passion is nothing new to us. We have tromped through graveyards with her as she pieced together the past, and we’ve admired the way she inspired the salvation of the Schoolcraft Mansion. Instead of another parking lot, Guilderland will have a cultural center that speaks to its heritage.

Alice’s passion for history carries others along to value it, too.

On her bedroom wall is this poem from Emily Dickinson:

A WORD is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

Alice took Theodosia’s long-forgotten words, penned in letters to her beloved father, Aaron Burr, and brought them to life. “I could hear her voice as I read those papers,” she tells us.

She describes the one-woman show as Suellen Yates performed it at the Fort Orange Club. Theodosia had been born in a mansion at that site in 1783.

“The theater is dark, dark, dark — and all of a sudden, down the aisle comes this figure in filmy white clothes. The lights come up and the audience sees her,” says Alice. “She sees the chair where her Papa sat. His slippers are there. She puts her hand on the chair and says, ‘Papa, Papa, Papa….’”

Alice, dressed fashionably as always, in a turquoise coat with a scarf knit in complementary hues, unwraps the scarf from her neck to describe the theatrics that allow Theodosia to give birth on a darkened stage —just a scream beneath the scarf — and then, when the lights come on, Theodosia is cradling the scarf in her arms, cuddling it and cooing to it. It is her baby.

As Alice recites the lines in our newsroom it is as if, for a moment, Theodosia has come to life.

Alice relates that, after the play was over, a man in the audience told her, referring to the chair at the start of the play, “I knew Aaron Burr wasn’t in that chair. By the time the play was finished, I knew he was.”

“That play,” concludes Alice, “was the love of my life.”

Shortly before, Joe Merli had come to our newsroom with a letter about a train cab he is restoring for the Altamont Fair. He brought with him several photographs — one showing the rusted, neglected wreck it is now and others showing the railroad cab in its heyday; men dressed in crisp suits and fedora hats stand tall on its gleaming deck.

Joe cares as deeply about history as Alice. He makes history tangible through objects.

His father was a mechanic who, in 1946, built an Esso service station on Route 20 in Duanesburg. His mother ran a luncheonette on the five-acre plot, where the couple also rented cabins to travelers. Kathy’s Luncheonette and Cabins was named for Joe’s sister. Vacationing families would stay for a week, at $5 a night, visiting local tourist venues like Howe’s Caverns, returning to eat meals at the luncheonette.

“As an infant in my crib, I could listen to the cars ring the bell as they drove over the air hose. Ding! Ding!” Joe recalled. “My parents put a crib in here,” he says, referring to the shop he has expanded and taken back in time to look like a late-1800s factory.

“This has been a crib to me since I was a child,” says Joe.

He loved bodywork since he was 8. “I was blown away with the smell of paint and watching people take fenders off,” he said.

At the same young age, he could also plow snow around the shop in his father’s Jeep, although he wasn’t yet tall enough to see over the dashboard. “You could open the doors and see around you,” Joe said. “You just had to be able to see out and reach the clutch.”

In 1967, at the age of 16, he opened his own shop — Joe’s Bodyworks.

By 1976, the year of the nation’s Bicentennial, he changed his company’s name to Horseless Carriage Restorations and its focus to restoring antique automobiles. He famously restored a curved-dash Oldsmobile and re-enacted the epic 1903 Olds overland traversal of the country, wetting its wheels first in the Pacific Ocean and then, 40 days and 3,800 miles later, in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1990, Joe started building pushcarts and wagons, just as they were built over a century ago. “I wanted to do my own fabrication and design,” he said. Some of them are in Disney World, Disneyland, and Euro Disney along with a Steamboat Willie salad bar, complete with paddle wheels and smokestacks — based on the 1928 cartoon where Mickey and Minnie Mouse debuted.

“I love the industrial life of America from 1880 to 1930,” said Joe. “I like factories, I like trains, I like shipyards — anything that’s automated, anything with belts and shafts and pulleys. These are the things that actually built our country.”

People who visit the Altamont Fair and see the restored train cab “will look at a piece of American history,” he said.

Many of the visitors to the tri-county fair a century ago, Joe said, worked for Alco, American Locomotive, or for General Electric. “Schenectady was the city that hauled and lit the world,” he said, naming such GE greats as Charles Steinmetz, Thomas Edison, and George Westinghouse. “And Alco built locomotives for every state in America,” he said.

“It’s all done through robotics and computer chips now,” said Joe. “That’s replaced all the handmade jobs…People came home greasy and proud. Today, they can’t find work because we’ve given it all away…. That’s why restoring the engine is important.”

Recalling how he learned his trade from his father and how, for fun as a kid, he’d build with an Erector Set or, in the winter, build an igloo, Joe went on, “Kids are playing video games. They don’t know how this country was put together.”

He’s going to have a sign next to the restored railroad cab, dedicating it to the men and women who built industrial America.

Joe Merli, who is doing the project as a volunteer, said, “Life is about what you give back.”

We can’t return to an earlier era but we commend Alice Begley and Joe Merli for their tireless efforts, each in their own way, to keep important parts of the past vivid for all of us. Let’s take the parts that work — lessons on love and filial devotion or an understanding of creative invention — and use them to build a better future.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Herald for good reporting: Carl Bernstein gestures vigorously Sunday night at a forum on the state of journalism held by the Carey Center for Global Good in Rensselaerville. He and Bob Woodward’s investigative reporting on the Watergate scandal won a Pulitzer prize in 1973 and raised awareness of journalism’s public-service function, which, University at Albany journalism Professor Rosemary Armao said from the audience, inspired a younger generation of journalists — now more are needed for the 21st Century. Bernstein has worked for a variety of media outlets and written several non-fiction books, including, Loyalties, a memoir of his childhood with radical-left parents.RENSSELAERVILLE — Three gray-haired men — lions of their craft — discussed this question before a packed house Sunday night at the Carey Center for Global Good: “Is Journalism Dead?”

No post mortem on journalism, the autopsy was more on the body politic, which the panel found is at best “factionalized” or at worst “tribalized,” unable to suspend judgment in the pursuit of truth.

The program started with a clip from The Daily Show about CNN eliminating its investigative news department.

“It’s usually the first to go because it’s not a profit center,” said Brad Adgate, a CNN official, in the clip.

“What you just saw is a parable for what we’re discussing,” said Josh Friedman, one of the three panelists, who has two Pulitzer Prizes to his credit.

The other panelists were Lance Morrow, long-time writer for Time magazine and author of eight books, and Carl Bernstein who, with Bob Woodward, won a Pulitzer for covering the Watergate scandal, leading to Richard Nixon’s resignation.

“Carl and Lance met as teenagers on the copydesk of the Washington Star,” said Friedman.

“I went to work there at 16,” said Bernstein

Reminiscing over the old days of journalism, Friedman said, “The newsroom was filled with smoke and profanity…The technological changes have been enormous and that exciting world has slipped into uniformity.”

By Jo E. Prout

ALTAMONT — Resident Jolene Kowalski told the village board last week that her arrest by Altamont Police officers in front of her 4-year-old son for a briefly lapsed insurance policy was excessive. She and her husband, Josh Kowalski, questioned the quadrupled policing coverage Altamont receives from village, town, county, and state departments.

Altamont’s public safety commissioner, Todd Pucci, says that the state law is enforced consistently in Altamont and that Kowalski’s arrest was not excessive. He said the police did not shackle her as is typical with misdemeanor arrests.

Because the Kowalskis were late paying their car insurance, their policy had lapsed. Although it had been reinstated after 13 days, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles said, “By law, the motorist must do something about that suspension. They must either surrender the plates to serve the suspension or, if they are eligible, they can pay a civil penalty.” He noted that Jolene Kowalski had not responded to communications from the DMV and had not paid the required penalty until the day of her arrest.

By Ethie Moak

Enterprise file photo – Saranac Hale spencer
Preserving history: Paul Stewart speaks in front of the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence Underground Railroad site in Albany. He and his wife, Mary Liz Stewart, will speak on Feb. 5 to the New Scotland Historical Association about the Underground Railroad, emphasizing the African-American people who worked as conductors and stationmasters.The Underground Railroad was a means for slaves to escape from the South.  The New Scotland Historical Association is hosting a talk on the Underground Railroad by Paul and Mary Liz Stewart. 

The program is free and open to the public and will be held on Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wyman Osterhout Community Center in New Salem. 

Paul Stewart has a master of arts degree in pastoral studies and Mary Liz Stewart has a master of science degree in education.  They have been working on this project for 14 years.

They will tell the story of the Underground Railroad with an emphasis on the African-American people who worked as conductors and stationmasters.  Many of these people were not recognized in the past. 

ALTAMONT — St. Lucy’s/St. Bernadette’s Church in Altamont is offering a “Best of Ireland” tour accompanied by local travel expert Jean Gagnon, which will leave from Albany on April 4 and return on April 13.

There are currently four seats still available.

KNOX — The 17th Annual Winterfest, sponsored by the Knox Youth Council, will be held this year on Saturday, Jan. 26, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Knox Town Park.

Those who plan to attend are encouraged to bring sleds and tubes for sledding, and snowshoes or cross-country skis to use the park’s trails. There will be a bonfire, and food and hot beverages distributed free of charge.

GUILDERLAND — The Westmere Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners will hold its regular monthly meetings on the second Monday of each month, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Meetings shall be held in the offices of the Westmere Fire District at 1741 Western Ave. unless otherwise noted. Until construction has been completed at the firehouse, meetings are held in the temporary district offices at 1732 Western Ave.

St. John’s Lutheran Church at 140 Maple Ave. in Altamont has the following schedule for Sunday, Jan. 20:

— 8:30 a.m. there will be an informal worship including modern and ethnic hymns plus a discussion of format for a sermon;

— 9:45 a.m. Sunday school for preschool through high school children. There will also be an adult discussion; and

— 11 a.m. there will be a traditional worship with traditional pipe organ accompaniment.

The Rev. Gregory Zajac, will present “Loving Your Enemies” a sermon for Martin Luther King Day based on Luke 6-27-28..

For more information contact the church at 861-8862 or check out the website at www.stjohnsaltamont.org.

By Anne Hayden

GUILDERLAND — A New York City transplant, Guilderland resident Sal Fusco directed, produced, and starred in his own short film, Off Limits, which is set to run at the Madison Theatre this weekend.

The movie, set in Brooklyn, has a Mafia theme, and takes place mainly in a fictitious Italian restaurant. It was filmed in Schenectady.

Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York is inviting the community to share Girl Scout insignias, ephemera, or items of interest from the Girl Scout movement with alumnae, friends, family, and fans of Girl Scouting at ToGetHerThere, an exhibition of items from the council archives and the general public that spans the 100-year history of the organization.

The exhibit will take place on Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany and is free and open to the public.

Rebecca Golderman, 15, of Guilderland, competed in the National Football League’s Punt, Pass, and Kick national finals last weekend in Atlanta.

Golderman placed third in the 14 and 15 year old girls’ division with a score of 315.90. The competition was held at the Georgia Dome before the Atlanta Falcons took on the Seattle Seahawks in an NFC Divisional Round playoff game. Atlanta won, 30 to 28, and all the NFL PPK participants got tickets to the game.

A sophomore at Guilderland High School, Golderman plays soccer, lacrosse, and cross-country skis for the Dutch.

The Guilderland Basketball Club for Girls has joined with the Amateur Athletic Union Guilderland Cardinals, headed by Coach Tom Maxwell. Registration for the spring season will be held at Guilderland Elementary from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19.

Girls from the ages of 10 to 17 can continue to work on their game while playing in some of the best tournaments in the Northeast. The Guilderland Cardinals have long been recognized for having many of the best players in the area on their teams. 

With GBC and the Cardinals combining, this program will be fielding very talented and competitive teams.

During the spring season, the Cardinals will play in five tournaments and have two practices per week. There will be four separate teams: 10 and 11 years old, 12 and 13, 14 and 15, and 16 and 17.

The cost will be $250 per player, with additional AAU membership fee. Roster spots will fill up quickly.

For more information, contact Corey Bellack at cbellack@gmail.com (355-5331) or Tom Maxwell at tjmaxwell@aol.com (355-5338).

Boys:

–– Guilderland beat Colonie, 65 to 55, at home on Tuesday after defeating Averill Park by 17 points on the road last Friday. The Dutchmen (7-2, 7-3) have won five straight games, and are one game behind first-place Bethlehem in the Suburban Council South Division.

On Tuesday, Marc DuMoulin scored 21 points for Guilderland and Brian Crupi added 17. Freshman Andrew Platek scored 14 points.

The Dutch host Saratoga on Friday. DuMoulin, Crupi, Platek, and Vincent Simeone have all scored at least 100 points this season.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Not backing down: Reid Zyniecki competes in the 100-yard backstroke for Guilderville during last Friday’s home meet against Ravena. Zyniecki, who has qualified for States in the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley, was first in the backstroke on Friday with a time of 56.36.VOORHEESVILLE –– Reid Zyniecki believes that his best swimming is yet to come. The 6 feet, 4 inch Guilderland senior is ranked sixth in the state in both the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley, and he’s already earned a scholarship for the University of Buffalo.

Last Friday, swimming for Guilderville, which is a team that combines Guilderland and Voorheesville because Guilderland doesn’t have a pool, Zyniecki qualified for States in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:58.95. He was 25 seconds ahead of Ravena’s Leyton Spencer in second place.

Later, Zyniecki won the 100-yard backstroke with 12 seconds to spare. His state qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle is 4:45.42. Zyniecki swam in 10 different events this season.

This past weekend, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo varsity wrestling team continued its mid season stretch of strong showings with two impressive outings.

First, the Bulldogs defeated Green Tech last Thursday, 48-19. Anthony Pasquini, Devin McGill, Cody Fisher, Dom Woodmansee, Collin Peragine, Matt Farnan, Joe Sprung, and Stephen Degroff all picked up six-point wins for the Bulldogs.

Last Saturday, BKW competed in the Dan Wickham Classic at Unatego. The Bulldogs finished in fourth place out of 16 teams. Every member of the team won matches at this tournament which features schools from all throughout New York State. Schools from sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 compete at this event.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Hungry for hoops: Guilderland’s varsity teams, like boys’ basketball, lay their foundation in freshman sports. FOGA supports those freshman sports so that players like junior Marc DuMoulin, right, shown here in a game against Ballston Spa last week, can develop their skills.The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael

Hungry for hoops: Guilderland’s varsity teams, like boys’ basketball, lay their foundation in freshman sports. FOGA supports those freshman sports so that players like junior Marc DuMoulin, right, shown here in a game against Ballston Spa last week, can develop their skills.

 Emilio Genzano, a former Guilderland School Board member who spearheaded Friends of Guilderland Athletics back in the spring of 2010, said this week that FOGA has a communal vision for giving children an athletic opportunity. “Becoming a not-for-profit makes us an entity, and gives us the ability to have credibility,” he said. “FOGA is just trying to do its part because we hold this vision close to our hearts.”

GUILDERLAND — A man and a woman who drove from New York City to Guilderland in December and attempted to get prescription drugs with a forged prescription both pleaded guilty in Albany County Court on Wednesday.

Tonia Williams, 37, and Troy Martin, 23, drove to Guilderland on Dec. 5, and went to three different pharmacies with a forged prescription for Oxycodone; they were turned down by the first two pharmacies, and arrested after stopping at the third pharmacy, according to a press release from District Attorney David Soares’s office.

They will be sentenced on Feb. 14.

GUILDERLAND — An Altamont man who was arrested for drunk driving in December pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, a Class D felony, in Albany County Court on Tuesday.

On Dec. 15, Elijah Turner, 29, was observed speeding on Western Avenue, and, when an officer tried to initiate a traffic stop, Turner turned into a nearby golf course, eventually leaving his car and fleeing into the woods, according to a press release from District Attorney David Soares’s office.

Turner was found a short distance from his car and showed multiple signs of intoxication; he refused to submit to a breath test, and a check showed he was on probation for driving while intoxicated in 2008.

Turner will be sentenced on Feb. 16, and faces one to four years in state prison.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Peluso of the Vehicular Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.

— Anne Hayden

By Marcello Iaia

Enterprise file photo – Marcello Iaia
Valerie Lounsbury listens at a candidates’ forum in October, when she ran unopposed to finish the last year of former supervisor Marie Dermody’s term. Lounsbury, a Republican, was appointed in February of 2012. A financial audit by the state comptroller’s office was conducted through April, and its recently released report made several recommendations that Lounsbury said have been acted upon. One of the main reasons for its conclusion that the town’s records “do not provide an accurate portrait” of town fiscal health is the delayed submission of annual financial reports to the state. Lounsbury said she expects the 2011 report to be filed “within the next month.”RENSSELAERVILLE — Layers of accounting practices spread over several years have generated inaccurate financial records and overstated tax revenues in the town.

According to a report released by the state comptroller’s office on Jan. 11, town board members could not monitor the financial health of Rensselaerville, and security of town money was compromised during the period of its audit, from Jan. 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012.

Property and sales-tax revenues were overstated by almost 30 percent of general fund revenues; online bank accounts had ineligible users; an “improper” road machinery fund was created; and required reports had not been filed with the state, according to the audit report.

The town’s current supervisor, Valerie Lounsbury, said this week that all the recommendations made in the report have already been acted upon.

Over the course of years, the town has been identifying discrepancies between bank statements and its own records, correcting errors in order to submit its annual financial reports to the comptroller’s office.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

GUILDERLAND — The district’s 54 office workers will no longer get automatic step raises.

A two-year contract, which was approved unanimously this month by both the school board and the members of the Guilderland Office Workers’ Association, has percentage increases instead.

“The achievement…is we are eliminating and removing the step schedule, just going to a percentage increase,” said board President Colleen O’Connell at the school board’s Jan. 8 meeting as she thanked GOWA and the district’s negotiators — assistant superintendents Neil Sanders, for business, and Lin Severance, for human resources.

To the Editor:

Well, another year has passed and still no sidewalks along Route 146 in Guilderland Center. 

However, Saratoga Springs has been able to get $246,617 through a Safe Route to School grant awarded by the New York State Department of Transportation….

Why hasn’t the town of Guilderland applied for a grant as Schenectady, Bethlehem, and Malta have also applied for grants and have been awarded monies for sidewalks?

To the Editor: 

Guilderland taxpayers should take a close look at their town property tax bill that arrived this month. Your bill includes a 111-percent increase in the town’s pension tax, a tax our town board quietly created in 2012.

The long-term ramifications of this new tax are significant. The state’s 2-percent cap on property tax [levies] exempts pensions from the cap, which creates this gaping loophole in the law.

Anne Hayden’s Sept. 27, 2012 Enterprise headline claimed “No tax Hike for Guilderland,” but our taxes have gone up, again.

To the Editor:

I am Tim Burke, the Guilderland resident Dr. Marie Wiles cited as inaccurate in last week’s Altamont Enterprise. I have been working with young people for over two decades in a variety of settings and states.  I understand how important a healthy school district is.  Schools and their staff have an amazing chance to effect change.

I began attending various school meetings to advocate for the strongest district possible, many years before Rae Ellen and I knew we would be blessed with our own child.  Dr. Wiles seemed most troubled by four statements I made in my Jan. 3, 2013 letter.  Those four points were:

— 1. The board did not listen to the input gathered during Community Conversations.  On this point, I could have been clearer.  I have no way of knowing how many of the public comments each individual board member listened to or read on their own.

To the Editor:

I just wanted to say thank you for publishing the picture of me [page 1 on Jan. 3, 2013] from Mud Mania in the paper! It was really great to hear.

I’m actually a Second Lieutenant in the 2/101st Cavalry, New York National Guard.

Right now, I’m on state active duty in New York City in support of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. So the good news from home about the paper was a great morale boost.

Thank you so very much!

Lt. Justin Kupinski

New York City

To the Editor:

For 20-plus years my family has hung flower baskets and Christmas decorations in the village of Altamont.

The Grant family provides the greens and we make and hang them on the poles and lights.

I don’t ask for any money because I believe that you do not need to be compensated for examples of civic pride. I routinely re-hang any that blow down or otherwise.

Two days after Christmas, I noticed several were down and then realized that all the Christmas decorations were removed! Clearly this was the work of the Grinch!

To the Editor:

Just before Christmas, as a final part of this season’s Altamont’s Victorian Holidays activities, an anonymous and diverse group of six judges secretly wandered down every street in the village on Thursday evening, Dec. 20. Their task — to carefully consider who shall be the worthy winners of the annual Holiday Decorating challenge.

Although there was a clear winner again this season, magically there was a two-way tie for second. Too close to call, the committee therefore decided there would be two second-place winners for 2012.

To the Editor:

I would like to report to the town of Berne residents regarding my decision, as to rejecting the 2013 town budget.

First of all, the 4-percent pay increases were much higher for some town officials and appointments, which entails the 4-percent goes a long way for a low percentage.

Our supervisor now gets $18,300; the town clerk receives $38,380; the three assessors get a total of $31,384; and we have a new job duty of a senior account that will earn $47,320. That’s a few of the increases in payroll.

As a board member, I feel that, in this day and age, our tax money should be placed elsewhere. For example: Youth and seniors services in our town are not receiving increases. In fact, over the years, they have seen decreases.

Putting the budget together can be a tedious process, but I feel it’s a no-brainer to say “nay” to pay increases.

Robert J. McLaughlin, of Guilderland, was named to the Fall 2012 Dean’s List at Alderson Broaddus College in Philippi, W.Va.

McLaughlin had a Grade Point Average of 3.80 and was one of eight players voted as a “Top Player to Watch” by the Baseball Coaches of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

By Marcello Iaia

Enterprise file photo – David S. Lewis
Construction for the creek: The project to build a sewer system in Berne has held the aim of keeping the Foxenkill, above, free of effluent from residential septic tanks. With an engagement letter being processed for its audit and a date for bids set to be opened on Feb. 21, construction on the project is nearing reality.

BERNE — A handful of new names joined the list of town officials at Berne’s 2013 re-organizational meeting on Jan. 9. They were appointed unanimously.

Then the vote for salaries, raised by 4 percent, was split, a senior van was reported to need glow plugs, and a transfer was needed to cover an overage in 2012 board salary payments.

Bonnie Conklin, the only Republican board member, said Monday she voted against the salary increases for town officials adopted in the 2013 budget. She wanted none.

“My feeling is, I haven’t gotten a raise from my real job in years, and then I look at services we provide for the town, and that money is not increasing. It’s at a stand still,” said Conklin, who also cast the only opposing vote when the $2.25 million spending plan was adopted on Nov. 14.

Supervisor Kevin Crosier, a Democrat, said Tuesday that the $5,000 increase to the supervisor’s salary in the 2013 budget, noted by Conklin in a letter to the editor this week, was made to match the workload of the position.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

GUILDERLAND — After more than a year and a half with an expired contract, the Guilderland Employees Association will participate with the school district in a fact-finder’s hearing the first week in February.

“We’re looking for a reasonable salary increase,” said Thomas J. Jordan, the GEA’s lawyer, declining to name a percentage.

“We’re not looking for the moon,” he went on. “We just want them to be fair, in line with the other units.”

“We have a difference of opinion as to what a raise is,” said Lin Severance, the district’s assistant superintendent for human resources and one of its negotiators. “There are raises built into the step structure.”

By Anne Hayden

ALBANY COUNTY — Before next week, the long-contested race to represent the new 46th State Senate District will be over. The two candidates ran out of options yesterday when the state’s highest court declined to hear their appeals.

The legal battle started soon after Election Night, when both candidates declared victory in a race too close to call.

On Jan. 9, the state’s Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, ruled that 99 ballots, of the several hundred that were earlier deemed invalid, should be opened and counted.

BAINBRIDGE — The sports awards he won throughout high school could cover a kitchen table, but Ryan Healt was most proud of the ones given for sportsmanship.

Ryan A. Healt died unexpectedly on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City. He was 24.

 Born in Schenectady on May 2, 1988, and raised in Knox, Mr. Healt enjoyed going with his father, Ronald Healt, who was a member and past president, to the local firehouse, to be with the other firemen and their sons.

The elder Healt, who was a member of the Knox fire company for 19 years, said this sense of camaraderie pervaded his son’s actions as a selfless leader.

Ryan Healt, who was called “Pirate” by his friends, played soccer, basketball, and baseball, becoming co-captain of all three during his senior year.

Melvina E. Gifford

ALTAMONT — Melvina E. Gifford died on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, at St. Peter’s Hospital, after a short illness. She was 79.

Mrs. Gifford is survived by her four children, Thomas, and his partner, Debbie Houlihan, Jerry, and his wife, Gayle, Linda Sue, and her partner, Jacky Blair, and Trisha Lynn; her grandchildren, Joby, and his wife, Ashli, Jody, and her husband, Ronald, Jennifer, and her husband, Corey, Jacob, Samantha, Nicole, Erin, and Levey; and several great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

A memorial service was held on Jan. 15 at the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont.

Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of one’s choice.

The defendant cried. Family and friends of the three dead victims cried. The clerk cried. And the judge cried.

At the center of all this misery in Albany County Court last Friday was a gaping hole in our state laws and in our perceptions as a society.

LuAnn Burgess could hardly speak as she told the judge, “Words cannot express the horror and remorse I feel every day.”

She was being sentenced for killing three walkers with her sport utility vehicle on Aug. 10, 2011. Part of a walking club, the three women had been standing in front of St. Matthew’s Church in Voorheesville when Burgess hit them.

“She asked if anyone was hurt,” recalled a witness, describing Burgess’s mental state midst the carnage at the scene of the crash.

Burgess had answered Judge Stephen Herrick in November, as she pleaded guilty to three counts of negligent homicide, that she had been speeding, distracted, and under the effects of six different prescribed medications.

She suffers from Parkinson’s disease. The drugs were prescribed by her doctor who did not tell her she should not drive after taking them.

Burgess faced up to six months in jail, but several of those who spoke in the courtroom Friday — predictably her own lawyer but also, surprisingly, relatives of the victims — asked that she serve no jail time.

Judge Herrick sentenced Burgess to time served, five years of probation, and 600 hours of community service. Also, she will never drive again.

The district attorney, David Soares, whose office took nearly a year to charge Burgess has said the case presented questions as difficult as any he has encountered. After the sentencing, Soares said, “There is nothing you could look to, to lean on, any past precedent.”

A jury conviction would have been difficult, he said, because Burgess was taking legally prescribed drugs. Soares said that drug manufacturers and physicians are, along with Burgess, responsible for her use of drugs and driving with them.

The assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, Mary Tanner-Richter, who pushed for jail time, said, “I think every person in this room would agree the most important goal, that we all have, is to make sure a tragedy like the one that occurred on August 10, 2011, doesn’t happen again.”

We don’t see how sending Burgess to jail would have prevented this from happening again. Rather, as a society, we need to take a hard look at the problem and make some changes. First, we need to educate ourselves.

In 2007, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration came up with the first national prevalence estimates for drug-involved driving. In a field study, drivers were stopped randomly at 300 locations across the continental United States. More than 14 percent of weekend, nighttime drivers tested positive for illegal, prescription, or over-the-counter medications. For daytime drivers, 11 percent were drug-positive.

As citizens, we need to be aware of this problem, to protect our own safety as well as that of others. Friends shouldn’t let friends drive drugged anymore than they should let them drive drunk.

Across the nation, there has, in the last half-century, become a widespread acceptance that driving while intoxicated is harmful and therefore illegal. The laws followed the data and consciousness-raising. As a result, the numbers of people killed or injured in drunk-driving accidents has declined.

However, drugged driving laws have lagged behind drunk-driving laws. As the National Institute on Drug Abuses points out, part of this is because of the difficulty in determining drug levels, effects of combinations of drugs, and resulting impairments. By contrast, it’s relatively simple to measure a .08 percent blood-alcohol content, which is the legal limit for driving nationwide.

A number of states — Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode island, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin — have come up with a simple solution: per se laws that make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle if there is any detectable level of a prohibited drug, or its meabolites in the driver’s blood.

But the drugs Burgess took were not “prohibited” drugs; they were prescribed. Parkinson’s is a degenerative disorder marked by early symptoms of shaking, rigidity, and difficulty moving. Most people are able to drive during the first stages of the disease if they are taking medications to control their symptoms, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission.

Making a scapegoat out of one drugged driver wouldn’t have solved the problem. We need to raise awareness and make changes in how doctors and drug companies inform patients about their use.

Medical associations need to develop clear guidelines and take a stance on the issue, medical schools need to teach their students about the perils of not warning patients, and it would be wise to appoint a state commission of experts to review current laws and practices to make recommendations to improve the system.

We wrote in October 2011, soon after the toxicology report for Burgess was released, that the Albany County Sheriff said, “I know a lot of people want to see a charge, but the law’s the law.” A person needs to have clearly broken the law to be convicted.

We wrote then, too, that sometimes an accident is just that — accidental, a matter of chance, not intention.

We are grateful in that tear-filled courtroom last Friday, justice was served. It is remarkable and commendable that both the judge and the district attorney saw that the responsibility for the deaths went beyond Burgess.

Until our society has made some significant changes, it behooves each of us, as individuals, to be aware of drugged driving. If one of us is taking a drug that makes it unsafe to operate heavy machinery — and the labels for this on both over-the-counter and prescription drugs must be made clear — we should not drive.

Driving is not an inalienable right. Safety is more important.

We should offer rides to friends or family members who take prescription drugs or call organizations like Community Caregivers to get rides. The drugs that affect driving are commonplace, ranging from allergy pills to medicines that help us sleep. We need to be vigilant.

That is the way to stop the tears.

By Tyler Murphy

The Enterprise –– Tyler Murphy
Solemn proceedings: In Albany County Court on Friday, LuAnn Burgess, center, weeps as she reacts to statements made by families of the three pedestrians who were killed when she drove her SUV off the road and into a Voorheesville church on Aug. 10, 2011. She pleaded guilty to negligent homicide. Burgess is flanked by her attorneys, Cheryl Coleman, left, and Larry Rosen. The three stood in respect for the family members as each approached the witness stand.

ALBANY — Instead of jail, LuAnn Burgess, the driver who crashed into a Voorheesville church and killed three people standing outside, was sentenced Friday to spend 600 hours warning community groups and speaking to lawmakers about the hazards of driving under the influence of prescription medication.

In a deal with prosecutors, Burgess pleaded guilty in November to three negligent homicide charges, admitting she was responsible for the deaths of the three victims.

Rosemarie Hume, 79; Carol Lansing, 66; and Frances Pallozzi, 81, were instantly killed when they were struck by Burgess’s Toyota Highlander at about 8:45 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2011, while waiting for friends at St. Matthew’s Church.

The Albany Sheriff’s office said an onboard computer in Burgess’ vehicle showed she had not braked during the accident. Responders at the scene reported Burgess was unaware she hit three people until police informed her at the hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries.

Burgess’s sentence also suspended her driving privileges for the rest of her life and placed her on five years’ probation.

The unprecedented case exposed gray areas between medicine and law.

Cabbage queen: Rori Champion can’t quite get her arms around the cabbage she grew last summer in her family’s garden. She got the seedling from the Voorheesville Garden Project and nurtured it to become the state champ, netting her a $1,000 scholarship.VOORHEESVILLE — Rori Champion, a fourth-grader at Voorheesville Elementary School, has lived up to her name, as a champion cultivator of cabbage.

She has won a $1,000 scholarship as New York State’s winner of the Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage Program. She has also been invited to appear on NBC’s NY Nightly News this Friday and plans on traveling down to New York City with her family.

Last March, when Champion was in third grade, the Voorheesville Garden Project distributed 2-inch Bonnie Mega-Cabbage Plants to each third-grader at the school. The students cultivated the plants throughout the growing season and submitted their results in September as fourth-graders.

By John R. Williams

On Tuesday, Jan. 8, the Old Men of the Mountain had their first breakfast of the New Year at the Home Front Café in Altamont.

It was a good start to the New Year, and some of the OFs commented on the toys they received for Christmas.

One OF received a “Dragon,” which is a device that lets him talk to his computer and the computer does what he says. He can tell it to open up, to locate e-mail, tell it who to send the message to, tell it what he wants in the message, and then tell it to send — and the OF has never touched the machine.

Another OF received a new laptop with Windows 8 on it. This OF and a few others that are involved with it, (Windows 8) say, “What a mess.” It is not user-friendly, plus unknowingly Windows has created a great advertisement for Apple.

The OFs said, if any of you OFs will be getting a new computer, ask to have seven put on it instead of eight and you will be much happier.

Lesson for a greedy mink

One of the OFs is a state trapper and was, the scribe emphasizes was, the animal control officer for the town of Knox. The state calls on this OF to go all over the area and remove pesky animals from wherever the situation may be. 

This includes animals like beaver, skunks, possums, and raccoons from locations where they don’t belong. This OF also has his own trap lines.

On New Year’s Day, he was checking his run and, in a small discharge stream from a pond where he had set a trap (under the water), the OF noticed it was tripped.

The OF took his rod and poked around in the snow and the rod hit something soft under the water in the trap so the OF figured he had a small beaver or muskrat. When he pulled it out of the water, what he actually had was a rabbit and a mink in the same trap.

Now that was a surprise, and a head-scratcher to boot. The OF brought proof of the phenomenon because he took pictures, thinking nobody is going to believe this.

In unison, some of the OFs said, “What was the rabbit doing under the water? We never heard of a swimming rabbit.”

The trapper could only surmise that the mink had caught it and was hauling it someplace for dinner and then got greedy when it spotted the bait in the trap and went after the bait in the trap also. That mink wasn’t going to let go of the rabbit either, he was going to have his rabbit stew and top it off with whatever the trapper had used for bait.

The OF said a good lesson learned here about a bird in the hand being better than a bird in the bush, or something like that. For those who are wondering a mink is a nasty little carnivore; they do not eat grass, and they can clean out a hen house in a hurry.

Has sling,

Needs hook and eye patch

We have an OF that has joined the ranks of the other OFs with having a shoulder (or both shoulders) repaired. The instructions that are given for this procedure are generally the same no matter who is doing the operation.

One of these instructions is to wear a shirt that buttons down because the patient will be going home in a sling and some of the slings have a pillow, or bumper attached. This OF had on such a sling — one with the pillow.

The OF put on his button-down shirt, and the left arm went in fine.

Then there was the one (right arm) with the sling that the shirt was supposed to go over. Well, on this the OF related that the buttons on the right lacked 18 inches from reaching the button holes on the left and now he was about to go out into the world with his gray chest hairs blowing in the wind, and his tummy exposed to greet the new day.

The nurses, after standing in the hallway laughing, felt sorry for him, so they brought in a pillowcase and pinned it to the inside of his shirt so a least it looked like he had a T-shirt on. Quite resourceful, these nurses, this scribe thought.

On the way home, the OF had his wife stop at Wally-World to get him a couple of cheap size triple-X, or size five-X shirts he could wear for a little while because he would only be a few weeks in the sling.

Nothing, the OF said, as they pulled one down that said size triple-X, and to him it looked rather small.  Then he looked at a size large and it looked larger than the size triple-X. The OF thought this was going to be a losing battle so no shirts were purchased.

Now the OF wears a really good-size sweater and looks very dashing.  To go along with the sweater with one empty sleeve, all this OF needs is a hook hanging out of it, and an eye patch and the picture will be complete.

Ready and will-ing?

At the ages of most of the OGs, wills are an important thing and it was another topic of discussion this morning. One OF just had his redone to keep up with the current events.

Many of the OFs had theirs done awhile back and it may be a good idea to have them looked at again. Who knows when the will might come into play, especially with the terms OGs, OFs, or the well-used term “senior citizens” attached to the names of the members of this nefarious group.  

Those attending the first breakfast of year at the Home Front Café in Altamont and glad to finally get out, were Henry Witt, Dave Williams, Harold Guest, Frank Pauli, Robie Osterman, Bill Krause, Steve Kelly, Roger Chapman, Henry Whipple, John Rossmann, Gary Porter, Mace Porter, Jack Norray, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Jim Heiser, Otis Lawyer, Ted Willsey, Mike Willsey, Jim Rissacher, Elwood VanDerBelt, Harold Grippen, and me.

By Sara Poggi

Photo by Sara Poggi
Winter’s beauty is evident in the snow-covered Pine Bush Preserve. Once the snow is six inches deep, it can serve as an insulating blanket, keeping the subnivean zone, just above the ground, at a steady temperature around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which serves as a snowy home for mice, voles, and other small mammals.Have you ever heard of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve? Better yet, have you ever visited it? Walked on the trails? Attended an educational program?

If you have never heard of the Pine Bush, I hope to help you come to know a bit more about it through this column. If you have visited before, I hope to point out something new to you, as I share what’s currently happening in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

As I write this, it has yet to be seen what kind of winter we will have here in the Capital Region. Will we have a relatively snowless winter similar to the last one or will the snow continue to pile up as time passes? What is your prediction?

In any case, we can sense the change in seasons. As I write this, it is cold and snow blankets the sand dunes. Yet there is still life in the Albany Pine Bush in the wintertime.

In fact, winter is the best time of year to hear owls calling. It is during the winter months that owls call to find mates and set down territories.

If you are outside in the evening hours, you might hear the barred owl calling, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all”?

Owls aren’t the only ones making noise on winter nights in the Pine Bush. You might hear coyotes calling out as well.

If going outside in the evening doesn’t appeal to you, keep your eyes peeled during the day for signs of some of these animals that are active at night. Winter is a great time to look for tracks and scat (that is, animal droppings) in the fresh snow. You might see signs of fox, coyote, or even fisher.

Daytime can also be full of life if you look and listen. Though some birds leave for the winter, migrating to warmer climates in search of food, there are many birds that stick around. You may see a flash of red as a cardinal flies past or see chickadees darting back and forth along the trail.

If you look very closely at branches along the trail, you might even see the chew marks of a deer having a snack.

When we actually get a nice big layer of snow, you might be surprised at the amount of life that can be found underneath it. The area between the top layer of snow and the surface of the ground is known as the subnivean zone. Once this layer reaches at least six inches deep, it can serve as an insulating blanket keeping the subnivean zone at a steady temperature around 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mice, voles, and other small mammals use this zone as a snowy home. Even some birds and insects seek shelter in the subnivean zone. The snow offers protection not only from the elements but also from predators.

Animals tunneling through the snow can find food like grasses, seeds, fungus, and bacteria on the surface of the ground. Here in the Pine Bush, a deep layer of snow protects the eggs of the endangered Karner blue butterfly from harsh fluctuations in temperature so that they will be ready to hatch in the spring.

There is a lot to explore even in winter. Don’t let the colder temperatures keep you inside.

If there is snow on the ground, strap on some snowshoes or cross-country skis. Be sure to dress appropriately for the weather and wear good sturdy footwear and then come on out and discover the Pine Bush in winter.

If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve or the programs we are offering this winter, feel free to check the website: www.AlbanyPineBush.org, give the Commission a call at 456-0655, or stop into the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Center of the media whirl: Liz Harvey reacts after scoring 31 points last Friday to break Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s all-time record for basketball points during a blow-out win against Schoharie. Harvey, a senior, and fourth-year varsity starter, has 1,526 career points. Sarah Domermuth finished her Bulldogs’ career with 1,525 points in 2004.BERNE –– Liz Harvey has positive attitude, wit, drive, kindness, strength, humility, and the will to be the best. Some of these characteristics have nothing to do with her brilliant basketball ability, but, in a way, they do.

She loves basketball and loves her Berne-Knox-Westerlo teammates. Harvey strives to win. Always.

So, when Harvey surpassed the 1,000-point career mark as a junior last year, it was only a matter of time before she broke Sarah Domermuth’s all-time record of 1,525 points. Since Harvey was one of Section 2’s leading scorers for the past four years, Domermuth’s mark was in serious jeopardy.

Last Friday in Berne, Harvey needed 31 points against Schoharie to become BKW’s all-time leading scorer, male or female. She had scored 35 points in two earlier games this season, so there was a decent chance. The Bulldogs’ fans hung on every shot Harvey took.

A meaningful Western Athletic Conference game was being played, but it was never close. This was Harvey’s night to shine, and she would not let the opportunity pass, or let any of her friends and family down.

By Marcello Iaia

WESETERLO — State Police have arrested a Westerlo man twice in recent months for his involvement with a minor.

Justin A. O’Toole, 20, was arrested on Dec. 24 by State Police in Princetown for sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child when he turned himself in for being sexually involved with a 15-year-old girlfriend in separate incidents in Rotterdam and Glenville, according to police.

The legal age for sexual consent in New York State is 17.

Albany County’s 29th annual New Year’s Eve Safe Ride Program was available in Albany County beginning at 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and ending at 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day, providing free rides home to revelers who had been drinking.

During that time, 331 taxicabs were dispatched, sponsored by the law firm of Martin, Harding & Mazzotti, and 10 people were arrested for driving while intoxicated, according to a release from Albany County Sheriff Craig D. Apple Sr. and STOP-DWI Administrator Lt. Kerry B. Thompson.

This compares to 2011 when there were six arrested for DWI and no alcohol related crashes.

Since the “Safe Ride Program” began in 1982, thousands have been transported home safely and there have been no alcohol-related fatalities on New Year’s Eve in Albany County.

By Jo E. Prout

ALTAMONT — Altamont native Michael Diakiwski, a student at Georgetown University Law Center, will complete his five-month internship at the White House this month.

“I was very excited to be accepted into the White House Internship Program,” Diakiwski said via the White House office of communications. “I was most interested in serving in this program because of the unparalleled leadership and public service experience that it provides. The opportunity to observe and learn from leaders at the top of their fields has been both rewarding and illuminating.”

By Marcello Iaia

photo by Michael Hammond
On New Year’s Day, Amy Pokorny is sworn in as town board member at the Knox re-organizational meeting. Pokorny, a Democrat, was appointed to the post in February 2012, and won against Republican Michael Swain in the election last November to fill out the remaining year of Republican Travis Stevens’s term. A new four-year term will be decided in the November 2013 election. KNOX — With the swearing-in of Democrat Amy Pokorny on New Year’s Day, the town board underwent one small change: it is fully elected.

A year ago, Pokorny’s seat was left empty by Republican Travis Stevens after he was elected to the Albany County Legislature in November 2011. The board, which had been bipartisan, after the 2011 election had four Democrats who appointed Pokorny in February despite a campaign by the defeated Republican Michael Swain to be appointed.

This past November, Knox voters again chose Democrats, with Pokorny maintained through the last year of Stevens’s term. A new, four-year term will be decided in November 2013.

There are nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans in Knox.

Following the recent election, Pokorny told The Enterprise partisanship is not relevant to the job, which she hopes to use to promote wise management of open space and water resources.

By Tyler Murphy

The Enterprise — Tyler Murphy
Oath of office: New Scotland Town Clerk Diane Deschenes, right, swears in Highway Superintendent Kenneth Guyer during the town’s first board meeting of the year on Jan. 2. Guyer won an uncontested election in November after being temporarily appointed to the post by the town board earlier this year. Since he was elected in the middle of the last superintendent’s term, he will have to run for election again this year.

NEW SCOTLAND — The town said goodbye on New Year’s Day to two long-time employees in 2012 and welcomed their replacements during last week’s reorganizational meeting, swearing in Highway Superintendent Kenneth Guyer and appointing Jeremy Cramer as head of the building department.

Guyer was appointed superintendent in May by the town board and won an uncontested election in November. Long-time highway superintendent, Darrell Duncan, had left the post after serving the town for 17 years and was appointed as head of the county’s public works department.

Even though he won the election, Guyer will serve only the remainder of Duncans’ term and will have to win election in November to serve another, full, two-year term.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

GUILDERLAND — Facing a $2.1 million revenue gap in developing next year’s budget, the school district here has planned another “Community Conversation” — this one is to inspire residents to write letters to government leaders, advocating for more aid and fewer mandates.

The session, titled “Let Us Be Heard: Community Advocacy for a Guilderland Education,” will be held at the high school on Jan. 15.

The session will start with school leaders “painting a picture,” said Superintendent Marie Wiles, of the long-term viability for the education “we know and love here.” A question-and-answer period will follow after which participants will “put the proverbial pen to paper and be heard,” Wiles told the school board at its meeting on Tuesday.

She is inviting high school students as well as staff and the community at large, noting it would be “compelling” to have 1,700 letters from students.

Joe Giordano, an eighth-grader at Farnsworth Middle School, will play the trombone in the Middle School Honor Band.GUILDERLAND — Five Guilderland students have been selected to participate in the New York State Honor Bands in March.

Each year, Honor Band members are chosen from hundreds of applicants based upon their New York State School Music Association score from the previous spring.  Each ensemble rehearses and performs during the New York State Band Directors Annual Symposium to be held this year at the Syracuse Convention Center from March 1 to 3.

The High School Honor Band, under the direction of Dr. James McRoy of Hofstra University, will include Angelo Amore and Will Wang, each on clarinet;

Connor Grocki on oboe; and Therese Giordano on French horn.

Performing with the Middle School Honor Band, under the direction of Dr. Glen Adsit with the Hartt School of Music, will be eighth-grade trombonist Joe Giordano.

The students were taught by Jennifer Austin, Kathleen Ehlinger, and Lee Russo.

Gathering around the piano: Guilderland High School students — in front, Therese Giordano and Connor Grocki, and, in back, Will Wang and Angelo Amore — have been selected for the High School Honor Band.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Lean back: Guilderland’s Ketrick Wine, right, elevates to pass the ball during Tuesday’s home game against Ballston Spa. The Dutchmen won, 67 to 52, after pulling away in the fourth quarter. Vincent Simeone scored 20 points for Guilderland, which won its third game in a row.GUILDERLAND –– Now, in the middle of a three-game winning streak, the Dutchmen basketball players are realizing that they can’t ever let down if they want to be true contenders in the tumultuous Suburban Council. After ending Shaker’s unbeaten season on the road last Friday, Guilderland pulled away from Ballston Spa on Tuesday.

The Dutch are nine points away from being undefeated in the league. The team has been in every game. Guilderland’s roster is young, but it has figured out how to win close games.

With starting center Marc DuMoulin on the bench because of foul trouble at the beginning of Tuesday’s fourth quarter, and up by two points, Guilderland ran off 24 points to put a cap on its 67-to-52 win over Ballston Spa. Connor Burg made a three-pointer, Andrew Platek sank a jumper off a screen, and the Dutch couldn’t be stopped.

Meanwhile, the Scotties’ shooting went cold at the flip of a switch.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Maximum effort: Senior Anna Feller tries to save the basketball from going out of bounds for Voorheesville during its home game against Lansingburgh last Friday, but her right foot is over the line. The Blackbirds won, 56 to 33, and Feller scored seven points. She averages 13.7 points per game.VOORHEESVILLE –– Voorheesville’s excellent shooting and precise passing in the first half led to a 23-point victory over Lansingburgh last Friday, but the Birds’ second-half play was lackluster. The Knights outscored the Blackbirds by two points in the second half.

Voorheesville girls’ basketball Head Coach Bob Baron thought that his team should have done a better job with closing out the game. Lansingburgh (0-8) is a winless team, but didn’t go down without a fight.

The Blackbirds (3-5) were outplayed in the third quarter.

“The third quarter is the quarter that we need to learn how to win,” Baron said after the 56-to-33 win at home. “Things got a little sloppy there, and the man-to-man defense didn’t help like it did in the first half. We gave up some good looks.”

Voorheesville came out with something to prove in the first quarter. Katina Wallace, Anna Norris, and Victoria Coluccio all made three-pointers, and Coluccio added a jumper. Anna Feller made a basket while getting fouled, and Wallace made another three. The Birds led, 17 to 3.

By Jordan J. Michael

DELANSON –– Two of the finest small-school wrestling teams in Section 2 –– Duanesburg and Berne-Knox-Westerlo –– went head-to-head, literally, last Thursday. The lights were low, but the intensity was high.

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Pinning his opponent in overtime is Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s Joe Sprung, top, during last Thursday’s 220-pound match against Duanesburg’s Jeff Senecal in Delanson. Sprung was behind, 3 to 0, but fought back to remain undefeated on the season. Duanesburg won the overall team score, 63 to 18.

Spectators packed the confines of the Duanesburg High School gym for an entertaining evening of wrestling. BKW had to forfeit six weight classes, but the remaining nine matches were all thrills and no fill.

This wasn’t the normal wrestling event. Something about the atmosphere made it unique. Every match had importance, and those in the crowd had their eyes locked on the center mat.

It’s just too bad that six matches had to be forfeited. BKW would have had a chance to upset Duanesburg on its home floor if it weren’t undermanned. Head Coach Jeff Vogel said that the Bulldogs usually have their weights filled, but there have been some issues with grades. Athletes must maintain a certain grade-point average in order to compete.

By Marcello Iaia

WESTERLO — About 20 community members attended the Jan. 3 re-organizational meeting for the town. In the board’s regular meeting that followed, a 2-to-1 vote failed to fill the two vacancies left at the end of 2012. (See related story)

The three-member board voted unanimously during the re-organizational meeting to:

— Establish the National Bank of Coxsackie as the depository of all town funds, and the maximum amount is not to exceed $250,000 per account;

— Pledge, in association with M&T Investment Group, all securities in excess of $100,000;

— Authorize the superintendent of highways to purchase equipment, materials, and tools for the highway department, with no more than $10,000, to purchase bituminous road oils at state contract price and to purchase shale when needed at no more than $6.75 per yard, with no more than $20,000, without prior approval of the board;

— Authorize the superintendent of highways to enter into contracts for public works related to the highway department, for no more than $20,000, without prior approval of the board;

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Anthony Sherman, the youngest of the three Westerlo Town Board members, is quiet during the town re-organizational meeting on Jan. 3. He previously served on the planning board and has just completed his first year as a council member.— Reimburse elected or appointed town officials a per-mile amount at the rate approved by the Internal Revenue Service when using their own vehicles for town business;

— Establish regular board meetings to be held on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Westerlo Town Hall, and the November meeting to be held on the Wednesday following the general election; establish meetings of the town planning board to be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. and the meetings of the zoning board of appeals on the third Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m.;

— Establish that within 60 days of the close of the previous fiscal year the supervisor will submit a copy of the report to the state comptroller, of which the town clerk will publish a summary within 10 days;

— Adopt its investment policy and procurement policies and procedures;

— Continue to temporarily retain Robert E. Fisher as a financial consultant through March 1, 2013, at $65 per hour, or $300 per day, whichever is less;

— Authorize the supervisor to pay bills without approval of the board; and

— Have a certified public accountant or auditing firm perform an annual audit of all town departments;

— Supervisor Richard Rapp explained that financial consultant Robert Fisher had reviewed the town’s financial records, and moved to accept his report. The motion was not seconded and was not voted on. “Not until I see his report,” said Sherman when asked for a second.

By Marcello Iaia

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
After more than 15 years of working for the town, Mark Overbaugh, left, knows his words by heart during the swearing-in ceremony, re-enacted here with Town Justice Timothy Miller at the Rensselaerville re-organizational meeting on Jan. 2. Overbaugh is the town’s Code Enforcement Officer and Building Inspector.

RENSSELAERVILLE — On the day she was sworn into office, Supervisor Valerie Lounsbury said the town board’s next priority would be new zoning regulations and a long-awaited parking ordinance on Methodist Hill Road.

Before the Jan. 2 re-organizational meeting, Lounsbury, a Republican, was sworn in, after running unopposed in the November 2012 election.

This time last year, Lounsbury’s fate was cast when Republicans were sworn in to their posts, displacing the majority previously held by Democrats. Supervisor Marie Dermody, a Democrat, resigned in January, citing in her letter that the town “culture” was a roadblock to her work.

By Anne Hayden

The Enterprise — Anne Hayden
Taking note: Members of Guilderland’s all-Democratic town board — from left, council members Brian Forte and Patricia Slavick, Supervisor Kenneth Runion, and council members Paul Pastore and Allen Maikels — made unanimous appointments on Jan. 1 for 2013.GUILDERLAND — On the first of the year, those governing Guilderland decided to expand the government, adopting a resolution to create a post for a third elected town judge.

The town board at the start of its annual re-organizational meeting also heard from Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy and new State Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy who spoke of the need for Albany County and its municipalities to work hand-in-hand to the benefit of all parties.

By Jo E. Prout

The Enterprise — Tyler Murphy
Judge Neil A. Taber is stepping down on March 31 after 32 years on the Altamont bench.ALTAMONT – Village Justice Neil A. Taber announced this week that he will not run for re-election when his term ends in March.

Taber, 85, has spent 32 years as a judge in Altamont.

“Sitting on the bench, you have to go strictly by the law. You can’t let your personal feelings or personal judgment get in the way,” Taber told The Enterprise this week.

Taber has applied his own style over the years. In 2004, Taber dismissed several cases en masse.

On Dec. 22 of that year, Taber recalled in an earlier report, he held court three days before Christmas.

Most of the offenders were there for speeding violations, he said. Taber told them that the minimum fine for speeding was $90 with a $55 surcharge on top, he recalled.

“I told them all I was going to give them an ACOD,” he said, referring to adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, meaning, if they were not arrested again in six months, there would be no record of their arrests; they would pay no fines.

“They all stood up and cheered and clapped,” recalled Taber. “Afterwards, [then Mayor] Paul DeSarbo said, ‘That’s the first time I’ve heard people cheering in court.’ One of them said I was like Santa Claus in a black robe.”

Editor’s note: Enterprise staff photographer, Michael Koff, a volunteer with the Westmere Fire Department for a year and a half, has made many calls for routine tasks like pumping out basements or helping at the scene of a car accident. But last Thursday, he answered his first call for a fire that destroyed a home. Koff wrote this first-person account of the experience.

By Michael Koff

The Enterprise –– Michael Koff
Remnants of what’s left: At 4:20 a.m. last Thursday morning, the members of the Westmere Fire Department received a call for a fully involved house fire at 4056 Chaucer Place, at the end of a row of townhouses. Members of the McKownville, Guilderland, North Bethlehem and Fort Hunter departments assisted in putting out the fire. Their work, along with a strong firewall kept the blaze from taking down the entire row. The fire investigators have not yet been able to determine the cause.GUILDERLAND –– At 5 degrees below zero, last Thursday morning was the coldest this season as members of the Westmere Fire Department were toned out for a structure fire at 4:20 a.m.

My first thought on hearing the tone was, “It’s probably just an oven fire or something simple.”

Before I could even put my right contact lens in my eye, I heard over the pager Westmere’s assistant chief saying he was en route as the dispatcher said, “Per PD on scene, house is fully involved.”

By Marcello Iaia

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Two empty seats flank Councilman Anthony Sherman, a Democrat, after other members voted to appoint Theodore Lounsbury and William Bichteman to two empty board seats on Jan. 3. His dissenting vote prevented their appointments, as well as other motions that night.WESTERLO — With only three members, all Democrats, the town board needed a unanimous vote to fill its two vacancies at the Jan. 3 meeting.

“Nay — I oppose,” said Councilman Anthony Sherman on the motion to appoint Democrats Theodore Lounsbury and William Bichteman to the board.

Unless a special election is held, or votes are changed in a revote, the vacancies remain.

Sherman, a Democrat, created the same 2-to-1, non-action votes during the town re-organizational meeting earlier that night, preventing the establishment of The Enterprise as the town’s official newspaper and wages for library workers.

State law requires a majority of a board’s full membership — three on a five-member board — to pass any measures.

By Tyler Murphy

VOORHEESVILLE — With reductions in aid over the last few years, many public school officials are exploring what they call “alternative revenue streams” to raise money through non-traditional methods.

One stream the Voorheesville Board of Education may soon offer is marketing tuition rates for out-of-district students. About two years ago, the district also began public auctions of old materials being discarded, such as vehicles, desks and computers, to help generate more income.

Soon for students it will mean hosting a Beatles’ music concert.

Actually, it’s the Broadway tribute band, Beatlemania Again, and the show will be on stage Feb. 2 at the high school-middle school Lydia Tobler Theater.

The show is a first for the school district, which is now in the experimental business of renting out performance space to private entertainers and has so far scheduled three performances.

Dean’s list

These local students have been named to the dean’s list or received a similar honor from their college or university for the fall 2012 semester:

— Caitlin Abelseth, of Voorheesville, a member of the class of 2015, at Providence College in Rhode Island;

— Nicholas Adams of Schenectady at the University of New Haven in Connecticut;

— Kelly Freisatz of Schenectady at the University of New Haven in Connecticut;

— Kyle Sheehan of Schenectady at the University of New Haven in Connecticut;

— Rachel Jordan of Voorheesville at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., where she is a senior majoring in health and exercise science;

— Derek McCarthy, of Schenectady, at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt. where he is majoring in computer and digital forensics.

— Maryssa Patschureck was named to the dean’s list at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh. A 2010 graduate of Guilderland High School, she is a communications studies major and the daughter of Dawn Shafer and Ralph Patschureck;

— Evan Treadgold, of Altamont, at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt. where he is majoring in communications;

— Tyler Waterhouse of Altamont, majoring in mechanical engineering technology is on the president’s list at the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome;

— Renat Kudyakov of Schenectady, majoring in nursing/family practice is on the president’s list at the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome; and

— Kameron Conner of Schenectady, majoring in computer/information sciences at the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome.

Clarkson

scholarships

The following local students received scholarships at Clarkson University during the 2012-2013 academic year:

— Victoria H. Kocsis of Berne, a sophomore majoring in biomolecular science and biology, received the David Scaringe ‘01 Memorial Endowed Scholarship and the Purcell J. and Edith O. Brownell Endowed Scholarship;

— Adam N. Bailey of Voorheesville, a freshman majoring in civil engineering, received the David Scaringe ‘01 Memorial Sponsored Scholarship;

— Brian G. Root of Altamont, a freshman majoring in chemical engineering, received the Margaret Van Hamlin Haddad Endowed Scholarship; and

— Stacey Wen of Schenectady, a senior majoring in innovation and entrepreneurship, received the Sprout Foundation Sponsored Scholarship.

— Alexander D. Macri of Voorheesville, majoring in computer science and digital arts and sciences, received the Elinore and Beecher ‘50 Greenman Class of 2016 Share Clarkson Direct Scholarship;

— Connor D. Tompkins of Voorheesville a junior majoring in physics and mechanical engineering, received the Richard & Gina Weniger Memorial Endowed Scholarship;

Published

Brianna Grant of Altamont earned a 3.80 grade-point average at The College of Saint Rose in Albany and was named to the dean’s list for the second straight semester. She is a junior and a criminal justice, law, and behavior major with a minor in business administration.

One of her reports was chosen for publication in the Journal of Undergraduate Research and another is being considered for publication by the New York State Magistrate’s newsletter;

These local students were recently named to the deans’ list for the fall 2012 term; the college’s Dean’s List honors those students who have a term grade-point average between 3.0 and 3.5.:

— Katherine DuVernoy of Altamont, in the individual studies academic program;

— Ryan Fanuele of Altamont, in the business administration academic program;

— Ashleigh Huber of Altamont, in the individual studies academic program;

— Alexander Knapp of Altamont, in the civil engineering technology academic program;

— Stacey Martin of Altamont, in the individual studies academic program;

— Ryan Morrissey of Altamont, in the business administration academic program;

— Danny Ramirez of Altamont, in the non-matriculated academic program;

— Alexander Ritmo of Altamont, in the electrical construction and maintenance academic program;

— Vincent Saccocio of Altamont, in the business administration academic program;

— Jonathan Schlutow of Altamont, in the individual studies academic program;

— William Stewart of Altamont, in the telecommunications technology academic program;

— Crystal Turino of Altamont, in the business administration academic program;

— Daniel Turino of Altamont, in the computer information systems academic program;

— Jenna VanWely of Altamont, in the individual studies academic program;

— Jonathan Zeh of Altamont, in the electrical construction and maintenance academic program;

— Cora Fuller of Berne, in the human services academic program;

— Jason Horvath of Berne, in the electrical construction and maintenance academic program;

— Corey Martin of Berne, in the criminal justice academic program;

— Anthony Moretti of Berne, in the business administration academic program;

— Brenden O’Keefe of Berne, in the liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Chet Ferriero of East Berne, in the computer information systems academic program;

— Joseph Bentley of Guilderland, in the automotive technical service academic program;

— Robert Spain of Guilderland, in the civil engineering technology academic program;

— Brendin Tanner of Rensselaerville, in the individual studies academic program;

— Kimberly Aviza of Schenectady, in the marketing academic program;

— Michelle Aviza of Schenectady, in the non-matriculated academic program;

— Shaina Bass of Schenectady, in the business administration academic program;

— Lea Bellai of Schenectady, in the engineering science academic program;

— Luke Betteridge of Schenectady, in the non-matriculated academic program;

— Danielle Cartagenes of Schenectady, in the liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Matthew Chase of Schenectady, in the electrical construction and maintenance academic program;

— Mark Ciccarelli of Schenectady, in the liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Zachary Collins of Schenectady, in the physical education studies academic program;

— Anastasia DeLacey of Schenectady, in the biological sciences academic program;

— Jessica DiTrapano of Schenectady, in the business administration academic program;

— Neil Dulichand of Schenectady, in the heating/air conditioning/refrigeration technical services academic program;

— Taylor Evanchick of Schenectady, in the liberal arts and science humanities and social science academic program;

— Brandon Gordon of Schenectady, in the individual studies academic program;

— Nicholas Kappes of Schenectady, in the liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Daniel Kelly of Schenectady, in the engineering science academic program;

— Mark Kelts of Schenectady, in the physical education studies academic program;

— Abigail Kizer of Schenectady, in the individual studies academic program;

— Brett Krosky of Schenectady, in the business administration academic program;

— Jeremy Lounello of Schenectady, in the individual studies academic program;

— Kersten Myrtle of Schenectady, in the criminal justice academic program;

— Damaris O’Higgins of Schenectady, in the business administration academic program;

— Alice Oldendorf of Schenectady, in the digital media academic program;

— Keith Park of Schenectady, in the individual studies academic program;

— Emily Prawdzik of Schenectady, in the liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Martin Primett of Schenectady, in the criminal justice academic program;

— Dionne Puorto of Schenectady, in the business administration academic program;

— Ryan Ramroop of Schenectady, in the electrical construction and maintenance academic program;

— Gerard Sagliocca of Schenectady, in the computer information systems academic program;

— Nicholas Santuccione of Schenectady, in the civil engineering technology academic program;

— Anthony Tate of Schenectady, in the engineering science academic program;

— Kara VanGarderen of Schenectady, in the individual studies academic program;

— Tonya Velett of Schenectady, in the individual studies academic program;

— Jennifer Whiting of Schenectady, in the computer information systems: system and network administration academic program;

— John Yonos of Schenectady, in the liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Anthony Zimdars of Schenectady, in the heating/air conditioning/refrigeration technical services academic program;

— Evan Crawford of Voorheesville, in the Electrical Construction and Maintenance academic program;

— Julianna Fedorow of Voorheesville, in the Liberal arts and science: humanities and social science academic program;

— Annette Hoult of Voorheesville, in the computer information systems: web design and programming academic program;

— Kathleen Irons of Voorheesville, in the nursing academic program;

— Alexander Kyriacopoulos of Voorheesville, in the civil engineering technology academic program;

— Adam Logan of Voorheesville, in the criminal justice academic program;

— Courtney Mamone of Voorheesville, in the individual studies academic program;

— Bridget McManus of Voorheesville, in the photovoltaics academic program;

— Bruce Moore of Voorheesville, in the criminal investigation academic program; and

— Donna Vogel of Voorheesville, in the nursing academic program.

WEST BERNE — Arlene Helen Baxter Schoonmaker of Helderberg Trail, West Berne passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013 at St. Peter’s Hospice in Albany after a brief illness. She was 87.

Mrs. Schoonmaker was the daughter of the late Lloyd and Florence Emily Montanye Baxter.

Mrs. Schoonmaker was born on April 30, 1925 in Central Bridge, Schoharie County, in the house that was the birthplace and boyhood home of George Westinghouse. She grew up there and attended the Schoharie Central Schools.

The family later moved to Sloansville where they owned and operated a general store for about ten years. After that time, the family moved to Palatine Bridge and Arlene became employed by the Beech-Nut Packing Co. in Canajoharie. She worked there as an office worker until marrying Everett Schoonmaker, Jr. in 1951. She then moved to the Schoonmaker Farm in West Berne where she became a homemaker and raised their three daughters.

****

Her husband, Everett “Bud” Schoonmaker died before her in 2007, as did her brother, Rodman Fred Baxter in 1935.

Mrs. Schoonmaker is survived by her daughters, Cheryl Furman and her husband, Clarence, of West Berne, Janet Schoonmaker of Guilderland, and Karen Merritt of Rensselaer; her grandchildren, Sarah Furman and her boyfriend, James Thomas, Matthew Davis and his wife, Dawn, and Angie Merritt; her great-grandchildren, Elijah Davis, Leah, and Heavenly Angel Morrison.

Funeral services will be private. Interment will be in the spring at the Woodlawn Cemetery, Berne, N.Y. Arrangements were by the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont, N.Y.

The family thanks the staff at St. Peter’s Hospice for all their care and support.

Memorial contributions may be made to the First Reformed Church of Berne, 1664 Helderberg Trail, Berne, N.Y. 12023 or the American Cancer Society, 260 Osborne Road, Albany, N.Y. 12211.

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

Edward A. BreitenbachALTAMONT — Edward A. Breitenbach was a builder — not just of structures but of community.

An architect, he was active in church and civic groups, and was a founding member and the first president of the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce.

He died at the Albany County Nursing Home on the evening of Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. He was 85.

Mr. Breitenbach was born in 1927 in the New York City borough of Queens, in Glendale, the youngest son of William Breitenbach and Erna Beyreuther.

“He was kind of a tough New York City kid,” said his son, Thomas Breitenbach. “He told me stories about sneaking into a cemetery to play football.”

Mr. Breitenbach had a love affair that lasted a lifetime.

“My mother grew up across the street from him,” said Thomas Breitenbach. “He remembers pushing her carriage. Her mother was very strict and she would scold him.”

He went on about the devoted couple, “I always wanted to write a musical called From Both Sides of the Street.”

Mr. Breitenbach was a hard worker, his son said. “In high school, he had to leave early to work at a restaurant to help support his family,” he said.

After high school, he joined the United States Navy, near the end of World War II, when he competed in Golden Gloves boxing.

“He was in charge of a foundry in San Francisco,” his son said, “but he wanted to get on a boat. That’s why he joined the Navy. He got on a destroyer escort, and just threw up all the time.”

Eugene L. Strever

GUILDERLAND — Eugene L. Strever was a man who made deep and long-lasting commitments. He was married for 64 years; he worked at General Electric for 44 years; and he was a long-time member of several community organizations.

“He was a very good father. He was always there for you,” said his daughter, Betty Strever.

Mr. Strever died on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady.

Born Jan. 15, 1922 in Johnstown, N.Y., he was the son of the late Leon and Ida Mae Rivenburg Strever.

He served in the United States Army during World War II and was honorably discharged in 1945.

Although Mr. Strever didn’t talk much about his war years, his daughter knew he had served on a medical ship. Once, when he was asked if he’d like to go on a cruise, he said, “I spent enough time on a boat,” she recalled.

Mr. Strever married his wife, Marion, on Jan. 15, 1942. “He always said he got married on his birthday so he’d never forget it,” said his daughter.

She went on to say that her parents were “like two peas in a pod.” Ms. Strever said of her mother, “She was always with him.”

She gave the example of their work with the Fort Hunter Volunteer Fire Company, of which Mr. Strever was a charter member. “She was in the auxiliary…When I was small,” said Ms. Strever, “they’d work on the turkey raffle. They’d go to meetings. They did everything together.”

Mr. Strever was known for the clambakes he put on to raise money for the fire company. He was also a member of the Fisher United Methodist Church in Rotterdam, and the Rotterdam Elks, and the GE Quarter Century Club.

Mr. Strever worked as an assembler at General Electric in Schenectady for 44 years, retiring in 1982. “He was in the big-motor department,” said his daughter.

At the same time he worked for GE, Mr. Strever ran his own trucking and snowplowing business, Strever’s Trucking. He would do trucking and plowing on shifts when he wasn’t working at GE, and on the weekends, Ms. Strever said; his wife worked in the business with him.

The couple first raised their family — two girls and two boys — in a farmhouse on West Lydius Street in Guilderland. Mr. Strever then built a modern ranch-style house on the same property.

“He liked to garden,” said his daughter. Mrs. Strever would can the produce her husband raised. “He would grind the peppers to make the chili and cut off the corn on the cob so it could be canned,” Ms. Strever said, describing the way her parents worked together.

Ms. Strever raised her daughter, Tammy, in the ranch-style West Lydius Street house and Tammy, in turn, raised her sons there.

“They were his joy,” Ms. Strever said of how her father loved his great-grandchildren. “They played games and watched TV together,” she said.

Ms. Strever concluded of her father, “He cared for you. He would do anything for you.”

****

Eugene L. Strever is survived by his four children, Shirley Van Alstine and her husband, Bill, of Georgia, Eugene Strever Jr. of Rotterdam, Donald Strever of Rotterdam Junction, and Betty Strever and her companion, James Passenger, of Guilderland; four grandchildren, Shelley Onorati and her husband, Mark, Sharyn Eckert and her husband, Michael, Tammy Strever, and Richard Van Alstine and his wife, Kim, and eight great-grandchildren, Anthony Strever, Austin Onorati, Alex Onorati, Derek Strever, Aurora VanAlstine, J.P. Whiting, Crystal Whiting, and Dakota Rose Eckert.

In addition to his parents, his wife of 64 years, Marion Strever, died before him. His grandson Thomas Jubrey died on Aug. 31, 1970 and his great-grandson Dylan Strever died on Dec. 4, 2000.

The family thanks the staff at Ellis Hospital A-5 and also the staff of the Community Hospice for their care and compassion.

No service was held; burial will be in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Guilderland. Arrangements are by the DeMarco-Stone Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Fort Hunter Volunteer Fire Department, 3525 Carman Rd., Schenectady NY 12303.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Close to the board: Democrats William Bichteman, left, and Theodore Lounsbury, right, are sworn in by Town Clerk Kathleen Spinnato at the Westerlo Town Hall after the Jan. 3 re-organizational and town board meeting. After getting legal advice, Spinnato said she contacted both candidates Tuesday to tell them their appointments did not carry with the 2-to1 vote.

Is the law irrelevant in the town of Westerlo?

We pondered this all week as we considered the debacle that unfolded at the Jan. 3 re-organizational meeting. We’re generally comforted by the ritual of the new year. After sometimes stormy campaigns, those who are elected come together to take the oath of office in a civilized fashion.

Democracy moves on. Being a country that follows the laws sustains us as a society.

Those who have been elected to office raise their right hands before the citizens who have gathered at Town Hall, and they promise to support the federal and state laws and to faithfully discharge their duties.

But the swearing-in that took place in Westerlo on Jan. 3 made a mockery of democracy.

Richard Rapp, Westlero’s long-time supervisor, has taken the oath of office many times.

How could he not know the law? Or, if he knew it, how could he not uphold it?

Here’s what happened. Westerlo was short two town board members. They had both submitted resignations the day after Election Day. Both knew well in advance they were leaving their posts — decisions based on personal preferences — and broke their contract with the people who elected them. They could have given notice months before.

This left no means for the people to have a choice, an election, in choosing their new leaders.

Instead, the all-Democratic town board was to appoint two new members on Jan. 3. As a five-member board, a majority of three is needed to make an appointment.

The state law is clear on this. It is there for everyone — including town supervisors and town board members — to read. It says, in part: “Every act, motion or resolution shall require for its adoption the affirmative vote of a majority of all the members of the town board.”

Two of the board members — Rapp and Alfred Field — voted for the appointees. Councilmen Anthony Sherman said “nay.”

Why?

He wouldn’t tell our reporter. More importantly, he didn’t tell the people who had elected him. We believe the people deserve an explanation from the man they chose to represent them.

Sherman may very well have a good reason; perhaps he believes the private-club method for picking representatives is wrong. But the people need to hear the reason.

Supervisor Rapp was questioned on Jan. 3 about the legality of the appointments; he indicated they would stand.

We commend the citizen, Maureen Sikule, who asked him. If Westerlo is to get its government back on track, it will take citizens to ask questions and find answers.

We commend the town clerk, too; Kathleen Spinnato also asked. She went a step further after Rapp told her the appointments were valid. She listened to legal advice on the matter and took it upon herself to tell the candidates that the vote did not count.

But where does this leave Westerlo?

The town is now in a legal Catch-22. That phrase comes from one of our favorite novels, an anti-war treatise by Joseph Heller. Heller’s protagonist, John Yossarian, a bombardier, wants to be grounded from combat flight. But that can only happen if he’s found to be crazy and anyone who wants to get out of combat flight isn’t crazy and so can’t be evaluated.

The way that logic applies in Westerlo, in an unending curricular fashion — enough to drive even Yossarian crazy — is this: Without a majority, the town board can’t appoint new members or, for that matter, carry on any other town business. But, without the new board members, it may not get a majority.

The way out of the conundrum is simple. It’s what should have been done in the first place: Westerlo needs to hold an election and let the people choose their leaders.

To the Editor:

Last week, The Altamont Enterprise published a letter from a Guilderland resident who expressed his opinion that the Guilderland Central School District community conversations are not an effective form of community engagement in the budgeting process.

In particular, the author of the letter said that the district did not listen to the input gathered from participants during these events and that the format did not allow community members a chance to challenge materials presented by school leaders.

The letter also inaccurately stated that Guilderland used federal stimulus monies to start up the district’s full-day kindergarten program in 2009 against the recommendation of the Citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee. While not the crux of this response, I believe it is important to correct this inaccurate information.

First, the Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee was about evenly split in its opinion about the initiation of a full-day kindergarten program.

Second, when the board of education decided to implement the program on the unanimous recommendation of the district’s Early Childhood Advisory Committee, the district did not use federal stimulus funds to implement its full-day kindergarten program.

However, the district did receive a conversion aid payment of $799,095 from New York State in order to make the move from a half-day to full-day program. This aid is offered to all school districts on a one-time basis, meaning the district would be ineligible to receive this aid a second time should it ever eliminate full-day kindergarten and try to reinstate it in the future.

To the Editor:

This is a notice to the residents of the village of Altamont.

I intend to retire from the position of Altamont village justice on March 31. I will have served the village in that position for 32 years on that date.

I suggest anyone interested in being a village justice should see the village clerk to get the election petitions. You will need enough signatures of eligible voters to be on the ballot in the village election on March 19.

Neil A. Taber

Altamont

Editor’s note: See related story in our Guilderland section.

To the Editor:

Last winter, my husband and I bought each other snowshoes and snow tires for Christmas and it was the first of December when I sent my annual letter to The Enterprise, inviting people to sled on Kirk’s Hill, just as my grandfather, James L. Kirk, had always done when he lived at 167 Maple Avenue.

This year, I delayed in sending the sledding announcement until after the start of the New Year, which seemed to be the perfect recipe for early snow. Belated as it might be, the invitation still stands as it has for decades, inviting children and children at heart, this year and every year, to sled down the humble Kirk Hill behind 167 Maple Avenue to keep the tradition alive.

Jennifer O’Connor

and

Eric Krans

Altamont

To the Editor:

A customer stopped into the shop the other day and commented that I hadn’t written anything here lately. True — burned out — needed a respite.

I’m a big fan of Ann Coulter and contribute to her blog at anncoulter.com. She’s going through the same thing. We’ve all needed a break from politics.

If it were summertime, I would be elbows deep in gardening. But it’s cold and gray outside.

So I’ve been making soup (potato with bacon and ham, split pea with ham, and bean with bacon so far) and reading instead. The trouble is what I’ve been reading.

When I was younger, I read fiction: Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien. But now it’s all non-fiction.

To the Editor:

I have a couple of thoughts relative to the letter from Tim Burke regarding the Guilderland School District’s “Community Conversations” that appeared in the last edition of The Enterprise.

As someone who has attended a great many meetings, or forums, or conversations, or whatever you may call them over many years dealing with the activities, philosophy, and spending habits of the Guilderland Central School District, I have to say that I have seen very few local residents over the years who take a more active role in the life of the school district than Mr. Burke.

He is a regular attendee, he makes it a point to read materials provided, and he always speaks his mind. Whether you agree with him or not on a specific matter, his care and concern is always commendable.

To the Editor:

In a letter to the editor last week, I quoted Darrell Scott, the father of one of the Columbine victims, who asked us all to examine our own hearts before casting stones. Now, assuming that we all have hopefully done so, let’s see if we can honestly respond to a few possibilities that might be posed to us.

Do we feel, or actually recognize, that any of the following might be contributing factors to events such as Sandy Hook:

— The loss of spirituality in America over the last few decades? It sure isn’t difficult to arrive at that conclusion when we relate it to the way things were when many of us, and previous generations, grew up;

— The mainstreaming of children who honestly are in need of special help?

— The approximately 9 million to 10 million American children who are on some form of psychotropic drug, many of which drugs have not been fully tested?

— The number of adults on psychotropic drugs?

— The only help being available to people with mental health issues nowadays, only coming many times after they have actually committed a crime?

— The above lack of tracking of those with mental health issues leading to the inability to cross reference such with the NICS [National Instant Criminal Background Check System], background checks for gun purchases, which has been the law since 1998?

— The enormous amount of violence found in the movies coming out of Hollywood and the same type of games played on our computers and electronic devices?

— That we are becoming disconnected from one another as a result of all of our technology and social media? Aren’t we all aware of how this media contributes to the bullying problem within our schools and its result?

— The abominable number of young people, especially in our inner cities, who do not graduate from high school?

— Government programs promoting multi-generational welfare and single-parent families?

— “Gun Safe” school (or other) zones that just might be an invitation to violence from these perpetrators? If you had poor intentions, what would you be looking for? And what do they all do when confronted with resistance?

Now do we really believe that these events occur because of inanimate objects? And, how about the fact that approximately 80 million of your law-abiding fellow-citizen gun-owners, in 50 million households across this great country, committed no crimes last year?

By Dennis Sullivan

Photo by Georgia Gray
Alan Casline, with the Normanskill as a backdrop, holds the sculpted glass Arthur Dare Willis Award.On Sunday, Dec. 30, at Old Songs Community Arts Center in Voorheesville, the hosts of Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic presented the 2012 Arthur Dare Willis Award to poet, publisher, and editor Alan Casline of Delmar.

The award is presented from time to time to poets and publishers who have made a significant contribution to poets and poetry in our region. The 2011 award was presented to Albany poet, publisher, and blogger Dan Wilcox.

The Willis Award was established by Sunday Four hosts Edie Abrams, Michael Burke, and myself in 2011 to honor Willis (1936-2010), a poet, historian, philosopher, and teacher at Clayton A. Bouton High School in Voorheesville, for 25 years; in the minds of many, he was the best teacher ever to grace Bouton’s hallowed halls.

During his tenure at the school, Mr. Willis, in addition to being an engaging teacher and mentor, created and maintained for decades poetry and philosophy groups for students interested in the art of creation and questions regarding the meaning of life. The award was created to recognize his continuing spirit in the Voorheesville community and beyond.

Alan Casline is a fitting recipient of this year’s award because he has been engaged in writing poetry and publishing the work of poets for nearly 40 years. In 1975, he started the literary and social commentary journal Rootdrinker on a shoestring. Not only was the work of poets published there but also work by the Mohawks from Akwesasne, New England Organic Farmers and Co-op Marketers, Local Homestead pioneers in Alternative Energy, Upstate people, and groups that shared the journal’s folklore vision.

By Alice Begley

Portraits of a devoted father and daughter, Aaron Burr, at left, and Theodosia Burr Alston were painted by John Vanderlyn in 1802.This historian’s pen has not written the name “Theodosia” for many years. For a time, my pen overflowed with words about Theodosia Burr Alston and her history.

The shuttle of Theodosia’s fate wove a delicate silver thread through the fabric of national life in Colonial America at the close of the 18th Century. In the annals of history, she is noted as the daughter of the vice president of a struggling nation; the wife of the governor whose state would be the first to secede from that nation; and the champion of a father tried for murder and treason.

Theodosia, daughter of Aaron Burr, was born in Albany in 1783 in a mansion where the Fort Orange Club stands today.

This historian became acquainted with Theodosia’s story on a winter vacation in South Carolina when visiting Brookgreen Gardens, a splendid botanical spot.

On the entrance road was a historic marker proclaiming that this had been the home of Theodosia Burr Alston born in Albany, New York, and wife of a former governor of South Carolina, Joseph Alston. That marker started my long, vigorous years of research on Theodosia.

By Ethie Moak

NEW SCOTLAND — The Town of New Scotland Historical Association is offering a $1,000 award to encourage the study and enjoyment of history in any of its aspects. 

This award is intended for town of New Scotland residents who are in their junior year of high school and who are serious students planning to further their education at the college level.  All juniors are invited to compete for the award, whether they are public high school, private school, parochial school or home-schooled students.

Complete applications describing the information required for submission to the competition are available in public schools, local libraries, Town Hall, and the New Scotland Community Center in New Salem. 

All applicants will be required to submit a completed application form, a copy of her or his résumé and high school transcript, and a 250-word essay on a given topic (there are three choices).

If there are questions, please contact Marie Hornick at 768-2933, and provide your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address.  Your call will be returned promptly.

All completed applications must be postmarked no later than Friday, March 15.

Editor’s note: Ethie Moak is the publicity chairwoman for the New Scotland Historical Association.

Low-income New Yorkers who are in danger of having their heat shut off or running out of fuel, can apply for emergency Home Energy Assistance Program benefits.

HEAP, overseen by the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, is a federally funded program to help eligible households in meeting their home energy needs. Eligible households can receive one regular HEAP benefit per season, but may also be eligible for a one-time emergency HEAP benefit if they are in danger of running out of fuel or having their heat or heat-related utility service shut off.

Eligibility for emergency HEAP benefits is based on income, available resources, and the type of emergency. For example, a family of four can have a household income of $49,333 a year and may still qualify for a HEAP benefit.

A complete list of where to apply locally may be found at otda.ny.gov/programs/heap/HEAP-contacts.pdf. More information may also be found by calling the New York State HEAP Hotline at 1-800-342-3009.

VOORHEESVILLE — AARP Tax-Aide, the nation’s largest, free, volunteer-run tax assistance and preparation service will once again be preparing income-tax returns at St. Matthew’s Parish Center in Voorheesville beginning in February.

Each year, from early February through April 15, American Association of Retired Persons volunteers prepare and electronically file federal and state tax returns for low- and middle-income taxpayers.

Appointments are required.

Tax-return preparation will begin at St. Matthew’s Parish Center starting Friday, Feb. 15, and on four additional Fridays: Feb. 22, March 8, March 15, and March 22.

To make an appointment, call the Parish Office at 765-2805. For more information, call AARP toll-free 1-888-OURAARP (1-888-687-2277), or visit the AARP website at www.aarp.org/taxaide then click on the link: “Tax-Aide.”

The American Heart Association launched Operation Winter Weather Warnings this month with an educational campaign targeting people with existing heart disease or stroke, and those who may be at high risk. 

This includes people with a strong family history, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol; people who smoke; and those who are overweight or sedentary.  The association urges them to be cautious to avoid sudden cardiac death.

Deaths from coronary artery disease tend to rise rapidly right after Thanksgiving, continuing through Christmas, and peaking around New Year’s Day.  Several factors may influence this unfortunate trend, from an increase in respiratory infections during the winter, to increased workload on the heart from activities such as shoveling of heavy snow.

In 2012, as The Enterprise looked at large issues through a local lens, these were some of our favorite illustrations. The first is by Carol Coogan; the others, by Forest Byrd:

— August 9: We wrote about the burden of the ailing elderly on the younger generation and the temptation to inappropriately drug nursing-home residents to save on care and costs. We advocated, instead, other therapies and also cited a study showing through statistical analysis that patients lived longer and felt better in states that had expanded Medicaid coverage.

August 9

— March 29: After learning that, every school day in New York, nearly 50,000 drivers illegally pass buses, with 35 students hit by motorists in the past four years, we urged drivers to heed the message from Danielle Poirier, the transportation director at Guilderland, where 15 or 20 times a day, drivers don’t heed the flashing lights: “Please follow the law every day to help us keep our children safe.”

March 29

— November 1: Following the death of a man whose truck hit a deer in Westerlo, we talked with road engineering and biology experts to learn the best thing to do when confronted with a deer in the road is not to swerve, which can cause worse injury, but to aim for the deer’s flank — perhaps averting at least one of the 10,000 injuries or 200 deaths annually on American roads when drivers collide with deer.

November 1

— September 13: After an election sign was painted with a swastika, we condemned the vandalism and explored the history of the universal symbol that predated the Nazis’ use of it, concluding it was fine to appreciate a swastika woven in a Navajo blanket, for example, or painted on the shaved head of a Hindu child, celebrating his coming of age — rich traditions that predate Adolf Hitler’s misappropriation of the symbol.

September 13

— October 25: As Voorheesville students, while complaining about small portions, threw out the fruits and vegetables that came with the new federal lunch program, we cited data from the American Dietetic Association and the American College of Sports Medicine, indicating the new meals were appropriate. We also pointed out that childhood obesity cost New York State alone $11.8 billion in health-care expenses last year, and we urged, with one in eight state residents not having access to enough nutritional food, that the school set up bins so the students could donate their unwanted and expensive fruits and vegetables.

October 25

— February 23: Eight months earlier, we had written about the other end of the age spectrum suffering from hunger, as nearly 6 percent of Americans over age 60 are “food insecure,” according to the Meals on Wheels Association of America. We urged volunteer support of the Albany County program, which serves 300,000 meals a year, allowing the elderly to stay in their homes. We advocated government support as well, since, as Donna Vancavage, director of development for Meals on Wheels, said, “It’s much cheaper than a nursing home.”

February 23

— January 5: “There will be no one to hear the last laugh,” we wrote in our editorial on American complacence over climate change. With the lack of federal leadership, we were at least heartened with some state initiatives to expand solar energy production in New York and to develop a master plan for saving energy — and millions of dollars — in state facilities. Reducing carbon emissions while furthering wind and solar power are much-needed solutions.

January 5

— Melissa Hale-Spencer, editor

To the Editor:

As long as there is injustice, evil, and terrorism in this world, we need our right to bear arms.

Guns do not kill people — people do. Asbestos kills people — has it been outlawed? No. Knives can be used to kill, etc.

Consider the statistics of the number of law-abiding citizens who have guns legally compared to the several deaths or injuries. Then compare the number of deaths by criminals with guns.

To the Editor:

During the last two weeks in The Enterprise, we have read four letters regarding Second Amendment issues as they relate to recent events such as Sandy Hook, Conn. I felt compelled to write a reply espousing the true meaning of this Constitutional right, its historical roots, its relationship to human nature, etc.

I expressed the fact that this was not a political issue, but it is a societal issue. Any intelligent person, who is not in a state of denial, knows that the issue is not about an inanimate object.

To the Editor:

Every time an article or news report says something about how guns were used to kill people and how we need more gun control, I think to myself, do they really know what they are talking about?

I always say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” If you disagree with that statement, then spoons are making people obese. Right?

Why are we blaming guns and especially organizations (which had nothing to do with a shooting) for the actions of an individual? We should be blaming the individual and only the individual. To call the National Rifle Association “child killers” just makes you sound foolish.

To the Editor:

On Nov. 27, 2012, I attended what was billed as a Community Conversation, about challenges affecting our district from a financial concern.  District Superintendent Dr. Marie Wiles hosted the event and reviewed many of the state and federal mandates the district must meet and answered questions submitted by audience members on index cards.

The issues that face our district are serious, and the presentation, while accurate, was devoid of how previous choices are affecting our present financial state and that these trends have been largely predictable and anticipated for years.

Gardiner W. Tanner

CLARKSVILLE — A man with a strong work ethic and a generous spirit, Gardiner W. Tanner helped others as Bethlehem’s transportation director and as a good neighbor in Clarksville.

“He was always positive,” said his son, Jeffrey Tanner. “He always looked for the good in people.”

He died at St. Peter’s Hospital Hospice in Albany on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. He was 83.

Robert Saddlemire

KNOX — On the Sundays that Robert Saddlemire designated for family, they would “just get in the car and go.”

“Everybody’s got to have a destination and we didn’t,” said his wife, Maryann Saddlemire, of family picnics with their son, Kenneth. “We just went for a ride.”

Robert Saddlemire died on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, at Albany Medical Center after suffering a severe fall at home.

By Marcello Iaia

Enterprise file photo — Marcello Iaia
The blonde girl in knit stockings, pictured far left, and other faces of history, gave visitors to the Carey Center for Global Good in December a view of moments during the Dust Bowl era, when drought and economic depression seized the country. The photo, titled “Daughter of Ellery Shufelt. Albany County, New York, 1937,” was taken by Arthur Rothstein and printed by Medusa resident Hans Soderquist. Carolyn Stock, the girl in the photo, was a farm wife in Knox for decades, where she raised her children; she died in 2008.RENSSELAERVILLE — The most southwestern town of Albany County ended 2011 and began 2012 with a bang.

In the wake of tropical storms Irene and Lee in the fall of 2011, residents voted to oust board Democrats, resulting in the resignation of the supervisor in January 2012.

Valerie Lounsbury, the newly appointed Republican supervisor, led the town through a budget that narrowly kept the tax levy within the state-set 2-percent cap.

More than 200 people were charged with more than 550 deer-hunting violations during the southern zone big-game season, according to Regional Director Gene Kelly.

The arrests were made by Environmental Conservation Officers with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation Region 4.

“DEC vigorously pursues individuals who violate the principle of fair chase and undertake illegal hunting practices,” said Kelly in a release from the DEC. “Night-time poaching and hunting in close proximity to dwellings or highways endangers the public and offenders will be prosecuted. We encourage anyone with information about potential illegal hunting practices or other environmental crimes to contact our 24-hour dispatch hotline at 1-877-457-5680.”

Of these charges, 242 were misdemeanors and include: the illegal killing of 100 deer, discharging firearms within 500 feet of dwellings, shooting across roadways, possessing loaded firearms in vehicles, taking deer during the bow season without a license, and using spotlights at night to hunt deer.

These charges carry potential fines of up to $2,000 and up to one year in jail.

Other tickets were written for the following violations: trespassing, hunting over bait, feeding deer, possessing the tags of another, illegally transporting the deer of another without a consignment tag, hunting without a license, and possessing an untagged deer.

Violations carry a fine of up to $250 and up to 15 days in jail.

Region 4’s Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigators and ECOs investigated three hunter-related shooting incidents that resulted in injuries. One defendant was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and one defendant was charged with assault, both felonies. The other defendant was charged with a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor.

By Marcello Iaia

BERNE — The year saw a handful of leadership changes drive developments in the town. Berne officials declared a new era with the 2013 budget, and anticipated a future in which the local economy is sustained by the stewardship of natural resources.

Though Tropical Storm Irene devastated the area in August 2011, its damage was largely addressed this year, and the demolishing of a frame house within the hamlet is still not completed.

Community institutions took steps forward with work on a new library location, a Hilltown market with a café, and a new pastor for the Helderberg Evangelical Church.

By Marcello Iaia

Enterprise file photo — Marcello Iaia
The year of persistence: Janice Webb, right, examines an acorn squash found in her collection of Thanksgiving fare on Nov. 19, as Kathleen Speck, director of the Hilltowns Community Resource Center of Catholic Charities looks on. The resource center has continued to operate after Tropical Storm Irene flooded its trailer in Westerlo. Its new home is in the Westerlo Reformed Church Hall.WESTERLO — Town officials in 2012 focused their energies on maintaining buildings, studying hydraulic fracturing, and repairing roads still damaged after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

The costs of allowing private haulers to dump at the transfer station were called into question by a former councilman. The cost of fixing the leaking roof above the old town hall, however, was put front and center when the state-set tax cap was broken for its repair.

Tracey Zetsche was charged with the murder of her son in the apartment they shared above the P&L Deli this summer. The crime stunned those who knew her for the brief time she lived in Westerlo.

The year concluded with two councilmen resigning and a new highway superintendent appointed just before the Jan. 3 re-organizational meeting for 2013.

By Jo E. Prout

Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff
Community celebrations dotted the calendar in Voorheesville from the Memorial Day Parade, here, to the tree-lighting ceremony in the village green in December. Watching the parade, Brenna Tannatta, at 18 months in May, held her flags tightly as she watched in the arms of her mother, Jamie Tannatta.VOORHEESVILLE — Celebrations and steady change defined the year for the village here, as residents marked elections, anniversaries, and new contracts and services, while seeking modern building access and noise reduction.

Voorheesville adopted a $1.99 million budget in 2012, raising taxes three cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The budget reflected part-time stormwater coordinator Gerald Gordinier’s retirement, and the part-time appointment of Code Enforcement Officer Glenn Hebert. Village services were kept at the same levels as 2011, but the budget showed that the village moved $2,000 from the ambulance fund to the fire department.

The village board did not fund a $60,000 salary for daytime professional paramedic coverage, as the volunteer ambulance squad had requested. Instead, the village entered a trial period for shared services with the Albany County Sheriff’s office.

By Jo E. Prout

Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff
A screaming good time: The 119-year-old Altamont Fair reached new heights in 2012 with the largest attendance in recent years. “Saturday was the largest attendance for one day ever,” said Marie McMillen, the fair’s director, in August; paid attendance was about 50,000, but there are several unpaid categories, ranging from 4-H to businesses. “We energized our museums,” said McMillen, crediting over 200 volunteers. She also said Circus Hollywood was popular as were Senior Day and Armed Services Day.ALTAMONT — The village here sought revenue and safety in 2012 by allowing zoning changes for business growth, agreeing to increase water production for outside sales, and planning for a pedestrian bridge near the elementary school.

Village residents also saw their post office change hands, their streets used for high-speed police chases, and their village board and fire department sued for causing a home’s oil spill.

The village board adopted a $1.058 million budget in 2012, raising the tax rate 11 cents to $2.68 per $1,000 of assessed value. The board moved $16,000 from its reserve fund to balance the budget, Mayor James Gaughan said in April.

“We all love Altamont. We’re a mile square. We don’t have a lot of building going on. I think we get a good deal,” Gaughan said.

By the end of the year, the board voted to increase water production from its wells on Gun Club and Brandle roads to 25,000 gallons per day. The board agreed, with a split vote, to allow a third of that, or 8,000 gallons per day, to be sold outside the village. Trustee Christine Marshall voted against the increase and the sale of water outside the village.

By Jordan J. Michael

The Enterprise –– Jordan J. Michael
Onlooker: Last Friday, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo girls’ basketball team took on undefeated Maple Hill during Mohonasen’s holiday tournament, losing, 47 to 43. Here, the Bulldogs’ Kathryn Salo tries to put up a shot. BKW is 5-1 and continues Western Athletic Conference play on Friday.ROTTERDAM –– The Berne-Knox-Westerlo girls’ basketball team let turnovers and a lack of rebounding get in the way of a win over unbeaten Maple Hill last Friday. The Bulldogs’ mistakes sealed its fate.

The marquis match-up at Mohonasen’s holiday tournament featured two undefeated Class C teams. One team had to leave with a loss, and it was BKW, 47 to 43.

With less than 1:30 left in regulation play, senior Liz Harvey lunged through the air to make a lay-up while being fouled, adding the free throw to get BKW within four points of the lead. On the Bulldogs’ next possession, Harvey again drove the lane, but was called for a charge. Harvey slammed her hand to the court in frustration and fouled out of the game.

The Wildcats were smaller in stature, but were able to out-rebound the Bulldogs. Defensively, Maple Hill was pesky, causing turnovers and stealing the ball.

By Anne Hayden

Enterprise file photo — Colleen Ingerto
Playing in the mud: Costumes were encouraged at Guilderland’s second-annual Mud Mania, held at Tawasentha Park. Some took the races very seriously, like this man, in Army fatigues. Over 1,000 attended the event that accepted donations for local food pantries, and the monetary proceeds — over $10,000 — will go toward improvements at the children’s playground in Tawasentha Park.GUILDERLAND — Although it was a politically calm year within the town, there were sparks of controversy regarding the abrupt firing of Guilderland’s asssessor, and a man fighting an arrest for animal cruelty after refusing to euthanize a cat.

Meanwhile, citizens continued to push for positive changes in their neighborhoods, including the possible formation of a McKownville drainage district, the completion of the Westmere firehouse, and improvements to a neighborhood bordering Crossgates Mall.

Outside of Guilderland, larger forces were also affecting the town, particularly a hotly-contested Senate race that could have changed the leadership of the State Senate, and still isn’t over, and rising Medicare and Medicaid costs, leaving town and county nursing homes struggling to manage difficult patients and finances.

By Tyler Murphy

Enterprise file photo — Tyler Murphy
The Helderberg’s cliffs at Thacher Park. After collecting nearly a year’s worth of feedback the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is set to release a draft master plan, designed to chart the future of the John Boyd Thacher and Thompson’s Lake state parks, this spring.NEW SCOTLAND — After years of debate, the town took several steps in 2012 to steer future development and is preparing for expansions in infrastructure and possibly population.

In 2012, the town approved a law limiting large-scale development, finished a major study on zoning recommendations, approved the formation of a new water district, completed an audit by the New York State Comptroller, welcomed a new highway superintendent, and now has about 220 residential lots awaiting home construction.

By Marcello Iaia

KNOX — Voters approved of the all-Democrat town board, which drafted a lean 2013 budget and rounded out the year with a resolution to offer a new home for the displaced Knox post office.

As doors shut, new ones opened. A Knox dairy farmer recieved state recognition for a lifetime of service to farmers, while the Albany County office he served during that period was closed.

Teenager Hunter Fortuin is laying to rest the high school career that fostered his Hilltowns work ethic into an ambitious tech career. Like Fortuin, town planner Daniel Driscoll explored his tech project with a self-guided smartphone tour.