John Brower, Summerville, South Carolina

We understand that a school’s business practices committee is charged with counting costs. But we believe calculations would show that, if the fire departments in Guilderland went the way of the ambulance service where paid professionals replaced volunteers, the taxpayers, all of them, would bear a greater burden than for the first-responders’ break.

The new anti-hate policy, said Nathan Sabourin, would “touch on virtually every aspect of the district.” He went on, “It is not going to be simply aspirational. It is going to have, for lack of a better term, teeth, and guidance. And it’ll be not just a policy, it will be a regulation within the district.”

It was reported on Feb. 17 that the parent company of Crossgates Mall was facing an “imminent monetary default” on loans totaling $157 million.

“The vast majority of dogs are licensed, they have chips … they’re found,” said Supervisor Peter Barber of strays in Guilderland. “Again, we are one of the few towns locally that actually has an animal shelter with two professional animal-control officers and so we do shelter most of our animals but they find their way back home within the five-day period.”

The governor’s plan allocates $1.5 million for Guilderland’s pre-kindergarten program next year but the district will likely be unable to use all of those funds since it has no space for pre-K classes in its own schools and local providers lack capacity — both space and staff — as well.

A Hispanic man in his 50s was “found unresponsive” Saturday morning in the café court at Crossgates Mall, and later declared dead, according to a release from the Guilderland Police.

“There is no indication of foul play, and the death does not appear to be suspicious at this time,” the release, issued just after noon, said.