NEW SCOTLAND — Paul Steinkamp wishes that, when he was a child, someone had taught him how to fold a piece of paper in half.

As he talks about the art and science of origami, which he came to late in life, he sounds like a poet.

GUILDERLAND — The Albany Med Health System will reopen its EmUrgentCare office in Guilderland, at the intersection of routes 20 and 155, on Monday, Jan. 2.

It will also reopen a Glenville urgent-care office; both offices are reopening on Jan. 2 after recent temporary closures.

GUILDERLAND — When the Guilderland Planning Board heard a recent proposal for an 8,000-square-foot medical-office building, it turned out to be a rare case of a resident offering only positive feedback on a project. 

John F. Hughes, Altamont

Debra Barnes Breitenbach, Altamont

GUILDERLAND — Uncommon Grounds has opened its fourth café, at Stuyvesant Plaza in the space formerly leased by Bruegger’s Bagels.

In addition to fresh-roasted coffee, the coffeehouse will offer homemade bagels, soups, salads, and desserts.

The school board’s Dec. 6 meeting began with district resident Sara Kate Kanter describing the ThoughtExchange as “unkind and unhelpful.”

Most board members first learned of Chief McNally’s offer, made in August, at their Nov. 15 meeting where some expressed concerns that students of color may feel intimidated by an officer or felt that the money — if it became a permanent position funded by the district — could better be spent elsewhere. Consequently, students were surveyed.

The first days of winter are the best time to admire the architecture and ingenious engineering of trees. The maples and oaks, having shed their leaves, now reveal their powerful super structures of trunk and branch silhouetted against the winter gray sky.