TOP LOCAL News
By NYVT MEDIA
January 31, 2025
By DOUG La ROCQUE NEW LEBANON–That was the not-so-subtle message the New Lebanon Town Board sent to the firm that once sought to build a non-for-profit wellness pharmacy at the former Tilden Mall. As part of the plan New Lebanon contributed $40,000 to help get the project off the ground. Part ...
By NANCY JANE KERN “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”--Henry David Thoreau LAST NIGHT THE DAMP CHILL dropped 2” of powdery snow on our Town of Austerlitz hill. Yesterday the birds were frantically eating, and our small herd ...
By DIANE VALDEN LIVINGSTON—Wanted man William M. Metz, 34, of Claverack turned himself in at the State Police Livingston barracks January 18. Investigators charged Mr. Metz with first degree gang assault, a class B felony, and second degree assault, a class D felony. Arraigned in ...
Photos by LANCE WHEELER The Columbia County Community Martin Luther King, Jr. Day observance took place at the Shiloh Baptist Church, 14 Warren Street, on Sunday, January 19. In the audience where Assemblymember Didi Barrett (D-106th), state Senator Michelle Hinchey (D-41th), county ...
By PETER FLIERL CANAAN--The 2025 organizational meeting of the Canaan Town Board on January 13, presided over by Supervisor Brenda Adams, began with a public hearing on Public Law No. 4 led by Town Attorney Andrew Howard which lasted from 7 to 7:54 p.m. with more than 80 residents in ...
By JEANETTE WOLFBERG HUDSON--Demographic trends, whom to focus on housing for, and proposed state housing assistance programs highlighted the Columbia County Housing Task Force meeting January 9. Task Force leader Chris Brown, who is Housing Coordinator for the Columbia Economic Development ...
ELECTION 2025 GHENT--Undersheriff Jackie Salvatore, a Hudson native with over 30 distinguished years of law enforcement leadership, announces her candidacy for Columbia County Sheriff. With a proven record of innovation, community engagement, and a commitment to public safety, Undersheriff ...
By LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY HILLSDALE--At its monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 14, the Town Board approved spending $4,000 to conduct a boundary survey at 2728 US 23, site of the hamlet’s wastewater treatment facility and leach fields. The survey is required by the state Department of ...
By DEBORAH E. LANS CRARYVILLE--As birth rates and school enrollment decline in Columbia County, school closures have occurred and school consolidation becomes a greater possibility. At Taconic Hills Central School District, enrollment has virtually halved since 2002. In 2002, there were 1,885 ...
The ice was hard and the competition fierce for this pick-up hockey game between friends on the skating rink at the Copake Memorial Park Saturday afternoon. The players were Colin Thorpe, Emma Bail, Jake Neves, Casey Angelo, Madison Shulkin and Ayere McAlice.Photos by David Lee | ©2025 NYVT Media ...
By DIANE VALDEN ANCRAM—What started out as a proposal to replace Planning Board Chairman Joe Crocco turned into a substantial show of support in favor of his reappointment. At the January 16 Town Board meeting, the board again took up the matter of the reappointments of Joe Crocco as ...
By EMILIA TEASDALE KINDERHOOK—The Ichabod Crane Central School District and the Chatham Central School District will be combining their football programs into a single, shared program starting in the fall 2025 season, pending Section 2 approval, which according to Chatham Superintendent Andrew ...
By NANCY JANE KERN ABOUT THIRTY-FIVE years ago we were hard at work in our labs in Schenectady when all the generators kicked in and we knew there was a power outage. This went on for hours until we had word that a gray squirrel was “fried” in our nearby power station, knocking out power for ...
By DIANE VALDEN HUDSON—Hudson Police Chief Mishanda Franklin announced that skeletal remains found in the City of Hudson the morning of December 9 were identified as those of Robert J. Coons, 63, who had been missing since July 2023. December 9, 2024 at 11:18 a.m. Hudson Police received a ...
CHATHAM--The Chatham Board of Education has appointed Hanna Bachrach as Chatham Public Library’s new director. Following a months-long search, the board made Ms. Bachrach’s appointment official at its January 7 meeting, effective January 8. Ms. Bachrach had been serving as the library’s interim ...
By EMILIA TEASDALE VALATIE—The Kinderhook Town board held its organizational meeting and first meeting of 2025 on January 6. The board made several appointments to committees during the organizational meeting, including new appointments to the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and ...
By JEANETTE WOLFBERG HUDSON--The Columbia County Board of Supervisors raised the salaries of several county personnel, lengthened the terms of Election Commissioners, and appointed individuals to various county and organizational boards at its year end meeting December 30 and its organizational ...
By DEBORAH E. LANS GHENT--Columbia County greeted the new year with positive steps toward addressing the affordable housing crisis that it, like most of the nation, faces. The county became the first, and so far the only, county in the state to achieve 100% “pro-housing” certification, meaning ...
By NANCY JANE KERN OUR EASTERN SCREECH-0WL is an adorable little bird, about 7-10” long, and easy to overlook. I was driving past a frozen marsh a few years ago and saw a wood duck nest box on a post with what looked like a piece of rag stuffed in the opening. After turning around and taking a ...
HUDSON—Columbia County’s public menorah lighting Sunday, December 29 was a vibrant and memorable celebration, marking the community’s enduring Jewish pride and the spirit of Hanukkah, according to a press release. The event, hosted by Chabad of Columbia County, took place in Hudson Public Square ...
By DIANE VALDEN COPAKE—After having its original permit application for a 60 megawatt (MW) solar facility denied in February 2024, Hecate Energy is back with another application, this one for a smaller, but still controversial industrial-scale Shepherd’s Run Solar Facility to be built on ...
GHENT—The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) updated drought conditions across the state, returning all 62 New York counties to “Normal” status, January 3. Back in November Columbia County was under a state Department of Environmental Conservation drought watch and ...
By LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY HUDSON--The NY Greater Capital Region chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby sponsored “How Do Local Farmers Regard Climate Change?” at the Hudson Area Library on Wednesday, December 18. Eight participants, farmers and climate advocacy activists discussed regenerative ...
By DEBORAH E. LANS HUDSON--There are 4,400 Oxford Houses in the U.S. and one opened in November 2024 in Hudson. The houses follow a model that provides safe and supportive housing in a peer-lead environment for those in recovery from substance use disorders. Nationally, about one-third of ...
By JEANETTE WOLFBERG HUDSON--The Hudson Housing Authority (HHA) and its redevelopment partners are working on a modified proposal for building new housing, according to a diagram of the latest idea shared on December 16 and emails from Executive Director Jeffrey Dodson in December 18 and 23.
By DIANE VALDEN ANCRAM—The Town Board decided not to reappoint the chairmen of town’s Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals at its 2025 organizational meeting, January 2. All other resolutions concerning appointments (with some updates because members have moved away, resigned or ...