The Altamont Enterprise & Albany County Post

11/13/2025

The Voorheesville Central School District is being made whole following the cyber theft of $1 million from the district’s capital construction fund last month. The restitution comes just in time as Voorheesville was recently made aware of a much-needed costly water main repair. Read the article at https://altamontenterprise.com/11072025/voorheesville-receives-250k-insurance-payout-after-cyber-theft

11/13/2025

On Monday, Berne-Knox-Westerlo voters heartily approved a $5.142 million project to reroof both the elementary and secondary schools.

The capital project was approved with 77 percent of the vote: 295 to 87, according to figures released by the district.

State aid is to cover 79.2 percent of the cost, meaning property owners will pay about $9.08 per year per $100,000 of assessed property value.

Homeowners with the STAR (School TAx Relief) exemption will pay about $6.00 and residents 65 and older with the Enhanced STAR exemption will pay about $2.66 per $100,000 of assessed value.

The lifespan of the current rubber roof is 15 years and most of the roof is over 20 years old, Superintendent Bonnie Kane told The Enterprise earlier. The roof, which had been leaking, will be replaced with a synthetic rubber roof system, Kane said, which is resistant to both moisture and sun exposure.

11/08/2025

In January, RIC Energy, operating under Berne PV LLC, submitted an application for site-plan review of a 3.8-megawatt facility on a Berne property up Irish Hill Road.

According to Weston Hillegas, a project development manager at RIC, the project was moving through the approval process with the town’s zoning board as the lead agency for the State Environmental Quality Review and had been recommended to the planning board.

“And then out of the blue, a moratorium came down from the town board,” he said. “They brought up issues of battery energy storage and we made it clear to them that this project didn’t have any of that proposed and it would never have it proposed.”

He went on, “Something to do with the batteries, I think, is what was really setting them off. Or maybe they were just using that as an excuse.”

The town currently has no commercial solar facilities but two were in the pipeline for approval when the board in April proposed a year-long moratorium. The moratorium was adopted in May and expires in May of next year.

The other proposal that was halted by the moratorium is a 4.25-megawatt facility proposed by TJA Energy in January 2024 that would be located at the intersection of Switzkill and Canaday Hill roads.

Read the full article at https://altamontenterprise.com/10292025/farmer-concerned-over-delay-proposed-berne-solar-project

11/05/2025

The two Republican-backed incumbents on the Knox Town Board, Kenneth Saddlemire and Karl Pritchard, kept their seats while the Democratic supervisor, who did not seek re-election, will be replaced by a Republican, Traci Delaney — making the board entirely GOP-backed.

Delaney, currently the town clerk, will be Knox’s first female supervisor after three women previously failed to win the post.

The Republican highway superintendent, Matthew Schanz, was ousted by Joshua Gebe, an independent, who ran on the Democratic and Conservative party lines.

Delaney, currently the town clerk, will be Knox’s first female supervisor after three women previously failed to win the post.

11/05/2025

Election night in New Scotland ended in the same way it has for the past two decades: Democratic wins across the board.

In the race for town board, Democratic incumbents Adam Greenberg and Dan Leinung bested their Republican rivals Craig Shufelt and Christopher Mielke to earn four-year terms on the town board, according to unofficial results from the Albany County Board of Elections.

Supervisor Doug LaGrange, Town Clerk Lisa Williams, Highway Superintendent Ken Guyer, and Town Justice Bob Johnson were all unopposed.

Greenberg was the night’s top vote-getter, with 1,686 ballots cast in his favor. Leinung was next with 1,634 votes, followed by Shufelt with 1,3030, and Mielke with 1,280.

“Adam and I put in a lot of hard work this year,” Leinung told The Enterprise on Election Night. When he and Greenberg were out speaking with residents, he said, “We asked them, ‘Hey, any big issues?’ … And you know, they say, ‘No. We think the town’s being run well.’”

Greenberg said, “I am happy that the people of New Scotland are well informed and pay attention and understand when certain people are being disingenuous.”

https://altamontenterprise.com/11052025/democrats-win-new-scotland

11/05/2025

Randy Bashwinger, longtime Berne highway superintendent, was ousted as voters elected a bipartisan town board on Tuesday.

Democrats will dominate on the board after several years of Republican rule that brought government to a halt last year when three GOP-backed councilmen abruptly quit.

Joseph Giebelhaus, a Democrat, was an assured win for supervisor with three party lines — Democratic, Republican, and Conservative — but the tallies for those lines are revealing.

Read more at https://altamontenterprise.com/11052025/berne-voters-elect-bipartisan-board-oust-bashwinger

11/04/2025

The village of Voorheesville is looking for resident feedback on its purchase earlier this year of 18 South Main Street, a location steeped in local history.

The village has scheduled a public forum for Nov. 12 to solicit input for potential uses for the building.

The 18 South Main Street building had been home to W.W. Crannell Lumber for nearly a century prior to Phillips Hardware’s 1993 purchase of the property for $175,000.

The village acquired the property for $170,000 at the start of the year, when the 19th-Century structure had an assessed value of about $206,000 and has a full-market value of about $294,000.

The building has additional historical value as the once home of Voorheesville’s first president, whom residents called Mayor Frank Bloomingdale in 1899, when the village incorporated.

The purchase allowed Voorheesville to make good on a promise to increase parking in the village center to accommodate new businesses in the area.

The purchase of 18 South Main added 40 public spots and was a textbook example of the village implementing recommendations made in its 2018 comprehensive plan: finding parking spaces to attract businesses and their customers to the village center.

Voorheesville was initially unsure about what it could and should do with the property. After an earlier visual assessment, the village arrived at the decision that the building wasn’t worth saving. But further inspection revealed the building’s “bones” were structurally sound, Mayor Rich Straut said during a recent board of trustees meeting

Also during that same Oct. 28 meeting Dennis Sullivan, the village’s historian and also a columnist for The Enterprise, suggested the structure could be used as a historical site. He envisioned it as a place for tours and viewings, perhaps integrated into a historic walk for children.

Things are already happening on South Main Street, as the village’s department of public works has performed site work on the property. The department has cleaned and pumped out the building’s water-filled basement, and, in anticipation of future abatement, an asbestos survey has already taken place.

To help pay for the project, the village is eligible and likely to receive two $100,000 grants — one through state Senator Patricia Fahy’s office and the other from Fahy’s replacement in the Assembly, Gabriella Romero — Straut said on Oct. 28, which, when combined with existing village funds set aside for the project, gives Voorheesville a quarter-million-dollar start.

11/04/2025

Today is Election Day! Before you head to the polls, read candidate profiles by clicking on a name for New Scotland, Guilderland, Berne, Knox, Westerlo, and Rensselaerville: https://tae.news/491420

11/03/2025

After first presenting an amendment to the section of village code that regulates the control of dogs in May of last year, the Altamont trustees faced significant resident pushback, leading the board to table the proposal just a couple of months later

Now, 16 months after being rebuked, the board is back with a clear plan.

A public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5

Read more at: https://altamontenterprise.com/10232025/altamont-revives-dog-law-adds-enforcement

11/02/2025

Councilman Joseph Giebelhaus has released a $4.24 million preliminary Berne town budget for next year that, he says, “rights the ship by aligning revenues with actual costs,” increasing town taxes by 38 percent.

The proposed tax rate per $1,000 of assessed valuation would go from $4.70 to $6.48.

The increase, Giebelhaus says, is to eliminate an average deficit spending of 30 percent from 2021 to 2023.

The preliminary budget has been filed with the town clerk and a hearing on it will be held on Nov. 12 at 6 p.m.

Typically, a supervisor, as the town’s chief financial officer, releases the budget but Berne’s supervisor, Dennis Palow, ceded that responsibility to Giebelhaus.

“This came from Joe Giebelhaus,” said Palow of a budget and financial presentation during an Oct. 22 public hearing as the town board considered a law that would allow Berne to go over the state-set levy limit. “He did it on his own,” said Palow.

All four board members voted in favor of piercing the tax cap. Read more at https://altamontenterprise.com/10302025/giebelhaus-rights-ship-increasing-taxes-38

11/02/2025

Read through Town of Westerlo candidate responses here: https://tae.news/8590a7 (Click a candidate's name to read more)

— Town Council Member

Voters will choose two among these three candidates: William D. Hall on the Democratic and Republican lines; Jody Ostrander on the Democratic and Conservative lines; and Lorraine Pecylak on the Republican and Conservative lines; and

— Town Justice

Kenneth R. Mackey Sr. is running unopposed on the Democratic line.

11/02/2025

Read through Town of Knox candidate responses here: https://tae.news/74b5fe
(Click a candidate's name to read more)

— Town Supervisor

Chasity H. McGivern is running on the Democratic line against Traci J. Delaney on the Republican and Conservative lines;

— Town Council Member

Justin L. Zimmer on the Democratic line is running against Karl L. Pritchard and Kenneth S. Saddlemire on the Republican and Conservative lines;

— Town Clerk

Tiffiny L. Snyder is running unopposed on the Republican and Conservative lines;

— Town Tax Collector

Elizabeth Walk is running unopposed on the Republican and Conservative lines;

— Superintendent of Highways

Joshua Gebe is running on the Democratic and Conservative lines against Matthew D. Schanz on the Republican line; and

— Town Justice

Timothy P. Francis is running unopposed on the Republican and Conservative lines.