 Jul 01 Play balleditorial, Spotlight's View  You could imagine his coach isn’t pleased. With a mixture of anger and curiosity, he asks just what in the hell his pitcher is doing. “I influence so little of the game,” the pitcher says. “I only control the ball from the mound to the catcher’s glove... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: spotlight, vote, school, budget Jul 15 Bethlehem 2.0editorial, Spotlight's View
Bethlehem 2.0
When the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the procedure was not Web-cast. It was not uploaded to YouTube, and news of its occurrence was not blast e-mailed to a listserv of presubscribed technophiles. In fact, by most historic accounts, it took one draft of the document nearly a month to reach most of the signers whose names appear on it. As of this writing, the most recent minutes from the Bethlehem Town Board on the town’s Web site are from the June 10 meeting; the most recent Planning Board minutes are from June 16. About a month — and two other Town Board meetings — has gone by since those meetings... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Bethlehem, town, web, youtube Jul 15 Sex-offender point system a set of misplaced valueseditorial, Spotlight's View
Town of Colonie officials have proposed a licensing and points system to help control the town’s growing number of sex offenders and to address the so-called sex-offender “hot spots” that residents have noticed popping up, mostly in hotels and motels along Central Avenue...
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CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Sex-offender, colonie, points, Mahan Jul 15 Put us on the recall registryeditorial, Spotlight's View Assemblyman Jim Tedisco has proposed a law that would allow voters to petition for a recall of their elected officials. The law would require 50,000 signatures for the recall of any statewide office, and 10 percent of the electorate or 5,000 signatures, whichever is lesser, for the recall of a state legislator. A vote would ensue 90 days from when the Board of Elections certified the recall. Detractors of the recall proposal say the terms for New York state legislators is short enough that a recall measure would be an unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ time and money... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
Jul 24 Party politics leave us feeling zoned outeditorial, Spotlight's View
Last week, The Spotlight brought you news of some flap over the makeup of the Town of Guilderland’s zoning review committee. (A story, by the way, in which the last line was dropped somehow during production. Our apologies. For those of you wishing to satisfy the cliffhanger ending, Garry Robinson is the owner of Robinson’s Ace Hardware.)
The issue is this: Councilmen Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich — The Republican minority of the Town Board — are upset because they were only allowed to handpick one of the two registered Republicans on the zoning committee. Democratic Supervisor Ken Runion, who has no obligation to compose the committee in any fashion, had the nerve to reach across the aisle and pick his own Republican... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
Jul 24 A matter of degreeseditorial, Spotlight's View The public rarely notices when the right thing is done in half-measures. Last week, the Colonie Town Board did right by its citizens by adopting a more stringent noise ordinance than the town previously had on the books. The ordinance, passed at the Thursday, July 16, Town Board meeting, provides for an enforceable limit of 65 decibels from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The town’s previous ordinance had the decibel level at 75, and the new ordinance originally had the noise curfew at 11 p.m. on weekdays. Despite the drop in decibel level and the last-minute amendment to change the weeknight curfew to 10 p.m., residents came away from the meeting disappointed. It’s understandable... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Colonie, Spotlight, editorial, noise Jul 24 Two cents on two buckseditorial, Spotlight's View
Faced with declining revenues, the Saratoga Springs City Council is looking to place a $2 surcharge on Live Nation events held at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In other words, rock, pop and rap concerts would be taxed, classical programming would be exempt.
The motive, said Finance Commissioner Ken Ivins, is to cover any additional cost incurred by the city in public safety measures taken during those events... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Saratoga, Spotlight, editorial, SPAC, surcharge  |
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