Editor’s Note: The following is a recap of news in the town of Bethlehem from the first six months of 2008. A recap of the second half of 2008 will appear next week. To view Spotlight Newspapers’ Year in Pictures Jan. to June click here: https://www.spotlightnews.com/gallery/view_all.php?category=In%20Your%20Community
January
Six elected officials took the oath of office at Bethlehem Town Hall: Highway Superintendent Gregg Sagendorph; Reciever of Taxes Nancy Mendick; Town Clerk Kathleen Newkirk; and Town Justice Paul Dwyer.
Mark Hennessey, the current board’s freshman councilman, was sworn in, as was Supervisor Jack Cunningham, who was first appointed to the office when former supervisor Theresa Egan left to become a deputy commissioner at the Department of Motor Vehicles earlier this year.
Newly elected Councilwoman Joann Dawson was away on vacation at the time and could not participate in the ceremony. It was her first elected term after she was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Tim Gordon, D-Bethlehem, after he was elected to the state’s Assembly in the 108th District.
Bethlehem Town Justice Ryan Donovan officiated the oaths of office.
Bethlehem Central School District had a Citizens Budget Group for the second year in a row, but the group met this year in January, five months before the May school budget vote.
Erwin Ungerer, known to the community as Tac, died Thursday, Jan. 3, at the age of 52 from melanoma.
Ungerer owned and operated T.A.C.S. (`The Auto Collision Specialists Inc.`) Autobody service on Route 9W in Glenmont for 30 years.
Bethlehem created the 20/20 Advisory Committee and appointed two former town supervisors, Theresa Egan and Ken Ringler, to co-chair the 25-member panel. The group’s members were appointed by the Town Board at the Wednesday, Jan. 23, meeting.
The committee’s goal is to follow up on the townwide comprehensive plan, adopted in 2005, to guide land use, development and growth until the year 2020.
Bethlehem Central District officials named longtime teacher Dianna Reagan as the principal of Eagle Elementary, the district’s newest elementary school still under construction off Van Dyke Road.
After 20 years of serving Delmar with kitchen, craft and candle accouterments, the Little Country Store closed its doors for good on Saturday, Jan. 26.
February
Keystone Builders unveiled plans to transform the long-standing Verstandig’s Florist at 445 Delaware Ave. into nine two-story buildings with 40 condominiums.
Keystone founder Steve Bolduc presented architectural drawings and artistic renderings of the proposed five-acre lot on Feb. 5. Owner Robert Verstandig said he would sell the property to Keystone Builders pending planning approval from the town.
Marking the one-year anniversary of Jonathan Carey’s death, his parents, Michael and Lisa Carey, held a press conference on Friday, Feb. 15, and called on the governor and the state Legislature to toughen Jonathan’s Law and make children’s medical records more accessible.
Carey was an autistic 13-year-old who died while in the care of two O.D. Heck employees.
A house fire at 775 River Road claimed the lives of Robert Newberry, 61, and Susan Newberry, 60. The deaths were ruled accidental, according to police, and apparently caused by smoking materials.
Bethlehem police discovered the bodies after area firefighters battled the intense blaze for about two hours. A series of explosions caused by oxygen tanks occurred as fire crews arrived on the scene.
`There were about five explosions when I pulled up,` said Selkirk Fire Chief William Borger. `It took an hour to extinguish the flames and then another hour before it was completely out.`
New York Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Maureen Wren announced three separate investigations into incidents at Bethlehem’s New Salem Road water plant involving the release of mercury and petroleum, as well as other violations.
Bethlehem’s water supply was tested by the state and the town and found to be clear of contaminants from spills at the town water plant in New Scotland.
Daniel Pickett, a Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk social studies teacher, sued three of his colleagues for $11 million, claiming that school officials and a teacher conspired to get him fired and had ruined his reputation.
He was accused at one time of have `an inappropriate relationship with a female student` but was later cleared of any such relationship. The district apologized and reached an undisclosed settlement with Pickett in October.
March
Local residents and politicians across New York react to the news of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s downfall in a prostitution scandal.
`I think there is a feeling of relief. It was obvious Gov. Spitzer lost the moral high ground, and I think he did the right thing stepping down,` said Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany.
The Bethlehem School District approved its 2008-09 budget for voters in May. School officials said the proposed budget contained a tax rate increase of 4.14 percent in Bethlehem and 5.24 percent in New Scotland.
The board also OK’d a nearly $1.36 million bus proposition to purchase 18 new buses. The previous bus proposition in 2006 was voted down.
The Bethlehem Town Board heard an update on the Vista Technology Park from developers who had revised the original design to include condominiums, as well as plans to reroute road access and decrease the amount of retail space in the park.
Two major tenants were also announced.
A BBL Development Group representative brought the updated proposal before the board at its Wednesday, March 25, meeting. The $200 million, 400-acre technology park proposal calls for 1.4 million square feet of office space, and developers said it could bring up to 5,000 employees to the area.
Bethlehem Central School District announces the appointment of Michael Tebbano, who was the district’s assistant superintendent, to replace outgoing Superintendent Les Loomis, who retired after more than 20 years at the head of the school.
Independence Party Councilman Sam Messina made a proposal in early March to create guidelines for the way the town advertises and appoints non-civil service people to various boards and committees not deemed competitive by the state.
His proposal was voted down 4-to-1 at the Wednesday, March 26, town board meeting, with him casting the only vote in its favor.
The town board makes appointments once a position opens up or a term ends and those interested in a particular committee or board send a letter of interest to the supervisor.
`The people working in the town are very good people but political parties should not control these appointments,` Messina cited as his reason for drawing up the proposal. `There shouldn’t be six Democratic committee members out of eight applications for a zoning board seat.`
April
The 20th annual Delmar Dash, which is 5-mile run, was held Sunday, April 6.
Chuck Terry of Albany handily won the men’s race, coming in at 25:48 and besting second-place finisher Tom Grady by more than a minute.
Voorheesville’s Dana Peterson won the overall women’s race by crossing the finishing line at 31:17.
The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce’s coveted Chamber Pot award changed hands for the third year in a row, with SABIC Innovative Plastics’ team beating Matchless Stove and Chimney’s team for the best race time.
Alteri’s restaurant owner Harvey Quinn said his business was singled out along busy Route 9W in Glenmont for having a lunch buffet banner outside. Scheduled for a jury trial on Wednesday, May 14, he said he could face up to a year and a half in jail for his violation of the town’s zoning code.
The town responded that Quinn was given multiple opportunities to clear up the matter and that he was the one who requested the jury trial. Officials said banners are illegal in town without a variance, and Quinn was cited for being in violation.
Richard G. Bleezarde, 56, a third-generation newspaperman, died Tuesday, April 15, at the Hospice Inn in St. Peter’s Hospital.
Raised in Ravena, he was the son of the late George and Beatrice Bleezarde and was the publisher and owner of the Ravena News-Herald, Greenville Local, Coxsackie-Athens Courier and the Mid-Hudson Valley Health.
The planning board heard a plan to build a small subdivision next to a state preservation landmark at the Tuesday, April 15, meeting.
Carol Richards proposed to divide her property off Fisher Boulevard into seven lots next to the Five Rivers Environmental and Education Center. As part of the plan, she proposed selling a portion of deed-restricted property to the Open Space Institute, which would be transferred to the state’s DEC and become a part of Five Rivers.
Bethlehem Central School District announced that the projected tax rate increase in its proposed budget went from 4.14 percent to 3.79 percent for Bethlehem residents and would be lowered from 5.24 percent to 4.24 percent for New Scotland residents.
Assemblyman Tim Gordon, I-Bethlehem, secured an unrestricted $500,000 for the district from the state budget, which was supported by Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, and subsequently passed in the finalized state budget in April. The funding in turn lowered the original projected tax rate increase.
The second Capt. Timothy J. Moshier Memorial 5K Run/Walk was held Saturday, April 25, at the Bethlehem Middle School. Moshier died while serving in Iraq two years prior to the event when his Apache helicopter was shot down. He was a Bethlehem graduate and his widow, Katie, helped organize the event and attended with their daughter, Natalie.
May
The Bethlehem Board of Education addressed the district’s guidelines pertaining to its athletics program following a controversy involving student athletes being cut from teams for missing practices.
The resolution wasn’t officially adopted until a later meeting, but a framework resolution was accepted by the school board during its Wednesday, May 7, meeting. The situation came to light after students said they were forced to choose between season-beginning practices and a missionary trip to help Hurricane Katrina victims during spring break. The students who chose to go to New Orleans instead of practicing said they were cut from the team.
Nearly 100 residents filled Town Hall on Thursday, May 15, to get their first say on the town’s ongoing endeavor to create an open space plan.
Landowners, businesspeople, residents, park enthusiasts, planners and developers, along with members of the town board and the Citizens Advisory Committee on Conservation, all sat down and discussed the town’s future.
The town board unanimously decided Wednesday, May 14, to enter an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to grant fishing on town parcels along the Onesquethaw Creek.
Both the Bethlehem School District and the Bethlehem Public Library budgets safely pass, as well as a $1.35 million bus proposition for the school district to buy 18 new buses. Three board of education members and two library trustees were also elected, although the races were not contested.
Residents passed the nearly $84.8 million school district budget with 58.26 percent of the vote, netting a total of 2,237 votes in favor. There were 1,603 votes (41.71 percent) in total cast against the 2008-09 budget, which constitutes a $6.03 million spending increase over last year’s budget of $78.7 million.
Incumbent James Dering, the current board of education’s vice president, received 2,818 votes, and board newcomers Matt Downey and Laura Ladd Bierman received final tallies of 2,775 and 2,747 votes, respectively. Downey and Bierman replaced outgoing board members Robin Storey and Warren Stoker, each a member since 1999, and each decided not to seek re-election.
The Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District passed a $41.9 million 2008-2009 budget by a vote of 726 to 551. There are four board of education members elected: Mike Robbins, 732 votes; Rosemary Puckett, 728 votes; Christopher Pennock, 719 votes; and Kathleen Emory, 605 votes.
A Town Hall meeting on Thursday, May 29, was led by a task force of residents, town officials, police and code-enforcement officers, as dozens of residents listened and gave feedback on the details of a possible town noise ordinance. Only two residents who attended the meeting said they were opposed to the town adopting a new noise law.
The town created the Noise Ordiance Task Force on Sept. 9, 2007, to complete an overview of the community’s needs, to research the different aspects of a possible noise ordinance, and then, after public review, provide the Town Board with a proposed draft noise ordinance.
June
The Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Board of Education appointed longtime Capital District school administrator Michael Johnson as its interim superintendent on Monday, June 2.
Johnson succeeded Vicki Wright.
The state’s inspector general released a scathing 244-page report, criticizing the way the state’s Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities handled claims of abuse involving Jonathan Carey.
Carey, who was 13 and autistic, died while in the care of O.D. Heck center employees in 2007. His death ultimately led to legislation called `Jonathan’s Law,` which opens up records regarding the disabled, such as abuse complaints, that were previously withheld from family members.
Saying he was `fighting to just survive,` Glenmont Alteri’s owner Harvey Quinn goes to trial over what he called unjust regulations stopping him from having a banner at his business. If he lost the case, he said, he could be facing six months to a year and a half in jail.
Quinn’s Albany attorney William Ryan has a conference with the town justice and a town attorney and gets a `concession on record of the court,` that Quinn will receive no jail time.
Because of the case, the town board voted unanimously during its meeting Wednesday, June 11, to amend the fees portion of Section 128 of the Bethlehem zoning code and reduce its maximum penalty from six months in jail to 15 days in jail and/or a $350 fine per violation.
The reason the town decided to change the code, according to Town Attorney James Potter, is because Quinn’s trial brought the stiff penalty to light.
The Department of Environmental Conservation fines Bethlehem $15,000 for `mercury and petroleum reporting and handling violations` that occurred over the past two years. Supervisor Jack Cunningham said the town only consented to the fine because it couldn’t prove that less than a pound of mercury had been discharged in a single spill at its water plant.
By paying the $15,000 and remaining compliant, the town does not have to pay an additional $60,000 civil penalty to the DEC, according to the state’s signed consent order, which stated the fine could have totaled $75,000.
The town agreed to replace all of its outdated mercury flow meters as part of the signed consent order.
Bethlehem Town Court clerk Barbara J. Hodom, who has lived in Slingerlands since 1965, retired.
Residents in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District approved a $403,427 referendum on Tuesday, June 17, to borrow funds and purchase four new buses for the district. Voter turnout was low, but the proposition passed by a vote of 140 to 69.
In a unanimous decision, the Bethlehem Town Board appointed Patricia Parsons its new court clerk during its Wednesday, June 25, meeting.
Following an executive session held by the Bethlehem Board of Education at 8:15 in the morning on Thursday, June 26, the board unanimously approved the Bethlehem Central United Employee Association (BCUEA) contract, effective July 1 until June 30, 2012. It was retiring Superintendent Les Loomis’ last official board meeting with the district.
The settlement includes significant employee health insurance concessions that will reduce district expenditures, according to a release from the district, and the new contract contains an average annual overall increase of 2.6 percent plus step increases over the life of the contract.
The planning board listened to details of the long-anticipated Van Dyke Spinney Development project.
Developers describe the project as `a nice senior citizen community` for `active seniors` and have put an age restriction of 55 on the proposed 220 homes to be built on a 90-acre plot off Van Dyke Road just south of Bethlehem High School.
Van Dyke Spinney developers said it would feature cottage-style housing; a community center with a pool and recreational facilities; a full-time, on-site coordinator; and access to a variety of `social, educational and cultural opportunities,` according to the site plan.
R. Mark Dempf, a senior principal with Stantec Consulting, presented the plans to the board on Tuesday, June 17, and said builders hope to have homes ready for occupancy by 2009. The planning board described the occupancy date as `optimistic.`
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