January
• Town Board members Brian Haak and David Rowley, both Democrats, were sworn in by town justices to begin their official terms on the board. On the Planning Board, Peter Stuto was reappointed as chairman and Elena Vaida was reappointed as counsel. Susan Millstein was appointed to the board for a three-year term. Kevin Franklin was reappointed as the Colonie town historian. Brian Caruso was appointed as the deputy town clerk as well as a bingo inspector and deputy registrar of vital statistics.
• Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, and State Senator Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, drafted legislation to make sure senior care facilities do sex offender registry checks for all their employees. Richard P. Ragone, a 64-year-old Level 3 registered sex offender, was arrested on Jan. 4 charges he inappropriately touched a 91-year-old resident at the Loudonville Home for Adults where he was a maintenance worker.
• In a statement released Jan. 7 Dan McCoy suggested reducing the number of legislators and creating term limits for his own position.
• Tom Regan launched “Operation: Please Remember Me.” The plan was to place 140 flags with a black mourning banner along Route 9 in the Town of Colonie, from May 11 through July 13. Regan, a Vietnam veteran, wanted the fallen soldiers to be remembered.
• The Department of Transportation and Siena College announced plans to create a sidewalk along Route 9 from Fiddlers Lane to Newtown Plaza. The plan also included improvements to crosswalks and signaling devices.
• The first-ever “Freeze Out” took place on Jan. 26 into the following morning. More than 20 people slept outside on the lawn of the VFW Post at 525 Delaware Ave. to experience the grueling Capital District cold the way homeless veterans do.
February
• The Town Board passed a resolution on Feb. 7, allowing mercury spill remediation at the High Lift Pumping Station at the Mohawk View Water Treatment Plant to begin. Unacceptable levels of mercury were found at the plant in April 2012 during a valve replacement.
The Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway Coalition and the Town of Colonie are seeking the public’s opinion on plans to improve Cohoes Crescent Road, the heavily trafficked, two-and-a-half mile road between Route 9 in Colonie and the Cohoes City limits.
• Including aid adjustments proposed in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget this year, the South Colonie School District will have lost close to $14 million in aid, Superintendent Jonathan Buhner said. In the fall of 2012 members of Colonie Central High School’s Key Club heard reductions meant the school’s health office was having trouble budgeting for Band-Aids so the club organized a donation drive and collected more than 200 boxes of Band-Aids.
• McCoy hoped the legislature would approve a deal to lease the Albany County Nursing Home to private firm Upstate Service Group. He said the 10-year lease would save the county more than $100 million. The lawmakers at their Feb. 11 meeting approved of a second resolution by a vote of 24-12 requiring the county to include selling all of the nursing home equipment in the lease.
• Albany County Executive Dan McCoy vetoed the County Legislature’s resolution to hire an outside consultant to study the nursing home issue Tuesday, Feb. 19. The legislature had passed a resolution by a vote of 19-17 on Feb. 11 to hire an outside consultant to review a proposed agreement with Upstate Services Group. Negotiations were underway with USG, a private firm, for a 10-year lease that could save the county more than $100 million, according to proponents.
• Colonie officials considered an amendment to the town code that would expand neighbor notification requirements for developers after receiving complaints. The request for a change began after BCI Construction, the developers of the Loudon House project, came to the board in the summer of 2012 and wanted to change the planned development district from condominiums to apartments. The town and the committee decided they should look further into their changes before amending the code.
March
• Police officer Steven Krokoff joined local health and child welfare officials, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, District Attorney David Soares and the county’s Child Fatality Review Team on Wednesday, March 6, to stress the seriousness of unsafe sleeping with babies and to announce the launch of the “Safe Sleeping” campaign to educate the public on preventing infant deaths.
• Sketch plans for a LongHorn Steakhouse were presented to the Colonie Planning Board on March 12. The 6,266-square-foot restaurant would be the first of its chain to make its way to the Capital District – the nearest franchise is in Newburgh – and it would settle in at 206-208 Wolf Road, next to the Best Western Hotel.
• Ashley Hartman, a sophomore studying communication sciences and disorders at The College of St. Rose and a Colonie Central High School graduate, spent her spring break with a group of 13 other students from St. Rose helping to rebuild damaged homes in New Orleans.
• Colonie Planning and Economic Development Director Joe LaCivita confirmed that Dick’s Sporting Goods applied for a building permit seeking approval for a 52,000-square-foot building at The Shoppes at Latham Circle.
• The Historical Society of the Town of Colonie and the Albany County Historical Association sponsored the “Rare Historic Colonial Maps Exhibit” at the Pruyn House in Latham and King’s Place in Albany. More than 70 pieces were hanging in the two historic buildings, including maps ranging from the 1750s and 1760s depicting early colonies and drawings from the Revolutionary War, French and Indian War and Fort Ticonderoga.
• Harry D’Agostino died of heart failure March 15 in Florida. He was 81. D’Agostino spent 36 years as the head of the chairman of the town Republican Committee, and prior to that served 13 years as a town justice for the Town of Colonie.
• Representatives from Bohler Engineering went before the Colonie Planning Board March 26, and were granted concept approval for a “significant reinvestment” in the ’70s-style McDonald’s building at 106 Wolf Road.
April
• The Menands Board of Trustees voted April 1, to authorize the village to exceed the state tax cap. The village’s tentative 2013-14 budget is up against the tax levy limit imposed by the state tax cap law. The $6.4 million budget, a $300,000 increase over this year’s spending plan, would hike taxes by 2.52 percent for a tax rate of $6.78 per 1,000 of assessed property value.
• After nine months of developing a 2013-14 financial plan, the South Colonie Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a budget on Tuesday, April 23. The current proposal totals $92.5 million, which is a $682,000 increase from the previous year.
• A vote on the future of the Albany County Nursing Home has been tabled despite earlier signs legislators were narrowing in on a vote. The Audit and Finance Committee held a special meeting on April 5 regarding the plan to sign a deal with Upstate Services Group to lease the county-run nursing home.
• Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. announced on April 9 it had bought the 1.3-million-square-foot Colonie Center at an undisclosed price. The mall sits on 91 acres at the intersection of Wolf Road and Central Avenue in Colonie and contains more than 113 stores.
• The Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating contamination at Troy Industrial Solutions in Colonie. Four different types of waste – dichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE) and vinyl chloride – were found at the industrial repair and maintenance company, formally known as Troy Belting and Supply Company, during an environmental review.
• The Colonie Town Board voted unanimously on April 11 to amend the town code and expand neighbor notifications requirements for developers.
• Beginning this month, the county correctional facility has partnered with the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society to experiment with a new program to benefit both the inmates and dogs. The STAR program – Steps to Adoption Readiness –lets inmates train homeless dogs for five weeks so they can become better suited for adoption at a permanent home.
May
• The Albany County Legislature tabled a deal to give control of the county run nursing home to a private company at a May 13 meeting, after hearing a presentation from County Comptroller Mike Conners urging action.
• The Colonie Planning Board gave the green light on Tuesday, May 8, for construction of two retail and office buildings on Albany-Shaker Road over protests of neighbors.
• Three days after the Albany County Legislature tabled a vote on privatizing the county nursing home vote, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy sent out a request to move $2.2 million from the county’s contingency fund in the budget to meet the facility’s July payroll.
• North Colonie Central School District residents approved of a 2013-14 budget that stays within the state tax cap on May 21. The $98.2 million budget passed by a vote of 1,445 to 688 and will increases spending over the current year’s plan by 4.25 percent.
• What was called a challenging budgeting year for the South Colonie Central School District was capped with residents approving a 2013-14 school budget that exceeds the state tax cap $92.3 million budget passed by a vote of 2,205 to 1,105, or a 66.2 percent approval margin, on May 21.
June
• Colonie Democratic Committee Chairman Richard Jacobson said the committee endorsed incumbent Supervisor Paula Mahan, who will run for her fourth two-year term.
• One suspect is in custody and two others are still wanted after an armed robbery at the X Change Cash and Trade on Central Avenue June 6. Colonie police said at about 5:35 p.m., three men entered the store, tied up the store employee and stole cash from the register and gold jewelry, police said.
• Renovations paving the way for Schenectady County Community College to fill a floor at the Albany County’s offices can now officially begin after some lawmakers questioned the contractor’s legitimacy. Legislators approved to award a contract to Wainschaf Associates, Inc., at the Albany County Legislature meeting June 10, in a 27-9 vote. Although the construction company was the lowest bidder of five companies, it will cost taxpayers about $87,000 more than it would have a month ago, when the legislature wanted a re-bid for the project.
• A unique, state-of-the-art concept turned into a reality June 11, when the University at Albany opened the doors to its brand new biomedical technology development facility. After three years of building the $9.4 million project, the RNA Institute at the University of Albany is ready to be the home of work on drug discovery, technology development and diagnostics. The 15,000-square-foot building will house 60 biomedical scientists, technicians and administrative employees in the north wing of the Life Science Research building on the university’s uptown campus.
• Albany dance caller Paul Rosenberg still has his 1995 receipt from the Honest Weight Food Co-Op. He was the first customer when the store opened its doors at 484 Central Ave., and its last when it closed them. And on June 19, holding his original receipt like a golden ticket, he was the first out of 2,500 customers to make a purchase at the co-op’s new, much larger, home at 100 Watervliet Ave.