The pick-your-own fields at Samscott’s in Kinderhook were open for business on Sunday, October 10, and very busy. The orchard was also the location for Cider Sunday, sponsored by Nine Pin Cider of Albany, which featured food trucks, music and cider. Photo by David Lee
ELECTION 2021
GHENT—The Town of Ghent has a full slate of candidates on this November’s ballot. Craig Simmons is running for supervisor on the Republican and Conservative lines and current Town Board member Mallory Mort is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines.
They are running for the post left open by current town Supervisor Michael Benvenuto, who is not running for reelection this year. The term is for 4 years.
Also on the Ghent ballot is Town Clerk/Tax Collector Michelle Radley, who is running on the Democratic, Republican and Conservative lines unopposed. Highway Superintendent Benjamin Perry is also running on the same party lines unopposed. Read more…
People assembled in the 7th Street Park in Hudson for a march to defend access to abortion, October 2. Speakers included Assemblymember Didi Barrett (D-106th), New Lebanon Supervisor Tistrya Houghtling, Columbia County Democratic Committee Chair Sam Hodge, community advocate and organizer Jabin Ahmed, and Rev. Kim Singletary of the Columbia County Women’s Alliance. The primary target of their protest was the new Texas abortion law and the Supreme Court’s failure to review it. Supervisor Houghtling (pictured playing the ukelele) sang “You Don’t Own Me” made popular by Leslie Gore in 1963 and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin”, also recorded that year. She was accompanied by her mother. Large crowds gathered in cities around the country, including New York and Washington, D.C. Photo by David Lee
HUDSON—Food shortages are a new challenge, but “challenges turn into opportunities,” said Christopher Diamantatos, the Hudson City School District’s new food services director, in a phone interview September 13.
“I have never had so warm a reception as I have had” in Hudson, he added. This helps, because food services is “all about teamwork,” he said. “The food will always be the same.”
The Hudson City School District (HCSD) has two kitchens: one in the high school / junior high, another in Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School. The district provides school-day lunches and breakfasts for students in HCSD schools and at Questar III BOCES, as well as dinner for afterschool programs. (In the summer, it has provided breakfast and lunch for community children, including those in summer school.) Read more…
GHENT—They are “fearful,” “frustrated” and “wouldn’t recommend” living there. The “there” is the Highpointe Apartments, a 36-unit, 55+ senior community in the Village of Chatham. The non-profit Galvan Foundation, based in Hudson, assumed management of Highpointe in 2014. Galvan also manages units in Philmont and Hudson for a total of 180 units countywide.
Gregory Pickens, a 15-year Highpointe resident and self-appointed spokesperson for at least some of his fellow tenants, has alerted village, county and state officials to conditions at Highpointe that he and other tenants believe threaten their safety and health.
In an email sent Monday, October 4, Gregory Pickens wrote, “Still no heat, water not hot.” In the email Mr. Pickens also cited state law requires that heat must be on by October 1. Read more…
COPAKE—The Copake Rapid Care Center is now closed—temporarily.
Last week The Columbia Paper reported that Columbia Memorial Health’s (CMH) Copake Rapid Care Center at 283 Mountain View Road would cut its days and hours of operation as of October 1.
CMH Chief Medical Officer Dr. Clifford Belden said in a statement received September 28, two primary factors—the continued resurgence of Covid-19 cases, and a critical shortage of clinical staff—had contributed to the cut back. Read more…