Residents turned out for Early Voting in the county in late October and on Election Day, November 8. Pictured are residents voting for Greenport District 2 at the Becraft Pumper #2 firehouse on Route 14 in Greenport. Business was steady at 8 a.m. on Election Day. Photo by David Lee
The Community Theatre in Hudson then and now. Photo contributed
Photo by Jeanette Wolfberg
HUDSON—While the Hudson Common Council voted October 18 to delay giving the Galvan Foundation a tax break to restore a theater in Hudson a county official on a Galvan housing board expressed great optimism for the project.
The property consists of the former theater building at the corner of Columbia and 7th Street and a wood frame formerly-residential building next to it on Columbia Street. The frame building is at the end of a row of residential houses between 6th Street and the theater. The Galvan Foundation is a property owner and developer in the Hudson area. Among its properties are below-market rate housing, the armory, and a motel.
Galvan submitted its application for the tax exemption late, so an assessor turned down the exemption request. Later, legal analysis showed that lateness was insufficient grounds for denial, and Galvan challenged the rejection. Hudson Common Council President Tom DePietro warned that the Common Council has very little authority to block the exemption. Read more…
Eugene Meenagh. Photo by David Lee
COPAKE — Eugene Francis Meenagh never planned on being 100.
“I have no secret formula, there’s no way of saying what happened,” Mr. Meenagh told The Columbia Paper this week from the comfort of his living room easy chair. “When I was younger I wasn’t afraid of taking a drink or staying out all night.”
Born October 4, 1922, Mr. Meenagh thought he was going to celebrate his 100th birthday by having lunch at The Pond restaurant with two of his daughters. But when he got there he found out he was the guest of honor at a big party.
“They threw me a surprise party and actually surprised me,” he said. Sixty-five people showed up, mostly relatives (he has outlived most of his friends) from as far away as Australia, Tennessee, Virginia and New Hampshire. He couldn’t believe they had come from so far away.
Raised primarily in The Bronx, he went to parochial school—Mount Saint Michael Academy in the north Bronx–and graduated from high school in 1940. From there he went on to Fordham University to major in chemistry. He wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do with his degree, but he thought he had a few years to figure it out. Read more…
GHENT—The results are still unofficial from Tuesday’s midterm election. In Columbia County alone there remain “several hundred” absentee and so-called “affidavit” ballots yet to be counted.
County voters chose Democratic candidates for state and federal office. That was true in the race for Congress in the newly redrawn 19th Congressional District, which includes all of this county. But in that contest, Republican Marcus Molinaro has claimed victory, saying in a release, “I’m ready to hit the ground running.”
His opponent, Josh Riley (D), has not conceded. “We want to be sure every voice is heard, and we are going to do that,” Mr. Riley said in a press release issued November 9.
Governor Kathy Hochul and her running mate, Antonio Delgado, polled well in Columbia County as did a slate of Democratic candidates, including state Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, state Senator Michelle Hinchey (41st SD) and Assemblymember Didi Barrett (106th AD). Read more…
Following the costume contest in the Village Square in Kinderhook on Saturday afternoon, October 29, the activity shifted to the front lawn of the Vanderpoel House, also called the House of History, for a reading of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving, accomplished with supreme eloquence by actor Robert Ian Mackenzie (pictured). After the reading, the headless horseman made an appearance on his bicycle to the great amusement of the children. Photo by David Lee