State nixes Craryville intersection traffic light

by DIANE VALDEN

COPAKE–No traffic light is needed at the Craryville intersection of State Route 23, County Route 7 and Craryville Road, where a controversial new gas station/convenience store is proposed.

At the Copake Planning Board’s May 2 meeting, Chairman Bob Haight said he had finally received the state Department of Transportation (DOT) decision about whether a traffic light is needed at the four-way intersection based on a traffic study performed by Crieghton Manning Engineering, LLP, of Albany for the gas station applicant, GRJH, Inc.

Submitted nearly a year ago, the 88-page traffic assessment study, presented at the June 2018 Planning Board meeting, was a part of the applicant’s required Highway Work Permit Application to the DOT. The detailed study used data collected via automatic traffic recorders on Route 23, County Route 7 and Craryville Road in May 2018 and data collected by DOT on Route 23 in April 2018 at a continuous traffic count station east of the intersection. Included in the report analysis were: sight distances, accidents, collision diagrams, capacity and queuing, types of vehicles by day and hour, turning movements, speed statistics, traffic patterns and volumes. Read more…

Local school budget plans win easily

by STAFF

GHENT–All six public school districts in the county put annual budget proposals before voters Tuesday, May 21, and all won approval by wide margins. All the budget proposals stayed within the limits set by the state on their property tax levy increases.

Each of the six districts also sought to fill seats on the school boards, but there were ballot contests only in the Ichabod Crane and Taconic Hills districts. Write-in candidates were elected in New Lebanon and Hudson.

The propositions in New Lebanon and Ichabod Crane districts for the purchase of new school buses also won approval.

 

Columbia County 2019

School District Election Results Read more…

Teacher shortage saddles Hudson with language barriers

by JEANETTE WOLFBERG

HUDSON–American Sign Language (ASL) will replace all “foreign languages” except Spanish, due to lack of teachers, the Hudson City School District Board of Education verified at its May 7 meeting.

The board also received updates last week on the May 21 budget vote and board election, and the high percentage of students who took state assessment tests.

The high school’s Spanish program will continue. But the Italian language teacher is retiring, and there is no replacement to be found. So starting with the 2019-20 school year, the district will no longer offer Italian. Read more…

Canaan congregation to build new church

by PETER FLIERL

This drawing of the new Canaan Congregational Church shows how the building will look when completed, possibly as early as this fall. The congregation’s previous church was destroyed by fire. Image contributed

CANAAN–The Little Red Church at the corner of state Route 295 and county Route 5 was a community landmark, an iconic space and a symbol of faith for 190 years. Its total destruction in a fire November 6, 2017 was devastating to its members, the community and the extended family of Congregational Churches, all of whom wondered what the future held.

The Rev. Dr. Charles Close, pastor at Canaan Congregational Church, and Victoria Kosakowski, church moderator led the church family through the long, arduous task of determining the future of the church both physically and spiritually. In May 2018, the church membership voted to demolish the burned-out hulk and rebuild.

Next came the insurance company, reviewing architects and building engineers, and ultimately selecting a contractor. The results speak for themselves as the church moves toward groundbreaking and completion of a new church by this fall. Read more…

ICC board told district’s on the road to improvements

by EMILIA TEASDALE

KINDERHOOK – The Ichabod Crane Board of Education received an update on plans for the major capital improvement project at the Tuesday, May 7 meeting.

In December, residents approved the $27-million spending plan for the project, which would include work on all the buildings in the district and construction of a road on campus connecting all three school buildings. Once the funds were approved, representatives from CSArch, the firm hired by the board to design the project, have been meeting with teachers and administrators to come up with a final design.

Melissa Renkawitz from CSArch went through the latest designs with the board at the meeting. She also talked about projects that can be added if construction bids for the work come in lower than expected. She said her firm has been conducting “exhaustive” meetings with Ichabod Crane staff about programming. Read more…