Ghent holds summer camp at Water Street Playground

by CLAIRE GILBERT

GHENT–The Town of Ghent’s annual summer day camp is gearing up to open Wednesday, July 5. This year the camp will be held at the Water Street Playground for kids ages six and up through August 4. Registration now open to the public.

This year’s camp will be open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 2p.m. Applications are available online at townofghent.org or in-person at the Ghent Town Hall at the corner of Route 66 and Garage Place Road.

Camp Director Karyn Schassler will be in charge of the camp and activities provided will include arts, crafts, games, sports and community building activities. Children are required to bring their own lunch, as well as plenty of water to drink. In addition to what’s available at the playground, the kids will be driven to Fox Hill in Spencertown for swimming a few mornings a week, depending on the weather. Ms. Schassler also mentioned that there will be a few field trips planned for the campers. Read more…

Petition opposes ads near Hillsdale Civil War monument

by LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY

HILLSDALE–Lifelong Hillsdale resident Beverly Stalker presented Town Supervisor Peter Cipkowski a petition this week with 200 hundred signatures supporting a ban on advertising at the Civil War monument on Anthony Street.

During the public comment portion of the monthly board meeting Tuesday, June 13 Ms. Stalker, who is “close to 80” years old, said the monument “is sacred ground and should remain free from any signs or any articles.”

She has expressed this opinion at past meetings but this was the first to which she brought a petition. She also told Mr. Cipkowski that she could get more signatures “if needed.” Read more…

Valatie zone change refloats carwash plan

by EMILIA TEASDALE

VALATIE–The Village Board has adopted a new local law to change the zoning on the property along Route 9 where the former Valkin restaurant building stands. The change from partially residential to all business means that both a restaurant and a new self-serve carwash could be located at that site.

The board held a public hearing on the change before the regular meeting June 13. The local law, which the board passed during the meeting, changed the zoning on the property from partially R1 and B2 zoning to all B2, making is all part of the business district. Mayor Diane Argyle said that about a third of the property was in the R1, or residential district, and much of that is wetland that is protected and will not be built on. She said at the hearing that “the B2 does not extend beyond that lot.”

The village Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) have been reviewing an application from BJ Cantele and Sting Ray Properties LLC to put a self-serve carwash on the property. Originally the plan was to keep the Valkin restaurant, which would reopen, and the carwash, but due to the old zoning laws the application changed in January to one that took down the restaurant building and replaced it with the carwash bays. Read more…

Cascino, still locked up, is fined $10K for dumping

by DIANE VALDEN

COPAKE—Salvatore Cascino was sentenced June 8 to pay a $10,000 fine for his conviction of operating a solid waste management facility without a permit, a class B misdemeanor under New York State Environmental Conservation Law.

It was nearly six-months ago, December 15, 2016, that Mr. Cascino was convicted on the charge by a six-man jury in Copake Town Court during a two-day trail presided over by Town Justice Glenn R. Schermerhorn.

Mr. Cascino, 77, of Larchmont in Westchester County, has spent the past 19 years racking up violations of federal, state and town laws for illegal dumping, building and excavating at a place he calls Copake Valley Farm along the east side of Route 22 in Copake. Read more…

Chatham hires expert help to plan 2-century roof

by EMILIA TEASDALE

CHATHAM–The Village Board has approved spending $33,092 for engineering drawings that describe repairs needed on the roof of the Tracy Memorial Village Hall.

The motion to approve the outlay for the drawings was tabled at last month’s meeting, when Trustee Mike Wollowitz raised questions about the cost of the drawings. When the board met again Thursday, June 8, Mayor Tom Curran said he and Trustee Jay Rippel had met with architect Jack Waite, who would do the drawings on the historic building, and with the Friends of the Tracy, a non-profit group that works to preserve and restore the structure. The mayor said they had reviewed the board’s concerns about the costs.

Mr. Rippel called the plan a “restoration not just a bandage on the roof.” Read more…