Suspect in custody for Clermont murder

by DIANE VALDEN

CLERMONT—Sheriff’s patrols have arrested a Red Hook man in connection with the stabbing death of a Clermont resident.

Columbia County 911 dispatched deputies to 120 Pleasant Vale Road for a man outside the residence with stab wounds, Sunday, November 3 at 1:32 a.m., according to a press release from Columbia County Sheriff David P. Bartlett.

When deputies arrived at the residence they found two men in the front yard. One man was lying on his back and appeared to be injured and the other man was kneeling over him. Read more…

New laws tighten bonds between county, towns

by JEANETTE WOLFBERG

HUDSON–The Columbia County Board of Supervisors adopted a County-Wide Shared Services Plan at its full board meeting October 9.

The plan calls for: training members of all fire departments in the county in the “new fire tower facilities”; new “mandatory life insurances” for all fire departments, as per a law passed by the state legislature last year; and “intermunicipal agreements between the county and all towns and villages to share.” Read more…

Race in Ghent focuses 2 board seats sought by 4

by EMILIA TEASDALE

GHENT–Four people are running for two seats on the Ghent Town Board this November. Incumbents Patti Matheney and Peter Nelson Sr. are both running for reelection. Ms. Matheney is on the Democratic, Working Families and Independence Party ballot lines. Mr. Nelson is on the Republican and Conservative lines. Craig A. Simmons and Koethi Zan are also running for a seat on the board. Ms. Zan is running for the board on the Democratic, Working Families and Independence ballot lines. Mr. Simmons is on the Republican and Conservative lines. The two candidates with the highest vote totals will win four-year terms.

There are also two Town Justice candidates on the ballot for two open four year terms. Mark S. Portan and Michael N. Bruno, both incumbents, are running on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Independence ballot lines.

All the Town Board candidates were contacted. Mr. Simmons did not return the candidate questionnaire. Read more…

Two vie for supervisor in Canaan

by EMILIA TEASDALE

CANAAN–There are several contested races in the Town of Canaan this year, starting with the post of town supervisor, where Brenda Adams and Suzanne M. Pemrick are running for the two-year term. Ms. Adams is running on the Democratic Party line and Ms. Pemrick is on the Republican line.

For Town Council, incumbent Alan G. Miller is running on both the Democratic and Republican lines. Virginia A. Nightingale is running on the Democratic party line and Marlene O. Tuczinski is running on the Republican line. Voters will choose two people to sit on the board for four-year terms. The two with with the greatest number of votes will win the two open seats.

Current Town Justice Katherine E. Ambrosio is running for reelection on the Democratic and Republican lines for a four-year term and Town Justice Delena M. Schaefer is running for reelection on the Democratic line. Michael A. Dutcher is running on the Republican line. In that race, the two candidates with the most votes will win four-year terms. Read more…

They made hay in Ghent

by GREGG BERNINGER

Looking south from the Bartlett House c.1900 where Ghent’s hay press complex once stood; current home of The Columbia Paper and a store on the left that burned in Ghent’s other great fire in 1923. postcard” Photo courtesy of April and Jon Meredith

IN THE LATTER HALF of the 19th century, trains carried hay from Ghent’s farms to the tens of thousands of horses in New York City. Ghent’s hay export business centered on the area in front of the Ghent VFW and across State Route 66 from the current Ghent Firehouse.

In 1892 five hay barns and a hay shed totaling 15,000 square feet stood between the two rail lines that converged in Ghent. Three of those barns had a horse driven hay press, the nexus of the farmer and railroad, Ghent and New York City.

Boys often had the pedestrian job of operating the hay press’s power source. Late in his life, Thomas Buckley, born 1878, recalled, “For many years there was a string of buildings right in the heart of Ghent. These were known as the hay sheds, where the farmers would sell their hay and it would be pressed into bales for shipment to New York. Vacations, I drove the horse round and round to press up the bales. My compensation was 25 cents per day.” Read more…