Early vote = late result

by PARRY TEASDALE

GHENT—It’s all over but the counting, which means that at least some of the local races in the election of 2019 will stretch out a little while longer.

That’s not unusual; counting of absentee ballots doesn’t even begin until November 22. But the unofficial vote tallies from the Columbia County Board of Elections issued by press deadline Wednesday, November 6, did not include the ballots from the thousands of early voters, including approximately 700 early ballots that could not be read by the ballot scanning machines and are being recorded manually.

Some races produced clear winners, because statistically there aren’t enough votes to change the outcome, even though the margin of victory is likely to differ from the initial results. Read more…

Ancramdale hosts annual Halloween Party

by DAVID LEE

The Ancramdale Halloween Party at the Ancramdale Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall has been a longstanding tradition. It was started back in the 1940s by Avery Dietter (the mayor of Ancramdale) who was in attendance Saturday, October 26 dressed in his own version of a Superman costume topped by his Korean War Veteran cap. He was also celebrating his 92 birthday on Saturday and he was presented with a cake. Pictured is Mr. Dietter blowing out the candles on his cake, held by great-granddaughter Karlee Bishop. Pictured on the right are granddaughter Monica Cleveland, and her daughter Sydney with Thomas Heath and Ronnie Cleveland. Photo by David Lee

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Murder charge lodged in stabbing

by DIANE VALDEN

CLERMONT—A Red Hook man is in the Columbia County Jail without bail in connection with the stabbing death of Clermont resident.

Columbia County 911 dispatched Sheriff’s deputies to 120 Pleasant Vale Road to investigate a report of a man outside the residence with stab wounds, Sunday, November 3 at 1:32 a.m. When deputies arrived, 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.

Deputies quickly detained the uninjured man and rendered First Aid to the man on the ground. Northern Dutchess Paramedics arrived on the scene and continued with emergency medical aid to the victim, identified as Glenn Unson, 43, of Clermont, who was suffering from knife wounds to his chest and abdominal area. Read more…

Collins wins Chatham super’s seat

by STAFF

CHATHAM–The County Board of Elections had not yet released unofficial results from local elections, but poll results provided by town Democrats showed that the slate endorsed by the town GOP won by a landslide.

Donal Collins won the race for town supervisor, beating incumbent Maria Lull by 915 to 496.

He was joined in the victory by his running mates seeking the two open seats on the Town Board. Abi Mesick won her seat with 921 votes and Vance Pitkin was the top vote getter on the ticket, with 930.

Neither Mr. Collins nor Ms. Mesick is registered Republican; Mr. Pitkin is.

Incumbent Town Board member Michael Richardson, a Democrat, had 509 and his running mate, Gabriella Sperry, had 497 votes.

The vote tallies do not include early voter and absentee ballots.

K’hook parties differ on candidate forum site

by EMILIA TEASDALE

VALATIE–The Valatie Community Theatre held a Candidate Panel Tuesday night, with all the candidates running for Town Board and supervisor invited. Two of the five people running came to the event, both of them running on the Democratic Party line.

Peter Bujanow, who is running for Town Supervisor on the Democratic, Green and Working Families lines, attended the event as did Bill Mancini, running for Town Board on the Democratic and Green Party lines.

Town Supervisor candidate Patsy Leader, who is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines, did not attend and sent an email to the Community Theatre board October 17 explaining why she did not plan to attend the October 29 event. Read more…