NEW LEBANON–Judging by the number of signs proliferating on local roadways, high on the list of races to be voted on Tuesday is the contest between incumbent Town Clerk Colleen Teal and challenger Cheri Lane-Smith.
Their profiles and those of the candidates in the other races this year follow in alphabetical order.
CHATHAM–The school board debated this week whether new athletic field lights should be part of the district’s proposed capital project. Board members plan to make the final decision about the scope of the project in late November, with the plan placed before voters January 12.
At the Tuesday, October 27, meeting, the board also formally appointed John Thorsen co-principal of Chatham High School. Mr. Thorsen has been acting as co-principal with Ron Davis since the beginning of the year. The appointment is probationary and there is no change in his current salary.
ANCRAM–Political party affiliations have been tossed to the wind this year as Democrats embrace Republicans as running mates and Republicans cast their lots with Democrats.
Inadequate highway garage facilities, a completed but unadopted Comprehensive Plan, an exposed property assessment analysis that raised more questions than it answered, missing campaign signs and most recently questions about how vinyl siding bids for the town hall came to be sought in the first place have all emerged as campaign issues in a town of 1,500, where politics was once a ho-hum matter.
TAGHKANIC–Gone are the days when elections for offices in this town went uncontested. With the exception of assessor, there are heated races for every town office on the ballot this year.
It has been many years since Taghkanic Supervisor Elizabeth “Betty” Young has had an opponent in her quest for the top spot in town, but this year Loretta Hoffmann has stepped up to the plate.
GREENPORT–The Columbia County Community Services Board in partnership with the Columbia County Department of Human Services held its 16th annual Legislative Forum Friday, October 23, at Columbia-Greene Community College, with federal, state and local officials on hand to listen and respond to concerns about the delivery of physical health care to persons with disabling conditions. Many of the problems were identified at a public hearing held by the board September 17.
The Columbia County Community Services Board (CSB) is responsible under state law to assess the needs of individuals with chemical dependency, mental illness and intellectual/developmental disabilities, and among those present at the forum to hear that assessment were Benedict McCaffree, representing Congressman Scott Murphy (D-20th), Senator Stephen Saland (R-41st), Assemblymen Marcus Molinaro (R-103rd), and Supervisors Roy Brown (R-Germantown), William Hughes (D-Hudson)and Lynda Sheer (R-Gallatin), along with county Sheriff David W. Harrison Jr.