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DUANESBURG
Fire, vandals cause damage to park
Police charge four young people; a fifth cited with providing alcohol
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net

   State police investigating vandalism and a fire that leveled a large pavilion in Van Patten Mill Park arrested three young men and a young woman Wednesday, charging them with arson.
   Duanesburg Fire Chief Ken Griffin said the fire ripped through a 24-foot by 45-foot pavilion sometime between the evening hours Tuesday and early Wednesday morning. He said the blaze also consumed a 10-by-12-foot storage area in the structure, which houses the pavilion’s water pump and a few park games.
   “It’s going to be hard for them to recover even with insurance,” he said. “It’s a pretty big blow to a small town.” Police estimated the damage as exceeding $30,000.
   Police charged the following individuals: Patrick Emery, 18, of Guilderland Avenue, Schenectady; Randall Anderson, 21, of Youngs Road, Delanson; Christopher M. Olson, 20, of Vanpatten Road, Duanesburg; and Rhiannon Gati, 17, of Okara Drive, Schenectady. All were charged with 3rd degree arson, a felony, and Gati, the female, was also charged with criminal mischief, a felony. All were sent to the Schenectady County Jail on $10,000 bail.
   The investigation also resulted in a charge against Ann Marie Roberts, 25, of Guilderland Avenue. She was charged with obtaining alcohol for underage persons, a misdemeanor. She was issued an appearance ticket for Rotterdam Town Court.
   Griffin said the fire was first discovered by a pair of neighbors around 8:30 a.m. But by the time it was noticed, flames had already consumed the bulk of the pavilion.
   “It was ashes by the morning,” he said.
   Schenectady County Fire Coordinator John Nuzback visited the site with county investigators.
   In addition to the fire, the park off Depot Road also suffered vandalism. Griffin said someone apparently drove a vehicle in circles around a pair of baseball fields adjacent to the pavilion.
   “They rutted it up pretty bad,” he said.
   Town Supervisor Rene Merrihew was stunned by the park damage. She estimated the damage to exceed $75,000.
   “It’s really disheartening,” she said. “I don’t understand why people would do this.”
   In addition to losing the pavilion and damage to the fields, Merrihew said some equipment that the town recently purchased for Shafer Park also was destroyed. She said the pavilion is insured but was unsure of when the town could rebuild the structure.
   “It’s not in the cards for this season,” she said.
   Merrihew hopes to save a bronze plaque that was hung in the pavilion after it was constructed by the Duanesburg Lions Club during the late 80s. “It survived the fire,” she said. “It’s the only thing.”

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DUANESBURG
Spirit still alive after 29 years
Thousands attend Harley Rendezvous
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Every year, someone asks Frank Potter to describe the Harley Rendezvous.
   And every time, the longtime organizer of the motorcycle rally finds himself searching for words.
   “They ask me to describe the rendezvous with words,” he said, scanning the bustling grounds of the Indian Lookout Country Club Thursday, “Well, I really can’t.”
   The event Kemp O’Connell started as a parts swap 29 years ago rolled into the hamlet of Mariaville again this week, bringing with it thousands of custom bikes, droves of leather-clad riders and a large extended family.
   “We’ve been doing it for so many years, it’s like a family,” said Steve Salerno, a food vendor from Cobleskill who has attended the rally for nearly two decades.
   Having grown from the about 1,200 riders who first attended the event in 1979, the rendezvous now attracts upwards of 6,000 aficionados and a roaring carnival-onwheels atmosphere that is — as Potter insists — almost indescribable. But despite its throngs of bikers and raucous reputation, the rendezvous is run like a tight ship. Potter says for every 100 rendezvous attendees, there will be at least one person on his support staff.
   “This is like a big ship that’s coming to port,” he explained. “Without [the volunteers], it ain’t coming to port.”
   Campers and riders enter the event through what Potter calls his “holding field,” where they wait to file through a security checkpoint about a quarter-mile away. At the checkpoint, nearly two dozen security volunteers are directed to search every bike, camper and vehicle.
   Potter said he has a zero-tolerance policy toward drugs, weapons and explosives at the rally. Those found with contraband surrender them or in some cases get their money back and leave.
   “We want to assemble in an orderly fashion,” he said. “We don’t need police because we police ourselves.”
   Once inside, patrons are treated to what has made the event renowned among bikers. Dozens of bands flood Indian Lookout with rock music throughout the weekend, including acts like King Noris, Blackfoot and Edgar Winter. The rally also features motorcycle pulls, bike rodeos and an assortment of Harley-related events that any gearhead could appreciate.
   The idea for a rally first came after an infamous 1973 meet-up in Westfield, Mass., turned violent, recalled Chuck Schmidt, a biker from northern Massachusetts who has attended the rendezvous since its inception. He said O’Connell and a group of bikers decided to seek a more peaceful place to gather.
   “We decided there had to be a better way to enjoy ourselves,” he said.
   O’Connell eventually purchased the 177-acre plot of land from a pair of Duanesburg farmers and dedicated the property to hosting the rally. During the early days, Potter said, the rendezvous was focused on trading motorcycle parts and making new friends.
   “It was a place for us to come together during a time when bikers weren’t exactly socially acceptable,” he said.
   O’Connell, suffering from cancer, passed the torch to Potter shortly before his death in 1994. In his memory, Potter pledged to run the event for as long as he can.
   “I promised I’d do my very best to make sure his dream stays a reality for as long as it can,” he said.
   Nearly three decades after the first event, most veterans agree the riders are a bit older, the beards a bit shorter and there are fewer people concerned with swapping parts. But still, Schmidt said the group carries on the same feeling of camaraderie that brought them all to Indian Lookout many years ago.
   “The spirit is still here,” he said.

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DUANESBURG
Town appeals for park donations
Recreation program gear destroyed by fire
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Town officials are hoping an appeal to the community will help repair some of the damage caused when fire ripped through the pavilion at Van Patten Mill Park last month.
   In addition to destroying the town’s largest public pavilion, the fire also consumed a storage shed containing all the supplies used for the town’s youth recreation program. The program will be moved to Shaffer Park, about 3 miles away, but the town still lacks much of the sports equipment and art supplies destroyed.
   “Right now, it hasn’t been in the town budget to do this,” Parks Commission Chairman Peter Watrous said Tuesday. “The town is trying to recover what it can, but we’re also looking for donations.”
   And with less than three weeks to go before the program begins, Recreation Director Caitlin Kremler said the donations could be anything from sports equipment to construction paper and scissors. She said donated equipment, such as croquet sets or basketballs, doesn’t need to be new.
   “Pretty much everything you can think of was lost in the storage unit,” she said.
   For more than twenty years the town has hosted the mid-summer program at the park off Depot Road. The large pavilion, ball courts, playground and baseball field proved ideal for the three-week session, which can draw upwards of 80 elementary and middle school children.
   “With the loss of the park we’re used to having, the program that was routine, we’re now having to plan differently,” Watrous said. “It will mean quite a change for the park program.”
   The park has been closed since the fire. Little remains of the pavilion and storage shed, save for a half-filled dumpster of charred wood and a soot-stained concrete slab.
   State police arrested Patrick Emery, 18, of Schenectady, Randall Anderson, 21, of Delanson, Christopher Olson, 20, of Duanesburg and Rhiannon Gati, 17, of Schenectady and charged them with felony 3rd degree arson. Investigators estimated the damages to the park at more than $30,000.
   Watrous said the amount of coverage on the pavilion doesn’t appear to be enough to cover the cost of the damage.
   “The allotment in the insurance for pavilions is rather small,” he said.
   Meanwhile, the Duanesburg Lions Club is organizing a fundraiser later this month to rebuild the pavilion, which they built during the 1980s. Club President Mary Grimm said the Lions will raise money for the effort at a “Firefighter Muster” slated for July 21 at the Indian Lookout Country Club.
   “[The park] is very important to us,” she said. “Our main goal is to do things for the community,”
   Grimm said the Lions are hoping to raise enough money to start rebuilding the structure sometime before next summer, as long as the town gives consent. However, she didn’t rule out a project later this summer, provided there’s enough community support.
   “If they could give us the goahead and we could get the money, then we’ll do it,” she said. “I learned along time ago, never say never.”  

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DUANESBURG PICNIC
   DUANESBURG — The public is invited to the Duanesburg Historical Society’s annual picnic at 6 p.m. Monday at the Collins home, 147 Larson Lane off Schoharie Turnpike.
   Participants are asked to bring their own place setting, a drink and a dish to share. Meat and rolls will be provided. Those planning to attend should contact the Collins in advance at 895-2328

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DUANESBURG
Couple sues to block photo supply business
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   A Duanesburg couple has filed a lawsuit against the town in an attempt to block a wholesale photography supply business from establishing in a vacant garage off Esperance Station Road.
   Ronald and Laura Shepard fi led the lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Schenectady County last month, claiming that the town and its Planning Board unlawfully issued a special use permit for Michael Jacobson’s business. The town unanimously granted Jacobson a permit to establish a professional office at 140 Esperance Station Road in what was previously a garage.
   In the lawsuit, the Shepards claim the town approved a business that should have been designated for a manufacturing or light industrial zone because of the toxicity of the products Jacobson is proposing to sell. Among other allegations, the couple claims the town failed to interpret the municipal zoning ordinance, the comprehensive plan or the state Environmental Quality Review Act in approving the business in a residential area.
   “There is no reasonable interpretation of ordinance which would permit the storage, repackaging or sale of chemicals by anything close to a ‘professional’ use,” Ron Shepard stated in court documents. “Any other interpretation would lay the town open to a precedent where virtually any use could be a professional office, which would have a seriously detrimental effect on land use and codes in the town.”
   Town attorney Jeffrey Siegel said he could not comment on pending litigation.
   In April, Jacobson told the Planning Board that 95 percent of the chemicals he sells are not regulated and are nonhazardous, according to town records. He said the chemicals, which are used for black-and-white photography, would all be prepackaged and kept in small amounts.
   Five months after Jacobson’s initial application, the board unanimously approved the special use permit, stipulating that Jacobson install both a water well and a septic tank on the property, which lacks both.
   But the Shepards argue Jacobson misrepresented his business to the planners. They claim he intends to sell up to 216 different chemicals at a site that is within the Schoharie Creek watershed.

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DUANESBURG
Firefighters to compete for community causes
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.

Check out an array of fire equipment and enjoy an afternoon of live music. The event is open to the public and the competition to any company that can muster a squad of firefighters at the country club.
   “We will take people from every fire department there is,” she said. “It’s an open invitation. Show with trucks or just show up.”
   One competition will have teams of fi ve firefighters transfer 50 gallons of water 20 feet in the fastest time. The crews will use 2-gallon buckets to pass the water from hand to hand.
   During the “waterball joust,” crews will train their hoses on a ball suspended in the air. The winner will be the team that pushes it past a red flag tied to a cable.
   There will also be a tug-of-war competition, where the victorious team wins both bragging rights and remains dry, while the losing team will end up taking a dip in a stock pond. Other competitions include a “best truck” contest and a race to see who can suit up the fastest in protective gear.
   “We just want to have a lot of fun,” Grimm said.
   The events are free. There is a $5-per-car admission to the country club. The gates will open at 9 a.m., and the competitions will run until 4 p.m. Besides several live musical acts, the muster will also feature an assortment of vendors and demonstrations.
   Some of the proceeds will go to help Jennifer Davis, a mother who has battled brain cancer since 1999. Davis, who has a young son, found that the tumor had spread last year and has been struggling to cover her expenses ever since.
   The Ruthers will also receive some of the money raised during the muster. Though the family was able to rebuild their barn, Grimm said, they lost a significant number of their cows from health afflictions related to the fire.
   Grimm said the Lions also plan to help replace anything torched in the pavilion fire last month and not covered by the town’s insurance. The Lions built the structure during the 1980s and donated it to the town.
   But above all, Grimm said, she wants area residents to enjoy a day of fun.
   “We want the community to come together,” she said. “Hopefully, this will get bigger and bigger every year.”
   When the Duanesburg Lions Club decided to host its first Firefighters’ Muster, it didn’t take long to find a worthy cause to support with the proceeds.
   The Lions quickly decided any revenue from the muster, a series of skills competitions among fi refighters, would go to benefit the Ruthers. The local family has struggled to recover ever since fire ripped through their main dairy barn in January.
   But just a few weeks into the planning, another worthy cause came up. And then another.
   Now, the inaugural event will raise money for three benevolent causes — the Ruther farm, a young cancer-stricken mother and rebuilding the pavilion at Van Patten Mill Park. It may sound like a lot to take on for the first event, but that’s what the Lions do, explained Mary Grimm, the club’s president.
   “That’s what we’re here for, and that’s what we want to do,” she said.
   Ten fire companies and hundreds of area fi refighters are scheduled to gather at the Indian Lookout Country Club on Saturday to compete,

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Quaker Street; Duanesburg  

  
By MICHAEL LISI, Special to the Times Union
First published: Sunday, June 3, 2007

There's no Quaker Street in the historic Duanesburg hamlet known as Quaker Street.
  
There's Quaker Lane and, on Duanesburg Road, the Quaker Meeting House -- which was built in 1807 and still hosts monthly Quaker meetings. A few Quakers even still live in the area, which more than 50 Quaker families called home after moving here from Dutchess County in the late 1700s.

But you won't find a Quaker Street in Quaker Street.

"Quaker Street is a misnomer," said Duanesburg Town Historian Arthur D. Willis, a Quaker and a longtime Quaker Street resident. "When the Quakers came up in the 1780s, they settled on what is now Quaker Lane. The term Quaker Street came because so many Quakers lived along the avenue."

These days, Quaker Street is a quiet rural neighborhood, its streets dotted with century-old farmhouses and rolling lawns landscaped with colorful spring flowers. A flagpole circled by small flowers sits on a small grass island at the hamlet's only intersection, at the junction of Quaker Lane, Duanesburg Road, and Darby Hill Road.

In 1984, the Quaker Street Historic District -- the area bounded by the Schoharie Turnpike, and Gallupville and Darby Hill roads -- was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

A mix of older residents and young families live in the hamlet, which stretches about two miles along Quaker Lane and Duanesburg Road, taking in the cross streets of Maple and Bull streets, and Darby Hill, Gallupville, and Thousand Acre roads. Parents and grandparents waited for the school bus with their kids on a recent weekday morning.

Schools

Children who live in Quaker Street are enrolled in the Duanesburg Central School District; the Duanesburg Elementary School is located a few miles northeast of the hamlet, on Chadwick Road. Pupils attend the Duanesburg Elementary School from kindergarten through fifth grade.

Sixth- through eighth-graders go to the Duanesburg Middle School and graduate to the Duanesburg High School, with which had 319 students enrolled in the 2005-06 school year. According to the 2005-06 Report Card on the Schools, 77 percent of students graduating from Duanesburg High School earned a Regents diploma.

Commuting

Quaker Street is served by several thoroughfares -- Duanesburg Road, the Schoharie Turnpike (Route 74), Route 395 (Main Street, Delanson) that leads into the village of Delanson, and Darby Hill Road (Route 133).

Route 7 heading northeast leads to the Exit 24 of Interstate 88, which links with the state Thruway; the exit is located about five miles away. Quaker Street is about a 5-mile drive from I-88 Exit 23, which leads to Cobleskill (about a 25-minute drive) and points south and west.

Shopping and recreation

Wolfe's Market & Pizza sits on the north side of Duanesburg Road, across from Quaker Lane. The shop is attached to the Quaker Street Post Office -- the hamlet's one-room postal facility. From there, you can walk across Route 395 to the Quaker Street Volunteer Fire Department. Gibby's Diner, a retro 1940s-style diner, and the Quaker Inn tavern, are a short drive away.
A Stewart's Shop is close by, as is a Dunkin' Donuts and a selection of small restaurants and shops located along Route 7 heading east into Quaker Street. Route 395 north leads to the village of Delanson, where more shops and restaurants can be found. A Hannaford supermarket is on Western Turnpike in Duanesburg, about 10 minutes away.

The Robert B. Shafer Memorial Park, at Duanesburg and East Shore roads, has three tennis courts, two basketball courts, soccer and softball fields, and a nature trail. The Community Playground, a wooden playground for grade schoolers, is set across the street at Duanesburg Elementary School.

The Quaker Street Library, a branch of the Schenectady County Library system, is located at the intersection of Bull Street and Route 7 in the hamlet.

Mortgages and rents

One- and two-family houses can be found in Quaker Street. A two-family, 2,500-square-foot home at 129 Darby Hill Road is selling for $169,000; it has been on the market since April 30. Both units have two bedrooms and one bathroom. Rents are $775 for the lower unit, and $675 for the upper unit.

A single-family, 2,000-square-foot home at 121 Quaker Lane sold for $157,900 -- about $3,000 below its asking price -- in May. The 130-year-old farmhouse is renovated, with three bedrooms, a computer room, two bathrooms, and a detached garage/barn.

Taxes

Homeowners pay $27.31 per $1,000 of assessed value (currently 31.7 percent) for town, county and special district property taxes; they pay $49.26 per $1,000 for school taxes. For a home valued at $100,000, the yearly tax bill will be about $2,430.

Michael Lisi is a freelance writer from Schenectady and a frequent contributor to the Times Union.

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Gibby's Diner, a retro 1940s-style diner

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DUANESBURG
Grant helps outfit new community center
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Piece by piece, the stone facade of the new Duanesburg Area Community Center is coming together.
   The concrete is set for the six-lane indoor swimming pool and the interior of the gym is almost built. And with a $315,000 state grant, community center officials now have the money in place to outfit their 26,000-square-foot facility, slated for completion this fall.
   State officials announced the new funding through the Office of Small Cities’ Federal Community Development Block Grant Program. The grant will go toward furniture, fixtures and other equipment for the center, which was originally envisioned by community leaders nearly eight years ago.
   “This is a long-awaited community center, which will bring important services to children and families in the rural Duanesburg area,” said state Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Niskayuna, in a news release. He has already secured more than $350,000 in grants for the project.
   The community center project is expected to create 35 new jobs and retain the existing 11 jobs at the old facility off Mott Road. The new building about 6 miles away off Cole Road includes a gymnasium, aquatics and fitness centers, child care centers and community meeting space.
   “These grants hold the promise of new, goodpaying jobs, which means more New Yorkers will have a secure economic future,” Gov. Eliot Spitzer said in a statement.
   Patrick Ciraulo, the community’s executive director, could not be reached for comment Tuesday,
   The idea for a community center was first put forward in 2000, when a group of local residents began seeking a place to host cultural, recreational and educational activities. Initial discussions envisioned a 20,000-square-foot structure on property owned by the Duanesburg Central School District in the village of Delanson.
   But after nearly three years of fundraising, the organization decided instead to invest in the former site of Fitness Fanatics on Mott Road. Opened in April 2003, the smaller building was able to support many of the programs initially projected, while the organization continued to seek other sources of funding.
   In July 2005, the push for an expanded community center facility received a major boost from a $250,000 matching grant through the state Environmental Protection Fund. The grant brought the community center fund up to $2.7 million.
   Construction on the building began in December 2006 on a 9-acre property by the Normanskill that was donated by the Romanski family. Once completed, the community center is anticipated to represent a $5 million investment, including the value of the donated land, infrastructure improvements by the village of Delanson, engineering and construction costs. So far, the community center has raised more than $4.5 million of this cost and is aiming to raise an additional $500,000, according to figures provided on its Web site.

ANA N. ZANGRONIZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Jeremiah Stuart of Nancy’s Painting sprays an interior wall white at the new Duanesburg Area Community Center on Tuesday.

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The idea for a community center was first put forward in 2000, when a group of local residents began seeking a place to host cultural, recreational and educational activities. Initial discussions envisioned a 20,000-square-foot structure on property owned by the Duanesburg Central School District in the village of Delanson.
   But after nearly three years of fundraising, the organization decided instead to invest in the former site of Fitness Fanatics on Mott Road. Opened in April 2003, the smaller building was able to support many of the programs initially projected, while the organization continued to seek other sources of funding.

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“These grants hold the promise of new, goodpaying jobs, which means more New Yorkers will have a secure economic future,” Gov. Eliot Spitzer said in a statement.

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We clearly would not want congested traffic debilitating an emergency call.

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DUANESBURG
PhanPhest starts slowly, but more people expected
BY KATHY PARKER Gazette Reporter

   Half a dozen music lovers were on hand for the start of PhanPhest at the Indian Lookout Country Club Friday afternoon, but promoters were expecting thousands before the three-day event closes on Sunday.
   Drew Wajnert said it’s been three years since his New Jerseybased music promotion company has held an outdoor festival.
   “PhanPhest started five years ago as a backyard hobby and three years ago we had 550 people who maxed out four acres,” Wajnert, 33, said. “We’ve been waiting to bring it back in a big way in a big venue and this fit perfectly.”
   He compares the jam bands that will perform to The Grateful Dead and Phish.
   “We say the intention of the festival is musical connectivity. This is music you don’t hear on the radio because the airwaves are dominated by a couple of companies,” he said.
   He said the 200 acres of the country club property with a 30-year history as an event venue are expected to host up to 3,000 music fans who have been invited to pitch a tent or park a vehicle and stay through Sunday evening, when the last of 32 bands hits the final note.
   The weekend started shortly after noon Friday when The Atmosferics took the stage and warmed up to a crowd of three.
   “People are still working or are on their way here,” Wajnert said.
   Frank Potter, owner of the property, said advertising for the event was mostly conducted on the Internet.
   “We’re prepared for just about anything,” he said. “My staff will check people in and search every vehicle before it goes up the road.”
   He said if searches turn up weapons or drugs, the car and its occupants are sent back out and told not to return.
   “If we find glass, we ask them to throw it in a barrel. If we fi nd baseball bats, we hold on to them until the people leave and we give the bats back,” Potter said.
   Wajnert said that security was a big plus when he and his two partners decided to move the festival from New Jersey to New York.
   “This is a fairly pure and innocent scene and we were looking for the right location with tight security,” he said.
   He said 60,000 fliers were distributed by his company and the scheduled bands and the festival has been promoted for about six months on Web sites including postings on My Space.
   “We used the words, ‘Albany, girls, Grateful Dead and Phish’ to locate potential attendees,” he said. “If you attract the girls, the guys will follow.”
   Colleen and Vinnie White of Newburgh were among the fi rst fans to arrive Friday.
   They said they have been going to concerts and music festivals for 30 years and took their children, now 18 and 19, to many when they were younger.
   “We know some of the bands that will be here this weekend,” Colleen White said. “We’ll be here to the end.”

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DUANESBURG
School district picks new leader Christine Crowley named superintendent
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.

   In their six-month search for a new superintendent, officials from the Duanesburg Central School District decided to look north.
   The Board of Education this week hired Christine Crowley, who has served the past six years as principal of Northeastern Clinton Central High School in Champlain. Crowley will begin her position at the district next month, replacing Lewis DeFilippo, the interim superintendent.
   “I am thrilled to join the Duanesburg community as superintendent of schools,” Crowley said in a statement released by the district Thursday. “I was very impressed with the school board, administrators, faculty, parents and community members that I met during the interview process.”
   DeFilippo was hired by the district in June after Superintendent Mark Villanti took a job with the Haldane Central School District in Dutchess County. Villanti had headed the district for nearly six years.
   Crowley comes to the district with nearly 24 years of experience in education, teaching at Paul Smith’s College in Franklin County and at Albany High School. She attended undergraduate school at the State University at Potsdam, completed her master’s in educational studies at State University at Plattsburgh and graduated from the superintendent’s development program at SUNY Oswego.
   “Christine has excellent credentials, a great personality and leadership style,” Raymond Hawes, school board president, said. “We expect that she will make our district even better than it is today, and that she will continue the growth that was made under the leadership of Dr. Mark Villanti over the past few years.”
   Hawes said Crowley was hired at an annual salary of $115,000. Board members initially started out with 22 candidates and whittled the choices down to three last month.
   “The other two finalists were very capable and strong leaders,” he said. “I have no doubt that they will each become superintendents in other school districts soon.”
   The hiring will allow DeFilippo to again retire from the district where he worked for more than 25 years. He retired as Duanesburg’s superintendent in 2001, but came back two years later as the district’s business manager.
   DeFilippo announced his resignation again in December 2006, but was called out of retirement six months later when Villanti left. He didn’t discount serving the district one more time, if the need is ever there.
   “Maybe I can do something or if someone is short-handed and they need help,” he said.

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I wish Schalmont would do the same thing with it's School Superintendant.

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I wish Schalmont would do the same thing with it's School Superintendant.

What? Get a new one?

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Duanesburg picks superintendent
Christine Crowley's years experience includes stint as high school principal
  
By JENNIFER PATTERSON, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007

DUANESBURG -- After an extensive search, longtime educator and public school administrator Christine Crowley has been named the new superintendent of the Duanesburg School District.
  
The Board of Education selected Crowley for the position vacated in March by Mark Villanti, who served as superintendent for six years. Villanti is now superintendent at the Haldane Central School District in Cold Spring, Putnam County.

Former school district administrator Lewis DeFilippo came out of retirement for the second time to serve as interim superintendent this summer, from July 1 to Aug. 31.

"Christine has excellent credentials, a great personality and leadership style," said board President Raymond Hawes. "We expect that she will make our district even better than it is today."

Crowley holds a master's degree in educational studies from SUNY Plattsburgh and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from SUNY Potsdam. She is also a graduate of the superintendent's development program at SUNY Oswego.

An educator with more than 24 years of experience, Crowley began her career teaching mathematics at St. Agnes School in Lake Placid and also taught at Paul Smith's College, two correctional institutions and Albany High School.

She comes to Duanesburg from Northeastern Clinton Central High School in Champlain, where she served as principal for the past six years and also served as the district's director of special education for a year.

"I am thrilled to join the Duanesburg community as superintendent of schools," Crowley said. "I was very impressed with the school board, administrators, faculty, parents and community members that I met during the interview process."

Duanesburg's Board of Education, with the assistance of consultant Gerald Carozza, Capital Region BOCES chief operations officer, began the superintendent search in March, after Villanti announced his resignation. They conducted an open search to engage various members of the district's community including teachers, staff, parents, students and town residents.

The board received more than 20 applications, from which three finalists were selected for interviews. Crowley was ultimately picked. She will make $115,115 annually.

"The other two finalists were very capable and strong leaders," Hawes said. "I have no doubt that they will each become superintendents in other school districts soon." Jennifer Patterson can be reached at 454-5340 or by e-mail at jpatterson@timesunion.com.

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DUANESBURG
Town residents to get tax break
Supervisor unveils tentative budget of $2.36M
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Repoter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.

   Duanesburg taxpayers will get a bit of a break this year, according to the proposed 2008 town budget.
   Supervisor Rene Merrihew submitted a tentative budget refl ecting a 5.5 percent decrease in the tax levy over this year’s figures for the general fund and highway budget. In total, the town will need to raise $516,410 to cover these expenses, plus special district allocations.
   Merrihew said a home with an equalized value of $200,000 will pay about $79 in local taxes this year, which is a decrease of about $6. Expenditures between the general fund, highway budget and the special districts will add up to about $2.36 million.
   Much of the savings realized by the town this year are due to the expiration of a bond that was used to purchase Shafer Park. The bond cost the town about $26,000 annually, Merrihew said.
   Merrihew designated several funds in the preliminary budget in anticipation of future projects and expenditures. She said the town will save money by avoiding the bonding process provided the projects are fully funded before implementation.
   Merrihew set aside $15,000 for a planned property data collection, adding to a $60,000 fund already saved for the project. The town hasn’t updated its property rolls since the 1960s and now has a state equalization rate of about 28 percent.
   “At some point in the future, we will need to think about providing funds for data collection,” she said.
   Merrihew is also proposing to use $600,000 from the general fund to expand Town Hall, which has proven too small. She said town officials are often faced with relocating meetings due to conflicts and often have difficulty providing enough seating for citizens.
   “Anybody that has been there for a Planning Board meeting or many of our Town Board meetings and most every night at court, they end up needing to stand in the hallway outside,” she said,
   Merrihew budgeted an additional $50,000 to purchase more land for Shafer Park. She said a 5-acre parcel near the roughly 20-acre park is on the market and could be purchased with a combination of town and private grant funding.
   “You don’t get the opportunity to add land to the park very often,” she said.
   Merrihew allocated $50,000 in the budget to create a replacement program for town vehicles. By saving money in advance, she said the town can avoid future bonding.
   “I want to be able to have enough funds in there to pay cash for these things rather than bonding it,” she said.  

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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Grand jury indicts 4 in torching of VanPatten Mill Park pavilion
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   SCHENECTADY — Four individuals accused of torching a large pavilion at Duanesburg’s VanPatten Mill Park were indicted on arson charges by a Schenectady County grand jury.
   Patrick Emery, 18, of Schenectady, Randall Anderson, 21, of Delanson, Christopher M. Olson, 20, of Duanesburg and Rhiannon Gati, 17, of Schenectady were each indicted on the charge of third-degree felony arson Tuesday. All four were also indicted on the misdemeanor charges of second- and third-degree criminal mischief stemming from the case.
   Fire consumed the park pavilion in June, demolishing the structure and a nearby storage area. During the incident, someone drove a vehicle in circles around a pair of baseball fields adjacent to the pavilion, rutting them seriously.
   State police at the time estimated the damage at more than $30,000.

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DUANESBURG
Town residents to get tax break
Supervisor unveils tentative budget of $2.36M

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As a resident of the Town of Duanesburg, I'm sorry it took you almost one full week to bother to comment.  This is a clear example of Duanesburg's standing in the county.  Unimportant, and easily missed.

Quoted from Rene

As a resident of the Town of Duanesburg, I'm sorry it took you almost one full week to bother to comment.  This is a clear example of Duanesburg's standing in the county.  Unimportant, and easily missed.

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DUANESBURG
Developer starting over on application
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.

   With an agreement finally reached on environmental testing for the controversial Atateka subdivision, a lawyer representing the developers added a twist: He withdrew the project proposal.
   Donald Zee, an attorney representing Ken Meyer and Paul Di-Cocco of Atateka Development LLC, pulled preliminary sketch plans of the development during a special Planning Board meeting last month. Initial plans called for a 31-unit cluster development off Turnbull Road just west of Delanson.
   The development’s cluster arrangement would have needed town variances. Instead, the developers intend to submit a similar plan using conventional style of development, which would utilize larger lot sizes that conform to the local code.
   “Essentially, they’re coming in and starting all over,” said Planning Board Chairwoman Sandra Scott, “It took everyone by surprise.”
   Zee said the abrupt change was made to streamline the application. With fewer approvals needed, he said the development will likely move through the planning process much quicker. And after nearly a year of wrangling on the plan, he said his clients are eager to move the project along.
   “Obviously, [their comments] told me there would potentially be a lot of dialogue and a lot more discussion,” he said. “My client couldn’t afford that.”
   The change in design came just moments after town officials agreed on a more rigid testing protocol for the development, to ensure none of the building lots are contaminated from a former chemical dump on the property. Suspected contamination on the property stalled the project.
   The property became the subject of a joint state Department of Environmental Conservation and state Department of Health probe in March 1984, after more than 140 corroded barrels were found buried in a pair of marshy pits. Among the items uncovered in the dump site were burlap bags, test tubes and the barrels, which originally contained phenolic resins.
   Nearby residents indicated a local farmer had accepted money from Schenectady Chemical Inc. to dispose of the barrels sometime during the 1950s. Even though the property was given a clean bill of health by the DEC during the 1980s, town officials wanted the property scrutinized under current environmental standards.
   Zee said new plans for development would be submitted to the town in time to get the project on the agenda for the planning board’s October meeting,
   “We’re starting from square one here,” Scott said.  

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Skyline Drive home burns
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net

   Fire ripped through a Skyline Drive residence Monday afternoon, gutting the structure and leaving a family of four homeless.
   The single story residence near the Hillman Road intersection was all but destroyed by the fire, which started near the center of the home and broke through the roof. Delanson Fire Chief Kevin Morrison said fire was reported around 2:35 p.m. and it had already spread substantially when the first crews arrived.
   “It was ripping when we got here,” he said. “It had a good while to get going.”
   County Fire Coordinator John Nuzback said the homeowners first spotted flames in a living area of the home and called the fire in. He said afternoon wind gusts helped spread the flames after the building’s windows popped from the heat.
   The blaze consumed nearly everything on the fi rst floor and garage, leaving charred debris. The home’s roof was destroyed and a finished basement area in the rear was damaged heavily.
   Nuzback said the homeowners had insurance, but he did not release their identities. He said the couple’s two children were at school when the fire broke out.
   More than four dozen fi refighters were on the scene from seven regional volunteer companies, including Delanson, Mariaville, Quaker Springs, Burtonsville, Potterkill, Duanesburg and Esperance. Nuzback said the cause is now under investigation.
   “It got going pretty good pretty quickly,” he said.  

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LANDMARKS
200-year-old Quaker meeting house is just plain appealing
BY BILL BUELL Gazette Reporter

   DUANESBURG
   There’s nothing ornate or extravagant about the Quaker meeting house on Route 7 in the western regions of Schenectady County. It is much like the sect it serves — plain and simple with very few trappings.
   “The architecture tells you everything you need to know about the Quakers,” said Art Willis, a Quaker himself and historian for the town of Duanesburg, wherein lies the 200-year-old building. “It’s white and gray, very simple and plain, with no embellishment or accoutrements, and that speaks volumes about the Quaker faith. They believe in complete directness, honesty, plainness, with no guile or personality. You’re not supposed to draw attention to yourself.”
   The Quakers, after buying the land from the family of James Duane, began building the house in 1807, probably began using it in 1809, and finished the structure in 1813.
   “The Quakers began coming to this area from Dutchess County in some numbers in 1780 with Duane’s encouragement,” said Willis. “They were sober and very hard-working, and eventually, by the 1830s, there were about 200 families, almost all of them Quakers, living in this immediate area.”
   The immediate area is the hamlet of Quaker Street, and the first meeting house, a log cabin, was built sometime soon after 1780 across the street and just east of where the current building is. It was a Quaker by the name of Job Briggs who paid the Duane family 32 pounds for the two acres of land that became the site of the current meeting house. The building cost close to 550 pounds to build.
   “Job Briggs served as the agent for the Quakers, and at the time they used pounds instead of dollars because Alexander Hamilton’s new system hadn’t really taken hold yet,” said Willis, referring to the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. “But the Quakers were great builders, and they used hand-hewn timbers, each of them from a fulllength tree. It was to be 48 feet by 32 by 20 feet, and about the only change they made was eliminating the gallery right after the Civil War to put in a second floor. It’s the same simple white, wooden benches, although some of them today have cushions.”
NUMBER CONCERNS
   There are no longer 200 families attending the weekly Sunday meeting, and these days the building is only open from Easter to Thanksgiving.
   “We have electric baseboard heat, but it costs a lot to heat the place. So we usually meet at someone’s house during the winter,” said Dorothy Garner, a Cobleskill resident who moved to the Schoharie Valley from New Jersey with her husband, Carroll, and their four children back in 1956. “We do wonder about what’s going to happen, because a lot of us are getting older and there just aren’t that many of us. We have a monthly meeting for business and that will be the topic. Do we have enough people?”
   Although the meeting house was well attended earlier this month to help celebrate the building’s 200th anniversary, the number of people regularly attending on Sunday sometimes doesn’t reach double figures.
   “You have your ups and downs, but if it gets down to just three or four of us, you have to wonder what to do,” said Garner. “We do have a new family with some children that might rescue us. Hopefully, we’ll have enough people next spring to open the building up again.”
DRIVING BY FOR YEARS
   As recently as 50 years ago, when Garner moved to the area, the Quaker Street meeting was quite well attended.
   “When we moved to Cobleskill, we inquired about the place and told them that we had four young children, and we felt like they really didn’t want us. So we drove to Schenectady,” said Garner. “At that time, there were a number of old ladies there and upstairs they had these spinning wheels and all these Quaker bonnets. It was like a museum. They had a lot of people, and I guess they didn’t want a lot of children running around the building.”
   Garner and her husband drove to Schenectady for 12 years, driving right past the Quaker Street meeting house, before things changed.
   “When my children grew and my daughter was of age, she wanted to be married in the Quaker Street meeting house,” said Garner. “They went through all the Quaker wedding arrangements and were married there, and, soon after, my husband and I started going there. I guess all those old ladies had died and they gave away all the historical items they had. We turned the second floor into our Sunday school room.”
KEEPING BUILDING SOUND
   Although the meeting house is in good shape, it has required some maintenance over the years. The group most recently paid for a new sewer system, and a few years ago Jim Yauchler, chief of the Quaker Street Volunteer Fire Department, helped repair the floor and the ceiling.
   “They built it with a crawl space under the floor, and a while back I had to crawl under there because there was a pretty serious sag,” said Yauchler. “But we resupported the bearing beam and now it’s not a problem. Generally, the building is in pretty good shape. It’s very structurally sound, and the slate roof is holding up pretty well, considering the age of the building.”
   Yauchler says he’s amazed at the construction skill that went into building the meeting house 200 years ago.
   “It’s an unusual structure in that upstairs they don’t have support beams,” he said. “The post-andbeam construction holds everything together. So it’s an example of that magnificent old-style construction they would do years ago. It’s beautiful. It’s almost like a lost art.”
   Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Quaker Street Meeting House also has two 18th century wrought-iron stoves no longer in use. There is a small cemetery to the west of the meeting house and a blue and yellow historical marker stands out by Route 7, giving visitors a brief history of the building.
SPECIAL PLACE
   “Our blue and yellow sign was broken, but we managed to paint it and get it back up this past summer,” said Garner. “I was born a Quaker — so I’d like to keep the building active. We think it’s a very special place.”
   New members, however, are hard to come by.
   “Quakers don’t proselytize. So their membership tends not to have any great increases,” said Willis, whose great-grandfather Mark Dare left the church to join the Civil War. “They’re pacifists. They believe that each person contains God in them. So to shoot someone is to shoot God.
   “Looking at that building now, it’s a great old building. But to the Quakers, it’s the people inside the building that come first,” he said. “That’s what the architecture tells you. It’s the people that are important.”



A view of the original Quaker benches inside the Quaker Street Meeting House. The cushions are a modern addition

One of the original wood-burning stoves used to heat the Quaker Street Meeting House is on display. In the last few years, the wood stoves were replaced with conventional electric heating.

ANA N. ZANGRONIZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Dorothy Garner, current clerk for the Quaker Street Meeting House, stands inside the main floor of the house.

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Few takers in Duanesburg political races

   DUANESBURG — Not much is expected to change among Duanesburg’s government following next week’s election.
   All of the candidates running this year are unopposed for offi ce, according to the county Board of Elections. The two justices and the highway superintendent will be the only new faces in Town Hall come New Year’s Day.
   Republican Supervisor Rene Merrihew will seek another term as supervisor, a position she’s occupied since winning the seat in 2003. She is also endorsed by the Conservative and Independence parties.
   Longtime Republican Clerk Leah Lennon is also running for re-election. She is also running on the Conservative and Independence party tickets.
   Republican incumbents Francis Potter and Philip Carlson will also seek new terms on the Town Board, Both are also running on the Conservative ticket, with Potter receiving the an endorsement from the Independence Party.
   Republican Francis Spoor will replace highway superintendent William Grimm Jr., who is not seeking re-election. Spoor is also running on the Conservative and Independence party tickets.
   Camille Siano Enders will run for one of two justice positions with an endorsement from both the Democratic and Working Families parties. Republican Rita LaBelle will run for the other seat, with endorsements from both the Conservative and Independence parties.  

Quoted from Rene

A Choice is always good for voters.  

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I know that you have a very small community up there, but my only issue with this statement is that it's coming out from a Supervisor who is going to be representing a town again, without anybody running against her.

Quoted from Shadow

If it's not broke you don't need to fix it. Good job Duanesburg.

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Firefighters save Duanesburg home
   DUANESBURG — Firefighters doused a garage fire in the Hillcrest Mobile Home Park off Western Turnpike Monday evening, preventing flames from spreading to a nearby residence.
   The fire was first reported around 7:40 p.m., when a passing motorist on Interstate 88 noticed flames coming from the structure. About two dozen fi refighters brought the fire under control and were able to prevent it from spreading to other mobile homes in the park, fire officials said.
   There were no injuries and the building is considered salvageable. The cause of the fire is thought to have originated from poor disposal of ashes from a wood stove.

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ELECTION RESULTS
DUANESBURG
   Status quo was the response from voters in Duanesburg after all of the incumbent candidates were re-elected. In the town’s only contested race, Republican Rita La-Belle beat out challenger Camille Siano Enders for justice.
   Republican Supervisor Rene Merrihew retained her supervisor seat, while Republican board members Francis Potter and Philip Carlson were both given new terms.
   Longtime Republican Clerk Leah Lennon won another term, while Francis Spor was elected highway superintendent.

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Dirty politics enough to scare away voters

   Bravo, Tom Woodman for his [Nov. 4] Opinion column deploring the increasing boorishness of local politics! Disgusted by the unrelenting attack messages from candidates for Schenectady County Legislature, and reading in the Nov. 3 Gazette that there were no contested races in Duanesburg, I almost decided — for the first time in nearly 40 years — to abstain from voting.
   However, I since learned that there actually was only one open seat for town justice, producing a contest between incumbent Rita LaBelle and challenger Camille Siano Enders. So I went to the polls after all, with a fervent wish that, in many instances, I could pull a lever for “none of the above.”
   KRISTINE SMITH
   Duanesburg

• the deceptive and dishonest campaign of misinformation that was waged by the SCDC (Brian Quail)
  
• the unopposed campaigns of candidates running for office in Duanesburg
  
• the Daily Gazette article that lead voters in Duanesburg to believe that they had no choices to make.
  
• the incorrect statement published by the Daily Gazette that there were two Town Justice seats to be filled by
  Rita LaBelle and Camille Enders.  The Gazette subsequently published a correction to the story stating that the two candidates were running for a single seat (the correction was small and buried in the depths of the paper).
  

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EDITORIALS
Mobile home tenants don’t get any respect

   The names and locations may have been different, but Wednesday’s story about tenants being evicted from the Hillcrest Mobile Home Park in Duanesburg had many of the same elements that stories about mobile home parks in this region have had for decades.
   Once again, people who rent space for their not-so-mobile homes have been told, on relatively short notice, to pick up and move because park owners neglected a sewer system so seriously and for such a long time that the state Department of Environmental Conservation is closing them down.
   Variations on this basic theme have occurred over and over again, most recently at mobile home parks in Greenfield, Saratoga and Stillwater. And while mobile home park tenants are protected in some counties by “bills of rights,” such laws are apparently uncommon in these parts.
   The situation in Duanesburg implicates the state and Schenectady County almost as much as it does the park’s present and past owners. The problem — a faulty sewage treatment system that leaks improperly treated sewer water into the Normanskill Creek (which feeds into the Watervliet Reservoir) — was first discovered five years ago. Though the county health department issued repeated citations and the state Department of Environmental Conservation levied some fines against the park’s former owners, the problems were never corrected. And now the park’s new owners have simply decided to walk away.
   Tenants have been given until April to vacate the premises. If they’re willing to relocate their trailers to one of the current owner’s parks in Saratoga County — nearly 30 miles away — they’ll be given a $4,000 moving allowance; otherwise, they get nothing. That’s unfair, of course, but permissible because of the lack of reasonable consumer protection laws in this state.
   As attorney general, Eliot Spitzer had a chance to do something for mobile home park tenants in Stillwater, who were getting a raw deal. He didn’t. Maybe now, Andrew Cuomo will step up for Hillcrest’s 53-odd squatters. It’s time someone at the state did something on behalf of these mostly low-income, oftenelderly citizens.  

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DUANESBURG
Hillcrest Mobile Home Park residents facing eviction
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Every time Ray Bergen steps out his front door, he gets a sense of how bad the septic problem is in Duanesburg’s Hillcrest Mobile Home Park.
   No matter the season, the smell of sewage wafts by the trailer he shares with his fiancee and three children. Even on sunny days, he said, the ground around his trailer remains moist with sewage leaching from the park’s septic system.
   “You can smell the septic daily,” he said Tuesday. “Sometimes it’s so strong you don’t even open your windows.”
   Conditions at the park have deteriorated enough that the state Department of Environmental Conservation has ordered Hillcrest and its more than 50 mobile homes vacated. Now, more than 100 residents are being ordered to move their homes or face eviction by April 2008, when the state has mandated the park stop its discharge of wastewater.
   Tests by the state Department of Health at the Western Turnpike property revealed the park’s wastewater treatment system is releasing effluent with a fecal coliform level more than four times the permitted level. These same tests, administered in November 2005, found the effluent contained more than eight times the permitted level of ammonia.
   Residents were offered up to $4,000 to move their trailers. But, Bergen said, the offer only stands if the homes are moved to parks owned by the Hillcrest owners in Saratoga County, nearly 30 miles away.
   “If we don’t choose from one of them, they won’t give us any help,” he said.
   Bergen said the amount of assistance being offered by the company would cover only about half of the cost to move the mobile homes, many which have been in the park for decades. He said some of the Hillcrest trailers have porch additions and driveways, which would have to be abandoned in a move.
   “That’s what kind of makes it tough,” he said.
   Duanesburg Town Code Enforcer Dale Warner said about 53 homes will be affected by the DEC consent order. He said Hillcrest — Duanesburg’s only mobile home park — provides an affordable place to live for lower-income residents, including senior citizens.
   “It’s going to displace so many families,” he said.
   The Hillcrest waste water treatment system consists of multiple septic tanks that precede a buried sand filter, which is permitted to receive up to 9,750 gallons of waste per day, according to the DEC. The park’s treatment center gradually discharges this into the Normanskill Creek, which feeds the Watervliet Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to thousands of homes across the Capital Region,
   Because of its proximity to the Normanskill, the park disinfected the effluent with chlorine and then used additional chemicals to dechlorinate any discharge. The system was supposed to be overseen by a certified waste water operator, according to the DEC.
   State officials were first alerted to problems at the park in October 2002, when untreated sewage was observed surfacing on the sand filter. Upon further investigation, officials from the Schenectady County Department of Health determined the park’s manager hadn’t kept any records of the treatment facility’s monitoring.
   Nearly three years later, the department conducted a follow-up inspection and observed “an accumulation of grey bacterial matter” at the final discharge pipe to the Normanskill. Further investigation revealed a system “in a state of failure” and still lacking any maintenance logs or records, according to the DEC consent order issued in April 2007.
   The former owners of the park, Pittsford Capital LLC., were fi ned $40,000, with $30,000 deferred to allow the company to correct the situation. However, Pittsford Capital had all of its assets seized in July 2006, after the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission charged its principal owners with running a fraudulent promissory note scheme and raising more than $15 million from up to 275 investors, according to the SEC.
   In August, Edward “Ted” Tackaberry and Mark Palazzo were ordered to pay $11.7 million in addition to $75,000 in civil penalties for their role in a real estate defrauding scheme, which mainly targeted senior citizens and retirees, the SEC reported. The company’s Duanesburg property was subsequently sold to Morgan Management, another Rochester area company that operates dozens of mobile home parks in fi ve states.
   Calls placed to Kevin Morgan of Morgan Management were not returned Tuesday.
   DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said the property owners decided to empty the park after deciding the sewage problem was too costly to fix. He said the park’s management can request a 60-day extension to vacate the park.
   “It was a business decision to close the place down essentially,” he said. “We gave them every opportunity to upgrade the system to meet standards, but they made a financial decision that it wouldn’t be cost effective for them to meet the regulations and come into compliance.”
   Georgeson said the park doesn’t appear to be posing any immediate problems for the Normanskill or the Watervliet Reservoir. However, he said the longer the problem continues, the greater chance it could pose a threat.
   “Over a period of time it isn’t good to have these levels in the discharge,” he said.
   Likewise, state Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said the effluent from Hillcrest isn’t posing any immediate danger for the 12-billion-gallon reservoir. He said the length the Normanskill travels before reaching the reservoir acts to naturally dilute any harmful matter in the discharge.
   “There is no public health concern,” he said.

PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Malik Myers, 10, his mother, Amanda Myers, Raymond Burgen, Caitlin Howarth, 9, and Tatiana Myers, 8, enjoy dinner in their home at the Hillcrest Trailer Park in Duanesburg on Tuesday.

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DUANESBURG
Canadian trucker in fatal I-88 collision arrested
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   State police investigators arrested a Canadian trucker on a felony charge of criminally negligent homicide more than three months after he was involved in a fiery crash on Interstate 88 that killed a Schoharie mother.
   Richard Lafond, 55, of St. Jerome, Quebec, was taken into custody Monday as he attempted to cross into the United States from Canada. Investigators said U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting a routine identity check when they noticed he was wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant resulting from the fatal crash. Lafond was driving a 2006 Peterbilt in the westbound lane of the highway around 5:15 p.m. Aug. 15 when his truck struck the rear of a 1993 Jeep Cherokee belonging to Margaret E. Woodman, 53, of Schoharie.
   Woodman apparently pulled to the shoulder for an undetermined reason just west of Exit 24, but was prevented from moving completely off the highway by a guardrail. She was en route home from work at Sherman Specialty Co. in Guilderland.
   Shortly after the collision, Woodman’s Jeep burst into flames that quickly consumed the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Woodman was alone in the vehicle.
   State police initially cited Lafond for two misdemeanor log book violations for having a false entry and for violating the 14-hour work rule.
   State police spokeswoman Maureen Tuffey said a warrant for his arrest was issued in September, after investigators from the U.S. Department of Transportation determined he had been working for more than 22 continuous hours at the time of the crash.
   Tuffey said one of the log entries was written in after the fatal crash occurred. She said the entry should probably should have been written hours before.
   “It’s extremely negligent and reckless to drive 22 hours without sleep, especially driving one of these rigs,” she said. “There’s no such thing as a property damage accident without injury when one of those things hits you.”
   The truck Lafond was driving belonged to Papineau International SEC, a trucking company in St. Laurent, Quebec.
   He was hauling rolls of paper and had a half payload at the time of the crash.
   Lafond was arraigned in Duanesburg Town Court and released on $25,000 bail Tuesday. He is scheduled to reappear in January. Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said the case will be reviewed by a grand jury in the coming months. If convicted, Lafond could face up to four years in prison,
   Tuffey said toxicology tests performed on Lafond after the crash indicated neither alcohol nor drugs were a factor. But she said his mental state must have been impaired to not see Woodman’s Jeep on a clear day and along a straight stretch of the highway.
   “Because he had a clear view and it was a long straightaway, you would think he would have seen her and moved out of the lane,” she said.

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Every time Ray Bergen steps out his front door, he gets a sense of how bad the septic problem is in Duanesburg’s Hillcrest Mobile Home Park.
   No matter the season, the smell of sewage wafts by the trailer he shares with his fiancee and three children. Even on sunny days, he said, the ground around his trailer remains moist with sewage leaching from the park’s septic system.

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Duanesburg trailer park situation an outrage

   I am a resident of the Hillcrest Trailer Park on Western Turnpike. I am in complete disgust that the problems with the land were never fixed. They [the owners] had the money to fix it at one time, and they [still] continue to put it off. Therefore, they are penalizing the park community. Not everyone has money to move, and not everyone is willing to move counties away. This is ridiculous; Morgan Management should fix the problem.
   Really, what is the difference between a local tragedy, with a tornado or a fire, and everyone being told they have to leave the park? Who has the money to cover these expenses? They are potentially throwing people out on the street.
   MELISSA BRADT
   Duanesburg  

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Incident reported
at county line
    DUANESBURG — The state police Bureau of Criminal Investigations responded to an incident at a Creek Road residence on the border of Schenectady and Schoharie counties Tuesday.
    Troopers blocked the driveway of 1164 Creek Rd. between the towns of Esperance and Duanesburg with a lone cruiser and crime tape, but declined to comment on what had occurred. All questions were referred to a BCI investigator, who had nothing to release late Tuesday evening.
    State police and ambulance crews were dispatched to the residence shortly after 8 p.m., according to radio traffi c.
    Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney declined to comment on a police investigation.

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DUANESBURG — A Duanesburg man attempted to kill his wife and then killed himself Tuesday evening, state police confirmed this morning.

Raymond H. Lees, 50, of 1164 Creek Road, used a baseball bat to hit his wife in the head, then used carbon monoxide to kill himself, s