Posted by Keith Lobdell at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just wanted to jump on real quick and say that I personally echo the editorial ran in what now is last week's editorial, done by our editorial staff.

My first story ever for the Whitehall Times was the 2006 village election, so the first Whitehall official that I met was Pat Norton. It has been an enjoyable professional experience over the last two years to work with her and trustees Rich Colomb and Don Hart. the mayor has always been very good at explaining different topics and open to questions. As well as many in the town, I wish her the best after April 6 and thank her for her service.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 01:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Money will be the key issue at a pair of meetings in Whitehall today, with the village board holding a meeting at 4 p.m. which will be a public hearing followed by a budget meeting.

At 7 p.m., the school will also hold a special meeting for the purpose of talking about the budget.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alright, so I am in no pools this year other than my annual who gets to pick where we go to dinner between me and my wife, but here is my bracket.

East - Upsets in the first round: 9 Tennessee, 11 VCU. Sweet 16 teams: Pitt, Florida State, Villanova, Texas. Elite 8 teams: Pittsburgh v. Villanova, with 'Nova going to the final four.

South - Upsets in first round: 9 Butler, 12 Western Kentucky, 10 Michigan. Sweet 16: UNC, Western Kentucky, Arizona State, Oklahoma. Elite 8 - UNC v. Oklahoma, with UNC advancing to the final four.

Midwest - Upsets in first round: 9 Siena, 11 Dayton, 10 USC. Sweet 16: Louisville, Wake Forest, Kansas, Michigan State. Elite 8: Louisville v. Michigan State, with Louisville heading to the final four.

West - Upsets in first round: 9 Texas A&M (that's right, I am picking against Jimmer and the BYU Cougars, who have been terrible in the tourney the last three years), 12 Northern Iowa, 11 Utah State, 14 Cornell. Sweet 16: UConn, Washington, Utah State, Memphis. Elite 8: UConn v. Memphis, with memphis advancing.

Final 4: Unc beat Villanova, Louisville defeats Memphis. In the title game, I am going with the fact that Ty Lawson should be healthy by then and if so, UNC will be able to handle the Lousiville pressure. Sorry, cousin Mark, but my pick is the Tar Heels.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The results from tonights election are as follows:

Mayor: Fra Putorti - 496, incumbent Pat Norton - 136

Trustee: Sallyann Raino - 446, Mike LaChapelle - 374, incumbent Richard Colomb - 200, Dan Welch - 154

Judge: Julie Scott - 479, Kenneth Bartholomew - 138

My first thought is that I have personally, in about three years in Whitehall and six years up north, have never seen an election where one party won by such a one-sided margin. I have never seen party as a factor in a local election, until now, perhaps.

The two incumbents were both defeated, with a third (Don Hart) not running.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week's edition of the Whitehall Times will be on the stands Thursday afternoon instead of today. we are holding the pritning of the paper one day because of the village election, which is happening today from noon until 9 p.m.

Once the results are in, I will post them here on the Web site and have the story ready to go for tomorrow's edition.

Have a good day at the polls.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The meeting between the town hall and Canal Corp met Monday with Sen. Little and Tony Jordan about the need for the town to find a permanent solution.

A lot of the discussion centered on the most recent Canal Recreationway Commission meeting of Jan. 28. While the minutes are not posted on the Canal Corp. Web site yet, a video of the meeting can be seen at the following link:

http://www.nysthruway.gov/news/boardmtgs.html

This site will have the recent meeting videos, and you click on the Jan. 28, 2009 meeting. The discussion over Whitehall starts at the 45:19 mark and lasts for about 20 minutes.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This Monday will be a very busy one in the village and town of Whitehall, which means there will be little time to work the brackets.

We'll start things off with the Canal Corp and town meeting at 11 a.m. on Monday morning. Must be the Times gets some readers, because two television stations have picked the story up and will be there on Monday. As far as I know, we were the first to report on this.

Next is the village budget meeting at 4 p.m. at the village offices. obviously, keeping the numbers down will be a big thing, and it should be a very informative meeting.

more budget biz will probably come up at the Whitehall school board meeting at 7 p.m. That will probably be the big topic, depending on what else has happened over the past month.

It will be a fun Monday.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey, it's the 100th entry to the Lobster Tank - break out the sounders!!!

With that taken care of, I went to a very good Pops Concert last night at the high school. The students did a great job performing and it was a great night of entertainment. I had my son with me and he enjoyed all of the music, especially the junior chorus and The Lion King.

My favorite performance of the night was the Jazz Band;s last song - somehting Train. I can't remember the name, but i do remember pleying it myself on the bass trombone in Westport's jazz band. I love the tune and the hook - bop. bop. blaaaauuu.

Quick aside, the alma mater has a chance to put both the boys and girls teams into the final four this weekend, so good luck, Eagles.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The town board meeting last night dealt mostly with the highway department, as Louie Pratt will be putting a number of items up for bid on Auctions international that are not used by the town anymore.

The auction Web site is something that has also been used by the village highway department in order to get some extra revenue into the coffers.

Also, supervisor Vernon Scribner announced that the meeting between the town and the state Canal Corporation would start at 11 a.m. on Monday instead of 10:30 a.m. He also said that State Senator Betty Little and either Tony Jordan or a representative from his office would be at the meeting.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, here's the deal. As everyone knows, Icdrive a lot to and from work everyday, adn recently I have seen a bad trend.

People are not using their blinkers. I had three times just yesterday where I was driving behind a car and out of nowhere they start slowing down rather quickly. Luckily I was traveling far enoughaway from them that I had plenty of time toi react.

So what's the reason. I understand that it is too much to ask someone to spend all that engery to move their hand a whole two inches from the steering wheel to the little stick on the left side of the wheel, and then the effort to move the thing either up or down in order to sugnify a right or left turn is upcomming.

So people, use the blinker, please.

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With a very tight paper this week, there were a few things that will be held over and stuff that didn't get in. With that said, here is something I found while looking through the New York State Wrestling media guide, which said that there have been 14 Railroaders to place at the state tournament, with the first being Paul Diekel in 1980 and the most recent being his son, Zach, with a fourth place finish this year.

Here is the list:

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The boil water order for the village was lifted about one hour ago. You can now freely drink the water that is coming through the fully functioning water filtration plant.

Gee, I wonder what the main topic of conversation will be at tonight's town board meeting at 6 p.m.?

Posted by Keith Lobdell at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)