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There was a get-together (let's face it, it was a meeting) this morning between town and village officials along with senator Betty Little, assmeblyman Tony Jordan, Canal Corp director Carmella Mantello, LDC's Tami Reilly and people concerned about things. There were no quorums for either the town or village board, so there was no official meeting, but official stuff was talked about. In the end, the electircal otulets are staying, event though there is no juice, and Geezer said that he hopes the town is out of the Pavilion by the first of the year. Village and school board meetings tonight.
Well, here we are halfway through summer and now it's time for all of the fairs and festivals. So far, I am getting a follow-up story set up for the First Nations Pow Wow, we'll have coverage for the Hampton Firemans carnvial, but I have not heard anything on a Hampton Pow Wow? I am going to try and find out more this afternoon. Also, only 14 days until fall practice starts for football.
There, all caught up from vacation and back to writing on the blog. There is not much going on today, a couple of ball games if teh weatehr holds and preparing for the prom. Wonder if anyone else from the area went to the Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and Larry the Cable Guy show on Friday at TUC. Hilarious. Best line of the night: "Did you ever find out who that guy was?" For me, the next trip is making good on a Christmas present to my daughter - off to NYC for Taylor Swift on May 14.
There are a pair of meetings today involving village officials. The first starts at 4:30 p.m., when state assemblyman and village attorney Tony Jordan will hold a town hall meeting at the American Legion. I will be interested to seee how many people show up, and how many are from Whitehall. Next, the village organizational meeting will be at 5:45 p.m. Not much buzz for this, because it is two incumbents being sworn back into their seats. The big news would be if any of the committee assignments change, especially in the water or sewer districts. The rest of the village business will be done at the regular time of 6 p.m. Well, off to Jordan's meeting.
Well, the kids are out of school for a week and everyone is ready for a long weekend. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Easter.
I guess I finally have found out the definition of force of habit, because over the last week and couple of days, on my way home, I have driven over to the Clinton Street Bridge. knowing and reporting that it has been out since March 15. I even drove over there the same night after I had taken the picture of everything being shut down.
Well, gotta get back to finishing up the paper this week.
The Whitehall Times office will be closed this Monday, March 15, and let me tell you why: On Friday, before I left for work, my son, Lawrence Blake, was complaining that his side hurt, but insisted that he wanted to go to school. When I got home from work, the nurse called and said she was worried that something might be wrong. The health center where we live was closed, so off to the ER we go. That was at 4 p.m. After the tests and everything, we were off to CVPH at 9 p.m., where the semi-emergency appendectomy happened at around 1 a.m. So, I'm staying home with my appendix-less son today. Just as an aside, a thanks to all the nurses, EMT's and doctors who treated Lawrence Blake - you were all awesome!!!!
To help assist Bishop and his family, the University at Buffalo has helped with the Bishop family to established a fund to help offset costs of travel and other medical expenses. Those interested in assisting can send donations to: The Danny Bishop Fund, P.O. Box 5, Whitehall, N.Y. 12887. Those sending donations via checks are asked to make them out to Danny’s father, Norm Bishop.
There was a lot going on at the town board meeting last night - a lot more than you may have seen elsewhere. Here's a quick recap: 1. The town board set up the rules for the use of the senior citizens building, giving the seniors first rights to the building and exclusive use of the kitchen. To see the public comment before the meeting start by seniors president Barbara Katchel, here's the link (turn up the volume, it's our first try at taping a board meeting): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3MwUOlf_YA 2. The town board approved a request by ORCA to move forward with fundraising to purchase new equipment for the town playground and to work with the school in organizing this years free summer lunch program. 3. The town board joined forces with the Southern Adirondack Tobacco Free Environment Coalition to place signs promoting no tobacco use at the town rec center, Skenesborough park and at the museum. 4. Elaine Jones was appointed as the town clerk to serve out the rest of 2010. Jones said that she may run for the position in November. 5. The Troy Shirt Factory will be boarded up on the windows and locked in order to keep the property safe. 6. Richard LaChapelle said that he has looked at five locations for a possible town hall site, and hopes to be ready to talk more about it at April's meeting. 7. Reports from town organizations will be posted at the town hall now after they are received. There were a couple other housekeeping things, so it was a very eventful meeting. I didn't get out of town until about 10 p.m.
Getting set for what will be a packed evening schedule tonight, starting with the winter sports awards ceremony over at the high school. All of the winter sports teams will be honored, including the junior varsity and varsity teams in wrestling, boys and girl’s basketball, cheerleading, indoor track, bowling and bobsled (I believe that covers it). The fun starts there at 6 p.m. I will cover that until about 6:50 p.m., when it will be time to head off to the Pavilion for the monthly town board meeting at 7 p.m. Here's a sampling of what is or might be on the agenda: Longtin case follow-up, senior center follow-up (this could get heated, again), Troy Shirt Factory clean-up follow-up, town hall move follow-up.... ....all leading to the vote over who will be the next town clerk - whether they will stay with their deputy, Elaine Jones, for the rest of the year, or hire someone else. AS Geezer said a couple of times, this one could take a while. Either way, I'll try to be there for all of it. Maybe even grab a couple of videos, too.
I also took this little piece of video over the weekend from the ice-less fishing derby. I think that everyone still had a good time and there was some fishing done off the pier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw-0pyVAYlc
Sorry I didn't write after the game or before today, it has been a busy beginning to the week. As far as the game goes, I think that I have the same opinion everyone else does - Argyle wanted it more. Don't know why that was, but it was. When you look back at this season, there are a ton of positives for the girls and all of the sporting teams, even if the way the season ended for each team leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Anyways, here's the link for the slide show of the Section II/Class D championship game between Whitehall and Argyle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-coA0df27c
Went over to watch a little bit of practice for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by the drama club and got you a little taste of what is coming in a couple of weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDxM1--FvcY I was going to do some taping at the UVM letter signing of Brittany St. Clair, but was too busy taking pics and getting interviews. Congrats to Britt for signing with the Catamounts as a track and field student athlete.
The girls basketball slideshow from the first two rounds of the Section II/Class D tournament is now uploaded and ready for viewing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InzEMPPkSnM Also, the video for the drainage work did not upload properly, so I apologize that will not be up.
Unfortunately, I was not able to get a good video from the village meeting, so we'll try again next time.
Bridge Construction is back doing work on the drainage between Broadway and the Whitehall firehouse, but the bigger news might be that they will be shutting down Clinton Street on March 15 to start the work of replacing the bridge there. I have some video, but I have to wait to get a wifi connection, so it will be up shortly. Also, village meeting tonight a 6 p.m., I'll do some video there as well.
The start of a busy day has me sitting at the Times Union Center getting ready for the state championships for wrestling. I'm watching the guys warm up right now. I will be down here for the first two rounds of wrestling today, then I'm heading back north to watch the girls quarterfinal game against Fort Edward. I'll post a preview of the game a little later. Hopefully, we'll have some video to upload as well throughout the day.
Now up at the wtlobstertank channel on YouTube is a talk with village DPW Jiem Rozell about what his day was like and what they are looking forward to. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FviDoiMdd3A
So, now the questions with sectional play start to get interesting.
If the snow does come back tomorrow like they say it's going to, where does that leave opening round games and games that are to be played on Friday. I'm guessing you're going to see a Friday-Saturday deal, which is not good for me if the girls or boys are playing at the same time as the state wrestling championship matches (that's right, I'm predicting at least one in the finals - not saying who, or just how many, though).
The plan so far tomorrow is to go down to get a hotel room, then hit the boys game in Sharon Springs and spend the night for wrestling - that's the one thing that will not be delayed.
Well, it's about time to brave the elements - I'll get some pictures and some video of the winter wonderland.
The village of Whitehall has declared a snow emergency on all village roads from now until 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Due to the need for snow removal, the village has put on a parking ban until tomorrow, and asks that all cars currently parked on the side of village streets be moved.
Since I got a new toy, we now have a video blog as well as this one. From time to time, I will be putting videos up on-line of meetings, events, and sports, starting with a pregame, halftime and postgame from the Whitehall and Sharon Springs game Thursday. I will link the video each time, but our channel on YouTube is youtube.com/wtlobstertank. Go ahead and check out the test video. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuaOdvbPx0I
The school board met tonight and made their first steps toward reducing what could have been a 21-percent tax levy increase. So far, it has only led to the elimination of one full-time position, an elementary school teaching position. The concern is that there could be more cuts on the way, and the union was there in force tonight. The board also went into an executive session, and I will have more on that tomorrow morning as I start to prepare the paper for printing.
Went up on Friday to watch some skeleton with four Whitehaller's in the event, three from the varsity team and one former team member. Also saw Codie Bascue and Shan Beebe take a run on the bobsled. Today is the school board meeting where they may bring up some preliminary ideas on the 2010-11 budget - this is going to be a tough year for them, it seems, and only sounds like it could get tougher in the year to come.
This has been a very good day when it comes to Railroader sports. First, the day after the Lady Railroaders won the Adirondack League title, the third-ranked team in the state received the top seed in the Section II/Class D tournament. They will face the winner of the 8-9 game between Fort Edward and Loudonville Christian next Friday at home. Second, the boys hoops squad is the 14th seed in the Class D tourney, and will face Sharon Springs on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Finally, the news was good for both John Diekel and Grant Gebo, as they both received at-large bids to the state wrestling tournament next week. That gives Whitehall five wrestlers going to Albany, which I have to think is a record for the school.
The Whitehall girls etched out a 47-43 league title against Lake George tonight, extending their record to 18-0 and winning the Adirondack League title. The Railroaders will most likely be the top seed in the Section II/Class D tournament, with Germantown the two seed and Argyle the third. Checked in after the game with Mayor Fra Putorti, and it sounds like it was a quiet night at the village meeting. I'll follow up for next weeks paper.
I went to the Peter Nye presentation last night about Bald Eagles. It was very good. He did a great job talking about the growing Eagle population and going through how they were able to come back to the area and the state. The paper is pretty much full this week, so my story on this will be in next week's Whitehall Times. Just looked up the score to the girls game - not surprising at all. Friday against Fort Edward is a game that they cannot look past, though, as they get ready for Lake George next Tuesday.
The rest of the Winter Fest was good, but the wind was not a friend to anyone. No wind, it would have been the perfect day, but there were still plenty of people enjoying the activities. Over at the Class D wrestling, the day was great. Four members of the Railroaders were crowned as champs, while seven will be going to the Civic Center next weekend. As far as I am concerned, Whitehall was involved in these three stories: 1. Match of the Night - unfortunately, it didn't go Curt Thompson’s way, but the match between he and Evan Borst did not disappoint, with Thompson taking a 4-2 advantage after the two rolled around the floor for about 30 seconds. borst tied it late, and then scored the winning takedown in overtime. 2. Fall of the night - This happened in the semis, when Zach Diekel jacked up his opponent and floored him on the mat. Everyone was shocked, including the wrestler who didn't even move. The fall elicited a lot of "Wows" from coaches, wrestlers and spectators. 3. Run of the night - Codie Bascue continued his hot second half of the season by finishing third at 145, earning a trip to the Civic Center. After starting the season with tons of potential and no results, Bascue has been a machine since the Beekmantown tournament. Well, I'm going to bed. I feel terrible and I am hoping to get better for work Monday.
Was at the Penguin Dip this morning and there were 15 brave souls who went into Lake Champlain, including several first-timers. The group from Ohio also came back with a third victim, which was cool. As for the rest of the day, going to get some more shots at Winter Fest before heading off to the wrestling sectionals in Warrensburg. Saw the girls game last night. They started out slow but picked it up as the game went along. Congratulations on back-to-back division titles.
The seeds have been announced for the Section II/Class D tourney, and here is where Whitehall grapplers will be. At 103, Al Aubin (34-10) is the top seed, with Beecher Baker of Warrensburg ranked second. At 112, John Diekel (35-3) is the top seed, with Duanesburg's Connor Lawrence the 2. At 125, Evan Borst of Duanesburg has the number one seed, and as I said in the paper, the match between Borst and No. 2 seed Curt Thompson (39-2) could be the most anticipated of the weekend. Now up to 160, where Travis Beayon (39-3) is the top seed and could face two seed Dan Batchelder of Salem. Whitehall fans might remember Batchelder as the guy throwing the pass to end the football game this year, so I'm sure they want Travis to give him his best. At 171, Zach Diekel (38-3) is the top seed and could face the other end of that game ending touchdown, with the second seed being Kyle McKeighan on Salem. At 215, Duanesburg's Nick Gwiazdowski is the top seed, with Grant Gebo (28-3) at the two. Overall, Whitehall has four one seeds and one two seed. Duanesburg is strong yet again, with seven top seeds and one two seed. Salem comes with two ones and four twos.
The paper is out, and, as I said in a previous post, I feel this is a good one. The first response I have gotten from the paper is from Ken Bartholomew, who feels there may be a conflict of interest in the Mayor bringing up a move to the SVFC building - there will be more in next week's issue. As for basketball, the Whitehall boys never stopped fighting, but fell to an Argyle team that I think has to be the favorite to win the section and go deep in the playoffs. On the girls side, there was no movement in the polls, because No. 1 Pine Valley lost (13-1) to Clymer Central (10-3, Section VI, both in the Chatauqua League) on the day the poll was released. Through the rest of the top five, No. 2 South Kortright (Section IV, Delaware League) moved to 13-0 with a 49-38 win over Jefferson on Tuesday. No. 3 Elba played Wheatland-Chili on Feb. 3, but I can't find a score. No. 5, I'm going to see them tonight.
The Whitehall-Argyle match-up last night was everything that you could hope for - a great game and a big win for what will be the third-ranked Whitehall girls basketball team. Why third you say, because Pine Valley, who was the top ranked team in the state last week, fell to an unranked D team this week, which will drop them out of the top spot in the polls, Leaving Elba (who looks to be for real) and South Kortright (balanced, but not much competition) in the top two spots, which should move Whitehall up to three and my alma mater up to four. As far as I'm concerned, I think Whitehall could make a case to jump SK to the second spot, but it probably won't happen. The biggest concern now is the potential for a let down game against Hartford, but with it being senior night, that should not happen. But then again, that's why they play the games. Tonight, it's off to the boys version of Argyle-a-gedon.
The paper is mostly done, accept for the whole at the top of the sports page in preparation for tonight's big game. Looking at the paper so far, I think that this week is a very good paper with a lot of good info and previews of the upcoming events like Winter Fest and the wrestling sectional championships. As for tonight, the game has been moved up to a 7 p.m. start because Argyle is not bringing their JV team. The more I think about it, the more I like Whitehall. Why? 1 - Argyle is coming off a bye last Friday, which means that this will be their first game in over two weeks - as a coach, I would hate to go into a big-time game with that much time off. 2- Whitehall has played in big games, they just don't know it. Everyone tabbed the first Hartford game of the season as a big one, the Granville game was big, the Lake George game was big, and now we have Argyle. So far, the girls have stepped up to every big game so far. Well, I'm off to finish up the paper and get to the game. Good luck, ladies.
Well, one good thing about having a week with no night meetings or games (other than the obvious of getting to see my kids in a state other than sleeping) is the chance to go hard-core after the Healthy Living Challenge. I am not going to divulge any numbers until the article, but I will give you some clues as to how I am going to mark events, like, for every time I hit a 25-lbs. loss, I will cut the hair - kind of a Sampson and then renewing the commitment thing. I'll put it this way, I could be cutting some hair this weekend. The main thing is, I am not going to talk about numbers. The only thing that can do is get me big-headed and then I'll blow it. And as I said, I am not going to look stupid.
The newspaper is out for the week, and it is time to start thinking about the first February issue. As always, if you have any ideas, please e-mail me and if they're good, we'll get at them. This week, there will be a boys basketball game at home (finally) on Friday, a village board meeting on Monday, and a benefit dinner for a young boy diagnosed with Leukemia on Tuesday, leading up to the big game between Whitehall and Argyle. I'm almost thinking that this should be a white-out situation - you know, what they do at colleges where everyone wears home colors - red doesn’t work because Argyle has red in its road uni's. Other possible stories include talking to someone who has been to Haiti and what they have heard from there, a couple of business spotlights, and talking to the students preparing to go to Costa Rica on how their fundraisers are going. Have a good night and here's to a couple of inches of snow tomorrow.
This weeks Whitehall Times is ready for the morning, with stories about the pending school aid budget cuts from the state, a pre-preview of the Whitehall Winter Fest, and a story about the resignation of town clerk Julie Millett for personal reasons. The Millett story is also tied to this week's editorial, praising her for her work after coming in under tough circumstances. As for sports, we recap the week and prepare for the return of the boys basketball team and the battle in the eastern division between the Whitehall and Argyle girls teams. I know, I know, they can't overlook North Warren, and they better not because they can get bitten - but i can. It's weird being home on a Tuesday evening with no game or meeting to cover. Oh well, going to go play with the kids. Later.
Done with the preliminary parts of the Whitehall Times, with front page stories including an update on the car arson cases, the county recycling program event and the town wanting to get the Longtin case done with. However, there is plenty going on tonight with several chances to get more news into the paper, including the village board meeting at 6 p.m., the school board meeting at 7 p.m., and the varsity girls game at about 7:30 p.m., where Brittany St. Clair could become the all-time leading scorer in Whitehall girls basketball history. Stay tuned and I'll update either tonight before I go to bed or tomorrow after I put the paper to bed.
Well, it has been a while since I wrote on my blog, so it's time to get back at it. As for today itself, not much going on. I've been to the elementary school for a presentation by the LGA and to the transfer station for a recycling story. No games tonight, with the next game having the girls team playing host to Fort Edward Tuesday. Brittany St. Clair, with 20 more points, will become the school's all-time leading scorer. So, tune in here for news updates and maybe a few glimpses into how my weight loss is going.
Just a reminder that the Historical Society's encampment will be this Saturday from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. There will be plenty of things going on, and the Whitehall Boy Scouts will also be there for the day holding a camp out of their own.
I have got to be honest, I watch all this coverage of the Swine Flu on the news and see that they are testing people in the county for it, and I just roll my eyes. The World CDC released numbers on Wednesday that while 100 people (all from Mexico) had died from the piggy virus, 130,000 have died this year world-wide from the flu - any flu - all flus - period. That's a difference of 129,900. I understand that in the world of 24-hour news, they have to cover something. If one of the people being tested is from Whitehall, we will have a story. But i really don't think that this is a pandemic. I heard someone today say that the Swine flu spreading throughout the entire country was not "immenent" but "inevitable." Don't those two words mean basically the same thing? What is being said here is that it is not going to happen soon, but it will happen soon. Okay. It;s the over-hyping of something that could be simplified. Now if I get flu-like symptoms, I will go to the doctors, get some antibiotics and some Nyquil, and stay in bed for the next three days - the same thing i would do every other time I have gotten the flu.
I hope that everyone enjoys their Easter on Sunday and that everyone at school has a good break. With an eight-year old daughter, my weekend starts with a trip to the theater to see Hannah Montana. One quick tought - Yesterdays story about Nick Adenhart, the LAA Angels pitcher who threw his first start of the season and was then hit by an alleged drunk driver and killed reminded me of when I covered the Jack Shea DWI death in Lake Placid. For me, i just don't get how with all of these examples someone could still get into a car like that and risk lives. So on top of everything else, have a safe Easter weekend and Sprin Break.
So here's the deal, I went on line to check my e-mail before the weekend. Out of the 28 e-mails that I had received, 27 were from one of the two Congressional Campaigns. I think at this point, we all know where the guys stand and that there is an election on March 31. My guess is I'll have around 50 e-mails on Monday morning, with 45 from them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.?
The water break at the corner of Routes 22 and 4 will now cause a town-wide shut down of the water system which could last for several hours, according to ken Bartholomew. The shut down will take place at around 4:10 p.m. The shut-down is the result of a break in the line which may have resulted from a blow out due to too much air in the line, since the lines were completely emptied due to the problems at the filtration plant on Wednesday. When more is known, I'll have it here.
Ken Bartholomew just reported to me that the west side of the village will be without water while crews try to repair the break on the corner of Routes 22 and 4. He said that they will minimize the problem as much as possible, but there will be no other way to repair the break other than to turn off the water to the west side of the village. When he calls to let me know the water is back on, I will post it here.
The village has water all over now, but there was one leak that could be the result of air in the pipes. The leak occured near the intersection of routes 4 and 22, and the village crews are hopeful that they will be able to make a full repair of the system without disrupting supply to anyone. I t all depends on what they find as they go along, and according to Ken Bartholomew, work will be going on for a little while longer. Ken also said that he was happy that there has only been one leak reported so far since there was so much water in the system. The boil water order is in effect, and could be there through Sunday depending on tests and water flow.
The water has now been restored to at least 85-percent of the village of Whitehall, and everyone should have water service by early this evening. Also, the girls game against Waterford (still a coincidence) will be played at the Whitehall High School gymnasium at 6:30 p.m. tomight, with the winner advancing to the quarterfinal round in Maple Hill tomorrow night. In terms of the boil water order, it will remain in effect until the village is able to fully fill the water supply tanks and then conduct quality tests on two consecutive days. Ken Bartholomew believes that it will be 3-4 days for that to take place.
The village of Whitehall was still without a full water supply as of 9 a.m. this morning, according to Ken Bartholomew. The technician who came from Cortland last night arrived about midnight and was able to quickly diagnose the problem and get the computers up and running. However, the tanks were only filled to half-way as of this morning and the village was working to get as much air as they could out of the water lines before starting the system back up completely. Bartholomew said that the main concern once the water is flowing again will be the air in the pipes situation, which could lead to blow-outs and further pipe problems, but again said that they are doing everything that they can to get as much air out of the pipes as possible. Check in throughout the day for further updates.
As a reminder, you might want to put a sign on your toilet saying do not flush for that half-awake middle of the night run. The village of Whitehall will be without a water supply for at least the rest of this evening and the early hours of Thursday due to a computer malfunction at the new water filtration plant. "Right now, we have a six million dollar brick," said Ken Bartholomew, village trustee. Then problem apparently started on Thursday when there was a glitch in the system, but designers said that there was nothing seriously wrong and believed they had made the fix. This morning, however, both computers that run the new water filtration system froze up, causing the entire system to stop. Bartholomew related that when the village called the Department of Health about the situation, they told the village to use the bypass line. The village responded that while that was a very good idea, the DOH themselves had told the village to remove the bypass line as part of the water system upgrade, thus causing the present situation. Village crews are working through the night to create a temporary bypass system, and a technician is on their way from Cortland to fix the computer system and should be here sometime this evening to start work. Due to the water problem, the Section II Class C playoff game between Whitehall and Waterford (not ironic, but coincidental) was cancelled for this evening. With the fact that the water may not be back until tomorrow, there is a chance that the game will be played either at home or in Fort Ann at 6 p.m. on Thursday, with the winner having to play the following day in Maple Hill. We will post again in the morning with the latest update on the situation.
There are going to be a bunch of things coming up the rest of this week which will keep everyone on their toes. Tonight, you have the town board meeting set for 7 p.m. at the Pavilion. At the same time, the girls varsity basketball team will play their final regular season home game against Fort Edward with tip set for about 7:45 p.m. This will be senior night for a pair of the Lady Railroaders in guard Shelby Cuomo and forward Brittany Sheldrick. On Friday, the girls team will play Lake George for the Adirondack League title at 8:30 p.m. at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The boys team will also be at the Civic Center, with a tip time against Johnsburg set for 4 p.m. Saturday is the day-long Section II Class D wrestling championships, hosted this year by Whitehall. Weigh-ins are at 7:30 a.m., with events starting at around 9 a.m. and the championship matches set for 6 p.m. Sunday is the Bigfoot Winter Festival, with the chamber hosting a breakfast at 8 a.m. and activities running throughout the rest of the day. I will probably bring my kids with me to enjoy that event. So here's to a busy weekend, a good luck to the Whitehall sports teams, including the indoor track team, who will compete at the Section II championships this weekend.
The main line between the Water Filtration Plant and the village of Whitehall has once again broke, this time just off of North Street. Jiem Rozell and the Department of Public Works employees were on site when I went through on my way home tonight. They are going to be working through the night, and once people get water back in their pipes, a boil water order is in effect for the village. I will sign on again and let you know when it is lifted. This is the second time in three weeks that this line has fractued, the first happening at the County Shed on Route 22. One other thing, I do not envy Jiem and his crew tonight. First off, the main part of their job is to fix it: roads, pipes, ditches, machinery - their the fixer-uppers. Second, I was out there taking pictures for five minutes, and my nose was about ready to fall off. It was single digits out there, and below zero when you factor in the wind. Kudos to them all.
Well, the family is back from Utah and well rested, so it’s back to the reporting gig. Overall we had a good trip. Just a couple things went wrong – being all day the first Thursday and the following Wednesday evening. On the first Thursday, we were late to Chicago-O’Hare and that led to nothing but headaches, even getting thrown off a plane that we had already boarded because the lady “guessed a connection was going to be missed.” Fun, fun. On the Wednesday, it was the revenge of the Brazilian food. Worse part was, the family went off to Olive Garden with all-you-can-eat breadsticks and I’m sitting at home getting re-acquainted with dinner from the previous night. However, it was a good trip overall. We saw the sites, went to Brett’s wedding and had a great time. Now back to reality. How ‘bout them boys. The basketball team was able to pick it up on senior night and get their first win of the season. It will be tough to get win number two against Fort Ann or Fort Edward, but they will have a very good chance to beat Johnsburg at the Civic Center next Friday. While Johnsburg is one of the top three teams in the Mountain and Valley Athletic Conference, the MVAC is probably the weakest it has been in a long, long time, which hurts to say because I am an alum of the most dominate school in the league right now in both boys and girls hoops. The girls go for the Eastern Division crown and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, they want this crown for one reason only – to make amends for their poor first quarter against Lake George in the rematch at the Civic Center in the league championship game next Friday. While some people saw it one way, the game I saw had the Railroaders as the better team for the last 20 minutes of the game. The problem was that they played the worst basketball of the season for the first 12. I will get back on tonight or tomorrow morning after the game with the coverage of what will be either a championship winning performance or the second league loss of the season.
The mayor called this morning to say that the boil water order has been lifted for Whitehall. The issue came up on Saturday evening when THE main line broke from the filtration plant to the village. It did some damage at the County garage building.
All of the local supervisors voted for the 2009 budget at the county level yesterday, with the exception of budget officer Gayle Hall out of Fort Ann. The beach at Hulett's will be partially funded with $14,500 restored, which Bob Banks said was step one in a process that mayend up at step four.
The Washington County board of supervisors will be meeting tomorrow at 1 p.m. to continue their budget process. The day will start out with a 10 a.m. finance committee meeting, but the main event will start at 1 p.m. Dresden supervisor Robert Banks told me that he believes there will be a conclusion reached on the budget tomorrow, which shows an average 4-percent increase to the tax levy. For the towns of Whitehall and Hampton, previous numbers had the tax rate actually declining by one cent per assessed $1,000 of property value, while going up for Dresden. And while not using the exact word, Banks said everything short of giving a guarantee that the Hulett's park would be open next summer no matter what happened at the county level. He also held out hope that at some point, funding would be put back into the budget. He also said that the town would find the money to run the park if that did not happen.
The town of Whitehall will officially dedicate the recreation field in honor of the late Clinton Taft on Friday, Nov. 28 at 1 p.m., right before the opening of the 2008-09 winter sports season. Jerry Taft, Clinton's son, called to tell me the the monument would be delivered today and the ceremony would take place on Friday. I said before and will say again, it was a pleasure to meet the Taft family when Clint was inducted into the hall of fame.
The Whitehall town and village boards will be meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 7:15 p.m. in the town recreation center to disucss possible ways to cosolidate services. If you want to discuss this matter with the combined boards, this is your chance.
I was not able to write on the blog yesterday, so here is the recap from Wednesdays meeting. It was announced that Jim Putorti won the election for town board by a final total of 14 votes over Jiem Rozell. He was sworn in for his first meeting on Wednesday. Louis Pratt gave reports to the board that inventoried the town garage and said that he is looking to have an entire inventory done soon. He said that if anyone wants to see the reports, they can stop by the town garage whenever they want. Fred Trelstra was there and said that he was open to negotiating on selling the former Garden Time building to the town.
For the fourth week in a row, the Whitehall town board will hold a meeting. This time, it is the regular meeting. By the time tha tthe meeting happens, we should know the identity of the fifth member of the town board. I tried to get a story into the Whitehall Times for this week about who officially won the election, but the county board of elections had not counted the absentee ballots yet. As soon as I find out, I will post it here.
In my home town of Westport, the former town clerk has been found to have taken over $5,600 in dump tickets and other money and to have "diverted" another $2,000 into personal checking accounts in a state Comptrollers report. Gee, where have I heard that before. I'm not going to comment more on that situation ecause my mom has been elected to fill the town clerk position in Westport, but i will say the towns of Dresden, Hampton and all over better review their oversight on the clerks office because I am getting tired of all of these stories. It's the persons fault for taking money that's not theirs, but its also administrations fault allowing there to be rope to hang themselves.
The town board passed their 2009 budget by a 3-1vote, with David Waters voting against the spending plan, saying there were more areas to cut from then they did. The board then went into executive session for 1 hour and 50 minutes - all of which I will never get back. Afterwards, Louie Pratt was named the town highway superintendent and thre was no move on whether or not Bob Putorti would remain as the deputy. For next Wednesday, the town board will be talking about moving out of the Pavilion and their options. Vern said that he didn't want to bring it up tonight because they had enough on their plate. It was the third straight meeting that ended right around 10 p.m. in as many weeks, and I have been there for every minute of it.
Nothing has been determined in the race for the Whitehall town board, with only 13 votes separating Jim Putorti and Jiem Rozell - it will be next Tuesday before anything becomes official and the absentee ballots are added up. As for what di happen, 2,173 people voted in the presidential election in the towns of Whitehall, Hampton and Dresden. Based on census population and taking away children and people who may live here but vote in a different district, I would guess that over half of the regisitered voters here went to the polls, which is highly commendable. So, who did you pick? To start, the Whitehall Times readership did not feel the same way the country did concerning preisdential politics. Whitehall cast 808 votes for John McCain compared to 706 for the President-Elect. Hampton voted 177-153 McCain, and Dresden tallied 159 votes for McCain and 139 votes for Obama. Add it all up: 1,144 for McCain and 998 for Obama, with 31 votes going to other presidential candidates, like Ralph Nader. However, the three local towns did vote with the majority when it came to US and state representation. Whitehall voted 949-477 to sen Kirsten Gillibrand back to the United States House of Representatives over Sandy Treadwell, while Hampton voted 163-121 in favor of Gillibrand and Dresden followed suit with a 169-110 margin. Totals: 1,144 votes for Gillibrand and 708 votes for Treadwell. Whitehall village attorney Tony Jordan will now represent the village and local community on the state level as an assemblymen, and locals agreed. Whitehall gave Jordan a 743-484 edge over opponent Ian McGaughey, while Hampton voted 165-95 for Jordan and Dresden cast 146 votes for Jordan compared to 104 for McGaughey. Totals: 1,054 for Jordan and 683 for McGaughey. Congratulations to all of the winners, and we'll report on the Whitehall town board race as soon as we get new numbers.
Everything about the talk concerning the town highway department is in the newspaper, but what I didn't get to cover was the preliminary budget numbers. he Whitehall town board voted to give a $15,000 raise to the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Department, and that will raise the tax base 4.83 percent for those living outside of the vilage. Vern Scribner said that the tax rates may actually drop because of re-assessments, but if your assessment went up, it could wash. The town public hearing is next Thursday (Nov. 6) at 7 p.m. Another qustion I have is if they will immeadiately sware in the councilman who will have been elected, beause there were a couple of insatnces where there could have been a 2-2 deadlock vote during the budget meetings, which would have been broken with a fifth member. There will also most likely be talk about the highway department, as well.
Well, I finally got th chance to be home in time to see te news this week, and all I can say is, well, ugh! You see, where I come from (Westport), we get our NBC Channel out of Plattsburgh - and their former anchor and state assemblyman Chris Ortloff has been in the news - this is a family show, so if you want to know more, google his name and join in the disgust.
ORCA will be holding a Celebrate One Year of play event on Saturday at the town park. There will be refershments and different activities, along with a noon-time dedication ceremony of John Neary Hill. The event will run from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information, call Christina Sumner at 499-1949.
It was the uprising that wasn't. There were a lot of people who attended the special meeting of the Whitehall village board on Wednesday, thinking that they were going to shaft now Sgt. Richard LaChapelle in salary. Instead, the board did exaclty what they had to do and will pay the Sgt. $17.50 an hour. One thing that stuck out to me was an exchange between Don Hart and the other members. When Hart asked why the previous Sgt. was paid so much in 2005, the question got thrown back in his face since he was the one that seconded the motion to pay $17.50 then. Hart, to his, credit, later stepped up and admitted that, in hindsight, he did not know what he was voting on then. Also, trustee Walt Sandford made a point that there needs to be more communication in the village. He feels that not everyone gets all of the informaiton that they need in a timely manner. Whether or not it is true, everyone on that board should make sure that they are as up-to-date as possible on everything that is going down of importance in the village.
Last night I went to get a picture of the Hampton Volunteer Fire Department, and asked Don Sady if he was going to run for the position of town supervisor. He said that he was, deciding that he could either stay as the deputy or start doing the job himself. Sady has been the deputy supervisor since I got here and is now the acting town supervisor. He joins the race with Bill Gage, who was looking for the Democratic nomination. Gage said if he did not receive it, then he would conduct a write-in campaign.
The village board meeting is over, and Whitehall will have a new police chief on Sept. 22 in Matthew Dickinson. The meeting started with a standing room only crowd at the beginning of the meeting, but most lost steam as the board went into executive sesison somewhere around 8 p.m. Basically, only the main players (and yours truly) stayed through the session, which was followed by the vote and appointment. After the vote was when the fireworks started. There was plenty of stuff being thrown out and yelled and accussed. However, what it really boiled down to was six months of frustration and tension between a group of people finally coming to a head. There was a lot of loud talk, but no action (fortunately, which would have been kinda ironic since they were talking about the police department). Everyone had valid points as to why they did or did not vote to appoint, but now is when the old politcal statement of getting behind the nominee should come into effect.
First of all, that was one of the longest meetings I have been to in Whitehall. There were two different presentations, one from the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Company and one from HRP Associates concerning the Troy Shirt property. One person did ask some questions about the state Comptroller's report, and the board did answer most of them. They didn't answer the question "do you believe she should be prosecuted," stating that they were not able to answer that question because there is a chance they could be called in a possible trial situation. I got out and got some pictures during the storm earlier today - they look the same as pictures that could have been taken any other day over the past month - it has been nothing but rain this summer, it seems. Broadway flooded for a little while when it was really coming down, and Skene Valley looks like they added about 1000 new water hazards.
Manchester Newspapers received the audit report on the Town of Whitehall town clerks office at about noon. I have yet to fully go over it, but here is what the quoted summary of the report details: "The Board did not provide effective oversight over the Clerk’s fiscal operations to safeguard Town resources. The Board did not ensure that internal controls were in place over cash receipts and disbursements, and did not perform, or engage an accountant to perform, an adequate annual audit of the Clerk’s records. This created an environment that allowed the Clerk to divert $92,848 of Town moneys over a five-year period that ultimately resulted in a cash shortage of $28,048 as of December 31, 2007." From the summary, there are two parties at fault here: the former town clerk for "diverting" monies and the town board for not providing proper oversight. I'm going to read through this and then add some more details here on the blog site. The full story will be in next week's Times, because the report came out past deadline for the 7th.
It appears that the community will be a-buzzin' this weekend. You have the two, count 'em, two Powwows over the weekend in Whitehall and Hampton; a picnic event for naval veterans, chicken barbecues, fish fries, it's all here. Neither of the Powwow organizers want to say why there are two events on the same weekend at the same time, but something must have put the two on opposite sides of the table. They are the Mike McCarthy to the others Brett Favre. Last night my daughter and son made their semi-pro acting debut at the Depot Theatre - I say semi-pro because I had to pay $20 to see them. Malynda was one of the main players and Blake did the sound effects for the commercials. It was good.
The open house for the Whitehall Water Treatment Facility will take place this Saturday, Aug. 2 from 10 a.m.-noon. This will be a great opportunity to see the new plant with all of its bells and whistles.
I'm a little bit confused. I went out and did a story on the Powwow in Hampton on Friday and wrote it up for this week's Times. Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that there is a second Powwow going on the same days and times in Whitehall as well as Hampton. Deb Joaquim had been the person I had always contacted about the Powwow, so I didn't realize that there was another group besides her. I plan on doing a story on the Whitehall Powwow this week and will report back and hopefully get the question answered as to why there are two of them.
So the village board was going to meet, and now it is not going to meet. Plans were on Monday evening that the board was going to meet this Friday to talk about the police chief position. From what a few people told me, the plan was to hire a new police chief. Ken Bartholomew went after the other members of the board saying that the meeting would be illegal. On Tuesday, the meeting was cancelled. The board will meet Monday at 6 p.m. and there should be discussion about the police chief situation at that time.
Went out with the folks from Dresden that are doing the water chestnut harvest again this year. Except for bad weather, that’s pretty good work if you can find it. I love being out on the lake when I can be, so I am jealous. They are getting in about 24-25 loads a day. Bob Banks said that this would be the year you would notice change, and there was a clear difference on the southwest side of the bay this year. It’s a good thing to do. More places to fish, wider channel to boat and your getting rid of an invasive species. Also got to sneak a peak at The Line Townhouses this week. That will be a good influx of money into Whitehall if successful. I think it can be because the summer tourist business is booming all along the two lakes, and there will be people from the south (and maybe even ‘le norde’) who will buy the eight spots up. Went with my daughter to get the pins out of her left arm today, and she was a trooper. Hardly cried for the first two then started bragging that she never felt a thing. Also, Happy Sixth Birthday, Blakey Boy! Just saw one of the worst t-boomers I think I have ever witnessed. I was looking all over for the green clouds and funnel. No post on the State Comptroller’s site of the Whitehall audit yet. Let you know when I see it.
Have a good weekend.
It certainly was a good night for the opening of Canal Fest. This was the second year in a row where the weather looked terrible all day and than around 6 p.m. the skies cleared and the temperature was perfect. There were also a lot more people out this year a lot earlier. There were plenty of kids on the rides and plenty at the Boreal Tordu concert. The unfortunate thing was that there were only two boats for the boat parade. Let’s step it up and get some more in, please. By the way, I did get my request and rode with Jim Aiken on his boat through the lock, took Blake (my son) along for the ride, too. He enjoyed it, but got a little restless at the end. He also didn’t realize that the ropes get slimy when they are underwater for so long. Have a good weekend. Be in the office at 9 a.m. Monday.
Here's what happened at the town board meeting. Remember that thing I said about having the answer as to who the new board member would be? Well, the answer is no one. At least, not until November. The board was deadlocked over whether or not to interview the candidates or wait until November, so a 2-2 vote tables the issue, therefore no action will be taken and it will be decided at the polls. Jiem Rozell was at the meeting and said that he plans to run for the seat. I have to find out if Fra Putorti and Richard Bruce plan to do the same. It sounds like the lunch program is going well at the recreation center, serving 61 students and a number of families in the first three days. The board also announced that they will be meeting with the state auditor soon for the preliminary report into the town clerk investigation. The official report will follow shortly after. Now, before the meeting, I gained a partial revenge on St. Catherine with five pars, but doubles two of the last three holes in shooting 90. It could have been an 85 if it weren't for a few worm-burners and tree huggers. Also, I talked with village mayor Pat Norton shortly after the paper went to press and she told me that the open house at the water filtration plant will be re-scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 9 because the reps from the engineering firm could not make it next week. We'll have more in next Thursday’s paper.
Arrgh… played 18 at St. Catherine after work and it was about the worse score I have shot in three years. 98!!!! I think you actually have to try to shoot that bad. It was horrible. I went snowman on the 10th, and it’s a par 5 – I don’t think I’ve done that since I was in grade school! But this means that I’m hooked on the course because I know I can shoot better – St. Catherine has now become my conquest. I’ll be back to Skene after I hit 90 there.
It was interesting to see the drug court graduation – and not just for the Trey Anastacio angle. All I will say on that is Phish was a band I listened to in high school, so it was nice to meet him, just not under those circumstances.
The DA said that he has seen very few of the drug court graduates ever return, and I hope that holds for this graduating class and the one in November, when there will be a couple of Whitehall people who will hopefully have their lives back on track by then.
The town of Hampton is looking to move into the bottom of the firehouse for the new town hall. If this counts as consolidation, there’s plenty of state and federal money out there for renovations, because the state wants everything to consolidate.
If you have any questions about stories, rumors, sports, culture, you name it, that you want to talk about, send me a line at keith@manchesternewspapers.com. I’ll try to answer them weekly (most likely on Wednesdays). It’ll be a good conversation. I’ll answer anything that I can, just keep it clean.
Here’s some notes since the last time I wrote.
Looks like Whitehall is going to be at the center of the Sasquatch universe again on national television.
A&E sent a request to use two of our articles dealing with Paul Bartholomew and the search for Bigfoot. Last year, we did a couple of stories where we talked to Paul and one of the witnesses about the Sasquatch that may, or may not, be roaming the hills around the town. The working title for the show is “Monster Quest.” The lady that contacted us did not tell us when the run date for the story would be, but we are going to get some more info on the program and let you know.
It was nice to see the family of Clint Taft again last night, even though I wish it would have been under better circumstances. You can tell by talking to them that they respected and honored their father and that he returned the love and appreciation. It was an honor to get to know them and their father through the stories that they, and the members of the community, told me.
I’m heading down to the Drug Court graduation today at 3 p.m. I want to find out what exactly it is that they do in their program, for one. Of course, the spotlight shines a little brighter on the events when you have the front-man for the band Phish as one of your graduates. I hope that Dickie is right when he says that he feels that Trey has made the right choices to change his life around.
How about this – we’re going on-line for a little blog action. Well, lets get right to it. Last night was the town board meeting, and I have a couple of thoughts.
Let’s go to the big story of the night. Town rec director Neil Molinero came right out and asked town supervisor Vernon Scribner if he was trying to get rid of him from his post. It got heated at times. Councilman David Waters claimed that illegal acts were taking place and that he would bring up charges. Neil stood firm in his job performance. Vernon got a little upset when Neil claimed he was watching him from afar, looking at the program from across the canal. There was one comment by Waters thought that I think was important. He said that people are trying to get rid of Neil because of his last name. I would hope that is not true. Now I don’t now why that would be the case, but if it is true, then those people are playing eight grade peer politics – you know, where Billy won’t let Bobby play with him because he’s from the other side of town. Let’s leave that petty behavior back in high school, please.
If there is a problem with Neil’s performance, let’s hear it in front of the town board and with Neil present to hear the gripes. If you have a problem and you can’t do that, then do you really have a problem with his performance, or is it something else?
Well, I’ll be gone tomorrow with my son on a Father and Son’s campout at Camp Joseph in South Royalton, VT. I’ll be in the office from 9 a.m.-noon on Monday. If you see this, drop me a line and tell me what you think.
Have a good weekend.
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