Yes Sal he is a wonderful man. His entire family is a staple of the community and very well respected. His mom, who was Town Clerk for years was a doll. As the article indicates, his family has lived here "forever". My husband graduated high school with his younger brother. Dave was a County Legislator quite a while back and has served on the Regional Planning Commission Board. I have sought his advice and insight from time to time concerning town matters. He was briefly a member of our adhoc committee to review our zoning ordinance but left us citing a conflict of interest with his businesses. As for the store, I am absolutely heartbroken to see it go but also look forward to the possibility of improvement and better things to come. I remember when Gid Wilber owned it. He would tell endless stories of the history of Duanesburg and about his ventures as a pilot. He owned a small plane which he housed at the airport across the street and would take my father and I for a ride once in a while. He too was a great man. he always had tons of pictures from the good old days in town and loved to show them to anyone who would take the time to look at them. Sad day when he died, I remember when Dave Vincent worked behind the counter at the store. He did so for many years along with his wife, then as the kids grew up they each worked there also. It was a difficult and well thought out decision for him.
DUANESBURG Columbine student offers lesson in positive behavior BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Erika Kenney found herself thinking about her lunch period routines on Thursday. On most days, the 13-year-old student grabs her food and sits with a group of friends, noticing but not acknowledging the handful of students solemnly eating alone. She routinely sees classmates ridiculing others, but never gives much thought about interceding. “People make fun of other people every day,” she shrugged. But after listening to the story of 17-year-old Rachel Joy Scott — the first student killed during the Columbine High School massacre — Erika decided to adopt a new outlook toward her classmates and others. The eighth-grader is among more than 80 Duanesburg Middle School students who agreed to take a closer look at their day-to-day actions in school so that they can create positive change. The presentation given by former Columbine student Zach Rauzi offered the teens a glimpse into a life that was tragically clipped short by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, a pair often described as outsiders in the months before the killings. In the aftermath of the shootings, many in the community cited their feelings of being ostracized by their peers as leading to the hostility that ended in the murderous rampage. “Every single situation you guys are in, you’re going to be an influence on someone else also,” Rauzi told the students. “You can be a positive influence or you can be a negative influence.” Scott, an outgoing junior from Littleton, Colo., was eating lunch with a friend outside the west entrance of the high school when she was fatally shot. She was first among 12 Columbine students and one teacher killed April 20, 1999. Another 23 were wounded. Her younger brother, Craig Scott, was in the school’s library when the shooting broke out. He survived by pretending to be dead after the gunmen killed two of his friends who were seeking refuge with him beneath a table. MOTIVES CLOUDED The Columbine killings would later prompt the U.S. Secret Service to issue a report on school shootings in 2002. The report found that nearly three-quarters of the gunmen studied felt persecuted, bullied and threatened in the months leading up to their attacks. Scott’s death galvanized her family members into establishing “Rachel’s Challenge,” a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting the value of compassion their daughter once tried to bring into her school. The effort was prompted in part by an excerpt her family came across in an school essay she wrote shortly before her death. “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same,” she wrote in an essay entitled “My Ethics, My Code of life.” “People will never know how far a little kindness can go,” she wrote. Scott’s father, uncle, younger brother and older sister now travel to school districts around the globe spreading this message. In accepting Rachel’s Challenge, students are urged to motivate, educate and bring positive change to their peers, as well as their families. Following Rauzi’s presentation, the Duanesburg students signed a banner to indicate their acceptance of the challenge, and then were urged to join a new club at the district called “Rachel’s Friends.” Middle School counselor Neal Silverman said the new group is aimed at fostering the principles Scott outlined in diaries and essays her family later found. “This is about how to perpetuate and change [these principles] into a culture,” he said following the presentation. Seventh-grader Libby Aliberti was touched by the story of Scott’s life and felt compelled to change the clique culture in the middle school. The 12-year-old said the presentation showed her how even a simple compliment or positive action could influence someone away from harming themselves or others. “You could say something nice to someone and that could really impact them,” she said.
ANA N. ZANGRONIZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Duanesburg Middle School seventh-grader Jacob Lescovich, 13, adds his signature to the “I Accept Rachel’s Challenge!” banner following an assembly on Thursday. Rachel Scott was the fi rst student killed in the Columbine High School shootings.
Duanesburg always seemed to be a school that dealt with the 'meat' of life and not the 'fluff'. They seem to have a very good school system. I have never heard anything negative about that district. Never!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
It is an excellent school district, but we have to stop saying that in public......people keep moving here in part because of it. Excellence comes with a hefty price tag.
A- That the road patrol cost more than a million a year B- The original plan was to patrol the hilltowns C- It is nothing more than a million dollar a year roving traffic unit
If you are truly conservative, you would easily see the monumental waste of taxpayers money by creating another department.
I like the deputies too. Have them work for the local municipalities and save millions- then I would really like em.
Dont worry this is wasted breath----remember,,,homeland security, RealID and consolidation......they are all just fussing over the power of it all........control the money, control the guns---control the masses......if P then Q......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
DUANESBURG Team member sees Afghans succeeding Foreign service worker briefs Bush BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Zach Harkenrider says he has seen the progress of Afghanistan firsthand. Since volunteering to serve in the Ghazni Province in August 2007, the former Duanesburg resident and member of the U.S. Foreign Service has watched, and now reports that Afghanistan is growing dramatically from a war-torn nation into a developing democracy. He had the honor of delivering some of the good tidings in person to the commander-in-chief Friday, during an hour-long briefing at the White House. “When you go out on the streets now, you don’t see a lot of fear,” he explained during a phone interview after the Roosevelt Room meeting, which also included Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “You do see a lot of optimism.” Prior to arriving in Washington, D.C., this month, Harkenrider was serving as member of the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team stationed in the south-central region of Afghanistan. The joint civilian-military collaboration is aimed at extending the reach and legitimacy of the Afghan government by providing security, promoting good governance, and aiding in economic development in the rebuilding nation. As a diplomat with the reconstruction team, Harkenrider helped the fledgling Afghan government feel out the limits of its authority and restore civility to the legislative process. At the same time, he helped forge communication gaps between Afghan officials and U.S. military leaders. “What I helped them do is understand each other,” he said. The Duanesburg High School graduate, son of Greg and Karen Harkenrider of Duanesburg, was studying history and political science at the University of Rochester when he decided to take the foreign service exam during his senior year in 2001. After a rigorous vetting process, the 22-yearold college graduate found himself en route to India with a job in the foreign service. After his first assignment, Harkenrider traveled to the West African nation of Niger, where he worked with the military. The experience sparked his interest in aiding the reconstruction in Afghanistan, one of the most critical foreign policy fronts now facing the United States. A YEAR IN COUNTRY During his year with the reconstruction team, Harkenrider watched the Afghan economy grow by 13 percent, an increase that outweighs the growth experienced by both the Indian and Chinese economies. He also observed the education system expand to encompass more than 5 million students, nearly five times the number attending schools under the Taliban regime. “What you see in Afghanistan is a tremendous success story not only for the United States government, but the Afghan government as well,” he said. But numbers don’t do justice to the story of Afghan revitalization, Harkenrider insists. Increasingly, security has fostered a booming growth in the cities and a business culture that seems to improve markedly each month with the young Afghan population. “It gives you cause for optimism,” he said. “You’ve got a whole different generation of people coming up who have a whole different concept of living.” Karzai echoed the efforts himself following the briefing. He said the work of reconstruction teams had prompted more progress in the past six or seven years than the nation would have been able to make on its own in 50 or 60 years. “Life is better,” Karzai told The Associated Press on Friday. “Of course we have challenges, and the challenges will continue to face us as we move ahead. The success is already there, the picture will be completed.” The news of revitalization was welcomed by President George W. Bush amid reports of increasing violence in Afghanistan. More than 129 U.S. troops have died amid the hostilities this year, eclipsing any total since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001. The increased violence was felt in the Capital Region this month when Moshin Naqvi, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army whose wife lives in Mechancville, was among four soldiers killed when a roadside bomb struck their Humvee. Naqvi, a Pakistan native and naturalized U.S. citizen, was buried Monday in Colonie. Harkenrider admits there are still areas of Afghanistan that are dangerous. But for the most part, he said, the violence represents the last sputtering gasps of the Taliban remnants as civil Afghan society emerges. “What they see is the door closing on their historical epic,” he said. “Their time is running out and they see it’s never going to come back.”
DUANESBURG Engine part of tribute to bygone era BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Joe Merli didn’t quite know what to do with the 1950s-era, General Motorsbuilt E-8 passenger locomotive, but knew he couldn’t allow the 60-ton steel beast go to the scrap yard. So he purchased the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Engine No. 5762 and had it hauled back to his small manufacturing shop off Western Turnpike, where it sat for more than a decade. During that time, Merli’s vision for the Canal Street Historical Society began to manifest itself. He first thought about building a replica rail station around the engine as a tribute to early-20th century American industrialism. Then Schenectady’s Wallace Armer hardware store closed in 1997 and Merli’s vision grew. “I always wanted to do something,” he explained last week. “But the engine really inspired me.” Over time, a pole barn by his shop was transformed into an authentic, late-19th century general store featuring many of the old shelves pulled from the Armer building. A small drainage ditch was dug out and extended to make it look like a smaller replica of the old Erie Canal basin. And the diesel engine was painstakingly restored to bear the gray-and-white lightning stripes that were the trademark of the New York Central Railroad. After 14 years, Merli has fully restored the exterior of the locomotive, which now awaits its new purpose as a soda fountain and malt shop attached to Merli’s growing complex of period buildings. The original 12-cylinder diesel engine and twin-steam generators have been removed from the locomotive, leaving a cavernous space on the interior. Over the next few years, Merli plans to install a countertop for the malt shop and connect it to a replica 1880s Victorian-era train station he plans to build between the locomotive and general store. “We’ll have a full image in here of a 1950s soda shop,” he said, surveying the locomotive’s interior. When completed, the complex of buildings will be Merli’s personal tribute to a bygone era in the United States: a time when American ingenuity laid tracks that spanned the countryside and brought seemingly boundless prosperity to the nation. It’s a period that Merli holds with deep reverence as its monuments get chopped up by scrap metal hunters. Years ago, the former autobody specialist started building replicas of carriages and other historic vehicles. He now operates the Merli Manufacturing Co., a 60-year-old, family-run business that has since produced period push carts and carriages for businesses across the United States, including Disneyland, Busch Gardens and Paramount Studios. Merli’s project to build the Canal Street Historical Society is aimed at protecting a snapshot of the time period. Merli eventually wants to transfer the property and buildings over to a nonprofit organization that will act as caretaker for the historical attraction. “It’s to remind us of what we had and how proud we were of the monuments we built,” he said. Stepping into the general store is like stepping back in time. Through hundreds of donations and his own seemingly endless hunt for authentic period memorabilia Merli has even stocked the shelves with rivets and bolts and assorted other supplies still wrapped in their turn-of-the century packaging Merli has installed a track ladder that slides among the shelves as it once did in Wallace Armer more than a decade ago. He also plans to re-create the cable car that once zipped through the building to deliver change to Armer customers. But the real showpiece is the beautifully restored locomotive It’s the centerpiece Merli plans to use as a draw for curious passersby as they trek down Route 20. Merli has always had a steady procession of curious travelers stopping to inspect the engine which was once parked next to his small manufacturing shop. Those visitors have multiplied since he moved the train last week to its permanent location on a more visible stretch of tracks he built perpendicular to the road. “People just stop and look at the train,” he said. “All week, there have been people coming out and taking pictures.” There was even a greater spectacle during the actual move. He had the help of Ric Lucia and Mike Becker, operators of the Duanesburg-based Pro-Motion Recovery and Towing, who lifted the body with a pair of cranes, placed its rear on a set of wheels and then towed the hulking structure several hundred feet to its current location. Becker downplayed the difficulty of moving the mammoth engine. He said the only difficulty came with maneuvering the train from its spot by Merli’s shop. “It’s all in a day’s work,” he said. Prior to the move, Merli was helped by Auto Body of Schenectady, which supplied him with the volumes of special primer needed to coat the body. Passono Paints of Watervliet and Art Trans Graphics of DeWitt provided him with a final coat of paint and detailing at little cost. “If it wasn’t for these friends of mine that helped me out, this wouldn’t be here,” Merli said of the engine. Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Joseph Merli of Duanesburg stands in front of the 1953 locomotive he plans to convert into a 1950s-era soda shop.
Rene should be praised by all County taxpayers. Unlike her counterparts in the City and County Bored, she is effectively cutting pork and finding cost savings. Some leaders here know how to do more with less. An unheard of concept in the collapsing City and County.
Mayor Stratton just announced a ridiculous 5.2% increase in spending. No cuts, more record spending, more fees and a deaf ears to the oppressed taxpayers.
Thanks Benny, but you spoke too soon,,,,,you haven't seen my budget. The best I could do after being hit with severe revenue reductions was a 4% increase in the general fund. Actual spending was only up 6/10% (.06) after cutting several line items but the revenue reduction killed us as well as the other towns I'm hearing. I figured my revenues low and hope I'm wrong but I would rather err on the side of caution. Fortunately, because our levy is low in comparison to the bigger towns it will only mean a $3 increase on a house with a $75,000 assessed value.
Haven't seen the Duanesburg budget but at least you are looking at cuts first and tax increases last. All I can say is that I wish Rene was our County Manager.
The absolute failure to find any County cuts and waste $500,000 on the Downtown Library addition plans says it all. This whole County Legislature must go to be replaced by a Board of Supervisors. Then at least Rene and Steve will have a seat at the County decision table.
I think you underestimate Kathy Rooney. She is sharp and I'm sure she can see where the cuts COULD be made, she just may not be allowed to make the cuts!! I agree with you on the Board of Supervisors, they utilize it in Schoharie and it seems to work out well. Atleast all the towns are represented equally. Face it, Angelo is the only one we see in Duanesburg except when Judy came out to a board meeting in January to let us all know she was annointed I mean, appointed co chair of the legislature. Like it made a difference in our lives!!! How can these people represent the residents of Duanesburg when they don't even know the residents of Duanesburg.
DUANESBURG 2 running for top highway job BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Duanesburg voters will choose between a local businessman and a Town Board member during a special election for the vacant highway superintendent’s position in November. Republican board member Martin White will run against Democrat Steve Perog, the owner of Capitol Supply Co. The winner will serve for the three remaining years on the term of former Highway Superintendent Francis Spor, who resigned after eight months on the job. If White is elected, he’ll be required by law to vacate his seat on the board before taking office in January. Supervisor Rene Merrihew would then appoint a replacement for his seat, which has one year remaining. Spor came under fire last summer after several residents complained about lack of maintenance on Duanesburg’s 46 miles of roads. At the time, he said the three-member staff and highway budget was inadequate to correct a department that had been grossly neglected for years. The issue spurred a Town Board discussion about abolishing the highway superintendent’s position altogether in favor of establishing a public works department with an appointed director. Spor resigned in August, less than two weeks after a series of powerful thunderstorms caused significant damage to many of the town’s roads. Since Spor’s resignation, the department has been run by Spor’s deputy, Jeff Iveson. Merrihew said the department had only spent about $27,000 of the $85,000 the town had allocated for road maintenance in the 2008 budget. The pattern of spending was similar to the previous two years, when the highway superintendent finished the year with more than $20,000 worth of unused funds in the repair budget. Merrihew said the excess came despite persistent department requests for more funding. “They aren’t spending the money,” she said Tuesday. “It isn’t a matter of the Town Board not budgeting the money.” White, a civil engineer with the state Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority, said his experience gives him excellent credentials for the superintendent’s position. If elected, he said he would prioritize the roads that need work and keep residents apprised of his progress. “I’m confident we can work together as a team and not be at loggerheads.” Perog serves on the Landis Arboretum’s Board of Directors and is the former vice president of the Duanesburg Area Community Center’s board. He said his business — a road chemical and supply company — gives him a good understanding of how to maintain roads and the budget constraints many highway departments face because of rising costs. “It seems to me the citizens that live on town roads have been forgotten,” he said. “My slogan is ‘I’ll patch your pothole, put the stream back in the ditch and make safe, smooth roads for all.’ ” The new superintendent will face a reduction in pay, according to Merrihew’s draft 2009 budget. She said the position’s salary was reduced from $35,000 to $26,000 in part because both White and Perog are planning to take the position as a second job. “Both candidates are planning on doing it part time, so I couldn’t justify the taxpayers paying [a fulltime] salary,” she said.
DUANESBURG — Schenectady County Public Health Services will sponsor a rabies vaccination clinic on Saturday at the Duanesburg Fire Hall on Route 7. Cats and ferrets will be vaccinated from 10 to 11 a.m. and dogs will be seen from 11 a.m. to noon. Cats and ferrets must be in carriers and dogs must be leashed. Bring previous vaccination certificate if any. The clinic is free to Schenectady County residents but cash donations are welcome.
DUANESBURG As revenue flags, tax hike looms Increase of 6.1 percent may be ahead BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Duanesburg property owners could face a 6.1 percent increase in town taxes this year due to dwindling revenue streams in the tentative 2009 budget. Supervisor Rene Merrihew is proposing to raise $550,021 through the tax levy next year, an increase of $33,611 over this year’s figure. Overall, she proposed a budget with $1.76 million in spending between the highway and general fund. Merrihew said the increase resulted from a marked decrease in town revenues. She said the budget anticipates a decrease of $134,000 that would have come from mortgage tax, sales tax and interest earnings. “Revenues are down incredibly this year,” she said. “I’m always very conservative with our revenues.” To counter the plunge, Merrihew is keeping town expenditures almost flat, with the general fund budget increasing by only $5,163, or less than 1 percent. As a result, a resident with a $150,000 home will face a roughly $6 increase from the previous year’s taxes. In order to reduce spending, nearly $50,000 in cuts were made. Merrihew proposes eliminating Duanesburg’s participation in Schenectady County’s Summer Youth Training program next year at a savings of $12,000. She said her office has received numerous complaints about the town’s children being turned away from the program. She said other parents have complained that the program was more about providing low-wage laborers for the county instead of training kids. Merrihew also removed $6,500 from the Summer Youth Program budget that was previously used to bus children to Guilderland for swimming classes. She said the opening of the Duanesburg Area Community Center on Victoria Drive means the transportation is no longer necessary. The highway superintendent’s salary was reduced by $9,000 to $26,000 in Merrihew’s budget, reflecting the position’s change from full-time to part-time. She said superintendent candidates Martin White and Steve Perog would serve in the position on a part-time basis, regardless of who is elected. Merrihew did include an $80,000 line item for the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Company, which faced insolvency earlier this year because of revenue problems of its own stemming from a lack of members. The town withheld funding from DVAC until the organization restructured itself in May. Since that time, the town has allocated funding with DVAC on a tri-monthly basis. Merrihew’s budget anticipates spending about $79,000 on the service in 2009.
Logged
Rene should be praised by all County taxpayers. Unlike her counterparts in the City and County Bored, she is effectively cutting pork and finding cost savings. Some leaders here know how to do more with less. An unheard of concept in the collapsing City and County.
