The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

The Save The Armory Committee Makes Plans

By

by Bea Peterson
The Save the Armory Committee, which was approved at the last Hoosick Town Board meeting, met Monday, December 19, at 6 pm in the Village Hall. Eleven people attended the meeting and quickly volunteered to take on a variety of assignments.
Chairman Shelly Stiles opened the meeting with two basic ground rules: one – no looking back to complain about what might have been, instead look forward, and two – there is no such thing as a bad idea. The Committee agreed. They also agreed to meet frequently as there is not a lot of time to accomplish the goal of keeping the Armory as the Town Hall.
Next Meeting January 4
Committee members present were Kevin Allard, Michael Batcher, Sue Bouplon, Margaret Casey, Gail Delurey, Ric DiDonato, Herb Loretan, Kevin O’Malley, Marie O’Neal, Jeff Wysocki and Shelly Stiles. To join the Committee, contact any of the members or attend the next meeting, which will be held in the Armory on Wednesday, January 4, at 6 pm.
Various members agreed to contact other armories that have been released by the State to see what the new owners had to do and how they did it. The Committee will also ask if they faced the possibility of the National Guard taking their armory back, did they have engineering studies done and what type of repairs did they have to make to bring the buildings up to code.
Other Committee members will contact individuals working for State Senator Roy McDonald and Assemblyman Tony Jordan for more input. Still more volunteers will check for restrictions from NYSPRHP as the Armory is on the historic register. They will also check with NYSERDA regarding an energy audit.
Several other ideas and contacts were noted and will be investigated before the next meeting.
The Committee asked Town Councilman Jeff Wysocki to make a motion at the January 9 Hoosick Board meeting to drop the Patire and Weebs buildings from the options now under consideration as a Town Hall. That way only two options would, possibly, have to be presented to voters for their consideration. That is to either retain the Armory or build a new Town Hall. Such a move would also free newly elected Town Councilman Bruce Patire to participate in future discussions on the Town Hall issue.