Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper
The Hoosick Fighting Irish opened up a 30 point lead in the first quarter and coasted to a big win over the Vermont Vipers of Poultney, VT. The 3 – 0 Irish have now outscored their opponents 143 – 6. Next Sunday the team travels to Schuylerville with a 1 pm start at the Schuylerville High School.
William, Kristen and Alana Zuke joyfully announce the birth of Lukas Matthew Zuke. Lukas was born at 12:53 pm on September 1, 2008, at the Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, MA. He weighed 8.6 pounds and was 20.5 inches long at birth.
THERE WAS A NEED…and the Stephentown Senior Citizen Club responded. A truckload of food was collected in the most recent drive by the Club for the Stephentown Food Pantry. There will be additional food drives in November and December. Call Cathy Lawless at 733-6508 if you would like to participate.
Janice Tate, Treasurer of the Walter Wood Alumni Association, wrote the following:
“The Walter A. Wood High School Alumni Association of Hoosick Falls has presented the Village Clerk with a very sizable contribution to the Village of Hoosick Falls toward the erection of the Veterans Memorial to be built in the Village park, These voluntary donations were given at the time of our annual Alumni Banquet held in June. Over 190 people attended the dinner, and the generous gifts were much appreciated.
The Committee for the Alumni consists of Janice Tate, Marjorie George, Betty Kipp, Marion Cipperly and Ronald Seifert.”
At the meeting on September 17, the Board of Directors of the Lebanon Valley Historical Society agreed on three programs for 2009 and discussed a number of others. They are listed below for your information. If you have any suggestions or comments, please contact us. We plan to have the final list ready for presentation at the Annual Meeting in November. Remember that the Annual Meeting is also the time when members renew their memberships and vote for the slate of officers for 2009.
The three programs planned for sure are:
• “Echoes of The Echo” – Tom Bleezarde, son of a co-founder of The Echo, offers the story of the founding and early history (1940 – 1974) of “the independent home town paper of the Lebanon and Taconic Valleys.”
• Samuel J. Tilden and the Presidential Election of 1876 – Todd Houghtlin will discuss the Tilden campaign and loss, supplemented by Robert Allard’s imaginative “What If Tilden Had Won?”
• The Shaker Swamp Project, a 30 minute documentary film by Ted Timreck, was offered in June 2008 and was very popular. Because many members missed that showing, this program will be offered in 2009. The project is identifying the medicinal plants still found in the Swamp that were the basis of Shaker remedies and later Tilden pharmaceuticals.
Other Programs Ideas
• History of the Lebanon Valley Speedway, presented by Howard Commander, proprietor.
• Historical importance of Native Americans in the Valley, presented by Town Historian Kevin Fuerst.
• The Underground Railroad in Lebanon Valley.
• Columbia County Historical Society presentation on CCHS activities and plans.
• School history, possibly with Lenny Brown III presenting.
• Churches of the Valley – focus on the Baptist Church in Lebanon Springs, which has not been recently discussed.
• Restaurants Past and Present – The Pillars, The Showboat, Mario’s, Lenny’s, Fresco’s.
The Grafton Center Cemetery Association Meeting is October 9 at the Grafton Methodist Church Hall at 6:30 pm. The public is welcome.
On Saturday, November 8, the Petersburgh Public Library will sponsor a National Traffic Safety Institute Traffic Survival Workshop. The class will be held from 9 am to 3:30 pm at the Petersburgh Town Hall. The cost of the class is $40, part of which is a tax-deductible donation to the Library’s building renovation fund.
Completion of the class will allow NYS drivers of all ages, who are the principal operators of a motor vehicle, to save a minimum of 10% off their liability and collision insurance for three renewal years. Check with your insurance carrier for details about savings on your own policy. Drivers may repeat the class every 36 months. Those who finish the class will be mailed a certificate to present to their insurance carrier. In addition, those who complete the program can subtract 4 violation points from their driving record, under most circumstances, if the points were accumulated during the 18 months prior to taking the class.
Those who wish to participate are asked to notify the Library by October 31. Please include your phone number and other contact information when you register in case we need to reach you. Mail your check for $40 made out to the Petersburgh Public Library to the Library at PO Box 250, Petersburgh, NY, 12138, or stop in during Library hours, Monday-Friday from 2 to 5 pm, Wednesday until 9 pm and Saturday from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. You can also register by calling the Library at 658-2927 during regular Library hours.
On the day of the class, there will be a half-hour break for lunch. You may bring your own lunch or bring money to order from the local pizza and sub shop.
Thanks again, from the Berlin Volunteer Rescue Squad to all who supported our most recent Eat Out-Eat Local Chicken BBQ dinner on Friday, September 5. A special thanks to Moses’ Farm for donating the potatoes.
Our next dinner will be Friday, October 10, and we’ll be serving meatloaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, a beverage and apple crisp for dessert. Hope you can make it!
A fresh Maine lobster dinner will be served at the Berlin Firehouse, 11 Community Ave, Berlin, on Saturday, October 18, from 6 to 8 pm.
Takeouts are available from 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
You may choose either a single lobster dinner at $19 or a double lobster dinner at $27. Along with your lobster(s), dinner includes salad, baked potato, roll, ice cream and beverage.
Tickets are through advance sales only. The reservation deadline is October 12. Contact Shirley or Ivan at 518-658-2893, Tena at 518-658-2294, Dawn or Bruce at 518-658-2163, or any fire department, auxiliary, or rescue squad member.
by Gary Danforth
Last Friday evening, September 19, the Hoosick Falls Central School Panther football team used a stingy defense to thwart a Stillwater Central School eleven which tried its best to run right over HFCS in the Panthers’ 19-7 win. Stillwater ran the ball the first five plays it had the ball to open period one and kept up its ground attack all night. But its efforts against the Panther defense was done one better by an improving Panther running game. Time and time again Hoosick Falls got big runs from several different backs and did enough on the ground and in the air to push their Class C, North division record to 2-1.
Both teams stalled on their initial drives with the visiting Warriors being contained at their 40 yard line and HFCS coming up short at their 38 yard line. Stillwater fumbled the ball back to HFCS on their next possession, and HFCS gave it back to the visitors via an interception. HFCS bottled Stillwater up at their own 35 yard line on the Warriors third possession. The Panther offense was stopped on their third possession on a fourth and one situation at the HFCS 43 yard line.
A hard hitting Panther defense stopped the Warriors at their own 38 yard line on their fourth possession. Stillwater had passed the ball just twice in its first twenty plays, completing the pass once for 17 yards. HFCS was getting a heavy dose of the Warrior running game.
HFCS would strike first. The Panthers scored on a five play, 65 yard drive. Senior running back Dan Okerman ripped off a 44 yard run. Then Okerman got four more yards on a run. Senior Panther quarterback Kevin Woods got eight yards on an option run to the left. Junior running back Alex Hansen went the final nine yards on two more Panther running plays, covering the final five yards for the game’s initial score with 8:12 left in period two. Junior Hutton Rasmus booted the point after touchdown to give HFCS a 7-0 lead.
HFCS forced the Warriors into a fourth and seven situation at midfield on their next possession. Then the Panther’s Logan O’Brien made a big play, returning the ensuing Warrior punt all the way to the Stillwater eleven yard line. On the next play, Woods ran an option play into the end zone. Rasmus’s PAT boot was wide left with 5:22 remaining in the first half to keep HFCS ahead, 13-0.
Stillwater came right back at Hoosick Falls, scoring on a six play, 60 yard drive. Stillwater completed their second pass of the evening during the drive with Warrior junior quarterback Dan Palmieri running around the right side of the Panther defense from 22 yards out for the TD. Aaron Tanner’s PAT boot got Stillwater to 13-7 with 2:52 left in the opening half.
A running play and two Panther incompletions gave the ball back to Stillwater, who was unable to score again before the first half ended.
O’Brien made another big special teams play to start off the Panther second half. This time he took the Warrior kickoff and galloped all the way to the Stillwater one yard line. The Warrior defense stiffened with two incomplete passes sandwiched around a stuffed run leaving HFCS with a fourth and goal at the Stillwater seven yard line. But Woods rolled right and found Jordan Brogue with the TD pass. A two-point conversion pass failed as the Panthers clung to a 19-7 advantage.
Neither team could move the ball on the opposing defense as Stillwater bogged down at the Panther 44 yard line and their own 35 yard line on their next two possessions while HFCS gave the ball back at the Warrior 49 yard line and had a second pass picked off.
The Hoosick Falls defense continued to bottle up the Warrior attack during their last three possessions with the Panthers coming out on the long end of the 19-7 score.
Under the Goalposts: In other Class C action, Cambridge beat Mechanicville in overtime and Schuylerville, Fonda-Fultonville and Watervliet picked up wins. HFCS travels to Corinth this Friday night in a game which should be very competitive. The Tomahawks, like HFCS, have lost to Schuylerville.
