Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper
The Grafton Volunteer Fire Department along with the Grafton Ladies Auxiliary will be serving an All You Can Eat Buffet Breakfast on Saturday, May 31, from 8 to 11 am at the Grafton VFW – Fire Hall on South Road (County Route 85). Belgian waffles, pancakes, French toast, eggs (made to order), sausage gravy & biscuits, bacon, sausage, home fries, toast, orange juice, coffee and milk are on the menu.
The cost is $9 per adult, $4 for kids 12 and under and free for kids five and under.
Happy Mother’s Day! Treat your mom to breakfast at the Sullivan-Jones VFW monthly buffet breakfast on Sunday, May 11, from 8 to 11 am. The VFW is located on Veterans Street in Poestenkill.
Mother’s Day Wildflower Hike
The Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center is offering a Mother’s Day Wildflower Hike, May 11, from 1 to 3 pm to observe the many spring ephemerals in bloom. This will be a fun and easy hike for all ages.
Mid-Week Hike Series
The Center is offering a Mid-Week Hike Series on May 13, 22 and 27 from 2 to 4 pm. These guided hikes will cover about two or three miles over moderate terrain. You can attend one or more of these hikes, so come join us this spring for some outdoor adventures!
Sunday Pond Study
The Center is offering a Sunday Pond Study on May 18 from 1 to 3 pm. This program for all ages will have participants catching and releasing pond organisms and going over their importance to the environment. A complete list of programs can be found at www.dykenpond.org. Pre-registration is encouraged to help with planning, but not required, and can be done by contacting the Center at dykenpond@fairpoint.net or 658-2055.
Twilight Kayak Tour
The Center is offering a Twilight Kayak Tour on May 28 from 7pm to 9pm. This program is limited to 12 boats so pre-registration is required and can be done by contacting the center at dykenpond@fairpoint.net or 658-2055. Kayaks can be rented for $10 or you can bring your own. A complete list of programs can be found at: www.dykenpond.org.
Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center, located at 475 Dyken Pond Road, Cropseyville, is a Rensselaer County Park open daily during daylight hours for hiking, fishing and non-motor boating. Canoes and kayaks are available for rent each day from 9 am until 3 pm after May 15.
by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board held a workshop on Saturday, April 26, to consider sharing the Town transfer station with Petersburgh. Grafton Town Supervisor Frank Higgins began the meeting by saying the question before the Board was whether the Town of Grafton would like to make a proposal to the Town of Petersburgh which would allow Petersburgh to use the Grafton transfer station for a fee. The merits of this question were never really discussed at this meeting, which consisted mostly of bickering on ancillary topics.
[Read more…] about Grafton Will Not Share Transfer Station With Petersburgh
by Alex Brooks
A Grafton Town Board meeting scheduled for Saturday morning, April 26, could not be held because Town Clerk Sue Putnam was not present and Deputy Town Clerk Allison Kirchner was not able to attend either. [Read more…] about Grafton Town Board Action – No Clerk, No Meeting
To the Editor:
Let’s start telling the truth in regard to the Grafton playground equipment. Yes, I, a private citizen, contacted the Berlin School Board to see if they would be willing to give the pieces to the Town of Grafton. They requested an official letter from the Town requesting the equipment. At the March Town Board meeting I brought this up to the Board, and they were in agreement. Councilman Crandall called it “a wonderful idea.” The Supervisor turned it over to the Park Committee to handle. Councilwoman Barb Messenger offered to write the letter to the School Board. Prior to the April Town Board meeting I checked with the Town’s insurance agent to see if this would raise the Town’s premium. He informed me that the State has strict rules on playground equipment, how to install it, proper footing around it, the need to inspect and maintain it, etc. The Town most likely would need an engineer to draw up plans for the installation. He also informed me that the insurance company would send a safety inspector to look at the equipment first at NO COST to the Town to give us their opinion. Owning the equipment itself does not raise the premium.
Following up with the School Board I found out Barb never sent the letter. At the April Town Board meeting there was no mention of the playground equipment. I asked for an update and the response by the Supervisor was, “After what I learned from the insurance company, I’m not touching it.”
I did not contact the School Board after that statement. At this point I’m not sure what to even say to them. So where the statement or idea came from that I went around the Town Board and the red tape is TOTALLY FALSE.
Back to the Grafton Town Board, analyze the Supervisor’s statement for yourself and the actions of certain members of the Board. Two councilmen support having the insurance company send its safety inspector to look at the equipment. From there we can put a plan together depending upon his or her findings and whether or not the School Board is willing to allow us to have a few of the pieces.
Please contact your Board members and inform them you want them to start working for the people of this Town instead of working against them!
Cathy Goyer
38 Goyer Way, Petersburgh
All programs are free and open to the public. For more information contact the Library at 518-279-0580 or email director@graftoncommunitylibrary.org. Stay up to date with everything that is happening at the Library by visiting our online events calendar at www.graftoncommunitylibrary.org/whats-happening-at-your-library, and signing up for our email newsletter on our website www.graftoncommunitylibrary.org.
Games Tournament Extravaganza With The Everett Wagar Senior Center
The next game is Wednesday, May 7, at 10 am. It is a Scrabble Tournament at the Library.
Growing Beautiful, Natural Vegetables In Our Mountain Soil
Tips and techniques for growing beautiful, natural vegetables in our mountain soil is on Saturday, May 17, at 10:30 am. Some people say that you can’t grow good vegetables in our rocky soil. Farmers Jonah Vitale-Wolff, Leah Penniman and Capers Rumph would beg to differ. They are the energy behind Grafton’s Soul Fire Farm, a Certified Naturally Grown family farm, community resource and vessel for education that provides vegetables to over 40 families each season from their 2 acres through their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. In this free, interactive presentation they will tell us about their farm and let us in on the secrets of growing abundant, natural vegetables comparable to top quality local produce without any chemical input. Bring your questions!
The Bison
Storyteller Gil Payette presents The Bison in Native American Culture on Friday, May 23, at 6:30 pm. Payette will be back for his ongoing series on Native American culture and folkways. This month we will learn about the American bison and learn some of the traditional uses of the buffalo by Native Americans. Know the difference between the bison and the buffalo, but no matter what the name, this was Tatanka to the Sioux Nation of the Great Plains. Tatanka represents sacredness, life, great strength, abundance and gratitude. Every aspect of Indian life on the Great Plains was touched by the buffalo for which they were most grateful and respectful.
Book Discussion Group
The book discussion group will meet Wednesday, May 28, at 12:30 pm. New participants are always welcome. May’s book selection is Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings. “Wide in scope, ambitious and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the ways class, power, art, money, success and friendship can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a life.” Check the Book Discussion Group page on our website for more details.
Weekly Storytimes For Preschool-Aged Children
• Thursday, May 8, at 4 pm. (Special singalong storytime.)
• Wednesday, May 1, at10:30 am.
• Thursday, May 22, at 4 pm.
• Wednesday, May 28, at10:30 am.
• Thursday, May 29, at 4 pm -Nature Tales Storytime with special guests from Grafton Lakes State Park.
Game Day
Come to the Library on Tuesdays at 3:30 pm to play your favorite board games with friends: Scrabble, Bananagrams, Scattergories, and more. Use the Library’s games or bring your own.
Sit And Knit Needle Arts Group
Come share your love of all the needle arts on Saturdays at 10 am. There will be knitting, stitching, crocheting and more. All skill levels and abilities are welcome.
Grafton – Clifford A. “Cliff” Gundrum, 73, passed away peacefully at his home on April 29, 2014, surrounded by his loving family.
The Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center is offering a home-school series this spring for students of all ages every Wednesday for six weeks beginning May 7 running until June 11. Each Wednesday program will offer a different theme and will run from 1 to 3 pm. These science based programs will teach students about tree identification, gardening, wildlife studies and general ecology. There is a $5 per student fee or $15 per family. A complete list of programs can be found at www.dykenpond.org. Pre-registration is required and can be done by contacting the Center at dykenpond@fairpoint.net or 518-658-2055.
Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center, located at 475 Dyken Pond Road, Cropseyville, is a Rensselaer County Park open daily during daylight hours for hiking, fishing and non-motor boating. Canoes and kayaks are available for rent each day after May 15 from 9 am until 3 pm. Call for more information and a complete schedule of our events.
by Kieron Kramer
The five Grafton Planning Board members did their duty showing up for the Board meeting on Monday night even though there was nothing on the agenda. The meeting started three minutes late because, as one Board member, who will remain unnamed, put it, the secretary is “tardy.” Before the meeting, the Board members chit-chatted about various issues – like whether it would snow this week. Tardy or not, the secretary, the indomitable Jessica Crandall, arrived and the meeting began. It was adjourned one minute after the Pledge of Allegiance. It only took the Board 20 seconds to read the minutes of the last meeting and approve them since nothing happened last month either. One would expect some action at the April meeting of the Planning Board – a site plan review, an informal discussion about a subdivision – since planning ahead for spring and summer projects usually begins now. Perhaps the public hasn’t recovered from the long, harsh winter, and thoughts have not yet turned to spring.
The site plan review for the upgrade of the antenna on the AT&T tower at 38 Radio Tower Way was tentatively on the agenda. Radio Tower Way runs off of Snyder Road. AT&T wants to place three new antennas on the tower to upgrade the signal to 4G LTE. For the third month in a row the attorney for AT&T informed Planning Board Chairman Tom Withcuskey that the application is still not ready. The site plan review is again being postponed, until the next Planning Board meeting on May 19.
One bit of news that Withcuskey did announce is that the NYS DEC has responded to Grafton’s request to be the lead agency in the environmental review process for the change of use at the R.J. Valente mine on Route 2 near the Brunswick Town line. The DEC has named itself as lead agency. This is not a surprise to those who follow the mining of greywacke on the Rensselaer Plateau. The State agency is interested in promoting operations that mine greywacke because greywacke is used as an important underlayment in road construction across the State. Greywacke, a resistant sandstone, comprises much of the bedrock of the 105,000 acres of the forested Rensselaer plateau. (See http://rensselaerplateau.org/RensselaerPlateau/History.aspx for a discussion of greywacke on the plateau.) It is one of the main products of the R.J. Valente mine in Grafton.
Withcuskey read the decision from the DEC before this meeting and said that the decision gives Grafton a large say in the scoping of the project. He is pleased by this. Once the DEC finishes its environmental review – which Withcuskey described as a stack of documents a foot high – the Planning Board will begin the site plan review, if R.J. Valente applies for one, which will include a scoping meeting in which the public can respond to the environmental impact statement prepared by the DEC. This will be followed by a public hearing.
The original mining permit issued by the Grafton Planning Board in April of 1996 had a number of stipulations – some of which have been belatedly met and others not, according to Withcuskey. Stipulations included base line water testing, that blasting would be conducted under State regulations, that mining activities would be coordinated with school bus schedules and only operate during certain agreed upon hours, that quarry inspections would be allowed and that 500 tons of processed material and $2,500 each year for ten years would be provided to the Town. When the current Planning Board considers the new site plan review after the hearings it may decide to approve the site plan contingent on all of the previous stipulations being met, which Withcuskey said were court ordered, and it may require more stipulations – the most important to the Board being keeping Route 2 clear of dust and stone that could cause an accident.
