The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

New Lebanon

LVPA Ambulance Leaves Fire Dept.

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by Phillip Zema
New Lebanon’s volunteer ambulance service will no longer be part of the Town’s fire department. Both the ambulance service and fire department belong to the Lebanon Valley Protection Agency, which is a volunteer organization. But a current NYS Department of Health regulation claims that volunteer agencies cannot bill for their services. Accordingly, the LVPA’s ambulance service cannot bill health insurance companies, no matter how expensive the cost of transporting patients. Up to now, these bills accounted for roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of its revenue. The ambulance service, consequently, cannot function without these funds.
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Bob Dwyer To Present Updated Funeral Information

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On Friday, April 23, the Seniors’ Ministry of Immaculate Conception/St. Joseph Parish, New Lebanon, will host its regular monthly get-together at 11:30 am. This month, funeral director and parishioner, Bob Dwyer, will explain some of the more recent changes in the Catholic funeral Mass and burial service, including cremation rites. He will also discuss regulatory issues, such as embalming, transporting the deceased person across state lines and local requirements for burial vaults. [Read more…] about Bob Dwyer To Present Updated Funeral Information

New Lebanon Board Questions Financial Report

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by Phillip Zema
The New Lebanon Town Board meeting began with a disagreement over Supervisor Meg Robertson’s Town financial report. The report summarizes the Town’s revenue and expenses, but Councilman Doug Clark was concerned that it inaccurately portrayed New Lebanon’s economic condition because the Town may be liable to pay $1.4m to close a local landfill. Unless Columbia County is persuaded or forced to assume responsibility, the Town will be held accountable. If so, residents’ taxes will skyrocket. Clark believes that the report is misleading and should have included this potential liability.
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Consuming Locally Grown Food Is The Subject Of Earth Day Reading

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Celebrate Earth Day at the New Lebanon Library with author Amy Cotler. On April 22 at 7 pm Cotler will read from  and discuss her book The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Foods, a hands-on guide to becoming someone who seeks out and savors local foods. Following the discussion, Cotler will sign copies of her book. Light, locally grown refreshments will follow.
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New Lebanon Book Group Meetings

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The New Lebanon Book Group has selected Little Bee by Chris Cleave for its next discussions. The book, which follows the aftermath of a horrific encounter experienced by a young teenager and a British magazine editor on a beach in Nigeria, will be discussed twice – on Sunday, April 18, at 11 am at Hitchcock House B & B on Route 22 in New Lebanon and again on Thursday, May 6, at 7 pm at the New Lebanon Library, 550 Route 20 in New Lebanon.
Recommended by the Library Journal for all libraries and book clubs, Little Bee is filled with humor, dramatic tension and moral dilemmas that provide much fodder for discussion. Prize winning author Chris Cleave was short-listed for the prestigious Costa Award for Best Novel for Little Bee.
For more information about the New Lebanon Book Group, contact Jeannie Bognino at the New Lebanon Library, 518-794-8844 or leb@taconic.net, Sandy Hamer at hamerpr@taconic.net or Mary Trev Thomas at marytrev@yahoo.net.

Tsatsawassa Fire Co. Breakfast

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The Tsatsawassa Protective Fire Company will offer its monthly breakfast on Sunday, April 18, at the fire house with servings from 8 am until noon. Breakfast consists of your choice of French toast or pancakes as well as bacon or sausage, toast, orange juice, applesauce and eggs prepared to your specifications.
The fire house is located behind the post office near the intersection of Routes 20 and 66 north in the hamlet of Brainard. For more information, call 766-3815.

The Pillars Restaurant Looking To Reach Out To Community

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by Phillip Zema
The building that became the Pillars Restaurant was built in 1834, where it served as a carriage house to a local estate in New Lebanon. Its décor included mahogany and cherry floors, stone chimneys, Tiffany lamps and rococo ceiling designs. In 1931 the building was converted into a roadhouse; during Prohibition, it functioned as a speakeasy and gambling joint. The operation was shut down by authorities eight years later. When the main house was destroyed by fire in 1974, the carriage house was converted into a restaurant; it has been so ever since.
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A Celebration Of Life For Elizabeth S. “Betts” Miller

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New Lebanon – Elizabeth “Betts” Steele Miller, 82, of  New Lebanon, NY,  died on Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at Fairview Commons Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Great Barrington, MA, after a hip fracture in October of 2008 and resulting long illness.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, April 10, at 11am in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Route 20, New Lebanon. Relatives and friends are invited to the Church to greet the family starting  at 10 am.  Private interment will take place in the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National  Cemetery.  Donations in Betts’ memory  (in lieu of flowers)  may be made to the Rett Syndrome Research Trust, the  International Rett Syndrome Foundation or the Hospice Care in the Berkshires in care of Hall & Higgins Funeral Home, P.O. Box 9, Stephentown, NY,  12168.

Meeting On Rensselaer Plateau Legacy Area Is Packed

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by David Flint
DEC officials are convinced that designating the Rensselaer Plateau as a Forest Legacy Area would make good environmental and economic sense. Representatives from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) presented their proposal Before a packed audience of about 150 people at Tamarac School last Wednesday, March 24. Not all in the audience were likewise convinced, however.
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