by David Flint
The Berlin School Board continues to wrestle with shaping a capital project that they had hoped to present to the voters in a referendum in December. [Read more…] about BCS Board Wrestles With Capital Project
Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper
by David Flint
The Berlin School Board continues to wrestle with shaping a capital project that they had hoped to present to the voters in a referendum in December. [Read more…] about BCS Board Wrestles With Capital Project
by Alex Brooks
John Bryans, from the CPA firm of Bryans & Gramuglia, gave a presentation of the audit he did of the District’s finances for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. The audit found no problems with the District’s financial practices and no weaknesses in its internal control of its finances. [Read more…] about Audit Report Gives HFCS District Thumbs Up

by Ryan Mosher
In her fourth varsity season on the Berlin Cross Country team, junior Kelsey Demick claimed her third

straight Patroon Conference individual championship as she easily finished ahead of the pack on Tuesday. Behind Demick was Ashley Rokjer, Angie Longhi, Emily Olson, Liz Sheehy and Rachel Thomas. The Lady Mountaineers took second place at the meet, which was good enough to lock up their fourth straight overall conference championship.
For the boys, senior Casey Gilbert,

running his first season of cross country after switching over from soccer, took home the boys’ championship by a very large margin. Cody Blain, RJ Hebert, Connor Hoyt, Alex French, Lew Palmer and Mike Stankus followed Gilbert across the line. The team finished in third place. This weekend the teams run at the Troy Invitational in their final tune-up before next Friday’s Section 2 Championships at SPAC. Both the boys and girls teams will look to challenge for the top spot, as will both Gilbert and Demick, the two-time defending Sectional Champ.
by Gary Danforth
This Friday night, October 24, the Hoosick Falls Central School football team (6-1) will be riding a five game winning streak into their Class C, Section Two quarterfinal match up with visiting Watervliet High School (5-2) at the Route 22 field. Hoosick Falls disposed of Class B size Cobleskill-Richmondville last Friday evening in Cobleskill to the tune of 34-20.
In other Class C action, Schuylerville secured the Class C North division championship for themselves when they thrashed Cambridge 49-23. Cambridge was trying to gain a share of the divisional crown with a win over the Black Horses and with an Indian win a slice of the title would also have been gained by HFCS as all three schools would have ended up with 5-1 divisional marks. After Schuylerville got done trampling the Indians, the Horses ended up 6-0, HFCS ended up 5-1 and Cambridge ended up 4-2 in divisional play. Corinth got the other North division playoff spot. In sectional football play only the top eight teams make the playoff bracket with other schools playing crossover games.
Schuylerville, the top seeded North division team, will face off against fourth seed South division foe Brittonkill-Tamarac Central School. The Bengals ended up 4-3 while Schuylerville is 7-0. The top South seed is Chatham Central School (7-0) who will take on fourth seeded Corinth Central School (4-3) of the North division. Third seeded Cambridge (4-3) in the North division will travel to Fonda-Fultonville (6-1) to take on the Braves, the second seed in the South division.
HFCS will have its hands full with an experienced, senior laden Watervliet team. Watervliet’s only losses to date were to Chatham and Fonda-Fultonville, seeded ahead of the Cannoneers. The Cannoneers knocked Hoosick Falls out of the sectional semi-final in 2002. Watervliet, like HFCS, has a balanced running and passing attack. Hoosick Falls has found ways to win six of their seven games to date with their only loss in week two to Schuylerville. It’s going to take a very good effort on both sides of the ball for Hoosick Falls to beat Watervliet. But playing at home, in front of the home fans, at night, with Watervliet usually playing their home games on Saturday afternoons, may favor HFCS. I like the Panthers to win by a 21-20 margin. But cold, rainy weather on Friday night could hamper the Panthers’ passing game. In other Class C match-ups in sectional quarterfinal action I’ll take Schuylerville over a tough Brittonkill-Tamarac team, Fonda winning over a young, but improving Cambridge squad and Chatham advancing over an upset minded Corinth team, which can score a lot of points but has trouble holding other teams down. The two highest remaining seeds get home games for the sectional semi-finals. Let the games begin as the road to Syracuse’s Carrier Dome starts with first round sectional playoff action.

by Ryan Mosher
The Berlin boys soccer team finished its regular season play on Monday by hosting Lee. The game also served as Senior Night for Coach Art Schmich’s nine seniors. Eric Remington, Nick Maxon, Phil Gilbert, Brent Demick, Fred Morine, Matt Tanner, Jacob Staples, Pat Harrington and John Zwack were all honored following the game.
The game did not go the way these seniors would have liked to wrap up their careers on their home field. The visiting team scored early in the game, taking a 1-0 lead. The Mountaineers fought hard to tie the score but could not seem to get the ball past the Lee goalie. With 8:39 left in the first half, Lee scored again taking a 2-0 lead.

The second half was much of the same for Berlin as they attacked the Lee defense but just could not seem to get off a great shot. The visitors would tack on another goal with 21:10 left in the game, sending the Mountaineers to defeat by a score of 3-0.
Berlin finished the season with an overall record of 10-8 and a 6-6 record in the Central Hudson Valley League. The team received a #6 seed for the Section 2 tournament and travels to play #3 Middleburgh on Friday at 3 pm.
The Berlin girls team received the same fate, a #6 versus #3 seed showdown at Middleburgh, but their game will be played Saturday at 3 pm.


by Gary Danforth
Last Friday night, October 10, on Homecoming evening, Ron Jones’ Hoosick Falls Central School varsity football team won their fourth consecutive Class C, North division game with a convincing 27-15 victory over the Mechanicville Red Raiders. [Read more…] about Panther Football Team Beats Mechanicville 27-15 For Fourth Straight Win

submitted by Marcia Vincent
We have beat New Lebanon twice this year, once on their turf, and once on our own. [Read more…] about BCS Girls Soccer Beats New Lebanon
Dodge, duck, dip, dive and laugh at the Berlin Central Staff Dodge Ball game on Thursday, October 30, at 6:30 pm at the High School. Come cheer for your favorite team. Admission is $2 for students and $3 for adults
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Submitted by GLSP Due to warmer than usual temperatures, the 38th annual ice fishing contest at Grafton Lakes State Park has been rescheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11, from 5:30 am to 2 pm. Join in on the fun as several-hundred anglers brave the cold temperatures for their chance to make a winning catch on several […]
On Tuesday, January 25, Cheney Library honored Ms. Deborah Tudor for her 12 years of service on the Cheney Library Board of Trustees. During her tenure as a trustee, Ms. Tudor made immense contributions to physical improvements of the library’s property. Some of these projects include the installation of a propane fireplace, creation of the […]
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At Inaugural NYSPHSAA Girls Wrestling Invitational Submitted by BNL Varsity Wrestling Coach Wade Prather Tallulah Powers was runner-up at 165 pounds in the inaugural NYSPHSAA Girls Wrestling Invitational held at Onondaga Community College. She was one of only three finalists from Section 2, and the only Runner Up. The meeting of 204 of the State’s top female […]
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