The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Earth Day At Dyken Pond

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The Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center is celebrating Earth Day on April 27 from 1 to 4 pm. Help us give back to the earth by doing trail maintenance and other outdoor work. Snacks and drinks will be provided to all volunteers. Pre-registration is encouraged to help with planning and can be done by contacting the Center at dykenpond@fairpoint.net or 518-658-2055. 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. Call for more information and a complete schedule of our events.

Celebrate Spring And Order Your Trees

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The Rensselaer County Soil & Water Conservation District wants to help you celebrate Spring by planting a tree. The weather is finally breaking and the snow is going. Now is the time to plan for your spring plantings.

The Conservation District’s Annual Spring Arbor Green Tree and Shrub Program offers inexpensive bare-root stock for conservation plantings, wildlife habitat improvement, erosion control, Christmas trees, nature education and landscaping your environment. Trees available this year include Colorado blue spruce, redbud, Frasier fir, Norway spruce, Austrian pine, arborvitae (white cedar), white birch and more. Shrubs include American cranberry, high bush blueberry, red raspberries, lilac, forsythia, rose of Sharon and more! New this year are peach trees.

To get an order blank, call the Conservation District at 518-271-1740 or visit the Conservation Field Office at 61 State Street in Troy. Our Ag & Life Sciences Building is located just north of the Department of Motor Vehicles. You may also download an order blank by going to the Rensselaer County website, which is www.rensco.com, and follow the link to the “How To!…” box on the left hand side of the page, scroll down to the 43rd Annual Arbor Green Tree & Shrub Sale link, click and print it out.

Return your order and payment by May 2. Distribution will be Saturday, May 10, from 9 am to 12 noon at the Questar (BOCES) Center on Industrial Park Road in South Troy.

This program supports Soil & Water Conservation Programs in the County. You need not be a resident of Rensselaer County to participate in this program.

Daniel E. Williams

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Hoosick – Daniel E. “Bulldog” Williams, 51, passed away on Saturday, April 12, 2014, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy, NY. He had resided on Mountain View Way in Hoosick, NY, with his wife Kim (Mumley) Williams.

Born on April 3, 1963, in Bennington, VT, Dan was the son of Duane and Sally (Jones) Williams. He was educated at Hoosick Falls Central School. Dan was employed at Saint-Gobain in Hoosick Falls, NY, and as a school bus driver for Hoosick Falls Central School. He enjoyed the outdoors and was avid hunter, fisherman and archer. He also enjoyed playing golf.

Survivors, other than his wife Kim and parents Duane and Sally, include his children, Robert “RJ” Ruggles of Hoosick Falls and Stephanie Senecal and husband Eric of Bennington, his sister, Holly Grogan and husband Gary, and his brother, Matt Williams, both of Hoosick Falls, his grandson, Landon Senecal, and his nephews, Dillon and Blake Grogan.

Funeral services were Wednesday, April 16, at 11 am from the Mahar Funeral Home, 43 Main Street, Hoosick Falls, NY, 12090. Burial will be at the convenience of the family. Relatives and friends called at the funeral home on Tuesday from 4 to 7 pm. Memorial contributions may be made to the Rensselaer County Community Hospice through the funeral home.

The Life Of George Holcomb – Working On The Cheese House

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Wednesday, March 30, 1831: This morning I borrowed E. Pierce’s cheese press of Harry Wheeler to pattern after, and then I drew two loads of rails off the hill and it was quite a rainy day.

Thursday: This forenoon F. Buten came and sawed out the timber for my two cheese presses. This afternoon I went to Brother Wm to have him come and get measure to make irons to my cheese presses.

Friday, April 1: Today we tended to trying getting a cow up, she got cast calving.  I went and got Mr. Harry Wheeler to tend to said cow and other neighbors. I borrowed Barnum Clark’s ox slings, but we could not get said cow to stand. I got trusted to Henry Platt’s store 30 cts for cheese press rope.  Today said Buten and brother Sylvester worked for me at my cheese presses. At night I walked to Simeon Wylie’s to get him to turn me four pulley blocks for my cheese press.

Saturday: Today F. Buten and his hired man worked for me at my cheese presses. We tended to our cow today a-nursing her.

Sunday: On this evening I took the single wagon and went to Hancock on the Car Briggs farm after Cynthia Gardner to work for us. She came, she was contented as we were satisfied.

Monday: I tended to my lame cow and underpinned my cheese house. Today some rainy.

Thursday, April 7: I wagoned one load of boards home from E. Goodrich’s sawmill.  Today noon I bargained with Sylvester Swan to live with me one year and I am to school him four days in each week for four months, and I am to let him have July and August to work for himself and I am to pay him 20 dollars.

Saturday, April 9, 1831: I carried Brother Sylvester work bench to him. He moved out of my house on the sixth of the month into Henry Stanton’s house up Goodrich Hollow in Hancock

Sunday: I paid Cynthia Gardner for her week’s work 75 cts and I sent a boy home with her. On this day I walked up to  cousin Samuel Holcomb and I called up to Mr. Watson’s to see if I could hire a girl but I could not.  I called to Mr Dabolls to see if I could hire a girl but the Griffin girl was not there

Wednesday: This forenoon Peres Swan came to my house and took breakfast with us and then he helped make a windlass, and we sewed two bags together and we slung up our lame cow, but she could not stand, and we let her down again. I told said P. Swan the bargain I made with his son Sylvester and he consented to it and told me that I must pay him one-half of the boy’s wages.

Friday: Today we tried to raise our cow by digging a pit and a windlass but to no use.  This evening I went to my Rodgers barn to tend to my cows that was calving, and I called to Mr. Newton, he is failing fast.

The Village Of Hoosick Falls Adopts Budget With .5% Tax Increase

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by Bea Peterson

In addressing those attending the Village of Hoosick Falls Board meeting on Tuesday, April 8, Mayor David Borge said, “The 2014-2015 budget is a lean budget, but it is a fair budget.” He said, though details are not available, the Village, the Town and the County and the Associations of Towns and Counties are looking at ways to share services as a means to reduce costs. [Read more…] about The Village Of Hoosick Falls Adopts Budget With .5% Tax Increase

Berlin’s Elm Street Bridge Replacement Ready To Go

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by Kieron Kramer

Four resolutions relating to the project for the replacement of the bridge on County Road 38, Elm Street in Berlin, over the Little Hoosic River were passed unanimously at the regular meeting of the Rensselaer County Legislature on Tuesday. The bridge replacement is eligible for funding that calls for the apportionment of the costs to be borne at the ratio of eighty percent in Federal funds and twenty percent in non-Federal funds, in this case State funds. The appropriation for this project was authorized by the Legislature in 2011. Three of the resolutions Tuesday authorized payment for the work on the project, and one resolution authorized the arrangement for reimbursement to the County by the Town of Berlin for the substitution of a 10 inch water main across the bridge to replace the 6 inch main. Construction is expected to begin this June.

[Read more…] about Berlin’s Elm Street Bridge Replacement Ready To Go

New Lebanon Town Board Hears Defense Of School District

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by Thaddeus Flint

The monthly Board meeting at the Town Hall in New Lebanon was standing room only Tuesday night as a large group from New Lebanon High School came to defend their school’s reputation from what they felt were “outrageous rumors and comments” concerning the students of that District and heroin use.

[Read more…] about New Lebanon Town Board Hears Defense Of School District

Hoosick Falls Fire Department Open House

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by Bea Peterson

Imagine your house was on fire and there were no volunteer firefighters to put out the flames and the fire spread throughout the neighborhood. Imagine you were in an accident, trapped in your car and there were no volunteer firefighters with the Jaws of Life to get you out of that car. In many places, including Hoosick Falls, it is getting more difficult to recruit volunteers for the Fire Department and the nearby Town of Hoosick Rescue Squad all the time. Volunteers make a gigantic difference. What would happen if the Town and/or Village had to have paid Rescue and Fire personnel? What would taxes be then?

[Read more…] about Hoosick Falls Fire Department Open House

Hoffman Found Guilty In Baker Death

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by Thaddeus Flint

The jury in the trial of Brendan Hoffman, the 22 year old Stephentown man accused of manslaughter and homicide charges, as well as leaving the scene of a 2012 accident, found Hoffman guilty on 12 counts last Friday.

The guilty charges include vehicular manslaughter and homicide. Three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count of reckless driving were dismissed by Judge Debra Young due to a lack of evidence.

[Read more…] about Hoffman Found Guilty In Baker Death