Alplaus Weather

Maximus the Mighty

Thanks Alplaus!

Hi there. If you don’t already know me, my name is Maximus the Mighty – Max for short. I am a new resident to Alplaus, since May 2004. This town is a great place to live, I have enjoyed many long walks over just about every square inch and the folks have been very kind.

I truly love the attention from everyone. Some of you have let me wander into your home even when you weren’t looking. And I appreciate the treats too that I’ve received along the way – especially the biscuits they give out at the Post Office. If I should ever wander into your home unexpectedly, please don’t hesitate to push me right back out. And if I’m hanging out too much upon your property – please don’t hesitate to call my keepers Paul and Kathleen at 399-1626 – as many have already. In case you lose this paper, I always have the number on me. And, my keepers are very appreciative of the folks who have brought me home to Hill St. in a time of worry.

Well, thanks to all of you for being so kind and considerate to me during my many adventures in Alplaus. This town has welcomed me so, that I feel as if you are ALL my keepers.

Best Regards,

What’s inside

On the Hill…………..…….…………….……..2

Alplaus Fire Department Calls - December .2

Alplaus Historical Society…………………....2

Alplaus Fire Department Elections………….3

ARA News…………………………………..…4

Happy New Year……………………......…4

Maple Avenue Development….…………..4

Sewer Update…….……………….…….….4

Trains and More Trains……………….……5

Alplaus Explorer Post 885…………………...5

Ladies Auxiliary………………………….…….6

An Award for Howard Lester…………………7

Community Luncheon…………………….…..7

Samuel's Update…..…………………………..7

On the Hill

A Happy 2005 to one and all! Some (especially Kerry supporters and Yankee Fans, perhaps) are happy just to see 2004 over and done with while others liked the results of elections and sports events in the year past. We'll take no sides, but the world has rolled around the sun once more and we have a symbolic clean slate before us. Let us resolve to do more with the opportunities it presents to us than we accomplished last year.

For Alplaus, the big issues of sewers, traffic, and development pressure are sure to keep us busy - they already are a big part of this month's HTN. It will be well to remember that the pressure of more intense development such as is proposed for Maple Avenue and by the owner of land along the river, are the logical outcome of the sewer expansion we wanted for our area. In other words, we can't expect to stop more development, but rather need to make sure that it is done in a way that is best for all concerned.

We have the Home Town News back on-line at: ww.alplaus.org with the help of Garry Fisher and Bruce Marsh, our old Alplaus friend, now in the Carolinas. Please let me know if you have any difficulties with accessing the on-line copies of HTN.

……AWH

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Alplaus Fire Department Calls for December 2004


Date	Alarm Time	Incident #	Call Type	Location	# Fire Fighters	Fire Fighter-Hrs
05 DEC 2004	10:27	000150	Medical Emergency	Alplaus Avenue	10	4.2
07 DEC 2004	12:24	000151	Medical Emergency	St. Anthony Lane	5	2.0
09 DEC 2004	08:37	000152	Medical Emergency	Mountainwood Drive	4	1.5
12 DEC 2004	19:17	000153	Medical Emergency	Maplewood Drive	8	2.3
13 DEC 2004	12:46	000154	Medical Emergency	Maple Avenue	6	3.5
14 DEC 2004	21:18	000155	Medical Emergency	Glenridge Road	9	3.2
16 DEC 2004	09:59	000156	Medical Emergency	Glenridge Road	4	log
16 DEC 2004	11:45	000157	Medical Emergency	Glenridge Road	5	1.4
18 DEC 2004	21:12	000158	Other Emergency	Hetcheltown Road	8	2.4
19 DEC 2004	08:51	000159	Medical Emergency	Woodhaven Drive	10	5.0
19 DEC 2004	16:07	000160	Medical Emergency	Vallywood Drive	9	4.1
19 DEC 2004	17:28	000161	Other Emergency	Glenwood Road	8	1.7
23 DEC 2004	05:39	000162	Vehicle Accident	Maple Avenue	8	5.E
23 DEC 2004	08:23	000163	Vehicle Accident	Bruce Drive	8	4.7
25 DEC 2004	13:40	000164	Medical Emergency	Woodcrest Drive	13	5.2
28 DEC 2004	21:43	000165	Medical Emergency	Bruce Drive	5
29 DEC 2004	05:02	000166	Medical Emergency	Riverside Place	8
30 DEC 2004	09:30	000167	Other Emergency	Mohawk river	7	17.0

Alplaus Fire Department Elections

Each December the Alplaus Fire Company elects its officers for the coming year. Those elected to serve in 2005 are:

Firemanic Officers

Chief: Andrew Coppola

1^st Assistant Chief: Kurt Haushalter

2^nd assistant Chief: Steve Gabris

Captain: Jim Majewski

Captain of Fire Police: Mike Cuoco

Lieutenant: Mike Sheppeck

Lieutenant: Chris Sparano

Social Officers

President: Tom Kiernan

Vice President: Andimo Coppola

Recording Secretary: Dave Tucci

Corresponding Secretary: Robert Culver

Financial Secretary: Carl Nappi, Jr.

Statistical Secretary: Jim Palmer

Treasurer: Joe Beaver

Trustee for 3 years: Robert Culver

Historian: Robert Culver

In the annual election for Fire Commissioner, the residents of Glenville Fire District 2 elected Chris Williams to a five-year term. He joins Don Cartwright, Art Harris, Joan Mullins, and Mike Sheppeck on the board.

Happy New Year! Another peaceful holiday season in Alplaus has come and gone, with the tree lighting for kids of all ages, the luminaries lighting our streets on Christmas Eve, and plenty of opportunities for neighbors to wish each other well. Whatever winter holidays you celebrate, I hope that you are enjoying life in Alplaus this season. Now all we need is a little snow! Thanks to Gray Watkins and Mike Sheppeck for organizing the tree lighting and to Mark Quinn for once again providing musical entertainment.

Maple Avenue Development. As many of you may have read in the Gazette, the town board meeting on Wednesday, December 15^th showed that many local residents are concerned about the proposed development of 52 townhouses just off of Maple Avenue. The biggest concern at this point seems to be the increase in traffic along that corridor, which is already quite busy, especially at rush hour. Other people questioned the appropriateness of townhouses in what is primarily a single-family home area.

Here is some additional information:

Chris Myers of Concord Development (also developed the Parker Inn in downtown Schenectady and has just announced Aqueduct Heights, a development of single-family homes in Schenectady, in case his name is familiar) presented the project.

Homes clustered in 2, 3, and 4 units will be 2 stories each and will be priced at $175,000-$200,000. The target market is "empty-nesters" and young professionals without children, although I believe that many Niskayuna parents who are currently renting would be very interested in purchasing affordable housing within the Niskayuna school district.

Glenville town planner Kevin Corcoran confirmed that the two parcels for which Concord is requesting a zoning change (there are 5 parcels altogether and 3 are already zoned multi-family) from suburban residential to multi-family were supposed to have been changed to multi-family and haven't yet been changed only due to an oversight.

Impact on wetlands is less than 1/2 acre, which is within Army Corps of Engineers guidelines and they've already had the Corps do an unofficial walkthrough. Myers claims that he is preserving 75% green space with the project, much more than he needs to, according to him.

Roads will be privately owned by the development and will not be turned over to the Town of Glenville, ostensibly minimizing impact on town services, although of course water and sewer and police protection would still be provided.

Entrance would be located approximately 200 yards south of Alplaus Avenue. Town board member Mark Quinn expressed great concern with this plan as he described the Alplaus Avenue intersection as already being "dysfunctional."

Myers' transportation consultant, Mark Gregory of Transportation Concepts in Schenectady, did an estimate of impact on traffic. He thought that there would be only 32 exits and entrances in the morning and 38 in the evening as a result of the development. He would not recommend a traffic light at the intersection or at Alplaus Avenue. In fact, he said he thought it would be illegal for the county to operate a light at Alplaus and Maple Avenue, an opinion at odds with what we've been told by the county and something on which Clarence Mosher questioned him sharply. Board member Bob Bailey and others (myself included) were skeptical of Gregory's estimates and his assessments about the impact on traffic.

If you have opinions about the proposed development, Supervisor Clarence Mosher encourages you to share them with him and the Town Board. Call him at 688-1201.

I'll keep you up-to-date if I get any additional information. Please let me know if you have any additional information that I should share.

Sewer Update. There’s no news to report on this front, except to confirm that we will have a meeting to answer resident questions about what comes next. The timing of the meeting will depend on when we hear back from the state comptroller’s office. I’ve also asked the town to plan to mail a letter after we have comptroller approval to outline expected homeowner costs and homeowner responsibilities.

(cont'd next page)

Trains and More Trains. I mentioned this last month, but wanted to remind residents to keep track of when and for how long they are stopped by trains crossing Alplaus Avenue. I know many of you are not only inconvenienced by long trains stopping traffic, you’re also concerned about the safety of traffic backed up onto Maple Avenue. In order to talk with the town and possibly the train companies about this, I’d like to have some data and I need your help.

Keep a piece of paper and a pencil in your car. Any time you are stopped by a train, write down the date, time of day, how long you have to wait, and whether or not traffic is backed up on Maple Avenue. Keep track until the end of January, then e-mail me with the results, or drop them off at the post office and include your name and phone number. If you have non-Alplaus friends who drive through here frequently, ask them to do the same thing. I’ll use what you gather to talk to town officials.

Barb Casey

399-5714

bcasey@skidmore.edu

Samuel's Update

by Cherie Vedder

Earlier in December we reached a major milestone in our work at Samuel's when we received a commitment for the final funding needed to get the doors open and the business running.

After nearly 5 years we are finally able to announce March 1st as an opening date!!

Back in the spring of 2000, when Samuel Teague offered to buy the building for us and fund the renovations, none of us ever imagined a five year process. His death only weeks after the closing left us with a building in desperate need of major renovations, a really great vision, and zero funding for the project. Despite the nay say-ers that counseled us to let the vision die along with Sam, we forged ahead.

Dollar by dollar, hour by hour, a remarkable team of folks, nearly all of them working full time at other jobs and helping us on the side, have:

Rebuilt the roof, %50 of the floor and roof joists, all the interior walls, the entire back half of the building, installed all new plumbing, electrical wiring, insulation, roofing, windows, siding, flooring, and heating.

The list of folks who have stood in the gap over these years with their funds and hands would fill a few pages of the Home Town News and perhaps we might have a chance to do that, but for now we would like to mention again the people from Alplaus who sacrificed their time and their talents to serve however they were needed over these last few years:

Paul Cassella of Immanuel Electric for all of the electrical work; Pete Collison of Affordable Energy for our insulation; Len Gower of Gower Construction for the structural framing and some of the roofing; Rick Vedder for just about everything and all of the heating; Betty & Bill Vedder for more coffee and muffins on more mornings than we can count; Sheri McGovern for not giving up on us and keeping a vision for the interior design; Craig Williams (OK so he lives just over the line in Rexford) for the siding; Tom Culver of Hollenbeck Paving for the beautiful new parking lot, Dave and Kate Humphries for much of the interior painting; Dick Flanders (honorary Alplaus-ian) for much of the structural work and almost all of the finish carpentry; Bruce Jackson, (former Alplaus-ian) for believing in our vision, hosting our steering committee meetings every week and his constant support and assistance in gathering resources; Lorie Esposito for her participation as a steering committee member and other support activities, Andrei Squires for just about every job that no one else wanted to do, (the dirty work) Kim Sheely and Kathy McGarry and Lorie Esposito for the flowers; Tom Donlon for our beautiful sign and finally, all of the Alplaus kids, that can not even be counted, with their endless energy and appetites for the demolition and reconstruction.

A most humble thank you to you all!

EDITOR/PUBLISHER Art Harris REPORTER ????????????

HTN web address: www.alplaus.org

HOME TOWN NEWS

ALPLAUS, NEW YORK 12008

January 2005 Vol. 129 No. 1 ____________________________________________________________________________

Alplaus Historical Society

THOMAS H. CULVER 399-5557

BLACKTOP

E. GRAY WATKINS

I would like to thank all those in the fire service and the community that have supported us in our efforts, and I wish all of you a happy and fulfilling New Year.