May business mixer, May 24

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

COEYMANS — Republican Highway Superintendent Daniel Baker and Democratic candidate Peter DeLuke will compete in the Nov. 8 election for the top spot in the town’s highway department.

Baker was appointed to the post by the town council in March after former superintendent Scott Searles retired. He and DeLuke are running to complete Searles’ three-year term.

Candidates are presented in alphabetical order.

DANIEL BAKER

Baker has lived in the community all his life, he said.

“I have been a lifelong resident here in the town of Coeymans and the village of Ravena,” he said. “I was born and raised in Alcove, New York, and went to school here. I’m currently married, my wife is an RN (registered nurse) case manager at Sunnyview Hospital in Schenectady. We have two children, a daughter who is 14 and a son who is 11. Both attend the Ravena school district.”

Baker is a former member of the Coeymans Town Council and stepped down from that position in March when he was appointed highway superintendent upon Searles’ retirement. He still holds the appointed post of deputy town supervisor; it is not mandatory that the deputy town supervisor be a member of the town board.

He has worked his entire career in manufacturing and maintenance, he said.

“I was at Lafarge for 20 years,” Baker said. “I was a millwright, then transitioned over to maintenance supervisor. I was in pharmaceutical maintenance for a while, and I was also in mattress manufacturing for a while.”

Baker said one of the issues the town faces is local truck traffic on Main Street, which has increased substantially over the past few years.

“Lafarge is trying to make an access road come out on Route 101 to try to limit some of the traffic coming through town, and I really think that’s what is needed to really get some of the businesses and make it a little more walkable and friendly as far as the Main Street corridor is concerned,” he said.

High fuel prices and inflation also pose a challenge for the department and the next superintendent will have to manage spending and rising costs, he said.

“The increase in diesel fuel and the increase in gasoline, the overall increase and sometimes the availability of parts can present challenging situations for the highway group,” he said. “Things break all the time. We are doing a lot of work, we are cleaning a lot of roads, so we have to be mindful of what we do, how we do it and how we spend.”

Baker said he supports the proposal to build a new town hall to replace the one at 18 Russell Ave., which will be a referendum on the ballot in November.

“The building is aging — it’s no secret. It’s got to be 80-plus years old,” Baker said. “The infrastructure is aging as well. We replaced the heating, we replaced the air conditioning. Everybody knows that the steps out front are in very poor shape. We put some money into them to try to keep them going. Everything that we do here we feel that we are putting good money into an old building.”

There is a lack of sufficient space and mold has been found in the current town hall as well, he said.

“I believe it’s time,” he added. “We’ve had some public input. People are very concerned and we take the concern very seriously about the cost. We don’t know what the future is going to bring, we don’t know if the prices are ever going to come back down. But the building is very rough, the building is aged, and we want something that we can be proud of for the town of Coeymans and for the people.”

PETER DELUKE

Pete DeLuke will be the Democratic candidate on the ballot seeking the highway superintendent’s post. He currently works for the New York State Department of Transportation.

“I have been living in the town and village for about 40 years now,” DeLuke said. “I have worked in both the public and private sectors for contractors, highways, and I am currently working for the New York state DOT. I would like to help out the community as well in a field that I love, which would be road construction, and go from there.”

Among the challenges he sees facing the community is improving communication and getting different groups in the town to work together.

“Some of the challenges that I see in the town structure is instead of everybody being able to communicate and get their thoughts out and work with one another, it seems to be a little one-way,” DeLuke said. “You are not going to be able to appease everybody and you’re not going to be able to make everybody happy, you’re going to make some people upset, but we need to work together as a team and find the best solutions for everything, not just let one or multiple people control the whole environment.”

If elected, DeLuke promises to do what is in the best interests of the town.

“I would be willing to work hard for our community in all aspects and no matter what administration, as far as the board or town supervisor, I would be willing to work hard and strong with them financially, fiscally and every which way,” DeLuke said. “I wouldn’t just do what they asked, I would do what is in the best interests of the town and the community and put safety first and work for the people, not just the board.”

On the proposal to build a new town hall, DeLuke said he opposes the $7 million price tag under the current proposal. The details that have been released by the town council are scant, he added.

“It would be nice to have a new facility for the town hall for people to go to for whatever needs they may have, but $7 million without having a blueprint to go by with what’s inside it and how it’s designed and what is the $7 million, there are other buildings locally going up that are recently built and when you say it’s going to cost three times as much, the question is, why?” he said. “I would like to see a new building in the future, but one that the town can afford.”

Watch the full video interview with Daniel Baker and Peter DeLuke on TheUpstater.com.

Election Day will be Nov. 8.

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

COEYMANS — GE announced Thursday that it has submitted plans to build two new manufacturing facilities at the Port of Coeymans.

The company would move forward with the plans for offshore wind manufacturing facilities if it receives a sufficient volume of orders to support the project, according to a statement from GE.

“To support localized content and New York’s vision to become the nation’s offshore wind manufacturing hub, GE proposed building the factories with Carver Companies at their Port of Coeymans site,” according to the statement. “These cutting-edge factories are designed to advance New York as the foundation of a clean-energy economy while supporting the local community through durable jobs and positive economic impact.”

The project would bring nearly 900 permanent jobs to Coeymans.

One of the two facilities would build wind turbine blades, creating approximately 650 jobs, according to the company, and the second manufacturing facility would produce nacelles, units that house the generating components of a wind turbine, which would create around 220 permanent jobs.

If the two facilities are built, they would also create nearly 1,000 construction jobs.

The project would generate millions of dollars of related economic benefits, according to GE.

“As a leading manufacturer and innovator in developing renewable energy technology, GE is ideally positioned to help New York secure its vision of becoming a leading manufacturing hub for offshore wind technology,” said Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, the company’s portfolio of energy businesses. “Our proposal leverages GE’s unique and unparalleled expertise, resources and track record — including a 130-year legacy of manufacturing in New York — to make this vision a reality in a durable and sustainable way.”

Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh said he has been in contact with the Port of Coeymans and was pleased with the company’s plans.

“It’s all very exciting for Coeymans and we welcome the jobs and green economic development,” McHugh said.

GE’s proposal commits to hire and train new employees from areas that are economically disadvantaged.

“For example, the company will launch an outreach program called Pathways to Wind to provide historically underserved communities exposure, education and training in the emerging offshore wind industry,” according to GE.

The company will work with 24 educational institutions to implement training to draw workers to the Port, including Schenectady County Community College and SEAT — the Social Enterprise and Training Center — and is collaborating with other agencies to enhance diversity as it works to staff the two new facilities.

McHugh said at the Jan. 26 meeting of the town board that he has voiced support for several companies seeking to build offshore wind facilities in the town in response to the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, call for offshore wind proposals.

“I wrote several letters of support as the town supervisor for different applicants that are looking to locate in the Port of Coeymans for the offshore wind initiatives,” McHugh said. “Those applications were all due today and we should hear something in the next 30 to 60 days as to who is getting a part of the $500 million that NYSERDA is awarding to different companies that are competing for the offshore wind work.”

“Coeymans is definitely in the running for several of those,” McHugh added. “It should be very interesting.”

Thursday was the deadline for manufacturers to submit their proposals to NYSERDA, so more offshore wind projects could be headed to the area.

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-20, said he welcomed the proposals and the economic development they would bring with them.

“With the completion of New York’s third request for offshore wind projects, I am heartened to see that multiple developers include Capital Region manufacturing projects in their proposals that could bring hundreds of good paying, green manufacturing jobs to our region,” Tonko said. “I have always believed in the potential of our region to play a leading role in offshore wind and clean-energy development.”