Police blotter

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

SELKIRK — Callanan Industries got its start at a quarry in Selkirk and 140 years later has grown to include sites across much of upstate New York, from Ulster to Madison counties.

The company celebrated its 140th anniversary with an open house Saturday and invited the community to come celebrate with them.

“The company was started by Peter Callanan in 1883. Callanan got the very first macadam road contract in New York state back in the early days,” President Don Fane said. “The company has grown tremendously.”

The original Selkirk quarry, which lies on the borders of Coeymans and South Bethlehem, remains the company’s flagship location and employs hundreds of workers.

“We employ, depending on the season, anywhere from between 450 and 500 employees a year,” Fane said. “We have seven paving crews and we have around 45-50 Teamsters delivering ready-mix concrete, aggregates (stone), asphalt and/or TACK, which is the liquid that goes below the pavement. We have six distributor trucks and 13 asphalt plants.”

The company has changed ownership several times over the years, but retains its local history, he said.

“We are very proud of being from this area and for growing so much over the years,” Fane said.

At the open house Saturday, visitors could take tours of the quarry in a bus to learn the history of the site and how the products are processed. There were exhibits about the company’s operations, including the products it mines and produces, and its sustainability efforts, as well as children’s stations and displays of heavy equipment used at the site.

Callanan mines about 1 million tons of aggregates, or stone, each year and processes it into materials that are used to produce asphalt, cement and other products that are used in constructing roads, buildings, sidewalks and for other uses.

Assistant Quarry Manager Sean Mooney took visitors on a tour of the quarry and explained the history of the company and its Selkirk site.

“This is Peter Callanan’s original quarry, which he opened 140 years ago,” Mooney said. “He decided that the rock here would be good for making road material — back then it was just carriages. He started to mine it and blast it, and put it out on the roads. He received the first contract with New York state to do highways and roads — that is how Callanan was formed.”

The original owners had their share of challenges and tragedies along the way.

“In the late 1800s, Peter Callanan had a tragic death and his wife took the company over, which was pretty unheard of at that time,” Mooney said. “She stepped in, along with her sons, and they were able to keep the company growing. She had many offers to sell the company but she decided to keep it in the family. They had a tragic blasting accident a few years after that where they lost 20 miners, including one of her sons, and she did continue to run the business, and put us where we are at today.”

Site Manager Bob Bushnell said the open house was designed to celebrate the company’s 140th birthday and invite the community in to see what they do.

“This is where it all started and we wanted to do community outreach,” Bushnell said. “Being that we are in mining, it gives a negative [image] — we want to show people what we do and that we love this community just as much as they do. I’m the third generation in my family to work here. We want our neighbors to see what we do — it’s a nice thank you to the community.”

Bob Williams brought his family to the open house, including grandchildren Ryder and Brealynn Williams.

“It’s a very nice event,” Williams said. “My brother worked here in the ‘70s but it was interesting to see what they do here and how it all works.”

Twins Dominic and Dylan Williams (no relation), 4, went on the quarry tour and then tried their hand at digging in the dirt with kid-sized construction equipment.

“This is very exciting,” mother Krystal Williams said. “They loved going on the tour and seeing where all the rock was mined, and then obviously digging is their favorite pastime.”

Callanan’s Sustainability Manager Evan Onuskanych hosted an exhibit about the company’s green initiatives.

“We have a big wetland project where we created a 30-acre wetland in Hudson to swap out wetlands we had here,” Onuskanych said. “When you do any kind of wetland relocation project, you have to increase the size and the health of the wetland. Our wetland is surrounded by the mine and it has invasive species. We use a company that built a 30-acre wetland and this new wetland has no invasive species. It’s all DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) permitted.”

The quarry is also home to several bat caves. Callanan last winter worked with the DEC and the Department of the Interior to inventory the local bat species. Bats are dying nationwide due to an illness called white-nose syndrome, so the state keeps an eye on bat populations and whether they are thriving.

Onuskanych also showed a display of fossils found at the quarry that are around 400 million years old, dating back to the Devonian Period, before the age of the dinosaurs.

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

RAVENA — The community will bid farewell this week to Judith Wines, library director at the RCS Community Library.

Wines has been with the library for more than seven years — she would have marked her eighth year at the library’s helm in October.

“Change is never easy, but I have taken a job with the Upper Hudson Library System so at the beginning of May, I will be the manager of adult and outreach services for them,” Wines said. “It’s always hard to leave a position, but I keep reminding myself that it was very sad when I left the job I had before RCS and if I hadn’t left there, I wouldn’t have gotten to come here.”

Wines’ last day is April 21.

“Change is hard, but change is often good, and I firmly believe that whoever the library board brings on will be able to keep on building and make the library even better, which is something that makes me happy,” Wines said.

Library patrons and local residents have been stopping by the library to share memories and wish her a bittersweet farewell over the past few weeks, she said.

“It has been really sweet having people come in the last couple of weeks, chatting and telling me how they feel,” Wines said. “I really appreciate people coming in like that.”

Over the past seven-and-a-half years, Wines has focused on bringing new programming to the library and says that has been one of her most cherished accomplishments over the years.

“We have really increased our programming,” Wines said. “I am proud of that for a couple of reasons. One is that with the switch to digital lending — for example, over 90% of the audiobooks that we circulate now are downloaded —there is less foot traffic that is collection-driven.”

Expanding programming maximizes use of the library by the community, she added.

“Pivoting to programs keeps the library space busier,” Wines said. “I have always loved programs and their ability to bring people in the community together. People will walk in and see someone who was, for instance, their mother’s best friend growing up, and those reunions and just seeing people makes you realize the library is not just a repository — it is a place where people can gain new skills and build stronger bonds with the community.”

Laurie Dickerson, president of the library’s board of trustees, said Wines will be greatly missed.

“Judith has given our community such a wonderful lift and helped create a welcoming atmosphere to everyone who enters that library,” Dickerson said.

The board has established a committee to find a replacement, she said.

“We have the search committee set up and we have a secure website where people are sending in resumes and we will start reviewing the resumes we have received after the deadline of April 22,” Dickerson said.

The next library director will be required to have a master’s degree in library science, be eligible for New York State Public Librarian certification, and have a minimum of five years of professional library experience, including three years of library administration or supervisory experience, according to the criteria established by the board of trustees.

“We will miss Judith very much,” Dickerson said. “She has been such a terrific leader and we appreciate her years of directorship with our library. We look forward to finding a different but also wonderful director in the future.

The Rev. Antonio Booth, a longtime member of the RCS Community Library Board of Trustees, said Wines has brought a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm to the library.

“We were so excited when Judith came on — she brought a lot of excitement to library services,” Booth said. “She did a lot of healing with the town and the village in terms of the various political leaders about library services. She connected us even more strongly with the school because the local elementary schools did not have a librarian, so they were able to tap into our library services. She brought a lot of innovative programs to the library and people were so excited to come to the library.”

While Booth is sad to see Wines leave, he said it was inevitable.

“She is such a brilliant person that it was only a matter of time for her to move on and do something else,” Booth said. “She has had an exciting time here and we all appreciate her so much.”

As Wines looks back on her time in the community, she expressed gratitude for the reception she has had from library patrons and the broader community.

“I have been super grateful for this opportunity,” Wines said. “I have met so many wonderful people and I feel like we have had a great team and have been able to build a stronger library — everything from our art displays to our collection sharing. The willingness of people in the community to share their talents with us — I have just been really lucky.”