Job has long hours, no pay and lots of applicants

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

RAVENA — Three candidates will be on the ballot March 15 in the race for two seats on the Ravena Village Board.

Profiles of the three candidates are presented in alphabetical order.

CAITLIN APPLEBY

Republican Caitlin Appleby is running on both the Republican and Democratic lines.

Appleby grew up in Ravena and lived in the village most of her life. She attended school in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk school district and received an associates degree from Hudson Valley Community College and a bachelor’s degree in Social Welfare from SUNY Albany.

She said love of community spurred her to run for office for the first time this year.

“I love my village. I am raising my family here and I had a really good experience growing up here and that’s why I wanted to raise my children in the village,” Appleby said.

She has been involved in numerous community projects including organizing the Friendship Festival for six years, working on the annual Christmas parade for many years, and organizing town hall meetings on subjects such as underage drinking and substance abuse, she said. She is especially fond of the working on the Friendship Festival.

“That has been a blast. When I was a little girl, that was my absolute favorite thing during the year, and to be able to say that I am now organizing it feels very full circle for me,” Appleby said.

While working on community events has been gratifying, she said she wants to do more.

“I felt stagnant in terms of what I could do or what kinds of resources I could access to do things on a more grand scale,” she said. “Yes, I do community events, but my degree is in social work, so I am very interested in providing programs and resources for our residents. Community events are fun, but there are some social aspects that need to be addressed.”

Food insecurity in Ravena is one issue she would like to tackle by coordinating efforts by local food pantries to maximize available resources, she said.

Targeting young people and families is another area she would like to work on.

“A lot of substance use and risky behaviors — vandalism, truancy, school attendance — if kids don’t feel connected to their community, they don’t care, they don’t invest, they don’t want to be here,” Appleby said. “I really want to target the youth and make them love it here and want to grow up here and be invested in their village.”

Her long-term goal is to develop a community center where recreational and afterschool programming would be offered, along with tutoring and resources for high schoolers to find internships, she said.

“That is my ultimate, ultimate goal,” Appleby said. “I feel that we could do a lot of good work through a community center. It would be almost like a social service hub — that is my vision.”

LINDA MULLER

Incumbent Village Trustee Linda Muller is running on the Democratic Party line.

She is a retired physical education and health teacher of 38 years, working her entire career in Averill Park. She is originally from Hudson Falls and has lived in Ravena for 36 years. She successfully ran for office for the first time in 2018.

“It turned out better than I thought it would ever be because I was able to do things for the residents here,” Muller said. “As my kids were growing up I was a coach here and I was involved in a lot of things with my children, but I didn’t have as much involvement elsewhere in the community.”

Serving on the board has been gratifying, she said.

Among the projects she has been involved in has been getting the village’s dog park up and running, and replacing the sign outside the village hall.

“I was able, along with [building inspector] Joe Burns, to negotiate a deal to get that great sign so we can keep residents updated on what is going on in our village,” Muller said.

But the area where she has had the most impact has been renovations at Mosher Park, Muller said.

“The biggest thing has been working as the liaison with the Parks Department and the grants we were able to get at the park,” Muller said. “We decided that this year we would get a grant writer, which was one of the things that I campaigned on [four years ago]. We did get a grant writer and thank goodness, because she has done really good work for our village with the grants we received for the recreational areas.”

The village secured a $200,000 grant for an upgrade project at Mosher Park, she said. If re-elected, she hopes to pursue more recreational projects.

“I have already talked to the grant writer about a rail-to-trail bike path from Ravena to Coxsackie,” Muller said. “She says that is a pretty good grant to go after, so I am going to be pushing hard for a grant for that and for other opportunities to get more programs in the park.”

Muller served on the village’s planning/zoning board of appeals for two years, and later was the village board’s liaison to that committee. She has an associates degree in early childhood education, a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in health education.[LL1] 

BARBARA TANNER

Barbara Tanner is running for election to the village board on the Republican Party ticket. This is her first time running for office in Ravena.

Tanner was born and raised in the town of Coeymans, and moved to New Baltimore when she got married.

Her husband was chief at the now defunct New Baltimore Police Department. At the time, Tanner also served as dispatcher matron for the police force. The police department was actually located in one room inside her New Baltimore home, she said.

Tanner worked for the state for 21 years in the Tax and Finance Department, and also as a reading aide in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk school district. She lives in the village of Ravena.

“My reason for running for trustee is improving infrastructure, lowering taxes and revitalizing Main Street,” Tanner said. “I will work for all residents regardless of their political affiliation.”

Infrastructure is among her top priorities if elected to the board.

“I think the water pipes need work — we are having too many breaks and I am sure we can probably get some kind of a grant for that,” she said.

Tanner decided to throw her hat into the political ring now because she wants to get the village moving in a positive direction, she said.

“I like [Mayor] Bill [Misuraca], I think he is a nice guy, I just don’t see that the village is going anywhere,” Tanner said. “It just seems like it is stagnant. I don’t have anything against him personally, I just think we need somebody to write some grants to help us revitalize our village.”

Tanner is a member of the parish at St. Patrick’s Church, where she serves as eucharistic administrator and greeter, and volunteers at the food pantry. She is also a life member of the Cornell Hook and Ladder Auxiliary, and served as chairwoman of the Grievance Board in New Baltimore for 20 years.

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By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

RAVENA — The Soups for Seniors contest and fundraiser was held for the first time in the village, and the event packed the house.

The Senior Projects of Ravena event was so popular, several contestants ran out of soup within the first hour.

Soups for Seniors was an inaugural event in the community designed to showcase the senior center and raise money for the facility.

The event was a collaboration between the village and Senior Projects.

“This is a spin-off of a fundraiser I used to go to before COVID,” said Village Trustee Caitlin Appleby, who came up with the idea. “I really liked the sense of community that it built, so I thought we could do it here on a smaller scale. It’s win-win for everybody.”

Seventeen contestants signed up to compete in the soup contest, with one of them, Tracy Douglas from Rail to River Brewery, entering two different soups. Guests paid $5 for admission and were given samples of each of the 18 soups, ranging from seafood chowder to Zuppa soup to ham-and-potato soup.

Gabby Ambrose volunteered for the event and said it was busy from the moment the doors opened.

“We have had well over 100 people here and it’s just halfway through,” Ambrose said. “I think it’s wonderful — we should have more events like this throughout the year, just small things that aren’t expensive for the village but also aren’t expensive for the community members that want to join in. It’s just a good time.”

Appleby co-organized Soups for Seniors with Lakken Kovacik, assistant director at Senior Projects. All funds raised Saturday will go towards the center’s needs.

“The proceeds will go to the senior center, for whatever is needed,” Kovacik said. “We need some new vehicles — we are working with a couple of different entities to get money for new Meals on Wheels vehicles. All the money we raise goes to the senior center.”

The center’s Meals for Wheels program — which delivers lunches and dinners to the community’s homebound residents — reaches far beyond the boundaries of Ravena, and puts a lot of mileage on its delivery vans.

“We do a congregate meal program on Mondays and Thursdays for dinner, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays for lunch at Van Allen Apartments in Glenmont, and we also do two buildings in Albany, one of which, Parkview Apartments, had a catastrophe with flooding and electrical, and at least 25 people were displaced to the Comfort Inn. We deliver meals there, too.”

Supporting the village’s older residents is important, Appleby said, and shining a light on the senior center and its needs will go a long way to doing that.

“Our elder population is a very important population and I think they get overlooked a lot,” Appleby said. “I think this puts a focus and a light on a population that definitely needs help and support. And to me, this is community building.”

The senior center, which is available to rent for birthday parties, bridal showers and other events, was also showcased, she said.

Rebecca Flach, from Hopefull Life Center, made a ham-and-potato soup that highlighted ingredients available at Helping Harvest, a food assistance program for people in need of a helping hand.

“I made the soup using ingredients from Helping Harvest to demonstrate the variety and quality of the food products that we have there,” Flach said.

Mayor Bill Misuraca, owner of the Halfway House Tavern, said it was gratifying to see so many residents attend the event.

“It’s a huge turnout,” said Misuraca, who also entered a seafood chowder into the contest. “We are so glad to see the community rally up for the seniors — that is so important.”

Some of the soup entries were made by restaurateurs, but many were family favorites made by the community’s home chefs, like 15-year-old Hayden Hyslop, who made Zuppa soup.

Many entrants said they participated in the event to help out an important community resource.

“This is to help out the community and the seniors,” said Jaime Hopkins from Trackside Pizza and More, who made a clam chowder.

Yvonne Shackleton made a coconut curry lentil soup from a vegan recipe she found online, and Deana Ferrusi cooked up an Italian escarole with white bean soup.

“It’s a twist on a family recipe,” Ferrusi said. “My grandfather’s favorite food was escarole and beans, and I just played with it a little bit.”

Tracy Douglas, co-owner of Rail to River Brewing, made Knoephla, a favorite in North Dakota that uses chicken and tiny dumplings.

“It came over with the Russian-Germans,” Douglas said. “They settled in North Dakota and because North Dakota is so full of root vegetables, grains and chicken, in the middle of winter, when it’s so cold, this is a stick-to-your ribs meal for them. It is totally indigenous to North Dakota. Knoephla means ‘tiny buttons,’ and that is what the dumplings look like.”

Each guest was given five tickets they could hand out to their favorite soups, and when all was said and done, the winner of the 2023 Soups for Seniors contest was Shelly Fitch, who made a corn chowder. Fitch was awarded the prize money of $200 and donated it back to the senior center.

Saturday’s event raised $1,000 for Senior Projects of Ravena.

“I’m really proud of the turnout — it was amazing for the first time we have done something like this,” Appleby said. “The community really showed up. It was very heartwarming to see everyone smiling and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. And who doesn’t love soup?”