Valatie seeks fair play on Cleanup Day

VALATIE — The Village Board has scheduled the Fall Village-wide Clean-Up Day for Saturday October 9. Village residents will be able to sign up in advanced at Village Hall to obtain a pass permitting them to bring one pickup truck full of personal waste to a dumpster on River Street.

At the Tuesday, September 14 meeting trustees expressed concern about Highway Department employees picking up refuse from senior citizens, a service the department has offered in the past. Village Clerk Donna Schneider told the board that in recent years the village employees have made over 40 trips to pick up garbage for local seniors during the cleanup.

Trustee Paul Raihofer said that younger residents might be adding their garbage to the seniors’ loads. “Everyone knows a senior,” he said.

After much discussion, the board decided to schedule a special senior pickup Monday, October 11, Columbus Day. Seniors in the village will have to register at Village Hall if they would like the Highway Department to pick up materials at their homes.

The board also discussed the Columbia County Sherriff’s substation that will be moving into the American Legion Hall on Main Street. “The logistics are still being worked out” said Mayor Gary Strevell.

The installation of lights and work on creating dedicated parking spaces in the hall’s parking lot are proceeding, but no firm date has been set for the opening of the substation.

Diane Argyle of the Parks Department reported on efforts to create walking trails in county. The project is now being coordinated with the Towns of Kinderhook, Stuyvesant and Stockport with a goal of creating a series of trails that will eventually connect the three towns. Ms. Argyle announced that group was awarded a grant for a feasibility study through the Greenway Conservancy. The Town of Kinderhook applied for the grant, which was award to a committee representing all three towns. She said there will be a public meeting in October in Stuyvesant, where a map of the planned trail system will be presented.

The trail will run along the rail bed of an old trolley line. Parts of the rail bed are now owned by National Grid, which Ms. Argyle said is holding up the process by not agreeing to transfer the land.

Mayor Strevell suggested looking into agreements that may have been made by Niagara Mohawk, a company purchased by National Grid several years ago. National Grid would have to honor any agreements Niagara Mohawk made to give the land to the towns for the trail.

Also this week, Mayor Strevell reviewed how the village keeps its accounts and pays the bills. The Town of Kinderhook is dealing with fallout from the alleged embezzlement of town funds by a former bookkeeper. Mayor Strevell said the village numbers all its invoices, officials review bank statements and have an accountant review it all. “We write and print real checks,” he said. The village also has a separate “receiving” account for electronic transfers.

State and local law enforcement officials and the state comptroller say that the problem for the town, which involves hundreds of thousands of dollars, stemmed at least in part from the use of the bookkeeper’s credit card to handle some town finances.

The next Village Board meeting will be Tuesday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall.

USDA: Take care to avoid avian influenza in bird flocks

February 21, 2022

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

Owners of chickens and other flocks of birds are advised to exercise caution against the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has just been detected in New York state. Contributed photo

If you’ve got backyard chickens, ducks or other birds, or if you are a poultry farmer, officials are advising exercising caution to avoid a highly pathogenic avian influenza that has been found in Long Island and other areas of the country.

The latest report of a positive test for the disease, known as HPAI, turned up in Suffolk County, Long Island, at a small, non-commercial backyard flock that had a total of eight birds in it. It was the first reported recent incidence of HPAI in New York state.

HPAI is a highly contagious disease that is often fatal to chickens.

Other cases have been identified in wild birds in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Georgia and Florida.

Cases have also been detected in commercial flocks in Indiana and Kentucky, and a backyard flock in Virginia, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The disease does not pose an immediate public health concern to humans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At this time no human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the U.S., but the agency reminded everyone to properly handle poultry and eggs and be sure to cook the food to an internal temperature of 165-degrees Fahrenheit to kill any bacteria or viruses that may be present.

Commercial and hobby poultry farmers are urged to increase biosecurity measures to help prevent the spread of the disease. Birds from the infected flock in Long Island will not enter the food system, according to the USDA, and the premises where the disease was found has been quarantined.

“Avian influenza outbreaks can spread quickly,” New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said. “We will continue to do all we can at the department to safeguard the state’s flocks and encourage everyone who keeps poultry to be vigilant about minimizing their birds’ exposure to the virus and to wild bird populations. Our poultry industry is a significant part of the state’s agricultural industry and these biosecurity steps are our best line of defense against the disease.”

Anyone who owns flocks of birds, whether backyard chickens or poultry farmers, should take precautions to protect their birds from the virus, according to New York State Agriculture and Markets.

Best practices include:

Discourage unnecessary visitors and use biosecurity signs to warn people not to enter buildings without permission.
Ask all visitors if they have had any contact with any birds in the past five days.
Forbid entry to employees and visitors who own any kind of fowl.
Require all visitors to cover and disinfect all footwear.
Lock all entrances to chicken houses after hours.
Avoid non-essential vehicular traffic on-farm.
After hauling birds to processors, clean and disinfect poultry transport coops and vehicles before they return to the farm.
Report anything unusual, especially sick or dead birds, to Agriculture and Markets.

Bird owners should also keep their birds away from wild ducks and geese, and their droppings, and should keep them indoors as much as possible.

To report sick birds, an unexplained high number of bird deaths, or a sudden drop in egg production, call Agriculture and Market’s Division of Animal Husbandry at 518-457-3502 or the USDA at 866-536-7593.

Valatie seeks fair play on Cleanup Day

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