County Solid Waste Stations closed for Memorial Day

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

GREENVILLE — Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to determine the fate of the proposed 2023-24 budget for the Greenville school district.

A public hearing was held May 2 with District Superintendent Michael Bennett presenting the proposed budget.

The proposed budget that will be on the ballot will be a $34,227,771 spending plan, an increase of $530,329, or 1.57%, compared to the current year.

Of the total budget, $18,187,970 would be raised by taxes, an increase of $438,414, or 2.47%, over the current year’s tax levy.

The proposed tax levy increase of 2.47%  is below the state tax cap for the Greenville district, which is 2.51%. The tax cap varies from year to year and is dependent on a complex formula calculated by the state.

Bennett said district officials worked hard to keep the tax levy increase below the cap.

“We feel pretty good about where we’re at in this with everything that is going on in our community, in our state and in our country, with the cost of everything going up,” Bennett said.

The proposed budget does not include a reduction in programs or curriculum content, and there are no staffing cuts.

“One of the things that we were really looking to do was to keep programs and curriculum where it is,” Bennett said. “We don’t want to be taking away from what we are able to offer our kids so maintaining what we’re able to do is important to us.”

The proposed budget also includes the purchase of a snow removal scraper system for the district’s bus fleet.

“Up to this point, it’s been manual work to get the snow off,” Bennett said. “This scraper system will help speed up that process and help keep some of our folks safe as they work to remove the snow.”

At the polls Tuesday, voters will also cast ballots on the two public library budgets in the district, Bennett said.

The Greenville Public Library is asking for an additional $500 in their budget compared to last year, for a total proposed budget of $43,900.

The Rensselaerville Public Library is requesting an additional $575 in the coming year, for a total proposed budget of $29,333.

If either of the library budgets is defeated at the polls, they would revert to the current budget for 2023-24.

Also on the ballot will be a resolution for the district to purchase two vans with a five-year serial bond not to exceed $195,736. The purchase is part of the district’s ongoing bus replacement plan.

“Our mechanics keep our buses well maintained but as you can imagine, there is a lot of travel across the school district with a lot of towns, so even though we’ve maintained our buses, we need to replace some of our older ones,” Bennett said.

Three candidates are also vying for two open seats on the Greenville Board of Education. They are, in the order they will appear on the ballot, Kelly Hubicki, Robert Pondiscio and Eric Herbstritt. Herbstritt is an incumbent running for re-election; Hubicki and Pondiscio are newcomers.

The budget vote and election will take place on Tuesday, May 16, from 1-9 p.m., at the Scott M. Ellis Elementary School cafeteria, 11219 State Route 32, in Greenville.

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

CAIRO — From cows to alpacas to chickens and ducks, local youth showcased their agricultural skills in the annual Greene County Youth Fair this weekend.

The event — billed as the last free fair in New York state — drew hundreds of visitors from around the region to Angelo Canna Town Park in Cairo.

“This is one of the greatest agricultural fairs in the state and the Greene County Legislature and the people of Greene County have done an awesome job,” said Assemblyman Chris Tague, a former dairy farmer, as he visited the fair. “For someone who comes from agriculture, this is near and dear to my heart. They had record attendance the past three days and today it is packed again. It’s just an honor to serve as an assemblyman in this state Assembly and to represent Greene County and this youth fair.”

Visitors from babies to seniors checked out the animals, including cows, pigs, poultry, rabbits and more, visited the many vendors and enjoyed fair food, bounce houses and games.

Peyton Quenneville, 3, toured the fair and then stopped in one of the tents to try out the children’s play area.

“She loves seeing all of the animals,” Peyton’s mother, Amanda Quenneville, said. “She liked the chickens and the bunnies the most.”

Siblings Jacqueline and Quinton Carter tried out another feature of the youth fair and found they enjoyed it.

“I liked doing the archery,” Jacqueline said. “It’s something I’ve never done before.”

Several children from the Story Farm showed 13 cows in the dairy show on Friday. For kids who participate in agricultural activities, there are many life lessons to be learned.

“This is great for the kids,” said mom Jamie Story. “It teaches them responsibility and they get to be competitive with each other. They take care of their animals, they get them ready for the show, they groom them, bathe them and make sure they are fed and have water.”

The Story family has been involved with the youth fair since its inception.

“It’s part of their family tradition,” Story said. “Their great-grandfather is one of the people who helped start the youth fair. My husband showed, his sister showed, his cousins showed, so we are just keeping up with a family tradition.”

Her daughter, Sloane Story, 13, won Grand Showman for her 5-year-old brown Swiss cow.

“I showed three cows yesterday,” Sloane said Saturday. “I’ve been working with cows for about eight years. I wash them, feed them, pick up after them. I like it a lot.”

Robert Pautz doesn’t own pigs of his own, but he works with the Johnk family farm in Greenville and showed several of their pigs at the fair, some of them as much as 230 pounds.

“I worked with the pigs over the spring and after they were born,” Robert said. “I like how spontaneous it is — it is not controlled like with chickens, rabbits and goats, where you walk in circles (to show them). With pigs, you never know what’s going to happen — it’s not the same every single time. You have to direct your pig over to the judge with a stick and sometimes the pig won’t listen, sometimes they will listen. The pig’s attitude can mean a lot.”

The fair also had numerous concerts and other events, like the Air Dogs Show that featured a large swimming pool and 15 dogs willing — happily! — to jump into the air, catch their toy and land with a huge splash in the water, much to the delight of the audience.

The show’s emcee, Steve Bimbo, is president of Hudson River Air Dogs and a national judge for Ultimate Air Dogs. He and his dogs got involved with the sport nearly 20 years ago.

“Eighteen years ago, I went to a festival and they had Ultimate Air Dogs there. I happened to have my dog with me and we signed up and she loved it,” Bimbo said. “We both fell in love with the sport.”

Joe Regina of Hillsdale and two of his dogs — Karma and Jersey, both Chesapeake Bay retrievers — took first and second place, respectively, in the good-natured competition.

“A friend of ours directed us towards this and we tried it with a different dog of ours and we fell in love with it immediately,” Regina said. “We love it — the family atmosphere, and you get to spend a lot of time with your dogs and really enjoy it.”

The sports is as much fun for the dogs as it is for their people, Bimbo said.

“The dogs absolutely love it,” he said. “They can’t wait to get into the water and catch their toy and chase it down.”

Here are more images from Greene County Youth Fair this weekend.