Discover RCS promotes local community

By Marlene McTigue

For Capital Region Independent Media

RAVENA ─ Something cool is happening in the Capital District. Kids are getting excited about STEM ─ science, technology, engineering and math.

From Saratoga to Greenville, from Duanesburg to Clifton Park, and especially right here in Ravena, more and more local kids are coming together and dedicating their free time to problem solving, programming, robotics and engineering.

If you had walked into the gyms at RCS High School on Tuesday night you could have seen it for yourself. Throngs of kids and their parents came to participate in Robotics Night.

As each child entered the school, they were given the opportunity to sign up for a team at the Ravena Innovation Station, a local organization that provides fun and enriching STEM opportunities for local kids.

Kate Robertson is the communication director for the Ravena Innovation Station who helped to organize the event. 

“This is the annual Robotics Night. The High School Robotics team has been doing this for a few years and this year we jumped in to help them out,” said Robertson. “Tonight, we have STEM activities for the kids to do. We’ve got several robot teams from around the Capital District and our teams from the Innovation Station have displays for the kids to see as well. We also have ice cream in the cafeteria, so kids come together after experiencing the event and have some time to just sit down and talk with each other about what they saw.”

First Robotics Challenge teams came to show off their big robots from Shenendehowa, Colonie and Tech Valley High, with First Tech Challenge teams making the trip from Duanesburg and Ballston Spa, all with the goal of sharing what the robot their teams have built can do. 

Also on hand was Mike Baumgardner, from University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security & Cybersecurity, who was there to introduce kids to possible career paths that utilize the skills learned in the STEM competitions.

“We are looking for folks who want to work on technologies, develop technologies and move technologies forward,” said Baumgardner. “We want to let folks see some of the opportunities that are available within our college, anything from 3D printing to Robomasters, to creating games and learning about our informatics degree.”

“Our graduates have gone on to be software developers, information architects, they have worked for all kinds of companies, Google and Meta, different banks and a lot of them have also started their own tech companies,” said Baumgarten.

Over in the far gym, high school teams were set up with their robots to show the curious what they could do. 

The team from Shenendehowa brought their robot, which was built by 60 team members. Kids delighted as the team members programmed their robot to shoot foam rings into the air for the kids to try to catch. The teams at Shen start in elementary school and have over 100 members, according to their representative.

RCS Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brain Bailey was on han─ to take it in and help oversee the “controlled chaos” ─ as he put it ─ of hundreds of excited kids piloting drones, building cars out of Legos and conducting experiments.

“This is a great night,” exclaimed Dr. Bailey. “I was just saying to some of the kids that the Legos they are working with now are like NASA compared to Legos I had growing up. The things that they are able to do, and they just do it naturally, is absolutely amazing. Just seeing the excitement in their eyes shows us this is a great opportunity to get them excited about science, technology, engineering and math. We know what thinking about science and technology does for the brain ─ it grows synapses in a different way, and it gets them excited about learning. Having this hands-on opportunity to allow them to make things fly, or drive ─ it’s an amazing thing.”

If you are interested in learning more about high school robotics or the Ravena Innovation Station, you can check them out at www.ravenainnovationstation.org.

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

COEYMANS — The town board gave a unanimous thumb’s up to a bond resolution to construct a new town hall.

The resolution gives the town board permission to build a new town hall at a cost of up to $7 million and to borrow a maximum of $4 million to pay for the project.

The July 14 vote starts the clock on a 30-day time period during which a member of the public can submit a petition to put the project to a permissive referendum, which would put the matter to a vote by the public. The petition must be signed by at least 5% of the number of town voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election.

The plan is to demolish the current town hall, located at 18 Russell Ave., and replace it with a new two-story, 12,000 square foot building on the same lot as the existing building. Once construction is complete, the old building would be torn down and a new parking lot would take its place.

The board opened the public hearing on construction of a new town hall, estimated to cost about $6 million, at its June 23 meeting and the hearing continued at the July 14 meeting.

The only member of the public to speak at the July hearing was Ethel Hotaling, a Ravena resident and chairwoman of the village’s planning/zoning board of appeals. Hotaling said she was reading a statement on behalf of the planning board.

“It is the village’s understanding that future changes to the building plans will be provided to the village for its review and that the town will continue to receive and consider comments from the village as the design progresses,” Hotaling said. “We want to work with the town and show the communities that we can work together as a town and village. I think that is something that has been lacking in years past.”

Town Supervisor George McHugh said the town does plan to keep village officials apprised of the project’s progress.

“I agree and I know the village attorney has communicated with our town attorney,” McHugh said. “We have assured her that that is exactly what our plan is — to work with the village every step of the way. If there are any change of plans, [the village] will get copies of them. We have no intention of doing anything here that would not be in compliance with the village’s zoning.”

Town councilman Stephen Schmitt asked about the estimated $6 million cost of the project and if there were less expensive options.

“Are we comparing Cadillac Escalades and is there a Honda Pilot version of a town hall?” Schmitt asked.

McHugh responded that the town looked at several options — including upgrading the current building, leasing space in the existing village hall building, and building on another plot of land in the town — but determined, in conjunction with the project’s engineers, that building a new structure would be the best option.

“The last option was looking at this lot and seeing what we could build here that would not only accommodate today’s needs but tomorrow’s needs,” McHugh said. “When I say tomorrow, I mean for the next 50 to 100 years. We can’t anticipate needs for town services. That was the best option by far.”

The new building will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Office of Court Administration — because the town court would be among the departments housed in the building.

The preliminary design calls for a 12,000 square foot building, with 6,000 square feet on the first floor and 6,000 square feet on the second floor, with a finished, climate-controlled basement for storage, McHugh said.

“It’s certainly not the Taj Mahal, but it is functional and we are looking at making it to fit the needs of the future for this town as this town continues to grow,” the town supervisor said. “Certainly the tax base is growing, there is more industry coming, and with that comes more jobs and more people.”

McHugh said 30 town employees work in the building presently and residents use the building daily, and there is a need for a new building. He pointed to mold and leaky pipes in the current town hall, which was originally an American Legion Post.

He added he thinks the cost of the project may ultimately come in below $6 million.

“I think it will be a little bit less, personally, and I think there are ways where we can cut corners, but at the same time, I don’t want to put up a building where we will be looking for something bigger or add on 10 years from now,” McHugh said. “I won’t be here in 10 years but somebody will be, and I don’t want to put them in that position. I think $6 million is a high estimate, but it’s a worst-case scenario.”

The bond resolution approved July 14 actually approves a project cost in the amount of $7 million. McHugh said that was just in case the project comes in a bit over the expected $6 million.

“In the resolution it says maximum project cost not to exceed $7 million,” McHugh said. “At the advice of bond counsel, we only anticipate this to be a $6 million project cost, maximum. However, if it is $6 million and one dollar, we start the process over. So she suggested we put some kind of buffer in there so if it is $6 million and one dollar, we don’t have to come back to square one and start over.”

Similarly, the resolution approves borrowing a maximum $4 million, but McHugh said the town is only expected to borrow $3 million for the project.

He also anticipates the construction project will not raise taxes for local residents.

“I don’t anticipate taxes being increased one cent because of this project. Not one cent,” McHugh said. “I’ll tell you why — because we underestimate revenues by about $300,000 every year in sales tax, which we don’t have to underestimate every year. So there’s $300,000. Three million dollars in borrowing is about a $150,000 annual payment. We have another $350,000 we get from a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) payment from Lafarge every year for the next 14 years. We have $740,000 coming in from the solar project this year that we can put toward this.”

There is also $3 million in town reserve funds and fund balances that can go toward the project, along with a $120,000 contingency fund in the town budget, he added.

“I don’t see this project affecting the tax rate whatsoever in the town of Coeymans,” McHugh said.

The bond resolution is just the start of the process, McHugh said.

“We don’t even have a design yet. We are only about 85% to 90% finished on the design,” he said. “That’s got to be fine-tuned. There is no sense in doing that until we at least go through this resolution, get through the permissive referendum time period and then start honing it down so that we can hone down the project, hone down the costs, and then there will be further resolutions down the pike.”

More public hearings on the project and a finalized building design are expected in the coming months.