The Duanesburg Business Association will meet Monday, August 4 at the Duanesburg Area Community Center. The meeting begins at 5:30 with social networking followed by guest speakers at 6:15 p.m. Ray Gillen of Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, Chuck Steiner of The Chamber of Schenectady County and Bob Wall, Duanesburg representative for Metroplex will address area businesses on Metroplex's plans economic development for the Town of Duanesburg. They will discuss how Duanesburg might benefit from their programs and the process by which businesses can take advantage of them. All area businesses are encouraged and welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Randy Passonno.
The Duanesburg Business Association will meet Monday, August 4 at the Duanesburg Area Community Center. The meeting begins at 5:30 with social networking followed by guest speakers at 6:15 p.m. Ray Gillen of Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, Chuck Steiner of The Chamber of Schenectady County and Bob Wall, Duanesburg representative for Metroplex will address area businesses on Metroplex's plans economic development for the Town of Duanesburg. They will discuss how Duanesburg might benefit from their programs and the process by which businesses can take advantage of them. All area businesses are encouraged and welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Randy Passonno.
Wow, this is great for you Duanesburgians (if that's what someone from Duanesburg is called). I hope you get a good turnout. I may even see if I can make it up there for the meeting. Sounds interesting.
DUANESBURG Mariaville Lake boat launch foes drop lawsuit BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Months of legal wrangling over a proposed concrete boat ramp and pier on Mariaville Lake ended Thursday after a group of residents opposed to the project dropped their lawsuit in Schenectady County Supreme Court. Joe Serth, who proposed the launch, was awarded $174 in legal fees after 18 lake residents discontinued their lawsuit against him and several state Department of Environmental Conservation officials. Also, in May, Serth settled a lawsuit he filed against Schenectady County over its refusal to grant a permit for the project. Joe Serth completed the launch off county Route 94 — also known as Batter Street — after he settled his lawsuit with the county. “Three days [after the Schenectady County lawsuit was settled], the concrete boat launch was built,” Serth said. The controversy began in June 2007 when Serth applied to the DEC to build the launch, which he said would extend about 14 feet into the lake off a 16-foot section of the shoreline across the street from a small ranch house he owns. The project was bitterly contested by other lake residents, who claimed Serth might use the launch to allow public boat travel on the small lake. The DEC initially denied Serth’s application on the grounds that the proposed 36-foot-long launch would damage the freshwater wetlands habitat and wasn’t “reasonable and necessary” because he could use alternative boat launches existing on the lake. The agency reversed this decision last fall, after determining similar structures existed around the lake. In April, the residents filed a lawsuit against the DEC, claiming the agency approved a permit for Serth’s boat launch without conducting a “thorough coordinated review” of the project. The lawsuit argued the agency failed to provide them with several “interagency documents” after they filed a Freedom of Information Law request. “It is obvious the DEC did not take into account any of the concerns raised by the residents of Mariaville Lake when they overturned their original decision,” the lawsuit stated. But eventually, the DEC turned over the documents the residents had sought, said Sue Weakley, who was among those suing the agency. She said the previously omitted documents failed to bring anything new to light, making their lawsuit moot. “There was no sense in going any further,” she said Tuesday. Since its construction, Weakley said the launch hasn’t been getting much use by anybody. For now, the area remains unfenced because Serth claims the county won’t allow him to erect a gate. And despite the conclusion of the legal battles, the relationship between Serth and the lake community doesn’t seem to be warming. “It ain’t going to get any better,” Serth said.
Wow...this has been going on for a long time. And now after all of this....no one will end up speaking to one another. That's too bad!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
DUANESBURG Regents approve school name change BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
Duanesburg Junior-Senior High School will now be known as Duanesburg Middle School and Duanesburg High School. The state Board of Regents on July 28 approved a request by the school district to register the middle school as a separate entity. Superintendent Christine Crowley said the change has been in the works for a while and the community is very supportive of having a separate middle school. Nothing is physically changing and both schools will still be housed in the same building. However, the school district is exploring a variety of options to restructure the middle school to give the roughly 330 students in those grades their own identity. “We’re a small district so we pride ourselves on finding ways to do it better,” she said. They are considering block scheduling and “looping,” which is where students would have the same teacher for multiple years. Because Duanesburg has relatively low enrollment, Crowley said some teachers have to teach both middle and high school classes. “That causes some complications with us in terms of scheduling,” she said. Grades six through 12 are housed in one building, although the sixthgraders are mostly confined to the third floor. They share three teachers for their core subjects. The district asked teachers who were certified to teach both middle and high school to express their preferences. She said she is going to try to separate the faculty as much as she can. The district has already separated its computer scheduling system into the middle school and high school components. Another goal is to create time in the schedule where the middleschool teachers can meet to plan. In addition, Crowley said the district wants to create some more activities for sixth-graders, where there is a void. They do not get to participate in the same sports and activities that either the younger or older students do. The administration will not change. Beth DeLuke was previously promoted from assistant principal to principal. Crowley said the reason the district is focusing on middle school is because research has shown that to be a critical period. “If you’re going to lose kids to dropping out or to disengaging, that happens somewhere in the 6th, 7th grade range,” she said. Some Board of Education members, DeLuke and Crowley visited South Glens Falls Middle School to get some ideas. They hope to do other school visits and bring along a team of teachers. “It’s a work in progress. We’re going to be looking at the best practices and deciding what will work best for our district,” Crowley said.
back Battle back from brink of death Landscaper recovering from severe encephalitis caused by mosquito bite
By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer Click byline for more stories by writer. First published: Saturday, August 9, 2008
Steve Taite's bad luck started with a little mosquito. The critter bit Taite, a Duanesburg landscaper, and infected him with a rare virus. What followed would have killed most people.
Friends and family are holding a fundraiser Saturday to help pay $50,000 in medical bills the Taite family accumulated over the past two months even though Steve Taite was insured.
He doesn't even remember the bite. Taite, 37, a muscular 5-foot 6-inch man with a buzz cut and brown eyes, runs D&S Landscaping with his wife, Diane, 34. He's not the type of guy to sit still.
He stayed home sick one Tuesday in May with flu symptoms, but he was back on his ride-on mower the rest of the week despite feeling ill. By Sunday, he couldn't put a sentence together. Diane rushed him to St. Clare's Hospital in Schenectady.
Within hours, the emergency room doctor diagnosed Taite with severe encephalitis. His brain was swelling. He began hallucinating.
Tests on his blood and spinal fluid eventually revealed the infection was likely caused by a mosquito carrying the Jamestown Canyon virus, a member of the family of viruses known as California encephalitis. The virus is carried by the same mosquitoes that transmit the West Nile virus.
Only seven cases of California encephalitis have been documented in New York since 2000 and none of the victims have died, according to the state Department of Health. Bites from mosquitoes infected by the California virus or West Nile virus usually cause mild flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all, but some people develop severe infections.
Last week, Chad Byrne, 26, a Fort Edward man who served with the National Guard in Iraq, died from encephalitis. The cause has not been determined, but family members say the doctors suspect a mosquito bite.
"He fought in a war, was injured twice and he comes home and dies from a mosquito bite," said Byrne's mother, Gail Byrne. "It doesn't seem right."
Taite was transferred to Ellis Hospital. Diane Taite refused to let doctors put her husband into a medically induced coma. The couple had dated since high school in Colonie and were married in 2000. Diane Taite couldn't stand the look in her husband's eyes when they put him in restraints, so she stayed by his bedside and talked him through the hallucinations.
At home, relatives took care of the couple's 5-year-old daughter, Mya. Neighbors fed their chickens and walked their dogs, and a friend stepped in and ran the landscaping business on top of his full-time job.
As Steve Taite fought off imaginary attackers, he jumped out of bed and lifted Diane and the chair she sat in. He bit her father.
Then the seizures started. Four grand mal seizures wracked his body.
"It dropped me to my knees," said Diane Taite, who watched helplessly. "I was in the middle of the hall in the fetal position."
But Steven Taite recovered and was transferred to Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital. He recalls coming out of the haze of hallucinations. It felt like he was on a boat. He couldn't tie his shoes. He slurred and struggled to find the right words. What is yellow and black and buzzes? He didn't know. What is yellow with a red eraser on top? A bee, he'd say.
The doctors told Diane it was as if someone had broken into his brain and knocked over all the file cabinets. Brain damage is common with severe encephalitis.
His problems weren't over.
Taite developed Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a skin reaction to the seizure medication. His skin swelled, turned purple and began sloughing off like a burn victim's. Severe cases often cause blindness or death. He was transferred to the burn unit at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
While there, he had a reaction to steroids, Diane Taite said. His organs failed and he was put on a ventilator and life support.
Diane Taite searched the Internet for people who suffered California encephalitis and Stevens-Johnson syndrome. She found references to victims, all dead.
Steve Taite survived. He was taken off life support and breathed on his own. Still, it wasn't over. He developed a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, a drug-resistant infection from the central line catheter in his chest.
He was sent home with antibiotics on July 14. The skin rash came back and he began to swell, gaining 5 pounds in two hours. He had another seizure and was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital.
After a week, Taite came home for good on Aug. 1. His prognosis is good. His words are coming back. He remembers how to tie his shoes. New York law prohibits people from driving for six months after a seizure. Still, he climbed on his Toro mower, over his wife's protests, and mowed their lawn.
"Honestly, watching him on the mower that day was one of the scariest and happiest moments of my life all intertwined," Diane Taite said. "His lines were so straight." F. Crowley can be reached at 454-5348, or by e-mail at ccrowley@timesunion.com.
but reading this makes on think of the mouse and the elephant.....not to mention the bigger they are the harder they fall.....this is not a personal reference to these poor folks,,,,but how we are that delicate to such mundane everyday things.....it's strange---a mosquito can still kill us yet, we clone....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
No, it’s not Lebanon Valley Speedway. It’s Rte. 20 in Duanesburg — between Route 7 and Duanesburg Churches Road — whether you have a four-wheel rice rocket that you think is fast because it has a “loud” muffler or a two-wheeler (in yellow or red) that you can do a “wheelie” on for the whole mile. Or maybe it’s a “ghetto cruiser” with a loud boom box. Or a PT Cruiser. There’s even been police cruisers, tractor trailer trucks, dump trucks, cement mixers and even garbage hauling trucks. Whether it’s in the middle of the night, early morning rush hour (trying to be the first one to get to Stewart’s), even in the middle of the day or, best of all, rush hour: Come out any time. The fastest one-mile drag strip is open 24/7. Just a few things you might want to watch out for — deer, old people crossing to get their mail, people walking or riding their bikes, kids playing, and people pulling in and out of their driveways. Oh, don’t mind us. Just go ahead and get where you’re going. Quick! ROY PECHTEL Duanesburg
I read this and almost thought of sending a letter off to the Gazette in response to it, however, I thought that since the Gazette puts time limits on how often someone can send in comments, I would save mine for a more worthy comment.
Everywhere has it's own "dragstrip." It's just a matter of finding it. Anybody who ever drives along Rt. 7 (Duanesburg Road) between 2:15 and 2:30 on any school day can tell you where Rotterdam's is. I remember having a beater when I was going to school, but if you pulled out of the school parking lot and were heading towards Burdeck St. / 5 Corners area and you didn't hit 55 M.P.H. before hitting the top of the bridge (in a posted 40 M.P.H. zone), you would have people coming right up behind you. Then, there's Burdect St. itself, between Rt. 7 and Mariaville Road. Posted 35, actual speed limit 40-45. And the granddaddy of them all, you have to pay more and more to get on it each time...the Thruway. Now posted as 65, it's always been at least 72 and if you're out there during rush hour, you better be looking to be going 75-80 (and diving in and out of traffic with your blinker (that thing for lane changes on normal roads) blinking no more than 5 times). And, oh yeah, school's almost in session, so let's see what happens over here in the school zone again. Anybody got a radar gun I can borrow, or know somewhere I can get one? Maybe I'll post speeders on YouTube like others are putting other criminals on there now.
The whole town is a race strip. Wide open stretches of Routes 20, 7, 30,159, 160. Not to mention the back roads. Most speed limits are 55 which turns into 65. The road I live on is 45 mph, people go by my house at 70 and 80.
So now the town mayor is saying that their is lawbreaking going on in the town and she is doing nothing about it. this will show up on the demos literature when they go door to door in delanson and princetown during the election in a few months so you better be careful what ya say here, Mayor, please. they will be printing it out and sending it to people and saying you support the law - breaking indeed. Over here in Rotterdam we dont have the problem since we have the excellent policemen in blue.
I don't think it is the 'mayors' job to drive around town in a patrol car and give out speeding tickets. That is clearly the job of law enforcement.
In fact isn't that the job of the county sheriff's dept.? They are county roads, correct? And who is responsible for the sheriff's dept.? Who is making sure those roads are being patrolled?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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