Google Grief
Carole Osterink in The Gossips of Rivertown reports that David Robinson, Commissioner for Public Works for Columbia County, unveiled plans for alterations to the Columbia County Courthouse at the Hudson Planning Commission Wednesday, May 11 (see image, from her blog). The issue came up again this morning, Friday, May 13, at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting where the HPC decided it, "would hold a public hearing before granting a certificate of appropriateness, so that everyone interested in the building could see and comment on what is planned," Osterink writes. Read the entire story at The Gossips of Rivertown.


Police link CO to Hudson Correctional Facility escape
Audra Jornov in the Register-Star reports that Joseph Scalera, 55, of Claverack was arrested and charged with first-degree falsifying business records and fourth-degree criminal facilitation for falsifying a log book at the Hudson Correctional Facility to conceal the location of two inmates on April 2, the same day that those inmates escaped briefly from the facility. "Scalera was arraigned in Hudson City Court before Judge Richard Koweek and was remanded to Columbia County Jail on $2,500 cash bail or $5,000 bond," the story says, though it does not say when that arraignment happened. Read the entire story in the Register-Star.

Lull seeks top post
An unbylined story in the Register-Star says that Maria Lull, Town councilwoman in Chatham, is seeking the Republican, Conservative, and Independence Party ballot lines for town supervisor there. Lull is a 34-year town resident who lives in Chatham Center, and co-owned a real estate brokerage in Chatham for 15 years. Lull was elected to the Town Board in 2009 and served on the planning board, partially as Deputy Chair, for 13 years. Lull also served on the Citizens Advisory Committee for Capital Improvements and the Chatham Ethics Committee. “There is simply too much government,” Lull said in the story. “When the town of Chatham proposed an additional 2 percent real property transfer tax on top of the county transfer tax on property sales, I opposed it and worked to secure a grant from the New York State Association of Realtors of $25,000 to underwrite a campaign against it. We don’t need more taxes, we need less spending." The Republican caucus is 7 p.m. June 7 at the Tri-Village Fire House, County Route 13 in Chatham Center. Read the entire story in the Register-Star.

Valentine defense lawyers want more time to confer
Doron Tyler Antrim reports in The Daily Mail that defense attorneys representing Keith Valentine, the Republican majority leader of the Greene County Legislature, and his wife, Cynthia, against charges they allegedly served alcohol to minors at a July Fourth party last year, requested a delay until May 25 to consider information with their clients that may be presented in court. The Valentines have been charged with unlawfully dealing with a child, a misdemeanor, and a county local law violation for allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors. In March, Antrim says Hunter Town Justice William Simon said plea negotiations broke down after the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office offered to drop the misdemeanor charge in exchange for a guilty plea to the local law. "The deal was not accepted," Antrim writes. Valentine voted for the local law he is charged with violating in the Greene County Legislature. Read the whole story in The Daily Mail.