Melissa Hale-Spencer reports for The Altamont Enterprise that the Open Space Institute has purchased the Hillicoss Family Farm property in Rensselaerville for $455,000. The 267-acre farm near the Rensselaerville State Forest is also close to a 300-acre parcel that the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy acquired in 2016. The Open Space Institute will sell the land to New York for a grant from the State Environmental Protection Fund. Eileen Larrabee, director of communications for the Open Space Institute said, “We saw it as an opportunity to acquire an asset to add to the state forest.... A tributary of the Catskill Creek made it valuable, and there are beautiful vistas.” A subdivision had been proposed on the site near Cheese Hill Road recently, but now the southern Albany County property will remain open land. Read the full story in The Altamont Enterprise.