Category: Government

The Hill Country Observer covers local leaders, elections and elected officials, town and city councils bodies including libraries, schools, planning and other town boards, and all kinds of conversations and decisions that matter to our communities.

  • Issue:

    Disaster waiting to happen?

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    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer GHENT, N.Y.When a huge fire broke out last summer at an industrial waste processing plant in Columbia County, firefighters initially tried to quell the blaze with water. But the firefighters soon had to retreat as a series of explosions rocked the 30,000-square-foot building that was home to TCI of New read more

    Disaster waiting to happen?
  • Issue:

    Power center? Utility pushes to make Rutland the Northeast’s solar capital

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    By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer RUTLAND, Vt.The 3-acre lot at the end of Cleveland Avenue was until recently considered unsuitable for development. The property on the western edge of Rutland was a brownfield, its soil contaminated by a coal gasification plant that occupied the site decades ago. The area is considered a blighted section of read more

    Power center? Utility pushes to make Rutland the Northeast’s solar capital
  • Issue:

    Songbird’s decline fuels climate-change debate

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    Groups seek endangered-species status for Bicknell’s thrush By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer The fate of a little bird that spends its summers in the high elevations of the Green Mountains could soon become a new focal point in a national battle over regulating climate-changing emissions. Earlier this year, the federal government started the formal process read more

    Songbird’s decline fuels climate-change debate
  • Issue:

    A better answer to crime?

    Backers push ‘restorative justice,’ stressing healing over punishment By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer EASTON, N.Y.It was early 1996 when David Kaczynski contacted the FBI with strong suspicions that his brother, Ted, was the Unabomber. Across nearly two decades before that, the mysterious Unabomber had mailed or delivered 16 package bombs to targets in academia and read more

    A better answer to crime?
  • Issue:

    Chip plant draws immigrant workers in Saratoga

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    Chip plant draws immigrant workers, adds international flavor in Saratoga By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS Contributing writer CLIFTON PARK, N.Y.Haiting Wang was happy to show off the new two-story structure he will soon call home. Standing in front of his still-under-construction house last month, he was flanked by a backhoe and a workers’ scaffold as a symphony read more

    Chip plant draws immigrant workers in Saratoga
  • Issue:

    EPA tries to navigate conflicting demands on Housatonic cleanup

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    EPA tries to navigate conflicting demands on Housatonic cleanup By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer   PITTSFIELD, Mass.Twelve years ago this month, General Electric Co. signed a consent decree with state and federal environmental agencies under which it agreed to clean up PCB pollution in the Housatonic River, setting the stage for the dredging of 1.5 read more

    EPA tries to navigate conflicting demands on Housatonic cleanup
  • Issue:

    Who’s got your number? License-plate scanners raise privacy concerns

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    License-plate scanners help police but raise privacy concerns By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer BENNINGTON, Vt.One day in late September, Bennington police were given information about a possible drug deal set to occur within the town limits. The police began to search the area for a vehicle of one of the suspects. Officers couldn’t find a read more

    Who’s got your number? License-plate scanners raise privacy concerns
  • Issue:

    TCI’s history includes past fires, worker death

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    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer   GHENT, N.Y. The Aug. 1 fire that destroyed the TCI of New York plant in West Ghent was not the company’s first, nor was the smaller fire earlier this year in which a trailer of oily rags at the plant ignited. In the mid-1980s, fire broke out at TCI’s read more

    TCI’s history includes past fires, worker death
  • Issue:

    Marriage vote echoes in Senate primary

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    McDonald faces challenge for GOP line amid shifting political landscape By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS Contributing writer   SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. If there’s a political cost to state Sen. Roy McDonald’s pivotal vote for same-sex marriage, it will be measured this month when the senator faces a rare intraparty challenge from Saratoga County Clerk Kathleen Marchione. Republican read more

    Marriage vote echoes in Senate primary
  • Issue:

    After a big fire, questions persist

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    Critics fault state’s limited testing after blaze involving PCBs By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer   GHENT, N.Y. After a huge chemical fire erupted at an industrial plant in West Ghent on the night of Aug. 1, authorities advised everyone within a 15-mile radius of the site to stay indoors, keep windows closed and avoid using read more

    After a big fire, questions persist