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:

    Region’s power grids face new stresses

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    Shift to clean energy means more demand, changing supplies   Many experts say the current power grids in New York and New England are inadequate to support the region’s planned shift away from fossil fuels. But for now it’s hard to predict exactly where additional capacity will be needed. Joan K. Lentini photo   By read more

    Region’s power grids face new stresses
  • Issue:

    Closed to deliveries? Community rallies to save birthing center

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    Community rallies to save Rensselaer County’s last birthing center   Emily Steinbach, right, her wife, Michele, and daughter Eleanor take part in a rally last month against the proposed closing of Burdett Birth Center, the only remaining medical facility in Rensselaer County where expectant mothers can give birth. Victoria Kereszi photo   By TRACY FRISCHContributing read more

    Closed to deliveries? Community rallies to save birthing center
  • Issue:

    Flooding shapes debate over climate policies

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    Advocates turn focus to land-use patterns, better infrastructure By MAURY THOMPSONContributing writer   Last month’s severe floods in Vermont and New York will have long-term public policy implications in areas ranging from infrastructure and community planning to environmental and insurance rules, government officials and advocates say. “Make no mistake, the devastation and flooding we are read more

    Flooding shapes debate over climate policies
  • Issue:

    Reshaping the future of the mail

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    Postal Service consolidation plans stir fears about rural services   The tiny post office in Rupert was one of 14 across Vermont that the U.S. Postal Service tried unsuccessfully to close in 2011. Now some advocates and members of Congress say rural post offices face a new threat from the pending consolidation of regional mail read more

    Reshaping the future of the mail
  • Issue:

    Editorial — Last-minute changes turn reform to poison

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    For those who dream of a more open, competitive system of political representation in New York, the news seemed almost too good to be true. In negotiations over a new state budget in early May, legislative leaders agreed to move forward with a new public campaign finance system that would reduce the influence of the read more

    Editorial — Last-minute changes turn reform to poison
  • Issue:

    Reimagining a river

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    Flood-control update offers chance to revive North Adams’ links to the Hoosic   Seen from the Brown Street bridge, the north and south branches of the Hoosic River converge just west of downtown North Adams, each contained within massive concrete chutes built in the 1950s. Joan K. Lentini photo.   By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer NORTH read more

    Reimagining a river
  • Issue:

    N.Y. launches public financing for state races

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    Small, local donations will be matched in Senate, Assembly contests By MAURY THOMPSONContributing writer   Next year’s candidates for New York state Senate and Assembly will have the option of participating, for the first time, in a new public campaign finance program that will match small-dollar donations raised within the candidate’s district. The new program read more

    N.Y. launches public financing for state races
  • Issue:

    Bigger tax credit could redevelop historic structures

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    Assemblywoman pushes bigger tax credit to redevelop historic structures   Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner stands outside a long-vacant mill complex in the village of Victory, N.Y. It’s the kind of structure she says could be redeveloped to ease the state’s housing shortage — with help from an expanded tax credit for large historic buildings.Joan K. Lentini read more

    Bigger tax credit could redevelop historic structures
  • Issue:

    WAM Theatre ponders ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’

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    WAM Theatre presents ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’   The cast and crew meet in late April for the first rehearsal of WAM Theatre’s production of “What the Constitution Means to Me,” which opens May 18 at the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre. Courtesy photo   By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. As a read more

    WAM Theatre ponders ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’
  • Issue:

    Local ‘wrong house’ killing adds to national outcry

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    The shooting death last month of a 20-year-old Schuylerville woman who turned up the wrong driveway stunned people across Washington and Saratoga counties and quickly became part of a national outcry over gun violence. Kaylin Gillis was killed after she and several friends were searching for another friend’s house about 10 p.m. Saturday, April 15, read more

    Local ‘wrong house’ killing adds to national outcry