Cobleskill Mayor Becky Terk is “dismantling the police department,” running “the department into the ground” and micro-managing village affairs.
That’s according to a Facebook post from the Cobleskill Police Benevolent Association that blasted Mayor Terk last week.
But Mayor Terk pushed back on Saturday, calling the post inappropriate and denying most of the charges.
The post came in the middle of stalemated contract talks between the PBA and the village. The two sides held one mediation session last month; another is set for March 24.
PBA President Branden Collison said the post was an effort to inform residents of the critical situation. Mayor Terk described i ...

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More than 650 highway officials from across New York State gathered in Albany last Wednesday to push for more funding for roads, bridges, and culverts.
According to a list of talking points from the Local Roads Are Essential Advocacy Day 2023, record high inflation rates on highway construction materials have severely increased costs and under the proposed 2023-24 state budget “local governments are seeing almost a 25 percent reduction in real dollars from local highway maintenance programs.
“It is critical that an additional $270 million be added...for CHIPS and EWR [Extreme Winter Recovery] just to keep funding at the same level it was…”
Middleburgh Town Highway Superi ...

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Anyone interested in downtown Cobleskill should mark the calendar for next Thursday, the 23rd.
That’s when Cobleskill Partnership Inc. is holding its first annual meeting in several years: 7pm at the firehouse.
Dedicated to downtown Cobleskill, CPI coordinates improvement projects, special events, concerts and more, all designed to make downtown a better place to live, work and visit.
Next Thursday’s meeting is open to all, members and non-members.
“We are attempting to get as many Cobleskill businesses and individuals in a room to get re-acquainted and renew the mission of CPI,” said organization Vice President Bruce Tryon.
People will be able to meet, gr ...

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Schoharie County Public Transportation’s numbers are taking a hit from remote work.
Ridership is down by half from 2019 to 2022, Director Christine Kraemer told supervisors’ Transportation Committee Tuesday, from 82,000 riders in ’19 to 44,000 in ’22.
2022’s numbers showed a little bit of a rebound from 2021’s 39,000, she said, but they’re not still where they were—or where they need to be in terms of revenue.
The loss of ridership is especially significant in the busses that go to Albany, Ms. Kraemer said, but additionally, they’ve lost riders to Lexington Arc, which has begun transporting its own clients.
Even the loss of one regular rider can add up to thousand ...

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The results of Nick Kossmann’s ag survey are in.
With some surprising finds—and others that are not:
Among the respondents, hay has replaced dairy as the top product, 60 percent of them are willing to give agritourism a try, and in maybe the biggest take-away, there’s a need to get information about the help that’s available—everything from financing to product development to land trusts—in the hands of the right people.
Mr. Kossmann, Schoharie County’s Agriculture Development specialist, launched the survey in January; it’s the first time since 2017 that farmers have been asked what’s on their minds and nearly a decade since they were polled by Schoharie County.
In both ...

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