Two creative men from Altamont have gathered ghost stories from village residents and surrounding areas into a book. Neither is a stranger to imagination and yet they have labeled these stories as true.Tom Capuano, a retired professor, once wrote a book-length narrative poem on the founding of Altamont, grounded in history but with imaginative creation of characters. He raises sheep now in an 18th-Century barn on land that both figure prominently in some of the ghost stories.Thom Breitenbach, an artist who lives in a castle he built on the hillside above the village, wrote and produced a musical about Hieronymus Bosch, a 15th-Century Dutch artist who, like Breitenbach, creates imaginative creatures. In Breitenbach’s musical, those creatures come alive.So where does each draw the line between imagination and reality? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Other Voices

‘True Ghost Stories’ — on reality, life and death

“The cool thing is agriculture is everywhere,” says Michaela Kehrer.She has been teaching about agriculture and its many related subjects at Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s secondary school since 2017. That year, she also founded a chapter of Future Farmers of America in the rural community.Now, Kehrer has been named Outstanding Agriculture Educator for the FFA Region VI National Association of Agricultural Educators. She is one of just six finalists across the United States; the winner will be named in December.Kehrer started her journey as an ag teacher when, growing up in Rhode Island, her father’s best friend urged her to attend an FFA meeting — she had been more interested in marine biology or history at that point — telling her he wouldn’t mention it again if she didn’t like it.She loved it, especially the camaraderie.A vibrant woman, Kehrer has always been drawn to male-dominated fields, she says in this week’s podcast at altamontenterprise.com/podcasts.She studied landscape design — like farming, another male-dominated field — for a degree at Cobleskill before earning a master’s degree in ag education at Cornell University.Kehrer serves as a role model at BKW where a lot of girls were initially attracted to her classes; she is also enthused about teaching boys.Among the many grants Kehrer has helped secure is the most recent one, for $5,000, that the FFA chapter is using to buy life-size fiberglass models of a cow, horse, and pig. Students will research, design, and paint the internal organs of each species on one half of the models; on the other half, they will paint the markings for a given breed standard.The BKW chapter of Future Farmers of America is active on many fronts. Next month, 30 students will go to Oswegatchi, a camp in the Adirondacks, Kehrer said, noting the trip is booked to capacity.Members compete in contests and career development events; they also do public speaking and learn about leadership. Until COVID-19 intervened, the group made an annual trip to Indianapolis for the national FFA convention; BKW’s participation will be virtual this year.Kehrer repeatedly credits her BKW colleagues and other FFA chapters for her many initiatives.“I’m a constant learner. I’m always watching what others are doing,” she says.She also urges everyone: “Support your local farmers.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela Kehrer — "agriculture is everywhere"

Donald Hyman brings history to life by portraying people from the past.Albany hotelier Adam Black Jr.; James Matthews, the state’s first African-American judge; and James Dickson, a New Scotland native and general manager for the Slingerland family, will be reborn on Oct. 5 for those attending the New Scotland Historical Association meeting. “They come back to me like I’m listening to lyrics in a song,” says Hyman in this week’s podcast.Hyman researches the often-forgotten men he portrays both online and through original documents like letters and church records. “I try to find in their own words things they would say,” he says.He likens it to being a coffee or wine taster — finding the subtle differences, the idiosyncrasies that distinguish one from another.Hyman concludes of these 19th-Century African Americans, “If the door were open, they would definitely go through it.”Hyman, who grew up in Brooklyn, has a particular fondness for Harlem and its rich history. He studied fashion design at Parsons, focusing on styles during the Jazz Age of the Roaring Twenties, and on the rock-and-roll era of the 1950s.A world traveler, Hyman embraces all of history. Travel, he says, “keeps you from being brainwashed.”He has written plays for the State Museum and portrayed enslaved people at the Schuyler Mansion.Hyman says of the Capital Region, “I just stumbled upon it, like a gold mine.”When he first arrived in Albany, Mary Liz and Paul Stewart, who have restored the home of abolitionists Harriet and Stephen Myers for their Underground Railroad Education Center, walked him around the neighborhood and he felt its richness.Hyman likens what he does now to prospectors who pan for gold, sifting through the debris to find the nuggets.Rather than celebrating baseball players or rappers, he likes to portray individuals who prevailed and overcame. In Jamaica, Hyman said, they would say of these individuals, “They overstood.”“It’s not about me,” he concludes of his work. “It’s about their legacy.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Donald Hyman — prospector, panning for the gold of forgotten history

“We’ve only got one planet,” says Edna Litten. “We’ve got to take care of it.”Litten, who grew up in Queens and lives now in Altamont, remembers going to a teach-in for the first Earth Day in 1970. Since then, over the last half-century, she has hung her laundry out to dry; she’s never owned a clothes dryer. Litten is part of a local group focusing on the dangers of synthetic turf. As The Enterprise has reported at length over the last several months, part of the Guilderland school district’s proposed $21.8 million capital project includes a $2.5 million plan to build a synthetic playing field at the high school. The public vote on the project is Oct. 7.In July, athletes, coaches, and sports boosters spoke enthusiastically to the school board about the need for a turf field. David Austin, the district’s director of Physical Education and Athletics, said, “I don’t think it’s a luxury. We’re at a disadvantage.” He said that, before the year is out, 10 of the 15 Suburban Council schools will have turf fields, which puts Guilderland players at a disadvantage. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Edna Litten — speaking out about plastic grass

Kristopher Williams is now in his third career, as the coordinator for the Capital Region PRISM, Partnership for Regional Invasive Species.Monitoring species that don’t belong is “a never-ending job,” he says, but worthwhile. “This is the greatest threat to endangered species and our ecosystem as we know it today,” said Williams on this week's podcast.The Capital Region PRISM, hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County, serves 11 counties, including Albany, with a staff that includes an aquatics coordinator, a terrestrial coordinator, and an educator.New York State has eight PRISMs, each involved in early detection and control of invasive species.“We train citizen scientists,” said Williams. Capital Region PRISM has partnered with iMapInvasives so that volunteers, each responsible for a grid, report on invasive species they’ve seen through an app.Invasive species can cause huge economic effects. It is thought the spotted lantern fly can cost losses of $400 million in New York State, Williams said. They start their life cycle in the tree of heaven, a Colonial invasive, he said.When they leave their host tree, they feed on stone fruit, like plums and peaches, and are attracted to vineyards and hops. They excrete a sticky honeydew-like substance that makes fruit inedible because of the mold it causes.“No native pest will eat them,” says Williams.Williams, who is a gardener himself, urges gardeners to plant native, resilient species and to diversify their plantings.“I love showy plants,” says Williams but he notes, “Quite often, they come from other countries.”Individuals can make a difference for the good. Other than planting wisely in their own yards, Williams said, they can adopt a favorite park or preserve to work on identifying and removing invasive species.People, he concludes, need to become more conscious of their goods and services and actions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kristopher Williams — invasive species and their huge effects

“We try to protect our little neighborhood,” says Ellen Manning, president of the McKownville Improvement Association. The association, which is almost a century old, is on the brink of achieving a new form of protection —  having part of McKownville listed on the state and national registers of historic places. Manning hypothesizes in this week’s podcast that what has kept the association active since 1924 is that McKownville is sandwiched between commercial and institutional development. An early Albany suburb, McKownville runs from the city line to the Northway, on both sides of Guilderland’s major thoroughfare, Route 20.The historic district will encompass about 106 properties, Manning said, including some on the north side of Western Avenue, most of Waverly Place, and parts of Norwood, Glenwood, Parkwood, and Elmwood streets. The architectural styles are typical of popular home construction in the early 20th Century, ranging from Colonial revival to Arts and Crafts bungalows. The streets are lined with century-old trees and the neighbors know one another, Manning said.She called research conducted by McKownville volunteers “remarkable” as they documented the history and wrote descriptions of individual buildings. Manning noted such work is often done instead by hired consultants. On Sept. 14, residents whose homes would be in the historic district are invited to a public meeting, which will be held virtually. Details are posted to the association’s website. Manning herself moved to McKownville in 1998. She had lived in Albany all of her life and was always aware of the neighborhood, having gone to McKown’s Grove as a child to swim. She describes her Arts and Crafts style home, built in 1914, as having “a lot of charm, inside and out.” She likes the simple lines, rustic feel, and natural features of the Arts and Crafts style, which replaced the fussiness of the Victorian period. Manning also appreciates the intimacy of the neighborhood with the houses close together and enjoys walking the tree-lined streets. She has noted, since the onset of the pandemic, many more walkers. “It’s bringing more people out,” she said. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ellen Manning — Preserving a sense of place in McKownville

Matthew Pinchinat was recently named as the director for diversity, equity, and inclusion — a new post for the Guilderland school district. Diversity, explains Pinchinat in this week’s podcast at AltamontEnterprise.com/podcasts, means recognizing people not from our background, and includes differences in thought as well. Now, he will be shifting his influence from just the students in his classes to the entire school district, from kindergarten through 12th grade. He is hoping to bring about system-wide change. The work, he said, calls to his heart, reaching people “in that human core” and paying forward the support he has been given. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, several Guilderland graduates, all Black women, had talked to the district’s superintendent and some school board members about the racism they had encountered at Guilderland and problems with the curriculum. Subsequently, the school board formed a standing committee to deal with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Then, when drafting the budget for the 2021-22 school year, the board created the post Pinchinat will now fill. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matthew Pinchinat, diversity, equity, and inclusion — ‘The community is larger than you’

As newcomers move to Voorheesville and New Scotland, Alan Kowlowitz hopes they will embrace their heritage, not as a matter of genetics, a love of place handed down through family, but rather like the love that ties a marriage together.New Scotland is growing at a faster rate than any other municipality in Albany County, with a 5.8 percent increase in population over the last decade, according to the recently released federal census data.Kowlowitz sees an irony in people moving to New Scotland because it’s a beautiful town and then having the development pressure erode what drew them to town in the first place.“You can’t preserve what you don’t know,” says Kowlowitz in this week’s podcast.Kowlowitz chairs the joint village and town Historic Preservation Commission. Voorheesville and New Scotland this summer were awarded a $10,000 grant from the Preservation League of New York State to fund a cultural resource survey for the village and the hamlets of New Salem and New Scotland.About 300 buildings, each at least 50 years old, will be photographed, researched, and mapped with the information uploaded to the state’s Cultural Resources Information System. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alan Kowlowitz — ‘You can’t preserve what you don’t know’

Brian Barr of Guilderland was one of five people recently recognized as a Community Bridge Builder at the inaugural awards ceremony held by ALERT, the Albany Law Enforcement Resolution Team.The not-for-profit was founded by Pastor David Traynham in 2015 after Michael Brown Jr., a Black man, was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Traynham felt it was just a matter of time before a similar incident would happen in Albany and he wanted to bring law enforcement together with the community to have one city united.Trynham and his wife, Brenda, founded the New Horizons Church in Albany.“The key is relationship,” says Barr in the week’s podcast.ALERT hosts an annual sports challenge, with a carnival-like atmosphere for kids, and a community and law enforcement summit as well as doing outreach.For example, Barr, who is president of Senior Hope Counseling, will be visiting seniors in housing projects with others to talk about substance-abuse disorders, opioid issues, and life-saving measures, he said.Through one personal connection at a time, Barr said, the goal is “turning down the violent atmosphere.” Anyone is welcome to join the ALERT task force or to contribute to the cause. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brian Barr — a way to work toward peace and harmony in Albany

Jennifer Black looks at a log and sees how it could become a bird or a lighthouse or a bear.With a chainsaw in her hands, she has a running conversation in her mind, changing what she creates as she carves. “My mind switches on me so quickly,” she says.Black will be creating her sculptures in front of onlookers next week at the Altamont Fair. What she does is both an art and a sport, says Black in this week’s podcast.  Black, who lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York, used to host competitions and has worked with chainsaw carvers from all over the world.She loves doing her work in front of an audience. “I love their discovery at the same time as mine,” she says. “We are discovering what’s in this log together.”As she travels to fairs and festivals, she especially likes it when there are children in the crowd. Black looks them in the eye and says her parents were surprised she is not a librarian. “We all can do whatever we want,” she tells the children.She is one of very few women in the field. When she traveled with her grown son — both of them wearing T-shirts proclaiming she was the carver with a big banner announcing the same thing — people would look past all of that and shake her son’s hand as if he were the carver.Black, who has herself been at it for nine years now, says she is in pain all the time. She did the podcast interview on the way to see her chiropractor whom she visits twice a week. “My hands right now are burning … from running a chainsaw six to eight hours a day.” She likened chainsaw carving to playing pro football, which has an expiration date. But Black keeps at it because she loves it. “If you can’t love what you do, you need to stop,” she says. When she’s carving, she says, “The pain melts away.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jennifer Black, chainsaw carver, “We are discovering what’s in this log together”

Lisa O’Sullivan and Quetta Duran share a passion for helping children. In their work for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region, they see how mentors paired with children can transform lives. The program, based in Albany, serves four counties: Albany, Saratoga, Rensselaers, and Schenectady.Right now, 74 children are waiting for a Big Brother or Big Sister. Anyone who is 18 or older with a car and a license, can apply to the program. After screening and training, each Big is paired with a Little. The pair go on twice-monthly outings and talk weekly on the phone.During the pandemic, the program went fully remote. “We wanted to keep our families and matches safe,” says O’Sullivan in this week’s podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lisa O’Sullivan and Quetta Duran — Pairing kids with mentors

Meg Eckhardt has a soothing alto voice. “Music speaks to a person’s heart,” she says in this week’s podcast.Eckhardt, who lives in Guilderland now, grew up listening to her English mother sing everything from folk songs to bar songs as she bustled about the house, doing chores. “There was music in the house all the time,” she said. Eckhardt did the same, raising her own children. Singing, she says, gives her a sense of freedom. “You don’t have to explain yourself,” she said. A registered nurse, Eckhardt became a massage therapist and used to work with hospice patients. She found that playing music from an era that mattered to her patients could comfort and uplift them as well as their families. She has sung in church choirs since she was 7. And now she also is a member of the Octavo Singers. “We primarily sing masses,” she said of the group of men and women, 100 strong. Every year, the group performs Handel’s “Messiah” and Eckherdt has heard regular concert-goers say, “That is Christmas to me.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Meg Eckhardt — ‘Music binds everyone together’

History is personal for Dennis Barber. He lives in a Civil War-era house on a farm that has been in his family for a century.In it, he has a trunk that came from Italy with all of the possessions of the Colucciello family when they immigrated from Fontanarosa, Italy in 1929. A decade-and-a-half later, Nicolina Colucciello, one of eight children, was at a square dance at Pat’s Ranch in Altamont where she met the man who would become her husband, Marshall Barber, Dennis’s father.Barber’s family history embraces not just the American immigration experience but the pioneering settlers as well. His great-great-grandfather, Josiah Barber, was born in Berne in 1839 and enlisted in New York’s 61st Infantry at the age of 23 to fight in the Civil War. He was wounded at Gettysburg in 1863.In this week’s podcast, Barber reads a narrative that he wrote with his brothers, detailing the life on their family’s farm. It was not an easy life but the Barbers were resilient. The family’s barn burned twice — in 1958 and the new one in 1984 — only to be built again. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dennis Barber — 100 years of loving the land

Will Aubrey, who has led the Helderberg Escarpment Hawk Watch at Thacher Park for more than two decades, is passing the torch — or perhaps the binoculars — to John Loz, who just finished his term as chairman of the Audubon New York Council. Each September, about 3,000 birdwatchers come to Thacher to count the raptors on their annual migration to South America.Aubrey says teaching is in his blood — both he and his sister became teachers, following their father and grandfather. With the Hawk Watch, he combines his passion for teaching with his role as a citizen scientist, reporting the numbers of each kind of raptor counted over 16 days to the Hawk Migration Association of North America and the NorthEast Hawk Watch.Aubrey describes the shapes and flight patterns that identify various raptors and says the local turkey vultures — “their wings in a V” — “act as a Welcome Wagon” for the raptors passing through, as they see the turkey vultures getting a free ride.“It’s environmental monitoring,” says Aubrey of the count in this week’s podcast at AltamontEnterprise.com/podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Will Aubrey and John Loz — Counting migrating raptors

Emma White, who grew up in Duanesburg, is now in Colorado Springs training for the Tokyo Olympics. She started her journey as a competitive road and cyclocross cyclist, following her older brother, Curtis. At 16, she made the junior boys’ team — those seven boys, now men, are still her best friends — and turned professional at 18. In 2018, she was invited to a Talent ID camp for USA Cycling. When she was told she had a chance at the Olympics, White went for it. After she and her teammates won the world championship in Berlin in 2020, they were primed for the Olympics — only to be gutted, delayed a year because of the pandemic. She has kept her balance after the suicide of a close friend and teammate, and she relies on the humanity of her coach. White and her teammates devote their days to rigorous training, followed by sauna sessions, without water, to get their bodies used to the discomfort they expect in Tokyo. Emma White is poised to win. — Photo from Emma White See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Emma White — Cycling in the Tokyo Olympics

Often, truth isn’t handed down from public officials but comes from listening to other voices. Once a week, you can hear a wide variety of views from people who shape our corner of the world in New York’s Capital Region. The Altamont Enterprise is the weekly newspaper of record for Albany County, New York.We’ve talked with a Buddhist who provided therapy for Gilda Radner and then helped set up Gilda’s Club after she died; with a Muslim woman who is trying to educate people about her religion as she feels increased hatred; with an African-American man who, as a teenager, helped ferry people north from a town in Mississippi haunted by lynchings.

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Other Voices

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