Albany Times Union Local News

BETHLEHEM — The Hannaford supermarket at Delaware Plaza in Delmar is seeking a zoning variance to place a small 18-square-foot sign on the store's facade.

The supermarket chain wants to add a sign for its "Hannaford to Go" service made more popular during the pandemic. However, town zoning rules only allow one sign with a total size of 125 square feet. The new sign would violate both the number of signs and put the store over the square footage size limit, although the town's zoning board of appeals can grant an exception.

Albany

National Grid customers are having a difficult time paying their bills amid a the global pandemic that has led to large-scale layoffs and financial hardships across the state.

Meanwhile, the utility is trying to convince state regulators to allow it to increase rates and raise gas and electric bills in the Capital Region even more.

ALBANY — It's a phone call no college student wants to get.

When they learn they are presumed positive for COVID-19 and must isolate for two weeks, students reactions can range from angry to disappointed.

"It does come as a surprise because they might not have symptoms," UAlbany social work student Taylor Perre said. "Some people don't mind it, they like the alone time ... but for a lot of people, it's tough."

Black Friday came with no parking lots packed full of cars, early-morning lines, or crowded stores for dedicated shoppers. Instead, shoppers found parking spots as easily as they would on any typical Friday at the mall, sometimes waited in a short line outside of a store due to limiting capacity to follow Covid-19 safety precautions, and browsed stores in peace.

ALBANY — The Lark Street Business Improvement District, along with Global Partners LP and The Boys & Girls Club of the Capital Area, will host an outdoor, socially distanced holiday market, featuring Lark Street's merchants, on Saturday. The event will feature holiday music and specials, sales and promotions at retail shops throughout the area.

Global will sponsor a small business scavenger hunt with the first 20 people to finish it awarded a $25 gift certificate to a local business.

And the Ujamaa Market, a newly founded makers’ market supporting local Black and brown entrepreneurs, will run a socially distanced, holiday version of their Market at the Boys & Girls Club of Albany.

A Troy nursing home resident has died due to complications from COVID-19, Rensselaer County officials confirmed Friday.

The victim, an 87-year-old, was a resident of the Eddy Heritage House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which has been battling a coronavirus outbreak since early November. Dozens of residents and staff have become infected as a result of the outbreak, county officials have said.

ROTTERDAM — The 200,000-square-foot building that Galesi Group is developing at its Rotterdam Corporate Park is intended to meet growing demand for warehouse and distribution space in the Capital Region. The more than $10 million project apparently doesn't yet have tenants lined up, but as consumers do more online shopping, the whole retail supply chain is undergoing changes.

Galesi recently completed a 250,000-square-foot building at the Rotterdam Corporate Park whose tenants are FedEx and Home Depot, according to the Schenectacy County Metroplex Development Authority.

It’s still a game that Fruscio, now Albany Academy’s head coach, mentions to his players as example of perseverance and the important of every possession. And the marathon contest came to mind again on Wednesday night.

Schenectady County health officials are asking recent visitors to the county library system’s Glenville branch to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms after someone who works there tested positive for coronavirus.

The employee worked at the branch on Nov. 18 from 1 to 5 p.m., the county health department said.

The county says close contacts of the person have been identified and quarantined, and said it believes risk of exposure to the general public would have been low. Nevertheless, it’s asking anyone who was at the branch during that time period to monitor themselves for possible symptoms for 14 days from that date and consider getting tested.

The school district announced it was adding the week of remote learning Friday after learning that person who tested positive for the coronavirus came into close contact with others. Several classes will be quarantined due to contact with the individual.

"With the large number of students and staff who will be in quarantine next week as a result of this case and others confirmed recently in the high school community, the high school will continue remote learning through Friday, Dec. 4," the district wrote in an email to parents and others.

CANAJOHARIE — A couple bought a fixer-upper in the rural Village of Ames and found 88 bottles of liquid treasure lining its walls and floorboards.

Nick Drummond and Patrick Bakker heard that the old Montgomery County home they purchased last fall had been built by a notorious bootlegger, but they had chalked the claim up to small-town lore.

Drummond found the first bottle of Prohibition-era whiskey by accident in October while renovating an unfinished mudroom attached to the house, which was built in 1915.

COLONIE — A man who was granted a coronavirus-related compassionate release in September and afterward allegedly stole over $3,200 from a resident was taken into custody Wednesday after a DNA test matched him with the forensic evidence collected at the scene from the burglary.

Albany County officials believe it’s likely that due to rising coronavirus cases parts of the county will soon be designated a microcluster zone and face additional restrictions by the state.

They disagree over how soon that may happen, though.

By the state’s math, the share of people testing positive for coronavirus in the county over a seven-day average — a metric the state is using to determine zones — had topped 3 percent for six days straight as of Wednesday, the last day for which data were available Friday. If that continues for 10 days straight, parts of the county could become microclusters under the state’s plan for controlling COVID-19 spread.

But as an indication of just how badly local leaders do not want that to happen, on Friday, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said the county did its own math and found the positivity rate as of Wednesday was actually 2.987 percent — less than a tenth of a point shy of the 3 percent threshold that could trigger a “yellow” precautionary zone.

As New York’s budget deficit ballooned this spring, state budget director Robert Mujica sought to dramatically slow spending by imposing a “strict” freeze on all hiring by state agencies.

Yet by August, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office had hired four veterans of Democratic presidential campaigns at a combined taxpayer cost of $567,000 in annual salaries.

SEWARD — A home blew up on Route 145 Thursday night but no one was injured, State Police said.

Troopers said they were called to 5700 Route 145 just before 9 p.m. to investigate.

No one was living in the home and troopers said it was unoccupied when it exploded.

State Police said they are working with the Schoharie County Fire Coordinator's office. No cause for the blast has been found, they said.