The below story is from today’s (Sunday) Post Star newspaper. It speaks of the Town’s website that was redesigned under the leadership of Hartford Town Councilman Bob Dillon and his company Adirondack Strategic Marketing. Bob, working pro-bono due to his town position, created a collaboration with Orange Olive Design, IPress2000, and native Hartford photographer Charles Cornell to produce our revamped website. As you can see from the below story, Bob’s efforts have been gauged to be quite the success. Dana

SOUTH GLENS FALLS — Yet another village has been inspired by the town of Hartford.

South Glens Falls has hired the company that designed Hartford’s new website. Recently, Schuylerville officials also agreed to pay for a redesign that they said should be similar to Hartford’s site.

South Glens Falls Village Board members hope the website will begin to be improved within a week. They voted to hire Ipress 2000 of Queensbury.

The South Glens Falls site is rarely updated, with Village Board agendas sometimes not posted. Currently, the last agenda posted was for a July 12 Planning Board meeting, but the agenda is still on the main page of the website, more than a month later.

The latest Village Board minutes that appear on the site date back to March 15.

There’s also incorrect information on the site. Residents are still directed to call Brian Abare about Public Works emergencies or “information of any kind.” He resigned in May.

Ipress offered by far the cheapest of three proposals for a website redesign. It offered to design a better site for $1,500, with no cost for updates. The company also offered free training to village employees so they can update the site themselves. That will allow the village to post updates much more quickly, said board member Nick Bodkin.

Ipress will also charge the village an annual $475 for hosting, maintenance and the domain name.

Bodkin sought out proposals for a website redesign. But he abstained from the final vote because he uses Ipress for his business, Massage Works.

Officials have tried to work with the current website provider, North Country Computer, which is based in South Glens Falls. They’ve been trying to increase update speed for months.

“But our current provider is having health issues. That has limited our ability to keep things up to date,” Bodkin said.

North Country Computers proposed $3,000 to $4,000 for a redesign and $50 an hour for updates, such as posting agendas and minutes.

Mannix Marketing also put in a proposal, for a $7,350 redesign.

Board members preferred Ipress, particularly since they don’t have any money set aside in the budget for a website redesign.

“We obviously need to update our website big time, and I think this moves us in the right direction,” said board member Tony Girard.

The board agreed they would make their final payment to North Country Computers after Ipress takes over, so the website doesn’t suddenly disappear. It is located at sgfny.com.

You can reach Kathleen Moore at 742-3247 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ByKathleenMoore or at her blog on www.poststar.com.

96362-Town of Hartford-1702 for 2017

Click on the above link to see the flyer.

If you wish to sign up your sale on the map, please call or see Bonnie Williamson at ‘As Time Goes By’632-5166 before the 8/6/16 deadline.

I am very happy to report that The Hudson Valley Wireless Internet tower behind my house on Shine Hill is now up and running. As you can see by my photo, it overlooks much of Hartford. If you can physically see the tower from your house, or the peak of your roof, etc., then you can get the internet from it. Hartford is coming into the 21st century! Next to come will be the Verizon Cell phone tower on Dick Hill.

Letter from DOT (Baldwin Corners Rd Project) – Recd 06.16.2017

This story is from the June issue of Lancaster Farming. Dana

HARTFORD, N.Y. — Wayne Foote kept getting asked the same question for several years after buying his farm.

“How come you don’t have any cows?” his neighbors would ask.

Foote always answered the same way.

“I haven’t lost my mind yet.”

Today, he and his wife, Betsy, have a 57-head herd of Guernseys on their dairy farm in Washington County, New York.

The Footes and their adult children — Wayne Jr., Mary and Suzanne — are chairing the National Guernsey Convention scheduled for June 26-July 1 in Saratoga Springs.

More than 350 people from throughout the U.S. are expected at the convention, based in neighboring Saratoga County, where Wayne Sr. and Betsy are from.

Both grew up surrounded by Guernseys at Welcome Stock Farm, owned by Betsy Foote’s father, Bill Peck, who is renowned in the dairy industry for his work with genetics. Wayne Foote Sr. worked there and eventually married Betsy.

The couple bought their current farm in Hartford, Washington County.

While Welcome Stock Farm has a large Holstein herd numbering in the hundreds, the Footes have stayed true to their dairy roots. Wayne Foote Sr. is president of the New York Guernsey Breeders Association.

Things got started when his daughter, Mary Foote, bought Welcome Stock Farm’s last Guernsey, named Apple, from her grandfather, Bill Peck, for a dollar.

Before long, Wayne Sr. and Betsy Foote went to a Guernsey auction in Vermont and came home with another cow, named Jessica.

“The bids kept getting higher and finally got up to $1,650,” Wayne Foote Sr. said. “My wife said, ‘We can’t afford that!’ But I said, ‘Listen, today’s Saturday. I’ve been doing a lot of work for people who owe me money.’ So by Monday I had the money.

“Everything’s got a story behind it,” he added.

In 2005, Jessica won grand champion female at the New York State Fair and was named honorable mention junior All-American 5-year-old. Two other cows, Jessie and June, won top honors at the New York State Fair in 2009 and 2013. These and other cows from the farm have won many prizes at the annual Washington County Fair, New York’s third-largest county fair.

The Footes’ farm is known as Welcome Stock Guernseys and they do a great deal to promote the breed at the local, state and national levels.

Betsy Foote is an agricultural science teacher at Greenwich High School. Students in the 4-H program lease cows from Welcome Stock Guernseys to raise and care for, and then show at fair time in late August.

“A lot of kids want to do this,” she said. “They come up here and work with their cow during the summer. They might not become dairy farmers, but they’re getting a connection to agriculture, which is so important.”

This month’s convention has a “Turning Point” theme because the 1777 Battles of Saratoga, 240 years ago, marked the turning point of the American Revolution, when Patriots defeated General John Burgoyne’s highly superior British army.

Likewise, the Footes see the convention as a kind of turning point for promoting the Guernsey breed in upstate New York and New England. Guernseys now comprise less than 1 percent of America’s dairy cow population, as the industry has trended toward Holsteins, which are stronger and produce greater volumes of milk.

However, Guernsey milk is famous for its rich flavor, high protein and butterfat content, and health benefits related to the A2A2 protein.

“This was a dominant breed before refrigeration,” Betsy Foote said. “This breed had the milk with the highest butterfat. Protein was excellent for cheese making. Then refrigeration happened, so they didn’t have to turn the milk into cheese right away. So Holstein became the breed of choice because of their quantity of milk

“Today, people are recognizing the value of the Guernsey milk because of the value of the A2A2 protein that lactose-intolerant people can drink with a problem,” she said.

Guernseys have a distinct orange/red-and-white color.

“They’re beautiful animals; they’re very docile and calm,” Wayne Foote Sr. said. “They like human contact. At a large farm, cows are numbered. Here, everybody has a name.”

The breed originated on the Island of Guernsey, a small island near the coast of Normandy, where Allied forces stormed ashore 73 years ago this week on D-Day — June 6, 1944.

From the 1950s to the early 1970s, Golden Guernsey trademark milk was sold in the U.S. and Canada as a premium product. Its light yellow or golden color is from its high beta carotene content, a source of vitamin A.

The high protein and butterfat content nets a slightly higher price, about $1.50 to $2 more per hundredweight than Holstein milk, Wayne Foote Sr. said.

The couple’s only lament is that customers don’t get to experience their milk’s unique flavor because it’s blended with other milk during regular pickups. They simply don’t produce enough to warrant separate pickups, sales and marketing.

“We have this awesome quality milk and its going in with all the other milk,” Betsy Foote said. “I would love to be able to turn it into cheese or bottle it as Guernsey milk and offer it locally. Right now, locally, that’s not an option.”

So for the time being, the family is content knowing they’re keeping an important part of dairy history and heritage alive while contributing greatly to its economic well-being.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Betsy Foote said.

Paul Post is a freelance writer in eastern New York. He can be reached at [email protected].

Congratulations to Hartford’s Stan Pritzker! This appears in the Post Star newspaper.
PS Column: Pritzker sworn in.
Local state Supreme Court Justice Stan Pritzker officially became an Appellate Division justice on Wednesday.
Pritzker, a Hartford resident, was sworn in during a ceremony in Albany attended by numerous local judges and dignitaries.
Pritzker, a former Washington County Family Court judge, was chosen to fill an opening on the appeals court, the second highest court in the state, late last month.
— Don Lehman

Hartford’s new Youth Commission field project took a big step fwd yesterday. Thanks to a grant the Town secured from Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District, we were able to purchase quality top soil and hydroseed the 2 acre field. This will become the future site for a baseball diamond and soccer field. This field is on school property and is just west of the Varsity soccer field. A big thank you to Washington County DPW and Washington & Warren County Soil and Water Conservation Districts who operated Washington County’s hydro seeder using 8,000 gallons of water. hydroseeder.