Petitions filed to run for merged board

ST. JOHNSVILLE —  Fourteen candidates have filed petitions to run for the new Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville Board of Education.

Residents returning petitions to run for the board were: Darren Bellen, Cindy Breh, Glen Blanchard, Bruce Carpenter, Patricia Christensen, Neil Clark, Ben Conte, Chad Eggleston, Keith Handy, William Lints, Christopher Mosher, Lee Quackenbush, Susanne Sammons and Renee Swartz.

Bellen has served on the St. Johnsville Board of Education since 2008. He owns Bellenís Archery and Recreation. He lives in the village of St. Johnsville.

Blanchard is currently serving his twelfth year on the Oppenheim-Ephratah Board of Education. A town of Ephratah resident, he is a bus driver for the Little Falls City School District.

Breh is serving her first year on the Oppenheim-Ephratah Board of Education. A town of Oppenheim resident, she is self-employed.

Carpenter is a town of Oppenheim resident, and is currently serving his first year on the Oppenheim-Ephratah Board of Education. He worked for the Oppenheim-Ephratah district for 30 years as a custodian, bus driver and head of the buildings and grounds department.

Christensen has served for four years on the St. Johnsville Board of Education, including two years as vice president. She is registered nurse at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica and lives in the town of St. Johnsville.

Clark is a hydro-electric maintenance mechanic for Brookfield Renewable Power. He lives in the village of St. Johnsville.

Conte began serving on the Oppenheim-Ephratah Board of Education this year and is currently serving as board president. A town of Ephratah resident, he is an instructor at Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES and Fulton-Montgomery Community College.

Eggleston is currently serving his first year on the St. Johnsville Board of Education. He's a third grade teacher at the East Hill Elementary School in the Canajoharie Central School District. He lives in the village of St. Johnsville.

Handy is a dairy and crop farmer. He served on the St. Johnsville Board of Education from 1990 to 2005, holding the office of board president and vice president during his tenure. He lives in the town of St. Johnsville.

Lints is an Oppenheim resident. He is an environmental scientist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Mosher is civil engineer with the state Department of Transportation. He has served eight years on the St. Johnsville Board of Education and is currently serving as board president.

Quackenbush is a town of Oppenheim resident. He retired after serving 33 years in public education. During his tenure, he served 21 years as a school administrator including 10 years as a school superintendent.

Sammons is currently serving her sixth year on the Oppenheim-Ephratah Board of Education. She works at Fulton-Montgomery Community College as a technical assistant with the college's Student Development Center. She lives in Oppenheim.

Swartz is now in her second year on the St. Johnsville Board of Education. She is a registered nurse and director of nursing at the Wells Nursing Home in Johnstown.

In a referendum on Jan. 29, voters authorized the establishment of a seven-member board of education with members serving full terms of three years.

In order to stagger the number of seats up for election each year on the new board, the candidates elected with the most votes on March 19 will serve the longest terms, while those elected with the fewest votes will serve shorter terms. Based on the number of votes received, three members will receive three-year terms, two members will receive two-year terms and two members will receive one-year terms. Winners in all subsequent elections will receive full three-year terms.

Damages sought after July bar fight

FONDA — Canajoharie pub, its owners, and a St. Johnsville resident are being sued by a local man who says a bar fight caused him lifelong injuries.

Lawyers for Scott Y. Yager, of Canajoharie, filed a lawsuit at the Montgomery County Clerkís Office last week against Jim’s Irish Harbor Pub, owners Jim and Mary Blair, and Travis Collins, of St. Johnsville. He's seeking unspecified damages from them for his injuries.

Yager’s suit says he was sitting on the Little Mohawk Street establishment's patio last July around 11 p.m., when Collins exited after a physical confrontation inside, and then “struck, slashed, and seriously injured” him.

“[Yager] became sick, sore, lame and disabled ... and still suffers great physical and mental pain, and sustained severe shock and injuries in and about to his head, body, limbs and nervous system ... he believes his injuries will be permanent and he will be disabled in the future.”

The pub and the Blairs were also named, the suit says, because Collins was believed to be drunk, and the Blairs and their staff “carelessly and negligently allowed patrons to become intoxicated on their premises, and they failed to take reasonable steps to prevent their intoxication.”

“The negligence consisted in running a disorderly house that allowed arguing, shouting, harsh words and fighting to occur on the premises without taking any corrective action, in failing to call the police, and failing to make the premises secure.”

According to Recorder archives, Collins was arrested after the incident by the Canajoharie Police Department. Officials said when they responded to the scene, they found an unconscious male victim, who was bleeding from the back of his head.

“The victim was airlifted to Albany Medical Center, where he was found to have serious physical injuries, including a fractured skull, bruising of the brain, and an ear injury,” archives say.

Collins was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and jailed. According to Montgomery County District Attorney James E. “Jed” Conboy, Collins later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, was sentenced to 60 days jail, three years of probation, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim.

“It was one punch, according to the witnesses,” Conboy said. “They said they had some words, he was hit once, fell, and hit his head.”

Yager additionally alleges that he was unconscious, but employees failed to provide or procure help, and his injuries worsened.

— Heather Nellis

Supervisors call for repeal of SAFE Act

FOND — The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution that calls for the annulment of the state Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act.

Their decision was met with a round of applause from most of the residents who filled the supervisors’ chambers to ask the board to adopt the resolution.

Fort Johnson resident David Conrad called the SAFE Act “one of the most breathtaking, brazen assaults on the Constitution, and on individual liberty, in the history of the United States.”

Conrad and others asked the board to “send those who think they can trample our God-given Constitutional rights a strong message. To those who think they can just make up a law and take our guns ó think again, it doesn’t work like that.”

“Men and women from here in Montgomery County, dating back to the American Revolution, bled and died for the freedoms we have today,” Conrad continued. “Their bravery and sacrifice are the reasons I fight for the Constitution today.”

Charleston town Councilman Paul Orzolek had similar comments. “Our founding fathers gave us the right in the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms — all arms. It’s a right we will fight diligently to uphold.”

Amsterdam resident Phil Lyford said he’s for “the other side.” He was the only resident who did not ask the board to support the resolution.

Lyford cited U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s written opinion of the 2008 decision that upheld Americans’ right to own guns, but says society has the right to control gun ownership.

“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited ... It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,” Scalia wrote.

“Our history has been changed many times by gun violence,” Lyford said. “Look at JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Gabrielle Giffords.”

Minden Supervisor Thomas Quackenbush said he’s “tired of” references to people who have become “the poster children” for the act.

“In 1997, I lost a brother and a nephew on the same day to someone who killed them with a gun. The guy did it. It wasn’t the gun. It hits home to a lot of us, but you’ve got to use reason, and if you’re going to take the gun out of my hand, it’ll be my cold, dead hand while I’m laying on the ground.”

The resolution was considered at the request of Sheriff Michael Amato, who was not present at Tuesday’s meeting, but has publicly expressed his opposition to the laws in the Feb. 13 edition of the Recorder.

Amato was one of 52 sheriffs united through the state Sheriffs Association in January to review the provisions, and subsequently issued a six-page position statement that questioned the law’s intent and impact.

In a previous interview, Amato said he thinks the “haste” passage of the law created more problems than it solved, because of vague language that could have been avoided had the law been available for review and public comment.

“It was a bad way of going about such an important piece of legislation,” Amato said. “I’m not happy with it at all. If we give them an inch, will it come to the point we can’t have any weapons?”

— Heather Nellis