The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Judith L. (White) Quackenbush

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May 24, 1949 – March 13, 2025

Dear friends, family, and anyone reading this out of curiosity:

I am writing my own story, so it’s one less thing to do when I pass away. I was born May 24, 1949, at the now-closed St. Luke’s Hospital on East Street in Pittsfield, MA. My poor dad spent hours in the smoky men’s waiting room as the nuns forgot to tell him I’d been born earlier!

My older sister Margo (Penny) and I were raised in the baby boom; a simpler life. It was an era of playing with dolls, croquet, horseback riding, biking to Pontoosuc Lake, volunteering at the local hospital, singing for years in South Congregational church choir, playing guitar, later donating 93 pints of blood at Red Cross Drives, and being a member, with my dad, at the Berkshire Museum Camera Club. As a teen, I bought a ‘57 Chevy and loved such freedom! I was so devastated by the assassination of President Kennedy. The Beatles’ arrival lightened the sadness and I became a huge fan. I was a member of Pittsfield High School’s class of 1967. It was too large a class to fit all of us, so many of us attended freshman year at Crosby Jr. High for double sessions. [Read more…] about Judith L. (White) Quackenbush

Electronics Recycling Day

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Legislature Announces Annual Electronics Recycling Day

Recycling Event will be held at East Greenbush County Offices

Rensselaer County Legislature Press Release

Chairwoman of the Legislature Kelly Hoffman proudly announces that the annual Electronics Recycling Event will be held at the new County Office Building at 99 Troy Rd in East Greenbush on Saturday, April 5th from 9:30 am until 1 pm. The Legislature and its Environmental Management Council team up each year to sponsor this very popular event.

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4th Grader Takes 2nd Place at Chess Championships

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Hoosick Falls Central School’s fourth grade student Eamon Keegan participated in the 57th annual New York State Scholastic Chess Championships. This was a 2-day, 6-game tournament, open to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Eamon went undefeated in his section (K – 5, Under 600) and placed second (based on tiebreakers) out of 277 participants!

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Isabelle E. Boomhower — Obituary

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GRAFTON – Isabelle Elizabeth (Miller) Boomhower, 84, died peacefully in her home on Friday, March 7, 2025 with her family at her side. She was born in Pittsfield, MA on July 10, 1940, the daughter of the late George and Janette (O’Brien) Miller.

Isabelle was raised in Hancock, MA where she worked on a farm growing up. Following her marriage, she moved to Grafton, NY where she lived most of her life. She was a homemaker raising her three children. [Read more…] about Isabelle E. Boomhower — Obituary

Bertha Alden — Obituary

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Niskayuna – Bertha Anna Marie (Piritz) Alden passed away Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at St Peter’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Albany, NY.  She was just five months shy of her 98th birthday. Born on July 30th, 1927, she was the daughter of the late Reinhold F. and Anna Marie Piritz and had fond memories of the small farm in West Hoosick where she grew up.

Following graduation from Hoosick Falls High School (and at the urging of her older brother Otto) she moved to Schenectady and took a job at General Electric. Her first husband, Earl Griswald who she knew from high school, died in an industrial accident in 1957. She subsequently married John Alden and together they built one of the first homes on Trottingham Drive in Niskayuna. John passed in 1976, but she continued to reside there until moving into assisted living at Ingersoll Place in February, 2019. [Read more…] about Bertha Alden — Obituary

Grafton Town Board Highlights

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by Denise Wright
The March 10th Grafton Town Board meeting was full of business, ranging from energy audits to Supervisor Committee assignments.

After the approval of the February 10th Town Board Organizational Meeting minutes, the town supervisor reported that several members of the board attended the EMS meeting in Poestenskill on February 20th. The meeting was well attended, with 150 people learning how to work on creating a solution for the lack of emergency services crisis in eastern Rensselaer County. The supervisor assured attendees that Grafton would “step up” to do their part in the solution and thanked the Grafton Rescue Squad for their services in keeping their community safe.

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New Trout Egg Pilot Program

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Submitted by Frank Dingman, RCCA President
The Homewaters Chapter 586 of Trout Unlimited along with members of the Rensselaer County Conservation Alliance began a Pilot Program with the stocking not of trout but of their eggs in two Rensselaer County waterways. This program was the brainchild of Homewaters TU member George Breen. The program started with the purchase of a number of “Whitlock Boxes” which will contain the eggs and is buried in the streambed and will mimic a natural trout nesting site or REDD. As the eggs mature and hatch the trout fry rise up through the gravel as would those on a natural trout REDD. Due to the decreased fish stocking in NYS both Homewaters TU and the RCCA decided to try and augment fish stocking by trying this program to try and increase trout numbers in the streams in Rensselaer County. If this program is successful the long-term goal is to expand the fish egg stocking to other streams in the county.

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Marilyn M. Homiak — Obituary

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BERLIN – Marilyn M. Homiak passed peacefully from this life, surrounded by the love of her family, and entered into the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Monday, February 24th 2025 at the age of 83 years.

Marilyn was born into the loving family of Harold and Della (DeGraw) Rea in Paterson, New Jersey on March 6, 1941. She grew up in Singac, NJ, with her five siblings, and was a graduate of St. Bonaventure High School. Soon after graduation she married the love of her life, Nicholas S. Homiak and began a family. In 1971 Marilyn and Nicholas, with a love for the Taconic Valley, relocated to Berlin, New York to reside and raise their family. Once her children were in school, Marilyn took employment as bookkeeper with Berlin Lumber Company where she worked for many years. Marilyn retired to care for her ailing husband prior to his passing on July 26, 2014. [Read more…] about Marilyn M. Homiak — Obituary