Pre-empted on April 11

 

Pete Bardunias (in blue shirt) listens to Cynthia Young (across table) at our meeting on Thursday.

Pete, who was our speaker, is senior vice president for community advancement at the Capital Region Chamber. (Cynthia is our club treasurer, and the town of Malta supervisor.)

Pete talked about "keeping the lights on" as possibly his top priority, and a new geothermal energy company in town. 

He also plugged "Inside Malta: A Community Business Forum", which is an 8-9:30 am breakfast event to be held April 11 at the Malta Community Center. Panelists will include leaders from GlobalFoundries, HVCC North, Arnoff, and Signature ONE Real Estate.

The club decided to cancel its scheduled April 11 meeting because members might want to attend the Chamber event. That breakfast is open to the public, and to register and purchase tickets, or find out more information, click on this link.

Schools Report

 

Dr. Gianleo Duca (in tie), Ballston Spa School District superintendent, speaks at this morning's Rotary meeting.

Duca addressed various issues, including key and related district goals of enhancing parent engagement and ensuring students get in the habit of actually attending school. The district is working with Hudson Valley Community College to push education for the trades, and is concerned about a persistent problem of student homelessness. 

There was discussion about transportation, and the cameras with audio on school buses which are there to prevent bullying. He expressed concern about the state's electric vehicle mandates for buses. One issue is that the district would need more space to park its fleet (currently of 86), because of the danger of fire spreading from one electric vehicle to another.

Rocket Man

 

This image is from a Jan. 7, 2021 article in Saratoga Today by Paul Perreault, who was our speaker on Thursday. Paul, the recently retired Malta town historian, talked about the Malta Test Station, founded in 1945 by the US Army and General Electric Co. on land leased from the Luther family. The site, still standing with many empty buildings and other structures in the Luther Forest Technology Campus, is now located next to the GlobalFoundries computer chip plant, and across Rocket Way from town-owned sports recreation fields.

Rocket engines were tested in Malta, developing technology derived from the V2 missile used by the Germans near the end of World War II. Many German scientists who worked on the V2 project, including Wernher von Braun, were brought to the United States to help develop ballistic missiles and, later, rockets used for space exploration.