Gloversville voters approved a $40 million capital improvement project Tuesday.

The vote was 211 to 73, a 74.3% approval, district officials said.

Final design work will begin soon.

“I am impressed with the overwhelming community support for the proposed project. The Gloversville school community clearly understands the importance of investing in our children’s future,” Superintendent David Halloran said in a release.

State aid is expected to fund much of the work, a capital reserve fund will reduce the local cost, and the district will pay off older debt to make payments for this project. That means the project is not expected to increase the property tax, Halloran said.

The district now begins final project design, state review and a detailed construction timeline. Much of the work will be scheduled to limit disruptions to the school day.

Work at Husky Stadium is the big-ticket item, said district representative Anthony DiNitto. It would allow the field to be used by more teams, and the larger community, too, including Little Leagues, Little Huskies and others.

The work needed to happen, anyway, Halloran said. “The subsurface needs full replacement” because of drainage problems. Moving to an artificial turf field would also save $50,000 a year in maintenance costs.

The work would refurbish both the football and baseball fields and replace the perimeter fence.

Poor field conditions have sometimes prevented practices, games and events on Husky Field, Athletic Director Michael Demagistris has said.

The project also replaces boilers across the district and adds a secure vestibule to the district office.

Also planned:

Park Terrace Elementary — Reconfigures the bus loop and student drop-off zone to improve safety; expands the faculty parking lot.

Boulevard Elementary — Installs a new main entrance and bus zone for improved traffic flow; creates access in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The current entrance can get icy during the winter, Halloran said.

Gloversville Middle School — Replaces the roof. “Living in the Northeast and having flat roofs on large buildings, it’s imperative we have state-of-the-art roofing,” he said.

A horse-drawn Amish buggy continues up Dygert Road in the town of Palatine.

Taking the mane road

With health insurance premiums for nearly 2 million New Yorkers set to increase at year’s end, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Wednesday urged Republicans to support legislation to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and voiced support for a Congressional investigation into growing insurance rates.

Gillibrand, D-NY, made the remarks during a virtual press event ahead of a pair of votes set to take place in the Senate on Thursday, including a proposal by Democrats that would extend the COVID-19-pandemic-era enhanced subsidies set to expire by 2026 for another three years.

More than 20 million Americans will see their health insurance premiums spike should the subsidies expire, including thousands of New Yorkers, according to Gillibrand, who said there is a “desperate need” for the subsidies to be extended.

“This situation forces families to make an impossible gamble: enroll in a plan they truly can’t afford or go without health insurance all together and pray they don’t get sick or need emergency care,” Gillibrand said. “No American should ever have to make that choice.”

First approved in 2021, the premium subsidies expanded the number of Americans eligible to receive financial assistance to cover health care costs by providing funding in the form of tax credits to those with an income of 400% more than the federal poverty level.

More than 140,000 New Yorkers currently qualify for the tax credits, according to the state’s Department of Health, which estimates that around 80,000 will lose coverage all together if the credits are not expired. Premiums for those for rely on the subsidies would increase an average of 40% for New Yorkers.

The credits also support another 1.7 million New Yorkers who receive insurance through the state’s Essential Plan, which provides no-cost insurance to working families.

Extending the subsidies has been a top priority for Democrats in Congress and led to a 43-day government shutdown that ended last month. Eight Democrats struck a deal to reopen the government after Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to hold a vote to extend the subsidies before the end of the year.

But a deal to extend the subsidies seems unlikely to pass the Senate, where Republicans have introduced their own legislation that would allow the subsidies to lapse and send direct payments to Americans to purchase insurance through health savings accounts.

The Republican measure would provide Americans over the next two years earning less........

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