In the midst of national economic uncertainty, the leader of Bethlehem says the Albany County town is doing well — for now.
Since giving his eighth State of the Town address in January, Supervisor David VanLuven says Bethlehem continues to experience positive changes. At the beginning of the year, the town's water supply was making a difficult comeback after an October algae bloom had settled on the 165-acre Vly Creek Reservoir.
“We have resolved the musty water issue, and we have been getting consistently good reports from our water testing. Our water is safe to drink, and it smells fine now. And we recently got a Source Water Protection Plan finalized by the New York State Department of Health, saying that our water sources are of the highest quality. So that's a good thing. We are rolling aggressively into the building season. We've started construction of the Cherry Avenue extension multi-use path, which will connect the Albany County Rail Trail with the busy commercial district in Slingerlands. We're moving forward with a grant that we recently received, actually three grants, to redo the tennis courts at the town park, and we're finishing up redoing the olympic pool. We moving forward on zoning code improvements,” said VanLuven.
In November 2022, Bethlehem got the green light to spend nearly $3 million to acquire the once-bustling 300-acre Heath Dairy and Farm. VanLuven says efforts have been successful to preserve the site's antique barn.
“We are almost done stabilizing the barn, which included closing off some holes in the roof, putting in improved internal stabilization, where we had some vertical supports that were problematic, and fixing the foundation so that building, which is historic and had been neglected for decades, is now in much more solid shape," VanLuven said. "And now we are working with a garden group and veteran’s organization on creating a community garden there, and that would support residents who want to do gardening, but also veterans who are suffering from PTSD. We are looking into options for working with the Bethlehem Central High School’s cross country teams to start putting in a peripheral trail so that we can improve access to the site.”
With preservation efforts now underway at Heath, VanLuven says land is being cleared for a housing development to be built on the site of the old Glensmere Guernsey Farm on Kenwood Avenue, which will add to the tax roll.
The Democrat notes that business is booming in the town of approximately 35,000 residents. In 2024, 21 new businesses opened in town, and some major players are ready to set up shop in Bethlehem.
"We've got a new bagel shop moving in," VanLuven said. "We have Trader Joe's is in the process of moving into Glenmont. We have Uncommon Grounds moving into a new space in Elsmere, Coray Kitchen, a fantastic restaurant in Delmar, is thriving, and people are coming from all over the Hudson Valley to eat there.”
VanLuven says the town has been working closely with businesses along the Delaware Avenue corridor to develop a new traffic calming plan. In 2021 residents voted down the previous plan that would have narrowed the street to two lanes.
VanLuven noted the town received more than $7.7 million in federal, state and county funds in 2024 to support local projects and he expects federal funding to continue.
"So as far as we know, the funds that have been committed to the town are still coming to the town," said VanLuven. "What we're also watching very, very closely, though, is how the some of the decisions that have been made are going to affect the economy as a whole. And if we continue to see some of the discouraging patterns that we're seeing right now, as in the economy, that are resulting from decisions that are being made at the federal level, I think we will be looking at a challenging 2026 and we will be budgeting strategically to account for that."
VanLuven is running for a fifth two-year term in November, facing Republican James McGaughan, who heads the Albany County GOP.
