A Conversation with Professor and Mayor Tim Knight

By Wildert Marte

MIDDLEBURGH — In a quiet corner of SUNY Oneonta, Professor Tim Knight sat down to talk about his life, journalism, and his journey into public service as mayor of Middleburgh. The conversation revealed how growing up in Schoharie County shaped his path and how he continues to give back to the community that raised him.

“I was born and raised over in Richmondville, New York,” Knight said. “I was raised by a single mom, and my older brother was in the household with us. I had three older brothers that moved out before I was raised. It was a good childhood. It was baseball, it was politics, it was friends, it was family it was all the things that you expected [in a] traditional upstate New York… neighborhood. I enjoyed where I grew up. It was good people.”

Knight later attended SUNY Cobleskill, where he studied communications and lived with his friend and future colleague, Professor Matthew Avitabile. “So I actually did have Professor Avitabile for classes at Cobleskill,” he said. “He was teaching, and I was a student. That was an interesting experience. He held me accountable like everyone else, and I didn’t receive any special papers despite being a roommate.”

College, he explained, was transformative after being homeschooled. “I never had that traditional schooling environment,” he said. “So being able to go there, where there was all this structure, where there was this routine of how education was administered I fell in love with it. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m here now.”

After earning his degree at Cobleskill, Knight went on to complete his Master’s at the University at Albany. “I knew that I wanted to stay local,” he said. “Born and raised in Richmondville, moved down to Middleburgh when I was a teenager, I've been Schoharie County my whole life. But I wanted to get a Master’s degree because I wanted to teach. Albany not only had a program that was equipped to my interest political communication, interpersonal communication but it was accessible. Being a commuter student, going there worked out well.”

Before teaching full-time, Knight spent several years in journalism, including his early days at The Mountain Eagle under its former owners. “When I first started there, it was really kind of like this guerrilla journalism operation,” he said. “It was the low man on the totem pole fighting against an entrenched news organization. So it was really grassroots fighting for information and scoops. It was a lot of fun.”

He later became editor of The Cobleskill Herald section of this newspaper when it was first introduced in 2021. “We got that off the ground,” he said. “It’s been a pretty successful addition to the paper. A lot of good memories, good experiences.” Knight also freelanced for The Watershed Post, covering stories across the Catskills. “They were an online-based news organization out of Margaretville,” he said. “They would offer me various assignments throughout the region covering meetings, talking to someone running for office, or some controversy that was occurring.”

One story stood out. “There was this tremendous amount of animosity between the folks in this region and the Orthodox Jewish communities that were starting to move into the area,” he said. “I got sent down to cover this meeting that was meant to bring everybody together. It was this

two-hour-long kind of kumbaya session. But then that night, no more than 15 minutes away, there was this town hall where people were yelling these nasty, derogatory things at each other. That ended up being one of my stronger articles. It was so on the ground, but also in touch with the context.”

As mayor of Middleburgh, Knight’s role looks very different, though it still revolves around people. “Probably first and foremost in terms of what mayors do is they respond to their constituents’ needs,” he said. “Sometimes it could be as simple as, can you fill a pothole in front of my home? Can you help me figure out a billing situation with my water and sewer? And then other times, it could get a little interesting.”

He recalled one unusual problem: “We had an issue a couple years ago about feral cats in Middleburgh. There’s no state statute that allows you to deal with cats. So it was an issue that existed, but it was something we didn’t have the authority or the power to deal with.”

For those interested in running for office, Knight’s advice is simple. “Attend the meetings of your local community so you can learn what the culture is and what’s actually being addressed firsthand,” he said. “A lot of folks think, ‘I’m gonna go in there, I’m gonna change things on day one.’ It’s not always that simple.”

And for aspiring reporters? “Start local, start small, and then build your way up,” he said. “Having that local experience reminds you that all things are local and that allows you to see the nuances in a story.”