Westerlo Acting Highway Superintendent Dave Pecylak, on the Republican and Conservative lines, is seeking voters’ approval to finish out former superintendent Jody Ostrander’s term, but is being challenged by James Brush on the Democratic line.

A Lamborghini worth more than $200,000 was destroyed in Clarksville when, during a joyride that the Albany County Sheriff described as something out of the street-racing franchise “Fast and Furious,” one of the drivers failed to negotiate a turn and the car wound up in flames on the side of the road. There were no injuries.

Democrat Janet Tweed, of Delhi, is looking to unseat Republican Assemblyman Chris Tague, a six-year incumbent from Schoharie who represents the largely rural 102nd Assembly District. The Enterprise spoke with both about their views on rural broadband, drug-addiction support, and the environment.

Albany County will be expanding broadband to at least 591 homes in Rensselaerville and Coeymans using American Rescue Plan funding, but hopes to also secure state aid that would bring broadband to 1,142 homes in Coeymans, New Scotland, Bethlehem, and the four Hilltowns. 

A Freedom of Information Law request has revealed that the town of Berne has continued to neglect some of its National Grid bills, two years after The Enterprise first reported on a number of similar lapses.

Berne Town Clerk Kristin de Oliveira says that the supervisor has crafted a tentative budget that he filed with the clerk’s office, but it hasn’t been published on the town’s website and the clerk claimed that she could not send a copy to The Enterprise at this time.

Knox and Westerlo’s tentative 2025 budgets show total appropriations going up, but Knox, so far, projects no increase in townwide taxes, while Westerlo projects a 2-percent increase.

Jim McGaughan, who previously chaired the Bethlehem Republican Committee, was elected last month as chairman of the Albany County GOP, replacing Randy Bashwinger, of Berne.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy told The Enterprise this week that creative budgeting allows for the consistent decreases in property taxes, but cautioned that unfunded state mandates could reverse that trend.

Albany County is first in the state and among the top counties nationally for its increase in new business applications, rising 34 percent last year, according to data from the United States Census Bureau, and 130 percent since 2020.