Knox residents Mary Varbero and Frank Muia have succeeded in their quest to free their Berne-Altamont Road property from the restrictions dictated by a covenant that the previous property owner said she was forced to agree to by the town’s planning board in the early 1990s.

KNOX — The Knox Town Board has decided not to opt out of New York State’s marijuana law. That means pot shops and parlors can come to town.

Two mental-health response teams have assisted over 100 people with roughly 240 incidents as of this month, which serves both those who are experiencing mental-health crises and traditional first responders who are not always necessary to handle those types of emergency calls. 

Dairy farmers have until February to enroll in the United States Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Margin Coverage program, which insures farmers against thinning margins by issuing payments whenever the ratio between cost of feed and all milk prices hits a certain threshold. 

On Jan. 20, the Knox Planning Board will invite town residents to give their thoughts on a proposed 5-megawatt solar project, sited at 1953 Thomspons Lake Road.

The Helderberg Lake Community Association is hoping to fund necessary dam repairs with money borrowed from the town of Berne, which would need to create a special tax district to recoup those funds over 30 years, at a rate of $5.35 per $1,000 of assessed home value. 

The Open Meetings Law was amended early last month — effective immediately upon Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signing — to require that all public bodies post meeting minutes online no more than two weeks after a meeting occurs

More than a fifth of Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s secondary students were quarantined last Friday.

Before the Berne Town Board appointed resident Donna Ferraino as the town’s dog-control officer, Councilman Leo Vane, in addition to calling the non-partisan office a “political position,” indicated that former DCO Jodi Jansen had resigned over “political issues,” which contradicts what Supervisor Sean Lyons told The Enterprise about Jansen’s resignation earlier this year.

Municipalities have until Dec. 31 to request that the New York State Cannabis Control Board prohibit marijuana dispensaries and consumption sites from establishing themselves within each municipality’s respective borders. So far, only two of the four Hilltowns have initiated public conversation on the matter.