BERNE — There’s a common and somewhat pejorative joke about how the “Lord of the Rings” series should have been called “The Very Long Walk.” The humor lies in the fact that J.R.R.

Incumbent Berne town justices Albert Raymond and Alan Zuk both declined GOP nominations. The party will not seek replacements. 

Berne-Knox-Westerlo salutatorian Corey Bub, of Westerlo, will attend Schenectady County Community College to study game design.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo valedictorian Quinn Toomey is headed to Keuka College, in Yates County, to study applied mathematics and finance and to play baseball.

The Westerlo Democratic Committee, in a town where voters skew Democratic, is backing three GOP town board candidates for November.

Tim Lippert was Berne voters’ choice for the Democratic nomination in a town board race, but Anita Clayton, who has right-wing support, won the vast majority of absentee ballots, bringing what at first looked like a blowout down to the wire. 

How do you help a tree to grow? To be healthier? To live longer? 

The answer lies in human history as it’s captured by Rensselaerville author and arborist William Logan in his 2019 book, “Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees,” which has just been awarded the John Burroughs Medal. 

Superintendent Timothy Mundell handed out just under 50 diplomas to Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduates at Tawasentha Park, in Guilderland, as part of ceremony that highlighted the conviction and resilience of a graduating class that, like the one before it, had many of its senior-year rituals thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Berne Town Board members Joel Willsey and Bonnie Conklin solicited advice last week from the New York State Department of Transportation on steps to take to address dangerous guardrails, narrow shoulders, and fast drivers along state routes 85 and 443.

Timothy Lippert, who was endorsed by the Berne Democratic Committee, got 66 percent of the votes over Anita Clayton, a Democrat endorsed by the Conservative Party, in the Democratic primary race for a vacant town council seat, according to unofficial election results.