Heidemarie Carle, who is set to retire as director of the Rensselaerville Library in November, accepted the position mere months before COVID-19 shut down the library in March of 2020, which she called a “bushelful of lemons” that she and her staff turned into “batches of lemonade.”

Particular focus was given by the Westerlo Town Board to salaries and wages in the town clerk’s office which, under the tentative budget, would see a $14,500 jump overall for four employees.

The $2.5 million 2023 prliminary budget is about half-a-million dollars less than this year’s $3 million budget, but maintains the steep tax cuts that had been introduced this year.

Helderberg Rescue Squad is hoping to establish a scholarship at the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill to attract recruits from the school’s emergency medical technicians program to make up for a lack of local volunteers. 

Knox’s tentative 2o23 budget features tax increases in the town’s two fire districts, while the townwide levy stays the same.

Electric bills from National Grid obtained by The Enterprise show that the town of Berne frequently underpaid for its services — while some months not paying at all — and accumulated late fees and disconnection notices throughout 2021 and up to the present.

At a lightly-attended annual meeting held at the Berne community center last week, Kenneth’s Army members defended their group against accusations of financial misdealings and disregard for the sisters of the group’s namesake — providing key evidence when it could — while non-members criticized The Enterprise for its coverage of those issues.

The Knox Conservation Advisory Council has tapped a local group of nature walkers, the Thursday Naturalists, to develop a species list for the wetland area where the town had once installed a public boardwalk that has since fallen into disrepair. The chairman of the council has said that he hopes to rehabilitate the boardwalk. 

The $3 million tentative budget hits its 2-percent tax levy limit, but that won’t apply to all residents in the town since the important increases occur within three of the town’s special districts. 

The money will be used for improvements and additions related to infrastructure.