Rensselaerville’s $3.5 million tentative budget projects slight tax increases for all three fire districts in the town, with a $4,500 increase for the Medusa fire district (7.25 percent), a $1,428 increase for the Rensselaerville district (1.87 percent) and a $1,200 increase for the Tri-Village district (1.81 percent).

The town of Berne’s payroll account hit a negative value on three different occasions last year, adding to an already large pile of evidence that the town is in poor financial condition. Bank statements show that the town has been relying on transfers between accounts to stay afloat. 

The New York State Union of Teachers convened experts and educators for a discussion about how phones and social media are influencing children’s lives both at home and at school as Governor Kathy Hochul, who kicked off the event, is fighting to ban phones in classrooms statewide. 

The number of overdose deaths in Albany County dropped at a similar rate that overdose deaths have decreased nationwide last year. However, unlike the national trend, which saw fewer deaths from fentanyl and other opiates, Albany County saw a higher density of fentanyl-involved deaths in 2023.

Rensselaerville’s plans to administer grant money to 16 different local organizations from its Kuhar Endowment Fund — an $860,000 pot of money left to the town by the late Jeffrey Bogue — have been put on hold as they await state approval. 

Wayne D. Miller, 24, was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing after he had allegedly threatened a person with a handgun in a dispute. 

State police concluded after an investigation that Anthony Moretti, a 35-year-old Albany man found dead in a wooded area in Knox, had died of cardiac arrhythmia caused by fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Authored by a newly-formed Farmland Protection Committee, the plan will identify threats to the town’s farms and farmers, as well as lay out possible solutions. 

Although the governor’s office hasn’t confirmed that appointments will be made, Governor Kathy Hochul already made appointments this year to another town board that, like Berne, lost its quorum after a majority of members resigned. 

Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s contingency budget cut the school resource officer, whom the board of education had initially refused to cut from its tax-cap-busting 2024-25 budget, playing a key role in that budget’s failure in two separate votes, leading to a contingency budget.