The Bethlehem Public Library’s $5.2 million proposed budget for 2025-26 would raise taxes by 2.61 percent for a total of roughly $120,000. 

BETHLEHEM — A routine traffic stop on April 17 led to an arrest for a controlled substance, khat — a drug rarely seen locally.

Amar H. Mehsin, 19, of Albany, was stopped on Route 9W near Bender Lane by Bethlehem Police at midnight, for a traffic violation, according to a release from Bethlehem Police.

The adopted $116.6 million budget for Bethlehem Central School District’s 2025-26 school year would, if passed by voters on May 20, impose a 1.12-percent property tax increase. 

Following a water-quality crisis in January, Albany County placed a 90-day moratorium on the use of biosolid fertilizers to assess the need for regulations on the toxic substance, and extended it on April 16 for an additional 180 days.

The town executed a lease agreement at its March meeting that would charge Michael Stanton, of Stanton Farms, LLC,  $45 per acre for 216 tillable acres at the historic Heath Farm property. Stanton Farm, which had already farmed the land under an agreement with the previous property owner, was the only applicant for the lease.