Chantelle Nobis, a Hilltown native who now lives near Rome, New York, is fighting to develop better treatments for neurofibromatosis, a rare and vaguely understood genetic disorder that afflicts both her husband and daughter.

Outrage and partisanship may have left their high-water mark in Berne, where dozens of residents attended the latest town board meeting to hammer the new council with questions and comments about the illegal removal of town employees from their positions, among other issues. Many of the residents’ remarks were met with eye rolls from the mostly GOP-backed board who, for the first time in decades, can steam ahead unimpeded by Democrats’ desires. 

At its abbreviated Feb. 11 town meeting, the Knox Town Board passed a law that will allow hog farming in the town’s agricultural districts and nearly passed an update to its home occupation laws, but had to table the matter on account of technical difficulties. 

Westerlo is in the process of developing a comprehensive land-use plan and its Comprehensive Plan Committee hopes to make the process as transparent and as open to the public as possible, said chairman David Lendrum.

With the U.S. Census Bureau requesting that citizens complete the 2020 census online, small towns and villages are preparing to help residents who don’t have easy access to computers or don’t have the necessary skills to complete a form online so that every town can be counted as accurately as possible, assuring that each gets the federal, state and county aid it needs.

Joel Willsey, Berne Town Board