Fifteen members serve on the Westerlo Rescue Squad, a mere 0.4 percent of the town’s population of about 3,400. The average age of the members is 60. Both factors have led to the decision for the volunteer ambulance to close at the end of the year.

A crowd of around 30 people was waiting outside the Rensselaerville Town Hall for the arraignment of Harley A. Kelly, the driver in a June car crash that killed Emily Fydenkevez. Some were friends or family of Fydenkevez; others were there for Kelly; but several had known both of the 19-year-old Middleburgh residents, who were said to be friends.

Joe Coffey, the commissioner of the city of Albany Water Department, said that the city generally never uses the Basic Creek Reservoir in the late summer and early fall because of its tendency to have algae blooms, both toxic and nontoxic.

“I realized I wanted to take care of the larger planet,” Anne Rhoads said. “Protecting the forest would support the animals as well.”

“I was looking forward to being back in a small town … ,” Debbie Scott said of starting as the new director of the Westerlo Public Library. “I was looking forward to serving a community and a public library.”

Joseph Heyman, Ph.D., a retired scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, told a young boy, “In your lifetime, son, amazing things are going to happen that you never even dreamt of.”

An investigation is still ongoing, police say, and forensic analysis of some items may lead to further charges against a 33-year-old Knox man who has been arrested for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.

The Berne-Knox-Westerlo superintendent said that the Center for Education Policy Research typically studies urban schools, but will begin a five-year study of 50 schools in Ohio and New York. BKW is one of 25 districts in the state, with other nearby districts including Broadalbin-Perth and Sharon Springs, he said.