Leaving a family without a home on Christmas, a fire on Villeneuve Drive was caused by an electrical problem in the walls of the kitchen, state investigators say. A fund drive is underway.

KNOX — Emma Daisy Bunzey Stevens was one of 10 children who raised 10 children of her own.

“She was the grand lady of Knox,” living independently at the age of 105, said her daughter Dawn Coffey.

The prospective buyer of a Knox property in foreclosure called the outcry over the land sale a “political hit job.”

A school-district appointment, according to a board member, was not advertised, and there were no interviews conducted.

The town supervisor said Rensselaerville is left with three options now: choose its own judge, have the state select a replacement, or wait until November.

At Knox’s upcoming meeting on Jan. 1, the town board — with newly elected members that ran with the Republican-backed supervisor — will be selecting a new town attorney, a new zoning board chair, and possibly several other positions. The supervisor has said he has received over 20 applications so far.

“It’s something like ‘The Music Man’ to me,” said an audience member in response to a proposed  Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, which a former Army officer said he received 32 signatures of interested students at Berne-Knox-Westerlo.

A Freedom of Information Law request made by The Enterprise has revealed blank building inspection reports in the town of Knox going back as far as 2014 and stretching into 2017.

Appointments and dismissals should be based on merit, not based on political reward or punishment.