BERNE — In 2014, the town was shaped in several ways by the hand of government, which was itself shaped in a close election for highway superintendent.

The town lost an exuberant 12-year-old, Emmit Stannard, to brain cancer as well as long-time leader Myra Dorman, but life hummed with a new cycling festival and a gala to mark the fire department's 75th anniversary.

KNOX — In its beginning, middle, and end, 2014 brought headline-grabbing events to Knox, while it was marked in public by a drawn-out exchange toward revising the town’s vision to center on commercial zoning.

WESTERLO —  The town had a winding road of indecision in 2014 as it grappled with what to do about high-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and hesitated to approve bids for badly needed repairs to the highway garage.

KNOX — Kenneth D. “Kenny” White, a kindergartner at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, of Thacher Park Road in Knox, died Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, at home.

Born on Aug. 22, 2009 in Schenectady; he was the son of Jayson and Christine VanAlstyne White.

After hearing protests, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board agreed not to wait for a new superintendent to hire a new high school principal but it stopped short of forgoing its traditional selection process.

BERNE — At the darkest time of the year, nine hundred people stood shoulder to shoulder, holding candles and singing. Snow fell lightly Monday night, the flakes turning wet as they landed on faces and mittens and boots while the crowd stood in front of the elementary school at Berne.

They were there to mourn a little boy the vast majority of them did not know. Kindergartner Kenneth White was slain in his home last Thursday, police said, his body pitched over the snow bank across from the trailer where he lived with his twin sister and their younger sister. The 19-year-old daughter of their aunt and legal guardian stands accused of murder. Tiffany VanAlstyne, too, had once attended the school where the crowd gathered.

On Monday, Dec. 15, I knew I had to get the news ready as my daughter, Kathy Carnevale, had a very relaxing day planned for me and her daughter, Kassi Neal.

We started the day out by having lunch at a new Mexican restaurant in the Delaware Plaza. Then we went to a salon and had a pedicure and a manicure.