The Albany County Rural Fire Chiefs Association and the sheriff's office are in the beginning stages of planning for an East Berne training grounds for firefighters and police.

Andrew Wright, Berne-Knox-Westerlo's former varsity basketball coach, said he has accepted a coaching position with the junior-varsity team in Middleburgh.

A large number of "under votes" were cast for council seats, where ballots had fewer or none of the allowed votes for the race.

Kenneth Weaver won on the Democratic line in the past, but switched to the GOP line this time having declined other endorsements.

John Kudlack, the town's Democratic Committee chairman, said he would like to see younger leadership on the committee and more involvement. 

I didn’t write a column for last week because the paper was full of other items, so I’ll point out some of my interesting happenings.

Monday, Oct. 14, was Columbus Day. Danielle had to work and I had Zoey. Brandon picked up Samson and Nichole for the day. This gave me the perfect opportunity to have Brandon take pictures of me with my three great-grandchildren, Samson, Nichole and Zoey.

Thomas Delp, committee chairman for the Rensselaerville water system, said the problem of large demands from the storage tank seem to be gone now that a leak has been shut off for an unoccupied home.

Rensselaerville assessor Donna Kropp was the subject of an ethics case last year — ultimately determined to be unfounded due to missing files — brought by a complaint of Jeffry Pine, a former assessor for the town who is now  running against her in the upcoming election.