Nancy Rypkema, President, RVFC Battalion; Dave Warburton, President, Rensselaerville Volunteer Fire Company

Sue Jordan, Thompsons Lake Rural Cemetery Association

The town of Rensselaerville has been working to control levels of disinfection by-products in its water, which have exceeded standard minimums frequently enough that the United States Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to issue a formal notice to the town, according to water/sewer advisory committee member Ed Csukas in a report to the town board last month.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance told The Enterprise this week that it leaves the definition of “active” membership for volunteer fire and ambulance groups up to localities passing property-tax exemption laws for those groups, meaning that members in supportive or honorary roles can still theoretically be eligible.

Financial data from the Carey Institute’s 2020 tax returns were recently published by ProPublica’s NonProfit Explorer, raising questions for both skeptics of the organization, who have been critical of the way the not-for-profit navigated its potential sale during the turbulent days of the early pandemic, and for The Enterprise, which has covered the organization from its earliest days.

Westerlo is the third Hilltown tax authority — after Knox and the Berne-Knox-Westerlo school district — to pass the exemption.

The Berne Democratic Committee has opted not to carry petitions that would support Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple in his bid for re-election, in protest of his silence following a Feb. 20 incident where sheriff’s deputies ejected Berne resident Kevin Crosier from a public hearing on the unjustified orders of the town’s supervisor, who admitted the removal was based on a personal grudge. 

Margaret Christman, Jean Guarino, Berne

Maryellen Gillis, President Helderberg Family and Community Organization