ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County — including the municipal governments within its boundaries — is slated to get $173,960,989 under the 2021 Fiscal Reconciliation Act currently moving through Congress.

The number of overdoses in Albany County for 2020 represents a 68-percent increase from the annual average over the last five years. Fentanyl — a synthetic opioid pain reliever that is increasingly illicitly manufactured — was present in 88 percent of all county opioid overdoses last year. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidance on effective mask-wearing and also releasing fully vaccinated people from quarantine restrictions.

Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets have entered into a merger agreement that nearly doubles their collective footprint in the Northeast.

Both of the grocery-store chains are based in New York and serve nearly the same areas.

New York State’s plan to protect pollinators has been updated.

New York State is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify additional sites outside of New York City to launch targeted efforts focused on vaccine equity and improving access to socially vulnerable populations; each site is to vaccinate 1,000 New Yorkers per day. 

The intent of the new legislation is clear, said Jeff Perlee, who represents Altamont in the county legislature, when the county planning board has jurisdiction, it is now “obliged” to consider the proposed development’s impact on the “critical viewshed” of the Helderberg Escarpment.

These local students were named to the fall 2020 dean’s list at Ithaca College, with a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher:

— Samuel Kinum of Delmar;

— Kaitlyn Coffey of Delmar;

— Nathaniel Finke of Schenectady;

— Zachary Islam of Delmar;

— Catherine Jantson of Delmar;

These local students were named to the dean’s list from their college or university for the Fall 2020 semester:

— Ann-Marie Kolberg of Delmar, earning Highest Honors at University of New Hampshire with a grade point average of 3.85 or higher;

New York along with a score of other states is now below the 5-percent threshold that the World Health Organization advised governments to reach, and hold for 14 days, before reopening.