Albany Med recently acquired the Capital Region Otolaryngology Head and Neck Group. As of Sept. 1, it became Albany Med ENT, a part of Albany Med Physicians Group.

ALBANY COUNTY — County residents with private wells can find out what is in their water.

The Albany County Soil and Water Conservation District is giving out free home water-analysis kits.

They may be picked up at 24 Martin Road in Voorheesville at these times:

CLIFTON PARK — Leonard J. Berschwinger, known as “Bud,” died peacefully on Sunday, Aug. 23, at Saratoga Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

“Bud had celebrated his 93rd birthday just three weeks earlier on Aug. 2,” his family wrote in a tribute.

“Whether you have signs or symptoms, please go out and get tested …,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy. “It’s the only way we’re going to track this. It’s the only way we’re going to know if the virus is still lingering out there … It didn’t go away.”

Tension between reopening and increased transmission of COVID-19 grows.

The state and the county continue to urge residents — even those without COVID-19 symptoms — to get tested for the disease despite new CDC guidelines that say otherwise.

On Friday, a statewide association for nursing homes wrote the governor to ask that New York’s requirements for nursing-home visitors and COVID-19 testing be recast to match federal rules released this week.

“These pages reflect a newspaper firmly rooted in the local soil,” wrote the judges of Enterprise opinion pages entered in the annual New York Press Association contest. “The lead editorial is always a nice piece of writing, and on the many, many pages that follow, community members weigh in with lively election debates, folksy columns, claims and counterclaims, many which carry editorial notes and responses from the other side of the fence. Other editorial sections are more carefully pruned, but here the pages are an organic thicket that serves the community well.”

ALBANY COUNTY — As the Cherry Avenue bridge in Bethlehem is being worked on, the Albany County Helderberg-Hudson Rail will be closed at night during two different periods in September.

Cuomo and the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut — all Democrats — issued a joint statement on Thursday, saying, “This 180-degree reversal of COVID-19 testing guidelines is reckless, and not based on science and has the potential to do long-term damage to the institution’s reputation.”