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.”

On Monday, the CDC changed its guidelines to exclude testing people who do not show COVID-19 symptoms even if they have been exposed to the virus. In Albany County, and across New York State, the focus for months has been on increasing diagnostic testing, especially to identify the disease in people who may be spreading the disease before they show symptoms or who never show symptoms.

Anne F. Higgs, a retired teacher who lived in Florida, died peacefully at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. She was 90.

She was born Nov. 14, 1929 in Manhattan to the late Herman and Margaret Urquhart Forester.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Mark Edward Banovic, a Farnsworth Middle School teacher and coach, died on Friday, Aug. 21, 2020. He was 41.

“Mark was diagnosed with leukemia (AML) on May 30, 2020. His treatment for the disease was unforgiving and he valiantly battled the disease until his passing,” his family wrote in a tribute.

Colby Jones, the daughter of Bob and Judy Jones of Hamlin, New York, and Joshua VonHaugg, the son of Matt and Sue VonHaugg of Knox, wed on Aug. 8, 2020 at Ridgemont Country Club in Rochester, New York.
 

The ceremony was officiated by Michael Myers, longtime family friend of the bride.