Berne-Knox-Westerlo is looking at a roughly $700,000 shortfall in its 2025-26 budget despite a 3.3 percent property-tax hike, due to widespread cost increases and decreases in state aid. The gap will have to be closed through “creative” reductions, Superintendent Bonnie Kane said. 

The town of Knox has hired attorney Daniel Rubin to represent it against Albany County, which has accused the town of misappropriating a shared salt supply and is demanding $18,000 in compensation.

The town of Rensselaerville appointed Jason Wood as deputy highway superintendent after the previous one, Warren Bashwinger, was let go for undisclosed reasons. 

This year, Hilltown residents will vote in a majority-number of town board members in each town, including Berne, where all five seats will be open due to the number of vacancies that need to be filled. 

Wisdom Roots Wellness, a yoga and healing studio at the Hilltown Commons, in Rensselaerville, offers private instruction and group classes alongside special events. They’ll soon welcome two instructors from India for sessions on Vedic chanting. 

The county’s Fire Service Academy, a pilot program, will teach a free 40-hour course, starting April 1, at the East Berne firehouse. 

After former Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier showed up at the house of a woman who’s applying for one of the town’s two open town board seats, Supervisor Dennis Palow expressed concern to The Enterprise about how Crosier got that information. 

The board met for the first time in nearly a year to catch up on all the things it missed while waiting for Governor Kathy Hochul to fill a critical vacancy, as well as to handle some new business. 

According to the Rural Housing Coalition of New York, rural areas of the state are getting disproportionately less affordable-housing tax credits for the development of larger low-income housing facilities. 

The town of Rensselaerville is considering updating its fee schedule for the transfer station after the city of Albany drastically increased tipping fees for Albany’s Rapp Road landfill, where Rensselaerville sends its waste. The hearing is scheduled for March 27 at 6:45 p.m. at the town hall.