NEW SCOTLAND — Kids who are 8 and older may join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Albany County for a six-week dog-obedience class designed for youth participants.

With or without experience, kids can sign up to help their family pets become better behaved and learn basic obedience exercises.

On March 14, residents will gather at Maple on the Lake to view potential designs for the facilities, to go on land along Route 443 in East Berne, and talk to officials overseeing the project.

Residents had questions about pollution, the tax base, and the potential for the sheriff's office to buy a piece of the East Berne property, the potential location of intermunicipal training facilities and a new firehouse.

2013 was a milestone year for the town's development, with a new, spacious library and a wastewater treatment system for the Berne hamlet.

The Albany County Rural Fire Chiefs Association and the sheriff's office are in the beginning stages of planning for an East Berne training grounds for firefighters and police.

ITHACA, N.Y. — The longtime educational program known as the Highway School, which Cornell University had labeled a low priority and had threatened to shut down last summer, has been re-imagined and is expected to continue thanks to statewide support, according to the director of the program.