RIC Energy is proposing to build a 4.4. megawatt solar farm on Thompsons Lake Road in Knox, but faces pushback from residents who live nearby and fear the potential impact of the project, despite the company’s assurances and modifications.

Voters also re-elected school board members Nathan Elble and Kimberly Lovell, who ran unopposed, and authorized a roughly $644,000 school bus purchase.

Valerie, Al, and Aly Gaige, Knox

Albany County spokeswoman Mary Rozak told The Enterprise this week that “various plans have been proposed and are evolving.”

The public hearing for the proposed law will be held on June 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Berne Senior Center, 1360 Helderberg Trail. 

A survey of upstate New York residents by Cornell University researchers found that, while most people support renewable energy development in general, they generally become less supportive when a project is sited near their home. 

The Berne-Knox-Westerlo board members have overseen a period of the district’s history that, between overfunding from the state and the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout, has been as auspicious as it has been challenging. 

“This is the East Berne firehouse but it’s the community’s place,” said Mary Alice Molgard, who chairs the board of fire commissioners.

WESTERLO — What would otherwise have likely been an uncontroversial and even welcome law drew significant criticism from Westerlo residents before their town board passed it on Tuesday in a 3-to-2 vote. 

Democrat Hébert Joseph, of Rensselaerville, is challenging Conservative Albany County Legislator Chris Smith, of East Berne, for his seat representing the mostly-rural 39th District. A court challenge from Smith centered around Joseph’s nominating petition got the Democrat removed from his own party’s line, though he will still appear on the ballot on at least the Working Families Party line.