BERNE — Ian Conners spent 20 years in Vermont, as an operations manager at two ski areas, and running a contracting business, before returning to the town where he was raised. He’s running for tax collector on the Republican line.

Conners, 52, moved back to Berne to be closer to family, taking a job as a custodian at the school, he said. After budget cuts, he now works as a groundskeeper at Woodstock Lake in East Berne.

“I’m just trying to participate in the process of government and the Republican-Democrat thing really doesn’t mean much at this level,” said Conners. “Are you here for the town or what are you here for?”

In Vermont, Conners was in charge of snowmaking and grooming operations at ski areas, with budgets of more than $13 million.

“It was my responsibility to make a budget, account for it, create variances, account for variances, code it all so it gets to the right place, sign all the bills,” Conners said of his former work. He also said he ran a contracting business, building custom homes in Vermont, for which he had to account for large sums of money.

This is Conners’s first run for elected office. He lost the Republican endorsement for highway superintendent to incumbent Kenneth Weaver at the party caucus in September. Asked whether he would like to pursue other elected positions, Conners said, “That’s four years down the line and lot can change between now and then.”