BERNE — On New Year’s Day, as the temperature hovered around zero, the atmosphere inside a packed Berne Town Hall was warm.

In a town where Democrats outnumber Republicans, by more than two to one, Republican Sean Lyons took the oath of office as supervisor. He is the first Republican supervisor to serve since the late Rudolph Stempel held the post for two years in the 1980s.

Lyons, who had run on the Conservative and Independence Party lines as well, narrowly beat Democrat Kevin Crosier who had served for four four-year terms.

During his campaign, Lyons said he is a supporter of President Donald Trump and “his initiative to bring fresh faces and people who are not politicians into politics.”

The Hilltowns, where Democratic enrollment dominates, went red in the last presidential election, solidly supporting Trump.

Lyons himself is relatively new to politics. He ran unsuccessfully for Berne town councilman in 2015; this is first time taking office. Lyons, who works at the Army arsenal in Watervliet, said he got interested in local government when the state’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act was passed in 2013 after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The GOP surge in Berne was led by party chairman and Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger. He sailed to victory in November and was largely responsible for convincing candidates of various parties or no party to run in all 10 races for open posts in November. He was first elected as highway superintendent in 2014 to fill out the term of Kenneth Wever and had formerly worked as a project manager for Capital District Contractors and Decks.

Bashwinger frequently sparred with Crosier. A major sticking point was his use of a four-day, 10 hour workweek, which Bashwinger considered more efficient and less costly.

While Bashwinger had been the only elected Republican in town, the town board now includes Republican Dennis Palow, an Army veteran, who garnered the most votes in a four-way race for two town board seats.

Democrat Joel Willsey, making his first run for office, won a town board seat by a single vote, thereby preserving the board’s long-time Democratic majority. Willsey, a Berne native, works for the state’s Department of Transportation as an engineer technician and drafter and a project designer.

Willsey took the oath of office on Monday and was joined at the diais by two Democratic board members who had not been up for re-election — Dawn Jordan and Karen Schimmer.

Palow was absent. Lyons told The Enterprise, “He’s on holiday in Florida. The vacation was scheduled in advance with his family.” Palow grew up in Florida.

Asked, after the brief session, how he felt running his first meeting, Lyons said, “It felt a little intimidating at first. Now I feel more confident.”

He relied several times on the cordial prompting of his deputy supervisor, Schimmer, and the town clerk, Anita Clayton, a Democrat who had won re-election.

The meeting began with the town’s attorney, William J. Conboy III, reading the oath of office to each of the candidates who had been elected in November. Each man, in turn, placed his left hand on a Bible and raised his right hand. Most were accompanied by wives and other family members.

The applause was loud and long for both Democrats and Republicans.

The board members then voted unanimously, without any discussion, on a long list of appointments and salaries.

Afterwards, there were cordial greetings and wishes for a good new year.