BERNE — The Berne Town Board has given the go-ahead for a study on a potential consolidation of the town’s highway department and Albany County’s department of public works.

Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier said that this was part of an initiative by Governor Andrew Cuomo to encourage the consolidation of services across the state.

“We’ve already had a consolidation plan sitting on the shelf from many years ago,” said Crosier.

Property taxes are estimated to drop anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent, added Crosier, should services be consolidated.

“This is not about eliminating full-time jobs,” he added.

Crosier has been battling with the highway superintendent for over a year on the configuration of the work week: Crosier wants five eight-hour days while the superintendent, Randy Bashwinger, assigns four 10-hour days in warm-weather months.

In the gallery, Helen Lounsbury asked what would happen to workers’ seniority. A man in the gallery stated that former town board member James Hamilton had found no savings when a consolidation had been proposed in the past.

Councilman Joseph Golden said he had voted against it last time, but shared an anecdote of how someone who was against it at the time called him after it had been voted down, upset that the county would have offered better benefits to the town workers.

A merger had last been proposed in 2006, with Crosier and the former highway superintendent, Raymond Storm, for it, and the four council members and seven highway workers at the time against it. The board voted down the merger, but a shared salt shed was eventually built for both the town and county highway departments to use in 2015.

The current study will be conducted by the county, said Crosier.

“I have no issues if we were to be in the same building,” said Bashwinger to The Enterprise the following day. But Bashwinger he did not think a merger would be effective or a money-saver, saying that the differences between the two agencies range from vehicles and road materials to different unions and payscale. He also noted the town garage, with 22 truck bays, is bigger than the county’s, with four or five in its building on Cole Hill Road.

“I will campaign my ass off to make sure the town is not taken over by the county,” he said. Bashwinger added that town residents would also suffer, because the town roads would be given less of a priority than county routes.

Bashwinger has butted heads with the supervisor in the past, and recently requested a legal opinion from the town attorney on whether Crosier had overstepped his authority in the highway department.

The town of Knox has been considering sharing a garage with the county for some time now, as the town considers whether or not to insulate and repair its 1967 highway garage.

Lisa Ramundo, the new county commissioner of public works, said consolidation of services will be one of her goals in her new position at the county; she sees it as one of several ways to save money for the taxpayers, should it be done correctly.

A new comprehensive plan

The town adopted a new comprehensive plan, despite several of its planners objecting to some aspects of it.

Councilwoman Karen Schimmer said that she objected to the removal of Action 5 in the plan, which establishes rural siting guidelines for residences, but emphasized that she otherwise agreed with the plan.

Golden added that, since it had been brought up for discussion, he found “a huge undefined part” of rules on viewscapes in the town, but added there wasn’t any chance now to change it.

“It’s done now,” he said.

Both agreed that the plan is meant to be taken as a guideline and not a rulebook for planning and zoning boards.

“It’s a human document,” said Golden.

The plan was approved unanimously, although Crosier initially counted Schimmer as “opposed.”

“No,” she said. “I worked on it for three years; of course I approve it!” she laughed.

Bajouwa steps down, Rapp steps up

The board also approved the appointment of Rick Rapp to chair the town’s planning board. Rapp is already on the planning board, and will be in for Debra Bajouwa. She is retiring from her position due to a family matter, but will remain on the board. Bajouwa said Rapp had the most experience to take her place, as he served as the chairman before she did.

Bajouwa has been on the planning board for the last three years; she had been chairwoman of the board since January.

White Sulphur Springs

The former resort at 1425 Helderberg Trail known as the White Sulphur Springs building is set to be demolished. The 137-year-old building is currently owned by the Evangel Christian Church in Queens. Crosier said at the April 12 meeting that the town had contacted the church’s engineer — Richard Green, an engineer based out of Delmar — who had concluded the building had to be condemned. The building must be demolished within 60 days from the start of the process, according to the town’s building codes.