To the Editor:

There are a number of serious highway-related issues that have not gotten adequate attention in recent years. Now that the chairman of the Berne Republican Party has taken a political job, has he made a career choice?

Perhaps he should step down from his elected position and concentrate on his passion — politics. It is well documented that the superintendent of highways has priorities that don’t include the best interests of Berne residents or the safety of the traveling public. Clearly his priority is politics.

As I noted in a letter to the editor last week [“Negligence put traveling public at risk”], I put together a Power Point presentation titled “Sign related Public Hazards in Berne NY and the Conduct of the Berne Superintendent of Highways.” I provided this to The Enterprise, and, before that, to the town of Berne. Perhaps they will share it. I have a number of printed copies I can share.

This Power Point documents that the superintendent has, for years, ignored brush that interfered with the visibility of “Stop” signs and ignored the missing signs at intersections. These problems were and are at intersections between town highways as well as intersections between town highways and county and state highways.

As documented in my October 26, 2017 letter to the Enterprise editor [“Ron Shultes understands the post of highway super is about public service, not continuous politics”], the problem is that brush and trees are allowed to grow along the town highways; it’s not brush on the state and county right-of-way or immediately around signs.

Two of the three original examples are in fact intersections between town highways and it is documented that the signs were knowingly left obscured there for years by brush along the highways. So, his published claims that the responsibility is that of the state or county and not his are simply not true.

This interference with visibility has gone on for years and this is very well documented in the PowerPoint with iPhone-dated photos, emails, and the superintendent’s misleading Facebook posts and misleading statements in The Enterprise.

Clearly, the routine maintenance of signs requires that signs always be visible. The superintendent is quoted recently in The Enterprise as saying,  “A town highway worker is assigned to trim brush around stop signs and residents can call to request this service.”

So he waits for residents to tell him a sign is no longer visible. He lets the signs become obscured and sends someone to take care of it as a “service.” Instead of assessing the need to cut the brush along town highways himself, and ensuring the signs are always visible, he waits for someone to complain? And then the brush around the sign is trimmed; brush along the highway in the right-of-way is often the actual issue as the PowerPoint documents.

It is also well documented that he was very aware of the sign-related safety issues in the fall of 2017 during his campaign, yet the brush was still obstructing those particular signs a year later. In a town board email in January 2019, he brags about hand-crafting and erecting some 200 election signs that fall. That, instead of taking action to eliminate hazards to the traveling public that I made him well aware of in a letter to the editor (that he responded to).

There are, in fact, still “Stop” signs in Berne in 2019 where brush has been allowed to grow along the town highway to interfere with visibility. He promises more, even bigger election signs this year. His priorities are clear.

The superintendent and his supporters make all kinds of claims about him doing his job and working long hours and having things accomplished on particular dates, etc., but there is never any documentation.  I always provide documentation.

And sign-related hazards are just one of a number of issues where, in my opinion, the superintendent’s willful negligence and political priorities endanger residents, the traveling public, and employees. More to come.

Joel Willsey

Berne Town Council

Editor’s note: Berne Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger did not respond to multiples calls, seeking his response.