BERNE — Last week, Albany County officials and the town board began discussions about the town’s highway department sharing services with the county’s department of public works.

Last year, Supervisor Kevin Crosier pushed for a merger of the two departments, which was met with widespread opposition as no board member backed the plan and all town highway workers campaigned against it.

The shared-service proposal is trying to do everything the consolidation proposal would have done without the town’s highway workers becoming county employees, said Crosier, who was elected on the Republican ticket.
"I think looking at shared services is a good idea, but, before we move forward, we need to make sure it’s the sensible thing to do, and what has been discussed so far requires more research," said Councilman James Hamilton, a Democrat, yesterday. Hamilton has advocated for exploring options with other towns.
Hamilton said he favors "doing the simple things first." Sharing snowplow routes with the county, he said, "would be fairly easy to implement," and there would be "definite savings."
"There is some overlap there," he said of the town’s and county’s snowplow routes.
According to a report put together last year by Crosier and Michael Franchini, Albany County’s commissioner of public works, "Forty-seven-percent of the mileage in the town highway department snowplow routes consist of county roads."

Last month, the town board voted unanimously to be included on county bids. When the county purchases items — such as uniforms, cleaning products, and water — Berne has the option to be included in the bid and buy materials at county prices.
Crosier said purchasing cooperatively with the county "makes good sense," and "gives the county more purchasing power." It doesn’t make any sense, he said, for municipalities to purchase separately. "We need to make government more efficient and save taxpayers’ money," Crosier said.
Last week’s meeting was an opportunity for county officials to speak with the town about options, said Kerri Battle, spokeswoman for Albany County. "There’s nothing in writing," she said. Battle added that Deputy County Executive Joseph Pennisi suggested the town send ideas and information to the county.

If an agreement is made between the town and county, Albany County workers could also be housed at the town’s highway office on the west end of the hamlet, Crosier said. A pole barn, located next to the town building and approximately 100 feet by 40 feet, could be rehabilitated to house the county’s employees, he said.
"There’s been a strong push to put department of public works employees into our building," said Hamilton. The roof at the county’s building on Cole Hill, he said, needs to be repaired.
"It’s like circular logic," Hamilton said of county employees’ being housed at the town’s building. "I asked a lot of questions at the last two meetings, and I didn’t get answers," he said.

County officials, town officials, and town highway workers continue to speculate about union negotiations should the departments share services. Berne highway workers are members of Operating Engineers, and county workers are Civil Service Employees Association members.
"I know how my union would feel if I was sitting at home, and county employees were out plowing town roads," said Joe Welsh, a Berne highway worker and union shop steward.

Last year, while considering consolidation, residents and highway workers speculated that town roads would become a lower priority if the town and county departments combined their snowplow routes.
"That’s absolutely false. No one can prove that," Crosier said when asked if combining county and town snow routes would result in town roads becoming a lower priority. "That’s not a fact. That’s a fallacy," he said. All roads — town, county, and state — would be plowed "at the same time," Crosier said.
"State roads are always priority one, county roads are priority two, and town roads are priority three," Welsh said. Welsh said he doesn’t agree with the town and county departments combining their snowplow routes. The county, he said, uses carbide cutting edges, and the town uses steel cutting edges.
What happens if the town’s highway superintendent and the county’s subdivision foreman don’t agree" Welsh asked. "You’ve got two different foremen, and two different entities," he said. The two could disagree when prioritizing roads, he said.
Before meeting again with county officials, Berne trustees need to put a shared service proposal together for the county’s review, said Crosier. "We need to show a savings to get the grant money," Crosier said. "Six-hundred-thousand dollars is at stake."