To the Editor:

I want Berne to remain independent, and I want decisions for the town of Berne to be made by the people of Berne.

Near the end of the Berne Town Board meeting in April, Supervisor Kevin Crosier stated that the town would be looking into sharing highway services with Albany County. When a member of the audience tried to ask a question, Supervisor Crosier stated that it was only a study, and nothing had been decided. No updates were offered at the May town board meeting.

The next mention of shared services occurred in the town newsletter, the Berne Courier, in which Mr. Crosier stated his wholehearted support for shared services, and lauded the “chance to have significant property tax relief” of  20 to 40 percent on property taxes for town residents.

I would like to see the actual numbers. “Anticipated savings” is a guess, arrived at by subtracting the “anticipated” cost of combined services from the “anticipated” cost of leaving things as they are.

I have done some reading on the subject, and it appears that the “study” referred to is being conducted by Albany County, whose new highway commissioner has already gone on record as being in favor of combining highway services. The county received a state grant of $67,500 to do the study.

So for starters, we have the county being paid to do a study on whether the county would do better by “sharing” services with the highway departments in localities. There have been numerous state grants available over the past year to encourage this kind of consolidation.

Mr. Crosier said in the newsletter that “one unified public works department is more efficient than two separate departments.” This may be true in some ways.

However, in a major snowstorm, if the highway department has to dig out an entire county, the highest priority is major roads serving high-population densities. They will need to go down the list, trying to provide the greatest good to the most people possible in the shortest amount of time.

How far down the list do you think our town roads will be?  We are a hardy folk up here in the Hilltowns, but how long do you want to wait for help and services? What price do we pay for “efficiency?”

I’m sure there is a “chance” for savings. There is also a “chance” that I will win the lottery. Both statements are true. The odds and the amount are a different matter.

I used to be one of those government policy wonks, and I can play with words and numbers as well as the next guy. Words like “proposed” and “anticipated,” along with “estimated” and a few others, are not the same as hard figures. They come with no guarantees about how much money, or how long it might last. How many governmental construction projects have had “estimated” costs that ended up being nowhere near the final price tag?

In terms of personnel, I know that statements have been made about protecting local jobs. Again this may be the initial intent, but what happens when the grant money runs low and the savings perhaps aren’t quite as spectacular as expected? If it becomes necessary to “achieve greater efficiency” by cutting staff, who is likely to go first? Given the same amount of seniority, is the county more likely to lay off one of its own original workers, or one of the “new guys” from out in the boonies?

The panel making these recommendations and decisions is made up of the chief executives of each of the localities in the county. Supervisor Crosier is the only person with a vote representing Berne. He has the power to “opt out” of this highway consolidation, as some of our neighboring towns have already done.

I encourage Mr. Crosier to ask the citizens of Berne what they want, rather than deciding for us. I don’t want Berne to lose its independence or its identity.

Phyllis E. Johnson

Berne

Editor’s note: Phyllis E. Johnson writes a weekly seniors column for The Enterprise.