To the Editor:

I have the greatest respect for the military service of Dennis Palow. He had a long and successful career and achieved a high enlisted rank that I am sure,did not come easily. When Dennis moved to Berne, he decided to run for the town board and was elected. I also have great respect for anyone who is willing to step into public office.

I had brief conversations with Dennis, and he struck me as someone who would do his best to serve the people of the town. A good man who would do the right thing for the residents of Berne.

I also have a great deal of respect for Joel Willsey’s service to the town. During my 16 years on the town board, there were few projects that he didn’t volunteer for. The transfer station was mostly his design.

During the search for a new site for the town-hall-based library, he, along with others, spent uncounted hours reviewing one site after the other. When the town decided to place the library in its present location, Joel was one of the people who stepped up to insure that the project would succeed.

The list could go on and on. A good man who wants to do what is right for the town.

So how did we get to the present situation? A deadlocked government in a normally friendly small town, that has things that need to be done. Not complex things, just day-to-day things. Just “the people’s business.”

A town board does not have to be a “mutual admiration society,” agreeing on everything. It simply needs to be made up of people who can “agree to disagree” and work out solutions. That is the job of elected representatives. They need to get together and solve this situation.

To paraphrase an old saying, “The only thing that will allow bad things to happen is if enough good people do nothing.” Start coming to meetings, folks. Leave a vacuum and toxic people will fill it; they have little else to do.

It’s really simple to change things. Be there. This town has existed since the late 1700s; we should be able to keep it going for a while longer.

P.S. I served four years in the United States Marines, five years on the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board, one year on the Berne Planning Board, and 16 years on the Berne Town Board, and I do not regret any of it.

Joe Golden

East Berne