To the Editor:

My name is Casey Miller. I’m running for a four-year term on the Berne Town Board and I would like to introduce myself to my fellow residents.

I have a wife and two children; we built a home in Berne about 13 years ago. I always wanted to live out here; my grandmother was a Thayer from Westerlo. We love it here; this crazy ever-changing world has only made me appreciate what we have more.

I didn’t set out to run for the town board. I was looking to fill a seat on the planning board last summer. At the meeting where I was supposed to be appointed to the planning board, there was no quorum. I only bring that up because during the interviews they asked me what I wanted to see out my window in 20 years.

My reply, “I know the only constant in life is change but I sure hope it looks a whole lot like it does today.”

I’m not asking for your vote simply because I love where we live. I’m asking for your vote because I believe I have the qualifications to help get this town back on track and protect what we have. Please read on and I’ll elaborate on that.

I’ll be 45 by the election; I’ve done a lot in those years. I graduated from Bishop Maginn High School and went on to earn a degree in construction technology at Hudson Valley.

I started a successful construction company while I was still in school. We built a lot of homes around the area and handled several large commercial snow-removal contracts for over a decade.

In 2007, the bottom fell out of the housing market, and I pivoted away from construction and into trucking. I still maintain my DOT [Department of Transportation] operating authority to this day.

When my children came along, I needed something a little more stable. I took a job with a world-class ISO [International Organization for Standardization]-certified chemical plant. I run part of that plant and oversee all maintenance as well as manage the budget. My wife and I also own a successful equipment company that we run together.

I joined the BKW Little League board for several years as fields manager. I took care of the fields in Knox, Berne, and Westerlo. We worked together with all three towns to make several field improvements over the years. Now that the kids have outgrown Little League, I moved on to coach the modified softball team for the school last year.

Being in business for myself most of my life, then working my way up at one of the biggest chemical companies in the world, which I now manage money for, I’ve learned you can’t just throw money at problems. That unfortunately seems to be the way of the world today.

I am running maintenance at work on a budget very similar to what we had prior to COVID and we’re successful. There are very few companies today that can say that.

The equipment company my wife and I own has been hit hard by the current steel tariffs; we’re adjusting and making it work. It takes experience, business sense, hard work and good decision-making to survive in today’s world.

I’ve proven I can do that, not only managing other people’s money but my own as well. The right decision is not always the easy one or the popular one, but it’s extremely important that it’s the best one for the situation.

I’m not the kind of guy who works until my shift is over or I’m tired. I’m the guy who works until the job is done no matter how long it takes.

On a daily basis whether at my day job or my own business, I deal with people from all over the world, from all walks of life. I also deal with all different government agencies from state to federal, including DOT, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], DOL [Department of Labor], DEC [Department of Environmental Conservation], EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], Customs and Border Patrol, just to name a few.

Working together with so many different people can be trying at times. Being able to do it successfully has paid dividends to me in life and attributed greatly to my success.

I’m dedicated to this community. During the years I volunteered with the Little League and on the board, I always said, “It’s all for the kids.”

There’s a lot of big egos and politics in youth sports. I gave a ton of my time and resources to the BKW Little League. If you can find one person that knows me from Little League and says I didn’t do it all for the kids, I’ll drop this campaign tomorrow.

The BKW high school softball team had a fundraiser back in the spring; they were trying to build a batting cage and buy new uniforms. Funds are very tight for so many rural schools. I won’t even get into what Albany is doing to them here; there’s unfortunately a lot going on behind the scenes.

My wife and I stepped in and not only donated a double batting cage but our company built it for them. We didn’t worry tariffs were hitting our bank account; it was just the right thing to do.

I wasn’t born here, but I’m planning on dying here. Please consider voting for me in November so I can put my skill set to work for you getting our town back on the right track. This is no easy task I’m signing up for and I know that going in.

We can’t continue down the same path, we can’t continue to raise taxes above the cap or we’re going to price ourselves right out of our own homes. We need to work together to get this done.

I believe that the current candidate for town supervisor is the right person for the job. With a cohesive board behind him that is willing to work together we can make the positive changes that are necessary for our town to flourish.

Casey Miller

Berne

Editor’s note: Casey Miller, who is enrolled as a Republican, is running for Berne councilman on the Republican and Conservative lines.