BERNE — William Keal, a former candidate for town supervisor, is now challenging the town clerk with a campaign to increase the position’s office hours.

A Republican, he is running on the Republican, Independence, and Conservative party lines.

Keal, 57, grew up in Wappingers Fall, in Dutchess County, and lived in the Capital Region since graduating from high school and serving in the United States Navy for four years. He moved to Berne 11 years ago, where his family is from.

Keal ran unsuccessfully for town supervisor in a special election in 2012, and again in 2014.

“It pays well, a lot more than the town supervisor,” Keal said of his decision to run this year for town clerk. “Why not?”

The part-time supervisor’s post pays $19,226 annually, while the town clerk is currently paid $41,937 annually, according to minutes of the town’s 2017 organizational meeting. Keal, who estimates it is over $50,000 with stipends included, said that he believes the salary is reasonable for town clerk, so long as the clerk commits to full-time hours.

“It’s not fair to the citizens of Berne if you’re only open 25 or 30 hours a week,” he said.

Keal said his main reason for running is to change the number of hours the town clerk is available to people.

“We have very limited hours in what our town clerk offers,” he said.

According to Keal, the town clerk is available only 25 to 35 hours a week, and this should be 40 hours to equate with her full-time pay. He said he would like to offer hours either during or at the same time that the transfer station is open. Keal said he would also like to offer evening and early morning hours so that those working on day-shifts would be able to come in.

The town’s transfer station is open from 4 to 8 p.m on Monday, noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The town clerk’s current hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m on Monday through Wednesday, Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, about 30 hours in total. Current town clerk Anita Clayton, who is running for re-election, said that her hours were set before she was town clerk by the town board. (See related story.)

Keal is a real-estate agent with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. Should he be elected, he said he will limit his full-time job to part-time, in order to provide the public with more hours as town clerk.

“Working as a real-estate agent, you can work as much as you want,” he said.

He said that, in order to both complete out-of-office tasks and be available, Keal would send part-time staff to complete most town errands.

Keal also said he would like to make people more aware of what’s going on in the town, such as by sending emails or the town newsletter to notify residents, or writing letters to or putting advertisements in The Enterprise. He is also one of the people responsible for the Facebook page The Happenings in the Town of Berne.

“It’s a form of news and entertainment to garner information from,” he said, of social media.

“I believe I would bring a friendliness to the town clerk’s office,” he said, explaining that he has worked in retail most of his life and has experience working with people.

“It’s really the hub of what goes on in the town,” he said, of the position. Keal said he feels that, along with the highway department and transfer station, it is one of the few areas of town government with which people directly interact.

Keal emphasized that he is running on a varied slate of Republican-backed candidates that includes Democrats and Independence party members as well as Republicans, which gained six of the 10 Conservative endorsements and all of the Independence party endorsements.

“It’s diverse, and we’re not all coming to the table with the same ideas … ,” he said, noting that he finds the current elected officials to agree on the same ideas. “There’s not, kind of a diversity of ideas.”