To the Editor:

Berne Town Board Member Joe Golden lays it on thick with his analogy of comparing the Berne Republican United Team with being a wrecking crew and then sees all he has built as being compared to the old Sulfur Springs Hotel, noting how long it took to build it.

What Mr. Golden failed to mention in his letter, is how long that building sat as an eyesore, rotting as a useless structure. No one wanted it. It was far beyond its time and now, with it gone, the property looks great.

The Republican United Team is fully committed to giving the people of our town eyes and ears on the needs of our town. If there are eyesores the people deem need to be demolished, we are prepared to make the changes.

One thing for sure, our candidates won’t simply nod their heads to the golden bobblehead tunes of Mr. [Kevin] Crosier simply because he dictates it to be so. None of our candidates and especially our candidates for town board, Dennis Palow and Frank Brady, will not be parrots for either Kevin Crosier nor Sean Lyons [candidate for supervisor].

On the other hand, our Republican United candidates are fully committed to upgrading what is good in this town. We won’t wait until election years to maintain and rebuild our Berne town park, so our photos can cover the Berne newsletter just days before an election. Properties we own must be continually maintained.

As Berne town clerk, I won’t stand for the citizens of Berne to receive limited hours for full-time pay. The current 25 to 30 hours of inconvenient open hours is not right. Our current Berne clerk gets over $50,000 a year!

Yes, we need to take a wrecking ball to those historic hours. I think people are going to like that and maybe even Mr. Golden will appreciate this convenience in his years of retirement from the town board, even while he tries telling us who to vote for.

Bill Keal, candidate

Berne Town Clerk

Editor’s note: Bill Keal is endorsed by the Republican, Conservative, Independence, and Reform parties.

Asked about the “over $50,000 a year” figure for the town clerk’s salary, Keal said that, in addition to the $41,937 in actual salary, the clerk gets money from the town since she doesn’t use its health insurance and money in a “stipend.”

Clerk Anita Clayton explained that the town board has appointed her to two additional jobs — as registrar of vital statistics and as records office manager, each of which pays $4,800 annually. “Anyone can hold those jobs,” she said. “The [state] comptroller says we need separate budget lines for them.”

Additionally, Clayton said, because she does not use the town’s health insurance, she is paid $5,502 over a 26-week period “which I get taxed on.” She added, “It would take $22,000 and change to insure me so it’s saving the town $17,000.”