BERNE — “We all make mistakes. And I am sure Taylor Repscher will be a good outstanding citizen someday.”

That vote of confidence in a 20-year old man who confessed in August to stealing equipment from the town highway garage this summer came from Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier Monday.

Randy Bashwinger, the highway superintendent, said on the same day, “Taylor’s a great guy, I was totally shocked. He and his family are great people. He’s still a kid who got caught up in the game.”

Repscher, a 2014 Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate, was hired as a part-time employee of the highway department in “May or June,” Bashwinger says.

In July, Bashwinger told the town board  that equipment — two chains saws, a demolition saw, a leaf blower, and a framing gun belonging to him — were missing from the highway garage, probably taken, he thought, over a period of time.

At the time, the garage was left unlocked during the day, Bashwinger said Monday, but now is kept locked night and day.  Full-time employees — then and now —  get keys to the building. Part-time employees do  not. Crosier said the town is reviewing quotes on installing security cameras in the highway garage, town hall, and at the transfer station.

The thefts were reported to the Albany County County Sheriff’s Office on July 27. Investigators for the sheriff combed area pawn shops and found  that everything stolen had been sold to  a Colonie pawn shop  and the shop had then resold, online, everything but the two chainsaws. The shop’s records showed that Repscher had sold the items to the shop. The serial numbers on the unsold chain saws matched those of the stolen chainsaws.

State law requires that all sellers to pawn shops present valid identification.

Repscher was arrested on Aug. 23 by sheriff’s deputies and charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony.  He made an admission of guilt at the time of his arrest, according to the sheriff’s office.  Theft of property with a value greater than $1,000 is a felony. According to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, the stolen equipment had a total value of $3,537.24. Repscher was arraigned in Berne Town Court on Sept. 6.

According to Cecilia Walsh, the spokeswoman for the district attorney office, a plea deal calls for Repscher to enter a plea of guilty to a reduced charge  of petit larceny at his sentencing on Dec. 13. He is to receive a suspended sentence of three years under probation supervision and will be ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, to be served in the East Berne Volunteer Fire Company, and  also to fully repay the value of the stolen goods to the town and Bashwinger.

Lee Kindlon, Repscher’s attorney,  told The Enterprise, “Mr. Repscher has accepted responsibility and is looking forward to making amends and to putting  this behind him as quickly as possible.”

As a BKW graduate, Repscher was the recipient of the Robert B. Whipple Scholarship in 2014.

“He was a very hard worker,” Bashwinger said. “Anything I asked him to do he he did without problems.”

Crosier  said he worked with the district attorney office and with Scott Duncan, chief of the East Berne Volunteer Fire Company, to formulate the plea deal.

“Taylor was very remorseful from the day he was arrested,” Crosier said. “He’s a good young man….His family has been here for generations.”

Crosier said that, after training, Repscher will become a full-fledged member  of the East Berne firefighters team.

“We’ve seen it before,” Crosier said, “young people who do things and don’t make the best decisions. And most of them go on to be good members of the community”.

“Knowing him as I do, I think Taylor is really going to like being a volunteer firefighter. He could be inspired  by it and develop a real passion, “ said Crosier who is himself retired from a career as an Albany firefighter.

“It can give him a better sense of community,” said Crosier, who knows the entire Repscher family well. “When you grow up in a small tight-knit community like this, you do know everyone.”

“Who knows,” Crosier speculated, “maybe this will turn out to be a positive thing for this young man.”