BERNE — Berne will be contributing $200,000 to Albany County for Sheriff Craig Apple’s ambulance program, Supervisor Dennis Palow told The Enterprise this week.

The money will come out of the town’s next revenue check, which is expected to be around $320,000 and arrive in January, Palow said. He could not be reached for further clarification on what revenue the money comes from and if it had already been earmarked. 

The town does receive quarterly sales tax checks from Albany County, and was expecting roughly $1.2 million this year. 

The $200,000 county EMS cost is up from the $170,000 Palow had initially made room for in his tentative 2025 budget, but equal to its cost for 2024. 

Palow took the $170,000 out of a later budget draft to lower what had been a 19-percent tax increase to 2 percent, arguing that the town should get a discount for service since there is a local volunteer service, Helderberg Ambulance, that operates in the area. 

“We came to an agreement because of Helderberg Ambulance helping out,” Palow said of his negotiations with county officials. 

He called Apple a “great man” who “understood my point of view” about the cost of the service. 

Although The Enterprise reported last week that a deal had been reached between the town and county, details were not immediately forthcoming, and Palow’s final 2025 budget did not include any funds for EMS, raising the question of whether there had been a last-minute dispute. 

Town board update

Palow has been making budget decisions unilaterally this year after all but one of his four colleagues on the town board resigned in mid-August over concerns about his leadership, claiming he wouldn’t share information on troubled town finances. This left Palow without a quorum of members to provide oversight and, by extension, left the budget legally exempt from public hearings. 

According to the state’s Town Law, Governor Kathy Hochul could either call for a special election to fill the three vacant posts or she could appoint board members, as she had in the town of Hermon earlier this year when it found itself in similar circumstances. But her office has been tight-lipped about what efforts it’s been making, if any. 

The town’s Democratic committee has submitted names to the governor’s office for appointment as has Palow, a Republican; all of the 2024 town board members had been backed by the GOP.

A Freedom of Information Law request for correspondence between state and town officials submitted to the executive chamber by The Enterprise in October has been repeatedly delayed, with an estimated return date now reaching into January. 

Palow told The Enterprise this week that, after struggling himself to get meaningful information, he was finally put in touch with an attorney with the governor’s office and is hoping to get an update soon.

But if the process continues to drag, he said, the town is prepared to take legal action to speed it up.

“I’m not trying to be a jerk … or cause any issues with the Governor Hochul’s office, I just don’t know what the holdup is,” Palow said.