BERNE — An ecology-minded sixth-grader left everybody feeling good at last week’s town board meeting after he presented his plans for restoring ponds on the town’s Switzkill Farm property to full fish-filled health.

But, as will happen in the sharply divided town, this feel-good moment was quickly followed by angry accusations leveled at town Supervisor Kevin Crosier by Frank Brady, a town resident, during the public-comment portion of the meeting.

Ten-year-old Aaron Carr was asked after the meeting how he liked his first town board meeting.  “Cool,” he said.

He himself  was remarkably cool and poised as he guided the full meeting room, and a charmed town board, through his proposal for restocking the ponds with native fish come spring, once he has submitted his  stocking application with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and received the required  permit.  His informative tabletop visual aid looked like a science fair project, but wasn’t.

Aaron — the son of Brian and Lisa Carr of Berne —  hadn’t needed an assignment to come up with his plan for giving nature a hand. The nature-loving boy — he said after the meeting that he had begun fishing at the age of 1 ½  years and “my dad loves the outdoors” — had been completely self-motivated, no adult prompting needed.

After a warm round of applause for Aaron and his plan, Crosier proposed that the aspiring naturalist be made a member of the Switzkill Farm task force as its “aquatics expert.” And the board so decreed, unanimously.

 Crosier said this is “what’s so great ab0ut small towns; you can step up and make a difference.”

The contrast with the adult fare that came next could not have been starker.

Crosier v. highway crew

Brady accused the town supervisor of mistreating “a man who works his ass off here,” referring to town Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger. Crosier and Bashwinger have been locked in a prolonged stand-off ever since  a series of events early this year that could be summarized as follows: Bashwinger — who by law has full authority to run the highway department as he sees fit — decided to put his department on a workweek of four 10-hour days in good weather months; Crosier denounced this move and laid off two highway workers but later rehired them; and then, when budget time came around, there were raises for all town employees except for Bashwinger and his crew, which is now working under an extended contract that is about to expire.

Brady, addressing Crosier directly, said, “You’re making these guys [highway department workers] put their backs against the wall.”

And referring to Crosier touting three straight years of property tax reductions,  Brady said, “You can’t do this on the back of workers.”

In response, Crosier simply said, “thank you,” and the meeting continued. Commenting this week, Crosier said, “It’s pretty obvious that he [Brady] was carrying someone else’s political bucket of water.”

Crosier said Brady is “misinformed” about the town’s negotiations with the highway employees’ union for a new contract. “We came to agreement with them twice, including once in mediation, and they walked away from it.” He says the town offered a 2-percent annual raise over the three-year term of the contract and that prospective raise was “already included” in the  2017 town budget that lowered the property tax.

The current contract with the highway crew, which was extended for one year, expires at the end of this year. Crosier says the town has tried to contact the highway workers’ union — now the United Public Service Employees Union — but as yet has received no response.
 

Other business

Among other business, the board:

— Heard Bashwinger report that the highway department has been collecting toys to donate to the pediatrics unit at Albany Medical Center Hospital.  He later said that he has an “office full of toys” for delivery on Wednesday, Dec.  21;

— Heard Bashwinger also report that the roof installed on the town’s new salt shed, which is nearing completion, is wrong because it has only two sections rather than the ordered eight. He explained that,  when the roof rips in one spot, as  can happen, it is much less costly to replace one-eighth of the roof  rather than one-half.  Bashwinger said the two-section roof will be removed in  the spring and replaced with an eight-section roof, at no additional cost. Bashwinger and Crosier agreed that another use of the removed roof — which will be left behind — may be found. “All we need is trusses,” Crosier said, “and maybe we could have indoor soccer at Skitzkill Farm” ;

— Heard Phyllis Johnson, coordinator of the Helderberg Senior Services  meals program at the Berne Senior Center  and Helderberg Seniors correspondent for The Enterprise, report, “Our numbers are growing astronomically.” She said 225 meals were served in November;

— Agreed unanimously to appoint Emily Vincent  to the planning board, as a person who can well represent the farm community. Vincent owns Two Rock Ranch on Turner Road;

      — Accepted the resignations  of Terry Adams and George Christian from the town’s zoning board of appeals and authorized the town clerk to advertise the open positions;

     — Discussed several transfer station issues, including the high cost of disposing of televisions, and  authorized a $10 charge for drop-off of cathode-ray-tube televisions;

     — Agreed to authorize a contract with Evolution Recycling in Johnstown;

       — Authorized getting bids for a handcrafted judge’s bench for the town justice court.  Crosier  said the cost can be as high as $10,000;

      — Increased the 2017  assigned fund balance by $85,000; decreased the unassigned fund balance by $85,000, and deposited $85,000 in the general fund capital reserve account;

     —  Authorized the supervisor to enter into a shared service agreement with Albany County for use of the new salt shed; and

    —  Authorized payment to Cappellino Chevrolet of $33,634.25 for a 2017 Silverado truck, and an additional  $862 for truck equipment, both payments to be made from the capital reserve project general fund and the capital sewer fund.