Berne in 2006
Hot spot for growth: New transfer station, plans for library, senior complex



BERNE — The shape of Berne is changing.

At the beginning of the year, the western side of the Berne hamlet was a hot spot for growth; it will soon be home to the Hilltown senior center, and the Berne Library is in the process of relocating to Berne Town Park.

The new transfer station, designed by Joel Willsey, was officially opened in January, and the Hilltown Family Center was also opened in January.

Berne lost a community legend, when Morris Willsey, a long-time farmer and mechanic, died last month.
Supervisor Kevin Crosier, called "an optimistic person" by Councilman Joseph Golden, continued to push for change this year. Some of his ideas were met with community support and enthusiasm, others were not.

The merger

The town’s most controversial issue — merging the town’s highway department with Albany County — surfaced in June and was revisited throughout the remainder of the year.

Crosier, committed to reducing taxes, along with Highway Superintendent Ray Storm, pushed for the merger. The town has a small population and not many residents to support miles of roads; services are being duplicated by the two departments, Crosier said repeatedly.

Crosier promised no one would lose their jobs.

The plan, developed after the first Inter-municipal Cooperation Forum, was met with widespread resistance from highway workers and residents, many concerned the merger would result in a loss of community control and poorer service.

The merger with the county would be the first in the state, according to Jeffrey Haber, executive director of the Association of Towns.

A report put together by the town and county outlined over $600,000 in expected savings and service improvements for Berne.

The seven current highway workers opposed consolidation and said the merger would result in town roads becoming a lower priority, should a merger go through.

In August, highway workers, county officials, and the town board met at the East Berne firehouse, where highway workers questioned officials. Prior to the meeting, highway workers gave a list of 49 questions to Crosier, but, after they received answers, the workers still had questions. Joe Welsh, a highway worker, read from the list of questions and other highway workers were skeptical about estimates, savings, and guarantees. Officials repeatedly said no one would lose their jobs and that the merger would result in better services.

Golden said he thought a draft agreement would have to be made before any conclusions could be drawn about the merger’s effects.
"We’re working on it," said Michael Franchini, the county commissioner of public works.

To date, no documentation has been presented to the employees or the town board.
In October, town residents spoke against the merger, many echoing resident Dave Smith’s sentiment: "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

Crosier made a motion for the town to apply for grant money totaling $575,500 that could have been used with the county. Crosier said the town could turn down the grant if it decided against consolidation.

No board member seconded his motion.
"What’s the worst-case scenario" You get it and you turn it down," Crosier said.
Both Golden and Councilman James Hamilton have called the merger "a takeover" by Albany County. Both have written letters to the Enterprise editor; Golden said changes in government take time, and Hamilton said inter-municipal sharing of roadwork already takes place.

Hamilton favors sharing services with neighboring towns rather than merging the two departments.

In November, the town board, in a budget workshop, contended with a 28-percent tax increase, cutting it to 20 percent, and approved the budget, with Crosier opposing it.

At the town board’s December meeting, the majority of those in the gallery asked the board to reconsider the merger, citing the tax increase. Residents will pay $4.71 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2007.

Crosier told The Enterprise this week, "We do have a draft agreement we’re working on."

The library

Since it was founded in 1962, the library has had to squeeze into tight spaces in Berne: first the Grange Hall, then in a tiny building perched precariously at the edge of the Fox Creek, and, most recently, in the crowded Berne Town Hall.

In late February, the library board and the town board agreed to a tentative plan to move the library to a yet-to-be-built home at the Berne Town Park.
"We think it’s great," said library board President Jim O’Shea of the plan. "It’s been a long time coming."

The library, with 800 square feet in the town hall, doesn’t have enough space to house the ever-increasing collection and the patrons’ desire for more computers and more study space, library supporters said. The library staff looked for about two years, but, O’Shea said, their search was unsuccessful.
"We actually found absolutely nothing," he said.

The library board’s criteria for property was strict; it had to be along one of the town’s cable lines for high-speed Internet access, and it had to be on a main road in a population center.

The location at town park, located on Route 443, at the west end of the hamlet, fulfills the criteria.

The biggest advantage of the park, said Crosier, is that the town already owns the property. Since the Berne Library, as a free library, has no taxing power, it relies heavily on the town to meet its budget.

Also, Crosier said, the town began digging a well at the park for new bathrooms.
"A lot of the infrastructure is already there," he said.

Town hall offices are as crunched as the library. The town needs more room to conduct its business, especially the court, Crosier said. With the library leaving, the town could expand into vacated space.
"We really want to get the townspeople behind this," O’Shea said.

The library board had raised $7,000 for the project by the end of March, and the town set aside $50,000 for the library from the sale of the old fire station across the street from the town hall.

In October, the town board voted unanimously to commit an additional $50,000 to the library project in a capital fund and to officially designate the 300-by-300 foot parcel in the town park.

Joel Willsey, a Berne resident who redesigned the town’s transfer station to match the historic buildings in the hamlet, worked on some sketches for the new library.
"We’re going to give it the same rural style," Crosier said in February. "I’m sure it will look like an old historic house."
"A library is an important part of a community just like a firehouse is," he said. "I think it’s important for the kids to have that."

The senior center

In March and October, developer Jeff Thomas presented his plans for the Berne senior center.

Long wanted by aging residents, the center will be located on 14 acres near the hamlet. Finding the site, on Canaday Hill Road, ended a two-year search. It is next to the town park and across the street from the fire station.
"It’s an ideal site," Thomas said. "It’s a natural extension of the hamlet."

A group of Hilltowners, led by Linda Carman and Michael Vincent, pushed for senior housing in the area for over five years, saying there’s no place for seniors to live if they want to stay on the Hill and give up the hassle and expense of owning a house.

Carman contacted Thomas after reading about his proposed senior housing project just outside of Altamont in The Enterprise. Thomas then agreed to build a complex in the Hilltowns.

The Canaday Road site was the only one he found that was near a hamlet and available, Thomas said.
"It’s probably as good as we’re going to get, because we’ve got access to the sewer district," Vincent said.

Thomas formed a focus group of seniors to advise him on the project.
"We went around town looking for places. This was probably number-two on our list," Carman said. "Number-one wasn’t available."
Monthly rental fees for the 96 units in the Helderberg Retirement Community are expected to range from $500 to $600 for a one-bedroom apartment up to $890 for a two-bedroom. The "no frills" complex, said Thomas, will be handicapped-accessible but designed for independent living; it will not offer services such as nurses and meal preparation. Thomas is hoping to draw residents from all four Helderberg Hilltowns.

Both Carman and Vincent said in March that they’re glad the project is finally moving forward after so many years of effort.
"I just hope that this works out and my seniors can get where they want to be, and this is where they want to be," Carman said.

Morris Willsey

Morris Willsey, a farmer and mechanic, died in November at the age of 79.
"He was a legend on the Hill," Priscilla Schaap, his daughter, said.

Mr. Willsey farmed the Helderberg land where he grew up and watched it progress from the days of horse-drawn plows.
"As a man born in the summer of 1927, I have many happy memories of farming a 140-acre farm in Albany County in the Town of Berne, New York," he wrote in a memoir.

Willsey, Schaap said, was an engine enthusiast and a family man.
"His greatest hobby was engines — anything to do with engines," she said. "As he got older, it was making his family happy."
Willsey’s memoir, "The Past Not Forgotten," recalls his farming experience — his round dairy barn constructed by his father and grandfather, his cow stable, his dairy herd of Brown Swiss cows, changes he saw throughout the years in milking methods, his creek nearby, as well as the impact new technology and electricity had on his farm.
"Our dairy barn was a round barn, 60 feet across and 60 feet high, built in 1912 by my father and grandfather. The barn was five years in the planning. The sill and plates were sawed round on a tablesaw, the studding and rafters were precut"The new was built of concrete for foundation and the floor which was mixed by hand using creek gravel. The same year the barn was filled with hay," he wrote.

Willsey’s round barn was included in Barns in the U.S.A. by Wilson Wells, published in 1976. That same year, the barn burned.
"As the life of the barn ended August, 1976, when an arsonist set fire to the barn, totaled, destroyed, lost three Model A Fords, a 1930 Chevrolet pickup, 14 antique one-cylinder engines, and a $10,000 shop," he wrote.
"Farming on a 140-acre was rather simple — hard work and long hours," Willsey wrote conclusively.

Willsey’s round barn is featured on the Berne Historical Society’s Christmas ornament this year.