BERNE — The town can look forward to having a roof over its salt and sand, Supervisor Kevin Crosier said during the town’s reorganizational meeting on Jan. 1 as he described projects for Berne in 2015.

He hopes a new shed at the highway department would be a second shared loading station for snowplows used during snowstorms by the county and the town, mentioning a third-party study of countywide highway services that was released in November and highlighted potential savings in sharing highway facilities.

The newly elected highway superintendent — the lone Republican in a Democratic administration — isn’t convinced of the savings in the first shared facility, at a county shed on Cole Hill Road, but welcomes a new structure at the highway department.

Plans have been drawn up for the salt shed, which would protect the town’s winter road materials from the elements and cost between $200,000 and $230,000, Crosier told The Enterprise. He said engineers were asked to design a shed to hold 2,000 tons of material, based on what a shared-services agreement with the county might require.

As it is now, the town’s salt and sand is piled outside, washing away with the rain and freezing with the cold temperatures, costing time and wasting material, Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger said Wednesday. Also, the loader won’t have to be driven as far, since it will be kept covered next to the pile, he said.

The town already has an agreement to store some of its salt and sand at the county substation on Cole Hill Road. The plan is to save money and time by cutting down on the length of refill trips. But the substation’s shed can’t fit all of the town’s salt and sand, Crosier said.

The previous highway superintendent, Kenneth Weaver, said the plan wouldn’t work and didn’t follow it. A few days into his new job as highway superintendent, Randy Bashwinger said that the plan isn’t currently being used.

Weaver resigned in September, less than a year after his re-election, feeling that the town board wasn’t supportive as it criticized his late list of road maintenance projects.

Having narrowly won the 2014 election for the three years left in Weaver’s term, Bashwinger took his oath of office just before the New Year’s Day meeting, surrounded by his family. He, like Weaver, said putting the town’s salt and sand at the county substation wouldn’t be more efficient. He said most of the town’s plow routes are on the east end of town, closer to the highway department; the one large truck that would use it can run its route with just one load.

“That may be true if you do the route once,” Crosier responded through The Enterprise, “but during a snowstorm you may have to refill more than once,” going back out on a route. The county location is useful in emergencies, Crosier said. He is hopeful Bashwinger will see it as beneficial.

“You still have to come back here to fuel up,” Bashwinger said of the town’s highway department in the hamlet of Berne. “If you have any mechanical issues, you have to come back here.”

Bashwinger said two separate sheds for the county and the town seemed like the best situation.

“They have one truck that comes over here, and we only have one truck that would go over there, so it would defeat the purpose of trying to mix and match and that. I think he was talking about storage,” Bashwinger said, referring to Crosier.

The money for the new shed would be borrowed, Crosier said. The town will next discuss its use with the county, possibly completing the project as late as 2016.

Harmonious start

Since his first day Friday, Bashwinger and the six highway employees have been keeping roads clear of scattered snow and ice. He sounded jubilant Wednesday.

“Everybody seems to be getting along real well,” he said of the highway department he recently joined.

Bashwinger ran in the recent election on the Republican line against Democrat Edward Hampton, who has worked for the department for 10 years and was appointed as the interim superintendent after Weaver resigned.

“Ed is an excellent mechanic and a very good trainer. I mean, he’s been working really well with me and I’m really pleased with the way that’s working out,” said Bashwinger.

Hampton has handled purchasing for the highway department, working mainly as a mechanic and a driver.

In the recent snowstorms, drivers couldn’t communicate well with their radios in certain areas of the town, Bashwinger said. The problem of clear transmission on the escarpment has persisted for Hilltown highway departments, mainly for Berne and Knox.

Bashwinger said he will choose who will be the next deputy supervisor within the next week, but he hasn’t yet made up his mind.

The position is a “lateral move,” Bashwinger said, with the deputy able to take fewer holidays than a union employee.

“I think the deputy should definitely have a little bit more benefits then what they get from the town,” he said, referring generally to income and time off.

“He’s kind of second in charge and basically another supervisor,” he said.