BERNE — The town of Berne and the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District are close to collaborating on waste disposal and snow removal.

At a school board meeting Monday, BKW Business Administrator Gregory Diefenbach told the board about a plan suggested to him by Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier. Crosier, who was unable to attend Monday’s meeting, told the Berne Town Board about the idea at a meeting last month.

According to Crosier, the school and the town are eligible for a grant from the state for projects involving shared municipal services. A total of $2.5 million is available for projects submitted by Jan. 13.

Crosier proposed using grant money to purchase a roll-off truck with a plow and wing attachment for $120,000. The grant requires participating municipalities to contribute a combined 10 percent of the costs, which would mean $12,000 to be split between Berne and BKW, Diefenbach said. How it would be split—50-50 or otherwise—has yet to be decided, Diefenbach said.

According to the plan, once the truck is bought, the school will contract with the town to haul away its trash from the newly-renovated town transfer station.

Currently, Diefenbach said, the school district contracts with Waste Management at an annual cost of $19,000.
"Kevin feels the cost for disposing the waste will be $8,000 to $10,000," Diefenbach said.

That cost includes drivers’ salaries and tipping fees at the dump, Diefenbach said.

The method for getting waste from the school to the transfer station still needs to be worked out, Diefenbach said. The school generates about 80 compacted tons of waste per year, he said. Some of it, recyclables and bulk waste, is placed in roll-off containers, which can be removed with the new truck, if purchased.

The rest of it, 720 yards of loose waste, poses more of a challenge. The school could buy four wheeled hoppers, at $6,000 each, and roll them to the transfer station when they are full, Diefenbach said. Or, he said, the school could bag its trash and put it in a Dumpster for the town to pick up. The cost of the hoppers or the Dumpster could be included in the grant, Diefenbach said he believed, but he wasn’t positive.

In addition to garbage duties, the town would use the roll-off truck as a plow, clearing the BKW parking lots in the winter.

Currently, Diefenbach estimated, on a light snow day, it takes one person an hour to an hour-and-a-half to open the parking lots. On a day with heavy snow, it could take three people two to four hours, not including the time it takes to move 54 buses in and out of place.

Employees earn between $17 and $26 per hour, before benefits, for clearing snow, Diefenbach said.
The district’s transportation supervisor, Alan Zuk, said that, if the town plowed the parking lots with the large roll-off truck, the school would still have to get the spots closer to the buildings with its smaller vehicles. Also, he said, the real work is clearing the snow after it’s plowed. Still, Zuk said, "It will save us some time."

Zuk noted that sometimes the county uses the BKW parking lot to turn its plows around.
"They do as much in a five-minute turn-around as we do in 15 to 20 minutes picking at it with a Suburban," Zuk said.

With Crosier’s plan, Diefenbach said, the district would definitely save money, in waste and snow removal.
"On the surface, the costs benefit’s there, but we don’t have it all laid out," he said.

Diefenbach said he would continue to work with Crosier on the details of the plan. The board agreed to hold an emergency meeting before the grant application is due if it’s necessary to pass a resolution supporting the plan.

Other business:

In other business at its Dec. 5 meeting, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board:

—Continued a discussion, from last month, on weighted grades and the recognition of the valedictorian and salutatorian. Each board member said he or she is against weighted grades, so no vote was held. So, marks for courses of varying levels at BKW will continue to bear equal weight when averaged together for class rank.

The board then discussed information provided by high school Principal Mary Petrilli. Petrilli surveyed local schools and found that many of them have done away with the recognition of the valedictorian and salutatorian, including Bethlehem, Colonie, Niskayuna, and Guilderland.

The board asked Petrilli to find out why these schools made their decisions, what they replaced the honors with, and if any college scholarships were lost as a result. The board agreed to discuss the issue more in future meetings;

—Approved a number of new fiscal policies, most of which were recommended state-wide by Comptroller Alan Hevesi;
—Approved an extracurricular activity account for the Alliance for Tolerance. According to a statement the group submitted to the board, the Alliance for Tolerance will "seek to raise diversity awareness, including homophobia as a form of oppression. We will also advocate for equal treatment and tolerance for students of all sexual orientations, genders, races, and creeds"; and

—Agreed to contract with Slant Consultants for a review of the school lunch program. Slant charges $1,800, Diefenbach said.