BERNE — Sean Lyons is challenging Berne’s long-time Democratic supervisor. He said he is a supporter of President Donald Trump and “his initiative to bring fresh faces and people who are not politicians into politics.”

Lyons is a Republican running on his party line as well the Conservative and Independence lines, is running for a second time in Berne. In 2015, he ran unsuccessfully for town board, but is now making a run for supervisor.

Lyons said he began getting more involved in local government since the passage of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, known as the SAFE Act, which increased firearm regulations after the school shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

In 2015, Lyons ran for town council on the Republican, Reform, and Conservative party lines, and was defeated by incumbents Dawn Jordan and Karen Schimmer, both Democrats.

“It just needs to be more open and available to the public,” Lyons, said, of the current town government.

“I want to be an open voice,” he said. “An open mind with no agendas.”

Lyons, 48, works at the United States Army Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet as an industrial controls technician. He believes his experience at his job, in which he has had to manage multi-million dollar projects, will help him serve as a leader in the town.

He also volunteers for several veterans’ groups such as the Veterans Miracle Center and the Capital District Patriot Flight. Lyons also works in the Hilltowns to bring about 15 bags a month of hygiene products to the Hilltown Seniors to be distributed to area veterans.

He said he volunteers about 25 to 30 hours a month and, if he needed to cut back on hours to serve as supervisor, his wife, who also actively volunteers, would take on some of his tasks.

Lyons said he is not a veteran, as an eye condition prevented him from serving, but his uncles, grandfather, father, and brother-in-law are veterans.

“We’re just a very patriotic family … ,” he said. “It’s just been a part of my life since I can remember.”

As a Republican, Lyons said he would be willing to work with a potentially all-Democratic board. The town board is currently made up of all Democrats.

“I don’t have any animosities or any ill will to anybody on the town board,” he said. He added that he hoped his running mates would win seats on the town board, but said he would otherwise work with the Democratic town board, “just like anybody else.”

Should he be elected, Lyons said that he would like to change the structure of the town board meetings and the notifications of the meetings. He would like to have the agenda be released a week to two weeks before the meeting rather than the day before. He also said he’d like the townspeople to provide more feedback at meetings before the town board votes on issues.

“That would be my biggest thing, just open up the town board meetings,” he said.

Lyons said he believes consolidation of the town and county highway departments would hurt the town, as he would be concerned that the town roads would not receive the same attention. But he said that sharing services can be beneficial.

“Shared services has long been a godsend,” he said, recalling many municipalities recently working together to pave roads.

He added that he did not see how sharing a facility would be beneficial, because there would be little change for the better in closing one facility to house all workers in another.

Looking at autonomy of the highway department, Lyons said that the town government and supervisor are in charge of establishing a budget for the department but, following this, the highway superintendent has jurisdiction.

“We elect him to do the job,” he said. “Setting hours, hiring people within his budget.”

He added that highway departments in other towns have more autonomy than in Berne.

Lyons defended the social-media page run by the highway superintendent, a Republican, separately from the town.

“I feel that he’s done an amazing job keeping the people informed,” he said.

Regarding garbage disposal, Lyons said he did not have the data to speak on the landfill closing. He said he has been working with local environmental groups to find answers on disposing solid waste outside of the landfill.

“I really don’t have the solutions set right now for this issue,” he said.

He noted that cameras have been set up to deter trespassing nonresidents from dumping trash at the Berne transfer station, which could help cut down on excess waste.

Lyons said, on the matter of health insurance for town workers, that he would have no issue with offering insurance to an unmarried dependent, so long as it was within the bounds of the insurance law and policy.

“Especially in this day and age, it’s becoming more and more commonplace,” he said, of unmarried partners.

Lyons he did not a have a precise answer on whether the town board should ever vote to go about the 2-percent tax-levy limit question.

“I can’t say that I could think of a situation that I would be in favor of that,” he said.

Lyons said that one of his goals as supervisor would be to encourage new businesses in Berne as well as agriculture by changing zoning districts, because farms in agricultural zones are more likely to be eligible for state grants or tax breaks. In return, he said, townspeople may more likely be able to purchase local products on the Hill at a lower price.

“They don’t have the ability to sell at a lower price,” he said, of Berne farmers.

He added that small businesses in town could be supported by working with politicians such as county legislatures to receive tax breaks or other incentives to encourage new businesses, as well as the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce to promote new businesses.

Lyons said that Berne’s zoning code and the town’s comprehensive plan may have to be changed to allow new businesses to grow.

“They seem to be regulated right out of existence,” he said, of the declining businesses in town.