BERNE — With 50 people before him and the Catskill Mountains behind, Supervisor Kevin Crosier during an informational meeting this month touted the town’s purchase of 358 acres on Game Farm Road and fended off criticism from residents that the purchase lacked public input and a plan.

More than a week before, board members were presented with a petition seeking a referendum on large investments in the future.

Crosier said the detractors are outnumbered by the people who are excited by the new town land and who have come forward with ideas for its use. The detractors say just the opposite, and they were the most vocal inside the lodge during the meeting on Oct. 18.

Pressed during the meeting on whether taxes would increase as a result of the purchase, Crosier responded, “Read my lips, 1-percent tax decrease this year,” referring to the tax rate proposed for Berne’s 2015 budget. He said the town will close on the purchase in December.

The Oct. 18 meeting inside the property’s main lodge was meant to answer questions about the site and allow residents to tour the buildings and surrounding acreage. The steep, pocked Game Farm Road leads up to the hilltop property, which was used for the past decade as a Buddhist center.

Its main buildings are on approximately 40 acres that the town could develop. Conservation easements would limit the uses on another portion and protect the rest from any development indefinitely.

To buy the land, the conservation group Open Space Institute offered $237,500, combined with $125,000 from the Albany County Capital Resource Corporation, and $112,000 from the town. With costs for the easements and closing, the deal will cost the town around $140,000.

Crosier said the town board would form a not-for-profit corporation that would oversee the property, with a board of directors that would include some residents.

“This belongs to the town, and it’s your vision that will guide the use of the property,” he said.

The board expects to generate revenue and jobs with the property, Crosier told the crowd, and the possibilities for its use are open. He said he already has willing partnerships with other municipalities lined up, declining to name them. He said he has fielded requests for renting the lodge.

In his message to residents in the town’s fall newsletter, Crosier listed camping, weddings, conferences, and outdoor recreation as possible uses of the property.

Joanna Bull, a Rensselaerville resident who was instrumental in locating the property for the Buddhist center, praised the town for buying the land instead of letting a developer get it.

“Three-hundred-and-fifty-eight acres unspoiled — they ain’t makin’ more of them. That’s it folks,” Jane Palmer, an Altamont resident who worked at the retreat, said inside the lodge, saying she was glad for the town board’s decision.

Some of the questions for Crosier after his address were out of concern. At times, Crosier was poised to push back.

“The town is already covered,” he said of a nominal cost for liability insurance at the property. “We have an enormous insurance policy.”

He estimated, had a developer bought the property, that it would have paid around $2,200 in town taxes; Crosier declined to estimate what school taxes would be.

In response to Robert Motschmann, who wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor describing a lack of foresight in the town board’s decision, Crosier said the property has plenty of water for the town’s needs. To the complaint that the town already has buildings in need of maintenance, Crosier said money has been set aside to finish the pavilion in the town park, but a series of projects have kept Crosier’s attention from it.

He encouraged residents with questions to visit his office in Town Hall.

Asked why Berne residents didn’t decide on the purchase by referendum, like the town hall in Westerlo, Crosier responded, “Because it’s a democracy, and we were elected to spend your money.”

The petitions submitted to the town board asked that the town allow voters to decide on the next such large investment, Roger Chrysler said.

Chrysler, who delivered the petitions to the town board, farms the hayfields on the Game Farm Road property and says he would have made an offer if the town hadn’t already. He estimated he submitted 70 signatures. Crosier counted 40.

In Westerlo’s case, a petition was made to put the town’s purchase up for a vote, forcing a permissive referendum allowed for in the state’s Town Law. At least 5 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the last election for governor must petition for such a referendum to take place.

Westerlo’s purchase of the former school to be used as a town hall was controversial, which led to the referendum. The vote to purchase won by a landslide.

In Berne’s case, the required number of signatures for a permissive referendum petition would be 60.

“It’s not representative of much of anything,” Crosier said of the Game Farm Road petitions. “If there was 1,000 names on the petition, it might be relevant.” Some were missing addresses, he said. The town has 2,800 residents, according to the last federal census.

“Like I explained at the meeting there are things that the town board, any town board, will vote on and it benefits maybe some people, but not all of them,” Crosier told The Enterprise, describing the function and value of an elected board.

Chrysler and Motschmann said they were unconvinced by the meeting that the town’s purchase was wise.

“My opinion that it’s a white elephant has not changed. I still think the purchase was unnecessary,” said Motschmann, who has noted Berne already has much public land for recreation.

Both men say the property still doesn’t have a clear purpose and claim the majority of people they speak to are not in favor of the purchase. Crosier said residents are stopping in his office to continue talking about the land.

“I’m in favor of buying it,” said Fred “Pete” Bassler, who helped to locate places for drilling wells on the property for the Buddhist center more than a decade ago. “I just think it’s something for the town. How much it benefits me for the rest of my life, I don’t know. It’s such a beautiful piece of property, 20, 30, 50 years from now I think the people in Berne are going to be happy to have it.”

Chrysler agreed the purchase would be good if the town board’s plans for jobs and income succeeded, but contended Berne has too many other beautiful places for recreation. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to make a go of it.”