To the Editor.

I am compelled to correct the ridiculous assertion in last week’s letter submitted by Robert Motschmann III titled “No man knows less than the man who knows it all.”

He says, “Mr. Willsey’s continuous criticisms suggest the story of a man who claimed to be a forensic expert because he lived next to a cemetery. No man knows less than the man who knows it all.”

His insulting, inaccurate analogy suggests I know absolutely nothing about the work Mr. Bashwinger engages in. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

I worked in highway and bridge design at the New York State Department of Transportation beginning in1983 and retired in 2019 from a review position in quality control with the title of Assistant Engineer. 

Beginning in 1983, I was regularly trained to stay current in roadside design and safety, which includes guide-rail and bridge-rail design. I am critical of the fact that we have very dangerous guide-rail features in Berne that are being ignored.

I have extensive knowledge of guide-rail and bridge-rail design, and I advised and consulted professional engineers on their guide-rail and bridge-rail issues for decades. I often jumped in and did their designs to help them out.

I don’t know everything, but I know plenty about roadside design and safety. I was the go-to guy for bridge-rail and guide-rail design at the New York State Department of Transportation Region One design office.

I am completely confident that I am 100-percent qualified to evaluate the safety of the guide-rail systems in Berne. I have provided a réusmé with my notices of highway defects for years with my former supervisors’ contacts.  

I designed a lot of work-zone safety plans over the 36 years I worked in the civil engineering industry in the design offices of NYSDOT for my projects. I planned and drew them up for the projects of other design engineers too.

I was trained regularly in work-zone safety and worked continuously with the Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the New York Supplement, especially in my review position. This Manual and Supplement are adopted into the New York Vehicle and Traffic law §1680.

It is required that these criteria be observed in all projects on any roads, highways, or paths open to public traffic in New York state. I am positive this is the case, and Mr. [Berne Highway Superintendent Randy] Bashwinger has stated publicly that this manual doesn’t apply to town roads! I know plenty about work zone safety, Mr. Motschmann.

So, Mr. Motschmann, I know exactly how Mr. Bashwinger has been operating in total violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law since 2015. It is so simple to correct his operations, it is painful. I really think he is going to be responsible for the death of another person under his watch.

He allowed a vehicle to intrude into a work site where it stood on its nose in a deep excavation and the woman driving it had to be rescued. What did he do wrong? He provided no barricades and “Road Closed” signs at the actual excavation as required by state law. The excavator filled the truck and the truck drove away. There was absolutely nothing there to stop a vehicle from entering the excavation and potentially dropping on top of someone cleaning up the bottom of the fresh excavation by hand.  

The “Road closed — Local Traffic Only” signs are not at the nearest intersections to stop traffic; they are there to warn drivers that somewhere along that road they are going to encounter barricades with “Road Closed” signs where the actual work is taking place. It’s called the point of closure, Randy. But Randy never actually closes the road at the point of closure! It’s ridiculously foolish.

So, Mr. Motschmann, I have posted the PDF file: Berne Violates Vehicle and Traffic Law for 10 years on the Berne Cracker Barrel Page and provided it to The Enterprise for posting with this letter. It clearly documents that Mr. Bashwinger continued to operate without closing the road at the “point of closure” for many years up to 2025 since he caused the accident on Bridge Road in 2019. His violations are very well documented in this PDF

Joel Willsey

East Berne