With the appointment of trial lawyer Christine Napierski, Guilderland now has two female judges and one male.

Westerlo’s highway superintendent, Keith Wright, will be retiring on June 29.

The superintendent alleges the supervisor had overstepped his authority in several instances.

BERNE — The town’s highway superintendent — a Republican in a town governed by a council of all Democrats — left on a planned trip to Maine at 2 p.m. last Friday afternoon. That evening, he heard from two of his six full-time highway workers: They had been fired by the town supervisor.

Berne 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.

Democrats, who outnumber Republicans in Berne nearly 3 to 1, will need to surmount 17 votes held by the Republican Randy Bashwinger as absentee ballots are counted for the election of a new highway superintendent.

Kenneth Weaver, who resigned from the post in September, confronted the town's supervisor publicly because his health insurance had been canceled, but the supervisor pointed to a provision in the employee handbook making Weaver ineligible after 2013.

Edward Hampton, a highway worker, is now filling in after the highway superintendent stepped down. Local party committees say Hampton and Randy Bashwinger will be on the ballot in the November election.

Highway superintendents and their town boards across the state have to agree to what road projects will be done every year. Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier says the highway superintendent's late list is too costly and can't be approved.

Kenneth Weaver won on the Democratic line in the past, but switched to the GOP line this time having declined other endorsements.