Berne Highway Department
History
Current
As of 2009, the Town of Berne Highway Department had six full time employees, one part time highway clerk, one part time transfer station employee, and several seasonal part-timers as needed. Facilities include a main building built in the 1960’s that has 5 bays and an office, a secondary heated building of two bays, and a pole barn with five bays used for salt storage. Equipment is fully inventoried by type, age, mileage, and condition. There are a total of 79.29 miles of town road: 22 are paved, 13 are oil and stone, 44.09 are dirt. Nine seasonal roads exist for a total of 10.3 miles.
The Department lists Sawmill, Betts Lane, Gulf Hill, Cook Hill, Wood Road, Erwin Dr., Smokey Hollow (West End), Grippy Lane, Peasley and Beaver roads as locations where flooding problems are known to exist. Drainage issues can be found on Irons Lane, Rowe Lane, Smith Lane, Schreiber Lane, and Gulf Hill, Peasley, Beaver, Game Farm, Cook Hill, and Wood roads.
Formal agreements between the Town of Berne and the towns of Westerlo, Knox, and Wright exist to share equipment as needed. Informal shared services exist where the towns help each other out whenever possible on an as needed basis. Informal shared services takes place between Berne, Bethlehem, New Scotland, Rennsealerville, Coeymans, and Albany County.
