Photos: Visioning starts for Berne park
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Naming a place: Terrice Bassler, chairwoman of the recently appointed board overseeing Berne’s large property on Game Farm Road, holds a jar of stickers used for voting on names for the land listed on posters inside the lodge on June 12. All but one of the board members are Berne residents, with Charles Burgess, a land steward for the Open Space Institute that funded half of the purchase, living in Rensselaerville. Others include Mark Hohengasser, a landscape architect; Lee Jones, a former banker and Albany County purchasing agent; Frank Kunker, a managing partner at Empire Financial Associates; Richard Ronconi, a retired Spanish teacher and master beekeeper; and Mark Sengenberger, a landscape architect.
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Eyes to the sky, Ron Barnell, an amateur astronomer, speaks to Councilwoman Dawn Jordan inside the lodge Friday evening, explaining his idea to use part of the property to site an observatory that would take advantage of its clear skies. The everyday operation and maintenance of the land, to be used for recreation and tourism, will be handled by a “task force” appointed last week by the Berne Town Board: Roger Chrysler, agriculture specialist; Susan Hawkes-Teeter, recreation and youth director; Barbara Jansen, administrative specialist; Diane Kingston, director of development; Jon Kusler, environment consultant; and Michael Vincent, infrastructure specialist.