BERNE — Randy Bashwinger, Berne’s highway superintendent, led a procession of 50 down the town’s main street under darkening skies Wednesday evening. On the march from the school to Town Hall they shouted, “Berne lives matter.”

When that chant petered out, they started calling “Crosier needs to go.”

Berne's supervisor and highway superintendent need to set aside their differences and work together to honestly answer this question: Is it more productive to have the highway crew work four 10-hour days or five eight-hour days?

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.