By JAIME STUDD

For the C-S-E

Former Glen Town Supervisor Gerald O. Keller, whose vision helped steer Montgomery County through some of the most significant economic development projects in recent memory, passed away on Thursday. Keller was 81.

First elected to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors in 1987, Keller served for 14 years — one of the longest tenures in board history.

Current Glen Town Supervisor Larry Coddington, who also served in that capacity just prior to Keller’s election, remembered the long-time Supervisor as a dedicated public servant.

“I’ve known him for quite a while,” Coddington said. “I met him when he first became supervisor. I kind of helped him get started and gave him an idea what he had to do and that kind of stuff.”

Coddington credited Keller with having overseen some of the most extensive initiatives in town and county history, including the construction of the county’s new public safety complex and the Glen Canalview Business Park, as well as the water and sewer system installations required to support both ventures.

“All that was done during his term,” Coddington said. “From the time I was first there in the ’80s until the time I came back, a lot of changes took place in town and a lot of those took place during Mr. Keller’s terms.

“I think he did a good job. I think what he’s done helped the town, especially, I think, the industrial park,” he added. “I guess we have an aquaculture facility coming into the park. I’m hoping that should create a lot of jobs and that sort of thing and I think, if you look back, I think it was a good thing.

“And, of course, the public safety facility,” Coddington continued. “I wasn’t really in favor of the public safety facility at the time, but, when you look at the condition of the old one that was there, something had to be done, obviously. It’s worked out well since then.”

Fultonville Mayor Robert Headwell recalled working with Keller during his tenure as deputy mayor in the village.

“We worked with him a little bit when he was in the village,” said Headwell. “He was a good guy to work with. He was very pro for the town.”

“We had a good working relationship between the town and the village,” he added. “He was very friendly, very workable. He didn’t really have any real enemies. He didn’t have any grudges or axes to grind. He worked with everybody.”

Headwell also recalled the crucial role Keller played in the development projects that have come to mark his tenure as town supervisor.

“He was out there to try to do the best he could for the town,” said Headwell. “He was the one who had the vision for the industrial park and putting the jail up where they did, getting the water lines and sewer lines up there.”

A native of Cobleskill, Keller was a US Army Veteran of the Korean War. He spent much of his professional career in the dairy industry, working for many years as a milk truck driver before joining the Glen & Mohawk Creamery, where he worked as a milk inspector before retiring in the 1990s.

In 1997, Keller served as the Chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, presiding over one of the most difficult periods in county history after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a scathing audit of the county’s revolving loan fund activity and criticized the Board of Supervisors, County Adminis-trator Wayne Allen and the now defunct Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. for apparently mismanaging federal money.

In addition to the completion of the public safety complex and the business park, Keller oversaw the grand opening of the town’s new municipal offices, the creation of the town’s planning board and a complete property tax revaluation.

Keller also helped lead the fight against a proposal to locate a new Montgomery-Otsego-Schoharie Waste Management Authority-sponsored landfill in Glen.