Strough leaning toward letting the DEC do it
Queensbury will discuss the choice before them once again. That choice: should the DEC create the “site characterization”--a deep investigation and report--of the town’s closed landfill in the Jenkinsville neighborhood, with town input, or should the town pursue the investigation itself, with DEC oversight. [These are not the first meetings on this topic. Read more here and here.]
Town Supervisor John Strough in an interview yesterday said he was leaning toward letting the DEC do the bulk of the work.
"That's what I'm looking at favoring at this point in time," he said. "But I would like to have the town play an active role."
He stressed that the town board is still on a “fact finding mission” and that they want to hear from people and gain input.
The two meetings: May 17, the regular town board meeting is where they will discuss the options in public. The June 7 meeting will be aimed at public comment.
The town may make a decision as early as the June meeting, but that has not been determined, Strough said.
The meetings are in person and online. Strough is asking residents who are unable to attend to send comments to johns@queensbury.net or via USPS to Queensbury Town Hall, 742 Bay Road, Queensbury, N.Y. 12804. Look to the Queensbury website for Zoom meeting and other info.
STRs in Bolton: the economic side
Courtesy Town of Bolton
At the Town of Bolton meeting last Tuesday, May 4, one or two people asked about the economic impact of the short-term-rental ordinance [read our coverage here].
Most were talking about losing extra income if they cannot rent their houses.
But one of the larger questions centered around the Bonnie View motel, just south of the village. It has been sold and will become a single-family compound, a loss of dozens of rental units. Short-term rentals, or STRs, will have to make up some of the slack, one or two speakers before the board said.
This was not lost on Jim Siplon, president of the Warren County Economic Development Corporation, who was at the meeting. He said he sees the landscape of rental property and housing stock shifting as hotels and motels in the county turn into single family homes and other properties.
The discussions of STRs--Glens Falls is currently working on their version, too--should incorporate thinking about this newer economy overall, he said.
He said there has been a lot of discussion about the STRs on the regulations and use side, but not as much on the local economy side. He watched to learn what data might prove helpful to these discussions, with his eye drifting toward how the WarrenEDC can provide it.
Courtesy Saratoga Casino Hotel (2021)
Racino nets $10.9M in April
The “Racino” in Saratoga Springs, more formally the Saratoga Casino Hotel had a net win of $10,967,580 in April, the operator reported. That created $5,099,925 to New York State in what’s known as the VLT tax, a small portion of which goes to Saratoga Springs as the “host city” of the harness racetrack there.