Lake George Village: Fort William Henry Resort and the $75,000 performance bond.
(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
The Fort William Henry Resort, Lake George Village, NY.
Kathy Muncil, CEO of the Fort William Henry Resort in Lake George Village, says she will work with the village on the issue of a $75,000 process bond. The village has said the resort must pay the bond which ensures that any unfinished work on the resort’s planned renovation of two dining rooms, a kitchen and patio, could be paid for if problems occur.
The money goes back to the resort if the work is completed properly.
Two weeks ago when first approached about this story, Muncil said she had no plans to pay the money, but on Thursday April 12, her tone had softened. She said she understood what the village was trying to do and was looking for ways to work together, though she has scaled back the project, in part because of this, she said, adding that she felt as though her company was being used as a guinea pig.
[Read more about the resort’s plans here.]
The village’s head planner, Dan Barusch, for his part said he fully expected the resort to finish the work completely and competently.
However, in recent years, Barusch said, the village has run into the problem that companies have finished portions of projects that allow them to reopen after construction and renovation, but that do not meet all of the requirements set out in planning and zoning documents.
The issue stems from the disconnect between the county which issues certificates of occupancy for a newly built or newly renovated building, and the village which has zoning requirements that the county, by law, cannot consider when issuing a C.O.
If the construction meets code, the county inspector cannot consider unfinished zoning elements of the project such as stormwater management or landscaping requirements, officials at the county told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. With a C.O. a company can do business from the building, even if the zoning elements are incomplete.
In that case, the village has no power to get the work done, or spends taxes to do so.
The law currently allows the village to force a company to get a performance bond as insurance against this problem, and a proposed amendment seeks to make the process more clear and easier in some situations.
[Read more about the proposed amendments here.]
Springs: putting the City Attorney issue in the rearview mirror
The interim Saratoga Springs City Attorney Tony Izzo was moved full-time into the city attorney position, through Dec. 31, 2023, at the city council meeting April 19. In February he had been named interim city attorney. He had been the assistant city attorney under the previous city council, but had been let go as Mayor Ron Kim, who appoints the attorney, looked for a replacement of Izzo and City Attorney Vince DeLeonardis.
Izzo’s appointment came after Mayor Ron Kim acted for a short time as the city attorney himself. Kim is an attorney and believed he, and his deputy, attorney Angela Rella, could act as the city attorney, but the political blow-back was strong.
He had argued in the past that the city attorney was not a “public officer” and therefore did not fall under the requirement that the attorney must be a resident of the city. He and the city council have changed that view, apparently.
On Tuesday evening April 19, the city council passed a resolution asking that the mayor write to the elected officials who represent the city in the state legislature asking that the state make an exception to the law — this has happened in 70 other municipalities statewide, the resolution says — and allow the city to find an attorney outside of the city limits if needed. If approved, the city could choose an attorney from anywhere in Saratoga County or an adjoining county, the resolution states.
[Read more about the struggle for the city attorney here; Judge Jeffrey Wait’s admonition of Kim on being city attorney; the grievance against the mayor’s actions as city attorney.]
Correction:
FoothillsBusinessDaily.com had reported on Monday April 18 that the city would simply be seeking to create a local law that would allow the city to draw an attorney from out of the city. This was wrong, and the corrected plan is above.
Saratoga County inventory of facilities
Architecture and engineering firm Clark Patterson Lee won a contract from Saratoga County to perform a facilities assessment study at the April 13 Law and Finance committee meeting.
Although the public safety and public health facilities were examined a couple years ago, this is the first time in 20 years that the county will look at all of their facilities at once, said Saratoga Springs Supervisor Matt Veitch at the city council meeting Tuesday April 19.
The $147,000 study required a budget amendment to go over the $100,000 budgeted for the work.
The study will look at efficiencies in how the spaces are used with the various workforces and staffing and at the accessibility of the spaces.
The assessment will include “all owned and leased space of the county, in an effort to determine spatial needs of the county for the next 20 years,” minutes from the Law and Finance Committee say. Both Matthew Veitch and the second Saratoga Springs Supervisor Tara Gaston agreed this was much needed.