More on Strays
The small step that the Glens Falls Animal Hospital took--pulling out of the stray-dog business--has percolated through area governments.
Earlier this month, Warrensburg and the Town of Bolton received letters from the animal hospital on Glenwood Avenue in Queensbury saying that they would no longer take the stray dogs that animal control officers picked up.
At the time, Glens Falls Animal Hospital’s office manager told Foothills Business Daily, simply, “We just need to focus on being an animal hospital and not stray dogs.”
The Town of Queensbury got a similar letter, and Supervisor John Strough at the board meeting Dec. 21 repeated almost verbatim the office manager’s quote.
Warrensburg has contracted with Countryside Veterinary Medical Group in Queensbury for their needs, but Queensbury came up with a slightly different fix. The town contracted with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Upstate NY in Queensbury to handle room and board and turn to Northway Animal Emergency Clinic of Gansevoort for veterinary during non-business hours.
However, the town will continue to use Glens Falls Animal Hospital during regular business hours if the veterinarian has the space.
“Give SPCA of Upstate NY your first phone call,” if your dog has gone missing, Supervisor John Strough said.
Landscaping or Trees?
Queensbury has found itself in a similar situation to Warrensburg. Codes and definitions need refining. In Queensbury’s case: Is a landscaping company the same as a tree service?
That is, can a small tree service company have its home in a portion of the town zoned as “Rural Residential” (but not commercial), with property three to five acres large. For a landscaping company, it’s allowed.
A public hearing on the topic will be held Jan. 11.
The proposed language allows the tree service company to operate from Rural Residential space so long it does not engage in on-site processes such as: cutting, milling, chipping, trimming or grinding.
Warrensburg, read it here, has begun a similar discussion of their codes that are so vague and therefore difficult to enforce that Jim Hull, the code enforcement officer, said, “They have no teeth.”
Other contracts of note:
At the town board meeting Dec. 21, Queensbury approved payments:
$187,067 to Environmental and Fueling System for work on the Water Treatment Plant Campus Capital Improvement Project.
$7,500 to The Fund for Lake George for the “Save Our Lake Hemlocks Initiative” which combats the hemlock wooly adelgid, an invasive species that kills the trees.
$21,908.22 to AAI Acquisitions for the purchase of a vertical turbine pump for the town’s water department.
Up to $10,541 to Matthews Environmental Solutions for repair of cremation equipment at Pine View Cemetery.
$498,588 to BlueScope Construction, Inc. to construct a Rough Order Magnitude building for the cemeteries department.