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May 4, 2019
suncommunitynews.com
• EDITION •
Voters to weigh in on school spending Clinton County school budgets up for vote By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | Voters across the county will have the opportunity to hear about, and weigh in on, their school district’s 2019-20 budget this month. Public hearings have been scheduled at each school district, and prelimnary budgets inary budgets ha~e have b e en released. Voters will will weigh deased . Voters innon oneach eachdistrict's district’s budget mMay on May 21. 21. » Budgets Cont. on pg. 7
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Parking protesters converge HEARING outside Plattsburgh City Hall t I
Photo by Elizabeth Izzo
PUBLIC Il
Plattsburgh Central School District May 9 - 7:30 p.m. Peru Central School District May 14 - 7 p.m. Beekmantown Central School District May 14 - 7 p.m. Chazy Central School District May 14 Saranac Central School District May 6 - 5:30 p.m. Northeastern Clinton Central School District N.A. Northern Adirondack Central School District May 6 - 5:30 p.m.
Residents protest Durkee Street changes; lawmakers push back By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | A group of residents took to City Hall last week to protest the pending redevelopment of the Durkee
Street parking lot. Th e group of roughly a dozen protesters argued that by eliminating the public parking there, some 289 spaces, it would impact downtown businesses and impose new burdens on people that live and shop nearby. “I think we should be working toward increasing parking spaces, not decreasing spaces,” said Jonathan Schneiderman, Plattsburgh Raymond James branch manager. “I’m all for development of downtown. I
CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT PROPOSES $9.1M INFRASTRUCTURE OVERHAUL Plans include new baseball field, updated security
By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | A $9.1 million infrastructure project at the Plattsburgh City School District will be put to voters May 21. If approved, the district plans to move forward a variety of recreational, ease of access and infrastructure projects — and there would be no impact on school taxes as a result. A new baseball field would be built at the high school. At Momot Elementa-
ry, an expanded parking lot and a larger drop-off area for parents would be constructed. New windows would be installed in the Bailey Avenue gym to bring in more natural light. And district-wide, security, safety and infrastructure upgrades would be implemented. The district plans to fund these projects primarily through state building aid, which would fund 78.1 percent of the project. The local share of the project would be roughly $2 million, or 21.9 percent, which the district would pay for out
of existing reserves. “This is the first time in the district’s history, to my knowledge, that we’ve proposed a project where the local share was prospectively covered rather than paid for over time,” Superintendent Jay Lebrun said. The fi xes outlined in the capital plan stem from a 2015 building inspection report that identified $30 million in potential repairs district-wide, according to Michael Harris, an engineering architect with BCA Architects. » Overhaul Cont. on pg. 8
want to be downtown. But it has to be convenient for my employees and my clients.” The Durkee redevelopment is a $4.1 million piece of the city’s $10 million statefunded Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Prime Plattsburgh LLC has been chosen as the developer, and is slated to invest more than $20 million into the riverfront property to convert the lot into a mixeduse building with market-rate apartments and new commercial storefronts. » Protesters Cont. on pg. 3
Rouses Point taxes to decline 6.1 percent Citing court, PD savings, village board to slash taxes By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
ROUSES POINT | Taxes in the Village of Rouses Point are slated to decline this year. The village board last month adopted a $6.1 million budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year. Attached is a property tax decrease of more than 6.1 percent, from $4.25 per $1,000 in assessed value to $3.99. For a person whose home is assessed at $100,000, this translates to a tax cut of $26. Mayor Thomas Batha says the village was able to decrease taxes as a result of continued savings through the elimination of the one-man Rouses Point Police Department — which was abolished in 2017 as part of the Clinton County Shared Services Plan, and was expected to save the village roughly $156.086 annually — and the Rouses Point Village Court, which was shuttered in 2016. “With those two services taken away from the village, I felt it was only proper to give away some of that money back to the taxpayers,” he told The Sun. Batha said in a statement that between those two changes, the village has saved approximately $185,000 annually. “The financial health of the village remains strong,” he said. » RP budget Cont. on pg. 2
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