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HOMES EVERY WEEK! Valley News
February 16, 2019
suncommunitynews.com
• EDITION •
Work begins to dismantle Upper Jay ice jam
Open channel leading to better flow By Pete DeMola EDITOR
UPPER JAY | Essex County has deployed equipment to start removing an ice jam in Upper Jay on the East Branch of the AuSable River. Excavators and bulldozers operated by the Essex County Department of Public Works and state Department of Transportation began breaking up ice Feb. 7. The county is the lead agency and spearheaded a multiagency meeting Feb. 8 with state, local and federal agencies to discuss the latest developments. “Based on technical recommendations (from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers), we’re going to continue to break ice and work our way upstream towards and around the bridge,” said Essex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Shaun Gillilland. Department of Public Works Deputy Superintendent Jim Dougan said the goal is to get the water moving. “If we can keep this channel open, we may have a chance,” Dougan said at the meeting. “We’re getting the ice out of the water here as much as we can. We don’t want it to flow downstream and cause a problem for another community.”
‘EVACUATION PLAN IN PLACE’
Roughly 20 residences are situated along the floodplain. There is currently no danger to homeowners, county officials said. “Our success absolutely depends on the weather,” Dougan said. “Mother Nature is bigger than all of us, we realize that.” The Town of Jay declared a state of emergency Feb. 6 following flooding on Route 9N. Dougan said officials will warn people downstream if the jam looks likes it’s going to break loose. “But we’re not going to cry wolf,” he said. “We have an evacuation plan in place,” Gillilland said.
Essex County has deployed equipment to start breaking up an ice jam in Upper Jay on the East Branch of the AuSable River. Photo by Tim Rowland
“We can very quickly execute it.” He toured the site last week. “The water is flowing. It seems to be flowing better. The ice seems to be coming out easily,” he said.
COLD REGIONS LABORATORY
Gillilland said the U.S. Corp of Engineers will deploy their Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory to the site for a technical review early next week. “These people are probably the most knowledgeable in the county on river ice,” he said.
Stakeholders in the meeting included the Jay Fire Department, state Office of Emergency Services, state Department of Environmental Conservation, U.S. Army of Engineers and DOT, as well as representatives from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Rep. Elise Stefanik’s offices. The 1.2 mile obstruction formed late last month, with ice thickness ranging from 18 inches to 4 feet. The governor’s office previously said state agencies are monitoring ice jams and formations statewide, and are “deploying assets as needed to assist in preventing and mitigating damage.” ■ — Tim Rowland contributed reporting.
Essex County weighing land bank Effort would tackle blight, abandoned properties
DETAILS FORTHCOMING
By Pete DeMola EDITOR
Essex County lawmakers want to hear from their constituents about legalizing recreational marijuana. Stock photo
County seeks public input on legal pot By Pete DeMola EDITOR
ELIZABETHTOWN | As the state weighs the legalization of recreational marijuana, county lawmakers want to hear from you. “I would just poll your communities and think about and see what you want you think about it,” Essex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Shaun Gillilland told the Finance Committee last month. Gov. Andrew Cuomo included the legalization of recreational marijuana in his budget proposal. But despite an early flurry of activity that has seen the state legislature pass a raft of progressive legislation, lawmakers haven’t taken action. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the legislation may not be approved as part of the state budget, which has a deadline of April 1. Six weeks may not be enough time to
deal with unanswered questions, including criminal justice and economic impacts, said Heastie, according to the New York Post. Law enforcement agencies and recently, the New York State Parent Teachers Association, have urged caution, citing the threat to public health. The state approved a tightly controlled medical marijuana program in 2014, which was later expanded in 2016. The state Department of Health released a report last year on potential legalization which determined the benefits outweigh the cons.
MORE RESOURCES NEEDED
Under the proposed legislation, counties would have the authority to pass a local law banning sales within their jurisdictions. The New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) hosted a panel discussion last week in Albany probing potential impacts. » Legal pot Cont. on pg. 2
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“The elephant in the room on all these properties is the cost to take them down and dispose of them,” said Tom Scozzafava (R-Moriah), who noted the town spent $30,000 recently to take down a house in Port Henry.
ELIZABETHTOWN | Essex County is considering creating a land bank to address problem properties and reduce blight. Land banks are typically used by localities for neighborhood improvements. That could include tearing down unsafe structures or acquiring properties for redevelopment and repair. Lawmakers pondered the benefits last month and tasked county officials with formally researching their options before making a formal decision. The first step, said Essex County Department of Social Services Commissioner Mike Mascarenas, is working with the towns to determine the extent of abandoned properties or “zombie homes” — vacant properties seized by banks for owners’ failure to make mortgage payments — in the county. “Right now we’re in the data collection phase,” Mascarenas said.
ZOMBIE PROBLEM
Essex County has long struggled with problem parcels, including “zombie homes” where the bank has foreclosed on a property. It’s not uncommon for out-of-state developers buy multiple parcels at the county’s tax auction for a rock-bottom price without having seen the property and subsequently abandon them. County intervention would prevent further deterioration and put the parcels back on the tax rolls. Other county-owned properties cycle through numerous tax auctions. Parcels that don’t sell deteriorate and see their prices decline over time — often to below the amount of taxes owed.
Counties have multiple options for how they can structure their land bank. While it’s too early to offer concrete details, Mascarenas said one hypothetical scenario in Essex County would be to allow towns to buy into a possible system, constituting seed money for property purchases. “That contribution would be based on some type of formula, whether by population or housing stock,” he said. A board-of-directors would then select houses to be razed or remediated, ranking properties by highest priorities and developing solutions. County officials have yet to determine if a hypothetical land bank program would warrant its own standing office, or if they could wrap those tasks into an existing agency such as Housing Assistance Program of Essex County or the Community Resources Department. “Before setting up another layer of bureaucracy, we want to make sure we hit the nail on the head,” said Mascarenas. The county would first have to apply for a slot in the New York Land Bank Program, and funding would come in part from the state Office of Community Renewal. Both Clinton County and the City of Plattsburgh are vying for land bank slots. County Treasurer Kimberly Davis proposed the idea to the legislature last month, and Davis has appeared at town board meetings throughout the area to brief local officials on the pros and cons of creating a county-wide land bank. The city’s Common Council authorized the formation of the Lake City Land Bank on Feb. 7. ■ — Elizabeth Izzo contributed reporting
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