ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY
COMMITTEE
Monday,
January 10, 2022 - 10:00 AM
Held Virtually
Ike
Tyler, Chairperson
Roy
Holzer, Vice-Chairperson
Chairman
Tyler called this Economic Development/Planning/Publicity Meeting to order at 10:00
am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Robin DeLoria,
Stephanie DeZalia, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington, Roy Holzer,
Ken Hughes, Noel Merrihew, Jim Monty (10:10), Tom Scozzafava, Matthew Stanley, Ike
Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Steve
McNally had been previously excused.
Department
Heads present: James Dougan, Dan Palmer and Anna Reynolds. Dan Manning was
absent.
Deputies
present: Dina Garvey
Also present:
Jody Olcott - IDA, Jim McKenna and Mary Jane Lawrence - ROOST, Bruce Misarski -
Housing Assistance, and Aurora McCaffery - Essex County Historian, Laurie Davis
and Ashlee Kleinshimt - Cornell Cooperative Extension
and Holly Aquino.
TYLER:
Good morning, we’ll start off with Jody from the IDA.
**********************
The
next item on the agenda was Industrial Development was Jody Olcott reporting as
follows:
OLCOTT:
I’m here. We submitted our usual thing,
trying to close out, we got a whole bunch of projects on the table right now
that need to close out from 2021.
TYLERS:
Does anybody have anything for Jody? Thank you Jody.
OLCOTT:
Hey, hey, I got a question, because I’m trying to get ahold of Scozzy and he’s not answering his cell phone, here’s the
question I have, I’m having a brain fart this morning and one of you are going
to know, if you have spoils on a site, okay, on a construction site in the APA
and you want to put them someplace else, what is that called? A Spoils
Application for the Park Agency?
SCOZZAFAVA:
Say that again.
OLCOTT:
You know how Bryant’s, you can truck, you know, spoils from a site down there,
what is that called? A Spoils Application, right?
SCOZZAFAVA:
I’m not sure, to be honest. I mean, they’ve had that for the last 20 years. I
thought it was a Clean Fill Application, is what they called it.
OLCOTT:
Clean Fill? I’ve looked at everything on the APA and I can’t find the application
for it. I was just having a brain fart, I just needed somebody…
TYLER:
Jody, you can give my codes person, George Hainer, a call in my office, I’m
sure he would probably have that answer.
OLCOTT,
Okay, that’s it, that’s it. I just wanted to pick somebody’s brain, because I’m
coming up short here. Thank you.
SCOZZAFAVA:
I see you did call.
OLCOTT:
Nah, that’s alright, that’s all I wanted, thanks.
SCOZZAFAVA:
I had my phone on silent, because I’m legislating.
OLCOTT:
Oh, I didn’t realize, okay. Thank you.
TYLER:
Thank you very much.
***************************
The next item on the agenda was Community
Resources with Anna Reynolds reporting as follows:
TYLER:
Community Resources, Anna Reynolds, I see you’re on the phone, how are you
today?
REYNOLDS:
Hi, how are you?
TYLER:
Good
REYNOLDS:
So, the first thing is a 239M referral. The Town of Ticonderoga has a site plan
review for a solar installation 140 Charbonneau Road. The reason why it is
referred is because of the proximity to the State Road, State Route 9N. I
reviewed the materials and I do appreciate the due diligence of the LLC
company. They provided lots of documentation, all of the environmental review
is there, for example, they’re gonna follow the pollution plans and schedules
and have a decommissioning plan. So, therefore after review, the project does
not negatively impact Essex County, so a letter of no comment is recommended.
TYLER:
Looking for a resolution, please, to that effect? We have Mr. Hughes and Ms.
DeZalia, second.
ACTION OF THE ESSEX
COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
ON REFERRAL RECEIVED
FROM THE TOWN TICONDEROGA
The following motion was made by
Supervisor Hughes.
Where, the Essex County Planning
Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on January
10, 2022.
REFERRAL PROPOSED
ACTION
Town of Ticonderoga - Ticon Solar,
LLC site
plan review
Whereas, none of the referred,
proposed actions directly impacts a county road or county property.
Be It adopted by the Essex County
Planning Board that no recommendation or comment on the said referrals shall be
or hereby is made, and the respective referring bodies may take such final
action as they deem appropriate.
This motion was seconded by
Supervisor DeZalia and passed on a vote of 9 in favor, and none opposed.
TYLER:
Any more discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye? Opposed?
PALMER:
Just for the new Supervisors, this Economic Development Committee is the
Planning Committee for County, so these resolutions that come up only go to
this Committee. If this Committee either approves a letter of no comment of if
they have some conditions, those, that’s the process and you won’t see these
resolutions go through to Ways and Means or Regular, because they are handled
here at the Planning Committee and that’s the final step for approval.
TYLER:
Thank you Dan. Anything else, Anna?
REYNOLDS:
Just stating, as many of you know, the CFS were announced late December, and
please, look out for the agency letters that come in. Whether denied or
approved, we would follow up with those letters and file them and usually we
can call on any denials we can call and work with the agency, see what we can
do better, or work better internally on that.
So,
that’s all I have today.
TYLER:
Anything for Anna? Don’t see anything, thank you Anna.
****************************
The next item on the agenda was the
Essex County Historian, Aurora McCaffrey reporting as follows:
MCCAFFREY:
Hi, good morning, everyone. You have my report for the month, I don’t have
anything to add today, but I’m happy to answer any questions.
TYLER:
Any questions? I don’t see anything, Aurora, have a good day.
MCCAFFREY:
Thank you.
****************************
The next item was the Regional
Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), with Jim McKenna and Mary Jane Lawrence reporting
as follows:
MCKENNA:
Good morning, MJ is going to start.
LAWRENCE:
Good morning, everybody.
TYLER:
Hi MJ.
LAWRENCE:
I’m sorry to see you all on a screen instead of in person.
We
just have a couple of updates for everybody this morning; two of our large
initiatives, the marketing plan is being finalized, it’s on design and our Content
Team for one look over and then we will be sending all of you a Marketing Plan prior
to the February meeting. Also, the balance of the CTF will be paid to each of
the towns no later than March of 2022. That’s when we’ll have all the numbers
finalized. So, that’ll be, hopefully, a nice edition for everybody come March.
Just a
couple of highlights I wanted to touch on in each of the regions and then Jim’s
going to talk about our Destination Enhancement initiative.
In the
Lake Placid region, we are underway with our new website development. We will
also have a new Lake Champlain Region printed guide for the Whiteface Region.
We are
finalizing our branding stage and we will also be kicking off the new website
in the Spring on 2022, which is also exciting. We’re doing a lot of website
work in 2022.
We are
also in the processing of developing a printed, a plan for printed materials,
signage and social strategy around all of those initiatives.
For
the Adirondack Hub we’re working on the brand awareness. So, we’re working with
the region to identify and produce additional in market pieces for the summer,
including a graphic map for the Adirondack Hub, Upper Hudson Recreation Hub.
So, that will be a great piece that we’ll have completed in 2022.
Then
for the High Peaks, Lake Placid Region, we’re working on the navigation on the
LakePlacid.com.
We’re
also working with the Town of Keene on their Marcy Field Initiative. We’ll be
executing an economic impact study for events in 2022 and soon we will have our
new Lake Placid, High Peaks Region guide, will be done and distributed in May.
We’re
still planning on hosting the Empire State Winter Games and Jim, that’s all
that I have, if anybody has any questions?
TYLER:
Anything for MJ? I don’t see anything.
MCKENNA:
I’m just going to speak very quickly; we’re kicking off the new program this
year. We’re calling it Destination Enhancement Imitative, that we’re going to
be starting in January and what the goal is, is to really reach out to all our
towns, our elected officials, the business community, and residents and really
try to understand what the needs are overall, and how we can utilize tourism to
have more vibrant communities, and as well as enrich the experience of the
travelers. So, we’re going to start that this month and hopefully, it will be
beneficial working with all involved and understanding their point of view and
their business community, what the needs are, and then looking at it, keeping
our regions intact, looking at it on a regional program. So, it’s a new
initiative. We’re pretty excited about it and we think once we get this up and
running, it’ll be an annual initiative that we’ll keep building on. So, we’re
looking forward to that. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out and see people in
person very soon, but we’re looking forward to that. It’s a new program, it’s
something that we think, will not only enhance the communities, but also make
them better visitor destinations.
TYLER:
Thank you Jim. Is there anybody that has anything? I don’t see anything, but
right now, I’m going to circle back to Cooperative Extension, I see Ashlee’s on
here.
****************************
The next item on the agenda was
Cornell Cooperative Extension, with Laurie Davis and Ashlee Kleinhammer
reporting as follows:
KLIENHAMMER:
Hey, everybody. I am here. Thank you for letting me speak. My name’s Ashlee Kleinhammer, I’m the President of CCE and the owner of the
North Country Creamery in Keeseville, where we milk cows and make cheese and
yogurt. I’m here to talk to you about CCE, though.
First,
I wanted to thank the Board for your continued support and for supporting the
programming that’s getting into all the towns and impacting Essex County. I am
on the ED search committee. As you know, we’re searching for a new Executive
Director and that Executive Director will be solely in Essex County. We’ve all
very excited and have a lot of enthusiasm and ideas for recruitment for this
new Executive Director. We realized that Essex County has unique needs and
wanted to make sure that its economic development was prioritized and there are
so many organizations, non-profits, this Board of Supervisors, all that that an
Executive Director could focus on solely for Essex County. So, the Board
decided that, and we’re pursuing that search, right now. They will focus on
grant writing and collaboration.
So, I
think you’ve all received the report for January programming and our finance
summary.
Last
thing I wanted to mention was that there’s a 2022 Food Justice Summit
happening, all virtually, and everyone is welcome to attend. It’s February 23rd
and 24th. It will address food justice, radical equity, healthcare
and education in our rural region.
Laurie
Davis is also on this call, if you all have any questions about programming or
any other things, I am opening the floor now.
TYLER:
Any questions? Hi Laurie, how you doing?
DAVIS:
Hey, Ike, how are you?
TYLER:
Good, any questions for CCE? I don’t see any. Thanks guys.
KLIENHAMMER:
Thanks everybody.
***************************
The next item was the Housing
Assistance Program with Bruce Misarski reporting as follows:
MISARSKI:
Hi Ike. This is Bruce Misarski, I’m on by telephone, I could not get the audio
to work on my Go to Meeting, so I called back in.
I just
have one item and I just wanted to let the Board of Supervisors know, right
now, New York State has just opened up its Homeowner Assistance funding for,
and this is for homeowners who may have fallen into arrears with their mortgage
payments. This program got a bunch of money available, but it’s gonna go fairly
quickly. In the first week that it was announced, because it was announced on
January 3rd, that statewide they’ve received, oh, something like
18,000 applications and 13,000 of those, well, 18,000 applications were
started, 13,000 were submitted. So, the funding will probably be gone in about
a month. So, the program is to assist homeowners that are in arrears with
mortgages, if they are in arrears with property taxes, insurance and utility
payments, if they’re in a homeowner association and they’re behind in their
association dues and payments, maintenance fees, those sorts of things, that is
eligible and also those that own manufactured homes and either have a loan on
the manufactured home, or if they’re in arrears with their lot rents and their
utilities. All of these things are eligible. The State has money to get people
out of debt for these things. You just need to be below 100% of the area, of
the State area median income, which is a pretty high income limit. You’re
eligible for up to $50,000.00 in assistance, although most people are going to
be far less than that level of assistance they’ll need. So, there’s about $500
million available, but it’s going to go, like I said, probably be gone in about
a month. So, if you have people, any folks in your communities that you know
that are already in arrears, the way to access this money, you can call HAPEC
and we can help you through it, but it’s all being done online, the website is www.newyorkhomeownerfund.org
or you could call, 1-844-776-9423. So, it’s an online application, it’s fairly
simple, but I just wanted to make sure that folks in Essex County take
advantage of this fund. When it’s gone, it’s going to be gone, so now is the
time to do it.
So,
that’s all I got for you today.
MONTY:
Bruce, is that directly Covid related or anyone who’s in arrears?
MISARSKI:
Well, you do need to attest that our
income loss is Covid related. I’m not sure if there’s really any verification
other than you checking a box, saying, yes or no. It is a requirement though.
TYLER:
Thank you, is there anything else for Bruce?
SCOZZAFAVA:
Bruce, does this relate only to delinquent mortgages? Is there anything in that
for people that have fallen behind on their property taxes?
MISARSKI:
Yes, so it’s for, could be for mortgage arrears. It could be property tax arrears.
It could be insurance and utility costs. For instance, if you have, you know,
if you’re not paying your mortgage, you’re also not paying, probably not paying
your homeowners insurance out of that fund, as well, so that’s probably fallen
behind. So, all those things can be brought up. Manufactured home people, if
they’re in a lot rent situation, as well, that can, that could also get them
out of that type of arrears, as well. So, it’s not just mortgages, it’s other
things, as well.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Thank you.
WINEMILLER:
Bruce, do you have a flyer that you could send to all the Supervisors, so we
could post it?
MISARSKI:
I will do. I’ll get that right out to you today. I’ll send it out to all 18 of
the Supervisors.
WINEMILLER:
Thank you.
TYLER:
Thank you Bruce.
Matt,
did you have a question?
STANLEY:
It was just answered, I was wondering if something can be sent out to the
Supervisors, a flyer or just an email dropped to us with that website
information would be great.
MISARSKI:
You got it.
TYLER:
Anything else? Thank you Bruce. Anything else to come before this Committee? I
don’t see or hear anything, thank you very much. We are adjourned.
AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME
BEFORE THIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY COMMITTEE IT WAS ADJOURNED
AT 10:17 AM.
Respectfully
submitted,
Dina
Garvey, Deputy
Clerk
of the Board