ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY COMMITTEE

Monday, February 10, 2025 - 10:00 AM

 

 

Ike Tyler, Chairperson

Clayton Barber, 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, Matt Brassard, Chris Clark, Robin DeLoria, Derek Doty,  Ken Hughes, Steve McNally, Jim Monty, , Favor Smith, Matt Stanley, Davina Thurston, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Ike Tyler, Shaun Gillilland, Joe Pete Wilson, Charlie Harrington, and Cathleen Reusser had been previously excused.

 

Department Heads present: Mike Mascarenas and Anna Reynolds.

 

Deputies present: Dina Garvey  

 

Also Present: Jody Olcott - IDA, Elizabeth Lee - Cornell Cooperative Extension, Dan Kelleher, Mary Jane Lawrence and Michelle Clement - ROOST, Megan Murphy - Adirondack Roots, Nicole Justice-Green - Essex County Land Bank and Aurora McCaffrey -  Essex County Historian

 

BARBER: I’ll call this Economic Development/Planning/Publicity Committee to order.

The first up, Industrial Development, Jody.

 

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The first item on the agenda was the Industrial Development Committee with Jody Olcott reporting as follows:

 

OLCOTT: We sent an report, unless there’s questions, I’m good.

 

BARBER: And questions for Jody? Very good.

 

OLCOTT: Take care.

 

MASCARENAS: Thanks, Jody.

 

BARBER: Thank you, next, Community Resources, Anna.

 

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            The next item on the agenda was Community Resources with Anna Reynolds reporting as follows:

 

REYNOLDS: I have a few referrals, today. The first is in the Town of Essex, it’s a Special Use Permit requirement, because it’s 500 feet from State Route 22. It is for a 4 megawatt solar project from Elm Street, a town road. There are no impacts to Essex County property, however, I want to mention that the property is in the Ag District and is identified as potential farmland to be protected in the County’s adopted farmland protection plan, so that is the comment that I would like to reflect in the letter that goes to the applicant.

 

BARBER: Moved by Mr. Hughes, seconded by Mr. Doty.

 

ACTION OF THE ESSEX COUNTY PLANNING BOARD

ON REFERRALS RECEIVED FROM THE TOWN OF ESSEX

 

The following motion was made by Supervisor Hughes.

 

Whereas, the Essex County Planning Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on February 10, 2025;

 

REFERRAL                                                               PROPOSED ACTION

Town of Essex - Elm Street                                                 Special Use Permit

 

And Whereas, none of the referred, proposed actions directly impacts a county road or county property, although the property is located with the Agricultural District and is identified as potential farmland to the protected in the County’s adopted farmland protection plan.

 

Be It Adopted by the Essex County Planning Board that no recommendation or comment on 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 Doty and passed on a vote of 6 in favor, 3 excused and none opposed.

 

BARBER: Any questions?

 

MONTY: I’m not on the committee, but as I asked you previously, Anna, actually 10 minutes ago, if there is a Ag Tax Exempt on that property, does that go away with the solar?

 

REYNOLDS: I think the applicant would have to, yeah, reach out to the Real Property Tax Services or they would probably contacted with the change of use from rural vacant to commercial.

 

MASCARENAS: That is more of a Real Property question, but I’ll make sure it gets there.

 

MONTY: Thank you

 

HUGHES: Anna, hi, good morning. Who identified it as potential farmland?

 

REYNOLDS: It is in the County Farmland Protection Plan that we adopted in 2022.

 

HUGHES: Oh, okay

 

REYNOLDS: It was based on soil types, like the analysis that they do for the Ag assessment review, so it high importance to low importance and there’s a mix. There looks like a mix of different soil types and then they rank it from there.

 

HUGHES: Just for everyone’s edification, the property, which is fairly large, was woods, it was forest and they cleared it a couple of years ago. My understanding, with the primary intention of doing this project. They cleared more than that, the 22 acres that are required for the project. So, they may have other ideas on what they want to do with other parts of that land that they cleared, but just for general knowledge.

 

BARBER: Any other questions?

 

REYNOLDS: The second is a special use permit to complete an application for change of use for occupancy on Lake Shore Road, there is no Countywide impact or municipal impact, therefor a letter of no impact maybe issued.

 

BARBER: Moved by Davina, seconded by Mr. Clark.

 

ACTION OF THE ESSEX COUNTY PLANNING BOARD

ON REFERRALS RECEIVED FROM THE TOWN OF ESSEX

 

The following motion was made by Supervisor Thurston.

 

Whereas, the Essex County Planning Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on February 10, 2025;

 

REFERRAL                                                               PROPOSED ACTION

Town of  Essex, 2261 Lake Shore Rd.                               Special Use Permit             

 

And 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 said referral 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 Clark and passed on a vote of 6 in favor, 3 excused and none opposed.

 

HUGHES: Anna, where is this again?

 

REYNOLDS: 2261 Lake Shore Road

 

HUGHES: Thank you

 

BARBER: All in favor? Opposed, carried.

 

REYNOLDS: It’s in the historic district of the community, so that part triggered the special use permit.

 

HUGHES: Great, thank you.

 

REYNOLDS: The next two, as one lumped referral, two proposed land use moratoriums that encompass the entire town of Essex. One is for a moratorium on short term rentals within the Town and solar development and storage facilities, like battery storage. It’s on pause until the Town completes their comprehensive plan, so it aligns with County goals, therefore a letter of no impact may be issued.

 

HUGHES: I’ll move it.

 

BARBER: Moved by Mr. Hughes, seconded by Mr. Clark.

 

ACTION OF THE ESSEX COUNTY PLANNING BOARD

ON REFERRALS RECEIVED FROM THE TOWN OF ESSEX

 

The following motion was made by Supervisor Hughes.

 

Whereas, the Essex County Planning Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on February 10, 2025;

 

REFERRAL                                                               PROPOSED ACTION

    Town of  Essex                                                 Land Use Moratorium for Short Term Rentals,

                                                                                     solar development and storage facilities             

 

And 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 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 Clark and passed on a vote of 6 in favor, 3 excused and none opposed.

 

BARBER: Questions?

 

DOTY: How was your process to get a moratorium and can you give me, generally there’s like 4 reasons and I take it your area was comfortable with all the qualifications on the moratorium?

 

HUGHES: We’ll find out Thursday night, but I can tell you, Anna’s correct. The reason why we’re doing this is because the Town is going through the town comprehensive plan review, which is about 20 years outdated. I just want to make a clarification, #4 should be on new commercial solar. I want to make sure we’re using that, that was the language of the moratorium.

 

REYNOLDS: Okay

 

HUGHES: Because we’re going through, I actually did some research on previously written moratoriums and the one for short term rentals came from the lovely Town of North Elba and I actually asked the County Attorney to review and make sure that the language that you guys used in North Elba was apropos for us in Essex and generally it was.

 

DOTY: Have you proposed a time limit?

 

HUGHES: A year, because there is the ability to provide an extension if necessary. So, we’re going through this process, the 239M process, right now. I have already done the introduction of the local law, at the town level. This Thursday night, I will be having the public hearings, as well as the meeting to discuss whether it’s going to be approved by my Town Board or not, as a local law.

 

DOTY: Good luck

 

HUGHES: Thank you very much and the other law for the commercial solar development, new commercial solar development came from the Town of Westerlow, back in 2019, in Albany County. They had put a moratorium on commercial solar development back there at that time and there is concern that this, in my opinion, and it may not be the majority opinion of my town board, but my opinion is this moratorium would not affect the project came through in #1, it would be for potential new projects that may come before the Town Board and the Planning Board in the future and we just want to know what we want to be in the future and wait for the comprehensive plan to finish. 

 

DOTY: Good, thanks.

 

HUGHES: Thank you, a little long winded, but wanted to make you have the information.

 

DELORIA: You mentioned comprehensive plan and one year moratorium?

 

HUGHES: Say that one more time.

 

DELORIA: You mentioned comprehensive plan that you’re working on.

 

HUGHES: Yeah

 

DELORIA: A one year moratorium?

 

HUGHES: It would be a one year moratorium for both, a one year timeline for both of these moratoriums, yes.

 

DELORIA: So, the comprehensive plan, simply guides your local zoning, so if the comprehensive plan, essentially indicated, yeah, we’re going to do something with this. So, is a yearlong enough?

 

HUGHES: We believe it’s going to be long enough. I’m told that legal opinions, attorneys and judges, most judges don’t like moratoriums longer than a year. So, we did the maximum that we thought would be upheld by a judge, in case it was questioned or appealed and so we’re going to go with a year, if we find that we need an extension, because certainly comprehensive plan begins, zoning is going to be after that and if we find that we need more time then we will.

 

DELORIA: And I think you can extend it for 6 months, am I correct?

 

HUGHES: I don’t know the answer to that.

 

DELORIA: Alright, I was just curious.

 

HUGHES: We’re starting with a year.   

 

DELORIA: A year in this work, forget about it.

 

BARBER: Any other questions? All in favor? Opposed carried.

 

REYNOLDS: The next is the Town of Minerva, it’s an area variance request for a single family home on Beach Road, which is 500 feet from the County’s Longs Hill Road. There’s no intermunicipal or county impact and therefor a letter of no impact may be issued.

 

BARBER: Motion by Mr. Clark, second, Mr. Doty.

 

ACTION OF THE ESSEX COUNTY PLANNING BOARD

ON REFERRALS RECEIVED FROM THE TOWN OF MINERVA

 

The following motion was made by Supervisor Clark.

 

Whereas, the Essex County Planning Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on February 10, 2025;

 

REFERRAL                                                               PROPOSED ACTION

Town of  Minerva, Beach Rd.                               area variance - Single Family Home             

 

And 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 said referral 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 Doty and passed on a vote of 6 in favor, 3 excused and none opposed.

 

BARBER: Question? Concerns? All in favor? Opposed? Carried

 

REYNOLDS: In Ticonderoga,  a site plan review and area variance. It’s requested for a mobile home park, located on Peal Street, which is 500 feet away from State Route 9N. It’s decreasing the number if lots from 30 to 20, to meet current zoning requirement and Department of Health Requirements. There are no inter-municipal or countywide impacts, therefore a letter of no impact maybe issued.

 

BARBER: Motion by Mr. Hughes, seconded by Mr. Clark.

 

ACTION OF THE ESSEX COUNTY PLANNING BOARD

ON REFERRALS RECEIVED FROM THE TOWN OF TICONDEROGA

 

The following motion was made by Supervisor Hughes.

 

Whereas, the Essex County Planning Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on February 10, 2025;

 

REFERRAL                                                               PROPOSED ACTION

Town of  Ticonderoga, Pearl Street                               Site Plan Review - Mobile Home Park             

 

And 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 said referral 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 Clark and passed on a vote of 6 in favor, 3 excused and none opposed.

 

BARBER: Questions? Concerns? All in favor? Opposed? Carried

 

REYNOLDS: That’s it, any other questions for me, today?

 

BARBER: Thank you, Anna.

 

MASCARENAS: Thank you

 

 

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            The next item on the agenda was the Essex County Historian, Aurora McCaffrey, reporting as follows:

 

MCCAFFREY: Hi there, good morning. So I have something different, today, for you. I found this great photo, well, I didn’t find it, it was donated, recently to the Museum. So, I am going to pass this area, it’s of the Board of Supervisors in 1928. I’ll tell you more about it, I just think it’s such a beautiful photo and so interesting. So, it’s the Board of Supervisors and some other at Sharp Bridge in North Hudson, 1928 and that was donated by the Hutchins’ Family. It was part of the Conrad Hutchins collection. He was the former historian for Elizabethtown for decades. Sadly, passed away a couple of years ago, but the family was kind enough to give us this huge box of photos from his collection. He has 100s of amazing photographs and that was one of them, so I thought to would share that. But, that’s just an aspect of what we’re doing off-season. We’re also doing research for people, our research library is open, year around. We’re working of exhibits, we have the calendar coming along, so, I will have more on that, probably in the next month or two.

 

CLARK: About in that timeframe would be my great-grandfather who was on the Board of Supervisors.

 

MCCAFFREY: And unfortunately, Conrad Hutchins, did a great job on listing names on a lot of the photographs, which many things that come into the Museum aren’t label and sometime we don’t know. That one doesn’t actually list the people in that photo, it’s kind of hard to see details of who it would be.

So, that’s all I have for you, I’ll have more on exhibits and calendar soon.

 

BARBER: Any questions? Thank you very much.

 

MCCAFFREY: Thank you.

 

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The next item on the agenda was Cornell Cooperative Extension, with Elizabeth Lee reporting as follows:

 

LEE: Good morning, I submitted a report, does anyone have any questions?

 

BARBER: Questions?

 

LEE: I just wanted to point out that we have, a video come out, recently and I want to share it with all of you, directly to your email, but it was a Farm to School video that was funded by New York State Ag and Markets and it’s a very, very great video, featuring kids from the Willsboro School doing a program at school about squash and then attending a farm that grows squash and tasting it. So, it’s kind of fun, a little bit of good news.

And we also got some nice publicity in the Sun, this week, about what we do. So, if you haven’t seen that, I can also send you that link.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that, it kind of goes without saying, I guess that our office is definitely feeling the stress of the Federal funding freeze. Out programs do rely, really heavily on USDA funding and so I don’t have anything to tell you, because nobody knows what’s really going to happen, but our, we have two large grants and we’re just strategizing about how to respond, when we know.

 

HUGHES: Is the freeze still happening? I thought the Federal funding freeze had been rescinded.

 

LEE: We are sort of in a limbo, because we are, as I understand it, the memorandum about the freeze was rescinded, but the programs have been directed not to process payments until review and so I think the administration is working through different departments and reviewing and agriculture has not been reviewed yet. Education is being reviewed and I don’t know what that means for higher education.

 

HUGHES: Thanks for the clarification.

 

BARBER: Thank you, have a great day.

 

 

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            The next item was the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism with Dan Kelleher, Mary Jane Lawrence and Michelle Clement reporting as follows:

 

KELLEHER: It’s all MJ and Michelle, today.

 

LAWRENCE: So, Michelle is going to setup a quick overview of the 250th. While she’s just finalizing that, I am going to give you a couple of updates.

ROOST; we’re doing a tremendous amount promotion across all regions, with all the winter activities there are. Everything is opened and the snow is blowing and the snow activities, snowmobiling, ice fishing, skiing, you know, everything that there is to do in the Adirondacks, we’re really hitting hard, we’re trying to move people into this region. So, that’s really our focus, right now, is really continuing to promote or target market all there is to do throughout all of Essex County, this winter. We have had an amazing winter and it looks like there’s a lot of traffic, enjoying our outdoor, natural resources in a responsible way, so we’re glad about that.

We’re quickly moving in, as we’re working diligently, continuing to focus on winter, we’re going into our spring and summer campaign meetings and that’s just buttoning it all up and getting it ready to launch, along with the 250th campaign, that’s coming up quickly. It’s hard to believe that we’re almost in the middle of February, already. I feel like we’re in some kind of time warp, like it’s going so fast.

In addition to that, we’re meeting with a lot of our community partners about upcoming summer events, as well, as going to spring travel shows. So, we have two spring travel shows we’re going to. One is in Ottawa and the other is in Saratoga. So, as usual, we’re really bust and we’re working with some individual towns on specific projects, websites and some other, pretty much websites, actually.

Three important dates are coming up. I just want to have you all write this down, as quickly as possible, because I know you’re all going to want to know what’s going on. We are going to be going throughout our different regions in 2025 and we’re going to be working with all of our communities to better share our program of work and things that they can do to help elevate the visitor’s experience, as well as their business.  We’re starting, March 20th, we’re going to be joining the Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce, for our first presentation on the 250th program. Not only will be giving them an overview of how we’re going to be promoting the region during the 250th, but we’re going to have business tools that they can use within their individual business to promote what they have going on. Whether it’s a special drink, special food, special activity. Profit and non-profit organizations, because the more we get our communities engaged  in the 250th, the more fun it’s going to be for them. The more educational it’s going to be for all those that live within the communities and it’s going to be a better experience for the traveler. So, that’s the goal, to really get everybody embracing this. Michelle and I, are like, I feel like a little bit of it’s the eclipse revisited, a little bit, you know, because the extra layer to the 250th is those that are history buffs, we got them, but it’s really engaging all the other travelers and families to find a way to make it interesting and fun, so that they get a little bit of education, maybe more than they thought they we’re going to get and a lot of fun and then again, have them come back again, because they can’t do it all in one trip. So, that’s the first meeting that we’re having and that’s March 20th and it’s at the War Cannon and you’re all invited, as our special guests.

Moving on, May 5th, we’re going to be hosting the Adirondack Day, again, down in the legislative building in Albany. I know all of you are really familiar with that. We’ve already had our first meeting and our theme is going to be, A Great Place to Live. A you know, we’re doing a lot of work on all the assets that we need to get people to understand why they should come and live here and then ultimately to get them to come and work and live and raise their families here.

And then last, but definitely not least, on May 19th we’re co-hosting an Agri-tourism summit, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension offices. We’re working with the statewide offices, as well as the local office and the North Country Chamber. And the goal of the symposium is to share with farms that, one, that have an Agri-tourism component, how we can help them promote that in any way that they want. You know, some don’t want to be inundated with travelers 7 days a week. So, better understanding that they’re looking to accomplish and how we can support that and then the second of it is, farmers that don’t have that component of Agri-tourism, what that might look like for them and how to take one step forward; right? Because it’s a little bit overwhelming if you have no idea where even to start. And so, again, the first one that we will hosting and then, co-hosting, I’m sorry, not hosting and that will be May 19th and that’s at RULF’s farm in Peru.

And then without further ado, Michelle, has a short presentation, the 250th and then we’re happy to answer any questions. And Michelle is so excited, because she has an app on her phone that she can change the slides from here.

 

CLEMENT: I am excited about little successes, as well as the big ones. So, thank you very much, MJ. Well, thank you very much for giving me the time, this morning. Like Mary Jane, said, we want to give a brief update on the programming that we’re working on for the 250th to build excitement, locally and within our communities, within Essex County and also what that program looks like to the outside world, if we’re attracting them here and to make it an event for this year, as we forward.

So, this one is a very text heavy slide and I’m not going to read the entire thing, but one thing when we started this program, we really wanted to set some really strong goals on the 250th commemoration, to make sure that, as we put all these efforts together, now can we get the best impact on it. Really what the 250th, is an awesome opportunity to really attract visitors to the region, but really create that awareness of all that the region has to offer. Yes, we have those, we call them the “crown jewels”, our historic forts that will attract people here, have a lot of amazing programming coming up in the 250th commemoration. We really want to make sure we get people to use the hook for the 250th and drive them around the region to experience more with the ultimate goal of, you know, driving that economic benefit, creating that community support and excitement that creates that community pride that just kinds of boils up and creates, at the end of the day, drives economic impact and really it’s about creating that lasting impact, that big impact is what we’re really focusing on. You know how do we get people to come for that one visit, how do we get them to see all that it has to offer, make that return visitation, attract new visitors, those are the pieces and components that we’re putting into our programming for the year.

So, some of these key strategies, let’s like Mary Jane said, we’re looking at some of the things that were really successful with regard to the eclipse or other programing and so, right now we’re working with our community partners to curate and find those events that are 250th related, incorporating the 250th into some of our existing strong events to give it some nice flair. Curating information about the locations and the stories behind them and really helping to elevate that, so we can, again, and I may sound redundant, but these are the goals and we’re really trying to be very consistent about moving people around to experience more, having diverse experiences while they’re here. Those history buffs, as Mary Jane said, are looking, are already kind of searching for 250th experiences, but we want them to experience what else we have to offer the region and we want people that may come for outdoor recreation to experience some of the history or the agriculture or the local and cuisine. So, it’s about recreating experiences that really shows that whole package of what we have to offer that makes them want to come back, that repeat visitation.

Where we begin; let’s look at what’s happening and that those initiatives are and that message that is out there, the National level, on the State level, you know a lot of our focus right now and much of my presentation today, would be on some of the programming that’s coming up to celebrate the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, but this America 250th is really going for a number of years, you know, in May for us, marking the start of the war, but then the celebration in 2026 is when you will see a lot of activity around the signing of the Declaration of Independence and looking at how the State is positioning ourselves. We know the Adirondacks and we weren’t really formed and had a whole lot 200 years ago, but there’s still a huge opportunity, because a lot of the story telling is not just from that moment in time, but what we’ve contributed, the legacy we’re created in those 250 years. So, there’s so many opportunities to fold that in and get everyone excited about it, that’s where we’re going to start sharing that information to get people moving forward. We can keep going on with the dates, but May is coming fast, so we’re going to talk about how we’re positioning Essex County for all of these different themes and really helping elevate that Adirondack awareness, out Adirondacks USA branding, and this is just one example of the many variations of the brand packaging that we will be rolling out that is called, ADK Celebrates USA, that 250 that we can lock to different stuff, from major events and milestones on the American Revolutionary War to fun cocktails and other cool historic history about a community that might be something that just happened 50 years ago, relatively recent, but is a huge impact that we have to offer. We know that the Adirondacks, Essex County has contributed so much and it’s a great time to dig, learn and really get excited.

So, we have a lot that’s going on and this is, how do I quickly show all the different levels and layers of different work that we’re doing, but really wanted to start by unified branding. Let’s create those promotion tools, those resources to get everyone a really great starting point to kind of fine tune and craft and tell their story. Those packages are coming together. That’s when we’re hitting the road and really starting to amplify, getting everyone engaged, creating excitement on the ground up that can boil out.

We have already started in the formation of some of the materials that I have shown you today was with some of our initial community engagement that is continuing, which is a task force that we put together that is of local attractions and those that are interested. I know that some faces in this room have been on these calls to talk about and create that initial planning pieces that will go on to a much bigger and larger community engagement and then we’re going to keep working through a lot of this, you know, integrating it into events and compelling storytelling, all into our larger marketing campaigns, as we continue to move forward. But, first, again, May is coming quick, so one of the first things we created was an experience to really help showcase our story, out history and our legacy within the American Revolutionary War and so coming in May 2025, we are launching the Lake Champlain Revolutionary Quest. This was a product that came out of those initial committee meetings and planning meetings and a lot of work from the team to create an experience that really hits those marks, moves people around, gets them to experience more and also focused and kind of builds off, you know, what are some successes we’ve seen in the past. People like challenges, people like to be able to do a few things and be incentivized for it. So, this is the example of what is, it’s going to a trail. It’s going to be with multiple check-ins of locations that people can go and experience. They’re not required to do every single one of them, but when they show up at one location, they’ll get information to try and get them to continue on. After you do, I think it’s five of those locations, you get an initial prize, it’s tiered, so it encourages people to keep coming back. So, think of the patches people get when they’re hiking or you finish a cuisine trail or a wine trail, and you get some sort of cool incentive that says, hey, I did this. So, it really is encouraging deeper exploration, it’s showcasing more than just our historic spots. Like I said earlier, it’s trying to get into more of our local cuisine, and Agri-tourism locations, experiencing our culture and our downtowns and it’s moving people around, that broad appeal that would appeal to people that are really passionate and will travel for history, but also people that might be really passionate of the outdoors, it’s getting that cross promotion and getting excited.

We’re also making it exciting and interactive, you know, think of making an appeal to multiple generations. There will be some cool augmented reality pieces that go with this. There will be selfie filters on your phone, have  you ever seen, if you have kids or grandkids that have like Snapchat and they do those silly filters on their faces, it’s incorporating some of that fun and modern technology that people are used to, that is very much themed with our Lake Champlain Revolutionary Quest, our locations along the trail, it’s making it relatable, it’s making it so people can share it on social media and it will get them some bonus points on completing their quest and getting their prizes, so they help amplify our message. It’s making it relatable and the best part is, everyone that starts this, we get their email address, so we can remarket to them and invite them back with more information.

So, Step One; how does it work? You get your pass, all of your promotional materials will have a QR code and you can scan it, it will work on your phone, on the website, so you can click on it. It should find that information and it will send you a text, quickly it’s on your phone. It’s not an app that you have to download. We all know, I know, I personally hate downloading apps, I had to travel last week and it’s annoying to have to download one airline app and another one. This doesn’t, you don’t download the apps, but you can save it, it can function like an app, it has a little icon on page,  but it’s really easy to use. It’s been proven successful for a lot of different trails around Country. We really looked at what works and made sure we had a proven foundation underneath us.

Here’s some quick screenshots of what it looks like on your mobile device. It’s really intuitive, it’s easy to use, we can expand it and update it really quickly. It integrates with a lot of other information that is out there, so I wanted to give a couple of quick little examples of what it looks like. There is a home landing page when you end up on the app. You can search through all the different points of interest that are loaded into the quest. You can map those locations, it’s easy to see. I am glad Aurora, is in the crowd, because you can see how it looks all ready for, that’s one of your locations on the trail, the Adirondack History Museum, you can see how the one, the Adirondack History Museum, has a little bit short description has a little bit shorter description, so it’s easy to see, put you can expand it to see more, so the length of the Crown Point State Historic Site. That’s where you would check in, too, to start keeping those points to get those prizes.

 

LAWRENCE: Every location that you go to, you check in and that’s how you get your points to get your prize.

 

CLEMENT: Yup, thank you, MJ. I am so deep into this. It was works really well with your GPS devices that you’re using to move around. So, when you first log in, it actually orders it, based on where you are, the closest one to the farthest away. So, if I log in here, Etown, it is going to look completely different than when you log in in Ticonderoga. It will  help make that easier for you. Then when you hit “get directions”, it will open it right in your Google Maps or whatever GPS you’re using on your phone to help to get you from Point A to Point B, you can even customize your vehicle if you want. It’s just fun

 

LAWRENCE: And easy

 

CLEMENT: It’s easy, it’s intuitive, it works like a lot of the traditional applications that most people will use to navigate around, just with the Lake Champlain Revolutionary Quest flair.

And then last, I know it might be hard to see, but right there, it does integrates with businesses, Google, ours and everything connects. If a business, right now, if you actually log on, it’s got winter hours, but as people start to open up more in May, those hours will expand and it’s real time and updates and keeps that information and links the websites, links to call the business, so everyone has the most up to date information.

And then the one thing that is really interesting that I want to point out is, as you look at this, it’s not overly 250th branded and there’s a reason, it’s all about that big impact, that lastly legacy. The marketing will have the 250 attached to it, but this we want to be so successful and keep it evergreen, so it can live long beyond the 250th, those dates. So, it’s starting a program that can live on, have a legacy.

 

LAWRENCE: And we’ve had a lot of success with other different challenges that we’ve done throughout our region and they’re great at driving people into the community, the traveler loves the challenge and they will come back and finish it, so we really feel that this has a great opportunity to drive people back to continue the quest. I don’t remember how many stops you have on it, right now.

 

CLEMENT: Currently there are 14 and it will be incentivized in tiers. So, you get multiple prizes along the way and you know it’s also something that we can make adjustments in real time, we can track activity, see where people are going, get that feedback and it’s about how do we grow on it, how do we make it more incentivized.        

So, quickly, I am just going to do next steps, because there’s a lot of activity going on and the team is really actively, behind the scenes, working on a lot of different pieces that are getting ready to roll out the door. The biggest one that we’re most excited about, right now, is that business toolkit that we’ll be peddling the grounds with, to really create that bubble from the ground, that energy. That’s going to have all the branding marks, everything we have, ideas, kind of a kick start guide. Our paid advertising is going to be ready to roll out the doors, social media is being planned and being ready to be activated. Our communication team is already sending out and working with national publications on making sure our designation, our points of interest, our quest is being picked up, included in those 250th highlight stories and what really ramping in for the May 9th - 11th at Fort Ticonderoga and the Crown Point State Historic Site. Our first dates and our first victory that happened here, how cool are we? And so, you know the augmented reality is coming together. There’s going to be QR codes everywhere, driving people to this information, again making it quick and as easy as possible to get people start and keep them going. Signage; every location that is a point of interest will have a large kiosk sign, large, and I mean large, the idea is to create some attention, make it interactive. They’ll scan it, they’ll do those selfie filters, they’ll learn about what’s happening, why that point is important, how to get more information on the quest. All of that is coming together and you know, we hit the ground in March, running with a lot of different piece on this and getting very excited. I tried to condense it, I did.

 

THURSTON: What are the prizes?

 

CLEMENT: The prizes, great question. So, we’re starting off with stickers and pins. Those are two that have been very successful in our on-demand. There’s also going to be the option of a commemorative poster, we’re figuring out some logistics on getting that poster, it might be an in-person pickup for those pieces and then we’re going to watch, this part of that, let’s see how things are moving and make those adjustments. So, we’re taking what’s been successful in other programs and then we will listen to our audience and make some of those.

 

SMITH: Yeah, I went to the website request, when is the app expected?

 

CLEMENT: So, it’s there right now, it doesn’t launch into May 1st. The reason we’re holding off until May 1st is most of the attractions and a lot of the points of interest aren’t quite available, yet for the season. So, it is there, but it will be, you can start actively participating, May 1st is what we’re looking to, right now.

 

LAWRENCE: And that will be part of our campaign, too, like we’re going to launch an awareness campaign with like a coming soon.

 

DELORIA: I downloaded while you were talking, but it’s not an app, app, where you have to download?

 

CLEMENT: No

 

DELORIA: It’s more web based.

 

CLEMENT: Yes

 

DELORIA: So, as you update it, those updates will appear.

 

CLEMENT: Absolutely

 

DELORIA: Even though, I’ve already downloaded it.

 

CLEMENT: It’s not really downloaded, all you really did was save a link to it.

 

DELORIA: Well, there’s two, one in Lake Placid and then there as one for Lake Champlain.

 

CLEMENT: I’m not sure.

 

LAWRENCE: We’ll have to look at it.

 

DELORIA: I only did the one, Lake Champlain Revolution. There was a Lake Placid Revolution, there, also, listed.

 

BARBER: Any other questions?

 

LAWRENCE: How does it sound? What do you think?

 

STANLEY: It’s awesome.

 

DELORIA: I think having that app, is not only good for this particular program that you’re offering, but that’s good for all of the areas, honestly.

 

CLEMENT: Absolutely.

 

DELORIA: The cost for having somebody build an app, I mean Newcomb did that and we’re looking at $8,000.00 a year, which was ridiculous and we’ve since moved into this ground, also and more in the testing phases, but we’re getting to word out on that, as well.

 

CLEMENT: Yup, the platform is called Bandwango, that we’re locking into and our test is, getting the revolutionary quest going, but there’s a lot of opportunities that we’re already in conversation with, you know, one is the cuisine trails for example, making those a little bit more interactive and easily assessable. So, now that we can use this, it’s a web based platform, it’s not an app. You know rather than have an app go out, this company does update it.

 

DELORIA: Because you got to build the app and then the app builds the webpage and then you’re building a webpage, because you’re referring to the webpage that was built by the app and it’s a never ending battle.  

 

LAWRENCE: Thank you for your time, that was long, but we thought it deserves attention.

 

STANLEY: I don’t have a question about this, as much as, during Finance Committee meeting it was brought up about the finances of ROOST. I just wanted to let everybody know, I do sit on the ROOST Board, and reached out to Dan Kelleher, about what the finances were and what was brought up in that meeting about fund balance and how much ROOST costs each year and how much it costs Essex County each year. I did want to give Dan, an opportunity, if anybody wanted to ask Dan, about ROOST finances and don’t want to ask him now, he’s always available, he spend an hour and half with me last week going over the finances, so I wasn’t as ignorant as I was during the finance meeting.

 

THRUSTON: Do you have a finance report that you could share with us, by email?

 

STANLEY: Dan, do you want the floor for a second?

 

KELLEHER: Yeah, I am happy to send you the financial report. (inaudible)

 

THURSTON: Okay, thank you.   

 

MASCARENAS: I really liked your presentation, I thought it was well done. The one thing I would look at and you might have already done this at those locations, is there cell service? Because the cell service is real spotty in our county. Anybody that travels, knows that, so the workability of that app is going to be reliant upon some level of cell service and/or Wi-Fi connectivity and I can tell you, anywhere near the lake, you’re usually pretty good, but Moriah, Crown Point.

 

STANLEY: Jay

 

MASCARENAS: Ticonderoga is spots, Jay. I would just check before doing it, that your QR code, will be able to activate at those locations.

 

CLEMENT: Absolutely, so that is one thing that we do recognize and we’re very concerned about when we get those together. So one of the nice things is, is there is a backup code that you can also get to save that.

 

MASCARENAS: So, it will do it once you have service?

 

CLEMENT: Yeah, so you might end up at that kiosk and there is a check-in. There’s two ways to check-in, one you scan the QR code or you remember like; 1,2,3,4, you can take a picture and when you get back online to be able to enter that code. The one thing that we wanted to look at, is identifying those points of interest, we want them to learn more while they’re there, as well, so most of the locations we confirmed, that there are key points that would have some sort of cell phone or Wi-Fi connection.

 

MASCARENAS: Yup

 

CLEMENT: Great point, we’re always worried about, how does this work when not on-line, so there’s that piece.

 

MASCARENAS: Right, and your travelers, I guess, would have a variety of different cell carriers, right? People that live here kind of know which ones work best and still those aren’t foolproof.

 

CLEMENT: And that’s one of the nice things, is once you’re, say I’m here at the Adirondack History Museum, I pick my next point, I’ve scanned it, I’m in Elizabethtown, I have service, I’ve scanned it, now it goes into Google Maps, which has been set up, the way Google Maps works is once you put that point of interest in, it will carry you to that next point, so you’re interacting with Google Maps or our other GPS. So, this is a program, and we explored a lot of different options and we looked at what’s been successful at other locations, similar to ours, that has not the most ideal internet.

 

MASCARENAS: Yup, thank you.

 

CLEMENT: Thank you, great question.

 

BARBER: Thank you very much.

Essex County Land Bank, Nicole.

 

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            The next item was the Essex County Land Bank with Nicole Justice-Green reporting as follows:

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: Definitely not as exciting as the 250th, the things I have to share, today, but exciting in their own way. So, I wanted to mention, from our last meeting, I had spoken about the vacant rental improvement program, today, that program launched, as promised, I have a number of brochures and applications that I am going to take after and pop in your box, but all of these materials are also available on-line and that’s the $2 million program, spread across the County for property owners, specifically building owners who are wanting to create affordable rental units on their properties. The grant is between $50,000.00 - $75,000.00 per unit, no more than 5 units per structure. So, somebody could apply for 5 per property, they could apply for just 1. So, if you have any questions about that program, if you have any constituents that may come to your office seeking that sort of assistance, than please feel free to send them our way. We’ve been working really hard over the past month to not only create this program, because while this is a brand new program for the State, they gave us a very wide allowance to order to kind of create this program that would work where we are in Essex County. So, we’re very proud of that work and if you have any questions, again, please let me know.

As for the Land Bank, very exciting, we broke ground on our second two home rehabilitation projects, in Lewis and in Ticonderoga. We also have four demolitions in progress. Those will be happening sequentially over the next four months. The first demolition being in Ticonderoga, followed by Bloomingdale, followed by, hopefully, the Town of Jay, although, we still have some work to do in order to get site control on that property and then finally the property in North Elba. We have a little bit more work to do with SHPO on the property in North Elba, because apparently, Derek, it is a tuberculous care home and they would really like us to save that home, even though that there’s a hole in the roof down to the foundation. So, we’re working with the Village of Saranac Lake to get an additional condemnation report, so we can demolish that property.

 

DOTY: There is no way in hell that you can fix that.

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: And you know, I said that and they said, we would like photographic evidence and an engineer to go or a condemnation report and Seth Celotti, with the County, was very generous in the beginning of those whole partnership with the Land Bank, we have a report from him, they also want one from the Village of Saranac Lake. So, all of us in the room, know, like we are not going to be saving this property. It’s not savable, we just have to let SHPO know. So, we bumped that one that was going to be our second property to demolish, down to the bottom, just to kind of give us a little more time. I learned a lot about care homes, it was a very interesting discussion for my staff and I.

 

DOTY: There was a period of time, I think every home was a care cottage.

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: Right, that’s kind of what happens with an epidemic, it seems. At any rate, I’m just thanking you guys, again for your support and if you all have any questions, again, about the Land Bank, the work that we do, our projects, or concerns, my office is open. Jim and Robin and I are also, our representatives on the Land Bank are open and ready to answer any questions.

 

DELORIA: The SHPO designation, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is encased in glass and it can’t be tore down.

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: Nope, we just…

 

DELORIA: We had this back in Newcomb, it was SHPO protected, there’s no such thing.

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: It’s not, you know depending on the funding source, because we’re using a State grant, that triggers these additional regulations. Like when we used APRA money, a number of those environmental reviews, specifically SHPO was not needed. Now, obviously, asbestos, lead, tree cutting was still applicable because of our location. We had to comply with zoning, codes in the Town of Jay, but it does mean that, you know have to come with proof, essentially, you have to site your sources, as to why this home is definitely not salvageable and it’s not designated as a national historic place, if it were, and we have experienced that in the Town of Ticonderoga, with the Agway Building, there is quite a bit more to do and you know, you get into that cost benefit analysis with saving a historic structure and the cost there and it not being economically feasible. So, that’s not the business the Land  Bank is in, so that home needs to come down, it’s a hazard and pretty much everybody in the rooms agrees.

 

HUGHES: Is the Lewis property, you put it under construction, so I am assuming it’s a renovation and not a teardown?

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: Yup, absolutely, under construction. That is a whole, like, you know, gut, rehab, renovation and the one on 175 The Portage, is also rehab. We have one other property, also in Ticonderoga, 29 Meyers, which is donated to the Land Bank, actually from Trail North Federal Credit Union, that will also be a rehab, but that’s a little bit further down the list. So, we’re trying to adjust the properties that we have had the longest, first.

 

SMITH: The one that was donated by Trail North, was that a foreclosure?

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: Yup, yeah, it was, very thankful to Supervisor Wright, they initially contracted, Mark’s office, about the property and then he informed them about the Land Bank, could take the donation and the property is also filled with trash, but besides that, it is very structurally sound. It’s actually one of our better properties. I would say 175 The Portage and 29 Meyers are in fairly to middling condition. Lewis, once there’s a partial demolition that’s going to take place, but the actual structure of the home is in really good shape.

 

BARBER: Is there any other questions for Nicole?

 

JUSTICE-GREEN: Thank you guys, so much.

 

BARBER: Thank you very much.

Last but not least, Adirondack Roots, Megan Murphy.

 

 

 

 

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            The next item was Adirondack Roots with Megan Murphy reporting as follows:

 

 MURPHY: Good morning, everybody. I submitted my report, I didn’t know if anyone had any questions about the report?

 

MONTY: Megan, I want to congratulate you on the Keene project, I am quite sure that Joe Pete is quite excited about that. So, the four homes that were built, with the $1,425,626.00, that included site preparation, as well?

 

MURPHY: It did, we did get some assistance, we had 7 lots on that property, we sold 3 to Little Peaks, the nursery school. So, they built in the back, so we shared those costs with them, plus, I believe that they received some ARPA funds from the Town to help put in the road and the utilities to the site and since they’re in the back, that was very helpful to us, because it reduced our costs.

 

MONTY: Right

 

MURPHY: For infrastructure.

 

MONTY: And I see you’re accepting applications for those homes.

 

MURPHY: We’re continuing to accept applications, we likely have them all sold. They’re working with mortgage agencies right now, but that is, as you know, any housing transaction has it’s complications. So, we’re actually building a list of homeowners. Our homeowners all go through our housing counseling, HUD certificated housing counseling and we do believe there will be other opportunities, such as with the Land Bank. In fact, the person that bought the Jay, Upper Jay home from the Land Bank was a person that had applied to the Keene homes, but their income was too high, so they had already gone through housing counseling, so that made them a good applicant to the Upper Jay property. So, we would like to be creating that, a waiting list, in effect. We will also, hopefully have other homes. We’ve had turnovers at Adirondack Community Housing Trust, where Housing Trust homes are sold. So, that is where we need those types of buyers, also.

 

MONTY: So, what’s going to be the cost of those homes?

 

MURPHY: It’s going to be $160,000.00 apiece and we just got the CO, at the end of last week.. 

 

MONTY: Good

 

MURPHY: So, our folks can now go to mortgage.

 

MONTY: And my other question, how are we coming with the farmworkers project?

 

MURPHY: Oh, that’s been a long project.

 

MONTY: That’s the reason I asked.

 

MURPHY: It’s going well, feasibly, the contractor will be done on the 20th of February, or the 22nd, I can’t remember, if it was the 20th or 22nd. But, that has been, there is more, it ended up that there was more damage to the building, there had been a fire, it’s hadn’t been covered. So, when the County had originally done a lot of the estimates for the architect, they had foreseen being able to renovate the portion that had been damaged, but in the end, the contractor ended by having to take it all way down to the foundation and so then there were a couple of foundation issues and so, as you know, with any structure, you run into these issues.

 

MONTY: Rehabbing an old structure.

 

MURPHY: Yup, we believe they will be all done and we’ll have 4 new, actually brand new, farmworker housing opportunities.

 

MONTY: Yeah

 

MURPHY: And that’s a great one for Juniper Hill Farm.

 

MONTY: Good, thank you.

 

BARBER: Anything else?

 

MURPHY: And I just did want to point out that, I just wanted to point out our foreclosure program. You know, we’ve had a lot of success with our foreclosure program, and what we’re finding is, being able to have someone come to a HUD certified housing counselor and work with the bank to hopefully either stay in the home or come up with an alternate to actual foreclosure for that individual, so that doesn’t end up on their credit record, is very important these days and so, we are happy to say that we’ve had a lot of success with that and we would like to sure that if you hear of anyone, what we’re seeing is we see we have folks that have had health issues come up and have a lot of costs associated with health issues, we’ve had folks that have suddenly lost a partner, so they lose part of their income and then ultimately are just not able to keep up with payments. So, a lot of time we can work with the banks to keep people in their homes and so we just want to make sure, if you hear of anyone, that you should let them know, that they should call us, because we can, we’ve had a lot of success so far and we would like to keep that going for folks in Essex County. We actually work in 8 counties for foreclosure, but we are, we’re trying to focus very much on Essex County, because we know how tight the housing market is here and we don’t want to see anyone lose their home.

 

DOTY: Does that success center around subsidy monies to help? I’m curious how a bank looks at things working with your agency?

 

MURPHY: So, we have a foreclosure counselor that’s been in the mortgage business, so she submits, what’s called a mitigation package to then, it’s a deal, in fact. Sometimes they change the monthly payments and they work on that costs, they can roll it into a new type of mortgage. Sometimes they do still need to leave the home, but they leave the home without it being a foreclosure on their record, so that they can easily go out and rent, or potentially or come up with a different situation for their living. So, it’s really a very long and protracted process of working with the mortgage company on what they might accept as an alternative way or working that mortgage.

 

DOTY: Thank you and thanks for the effort.

 

BARBER: Anything else? Thank you very much.

 

MURPHY: Thank you.

 

BARBER: Is there anything more to come before this Board? We’re adjourned.  

 

 

 

AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY COMMITTEE, IT WAS ADJOURNED AT 10:58 AM.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Dina Garvey, Deputy

Clerk of the Board