Low and Moderate Income Housing Development Task Force

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 - 11:00 am

Ken Hughes - Chairman

Chairman Hughes called this task force to order at 11:20 am with the following in attendance: Clayton Barber, Ken Hughes, Tracie McGill, Clayton Menser, James O’Bryan, Matt Stanley, Davina Thurston, Meg Wood, Caitlyn Wargo, Adam DeSantis and Dan Kelleher. Angie Allen, Terri Morse, and Carol Calabrese had been previously excused. Matt Brassard, Joe Pete Wilson, Alan Jones, and Nicole Justice-Green were absent.

Also present: - Dina Garvey, and Renee Bruno

HUGHES: Good morning, I will call this first meeting of 2026 of the Low and Moderate Income Housing Task Force to order. Hopefully, you have an agenda in front of you. Now, I have a time limit, I think we all probably have time limits, I have a noon meeting at the DA’s Office, so I want to make sure that I can make that but just want to have an introductory meeting with you all here, as we begin a new year. Grateful to the Chairman for allowing me to take a leadership role to succeed former Supervisor Jim Monty, who did a lot of work for housing in the county.

So, I have an agenda here for us. We’re not going to drive too deep into every single thing here, but I want to try and level set what our expectations are. I want to hear from the Task Force about how we want to proceed, what are the things that we want to focus on, what are the things that might be longer term/shorter term.

So, before we get into the agenda, I just want to take an opportunity just go around the room and make sure that we know everyone in the room. So, I’m Ken Hughes, Town Supervisor in Essex. Chairman of the Housing Task Force, and I have been on the Housing Committee for quite some time, helped to create the Land Bank and I also serve on the Adirondack ROOTS Board as an ex-officio member to that.

MENSER: I am Clayton Menser, I am the Town Supervisor Crown Point, I am not on the Task Force, but I am anxious to make sure I know what’s going on.

WOOD: I am Meg Wood; Supervisor for the Town of Schroon and I am curious.

KELLEHER: Dan Kelleher, President and CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism. You may wonder why the Office of Tourism is at a Housing Task Force Meeting, but roughly 5-years ago we recognized that we keep up that sector of the economy or help diversifying the economy without pivoting and lending our skill set and our resources towards housing. So, we’ve been in this space for some time, and I will turn it over to Adam DeSantis.

DESANTIS: I am Adam DeSantis and I am the Director of Economic Development at ROOST. There are a number of organizations that are doing great week in the low and moderate income housing side. We’re doing more of our work focusing on market rate housing and housing that doesn’t necessarily side with the well-established State and Federal Programs. So, there are some specific, a specific need there, as well, to support workers throughout the County and we’re focusing our efforts on that segment of the population.

WARGO: I am Caitlyn Wargo, I am the Interim Executive Director at Adirondack Roots and as many of you know, we focus on housing quality, access, affordability, in primarily Essex County, but also a number of other programs in Clinton, Hamilton and housing counseling and foreclosure counseling, all over the Adirondacks. We help keep people in the homes that they are living in, help rehab them and we started developing new homes, as well.

MCGILL: Tracie McGill, the Town of Willsboro and I am looking forward to being on the Task Force.

STANLEY: I am Matt Stanley, I am Supervisor for the Town of Jay and housing goes, touches very facet of our economy. So, we need to get more people, families, living in Essex County, not only to work at Essex County, work at the towns, keep tourism going, we also need to support our schools by increasing the amount of families that want to and can move here. So, I think this committee has been a huge asset. I’m excited to see where we go, starting this year.

O’BRYAN: I’m James O’Bryan, I am the Town Supervisor for Ticonderoga, I’m 3 weeks old, I think 4 weeks old, now, but I would be very interested in this. I have a passion for knowing what we’re going to be doing in the future for housing. Exactly, what my fellow members said just moments ago, is we cannot grow the economy of the North Country unless we can deal with housing and I am seeing that in my own town, right now. It’s going to magnify even more as we move forward with some projects down in Ticonderoga, here in the near future. So, I am very interested and very excited to be here and you know look forward to learning more about this.

BARBER: I am Clayton Barber, Town of Chesterfield Supervisor. I have been on this committee since I started in 2020. I was lucky, today, to join the Land Bank Board and I am excited about that. I have many projects in the Town of Chesterfield. I have a contract with the Land Bank for 6 new mod houses on a piece of property that the Town of Chesterfield has had for many years and I’m excited to get that moving.

HUGHES: Thank you

BRUNO: I am Renee Bruno, Deputy Commissioner for Essex County Social Services. Normally, you’ll see Angie Allen, our commissioner, at these meetings, but I’m filling in for her today, but we clearly have, work with many people that have a need for low-income housing.

HUGHES: Glad you’re here and I know Angie would be here if she could have. I also know that Terri Morse would have been here, Office of Mental Health, she had a prior commitment, as well, and I know that Carol Calabrese from IDA would have been here, but she also had a conflicting engagement. So, you can see the different partners that we’re working with and the different people that are participating in this conversation as Clayton Barber said, this has been going on for many, many years and so this is the new version of it. We have a lot of fresh faces and new ideas and new blood in the room, so I am excited for that, because it has been going on we have had conversations in the past and some of you were not part of that conversation, so if you take a look in your packet, on the second page, you’ll see the conversation that took place on October 27, 2025, when we had a different group of people in the room. So, nothing that I really want to focus on right now, nothing I really want to dive into, but this is for your homework, this is for your own personal reading, over the course of time, take a look and see what kind of discussions we were looking at and I know we’ve had discussions recently about Hennepin and what that is, Supreme Court decision that really turned on its heels housing and financials around housing and ownership are interpreted. Of course, Hennepin at the Supreme Court level was very direct, but also very vague and left a lot of interpretations up to the States and those States are all trying to figure out how they want to handle things through legislation. So, you’ll see, that old business, ROOST update, additional discussions and things like that. So, if you see something on this October 27^th, document that you feel should be resurrected or brought back up, please by all means, let’s make sure it gets on the agenda for the future, so we can keep it as an ongoing conversation item or one thing I can’t stand is paralysis of analysis. Let’s get things done, let’s get some action going, let’s be smart about it and let’s execute on behalf of the people of this County and if we have to course correct along on the way, then we do that, but to sit here for ongoing discussions is not something that I am going to want to do. I am going to get something done.

So, please take a look at that second page there and third page and would love to know if you think something should be added to the agenda in the future. Please let me know, direct and I will make sure that it gets added.

Something that I want to make sure, agenda item #4, that we understand is that we have a lot of non-profit partners, government can only go so much. I know that when it came to the Land Bank, and the creation of the Land Bank, it was a presentation, right here in these chambers by ADK Action, that kind of inspired me and a couple of people to take a look at what a land bank actually was. So, I just wanted to put it out that, in no particular order, and if I am missing somebody, please let me know, but this is the list of the non-profit partners that I can think of that are working in Essex County, that are doing something with housing. They’re either studying it, themselves or they’re getting grants themselves, or they’re taking action themselves, or working with us, but these are the six different groups that I can think of that have done some housing type of work in the county over the past couple of years. Maybe some of you have direct, obviously ROOST is in the room, right now so this is wonderful. Typically, we will have the Land Bank, present. We have ADK, Adirondack Roots with us, which is great. So, if there’s any other organization that you think should be here, please let me know. The letter E, the Regional Planning Board, has been doing a ton of work, housing studies. ROOST, you guys have done your own studies, as well. So, I just want to make sure that we know who our partners are, because we’re not going to do it along and sometimes, they have the great brains to get things started and then we can finish it up, governmentally. So, those are really important synergistic relationships.

Clayton, did you have somebody you thought?

BARBER: Yeah, Friends of the North Country.

HUGHES: Oh, okay

BARBER: I have done some work with them.

HUGHES: I don’t know, can you tell me.

BARBER: So, they are part of, participation in CDBG grants and again, I know Adirondack Roots does the CDBG grants, also. So, they are kind of in competition.

WARGO: So, they are primarily in Clinton County. I mean, dip a toe into Keeseville.

BARBER: Right

WARGO: Chesterfield and Keeseville. I don’t know where else they serve in Essex County, other than maybe your town?

BARBER: And that possibly could be. At one time, they were stationed in Chesterfield. I want to say, now they have moved to Skyler Falls. So, they do touch, as she said, they touch Chesterfield. I don’t know if they go to Jay, at all.

STANLEY: There are projects that sometimes come across.

WARGO: Oh, there are, okay?

STANLEY: Just in AuSable Forks.

HUGHES: Does the Task Force feel that adding, I didn’t know this at all, so thank you for bringing it up, does the Task Force feel that the Friends of the North Country should be added and kept in the loop on our progress?

BARBER: I mean, if they reach out to towns. I mean, it’s up to them, obviously, they’re the ones that came to me and I know, they dealt before, obviously, in Chesterfield and when I became Supervisor, they came back to us.

HUGHES: It doesn’t harm us to keep them in the loop of what’s going on, especially if it benefits you, maybe a toe in Jay. I meant that’s just another organization. Whether it’s “competition” or not, it’s still an organization.

WARGO: Right, they are rehabbing homes for sure, they do housing counseling. We’re in touch with them with our housing counseling peer group and they’re more the preservation of existing housing, to my understanding, which is equally important to keep the homes that we’ve got.

HUGHES: Yeah

WARGO: Safe of the residents and keep them in their homes.

STANLEY: Do you want to send an invite to Habitat for Humanity?

HUGHES: I don’t know.

STANLEY: There’s a project supposed to be starting in Jay for a house.

HUGHES: Okay, I mean they have the right of first refusal.

STANLEY: Right

HUGHES: We put it out there and ask and the worst they can say is no. So, I don’t mind keeping them in the loop in what we’re doing. Maybe they’ve got something that’s coming down the pike that you know, we can collaborate with to better understand and support in some way, shape or form.

STANLEY: And they may need assistance or just ideas.

HUGHES: Right, okay, I’ll add that, no problem. If you have anything else, please let me know. I just want to make sure that we’re not doing it alone, if there are a couple of different silos and if they’re doing their thing, but we can also coordinate with them in some way, shape, or form, I think that’s a rising tide to lift all boats and I think that’s really important.

STANLEY: And I, sorry, and also, because Carol’s not here, the IDA.

HUGHES: Yeah, I didn’t put them on, because I didn’t call them a non-profit partner, but absolutely. I will add them, as well, maybe I’ll just call housing partners.

STANLEY: Because I know they have talked to a few developers.

HUGHES: They have; they have taken the lead on some of that stuff.

STANLEY: One in Ti, especially.

HUGHES: Yeah, I will change non-profit to housing partners and we’ll add them to the list, that’s great. Thank you for that feedback.

WARGO: So, if you are doing that, Lake Champlain/Lake George Regional Board.

HUGHES: They’re on there, letter E.

WARGO: Oh, there they are.

HUGHES: Perfect, yeah, feedback on the agenda creation, please let me know if you think somebody should be added as the course of time goes on and certainly New York State is a partner. New York State has done a lot of work, in #5. I attached, I don’t know if any of you had a chance to watch the State of the State Address, a couple of weeks ago, last week, but wanted to provide you with, on the back, where is says, page 62-63, at the top of 64, Governor Hochul, did outline what she’s looking to do, this upcoming fiscal year, when it comes to housing and so if you did not have the opportunity to observe or see or learn more about what she’s thinking about at the State level, I wanted to make sure that you had that language here, for your own personal FYI, as we begin to kind of develop a portfolio in our brains about where funding might come from, where the initiatives are and how Essex County can jump in on those initiatives.

And also #5B, Housing HCR - Housing and Community Renewal, is a very important partner at the State level. They are the ones who administer the Pro-Housing Communities and they’re also the ones who provided $68 million to assist low and moderate income households. $16+ million going to 270 homes and I provided that article in here from Sun Community News, so you’re all aware of exactly what’s happening especially in the North Country, $16,980,000.00 for 270 homes in the North Country, which is probably not just Essex County, but the 8-9 counties that encompass the North Country. So, I just want to make sure that you’re aware of that initiative, as well and again, that came from the Sun, I am glad they covered it.

And on the front page, we have worked through our mission and vision, so if anybody asked the question, what are we doing? Why are we doing it? We have worked through, a couple of years ago, the mission of this task force and I have provided that for you at the bottom here, so you can kind of get a sense of what we’re actually working towards and what we hope to endeavour with our actions.

So, on the second page of the agenda, 6, I just tried to put some ongoing thoughts here. Just trying to get our brains in the process, again, for the new people in the room, you know, this is brand new to you and trying to get your juices flowing when it comes to how you’re thinking about housing, for not just your own personal towns, but also for the larger county and so these are things, these are discussions that we have had that I don’t mind taking a few minutes, this morning to discuss any of this. Essex County property tax acquisition and disposition to Land Bank, what does that process look like. We do have a policy that we adopted that kind of work through that, from December 30^th and so, I am not sure if all of you are aware of what that policy looks like, but that does exist. Talking about how we’re dealing with blighted property initiatives and code enforcement, conversation about code enforcement has been a good one and what are we doing if we have a burned out house, we have a blighted home in our town. Are you just letting it sit there? Are we asking the code officer to get involved, do our towns have unsafe structure laws, are they being supported, are the local judges supporting them, you know through what local judges can do to support our code officers.

And we’ve also had a bunch of conversations about ADUs, accessory dwelling units, local zoning. Certainly, zoning is not a statewide initiative, zoning is specific to your own individual towns, you have your own local law, your local ordinance for zoning and the conversation about how accessory dwelling units maybe a side garage that can be converted into a single bedroom home for somebody and what that might look like when it comes to the amount of space you can build on a certain piece of parcel, you know, is it in a hamlet, outside an hamlet. I know in my town, my zoning law is incredibly restrictive on some of those things and we’re going to be looking at opening that up, potentially and I left D blank, because maybe there’s some ideas that you would like to see in terms of near term areas that we should be focusing on. This is not just about me, this is about your ideas, things that you’re experiencing in your towns and where you think you might want this task force to start taking a looking at and maybe putting some energy or policy and/or direction.

THURSTON: I am not on this task force or committee, I would like to be, but I’m not. I would ask that the Land Bank just take a moment, because we do have some new people here and I just want to have some clarity on exactly what it looks like, so for example, the Land Bank has 4 properties in Keene, right? And they just sold those properties, or I think 3 out of 4.

STANLEY: That was Roots.

THURSTON: Sorry, Roots. So, they just sold the property, right?

WARGO: Yes

THRUSTON: So, example to us, exactly how it works, how does that remain for low to moderate income families in perpetuity?

HUGHES: Is that Roots or the Housing Trust?

WARGO: That is the Housing Trust.

HUGHES: And we probably should add the Housing Trust to the list.

WARGO: You do.

HUGHES: Good

WARGO: You have it on the top, as a partner. I am happy to do that now or later.

THURSTON: Now, would be great. I would love to hear it.

WARGO: So, the Land Bank and the Adirondack Community Housing Trust, have similar goals, which is affordable housing in perpetuity. They are achieved by different means. The Land Bank uses, I believe, and I can’t speak for them, but a deed restriction. We don’t use a deed restriction. We were formed in 2007; the Community Land Trust in New York State predominately uses a ground lease. So, what happens is we, the Land Trust, owns the property beneath the home and sells the home to the purchaser. So, they have a reduced price, because of that. We then have a ground lease that stipulates all the different things that a deed restriction would do. So, it stipulates no short term rentals, it stipulates that this has to be your primary residence, it stipulates all these things, including the resell formula and a period of time of which a sale needs to go to an income qualified person. So, if we can’t find one, and we have a whole list of people who have done housing counseling with us that are looking for homes, if we can’t find one by our means or going through a realtor, there is a 6-month window, where you can then go out in the open market. The home will stay in the Trust, but the goal is to find and provide a vehicle to find an income qualified homeowner. If you look at the AMI, we go to 120 AMI at the ECHT and I believe the Land Bank goes to 200, but I don’t want to speak.

THURSTON: So, one of the questions that my Town Board had regarding this type of property is, okay, so they buy this property for $140,000.00, what if they want to put an addition on it? What if they want to take their own money, you know, they came into an inheritance or something, they wanted to do a $50,000.00 addition to the property, does that increase what they could sell it for?

WARGO: To a degree, yes, it is all part of the resell formula. It makes it all the more complicated than the deed restriction. I know, I believe the Land Bank and the Homestead Development in Lake Placid, has like a 2% per year maximum increase in value, to restrict the equity moving forward, so you can’t flip it.

THURSTON: Right, that was the point.

WARGO: So, I don’t what they do about improvements like that, but we do is they have to have a conversation with us, we talk about it. That new addition or whatever it is, those improvements can’t make the house unaffordable to someone making 100% of the area median income. So, it is a dialogue, it is an ongoing relationship to make sure that home stays affordable, so they can’t double size the home and say, I’m selling it.

THURSTON: And then if, for example, they want to leave that home to their children, how does that work?

WARGO: With the Housing Trust and the Community Land Trust in general, you can pass a home onto your heirs, and they do not have to be income qualified, but to sell the home, you need to find an income qualified buyer and we help with that. They are not on their own to find an income qualified buyer.

THURSTON: Okay, thank you.

STANLEY: I think for the Land Bank in the original sale, it depends on the funding source.

HUGHES: That’s possible, too.

STANLEY: I think the ARPA funding for the house in Upper Jay, was able to go up to 200% AMI, whereas, like other funding, like this Move In NY, has income restrictions and that’s what is actually put in the deed.

WARGO: Is based on what the financing source is.

HUGHES: That makes sense. Normally, Nicole would be here.

WARGO: Right, the ultimate goal is the same, it’s just different means arriving at the same place, which is a home that is going to stay available to working families and not going on the open market.

THURSTON: Thank you

HUGHES: Good question, thank you.

So, yes, these are the things that we have been talking about, just in terms of what does this Task Force wants to make recommendations on. Potentially, with code enforcement, what do we need to learn more about in order to make a recommendation? Should we have presenters or somebody to come in and speak to these kinds of things? So, I wanted to put these on here, that these are the things we’ve talked about, this is our very first opening meeting of 2026, trying to level set where we are. The Task Force is going to drive this agenda, just let me know what you want put on here and I will make that happen. And I left D, and maybe E and F open, because maybe there’s some topics that I am forgetting, as I kind of brain dumped this agenda, just to put it together just to put it together so we could have just an intelligent conversation, today to get things started.

STANLEY: And just to throw out there, for the code enforcement piece, there was discussion and I think the Lake Champlain/Lake George Regional Planning Board was looking into more of a shared, countywide code enforcement, correct?

HUGHES: Yeah, absolutely, there’s a lot of conversations, we all have code officers in our towns. We are mandated by New York State to have a code officer to do State codes and fire and so the challenge is, at least in my small town, it’s hard to find a qualified code officer, who actually can go through the process of getting the training to do the work. I think I have been through 5-6 in my short 6-7 years of being Supervisor. It is very, very difficult. We actually tried a shared service with Willsboro, a long time ago for code and zoning and it started out great and then it fell last on its face and then most people don’t understand that there is a difference, a major difference between codes and zoning. Oh, you can do codes, you can do zoning, there are different animals, big, different beasts.

THURSTON: So, what St. Armand, has and we’ve done this for years. We share a code enforcement officer with the Town of Jay, with the Town of Brighton and with the Town of Franklin. We all have Roger Tompkins and we all share him. He works with each one of us, individually, we each pay him a salary and he does different days and of course, you know, he stops in when something big happens, you can him and whatever, but that actually, I think, works really, really well, sharing a code officer, because not, one small town, we do 40 building permits in a year, you know, I can’t afford a full-time, year around code officer when I’m only bringing $6,000.00 a year selling building permits. So, sharing one really does work. I also, on a completely separate topic, recently and I do apologize, I cannot recall, I thought it was the Lake Champlain Basin Program was doing blighted property inventory. Do you recall this?

HUGHES: That’s the Regional Planning Board.

THURSTON: The Regional Planning Board, so we are, I believe we’re going to be getting that inventory this year, in 2026 and that might also help steer the housing report.

HUGHES: The conversation.

THURSTON: Yes, exactly

HUGHES: And just to piggyback, because Clayton, we’re nodding, because in our area, we’ve got somebody that lives in the Town of Schroon who is the code officer for Willsboro, Essex, Minerva, Crown Point and one other or two others, I think.

WOOD: We have a full-time codes officer and he gives North Hudson 4 hours on a Wednesday afternoon and that’s all they need, but we can just barely make do with what we have with a full-time person.

HUGHES: So, the shared code officer conversation is kind of happening, right and so the question I think that will happen in the next year or two is, should that experiment become a more codified initiative at the County level, when it comes to paying salaries, when it comes to paying benefits, when it comes buy-in from the towns. Because maybe there’s a town, maybe North Elba or Ti, absolutely is super happy with finding a code officer. They’ve got it, no problem, they’re never going to have a problem, right? It’s kind of like with EMS, some towns have great EMS and some towns really struggle with finding EMS providers, but we have to think countywide, instead of just our little individual towns. So, I think that this conversation is probably going to come up. I think there’s a huge headwind towards it. I can’t tell you for sure, but I feel like there’s going to be a really big headwind to make it county initiative and a county, and I know it’s a county problem, but a county responsibility in lieu of the towns. That early conversation is probably going to be born out of conversations that we have here. It’s kind of like saying the States are laboratories for democracy, right, for the Federal Government. I think this is a laboratory for this kind of conversation that’s going to potentially change the game at the County level and it’s going to be this Task Force, that I think is going to bring that about. If you have other ideas for Agenda #6, let me know, I am happy to add it.

I also want to make sure that in #7, we’re staying abreast of what the current, ongoing projects are. So, new Supervisors and new people in the room, you will also receive, you should always receive every month, a report for the Essex County Land Bank about what they’re doing, it’s a comprehensive report, also Adirondack Roots, also provides a very comprehensive report and so you’ll have that as part of the Economic Development meeting that we have every month. What we don’t necessarily get every month is an update on the 60-unit that is going on in Ticonderoga. The ESSHI grant funding from converting hotels and motels into transition housing or tiny home projects and housing County employees. So, I don’t have anything to add to that conversation. I don’t have any in-depth information to provide you, but I do know those are things that are kind of going on and we’re aware of housing projects. I know, I just saw a picture of Emily Politi, standing in front of a house up in North Elba, is that Homestead? I can’t remember what she’s doing, Homestead. So, they’re doing that. There’s another organization up there that’s doing a lot of housing, just in the North Elba area. They just finished Fawn Valley, so there’s probably somebody we should add to our list of just partners. But they’re doing, kind of their own thing in North Elba, which is awesome, because North Elba needs affordable housing. So, if there’s anybody in the room that would like to speak to the status of any on-going projects, we’ve got 5 minutes and I would be happy to hear any updates on that.

STANLEY: So, the County, each year, whether through Adirondack Roots or North Country Rural Development work through CDBG Homes Restoration Grants. The Town of Jay, we actually went after one this year, just for Town of Jay residents. It doesn’t hurt if another town has a need to go out and contract with either Adirondack Roots of NRDC and maybe friends of North Country, to go after some of these funds, to help. A lot of that does to lower income residents that are living in our community. So, it’s a great thing to sort of do and get a feel if there are people, like I think we’re oversubscribed and we want $200,000.00 and we’re doing, I think 2 houses and seeing where that goes. We have like 5-6 people apply. So, it shows that there’s a need.

HUGHES: Awesome

WARGO: We’re doing a similar project in the Town of Chesterfield, also the Town of Moriah and then both organizations have an impact countywide, but that is preserving existing housing stock, which is a key part of this equitation of having enough housing for people that live here. We have to keep that existing housing stock.

One thing that I would add, quickly, the 60-unit building in Ticonderoga, that’s a low income tax credit housing project.

HUGHES: LIHTC

WARGO: Yes, LIHTC, we are working with the developer who’s got a scattered site project in the Town of Schroon that has also applied for that same funding for I can’t remember how many units in Schroon, 20 some units in Schroon, a couple at the Lee House in Port Henry.

WOOD: Okay, so this, right now, the talk is 22-units, proposed stage.

WARGO: It’s in the proposed stage, waiting to hear, just like the 60-unit. They have both been applied to the State to the LIHTC program, awaiting decisions, but this is Round Two for the Ticonderoga project, whereas this is Round One for this project and the general rule of thumb is that you don’t get accepted your first round, like McKenzie Overlook in North Elba. They had to apply a second time, but that is another project that is right here in Essex County.

HUGHES: That is good to know, I mean what are the successes that are happening.

WARGO: I mean it would come through. It would create those new units in the Town of Schroon, but then rehab what is a 150 year old building on Main Street in Port Henry that is in need of some TLC.

HUGHES: Great, I am going to add those bullets. I think that’s important to just keep that on the brain.

WARGO: And those are low income, so you’re looking at 50% AMI or something.

DESANTIS: Up to 80%, I think so.

HUGHES: I thought so, too.

WARGO: Maybe, it is and our building currenting is seniors and adults with developmental disabilities, I don’t know about Ticonderoga is.

HUGHES: So, if you know of any current projects in your travels and you want them added to the agenda, just to keep us in the loop about what the successes are, let me know, I’ll get it added, just so we’re aware of what’s happening in the County.

O’BRYAN: Yeah, we in Ticonderoga, we have a project, starting up this spring for 32 new units. They’re going to be duplexes, triplexes, they’re going to be built behind the college property. These were meant to be there 25 years ago, when we did the initial project and it’s finally going to get. Now, there’s a caveat in that, the deed to these properties and that is, you have to be 55 or older to buy into the properties. However, what that does is, you get a lot of people that want to start downsizes and puts their larger homes on the market for us in region and then they move into one of these new homes that are being built. We also had, the other night, the Chairman and I had opportunity and some of our other Board Members to be in Ticonderoga to see a new residence at 175 The Portage, brought online by NRDC and now it’s going up for sale, I believe. So, it was good to see that, and I know that there are others, they’ve got some other things that are going to happen this year. They have 4 homes that are going to be going on, up The Portage, just a little but further, they’re going to be bringing in, that’s going to start in the spring.

The only other thing that I’ll say about that, you brought up something, at times there’s a friction that exists between zoning and in my case, NRDC. So, I need to work through that. I don’t know from Ms. Green, what that problem is. I talked to my zoning officers, but I want to make sure that it’s seamless. I also want to make sure we’re following zoning laws that we have in place. So, I thought I would bring that up.

HUGHES: Yeah, a local issue, but it can have larger effects.

O’BRYAN: It can, absolutely.

HUGHES: Well, coming up on our time; 8, how often do we want to meet? Before, we were meeting quarterly and then the Task Force was really wanting to meet monthly, you know how often do we want to make some discussion meetings, work meetings, what does the Task Force wants to, how do you want to see us moving ahead in this year.

STANLEY: The problem that I see with quarterly meetings is something gets put on a list and if you’re like me, you wait until the day before to do something.

HUGHES: That’s fair.

STANLEY: So, if we’re monthly, we’re at lease holding ourselves to a little more of a moving timeline, as opposed to quarterly, pushing things off a little bit.

HUGHES: Yeah, I agree with that, but I wanted to just see what people were thinking. There’s a crisis, we want to keep the momentum.

BARBER: So, Ken, I really, as I said, working with the Land Bank and I have 6 manufactured homes coming to my community, we are excited, I have the contract that we signed with the Land Bank for them to do and I would love to share it, especially with the new Supervisors or any Supervisor that has property that’s town owned. The reason why we gave it to them, I just would love to share that, because I am truly excited, so my suggestion, I would like to meet, I wanted to explain at this one, but due time, I will hold off until the next one.

HUGHES: Thank you, okay. Monthly?

STANLEY: Is there a thought, as we get doing projects like what’s happening in Chesterfield, that we may want to, I mean it’s great having this meeting right after Ways and Means, because we’re all here, but maybe taking one of those monthly meetings to go to a Chesterfield to discuss that issue and then go look at the sight to see how it’s progressing.

HUGHES: We can do field trips, no problem, as long as they’re scheduled ahead of time and there’s availability, I think that’s a really smart thing to do.

STANLEY: Because I think there’s also a, how do we build off that success, the success of Keene? What Wilmington is trying to do. I think there’s a lot of things around the County that we would like to really piggyback off of.

HUGHES: Right

STANLEY: Like I want to know who is doing the senior, essentially senior housing for 55 and above, because that is what I want to see in my town.

HUGHES: Yeah

STANLEY: So, I think there’s a lot of sharing that can go on and looking and picking each other’s brains, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

HUGHES: Great, I love it. So, we’re going to meet monthly. If I had to give any homework or any work between now and then, it’s, help me strengthen this agenda. So, I have taken a bunch of notes. I will pass out a draft agenda, just like I do on my town board, about a week before, just to see if there is anything that you would like to see added. Please, let me know in the interim if you can think of something that should be added to this or modified or removed, I will do that and then that will be our effort between now and February, is to just strengthen the agenda and then as we go along, we’re going to strengthen and focus where we want to be.

Davina, you said you wanted to be on this Task Force and are not? Do you want to be on this Task Force? Is there anybody in the room who’s not on, but wants to be?

STANLEY: I don’t think I am.

HUGHES: Do you want to be?

STANLEY: Yeah

HUGHES: Who else is not on this Task Force that wants to be? No pressure. Okay, so this is for Task Force Members, only, right now. I would like to make the motion that we add Davina Thurston and Matt Stanley to the Low and Moderate Income Task Force, I need a second? Jim, you’re on the Task Force?

O’BRYAN: I am

HUGHES: That’s a second. Any questions or concerns about adding them? All in favor, aye. Opposed, carried.

Okay, so I motioned that and Jim, you seconded. I don’t know if we can do that, but I just did it (laugher).

GARVEY: I’m sorry, but you can’t. The Chairman needs to set the committees, it’s in the Rules.

HUGHES: So, what I am going to do is let the Chairman know, that we did a resolution that is non-binding and I am going to let him that we would like his approval to put Mr. Stanley and Ms. Thurston on the Task Force and hopefully, we’ll have the approval for that. So, I’ll work that out.

Okay, anything else for the good of the order? Okay, see you next month, thank you, everybody.

So, next meeting will be after Ways and Means, in February, 11:00.

THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS TASK FORCE WAS ADJOURNED AT 11:00 AM.

Respectively Submitted,

Dina Garvey, Deputy Clerk

Board of Supervisors