ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY COMMITTEE

Monday, January 12, 2026 - 10:00 AM

Matthew Stanley, Chairperson

Kenneth Hughes, Vice-Chairperson

Chairman Stanley called this Economic Development/Planning/Publicity Meeting to order at 10:22 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Matt Brassard, Chris Clark, Timothy Follos (11:00 arrival), Kenneth Hughes, Mary Lamphear, Steve McNally, Clayton Menser, James O’Bryan, Timothy Pierce, Richard Preston, Cathleen Reusser, Matthew Stanley, Davina Thurston, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, and Margaret Wood. Tracie McGill was absent.

Department Heads present: Mike Mascarenas, Dan Manning, Anna Reynolds, Angie Allen and James Dougan.

Deputies present: Dina Garvey and Bill Tansey

Also Present: Dan Kelleher and Mary Jane Lawrence - ROOST, Jody Olcott - IDA, Elizabeth Lee - Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Nicole Justice-Green - Essex County Land Bank, Aurora McCaffrey - Essex County Historian, Caitlyn Wargo - Adirondack Roots and James Monty.

STANLEY: It is about 10:22, I am going to call the Economic Development Committee to order. The first item on the agenda is Jody Olcott, with the IDA.

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

OLCOTT: Good morning, everybody. I am Jody Olcott from the Essex County IDA for you new Supervisors. I have been here forever, probably longer than a lot of you, 28 years, believe it or not. We did submit a monthly report. I have nothing additional to add, we are going to be talking about the Hudson Power Express Project, next month-ish or maybe in March.

New Supervisors, as you get your feet wet, we will sit down and talk about, obviously economic development, obviously, programs that are available to business in the County. I don’t want to bombardon you, obviously in the first couple of weeks. Other than that, all is well.

STANLEY: Any questions for Ms. Olcott? Alright, thank you very much.

OLCOTT: Oh, and new Supervisors, I guess we have Matt and Steve are joining us on our Board and we will send you information. I think there’s a meeting, maybe next week, so welcome.

STANLEY: Thank you very much.

Next, we have Ms. Reynolds, from Community Resources, please.

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

REYNOLDS: Good morning, today. I just have some general office updates.

Typically, every new year we send all the towns a project list and the list covers everything we know for projects and grants that are occurring in your town. We hope to get those out to you this month. This will hopefully spark a meeting or some kind of conversation that we can talk about what’s coming up for the new year, for new projects that might be on your list and how we can close out the existing ones that are on the current list. So, please keep your eyes peeled. I do want to send them snail mail and email, so they don’t get lost in the shuffle and then we can work together on successful projects.

Is there anything else? And I put some sample templates on my agenda, how we can review those projects and kind of the questions that we would ask. Is there any other questions that you have?

HUGHES: Good morning, Anna. I just wanted to say thank you for providing that short form. I believe that we did a lot of work on that last year.

REYNOLDS: Yes

HUGHES: With the Efficiency Task Force, under Supervisor Monty’s leadership and just it’s really great to start everybody off on the right footing, so we’re not overwhelming our office and that when a project at one of our towns is coming up, that we do the legwork first to make sure that we are prepared to work with you to help us in that symbiotic relationship, so thank you.

REYNOLDS: Yes, I appreciate that.

STANLEY: Any other questions?

MASCARENAS: Anna, how much in current funding are you currently managing?

REYNOLDS: I hate this question, in the hundreds of millions. I don’t know, I think $100 million, because they add up so fast.

MASCARENAS: Anna, is really bad for, at taking credit for her work unfortunately and I want you all being aware, coming out of the gate, that the work that that office does is really supports a ton of different activity. They’re one of only, one like of it in the State of New York, our unique setup, our geographic location, the Adirondack Park, all those fun things really make them irreplaceable and yes, they typically hover over $100 million at any given time that they’re managing countywide. Those are jobs for a lot of people, prevailing wage rate jobs, those people live in your community. We don’t track those really well, because we don’t brag really well. So, I am going to brag for her a little bit, because she won’t do it for herself, so I just want you to be aware (applause).

REYNOLDS: Thank you

STANLEY: I just want to say, the Town of St. Armand, we are very far north, so we are right next to Franklin County and I have a very good relationship with two supervisors that are in Franklin County. Essex County is unique that we have a Board of Supervisors, so all of know what’s going on in our towns and we speak for our towns and for all of our County residents and Anna and her team are instrumental for all of our towns and the county. None of us would have anything for water and sewer, town halls, community centers, without Anna and her team and I cannot say enough about how much they have helped the Town of St. Armand and when I talk to these other Supervisors that don’t have the support of Franklin County in this aspect, they are losing out on millions and millions of dollars and we have Anna and her team to thank for Essex County being the receivership of all of those grants. Thank you, Anna.

STANLEY: I will add to that, adding to any county, around Essex County, there is definitely a level of jealously that comes from those other counties about what we have at Community Resources. So, for any of you new Supervisors, even old Supervisors, take the time to sit down with them to discuss your projects. One, is also makes sure that we’re not competing for the same grants. They have a list that helps manage everything that happens in the County, which is why they are so successful. So, reach out to Anna and her team and they will definitely guide you in the right direction. Anything else for Community Resources? Thank you very much.

REYNOLDS: Thank you

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

STANLEY: If we could have the Historian, Ms. McCaffrey, come up, please and I believe, today she is bringing up former, Lewis Town Supervisor Mr. Monty for a presentation.

MCCAFFREY: I am Aurora McCaffrey, the Essex County Historian and Director of the Adirondack History Museum and so we have a special presentation. Jim, contracted me to do a special project, that he wanted to do for all of you.

MONTY: Thank you, thank you, Chairman, Mr. Stanley, for allowing me to come in this morning. I do miss you guys, hard to believe. About a year ago, in a conversation with Mr. Hughes, we talked about Inez Milholland and she’s the one big draw that we have for the Town of Lewis. Her family owned a farm and a summer home there in Lewis and she summered up here. She was very fond of the Lewis area, as everyone knows, she was an advocate for women’s rights, women’s suffragist. She was just an amazing person, if you read the history and I was blessed to have served with several women in this Board, the last few years, three amazing women, very bright, very knowledgeable and know there’s five of you and I know Mary. I worked with Mary for the last year on a housing project in Newcomb. So, we had a little museum in Lewis that recognizes Inez, who is buried in Lewis. Who we renamed the mountain, that I grew up on, as Mount Discovery, it is now Mount Inez and stuff and there was a famous painting of her, riding her white horse in New York City, which hangs there. So, in conversation with Aurora, she helped us get a replica of that painting and the Town of Lewis, Mr. Pierce and the Town Board of the Town of Lewis would like to donate this to Essex County in honor of all the women who have served on the Essex County Board of Supervisors, as well as the women out there that are really doing it for the County. So, with that being said, this is a painting that we would like to donate (applause).

MCCAFFREY: So, I just want to note this, one thing that I learn, actually last night. So, her she’s in, this is 1913 and she’s leading the women’s suffrage precession in Washington DC and she has this dramatic apparel, a crown and a white cape, which was hew symbolism for the new woman of the 20^th Century, but what I learned was that Wonder Woman, was inspired by this look.

MASCARENAS: We will get that hung, Mr. Monty. I talked to the Clerk of the Board Offices, last week and I think we have a real nice location for that painting. So, thank you, we appreciate it, that’s awesome.

MONTY: Thank you all for allowing me to re-enter. Thank you all.

MCCAFFREY: Okay, so as far as my report, you have my written report. I mainly just want to warmly welcome the new supervisors. I look forward to working with you and I did add a second page to my report, as a little about us, at the Museum and the Historical Society. So, hopefully that helps introduce ourselves.

STANLEY: Any questions for the Historian? If not, thank you very much.

MCCAFRREY: Thank you

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

STANLEY: Next up, we have Cooperative Extension and Ms. Lee.

LEE: Happy New Year, everyone. It’s really great to be here. There are some of you that are new faces and I really look forward to meeting with you, either by inviting you all at one time or coming to your offices to tell you about Cooperative Extension and I think you will learn really quickly, how proud we will make you of the agriculture in this town and of the work that we do with youth and the work that we do with seniors in every town in Essex County and we are incredibly grateful and incredibly excited to be moving into the new building at the fairgrounds in Westport in a month or two or a couple weeks or a month, we don’t know.

MASCARENAS: We’ll be in touch.

LEE: So, I won’t wait until then to come and introduce myself to you in person, but we will host an event with Soil and Water, there. That will be really exciting, I think for everyone. So, we’re looking forward to that.

I did submit a report and I am happy to take any questions.

STANLEY: Any questions? Alright, thank you very much.

LEE: I have a couple of comments to add to the report. I just want to put a note on the top of our report, on one of the most important things that we worked on is the Farmland Protection Plan and the Farmland Protection Board is seated by the Supervisors and that meeting is changed from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and those of you that are familiar will recognize that.

Another thing that I really wanted to point out is that, for those of you that remember 2025, I can’t wait to put it behind us, but after 10 months of not being paid for Federal Grants, all the money that we are owned, close to $150,000.00, which is consequential for our organization, has been paid. So, we finished 2025 and have a lot to look forward to in 2026.

The other really exciting thing to start out 2026 is that on the 8^th, which was last Thursday, Richard Ball, the Commissioner of Agriculture for New York State, presented his State of Agriculture address, and I will forward you the link, Essex County and specifically Cooperative Extension and Harvest New York, another Cooperative Extension Program was really recognized for the Farm to School work that we do and that’s a big deal. It’s a statewide recognition and again, one more reason why I know, when you find out more, you will all be extremely proud of the agriculture in Essex County. We are small, but we are mighty.

HUGHES: Question on the Federal funding, was it released by, which Department, do you know, of the Federal Government? Was it the USDA?

LEE: I do, two UDSA grants, one was the USDA grant from NIFA, the National Institute for Food and Agriculture which was for mentoring youth and through our 4H programming and the other one was a USDA Grant, from the Ag and Market services, which is the farmers market promotion grant. I don’t, I haven’t been told this, but because of the timing, when the payments were reinstated, we expect that it was restored because of the settlement that was reached between Cornell University and the Federal Government. We are not a department of Cornell University, we are the extension service and when I meet with you, if you don’t already understand that the extension service, nationwide, I will fill you in for New York State, but because many of the people in the Federal Administration don’t know that relationship between Cornell University and the Extension Service, it’s likely that settlement is what opened the door, again.

HUGHES: And a quick follow-up question, is there a direct relationship between those Federal Agencies and your organization or did the money go to New York State and New York State held it and then it came back to you? Sometimes that happens.

LEE: No, both of those grants were written by our office and were awarded directly to our office, because each Extension, each County Extension Service is an independent organization.

HUGHES: Okay, great, thank you, Elizabeth.

STANLEY: Any other questions? Alright, thank you very much.

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

STANLEY: Next up, we have the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, ROOST, Mr. Kelleher and Ms. Lawrence.

KELLEHER: Happy New Year, everyone. Congratulations, Committee Chair Stanley, on your new role on Economic Development. Congratulations to new Chairman McNally and Vice-Chairman Brassard, one your new roles. So, I look forward to working with all of you, Supervisor Tyler on Finance, we look forward to working with you all over the next year and of course, welcome to the new Supervisors. We look forward to coming down with the team and introducing ourselves to you all, but most importantly, hearing from you, what you’re looking to accomplish and how we can help you achieve your goals. So, we’ll be reaching out, once you have a little more time to settle down, you may be a little busy, so we’ll give you some time.

By way of introduction, we’re the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, or ROOST for short and today, with me, I have our Chief Operating Officer, Mary Jane Lawrence. My name is Dan Kelleher, I am the CEO and we are functioning the Sales and Marketing Team for Essex County. Our job is to go out there and bring in as much outside spending, into the County that we can, so we can support our small businesses, we can support our sales tax base, we can support at the local level, our property tax base and really drive this economy forward. We know, here in Essex County that tourism is the largest industry, accounting for .37¢ of every dollar that is spent in the County comes from someone that doesn’t live here. Then we talk about labor income, it’s actually a little higher at 40%, of all the money of our worker’s pockets comes from visitors and so we know that this is a very critical industry to get right. We’re honored and happy to be able to report that of the last 13 years, of which I have only been here for a year and a half, we’ve been the fastest growing tourism economy north of the Mohawk River. In the Adirondacks, we have beaten the overall market by over 200%, so we’re doubling the performance of everyone else in the region and our next closest competitor, which is Saratoga, we’re beating them by 39%. So, we think we’re getting it right, but we continue to have to do better.

So, in your report, you will see how we track this, we look at the number of people that come to Essex County and stay overnight every year, as well as how much they spend. The latest data that we have is through November of 2025, and in 2025 we welcomed, so far, just shy of 3 million overnight guests. Who collectively spent $406 million in Essex County, and again, that’s roughly 37% of all the money that was spent in the County during that period.

With that said, we know that we have to continue to grow that, and to talk more about how we’re going to do that, I am going to turn it over to Mary Jane Lawrence.

LAWRENCE: Hello, welcome, thank you, Dan. I am not going to go over how we’re going to grow tourism in its entirety, today, because that is a much longer conversation when we have your undivided attention, when we meet with you individually in the very near future. I did have the opportunity to meet Supervisor Lamphear, recently, at a meeting that we’re working with the Adirondack Hub, to refresh their brand, so thank you for joining us, as well as, Chairman McNally.

I just want to touch on a couple of things that are coming your way in February and then some of our major initiatives for 2026, keeping in mind that this is not our work in its entirety. As time goes on, you will come to learn that our work is deep and detailed and very labor intensive and certainly drives the performance that Dan just spoke about.

So, a couple things coming your way is our End of the Year Report. You’ll be seeing that in February. That gives you a high-level report of our successes for 2025. We also have our resident sentiment survey. This is the 4^th year that we have done this survey and we send it out to all our communities and didn’t ways through paid ads and cards and we try and get as many residents that we can, to fill out the survey from all the towns in Essex County and so this survey helps us better understand how tourism is impacting each of our communities and this in term helps us determine if we’re going in the right direction, if we need to make some adjustments, if we need to focus on something more that maybe we haven’t put enough focus on and so that sentiment survey is completed and it will be coming from Dan, this week.

A couple of local accomplishments; we launched the Schroon Lake Chamber website, yay. We’re very happy about that

WOOD: Thank you

LAWRENCE: You’re very welcome, it looks great and the Etown website is on its way.

Some of the major initiatives for 2026. Saranac Lake website is in the process of being built now, the new website. As I mentioned, we’re working with the Adirondack Hub, we have a committee, a couple of people from Indian Lake and Long Lake to refresh that brand, give it a tag line and then later in the year we will rebuild that website.

In addition; next up the Lake Champlain website, and yes, this is the year to rebuild website and then the Whiteface Region.

In addition; we will be focusing on the 250^th and then I would be remiss to not mention what an amazing winter that we have had and the weather has certainly worked in our favor. In addition, we really leveraged the 2026 Winter Olympics to really highlight our region. We’re seeing a tremendous amount of press interest and we expect February to be really strong in our region. So, that’s a very quick overview. Can I answer any questions on the report or anything that I just said really quickly.

THURSTON: I just have a question, MJ. People are asking me about the Winter Olympics and if it’s possible that they might come back to Lake Placid and possibly do a shared with New York City?

LAWRENCE: That is brewing, that is a conversation, I think that is for like 2042, is a committee that is together to do a shared Olympics with Lake Placid and New York City. It’s a conversation that’s been going on, you know behind the scenes, separate from us, for probably about a year, to two years and so it’s alive and well, the conversation, where it is, I don’t know.

THURSTON: Did you say 2042?

KELLEHER: 2046 would be the earliest, so we wouldn’t be able to bid for another 7-8 years.

THURSTON: Okay

LAWRENCE: But it takes a lot of work and coordination, so it would be New York State.

STANLEY: Any other questions?

LAWRENCE: Thank you very much, have a great week, everybody.

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

JUSTICE-GREEN: Good morning, everybody. You should see the reports on your desks and I know that Nikki teReile in my office emailed out, last week, an invitation to a ribbon cutting and open house for our final home that we completed this year in Ticonderoga. This is also a gut-rehabilitation that the Board of Supervisors donated to the Land Bank from the tax foreclosure auction that occurred 2 years ago. This ribbon cutting is actually in the evening hours to allow for like more open house style and hopefully for some more of our Board Members who work full-time to attend. So, we would love to see you guys come, there is going to be a wonderful barbeque served, so we will feed you, if you make the drive to Ticonderoga. So, please feel free to email my office out the RSVP and we really look forward to having you guys here, in this home. This home, very similar to our other Land Bank homes, will have some great photos for you, but they pulled out of the basement of this home, I think, like over 2,000 hypodermic needles when they did the rehabilitation of it. So, this home, which kind of went on and off the tax foreclosure auction, as well, we’re not really sure how those got there in that time. It was full of garbage and food and all sorts of fun things. So, it’s an especially important rehabilitation for that neighborhood community in Ticonderoga on the Portage. It is also a very old historic structure, so, it’s another historic rehabilitation, so we’re looking forward to that.

As we go into the new year, as I said before, you’re going to notice there’s not as many properties on our inventory. That is because all of our Land Bank properties, besides this one are completed, have been closed on, and sold or are in process of closing within the next few weeks, which is very exciting. The Town of Jay has through their Town Board, very graciously, given us some additional funding to go to the tax foreclosure auction for the first time and actually bid on two properties that the Town would like us to take into our inventory, to either demolish or do a gut rehabilitation. The Town of Minerva has also pulled a piece of property from the tax foreclosure auction for us to do a gut rehabilitation on, which we are excited to get started on and are working with our County Attorney’s office to determine a surplus amount.

So, besides that, our major initiatives going into the new year, besides our three vacant sites, in Newcomb, the Town of Westport and the Town of Chesterfield. As we’re going through some pretty intensive, pre-development, right now, including wetland delineation, surveying sub-divisions, so that we, with this success Move-In application, can place 17 homes between Chesterfield and Westport and an additional 4-5 homes in Newcomb in the coming 12 months. So, a little bit different than the volume of work that we’ve done in the past. We also continue to have the funding for the vacant rental program. We’re about to be refunded for that. That work is taking place in a number of your communities and we’re hoping to, as we maintained a waitlist over the past 12-months, be replenished with that funding, make new awards in other communities, so please feel free to share that information. We’ve also expanded our ADU, that accessory dwelling unit, so think about above apartment, above garage apartments, little mini houses, little in-law suites in your communities. So, except Ticonderoga, because Ticonderoga doesn’t allow for that, but the rest of Essex County does. So, please feel free to send any folks that might be interested in that program our way. We actually just broke ground on our first ADU in Lake Placid and so that’s really exciting and above and beyond that, I would love to answer any questions that you guys might have.

HUGHES: I have two potentially uncomfortable questions to ask that you might not be able to answer. Question #1, is do we have, do we know who the representatives of this Board are on the Land Bank Board?

JUSTICE-GREEN: I mean I can answer, you know what, Mike is going to answer that.

MASCARENAS: The short of it is yes and no. So, Mr. McNally did put out his assignments, but I think we’re still looking at that one in particular. Last week I was going back and forth with Nicole, apparently the bi-laws say one, do we want one, do we want two? The appointee has to come from this Board, it’s not Mr. McNally is what I’ve learned in the last week or so. So, the answer is no, we haven’t formally done that at the Board level, but we need to do that at our Full Board Meeting, next month.

HUGHES: Fine

MASCARENAS: So, if anybody has interest and feels strongly about that, let us know. We have a couple of ideas of people that have been active in the past, at the Board level, but if it’s something that you feel strongly about and want to be a part of, please let us know.

HUGHES: The relationship is important and I just want to make sure that there is a representative and that that’s on the record and not lost.

The second uncomfortable question, we had in process of a sub-committee, asked, looking at how we get properties to the Land Bank. What is the status of that report from that subcommittee?

MASCARENAS: It was accepted, so the Board passed it at the Last Day of the Annual.

STANLEY: Last Day of the Annual Meeting it was passed and supported, but it was too late for this round of the auction.

MASCARENAS: Correct, so there are some things that we got to talk about. I think it’s probably better suited for the Low Income Task Force to look at how the Board wants to handle this in the future and make a recommendation.

HUGHES: Right

MASCARENAS: I think, to me, Hennepin is always going to be there. Something we’ve got to deal with. I believe that the Land Bank should probably bid on their own, but I am one person that has that belief, it should go to the auction. It avoids the Hennepin issue. It sets the rate. We don’t deal with excess by doing that, but I think that’s a topic that we’ve got to make a full recommendation, because what came out was a really nice piece, but still a little bit vague in terms you want to do and no prior Board can hold a future Board to obligation them something moving forward. So, I think we’ve got to figure that out and again, I know what my recommendation is, but there’s an awful lot of people in the room that are up to speed, necessarily on what we’ve talked about.

STANLEY: And I think this is a great conversation for the Housing Task Force.

HUGHES: Yup

THURSTON: I just had a question on the ADU grant program. I know there were a few towns that weren’t involved in the first round. Are they moving forward with getting those towns on?

JUSTICE-GREEN: So, we have submitted a request from the State to ask for those towns, who actually got letters in due diligence back to us. So, I probably should have an update in my next report. We submitted, I think the deadline to get all the letters of support back for Nikki, was about a week ago, so I should know within the next two or three weeks when HCR gets backs to us to accept that. HCR is doing that program and I actually when through our Government Affairs Committee through the State to kind of make a policy suggestion, most of my grants when I apply for them, I am allowed to apply for them countywide, just like CDBG. Where I don’t say, I am just going to work in Bloomingdale or I would just apply for Bloomingdale, I apply for the entire County and all the 18 towns within the County can equitably apply. For this, because of the litigiousness involved and getting an ADU approved by individual planning boards, they wanted each individual town and the consultation to have already happened and it’s an interesting partnership in which I have a great relationships and interface with all of you on a regular basis of the Board, but your Planning Boards don’t necessary know me, because most of my projects don’t need to go through planning board and most of our planning boards are volunteer and wonderful people, but the responsiveness level is varied by community. So, either I have you all as Supervisors coming to me for consultation and interest or I have your constituents just reaching out. So, at any rate, my hope is that this program will change in the future to allow us to more easily say, we serve all of Warren, Washington and Essex Counties, we want that to just be open, so it’s less intensive on our small town planning boards and governments to get those approvals through.

STANLEY: Any other questions?

O’BRYAN: I could walk across the street and see Ms. Green, I apologize, but as long as you’re here, how old is the Land Bank for Essex County?

JUSTICE-GREEN: The Land Bank will be 3-years old in May.

O’BRYAN: And how many parcels have we put through the system that today, have been turned over to new residents? Do you know that number?

JUSTICE-GREEN: Off the top of my head, we have done 6 full gut home rehabilitations in the three years, we’ve done 6 need based demolitions and lot clearings and then we’ve also placed 1, newly built, from the ground up homes. So that would be 9 homes in three years.

O’BRYAN: And how many homes do you project in the next couple of years? I mean, you’re growing, I know that.

JUSTICE-GREEN: So, in the next 12-months, I am supposed to do at least 17, according to this grant application. That’s not including the 2, or 1 of the homes in Jay that we may rehab and Steve’s property in Minerva. But, the goal of the Land Bank, when Ken Hughes and Jim Monty and Mike and I started working on it, was originally 3-homes a year for the first five years. So, we’ve done a pretty good job at exceeding that. Most of that is due to the fact that we’ve had really robust funding and we’ve also kind of tried to make our model a bit more hybrid to allow for new construction and new development, which modular housing, which means that the time to place a modular home from the ground up, if I have the available land, is less, almost a 1/3^rd of the time required to do a gut rehab, like we’re doing here in Ti. So, we’re trying to do both.

O’BRYAN: As I look at it, Mr. Chairman, in communities like ours, where we’re trying to get along with other communities in our County, you know, housing is so critical at this point to attract outside businesses that want to come here. So, I applaud you for what you’re doing. I would hope that we can all share in this in time, but thank you for what you do for Ticonderoga.

STANLEY: And I would just like to add on the affordable housing is an issue and we have a task force for that, which is usually held once a quarter, after the Ways and Means Committee on the fourth Monday of the month. So, any other questions?

MASCARENAS: Yeah, if I could just add one point of clarification on that, too. Just so people understand. Those houses that Nicole is referring to are not all given to her by Essex County. There are a handful of different mechanisms, how the Land Bank can receive a home. You know, the general public thinks that it’s just us turning over properties and that sometime will build a level of controversy in your community. I am going to say that maybe it’s half. You have gotten them from banks.

JUSTICE-GREEN: 2/3rds are coming from the County or towns, because some towns have donated. Like the Town of Ticonderoga had vacant land that they donated and then a 1/3^rd, right now, are private donations. I have only gotten two, so far. It’s a great tooling mechanism and even Ken and I worked on, well I will say, Ken, worked on sending letters to some of the more blighted properties in his communities in conjunction with his Code Enforcement Officer to kind of encourage them, that if this is too much for you, clearly, like you’re not keeping up this property, you can donate this property to the Land Bank. There is a like a tax incentive for them before going through the process of the actually having the County foreclose on the property. So, a lot of those are in the pre-foreclosure pipeline essentially. So, I mean, that is like a communication, marketing mechanism that we can move towards. We have established this relationship with Trail North Federal Credit Union, so that was really wonderful. So, a lot of my colleagues across the State actually receive bank foreclosures from their various financial institutions. So, you know we look at acquisition in a lot of different ways. To Supervisor Hughes, point about how we acquire property in that policy, I would say, just as like a closing note. I actually agree that the clearer and more linear process for the Land Bank and to minimize our administrative work, and also to be better bang for our buck, so to speak, is to also go to auction, unless there is a property within your towns that is especially blighted and you really, really want to make sure that the Land Bank gets ahold of it, so we can take it down for you and so those are the conversations I really look forward to, as we adopt this new policy, get the new Board to kind of erect those kinds of procedures, as we kind of go into the new fiscal year. And as for representation on our Board, I would love to see, we love new blood, we only meet four times a year, we have informal meetings between that time, but I also really love some of the Supervisors who we are going work, currently in your towns to consider service and that’s really important, because, just to use Mark Lamphear, as an example, Supervisor DeLoria, served on our Board for a number of years, until his health deteriorated, but that relationship helped us move that project forward. It was a true, deep, partnership, almost a working Board member relationship.

STANLEY: And I hate to cut the conversation short, but we do need to temporarily adjourn this meeting. We have an 11:00 Public Hearing that we need to start, so we will temporarily adjourn the Economic Development Committee meeting. Could I have a motion to temporarily adjourn? First by Mr. Tyler, second by Mr. Wilson, all in favor? Opposed? We are temporarily adjourned.

THIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING WAS TEMPORARILY ADJOURNED AT 11:00 AM TO HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING.

THIS MEETING WAS RECONVENED AT 11:04 AM.

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The next item was Adirondack Roots with Caitlyn Wargo reporting as follows:

AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY COMMITTEE, IT WAS ADJOURNED AT 11: AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Dina Garvey, Deputy

Clerk of the Board