by Kieron Kramer
At its regular meeting on March 11, the Rensselaer County Legislature passed a resolution that will break the deadlock at the former WCW, Inc. property at 1 Mechanic Street in Hoosick Falls. In February of 2011 the County commenced an in rem tax proceeding against the property, owned by JW Realty and then transferred to Four J’s One Mechanic Street, LLC, for property tax delinquency in the amount of $1,213,000 owed the Village of Hoosick Falls. [private]Five years after purchasing two parcels on Mechanic Street in 2006, and owing a tax obligation for those years to the Village for one of the parcels, WCW moved its mattress manufacturing business to Manchester, Vermont, in 2011.
The resolution, which authorizes a purchase offer and an eminent domain proceeding, will resolve the boundary line that separates the two parcels that made up the WCW compound at that location. One parcel, on which the Oak Mitsui Company has rented the building and wishes to buy, has no tax lien. Oak Mitsui has indicated its willingness to purchase the 15.02 acres of property if the boundary line is clarified.
The title of the other parcel, on which the WCW factory was located, was accepted by resolution by the County on July 10, 2012, in lieu of the in rem tax foreclosure.
The resolution of Tuesday, March 11, 2014, refers to a third parcel made up of the boundary line that separates these two parcels and which “substantially encroaches into the building owned by the County and the parking lots, loading docks and loading areas designed and developed to serve that building.” The resolution says, “The ownership by the County of the entirety of the building, parking lots, loading docks and loading areas is necessary to redevelop the commercial neighborhood and to return same to private ownership.”
The County obtained an appraisal of that third parcel stating its value to be $90,000. The passage of this resolution gives the County Executive legislative authorization to obtain fee ownership of that abutting parcel either through the purchase of the parcel from the present owner, Four J’s One Mechanic Street, LLC or through the commencement and prosecution of an eminent domain proceeding. No matter how the parcel is transferred to the County, the result will be that Oak Mitsui will feel free to purchase the parcel on which it is located and the County will be free to find a developer for the former WCW factory on the other parcel. The $90,000 will come out of the County’s contingency fund.
HFCS District Loses Tax Revenue
A resolution correcting tax assessments for three parcels in the Town of Hoosick and one parcel in the Town of Petersburgh passed at this session. According to Stan Brownell these assessments were school taxes set by the HFCS District. The resolution authorizes the Rensselaer County Chief Fiscal Officer to make corrections and chargebacks in the appropriate amounts to the appropriate taxing jurisdictions. All four parcels are owned by the State. One parcel, located in Hoosick, was assessed at $16,000.57. The corrected assessment is $3,134.77. A second parcel located in Hoosick, assessed at $1,041, will generate $203.95 in taxes; a third parcel originally taxed at $66.21 is now assessed at $22.47. The tax for the Petersburgh parcel was $9,794.91; the corrected amount is $2,390.55. In total this represents a loss of tax revenue to the School District in the amount of $21,150.95.
Petersburgh Tax Roll Corrected
Based upon the recommendation of the Director of the Bureau of Tax Services, a parcel in Petersburgh owned by David Hewitt has been found to contain an error that is “correctable and/or refundable.” A resolution was passed unanimously authorizing the Rensselaer County Chief Fiscal Officer to correct the 2014 Town of Petersburgh Tax Roll by reducing the original assessment of $9,436.65 to $ 6,357.11.
Review Of Agricultural District #1
A resolution authorizing the review period for Agricultural District #1, which includes portions of the Towns of Berlin, Hoosick, Nassau, Petersburgh and Stephentown, was passed at this session. The resolution says, “Owners of certain land in the First Agricultural District area…did submit to the Rensselaer County Legislature a proposal to create an agricultural district within the specified areas of said Towns…said proposal was filed with the Rensselaer County Legislature on January 8, 1974, and the appropriate procedures were thereafter followed which led to a certification of the creation of said district…The ‘Notice of Review’ has been duly received from the State of New York, Department of Agriculture and Markets and that pursuant to said Law the procedure for the necessary review of the Rensselaer County Agricultural District #1 is required to be commenced.” The Agricultural District is generally located in the Towns of Berlin, Hoosick, Nassau, Petersburgh, and Stephentown, and the review will be filed with the office of the Rensselaer County Clerk for 30 days. Reviews of agricultural districts are requested by the State of New York, Department of Agriculture and Markets every eight years.
Soil & Water Conservation Board Appointment
The Legislature appointed members to the Rensselaer County Soil And Water Conservation Board. Omer Brenenstuhl of Hoosick was appointed Grange Representative to the Board for a term to expire on December 31, 2016.
Truck Engine Replacement
The County Highway Department’s 1988 International medium duty truck needs to have its engine replaced. Delurey Sales and Service of North Hoosick is the vendor on County contract for International truck parts and is the source for the replacement engine, according to the resolution that authorized the engine replacement. The overall cost for the factory rebuilt engine replacement is $6,977 less a credit of $1,277, resulting in a net cost of $5,700.
State Of The County
Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino delivered her annual State of the County address at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, March 11, before the presentation period. The main theme, which has been a consistent feature of Jimino’s address for many years, is that the County is suffering fiscal hardship created by unfunded State mandates, the main one being Medicaid, and yet, because of its resourcefulness and the volunteerism of County residents, the County is still able to maintain its level of services. “There can be no denying that our long standing policy of sharing services has combined with our strong dedication to community sensitive job development to form the major reasons that we remain solvent and productive despite the continual State practice of shifting funding responsibilities to the County…the fact remains that in any given year we spend 89 to 91 cents per local tax dollar on mandated programs.”
The fiscal picture is looking brighter, however. The mandated increase in Medicaid this year is only 1%, quite a bit lower than in the past, and a number of job creating projects have been undertaken in the County. The latest is the sale by the County of the former Fort Orange Paper Plant in Castleton to Castleton Paperboard LLC, an affiliate of MiniMill Technologies, for $600,000. According to a County news release, Fort Orange has been closed for more than 15 years, when the owner essentially abandoned the property. Castleton LLC is planning a $250 million state of the art recycling facility that will manufacture recycled products. Once fully operational the facility is expected to employ between 70 and 80 people with between 300 and 400 construction jobs needed to complete the facility. While the property has been partially remediated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) significant clean up will be undertaken by Castleton Paperboard LLC to bring the site up to Department of Environmental Conservation standards. “This is exciting news that a property which was abandoned, off the tax rolls and environmentally damaged can once again become a clean, productive place of employment that will be adding vitality back to the community. It is also worth noting that this project involved initial clean-up from EPA and additional brownfield credits from New York State, demonstrating the success that can come from multiple levels of government bringing resources to bear to troubled properties,” said Jimino in the release.
Blood On Our Hands
Because of the two truck accidents on Route 7 near the Tibbitts Forest in Hoosick in the week before this meeting, Legislator Stan Brownell requested the Privilege of the Floor before adjournment to comment on the dangerous stretch of Route 7 from the Bennington Battlefield Motel to the intersection of Route 7 and 22. He reminded the Legislature that they had filed “numerous” resolutions requesting the NYS DOT to redress the road conditions there and that the numerous accidents, two quite dangerous to the area with one causing an evacuation, have been “in the media.” “What else can be done? This is a dangerous situation; a family will be killed there,” Brownell said. “We don’t want blood on our hands,” Legislator Lester Goodermote added after the meeting.[/private]