Fact Finder vol. 3, issue No. 1, August 4, 2012

THE PORT HENRY FACT FINDER

Reporting the News and Needs of Port Henry and Vicinity

vol. 3, issue #1 August 4, 2012
This issue has been made possible by the generous support of the following:

The Beebe Family, Carmen De Paoli, Fred & Randi Collins, & North Cheever Yacht Club

 

CHAMP AND JOHNNY PODRES DAY IS THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 4TH!

HOPING EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL DAY!

 

Please note, above, the volume and issue number of this paper - volume 3, issue #1! Yes, this issue begins the third year of the Fact Finder's being published! Every two weeks, always on time, thanks to many peoples' help and encouragement!

Following is a reprint of the Fact Finder issue published closest to a year ago. It is interesting to recall what was happening one year ago and discover how much still has relevance and what has been forgotten.
THE PORT HENRY FACT FINDER

Reporting the News and Needs of Port Henry and Vicinity

ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

vol. 1, issue #26 July 23, 2011

"Anniversary Issue" - to be able to add that to the masthead brought a moment of real pride and, truthfully, more than a bit of surprised glee, the "he, he, he I did it" kind! Next issue begins Volume II of The Port Henry Fact Finder, still on its original mission to prove, with facts, to more and more villagers that Port Henry has much to be proud of, to save and to share with the wider world. Also, the Fact Finder needs to thank all who have participated in the creating of this newspaper, without whom there would be no Fact Finder. To each business and each person who allowed me the privilege of an interview, to each contributor of articles filled with their special knowledge, and, of course, to each and every reader, a year's worth of "Thank You!"

OF SPECIAL NOTE

Joseph P. Carrara & Sons, Inc. of Crown Point (gravel, stones, sand and such) have donated two beautiful concrete benches for the Port Henry Pier and two more are in the works! What better to go with benches for sitting and viewing than picnic tables for sitting, viewing andeating? Mountain Lakes Services has provided just that, two long-lasting cedar picnic tables!Thank you, thank you from Port Henry and everyone who will be enjoying these perfect gifts.

Ah, yes, The Arch! Our Arch! At last a complete arch! As I drove by this past Monday, the middle two completing pieces of the arch, one for each side, were being lowered into place. As you look at it, one tends to just accept its size, until you realize those little dot-like figures, moving here and there over it, are full grown men, then you sense its real size I certainly was not the only interested observer. This has become a Port Henry must-visit place. On a return visit this Thursday afternoon, I found the false work still in place and that has to come down before the "the barge bit" can begin. The exact day of departure is still not known, but it seems, the way the workers are working, it will be sooner than later.

Yes, Virginia, there is breakfast to be had in Port Henry! The Dockside Café at Van Slooten Harbor opens at 8:00 an and has a very large and varied breakfast menu, in fact they will serve you breakfast anytime they are open, which is every day of the week from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, except Fridays and Saturdays when they stay open until 7 pm. Also, worth noting, on Saturdays from 4-7 they offer a "rotating dinner." This Saturday the dinner is Shrimp over Pesto Linguini or, if you prefer, Lasagna. A special note to this special note: the dining area is air-conditioned by a "stiff breeze off the lake" along with a view to make you forget to eat.

With these days of heat, wind and sun, this advise from Jackie, our gardening guru, has become "Of Special Note" importance. Plants in pots may need to be watered as frequently as every other day. When do you know it is time to water? When the soil dries out, that is the time to water! If plants begin to wilt, that is the time to water! Water thoroughly, the soil should be wet at least 1" below the surface.

For plants in the garden, water deeply, water should penetrate from 1" to 2". Plants need this to become well established. Raised-bed plantings need to be watered more often than those which have been planted directly into the soil. However, warning, too much water can be deadly. More plants are killed by over-watering than under-watering. Just listen to your plants - they will "tell" you when they are thirsty!

On August 6th, at 6 pm, The Port Henry Fire Department Auxiliary will hold a 50/50 benefit raffle at the Fire House for Chastity O'Connor who is battling leukemia. Tickets may be bought at George's Restaurant, Rita Collin's Motel, The Old Mine Bar, Frank's Knotty Pine and from any Auxiliary member.

NOTES ON THE EDGe

The Wednesday 20th EDGe Committee meeting was held at the Town Beach Pavilion bringing good news concerning several of their on-going projects. Pat Salerno will be rebuilding the Port Henry traffic circle with field stone and used brick and, most wonderfully, enhancing it with electricity and water! The Web Site is progressing very nicely and the Trail project is being marked now but work on the making of the trails must wait until the Fall when the masking summer leaves have gone. Johnny Podres/Champ Day will be celebrated August 6, 10am-4pm on Main Street, Port Henry! Bravo! EDGe, and thanks for all your energy and work!

SHOWCASED BUSINESS

In two previous issues, #'s 16 and 19, Fact Finder began showcasing the different departments of the business called Port Henry Village. Summer highlights the Village Campgrounds (listed on official maps as "Municipal Beach"), one of the Villages most appealing properties and a welcome and dependable source of revenue - unless nature interferes. The flood affected all of us in some way or another, some much more than others and the Village would have been one of the worst hit had they not been able to open the Campground this season. A combination of good fortune (the lake receding, slower than hoped but faster than expected) and extraordinary hard work (particularly on the part of our DPW crew) made a nip-and-tuck July 4th weekend opening possible. The Campground seems little the worse for its recent watery trials. Maybe there is a bit less grass around and a bit less beach at the moment, but I doubt the campers notice these small imperfections; they are so happy just to be camping in their campground, even if a month late.

Interviewing some of the campers gave me a real understanding and feeling of the campground. I had always thought of it as the beach because that's how I used it. It becomes something totally different as you sit quietly talking with first one camping family group and then another. It is not just a vacation, it is their other life in this other place where they so enjoy being. Some have been coming back for thirty and forty years, each summer, mostly on weekends. It becomes a tradition, a family and friends get-together place, a place to sink into the relaxation of doing exactly-what-you-want-to-do-when-you-want-to-do-it. The campers adjust to and join in the unhurried bustle of fishing (off boats, off the pier, in Mill Brook, any and everyway); cooking most meals outdoors; visiting Boyea's, sometimes for food but most often for ice cream; swimming and sunning; watching children, but mostly just experiencing the moments of camping.

Other than the above mentioned, what lures people back, year after year? It is well run! The manager is on call, at the camp site, 24/7. Now in her seventh year as manager, Marge Sequin truly understands campers. She herself has been a permanent camper for the past eleven years. When she and her husband retired, they gave their house to their son for a year while they shook off the dust of Clifton Park and permanency; but with the understanding that after a year of camper-roaming they would return and reclaim their home. That just never happened. They became permanent campers, sharing their time between Port Henry (where they had been summer campers since 1972) and their vacation campground in Leesburg, Florida.

This year the Campground offers its usual amenities, a clean beach with designated, lifeguard-protected lake swimming area; a nicely equipped playground; a basketball court; 2 washers and 2 dryers, reasonably priced at $3.00 for a wash and dry; a free "dump" station for the campers or, for a fee, a "pumper" service. Besides bathrooms and showers in the Beach House, there are showers (two for men, two for women) at the south end of the campground and four bathrooms located throughout the grounds. Marge saw a need and, as a courtesy, sells worms and ice, also garbage stickers @ $2.00 just so the campers don't have to go up that hill to the Village Hall. And, as a special this year - courtesy of the flood - all new electrical equipment including new meters.

Marge is interesting in that she has become a permanent camper, but eighty-four year old Marie Myers (camp site #1) should be given a plaque, by someone, designating her as having been a continuous camper at these campgrounds for the most years. This is her 66th year! With only one hiatus, when they had to camp at Ti, because these grounds were closed for renovation.

July 2, 1945, she and her new husband spent their honeymoon in a tent a hundred or so yards back in the woods from where her camper is parked this season. She remembers tall poles, 50 or 60 feet apart with an electric light attached to each; two bathrooms - one for women and one for men; and there were facilities in the beach house which was there at thattime. In total there were about 50 campers vying with the Parker Bros., Inc. Sea Plane business (a CCC project) for use of the beach. Campers were at the north end of the beach, Parker Bros. were at the south end and planes took off and landed between.

Marie's family camped lakeside for 43 years of the 66. Her husband was an avid fisherman and remained so until 2008, when he became ill while camping, was taken home and died soon after.

Their family came up for the whole summer. She and the children stayed, while her husband commuted for the weekends. She cooked on a little gas stove. As a baby, her oldest child slept in a drawer. They camped in a tent until 1977 when they bought their first camper, a Fleet Wing. She remembers the old Power House being used as a boat house where boats could be rented. So many of her family memories are connected to this campground, as are so many other long time seasonal campers. This is what makes this a special place, a must-come-back-to place. It is campers' memories lovingly haunting their campground.

Building a Future by Saving the Past:
Finding New Life for Henry's Garage
by Frank Martin
Built with a steel structural frame and solid concrete-iron tailings blocks, Henry's Garage just turned 100 years old. Having survived a century of North Country winters, rainstorms, earthquakes, and only necessary maintenance, the place looks pretty good for its age. The question is, whether Henry's will still be a working building in another twenty years—or whether it will be here at all.

This unusual building is most likely eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. It is a very unique example of an early auto garage/livery stable combination. This building may even have national significance because of its association with the mining industry, RPI, and its relative rarity.

Indeed, for sheer rarity and historic associations, Henry's Garage may be one of the most important buildings in the Town of Moriah. Yet, no matter how historic, the greatest threat to old buildings is to sit empty. Fires can occur through vandalism (as happened with the Port Henry High School), wood can rot, and liability insurance can be very high.

Historic Preservation is an economic act. Like any commercial real estate investment, there are long-term investment needs, financing strategies, and revenue projections. The need of the Port Henry Fire Department for larger clear-span spaces for newer and larger equipment has brought the question of Henry's Garage's future into the forefront of considerations and in these economic times, funding for such a new facility may be difficult. However, in the long-term, a fire department move may happen. To save a building like Henry's Garage, thought should be given as to how it can be re-used.

Whether or not we agree that Henry's is an attractive building, it is a large and very flexible-use one that could have tremendous economic and tax value for the village if it can be reused for housing, office space, education or something even totally different. In the Midwest many cities had enormous warehouses for storing farm implements that would eventually be shipped out to the plains. Like Henry's Garage, they were built for heavy equipment. As a child, I remember many of them slowly falling into disuse throughout the north side of downtown Minneapolis.

Today, 30,000 people live in downtown Minneapolis, many of them in the warehouses that could have easily been torn down in the urban renewal wave of the 1960s. Minneapolis's "Warehouse District" is also home to the city's most innovative advertising firms, architectural offices, and software start-ups. For many years, artists lived here too....until the rising rents forced them out. Much of the economic vitality and future of Minneapolis is happening in buildings that were once very much out of fashion. These buildings work so well today because they are usually cheaper to renovate than to construct a new one; the plus being they have character as well as scale.

Similar industrial building reuses are happening all over the country. In the early 1980s, many Hudson River towns - Beacon, Hudson, Cold Spring - were filled with empty storefronts and old industrial buildings. Today, these towns, just an hour or two north from New York City, are filled with new businesses and residents. Although Albany and Burlington are not New York City, Montreal is quite a metropolis and is only two hours away from Port Henry. Our challenge in Port Henry is to stabilize and maintain what we have - to discover its value through outsiders' eyes.

Port Henry's future will not likely be in manufacturing or mining or other natural resources. The entire national economy is shifting to service industries where the quality of life and neighborhoods often guide people's decisions about where to live and invest, and we are a scheduled stop on a direct Amtrak line from New York to Montreal. We sit on a hill above one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. From the now vacant Witherbee Mansion to the floors above our empty shops, we have the space to welcome newcomers. Unlike the famous "build-it-and-they-will-come" baseball field, we don't have to build it, we only have to save it.

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[ web note regarding the following item: all formatting (bold, italics) and most pargraph indenting that was present in the original printed version, is lost when transferring the text of "The Fact Finder" to this web page.  The printed page is clear as to which text is from Tim Garrison's earlier e-mail, and which text is Sandra Lovell's comments.  ]

 
July 18th Tim Garrison emailed the following article from NYSDOS as an FYI. I have finally found time to read it with proper attention. I did not read very far before I began debating with the statements being made and decided such a debate would make good grist for Fact Finder's mill. I have placed my opinions, in italics, immediately following the questioned statement.

Advantages of Sole Assessor (?)
Sharing Assessor Options
Many jurisdictions employ assessors who already work in one or more municipalities. More than 45 percent of the nearly 1000 towns and cities in New York State share an assessor.
More information on this subject follows.
Municipal Options for More Efficient Assessment Administration
2011 Report on Effectiveness of State Technical and Financial Assistance Programs for Assessment Administration
Change in Number of Assessing Jurisdictions and Number with Multi-Jurisdictional Assessors
One Person
Authority vested in one person instead of diffused by quorum decision of three-member elected board.
I have never been comfortable with only one person having full authority over anything other than their own self.
Focus on exactly who to see about assessments.
This seems a very strange and feeble selling point.
Consistent Approach to Assessing
One instead of three interpretations of:
Real Property Tax Law
Opinions of Legal Counsel
Rules for Real Property Tax Administration
Assessment procedures
Exemption criteria
Recent court decisions
Again, I would trust a more factual, less subjective understanding from three people rather than one. If one-person decision-making is better than multiple-person decision-making, why do we bother to have nine Supreme Court judges? Interesting that this isthree times the three assessors number.

Sole appointed assessor has a direct responsibility to the town board.
To whom are the three assessors responsible? Is it not the board also?
Longer Term of Office (six years rather than four years)
Six years might be a better term of service but only if there are three assessors. To be saddled with a "solo" understanding of the laws for six years would not necessarily be beneficial to property owners.

Time to become acquainted with and keep up with the Real Property Tax Law (constantly changing)

Time to become acquainted with all real estate in town
Time to become proficient at appraising all forms of real estate including the more difficult types
Time to complete the required basic course of training
Time to take continuing education courses
The above reasons seem very strange to me, as all of the above are qualifications which should be in place when one applies for the position, (except, possibly, the first), so that properties assessed at the beginning of six years will be as well assessed as those in later years.
Qualification and Continuing Education Requirements
Appointed assessors must meet minimum qualifications standards of education and experience, as described in the 9 NYCRR 188, section 188-2.2. Elected assessors, whether sole elected or members of a board of assessors, must meet age and residency requirements.
Members of elected boards of assessors must complete only a basic course of training. The continuing education program is not required. This may not be exactly the fact but if it is, the law should be changed to make their requirements consistent with the those of appointed assessors and remove the having-to-keep-the-electorate-happy problem. What about a "sole" elected assessor?
After earning basic certification, appointed assessors and sole elected assessors must complete an average of 12 credits of approved continuing education training each year.
All assessors must become recertified upon re-appointment or re-election to office by completed approved ethics training within a year of their re-appointment or re-election to office.
Professional Appointed Assessor
Appointed assessors have chosen his/her field as a career and are thereby a professional. For elected assessors, the position is often used as a stepping-stone to another office - meaning voters must be kept friendly. There would have to be more research to validate or invalidate this statement.
Elected assessors who must run every four years are not as insulated from political pressures as appointed assessors.
Whether appointed or elected, if the assessor (or assessors) reside in the area they have a better understanding of that real estate and how to apply the laws in the most beneficial and understanding way.

Increased Remuneration
Potential for increased remuneration for a sole assessor and therefore motivation to both take the job and to stay in office longer. No matter how well remunerated a sole assessor is, he can not be available 24/7 for any one of the municipalities under his care. He will have to budget his visits, and if you are not available on the day of his visit, whatever you wished to discuss with him may have to wait for his next visit.
Salary should be commensurate with time and effort spent. Absolutely, and this should be remembered for all who serve a municipality, particularly a village. Residents seem to expect full-time service for part-time paying positions.
More time could be spent on improving assessments. How on earth could that possibly be so, if the area you are assessing covers a much larger area and you are one person.
Control of Office and Field Time Simplified.
Overall Savings to Town
More efficient for:
Mileage How could this be if one assessor is serving more than one municipality?
Training Yes, more training would be necessary for three people rather than one.
Administration And another "yes" and probably a savings to the State.
More towns have opted for "sole" advantage:
the majority of NYS municipalities have a single assessor. This may or may not be a fact.
every year, the number of towns opting for "sole" increases and lemmings follow a leader over a cliff and die.
Opting for sole assessor would reduce assessor turnover. Since 1989, the statewide turnover rate for elected assessors is 40% greater than for appointed assessors. How does this have anything to do with why a municipality would choose one assessor over three? It probably benefit's the State.
Better Assessing Practices and More Equity
Fair share of tax burden. Tax burdens are supposed to be as fair as possible, there is even a formula for State equalization of property taxes and it is done once a year. Why would having a sole assessor make any difference?
Impact on State aid formulas and thus distribution of aid. This is probably quite true and one of the ways in which the State could save money.

Relevant FYI:

A sole assessor would cost the Town of Moriah more than its three assessors which are budgeted at $8.95 per parcel. The rate of a sole assessor is $10. for each parcel assessed and Moriah has 3048 parcels. The real benefit of having three assessors
Warning: If the State promotes an idea, it most probably means it saves the Sate money, as in promoting village dissolution. Also, once a municipality chooses to have a sole assessor, that becomes its choice FOREVER!


Look for the next issue of the Fact Finder on Saturday, August 13th in its usual distribution places. 

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