DAILY GAZETTE
Schenectady, NY
September 16, 2003

Fee Plan Riles Sacandaga Residents

Proposal could hike costs by 1000%

By JOE MAHER Gazette Reporter

NORTHAMPTON - The Hudson River-Black River Regulating District is considering a proposal to increase access fees for Great Sacandaga Lake property owners to five or 10 times as much in some cases.

The manmade flood-control reservoir is managed by the regulating district. The district sells access permits annually to lakeside residents, the cost based on the amount of frontage they have.

The total fee for residents is the sum of a base fee and a frontage fee.

For example, the current fee for a 10-foot strip of lakefront is $43 - $35 for the base fee and $8 for the frontage fee. The proposed new fee would be $200 as the district seeks to increase the base fee to $100 and the frontage fee to $100 for that category.

For residents with 10.1 to 50 feet of lakefront, the total rises from $48 to $250; for 50.1 to 100 feet, from $56 to $400; for 100.1 to 200 feet from $72 to $700; and for 200.1 to 300, from $92 to $1,000.

The permits simply allow residents access to the lake via state land - regulating district land - along the shoreline.

If the district does increase the permit fees it will represent a change in philosophy regarding the costs of permits and the cost of running the permit system.

The district writes off 20 percent of permit system costs at present, according to the district handbook. The handbook, which is distributed to the 4,550 permit holders, states:

"Permit revenues recover 80 percent of the cost of the operation of the permit system," while the other 20 percent "is considered a reservoir maintenance expense in recognition of the work done by permit holders [on] their permit area."

The district's executive director, former Northampton town supervisor Willard Loveless, didn't return phone calls Monday. But lake-area residents and business owners were talking, and they were not happy.

"I went from $93 a year to $1,000 for 210 feet," said a 15-year lakeside resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The man said he has tried to bring the matter to the attention of other lake residents without much success since he first found out about it Thursday.

"It's very, very difficult because people don't know about it. Then people think you're lying. They can believe 20 percent, 30 percent, but not this, not 1,000 percent," he said.

That was exactly the reaction of 20-year resident Sally Kettler, who lives on Little Lake above the spillway in Northville.

"When I first heard about it, I said, 'This information is wrong, it just can't be,' " she said.

When Kettler realized it was, indeed, correct she became angry.

Kettler lives in a Northville development called Woodland Acres and is a member of the Woodland Acres Association, which maintains a beach on Little Lake. Membership is voluntary and costs $175 a year per family.

The annual fee covers liability insurance for the beach, the regulating district's permit fee, and local property taxes for the association's beach on Little Lake. If the homeowners association doesn't maintain the insurance, the permit and the property taxes, the land goes back to the original owner under the agreement.

And that may happen because the increase in permit fees will basically bankrupt the homeowners association, she said.

"I just want them to know that our little association beach is no longer going to be," Kettler said.

Commercial permit holders also pay a usage fee besides the base fee and frontage fee.

Luigi Lanzi, owner of Lanzi's on the Lake in Mayfield, called the increased fee proposal ridiculous.

"People don't mind if you get a 5 percent increase but when you do something drastic like that, even thinking and talking about it, it's ridiculous," he said.

"I pay $2,500 a year already," he added. "They're doing big increases without doing cuts, and they don't need all the staff they have. It's a state agency, and they're pretty fat. Instead of looking at fees, they should be looking at cuts."

Meanwhile, the new permit fee structure was a hot topic when the Great Sacandaga Lake Association conducted its annual meeting Saturday night.

The association's president, Dr. Willard Roth of Niskayuna, who has property on the lake in the town of Day, Saratoga County, said association officials had been warned of a fee increase by Loveless but never expected one of this magnitude.

"It's quite staggering. We did bring it up at the meeting. We didn't decide anything," he said.

The association's executive committee plans to discuss the group's next move.

"I don't want to speculate" as to what action the association may take, Roth added.

Personally, he said, he has more than 300 feet of frontage on North Shore Road in Day, and he believes his permit fee would increase from $112 to $1,500.

"We are not, obviously, jumping up and down for joy," he said.

The regulating district is empowered to adjust the fee schedule every three years, coinciding with the preparation and adoption of its own three-year budget.

The proposed access permit fee schedule is posted on the district's Website - www.hrbrrd.com - but there appears to be no information regarding when the district's board will entertain public comment or act on the proposal.

Residents said they were told the next meeting is Nov. 1 and will be held at the district's office in Watertown.