10/23/2003

DAILY GAZETTE
Schenectady, NY
October 23, 2003

Sacandaga Lake crowd blasts board
District scrapped plan to hike fees

By JOE MAHER Gazette Reporter

NORTHVILLE — A crowd of more than 800 people turned out Wednesday night to criticize on a variety of issues the state agency that regulates the Great Sacandaga Lake.

The crowd was drawn by a proposal — since withdrawn — to raise the fees for lake access permits by 500 percent to 1,000 percent or more.

Hudson River Black River Regulating District Executive Director Willard Loveless, of Northville, who was booed when he was introduced, said the goal of the district is to include the public in the process of developing a new three-year budget for the district and a new plan for access permit fees.

"Although we understand the public input is mostly going to be related to the previously withdrawn proposal, it is still very important to listen to the public before we complete and submit a new proposal," Loveless said.

"The process is working, obviously, it's working great," he added as he surveyed the overflow crowd at the Northville Central School auditorium.

Loveless said the new budget and fee schedule should be available before the board's December meeting.

Board Chairman Timothy Noonan said that more public meetings would be held before any new budget and fee schedule are approved.

Noonan started the session by telling the crowd that the district has already taken steps to cut spending and to reduce the access permit fee increases. But speaker after speaker criticized district officials for a perceived failure to communicate with its 4,550 permit-holders, the people who own property around the lake and pay a fee annually to gain access to the water.

David Berger said the actions of appointed district board members amount to taxation without representation.

"If these were elected positions, I don't think you'd get a vote in the house," he said as wild cheers erupted.

Joy Canfield of Broadalbin said the district has tried to disseminate budget information. But specific figures were unavailable, she said.

"If you provide us with clear and correct information you may not have so many people here," Canfield said.

Peter Biron of the Great Sacandaga Lake Association also chided the district board for releasing "confusing" information.

"The bottom line is, what does it cost to issue and regulate approximately 4,000 access permits? " Biron said.

He said the lake association favors the current system of the permit fees covering 80 percent of the cost of operating the system with the district writing off the other 20 percent in recognition of the work permit-holders do maintaining district property.

Biron called for a cost analysis of the permit system. He argued that analysis might suggest further fee reductions.

"We don't trust the regulating district's numbers," said Peter VanAvery, co-founder of the Batchellerville Bridge Action Committee. "We want the office of the state comptroller to inspect its budget."

VanAvery pointed out the contrast between hydropower companies, which were scheduled to receive a 10 percent bill reduction from the district, while permit holders were looking at staggering increases.

VanAvery also noted the district's new reapportionment study recommends another fee to lakefront property owners because the presence of the lake has increased the value of their property. VanAvery said any new fee would be in addition to property taxes and access permit fees currently paid.

"We need to defuse this time bomb right now," VanAvery said. "Accordingly, we demand that the regulating district affirm that access permit holders are not now nor will ever be taxed as beneficiaries of the lake."

VanAvery suggested that one way for property owners to eliminate district authority would be to make access permits permanent and transferable with the sale of the properties.

Gloversville Supervisor Anthony "Chart" Buanno said district engineers have previously repeated that lake recreation was a low priority for the district. The top three reasons the lake was built were for flood control, hydropower generation and to ensure adequate downstream levels.

Now, he said, the district wants to charge lake area residents and put them in the same category as the downstream beneficiaries.

"They've changed course a little bit," Buanno said.

THE RECORDER
Amsterdam, NY
October 23, 2003

Sacandaga residents rally against permit fee increase

By ELAINE GRANT

Recorder News Staff

NORTHVILLE - Hundreds of people packed the auditorium and halls of Northville Central School Wednesday in an effort to make themselves heard regarding Greater Sacandaga Lake permit fees. In many cases the fees, which had stayed at double digits since the 1960s jumped to thousands of dollars.

The Hudson River-Black River Regulating District, which controls the strip of land surrounding the lake which buffers against private property, sent a letter to lakeside residents last month saying that the district's expenses had increased due to local government taxes, litigation, liability insurance, health related costs, security, implementation of the Upper Hudson River settlement agreement and mandate costs created by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The board rescinded their new fee structure after the New York State Office of Regulatory Reform got involved. The New York State Office of Regulatory Reform was created in 1995 for the purpose of examining bureaucratic regulations.

The districts' second vice chairman, James Conkling, has indicated that the fees will still go up but probably not as dramatically and only after the district has held some public hearings.

The meeting got off to a rocky start even before the speakers started when angry landowners carried placards outside the school to protest the district's actions.

Although demonstrators were told they would have to leave the placards outdoors, one did make it into the balcony area proclaiming, "Sell the Bunker Hill Mansion."

The Hudson River-Black River Regulating district maintains what some speakers referred to as a "posh building" on the shores of the Sacandaga.

Board Chairman Timothy Noonan further alienated the crowd by telling them that if they could not find a seat in the auditorium, they would have to wait in the hall and leave an aisle through the hall way that could be accessed in case of an emergency. People took seats on stage but hundreds of people were forced to remain in the hall. The Fulton County Sheriffs Department and New York State Troopers were called to the building as the meeting progressed to maintain order outside the auditorium.

As Noonan began his introduction, there were repeated shouts from the crowd to move the board of directors up onto the stage so they could be seen.

The board ignored the requests until the public comment portion of the meeting when demands continued for them to move their seats onto the stage. They eventually complied.

Approximately 40 people signed up to comment on the fee changes.

Assemblywoman Theresa Sayward, who was the first from the public to speak, produced a stack of letters she had received regarding the increases.She said she hoped the suggestions the board would hear throughout the evening would be listened to.

Land owners complained that they were being taxed without representation since the board was appointed and not elected.

"This does not even take into account the taxes we already pay," one man said."To charge us an extra fee for actually being on the lake is totally ridiculous."

Land owner Lawrence Hogan told the board that they should reduce their budget.

"I'd have a lot of trouble going in to my boss and asking him for an increase of 1,000 percent," he said.

Gloversville 4th Ward Supervisor Anthony "Chart" Buanno said the permit fees are only supposed to pay for administration of the permits - not the other expenses.

"The current access fee schedule is fair and reasonable," he said.

"You people have to stand up and fight for your rights, damn it," he told the crowd.

Peter Byron, speaking for the Greater Sacandaga Lake Association, asked for a cost analysis of the permit system.

"Our membership awaits the information which we're sure you will provide," he told the board.

Peter Van Avery, cofounder of the Batchellerville Bridge Committee said he wants the state comptroller's office to review the budget. He questioned why the board wanted to cut charges to the Erie Energy Company which gets power from the lake, while making dramatic increases in the frontage fees. He demanded permanent access permits rather than the annual ones that are currently allowed. He said he also wants the permits transferable from one property owner to the next.

Joe Woods echoed Van Avery's requests and accused the board of trying to squeeze out the land owners so that only the wealthy can live there.

"Property owners must be protected from the whim, caprice and bad judgment that brings us here this evening," he said.

Annalisa Van Avery criticized the way the board composes its annual news letter.

"The annual newsletter is more of a public relations puff sheet than a realistic assessment,"she said. "Forget the annual newsletter and instead have an annual information session like this one."

She drew shouts of support and applause when she suggested that the session be held during the summer so seasonal residents can participate.

Other residents said the district had lost the public trust. Some called for the board's dissolution, calling them redundant since the Adirondack Park Agency really regulates the lake.

Marilyn Sargent pointed out that there are people living on the lake whose families lost everything when their properties were flooded to create it. "It makes me nuts to think that you people can control my very happiness by out -ricing me out of my home," she said.

"I've been here for 45 years," said another woman fighting back tears. "I'm not giving up my honeymoon cottage. It is unfair what you are trying to do."

"What if we all said, 'To hell with the permit. We're not paying,'" said John Staats. "What would they do? Close the lake?"

At the conclusion of the hearing, board chairman Timothy Foley said the public's comments "will be taken into consideration before we finalize any fee structure."

The next meeting of the board is 9 a.m. on Nov 3 at the district's field office on Bunker Hill Road in Northville.

LEADER-HERALD
Gloversville, NY
October 23, 2003

Public rips district for fee plan

By OMAR AQUIJE, The Leader-Herald

NORTHVILLE - More than 500 people filled the Northville Central School auditorium on Wednesday, but they weren't there for a school performance.

The immense turnout was for a public session hosted by the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District, where people addressed the Board of Directors with an onslaught of criticism for proposed permit fee increases and lack of information.

Originally, a fee proposal with a 500 percent to 1,000 percent increase to access permits along the Great Sacandaga Lake was released in September before being withdrawn a few weeks later.

Board President Timothy Noonan began the public comment meeting by describing the purpose of the permit system and explaining how the proposed fees were submitted prematurely without giving the effect any consideration.

"The proposal was then withdrawn," Noonan said which was followed by a wave of applause.

Noonan informed the audience of the elimination of a number of expenses from the regulating district's proposed fiscal year 2004-06 budget.

Executive Director Willard W. Loveless, who was greeted by boos from the audience when introduced, said it was important to listen to the public prior to completing and submitting the new proposal. Loveless said he is hopeful a new proposal would be available by December.

"The district has been working hand in hand, not only with the regulatory reform, but also with community leaders," Loveless said. "We've been identifying the expenses that are directly related to the permit system. The fee system proposal will be based only on expenses of the fee system budget. There will be no outside or additional fees related to the consumer."

Once the microphone was handed to the public, the regulating district took blow after blow from the audience. For more than three hours, public speakers criticized the district for choosing to increase fees for permit holders and not downstream beneficiaries.

Peter Byron, vice president of the Great Sacandaga Lake Association, said much of the information released by the regulating district confuses a simple issue for the permit holder, and that the district has been less than transparent in its public information campaign.

"We have seen three-year budget projections," Byron said. "We have seen a list of drastic increases in operating costs that includes liability insurance and town, village, county and school taxes. These are certainly increases in operating costs, but are they the operating costs for the permit system?"

Along with comments on the unfairness of the fee increases, some speakers took direct shots at the board members.

"If these were elected positions, I don't think you'd get a vote in the house," said David Berger, a resident of Mayfield.

Anthony C. Buanno, a supervisor from Gloversville's 4th Ward, commended the regulating district for withdrawing the original proposal fee, and then recommended it refrain from any proposal increase.

"The board should not be trying to shift the majority of the costs of operating the Conklingville Dam and the access permit system onto property owners around the lake," Buanno said.

Afterwards, he urged audience members to fight for their rights and not accept a fee increase. He then warned the audience by saying, "Look out property owners around the Sacandaga Lake. You are being targeted."

Prior to the meeting, people stood outside in the rain with protest signs.

The regulating district was intended to reveal a new permit fee after its Oct. 6 board meeting in Albany, but held back after receiving noticed from the Governor' Office of Regulatory Reform to wait for additional public comment.

Loveless said he was surprised by the turnout, but he had anticipated at least a couple of hundred people.

"I think we took exactly what we expected. The absolute displeasure of the public in regards of what the original proposal was," Loveless said.