DAILY GAZETTE
March 9, 2004

FULTON COUNTY EDITION

Regulators seek to balance budget

By JOE MAHER Gazette Reporter

JOHNSTOWN — Some $850,000 to $900,000 in surplus funds will be used to balance this year's Hudson River Black River Regulating District budget, Secretary-Treasurer George Scaringe said Monday.

Last June the district — which operates the Great Sacandaga Lake as a flood control reservoir — approved a $17 million, threeyear budget plan.

But that plan, which called for a three-fold increase in access permit fees, has since been rescinded. The plan would have increased permit-fee revenue from about $500,000 to about $2 million per year.

While the district is supposed to operate on a three-year budget cycle this year, they had to revisit the budget because of the failed fee increase.

Scaringe said officials have clamped down on unnecessary spending and tapped a $1.2 million surplus fund to balance the books for this year.

"You run lean," he said.

The district could reassess the amount it charges downstream beneficiaries, Hudson River municipalities that benefit from the flood-control protection afforded by the Great Sacandaga Lake, he said.

"We've got to take a look at it in a couple of weeks" as the board puts together a new budget, Scaringe said.

The plan is to present a new draft budget at its April 5 meeting, discuss any changes May 10 and adopt a new document June 14, Scaringe said.

About two dozen people attended the district's board meeting Monday at the Moose Lodge as officials discussed a number of ongoing issues, including an examination of the district's books by the state comptroller's office. HRBRRD Executive Director Richard Lefebvre said staff from that office has set up shop at the district's Albany office.

He said the auditors will look at three areas: accounting, budgeting and governance.

THE RECORDER
Amsterdam, NY
March 9, 2004

Lake regulators address budget hole

By CRAIG CLARK

JOHNSTOWN - The Hudson River-Black River Regulating District should have a draft budget ready by early next month that will address the "tremendous hole" that was created when the board of directors late last year canned the proposal to drastically increase the fees for permit holders on the Great Sacandaga Lake, officials said Monday.

Following a widely protested proposal to increase the price of access permits by as much as 1,000 percent, the board of the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District last fall voted to freeze this year's prices for access permits on the Sacandaga at last year's levels.

While the decision was celebrated by permit holders on the lake, the move left a hole in the district's recently adopted three-year budget, which had anticipated drawing $2 million a year in permit fees. Freezing the fees meant the district would only realize around $400,000 a year in permit revenue, leaving the district with a $1.6 million hole.

For 2003-04, district officials made some cuts and were left with a budget gap of around $850,000 which the district plugged using fund balance.

"Of which we have no way of recovering," George Scaringe, secretary-treasurer of the regulating district, said Monday.

Plugging this year's budget gap left the district with a general fund balance of around $265,000, he said.

"We are now in the final stage of developing the budget for this year and next year," Scaringe said.

Once the budget is presented to the board in April, it is scheduled to be discussed by the board in May and adopted in June.

District officials say they've held about a dozen budget meetings in the past few months and have a few more budget meetings planned before the draft budget is ready.

"We really looking at all aspects of the budget," Scaringe said.

For instance, he said, district officials have been looking at their estimates for future property taxes, which comprise around 50 percent of the district's budget, and they've scaled down the figures.

District officials didn't offer any other specifics as to how the budget gaps were to be filled.

In the past, district officials have said increasing the assessments paid by the downstream beneficiaries would be one option.

Downstream beneficiaries, such as the city of Albany, which for 2003 paid around $74,570 to the district for flood protection, pay the district annual assessments.

According to the latest assessment statement, the downstream beneficiaries for 2003 paid the regulating district $2.79 million. Those downstream beneficiaries include Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. and Erie Boulevard Hydropower, which have the regulating district in court looking for an assessment reduction and retroactive repayments. Those two power companies are monetarily the largest of the downstream beneficiaries.

Scaringe said any increases in assessments would need the approval of the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform.

The district also has handy a variety of suggestions for charging assessments to beneficiaries who are not being charged.

The suggestions are outlined in a reapportionment study performed by an independent consulting firm and released last August.

The study says benefits of increased real estate values for lake shore property and waste assimilation are significant enough to warrant further study before the district revises its assessment schedule.

The study also discusses lake recreation and whitewater recreation as other benefits that aren't being assessed.

District officials did not say that any suggestions made in the report are up for consideration.

"I think it's too early to say. I've got a lot of leg work to do before April," Richard Lefebvre, the district's executive director, said Monday.

LEADER-HERALD
Gloversville, NY
March 9, 2004

District agrees to speed up dock permits

By SCOTT DONNELLY, The Leader-Herald

JOHNSTOWN - Residents along the shores of the Great Sacandaga Lake will find it easier to make repairs to their docks and stairs once the damaging ice recedes this spring.

"I believe we can begin issuing expedited permits for dock repairs now," said Hudson River-Black River Regulating District Executive Director Richard Lefebvre during a meeting Monday at the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge 1185 building. "We're working toward the expedited permits for shoreline repair also."

The regulating district, among other duties, manages the flow of water from the Great Sacandaga Lake, created 75 years ago for flood control along the Hudson River. The district also manages the state-owned shoreline around the Sacandaga. Residents along the lake purchase exclusive rights to use shoreline each year, and each resident is allowed to add docks, stairways and make repairs to erosion-damaged state land as long as all required permits for the work are issued.

In the past, those permits could take weeks or months to be granted, delaying much-needed work. But Lefebvre and the district board introduced the expedited permits to give residents the ability to begin work as soon as 24 hours after calling the district for a permit. The new permits are also free, eliminating a fee of about $250 for many permits.

"We continue to work with the [state Department of Environmental Conservation] on the land improvement part of this, the part that will be of most concern to our stake holders [as spring arrives]," Lefebvre said. "We're working on a memorandum of understanding with the DEC, and we're hoping the DEC and this district working together can eliminate the need for residents to go [to multiple agencies] for the permits they need."

In the past, residents had to receive permission to do shoreline work from the district, the DEC and the Adirondack Park Association, in some cases. Once the expedited permit system is in place, the district will serve as one-stop shopping for those permits.

During the public comment period of the meeting, Peter VanAvery, a founding member of the Batchellerville Bridge Action Committee, once again took board members to task over water levels in the lake.

"For the first time in memory, every dock on the lake is entrapped in ice," VanAvery said. He blamed the district's failure to release more water from the reservoir in the fall and said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license under which the reservoir manages water releases is flawed.

"All that is necessary is to fine-tune the license," VanAvery said. "We understand that there will be times when the [water level] will exceed [prescribed levels], but these exceptions should be as few as possible and should be limited to 10 days."

Bob Foltan, the district's engineer, has said the primary reason for the Great Sacandaga Lake must be remembered when water is released. The reservoir was created for flood control for communities along the Hudson River, though hydroelectric power generators like Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. and Erie Boulevard benefit from the releases as well.

According to the district's Web site, as of this morning, the lake levels have decreased slightly since March 1, from 752 feet above sea level to 751.1 feet.

Members of the district board also decided Monday to look into conducting a survey of potentially historically significant land around the Great Sacandaga Lake. A study in some form is mandated by the FERC's cultural resource management division and the State Historic Preservation Office. During discussions Monday, the district board decided to explore conducting a "Phase IA" study of the entire shoreline at a cost of about $5,000.

If such a study is not conducted, any property owners along the lake shore would be required to conduct a study if they proposed any development, Lefebvre said.

By narrowing the scope of lands that are potentially historically and archaeologically significant, many lake shore residents will be able to sidestep paying for a study of their own.

"If we do [this study] as a district over the whole of the lake, we suspect 50 percent of the state lands would be cleared [of needing such surveys for future work]," he said. "If we don't do the study, then the state would have to assume there was a potential of some historic significance for all of the property."

The district's board of directors will next meet on April 5 at the Utica State Office Building in Utica.

THE RECORDER
Amsterdam, NY
March 10, 2004

Dock repair permit plan is OK'd

By CRAIG CLARK

JOHNSTOWN - Those needing to undertake dock repairs this season on the Great Sacandaga Lake should have an easier time getting the necessary work permit, officials with the reservoir's governing authority said this week.

The board of the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District on Monday gave the final go-ahead for the district to begin issuing expedited permits for dock repairs on the Great Sacandaga.

Officials hope the expedited dock repair permits to be just one of the changes that will be made to the way lake users obtain work permits on the lake.

Officials are still working on implementing an expedited process for other types of work besides dock repair, namely rip rapping, and plans are in the works for the district to begin issuing permits on behalf of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. In addition to implementing expedited processes district officials are also still talking about waiving the usual $250 fee associated with some the district's permits.

A fee for dock repair permits is not required and neither usually is permission from EnCon so the district Monday was able to move ahead expediting the dock process.

Officials say now all people will need to do to obtain a dock repair permit is to phone the district. For dock repairs, district officials say, a one day turnaround time is expected.

By fall, the district hopes, discussions with EnCon could be concluded and the district could begin issuing rip rapping permits in a similar fashion as the dock repair permits.

Rip rapping, the placing of large rocks on the shoreline to protect against erosion, is not usually done until the fall so the district has time.

Rip rapping does usually require the permission of EnCon and a $250 district fee. The district has been working with EnCon and for rip rapping permits in the future it's possible that all people will need to do is to call the district. Discussions have taken place and district staff is recommending the board waive the $250 fee for the permits once the expedited process is in place.

In other business Monday, the board began implementing some provisions of the cultural resource management plan that's required as part of the reservoir's federal operating license.

The board approved up to $5,000 to be spent for a historical survey around the lake.

The aim, under the plan, is to identify historically significant areas around the Sacandaga so consideration can be made before excavation or rip rapping work is done.

The district's chief engineer expects the historical survey to consist largely of literature analysis.

If a work permit is applied for in an area the survey has identified as historically sensitive then a more in-depth survey of the area would be required before a permit is issued for work that could potentially impact artifacts.

Consultants estimate that the more in-depth survey could run around $1,700. District officials have not yet discussed who would pay for the in-depth studies.

The plan for the historical surveys still needs the approval of the Federal Energy Regulating Commission, which issued the reservoir's operating license.