News & Opinion About Huletts Landing, N.Y.
The minutes from the October 2015 Dresden Town Board meeting have been posted.
The November minutes will not be approved until December and so on.
Please Note: Assemblyman Dan Stec will be at the next Dresden Board meeting on December 14th at 7:00 p.m. to speak and take any questions. It would be great to see a full house!
Please know that the November 3rd General Election is fast approaching. Here is how to obtain an absentee ballot if you are registered to vote in NY state.
How to Vote by Absentee Ballot
Applications for Absentee Ballots are available at the county board of elections.
You may also download a PDF version of the New York State Absentee Ballot Application Form.
Upon completion, applications must be mailed and postmarked to your county board no later than the seventh day before the election (October 27th) or delivered in person no later than the day before the election.
You may also request an Absentee Ballot by sending a letter to your county board of elections. The letter must be received by your county board no earlier than 30 days and no later than seven days before the election. The letter must contain the following information:
the address where you are registered
an address where the ballot is to be sent
the reason for the request, and
the signature of the voter
An application form will be mailed with your ballot. The application form must be completed and returned with your ballot.
Washington County Board of Elections
383 Broadway
Fort Edward, NY 12828
Phone: 518-746-2180
Fax: 518-746-2179
Water chestnuts growing along the side of Lake Champlain near the South Bay boat launch.(Click picture to see full-scale.)
With September drawing to a close, Dresden has completed another year of removing the invasive water chestnut plant from the South Bay of Lake Champlain.
Dresden is reimbursed up to a total of $80,000 by the Department of Environmental Conservation for removing the pesky weed from the shoreline of Lake Champlain. The big red floating harvesters can be seen throughout the summer removing the weeds from the lake.
The water chestnut creates tangled dense webs of almost impenetrable floating leaves that can snarl boat propellers.
After cutting and harvesting, the weeds are brought ashore and removed by the dump truck.
The area in front of the South Bay boat launch is now clear after the 2015 harvesting.(Click picture to see full-scale.)
The minutes from the August 2015 Dresden Town Board meeting have been posted.
The September minutes will not be approved until October and so on.
The minutes from the July 2015 Dresden Town Board meeting have been posted.
The August minutes will not be approved until September and so on.
According to a letter posted on the Whitehall School District website, two teachers have been placed on paid administrative leave.
The Lake George Park Commission is conducting a Recreation Study during the summer of 2015. The Town of Dresden has posted the LGPC’s flyer about this on their website.
The LGPC is looking for people on the lake who want to share their recreational experience. They will be able to use their Smart phone to instantly take the survey or they can go to the Park Commission website.
The Commission is seeking all visitors and those who do not have to register their boats – kayakers, sailboats, parasailers, rental boaters, etc. to fill out a survey.
Those with registered docks and boats will get their survey via email in August.
The Champlain Canal as seen from Whitehall.
Submissions of pictures for the 10th annual Erie Canal Photo Contest will be accepted until August 28th. Winning entries will be featured in the 2016 Erie Canal calendar.
Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit photos in four different categories: On the Water, Along the Trail, Canal Communities, and Classic Canal.
Images must be from the National Heritage Corridor, which is comprised of the Cayuga-Seneca, Champlain (which runs through Whitehall), Erie and Oswego Canals.
Official rules can be found at: http://www.eriecanalway.org/get-involved_photo-contest.htm
The New York State Department of Education has invalidated all of the assessments from both the 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) Examination at the Whitehall Central School.
Read the Superintendent’s letter posted on the Whitehall School District’s website.
What a mess.
New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora is approximately 120 miles from Huletts Landing.
Since the prison escape of two convicted murderers from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, I have read a few articles as identifying the prison as being in upstate, New York. While it is, it is nowhere near Huletts.
The facility opened in 1865 and is closer to the border with Canada than it is to us.
While these escapees will hopefully be captured soon, Dannemora is separated by the Adirondacks mountains from Huletts Landing. The above picture shows how close the facility is to local streets. Evidently, the convicts tunneled under the wall and came up through a manhole cover on a side street.
The New York State Department of Education is investigating issues revolving around Common Core testing in some lower grades at the Whitehall Central school. While I don’t have much information on this, the next Whitehall Board of Education meeting will be held on June 15th and more information may become known then.
Late last month, the Washington County Board of Supervisors voted to change the allocation of sales tax revenue to towns in the county.
New York state allocates a portion of sales tax revenue collected in a county back to that county. Counties are free to allocate those funds to individual towns as they see fit.
Under Washington County’s previous policy, the county distributed $1 million dollars to the towns in the county using a formula based on assessed valuation and population.
Last month, the supervisors voted to allocate 7 percent of all total sales tax revenue to the towns. After 2016, the county is no longer guaranteeing $1 million to be split among the towns, just whatever 7 percent is. This could mean more total dollars to Dresden or less, depending on how much sales tax is raised.
In an effort to learn more about this issue, Dresden Supervisor George Gang, explained what the rational of this change was and how he voted.
After a study of other counties throughout the state it was found that Washington County was on the very low end of sales tax distributions to its towns. Some counties were distributing as much as 25 percent. The formula for distribution of the $1 million is based on two factors; 1) town population (50%) and 2) assessed value (50%). Dresden does well on the assessed value portion and poorly on the population portion.
Dresden currently receives approximately $34,000 per year in four installments. In the future distribution this will be 7 percent of the total of all sales tax receipts, using the above 50/50 formula, which means the $1 million is no longer guaranteed.
Receipts have been trending upwards in Washington County even though they have been trending down in the rest of the State. If we were to get the 7 percent distribution this year, Dresden would have received an extra $12,500. Of course, if county receipts go down, we could receive under the $34,000 that we are now guaranteed.
Three towns in Washington County currently pay approximately 25 percent of the total county taxes. (Putnam, Dresden and Fort Ann) This is mostly due to our assessed values. Supervisor Gang voted against the change in distribution because now that the county will be paying out a higher percentage of receipts to the towns, the county will have to find those lost monies from somewhere else. Supervisor Gang’s reasoning is that this will mean that the lost funds to the county will be “made up” from county taxpayers or from fund balances.
The three Towns noted above will end up paying for the largest part of that increase, thus subsidizing the other fourteen towns in the county who would make out very well. If Supervisor Gang had his druthers, he would love the formula to be based solely on assessed values, in which case Dresden would get back a fairer share of the taxes we pay into the county. However, this would never be approved by those other fourteen towns.
To conclude, it always benefits Dresden residents to shop in Washington County. Instead of buying groceries in Glens Falls or Vermont think about buying your groceries in Fort Edward or Kingsbury. (Or for that matter, anywhere in Washington County). Buying a new car? Make sure you get it in Washington County!
Great event in Ticonderoga today launching the "Rails to Wheels" partnership between Amtrak and Fort Ticonderoga! pic.twitter.com/P5imFcABSA
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) May 22, 2015