Село и город Саранак-Лейк создали рабочую группу для покупки бывшей казармы национальной гвардии

SARANAC LAKE — Saranac Lake and Harrietstown have formed a joint village-town task force to pursue the acquisition of the former Army National Guard armory on state Route 3. Trustee David Trudeau — who introduced the resolution creating the task force, which was adopted unanimously on Monday — was appointed to represent the village. He pitched the task force to the Harrietstown council at a meeting last month and Councilman Doug Haney volunteered to represent the town on the committee. Trudeau said they’ll add more members to the task force and will need to come up with a method to recruit. A portion of the armory is currently being licensed to the Saranac Lake Police Department for its headquarters. Another portion is being used by the Division of Military and Naval Affairs to store historic artifacts on rotation from its Saratoga museum. The armory has been discussed for potential use in the village’s much-debated public safety building plans. But the village and town are not seeking the property for a specific purpose yet. Fire department officials have said the armory is low on their list of potential headquarters, calling it a “Band-Aid” and a long-shot. The police chief has said he’d be happy to be in the armory for the rest of his career. The police are there through a license to use the building temporarily. This is different than a lease. At any point, the state could give them 30 days notice to leave. Trustee Sean Ryan recently brought up his concern that the police are not guaranteed to stay at the armory. Trudeau said he has a couple of ideas for acquiring the property, but he can’t say much before they indicate their intentions to the state. He said members of the task force will start to talk with the governor’s office and local state officials. In February, Mayor Kelly Brunette and Trustee Jeremy Evans, then a trustee and a councilman, respectively, wrote a report saying that the state’s plan once the building is no longer needed for storage is to close and dispose of it. They’re unsure of when this could happen, but when it does, the municipalities’ want to be there to try to take ownership of it. Earlier this year, the village also passed a resolution expressing its interest in acquiring the armory. For years, officials have said that since the armory is owned by the state, if the state stops using it, the land would likely revert to being classified as Forest Preserve, blocking its sale. If this is the case, it would take a lengthy constitutional amendment process to reclassify the land and allow the village to buy it. In 2016, the New York Army National Guard pulled its troops out of the armory after its unit merged with other units. At the time, the idea of the village buying the building and land was proposed. The thought of it being a police station or a YMCA was also discussed. Village and town officials have been investigating the possibility again. The state Department of Environmental Conservation makes the call on whether the land would be considered Forest Preserve or not. Mallach said the town will probably not get any information on it until after the gubernatorial election on Nov. 3. There’s the potential of the village annexing the property, which sits right on the village border. This would put the property into the village hamlet, the least restrictive land type in the Adirondack Park. Town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach said it would not pull the property out of the forest preserve, but it would possibly eliminate the need for a constitutional amendment to be passed to use the property. This would allow a transfer to happen much faster. The property is made of two parcels — the main 29.1-acre lot in Harrietstown where the building is and including land some of the town-owned Dewey Mountain Recreation Center’s ski trails are on, and a small 1.4-acre lot in Saranac Lake where the Dewey Mountain lodge and parking lot are. Both parcels are classified as hamlets, the least restrictive land classification in the Adirondack Park, where the APA encourages development. Harrietstown purchased the land from a private owner in 1956. The town gave the state the land in 1957 and the 20,784-square-foot building was constructed in 1962. To read more about the town-village report on the armory from February, go to tinyurl.com/kab6e23e.