Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
At the Aug. 27 Glens Falls Common Council meeting, Ward 3’s Diana Palmer stressed that the council should get more information before being asked to approve a bond measure for almost $4 million for the Market Square downtown revitalization project on South Street.
She indicated that Jeff Flagg, the city’s economic development director, had suggested at the previous council meeting that a resolution to approve such a bond would appear before the council at Tuesday’s meeting. The resolution was ultimately pulled from the agenda, however.
Dr. Palmer called at the meeting for postponing any decision on whether to go out for a bond until the Council has looked at the situation more carefully.
Before voting on a bond measure, Dr. Palmer wants to know how much grant money the city’s waiting for that could potentially reduce the bond amount, the details of the PILOT [Payment in Lieu of Taxes] agreement associated with the project, and the bond terms, interest rate, and type of bond.
She also asked to know how the city plans to budget to repay the bond, the plan for covering the ongoing costs of the new facility, and the plan for the ongoing maintenance of the market building.
“I’m hoping we can postpone any big decision that would put the city into debt for almost $4 million until we have a chance to get those questions answered and maybe look carefully at our budget and see where we’re going to fit those expenses in,” she said.
“Right now I feel like there’s a lot of aspirational things, like we might get these grants, we’ll find some partnership, but nothing is concrete.”
“The DRI is supposed to be something that puts the city in a better place and I just don’t want it to create liabilities for us that we haven’t properly planned and budgeted for,” said the Councilwoman.
“I don’t want us to get into a situation like we had with the Civic Center, where we have a building we have to figure out how to unload so it’s not costing the city money.”
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