Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer
Scott T. Earl, owner of Twin Bridges Waste & Recycling, withdrew the offer to purchase land in the Moreau Industrial Park.
Moreau Town Supervisor Todd Kusnierz told The Chronicle it’s “a loss for our community.”
Town minutes put the prospective sale price at “$725,000, almost 30% over appraised value.”
The deal was another flashpoint in a series of intra-Moreau conflicts.
Shortly after the initial news of the deal, Casella Waste announced it would acquire Twin Bridges.
Casella has agreements in place with the planned Saratoga Biochar facility, though it told The Chronicle that the acquisition had no connection to Biochar.
Nevertheless, it drew the ire of Moreau’s anti-Biochar coalition, who launched a petition to put the sale to a public vote.
The “Not Moreau” Facebook page declared, “Our petition drive and your 1,003 signatures got us all the right to make the decision ourselves if this land sale will happen.”
Mr. Kusnierz says, “I’m not viewing this as a victory for anyone. This is a loss for our community…” he said.
“The unfortunate part is that the town collectively loses an opportunity for a $12 million investment in our industrial park.
“If you don’t really have a commercial base, the downside is your residential ratepayers are basically left holding the bag to pay for the cost of government.
“That’s why I’m so committed to getting commercial growth to business expansions and relocations in our community.”
He said, “The unfortunate part is, a majority of our board is very much pro business. You can see that in the direction we’ve gone in the commercial corridor with sewer infrastructure, in our efforts to market the industrial park.
“But the problem is, if there becomes a perception out there by those that want investment in our community that that’s not the case, then we run the risk of businesses looking elsewhere.
“And I’ve worked very hard to make Moreau business friendly.”
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