Supervisors in Fulton and Montgomery counties are looking to hire legal counsel to study the idea of creating a regional business park that could bring property tax revenues to both counties.
The crux of the plan is the expansion of the Johnstown Industrial Park on Route 30A, meaning the city of Johnstown would annex more than 350 acres in the Montgomery County town of Mohawk. Obviously, there are a lot of details that need to be ironed out before this idea can move forward.
Quick take: In government, you hear the phrase “thinking outside the box” a lot. This idea certainly falls under that. The counties need to take their time on this, however.
Quick take 2: Listening to the local squawk boxes this morning, you’d get the impression that this is something that’s new and just coming to light now. This idea was first reported in the Recorder several months ago. The last story on this was published on July 16.
September 2, 2010
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I have never heard so much over the top garbage, like I listen to this morning. Both shows are platforms for ignorance and stupidity. I’m not a fan of Karl Baia, but the way they treated him was outrageous and shows how far out of touch they are with reality. The views expressed by “all” of the “on air talent”(Diane and Chet included) is a classic example of why we will never move forward in this area.
“When you argue with idiots and morons they bring you down to there level and beat you with experience”
Comment by snafu — September 2, 2010 @ 12:22 pm |
Dude, before you go throwing around the word idiot you should learn the difference between they’re, their and there!!!
Comment by Chris — September 2, 2010 @ 6:06 pm |
More internet cops…..one of the eight morons who post here every freak’en day
Peace out!
Comment by snafu — September 2, 2010 @ 8:26 pm
snafu,
I too was disgusted with the way Karl was treated this morning on Sam and Mike. He was not allowed to explain much of anything with out Sam yelling at him. At the same time I can understand his frustration as a resident of Mohawk. The LH is coming out with stuff and it seems the Recorder is not, or the info is limited and the supervisors are not talking to the residents. And the greatest impact will be on the residents of the town of Mohawk. Well, Karl will be on Sam and Mike in the morning and hopefully he can shed some light on the issue for those that are concerned about the issues.
However, including myself in the on air talent is unfortunate, since I don’t have a show anymore. I don’t call in that often, but today I was asked to call the Mike and Bob show with some info. You may not like my comments, but I am not the one who is holding this city back. You have the mayor to blame for the appearance of the city this year, as the code enforcement staff was decimated by her and GD and then she dragged her feet for 6 months on hiring a replacement. Since moving here 10 years ago, I have never seen the city look this unkempt. It really is very sad.
And if you know of any way to get Bob to stop talking over Mike, you let me know. They both have good points to make, but you cannot hear Mike when Bob is shouting over him. It makes me mad too.
Comment by Diane — September 2, 2010 @ 8:41 pm |
Mea maxima culpa.
Comment by Robert N. Going — September 2, 2010 @ 11:43 pm
“The LH is coming out with stuff and it seems the Recorder is not, or the info is limited and the supervisors are not talking to the residents.”
Sorry Diane, but the Recorder has had several stories about the proposed annexation over the last several months, the last one being published July 16, 2010. Maybe the confusion and surprise over this has come from the fact that so much shouting has been devoted to piddly-crap and non-issues that these other stories get missed.
Comment by Charlie Kraebel — September 2, 2010 @ 8:46 pm |
The first few paragraphs of said story:
“JOHNSTOWN — A proposed industrial park to be shared by Montgomery and Fulton counties may require annexation of 350 acres of land from the town of Mohawk to the city of Johnstown in exchange for their municipal sewer and water services.
Officials on both sides are apprehensive to speak of such measures until a cost incentive agreement is drafted and accepted, however.
The Fulton County Board of Supervisors’ capital projects committee convened Thursday morning to discuss, among other projects, the proposed park, which would require a $150,000 contribution from each county.
Located on Route 30A, the project would extend the existing Johnstown Industrial Park south into Montgomery County.”
And from a story published July 11, 2010:
“Even after the final three lots in the Florida park are filled, county officials aren’t looking to the Glen park to pick up that slack. Instead, county officials are in discussions with their colleagues in Fulton County about a collaborative effort to extend the existing Johnstown Industrial Park south along Route 30A into Montgomery County.
That park is already home to large tenants such as a Walmart distribution center and a Fage yogurt manufacturing facility and draws water and sewer service from the cities of Johnstown and Gloversville. Greg Rajkowski, supervisor for the town of Mohawk, where Montgomery County’s portion of the park would be located, said he and county leaders have been meeting regularly with Fulton County officials to try to put together a deal to share both the costs of developing the expansion and the expected revenues.”
Don’t mean to sound petty, but it really ticks me off that some local radio hosts (and callers for that matter) spout off anything they want whether it’s the truth or not and are allowed to do so with no accountability.
Comment by Charlie Kraebel — September 2, 2010 @ 8:57 pm |
What you should be upset about is the lack of professionalism at WCSS.
Sam and Mike were mistaken in believing the Recorder hadn’t reported on the story. That can happen. Even if it were true it shouldn’t have been bash-the-Recorder day. First Pat Beck calls in (Mike Mancini seems to have a crush on her, btw) to talk about their coverage of the story and they couldn’t find enough words of praise to heap on her and the L-H. The next call was from a local politician who didn’t get the Recorders endorsement last time out and went on to lose the election. Let’s just say he’s still bitter and it showed. Now, while he’s ripping into the Recorder and praising the L-H, Mike and Sam sat there like two little girls giggling the whole time. No effort was made to point out that not everyone feels that way about the Recorder and that his opinion is just one mans opinion. No attempt to bring the tirade to a conclusion after a reasonable amount of time like one might expect when a caller is smearing a local business. Just giggling. The caller seemed as surprised as I was that the venting was allowed to go on until he got tired of it and wrapped it up himself. The caller after him appeared to call up just to express his agreement. Again the attitude seemed to be “spew all you want, we’ll just sit here and giggle”. At some point we were told (I think by Mike Mancini but it may have been a caller) that our local paper is really the L-H.
WCSS seems to be selective in their policy toward this type of behavior. A couple years ago a woman called in to say that she had family in from out of town and they went to Crystal Restaurante for dinner. She was allowed to go on praising the food until she came to the part where some of her relatives “found the pizza crust chewy”. She was given the bums rush. Then we were treated to a 10 minute speech about how everything at Crystals was perfect, especially the pizza crust. By the time it was over you’d swear the puddles in the parking lot tasted like sweet tea. On another occasion a man called to complain about a local auto-repair garage he was unhappy with. Sam hung up on him about 10 seconds in and told him to call the Better Business Bureau if he was unhappy with the garage. Why the double standard? Either it’s appropriate to criticize local businesses on the air or it’s not. It’s especially odd since the Recorder is A SPONSOR ON THE STATION.
So Sam and Mikes show was certainly unusual- you don’t often hear radio talk show hosts heaping praise on a business that is in direct competition with one of their sponsors. Then giggling along while callers take pot-shots at the sponsor. It seems like bad business to say the least. Then things got even worse.
When the next show started (co-hosted by Mike Chiara and Bob Going) the first words out of Mike Chiara mouth were stating his agreement from the caller from the last show who bashed the Recorder. He was so eager to state his agreement he didn’t let his theme music finish first or even bother saying hello to the audience. So now WCSS went from praising their sponsors competitor and letting callers take pot shots at the sponsor to having the host directly attack the sponsor himself.
If the moderator of this blog will allow this- WTF? Who does that? What radio station bad-mouths its own sponsor?
While I’m not Bob Goings biggest fan it’d be unfair if I didn’t add that he was the only host that acted appropriately and professionally and he did so under some fairly difficult circumstances. Credit where credit is due.
The disturbing part of this lack of professionalism at WCSS is that the leadership of the station are big players in the city. Mr. Tessiero owns some of the largest and most prominent properties in Amsterdam. And the station manager, Joe Isabel, is first ward Alderman. It’d be nice if the station reflected a little pride in the city, its people and its institutions. Bashing the Recorder in favor of an out of town newspaper falls right into the stations typical pattern of chronic negativity toward the city and everything in it. Listening to the station is almost like a negative affirmation for the city: “We’re not good enough, we’re not smart enough, and dog-gone-it people hate us!”
Comment by MJD — September 3, 2010 @ 3:02 pm
For someone who hates the content on WCSS so much, you seem to listen very carefully, it is almost like you took notes. Sponsor or no sponsor, who cares. CNN advertises on FOX News, and FOX has commentators that “rip on” CNN constantly. Get over it MJD. Your pathetic attempt to get the Recorder to stop sponsoring WCSS is just another attempt to pit people against each other. How sad! Here is an idea, DON”T LISTEN!
Comment by Chris — September 3, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
How about the fact there is obviously very poor communication in the town of Mohawk?? between their supervisor and constituents. ??
I will admitt Charlie, I don’t always study the articles that do not impact the city directly. I will pay closer attention.
Comment by Diane — September 2, 2010 @ 8:54 pm |
I didn’t catch all of what Sam Zurlo had to say, but he was hopping mad, primarily because as a resident of the Town of Mohawk he was annoyed that details of the deal were coming from Fulton County and not his own supervisor, the Chairman of the Montgomery County Board, or the chairman of the economic development committee of the Montgomery County Board.
Charlie, I think you were blinded a bit by my co-host’s shot at your paper (based on his past treatment, he unfortunately has little personal warmth for your operation). There was certainly no surprise by any of the hosts that this project was in the works. All five of us discussed it on the air in July when your other stories ran. Now that the details are emerging, questions are being asked, and rightfully so. Personally I found it rather amazing that the chairman of the committee, supposedly deeply involved in these discussions, seemed unfamiliar with the details.
The issue of annexation is an important one, and frankly somewhat difficult to fathom as no one on the Montgomery County side seems to care to tell us why it is a requirement for this deal. It seems to me an awfully complicated process that is not at all legally necessary. The City of Johnstown can extend water and sewer to the park without the need for annexation. We do that all the time between the City of Amsterdam and the Town of Amsterdam, for example, and we’ve even had discussions of extending the sewer lines into Perth in Fulton County. The idea of hiring high-priced legal counsel to complete the annexation seems a bit ludicrous when it is unnecessary and both counties already have legal counsel and I imagine the Fulton County IDA does as well.
Personally, I think the project itself has some merit. Fulton County has already shown they can successfully establish an industrial park, and the land not only borders the two counties but has the same natural transportation advantages as the existing park.
From a more parochial point of view, perhaps, we must wonder why Montgomery County would want to jump in with cash when our existing Glen Industrial Park is virtually empty. It is also rather fascinating that the economic development committee chairman didn’t seem aware of that either.
Also, based on the recent EDC scandals in Fulton County, it would be helpful if a vigilant press kept a close eye on every detail of this transaction. By your own stories, it seems to me that you have been stonewalled a bit thus far.
Comment by Robert N. Going — September 2, 2010 @ 11:08 pm |
One recent discussion on air concerning the Glen Park, is that the area is for smaller projects; their is a large wetlands area somewhere in the middle that cannot be developed; the Target area is full or almost full. That was the jist of the discussion. Do not know who, when or anything else, just remember that part of the discussion if that adds anything to this discussion.
Comment by Diane — September 3, 2010 @ 12:45 am |
Diane,
That discussion followed a story I wrote back in July looking at the difference in success between the county’s two major industrial parks. The jist of the story was that the Florida park has been successful because it was designed for larger projects like Target, Beech-Nut and the like that have fit the state of the current economy, while the Glen park was designed for smaller projects that have largely been derailed by the economy.
The Glen park is not suitable for larger projects in part because of the wetlands, but also because the park was designed – and utilities and other amenities put in – with smaller lot sizes in mind. With only a couple sites left in Florida, the county needs to have more available land for larger projects, and officials in both Fulton and Montgomery counties believe extending the Johnstown Industrial Park into Montgomery County is the most feasible option.
The problem here is the city of Johnstown’s staunch refusal to allow water and sewer service to be extended beyond the city limits of Johnstown or Gloversville (a problem that very nearly derailed the construction of a new Walmart supercenter just outside the city of Gloversville). The only real option other than annexation is for service to be run up the hill from Fonda, an option that would be much more expensive than to simply run lines a couple hundred yards across Route 30A.
Comment by Mark Robarge — September 3, 2010 @ 11:55 am |
How sad, that Johnstown is being so stingy with their water. Amsterdam sells theirs, why doesn’t Johnstown want to sell theirs?? Isn’t it a win-win?? Or that land must be really valuable to Johnstown. Let’s hope that it works out in everyone’s best interest.
Comment by Diane — September 3, 2010 @ 2:30 pm |
Mark, the annexation issue isn’t entirely clear. Am I correct in assuming that the annexed land would remain part of Montgomery County and also be part of the City of Johnstown?
Comment by Robert N. Going — September 4, 2010 @ 9:37 am |
That is not entirely clear at the moment. My assumption would be that it would have to be annexed into both the city AND Fulton County, but I have yet to confirm that. I’ll be looking into it this week.
Comment by Mark Robarge — September 5, 2010 @ 4:29 pm
I believe it’s ok for cities to cross county lines, though I can’t think of another example other than the big one. I don’t think counties can annex each other without approval of the legislature, however. Interesting question.
Comment by Robert N. Going — September 5, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
Took a few minutes to read General Municipal Law Article 17 this morning, and it seems to indicate that the annexation can take whatever form the affected governments agree to. So, at least as I read the law, you are right in the fact that the annexation could involve only the town of Mohawk and the city of Johnstown, but only if the counties, the town and the city agree to that type of annexation. Of course, I’m no lawyer, so I will need to confirm this interpretation.
Comment by Mark Robarge — September 6, 2010 @ 10:27 am
Of course the land around 5S going east from Alpin House is up for sale for a million I think. Quite a large trac of land too.
Comment by Diane — September 3, 2010 @ 2:34 pm |