May 17, 2014
A Denton Publication
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ON THE TRAIL
Westmount sale reversed, negotiations to proceed
This Week LAKE GEORGE
By Thom Randall thom@denpubs.com
GLENS FALLS Ñ Warren County supervisors voted May 7 to move forward with the sale of county-owned Westmount nursing home to Specialty Care Group, overturning a decision just several weeks ago to suspend the pending deal. Twenty supervisors voted for the measure Ñ including Queensbury Supervisor John Strough and Glens Falls Ward 1 Supervisor James Brock, who previously voted against it. Two others county supervisors, Rachel Seeber of Queensbury and Dan Girard of Glens Falls, who had not been present for the April 18 decision, also voted May 7 to move forward on the proposed sale. Prior to the WednesdayÕ s vote, Queensbury Mark Westcott gave a presentation on why the sale should be postponed if not scuttled. He and two other supervisors, Doug Beaty of Queensbury and Peter McDevitt of Glens Falls, had held a public meeting last week detailing their opposition to proceeding with the pending sale and its proposed terms. Reasons presented were that the nursing homeÕ s money-losing cogeneration plant was complicating the transaction, the proposed sale price was too low, CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
PAGE 10 ON THE LAKE
Boat washing set to begin PAGE 11 IN INDIAN LAKE
During a tour of downtown Glens Falls Monday May 12, Congressional candidate Aaron Woolf (right) asks Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce President Peter Aust a question about a local enterprise. Meeting with local business leaders and others, Woolf said he was seeking to familiarize himself with vital issues of Glens Falls region. Over lunch, Woolf discussed the present and future status of rural health care with Hudson Headwaters Health Network CEO and founder Dr. John Rugge. Later, he toured some new downtown business enterprises. He said that small businesses like those he visited were the backbone of the area’s economy, and if elected, he’d work on their behalf. Photo by Thom Randall
By Thom Randall
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LETTERS
Warrensburg yearly awards PAGE 13
School budgets ready for public vote; North Warren tethered by tax cap
Index EDITORIAL
Italian Festival returns
thom@denpubs.com
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HONOR ROLL
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CALENDAR
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CLASSIFIEDS
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CHESTERTOWN Ñ Residents of northern Warren County will be going to the polls Tuesday, May 20 to cast votes on their local school districtsÕ 2014-15 budgets Ñ and all but one of the spending plans are within the stateÕ s two percent tax cap. North Warren Central School DistrictÕ s proposed
cent of voters, which has occurred routinely over the past decade. If less than that number of residents cast votes for approval, the school board can then present a revised budget or the same one for a second vote. After a second defeat, the district must adopt a contingency budget with no tax-levy increase. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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budget is the exception. Due to the provisions of the stateÕ s complex tax-cap formula, the budget exceeds the tax cap although North WarrenÕ s tax levy for 2014-15 only reflects a 1.6 percent increase over 2013-14. To not exceed the tax cap, North WarrenÕ s proposed 2014-15 tax levy would have had to reflect a zero percent tax increase. Because North WarrenÕ s budget exceeds the tax cap, it will require the approval of at least 60 per-
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