Lake George Village Town Hall
LAKE GEORGE — Trees will be harvested within the a year or two on village property located on Prospect Mountain, if plans of the village board materialize.
Village trustees voted Oct. 17 to hire forester Chris Gearwar to survey and mark trees to be cut down on about 45 acres of village property located on the east side of Prospect Mountain. The acreage hosts the village reservoir.
The thinning of trees — primarily beech and hemlock — is to be undertaken in part to encourage more valuable trees to grow, as well as provide revenue for the village government, local officials said.
The village has harvested trees on the watershed property three times in recent history, and the sale of the timber during the most recent tree-cutting yielded about $45,000, village Mayor Robert Blais said. He predicting the upcoming sale might garner a higher sum.
Gearwar, a licensed forest consultant, is to be paid 10 percent of the proceeds of the timber sale.
Blais said the village might hold off on lumbering the property — located uphill from the village recreation fields — until a higher price can be obtained for the timber.
Also at the village board meeting, the board decided to hire Saratoga Associates to design a pedestrian bridge over West Brook. To be situated behind a guardrail on the west side of state Rte. 9, the span is to resemble a covered bridge as requested by town supervisor Dennis Dickinson, Blais said. He noted that currently, pedestrians have to walk in the roadway.
In addition, a proposal to obtain and locate two or three automated electronic defibrillators at the village recreation fields was proposed by local youth soccer coach Rick Reinhold.
He said that one defibrillator should be positioned by each field to resuscitate someone whose heart has stopped. He said that having no such equipment on hand compromised public safety.
“If someone had a sudden heart attack, and I had to wait for an ambulance with a child dying in my arms, I would never be able to live with myself,” he said.
Reinhold said the AED units would cost $900 to $1,500 each, and that town officials pledged to pay half the cost, as well as underwrite the cost of materials to build a shed in which to store them.
Blais suggested that the AED in use during the summer at Shepard Park Beach could be used off-season at the village sports fields. He also proposed that a local booster club might form to shoulder the cost.
In other business, the village board:
• endorsed drafting a proposed law that bans the use of ATVs and other motorized vehicles on cross-country ski trails on village property adjacent to the village recreation fields. The proposed law is likely to be prepared for a public hearing in December;
• heard from Blais that he plans to expand the village’s annual Lite Up the Village holiday kickoff event to feature a performance of The Nutcracker by a youth ballet company from Glens Falls, as well as pony rides and a parade of decorated fire trucks representing fire departments throughout the Hudson Valley;
• decided to sign off on Shoreline Cruises dredging sand that has accumulated around their docks and is causing problems for their boats’ arrivals and departures — and to assist Shoreline in obtaining a permit to build a new boat ramp;
• approved spending about $2,500 on upgrading several of the village’s parking pay stations that accept credit cards — due to new security requirements;
• appointed village DPW superintendent Dave Harrington as village Climate Smart Coordinator;
• approved the erection of a sign directing guests of the Lake George Marriott Courtyard to the hotel’s main entrance and parking garage. The directional sign, to be placed close to the hotel above the village sidewalk, is subject to an annual licensing fee;
• announced that the village’s annual financial report has been completed and is now ready for public inspection. Noting that the unexpended balances from prior years had not been depleted, Blais praised village department heads for not spending their entire allocations in their individual budgets;
• approved a plan to charge for upcoming out-of-village sewer charges to be adjusted higher according to overall expense increases, while village officials research how to permanently set a formula for equitable sewer fees;
• heard from Blais that the summer trolley service in Lake George carried 152,700 passengers this summer — compared to 5,000 in its first year 15 years ago;
• heard that the Lake George Music Festival — an annual series of classical concerts — was very successful this year, and plans for 2017 include a concert atop the Lake George Marriott Courtyard rooftop garden patio. “Everything Alex Lombard does is first class,” Blais said about the festival’s founder and CEO;
• expressed a lack of interest in obtaining the MacDonald residential property adjacent to the firehouse — for parking and future expansion — due to the high value of the property and the expense of demolishing the buildings there;
• decided to contribute $500 in occupancy tax receipts towards the expense of producing a watercraft safety video to be shown to people who rent boats for use on Lake George.
