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Under the city of Plattsburgh’s last mayor, Democrat Colin Read, who left office on December 31st, 2020, several actions were taken in an attempt to obtain land or money from the adjacent town of Plattsburgh. Town officials contested an annexation attempt and lawsuits over a long-term Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement. Three and a half months after the new mayor was sworn in he and the town supervisor have signed what they are calling the Plattsburgh Compact. It not only drops the lawsuits but swaps rather than annexes land between the municipalities. In the first part of an interview with WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley, Mayor Chris Rosenquest and Supervisor Michael Cashman, both Democrats, explain the negotiations that led to the joint agreement.
“The City and the Town have come to an agreement,” Rosenquest said.
“In life, you do not always have to agree with someone 100 percent to work with them,” Cashman added.
The tenor was a marked departure from the rhetoric of recent years.
The disagreements between the City and Town had grown increasingly ugly, culminating in former city mayor Colin Read filing a lawsuit against the Town of Plattsburgh in 2018.
Read’s successor, 2020 election winner Chris Rosenquest, decided to end that challenge and called the agreement a compromise.
“We’re getting something, they’re getting something. So it really is looking at this a partnership, looking at this as collaboration for the future,” Rosenquest said.
By McKENZIE DELISLE Press-RepublicanÂ
Dec 22, 2020
PLATTSBURGH â A unanimous decision of the Plattsburgh Town Board found the Lake City s requested annexation not in the public s best interest.
The vote came a couple weeks after the Plattsburgh City Common Council declared the action was in the public s best interest. In speaking with our special counsel, given the fact that the two municipalities are at odds, we are probably talking about several years in the court system, Plattsburgh Town Supervisor Michael Cashman said. This is far from being over. Â
THE ANNEXATION
The land in question is about 224 acres owned by the city, but located off of Rugar Street and Reeves Lane in the Town of Plattsburgh.Â