Friday, March 12, 2021 - 1:19 pm
BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week
CANTON – A member of St. Lawrence County’s Fair Housing Task Force asked county legislators to consider making a possible incoming wave of evictions as “a legislative agenda item.”
John Tenbusch, who is also a St. Lawrence County planner, discussed the matter with the board’s Operations Committee during their Monday, March 8 meeting.
Tenbusch said after speaking with Massena Justice Diana Dufresne from the Massena-based Justice and Law Center that there have been 260 eviction applications filed for the county in the last four months. He said that’s increased 75% in the last year.
Sunday, March 7, 2021 - 5:33 pm
BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week
CANTON – County legislators passed a bill praising the county court judge for offering a removal of pistol permit restrictions.
The motion passed 13-0-1. The abstention was Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam, who also abstained when the resolution came up at the Finance Committee meeting a week prior.
Haggard said she abstained “for reasons I made clear at the committee meeting.”
The previous week, Haggard said it wasn’t because of any issues related to firearms, and she recognizes that Storie’s decision on pistol permits is within his purview as an elected county judge.
Friday, February 26, 2021 - 1:01 pm
BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week
CANTON – The St. Lawrence County legislature’s Finance Committee passed a bill applauding County Court Judge Greg Storie for removing pistol permit carrying restrictions and allowing cross-registration of handguns outside of a household.
The committee took the vote during their Monday, Feb. 22 meeting. It has to be finalized in front of the full board next week.
Legislator Joe Lightfoot, R-Ogdensburg, introduced the motion, which received bipartisan support.
He said the prior restrictions, imposed by now-retired judge Jerome Richards, “effectively prohibited the holder from carrying a pistol or revolver for the purposes of self protection or any other reason than those things that were listed on the permit.”
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - 9:40 am
BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week
CANTON The St. Lawrence County legislature’s Finance Committee tabled an agreement for sharing sales tax revenue with the City of Ogdensburg, and passed a separate resolution that ensures towns and villages will keep their current share.
The committee voted on the two measures during their Monday, Dec. 21 meeting.
The proposed deal would keep the current distribution through Dec. 1, 2023. At that time, the city’s would receive the percentile share as towns and villages. The city would also have the option to pre-empt, meaning opt out of the county deal and collect their own sales tax. If they don’t pre-empt, the city would continue to receive sales tax revenue from the county under the same formula as the towns and villages.
Sunday, December 13, 2020 - 8:47 am
BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week
CANTON St. Lawrence County legislators discussed if it would be possible to hold a mass COVID-19 testing event in the county.
The discussion took place during the Dec. 7 full Board of Legislators meeting, which was streamed live online.
Legislator Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam, brought up the idea and several board members from both sides of the aisle agreed it s worth looking into. I think the timing is very good, if it was something we could put together at somewhat of a rapid pace, because of the uptick, said Legislator Tony Arquiett, D-Helena. Earlier in the meeting, Public Health Director Dr. Dana McGuire said COVID-19 in the county has quadrupled since early November, and gone up 140% in just the week prior to her making the comment at the Dec. 7 meeting.