Tiff stalls joint talks
POTSDAM — A joint committee meeting aimed at sharing facilities and increasing cooperation between the town and the village dissolved into a shouting match Wednesday.
After four months of working together, the court-sharing committee seemed on the brink of making a decision on whether to share facilities in the town hall, the civic center or Clarkson University's downtown Snell Hall.
But old habits die hard.
Longstanding tensions roiled to the surface when the village inserted another option — to relocate Potsdam Public Library and move the town's offices, along with a shared court, to the civic center — at the last minute.
"When the ball game is almost over, you want to change the rules of the game because you don't like the outcome," Supervisor Marie C. Regan said. "Now, when we are near a conclusion to select Snell Hall, because you don't like the way the facts have emerged, you want to start over with an entirely new mission to decide where the town hall will be as well as the town court. And surprise — it's the civic center, which some members of the committee made clear was your place of choice all along."
Deputy Mayor Ruth F. Garner, whose obstinance almost prevented the committee's work from going forward in July because she wouldn't consider any option other than the civic center for a shared court, said she still thinks the building would make "an ideal municipal complex."
Trustee Steven W. Yurgartis, who chairs the committee, said he added the option to his list at the last minute simply because he only recently found out that there was enough information from when the municipalities last discussed moving in together 10 years ago to run a cost estimate.
"I hope you're looking at the issue from a community-wide point of view. I think the public wants to see the cost for the whole package," Mr. Yurgartis said.
"I don't think you can speak for the public, and I wish you wouldn't," town Councilman Michael J. Zagrobelny shot back. "I will not believe that this is a brand new idea that fell out of the sky, and I do not appreciate that you have used your chairmanship as a bully pulpit."
Mrs. Regan bristled at the suggestion that the Town Council isn't "community-minded," and added that the town does not appreciate the village giving any input whatsoever on where its offices are located.
She also pointed out that the town didn't object when the village took consolidation of its court off the table several months ago, even though a recent report by the Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts recommended that 30 percent to 50 percent of St. Lawrence County's justice courts be merged.
In his financial analysis, Mr. Yurgartis took into consideration renovating space for the town offices in either Snell Hall or its current headquarters, as well as the cost of repairing and possibly selling the 35 Market St. hall.
His estimates projected the total 10-year cost of renovating and running both the town and village offices and courts in several different locations.
Mr. Yurgartis found that it would be cheapest, at a combined cost of $2.4 million over 10 years, for the municipalities to share the civic center together. He also estimated that it would cost $2.75 million for the town to move its offices to Snell Hall and the village to share a court there, while keeping its offices in the civic center for the next decade.
Mr. Zagrobelny said it was not the joint committee's purview to discuss where the town hall ends up, and objected to the numbers Mr. Yurgartis used.
"Columbus's charge was to find a route to India. His charge was never to discover a new world," said Potsdam architect Brooks A. Washburn, trying to calm the fray. "You made the rules. You can change them."
Mr. Washburn unwittingly hit upon the source of much of the conflict between the two municipalities when he pointed out that village taxpayers constitute most of the town's population. Mrs. Regan and Mrs. Garner immediately began to argue over territory and sovereignty.
Potsdam Public Library Director Patricia W. Musante said she was surprised that village board members, with whom she just signed a 25-year lease, were talking about moving her facility to the former Newman Center building on Main Street.
The meeting ended with town officials threatening to leave if the suggestion of moving both its offices and its court to the civic center was not taken off the table immediately — something Mr. Yurgartis was ultimately unwilling to do. Village Court Clerk Shelly Warner beat them to it, storming out early.
"I'd like to adjourn the meeting before you resign from the committee. Why don't we sleep on it?" Mr. Yurgartis suggested. "I'd hate to give up now."
"So would I," Mrs. Regan said, as she gathered her things. "But I'll have to ask my board."
Outside, officials encountered a clueless Mayor Reinhold J. Tischler in the parking lot. He had no idea the concept of moving the town offices and court to the civic center was being floated again — and that it had divided the joint committee.
"Really? We talked about that a long time ago," he said.
