Ogdensburg couple plans second bed-and breakfast

By BRIAN KIDWELL
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2012

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OGDENSBURG — A city couple plans to open a second downtown bed-and-breakfast to accommodate business that the first one apparently hasn’t been able to keep up with since opening four years ago.

Brian J. and Kathleen R. Wade, owners of the White Gate Inn, 503 Caroline St., were granted approval Tuesday for their new venture from the city’s Planning and Development Board.

The couple’s newest bed-and-breakfast is at 412 Crescent St., a three-story, three-bedroom Victorian mansion that they bought in June for $129,900. It will be called the Crescent Inn.

The four-bedroom White Gate Inn has been a success.

“We’re expanding,” Mrs. Wade said. “We’re turning people away.”

The Crescent Inn will open next month.

The board’s approval was unanimous, 6-0.

In other business, the board also voted 6-0 in favor of an amended site plan by Plattsburgh developer Gilbert J. Jones for a 480-square-foot concession building erected on the Oswegatchie River at 119 W. River St., where he has a working marina and is renovating the former Ramada Inn.

Earlier this month, Mr. Jones clashed with the city over his allegedly being asked to stop work on the building. The board approved the construction of a harbormaster kiosk with restrooms, but not the building’s kitchen, service window or an outside dining deck.

To the city, the latter three features represented enough of a change of use from the original structure that site plan approval by the board was required.

The board’s approval did little to lessen Mr. Jones’s anger at the city and the board.

“I think you gave me a bad name,” he said.

“We’re here to help you,” board Chairman Timothy J. Redmond said, adding that “miscommunication” was at the heart of the dispute.