The highest cost of living setback for the largest number of people in the town of North Elba has occurred under the watch of Supervisor Derek Doty. There are 88 homes on Lake Placid Lake that have felt a $100,000-$140,000 or more to their cost of living on boat access only Lake Placid with no end in sight to future increases. Two public serving marinas have invoked their oligopolistic ability to create a take it or leave it leveraged pricing to the people who have made them many millions in easy profits. The end result to the excessive charges is a dollar for dollar loss in tax revenue. The worst case would be a total lockout at the marinas and the result would be an annual tax revenue loss of $1,250,000 to the area. Supervisor Doty holds the key to a simple equitable solution, but he won’t give it a try; he won’t think about it; he won’t listen about it.

The town and village wants to spend $5 million to take the clean water out of the sewage while not offering to spend anything on taking the sewage out of the drinking water source that is Lake Placid Lake. Except to say that the town has offered jail time to the boat access homeowners on the lake with on site waste disposal systems. The sewage treatment plant is overwhelmed with fresh water at times of heavy prolonged rain by leaky sewer pipes. Those times are the cold days of spring and fall when nobody is fishing or swimming in the Chubb River — where the effluent goes. The town could simply increase the volume of fresh water flow to the Chubb River at the Lake Placid Lake’s dam and it wouldn’t cost a penny. Let the Chubb River be in violation of the Clean Waters Act. The only law violated more on a daily basis is The United States Constitution. Who’s ever swam in the Chubb River, ate the fish or has ever heard of it before?

I will be voting for a clear thinker for town of North Elba supervisor in 2025.

James J Condon

Lake Placid and Greenburgh, N.Y.