Message from the Mayor

1-12-06
Corinth Residents
The following letter was approved by the Village Board of Trustees to be sent to Philmet last week, during our regular board meeting on Wednesday January 5th:
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Philips International
Attention: Samuel Meth

January 5, 2006

Samuel,

I would like to thank you, Murry, Jacob, and Ed for taking the time to come to Saratoga Springs on December 7^th to meet with us. We appreciated your candor and your stated desire to work with us to build an industrial park in Corinth that our Village Board and our residents will support. I stated to you at this meeting that our Village Board would not support any type of industry that you would not want in your own backyard. You requested of us that we respond to you with a list of industries that would be acceptable. You also stated that there needed to be an energy component in order to make the project viable. You did not elaborate on what that component would be.

With the “Associated Press” reports of air quality in the US that have been recently released to the public, we can see there is a clear relationship between the industrial pollution of smokestack industries and the high levels of air pollution in surrounding residential neighborhoods. According to these reports, certain areas around Glens Falls, NY had pollution levels up to 30 times the national medium of ambient air quality. These high levels are within a few miles of paper mills and other smokestack industries as noted in the news articles. According to the AP online statistics, the Village of Corinth has a relatively healthy 1.3 times the national average. This information should remain foremost in our minds as we make decisions for our future.

In a conversation with your Attorney Ed Burnbaum on Dec 27^th, we discussed that the Corinth Town & Village Boards ultimately withdrew a letter of support that “American Ref Fuels” had requested for a proposed waste to energy incinerator in Corinth. We discussed briefly the possible moratorium on waste to energy development in our industrial zone.  Ed stated that a moratorium on waste to energy industries was not objectionable to Philmet and further stated that he was working on a letter to our board for our next board meeting that would reiterate that Philmet would not put a waste to energy facility in Corinth.  I also suggested that the letter include what Philmet is planning for the facility.

Lately, there has been a rash of rumors as to what the future holds for your property.  I would like to propose that you and/or representatives of Philmet attend a public meeting at the school, or other similar forum, whereby you could discuss your ideas for our community, and put all these rumors to rest.  

We know there has to be a multitude of clean industries that will work at your site, and we look forward to working with you and SEDC to achieve desirable development in our community. Please call me to discuss.  

Sincerely yours,

Brad Winslow, Mayor

cc. Town of Corinth
      SEDC