Letters to the Editor 1-15-15

Business discouraged in Millerton

I have been listening to residents of the local community who don’t understand why a business could not be located on my property. It’s time that I tell everyone why. 

In 1967, our dairy barn burned down as the result of arson. There were five other barn fires on local farms within one month. My family did not rebuild because we could see that the future for farms in this area was not very bright.

I wanted to bring business into our town to lower our taxes and provide jobs for working families. Finally, I was able to sell a parcel to Hipotronics for their business. After a few attempts to expand their building space they were met with all kinds of roadblocks by planning and zoning; they abandoned their plans and then vacated the building. When Harney and Sons was interested in purchasing the vacant building, I was on the Town Board. It was a major fight to get them approved. Our supervisor was not in favor of granting approval of this sale.

When the town looked at rezoning, instead of putting business south on Route 22, they put it north of the village in a flood plain with only a very narrow strip of land for development. Does that make sense? Recently, I went to the new supervisor and asked if they would consider rezoning my property for business. He told me to leave the building and not come back. That is why we don’t have any business south on Route 22.

Sanford Kaplan

Millerton