An Open Letter to the People of North Elba

Dear Neighbor,

By Election Day, November 7, 2023, you will have a few choices for the two town councilperson seats that are up in North Elba. I am writing to ask you to vote for me for one of those offices.

While I am a relative newcomer to our town—my wife, Kathy, and I bought our house in the Village of Saranac Lake, on the last block in North Elba, in 2018—I have been a full-time resident of Essex County since May 1993. As a resident of Jay, I led the grassroots effort to preserve the historic Jay Covered Bridge and protect the glorious Jay rapids, swimming hole, and upstream scenic/recreational river corridor—for the ongoing enjoyment of, and benefit to, ALL residents of Jay and neighboring communities.

My work on the bridge issue is an early example of my standing up for people and our shared environment against special interests when the objectives of those interests will adversely affect the common good. Such action on my part has continued since I’ve become a resident of North Elba.

I’ve stood with or helped organize:

• Concerned Citizens to Protect Lake Placid, including members of the Balsams of Lake Placid Homeowners Association, whose neighborhood was threatened by the proposed placement of a 36,000-gallon propane storage tank & transfer facility on a lot adjacent to the Balsams and also our town’s United Hebrew Community of Lake Placid Cemetery. In 2019 I participated in their meetings, volunteered my communications skills, and attended & spoke out at meetings of the Joint Review Board. The threat went away when a resident of the Balsams was able to purchase the lot that a local oil company had targeted for its planned storage tank.
• Residents of Duprey Street in the Village of Saranac Lake (VSL) who were alarmed by a plan by then-Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau, a contractor, to tear down three separate dwellings (resulting in the eviction of any people living in them) on a tiny corner lot and building a large multi-residential structure. The residents feared the structure would alter the single-family residential character of the neighborhood and become just the latest of several short-term rental (STR) dwellings that Mr. Rabideau had sold or still owned in the neighborhood. Although the project was eventually approved by the VSL Development Board (which I find troubling in part because its members had been appointed by Mayor Rabideau, along with the four village trustees), the opposition to it did, in my view, result in the Development Board requiring modifications in the size & scope of the project—representing a partial victory for our efforts.
• Residents for a Sustainable Community (RSC) in Lake Placid, a group of mostly year-round residents, shopkeepers, and other business owners who banded together to advocate for strict regulation of the hundreds of STRs in Placid, which were degrading the quality of life and altering the residential character of an already intensely tourist-focused community. The work of the RSC contributed to hundreds of community members turning out for public hearings on STRs and helped push the Town of North Elba and Village of Lake Placid governments to finally adopt fairly stringent regulations—after about a decade of doing nothing to prevent the issue from festering.
• Neighbors for Good Government (NfGG) – Tri-Lakes, which I co-founded with several other Saranac Lake residents, alarmed by a couple of incidents in which then-Mayor Rabideau verbally assaulted women—including with the use of foul, misogynistic language—who lived or owned property next-door to lots he and one of his construction companies were building on. Our group regularly attended and spoke out at VSL board meetings, began to document instances of the mayor abusing his office to benefit himself and his companies financially, and posted a petition at Change.org calling for the village trustees to initiate an investigation into the mayor’s behavior and practices. In 2022, NfGG co-sponsored, with High Peaks Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—another public-interest organization of which I am a proud member—a highly regarded forum with the three new candidates for village mayor. In April of that year, I’m pleased to report, Mr. Rabideau left office under a cloud and politically he’s hardly been heard from since.

With more than 40 years of work experience in medical communications, journalism, community organizing, grant writing, marketing & promotions, and the nonprofit sector, I believe I have the necessary skills and background to be a good and useful servant of the People. And with 30 years of community service/volunteering, activism/advocacy, and involvement in local government & politics here in the Adirondack North Country, I know I have the vision to help reform our town government and move North Elba and its people forward to a new era of environmental sustainability, economic justice & stability, and an improved residential quality of life.

As a strong believer in, and advocate of, the value of higher education, I earned a B.A. in English from Columbia College, the main undergraduate liberal arts division of Columbia University, and—returning to school more than 30 years later—a Multimedia Journalism Certificate from SUNY Plattsburgh, where I continue to take classes in such disciplines as political science and film studies on a part-time basis.

My goals and positions on the issues include:

• Honest, open and transparent local government, serving the interests of working people, families with school-age children, seniors, renters, property owners, the economically disadvantaged, small business owners and permanent residents—not the special interests (defined as any entities that seek consideration from government that’s NOT in the public interest)
• Ensure that ALL residents of North Elba are fairly and effectively represented—whether you live in Saranac Lake, Ray Brook or Lake Placid
• Working to enhance our current housing stock, protect the rights of tenants while being fair to landlords, and ensure more & better affordable housing—e.g., by requiring developers of high-end housing to set aside a percentage of units for moderate-to-low-income housing and by preventing corporations from buying up available homes, apartment buildings, and commercial structures that can be converted to housing
• Pushing for ecologically sustainable development and SMART growth—bearing in mind always the potentially catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis on our community and the Adirondacks as a whole

• Go Green: work toward more renewable energy, preservation of open space, and local food production in both the public and private sectors in North Elba
• Emphasize Education: Connect our local government with area schools to expand educational opportunities for all, including adults
• Maximizing & optimizing municipal services while keeping Town of North Elba taxes down as much as possible
• Rethink local tourism efforts while diversifying our local economy so that North Elba ceases being as dependent on tourists as it currently is. As a candidate for village trustee in Saranac Lake early in 2020, I called for rethinking tourism and diversifying our economy and, a couple of months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit—and we all know what impact that had, bringing tourism to a complete halt. Later on, at a Village of Saranac Lake board meeting, I even heard Jim McKenna, CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) echo my call for “diversifying our local economy.” One way to do so, for example, is by boosting government support of the arts and other cultural aspects of life in the Adirondack North Country; I remain a strong supporter of arts & culture as economic drivers. Another way is to expand the availability of locally grown or raised food and do everything we can to support our local small farmers.
• Support for a moratorium and/or hard cap on any additional STRs established by corporate entities or other absentee owners, while supporting the right of current homeowners to rent out a room or another dwelling on the property on a short-term basis as long as they live there full-time and comply with local STR, building-code and zoning regulations

What are YOUR concerns? I’d love to hear them at FredforNorthElba@gmail.com and/or via my cell, 518-588-7275.

In summary, I welcome the opportunity to put my experience, skills, & vision in the service of YOU, OUR neighbors and OUR community as one of your next Town Councilpersons.

Thank you for your consideration!

In solidarity,

Fred Balzac