Welcome to the 2017 BH-BL BPA Talk of the Towns. As some of you may already know, our Business and Professional Organization is geographically aligned with the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District. This includes the towns of Glenville, Ballston, Charlton and Clifton Park.

In this video, The Town Supervisors from each town will provide us updates on the 2017 business environment from a local government perspective while pointing out opportunities to collaborate.

* Chris Koetzle, Supervisor for the Town of Glenville and our gracious host this morning,
* Tim Szczepaniak, Supervisor for the Town of Ballston,
* Alan Grattidge, Supervisor for the Town of Charlton,
* Pill Barrett, the Town of Clifton Park.

Introduction by Rick Noel, BH-BL BPA President to set the state. Below are the speakers not for Rick’s introduction.

Visioning Committee Update

For the last year and a half, members of the BPA, town officials and other stakeholders have participated in a Visioning Committee, Led by Michael Hale, focused on enhancing the quality of life in our towns through collaborative efforts.

Our Slogan: BH-BL Community, Love the Lifestyle
Neighbors | Farms | Businesses

In support of this, we are focused on developing a shared vision for business and economic development in our towns, looking for opportunities to collaborate.

Our geographical focus is what we are calling the Central Core – the crossroads of our BH-BL Community.”

Specifically, this includes Rte 50 and surrounding area from Foggs Automotive (Hetcheltown Road) to Morris Ford (Route 146 A).

And we have moved beyond creating a slogan. In fact, recent accomplishments include:

• Award of Micro-grant $250K for Small Business Development in the town of Ballston
• Submission of a grant for sidewalks to connect the Steven’s middle school with the library, high school through to O’rourke Middle School
  Input into the proposed town of Ballston zoning updates to drive deliberate development designed to achieve our vision, specifically in the central core
• Provided feedback into the CVS project on the corner of Lake Hill and Rte 50
• Partnering with the Library for a Grant supporting additional Library programming/classes.

Why a Visioning Committee? Why now? Things to consider

• Cost of education per student for in BH-BL is about the same as for Saratoga Springs, yet our school tax rate is about double due to our lack of a strong commercial tax base
• BH-BL enrollment is down to just above 3000 vs a peak of over 5000. Educational, athletic and arts programs depend on enrollment for continued support.
• Town of Ballston was awarded a $2.5Million grant for the Ballston Lake sewer project estimated at $10M which looks like it is going to happen.
• The town of Ballston is looking at a phased approach which could finally bring sewers to this key stretch of route 50 where the town of Glenville and Ballston meet. This could be a huge enabler for realizing a shared vision of the Central Core.

We hope to see you at an upcoming meeting soon!