https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Milton-seeks-another-deadline-extension-in-12902438.php
Jeers, shouts after Boyhaven matter goes on
Published 8:49 pm, Wednesday, May 9, 2018
MILTON – To jeers and shouts from the audience Wednesday night, the Town Board kept the Boyhaven saga in limbo again.
The board will once again ask the Twin Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of America for another deadline extension in order to try to buy the 300-acre property. Many in the crowd of 100 -- who want the town to commit to the deal -- shouted "no" as the board voted to ask for its sixth closing extension.
Larry Woolbright, Planning Board chairman and the one who shepherded the $1 million deal for the town with the Boy Scouts, was not optimistic that the Scouts leadership, who have said postponements are a financial burden on them, would granted yet another extension.
"The council has repeatedly said they would not give another extension," Woolbright said after the meeting that took place almost exclusively in executive, or closed, session. "The Boy Scouts are talking to a developer. It doesn't look good."
The deal to purchase the land was agreed upon a year ago. At that time, the town bonded $500,000 and another $500,000 was to come from an anonymous donor. The town then missed its October and December 2017 closing deadlines and then its February and two May deadlines. But before the town missed its fourth deadline, developer and attorney Frank Rossi Jr. and the Ballston Journal called for the donor to reveal his or her identity. That led the donor to back out, leaving the town $500,000 short.
A fundraising effort with Saratoga PLAN and the Friends of the Kayaderosseras has raised more than $117,000, but not it is enough. Councilwoman Barbara Kerr, who abstained from the vote in frustration, said she wants to move the deal forward anyway by pooling funds from other town reserves.
"All we hear is what we can't do," said Kerr after the meeting in which people held up signs reading "Buy Boyhaven." "I want to know what can we do."
Meanwhile, Rossi is now considering suing the anonymous donor, who only Woolbright knows, for pulling out of the deal in a legal maneuver called promissory estoppel. He is also calling on the town's Ethics Committee to examine Woolbright "since he does not seem to be willing to answer critics' legitimate questions as to the progression of this transaction."
But by missing the fifth deadline and seeking a sixth, most in the crowd felt that the Town Board was destroying the deal.
"They are killing it by pocket veto," said Kyle Nichols a resident who attended the meeting. "They are going to sit there and let it die."
Jim Frey, another resident said, "They wanted to kill it and they did."
Supervisor Scott Ostrander said that the town has done everything the Boy Scouts have asked.
"We have upheld our end of the deal," Ostrander said. "The anonymous donor didn't. We just want the money. We didn't want the donor to reveal himself. Nobody asked that."
Town resident Sharon Apholz said Milton is throwing away a wonderful opportunity.
"The board is short-sighted and foolish," she said. "They should be ashamed of themselves."
The meeting to discuss Boyhaven will be Monday.
