A full house gathered at the Butcher Block in Plattsburgh to hear from local leaders. Clinton County Legislator Mark Henry spoke first, focusing on future challenges the county may face, including the cost of Medicaid and Governor’s Hochul’s Executive Budget proposal to shift more of the cost of Medicaid to local taxpayers.

“The expense to our County is $16.6 million dollars and is about 56% of this year’s tax levy. Should the governor’s plan go into effect, it will mean the immediate loss to Clinton County of about $1.4 million dollars from this year’s budget, and $2.5 million dollars every year thereafter,” Henry said.

City of Plattsburgh Mayor Christopher Rosenquest spoke about important projects in the city, including the Harborside Master Development Plan, along with a potential hotel development at Harborside, which he said would likely be one of the biggest projects the City of Plattsburgh has seen in quite some time.

Rosenquest also said the Margaret Street and Cornelia Street projects are important to make downtown more beautiful and update antiquated infrastructure. “Over the years we’ve seen many water main breaks on Margaret street and it’s increasing, we want to get ahead of it, we don’t want to have a catastrophic failure.”

Finally, Plattsburgh Town Supervisor Michael Cashman spoke about projects in the town, including the battlefield memorial gateway which will begin the 1.3 million dollar phase 1 construction this coming spring. “This is a partnership to build a premiere space, multi-generational space that will tell the American story as we’re leading up to 2026, which is the 250th anniversary of our great nation,” Cashman said.

Cashman said the town continues to work on housing developments and they are currently reviewing potential 120-unit project that would be located in the Town Centre.

Each speaker highlighted that the region continues to see great economic growth and is well positioned to take on any challenges that may face it in the future.