Town to recoup money from Nature Conservancy

By Dan King

A mix-up at the Nature Conservancy has led to the group falling behind on agreed payments to the town of Whitehall, but the group has vowed to fix the problem.

Whitehall and the tax-exempt Nature Conservancy have a payments-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement (PILOT), which says that the Conservancy will pay the town $10,000 a year.

Money received from the PILOT agreement is then split up among Whitehall Central School, the town and the village of Whitehall. According to the most recent breakdown of the village, town and school tax rates, $5,816 finds its way to the school, $3,176 to the town and $1,006 village.

“We renewed the PILOT agreement with the town last year, which provides the town with $10,000 per year, the majority of which is earmarked for the school district,” said Matt Levy, conservation lands manager for the Nature Conservancy of Eastern New York. “These funds will be sent to the town shortly and will continue to be paid per the terms of the renewed agreement.”

Levy said he spoke with Armstrong earlier this month to explain that the missing payments were the result of a change in staff and a shift in responsibilities at the group’s Albany office.

“As soon as it was brought to our attention, we promptly initiated a check request from our headquarters and all payments currently in arrears will be provided to the town in short order,” Levy said.

Armstrong said the money due the town is from the Jan. 2014 and Sept. 2014 missing payments.

“It hasn’t impacted us too much, but it is a part of our budget,” he said.

Officials said the town is in the first year of its third five-year PILOT agreement with the Nature Conservancy.

The non-profit group owns three pieces of property in the village, assessed at a total value of $299,500 in 2007.

Additionally, the group owns 28 parcels of land in the town, which were assessed at a total value of $2,305,300 in 2007. All of the property falls in the Whitehall School District, which is why a majority of the money finds its way to the school.