To the Editor:

It has come to my attention that Jeanne Picard Fish, the owner of Picard’s Grove, on Picard Road in New Scotland has become incapacitated and now resides in a nursing home in Valatie. I am concerned about the future of Jeanne and Picard’s Grove.

Great dismay has overcome me after reading the news you reported with regards to how Joseph L. Kay, an attorney appointed by the court to be guardian of Jeanne’s property, is handling her situation and property [“Picard’s Grove set to be sold to developer for $500K,” The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 31, 2020].

My interest is sparked by my childhood interactions with her family and my familiarity with the property known as Picard’s Grove as I grew up nearby as a neighbor and was always welcome there.

The buildings and family have a long history in the community, which heralds back a century or more and can be traced back by local historians.

What I have questions about are as follows.

If Albany County says the buildings and 86-plus acres have a full-market value of $764,348 and the town of New Scotland has the entire property assessed at $703,200 and mind you that is considering its value as farmland, why is the court-appointed attorney entertaining offers of $500,000 when the property hasn’t even been put on the open market?

I also have to question the attorney’s stated difficulty at finding anyone to appraise the property currently. I am wondering about the value of her furniture, vehicles, farm equipment, grove equipment, etc. — everything she and her family owned. Would it all be given up to whoever purchased the property? I think that’s nuts and unconscionable.

This doesn’t sound like, in my humble opinion, a situation that would be in Jeanne’s best interest!

Right now, I believe real estate is a seller’s market. It is also reported that the attorney remarks that the barn beside the road has to be taken down and quite possibly the house. I personally don’t believe that can be true. Given the cost of new construction, those buildings must be worth repairing! Again, in my opinion.

I think the attorney is rushing his duties and from my viewpoint it isn’t the most profitable outcome to Jeanne Picard Fish’s benefit! I will admit that I would like the property to stay intact with one homeowner as it has been with the Picard family.

Maybe there is a family with the means to purchase the property for close to the full assessed value. But if the attorney is allowed to handle it in the manner he has already demonstrated as reported, that opportunity to preserve Picard’s Grove as a unified property is not even being explored.

Heck, there are homes in Voorheesville that George Amedore built selling for more than the Picard property and they have far less property and buildings or potential. Go figure! Does that sound right to everyone reading this?

Timothy J. Albright

Meadowdale