Roadside snack bar to offer dogs and burgers to Thacher Park visitors

The Enterprise — Michael Koff

A snack shack has been approved by Knox’s zoning board.

KNOX — A roadside snack bar, offering simple fare, is set to open on the corner of Ketcham and Thacher Park roads, with the owners hoping to take advantage of visitors to the nearby state park.

Laura Martin-Pasquini — who is listed on the application and the county assessment rolls as Laura Hill — and William Pasquini went before the Knox Zoning Board of Appeals for a public hearing on March 22 to approve their special-use permit to operate the business. Their son, William Pasquini Jr., who was appointed to the planning board the week before, watched from the gallery.

The snack bar would be open from April 1 through Nov. 1, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, said Martin-Pasquini. She hopes to serve coffee, pastries, hotdogs, hamburgers, and other food she will cook either on or off the premise. She is listed as the owner of the property, which is about 5 acres and has a full-market value of $33,333 and a taxable value of $20,000, according to the county assessment rolls.

The small yellow, shed-like building is somewhat mobile, said Pasquini, as it’s build on a pair of skids. He told the zoning board that there would be no outside tables or benches, ensuring that the snack bar would be drive-up only.

The special-use permit was granted by the zoning board with one abstention by Dana Sherman, said board secretary Mackenzie Hempstead. As a newly appointed member, Sherman said he had only just received the information about the proposed snack bar and abstained for that reason. The business must still obtain permission from state agencies.

Around 50 years ago, Pasquini’s parents also owned and operated a snack bar near John Boyd Thacher State Park. It was during that time, he said, visitors flocked to the park. Traffic diminished after the New York State Thruway was built, he said, because people could more easily travel to places like Saratoga.

But the park is seeing a new increase in visitors, he said. Martin-Pasquini remarked that should could make money offering directions with so many lost tourists stoppin in their driveway.

Thacher Park has recently added new attractions. Last year, the park opened a modern visitors’ center, and began offering rock-climbing and an adventure ropes course. In 2016, park director Maureen Curry said she was seeing more visitors even before the anticipated attractions were opened.

A mobile snack bar had been approved on the New Scotland side of Thacher Park Road in July of 2016. The roadside operation had been proposed by Timothy Albright on behalf of his employer, Indian Ladder Farms.

Albright told The Enterprise on Monday that plans to operate the snack bar have been put off; to maintain permission to use the site, the farm has sent a van with a stand and farm products to sell once a year in the fall, said Albright.

Thacher Park itself operates a seasonal concession stand at the overlook section of the park, said Nola DalGallo, the assistant park director. The state puts out a bid once a year for vendors to operate the concession stand, but last year no one applied, she said. The current bidding process is still ongoing, she said.

 

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