To the Editor:

A few participants at the July 11 town board meeting in Knox were verbally on the feisty side toward certain members of the town council during a discussion and the ensuing vote taken concerning whether or not to designate an area along routes 156 and 157 as a business district.

Emotions took over when being civil would have served them better.

Town Supervisor Vasilios Lefkaditis took issue with a statement made in a letter that pointed out that properties within the business district in the hamlet have been vacant for close to five years. He said the statement was a cheap shot.

From my perspective, the cheap shot was not the statement in the letter, which was correct, but rather was the supervisor’s own statement.

One participant said that Knox needs a gas station, a convenience store, and a restaurant. However, I didn’t hear him offer to start any one of those, nor did I hear anyone else present at that meeting do so. Instead of chastising town council members, perhaps the complainers should look into what it would take to start any of the businesses they think are needed and if viable, go for it.

As far as the business district being discussed, I note that five Knox residents own the majority of the property within the boundaries of that district. I wonder if any of those owners have been asked if they would be willing to part with any of their property so someone could start a business there.

If they are not willing to do so, it seems that the thought of having a business district there is a moot issue. Further, of the three businesses in that district, one is seasonal, one has limited occasional sales, and one falls somewhere between somewhat frequent to occasional.

Also, the planning board felt there could be a safety issue because of accidents that have occurred at the intersection of routes 156 and 157 in the past.  Just this summer, five accidents have occurred between that intersection and Pleasant Valley Road, involving two or three vehicles and three motorcycles.

I have heard comments at recent board meetings, wondering why Knox can’t be like Schoharie or Middleburgh. There are numerous reasons why.  Schoharie, which is also the Schoharie County seat, and Middleburgh are both incorporated villages dating back to before 1800.

At the last census, Schoharie Village had a population of just over 1,000 and Middleburgh had a population of 1,400. Plus both villages are on Route 30, which is a major roadway through Schoharie County.

The nearby village of Cobleskill has a population of 4,000 plus the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill with a student body of 2,000. Schoharie houses a department of motor vehicles and county offices, plus a sheriff’s department

By comparison, Knox has a population of 2,600 spread out over a 42 square mile area. I wonder if even 100 residents reside within the hamlet of Knox.

Lefkaditis stated that business districts will generate a spirit of entrepreneurism. I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but I think that spirit at present is only ghostly here in Knox. In fact, for the vast majority of people who don’t reside in the Hilltowns, we may as well be in the Himalayas, and not the Helderbergs.

However, in the past, we have had a reasonably well-stocked grocery store, Margaret Steven’s gas station, and Steven’s fuel oil business. These were all successful business ventures.

Lefkaditis points to three businesses in rural areas as examples of entrepreneurialism:

— Hannay Reels, in Westerlo, which was established in 1933 and has gone on to fill a niche nationally and internationally;

— Maple on the Lake, which occupies the restaurant location operated by Zwicklbauer for many years and draws patrons from not only the Hilltowns but lots of folks from off the hill. Maple on the Lake relocated from its Maple Inn location in East Berne, which had several previous owners and was a well established business before the relocation; and

— Amy’s Place, which is located about  two miles from Middleburgh Village, does well because of its  location and large population to draw patrons from. Lefkaditis’s statement, at the board meeting, that Amy’s is in the middle of nowhere was erroneous.

Hannay Reels and Maple on the Lake would not be nearly as successful if they depended only on customers from the Hilltown area.

While it’s nice to dream, there is an amount of practicality and reality that should be dealt with before ranting and carrying on about business districts in which businesses may never come to fruition. If someone wants to open a business in Knox, regardless of location, the property owners who would be affected by such business should be the ones to determine if they do or do not want that business as a neighbor.

Ed Nicholson

Knox

Editor’s note: Ed Nicholson works part-time for the Knox assessor, Russell Pokorny, husband of Councilwoman Amy Pokorny who has announced she will run for the supervisor post in the fall.