The Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy had set an ambitious $1.2 million fund-raising goal, which it exceeded when loans and grants were taken into account, to purchase the historic farm, but the not-for-profit’s director, Mark King, declined to say how much the conservancy paid for the 198-acre property at the corner of routes 85 and 85A in New Scotland.
Nine months after Jeanne Picard Fish was declared “incapacitated” and placed in a nursing home, her property — close to 90 acres with an historic barn and house at the foot of the Helderbergs — is about to be sold for $660,000 in a way that will protect 80 percent of the land from future development.
The Enterprise and the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy gave away free seeds for Bender melons this spring from which Don Meacham of Voorheesville grew this beauty.
Berne’s town attorney Javid Afzali informed the town board at its July 22 meeting that the controversial Switzkill Farm property may have been acquired illegally because the 2014 town board did not allow for a permissive referendum following the purchase authorization. Then-supervisor Kevin Crosier tells The Enterprise that no referendum was required.
A judge has denied the sale of Picard’s Grove to developer Michael Biernacki for $500,000, requiring that other offers be considered and also that the property be appraised and that the owner’s personal property be properly inventoried.
NEW SCOTLAND — As Jeanne Picard Fish remains in a Valatie nursing home, several offers have been made for her property, once a popular community gathering place, Picard’s Grove, at the foot of the Helderberg escarpment.
“A huge number of people have expressed interest in [finding] an alternative to development,” said Mark King, executive director of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy. “We’re trying to wrangle those interests into something we could present as an alternative.”
