ALBANY, N.Y. — The owner of part of a historic Hudson River island said Wednesday he’s still planning to sell the property to the state for use as a park, despite a budget-related snag that will postpone the transaction until at least next year. Long Island businessman Anthony Nastasi said he hasn’t heard anything official from state or local officials...
ALBANY, N.Y. — The owner of part of a historic Hudson River island said Wednesday he’s still planning to sell the property to the state for use as a park, despite a budget-related snag that will postpone the transaction until at least next year.
Long Island businessman Anthony Nastasi said he hasn’t heard anything official from state or local officials in Fort Edward about the sale of 34 acres on Rogers Island, 45 miles north of Albany.
State parks officials said in March that the $400,000 acquisition would be final by September. On Wednesday, an agency spokeswoman said the sale won’t happen this year because of cuts in funding for buying land.
Rogers Island is considered the birthplace of the U.S. Army Rangers because Rogers’ Rangers — named after the group’s commander, Robert Rogers — were based there during the French and Indian War. Nastasi’s island parcel is located on what was part of a sprawling British fortification from 1755 to the early 1760s, a period when Fort Edward was England’s largest military outpost in North America.
The state was “in a rush to get the paperwork done by a certain date, and then it went quiet,” Nastasi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I would imagine, because of the state budget woes, this is not a priority. So we’re sitting in limbo, waiting for them.”
Nastasi’s father, Frank, a contractor and history buff, bought the property in the 1990s and later started talks with the state about a deal for the land.
After Frank Nastasi died in December 2007, his son took over the property and the negotiations continued. The younger Nastasi, whose drywall contracting business is based in Nassau County, said he has no other plans for the land and still wants to fulfill his father’s wish to preserve the property as a public park.
“This is what he wanted,” Nastasi said. “We’re not going anywhere. The island’s not going anywhere. Unless they find gold or something, nothing’s going to change.”
Shortly before Memorial Day, Gov. David Paterson pushed an emergency funding bill through the Legislature that kept state parks operating but cut $78 million from the Environmental Protection Fund for open space conservation and land acquisition. The money available for buying land was reduced from $65 million in the previous budget to $17.6 million for the 2010-11 fiscal year, but most of that is intended for forest preserve purchases.
For the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, that means no money for the Rogers Island property.
Parks spokeswoman Eileen Larrabee said there’s also no certainty the funds will be available in 2011-12. “It certainly was a priority for the agency to make the acquisition,” she said. “I don’t know where we’re going to be come next year.”
Fort Edward leaders envision incorporating the Nastasi property into a tourism trail linking adjacent 18th-century military sites. Had the deal gone through, the state was likely to turn over operation and maintenance of the Rogers Island property to the town and the village of Fort Edward.
“We’ll wait it out for now,” said Neal Orsini, a town board member and restaurant owner. “One way or the other, it’s going to be protected and turned into a park, even if we have to go knocking on doors ourselves to raise money and preserve the property for the community.”