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Ken wrote: “…local Assemblyman Matt Siimpson said closing the prison was "unwise" and state Sen. Dan Stec posted on his official state Senate webpage: "Don't Close Great Meadow."

It’s been part of Republican DNA for decades to advocate for fewer state programs, less state spending, lower state taxes, and reduce wasteful spending. We hear it from local and state-level Republicans repeatedly — cut waste.

So when the state does cut waste, the hue and cry comes from the very same politicians who decried that waste to begin with.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican.

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Bob Dillon's avatar

I have posted several comments in your former paper the Post Star about this closing. What I find fascinating is the ignorance of some of the follow up comments blaming the DEMs and the Hochul for politically singling out this ancient, dangerous, costly prison to close it rather than the big picture you have outlined. It makes NO sense to continue to operate a mammoth prison with less than 1/3 of the capacity and more employees on payroll than prisoners being held. I don't know what the excess capacity is in other prisons around the state, but I'll bet the annual operating costs per prisoner for this facility are among the highest in the state, with one of the worst performance records. Sadly, Washington County was basically denied the extension of interstate 87 back in the 1950's by a decision by NY State not to fund and build a key piece of the highway due to Wash. Cty. being so rural and agriculturally based. So, Rutland VT section of the Eisenhower system has no connector running over to the greater Glens Falls region and 149 tends to be the major highway (at great expense and traffic congestion..aka the heroin highway for drug dealers delivering to VT). That has cost the county and local towns dearly for transportation access , drug and sex trafficking, and now most all of the Industrial Revolution industries are gone (GE was last really big closing). Sadly the county is run by a bunch of "good old boy" farmers and they have watched since the turn of the century as thousands of good paying jobs have been lost. A plan to deal with this closing should have been in the works years ago, but the dismal economic development efforts now will just have to accept that the northern part of the county like Whitehall will fall in to worse times than it already has. A shadow of its once great situation as a transportation hub 150 years ago with the canal and a major railroad hub, it's now a shambles where buildings have literally fallen down due to abandonment and the drug scene is horrific. No major grocery store, and when McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts close, you know the demographics of the community have hit rock bottom. Guess what? Everyone knew this prison would close at some point? It was never IF, it was WHEN, but the flat footed County Supervisors kicked the can down the road only to hit this dead end. Luckily, Irving Paper in Fort Edward is still investing to build their new warehouse. IF they shut down, that would be the largest, private, tax paying company in the county to close. While it's a beautiful rural county with lots of things to do and see, to date there is not ONE hotel in the entire county, nor ONE large restaurant that can handle 2 bus loads of tourists for a meal at the same time and get them in and out in an hour! A few motels, BnB's and a dismal future on the horizon! Why is that? NO VISION from the leaders would be a great place to start doing research.

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