Camp Boyhaven meeting postponed to Wednesday

PHOTOGRAPHER: Eric Jenks

Camp Boyhaven in Milton is seen on June 29, 2017.

MILTON — Those who showed up for a special Town Board meeting on Monday about the town’s efforts to buy Camp Boyhaven were greeted by a note on the door.

The meeting had been rescheduled for Wednesday, it said.

Supervisor Scott Ostrander said the meeting was postponed because town attorneys needed more time, as another entity had “stepped up to the plate.” He would not provide further details.

The Town Board was supposed to meet Monday to discuss purchasing Camp Boyhaven — a 300-acre former Boy Scout camp off Middle Grove Road, along the Kayaderosseras Creek — from Twin Rivers Boy Scout Council. The purchase has a closing deadline of Friday, as per the agreement between the scouts and the town.

At the Town Board’s May 1 meeting, a resolution was passed that authorized the town attorney to move forward with a May 11 purchase closing and to bond $500,000, as originally planned for the purchase.

Board member Barbara Kerr said she was notified of the meeting change Friday, and that it was supposed to run in legal notices in area newspapers.

No such legal notice was published in The Daily Gazette, however.

Kerr decided to stop at Town Hall on Monday evening to alert people of the meeting change.

“I had a feeling people would be there, so I wanted to explain that it was canceled and when it was,” she said. “It was the courteous thing to do.”

Kerr said she hopes Wednesday’s meeting will yield a positive resolution on the purchase of Camp Boyhaven.

“I hope we’ll be closing on the 11th and that the board can pull this together and find a solution,” she said.

An anonymous donor who pledged $500,000 toward the purchase rescinded that offer on April 25, after attempts were reportedly made to reveal the donor’s identity.

Saratoga PLAN, a Saratoga County-based environmental conservation organization, teamed up with Milton Planning Board Chairman Larry Woolbright to launch a fundraising effort to help the town purchase Camp Boyhaven.

On Tuesday, Woolbright said around $110,000 had been raised.

He added that he doesn’t think a new benefactor has come forward, beyond Saratoga PLAN, the Nature Conservancy — which may provide a bridge loan for the purchase — and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has expressed interest in buying the adjoining Middle Grove State Forest from the town, once the sale is complete.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for many generations to come, and it’s not an opportunity we’ll have again,” he said of purchasing the camp. “The town needs to keep a stiff upper lip, step up to the plate and do the right thing.”

The special Town Board meeting has now been slated for 7 p.m. on Wednesday in Milton Town Hall, 503 Geyser Road, Ballston Spa.