Short-term rentals get extension

WATKINS GLEN--The Watkins Glen board of trustees voted unanimously Tuesday, Jan. 19, to automatically extend roughly 65 pre-existing short-term rental permits set to expire during the moratorium until Dec. 31, 2021. While the original permits cost $400, permit holders will not be charged by the village for the extension.
"Short-term rental permits are starting to expire, but obviously we haven't finished our new zoning laws and therefore we still have a moratorium on short-term rentals," said Luke Leszyk, Watkins Glen mayor. "So if you look into short term rentals they have to be re-approved every two years, which we can't do with a moratorium. So we need to extend these."
The board voted upon the recommendation of Village Code Enforcement Officer Darren Stocum, who in the end made the recommendation despite some reservations regarding the workload it could create and the loss of funds from not charging permit fees for the third year.
"I mean if we charged them what would we be charging them for? They don't have to file a new permit application and we are not performing inspections for this year... not to mention this is not their fault, this is on us," Leszyk said.
Stocum agreed and said that so long as the inspections are spread out over December, January and February it shouldn't create too much of a scheduling issue.
"We are being told that the new zoning laws should be in effect by June or July," Leszyk said.
The board voted unanimously to give the county open-ended access to use the community center in Watkins Glen as a COVID vaccine clinic as more supply becomes available. Originally the resolution called for specific dates, but after some discussion amongst the board, it was decided it would be more efficient and useful to allow the use of the community center at any time with the caveat that it not interfere with events already booked such as blood drives.
"But if they need them they can use them, hopefully we do have the vaccinations," Leszyk added.
The board voted to allow the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce the ability to auction off commercial sponsorship for the newly created town square. According to Leszyk, the rights will be bid on during the annual winter auction.
Police Sergeant Ethan Mosher gave a brief update on the police department's efforts to meet the state-mandated reform protocols.
With a deadline of April 1, Mosher said the department has made available a survey regarding police activities. The survey can be accessed at www.tinyurl.com/wg-police-survey.