The stories that made 2023

Dec. 30—If there are two words that north country residents want to see banished from news articles in 2024, it is likely dignity and decorum.

Once accepted as a given in Watertown City Council chambers, dignity and decorum became shorthand for political divisiveness in 2023, with council meetings frequently devolving into shouting matches and finger pointing, and that was just from people in the audience.

Elected officials sometimes behaved worse, as council meetings became must-see entertainment, with viewers often wondering who was going to throw the first punch.

Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith and Councilman Clifford G. Olney III demonstrated a unique ability to get under each other's skin, with other council members and a city attorney occasionally being drawn into their exchanges.

The stage was set in late January when city taxpayers awoke to learn they were the owners of a $3.4 million golf course which, like the dog that caught the car, nobody really seemed to know what to do with.

Allegations involving back-room deals, nondisclosure agreements, property inspections, appraisals and possibly bribery flew, countered by claims by the three council members who favored the purchase that the two opposed were trying to sabotage the club's chances for success.

Council tensions heightened in February when Smith announced he would not seek reelection and two council members, Sarah V. Compo Pierce, who was widely viewed as an ally of Smith, and Lisa A. Ruggiero, who was decidedly not a Smith ally, announced intentions to run for the seat.

Smith and Olney repeatedly sparred throughout the year, prompting a lecture at one point from City Attorney H. Todd Bullard, who at times acted almost as a sixth council member, about how a council should conduct itself based on his decades of representing municipalities.

By September, Bullard's firm was out as the city's legal counsel and at year's end City Manager Kenneth A. Mix is gone, citing in part the council's conduct as a reason for retiring after more than 30 years of employment with the city.

The clash between Smith and Olney continued with the mayor filing an ill-defined — at least publicly — ethics violation complaint against Olney that, unless the councilman is a good actor, even he doesn't know the exact nature of. That hasn't stopped the council from acting as though it is on an episode of "Survivor" and can vote a duly elected official out, as the city ethics commission recommended should be done with Olney.

No official action was taken against Olney by the end of the year and it remains to be seen if a newly configured council will pursue his removal. Smith and Councilman Patrick J. Hickey, who lost a June primary, are exiting the council. Newly elected members Benjamin P. Shoen and Robert O. Kimball are coming aboard.

Compo Pierce will now be Mayor Compo Pierce, having defeated Ruggiero in the November election. Ruggiero remains a council member. Eric F. Wagenaar will leave his position as deputy to the commander at Fort Drum to succeed Mix as city manager.

The 2024 slate is not completely clean, but let's hope discussions of dignity and decorum have been erased from the council's agenda.

Here, in no particular order, is a sampling of other topics that drove conversations in the north country in 2023:

ZOO NEW YORK

In late October, the nearly 100-year-old zoo at Watertown's Thompson Park closed, laying off two-thirds of its staff and announcing no timetable for reopening in 2024.

The Thompson Park Conservancy operates Zoo New York and is continuing to care for the animals while it is closed to the public. Within days of the closure announcement, Watertown developer Jake Johnson and the Reddick family, which owns Con Tech Building Systems in Watertown, offered a $60,000 bridge gap loan to help the zoo pay bills through the winter.

Instead, the Watertown City Council agreed in early November to provide $60,000 that the conservancy would not need to pay back and state Assemblyman Scott A. Gray sent a letter to the commissioner of the New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, to fast track a $66,000 state grant that the zoo is due to receive in February.

Within days, the zoo's executive director, Lawrence J. Sorel, announced he was resigning immediately. The conservancy's board chair, Mark D. Irwin, stepped in to temporarily run the facility and Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith appointed a 14-member panel to study the viability of operating the zoo in the future.

At the end of November, the Center for Community Studies at Jefferson Community College released a survey indicating that a large majority of Jefferson County residents favor keeping the zoo open and that it receive more government funding, which will be a consideration for the panel when it next meets Jan. 18 after initially meeting Dec. 7.

BEAVER MEADOW APARTMENTS MURDER

On Aug. 27, 88-year-old Rena L. Eves was found murdered in her Beaver Meadow Apartment in the town of Watertown.

Eves was a registered nurse who had worked at Carthage Area Hospital and Samaritan Medical Center and who worked 55 years at the former Mercy Hospital, retiring as a registered nurse supervisor. She was a long-time volunteer at Watertown's Trinity Episcopal Church, attending services each Sunday and greeting worshippers.

She regularly helped out in the church's office and for many years she handled the church's card ministry, which included writing greeting cards, offering baptismal congratulations and sending condolences.

The cause of Eves's death was reported as blunt-force trauma. Despite assurances from state police that a person of interest has been identified in the crime and that there is no ongoing threat to the public, no arrest has been made.

WATERTOWN YMCA

The ribbon was cut Dec. 11 on the Watertown Family YMCA's new $27.5 million Community and Aquatics Center downtown, the latest incarnation of a building that formerly housed a Woolworth's department store and a Stream call center.

The center, 146 Arsenal St. — named for longtime Y member Mary L. Clemo Smith — immediately became the showpiece of the city's efforts to revitalize its downtown, expected to bring hundreds of people into the city's core daily.

The facility's opening helps further cement the strong relationship the Watertown community has with Fort Drum, as evidenced by a $9 million grant obtained through the U.S. Department of Defense to aid in its construction, which helped the Y move out its previous downtown location on Washington Street, which had outlived its usefulness as the Y continues to grow and offer additional services to families, including those in the military.

WATERTOWN GOLF CLUB

In January, the city took ownership of the Watertown Golf Club in Thompson Park, a transaction that would shape the political environment at City Hall through November's election and likely beyond.

The city paid $3.4 million for the property to developer Michael E. Lundy, who then paid $850,000 to Ives Hill Country Club owner P.J. Simao for an agreement that 18-hole Ives Hill perpetually operate as a nine-hole course. In exchange, the city received 63.84 acres of land that is surrounded by existing city-owned parkland, a clubhouse and various course accessories.

The three council members in favor of the purchase — Patrick J. Hickey, Lisa A. Ruggiero and Clifford G. Olney III — argued that they were preserving the land as parkland for the benefit of future generations, as Lundy had indicated housing may go in the middle of the park instead. The council's remaining two members, Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith and Sarah V. Compo Pierce, were opposed to the purchase, expressing concerns about the price and the city's inexperience with running a golf course.

The course was expected to lose money in its first year of operation, and it did.

Despite hiring an experienced club manager, Jordan Northrop, and having Spokes on Public Square operate its restaurant and concessions, the club lost about $289,000.

By year's end, reports indicate there is virtually no Watertown resident that wants to read another word about the Watertown Golf Club.

FIRST WOMAN ELECTED WATERTOWN MAYOR

When Watertown Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith announced in February that he would not seek reelection, it opened the door for two city council members — Sarah V. Compo Pierce and Lisa A. Ruggiero — to compete for the seat. With just the two announced candidates, one thing became immediately apparent: Watertown would be electing its first female mayor since its incorporation in 1869.

Compo Pierce and Ruggiero had been on opposite sides of some issues, but the city's financial future became a lightning rod for debate in the mayor's race. Compo Pierce repeatedly took Ruggiero to task for her role in the city's purchase of the Watertown Golf Club, often claiming the deal was struck largely behind closed doors.

Ruggiero denied the claims, contending that the transaction preserved a vital city asset by ensuring that Thompson Park would remain intact and free from potential development for future generations to enjoy.

In November's election, Compo Pierce won handily. She will be sworn in as mayor Sunday.

UNIVERSITY FINANCES

Two St. Lawrence County universities — SUNY Potsdam and St. Lawrence University — conceded that they are facing budget gaps of millions of dollars, with both citing a national trend in declining college enrollment as the culprit.

Potsdam said in September that it would it would discontinue 14 degree programs and consider closing two buildings in response to a $9 million budget gap, while St. Lawrence University said it would not be filling 16 long-vacant positions among other cost-saving measures as it wrestles with an $11.5 million deficit.

Clarkson University similarly announced the gradual elimination of degree programs in humanities, social sciences and communications as part of an effort to reorganize operations and balance expenditures from the current annual operating budget in an effort to plan for the future.

MILESTONES AT LEWIS COUNTY HOSPITAL

In December, the ribbon was cut on a state-of-the-art surgical pavilion at Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville, a project that had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lewis County Health System, the hospital's operator, is in the midst of a $32 million construction project to modernize and bring new services to the hospital that opened in 1931.

The hospital has also announced that its maternity department will reopen in the spring after services were "paused" during the pandemic when eight doctors and nurses in the department resigned at one time to avoid mandatory vaccines for the coronavirus. The new facilities and services are expected to have a positive impact on the hospital's ability to attract medical professionals far into the future.

MRAP PROVES VALUE

When Jefferson County acquired a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicle in 2013 under a federal Department of Defense excess property program, several county legislators and others questioned the need for the sheriff's office to utilize a combat-style vehicle that could be seen as militarizing the police.

Sheriff Peter R. Barnett was saying otherwise in May when a Pillar Point man opened fire on deputies after setting fire to a boathouse on his property.

Despite court documents indicating bullets were "whizzing past" responding officers, deputies in the MRAP were able to pursue the man who was fleeing on a tractor an ultimately apprehend him without a single shot being fired by law enforcement.

The man, Nathan P. Crump, is charged with first-degree attempted murder, among other counts that remain pending.

For their actions in the stand-off, 15 members of the sheriff's office were awarded the Star of Gallantry, given for a distinguished act of bravery in the line of duty where the well-being of others is put before the well-being of self by arresting a person who is a major threat to the community and officers.

Four detectives were also recognized with the Meritorious Service commendation.

BUSINESSES SHUT DOWN

The area lost two long-time employers in 2023, with Re-Energy shutting down its Black River biomass plant serving Fort Drum in March and Jain Irrigation shuttering its Watertown operations in May.

Despite efforts from state and federal elected officials, ReEnergy officials said its plant that supplied all energy to Fort Drum was no longer financially viable after bioenergy was dropped by the federal government as an acceptable renewable energy resource, which precluded the company from taking advantage of programs that provided credit for renewable energy projects.

The plant supported more than 300 direct and indirect jobs in the region, with loggers being particularly impacted by its closure. Fort Drum returned to purchasing electricity from the regional electricity grid.

Jain Irrigation on Water Street began laying off its approximately 50 employees in May, ending a manufacturing legacy that had its roots in Watertown beginning in 1962.

Jain had purchased the business in 2006 from Chapin Watermatics, whose founder, Richard D. Chapin, had invented drip irrigation and was credited with distributing thousands of his drip irrigation bucket kits to more than 150 countries around the world, helping farmers produce crops in areas that otherwise would be too dry to use.

MURDER CHARGE LODGED, DROPPED

Shortly after Ronald E. Durham, 72, was found murdered in February in a Gouverneur cemetery, a 22-year-old acquaintance, Frederick A. Wing Jr. was charged with the crime.

Within days, Wing's family members were adamant that the wrong person had been charged, as Durham and Wing were actually friends.

After a second murder was discovered in early March in the town of Rossie, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua announced the Rossie murder was linked to the Durham case and that Wing was not involved in either killing.

Adam W. Smith, 46, of Gouverneur and Lake Placid, was ultimately charged with Durham's murder and with that of William M. Freeman, 67, in Freeman's Rossie home on March 1.

Those cases against Smith remain pending. It took until late May, but charges were officially dropped against Wing, clearing him of any connection to the crimes.

NEW STATE LEGISLATORS

The north country saw a new state senator and assemblyman sworn into office to begin the year.

Sen. Mark C. Walczyk, R-Watertown, took the oath as the replacement for retired Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie in the 49th Senate District. Walczyk, a former Watertown City Council member, had most recently served as assemblyman for the 116th Assembly District. Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, was sworn into the Assembly to replace Walczyk. Gray was a longtime chairman of the Jefferson County Board of Legislators.