Saratoga County committee reviews proposed five-year lease renewal, temporary extension for Gateway House of Peace

The Saratoga County Buildings and Grounds Committee on March 4 heard from Public Works about a proposed local law that would authorize a five-year lease renewal with the Gateway House of Peace for county-owned property at 479 Rollins Street in the town of Milton.

Chad Cook of Public Works told the committee the current agreement with the Gateway House of Peace — which provides care for the terminally ill and has leased the county property for more than a decade — is set to expire on March 14, 2026. He said the proposal the department brought forward would extend that arrangement through a new five-year lease and would include a temporary extension of the existing lease while the local-law process and any required hearing period are completed. "We lease it to them for a dollar," Cook said, describing the nominal rent under the agreement.

Cook said he had not allowed enough lead time in the request to complete the full local-law timing requirements and that staff discussed with the county attorney's office a clause to permit a temporary extension until the procedural requirements (including the roughly 45-day hearing/notice period referenced in the presentation) are satisfied. He described the extension as intended to avoid an interruption of services on the property while statutory steps are followed.

The chair noted the county owns the parcel at 479 Rollins Street in the town of Milton and introduced the item for consideration. The committee approved the minutes from its Oct. 28, 2025 meeting earlier in the session; the minutes approval was recorded as passing on a roll-call vote.

The committee briefly entered executive session for a matter that included the county attorney and the commissioner of public works among attendees. When the committee returned at about 3:32 p.m., members reported no formal action had been taken during the closed session. The transcript does not record a final vote on the proposed local law during the public portion of this meeting.

Next steps: staff said the local-law introduction triggers the county's hearing and notice requirements; the proposal includes a temporary extension mechanism that staff would implement, subject to completing the required local-law procedures and any future committee or board votes.

(Reporting note: portions of the meeting transcript were unclear or garbled in places; the article does not attribute remarks where the speaker or motion details were not explicit in the record.)