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Board authorizes legal outreach over proposed $100M battery storage project
Summary
The board approved engaging counsel to seek the town's inclusion in any PILOT or payment negotiations for a proposed battery energy storage project; members raised fiscal concerns and clarified the town intends to request inclusion via a lawyer's letter rather than undertake immediate litigation.
The town board approved a motion to retain outside counsel to request that Hague be included in any payment‑in‑lieu‑of‑tax (PILOT) or related negotiations involving a proposed battery energy storage (ESS) project near Ticonderoga. Board members described the project as large in scale and asked the lawyer to prepare a formal letter asking to be included in any talks; one member said the project had been described locally as "a potentially $100,000,000 project."
Members discussed fiscal implications, including an estimate cited in the meeting that a project of that scale could change school‑tax assessments by roughly $800,000 annually on an ordinary tax basis if treated as conventional taxable property. Several members clarified the intent of the motion was to authorize counsel to draft and send a request to the project's representatives and school district—not to commit the town to litigation. The board approved the action and discussed the expected modest legal cost.
