Back in December, a state commission decided to redevelop closed prison sites, released a report on what it things should be done with the dozen state facilities recently closed and now sitting vacant. One of those prisons is up North, in the financially strapped city of Odgensburg.

“If you just picture without the razor wire and the fencing and it's just a little industrial park,” Ogdensburg Mayor Mike Skelly said.

Skelly has a vision, but he fears it's one that New York state may never see.

“We could turn this all around where we would be a prosperous community going forward,” he said.

It's been almost a year now since the state shut down the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, taking more than 200 city jobs with it.

What You Need To Know

  • A year ago, New York State shut down a number of prisons, including the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility

  • For a year, the prison has sat empty, with no real plan to redevelop the site and allow the city to gain revenue from it

  • The prison sits on the same land as the former St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, and it is prime, riverfront land the city wants to be able to us

 

“We gave up all this vital property, our most valuable property. We've lost the tax base for it. But we we had the jobs warehoused and stressed today,” Skelly said of the city when it first agreed to house a prison — at a time he says, not many communities wanted to.

And without those jobs, and its residents having to travel to other communities for work, has made the financial situation of the city, which was already in such peril that much worse.

“Our revenue has decreased and expenses have really increased drastically,” Skelly said of city finances.

It's a burden that weighs heavily.

“It's heart wrenching. These people have devoted their lives,” Skelly said.

Former employees of the prison and also every other taxpayer in this city, as well. A city that now has nearly a third of its taxable land base and prime riverfront land that now just sitting there vacant as it scrambles to make up the difference. Solutions that will almost certainly further hurt the people here.

“You know, they're barely making ends meet or not. They're not able to maintain, keep their houses up because we take so much money from them,” Skelly said.

So while New York state has committed to preventing the prison from rapid deterioration by keeping the heat on for the city, it's a far cry from a redevelopment plan or the funding for one.

The prison sits on the same exact land as the former state owned St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, which has sat, abandoned and deteriorating since the 1980s.

“I got pictures of like a couple of years ago in that that roof was still on there,” Skelly added.

So for now, the city will continue to press forward, offering ideas, offering plans to the state in hopes that New York does what it believes is right.

“It could make all the difference in our city. This this land could be the key to a prosperous northern New York,” Skelly said of a redevelopment plan.

Skelly believes the land could also be given to local agencies, such as the Bridge and Port Authority, who could find ways to make it useful once again.