Jamie Konkoski (Provided photo)

SARANAC LAKE — Jamie Konkoski, who served as the village’s Community Development Director for the past six years, is resigning from her position on July 26. The village is currently looking for a successor to take on the village planning, grant writing and project approval position.

Konkoski is leaving the village position to pursue another job as a planner in the private sector, where she’ll be working remotely in Saranac Lake.

Konkoski said she’s seen lots of great projects during her tenure. But as her job description has expanded, with cuts to other village positions, she’s wanted to focus on her core work more.

“I’ve enjoyed it immensely,” she said on Wednesday.

Village Manager Erik Stender said Konkoski has been “devoted” to her job.

“Definitely going to miss her at the village,” he said. “It is tough to see her go because we rely on her for many things here, but it is exiting to see her move on to the next phase of her career.”

Konkoski said she chose to leave because the job has changed since she first was hired in 2017.

“Over the past year … my position has changed. The responsibilities changed. I just want to focus on more of the types of projects I’m passionate about,” Konkoski said.

In April 2022, the village board chose — in a tense 3-2 vote — to eliminate the Development Code Administrator position and transfer their duties to Konkoski. This put a lot more work on her, and she spent less time developing and implementing planning initiatives, which is what she’s really passionate about.

These responsibilities are not outside of the Community Development Director position, but they’re not what she really wants to do. She said it wasn’t a negative change but it also wasn’t what she was hired to do.

The position also has new responsibilities with the short-term vacation rental law the village recently passed. The Community Development Director will be working with the village development board to clear up a backlog of about 80 preexisting STRs, which will need permits to keep operating under the new law. Then, the Community Development Director will work with the board to consider all future STR permits.

Stender said the first 18 months of clearing that backlog will be “chaotic” but things should “normalize” after that. It’s difficult timing for Konkoski to leave with the STR law coming into effect soon, but Stender said no time is ideal.

“If it wasn’t the STR law it’d be something else,” he said.

Konkoski said the development board has “solid procedures … teed up and ready” for handling STR permit applications.

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Team work

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Konkoski said the village has had a lot of great planning work over many years and it was exciting to see those projects come to fruition.

“There has been many positive changes during Jamie’s time here,” Stender said in a statement. “Some can been seen such as new parks or new advisory boards, and many cannot be seen such as the numerous grants she has received for the village.”

Seeing those years of hard work pay off has been “super rewarding,” Konkoski said, but she said she can’t take credit for them alone.

“They happened while I was in the position. I was lucky enough to be here for that phase,” Konkoski said.

Everything was a team effort, she said.

“There’s, like, so many things to be proud of and I think the key takeaway is I’ve done nothing on my own,” Konkoski said. “The advisory boards, task forces, committees … the community members here are incredible.”

The public projects funded through a $9.8 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the village got in 2018 are nearing completion as construction carries on in parks, streets and sidewalks around town this summer. The village’s update to its Local Waterfront Revitalization Program is nearing an end. The village’s housing plan was completed. Its Arts and Culture Master Plan was completed and an advisory board was set up after she joined. This board has been working on public art projects ever since.

This year, Saranac Lake made it into the final two in a nationwide “Strongest Town” competition which ranks towns in North America based on urban planning, losing out to only Brattleboro, Vermont.

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Hiring

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The Community Development Director is a civil service position, so applicants will need to complete a Franklin County Civil Service application, but Stender said there is no exam, because there’s already a strict list of requirements to qualify for the job. A list of these requirements can be found with the job listing at bit.ly/44smJJy.

Stender said this automatically-reduced pool of applicants makes it even more difficult to hire for the position, but it’s not an easy job and they want to find the right person for it — both in terms of qualifications and personality.

He said, ideally, he’d like to hire locally to find someone who can start right away, already knows the village’s goals and is invested in the community. He’s not against hiring someone from out of town — they can bring fresh blood and new ideas, he said — but finding housing for hires moving into Saranac Lake has blocked people from taking other village jobs in the past.

The job listing was posted to the village’s website, social media and on national employment websites on Monday. Stender said the North Country and Saranac Lake Area chambers of commerce have been notified of the opening.

Anyone wishing to apply for the position will need to complete a Franklin County Civil Service application and submit it to village Clerk Amanda Hopf at clerk@saranaclakeny.gov.

Copies of the application may be found at the village offices or online on the village’s website at saranaclakeny.gov.

Anyone with questions about the position, its duties and benefits package can contact Hopf at 518-891-4150 ext. 202 or at clerk@saranaclakeny.gov.

Stender does the hiring himself, with approval from the village board. In the past, the village manager hired employees by themselves. But that changed a number of years ago and his selection needs to be approved with a majority vote by the village board, too, now.

Stender said on Wednesday he had two applicants so far, but he hadn’t looked at them yet to see if they are qualified. He plans to hold a series of interviews with applicants where a few board members will be present, too.

There’s no deadline to hire by, but he hopes to fill the vacancy before Konkoski leaves on July 26, so she could help them transition.

Konoski said she’s been writing lots of notes for her successor to refer to.

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Role

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The Community Development Director’s role is to administer the village development code and form plans for housing, parks and infrastructure around town. They write grants for village projects; work with the village board on planning, development and zoning projects; and overseeing the village’s advisory boards.

After the elimination of the Development Code Administrator position, the Community Development Director also looks at building permits for anyone who wants to do construction in the village and decides if they can give the applicant administrative approval or if it needs special permissions from the development board.

Konkoski said she may be involved in Saranac Lake projects in the future, just on the other side of the table as a consultant.