Burns: Don't Expect Reuse Plan For OCF

If Ogdensburg Correctional Facility closes, there will be no use for the building and it will only join the large number of abandoned state buildings on the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center grounds, predicts St. Lawrence County Legislator Vernon "Sam" Burns, D-Ogdensburg.

New York State Correction Law 79b states that prior to a prison closure, state officials are required to develop a reuse plan for the site if closure is imminent. Mr. Burns predicts that OCF will not be able to be reused, similar to what happened when Camp Gabriels, Camp Mt. McGregor and Camp Pharsalia were closed last year. In all three cases, the state issued a report that concluded there were no other uses for the empty prisons.

As a member of Public Employees Federation (PEF), an employee with the state Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), Mr. Burns participated in Lobby Day in Albany with a seven-member group meeting with the chairs and ranking members of the Corrections Committee in the state Senate and Assembly.

"It was very disturbing for me to listen to a few of the legislators talk about the reuse plan for the Correctional Facility. As a lifelong resident of Ogdensburg, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Ogdensburg Bridge & Port Authority, and chair of the St. Lawrence County Legislature's subcommittee on Economic Development and Strategic Planning, I feel that I can objectively address the issue of reusing the buildings at the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility," said Mr. Burns.

Mr. Burns said that before the minimum correctional facilities/camps were closed down last year, there was a great deal of talk about reusing them.

"Today, they stand abandoned by the state and are watched over by a private firm instead of nearby existing state employees," said Mr. Burns.

He said that he explained to one of the state Assembly members that it would be impossible to market OCF as an incubator space for small startup firms or an industrial site as it sits on the campus of a state psychiatric center and a Sexually Violent Predator Unit.

"Neither is very appealing to any prospective tenant. In addition, the old buildings that were part of the psychiatric center would be extremely costly to update with new technology or renovate for industrial use. Those buildings work perfectly fine for use as a school or dorms," he said.

He said he also told the Assembly member that within a stone's throw from OCF exists a light industrial park with modern infrastructure and available room and across the highway is a heavy industrial park with rail access and room for expansion.

"In light of that reality, how would it be possible to attract anyone to use those buildings for anything other than what they are being used for now?" he asks.

Mr. Burns said that using OCF for something other than a prison is not a "viable alternative and not a real option."

"Even the thought or attempt by anyone in Albany to suggest that there is a realistic reuse plan for that facility must be stopped now," said Mr. Burns, " If this facility is allowed to close, the State of New York will inherit a group of buildings that no one will ever want. I do not believe that any reuse plan can be drawn up that will utilize this facility for anything other than what it is being used for now."