Village wants sign removed, help a small business

Hi, my name is Pamela Stewart, my husband & I own JP’s Marine in Alexandria Bay NY. We purchased the Marina in 2017, we employ three full time employees and two part time employees. My husband has been in the marina business for over 45 years. Since we started here in 2017 we have had two floods, low water and a pandemic. We have wonderful customers and we love what we do. We reside in Alexandria Bay year round. We also have a two houses next to the marina that we have fixed up to improve the looks of our street as well as the village.

We never had a sign for our business from the road and so many customers could not find us so we went ahead and got a permit for a sign.

The company we hired to make the sign and get our permit has done all the signs in Alexandria Bay and the surrounding area. When we decided to go smaller we asked if we needed a new permit, we were told no due to going smaller. The village rejected our permit for going smaller stating we had to update the permit.

At the next village meeting, one board member stated that the permit was fixed so the permit should be approved. Our Mayor stated they were going to send it to Jefferson County since our sign is not 450 ft off a state road, we are 437 ft. Jefferson County said since there is no sign ordinance, it’s tastefully done the sign should be allowed and the village needs to get a sign ordinance in place. The village planning board stating that the sign should stay as we support Alexandria Bay, we belong to the Chamber, we look after the Alexandria Bay Fire Boats and donate all labor, we support our youth hockey team, we donate to Alexandria Bay School as well as to anyone that is doing a legitimate fundraiser.

The next meeting the village Mayor asked the village attorney if there was anything that could be done to stop our sign from going up, so they created a moratorium. Our attorney sent a letter stating that our permit was in before the moratorium was in place so they need to approve or reject it and if that’s the case we need a letter stating why it was rejected.

This all took place July 2021 to September 2021, the sign moratorium has been extended for an other 6 months. Now you come into Alexandria Bay you will see new businesses with new signs. I am happy for them but I would like to keep my sign as well.

Saturday June 4, I was served with papers for Supreme Court to have my sign removed. This is a case that our attorney can not take as it’s not his forte and has recommended a good attorney.

The reason for this go fund me is with the cost of everything on the rise, and we have a small window to make enough money to keep us going all winter. Our Marina does not close so we have to put enough money away in 6 months to cover payroll, taxes and regular business expenses. I am so upset that this is where the tax payers money is going, including mine!

I want to stop this village from bullying and singling out businesses but unfortunately I don’t have the money to fight this without help.

We are grateful for any donations!!! We want Alexandria Bay NY to thrive and grow but some of the village members do not.

Any donated funds that are not needed

to win this case will be donated to the Alexandria Bay Youth Hockey Team for the new hockey rink.

Thank you from all of us at JP’s Marine!