Friday’s Northern New York Daily Brief follows new investment in local care, a Watertown housing proposal, downtown work in Potsdam and Canton, a county legislative vacancy and a growing effort to preserve local cemetery history.
Samaritan adds advanced breast imaging in Watertown
Samaritan Medical Center marked the arrival of a contrast-enhanced mammography system at its Women’s Wellness Center with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, October 15. A $575,000 grant from the Saint Agatha Foundation supported the equipment upgrade. The addition brings a diagnostic service to Watertown that previously required patients to travel to Syracuse or Rochester, making the location of specialized care the central local change. The new system expands the hospital’s breast imaging capabilities and gives North Country patients another option closer to home when their care calls for this technology.
Housing proposal returns for former Ives Hill fairways
A request before Watertown planners would change the zoning of roughly 16 acres of former Ives Hill Country Club land from residential to a planned campus district. Developer P.J. Simao’s proposal identifies affordable housing, senior housing, townhouses and single-family homes as possible uses, with offered deed restrictions to prevent commercial development. The land borders IHC schools and the Ives Hill Retirement Community. A previous rezoning effort was withdrawn in 2024. The new request remains a proposal, and the City Council has the final decision. A separate request concerns allowing the club’s restaurant property to operate independently of the golf course.
Potsdam celebrates downtown work as Canton starts redevelopment
Thursday, October 15 brought two different milestones for St. Lawrence County downtowns. Potsdam celebrated streetscape and riverwalk improvements supported by its $10 million state revitalization award from 2019. New sidewalks, lights, benches and signs are among the visible changes, with final touch-ups still remaining. In Canton, a ceremony at Midtown Plaza marked the start of a longer redevelopment effort. Plans call for a three-story building of about 71,500 square feet, including 60 apartments and a SUNY Canton entrepreneurial center. The approximately $27 million project includes nearly $7 million in state support and is still several years from completion.
St. Lawrence County prepares to fill District 13 vacancy
The St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators plans a special meeting Monday, October 19 to appoint a replacement for departing District 13 legislator John Gennett. The Republican lawmaker resigned to take a job outside New York and was not seeking another term. The appointment would cover the remainder of the year for the district serving the Brasher, Massena and Town of Lawrence areas. Separately, voters will choose a full-term representative in November, with Republican Terry Goodrich and Democrat Setcher Krywanczyk running. The immediate appointment and the coming election address different periods of representation for the district’s residents.
North Country preservation effort passes 3,000 gravestones
Allyson Stephenson’s work cleaning Northern New York gravestones has passed 3,000 markers over six years, bringing renewed attention to the region’s cemetery history. The former nurse shares the stories behind the monuments through her Crazy Cemetery Lady social media account and has formed the nonprofit Grave Geeks to help others participate. The group offers volunteers information about cleaning graves and accepts donations for supplies. Its 104 members have collectively cleaned close to 6,000 monuments. The growing effort connects hands-on preservation with local history, helping make inscriptions and the community stories they record more visible for future visitors.
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