GLENS FALLS — Sen. Betty Little said she has enjoyed helping people solve problems during her more than three decades of public service.
Whether it was a town and village fighting over a sewer plant or county officials reluctant to commit to a capital project, Little, R-Queensbury, enjoyed the experience.
“I think I’ve been able to bring a lot of groups together,” she said on Wednesday as she packed up items in her Warren Street office.
Little is leaving office at the end of month after nine terms in the Senate. She has held various elective office posts since 1986. Little said it was just time to step away after turning 80.
State Sen. Betty Little R-Queensbury, reflects on her career during a Post-Star interview in her Warren Street office on Wednesday in Glens Falls.
She liked resolving disputes, recounting an instance when the town of Plattsburgh was going to build a separate wastewater treatment plant because town officials were unhappy with the rate they were going to be charged by the city to dispose of waste into Lake Champlain.
She asked town officials where their plant would discharge treated waste. They said Lake Champlain.
“I said: ‘Do you really think this is a good idea to have two, when this one has all the capacity?’” she said.
Eventually, the town came around and an agreement was reached.
In another instance, the Washington County Board of Supervisors did not believe they could support the higher education building at what was then Adirondack Community College, now SUNY Adirondack. She had a meeting with all of the players.
“They decided, yes, they would do it — after a lot of conversation,” he said.
She recalled many parties using her conference room to sit down and come to an amicable resolution on different tissues.
These resolutions of disputes matter as much as any individual legislative accomplishment, Little said.
Getting involved in politics
Little said she was always interested in government and supported other people’s campaigns and attended meetings. She spent 19 years as a stay-at-home mother and was very involved in school parent-teacher organizations. She also was chairwoman of the Queensbury Recreation Commission.
Elective office was a natural progression.
“You get to a point where you start thinking: ‘Why did they do it that way? Maybe we should do it a different way.’”
When Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Tom Murphy died during his term, Little was appointed to the position in April 1986.
It was a natural opportunity because he had been very involved in tourism and recreation issues, she said.
Being a supervisor was a part-time job and something she could manage while her children were in school.
She was elected to the Assembly in 1995 in a special election to succeed Jim King, who was appointed as a judge by Gov. George Pataki. Her youngest son was 15 at that time and it was more manageable to go to Albany. In 2002, she was elected to the Senate.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, shows a 1995 photo of her being sworn into office for her first term in the Assembly. The late Jim King, her predecessor, is conducting the ceremony. He resigned the seat to become a Court of Claims judge.
She has spent the last week going through boxes of pictures and mementos, which will be packed up and taken to her house.
A sign in her office says “No Whining.”
“No one pays attention to it,” she said.
Her memorabilia includes a collection of ceramic elephants, the symbol of the Republican Party, and a signed photo of Johnny Podres, a native of Mineville who was the 1955 World Series MVP for the title-winning Brooklyn Dodgers team.
Diverse array of legislation
Little also has a copy of the bill signed that allowed the Olympic Regional Development Authority to develop and operate the Johnsburg ski slope and skating rink. She advocated for that bill while she was in the Assembly.
“Someone who thought he was really in the know told me I would never get it passed,” she noted, without naming the person.
Little said she is also pleased to have worked on an adverse possession law. In the past, people could start occupying somebody’s piece of property and then claim they own it because they have been using it.
“As a result of the legislation I got passed, they now have to document what makes them think that they own that piece of property,” she said.
The legislation was prompted by a family on Ridge Road in Queensbury that was having a hard time with a neighbor who kept moving the fence, according to Little.
Another piece of legislation corrected an outdated statute that stated if someone accidentally cut down a tree on someone’s property and stole the tree, the fine was $10. Now the fine is three times the value of the tree or a comparable amount.
Little said she is pleased to have worked on bills to help municipalities share services and to make it easier for villages to dissolve.
Four villages have dissolved in her district since she has been in office.
Keeseville was a village that spanned two towns in Clinton and Essex counties. When the village justice died, she suggested to a village official that one of the towns take over the court.
The mayor said that he did not think the town wanted it.
Little responded: “’That doesn’t matter. You just dissolve the village court.’”
Little said she believes that there are too many levels of government in New York. Her children who live in the South have countywide government instead of town supervisors or village officials.
“They have lower taxes,” she said.
Those communities are “growing like crazy.” In contrast, this area’s population is getting older, she said.
She also said she believes there could be more consolidation among school districts to increase opportunities for everyone. One example is Abraham Wing School and the Glens Falls City School District, two districts in the same city. She said she is encouraged by the merger discussions between the Fort Edward and South Glens Falls districts.
Little helped work the bill to help villages dissolve with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was then attorney general. She said she has had a good working relationship with the governor, who recognized her during his 2020 State of the State address.
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Meeting people
Cuomo is one of four governors she has served under. She said she loves that she got to meet all these people during her public service.
“I never would have met that many people in my lifetime,” she said.
And Little met a lot of people traveling around her 6,800-square-mile district, which is bigger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.
She is used to putting about 30,000 miles on her car every year. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has limited her travel, she said.
“I have only put 3,000 miles on my car since March,” she said.
Little said it has been difficult not seeing her colleagues and staff because people are working remotely, and it is hard to stay on top of everything.
“You forget to tell somebody something; they forgot to tell you,” she said.
Increasingly divisive politics
Little said she won’t miss what she called “the Albany scene” of politicking.
“There’s a lot of sitting around, wasted time, just listening to people in session,” she said.
Some people just want to hear themselves talk and some of them like to shout and holler and get nasty when debating, Little added.
Little said she regrets that politics has become so divisive. Her motto is that the politics should end on midnight on Election Day.
“From then, you should work with whoever got elected, or you won’t get results,” she said.
Politics has only gotten more divisive, and technology has contributed to that, Little said.
When email came on the scene, Little said people started sending her nasty comments because they could anonymously type out their thoughts and hit send.
Social media has only amplified the nastiness, Little added.
“I think Twitter is candy for angry people,” she said.
Little is not really into the new technology.
“I was just doing it to show that I could be tech savvy and wasn’t an old lady that couldn’t do that stuff,” she said.
She said she calls back people who are angry and tries to get a better understanding of where they are coming from and what their needs are.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, looks at a photograph she intends to give to a supporter, in her Warren Street office on Wednesday in Glens Falls.
Unfinished business
Little said she regretted that she has not gotten more done to improve cell coverage and internet service in the Adirondacks — an issue that has been heightened with the pandemic and children taking classes online.
Little lobbied hard for the issue, especially after a man died and his wife was injured on the Northway in 2007 when their car went off the road around Exit 30. The couple was trapped in a broken-down car during extremely cold weather and could not get a cell signal to call for help.
“The only real objection to tall towers in the Adirondacks is the view, but it saves lives. We have saved people’s lives that were hiking and were lost. It’s a proven necessity,” she said.
She got her hopes up when then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he wanted to meet with her. She thought he wanted to talk about cell coverage, which was a big issue in her last campaign at that time.
Little said she was disappointed when she found out that Spitzer, a Democrat, wanted her to support his budget instead of the spending being advocated for by the Senate Republicans.
She said she is loyal to her conference and she was not going to do that.
The fight for better cell coverage has been a slow battle and it won’t be won any time soon, Little said.
“I wish I had been more successful in getting to the end of where we need to be on that one, but I’d probably have to be in office until I was 110 trying to do that,” she said.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, shows letters from May 3, 2000, by grade school students appealing for her aid and support for a playground project during an interview at her office on Wednesday in Glens Falls.
Not a retirement
Little is not stepping away from the public scene entirely.
Gov. Cuomo appointed her in July to the ORDA board. She said she is going to be very involved in the planning of the 2023 Winter World University Games in Lake Placid, including the development of a facility to house the athletes.
Little also serves on the board of Double H Ranch, the camp for seriously ill children in Lake Luzerne.
“I should be volunteering and I haven’t, so I would like to volunteer,” she said.
One of her nephews just sent her a watercolor set for her retirement, so maybe she will take that up, she said.
Little would like to travel to see some family members she has not seen in California, Tennessee and Kentucky because of the pandemic.
“I have over 100,000 (frequent flyer) points on Southwest,” she said.
Little said she will miss coming into the office, which will become the office of Sen.-elect Dan Stec, R-Queensbury. However, it is the right decision to step away at this time, she said.
“It’s sad knowing that you’re coming to the end of something that you’ve been doing for so long,” she reflected.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, reflects on her career during a Post-Star interview in her Warren Street office on Wednesday in Glens Falls.
PHOTOS: Betty Little, a career
New York Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, asks questions as legislative leaders interview candidates for the Office of the Attorney General in 2018 in Albany.
State Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, talks with state and local officials during a gathering discussing the Glens Falls Civic Center and regional tourism at the Warren County Municipal Center in 2006.
Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, speaks during ceremonies at the Glens Falls fire station on Ridge Street in Glens Falls in 2010 commemorating the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, works in her office on Warren Street in 2008 in Glens Falls.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, speaks at the Memorial Day ceremony hosted by Queensbury’s American Legion Post 1797 and VFW Post 6196 in Hovey Pond Park in Queensbury in 2008.
Leon Steves, president of the Queensbury Land Conservancy, points in the direction of land belonging to the conservancy as state Sen. Betty Little reviews a map in 2008.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo praises state Sen. Betty Little of Queensbury at an event in Saranac Lake in February, saying she was a shining example of reaching across the aisle to get things accomplished.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, speaks to local residents at the Abraham Wing Elementary School in 2009 regarding a proposal to consolidate their district with the Glens Falls City School District. According to Little at the time, consolidating would allow districts to save money by sharing services and contracts, as well as sharing one business office and school superintendent.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, and AT&T executive Joe Pinkans cut a ceremonial ribbon in 2012 as a newly activated “Frankenpine” cell tower looms overhead in Schroon. Officials and cellular carriers said that the Adirondack Park’s regulations on the once-controversial towers were becoming less burdensome.
Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, chats with Hyde Collection volunteer Lesley Charlebois after participating in the 2012 New York State Museum Week announcement at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls in 2012. Little introduced the resolution that started Museum Week celebrating museums’ contributions to local communities’ education, culture and commerce. Little said her impetus for the resolution came from a conversation with her son in Colorado, where they also have a state museum week.
Betty Little in this undated photo.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, talks to Ronald McDonald at the opening of the McDonald’s restaurant on Route 9 in Queensbury in 2017.
Sen. Betty Little speaks to her supporters following her victory in the Senate race at The Queensbury Hotel in 2018 in Glens Falls.
Sen. Betty Little speaks at a podium outside of the Adirondacks Welcome Center’s opening in 2018 in Queensbury with state and local officials.
Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, speaks in 2019 at a news conference at Glens Falls City Hall announcing that she will not seek re-election in 2020.
Michael Goot
From left: Stewart White; Antoinette McFarland; Glens Falls NAACP chapter President Mary Goodin; her husband, Ernest; state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury; and Deacon Lee Braggs sing “We Shall Overcome” and march to Christ United Methodist Church from Glens Falls City Hall during the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration in Glens Falls in 2018.
State Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, talks to arts advocates during a visit by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., at the World Awareness Children’s Museum in Glens Falls in 2017.
Officials and hotel management gather at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Lake George to announce its official opening during a ceremony in 2016. From left: state Sen. Betty Little; David Kenny, co-owner; Lake George Mayor Robert Blais; Frank Dittrich, general manager; and Laura Kohls, daughter of David Kenny.
Officials participate during an ECHL All Star Classic press conference at the Civic Center in Glens Falls in 2015. At left is Brian McKenna, ECHL president; center, Brian Petrovek, president of the Adirondack Thunder; right, state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury.
Betty Little speaks at a podium in this undated photo.
Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, awards a metal to a cancer survivor at a Relay for Life walk at the Queensbury High School track in 2015.
Sen. Betty Little talks with The Post-Star in 2015 in her office in Glens Falls.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., right, is joined by Hicks Orchard and Slyboro Ciderhouse owners Dan Wilson and Susan Knapp, and state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, in 2013, in a toast of hard cider after announcing the Cider Act, a proposal to change the excise tax on cider production.
State Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, talks to The Post-Star editorial board in Glens Falls in 2010.
Sen. Betty Little visits with grandchildren, Nolan, left, Jackie and Neil in 2008 at Little’s office on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
State Sen. Betty Little tries some Cooper’s Cave Lehigh Strawberry soda during the Lehigh Northeast Cement Co.’s open house in 2008.
David and Elizabeth “Betty” Little pose for a portrait in this undated photo. According to a news clipping in The Post-Star’s archives, “David and Elizabeth Little of Glens Falls took second place honors in the national 4-H horse demonstration contest held recently in Denver, Colorado. The competition was part of the National Western 4-H Horse Class. The brother-sister team earned 261 out of a possible 300 points for their demonstration. Contestants from around the country participated in the contest.”
Sen. Betty Little speaks to Camp McGregor correctional facility employees and supporters during a 2008 union rally at the Mount McGregor prison grounds in Wilton. Gov. Eliot Spitzer had proposed to close the correctional facility to save the state an estimated $4.2 million a year.
Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, addresses housing and business officials and members of the media gathered for a groundbreaking/demolition ceremony at the Village Green Apartments in 2007. Glens Falls Mayor Roy Akins, second from left, also introduced Charles Allen, right, of Evergreen Partners, and Mark Soja, center, president of Marathon Development Group who represented the partnered developers behind the Village Green Apartments project. Lisa Manzi, left, represented U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office at the ceremony.
State Sen. Betty Little, right, waves to supporters as she is driven through Centennial Circle in Glens Falls on Dec. 14. Little, R-Queensbury, is retiring from the Senate after 18 years.
Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/.
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