By land mass, Speculator is bigger than Buffalo. But instead of a quarter of a million people, Speculator has about 400.
And the village can’t take advantage of its room for population growth. Some of its territory is state-owned, some is on the side of a mountain, some is underwater. A disconnected, inaccessible, triangular chunk of the village is off by itself near Raquette Lake somewhere, miles from the village proper, because, well, this is the Adirondacks.
But there are other challenges to Speculator’s economic prospects—oddities of grant qualifications that ruin the chances of many Adirondack hamlets of getting public money to spur affordable home development.
For instance, few driving through Speculator would call it prosperous. So lean is its budget that Mayor Jeannette Barrett says the village sometimes relies on volunteers to do what is traditionally government work.
But enough homeowners of means live on the village’s scenic lake shores to boost median income to $77,000—some $13,000 more than Hamilton County as a whole—which in practice disqualifies Speculator from receiving the grants that build the sewer lines that support new home construction.
Population is too small and too poor to pay for sewers, according to the metrics that determine these things. On paper, Speculator is too well off for government help.
“We keep running up against rejection after rejection after rejection,” Barrett said.
