AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A tiny town in northern New York appears to have won the lottery. Long Lake is set to inherit more than $100 million from a local land deal. North Country Public Radio's Emily Russell reports on what the massive windfall means for the town.
EMILY RUSSELL, BYLINE: Clay Arsenault was on a Zoom call in late February when he got the news - Long Lake was named the sole beneficiary of the proceeds from a local property listed for $125 million.
CLAY ARSENAULT: I was speechless.
RUSSELL: Arsenault is the town's supervisor. The 36,000-acre property had been owned by the Whitneys for more than a century. They were one of the wealthiest families in America during the Gilded Age, and they were well-known benefactors in Long Lake. The property passed to the husband of one of the Whitneys, who bequeathed the proceeds of its sale to the town. A developer from Texas now plans to buy the land. So Arsenault is working with a team of officials and advisers on how to invest and maximize the proceeds from the sale.
ARSENAULT: We want to create generational wealth within the community. So it makes me truly excited for the future of my hometown.
RUSSELL: This town is home to about 700 people. There's a little grocery store, a gas station and a few other shops. From the edge of Long Lake, you can see the Adirondack Mountains rising above in the distance. This is a tourist town. It survives off the summer months, when second homeowners come to play and unwind - and to spend money.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CREAKING)
RUSSELL: Paula O'Brien-Piraino owns the Long Lake Diner with her husband. They're closed today, so she's perched at the bar with her planner out. She was at the town board meeting when the supervisor broke the news.
PAULA O'BRIEN-PIRAINO: It kind of felt like Christmas on steroids (laughter).
RUSSELL: It's unclear what the net proceeds of the property sale will be, but O'Brien-Piraino says she's hopeful the money could make a real difference in this small Adirondack town.
O'BRIEN-PIRAINO: We do live in the middle of paradise, but it is expensive to live here. A person moving to the Adirondack Park, fresh out of college, can't afford to build a home here.
RUSSELL: Land is expensive, and good-paying jobs here are hard to find. Long Lake faces other struggles, too, like declining school enrollment and an aging population. It's that last issue that resident Barbara Kinsey is focused on. Kinsey wants to see Long Lake invest in a community health and fitness center.
BARBARA KINSEY: When I think with my husband, should I settle here into my retirement? - I think, well, I have to go this so many miles to a hospital, this so many miles for therapy, this many (laughter) - like, you have to travel, travel, travel.
RUSSELL: But here's the thing - many folks who live in Long Lake love how quiet and remote it is. They like knowing their neighbors and seeing the same faces at the local bar. Some worry that tens of millions of dollars could change all that. Carol Young says those are real concerns. She manages one of the oldest businesses in town - the Adirondack Hotel.
CAROL YOUNG: I mean, one of the things that guests will say to me - oh, my gosh, I haven't been here in 35 years, and it's just exactly how I remember it. And I think that's important for small towns, especially - we're a tourist town.
RUSSELL: As we chat, her staff is preparing for the tourist season, putting a fresh coat of paint on the porch. The owners of the Whitney property came to the hotel from time to time. Young knew them and says while the news of their estate was wonderful, it wasn't exactly shocking.
YOUNG: It's what people like that do for things that they love, and they loved Long Lake. And so our responsibility is to make sure that that wish is guarded into perpetuity so that, as I like to put it as an accountant, the nut stays.
RUSSELL: It could be a year or more before Long Lake sees its potential $100 million nut. The years that follow will likely decide the fate of this small, soon-to-be wealthy town.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Russell in Long Lake, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN METCALFE'S "GOLD, GREEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.