Born: January 25 , 1896
Died: January 31, 1993
Miss Leonie Emilie Dieschbourg was the owner of Pinehurst, formerly the Haase estate, which had been operated as a hotel. When she decided to subdivide it in the 1950s, Joe and Mary Harley were some of the first to purchase a lot.
She served as president of the Saranac Lake Oratorio Society from 1952.
A daughter of John and Marie Dieschbourg, she was born in Brooklyn, where a class photo places her in school in 1909. She had a sister named Jennet [Janet?], and lived in New York until the US census places her in Harrietstown in 1950.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 10, 1966
Letters to the Editor:
Dear Sir:
The letter you printed January 31, from Mrs. Amelia Baumann reminded me of a letter of some time last year of Mr. Laurence Slaughter. Both letters pointed out how we are being strangled through loss of estate taxes by the continuing transfer of privately owned lands to ownership by the State or to "non-profit" organizations. In my immediate neighborhood three large properties have recently been so transferred and taken off the tax rolls, thereby reducing the total assessed valuation. But demands for which taxes are needed (such as for our new schools) are not reducing, on the contrary they are constantly increasing.
So we are faced with constantly increasing tax rates, if not also increased assessed valuations, on our homes and other privately owned property to compensate for this decreasing tax base. A growing community in population and wealth could eventually solve this problem. but we are decidedly not such (witness how most of our youth, after graduation leave us for the rest of their lives). Nor can we attract people to build vacation homes, for the taxes are too high and the competition which the State offers much too keen. Nor is there a vital role for the motel industry, for there again the State Camps are so cheap in comparison with the rates a motel operated as a private business must ask.
The only solution is that ALL property, regardless of ownership be assessed and taxed on an equitable basis (that is without exemptions.) In this way we an increase our total taxes to the required figure, reduce individual taxes to a reasonable level for our resident population attract new property owners and eventually home builders, a great boost for our general economy. I know that is not the law now, but laws can be changed and as Mrs. Baumann says "It's a problem which must be faced NOW."
Sincerely,
Leonie Dieschbourg
