Red Tape Ruins Red Hot Chili Fest

Shelby davis presents a check to the schoon lake ems squad in 2015

The Annual Schroon Lake Chili Fest won’t be warming up cold souls this year.

The Schroon Lake Chamber of Commerce, the main sponsor of the event, cancelled this Saturday’s event due to new health department regulations.

Chamber Executive Director Tammy Whitty-Brown told Schroon Laker new NYS Health Department regulations for home cooks, which would require them to get a waiver for liability, would have taken too long to be in place before Saturday’s event.

“We are deeply saddened that we had to cancel this year’s cook-off,” Tammy told us.

 The cook-off raises much needed funds for the Schroon Lake EMS Squad, 

“This is a big fund raiser event for the Schroon Lake EMS. We are trying to figure out another way to make up for the loss of income.”

The original event was the brainchild of Shelby Davis, formerly of Shelby’s Kitchen Therapy. She worked tirelessly with a dedicated group of volunteers to launch the first Chili Fest in 2012. The event grew in size and import every year that followed. Besides attracting various restaurants and Fire Houses and EMS squads in the North Country, a growing number of home cooks were offering up some awesome chili.