Lights, camera, conflict? Village of Liverpool Mayor wants American High out

LIVERPOOL, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Since 2017, American High has brought a slice of Hollywood to Central New York, transforming a former middle school in the Village of Liverpool into a working film studio that has appeared on mega streaming platforms like Hulu and Netflix.

However, the relationship between the studio and the village mayor is nearing a breaking point, as she’s asking the production studio to leave.

The spark was ignited by her recent letter to Syracuse.com, in which Village Mayor Stacy Finney stated that the filming has become too disruptive, citing repeated road closures, traffic backups, noise complaints, and what she describes as a lack of cooperation from the studio over the years.

Jeremy Garelick, CEO & Founder of American High, responded to the Village of Liverpool Mayor dispute, reminding Central New Yorkers that “No one is working in our business, yet we’re thriving here in Liverpool, how are we doing that?”

The founder and CEO of American High admitted that the production company has had some stumbles, especially in its early stages.

“I’ve never bought a building that was a 100 years old to fix it up. I’ve never done it so we’re making mistakes and along the way we’ve screwed up a couple of times,” Garelick said.

But Mayor Finney wasn’t satisfied with that explanation. In her public letter, she said American High has repeatedly disrupted village life, yet Garelick insisted the studio is trying to be a good neighbor to the CNY community, bringing the “life” back to Liverpool by putting the local gem back on the map.

“We don’t shoot on weekends, and we don’t have the generator going on weekends,” he said. “It was the weekend the Canadian wildfires were going off—so maybe that was what was causing her to hack up a lung.”

American High says it’s created hundreds of jobs in Central New York, brought in millions of dollars in production spending, and given young local talent a foot in the door of the entertainment industry.

In response to the mayor’s public letter, Garelick plans to run for Village Mayor and is hosting and inviting Mayor Finney to a “Q-and-A” at the former middle school on Monday, June 16 at 6:00 p.m.

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