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Adirondack Park Agency commissioners
directed agency staff Thursday to find a way to let the fire towers
remain atop St. Regis and Hurricane mountains – provided that a
non-taxpayer-based funding source for their upkeep can be found.
Located in state-owned Primitive and
Canoe areas, both towers are considered non-conforming structures
under the current draft of the State Land Master Plan.
But considering the public’s affinity
for the federally recognized historic structures, commissioners like
Dick Booth were torn between the requirements of the SLMP and the
preservation of the region’s cultural history.
“The big part of me says, look this is
a decision that was made decades ago when the SLMP was crafted and
we should finish doing what has been left undone for a long time,”
Booth said. “But a part of me also says the towers are there, they
are historic and although they have an impact on the wilderness
character, it is certainly a bearable impact.”
But for Commissioner Art Lussi, the
question of the towers’ continued existence is a little more cut and
dry.
“We need to find a way to preserve
them and there’s no easy option,” Lussi said. “But that’s my
position. We need to find an option to preserve the towers as they
sit.”
The Adirondack Local Government Review
Board petitioned the agency to find an alternative to their removal,
but according to a staff report, each and every method of legally
attaining this goal will be time consuming and complicated.
Commissioner Lani Ulrich stressed that
doing things right supersedes doing things quickly.
“The number of years that it will take
to get it right doesn’t bother me,” Ulrich said. “I don’t like
things taking forever, but I’d like to get it right.”
Commissioners directed agency staff to
find the most legally viable choice of three options that would
allow for the continued presence of the fire towers in their
historic locations. Officials said each would have an impact on the
SLMP itself, ranging from creating small historic parcels to an
outright amendment that would make the towers conforming in
Wilderness and Primitive areas.
Officials said each option is
relatively complex – but doable.
Commissioner Jim Townsend chairs the
agency State Land Committee and he closed the meeting by summing up
what he was hearing from his peers.
“There is sentiment to allow these
towers to remain in some fashion,” Townsend said. “There are
procedural steps to accomplish that.”
But several commissioners, including
Booth, Ulrich and Cecil Wray, were wary of placing the maintenance
costs of the towers on the shoulders of the taxpayers. They
indicated that saving the towers is likely contingent on the friends
groups associated with the towers legally committing to funding the
project.
“What are we assuming goes on if we
legitimize the towers being there and a corollary concern – who is
paying for it?” Wray said.
Review Board Executive Director Fred
Monroe said that like a cemetery, it is possible to create a
dedicated maintenance fund for each of the towers.
Both towers have “friends”
organizations that have verbally pledged to fund their upkeep. The
Friends of the Bald Mountain Fire Tower has adopted the structure
and covers all of the costs of keeping it open to the public.
The SLMP states the purpose of
Wilderness is to provide an experience unadulterated by signs of
human activity.
Like DEC, APA staff concluded that
there were few legally clean courses of action other than tearing
down and relocating the towers.
But APA Deputy Director of Planning
Jim Connelly stressed staff is limited to the requirements of the
SLMP and not looking to pick fights with the local citizenry.
“We are fully aware of the historic
value of the fire tower in the Adirondacks,” Connelly said. “It’s
our job to make recommendations based on the State Land Master
Plan.”
Staff will present their legal and
cost analysis next month.
-Jon
Alexander, 4-16-10
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