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Essex County Supervisors want the
state Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park
Agency to back off on a proposal to tear down the fire towers on
Hurricane and St. Regis mountains.
The county’s Ways and Means Committee
unanimously endorsed legislation Monday opposing the demolition of
the two towers, which DEC announced earlier this month.
Keene Supervisor Bill Ferebee
introduced the resolution in opposition to the state’s proposal.
“It’s a landmark. People hike that
area just to look at the tower. It’s a visual landmark from
Elizabethtown, people can see it and know where they are,” Ferebee
said. “Even though it’s no longer accessible, people can’t climb it
anymore, it’s just something that has always been there.”
The Hurricane Mountain tower is
located within the town of Keene.
Earlier this month, DEC officials laid
out a plan to demolish the two 90-year-old fire towers, because they
are considered non-conforming structures located on state land with
fairly restrictive designations.
One tower is within the Hurricane
Mountain Primitive Area and the other is within the St. Regis Canoe
Area. According to the state Land Master Plan, both the primitive
and canoe area designations require removal of the structures.
Officials have long argued that
Adirondack fire towers are an important part of the region’s
cultural history and their demolition only works to further raise
the ire of the local population.
DEC foresters said that without an
amendment to the SLMP allowing fire towers to remain on lands with
restricted designations, their hands are legally bound.
But for Ferebee, considering the dire
situation surrounding the state’s economic situation, the timing
just doesn’t make sense.
“I know its part of the master plan to
take it out of there,” Ferebee. “But in all fairness, considering
the economic state that New York is in, why would they spend the
money to take down the tower when the money could be spent on
something useful?”
APA Chairman Curt Stiles has resisted
SLMP amendments, instead arguing that revisions to the APA Act are
of greater immediate importance.
The APA Board of Commissioners is
expected to vote on the amendments to the two area Unit Management
Plans – which would approve the demolition of the towers – within
the next few months.
Local governments throughout the park
have passed similar resolutions opposing the removal of the two
towers.
According to a DEC study released this
month, out of the 57 towers originally located in the park, 34
remain and 24 are located on public land or lands under state
easements. DEC has removed six towers from Adirondack mountaintops
over the last decade.
A public hearing regarding the
proposed Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area UMP will be held at 6:30
p.m. February 25 at the Keene Central School.
A similar hearing concerning the
proposed amendments to the St. Regis UMP will be at the Paul Smith’s
College Freer Science building, also on February 25 at 6:30 p.m.
-Jon
Alexander, 2-23-10
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