ONLY ONE AIRLINE BIDS FOR SARANAC LAKE, PLATTSBURGH

Only one airline has submitted a bid to the U.S. Department of Transportation to take over commercial service at the Adirondack Regional Airport and the Plattsburgh International Airport.

Cape Air, based in Hyannis Massachusetts, would provide three flights a day from each airport to Boston, using nine-seat Cessna 402 aircraft.  The airline’s non-stop service would cost $64 one way from Saranac Lake and $62 from Plattsburgh, excluding taxes and fees.

If awarded the Essential Air Service subsidy, Cape Air would replace Montana-based Big Sky, which ended its flights January 7, only two months after taking over service in Saranac Lake and Plattsburgh. 

Michelle Haynes, Cape Air’s Director of Communications, said they want to serve the area long-term. “We’ve been around for 20 years.  That’s a long time,” she said.  “We are the largest independent regional airline in the United States.  We have a code share with Jet Blue and Continental but still maintain our independence, which means we don’t make promise we can’t keep and blame them on the other guys.  We’re committed to the communities we serve.”

That’s the same kind of promise Big Sky Airlines made to local officials last fall when they took over commercial service in the area.  But, within a matter of weeks, Big Sky was plagued by numerous late flights, cancelled flights and stranded passengers. 

By late-December the airline announced plans to pull out of the North Country altogether, citing high fuel prices, bad weather and disappointing revenues.  Local officials called those excuses and said the airline was poorly managed.

Michelle Haynes said she realizes Cape Air has to regain the trust of the flying public.  She says they can succeed by providing dependable service and affordable fares. “When you go to the airport, we’re going to fly, unless its weather.  We’re going to try to hook up so your schedules match with the major air carriers.  We do have a job ahead of us, we need to prove ourselves, there’s no question.”

Cape Air is also planning to keep planes in Saranac Lake and Plattsburgh overnight to ensure its first flight in the morning is on-time.

Another airline, Pan Am Clipper Connection, had expressed an interest in the Saranac Lake and Plattsburgh airports, but only submitted proposals to fly to Albany from the Massena, Ogdensburg and Watertown airports, according to company spokeswoman Stacy Beck.

Town of Harrietstown officials and the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Airport Marketing Task Force met last night to draft their response to Cape Air’s proposal to serve Saranac Lake.

Although it was the only bid, task force chairman Keith Wells said Cape Air’s flight schedule, its affiliation with Jet Blue at a major hub and its fares could be very attractive to local passengers.

He also says the airline has successfully served other tourist destinations like Martha’s Vineyard and the Caribbean. “Cape Air has their act together,” he said.  “They have the management in place, the strategy, the business model and the marketing in place to make this a success.  And we’re committed to working with them on that.”

One point of concern has been that Cape Air would only be flying nine-seat planes into Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake.  However, according to local officials, the airline has said it could provide more planes if there is a demand.

The North Country airports have been without commercial service since Big Sky shutdown on January 7. 

U.S. DOT spokesman Bill Mosley said they’re waiting for comments from local leaders before they can award the bids, possibly as soon as next week.

Michelle Haynes, Cape Air’s spokeswoman, said they’re ready to begin flights as soon as possible. “Our biggest priority is getting the service started,” she said. 

-Chris Knight

APA STEPS UP SUBDIVISION ENFORCEMENT

The Adirondack Park Agency is stepping up its enforcement efforts against a backlog of illegal subdivisions in the park.

The agency’s enforcement attorneys, Paul Van Cott and Sarah Reynolds, outlined the “Proactive Subdivision Enforcement Initiative” to agency commissioners and board members last week.

VanCott said the agency finished 2007 with a total of 475 active enforcement cases, 213 of which are for properties under APA jurisdiction that have been illegally subdivided.  That doesn’t include 400 older subdivision violations.

“We’ve got to do something,” Van Cott said.  “We have to stop new violations from occurring so we have a chance to catch up with the older violations that have already occurred.”

Most of the violations occurred years ago – illegal subdivisions of wetlands or resource management lands that date to the 1970’s and 1980’s.  A violation often gets compounded, VanCott said, because the same lands get further subdivided and the original violation isn’t discovered until the property changes hands.

That’s why he says there’s an urgency to get the current violations settled. “The longer they remain unresolved, the more apt they are to get developed, further subdivided, and the more likely it is you’ll be dealing with a new landowner rather than the person who did the original subdivision.”

Armed with new enforcement staff funded in the 2007 state budget, the park agency has formed a new subdivision enforcement team.  One of their priorities, according to Sarah Reynolds, will be to prevent new subdivision violations from occurring.

APA staff will be using a state real estate transaction database to track new subdivisions in the park and investigate potential violations.  A search of the database found 174 new subdivisions in the park last year, 55 of which were flagged as potential violations.

Reynolds also said they’re reaching out to property owners and buyers, realtors, lawyers, surveyors, code enforcement officers and local planning and zoning boards to remind them that an agency permit may be needed for a subdivision inside the park.

“Through this initiative we believe we’ll be able to avoid harm to the environmental resources of the park by ensuring proper review of subdivisions,” she said.  “We’ll also be able to deal with the original seller and buyer accountable for a violation, avoiding those difficulties for subsequent landowners.”

Reynolds said they will require sellers and buyers to undo illegal subdivisions and perform any necessary environmental remediation.  The agency will also seek civil penalties for violations, if appropriate.

APA Chairman Curt Stiles said the intent is to deter violations. “Significant environmental impacts as well as harm to future innocent purchasers will be avoided, and remediation costs minimized,” he said.

-Chris Knight

SL BOARD DISCUSSES RESOLUTION ON CAMP GABRIELS

Saranac Lake Trustee John McEneany asked fellow village board members Monday night to support a resolution asking the Spitzer administration to reconsider its decision to close Camp Gabriels.

McEneany asked Village Manager Martin Murphy to draft the resolution which would be forwarded to other municipalities in the area along with county and state representatives.

The state plans to close Camp Gabriels and three other prisons by January 2009, citing a declining inmate population.  Department of Corrections officials say the 135 employees at Camp Gabriels will be offered jobs at other prisons or with other state agencies.

McEneany said the closure would have a significant impact on the area because of a loss of the services Gabriels inmates provide to local governments.  “Those services are going to have to be replaced, creating an increased burden on the taxpayer,” he said.

The closure of a prison is even more difficult for communities in the Adirondacks, McEneany said, because of the amount of land the state has purchased, limiting local municipalities’ ability to create more development and generate tax base.

“The municipalities inside the park face a unique challenge,” he said.  “We wish the governor and Legislature would look again at the impacts of closing that institution.”

While it’s good news that we need less prisons, McEneany said, the fact that prisons are needed is never going to go away.

The first priority should be to try and keep the prison operating, McEneany said.  “If we can we want to get the most for what we’re losing and take care of those people who have lost,” he said.

Mayor Tom Michael said he’s been in contact with representatives of the governor’s office. “They’re very much aware of the impact,” he said.  “I think the resolution is a good idea from the standpoint of helping us mitigate the impact to the employees.”

If Camp Gabriels does close, the mayor said the local communities should “take control of their future” and work together to decide what the facilities could be used for.

Trustee Susan Waters said there may be ways to re-tool or change the camp and make it more profitable for the state. 

Trustee Dan Olson asked the village manager to try to attach a dollar figure to the amount of work Camp Gabriels inmates do in the village each week.  “They’ve done a fantastic job,” Olson said.  “But I think this would be a golden opportunity to put a figure on that.  Anything we can do to persuade the governor to change his mind would be fantastic.”

Michael agreed, but said he also understands that the state has to tighten its fiscal belt.  “Somewhere you have to cut spending, but it hurts when it’s your neighbor,” he said.

The village manager will be working to draft a resolution which the board will act on at a future meeting.

-Chris Knight

TL BOARD DISMAYED WITH CAMP GABRIELS CLOSURE

Members of the Tupper Lake Town Board expressed their dismay Monday night over the Spitzer Administration’s decision to close Camp Gabriels and three other New York prisons.

“If it does go through hopefully they have another plan for more employment up here for us to replace the 130 good paying jobs,” said Supervisor Roger Amell. “As a town board we want to go on record and say we’re against that.”

“The loss of those jobs and that payroll is a big impact on the local economies around here,” added Councilman John Button. “We can’t afford to be losing those kinds of jobs.”

Amell suggested community members frustrated over the administration’s decision contact their state representatives and the governor’s office.

In other news from last night’s meeting, Supervisor Amell said he was concerned about Councilman Jay Skiff’s attendance record at town board meetings.

“It’s not fair to everybody else here on the board with Jay not making all the meetings,” said Amell. The supervisor added that he’d be checking with the town attorney to see whether the town could dock Skiff’s pay for missing regularly scheduled meetings.

Skiff, who was not in attendance, is currently on vacation in Florida for two months.

Councilman Shawn Stuart recommended they check with neighboring municipal governments to see how they handle such situations.

Also Highway Superintendent Marc LaVigne reported that his crew has been out sanding village roads as per a shared service agreement the town made this winter with the village.

Under the agreement village DPW personnel and town highway crews have been sharing equipment and manpower this winter.

Amell said the sharing hasn’t gone unnoticed. “I’ve had some people tell me they like seeing us working together like that,” he said.

-Mike Fritts

ST. REGIS FALLS MAN SENTENCED FOR TAPING CO-WORKERS

A former ComLinks employee was sentenced to state prison time Monday for secretly videotaping his co-workers and others while they used a public restroom.

45 year-old Craig Lohr of St. Regis Falls, former manager of the ComLinks Gleaning Warehouse in Malone, was given one and a third to four years in prison by County Court Judge Robert Main for second-degree unauthorized surveillance.

Lohr admitted installing a video camera under the bathroom’s ceiling tiles that was rigged to turn on with a light switch.  He captured below the waist images of female and male co-workers, ComLinks managers, clients, community volunteers and the gleaning program’s staff.

Lohr said he used the films for his own sexual gratification.

“The saddest and most frustrating thing about this is the number of victims will never be known,” said Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Crawford at Lohr’s sentencing on Monday.

More than a dozen ComLinks employees and several administrators attended the sentencing, according to a report in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.

William Delarm, a warehouse worker, asked Judge Main to sentence Lohr to the maximum “on behalf of myself, my family, my 9-year-old daughter and the hundreds of men, women and children that have been mentally raped.  His victims need justice,” Delarm said.

Although Lohr said he’s the only source of income for his family and asked for leniency, Judge Main was not swayed. “The magnitude of your behavior is staggering, and the damage you’ve done is incalculable,” he said.

In addition to the prison term, Lohr was also ordered to pay a $5000 fine, provide a DNA sample and register as a sex offender.  Orders of protection were issued for more than 15 victims until January of 2020.

-Chris Knight

BASEBALL GREAT JOHNNY PODRES, A MORIAH NATIVE, DIES

Johnny Podres, the Moriah native who pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title in 1955, died Sunday at the age of 75.

Podres died at Glens Falls Hospital from complications from surgery for a leg infection. 

The left-hander was picked for four All-Star games and was the first Most Valuable Player in World Series history. He became a hero to every baseball fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers ended decades of frustration by beating the Yankees to win the World Series.

Michael Coffey, a baseball writer from Saranac and author of “27 Men Out, Baseball's Perfect Games” remembered hearing about Padres as a boy. “I always heard from my father about the local kid who made good,” he said.  “A 23 year-old from Witherbee, Padres delivered to the Brooklyn Dodgers their first World Series championship.”

It was the first time a team had won a best-of-seven World Series after losing the first two games, and it was Brooklyn’s only World Series victory. The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

Podres’ career spanned 15 years with the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, the Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres. He retired in 1969 at age 36 with a lifetime record of 148-116.

Coffey says the “fairy tale” scenario that brought a small town kid to the big leagues is now more common in Latin America than in the U.S. “But it still happens today.  Johnny Padres proved you can come from anywhere, and with the right pop on your fastball you can get the attention of sharp-eyed scouts out there.”

Podres had lived in Queensbury in recent years but maintained a home in the hamlet of Witherbee, where he grew up.

Podres is survived by Joni, his wife of 41 years, and two sons.

A public remembrance will take place on Thursday, January 17, at St. Patrick's Church in Port Henry from 11 am until noon.

-Chris Knight and AP wire reports

POLICE REPORT

Saranac Lake Police charged 63 year-old Matthew J. Schroeder of Saranac Lake with second-degree burglary, a felony, and petit larceny, a misdemeanor at 2:40 p.m. Monday.  Police say Schroeder was arrested on warrants issued by village court for allegedly entering another person’s dwelling and stealing property.  He was processed, arraigned and released of his own recognizance.

Saranac Lake Police arrested 28 year-old Daniel H. Meehan of Saranac Lake on family court warrant at 11:20 a.m. Monday.  Police say Meehan failed to appear and pay child support in Warren County.  He was processed and transferred to the Warren County Sheriff’s Department.