LP BOARD ADOPTS BUDGET, WITH MONEY FOR DISPATCHERS

The Lake Placid Village Board, by a four to one vote last night, adopted the proposed village budget for the next fiscal year.

The spending plan approved by Mayor Jamie Rogers and Trustees David Jones, Pat Gallagher and Paul Strack carries a 3.6 percent increase in the tax levy.

Rogers said today that he was comfortable with the final numbers. “I think the way the last three budgets have turned out is exceptional.  We’ve reduced operating costs, the costs of our benefits and for the last three years we’ve been able to stay at the rate of inflation or below.”

The $5.2 million budget approved last night includes $90,000 for the hiring of three new emergency service dispatchers for the village.

Some local residents and at least one member of the board had argued that the money was unnecessary, since Essex County will eventually be taking over 911 dispatching across the county.  They also worried about the long term cost of more employee benefits.

Rogers said they included the money for the dispatchers but are not making any commitment to fill the positions yet. “The motion on the floor was to adopt the budget as presented,” he said.  “However, this would not assume that three full-time dispatchers would be hired.  We’re still going to look at that issue.”

Rogers says he’s learned that Essex County “sooner or later” will have a full 911 center. 

But the village still has a lot of emergency calls that don’t come in on the 911 line and other dispatching needs for various village departments.  “The question is – is the county willing to take over all phones for us,” he said.  “Those are the issues we still have to work on.”

Trustee Peter Roy was the only member of the board to vote against the budget.  He had previously said that Essex County could handle the village’s dispatching needs and that hiring the new positions was a “duplication of services.”

Under the adopted budget, the tax rate paid by individual village property owners will drop 71 cents per thousand dollars of assessed property value – from $6.98 to $6.18 per thousand. 

TL APARTMENT FIRE INVESTIGATION ONGOING

No motive, cause, or suspects have been connected to an apartment fire that took place on Lake Street in Tupper Lake last week, although investigators maintain that the blaze is suspicious.

Tom Tucker with the Franklin County Cause and Origin Team said today the fire most likely started about 30 minutes before firefighters arrived on scene. “We feel it was suspicious so we turned it over to the Tupper Lake Village Police,” he said. “We’ve ruled out all natural causes at this point.”

Tucker said evidence collected in the apartment had been sent to a crime lab. “We just took some samples of the building just to see if any accelerants were used,” he said. “That will take some time for that to come back.”

Depending on how busy the crime lab is, Tucker said it could take six weeks or longer to hear back.

The investigation is now in the hands of Tupper Lake Village Police. Chief Tom Fee said last week that they had several leads but “none of them seemed to be panning out.”

The apartment where the fire originated was unoccupied at the time. The people that lived in the upstairs dwelling had recently been arrested by State Police for cocaine possession. The four suspects, Matthew Baker, Jennifer Baker and Christopher Silva of Tupper Lake and Christopher Baker of Saranac Lake were sent to the Hamilton County Jail on June 19.

Christopher Baker, at the time of the fire, had been released on bail. But Chief Fee said he was “not even a person of interest.”

The blaze completely destroyed the apartment where it started and caused smoke and water damage to the rest of the building.

Fortunately, through the quick response of Police Officer Wesley Hoyt and a neighbor, five occupants in the building and several dogs and cats were able to get out.

AUTOPSIES COMPLETED IN TUPPER LAKE CRASH

State Police are continuing their investigation into a Sunday truck-motorcycle accident near Tupper Lake that left two people dead.

44 year-old Edward Schmieder of Attica was southbound in a Ford F-250 pickup truck towing a boat when he veered into the opposite lane and struck three motorcycles traveling northbound in a group of nine.

Two of the motorcyclists were killed – 51 year-old Steven Markham and 49 year-old Sandra Markham of Locke, NY in Cayuga County.

Autopsies of the victims performed Monday by Dr. C. Francis Varga at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake found they died of multiple traumatic injuries.

Police are continuing to look into what caused Schmieder to swerve into the opposite lane.  No tickets have been issued so far, but police say the accident is still under investigation.

Another motorcyclist and the pickup truck driver remained hospitalized on Monday.

MUSIC FESTIVAL GOES WELL, DESPITE LOW NUMBERS

Organizers say the first annual Mountain Music Meltdown went off “without a hitch” this weekend on the soccer fields of North Country Community College in Saranac Lake.

Despite the rainy and cool conditions and a smaller than anticipated crowd, festival organizer Les Hershhorn of Lazar Bear Productions said all those who came had a good time.

“It was a great festival and everybody had a wonderful time,” he said. “I probably didn’t get the number I wanted but I really didn’t expect to the first year.”

Hershhron hasn’t added up ticket sales yet but estimated there were an average of 800 concertgoers each day. “A lot of times people don’t go to first year events” he said. “They wait see what it’s going to be like. It’s something we have to build.”

And he said he’s ready to do it again next year. But Hershhorn has already decided to make some changes to the event. He admitted the ticket prices might have been a little steep for local concertgoers. Next year he plans to have special rates for area residents.

Hershhorn also said next year he’d pick a different date for the show. He’s admits that with other events taking place such as Saranac Lake’s Great Adirondack Days and the Barbeque Festival in Lake Placid may have taken people away from the festival. “This could be better not on the Fourth of July weekend,” he said.

One highlight of the festival came as The New Riders of the Purple Sage were on stage. As the band was performing their song Rainbow an actual rainbow appeared over the soccer field. “It went from one end of the soccer field to the other right over the top of the stage,” Hershhron said.

During the two day festival a guitar signed by event performers was auctioned for $400 to benefit the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.

Hershorn thanked the many people who helped make the festival happen like the Police Department, College Officials and the vendors. He said there weren’t any incidents and no one had to be ejected.

Concertgoers came from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Canada. “I think we’re off to a good start,” said Hershhorn.

The two-day festival featured flat-picking legend Doc Watson, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, blues diva Ana Popovic and several local and regional acts.

WILDFEST 2007 ON WEDNESDAY IN TUPPER LAKE

While the nation celebrates its birthday tomorrow, the Wild Center in Tupper Lake will be marking its one-year anniversary.

Wildfest 2007 is a daylong event will feature activities for the kids, bird experts and great music.

Sara Tagliarino Marketing Director for the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks said the theme of this year’s event is Wings over the Adirondacks.  “It’s birds, birds, birds, she said. “We have High Peaks Audubon, New York Audubon, The Nature Conservancy and a lot of other great organizations that are going to be here lending their expertise about birds to our festival. But it’s also just a really great fun day with the bounce house for the kids, food and crafts. It will be a really great time.”

Also this year visitors will be treated to great music. “Anyone who knows bluegrass knows Ralph Stanley,” said Tagliarino. “Like last year’s Wildfest we are going to have musical acts,” she said. “We have Grammy Award winner Ralph Stanley, we have Martin Sexton doing a whole concert this year, we have the Zucchini Brothers for the kids and the George Bailey Trio. There’s a lot of music going on this year.”

Wildfest 2007 will also offer a sneak peak of the museum’s planned bird skywalk and observation towers. When complete the attraction will showcase nearly 100 bird exhibits and will take visitors to the top of the tree canopy.

Admission to the festival is free, it opens at 10 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m.

For more information visit wildcenter.org.

FORMER JAY MAN’S DRUG CONVICTIONS UPHELD

A state appeals court held has upheld the drug-related convictions of a former Jay resident.

Bruce N. Sawyer, currently behind bars at Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, was arrested in January 2005 as part of an Essex County Drug Task Force investigation.

He was charged in four separate indictments with 31 counts of various drug and weapons related crimes.

In December of 2005, Sawyer was convicted in Essex County Court after entering guilty pleas to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

He waived his right to appeal and was sentenced to concurrent prison terms, the maximum of which was 4 to 12 years on the criminal sale conviction.

Sawyer appealed arguing that he did not validly waive his right to appeal and that the sentence imposed is harsh and excessive.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, in a ruling Thursday, rejected the appeal.  It found that Sawyer “knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently” waived his right to appeal. 

Given that he waived the right to appeal, the court also said his argument that the sentence was harsh and excessive was moot.

Sawyer’s earliest release date from prison is September of 2009.

MARRIOT, NCCC JOIN ORDA AS MAJOR SPONSORS

The Olympic Regional Development Authority announced Friday the signing of Courtyard by Marriott in Lake Placid and North Country Community College in Saranac Lake as the newest members of the ORDA corporate family.

Courtyard is Lake Placid’s newest lodging property. Located on Cascade Road, Courtyard welcomed its first guests in January with 96 rooms, a 5,000 square foot meeting and banquet facility and other amenities.

“The Courtyard by Marriott is proud to be an affiliate of ORDA,” said Jeannie Cronk, Courtyard by Marriott Director of Sales. “Their constant promotion of Lake Placid as a region benefits local businesses and therefore the community overall.”

North Country Community College has been providing higher education in the Olympic Region since 1968, and this year, celebrates its 40th anniversary. With branch campuses in Malone and Ticonderoga, the college has the largest service district of any New York State community college.  North Country’s economic impact is nearly $59.5 million in the counties of Essex and Franklin.

“North Country Community College is delighted to become an annual sponsor of the Olympic Regional Development Authority,” said Ed Trathen, Vice President for Enrollment & Student Services. “The college's annual sponsorship of ORDA is a testament to the benefits that ORDA provides to our students and to the people of Essex and Franklin counties.”

Both sponsors will receive year-round signage in the Olympic Center’s three main rinks and Whiteface Mountain.  In addition, each will receive one-page advertisements in ORDA’s Flame publication beginning with the fall issue; have a presence on the Whiteface on-line snow conditions report; and cross-promotional platforms in the form of web links on whiteface.com and orda.org.

For one week, Courtyard and NCCC will be affiliated with events such as Wet and Wild Wednesday and Soaring Saturday at the Olympic Jumping Complex, along with Freaky Friday and the Saturday Night Ice Show in the Olympic Center.

NCCC and Courtyard by Marriott join Northwood School, Can/AM and Canadian Hockey Enterprises as local supporting partners of ORDA’s events and activities.

POLICE AND FIRE REPORT

Tupper Lake Village Police ticketed 41 year-old Judith Ramsey of Tupper Lake at 1:05 a.m. this morning.  She was charged with third-degree falsely reporting an incident.  Ramsey is scheduled to appear in village court on July 16.

Saranac Lake Police charged a Plattsburgh woman with issuing a bad check at 2:50 p.m. Monday.  43 year-old Theresa A. Bourgeois was arrested on warrant from village court stemming from an incident September 9 of 2005 where she allegedly wrote a bad check to a local business.  She was processed and released on an appearance ticket.

Saranac Lake firefighters were called to a pair of brush and forest fires on Monday.  One truck, one boat and six members responded near Little Colby Pond at 1:16 p.m.  They used 4000 gallons of water to put out the small blaze, the cause of which was attributed to a campfire.  Firefighters were back at the station by 3:53 p.m.  Another report of a fire in the woods came in at 5:34 p.m. yesterday. One truck and 13 members responded to the end of Jenkins Street.  The fire was extinguished with 750 gallons of water.  The cause of blaze was undetermined.  Firefighters returned to the fire station by 6:46 p.m.

Saranac Lake firefighters were also called to a utility pole fire at 8:44 a.m. on Monday.  One truck and six members responded to Forest Hill Avenue.  They stood-by for National Grid crews to arrive on scene, returning to the fire station by 9:09 a.m.