VOTERS TO DECIDE SHORTER SCHOOL BOARD TERMS

Saranac Lake Central School District voters will get to decide this spring whether school board members should be serving shorter terms beginning in 2009, following a vote of the school board Wednesday night.

Board member Darren Dalton had asked his colleagues whether they’d support shortening the length of term for future school board members from the current five years to three years.

Statewide, Dalton said, more than 500 of New York’s 734 school districts have three year terms for board members.

“Five years is a large commitment of time,” he said.  If terms were shortened to three years, “more people in the community would be apt to run for the board, which is a good thing.”

It’s not an issue of not being dedicated enough to serve five years, Dalton said.  “If you’re a board member and you want to re-up for a second three year term, if you’re not doing a good job, then the public has the opportunity to have their voice heard,” he said. 

An argument against shorter terms, Dalton said, would be that it takes board members time to “get their feet wet.”  “It could take a year, it could take six months,” he said. 

“I think it takes at least two years to know what you’re doing,” said board member Joan Schaefer.

Board member Tom Finch said some people aren’t as willing to make a longer commitment.  If a person gets on the board and decides it’s not what they envisioned, a shorter term would make them more willing to stick around to the end of their three years rather than resign, Finch said.

“I’d very much consider a three year term but I’d be skeptical to do another five years,” said board member Debra Lennon.

It takes voter approval to make any change in the term length of board members. 

The board agreed unanimously to add a proposition to the ballot asking voters if the terms of board members elected after 2009 should be three years in length. 

-Chris Knight

REASSESSMENT RAISING CONCERNS IN TUPPER LAKE

The total assessed value of all properties in the Town of Tupper Lake has increased dramatically under the tentative 2008 assessment roll.

The town’s total assessed value last year was approximately $390 million, according to town assessor Larry Cole.  After a reassessment, the figure has now jumped to $659 million.

Tupper Lake property owners received notice of their tentative assessments in the mail this week.  Some, especially waterfront property owners, were shocked to see how much their property values had spiked.

They expressed their concerns this week on WNBZ’s Talk of the Town.  “I inherited a place on Lake Simon Road,” said one caller.  “It went up $203,400 from last year.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to live in the area anymore.”   Another caller said her parents’ assessment increased $103,000.  “I just wonder how they expect people who are limited to be able to pay this,” she said.

Town of Tupper Lake Supervisor Roger Amell said he’s been getting a lot of calls from his constituents this week about the new assessments.  “They have good reason to be concerned,” he said.  “But the state wants us to be at 100 percent.”

Amell said people from out of town buying lakefront properties are partly to blame for driving up the housing market, even though home prices have slipped in the last year.  “The people that come up here and buy these big camps on the lake hurt the regular people who have camps on the lake,” he said. 

The supervisor also acknowledged that the prospect of the Adirondack Club and Resort coming to Tupper Lake may have played a role in the increased assessments.  “Maybe to a certain extent,” he said.  “But lakefront properties in other townships have gone up too.”

With property values spiking, the supervisor said it’s now up to the town, county, village and school district to drop their tax rates.  He said the town board will adjust its rates accordingly.  “There’s not going to be a problem with us,” Amell said.  “But if everybody else doesn’t follow suit, than it’s going to be a big shock to the community.” 

The situation in Tupper Lake is comparable to what happened when the neighboring Town of Harrietstown performed a reassessment in 2006.  The total assessed value of the town doubled to $900 million.  That reassessment spawned a lawsuit against Harrietstown that now involves some 100 town property owners. 

Asked if they’re bracing for a similar challenge, Amell said hopefully they won’t have to worry about it.  “If it happens its going to happen,” he said.  

Town Assessor Larry Cole stressed that the figures provided to property owners this week are tentative.  Appeals can be made to the Board of Assessment Review and the assessment roll won’t be finalized until July 1.

Cole acknowledged that some residents are seeing big increases.  “Nobody’s happy when they see something like this,” he said.  “It just goes with the job.”

But Cole said the reassessment was needed.  “The number one reason for doing a revaluation is to put the equity back in the roll,” he said. 

It’s the first full reassessment in Tupper Lake since 2003.

-Chris Knight

FRANKLIN COUNTY PICKS NEW AUDITOR

Franklin County legislators have taken the recommendation of their Finanace Committee and have hired a Constable woman to serve as the new county auditor.

Margaret “Peggy” Lester, a Democratic councilwoman from the Town of Constable, is scheduled to begin work on March 31 at a starting salary just under $37,000.

County Manager Jim Feeley said Lester will be leaving her job at Citizen Advocates, where she’s worked in the accounting department for the last nine years, to take the auditor’s job.

Feeley said Lester has a strong background in financial management.  “The board had interviewed a total of six people and thought she was the prime pick,” he said.

The vote to appoint Lester was unanimous, except for legislator Daniel Crippen of Burke, who abstained because he’s related to one of the other five finalists for the job.

Legislator Tim Burpoe said he was impressed with Lester’s qualifications.  “It was the 30 years experience the lady had as an accountant, bookkeeper, at a bank, she has experience with government,” he said.  “It was those few items that pushed me over the top.”

The county has been without an auditor since January when legislators declined to reappoint Charles Archie McKee, who held the position the previous 13 years.

Supporters of McKee called the decision a political move. 

Legislators were initially reluctant to say why McKee was not reappointed, but later blamed him for delays in claims processing that led to late fees and threats of discontinuation of service. 

McKee argued that the delays were caused by his office volunteering to take on extra work and being shorthanded for several months.

The controversy also led another candidate for the job, Betty Blanchard, to decline the position.

Despite the hiring of Peggy Lester, Burpoe said he still thinks some people will harbor resentment over what happened. “When it comes down to these types of appointments there’s always going to be some resentment,” he said.  “But the idea here is to try to keep this thing as apolitical as possible and also find the most capable person of doing the job.”

The new auditor, Peggy Lester, was re-elected to another four-year term on the Constable Town Board in 2006.

-Chris Knight

TIME WARNER CABLE DONATES VIDEO TRUCK TO SLCSD

Time Warner Cable has donated a video production truck to the Saranac Lake Central School District, for use by the high school video club.

Don Jones, video club advisor, said the opportunity came about last year when Time Warner cut back on the amount of coverage it was providing of local meetings and events.

“In order to meet the needs of the community, we started talking to them about possibly getting the truck and all the production equipment,” he said.  “Since then, it’s been working out the details.”

Jones said the video club has been using a small pickup truck to ferry all their equipment.  But it’s limited what they’ve been able to do.

Time Warner’s video production truck, a 1990 Grumman, will be a tremendous asset to the club and its students, Jones said.  “This is huge. It allows us to drive up, pull out a couple cables, the cameras and everything’s going to be stationed in the truck.  Its got a deck on top and a canopy in case it rains.  So it allows us more flexibility as to what we can do.”

Jones said the club will be looking for sponsors to help in outfitting the truck to meet their needs. 

Mark Ryan, Time Warner’s northern region general manager, said donating the truck is part of an effort to work with school districts across the region.  “We’ve worked with high schools to create a curriculum for the school that gives the students hands on experience in video production.  We use our public access channels to have an avenue to play their programming.  We’re hoping that by donating this truck it gives the school more resources to be able to cover community events.”

Don Jones said there are currently about thirty active students in the high school’s video classes.  There were eight students when he started the club three years ago. 

-Chris Knight

 
HORACE NYE NURSING HOME REOPENS TO PUBLIC

An Essex County nursing home that had been closed to the public and new admissions since mid-February due to what officials believe is a highly contagious norovirus has reopened.

The Horace Nye Nursing Home in Elizabethtown reopened on Thursday, according to a report in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.

County Attorney Daniel Manning says they’ve lifted the restrictions that were implemented after more then seventy staff and residents became sick in the last few weeks.  Three residents died during the outbreak of what is believed to be the Norwalk virus.

The public is now allowed to visit the nursing home and new admissions are being accepted.

Manning said the common rooms of the facility have reopened and staff members are no longer required to wear gloves and masks.

Nursing home officials are still waiting for test results on cultures taken from residents to identify the exact nature of the illness

-Chris Knight

MOUNTAIN LAKE PBS OFF THE AIR

Mountain Lake PBS is off the air after its transmission line was damaged on Thursday.

Officials at the Plattsburgh-based public television station say crews were trying to replace burned-out beacons on top of their relatively new broadcast tower on Lyon Mountain when a crew member dislodged a sizeable chunk of ice that quickly found its way down to a small section of transmission line.

The impact caused “an instant outage” says Charlie Zarbo, Mountain Lake’s Director of Engineering.  “The line is severely dented, to the point that we can't operate, even at reduced power,” he said.

However, the station’s digital signal is operating on a standby antenna, and staff members are working to contact the different satellite and cable providers to see if they are able to use the digital signal to carry the station’s television transmission.

“It’ll be a few days to get a new transmission line ordered, made and shipped,” Zarbo said.  “But we expect the repair to be made by Monday, at the latest.”

Mountain Lake PBS had just finished a complete rebuild of their broadcast tower last October.  The station had to rebuild the tower after an April storm caused the original tower to collapse.

For more information, contact the station at 563-9770, or go online at www.mountainlake.org.

-Chris Knight

VILLAGE NEEDS HELP IN UPDATING CENSUS DATA

The Village of Saranac Lake is looking for help in the next two weeks with updating census address data in preparation for the 2010 census.

Village Trustee Susan Waters, in an email, said accurate population information is critical data since state and federal funding amounts and congressional districts are often based on a community’s population.

Waters says they’re looking for people to perform data entry, updating a database provided by the census department to reflect recent E-911 address changes.

Visual inspectors are also needed.  They would drive neighborhoods within the village limits to confirm individual residence counts, especially the number of apartments in a building.

If you have an interest in the short-term project, contact waters via phone at 891-7315 or via email at trusteewaters@saranaclakeny.gov.

-Chris Knight

POLICE REPORT

Lake Placid Police charged 24 year-old Jacob A. Tendler of Lake Placid with second-degree assault, a class D felony, at 11:36 p.m. last night.  The arrest stems from an investigation that found Tendler allegedly assaulted another person with a blunt and sharp object.  Police say the alleged victim suffered multiple head lacerations.  Tendler was processed, arraigned and remanded to the Essex County Jail in lieu of $5000 cash bail or $10,000 bond.