APA COMMITTEE CAN’T REACH CONSENSUS ON SLED CAP

The Adirondack Park Agency’s state lands committee failed to reach a consensus yesterday whether to institute a cap on snowmobile trails on public lands in the park.

After more than an hour of discussion, the committee moved to forward the matter – without comment – to the full board of commissioners for review today.

Commissioners are wrestling with a recommendation from agency staff to adopt an 848.88 mile cap. Current data estimates that about 740 miles of trails exist and it’s up to the agency to decide whether setting the cap at 848 miles – as recommended by DEC – would constitute a “material increase” in snowmobile trails.

The 1972 State Land Master Plan prohibits any material increase of trails, leaving room for interpretation on just how much constitutes a “material increase”.

Several commissioners questioned the wisdom of adopting the 848 mile cap – computed as about 15 percent above the current inventory of trails.

Commissioner Cecil Wray made that point in plain terms. “That is a ridiculous sounding number. That sounds like a scientific number and that it most certainly is not. And I think we would look very foolish if we set that as a number. And no one has given us any reason for that except that DEC has been saying it for twenty-odd years. But as we all know, saying it so don’t make it so.”

The APA received nearly 750 letters within a one month span when it began taking public comment.

Commissioner Lani Ulrich noted that the issue remains divisive and reminded commissioners that the APA has a responsibility to take into account the positive economic impact of snowmobiles.

“I didn’t find anyone who agreed with this. I found a lot of people who disagreed with it strongly on a number of different sides. So I don’t know if it means we got it right this time or if we really blew it. I’m real concerned that we somehow address in this kind of statement our duties in responding to the needs of the economy.”

Christopher Walsh the park agency designee from the state Department of Economic Development, questioned the wisdom of banking on snowmobile tourism for the future. He noted that the rising cost of fuel may make snowmobiles less attractive in the long-term as a form of tourism and recommended that commissioners focus on the value of the unique nature of the “forever wild” Forest Preserve lands.

“There are lots of places that people can go to snowmobile in the Northeast. Very few, maybe only one place, where you have such a large amount of public land that hasn’t been developed, doesn’t have roads, doesn’t have roads going through it. That’s what makes the Adirondacks unique.”

After the meeting adjourned, Dave Perkins, trails coordinator for the New York Snowmobiling Association, said he’s worried that commissioners will lower the cap below 848 miles.

“As snowmobiling opportunities arise, we want to see an interconnected trail system across the Adirondacks. It’s really a messy trail system currently and it really needs to be improved.”

Several commissioners had argued that it is unwise to set a hard cap when the state may acquire new lands and expand the Forest Preserve. APA chief counsel John Banta noted that a cap would not be binding for future boards and could be adjusted in the future as commissioners see fit.

John Davis, conservation director of the Adirondack Council, said the State Land Master Plan makes it clear that motorized use is not to be encouraged.

“The idea that this cap can be revisited and should additional sizeable parcels be added to the Forest Preserve they could raise the cap, that’s problematic. That’s in contradiction to the intent of the State Land Master Plan.”

The full APA board of commissioners is scheduled to revisit the issue again this morning.

-Jacob Resneck

SENATE BUDGET RESTORES GABRIELS FUNDING

While most of the attention was focused this week on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, the state Assembly and Senate passed versions of a roughly $125 billion budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The Senate budget includes a restoration of funding for four prisons that the Spitzer administration had slated for closure, including Camp Gabriels in Franklin County.

The Senate has allocated $10.7 million “for the full and continued operations” of Camp Gabriels, Camp Pharsalia in Chenango County, Camp McGregor in Saratoga County and Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County.

State Senator Betty Little called the restoration of funding step one in trying to keep Camp Gabriels open.  “We do have the money in our budget but that’s no guarantee that the commissioner of corrections will keep it open,” she said.

Little said she’s hopeful that the new administration in Albany will be more open to reconsidering the closure of Camp Gabriels.   “We have written and are hoping for a meeting in the Saranac Lake area with the commissioner of corrections,” she said. 

The senator said she’s been working with a group of stakeholders to identify other services and facilities that could be provided at Camp Gabriels such as drug and alcohol treatment programs and vocational and technical training for inmates.

“It certainly is a model transitional facility and we would like to see it expanded so we’d have some of these other programs there,” she said.

If inmates can get more treatment or educational training they will be less likely to re-offend when they leave prison, Little said. “Those are some of the things we’re trying to do but certainly having the money in the budget was step number one,” she said.

Department of Corrections spokesman Eric Kriss said he didn’t know what the change in administration would mean for the proposed prison closures.  But he says the corrections department still believes the closures are needed.  “We believe closing those four prisons is the appropriate thing to do from a budget standpoint and from the standpoint of the decreasing prison population of the state,” he said.

“But if the law under the new state budget says we are to keep the prisons open, then that’s what we do,” he said.  “We have a new governor coming in.  Its his call as well as the Legislature’s as to what happens here.”

Kriss didn’t immediately know if the corrections commissioner would grant Senator Little’s request for a meeting in Saranac Lake.

Camp Gabriels employs more than 180 people and contributes $40 million to the regional economy.

-Chris Knight
 

N-ELBA LOSES BID TO DISMISS MUSEUM LAWSUIT

A lawsuit challenging the planned 64-foot tower of the Adirondack Museum in Lake Placid can move forward after a judge rejected a motion to dismiss the case.

Tom West, an environmental lawyer with a seasonal residence on Hillcrest Avenue had filed suit claiming that the Lake Placid-North Elba Joint Review Board didn’t follow its own architectural code when it approved the project earlier this year.

Attorneys for the Town of North Elba and the museum responded by filing a motion asking an Essex County judge to dismiss the lawsuit. They argued West had no legal standing to challenge the project.

But Judge James Dawson rejected that argument in a decision filed Tuesday and ordered the town and museum to answer allegations spelled out in West’s original lawsuit.

North Elba Town Attorney Ron Briggs said the judge’s ruling was understandable since a court normally accepts a lawsuit’s initial allegations as true until they are proven otherwise.  “While not surprising that the motion to dismiss was denied, we are nonetheless disappointed,” Briggs said.

Tom West said his lawsuit isn’t meant to block the museum itself. He said he only objects to the 64-foot tower that he claims would block his view of Mirror Lake. 

“As I’ve said all along we do not oppose the museum, we welcome the museum as neighbors,” West said. “We are just opposed to the tower. We think it conflicts with the height requirements of the code and we think it conflicts with the architectural requirements of the code.”

West has also filed suit against the Adirondack Park Agency which issued a permit to the museum in January. West’s suit alleges the Park Agency didn’t apply its towers policy to the tower as required by law.

The judge has set an April 4 deadline for the museum and town to answer the lawsuit. West said the APA had been under the same deadline but he’s negotiating with the state Attorney General’s Office over an extension.

Projected to cost $8 million, the plan calls for a 8,200-square-foot museum on Main Street in Lake Placid. It would replace the Church of the Nazarene. Museum planners have said they hope to open the new museum in 2010.

-Jacob Resneck

PATERSON: ‘I AM PREPARED’ TO BE GOVERNOR

Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will take over as New York's governor following Gov. Eliot Spitzer's dramatic fall from power in a prostitution scandal, said Thursday he is ready to lead and “get New York back on track.”

At a news conference at the state Capitol, Paterson said he’s ready to make due on a promise he made to Spitzer in January 2006.

“I did not get in this position in the way most people have or would want,” he said.  “I made a commitment to Governor Spitzer, when I left as the Democratic Senate leader to become his running that I would be prepared if in event I had to assume authority.  I am prepared.”

Paterson takes over on Monday, and will become New York's first black governor and the nation's first legally blind chief executive.

One of his first tasks will be working with lawmakers to close a $4.7 billion deficit and broker a deal by April 1 on a $124 billion budget proposed by Spitzer.

Spitzer stepped down Wednesday amid a call-girl scandal that made a mockery of his straight-arrow image and left him facing the prospect of criminal charges and perhaps disbarment.

Spitzer and his successor have starkly different leadership styles. While Spitzer was famously abrasive, uncompromising and even insulting, Paterson has built a reputation as a conciliator, and lawmakers quickly embraced the new order.

Paterson, in his comments on Thursday, sought to assure New Yorkers that their government is stable and that lawmakers are serving the people. “We will all commit ourselves in a bipartisan way to building a relationship that will restore the public trust in our government,” he said.  “There may be a five day transition period but we are hard at work at this moment putting together a budget that will help New York to thrive.

North Country lawmakers have expressed optimism about working with Paterson.

State Senator Betty Little said Wedesday that Paterson had asked for a commitment from lawmakers – Democrats and Republicans – to work cooperatively on behalf of all New Yorkers. “He has my commitment to do so,” she said. “We all need to rise above this.”

Barely known outside his Harlem political base, Paterson, 53, has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985. Though legally blind, he has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance and even read if the text is placed close to his face.

Several Spitzer administration officials are expected to remain with Paterson.  Some of Spitzer’s top aides, however, have submitted resignations for Paterson to consider.

-Chris Knight and AP wire reports

H-TOWN, PSC TEAM UP ON FORESTRY PLAN AT AIRPORT

The Town of Harrietstown and Paul Smith’s College are working together to implement a sustainable forestry plan on lands at the town-owned Adirondack Regional Airport and adjacent business park.

Town officials had been working last year on a plan to harvest timber on the airport and business park property.  But the plan stalled after the board learned that Paul Smith’s College had retained certain deed covenants on the property when it donated the land to the town in 1941 to build the airport.

Under the agreement, which town officials announced last night, the college will develop and execute a long term forestry plan for the 395-acre property.

The college will help the town conduct a sustainable harvest of the forest surrounding the airport.  In turn, the college will donate 40 percent the proceeds from timber harvested to the town.

Town officials say they plan to use that money to help fund the airport and its adjacent business park.  The management plan will also bring the town into compliance with up-to-date forestry practices.  And it will ensure that the trees surrounding the airport’s runways are kept in compliance with FAA height regulations.

Councilman Ron Keough, who worked with the college to develop the agreement, called it a major step forward.  “On a long term basis, there will be revenue coming to the town and college,” he said at last night’s town board meeting. 

Both Keough and John Mills, Paul Smith’s College President, said the agreement is a great example of government and educational institutions working together.  “We are pleased we can help the town with its economic development goals by supporting both the airport and business park,” Mills said, in a news release.

The college will add the acreage to its forest management plan, which is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.  

The town board is expected to consider approving the agreement at their next meeting, after it’s reviewed by the town attorney.

In other business last night, Supervisor Larry Miller and Keith Wells of the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, reported on a trip to Cape Air’s headquarters in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Cape Air recently took over the federal subsidy to provide service at the Adirondack Regional Airport and Plattsburgh International Airport.

Wells said they were “treated royally” by Cape Air officials.  “They have a no-doubt first-class operation,” he said, calling the airline an “exciting partner” in comparison to the last two airlines – Big Sky and CommutAir.

Miller said Cape Air is willing to work with the town.  “They’re genuinely excited to be part of the community,” he said.  “They’re just great people to do business with.”

The board also accepted the resignation of two planning board members – Cherrie Sayles and Matt Raymond.  Roger Buck was appointed to fill the rest of Sayles’ term, until 2011.  The town is looking for an interested resident to fill the remaining vacancy on the planning board.

-Chris Knight

MCHUGH IN SARANAC LAKE, LONG LAKE NEXT WEEK

Congressman John McHugh will be in Saranac Lake and Long Lake next week.

McHugh’s mobile office operation will make stops in both communities on March 19.

The congressman will be available to meet publicly with area constituents to discuss any issue or problem involving the federal government. 

A separate, private area will be designated for any constituents to discuss personal matters regarding the federal government.

McHugh will be at the Harrietstown Town Hall on Wednesday from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Later he’ll be at the Town Hall in Long Lake from 4:30 – 6 p.m.

McHugh will also be meeting with constituents in the City of Oneida on Thursday, March 20.

-Chris Knight