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Wednesday,
October 12 2005
SL
BOARD INVESTIGATING OFFICERS’ CAR CRASH
The Saranac Lake Village Board is asking State
Police for details of its investigation into a one-car crash last
week that involved two officers of the Saranac Lake Police
Department.
Among other things, the board is checking out
unsubstantiated rumors that alcohol may have been involved.
“We heard the rumors and we thought it was our duty to
have it investigated,” Trustee Jeff Branch said Tuesday.
Major Peter Person of State Police Troop B says
the accident occurred around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday evening on State
Route 3 between Bloomingdale and Saranac Lake.
Sergeant Bruce Nason, who was driving, and
Officer Casey Reardon, his passenger, were headed back to the
village after a day of training when a deer crossed in front of
their unmarked village-owned vehicle.
Nason swerved and the car spun around and hit guiderails on
the side of the road.
No injuries were reported.
Major Person said damage to the vehicle was considerable,
but it wasn’t totaled.
Saranac Lake Police Chief Don Perryman described
it as a minor property damage accident.
He said he interviewed the officers and found “no
evidence” that alcohol was a factor.
“I’m hearing the rumors too, but I don’t know where
they’re coming from,” he said.
One possible source – several employees at
Trudeau Sand and Gravel who witnessed the accident.
One of the workers, who declined to be named, said Tuesday
that when they offered help to the officers, one of them smelled
alcohol on the driver’s breath.
The same person said a state trooper responded to the scene
and asked what they saw, but never took a statement.
The rumors became serious enough to prompt an
emergency meeting of the village board on Thursday.
The mayor and trustees immediately went into executive
session and decided to ask State Police for details of their
investigation, including a copy of the accident report.
“We just want to get the facts on what
happened,” said Mayor Tom Catillaz.
“We’re not trying to hide something.”
Catillaz is expecting the State Police report to be
available by the end of the week or early next week.
Asked about their investigation, Major Person
“couldn’t say” if alcohol was involved because the driver
had been taken back to the Saranac Lake police station by the time
troopers responded. “We
didn’t have a chance to interview the operator,” Person said.
An on-site accident reconstruction didn’t take
place until the following day, Person said, because of confusion
with the Saranac Lake PD over who was going to complete the
report. Person later
said that some of the details he provided about the accident came
from a trooper’s interview of Perryman.
Nason could not be reached for comment.
Perryman said the vehicle is out of commission for now but
they hope to have it back on the road shortly.
SL
TO PAY TO RELOCATE WATER LINE
The Village of Saranac Lake plans to take
$100,000 out of a reserve fund to cover the cost of relocating a
water line that was accidentally broken last week during the
Riverside Drive sewer project.
Village Manager John Sweeney told the village
board Tuesday night that they had no documentation or information
that the ten-inch water line was there, until it was hit.
The loss of pressure created by the break led to
a boil water order for residents in the area.
The advisory was rescinded on Sunday.
But the village now has to relocate as much as
740 feet of the water line and Sweeney asked for approval to take
$100,000 from a water reserve account for the project.
The account currently has $170,000.
Community Development Director Debbie McDonnell
said she’s talking with the Environmental Facilities Corporation
to see if the money could be reimbursed by bonding that already
exists for the project.
Sweeney said the priority is to finish the sewer
project first and, depending on the availability of village crews
or contractors, relocate the water line in the spring.
He said they’ve found no laterals connected to
the ten-inch water line. Most
of the laterals are on an older six-inch line.
The board approved the transfer from reserves
contingent on McDonnell seeking reimbursement, if possible.
In other business Tuesday night, the board
accepted a $55,000 bid for a 2001 snow groomer for Mt. Pisgah,
based on the recommendation of Village Mechanic Wayne Voudren.
The price includes transporting the machine to Saranac
Lake.
To pay for the groomer the village has a $30,000
grant through Senator Betty Little, $18,000 from two separate
budget accounts, $3000 donated by the Friends of Mt. Pisgah and
$1000 from the Saranac Lake Ski Club.
The rest of the cost will come from equipment reserves,
although Voudren said there may be other donations in the works.
“The community support has been tremendous,” he said.
The groomer will be delivered the week of
December 19.
JAIL
WORKER CHARGED WITH THEFT
A Franklin County Sheriff's Department employee
was charged Tuesday with stealing money from bail accounts to
finance her gambling.
Authorities say 48 year-old Cheryl Alexander of
Malone admitted to stealing $16,000 from the department since
October 2004.
According to a press release from State Police,
Sheriff Jack Pelkey noticed discrepancies in the department's
funds and requested state police conduct a criminal investigation.
Auditors from the State Comptroller’s Office
were called in to review the department’s finances.
They found $16,000 from the bail fund was unaccounted for,
along with another $175 in petty cash.
Authorities say Alexander, who has worked for
the department for more than 20 years, told the auditors what she
had been doing when they discovered the missing money.
Alexander turned herself in to Malone State
Police yesterday and was charged with third-degree grand larceny
and first-degree falsification of business records.
She was arraigned and released on $1000 bail.
Alexander faces up to seven years in prison, if
convicted.
WYETH
SHUTDOWN: ‘A HUGE BLOW TO NORTH COUNTRY’
Local and state leaders continue to react to the
news that a major North Country employer will be shutting down
over the next three years leaving 1,200 workers out of a job.
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Rouses Point announced
Tuesday that they were phasing out the manufacturing plant because
of the company’s “continuing assessment and realignment of its
manufacturing network.”
Many workers were reportedly crying as the news
was announced in mandatory meetings on Tuesday.
Larry Harney, a five-year Wyeth employee, tells the
Plattsburgh Press-Republican that company officials asked if there
were any questions after they made the announcement. “Nobody said anything,” Harney said. “Everybody just got up and walked out.”
The company plans to offer all employees
severance packages with extended benefits. The first round of cuts
will take place in 2006 and by the end of 2008 the plant will be
closed.
The Rouses Point facility was the main producer
of Premarin, a drug designed to ease symptoms of menopause.
Company officials say a drop in sales of the drug was the major
factor in their decision to close the plant.
State Senator Betty Little called the
announcement, “a huge blow to the North Country.” “Wyeth’s
refusal to meet with me and New York State Empire Development
officials in recent weeks leads me to believe that the company had
resolved for some time to make this transition,” she said.
Little said they’d work with the company to
find potential buyers for
the facility. “In the weeks ahead, I'll be working with
local economic development and elected officials to help employees
and their families,” she said.
Rouses Point Mayor George Rivers told the Press
Republican they were assembling a task force to address the loss
of Wyeth. “We’ve
got to be positive about this,” he said.
“Maybe we can get something else to come in.”
MALONE
BANS LARGE SCALE WIND PROJECTS
The Malone Town Council is proposing a new local
law that would effectively prevent a large-scale wind project from
locating in the town.
As a group of wind farm-opponents picketed
outside, the council held a closed-door meeting Tuesday with
planning board members and Buffalo attorney Dan Spitzer regarding
possible zoning ordinances regulating wind farms.
There have been no formal applications to the
town for a wind farm but Noble Environmental Power has expressed
an interest in building more than 130 wind turbines in Malone and
neighboring Brandon. Each
tower would be some 400 feet tall.
After an executive session, the meeting was
opened to the public and the protesters filed in.
Malone Supervisor Howard Maneely announced a
series of proposed zoning ordinances that would essentially
prohibit wind towers from being built in the town.
Specifically, the proposals would not allow the
construction of any tower over 65 feet tall on parcels of land
between one and five acres. The
construction of towers 80 feet in height would not be permitted on
land greater than 5 acres.
After the meeting, Maneely said the proposals
should hopefully put the issue to bed. “The Town Board has been
criticized for not doing our job, but we have been doing our job
for the last year,” he said. “We did a lot research and a lot
of work on this and I think we came out with a local law that
protects the people and the town of Malone.”
Maneely said the town would have received 19
percent of a $400,000 payment in lieu of taxes, which he felt was
not enough to offset the impact of the project. “It’s not even
worth talking about that,” he said.
The decision was also based in part on a visit
to the wind farm under construction along in Tug Hill Plateau in
Lewis County. “That’s not for Malone,” he said. “We’re a
hometown community and it’s not our way of life here.”
The Lewis County project involves 120 turbines
with another 75 slated to be built in 2006. Another company has
plans to build a wind farm in the Central Adirondacks. Adirondack
Wind Partners has been talking with the APA about building 10 wind
turbines on property just north of Gore Mountain.
The sudden surge of wind farm proposals is
partly in response to Governor George Pataki’s proposal in 2003
to have New York get 25 percent of its electricity from renewable
resources over the next ten years.
SLVFD
HOSTS OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY
An open house will take place Saturday at the
Saranac Lake fire house as part of the fire department’s
celebration of National Fire Prevention Week.
The event, happening from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
will include displays of fire department vehicles and equipment
like underwater and thermal imaging cameras, ice rescue suits,
fire and rescue trucks.
Fire prevention literature and information will
be available along with historical pictures and slide shows.
Several activities are planned including aerial
rides, blood pressure clinics, a smoke house maze for adults and
children, drawings for special prizes and kids activities.
Smokey the Bear and State Forest Rangers will
stop by at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
And a free nine-volt battery will be given to
the first 100 adults so they can change the battery in their smoke
alarm.
The department is also hosting classes of
students at the fire house all this week.
POLICE
REPORT
Saranac Lake Police arrested a 17 year-old male,
youthful offender from Saranac Lake at 8:30 p.m. last night. The teen was taken into custody after an investigation into
an alleged Child Protective “Hotline” call where a 14 year-old
victim reported being choked by the defendant.
While interviewing the parties involved, police learned
that the youthful offender allegedly had sexual intercourse and
oral sexual contact with the 14 year-old victim.
He was arrested on charges of first-degree criminal sexual
act, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of sexual misconduct and
endangering the welfare of a child.
He was arraigned in village court and remanded to the
Franklin County Jail in lieu of $2500 bail to reappear in court
again at a later date.
Saranac
Lake Police were called to a vehicle-pedestrian accident on
Broadway at approximately 8:42 p.m. last night.
John Decker of Saranac Lake was driving northwest on
Broadway when a pedestrian, Tamela Darrah of Saranac Lake, walked
into the side of Decker’s vehicle while attempting to cross the
street. Darrah was
transported to the hospital by Saranac Lake Rescue.
The police department’s preliminary investigation
revealed that Darrah did not yield to traffic.
No citations have been issued at this time.
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