APA ISSUES ULTIMATUM ON LAKE CLEAR HOUSE

The Adirondack Park Agency has issued its determination in an enforcement case against the owners of a $750,000 home on the shoreline of Lake Clear.

James and Kevin Hickey, accused of illegally subdividing their family’s lands and illegally building a single-family home too close to the lake, have been given two options by the agency’s Enforcement Committee.

They can move the house from resource management land to a “conforming location” on low intensity use lands by June 30, restore vegetation along the shoreline and face no penalties.

The second option would allow the Hickeys to keep the house in the same location.  But they would have to paint it in earth tone colors, tear down its deck, get a boundary line adjustment, plant vegetation to screen the house from the shoreline and pay a $50,000 fine.

Either option will satisfy the APA, said spokesman Keith McKeever. “The agency’s looking for compliance with the APA Act and to make sure the shoreline area in the resource management lands of the park are respected,” he said.  “Both of these options would result in compliance.  At this point its up to the applicant to make his decision.”

The Hickeys have been given ten days from the date they received notice of the agency’s determination to comply.  If they don’t accept either option, the case will be referred to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Lake Placid Attorney Tim Smith, whose representing the Hickeys, said the decision was disappointing.  He said they haven’t decided whether to accept one of the agency’s options or go another route.  “We’re reviewing the decision and we’re reviewing our options,” he said.

Asked about the potential cost of having to move the house, Smith said he believes it would be “prohibitively expensive.”  “It’s quite unlikely that choice would be made,” he said.

Smith said he’s planning to ask for a “modest” extension on the agency’s 10 day deadline. “We’re going to deal with it one way or another but probably not within this initial ten day period,” he said.

During arguments before the Enforcement Committee earlier this month Smith said his clients had no idea a subdivision permit was needed.  He also said the house could be approved “after the fact” because the Hickeys have an additional building right on the property.

The five-bedroom house is used seasonally by James Hickey, who lives in Syracuse, but is rented out the rest of the year for up to $4000 per week.

-Chris Knight

ROGERS WON’T ENDORSE A SUPERVISOR CANDIDATE

The mayor of the Village of Lake Placid says he won’t be endorsing a candidate in the race for supervisor of the Town of North Elba.

Jamie Rogers said he’s not going to make a public endorsement between incumbent Republican Shirley Seney and independent challenger Roby Politi.

“I don’t think it’s really my place to tell the voters who they should vote for,” he said.  “I have a lot of respect for both Roby and Shirley.”

Rogers had been endorsed by Politi when he ran for mayor in 2005 against Peter Roy. 

Asked if he felt any need to return the favor and support Politi’s supervisor campaign, Rogers said he’s not going down that road.  “I think it puts the village board in a bad spot,” he said.  “We have to work with whoever wins in the best interest of the community.  Let the community decide.”

Seney and Politi will be going head to head in a Candidate Forum Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Lake Placid Hilton.  The debate will be broadcast live on our sister station, Rock 105.

-Chris Knight

H-TOWN BOARD ACCEPTS KREIG RESIGNATION

The Town of Harrietstown Board accepted, with regret, the resignation of Adirondack Regional Airport Manager Chris Kreig at its Thursday night meeting.

“We’re going to miss you,” Supervisor Larry Miller told Kreig, who was hired earlier this week as the manager of the Plattsburgh International Airport.  “We appreciate everything you’ve done.”

Kreig, whose been airport manger for the past year, told the board that his decision to leave was not an easy one.  He praised town officials for their continued support of the Lake Clear airport, which he said has a lot of potential.  “There’s a lot that can happen out there,” Kreig said.

The new position will provide Kreig with a significant salary boost – he’ll be going from $41,000 a year working for the town to more than $65,000 a year running the Plattsburgh airport.

In an interview earlier on Thursday, Councilman Barry Defuria said he didn’t fault Kreig for taking advantage of the opportunity.  “I hate to see him go but the town can’t compete with the salary they’re giving him,” Defuria said.

Harrietstown officials had been planning to increase the airport manager’s salary to over $48,000 a year in the 2008 budget based on a salary comparison performed by their human resources consultants.

The town is also without an assistant airport manager.  Miller said he and Defuria will be running the airport while the search for both positions is ongoing. Kreig’s last day with the town is November 21.

In other business, Kreig told the board that the airport’s obstruction lights had recently been vandalized.

One of the lights, which are located on the hills surrounding the airport, was apparently shot out by someone, Kreig said. 

State Police were contacted and the light has been repaired.  “That’s a huge safety issues,” Kreig said.  “The lights are there for a reason.  Not for people to use as target practice.”

The board also invited the public to a ceremony to thank State Senator Betty Little, Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey for their help in securing $700,000 in airport grants.  The event will take place November 2 at 1 p.m. at the airport.  The grant money will go towards construction of a T-hangar and a general aviation terminal.

And, town officials plan to post signs around the Dewey Mountain Cross Country Ski Center notifying the public that no hunting or firearms are allowed on the property.  Supervisor Larry Miller said he received a call from a resident reporting that someone had fired a gun near where he and his wife were walking at Dewey.  The town enacted an ordinance in 1981 prohibiting the use of firearms on the property.

-Chris Knight

PSC ENDS STUDENT’S TRAINING AT CROWNE PLAZA

Students in the culinary and hotel management programs at Paul Smith’s College are no longer using the Crowne Plaza Resort in Lake Placid as the site of their on the job training.

The college has ended its partnership with the resort just weeks after the beginning of the fall semester. 

College spokesman Ken Aaron said the decision was made by the college.  It was difficult for the students to get practical, on the job education in such a fast paced environment, he said.

“When you put together an academic curriculum you need a degree of predictability,” he said.  “When you’re working in a business environment especially at a luxury resort you don’t always have that predictability.  You have to be able to turn on a dime.  It just made it difficult to match up the educational needs of what we were trying to get for the students and what they were able to provide on a daily basis.”

Aaron said the management of the Crowne Plaza had been very supportive of the program, which involved eight students this fall.

Before the move to Lake Placid in the spring, the college used the Hotel Saranac as the location for its practicum.  It was easier because they owned the building, Aaron said. “From a profit perspective the Hotel Saranac was not the world’s largest money making operation,” he said.  “Part of that is because it was run as an educational institution and not entirely as a business.”

After the program was moved to Lake Placid, the college sold the Hotel Saranac.

The college’s culinary and hotel management students will now be doing their on the job training on campus by running the St. Regis Café, a full-service restaurant in the Joan Weil Student Center. “Today was the official opening of the restaurant on campus the students are pretty much running from tip to tail,” Aaron said.  “I had a faculty member tell me this is the best thing they’ve done in twenty years – getting the students here to work on some things.”

Asked if college officials would ever consider moving the practicum to a different hotel or resort, Aaron said not anytime soon. “They’re not intending to do anything offsite at this time,” he said.

-Chris Knight

TL BUSINESS PARK PURSUES ‘SHOVEL-READY’ SITES

Tupper Lake’s Planning Board met this week with Steve Erman, the Adirondack Park Agency’s Special Assistant for Economic Affairs, to discuss the process of making the lots at the Tupper Lake wood products business park “shovel ready.”

The Kildare Road property has been dormant since its creation almost ten-years ago through a $1.4 million grant.

The Franklin County Industrial Development Agency owns the park.  County, town and village leaders have recently been working to draw more attention to the vacant land – one of the keys to its development is getting sites in the park shovel ready.

Erman said shovel ready sites are appealing to companies because the permitting process with the APA is streamlined and the site is already setup with infrastructure.  Erman said the park agency has approved shovel ready sites at locations in Chesterfield and Moriah.

The Tupper Lake business park is currently split in two sections – the first is already furnished with some infrastructure including water, sewer, and electric. Survey maps of the parcels are also on record.

Planners had hoped a shovel ready site could help them lure the local Graymont cement mixing plant out of the village. Neighbors have complained that the plant causes traffic congestion, noise, and dust and debris.

But, Erman said, such a facility typically can’t be eligible for a shovel ready site.  The sites are usually reserved for companies that do their business inside a building. “If you’re doing a lumber mill or a batch plant you’re doing things outside,” he said. “That’s more of a tailored project. It doesn’t fit real cleanly into this shovel ready program.”

That doesn’t mean a shovel ready site can’t be permitted for another use.  Erman said it would just be subject to further review by the APA.

There has been some interest in the woods product park lately.  Paul Mitchell has submitted an application to the APA to expand his sawmill business, which neighbors the park.  

Erman said the initial application was deemed incomplete.  Some minor details need to be tweaked to gain approval, he said. “On the Mitchell logging site at the woods product business park, Agency has had productive conversations with Mr. Mitchell and with Franklin County IDA and the site appears to be the right site for that operation,” he said. “We’re looking to get complete plans from them in terms of what they want to do and then we’ll process the application. We’re looking forward to getting that information.”

In addition to shovel ready sites, the planning board is also looking to change the park’s deed covenants to allow different types of businesses. When created the business park was designed only for wood products companies.

-Mike Fritts

TL MAN HIT BY CAR OUTSIDE PARK ST. BAR

A Tupper Lake man was struck by a car outside a local bar last night.

The accident occurred around 9:20 p.m. near the Full Moon Saloon.

A red 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier driven by a 17-year-old girl was leaving a volleyball game at Tupper Lake High School when she struck the pedestrian as she was turning left onto McLaughlin Avenue from Park Street.

Tupper Lake Police Chief Tom Fee said the man was taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington with a head injury. His identity has not been released pending notification of family members.

Fee said no tickets have been issued to the driver and the investigation is ongoing. The chief also said there were several witnesses to the accident. 

Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department members were called to the scene at 9:17 p.m.  Thirty members and one truck responded.  They performed traffic control and returned to the station by 9:54 p.m.

-Mike Fritts

CHAMBER HOSTS EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS SEMINAR

The Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Resources Committee will be offering an Emergency Preparedness Seminar and Workshop for residents and businesses. 

The event will be held Tuesday October 30 at the Harrietstown Town Hall.  A 1 p.m. session is for residents and a separate 6:30 p.m. session for businesses.

Chamber Executive Director Sylvie Nelson said the first seminar is geared toward the general population. “Information will address what residents need to do at their home to be prepared for either a natural disaster, another terrorist attack or the pandemic flu,” she said. 

The 6:30 p.m. workshop will show business owners and managers how to develop an emergency plan of action.

Featured speaker at both sessions will be Lorraine Kourofsky, Prevent Supervisor for Franklin County.

The seminar at 1 p.m. is free, as is the workshop for chamber members at 6:30 p.m.  For businesses not members of the chamber, there is a $10 registration fee for the workshop at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce at 518-891-1990 or by e-mail at info@saranaclake.com.

POLICE REPORT

Tupper Lake Village Police charged a 16 year-old male from Tupper Lake with unlawfully dealing with fireworks and underage possession of tobacco at 11:42 a.m. Thursday.  The charge stems from an incident at the Tupper Lake High School.  The teen was given appearance tickets for village court.

Tupper Lake Village Police charged 21 year-old Darryl Branchaud of Saranac Lake with second-degree criminal trespass at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.  Police say Branchaud was at a residence on Pleasant Avenue that he was told to keep away from.  He was arraigned and released of his own recognizance to return to village court on November 26.

Tupper Lake Village Police charged an 18 year-old female from Tupper Lake with second-degree harassment at 2:39 p.m. Thursday.  Police say the charge stems from a domestic incident.  The 18 year-old was arraigned and released to return to village court December 17.

27 year-old Jesse Marsh of Tupper Lake was arrested Thursday by Tupper Lake Village Police.  He was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, fourth-degree grand larceny and second-degree forgery.  Police say the charges stem from an ongoing investigation of a larceny of checks from a local resident.  The checks were allegedly cashed at various locations around Tupper Lake.  Marsh was arraigned and remanded to the Franklin County Jail in lieu of $5000 cash bail or $10,000 bond.