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Saturday, October 17, 2015
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www.SunCommunityNews.com
In OUTDOORS | pg. 3
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Local youth take to the woods
In OPINION | pg. 4
Behind the Pressline
Youth hunt held Oct. 10-12
Why would anyone want these jobs?
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In SPORTS | pg. 8
Regular season comes to a close AVCS gets by the Lady Bombers in OT
Judge rules against Paul Smith’s name change By Karen Vande Kieft
suncommunitynews@suncommunitynews.com
PAUL SMITHS — After a hard fought battle, the petition to rename Paul Smith’s College has been denied by state Supreme Court Judge John Ellis. After reviewing what Ellis wrote was a “significant amount of financial information” including the college’s tax returns, he found that college trustees had failed to demonstrate that the $20 million donation from benefac-
tor Joan Weill was critical to saving the college financially, and thus a name change is not warranted. Weill had made adding her name to that of the college a condition of the $20 million donation, but standing in the way was a provision in the will of college founder Phelps Smith which states the college should forever be known as Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Sciences. College trustees argued that the name change, and corresponding donation from
Weill, were crucial to keeping the doors open at Paul Smith’s. But Ellis disagreed. Ellis said there is insufficient evidence that Weill’s donation — as well as the college’s 5-year strategic plan, which includes a $30 million revitalization plan aimed at addressing decreasing enrollment — is the only effective way to “stabilize the college’s finances.” Therefore, the college failed to prove that the naming restriction in the will of Phelps Smith should be ignored, Ellis wrote.
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Supreme Court: Best two out of four
Humble Hero
Four candidates are running for two state supreme court seats By Pete DeMola
“I can’t see why I did anything out of the ordinary,” says World War II vet
ELIZABETHTOWN — Before he heads to Washington, DC this Saturday, Thomas Buckley just has one question: “Why is my opinion important?” Buckley says his stint in World War II was nothing more than a vacation — a way Pete for a self-described hick like himself to DeMola Editor spend a week in Switzerland before heading off to Italy. The honor and accolades — a police escort to Plattsburgh, parade and day spent taking in capital memorials — is unwarranted, he said. Buckley, 89, first heard about Pearl Harbor as a teenager cruising back from his uncle’s place on Silver Lake. But the Plattsburgh native was too young to be drafted. That had to wait until July 1945, just before Japan quit. After making his way through a series of stateside camps for training — Shanks, Jackson — the 19-year-old found himself headed to Italy on the SS Blue Ridge Victory. Buckley arrived in a destroyed train station in Naples. The windows and roof were blown out and survivors took refuge in the remnants.
“...the petitioner falls far short of showing that its name is holding the college back from being a shining success both in enrollment and in producing successful college graduates,” Ellis wrote. “Significantly, Paul Smith’s has failed to demonstrate the college cannot operate effectively within that changing demographic absent the requested relief.” President of Paul Smith’s College, Cathy Dove, was unavailable for comment, however, Shannon Oborne, chief marketing officer at Paul Smith’s, released a written statement.
pete@suncommunitynews.com
Thomas Buckley heads to Washington, DC on Saturday, Oct. 17 as part of North Country Honor Flight, the program that shuttles World War II and Korean War veterans to the nation’s capital to honor their service. Photo by Pete DeMola
From there, he took a troop train to Cividale, a mountain town on the border with Yugoslavia. “It was pretty bleak,” Buckley recalled. “The railroad tracks were shot to hell and there wasn’t too much left of them.” His assignment was to drive a truck hauling materials used for reconstructive efforts, bridges and roads. Buckley would watch food rations come into Trieste, the northeastern seaport. Gift to the People of Yugoslavia from the People of the United >> Story Continued | pg. 5
ELIZABETHTOWN — With three weeks until Election Day, the four candidates running for State Supreme Court justice in the Fourth Judicial District are busy traversing a sprawling district in the search for votes. The district, one of 13 in the state, spans from Schenectady to the Canadian border. It includes Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington counties. That’s 26 percent of the state’s land mass. Judges face mandatory retirement at 70. This year’s two court vacancies are due to the retirements of justices David R. Demarest, of Potsdam, and David B. Krogmann, of Warren County. The four-way run-off will see the top two vote-getters win the seats. MARTIN AUFFREDOU, Warren County Auffredou, who currently serves as the Warren County Attorney, has been endorsed by both the Conservative and Republican parties. “It’s a huge territory,” Auffredou told Essex County Republicans at their annual dinner last month. “This is an enormous >> Story Continued | pg. 7