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February 19, 2011
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Fish Kiss
Scout’s life
Sports Wrap
Craig Wamback lays a lip lock on a laker following the Mike Norris Fishing Derby. See Page 3
Area Boy Scouts keep busy with projects and adventures. See our tribute inside. See Page 11
Look inside for all the statistics and scores from your local sports teams. See Page 14
JCS teachers agree to salary, benefit concessions
Our Town Theatre Group announces arrival of Dracula
Ladies Luncheon slated in Long Lake LONG LAKE — A Ladies Winter Luncheon will be held in Long Lake at the St. Henry's Parish Center on Wednesday, March 2 at 12:30 p.m. The luncheon is sponsored by Friends of the Long Lake Library, is open to all women in Long Lake and surrounding towns and will be catered by the Cyber Creek Cafe of Long Lake. Featured speaker, Mary Ellen Dowling of Blue Mountain Lake will give an audio-visual presentation about her recent year as an educator in rural China. For more information, call 6242056.
THIS WEEK Indian Lake ..............2-4 Minerva.......................5 Opinion ...................6-7 Regional News..........8-9 Calendar..................14 Classified ................18
lindsay@denpubs.com
Beth Bidwellof the Wildlife Institute of Eastern New York displays a milk snake to students at Minerva Central School. Bidwell visited local schools to display a variety of animals to students. Photo by Tom Ripley
See JCS, page 4
Officials to lobby state to keep Americade here By Thom Randall thom@denpubs.com LAKE GEORGE — Local and state officials will be meeting soon to negotiate lower state fees in an effort to dissuade Americade motorcycle rally founder Bill Dutcher from moving his nationally famous event out of the area, Mayor Blais reported Monday. Blais said Dutcher is poised to move the rally to Springfield Mass. or another municipality in the northeast U.S. as soon as 2012 if he can’t get the state Department of Environmental Conservation brass to lower their $82,000 fee for the use of the Million Dollar Beach parking lot down to its historic level of about $50,000 for a week. Blais said state Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward and perhaps state Sen. Betty Little are expected to participate in this meeting. “We’re going to Albany and plead our case,” he said. “Dutcher said the proposed DEC fees are not acceptable.” Blais said Dutcher told him and other community leaders in a meeting this week that Springfield Mass. offered him use of a convention center in their city four times the size of
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JOHNSBURG — With the recent release of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s state budget came the detrimental news of cuts in state aid to local schools. Johnsburg Central School (JCS) will see a 8.46 percent hit, which translates to $275,342. After being warned of a 2-3 percent cut in state aid this year, superintendent Mike Markwica was not expecting such a drastic loss. The cuts will have a 2.73 percent impact on the revenue side of the JCS budget, said business official Kathy Spring. “In recent years we have seen many changes in the amount of state aid we receive,” Markwica said. “But, never a cut.” Recent budget cuts and changes in state
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the Lake George Forum at half the cost he was renting the Forum annually for a portion of his massive Tour Expo trade show. The bulk of the vendors are traditionally chiefly located in the Million Dollar Beach parking lot, prompting the DEC fee. He noted that the Gaslight Village festival space, considered an alternative site for Tour Expo, wouldn’t be ready for a year or two, and parking motorcycles wasn’t feasible on the unpaved surfaces at Gaslight. Blais said that if DEC lowers their fee to the $50,000 range, he will commit to keeping Americade in Lake George until 2015 or 2016. Dutcher told the local and county leaders that he needs to know the amount of the DEC fee within the next few weeks because he’ll be soon advertising the site of Americade in future years, Blais said. Americade has been held in Lake George each year since 1983, growing from modest beginnings into the world’s largest touring motorcycle rally. In other business, the village board: • Boosted the all-week Americade parking fee from $9 to $10 after Greater Glens Falls Transit increased their fees to the village. The parking
See AMERICADE, page 4
Local officials will meet with the state soon to try and negotiate better rates in an attempt to keep the Americade Motorcycle Rally from leaving the area.
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NORTH CREEK — The Our Town Theatre Group (OTTG) proudly announces its sponsorship of a performance of Pendragon Theatre’s production of Dracula. The famous vampire comes “alive” in a dramatization of Bram Stoker ’s classic gothic novel by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. OTTG is pleased to bring Pendragon to Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek Friday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students. To reserve a ticket, call 251-0856.
By Lindsay Yandon