www.thevalleynews.org
4 - Valley News
March 3, 2012
ROOST offers new plan for regional marketing By Alan Belford
denpubs@denpubs.com LAKE PLACID — The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) has announced their marketing strategy for 2012. “We submit a marketing plan each year,” Kim Rielly, ROOST Communications Director, said. While there are some changes from the 2011 marketing strategy, many of ROOST’s on-going approaches will remain in place. “We will continue with our on-line advertising campaign,” Rielly said. “Over 90-percent of travel research is conducted online.” As part of this approach, one of the biggest changes from 2011 is a new website for the Whiteface region, one of the four area websites ROOST runs to help promote Adirondack and Essex County tourism. The other websites concern Lake
Placid/High Peaks, Schroon Lake, and Lake Champlain. Other changes ROOST plans to put in place concern upgrades to existing web content. “We are dedicating more staff time to develop content in order to increase organic search results,” Rielly said. Such “organic” results involve including keywords and links within web pages so that they are listed in the results when a potential tourist is researching travel on search engines such as Google. “The development of descriptive page content, blogs and online news releases all contribute to that process,” Rielly added. This approach should help ensure that the region’s many experiences and attractions are promoted to the potential visitors who are interested in them. “We are also enhancing our social networking presence, which helps us be more personal and interactive,” Rielly said. “It’s
something we’ve been doing the past few years, and as the on-line social networking landscape continues to evolve, we must too.” Finally, ROOST is continuing to promote area tourism during less heavily traveled times of year. “Traditionally we welcome about 67-percent of our visitors May through October,” Rielly said. “That gives us opportunity for growth during the winter and shoulder seasons.” Warm weather across much of the northeast has made promoting this winter a challenge – tourists may not think there is snow in the Adirondacks if they are looking at green lawns at home. “It has been an interesting winter to promote America’s first winter resort – Lake Placid,” said Rielly. See www.roostadk.com/files/2012%20 Strategic%20Marketing%20Plan.pdf for more.
LPCS Continued from page 1 have been asking Richards to resign and putting pressure on the School Board to force the issue since December, after it was learned that the superintendent had used inappropriate language when referring to female employees, including the word “bitchy.” Richards apologized for his actions in a districtwide letter in early December, but that hasn’t stopped Schiller and members of the recently formed Community Alliance for Responsible Excellence in Education (CAREE) from their mission to oust Richards from his job. “The questions remain, the solution seems obvious, yet nothing has been resolved,” Schiller said, reading from a prepared statement. “So tonight we will change the dialogue and the direction of the debate. Tonight the school board must take notice and act. Tonight is the night that this board of education will hear the voice of a collective of the school community. Although each board meeting has had community input, this meeting will raise the bar in dramatic fashion.” With almost 600 names on the petition, Schiller said that number is significant, as it represents the number of voters who typically pass a school budget. In actuality, 746 people voted on the 2011-12 school budget May 17, 2011. Voters also elected Herbert Stoerr to the board with 501 votes and re-elected Baumbach with 476. “It’s important that the school board lis-
Tupper Lake Continued from page 1 that in my adult life. New businesses are coming into town and there’s a lot of outside interest in the community. People are calling us to compliment Tupper Lake. “I look at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival – that is a phenomenal event. That’s a model Tupper Lake can follow,” Bedore said. “Look at Long Lake – they put on bed races, fishing derbies, trivia nights at their hotels. These small towns have these models that are working. We just needed someone to step into this role and start planning these things for Tupper Lake. We want to keep Tupper Lake busy all the time. We’re focusing on making the Chamber ’s website (tupperlake.com) a clearinghouse for information about existing events. People can sign up on the website for a bimonthly newsletter about events in town. I’m trying to help other organizations – not trying to run their events. We want to be involved with advertising events and getting more people to participate.” Board members noted that the village will receive a grant equal to the funding allocated for Bedore’s position due to a New York State program. The annual Woodmen’s Days soiree, per-
Former Lake Placid Middle/High School Principal Robert Schiller reads a statement to the Lake Placid Central School Board Feb. 21 before handing Board President Phil Baumbach a petition of almost 600 names of people who are demanding that School Superintendent Randy Richards resign during the Feb. 21 meeting. Photo by Andy Flynn
ten to the voice of the constituents,” Schiller said. “The teachers, the students, the parents and the people of Lake Placid deserve better.” Schiller ’s speech was followed by half a minute of applause and two more speakers, including Tricia Garrett, a mother of three and longtime substitute teacher. “I can’t believe it’s come to this,” Garrett said, adding that she has spoken to a number of teachers, students, parents and community members about the School Board and
the superintendent. “Sadly, none of them seem happy with the status of our district ... The Lake Placid Central School District needs an intervention, and we need it now.” Garrett said she has seen the morale of the school community go up and down over the tenure of five school superintendents, “But it has never been remotely this bad. We do not just have a hostile working environment; we have a toxic working environment, where fear prevails and bullying and intimidation are motivating factors. This is unac-
haps Tupper ’s best known event, was among the handful of items to generate significant discussion at February’s Village Board meeting. Board member Charles Perham said, “Our biggest issue with Woodsmen’s is security. If we don’t have security, we don’t get revenue from the gate. We had an excellent year last year, but I don’t think we got the revenue in to keep ourselves afloat, because every Tom, Dick and Harry could walk in. We don’t have enough people watching [the entrances].” When asked about last summer ’s event, Village Police Chief Thomas Fee responded, “There were no problems from my perspective, but if there’s going to be a beer tent, I think the village needs to look into contacting our counsel, looking at our open container law, and enforcing that the only beer or wine in the park is brought in by the vendor. The vendor is spending a lot of money for a liquor license and insurance and what it boiled down to [last summer] was the vendor was providing a place for everybody to drink.” In other village business, Village Clerk Mary Casagrain told the board that Verizon Wireless wants to lease 24 Fuller Ave. and 274 Park Street to construct cell tower facilities. The lease is expected to generate more than $3,000 monthly for village coffers.
ESWG
LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Center for the Arts Winter Film Series continues on Friday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. with Annie Hall. Tickets are $6, no reservations. For upcoming information call the Lake Placid Center for the Arts at (518) 523-2512 or visit www.LakePlacidArts.org.
Square dancing program at ADK LAKE PLACID — The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) is presenting a special program, “Introduction to Square Dancing.” Participants can take part in beginner-level square dancing with music and calling provided by Stan Burdick, on Saturday, March 3 at 8 p.m. at ADK’s High Peaks Information Center in Lake Placid. For more information, contact 523-3441 or visit www.adk.org.
ceptable. We need to restore respect and a positive working environment right now so that our students learn from a positive model.” The School Board immediately went into executive session for a “tenure discussion” after more than 60 chairs in the Elementary School cafeteria were folded and put away. Baumbach has said in previous media reports that the School Board is standing behind Richards and that discussing personnel matters in public would be “inappropriate and non-productive.” In March 2011, Lake Placid Middle/High School Principal Katherine Mulderig filed a complaint of discrimination for gender bias, sex discrimination and harassment with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging Richards with making inappropriate comments to her when proposing a job change. The EEOC made a decision on the complaint Feb. 10 and ruled against Richards, Mulderig's attorney, Phillip Steck of Cooper Erving & Savage in Albany, said in a phone interview with the Valley News Feb. 22. He would not comment on the ruling. Richards did not return a phone message or email. The School Board held a special meeting in executive session Saturday, Feb. 25 “to discuss pending litigation and the evaluation of administrators.” No action was taken after executive session, according to LPCS Board District Clerk Karen Angelopoulos.
Continued from page 1 Mayor Craig Randall said. “This year, it was more our games than any other.” Members of the organizing committee and others gathered for a wrap-up event Feb. 22 in Lake Placid, where they announced that over 1,000 athletes were part of this year ’s games. A total of 1,045 athletes registered to compete in the 2012 games, well surpassing the 2011 mark of 858. “It was actually more than what we had hoped for when it came to an increase,” Randall said. “We wanted to make them more of an Olympic-style event then a weekend event,” James McKenna, head of the ESWG organizing committee, said. “It all speaks to our tradition and the pride that we have in what we do here in the Adirondacks.” The games were held for the first time in conjunction with the opening weekend of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, and those at the event said it was a positive experience. “It increased the numbers in the village and it fit very well into the program,” Charlie Martin, Mount Pisgah manager, said. The mountain was the site of ESWG events for the first time in 2012.
“We had the biggest numbers for the first weekend that I have seen in years,” Harrietstown councilwoman Nichole Meyette said. “There were bigger crowds at all the events, and it was quite noticeable.” McKenna said that there was the opportunity for even more expansion in 2013, when the games will be held Jan. 31 through Feb. 1. “We have already been having discussions with Paul Maroun in Tupper Lake about the possibility of having events there,” McKenna said. “This is something that serves as a vehicle for the regional communities to get together on.”
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