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March 13, 2010
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Hornbeck Olympians honored with parade appointment at standstill By Matt Bosley matt@denpubs.com ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson’s nomination of Peter Hornbeck to the Adirondack Park Agency Board will most likely not make it out of committee. According to State Sen. Elizabeth Little (RQueensbury), senators serving on the Senate Finance Committee indicated March 3 that Hornbeck’s nomination will not be moved because there are not enough votes in support of it, and the governor ’s office has been advised as such. “We were told yesterday that there were, at most, 14 votes in support of the nomination,” said Dan Mac Entee, spokesman for Little. “The committee consists of 32 senators, so a vote would fall short of the amount needed to advance it to the Senate floor for consideration by the full body.” Paterson had nominated Hornbeck, a canoe builder and environmentalist from Olmstedville, for the seat held by Lake Placid businessman Arthur Lussi, who remains on the board even though his term expired June 30. In a March 4 press release, Little said many of her colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, have shared her concern over the ethical issues Hornbeck’s nomination posed. “This appointment raised a lot of concern locally and many North Country elected, political, business and civic leaders made that known to senators on both sides of the aisle,” said Little. Hornbeck is a member of Protect the Adirondacks!, an environmental organization that filed a lawsuit against the Adirondack Park Agency in January for its decision not to classify Lows Lake as Wilderness. The group has also opposed development projects in the park, namely the proposed resort at Big Tupper Ski Area. “A clear and compelling argument was made that Peter ’s affiliation as a member of the board of directors of an environmental group that had just sued the APA was not the right fit,” Little said. “It presented a conflict of interest.” Little led opposition to Hornbeck’s appointment in the Environmental Conservation Committee, which ultimately approved his nomination Feb. 22 despite concerns from many committee members. The committee’s chair, Antoine Thompson (D-Buffalo) said Paterson had called repeatedly in an attempt to expedite Hornbeck’s appointment. Jason Koppel, chief of staff to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Carl Kruger, said last week that Paterson’s choice of Hornbeck is undergoing an in-depth review following the conflict of interest claims. Koppel stressed the appointment is still under review and not officially defeated. He also noted that finance has hundreds of appointments on its docket and the approval process is backlogged several months. On Tuesday, finance approved 24
See HORNBECK, page 3
Local U.S. Olympic Team competitors from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver headlined a parade through the streets of Saranac Lake March 5. Pictured are (L to R): Haley Johnson, Chris Mazdzer, Peter Frenette, Mark Grimmette, Bill Demong, John Napier, and Tim Burke. Not pictured: Emily Sweeney and Ashley Caldwell. Photo by George Earl
By George Earl george@denpubs.com SARANAC LAKE — This tiny village seemed like the center of the world March 5 when 10 local Olympic athletes gathered on the corner of Broadway and Olive Street during a cloudless afternoon. After greeting throngs of reporters, friends, neighbors, former school teachers and fans of all ages, Nordic combined gold
and silver medalist Billy Demong led the other US Olympic Team members aboard a glittering red chariot — the centerpiece of a parade along the narrow, pockmarked street. Local Boy Scouts and the SLHS Marching Band led the way from Broadway to Main Street followed by students from local schools, ORDA’s Junior Bobsled Program and the Dewey Mountain Youth Ski League, among others.
The sidewalks, storefronts and balconies along Broadway and Main Street were filled with spectators ringing cowbells, waving signs and American flags in support of their favorite athletes. As the first U.S. Nordic athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, Demong, of Vermontville, was the focal point of the ceremony. But all the athletes were given heartfelt homage, including biathlon World Cup
See OLYMPIANS, page 4
Argument for Moriah Shock laid out By Matt Bosley matt@denpubs.com ELIZABETHTOWN — An extensive report on the economic impact of Moriah Shock Correctional Facility portrays Essex County as an depressed area dependent on its presence and details just how much more there is to lose if the prison is closed. The Essex County Moriah Shock Task Force, comprised of local officials and department heads, prepared the 23-page report and hand-delivered it to state officials in Albany March 2. County Manager Dan Palmer drafted much of its content. “We feel we can demonstrate that this closure has an impact that goes beyond the Town of Moriah or the County of Essex, and that ultimately this will prove to have a negative impact on the state,” Palmer wrote in the report.
Hard Numbers The report cites, among other things, an analysis by SUNY Plattsburgh Economics professor Colin Read. The Essex County Board of Supervisors recently approved a contingency expenditure of $3,800 for Read to compile his study. Read, who holds a Ph.D. in Economics, used software called IMPLAN 3.0 to estimate how much the facility pumps into the local economy through purchases and labor income, as well as how much those suppliers and employees spend their money
locally. Through his analysis, Read determined, in addition to the 102 non-education personnel employed within the facility, there are the equivalent of 41 full-time local jobs dependent on its operation. Those 143 jobs take in total earnings of nearly $8 million each year, explained Read; roughly 1.2 percent of the county’s total labor income. Losing those jobs would cause the unemployment rate to jump from 10.3 percent to 11.1 percent, said Read. In turn, he estimates home values to decrease by $23 million county-wide. The overall loss of jobs and property value would mean a $3.4 million loss of state and local tax revenue and $2.2 million loss of federal tax revenue. “These total tax revenue losses totaling $5,570,953 rivals the $6,910,698 budget for the Moriah Shock Treatment facility,” wrote Read. Read also calculated that Moriah Shock inmates provided the equivalent of 47.1 full-time jobs through 94,136 hours community service in 2009. At the average salary received by groundskeepers in the North Country, that equates to $1.2 million worth of labor annually. More than one-third of those hours were spent doing work for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the report states, and Moriah Shock crews are the “front line labor crews” for clean-up and recovery from many natural disasters in the
region during the past 15 years. “The state will have to supplement the lost labor in some fashion within their departmental budgets,” Palmer argued.
Already Struggling “We believe we can support our contention that it is unreasonable for the State to expect we can absorb this in addition to our normal hardships associated with life in the Adirondacks,” wrote Palmer. Citing the 2009 Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project, the report highlights the region’s dependency on correctional services. That study determined non-education government-sector jobs account for more than 30 percent of all employment in most of the Adirondacks and about 4 percent of the region’s population resides in a prison. The report also notes how Essex County’s median income is $43,132 per year; 23.91 percent below the statewide average of $53,448. Palmer pointed out how 30 percent of the county’s population are receiving some sort of assistance through Social Services. “All of us understand shared sacrifice,” Palmer stated, “but when 38,857 residents are asked to carry the load for the benefit of those within the state who live outside the park, then it is no longer shared sacrifice, but rather unreasonably assigned burden.”