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March 20, 2010
A Denton Publication
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On Stage
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Pendragon presents three plays this weekend.
Jill asks “Where’s the beef for coupon shoppers?”
NY homes must now be equipped with CO detectors.
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Martino: APRAP shows need for development
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The T radition Continues
By Matt Bosley matt@denpubs.com RAY BROOK — A report highlighting demographic trends in the Adirondacks has prompted one of the Adirondack Park Agency’s top officials to speak about the importance of developing more economic opportunity in the region. APA Executive Director Terry Martino released a three-page document March 10, offering her perspective on the Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project, a report released last year that details an aging and relatively poor population living in an area with not much land available for developing business and industry. “The APRAP assessment provides an important foundation for us to be proactive in improving the park’s communities,” said Martino. “With creative focus, we can determine how to weather economic downturns and build the economy based on the park’s special character.” Prior to taking her current position in July 2008, Martino, was executive director of the Adirondack North Country Association, one of the major co-sponsors for the APRAP. “From the outset, we believed the assessment would provide facts we could agree upon as the basis for future planning discussions by park stakeholders,” she said. The report quantified what many Adirondack residents had suspected. The median age of 43 within the park is well above state and national averages and rising rapidly. Meanwhile, school enrollment is declining at alarming rates, down 31 percent since 1970. With over 40 percent of the park owned by the state, 20 percent under conservation easement, and another 15 percent already in use, only 25 percent of land in the Adirondacks is available for development, the assessment stated. Less than one half of one percent of the 6 million-acre park is used for commercial or industrial purposes. “While some trends in the report raise concerns, there was purposely no interpretation of the data to draw conclusions about causes,” Martino stated, arguing that to attribute the issues solely to the impact of state land ownership and private land regulations is going too far. She pointed to similar trends in other geographically similar areas, such as the Tug Hill Plateau and the Northern Forest portions of New England. Ultimately, said Martino, the APRAP highlights the need to merge economic growth with environmental protection and find creative ways to do business in a heavily protected setting. “For our region to truly benefit from the APRAP research, we need more focused effort on how to build and sustain park communities,” said Martino. Some of the major issues to tackle are how to adapt business and development strategies to the park’s aging population while also making the area more attractive for youth and young families, Martino said, and reducing local tax burdens Potential approaches Martino mentioned included expansion of entrepreneurship, gearing educational programs more toward regional economic opportunities, investing more in the maintenance of open space, encouraging more local food production, and improving infrastructure such as roads, broadband internet, and municipal water and sewer. “These are opportunities which, I am pleased to say, the Adirondack Park Agency endorses,” she said.
Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee member Ruth Sofield, left, presents Liz Murray with the 2010 Winter Carnival afghan she won in a fundraising raffle. Photo courtesy of Tim Baker
Vote upcoming for 2011 Winter Carnival themes SARANAC LAKE — Community members will once again have a chance to vote on the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival theme for the coming year, as Winter Carnival Committee members narrowed the field down to four choices March 10. At its annual organizational meeting in the North Country Community College Board Room, Committee members pooled together a list of 36 theme ideas for the 2011 carnival. With each member casting three votes, four theme ideas rose to the top: Renaissance Faire/Middle Ages, Space Alien
Invasion, Celtic Carnival and Under the Big Top/Circus. Readers of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise will be able to vote for their favorite in one of the paper ’s upcoming online polls. The Winter Carnival Committee will use the poll results to make its final decision on the 2011 Winter Carnival theme. In other business, Committee members re-elected its three officers to their positions for the 2011 Winter Carnival: Jeff Dickson, chairman; Katee Fobare, secretary; and Cynthia Martino, treasurer. In ad-
dition, two other members were voted to the board: Barb Martin and Eric Foster. The 2010 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Recognition Dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 23 at the Saranac Lake Adult Center. Susan Waters volunteered to be the head chef, and she will be serving chicken and biscuits. Liz Murray’s ticket was drawn in the 2010 Winter Carnival afghan raffle, a fundraiser for the Committee. The next meeting of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee will be Wednesday, April 14, 6 p.m. at the NCCC Board Room.
Cuts pose challenge to growth at NCCC By Matt Bosley matt@denpubs.com ELIZABETHTOWN — North Country Community College is showing continued growth in both its enrollment and the programs it offers, but recent cuts to its state funding could pose major challenges to its plans for the future. Dr. Carol Brown, the newly appointed president of NCCC, met with the Essex County Finance Committee March 15 to share an update of recent developments at the college. Brown was quick to report how the college has seen continual double-digit increases in its percentage of enrollment through the past few years, including a 15 percent increase from last year to the present year. Enrollment for the fall 2009 semester was 2,300 students. “We are anticipating another high enroll-
ment this fall,” said Brown. One hundred seventy of those students attended NCCC’s Ticonderoga branch campus, where the college expects to see continued growth through new offerings, such as its Massage Therapy and Registered Nursing programs. Future plans include the addition of an Associates degree program in Business. NCCC is also hoping to add a Health Science certificate program at its main campus in Saranac Lake, as well as a degree in Gerontology. “As we look at the demographics of the North Country, that’s an area we believe is very important,” Brown said. Other plans include the development of a capital planning project to renovate and expand buildings on the main campus, many of which are more than 80 years old. Glens Falls firm JMZ Architects will develop the plan, which will be submitted to
State University of New York officials for approval. NCCC targets 2015 as the finishing date for construction. Many of those future plans may be endangered by further cuts to state funding, however. Brown explained that the college took a $130-per-student mid-year cut, and an additional $245-per-student reduction is being proposed as part of Gov. David Paterson’s 2011 executive budget. “Those two reductions represent $600,000, roughly a quarter of our college’s budget,” said Brown. NCCC is joining with community colleges across the state in an effort to oppose next year ’s cuts. In the meantime, however, the college’s focus is on fiscal responsibility; obtaining additional grants for its educational programs in health care and other fields. “Our goal is to maintain a budget that, in the coming year, will be flat,” said Brown. “We believe we can do that.”