Last week, about a couple of hundred people attended a ceremonial groundbreaking of the Champlain Hudson Power Express in Whitehall, including Gov. Kathy Hochul. Whitehall is just outside the Adirondack Park in Washington County. Its population is about 2,485. It’s the birthplace of the U.S. Navy and perhaps also known for its Sasquatch Calling Festival. The village has had its share of building and water infrastructure struggles. I’ve covered some of them in past newspaper jobs, but just this morning I received a New York alert from Whitehall’s department of public works about a water emergency, asking users to conserve water and to look for any signs of a major leak.

But local infrastructure issues aside, municipal and state officials celebrated where construction will begin on the 339-mile transmission line connecting power from Canada to New York City. There was even a sand box of dirt brought inside for the ceremonial dig on the wet, 42-degree day. Upon completion, the project will put a significant dent into the state’s charge of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. It’s expected to reduce the state’s carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons. The state says that’s the equivalent of taking half a million cars off of the road every year. Hochul and others also touted the economic boom the line will bring to local communities, including places like Whitehall.

It will be 2023 and 2024 before we see construction on the underwater Lake Champlain part of the line. You can read our update here.

It has been about a year since we last wrote about a proposed RV park in the Town of Mayfield on Great Sacandaga Lake. The Adirondack Park Agency deemed Lane Winney’s application complete last month, and it is out for public comment through Dec. 8. You can read more about it here.

A full list of projects up for public comment at the APA can be found here: https://apa.ny.gov/Hearings/index.cfm.

An indoor ceremonial groundbreaking for the Champlain Hudson Power Express in Whitehall. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig

This first appeared in Gwen’s weekly “Adirondack Report” newsletter. Click here to sign up.