Help us keep bringing you the Adirondack information you value.
Email
Twitter
RSS
Facebook
The Adirondack Park Agency could be moving four miles up the road to Saranac Lake. The APA and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said a feasibility study is underway to move the agency’s headquarters to the historic Paul Smith’s Power and Light building on Main Street.
The village police currently occupy that building, but there are discussions of creating a public safety complex on Petrova Avenue. The APA has $29 million from the state’s 2022 budget for a new headquarters, but whether it’s brand new or renovated, we’ll have to see (read more here).
For those of you on Twitter, an account called, “DoesNYHaveABudget” tweets a budget status daily, and today’s is “No.” Hochul and lawmakers authorized a second budget extender bill today, meaning negotiations could continue to next Monday.
The newly proposed accounting method for some greenhouse gases is no longer on the table—at least under state budget negotiations. The bill sponsored by state Sen. Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, is still in play, however. The bill would weaken the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, some environmental organizations and lawmakers say. You can read more about it here (although you might hit a paywall).
Lake Luzerne is the latest community hoping to rid its waters of invasive Eurasian watermilfoil with an herbicide that sparked a debate for Lake George. It was used most recently on Minerva Lake. The town’s application to use Procellacor-EC will be voted on during the Adirondack Park Agency’s May meeting. The APA’s website indicates the board will not be meeting this month. You can read more from my colleague, Zach Matson, here.
Photo at top: The Adirondack Park Agency is studying the feasibility of moving its headquarters to the historic Paul Smith’s Power and Light building at 3 Main St. in Saranac Lake. Photo by Chloe Bennett
This first appeared in Gwen’s weekly “Adirondack Report” newsletter. Click here to sign up.
Related Stories
General inquiries about the Adirondack Almanack should be directed to editor
Does anyone realize there is a severe housing problem in Saranac Lake. It seems to me we could direct $29 million toward an effort to improve housing so teachers don’t have to look to Plattsburgh to find suitable housing. Another example of not looking at the big picture.
I’d wish that someone would explain why the APA wishes to move. The current facility seems to be a pleasant and safe work environment, has ample parking, and is next to the State Police and a sister agency that they work with (DEC). Also, I would think a one-story building would easier to get around than a multi-story building.
Because it is in the budget. If there is money available we will spend it no matter how much need there is in more deserving areas – like housing.
Housing! To think how many homeless there are! It’s a great number no doubt. This in the land of plenty! People think it can never happen to them, but I’ve heard stories over my years, firsthand accounts from some of the nicest people, some of whom were very smart, even intellectual. Some once owned their own homes, had families. I met one man, Bill Sweet (back in 84), who was once President of a large corporation in Chicago I think it was; he had power over half a thousand employees….and ended up homeless. At one time he was the American dream model….a wife, kids, a big house, a nice car in the garage, a dog in the backyard. Alcohol is what turned him around. But nonetheless…..homelessness is not something most people would ever expect could happen to them no matter their lot in life. It can happen to the best of us, and for any number of reasons. Take Ukraine for one. All of them good people living the good, happy life unrestrained, then along comes a monster and at once all of the ground under them shook. That can happen here! We’re close to something that’s for sure.
I don’t say these things so as to be mister doom and gloom as I know some would suppose; I say so as to bring about the interrelation to all that is. If we were to look at the global conditions… Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, on and on… never mind all of what is taking shape in this, what some suppose to be, the greatest nation on Earth (where they get this from eludes me), one will see it is all tied to money, or ‘budget’ as George says. It is much more than this! It is over-population which we haven’t talked about for a bit, it is this and that and it is things far deeper than what evidently we haven’t come to acknowledge, or wish to talk about, but most of all it is about priorities and who is in charge…..
We may think that APA seeking new headquarters has nothing to do with shooting humans off in a missile to the moon; or with protecting vernal pools in some remote wooded landscape on Smith’s acreage in some god-forsaken, insignificant out of the way place, whether it be in Vermont or the Catskills, so as to save species of frogs from extinction…..but most certainly it does! Were we to join as partners each nation one to the other, were we to form alliances and try to get along for a change once and for all; were we to see how all on Earth is connected, one big family with our perplexities, one filament to the next striving for survival….. But no, we haven’t come to that as yet, we are still peering out from the entry to the cave.
A severe housing problem in Saranac Lake, or APA seeking new headquarters in the Adirondacks, or shooting up little children in elementary schools, or gloating over the material things that bring us our securities….are no different than little children in states of severe malnutrition in Sudan on the other side of the world, etc., etc….. it’s all relative to me!