Over the past year, The Pendragon Theatre has done its best to adapt to circumstance in providing a large array of virtual and physical content like The Pendragon Play, acting and playwriting classes for adults and children, the Young Playwrights Festival, a veterans improvisation PTSD therapy program with St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Center, puppet workshops, a partnership with Adirondack Experience (ADKX) the Winter Carnival show – Life, Love & Legends, and work on their new building project on Woodruff street. However, with the quarantine in place and with the lack of a live audience, there is only so much a theatre can do.
Pendragon Theatre takes an Intermission
Tupper Lake Triad Supports the Friends of Mount Arab
Tupper Lake Triad continues the tradition of supporting mountain restoration efforts with a $1,000 contribution to the Friends of Mount Arab (FOMA). Tupper Lake Triad was established by Charlie Hoffer, a retired physical education teacher in Tupper Lake. The challenge consists of the three family-friendly hikes of Goodman Mountain, Coney Mountain, and Mount Arab.
Missing hunter turns up dead in Fulton County
Recent NYS Forest Ranger actions:
Town of Ohio
Herkimer County
Wilderness Search: On Dec. 2 at 7:21 p.m., DEC’s Ray Brook Dispatch received a call reporting an overdue hunter in the area of North Lake/Ice Cave Mountain. Forest Ranger Lt. Murphy responded, along with Forest Rangers McCartney, Hanno, Candee, and Evans. Once on scene, Rangers spread out on key terrain and fired signal shots to see if the hunter would respond. The Rangers heard a shot in return, proceeded east into West Canada Lake Wilderness in the direction of the shot fired, and made voice contact with the 59-year-old hunter from Beaver Falls. At 2:14 a.m., Lt. Murphy advised that Rangers had located the subject cold, but otherwise in good condition, and were assisting him out of the woods. Earlier in the afternoon, the hunter’s GPS died and with the heavy snowfall, he was unable to follow his own tracks and became lost about three miles from camp. The hunter was returned to his camp at North Lake at 3:47 a.m.
ADK members recognized for North Country Trail work
Dedicated trail volunteers Norm Kuchar and Walt Hayes were recently honored with the North Country Trail Association ADK Affiliate Honor Award. For the past 12 years, these two members of the Schenectady Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club have taken more than 120 trips to scout and GPS routes for the eastern Adirondack section of the North Country National Scenic Trail. Norm and Walt have been critical partners to DEC planners and foresters as they’ve helped define the best route for this trail in the Adirondacks. Congratulations to Norm and Walt on this well-deserved honor!
When completed, the North Country National Scenic Trail will stretch approximately 4,700 miles from North Dakota to Vermont, with about 160 miles passing through the central Adirondacks from Black River Wild Forest to Crown Point State Historic Site.
Groups work to strengthen wildlife pathway between Catskills, Adirondacks
This month, the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy (MHLC), in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), was awarded a Mohawk Watershed grant for $88,744 through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Mohawk Watershed Program. The grant stream is intended to protect the Mohawk Basin and help mitigate the impacts of climate change.
CCE Essex receives grant for logging training courses
Cornell Cooperative Extension Essex County (CCE Essex) received a $2500 grant from the International Paper’s Ticonderoga Branch, and the International Paper Foundation. The money will be used to host two “Game of Logging” courses through the Northeast Woodland Training with instructor David Birdsall, taking place at North Country Creamery in Keeseville.
The Museum Association of NY announces North Country grant awards
The Museum Association of New York (MANY) has announced in a press release that 98 museums across New York State have been selected to participate in an IMLS CARES Act grant program, titled “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, and Growing Accessibility.”
The grant project is designed to help support those museums that have been impacted by the pandemic and subsequent quarantine, so they may share their collections and reach audiences who cannot physically visit their museums. Under the program, 200 staff will be trained in using new hardware and software in order to engage communities and reach new audiences.
Adirondack roads get $32.5M facelift
$18.5 Million Resurfacing Project on Route 28 in Hamilton County from Eagle Bay to Blue Mountain Lake Enhances Safety and Supports Tourism
Additional Projects Totaling $14 Million Resurface 172 Lane Miles of Pavement in St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has announced the completion of a series of roadway resurfacing projects totaling $32.5 million throughout the North Country. The projects were led by the Department of Transportation and consisted of the resurfacing of a 25.4 mile stretch of State Route 28 from Eagle Bay to Blue Mountain Lake in Hamilton Country. This section of Route 28 is part of the Central Adirondack Trail Scenic Byway and connects many popular areas for recreation and tourism. 172 lane miles of pavement on 20 state highways in St. Lawrence, Franklin, and Clinton counties were also restored due to a $14 million investment.
Gov. Cuomo signs road salt bill, paving way for salt reduction
Gov. Andrew Cuomo won praise from Adirondack and statewide conservation organizations today when he signed into law the Randy Preston Road Salt Reduction Act – a bipartisan bill that would help reduce road salt pollution and protect drinking water in the Adirondack Park.
Late Wednesday night, the governor signed a law aimed at reining in the 300 million pounds of salt dumped each year in the Adirondack Park to clear roads for fast-moving vehicles.
Local lawmakers and environmental groups have been pushing the idea since last year. The law creates a task force and directs state transportation, public health and environmental officials all to help with a three-year study that will test new ways to manage roads in the winter.
Franklin County schools to resume in person
School leaders in Franklin County have decided to bring students back into school buildings early after seeing progress in COVID-19 protocols throughout the county.
Schools will start bringing students back Monday, Dec. 7. Most will use a phased approach that will continue through Dec. 10.
Franklin County’s school districts shifted to fully remote learning in November, when officials from Franklin County Public Health asked school district superintendents in the county to help them slow the spread of COVID-19 cases. At the time, schools weren’t ready to meet the state testing requirements if the region were to be designated a yellow zone, and public health staff were too busy with contact tracing and other efforts to slow the virus spread to help. School leaders initially said the pause of in-person learning would last through Jan. 4.
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