For Immediate Release: February 12, 2002
Contact:
Victoria Hristovski | Director Public Information | Adirondack Park Agency
contact@apa.ny.gov | (518) 891-4050
RAY BROOK - This month’s Adirondack Park Agency meeting will take place on February 14th and 15 th at the headquarters in Ray Brook and will include a presentation on program highlights at the Visitors Interpretive Centers (VICs) in Newcomb and a Tourism Partner program for both centers on Thursday. An informational presentation on the Adirondack Community Trust (ACT) will be had on Friday by ACT Executive Director Cali Brooks. There will also be a report on the 2001 wetland delineations visits made by the Agency’s Resource Analysis and Scientific Services unit during the Ecology Committee meeting at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Andy Flynn will discuss the Tourism Partners program, one of many new initiatives happening at the VIC’s, to the APA Board on Thursday morning, at 9:15. The Tourism Partners Program is an outreach tool for the Adirondack Park VICs, which are operated by the Adirondack Park Agency. Serving the public since 1989 and 1990, respectively, the Paul Smiths and Newcomb VICs serve as environmental education and visitor orientation centers. More than 100,000 people visit the VICs every year to walk our trails, collect hospitality information, learn about the Adirondacks, participate in educational programming and attend special events. The Tourism Partners Program is open to those businesses and organizations in the Adirondack region who are interested in formally spreading the message of the Visitor Interpretive Centers by prominently displaying VIC information at their offices.
Rynda McCray, Environmental Educator for the Newcomb VIC, will present the highlights of 2001 at the Newcomb VIC to the APA Board on Thursday morning as well. She will provide a slide-show of the year and discuss several of the programs the Newcomb facility administers and what is on the horizon for the VIC in 2002.
Regulatory Program Committee members will meet at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday to discuss four-new projects this month. One of the four projects involves an aquatic invasive control project in Harrietstown (Saranac Lake Central School). This is the first project of this kind involving wetlands and the introduction of 500 herbivorous beetles to reduce the non-native invasive plant purple loosestrife in Glen Pond, an area classified as Hamlet. The three other projects are as follows: A commercial sand and gravel extraction in the Town of Hadley (Saratoga County) in an area classified as Resource Management; An expansion of an existing nine-hole golf course to an 18-hole golf course in the Town of Queensbury in Warren County in an area classified as Rural Use, and a single family dwelling above the shoreline elevation of Lake George, in the Town of Fort Ann in Washington County in an area classified as Resource Management.
From 1 to 2 p.m. on Thursday, the Administration Committee will meet to discuss the final revised draft of the proposed policy on telecommunication towers and other tall structures in the Adirondack Park. The policy was submitted to Agency members and designees for their review at the January Agency meeting after being circulated to the public and conducting four public meetings to discuss the policy.
The Ecology/Interpretive Programs Committee will meet from 2 to 3 p.m. where there will be a report on wetland delineation field trips taken by staff in 2001. The report will be given by Resource Analysis Scientific staff member Mark Rooks who will discuss what takes place during wetland site visits and touch on data such as the number of field visits and the towns and counties visited.
There will be an update on Local Government Day 2002 during the Local Government Services Committee held from 2 to 3 p.m. in the small conference room. This year’s event will again take place at the Hotel Saranac in Saranac Lake from March 21st to 22nd and will feature keynote speakers and sessions of interest to local government officials. One hundred sixty people from 32 communities and 11 counties, and representatives from 14 other organizations attended last year’s event. The Adirondack Park Agency, in conjunction with the New York State Department of State, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, along with the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, ESF, Paul Smith’s College, New York Planning Federation and the Adirondack Local Government Review Board are partners in conducting the fifth installment of Local Government Day.
A status report will be given to the Legal/Enforcement Committee from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thursday on public hearings held on the proposed definition amendments to the Adirondack Park Agency’s Rules and Regulations. The APA has had four public hearings throughout the Park and in Albany and New York City.
On Friday, there will be a special presentation by Adirondack Community Trust (ACT) Executive Director Cali Brooks to the APA Board at 9 a.m. ACT has been working since 1997 to build a permanent endowment to meet the most pressing current and future charitable needs of the greater Adirondack region. ACT’s number one goal is to raise the level of charitable dollars in this region and to connect caring people and key resources with community needs.
The next Adirondack Park Agency meeting will be held March 14th and 15th at the APA headquarters in Ray Brook.