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• EDITION •
Friends of late restaurateur call for Plattsburgh lot designation Arnold “Arnie” Pavone honored By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | Nicholas Pope remembers running down the street after school with his friends, a dollar bill crumpled up in the then 14-year-old’s pocket. Arnie’s Restaurant had just opened a few years prior and was a frequent treat on the way home. The restaurant’s owner, the late Arnold “Arnie” Pavone, would always be there when the students reached the summit of the iconic stairs. Now Pope and Jessica Guerin, one of Pavone’s employees, think it’s time for the City of Plattsburgh to honor the man that dished up Italian delicacies here for nearly 70 years. A few days after the restaurateur died last November, Pope and Guerin hatched a plan to call for the city’s proposed public parking lot across from the Margaret Street restaurant to be designated as the Arnold Pavone Square.
‘VERY, VERY SPECIAL’
“He would treat every one of us just as dignified as if we were the mayor of the city, the head of the bank or the president of the college,” Pope told the Plattsburgh Common Council last week. No one, he said, was ever disrespected by Pavone, who died Nov. 23, 2018, at 92. The city council had authorized the purchase of the property on Oct. 25. Guerin and Pope circulated petitions, mostly within Pavone’s restaurant, and quickly garnered more than 330 signatures. “Arnie was just somebody very, very special in this community,” said Pope. “This man deserves to be honored in this way, and I’m not gonna stop until he is.”
COUNCILORS PRAISE PROPOSAL
City officials are in favor of the idea. “I can’t speak for the council, but I was happy to sign the petition to recognize Mr. Pavone,” Mayor Colin Read told The Sun. » Arnies Cont. on pg. 2
Plattsburgh officials outline state of county, city, town Lawmakers highlight triumphs, challenges in joint address
Local officials outlined the state of Clinton County, the City of Plattsburgh and the Town of Plattsburgh in an annual joint-address sponsored by the North Country Chamber of Commerce. Photos courtesy Pat Bradley, WAMC Northeast Public Radio
By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | Clinton County and the Town of Plattsburgh both closed out 2018 on stable ground. But going into 2019, the City of Plattsburgh continues to contend with financial uncertainty. During the annual State of the County, City and Town address last week, lawmakers’ vision for the future of the region fell along familiar lines: Clinton County continues to be poised for growth, according to Legislature Chair Harry McManus (Area 1), and has money to spend on projects designed to spur economic development. Lawmakers in the Town of Plattsburgh remain devoted to upgrading the town’s infrastructure and working with other municipalities to further quality of life projects,
positioning the town to serve as an economic hub for the region. Meanwhile, the City of Plattsburgh has some hard decisions to make.
STATE OF THE CITY
Armed with his signature cache of graphs and economic analyses, City of Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read’s address largely avoided the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, the city’s push toward annexing town land and other headline-making stories throughout the past year, instead focusing on a bird’s eye view of the city’s finances. “We’re overall optimistic with the knowledge that we can do something about it,” he said. He told a packed room of local officials, industry leaders and business owners that despite significant hurtles, steps are being taken to rebuild the city’s fund balance and mitigate future tax increases after years of what he has
characterized as “fictional budgeting.” There are a number of factors in play as the city aims to course-correct, according to Read. The city’s population is projected to decline by 2 percent in the next decade, he said. And trends in other small, rural cities suggest that a large portion of that loss will be millennials leaving the area for larger cities. “We really need to focus our energies on getting these young adults back,” he said. There’s also a proliferation of taxexempt properties within city boundaries. Read estimated at that 35 percent of properties are tax-exempt. And there’s a limited amount of vacant land on which to grow. All of the above, he contends, makes it difficult for the city to grow. » State of... Cont. on pg. 3
State budget process brings renewed call for more rangers Van Laer: “The time for decisive action is now” By Pete DeMola EDITOR
RAY BROOK | The campaign to increase the number of Forest Rangers who patrol the Adirondack Park has taken center stage in
state budget hearings. Scott van Laer, a Forest Ranger and union delegate, implored lawmakers last week to authorize staffing increases as the High Peaks struggles to adjust to a tourist influx, and with it, an uptick in search and rescue operations. “Please give us the staffing and funding to carry out our mission,” van Laer testified at a joint Environmental Conservation hearing held by the state Assembly and Senate. “The time for decisive action is now.”
At present, there are 134 Forest Rangers and command staff across the state, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), including 9-10 that have some patrol responsibilities in the High Peaks Wilderness. Van Laer is requesting the total number statewide increase by 40, which would accommodate the state land added under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, some 130,000 acres, including Boreas Ponds. The governor earlier this month proposed a $175 billion spending plan for the 2019-2020 fiscal year that begins April 1. But aside from adding five employees to staff the upcoming visitors’ center at the Gateway to the Adirondacks at North Hudson project, the executive budget proposal does not contain new funding for Forest Rangers.
STATISTICS SUPPORT
As state lawmakers convene in Albany for budget season, Forest Ranger Scott van Laer testified before a joint state legislative panel on the need for more rangers. Photo provided
Van Laer has spent much of the past year asking local governments to pass resolutions of support. Approximately half of Adirondack towns have signed on, as well as the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages. “None of the (towns) I approached ever voted it down,” van Laer told The Sun. Statistics back up the PBA of NYS’ campaign, he said. “Between 2005 and 2015, the number of hikers registering at the Van Hoevenberg Trail soared by 62 percent to over 53,000 per year,” van Laer testified. The number of hikers to Cascade Mountain doubled to more than 33,000 during that same period.
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The popularity has led to skyrocketing search and rescue incidents. Rangers now average a search and rescue incident daily, he said. That’s roughly double the number during the 1970s when there were 10 more rangers patrolling DEC’s Region 5 than there are today. At the same time, territory covered by rangers has roughly doubled to 53,752 average acres from 28,516 in the 1970s. A 2017 DEC report revealed Forest Rangers conducted 177 search missions, 147 rescues and 22 recoveries in 2017. “Considerable time and effort is spent preparing for search and rescue missions,” acknowledged the report. Eighty-two percent of search operations occurred on state land. Most were resolved in one or two days, but several incurred “thousands of hours of search time,” the report stated. As a result of the constant state of readiness, traditional emphasis on education and stewardship has decreased, contends van Laer. “If any agency needs more personnel, we do,” van Laer testifed. “The statistics overwhelmingly support such a conclusion.” The strained resources has also hampered the practice of dispatching Forest Rangers to fight wildfires in other states, a development that makes rangers less prepared for events in New York state, he said.
LOCAL SUPPORT
Rangers also train local emergency service agencies and volunteer groups to support them during rescue operations. » Rangers Cont. on pg. 2
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