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MYCAPTURE PHOTO GALLERIES
See photos from all the game action last weekend.
HOMES EVERY WEEK! March 9, 2019
Times of Ti
suncommunitynews.com
• EDITION •
No good option
GOVERNOR SIGNS ‘RED FLAG’ GUN LAW » Gun law Cont. on pg. 5
School board must either override tax cap or make substantial cuts By Tim Rowland STA FF W RITER
TICONDEROGA | The Ticonderoga School Board will either need to override the tax cap or find more than $400,000 to cut out of an already depleted budget, Superintendent John McDonald Jr. told board members at their February meeting last week. Board members did not relish either option, and asked for a more detailed version of the proposed budget to see if there is any potential for cuts that do not seriously damage student programming. But years of cuts in order to stay under the cap have left little in the way of optional spending. If they have to override the cap, board members wondered aloud whether the community will realize they held the line for as long as they possibly could. “We trim every year,” Board Member Erik Leerkes said. “We know it, the teachers know it, the kids know it, but the people who vote don’t know it.” » School budget Cont. on pg. 2
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), signed into law the so-called “Red Flag” bill Feb. 25. Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Polishing the Portage
SOLDIERS ON SNOWSHOES
Street upgrade will transform neighborhood, officials say
Because The Portage sits in the shadow of Mount Defiance, it’s subjected to tremendous amounts of runoff during storms. When that happens, the whole system floods, discharging untreated or partially treated sewage into the river.
By Tim Rowland
Superintendent Joe Giordano said separating rain and sewage into two separate systems is the heart of the project, but — since the street will be dug up anyway — major improvements can be made when it’s all put back together. “We’re trying to correct the ills of many decades so they don’t persist,” he said. Following earlier community input, engineer Kevin Farrington said the road will be rebuilt with room for parking on one side of the street, and grass buffer strips and sidewalks on both sides. The town had considered bike lanes, but dropped the idea due to limited space. Giordano said the road currently is infrequently used by bicyclists, and that traffic is light enough that “someone on a bike can easily navigate it without a special lane.” Farrington said there are some issues with flooding that engineers are aware of and some they are not, so he encouraged residents to contact him with specific concerns.
STA FF W RITER
Re-enactors at Fort Ticonderoga will fight it out in a portrayal of the Battle on Snowshoes on Saturday. Photo provided
Fort Ticonderoga re-enactment portrays 1758 battle By Tim Rowland STA FF W RITER
TICONDEROGA | In the winter of 1758, northern Lake George was blanketed in three feet of snow. Undeterred, a flamboyant British officer named Robert Rogers departed Fort Edward in early March with 180 men to scout French positions along what was then the effective boundary between the two warring nations. Rogers had a genius for daring raids and for extracting himself from sticky situations. He was not always as skilled at avoiding these sticky situations to begin with. True to form, when Rogers spotted a band of French, Indians and Canadians during the French and Indian War, he took what appeared to be a strong position at the lip of a ravine, unaware that the enemy was present in far greater numbers than he thought. “Rogers dives into battle and doesn’t realize he’s been outnumbered until it’s
too late,” said Stuart Lilie, an historian at Fort Ticonderoga. In what became known as the Battle on Snowshoes, which will be re-enacted at Fort Ticonderoga on Saturday, March 9, Rogers was routed and for a time thought to have been killed. The daring frontiersman, who seemed to have more lives than a cat, in fact survived, and his escape led to the myth for which the battle became most famous — Rogers’ daring slide down a 400-foot cliff to Lake George to escape his pursuers. Even though it didn’t happen that way, the cliff became known as Rogers Rock, a result that probably would have satisfied Rogers himself, who was a shameless self-promoter. Lilie said that the snowshoes that gave the battle its name were essential to the combatants. “It’s a battle that can only be fought on snowshoes,” he said. Those men whose snowshoes broke were immobilized and became sitting ducks for enemy fire. Although little known in the overall picture of American history, Lilie said the battle was meaningful at the time. » Snowshoes Cont. on pg. 5
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TICONDEROGA | After hearing plans for an extreme makeover of The Portage, a crumbling and poorly drained street leading south up and out of Ticonderoga, residents at a public meeting last week said they are optimistic the project will solve many longstanding problems in the neighborhood. “If it does what you say and I can get in and out of my drive (during construction), I’m ecstatic,” one resident said. Another said her family had been badgering the town to do something about flooding on The Portage since the 1950s, when she attended board meetings with her father as a little girl. The street is being reimagined thanks to an ongoing project designed to separate rainwater from the sewerage that must be treated before being released into the LaChute River. Currently the rainwater runs into sanitary sewer pipes that head to the sewer plant.
‘TRYING TO CORRECT THE ILLS’
ELEMENTARY STUDENTS TO PERFORM: Ticonderoga Elementary students will perform in “Summer Time Scrooge,” an adaptation and spoof of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens featuring ‘80s music, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 16. In this play, Scrooge takes a vacation and picks a beach that’s filled with kids who eventually win him over and teach him to hold the Christmas spirit all year long. Pictured: Ivan Ortiz who will portray Bob Cratchett and Dunavinn Harrington who will portray Ebeneezer Scrooge. Photo provided