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ECRWSS PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID DENTON PUBLICATIONS/ NEW MARKET PRESS PO Box 338 Elizabethtown NY 12932 Postal Patron

Saturday,ÊNo vemberÊ26,Ê2016

>>

www.SunCommunityNews.com

In Arts | pg. 9

>>

Bestselling Author Kim van Alkemade

In opinion | pg. 6

The season of giving

to make appearance at Bookstore Plus

It’s good for the soul

>>

In SportS | pg. 18

All-Valley teams cited Our all-star picks for 2016

ELCS, Westport boards to consider pre-merger study Special joint meeting scheduled for Nov. 30 By Pete DeMola

pete@suncommunitynews.com

WESTPORT — The Elizabethtown-Lewis Central and Westport Central school boards will meet next week to discuss the possibility of a pre-merger study. The joint meeting on Nov. 30 is the first between the two districts since a feasibility study was delivered last June. “Since the publication of that report, the boards have not met jointly to discuss the report’s findings or recommendations,” said Scott Osborne, who serves as superintendent in

both districts.

‘FACT-FINDING MISSION’ Each board authorized the feasibility study, branded by officials as a “fact-finding mission,” last August. Castallo & Silky, a Syracuse-based consulting firm, then presented a 58-page report at a meeting on June 22 of this year outlining the potential feasibility of school district consolidation. The meeting, which drew several dozen community members, was a data-rich affair that compared three neighboring school districts, including their tax rates, funding formulas,

academic programs, infrastructure, wealth ratios, transportation, and, perhaps most importantly, projected student enrollment. “Literally, everything depends on the number of kids,” said William Silky, the consultant who co-drafted the report. The feasibility study is not a merger study. “A merger study is a very different study than this,” said Alan Pole, of Castallo & Silky. Merger studies take between 9 and 10 months, and have community advisory committees. “The report was intended to inform the school boards >> See MERGER STUDY | pg. 12

Christmas

Generational divide on display at latest Boreas Tract hearing

Volunteer planners at Heritage House set a festive course for community fun, family activities, fundraising and celebration

Visions of youth, elders clash in third Adirondack Park Agency hearing in Newcomb on recreational use

inÊ Westport WESTPORT — Final touches for Christmas in Westport involve reindeer antlers, light-up red noses and festive Main Street windows. It might be a bit busy downtown with racing reindeer. But Dec. 3 will bring together all kinds Kim of community celebration involving the Dedam Westport Hose Company 1, Westport Writer Central School students, Boy Scouts, area businesses, crafters, the Westport Chamber of Commerce, Masons and the collaborative team from the Heritage House, among others. At one of the final planning sessions last week, organizer Medara Sherman said the day-long, interconnected roster of fun grew from the Westport Boy Scout’s Christmas tree sale and the fire department’s traditional firetruck parade, which delivers Santa Claus to the library lawn just after darkness settles. That is when the town gathers to light the Christmas tree, she said. “I just wanted to make an entire day of it in Westport,” Sherman said. “It has been really a lot of fun, playing off of ex-

HOLIDAY CHEER: Diedre Forcier, Cheryl Phillips, Dawn Gay, Lyn Barrett and Medara Sherman plot and plan for special holiday festivities for Christmas in Westport on Dec. 3. Photo by Kim Dedam

By Pete DeMola

pete@suncommunitynews.com

isting programs, looking how to build Christmas in Westport bigger and better.” And bigger it is this year, with Sherman pooling efforts from an all-volunteer team with Deirdre Forcier, Cheryl Phillips, Dawn Gay, Heritage House coordinator Lyn Barrett, and Heidi Sweet, each member part of another community group weaving in special and inventive parts of the town’s Christmas celebration. The Boy Scout trees go on sale at 8 a.m. at the Heritage House, and often sell out in one day, Barrett explained. The Community Cares Breakfast at the Westport Federated Church starts then, too, and serves until 10:30 a.m., raising funds and welcoming Christmas gift donations for Westport’s Project Wee Care. This year, Gay, who works at Camp Dudley, added the Walk, Jog, Run Like a Reindeer Fun Run to start at 10 a.m. in Ballard Park.

NEWCOMB — Scott Remington nearly died in a logging accident on Gulf Brook Road. On May 25, 1999, the lifelong Adirondack resident broke his neck, back and all but three ribs. Now in a wheelchair, Remington remains an avid outdoorsman, and even enjoys heading back to the site of the accident, located within the Boreas Pond Tract, the parcel pending classification by the Adirondack Park Agency. But his future access to the site, once owned by a timber company, now remains in the hands of the state, which is weighing a number of proposals that will govern access to the 20,543-acre parcel. The discussion unfolded in the literal and figurative heart of the debate last week in Newcomb, just a few miles from the site, which the state purchased in May for $14.5 million. While nearly 100 parcels are pending classification, the Boreas Tract dominated discussion at the Nov. 16 public hearing, the

>> See WESTPORT CHRISTMAS | pg. 13

>> See BOREAS | pg. 16


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