CROWN POINT, NY • (518) 597-3444
SPORTS
―
PO Box 338 Elizabethtown NY 12932 Postal Patron
229707
HEATING FUEL KEROSENE • LP GAS
ECRWSS PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID DENTON PUBLICATIONS
WILL DEYO - FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED
Football and soccer All Stars » pg. 9 Published By Denton Publications Inc.
DIRECTLY MAILED TO OVER
71,354
MYCAPTURE PHOTO GALLERIES
See photos from all the game action last weekend.
HOMES EVERY WEEK! November 30, 2019
Valley News
suncommunitynews.com
• EDITION •
County taxes slightly higher
Towns at or below tax cap with little change to rate
Health care negotiations hold down expenses
Ongoing sidewalk repair, new plow trucks planned in 2020 By Kim Dedam STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETHTOWN | Area towns are completing spending plans for 2020. Generally, tax levy caps were at or below 2 percent this year, many closer to 1 percent. But costs for health insurance were up, generally, between 6 and 7 percent.
By Tim Rowland STAFF WRITER
In place of this Marcy Field kiosk, the Town of Keene would like a formal visitor center.
Photo by Tim Rowland
PLANNING FOR HIKERS Keene wish list includes visitor center, money for frontcountry stewards
NORTH ELBA
By Tim Rowland
The 2020 general budget in North Elba, excluding the water/sewer and fire districts, is set at $11,906,768. It met the 2 percent tax levy allocation, with the amount to be raised by taxes approved at $4,564,740. Tax rates are expected to go up 3 cents per thousand dollars of real property value.
STAFF WRITER
See BUDGETS » pg. 7
KEENE VALLEY | At a recent Keene board meeting, the Adirondack Council’s Willie Janeway reminded everyone that it’s only seven more months until Victoria Day, Canada’s celebration of the queen and the unofficial kickoff to the summer hiking season. But in the High Peaks, being forewarned is not necessarily the same as being forearmed. Keene is trying to change that by proactively
seeking solutions to the choked highways and battered trails of summer, and reaching hikers before their boots hit the trails is a top priority. Most well-traveled parks, national or state, have a welcome center to orient visitors, highlight destinations and pass along tips that make for more satisfying experiences. The state opened a $2 million Adirondack Welcome Center on Interstate 87 in Queensbury a year ago, but it’s almost 70 miles to the south and is not in context to Keene Valley. At a public meeting last week, Keene Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson said the town is working with Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, to build a visitor center at Marcy Field that would serve as a hiker hub and repository of crucial information about hiking in the peaks. See HIKERS » pg. 4
ELIZABETHTOWN | Essex County will use surplus funds and successful health insurance negotiations to keep taxes relatively flat in its 2020 spending plan, according to a budget memo provided to town supervisors. Taxpayers will pay an extra $3 annually on a home assessed at $100,000 under the 2020 budget, which is expected to receive final approval in December. The budget includes a 2.5% raise for county employees and pays for various new policies mandated by the state, most notably the result of a criminal justice reform bill passed in April that adds to prosecutors’ workload. The reform bill has raised concerns in local governments, particularly as it applies to bail reform, which they believe could render judges powerless to lock up dangerous criminals after their arrest. See TAXES » pg. 4
Insects have ADK surrounded
By Tim Rowland STAFF WRITER
WILLSBORO | The Adirondack forest — its hemlock, beech, maple, ash, pine and oak — is perhaps as iconic as the mountains themselves. Apple trees and, increasingly, grape vines and hops are a staple of the North Country economy. But it is all at risk from insects arriving from half a world away, which seemingly have the Adirondack park hemmed in on all sides and are ready to pounce in a way that could vastly change the way the forest looks in future decades. “If the hemlock is ravaged, you can imagine how would the park change as an ecosystem,” said Julie Fogden, an Invasive Species Management Steward at The Nature Conservancy during a presentation at Noblewood Park in Willsboro. Those in attendance were urged to learn the signs of infestation and report and suspicious activity to the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program. The invaders can be reported on APIPP’s contact page at adkinvasives.com. Fogden said there is also user friendly, free app called iMapInvasives, where reports can be made via cellphone app, or online on their website. Any DEC regional office as well as Essex County Soil and Water Conservation District can also direct reports. For many of these insects though, their arrival “is not a matter of if, it’s when,” Fogden said. A cautionary tale is told by the beech, which was once a “storybook tree” of stately beauty and flawlessly smooth silver bark, but today is considered junk by foresters because it’s attacked by a one-two punch of insects
and disease that leaves its trunks riddled with ugly wounds and often kill the tree before it reaches full maturity. Also about to go are Adirondack ash trees, which will fall to the emerald ash borer, probably sooner rather than later. As with many insects, it’s the larvae that do the damage, Fogden said, as they burrow under the bark and intercept nutrients that are on their way to the canopy. Ash trees represent about 5% of the Adirondack forest and the properties of the wood have made it a popular choice of boat builders. The signature of ash borer damage is a “blonding” of the trunk where dead bark has fallen off. But by the time this happens it’s too late to save the tree. Two of the invaders that are among the most carefully watched are the woolly adelgid, which attacks hemlocks, and the Asian long-horned beetle, which threatens hardwoods including the sugar maple. Both are currently south of the park, but there are strong concerns that their absence may be temporary. The adelgid is identified by a white, waxy substance where the needles attach to the twig; the long-horn beetles leave a hole in the hardwood the diameter of a pencil. Both can be devastating. Fogden showed a photograph of a forest infested by adelgids, with dead trees appearing as cones of gray ash amid the surviving pine and spruce. And the beetles have the potential to wipe out the northern sugar bush, a key piece of the park’s culture and economy. These invasive pests — mostly having arrived from China, Korea and Japan on wooden shipping pallets — thrive here because would-be domestic predators “don’t recognize them as food,” Fogden said. Even the Adirondack winters are no longer the guardian they once were. While temperatures still drop below zero, there are no longer the prolonged sub-zero periods in past eras could be counted to wipe out pests
Julie Fogden gives a seminar on pests that are threatening traditional Adirondack forests.
Photo by Tim Rowland
accustomed to more temperate climes. And some of the invasives sound like the stuff of science fiction, such as the spotted lantern fly that’s ravaging parts of Pennsylvania. It doesn’t just attack its host tree, it secretes a sticky residue that grows
black mold. The colorful fly is partial to the tree of heaven and also sucks nutrients out of fruit trees and grapevines. That’s an obvious concern to the North Country’s orchards and vineyards, Fogden said. ■
“Adding joy to your day, one song at a time”
AMANDA DAGLEY — Live 9-1 Weekdays —
233178
Public urged to be on the lookout for signs of damaging invasives
234548
ONLY ON 106.3FM AND STREAMING ON WNBZ.COM