News & Opinion About Huletts Landing, N.Y.
Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds
Govert Teunisz Flinck
1639
The Louvre, Paris
I take this opportunity to wish everyone a joyous, happy and safe holiday season, and a new year filled with happiness and success in all your endeavors.
Click image to see full scale.
Starting on Saturday, December 24 at 2:00 a.m. EST, visit www.noradsanta.org to follow Santa’s journey from the North Pole to homes all over the globe.
To see the origins of NORAD Tracks Santa and how Google has brought this to life in Google Earth watch below.
Kateri Tekakwitha Rising to Sainthood
The Montreal Gazette reports that Pope Benedict XVI has deemed Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha worthy of sainthood, so she will be canonized at a ceremony sometime in the future.
Fort Ticonderoga to Study Repair of Walls
The New York History Blog has a story about a grant awarded to the Fort Ticonderoga Association.
For the Holidays: Sistine Chapel in 360 Degrees
The Vatican has put the entire Sistine Chapel on line. (Spin 360 degrees, up and down and drill in.)
During December, Google releases its Zeitgeist report that aggregates “billions of search queries people type into Google” over the year.
Google says that; “with Zeitgeist, we look at the most popular and the fastest rising terms—the terms with the highest growth in 2011—in many categories across many countries around the world.”
A rabid goat has been confirmed north of Huletts Landing in Essex County.
In addition to this, there have been 4 rabies positive raccoon’s, multiple skunks, and 1 fox in Washington County within the past year.
Rabies is spread through the saliva or brain tissue of an infected animal. In many instances, it comes through a bite. If treatment is initiated promptly following a rabies exposure, rabies can be prevented. If a rabies exposure is not treated and a person develops clinical signs of rabies, the disease almost always results in death.
In animals, many times the animal gets aggressive. In other instances the animal grows lethargic. Seeing a nocturnal animal in the daytime can be a sign that that animal has rabies.
Exposure to rabies may be minimized by:
* having all pets vaccinated and keeping them up-to-date on their vaccinations
* avoiding contact with all wild animals, especially those acting abnormally (such as being out during the day when they are typically nighttime animals)
To control the spread of rabies in wild animals, such as raccoons, the New York State Department of Health oversees projects to distribute a special bait containing rabies vaccine. Baits are placed in areas frequented by raccoons in order to immunize them against rabies.
Please be careful, rabies has been found in numerous animals nearby.
The Postal Service has postponed the Clemons Post Office closure slated for January 6th.
I spoke with Clemons Postmaster Debbie Winkler this morning who confirmed that the Clemons Post Office will not close on January 6th as originally planned.
Evidently, a number of United States senators pushed for a moratorium on post office closings until May.
Ms. Winkler could only tell me she received a call and was told that the facility would remain open until at least May.
More on this as it develops.
Fort Ticonderoga volunteer BR Delaney portrays a North East Woodland Native at a recent Fort Ticonderoga event. Stuart Lilie, Director of Interpretation at Fort Ticonderoga, will talk about Native Americans and the Patriot Cause as part of the “Fort Fever Series” at Fort Ticonderoga this winter. Photo credit George Jones.
Fort Ticonderoga introduces a new series of Sunday afternoon programs running from January through April. Presented by Fort Ticonderoga staff, the programs cost $10 each and are free for Members of the Friends of Fort Ticonderoga.
The program begins with a “Winter Landscape Snowshoe Trek” led by Curator of Landscape Heidi Karkoski on January 22. Explore the Fort Ticonderoga grounds and learn how to identify trees based on their winter (leaf-less) characteristics. Bring your own snowshoes (or hiking boots if conditions require).
On February 12, Curator of Collections Chris Fox will give attendees the chance to examine several original 18th-cenutry weapons from the Fort’s extensive collection in a program titled “The Roar of Musketry and the Cracking of Rifles: An Introduction to the Weapons of the 18th Century.”
In “Native Americans and the Patriot Cause” on March 25, Director of Interpretation Stuart Lilie will discuss the roles of Native groups that sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.
On April 22, Director of Education Rich Strum will talk about “Henry Knox: Beyond the Noble Train of Artillery.” Learn about the fascinating life of Henry Knox, from his first job in a book shop at age nine through his Revolutionary War career to his role as the nation’s first Secretary of War.
The Fort Fever Series is one of several new education initiatives at Fort Ticonderoga in 2012! You can learn more about these new programs, including Material Matters Seminar, the Garden & Landscape Symposium, and the Conference on Lake George & Lake Champlain, by visiting the Fort’s website at www.FortTiconderoga.org and selecting the “Explore and Learn” button.
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”
John Lennon
The water off of Huletts Landing was measured to be some of the clearest water in the lake in 2011.
Lake George received the best reading on a measurement for clarity among 98 New York lakes in 2011, the Lake George Association announced today.
“If you want clear water in New York State, Gull Bay on Lake George is the place to be!” said Nancy Mueller, the manager of the NYS Federation of Lake Associations, Inc., the organization sponsoring New York’s Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program (CSLAP), in conjunction with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. On Lake George, the program has been coordinated by the Lake George Association for the past eight years.
Peter Leyh, an LGA member, was one of several 2011 volunteers to participate in CSLAP. Peter sampled water near Gull Bay on the north end of the lake, and sank a measuring disk for clarity, called a Secchi disk, into the lake. He was able to see the disk in the water at a depth of 11.3 meters on July 5, and he recorded a reading of 11.35 meters on August 22. Both times Peter was able to see the Secchi disk at a depth a little over 37 feet. On August 7, LGA CSLAP volunteers Jack and Cathy LaBombard, who were testing the water near Huletts Landing, recording a reading of 11.24 meters. No other lake participating in the CSLAP program this year could match these readings.
“The rainy, stormy weather had most of the readings across the state down this year– so it was nice to have a few double digit readings. They were hard to come by,” said Mueller.
Readings taken by participants on the LGA’s Floating Classroom showed similar results. “We had some good days on trips for students in the north end of the Lake, and the readings we took near Roger’s Rock were probably close to Peter’s,” said Kristen Rohne, LGA watershed educator.
“While this is great news for Lake George,” said Walt Lender, LGA executive director, “it by no means allows us to relax our efforts to protect the Lake and keep it clean. In fact, it means just the opposite. People need to know that all of these exceptionally clear readings were taken at the north end of the Lake on a perfectly calm day. The clarity and cleanliness in the south end of Lake George, near West Brook, is not anywhere close to this. We have seen a disturbing trend in loss of water clarity and quality from south to north. ”
“This helps keep things in perspective for us,” said Emily DeBolt, LGA director of education. “Yes – lake George is facing many threats – but it is still exceptionally clear, and we are exceptionally lucky. We still have time to work together to protect it and keep it this way for years to come! The key is acting now before it really truly is too late,” she said.
Every summer since 2004, the Lake George Association has coordinated volunteers to assess water quality and clarity through the CSLAP program. The data gathered is used to help manage and assess trends in New York’s many lakes. In addition to CSLAP, the Lake George Association actively encourages adults and children to learn more about lake monitoring and stewardship aboard its Floating Classroom, a specially equipped catamaran which takes groups out on the Lake from May through September.
Today I heard from Dave Richards, President of the Federation of Huletts Associations, who passed along this information from Bert Windle, President of the Lakes Community of Putnam Homeowners Association.
As you may know, Bert has been a strong taxpayers advocate fighting the good fight to keep our property taxes down for the towns of Putnam and Dresden. Bert was also a co-presenter, along with colleague and LCP member, Gene Frost, who gave a very informative presentation on this very subject to our Huletts neighbors at the last FHA meeting in August.
Washington County adopts budget with spending increase
How they voted
Washington County Board of Supervisors voted 13-4 earlier this month to pass the 2012 county budget. The spending plan was adopted by a weighted vote of 3,460 to 672.
Robert Henke, Argyle: Yes
William Watkins, Cambridge: No
Robert Banks, Dresden: Yes
John Rymph, Easton: Yes
Gayle Hall, Fort Ann: No
Mitchell Suprenant, Fort Edward: Yes
Matthew Hicks, Granville: Yes
Sara Idleman, Greenwich: Yes
Donald Sady, Hampton: Yes
Dana Haff, Hartford: Yes
Brian Campbell, Hebron: Yes
Alan Brown, Jackson: Yes
James Lindsay, Kingsbury: Yes
John LaPointe, Putnam: No
Seth Pitts, Salem: No
Robert Shay, White Creek: Yes
Richard Gordon Jr., Whitehall: Yes
Budget summary
Courtesy of Ray Rose
A rare postcard of Dresden station circa 1930.
Caption above reads: Lake Champlain at Dresden, N.Y. From the Hudson Champlain Trail
Caption below reads: Between Whitehall and Ticonderoga, N.Y.
What appears here should not to be confused with the Clemons train station. The drawing above is from a postcard of Dresden station, a few miles farther north than Clemons.
The view is looking East at Vermont.
My guess on the date is approximately 1930.
From: A Man for All Seasons
Cromwell: Now, Sir Thomas, you stand on your silence.
Sir Thomas More: I do.
Cromwell: But, gentlemen of the jury, there are many kinds of silence. Consider first the silence of a man who is dead. Let us suppose we go into the room where he is laid out, and we listen: what do we hear? Silence. What does it betoken, this silence? Nothing; this is silence pure and simple. But let us take another case. Suppose I were to take a dagger from my sleeve and make to kill the prisoner with it; and my lordships there, instead of crying out for me to stop, maintained their silence. That would betoken! It would betoken a willingness that I should do it, and under the law, they will be guilty with me. So silence can, according to the circumstances, speak! Let us consider now the circumstances of the prisoner’s silence. The oath was put to loyal subjects up and down the country, and they all declared His Grace’s title to be just and good. But when it came to the prisoner, he refused! He calls this silence. Yet is there a man in this court – is there a man in this country! – who does not know Sir Thomas More’s opinion of this title?
Crowd in court gallery: No!
Cromwell: Yet how can this be? Because this silence betokened, nay, this silence was, not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!
Sir Thomas More: Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is “Qui tacet consentire”: the maxim of the law is “Silence gives consent”. If therefore you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.
Cromwell: Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?
Sir Thomas More: The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.
NY Times: Adirondacks Warming?
The NY Times follows Jerry Jenkins, an ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Hard frosts that a generation ago came in mid-September now arrive in October. Lake Champlain, a huge freshwater body that divides New York and Vermont, once froze over completely every winter, but now remains open in the middle some years.
Groups Look at Lake George Dredging Differently
The Post Star describes the debate.
Cell Service Almost Complete for Lake George
The Lake George Mirror reports that the entire basin has almost complete coverage.
Old Ticonderoga Hospital to Get New Use
The Press Republican reports on the old Moses-Ludington Hospital.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Home Set for Rehab
Yahoo and the AP take a look Roosevelt’s classic home.