The Nature Conservancy has a neat slideshow about how the Bald Eagle was reintroduced into the Adirondacks and how their numbers have grown over the last 35 years. We have had an occasional sighting in the area but hopefully we’ll see more in the years ahead.
Lots of Snow
There has been alot of snow in Huletts over the weekend.
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Reported Fri, – Dec 19 8:09 PM Glens Falls, NY 12803 Inches of snow – 10 |
More expected throughout the day on Sunday.
This from Albany CBS6:
Plane slides into snowbank at Albany International Airport
Saturday Quote
“Family life is full of major and minor crises — the ups and downs of health, success and failure in career, marriage, and divorce — and all kinds of characters. It is tied to places and events and histories. With all of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It’s difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul.”
– Thomas Moore
Boys: Keep Your Eyes Open on the Beach
This video proves that it’s good to be nice to people you meet on the beach. We have a good source, who wants to remain anonymous, who tells us that when Ashley Tisdale was little she visited Huletts and swam on our beach. She’s now singing in High School Musical and at Rockefeller Center.
Wish you hadn’t gone golfing that day?
Gov’s Proposed School Budget Released – What You Need To Know
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Here is the press release from the Governor’s office on next year’s proposed budget and what it will mean to school districts across the state. Some points to note: |
There has been a 42 percent or $6.2 billion increase since the 2003-04 year in state aid to school districts. In spite of this, the Whitehall School district has raised property taxes over this period.
Next year state aid will be cut between 3% to 13% per district based on need, BUT “school districts have reported over $1.3 billion of uncommitted reserves for the 2009-10 school year, which have been building up over time. Over 87 percent of districts reported unreserved balances in excess of their proposed year-to-year reduction(s)”. This means that while their aid will be cut, the Whitehall district has much more than the proposed cut in reserve. It is the opinion of the Huletts Current that there should be no need to raise taxes at all next year with careful budgeting this year.
While other districts have been planning for this cut for months, the Whitehall Times reported in their December 11th edition that the Whitehall school district has been waiting until the Governor came out with this proposal. In the same edition, Superintendent Watson was quoted as saying; “We are not aggressively moving ahead until then.”
In the days and weeks ahead, we will be releasing a comprehensive plan on how we can make our voices heard in the school budgeting and taxing process this year.
The Lost Radio Ad – Now Coming Christmas Eve
We’ve gotten so many comments about the lost radio ad for the Hotel that we will be publishing it on Christmas Eve, a day earlier than we had originally told you. So, we’re getting close, but you’ll be able to make it. So plan on pulling up a chair with the whole family on Christmas Eve for some Huletts history and some Huletts fun. Only here on the Huletts Current.
Be Careful Going Through Whitehall
“I was heading North on Route 22 with my partner. This creature came from the left. I saw it take 2 steps off the road over the guardrails. … I would not have pulled that revolver unless I was afraid.”
Dan Gordon
Retired Whitehall Village Police Officer
Watch the History Channel as they interview numerous people from Whitehall who claim they’ve seen Bigfoot. On dark nights, after a few drinks in the Casino, you might see it also.
Are They Similar – You Decide?
The original opening credits for the popular children’s cartoon, Scooby Doo, were changed sometime in the 1970’s.
The original 1969 credits can be seen here, the later version can be seen here.
Over the years we have heard a rumor that one of the cartoonists responsible for the more recent version toured Lake George and was inspired by this local house.
While we have no way of knowing if this rumor is true or not, we present a screen shot of the cartoon house here.
We leave it up to you to decide. Is the answer to the question; “Scooby Doo where are you?” – Huletts!
No Removal of the Foster Brook Sediment Delta This Year
We are sad to report that the removal of the Foster Brook Sediment Delta will not take place this year. The Lake George Association worked very hard to make this happen but unfortunately they have informed us that because of funding issues and objections raised by the Lake George Waterkeeper, this project will not take place this year. We emailed the Waterkeeper last week to see what their objections were, but so far they have not responded.
Alred Bricher – Tongue Mountain
Technical Update
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Just a further update on our technical progress. We have updated our database on the backend to load much quicker. This is also necessary to enable the comments section which will be coming soon. However this has caused our “Contact Page” to throw errors when you send us a message. |
However, we are still receiving your comments. Thank you for the positive thoughts and ideas you have passed along. We do not presently have time to answer every comment we have received but know we are working on improving everything.
Our next major milestone will be enabling comments in the week(s) ahead. Trust us, you will like this.
Just know that we’ve got the hampsters running as quick as they can on the wheel right now.
If Ti Can Do It – Why Can’t Whitehall?
Ticonderoga’s school district yesterday announced that they will freeze spending and cut jobs in anticipation of less state funding next year.
This absolutely begs the question; if every other school district in the area is cutting costs, why can’t Whitehall? Stay tuned, we’ll have some more on this soon.
And You Thought You Went Away for the Winter
Here is a picture of a ruby-throated hummingbird. Out of all the birds that we regularly see in Huletts in the summer, this little bird has one of the longest winter migrations. Right now it’s probably wintering in Central America somewhere between Mexico and Panama.
“As with most of our migratory birds, hummingbirds apparently evolved to their present forms during the last ice age. They were (and largely still are) tropical birds, but as the great ice sheets retreated from North America, they gradually expanded their ranges to exploit rich temperate food resources and nesting space, filling unoccupied niches in the U.S and southern Canada while evading intense competition in the tropics.”
A Great Gift Idea
Here is a book which would make a great Christmas gift. While I was researching my book, I was fortunate enough to meet one of the co-writers of this book doing research at the same time. In Stoddard’s Footstep: The Adirondacks Then and Now, photographer, Mark Bowie, faithfully returned to many of the exact locations where Seneca Ray Stoddard shot his historic Adirondack photographs in the 1880’s and took pictures of how the locations look today. It is an interesting photographic time capsule and album, looking at the same exact spots then and now.
Update: December 16, 2008
We got our first look at this book and in addition to a large section on Lake George, it has two great historical photographs of Huletts.