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Now There Are 4

We can now confirm that 4 towns around the lake have officially passed resolutions against the proposed stream corridor regulations that the LGPC is proposing.

The town boards of Lake George, Warrensburg and Hague all voted last week to officially oppose the proposed stream corridor regulations. The Town of Bolton Landing passed a similar resolution the week before. On Wednesday, the Warrensburg Town Board voted unanimously against the setback rules, following Tuesday’s vote in Hague’s and the Lake George Town Board’s “No” vote on Monday.

Why is this? Because the rules are extreme and have no common-sense exemptions. Here is a link to a previous post on how they might impact the golf course.

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Bits of Everything

See What Former Supervisor, Joe Rota, is Doing

Today’s Post Star has an interesting story about a project which former Town Supervisor, Joe Rota, is pursuing.

Can You Hear Me Now? – I’m in Lake George Village

Somehow, I missed this press release from Verizon wireless which came out about a month ago, where they announced they had completed a cell phone tower/receiver in Lake George Village. This will help with cell phone calls from the village, parts of southern Lake George, and the Northway.

Lake George Association Starts “Don’t Trash the Ice”

The Lake George Association has started a new public service campaign aimed at winter enthusiasts. The Lake George Association is the oldest environmental organization dedicated to protecting Lake George.

School Enrollment Continues to Plummet – Why No Reduction in Taxes?

The Post Star has a good article on school enrollment in the area. This sentence caught my attention: “Ticonderoga has 960 students, and 88 come from Hague. The high value of property in Hague, the result of homes on Lake George, has its residents paying for half of the school district’s $16 million budget.” Sound familiar?

Readers of the Current may not know, that during the vote about the expansion of the Whitehall school a few years ago, the Whitehall school when asked to release the number of students enrolled by town released the information by zip code. Many Dresden and Clemons residents have Whitehall zip codes. This made it impossible to figure out the number of Dresden school children as a percentage of the total. The Whitehall District knows this number but my guess is that our proportion is even worse than Hague/Ticonderga. Sadly, Hague/Ticonderoga can at least get their number. We just know this …..

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They’ll Take Your Land & Not Pay Their Taxes

This may seem like a strange headline but here is a press release we received from the Lake George Property Owner’s Group, where they call the proposed stream corridor regulations being considered by the Lake George Park Commission a confiscation of private property. Many of their arguments are valid and worthy of discussion.

Additionally, here are two links from the Adirondack Journal and the Times of Ti to stories about the Governor’s proposal to alter the payment of real estate taxes on state forest preserve land.

These stories may combine to make a funny headline but they should be taken very seriously. If they both come to pass in their present form, they will cause property taxes to explode.

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Bits of Everything

30 Days Are Up – Governor Still Doesn’t Want To Pay

The Post Star has a good article about the Governor’s proposal to cap NY state tax payments to local governments with state forest preserve land. This is a must read for all taxpayers and voters. If you’re a NY state resident, please contact your downstate representatives and tell them NY state has to pay their property taxes. We do.

Dem’s Down to 6

This story from the Post Star is about the finalists who are being considered by the Democrats to be their nominee for Congress in the 20th Congressional District. The special election to fill former Rep Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat will be held 30 days after the Governor calls a special election.

Reynolds Game Farm Won’t Be Closed

The pheasants are going to make it after all. Cruella De Ville is crying.

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Hold the Salt

With all the recent snow, it seems like the perfect time to discuss other options for salting the roads in the Lake George basin. Salt runoff is one of the primary pollutants reaching the lake.

Here is a product called Magic Salt, which bills itself “as less corrosive, biodegradable and environmentally friendly,” than regular salt. Here is a .pdf file of an area coated on one side with regular salt and coated on another side with magic salt. Notice how the grass is burned on the regular salt side.

Here is a product called Ice B’Gone® that is made of a molasses-like liquid that can be mixed with regular rock salt. It “contains no algae-forming phosphorus”.

These are the types of products that will bring us into the future. There are most likely many others. We’ll bring to your attention a new technology that is being studied in Maryland that can lengthen the life of an existing drain field with plain old regular air.

You never thought salt was so cool.

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Bits of Everything

How a Sunken Boat Became a National Treasure

Here is a piece from the Saratogian that details the story of the Forward, a boat which sank in Lake George in the the 1930’s, which was just added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is an interesting story.

Senator Little Fights NY Property Tax Cap Proposal

As a followup to yesterday’s post about the proposal to cap NY state payments on their forest reserve property, Senator Little has posted what she is doing to stop this on her website. Keep those emails and calls coming to our elected officials.

Clean Air Increases Longevity

Here is a short article from National Public Radio about something which seems so simple: breathing clean air lets you live longer. No wonder people like it in Huletts.

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Star of Wonder, Star of Night

One of the great things about Huletts is the amazing night sky we have in the summer. There’s nothing like being out on the lake at night and gazing up and seeing the brilliant night sky.

This is a short little clip, with some amazing animation, about a little known nearby galaxy called “M74”. It’s difficult for amateur astronomers to see, but the Hubble Space telescope has captured some amazing pictures of it. What the naked eye sees as distant stars are in many cases faraway galaxies that burn brightly.

[hulu=0E0mzqejeNwIzUNdo3BJjg,CENTER,340,16:10,Phantom Galaxy,AUTOPLAY]

“Lead us to the perfect light”

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2009 Blows In

We wanted to wish you a Happy New Year and a healthy and prosperous 2009. We were blown off-line yesterday with some heavy winds but everything is a bit calmer today. If 2009 is already here, it means the summer of 2009 will be here soon.

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Milfoil Eradication Working

We received the following press release from the Lake George Park Commission about its yearly milfoil eradication efforts.

The good news;

“During 2008, Lycott Environmental Inc. work crews under the Commission’s direction hand harvested more than 14,000 invasive milfoil plants and installed 115,850 square feet of benthic barrier material to smother dense beds of milfoil. Ninety-three sites were cleared of milfoil during 2008. An additional 47 sites remain clear from past management activities.”

Now there is still more work to do because some new sites have been identified, but the overall progress seems positive.

Read the recent press release here.

Read the 2008 milfoil report from the LGPC here.
(Warning -it’s a big download)

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No Removal of the Foster Brook Sediment Delta This Year

Sad News 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.

These objections were posted on their website from July.