Reporter Don Lehman reports that Warren county has gotten a $10,000 grant from the Adirondack Gateway Council to study cell and broadband service and identify problem areas.

 

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Warren County leaders want to know how cellphone and Internet service is around the county.

The county has gotten a $10,000 grant to study cell and broadband service, similar to an effort being conducted in Washington County.

The goal is to formally identify problem areas so local leaders can seek some of the $500 million in state funding that is to be made available to improve service. Better high-speed Internet and cellphone service is viewed as crucial for economic and public safety reasons.

The funding for the study was awarded through Adirondack Gateway Council, which recently told the county it was eligible. Washington County also received a grant from the council to fund its study, said Brian LaFlure, Warren County’s emergency services director.

LaFlure said Washington County officials sent a survey to more than 30,000 addresses in the county in recent months, and has received more than 2,000 back so far. The county recently extended the deadline for responses until July 31.

LaFlure said it had not been determined as of Thursday whether Warren County will undertake a mail survey as Washington County has done.

The first part of Warren County’s effort will include a “drive test” around the county with equipment to map cellphone service signal strength. Gauging cell strength also allows experts to conclude at what strength wireless broadband Internet would transmit in the area, he explained.

LaFlure said Warren County’s broadband Internet coverage seems to be better than Washington County’s, but there are noticeable gaps.

“The terrain is obviously one of our big issues,” he said.

Those cellphone and high-speed Internet gaps are present not just in the less populated, more mountainous north end of the county, but in the south end as well. Numerous areas of Queensbury, the most populated town in Warren County, have limited cell coverage.

“I was surprised how much of Lake George has no service or poor service,” Lake George Supervisor Dennis Dickinson said.

Chester Supervisor Fred Monroe said regulations that limit tower construction in the Adirondack Park put the region at a disadvantage.

Adirondack Gateway Council is a planning and grant-writing consortium of local governments, economic development groups and planning agencies in Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties.

Reporter Maury Thompson reports that the Conservation Fund, a national conservation group, is seeking $710,000 in federal funding to preserve about 1,400 acres of private forest land in Fort Ann and to continue active logging, and that Elise Stefanik recently co-sponsored legislation to make the program permanent.

 

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The Conservation Fund, a national conservation group, is seeking $710,000 in federal funding to preserve about 1,400 acres of private forest land in Fort Ann and to continue active logging.

Loggers for decades have cut trees on the property to supply pulp wood to nearby Finch Paper and International Paper mills in Glens Falls and Ticonderoga, said Tom Duffus, regional vice president of The Conservation Fund.

The federal and state governments have identified the request as a “priority project” for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund in the next federal fiscal year, that begins in October.

But the legislation that authorizes the program, funded from federal offshore oil and gas drilling royalties, expires in September, at which time the program would end unless new legislation is enacted.

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, recently co-sponsored legislation to make the program permanent.

Making the program permanent would end year-to-year uncertainty about its future amidst perennial debate about diverting a larger percentage of oil and gas royalties to the federal general fund.

In the Fort Ann project, the federal government would provide money to the state to buy a conservation easement on the property, which would stay in private ownership.

Funding would come from the Forest Legacy Fund, a sub-program of the Land and Water Conservation Fund used specifically for conservation easements.

“It’s on the tax rolls. It will stay on the tax rolls, providing not only jobs but also the habitat that can be afforded by keeping it in forest and not in a housing development,” Duffus said.

The Conservation Fund bought the property about 18 months ago from a real estate investment firm that wasn’t getting the return on investment it wanted and decided to sell it quickly.

“The Conservation Fund actually rescued this parcel as part of a 30,000-acre purchase we made across four states,” Duffus said.

The easement would prevent subdividing and development of the property, about five miles from Golden Goal soccer park, an area that has been eyed for housing and hotel development.

The easement would also guarantee the property, which straddles the border of the Adirondack Park, is available for public recreation.

About 60 percent of the property is outside the Adirondack Park and has no zoning that prohibits the property from being subdivided, according to The Conservation Fund.

The property is habitat for the peregrine falcon and provided scenic views to motorists driving through the region.

“It’s the forested connection between the Adirondacks and Green Mountains across the southern part of Lake Champlain,” Duffus said.

Stefanik said the legislation is an example of how she works in bipartisan fashion to address local concerns.

“It is important to the Adirondacks,” she said. “The issue came across my desk when I was talking to some of my Adirondack activists, in Essex County in particular.”

Rep. Raul Grialva, D-Ariz., introduced the legislation, which had 117 co-sponsors as of Wednesday.

Of those sponsors, 104 are Democrats, including Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, and 13 are Republicans, including Stefanik and Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook.

In addition to continuing the Conservation Fund, the legislation would stipulate at least 1.5 percent of revenue or $10 million, whichever is greater, be used for projects that secure public access on existing federal lands for public access for hunting, fishing and recreation.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund, established in 1965, provides grants to buy land and improve public land, parks and playgrounds for recreational use, and provides grants for states to buy conservation easements.

The program has protected land in all 50 states, and has supported 41,000 state and local projects, including several in the Adirondacks.

“Our very first project in the Adirondacks was actually funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. That was the 12,500-acre Santanoni Preserve in 1972,” said Connie Prickett, a spokeswoman for the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, a conservation organization. “It continues to be a main attraction in the town of Newcomb.”

Most of the program’s funding in New York has been for conservation easements, said Willie Janeway, executive director of Adirondack Council, an environmental organization.

“That means that it’s private forest land, a willing seller. The land stays in private ownership, stays in management for forest, but the person sells development rights,” he said.

A news release states that the Adirondack Council will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Saturday, July 18, by honoring all 11 chairs of its board of directors.

 

A news release says that the Adirondack Council wants communities throughout the Adirondack Park to know there are now matching grants available for clean water projects they had hoped to complete but could not afford.

 

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ELIZABETHTOWN — The Adirondack Council wants communities throughout the Adirondack Park to know there are now matching grants available for clean water projects they had hoped to complete but could not afford.

“Most Adirondack communities have only a few thousand residents, so multi-million-dollar wastewater collection and treatment projects can seem unaffordable,” said William C. Janeway, Executive Director of the Adirondack Council. “There are a lot of good plans out there, but not enough grant money to do the work. This new pool of $200 million can solve a lot of problems in the Adirondacks over the next three years, without unduly burdening local taxpayers.”

The Council and its partners had urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature to create a clean water grant program during the state budget negotiations.

“The state has an important stake in protecting clean water throughout the Adirondack Park,” Janeway said. “An investment in municipal clean water projects here results in many benefits to tourism and to communities outside the park that depend on Adirondack rivers for their water, such as the Hudson, Mohawk, Raquette, Black, Ausable, Saranac, Salmon and others.”

This year, New York will make available $50 million for matching grants and long-term loans, while increasing the amount to $75 million in 2016 and 2017.

Called the “New York State Water Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2015,” the program puts in place a mechanism to close the funding gap for communities across the state that are facing billions in backlogged water infrastructure projects, critical for protecting public health and clean water and essential for attracting and retaining private business investment.

The state estimates that communities are facing $75 billion in unmet clean water infrastructure needs over the next two decades. The Department of Environmental Conservation has estimated the need for wastewater infrastructure at $36 billion; the Department of Health has estimated the need for drinking water infrastructure at nearly $39 billion.

The crumbling state of New York’s water infrastructure has resulted in devastating consequences for the park’s communities. Numerous local governments struggled with broken water and sewage pipes and faltering treatment systems last winter and this spring.

“These incidents result in boil water alerts, closed roadways, closed beaches and impaired waterways, a lack of access to drinking water, and even businesses and schools having to close,” said Janeway. “It undermines public health, safety, and our communities’ ability to attract sustainable, new development.”

Under the new program, the state will cover up to 60 percent of municipalities’ drinking water infrastructure project costs, with a cap at $2 million per municipality per year and, for wastewater projects, up to $5 million in individual, one-time grants or 25 percent of a project’s total cost.

“By agreeing to cover by grants 60 percent of drinking-water project costs, the state is acknowledging the need of strapped communities for assistance in paying for water infrastructure projects, considering the limitations put on them through borrowing costs and the state’s 2-percent tax cap,” Janeway explained.

“This kind of investment in clean water systems can help small Adirondack Park communities rebuild facilities to better handle local business, residents and 10 million annual visitors,” Janeway said. “We have world-class scenery and recreational opportunities in the Adirondacks, but we don’t yet have the world-class drinking water and wastewater treatment systems we need to protect the environment and public health. This will help wildlife, communities, clean water and wilderness.”

APPLY FOR GRANTS

Applications for both wastewater and drinking water projects are now available and are due by Sept. 4. More information on the grant program and applications is available at www.efc.ny.gov/NYSwatergrants. Municipalities with questions should call the Environmental Facilities Corporation at 518-402-6924.