{"id":5340,"date":"2012-01-15T11:02:31","date_gmt":"2012-01-15T16:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5340"},"modified":"2012-01-16T10:38:57","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T15:38:57","slug":"sunday-opinion-dissolving-villages-merging-school-districts-and-reforming-the-adirondack-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/01\/15\/sunday-opinion-dissolving-villages-merging-school-districts-and-reforming-the-adirondack-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Opinion: Dissolving villages, merging school districts and reforming the Adirondack Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morning, folks.\u00a0 Here’s a round-up of issues on the minds of opinion writers around the region.\u00a0 The Plattsburgh Press-Republican<\/a> argues that Keeseville — which straddles the Clinton-Essex county line — is right to consider dissolving the village.<\/p>\n

Keeseville is being proactive by moving promptly on residents’ calls for a dissolution study. Rock affirms that the public will hold the reins in the end.<\/p>\n

There are no sound reasons not to proceed with this study: The citizens and officials want to know the numbers, the grant money is available, and the final decision will rest where it belongs \u2014 with the people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, the Glens Falls Post-Star<\/a> is heralding a big school merger plan in Herkimer County, which the paper says could be a model for districts across the North Country.<\/p>\n

The Frankfort-Schuyler, Herkimer, Ilion and Mohawk school districts – all located within 7 miles of each other – voted unanimously this week to put a proposed merger of the four school systems to a vote in each district. The vote is non-binding, but none of the boards were going to push forward until everyone was on board.<\/p>\n

These are not tiny school districts, either.\u00a0 The Franklin Schuyler district has more than 1,100 students, Ilion 1,800, Herkimer 1,200 and Mohawk 1,000.<\/p>\n

The closest example in our region would be if Hudson Falls, Fort Ann and Fort Edward merged into a Route 4 colossus.\u00a0 Any takers?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise<\/a> argues that Albany should get out of the way and let counties raise sales taxes when local leaders see fit.<\/p>\n

The state officials making this blanket decree do not know county finances better than the locals; nor are they trying to uphold any statewide standard.<\/p>\n

Sales tax rates in New York are different in every county: The state takes its 4 percent, and county rates vary. Up here, Franklin County takes 4 percent while Essex takes 3.75.<\/p>\n

Essex has been trying in recent years to raise its sales tax to 4 percent, but the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are blocking that effort. Why?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally, the Adirondack Almanack published <\/a>excerpts this week from an interesting opinion piece written by Adirondack Council leader Brian Houseal, who called for major reforms in the way state agencies manage the Park.<\/p>\n

“The two main state agencies that protect the Adirondack Park\u2019s forests and waters are the Adirondack Park Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation,\u201d said Houseal. \u201cBoth were established in the early 1970s and have been operating the same way since that time. Over the past 40 years, it has become clear that some things aren\u2019t working very well. We have presented the Governor with a plan for fixing those problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, we would like to see state agencies treat the Adirondack Park as a single entity by using the same set of rules and policies across the entire Park,\u201d Houseal explained. \u201cFor example, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) breaks the Park into two regions, with the regional office in Ray Brook overseeing the eastern two-thirds, while the Watertown office governs the western one-third of the Park, from a distance of 30 miles outside the Park\u2019s border. The departments of Health, Transportation, Economic Development, also break the Park into multiple regions and regional directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn most cases, we are proposing changes that the Governor has the authority to make on his own,\u201d Houseal said. \u201cSome others will require the assistance of the Legislature, either through new laws or with money.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So there you go.\u00a0 Plenty to chew on on this cold, bright North Country Sunday.\u00a0 Comments welcome as always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morning, folks.\u00a0 Here’s a round-up of issues on the minds of opinion writers around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5687],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5341,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5340\/revisions\/5341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}