{"id":6427,"date":"2012-08-16T07:45:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T11:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6427"},"modified":"2012-08-16T10:15:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T14:15:11","slug":"as-adirondack-paper-plant-goes-dark-again-questions-about-state-railroad-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/08\/16\/as-adirondack-paper-plant-goes-dark-again-questions-about-state-railroad-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"As Adirondack paper plant goes dark again, questions about state railroad spending"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6430\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6430\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6430\" title=\"newtonfallspaper_200jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/08\/newtonfallspaper_200jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/08\/newtonfallspaper_200jpg.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/08\/newtonfallspaper_200jpg-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is the Newton Falls Paper Mill a good investment for taxpayers? Photo: Newton Falls Paper support group on Facebook<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.watertowndailytimes.com\/article\/20120816\/NEWS05\/708169850\">Watertown Daily Times<\/a> is reporting this week that the latest effort to revive the Newton Falls paper plant has faltered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re going to try to find a buyer or liquidate it,\u201d said Fine Supervisor Mark C. Hall, a member of the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency told the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are people out there who still think they\u2019re going to find a buyer. I\u2019ve got my fingers crossed that they find a buyer and the mill will operate again. Time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Times, there are currently just five employees at the mill, which has struggled for the better part of a decade, part of the regional downturn in the paper industry.<\/p>\n<p>This news comes after the <a href=\"http:\/\/regionalcouncils.ny.gov\/content\/north-country\">North Country Regional Economic Development Council<\/a> agreed last year to spend roughly $9.6 million refurbishing an industrial railroad that connects the tiny village of Newton Falls to the rest of St. Lawrence County.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6428\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6428\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6428 \" title=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/08\/patakinewtonfalls081612.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"113\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. George Pataki in Newton Falls in 2002. Photo: Brian Mann<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Previously, state officials had committed to spending millions of dollars to help reopen the plant, including aid from Gov. George Pataki in 2002 and a $1.7 million grant from Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>According to the NCREDC, the project would help support &#8220;155 jobs at Newton Falls Fine Paper&#8221; and could also give momentum to a &#8220;bio fuel project, natural resource manufacturing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.watertowndailytimes.com\/article\/20120503\/OGD01\/705039792\/0\/NEWS05\">Local officials hope the line will also allow granite tailings to be removed<\/a> from the defunct Benson mines.\u00a0 As recently as May, plans were still underway to spend the grant money on the line, despite the paper company&#8217;s struggles.<\/p>\n<p>So what do you think?\u00a0 Is this a good investment of taxpayer money by state officials?\u00a0 This was the largest single grant offered to a project applicant in our region &#8212; nearly $10 million.\u00a0 Is this a good strategy to revitalize a struggling part of the Adirondacks, or a risky investment?<\/p>\n<p>Your comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Watertown Daily Times is reporting this week that the latest effort to revive the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,4786,4802],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6427"}],"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=6427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6431,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6427\/revisions\/6431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}