93.3 WSLP News

The first-ever Saranac Lake Street Fest! The event happens from 2-9 p.m. on Saturday, July 20. Main Street will be closed from Berkeley Green to the Saranac Lake Free Library to make room for vendors, stilt walkers, buskers, artists, poetry for passerby by, a tarot card reader, a magician and more. Street Fest is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to wear costumes and participation in various activities will be encouraged throughout the day, including three contests: most Street Fest-iest costume, loon calling and bubble gum blowing. The Circus Tent will give little ones a chance to try stilt walking from 2-4:30 p.m. At the Berkeley Green stage, actors from Pendragon Theatre will delight the crowd with a couple of songs from Mary Poppins Jr, which is showing at the theater this summer. After the singalong, magician and mentalist Gary Ferrar will take the stage for an hour-long magic show.

Accusations of sexual impropriety are reaching back in time and resulting in the name of Melville Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal System and the Lake Placid Club, to be stripped from a memorial medal given out by the American Library Association. The decision came down late last month from the American Library Association Council The resolution reads, in part, “During the 1906 ALA conference there was a movement to censure Dewey after four women came forward to accuse him of sexual impropriety, and he was ostracized from the organization for decades. The behavior demonstrated for decades by Dewey does not represent the stated fundamental values of ALA in equity, diversity and inclusion.”

The Lake Placid-North Elba Community Development Commission’s Housing Committee is looking to do a study on affordable housing. It would examine the income range the committee should focus on serving, what housing stock is currently available to people who fall within that income range, what would be considered “affordable housing” for residents of this area, and potential gaps in the housing market, reports the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. The Community Development Commission will need to return to the town board at a later date to request $20,000 from the town’s Adirondack Community Housing Fund to hire a consultant to do this work.

Tupper Lake Woodsmen’s Days is happening Friday through Sunday at Tupper Lake Municipal Park. The event is a weekend-long festival designed to celebrate the region’s storied heritage of logging and lumberjacking. Presented by the Tupper Lake Woodsmen’s Association, the annual Woodmen’s Days has a Gala Parade, Night Games (including the Tug-of-War and the infamous Greased Pole Climb), heavy equipment demonstrations and competitions, chainsaw carving competitions, lumberjack shows, and kids activities.
View for more information: www.tupperlake.com/events.

Burlington-based Kat Wright will headline the inaugural year of Northern Current, a new, daylong music festival that will continue the tradition of Hobofest. She and her band take the stage at Saranac Lake’s Riverside Park alongside an eclectic mix of music on Sunday, Sept. 1, for this free, family-friendly day of fun. Many other musical acts are also involved and the lineup is still being finalized The festival replaces Hobofest, a beloved event that was held in Saranac Lake for a decade on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend until organizers retired it last year.

This is the sixth annual Invasive Species Awareness Week which runs through July 13th. Initiated in 2014, ISAW is an educational campaign featuring statewide events that encourage New Yorkers to help protect the state’s resources from the negative impacts of invasive species. Planning is already underway, and this year’s theme is “Early Detection: Explore, Observe, Report.” The “Early Detection” theme is meant to shine a spotlight on the importance of detecting infestations of invasive species early, which increases the success of response efforts.

An effort is underway to spur economic growth in the town of Jay through growing its tourism sector and by increasing the housing inventory in the region. Members of a newly formed Jay Task Force have been meeting since March to investigate and identify key initiatives to inspire growth in the town of Jay’s economy.
The group is exploring the idea of Jay becoming a hub for housing and whether individuals or families who work in the Plattsburgh or the Tri Lakes region would consider the commute from Jay.

Students at Paul Smith’s College will be digging a little deeper to cover tuition costs. A 4% increase has been approved by both the Franklin and Essex County boards The new spending plan in place features an additional $1.1 million in spending for a total of $14.5 million. According to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, almost $500,000 of that increase is due to contractual increases and new staff members. The school plans to hire two new staffers, an informational technician and a social media manager. Tuition for in-state students will increase by $212, or 4%. Out-of-state students will pay $499 more per year.

Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay) announced that legislation he co-sponsored will activate the infrastructure land bank created for the Adirondack and Catskill parks by a recent constitutional amendment (A.8136). When fully implemented, municipalities will be allowed to apply to NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for easements on forest preserve lands for the construction of essential infrastructure.
New York State’s constitution requires that forest preserve lands remain forever wild, and prohibits the sale, lease or exchange of the lands to any entity, public or private. This prohibition often proves challenging for Adirondack municipalities, who sometimes found the only way to implement infrastructure projects was to ask for an amendment to the state constitution, a process that requires passage by two separately elected state Legislatures and then by a statewide ballot measure.The measure passed the Assembly and Senate and is awaiting the governor’s signature.

Ausable River Association (AsRA) and Cycle Adirondacks (CycleADK) are announcing the 8th Annual Ride for the River set for Sunday, July 21. The family-friendly event is a fully supported road cycling tour featuring four distance options, all showcasing the stunning Ausable River watershed in the heart of the Adirondacks.
Registration and full event details are now available at CycleAdirondacks.com/RideForTheRiver.
Proceeds from the event support the AsRA’s efforts to protect the clean waters, natural hydrology, diverse ecology, and scenic beauty of the Ausable.