News stories tagged with "champlain-valley"

(11/08/11) As we've been hearing, yesterday's ceremony is part of the long history of the Lake Champlain bridge and the deep connection between communities on both sides of the border.

Brian Mann has been following this story since the old span was declared unsafe in 2009. He has this look back at how the crisis affected the Champlain Valley and how it has united communities on both sides of the lake.

(10/11/11) The Wildway Overlook Trail -- featured in Brian Mann's audio postcard this morning -- is a relatively new path that's been built and opened by an organization called Champlain Area Trails, or CATS.

It's a non-profit group based in Westport that formed two years ago after local hikers and land conservation advocates grew impatient with the scarcity of trails in one of the most gorgeous parts of the Adirondacks.

Brian Mann spoke with Chris Maron, executive director of CATS. Maron says organizers quickly learned that they had a lot of great trails already in place that just needed more publicity.

(09/28/11) Australian architectural designer Alexander Michael opens an exhibit of his sculptures this Saturday at his part time Adirondack hidden home that once housed an anti-ballistic missile (ABM). Michael will also give tours of his former Atlas Missile Silo in Lewis, in the Champlain Valley.

Twelve ABM sites were built near the Plattsburgh Air Force base in the early 1960's, hidden in the mountains. Each deep underground silo held a missile, and quarters where the crews lived and worked. Many of these silos were taken off alert and fully decommissioned within a few years.

Following their closure, most of them were sold off to local towns, salvage companies or left to decay. But Michael's Lewis Missile Base, also known as Boquet 556-5, is one of the more impressively restored missile silos.

He lives there for about eight weeks each year, and for more than ten years, he's pumped out water, hauled out or recycled scrap metal, restored the former Launch Control Center into an underground retreat. Todd Moe stopped by for a tour.

(09/06/11) A benefit spaghetti dinner and dance at the Whallonsburg Grange on Saturday night (5:30) will donate all the proceeds to area families in need of help after Irene. The event is dubbed, "Good Night, Irene." Todd Moe talks with Whallonsburg Grange Hall Program Director Mary-Nell Bockman about some of the cleanup efforts in the Champlain Valley and neighbors who lost their homes in the storm's aftermath.

(08/24/11) State transportation officials in New York say the giant steel arch needed to complete the Lake Champlain bridge will be moved into place tomorrow if weather permits. DOT commissioner Joan McDonald issued a statement saying that the event will mark a "historic day for the people of the region who heavily depend on the bridge for their livelihoods."

The bridge from Crown Point New York to Addison Vermont was closed and condemned two years ago, after engineers found that its support piers were crumbled. Brian Mann headed out on the lake this week to get a preview of the route that the new 400-foot long arch will travel from the construction yard in Port Henry to the bridge site in Crown Point. He sent this audio postcard.

(08/16/11) The Lowes corporation abruptly closed its big box store in Ticonderoga Sunday night, a move that affects more than eighty employees.

The company blamed lackluster sales and shuttered six other stores nationwide.

As Brian Mann reports, efforts are already underway to help laid-off workers. But the closure could also hurt regional contractors and construction workers throughout the southern Champlain Valley. more

(08/09/11) Over the weekend, the town of Moriah held its first-ever "Johnny Podres Day." Local fans celebrated the life of the legendary pitcher, who grew up in the Adirondack foothills in the 1940s and 50s. Podres went on to lead the Brooklyn Dodgers to their victory over the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series.

On Saturday, a temporary museum opened on the main street of Port Henry. It was filled with memorabilia collected by Pat Salerno. He's a mason and a contractor who grew up in Moriah during Podres's heyday in major league baseball. Brian Mann took a tour of the exhibit with Pat Salerno and sent this audio postcard.

(07/11/11) This week we begin a series of stories and conversations about the next generation of farmers in the North Country. We're calling it "Farmers under 40". They're young, energetic and willing to make sacrifices to be part of the farmer-foodie culture.

Community Supported Agriculture, or "CSA", is a growing trend across the region with people who like to know where their food is grown and that it's fresh. It's like subscription agriculture. Members join before the growing season begins, giving the grower the money to buy seeds and supplies. They also share in the farm's seasonal bounty.

One such CSA, Fledging Crow Vegetables, is run by Ian Ater and Lucas Christenson. Todd Moe recently visited their small farm just outside of Keeseville, south of Plattsburgh. Chances are you've seen the Fledging Crow booth at a farmers' market in the Adirondacks or Champlain Valley this summer. Ater and Christenson are both college educated, but growing and peddling spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots wasn't in their early career plans. Now in their late-20's, the two friends are committed -- physically and financially -- to dirt, sweat and feeding the North Country. more

(06/21/11) Beginning and veteran farmers will gather in the Champlain Valley on Saturday for a chance to network, learn and socialize. The event, at the historic Whallonsburg Grange in Essex, will feature food, music and the screening of a documentary that focuses on a new generation of young farmers.

Todd Moe talks with Hudson valley farmer Severine von Tscharner Fleming, a co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition, one of the groups sponsoring Saturday's gathering. She also directed the documentary The Greenhorns, a film about the young farmer movement.

(04/06/11) A group of Plattsburgh residents interested in keeping a limited number of backyard hens will hold a public forum next Tuesday night to the discuss the pros and cons of raising urban chickens. Some of their reasons for keeping chickens in the city include fresh eggs, a source of organic garden compost and gaining a closer relationship to the food they eat. It's illegal in the City of Plattsburgh to raise livestock, including chickens. But cities throughout the state, including Buffalo, Rochester, Saratoga Springs and New York City allow residents to raise chickens in their backyards. Todd Moe spoke with forum organizer Anne Lenox Barlow, who is an avid gardener and local food advocate.