News stories tagged with "st-lawrence-county"

(02/16/12) A St. Lawrence County official says a redistricting plan proposed by the state legislature would give his county much less political say, by dividing it among four different state Assembly members and three senators. The county is currently represented by two of each.

The plan has drawn fire from good government groups who say the new political maps are unfair and biased, and from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has threatened to veto them.

St. Lawrence County Planning Director Keith Zimmerman and other county officials testified Tuesday at a hearing of the "LATFOR" redistricting commission in Syracuse.

Zimmerman told the commission the plan would make it hard for lawmakers to effectively represent the county.

Nora Flaherty spoke with Zimmerman Wednesday.

(02/02/12) St. Lawrence County legislators are scheduled to take another look at a Climate Action Plan next week. When legislators asked the County Planning Department to write the plan last March, they wanted ways to save money by being more energy efficient.

The climate plan was tabled last summer, when students and professors at the four universities in Canton and Potsdam started a cost-benefit analysis of some ideas in the plan. more

(01/25/12) St. Lawrence County legislators are urging the Adirondack Park Agency to fight a recent court decision that designates the water and bed of Lows Lake as wilderness. That's according to the Watertown Daily Times. more

(11/09/11) St. Lawrence County voters chose Republican Mary Lou Rupp as their next county clerk. Her margin over Democrat Gavin Regan was better than two to one.

Regan had been appointed to the post by Gov. Andrew Cuomo when then-clerk Patty Ritchie won a seat in the state Senate. Rupp had served as deputy to Ritchie in the clerk's office.

Rupp says she's ecstatic and thankful about the win. She says she was part of making the clerk's office a money-maker for the county, so voters supported her.

"I think it's because people know how hard we've worked to make our local offices so well run and efficient - customer friendly and revenue generating offices. There was no need for a change." more

(11/02/11) The election of a county clerk usually doesn't get much attention. The office processes paperwork: passports, pistol permits, mortgages, and vehicle registrations. But this year, people are watching the race for clerk in St. Lawrence County. And the two candidates think that's largely because the office has started making money. Julie Grant reports. more

(11/01/11) We are media sponsor for the 24th annual Artists' Studio Tour in St. Lawrence County this weekend. Works by artists and craftspeople will be on display in studios and galleries across the county on Saturday and Sunday. The St. Lawrence County Arts Council is also celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. Todd Moe talks with Executive Director Hilary Oak about some of the challenges and successes in the local arts community, and goals for the next decade. Oak helped rebuild the arts council in 2001.

(10/25/11) The late Roger Huntley was a lot of things: auctioneer, farmer, pillar of the Pierrepont-Crary Mills community. He was also a knowledgeable collector of historic farm equipment, and he liked to share his enthusiasm.

A few years ago, Huntley's neighbor, David Sommerstein, got a call that Roger and his wife Ann had brought out their early-1900s mechanical corn harvester to make corn bundles for Halloween with their granddaughters. Here's David's heard Up North from October 2007.

(10/17/11) There's a new wrinkle in the budget process for municipalities and school districts across New York. At Gov. Andrew Cuomo's urging this spring, state legislators approved a new 2 percent cap on how much local property taxes can go up in a given fiscal year.

But with expenses rising and revenues flat, counties and towns are weighing the possibility of overriding the cap. As Martha Foley reports, one St. Lawrence County town has reluctantly taken the first step. more

(09/27/11) This summer, the St. Lawrence County legislature considered a measure to create a climate action plan. The plan would find ways to save money while reducing the county government's carbon footprint. That could include anything from energy audits in county buildings to anti-idling policies in county parking lots. The legislature tabled the matter because it wanted a better cost-benefit analysis of the plan.

Clarkson University professor Stephen Bird hopes to provide that analysis. Bird studies energy and environmental policy. He's working with faculty and students at all four universities in Canton and Potsdam. Bird told David Sommerstein that climate change models project significant changes for the North Country in the future.

(09/13/11) Some people collect stamps, some people collect Star Wars action figures. One woman in St. Lawrence County collects memorabilia from the relatively old-fashioned beer, Schlitz. David Sommerstein visited the Schlitz Museum for today's Heard Up North. There are still places to buy Schlitz in the area. Michelle Whalen of Morristown knows of all of them.