by Gina Greco
Central Adirondack Partnership for the 21st Century (CAP-21) held its annual meeting at the Old Forge American Legion Post #893 on Wednesday, November 19th.
CAP-21 Executive Director Nick Rose went over the Financial Report, accurate as of October 31st, 2015.
Income for the prior twelve-month period (November 1st, 2014–October 31st, 2015) was $80,867.43. Expenses were $85,588.91, resulting in a net loss for the period of $4,721.48.
CAP-21 Treasurer Sandy Booton was unable to attend the meeting but offered a written statement for Nick Rose to read:
“We would like to thank the membership of Central Adiron-dack Association, State and Local Governments, and Community Foundation of Oneida/Herkimer for their on going support for this organization,” she said.
Page Hannah has exceeded her time on the board and will be stepping down as CAP-21 Secretary.
“I wanted to thank CAP-21 for all their hard work. I appreciate their passion for our community. It has been a privilege working with you all. I will not be going away; I will still be involved. CAP-21 is such a valuable asset for the well being of our communities and will have a strong future,” Hannah said.
Starting January 1st, 2016, the new elected officers will be Deb Carhart as President, Tim Foley as Vice President, Jean Murdock as secretary, and Carolyn Trimbach will also be returning as a board member.
“We are searching for at least two more board members,” Rose said.
Rose thanked Kristin Frymire for her time at CAP-21. She is the longest-serving person in CAP-21’s history. She held the position for the past eleven and a half years.
“It has been a great ride,” Frymire said.
Tricia Clark will be replacing Frymire as Program Director/ Office Manager.
CAP-21 has received grant funds this year for a number of local projects, including the Inlet and Woodgate Libraries, according to Nick Rose.
“We’ve submitted grant applications in excess of $2.4 million for Federal, State and Community Foundation types of grants,” Rose said.
“If we could get 10 percent of that it would be wonderful.”
Rose said that typically many state grant results are in by mid-December or January.
“We received a transportation grant in collaboration with Herkimer County, Town of Webb and Central Adirondack Association (CAA),” Rose said.
CAP-21 received a grant from the Community Foundation for some of the North Woods Community Center’s building renovations.
The McCauley Mountain snowmaking grant was finally implemented, Rose said.
“It’s in full shape with new snowmaking equipment for this coming ski season,” he said.
“There are incentives that will be coming back to the town of about, I believe, $60,000,” he said.
The Revitalization Project continues at the Arrowhead Park in Inlet.
“They are working on changes to the bathhouse and making the park more accessible to people with mobility impairments,” he said.
CAP-21 is currently awaiting the outcome of the funds for the Niccolls Memorial Church Mission Boutique building.
They also have been working with New York State Senator Hugh Farley’s office toward some efficiency upgrades in Webb.
“There is a grant called SAM, which is ‘State and Municipalities.’ The idea is generating $60,000 of improvements to town buildings,” Rose said.
CAP-21 board member Bill Ransom said they are looking into opening up the Legion building as a place for activities for the seniors in the community.
Ransom said there will be a new kitchen in the building with plans also to install an ansul system.
The upgrades will help serve food to the public and for fundraisers held there, he said.
“That will work out very nicely,” Ransom said.
“We will have to have more of a discussion with the [Senior Health Activities & Recreation Program] SHARP about how that will work, and hopefully we can expand the activities for older residents of the community,” Rose said.
Rose said they are looking into more energy improvements to the Town of Webb Information Center, including new windows.
They also plan to add air conditioning in the Town of Webb Court House.
The Farmers Market completed its eighth season with its greatest number of weekly market vendors.
“CAP-21 continued its implementation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and was able to provide approximately $4,400 in nutritional assistance to our local community and in donations to our two local food pantries,” Rose said.
“The Farmers’ Market continues to grow and to do good things. Our only issue now is space, and that’s a good position to be in.”
Town of Webb Publicity Director Mike Farmer commented on the Emergency Services Program.
“We had a couple of community members that were active EMS that gave us forewarning that it is going to ceiling out pretty soon,” Farmer said,
“[They said] we have 70-year-old participants [that are] key personnel in that program. We don’t have a lot of young people coming into it.”
Farmer said Nick organized a meeting and with that, came a sizable partnership with the town.
“It looks like it’s going to come off the ground. Everyone is for it [and]…now we have the action and that is really exciting,” Farmer said.
Farmer also commented on the first season of the community shuttle service in Old Forge.
“Shuttles in other areas are privately owned,” he said.
“Those are $70,000 per unit.We don’t have the money to go out and buy those.”
“[This service] wasn’t the
ideal program, but that’s all we can afford right now. It is a stepping stone,” he said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of consensus with the county, as to what we can do to make this better and where we can go with it. It’s 100 percent better than what we had last year, which was zero. We’ve got something working now and we’ve got something to build on.”
Former Director, Lani Ulrich commented on the difference from the start of CAP-21 and how it is progressed due to Nick Rose’s work.
“The skills you bring and the money you have brought to this area is phenomenal, with your background, your work and your attention to detail…It does not happen other places in the [Adirondack] Park,” she said.
Board Member, Mike Cunningham commented on the press being present at the meeting.
“You know, we do have a problem promoting CAP-21, because its not that exciting when you get down to money and meetings and these kinds of things,” he said.
“I’m so happy [the press] is here—it is a tough issue because it’s not that fun—but it is very important to the town,” he said.
“We had some projects that will have a lasting impact on the community. Our return investment in the area since 1999 is close to $8.2 million at this time, which is pretty good for an organization of our size,” Rose said.
“Locally, it was a pretty good year,” he said.
“Our focus for the next year is to continue to work on Economic Development…and how do we bring in jobs and investment into the community,” Rose said.