by John Isley

After a three-year battle to keep the nation’s post offices open, a proposed Post Plan was presented over a year ago that would cut window service hours at post offices.

Woodgate will be one of the last area post offices to conform with the new plan and beginning Saturday, August 24 it will go to limited window hours.

Window service hours will be 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday; and 8 to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Lobby hours for box mail pickup will continue to be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

According to Postal Service representative Nadine Trombley, a door timer and locks have been installed at the post office, however new parcel pickup boxes have yet to be installed.

With the future of rural delivery going to cluster boxes, as chairman of the Woodgate Citizens Committee I urge everyone to consider acquiring a post office box.

by John Isley

Town of Forestport Supervisor William Hasenauer has announced that the town has been awarded several grants to assist with various town projects.

A grant in the amount of $30,000 will assist with a sewer engineering study for several areas of the township.

The study will focus on the feasibility of non-traditional sewer systems for the areas of Deer Spring Park, Otter Lake, and White Lake.

A second grant for $7,500 was awarded to the town clerk’s office for the purpose of organizing and archiving the town records room.

A third grant for $3,900 was received through the Urban Tree Program for the purpose of planting trees in the town.

Previous tree grant money was used for the enhancement project along the Black River, Hasenauer said.

by John Isley, Guest Contributor

Boonville meeting outlines the possibilities for area economies and tourism

The Tug Hill Commission and Northern Oneida County Council of Governments met with representatives of the Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society (ARPS) on Tuesday, November 20 to discuss the future of the railroad.

The meeting was held at the Boonville Municipal Building and was prompted by the recently announced plan by Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC to start Pullman Car rail service from New York City to Lake Placid via the Adirondack Railway—a plan that Bill Branson of the Adirondack Railway Society has called “a game changer” for the region. Sixty people were in attendance.

Kate Fish of the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) opened the meeting with a slide presentation of the current train promotions and the economic impact that the new “Pullman agreement” could provide. Fish stated a “brew train” sponsored by Saranac, an artist palette train associated with the state-of-the-art “View” art center in Old Forge, a Maple Express sponsoring the maple industry, dinner trains to Forestport’s Buffalo Head Restaurant and a 100 percent increase in the bike and paddling ridership are some of the current ways that the Railway is impacting the local economy.

Branson reported that some 14,000 passengers are booked for this year’s Polar Express trains, and that 1.2 million passengers have been transported on the 70 miles of operating tract. John K Bartow, Executive Director of the NYS Tug Hill Commission said that negotiations with the Iowa train company started in June and have moved into the partnership phase. Continue reading →