Decision makers should guard against diminishing returns

Question: Where are we going as a community?

In some respects our community is fading. Our school population was 522 in 1975. In 1995 it had dropped to 442. This year it stands at 287.

Schools serve as “anchors” for a community, along with its churches. They need to be vibrant, and that means families—young families.

From that core, everything else grows… McCauley Mountain for example.

In some ways the decline was inevitable and mirrors trends elsewhere in upstate New York. Continue reading →

Future: Keeping winter riders coming even without snow

Question: Are we steering our winter economy to the future—envisioning a preferred destination and acting to get it there on schedule—or just letting nature take its course?

I experienced Old Forge’s glory days of monster snow, hundreds of inches a year. I shoveled it, plowed it, and none of us thought those days would end.

It spurred the sport of snowmobiling locally, and businesses and recreationalists benefited for a few decades.

Ahh, deep snow and snowmobiles. Winter was heaven. Except for the plowing and shoveling.

Then for reasons that make little sense—to me anyway—our weather started plateau-ing in November, more or less, dragging itself to March.

And from December to February, all we could do was cross our fingers and pray that a Canadian cold-front would show us favor.

Now, however—in the year 2012—the question is: Continue reading →