Hearing on travel corridor UMP draws over 100

by Dan McClelland

A public hearing at the Tupper Lake High School auditorium Tuesday was the first of four on the new draft amendment on the 1996 Remsen-Lake Placid Travel Corridor Unit Management Plan (UMP).

There were two other hearings last week in Lake Placid and Old Forge and a fourth was recently added for Utica on December 19.

The hearing was hosted by New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Conservation (DEC) officials which redrafted the plan after an initial 2016 amendment was vacated by Judge Robert Main in a law suit brought by the Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society (ARPS).

The DEC's public participation specialist Dave Winchell in Region 5 welcomed the audience of about 100 that evening.

Quoting Yogi Berra, he said “it looks like deja vu all over again!”

“What we are proposing in this draft management plan amendment is what we at the DOT and DEC and New York State have determined to be the best, most effective and most economically beneficial use of the corridor from Remsen to Lake Placid. A scenic railroad south of Tupper Lake which will be one of the longest scenic railroads in the country and a rail-trail north of Tupper Lake which will not only be unique to every other trail in the Adirondacks and will be unique to many other trails across the Northeast.

He said the combination of rails and trails will “provide a variety of recreational opportunities for visitors and residents and the most economic benefit to the communities along the corridor.” Mr. Winchell said testimony to that statement are the many resolutions passed by communities along the corridor in support of the plan.

He said a number of things have happened since the last public hearing in Tupper Lake. “The Adirondack Park Agency has amended the travel corridor definition in the state land master plan, New York State has purchased the parcels in the corridor near North Country Community College (which were earlier not in state control), we have an access agreement with the Lake Placid and North Elba Historical Society allowing public access to their parcel at the northern end of the corridor.

He also said a direct historic preservation plan has been developed as has a branding statement.

He said the changes were all part of the new amendment language.

Public comments that evening were limited to three minutes in length, in order to give everyone a chance to speak, he explained of that night's format.

Mr. Winchell said for those who did not wish to speak at any of the four public hearings, letters or e-mails can be submitted into the official record. Letters should be send to John Schmid, planner, at 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4254. E-mails should go to adirondackpark@dec.ny.gov

An earlier December deadline for comments was extended to January 9.

All comments, no matter how they come, carry equal weight in the record, he explained.

Steve Kokkoris

DOT Regional Director Steve Kokkoris was the first presenter.

He began with an overview of the 119-mile long Remsen to Lake Placid corridor.

“It begins in Remsen and passes through Herkimer, St. Lawrence, Franklin counties and terminates at Lake Placid in Essex County.”

He said use of the corridor is governed by the 1996 unit management plan. “It identifies opportunities for public use consistent with the classification of the effected lands. The UMP also considers the resources available to accommodate such uses.”

“Currently the 119-mile corridor is designated as a railroad right of way. It was constructed in 1892 and was operated continuously until 1972. In 1974 New York State purchased the corridor. The state authorizes use of the corridor through two revokable use and occupancy permits seasonally. The first is with the Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society (April 1 to November 30 each year) and the New York State Snowmobile Association (December 1 to March 31).

Detailing some of the project's current scope, Mr. Kokkoris said from Big Moose to Tupper Lake “we proposed to rehabilitate all 45 miles of track. We will rehabilitate and re-construct sidings and platforms at Sabattis and Beaver River. The raised platforms would be each 300 feet long.

He said between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid, the amended UMP proposes to construct a 34-mile long trail. There will be shared parking facilities in Tupper Lake (on the train station lot) and connections to the existing Tupper Lake trail system.”

He also said there will be a new “emergency access” through Tupper Lake by connecting Washington St. to McCarthy. The new connection will relieve motorists' dependency on the single rail crossing on Main Street near the train station.

“With respect to the rail service and the rail/trail junction, this will re-imagine Tupper Lake to serve as the terminus for the railroad and the gateway to the new multi-use trail system!”

He said there will be a new platform and canopy built on the track side of the train station. The tracks will also be reconfigured at the station “to minimize the footprint.

Planned too nearby is a small train maintenance facility and storage shed.

Mr. Kokkoris said that tracks will be restored for train service between Tupper Lake and Big Moose (where train service by ARPS now ends). “No physical alterations will be made” as to bridges, buildings, etc., he noted.

He said there will be railroad improvements separate from what his agency does such as the addition of “a historic 1955-vintage dome car” currently underway by ARPS. Several of his slides showed the restoration work underway.

Delivery is anticipated before 2020, he told the audience.

Talking specifically about improvements eyed for the Tupper Lake train station site, he said the new raised passenger platform along the station will be 550 feet long. A passing track will be added and “alignments improved” near the station. A Y-section will be added to turn the trains around and a train storage yard as well.

New parking lots will be added on the 1.9 acre station site for train passengers, summer trail users and winter-time snowmobilers.

Added too will be a train switch and second line crossing Route 3 where there is only one now. A third track is also planned above the crossing.

He said some type of screening will be installed around the new maintenance building and storage shed.

Bob Stegemann

The second part of the presentation was handled by Bob Stegemann, region 5 director of the DEC at Ray Brook. He delved into the trail piece of the corridor in the new UMP.

As part of the new trail development, he said all the “rail, ties and related equipment” will be removed from that 34-mile stretch.

All good materials salvaged, particularly any historic pieces of railroad equipment, will be stored, he noted.

The new trail, he said, will be ten feet wide (on top of the railroad's ballast), covered with “compacted, stone dust” the entire length.

Mr. Stegemann said the entire 34 miles of trail will be Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant with five access points.

He said the new trail will not only attract many visitors but “will improve the quality of life for residents as well.”

“Tupper Lake will benefit from both the train and the trail. It is very excited about the increased visitations, particularly in the Junction where the two will meet.”

“Both Saranac Lake and Lake Placid see the trail as being essential component” of tourism growth. He showed a slide of the Lake Colby crossing in both summer and winter months and the activity it will see.

He said the new trail fits nicely into a recent initiative by Governor Cuomo to develop a system of non-motorized trails across the entire Empire State.

Mr. Stegemann said in each community the new trail will pass through there will be connections into them, as part of the trail plan.

He said the plan also contains a historic preservation element.

“We are also planning a local stakeholders meeting with local officials and local historic preservation groups prior to finalizing the plan.

The corridor, he told the audience, intersects four rivers classified as recreational and two that are classified as scenic. They include the main branches of the Saranac and Raquette Rivers, and the middle and north branches of the Moose River.

He shared with the group the construction timeline. He said the completion of the UMP amendment and its signing by both state commissioners will come next year as will the removal of the rails and ties on the 34-mile trail.

The trail construction will begin in the spring of 2021 and will be completed in 2023, according to the DEC Region 5 director.

“The phases of the trail construction have not been determined as of this time.”

First to speak Tuesday was Tupper Lake Supervisor Patti Littlefield, who served with Paul O'Leary and Pete Edwards and others on the DEC stakeholders group in the past year which helped create the plan.

She called the turn-out that evening “great.”

“On behalf of the Town of Tupper Lake this is a win-win for all of us!

“The Junction is going to be rocking and rolling like it did back in the day.”

She said the DOT and DEC staff have worked “tirelessly on this project and I know because I have been to many of their meetings...in Ray Brook.”

“This is a great project. Tupper Lake has got so much to look forward to and we're so excited. This is a win for the bikers, for the train people, the trail people and snowmobilers. Everyone will benefit!”

She said the entire town is excited to see this happen. She said she hoped there were no “bumps” that arise in the months and years ahead, so “the timeline can be kept tight and we'll see this thing happen in 2023.”

Mrs. Littlefield then presented officials with the most recent town board resolution supporting the UMP amendment.

District 7 county legislator Lindy Ellis of Saranac Lake, who said she is also a member of the parks board in her village, commended the state officials on the new plan, calling it very positive.

“I'm encouraging us to move forward on this Remsen-Lake Placid trail conversion.”

She said as a co-owner of a small business she has been thinking a lot about what will bring the greatest economic benefit to her town.

“We have for years run bicycle adventures to many different locations in the U.S. and in foreign countries. What we have found when we talked to people in those communities is that a multi-use trail really has a transformative ability to positively impact the economics and bring up everyone along the trail.”

She said when you have a multi-use trail through your community “people are sweating, working, traveling, enjoying and getting very hungry.” Consequently they stop and eat and drink all three meals of the day, with snacks purchased along the way too.

They routinely look for places to stay close to the trails “and then wander into towns, look in stores, purchase things, build memories and then come back each year because they so enjoyed themselves.”

“The economic benefits have been shown in many different states. Minnesota, for example, estimates the value of multi-use trails and trail activities at $2.4 billion per year.”

“Each region of Minnesota estimate that there's $8.8 million a year generated just from bicycle travelers!”

Many small businesses there enjoy that bounty when people visit their area, enjoy the trails and come back in a future years, she told the state staffers.

“I would encourage us all to move forward on this new version” of the UMP.

Town Councilman John Quinn asked the creators of the multi-use plan to consider including new electric bikes as one of the permitted uses and to install at least one large culvert at Underwood Bridge where the train tracks cross.

He called the plan “very well thought out. It's a great compromise!”

“In 2010 we had a very significant flooding event in Tupper Lake, and a result of that a local fellow who taught at Syracuse College of Environmental Science and Forestry had his senior class look at why the flooding was as bad as it was. It turns out that Setting Pole Dam on the Raquette River doesn't provide all that much water-level control. More of it is controlled by Underwood Bridge.”

He encouraged the DOT planners to look carefully at that area with an idea to build a large enough culvert or culverts on the approaches to the bridge to permit water to flow more freely and faster during his water times here.

His second request of the planners was to add “e-bikes” to the things that can be used on the new trail. “They are here to stay and they are growing in popularity.”

The town councilman said it was his understanding that the new plan will permit the simpler e-bikes with only “pedal assists.” He encouraged the plan-makers to also include the more advanced e-bikes with throttles.

“I don't see any more conflict between pedestrian users and e-bike users and than between cross-country skiers and snowmobilers!”

“I would urged the departments to consider that!”

Mayor Paul Maroun said the project has been talked about for years, with different versions advanced. However, he said, “this plan is amenable to everyone!”

“It keeps everyone happy on both sides” of the rail versus trail debate.

“And who is the best benefactor? Tupper Lake!”

“We'll have the train bringing people in. We will have the hikers and bikers and snowmobilers going to Lake Placid and back, so we're in a great spot. I see some business owners here tonight who live and work in the Junction and who make money in the Junction. They are going to be doing much better after this plan is in full effect.”

He said “people have asked him: can we take care of the water and the sewer and the electricity from the village's standpoint? We can! We've talked to the DOT and to the DEC. We know what they need and where!”

“We know how to handle the people!”

He called the plan well-rounded, very viable with respect to village services it will need.

“You know in a compromise, not everyone is always happy.” He continued: Not everyone is happy about this plan but it is the best thing that its creators could put together to make things great for not just Tupper Lake but the entire tri-lakes region.

He said the trail will also help alleviate some of the hiker congestion in the High Peaks region. “We'll bring them to Tupper Lake, where they will eat, sleep, etc.”

He said the increase in tourism may entice new lodging companies and new restaurants to come here as well.

The mayor said he and his village board wholeheartedly support this plan.

Chris Wright, who said he has a camp near Sevey's Corners, said snowmobilers who visit Beaver River south of here when the tracks are covered with snow know the place is packed with people.

He advocated “pulling the rails all the way there!”

His comment drew loud applause.

He said an earlier speaker spoke about the economic benefit of the new trail. “What's the economic benefit of the train compared to thousands of people on the trail another 45 miles south of here?”

Jan Yaworski, who just opened a new bed and breakfast business at her residence on Oak Street, felt the new project will benefit everyone here.

She applauded the proposed parking lots near the train station but thought a privacy or sound barrier between those new parking places and their neighbors was in order. A new buffer between Oak Street and Cedar Street would be most helpful to minimizing parking lot noise and giving privacy to nearby houses.

Dave Stazek said he was “a runner, a biker and a cross-country skier.”

“I see no problems with the summer use of the trail!” He worried about the use of the trail in the winter months when it will attract both skiers and snowmobilers.

“I've been on trails that snowmobilers use and the snowmobilers I've met are much more polite than outboard motor people I've met while canoeing!

He said snowmobile trails aren't always conducive to use by skiers. “I don't know if it's possible in designing this to work in some concept that will keep the snowmobilers and cross country skiers in different lanes.”

He said he hoped the designers might consider his idea.

Pat Peebles of Saranac Lake said she loves the outdoors.

She said for 25 years she has wanted rail trails in this region, where there were none. “My dream is that this is happening!”

She said she is an avid bicyclist and loves the fact that the e-bikes have arrived so “people don't have to peddle as hard.” She said they are becoming very popular.

She said she supports the use of those new electric-powered bikes on the new trail.

Ms. Peebles said there is a small park through where the railroad tracks pass near Ray Brook and she worried the local skiers who enjoy the quiet place will lose it when the snowmobilers arrive in greater numbers.

Hope Frenette, who has been very active with the Adirondack Rail Trail Advocates that has lobbied strongly for the removal of the railroad, said she thought the construction plan was backwards. “You should be building the trail first instead of the rail!”

She said when she first heard about the new amended plan, she thought it was great. “But my first thought was I'd love to ride my bike to Beaver River.”

She said she thinks the train plan should be abandoned in favor of the complete removal of the tracks on the entire corridor “and making it a trail all the way to Big Moose.”

There was loud applause to her remark.

“The other reason I'm pro-trail all the way, because this community in the winter, when there's enough snow, blossoms. The businesses have people in them. There's people walking around town. It's great to see and it's something we haven't seen in a long time, since Big Tupper closed!”

“I'm not a snowmobiler by any stretch of imagination but I've met a lot of them these past ten years and they are a nice bunch of people!”

“They love to come to Tupper Lake if they can get here!” She said the local snowmobilers do a great job covering Underwood Bridge and places like that with wood to permit out of town riders to get here.

“We don't need the tracks. We don't need the train! We just need the trail, because we need the winter economy” which the snowmobilers will bring.

The businesswoman said Tupper Lake has sustainable summer and fall economies. “What we need is a good winter economy! We need something our businesses can count on for the full year!”

Jim McCulley, a member of the Lake Placid Snowmobile Club and of ARTA, said while he somewhat likes the plan, he said he thought officials “were missing the boat by not taking up the tracks to at least Big Moose.”

He said in the Adirondacks “55% of all businesses close in the wintertime.”

“We need winter business! I just read the other day that Tupper Lake was given a $100,000 grant to promote winter tourism. You have 5,000 visitors every week in the winter in Old Forge who would drive here in an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes, if the tracks were removed. What would that do for Tupper Lake's winter business?”

“Summer time in our area is not an economic issue and the way the train operated in Lake Placid over the years is like a miniature golf course that draws off the tourists who have already shown up!”

“I think what we all need to be concerned with here- it's a part people aren't talking about- but living in Lake Placid right next to the train station, the yard they are planning on putting over on Washington Street, those residents should be very concerned.

“It's noisy. They would start the diesel locomotives at 9a.m. and let them run for hours and hours.

“Here's another part. The railroad ties that they are going to have to put in will come in huge numbers. The amount of creosote and carcinogens that are going to be washed off those ties is unbelievable. That should be a big concern for everyone.

“But the smell of that creosote is unreal. In 2012 they spent $3 million to rehab the tracks between Carter Station and Big Moose. You can still smell those creosote ties there today.”

He said in the first year of the rail extension they ran five days a week from points south to Big Moose. It was eventually dropped to two times a week “and now they go there only ten times a year.”

Mr. McCulley predicted the same thing will happen to the northbound and southbound excursion in and out of Tupper Lake.

“The reality is we're going to spend $34 million on what will not last five years. Put the trail in first. If it's as beneficial as we say it's going to be, do it to the rest of the corridor!”

Railroad supporter Lee Foster said he worried he “might get shot” for his comments that evening.

“I'm railroad. I worked with the Rail Explorers (the rail bikes that were here about two years ago). He said he has also worked as a railroad crew member.

“I worked all over the country and I've seen what rail bikes can do.” Mr. Foster said the summer he worked in the tri-lakes with the rail bike company it drew 44,000 visitors. “Will the trail draw 44,000 people?”

There was some muttering in the audience. “I don't think so!” he said answering his own question.

He directed several questions to the DEC staff. “I've seen seven titles of property” at various points along the entire corridor. He said all those property deeds say “this is right of way for the New York Central Railroad.

Mr. Foster said it raises the prospect that if the corridor becomes a trail those sections of it on those properties would revert to the original owners.

“None of those people ever got any money when the railroad was supposedly purchased by the state in 1972.”

He said he wondered who would maintain the trail if the tracks are pulled and the maintenance of the corridor no long rests with ARPS, whose volunteers have maintained the corridor for years.

He remembered too that when he was an operator for the Rail Explorers, a female rider passed out on a trip below Tupper Lake. “I called 911 and was told the rescue squad would be an hour before it could reach us.”

He said she eventually was rescued by North Country Life Flight, after he called the helicopter company.

“After that, all our operators had to carry Life Flight's telephone number with them!”

Keith Gorgas of Saranac Lake congratulated Tupper Lake . “This is a wonderful thing for Tupper Lake!”

“Being from Saranac Lake, it is a horrible thing. For Tupper Lake you will have the best of both worlds. You will become the capital of the Adirondacks!”

Mentioning the ownership points made by Lee Foster, he said he does not believe New York State owns all the underlying land” in the right of way. We have been misled deliberately and the supreme court has again and again upheld the underlying landowners' rights.

He said nationwide this issue will cost between $1 million and $5 million per mile. The section between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake will be at least $40 million once it all said and done, he estimated.

Mr. Gorgas said the trail project will cost taxpayers far more than they are being led to believe. “But it'll get done because they have our checkbooks in their pockets, he said of the state proponents of the plan.

“Anyway, congratulations Tupper Lake!”

His wife Doreen echoed some of his comments saying after listening to the plans detailed by the DOT and DEC leaders, “all I can think of was how wonderful for Tupper Lake?”

She said she worked in several businesses in downtown Saranac Lake in recent years including the Adirondack Carousel and said she saw first hand the decrease in traffic and tourism when the Adirondack Scenic Railroad between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake stopped running a year or so ago.

She said she was glad for Tupper Lake and the compromise, but had preferred if the railroad operation had continued to Saranac Lake.

“I don't know if that is still possible...I hope that it is!”

She also wondered why the DOT and the DEC hadn't staged a public hearing for Saranac Lake too.

Mrs. Gorgas said she knows there are many people in Saranac Lake who have strong opinions on this project and a hearing there would have been beneficial to the public comment gathering.

Tupper Lake Photographer Rick Godin said he has spent the past 50 years in the tourism and recreation business. “I want to support Ms. Ellis' comments about the new way of recreation with bike trails and tourist biking.” He said it is becoming very popular all over the nation.

“I'm happy to see the DEC and the DOT bringing this to fruition to get the trail off and running.”

Referring to Supervisor Littlefield's comment, “this is going to be a great thing for Tupper Lake. It will have a lot of success!”

“The trail is really the way to go. We've done some studies at the Wild Center about the new tourism markets...the new millennial market out there. These young people are entirely different from we, boomers. They come to our area for a whole different type of experience and the trail experience is one that is right up their alley.”

“To the DEC, having a trail system where people are doing active recreation will help mitigate some of the problems they are seeing in the High Peaks and bring (the hikers) down into the flatlands where they can enjoy all the communities along this trail.”

He like others suggested expanding the proposed trail south to Big Moose.

Tupper Lake History Museum board member Joe Kimpflen said he really liked the plan and the fact it appeared it would soon materialize. “From our museum's standpoint I think it will be a great thing to have more people coming to the station from both directions.”

He said the local museum operated for the first time this summer “from inside the train station” after it was moved from its previous site in the old Pine Street firehall. “That happened through the generosity of Next Stop! Tupper Lake,” the group that created the historic train station on its original footprint.

“I think it could be very complimentary- the rail, the trail and the museum. The museum may make for a very attractive destination for both railroad passengers and for those people using the trail.”

“I think there is sufficient room in the station for all of us to cooperate and get along together.”

Mr. Kimphlen said he also liked the idea of the railroad bikes mentioned earlier that evening and felt that sort of operation would certainly increase visitation to the train station.

“The museum is looking forward to being in the station, welcoming people here from both directions!” he concluded.

Tupper Lake native Maureen Peroza said she was a former rail enthusiast and remembered fondly of the early days of 2007 and 2008 when Next Stop! Tupper Lake was born to build the new station.

She said she attended a fundraising party for the station and about that point her faith in the return of the train began to waiver.

“I became more and more convinced that the way to improve Tupper Lake is to bring the trail in.”

She said in the winter, in particular, the new trail will dramatically increase Tupper Lake's winter economy with snowmobilers.

“With our ski slope currently not working, this could be the answer.”

She said Old Forge and other communities near it have boomed with a robust snowmobiling trade. “Drive through them mid-week and you can hardly get through...there are so many people there now.”

Of the rail bike idea, she said to have them you need a rail. “You have the rails you don't have snowmobiles. I think the comparison of what you could bring in here in the winter time in snowmobiles, compared to what you might bring in by rail bikes, it makes me feel like laughing.”

She said with the rails gone south of Tupper Lake it would be a great place for bike riders in the summer and fall and snowmobiles in the winter. “It would be an economic boom for Tupper Lake!”

“If you don't believe that ask any member of my family- and it's large- who have spent lots of money, packing their bags and their bikes and traveling all over the country to ride their bikes on trails.”

She said that's money that's not coming to Tupper Lake right now.

“I so fervently believe this is the answer for Tupper Lake that I cannot in good conscience celebrate when the thought of spending all that money for a train where there is no proof that it will succeed when there are trails that are raking in the money and changing the faces of towns.”

“I say rip up the rails. Stop the facade of 'yes we're going to fix that train and lots of people are going to roll into town.' I don't see that happening!”

“I do see that happening with bikes and snowmobiles. I hope soon we can see some sense” in this plan.

Deb Christie, president of the St. Lawrence County Snowmobile Association, said the local club, the Childwold Snowpackers are “stewards of 16 miles of trail corridor from Sabattis Station to the Franklin County border.

“Our 1400-member club wholeheartedly supports removal of the rails and creation of a four-season multi-use trail on the corridor that would support all user groups.

She said a trackless corridor north of Big Moose would accentuate a world-class trail with connectors throughout the heart of the Adirondack Park. It would attach Old Forge and Tug Hill north into the Adirondacks. “As a concerned citizen I worry about the state's burden of maintaining the lands it manages. New York State DEC has many UMPs coming out all the time with more work to be done and no planned finances to complete it. I worry about the state taking on more lands to manage, until there is a budget in place.”

She said the rail-trail will be so important to the counties of the Adirondacks.

“Snowmobiling is an important part of living in the Adirondacks. To some it is the reason to live here. If the removal of the rails south of Tupper Lake is not possible we are asking for a balanced approach for use of this corridor. The re-routes promised need to be given as offered in the 2016 UMP. We want a safe connection south and a good connection to Long Lake. No trail restoration should take place until the trail re-routes are completed.”

Craig Harris, president of the Childwold Snowpackers, told the DOT and DEC officials that many believe they have been “short changed” by the plan.

He said there are two stakeholders on the rail corridor: the scenic railroad and the state snowmobile association.

Mr. Harris said the snowmobile groups do not support the rails from Big Moose to Tupper. “In an earlier compromise that we seem to be going back to, we were promised the re-routes if we couldn't remove the rails.”

He said to date he has seen no effort to creating the re-routes or snowmobile connector trails along the corridor.

“So that's keeping all the snowmobilers still on the rails.” Everyone who rides knows someone who has been hurt on those rails, lost a ski, flipped their sled- even at low speeds, he told the state officials.

The corridor becomes very dangerous when rails are exposed, he stated.

“My club with the assistance of the county snowmobile association routinely armor the tracks. For example, we go down to the Bog River bridge south of Horseshoe Lake and we armor that bridge with pallets. Then we use cribbing and dunnage that we haul there so we can navigate that bridge and not lose our grooming machine off the side of the trail. If the grooming machine goes off the trail all our operators know it's a very bad day because there is no help. That's a terrible place to be for any volunteers.

He said the plan does nothing to solve that danger. “All you did was say we're going to put a station at Sabattis. How is that fair to the user groups (the railroad and the snowmobilers)?

He contended that the state's financial support of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad is nothing more than “corporate welfare.”

By contrast, Mr. Harris asserted, the snowmobilers support their trails from the state registration fees that is shared with the snowmobile clubs. “We put money into the railroad tracks to make them passable in the winter. The railroad gets money but it is not keeping up the rails. That's why the state is going to spend $30 million to replace the rails that the rail operator was supposed to maintain. “It doesn't make any sense that the state continues to plow that money into that organization!”

“In conclusion, we would like all the tracks pulled up down to Big Moose. There's 14,000 permitted snowmobiles down in Old Forge who are blocked from coming to visit your stores because the state continues to keep the tracks in place. You continue to keep the disaster south of Tupper.”

He said the snowmobiles won't come from Lake Placid, even when the new trail is created. The snowmobilers come from the south!”

Klaus Meissner said “it's been a long time we've been waiting for these nice bike trails and snowmobile trails.

He stressed rather than a completion date of 2023, he and others would prefer to see the new trail completed next year.

Mr. Meissner said he thinks the sense of community he sees between the snowmobile clubs is tremendous. He noted he sees the same thing among the bike riders and the skiers.

He said the communities along the corridor will see new activities for recreation and will greatly benefit by that.

Jim Rolf, the trail coordinator with the state snowmobile association and a lifelong snowmobiler, said when he rode the corridor in 1996 from Rome to Malone he was impressed with its infrastructure and how amazing it was it was built by those early workers with those 1880-vintage tools and materials in such wild conditions.

“Also on the ride I noticed many wash-outs- the missing ties and missing bridges along the corridor.” He said the trip took many detours off the corridor to complete it.

He said the rails were only partially covered on that trip, “even though there was ten feet of snow in Tug Hill the prior weekend.”

The rails become visible quickly, despite the snow cover, he noted.

On their way home to Rome the deterioration of the rails and ties was most evident, Mr. Roth told the group in the auditorium that evening.

“This once engineering marvel promoted commerce here for decades as a railroad. Once the rails are gone it will still be an engineering marvel. But it will be a trail, instead, and used for a different type of commerce to benefit all the communities from Big Moose station to Lake Placid.”

More loud applause.

Mr. Roth said the trail between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid should be built first and that way people will see its benefit. Once that is so evident, everyone will want the rails removed southward to Big Moose station, he concluded.

George Cook, a physician to many here over the years, said his wife is an avid bicyclist, who “bikes to work” all seasons and evenwhen the mercury is as low as minus 27 degrees F.

“That's really quite special!”

Dr. Cook said when the trail is completed in Saranac Lake she will take people “in a medically supervised health program on that trail.”

It will be ideal for those enrolled in Fit for Life and other exercise programs, he contended.

Young people, he figured, will be able to train on those trails for many levels of competition without risk of injury from traffic.

“Thanks to my wife, I have biked all over the world.” They are planning a trip to Vietnam and will do a bike trip there, he mentioned.

“One of the things that is happening all over the world is the electric bike and it will be very simpler for the rider of an electric bike to go to Big Moose, spend the night and return to Tupper. We have biked every inch of the tracks from Lake Placid to Tupper and while it's a bit of a challenge, we've done it.

He said his friend Barry Kilbourne has built his own rail bike and “we have a great deal of fun on that thing but there's no way in the world we could pedal it from Tupper Lake to Big Moose. It's just too much work as it weighs 100 pounds.”

“With a train again on that track it will be a whole lot more weight and everything will be re-destroyed. There's just no point of continuing with that railroad because of the maintenance!”

“Once the trail is set up the maintenance will be minimal,” he stressed. “And there will be people working to create opportunities” along the corridor, pointing to restaurants and lodgings that will likely be created.

As a board member of Blueseed Studio on the north end of Saranac Lake, he feels that business will grow immensely from the new bike traffic that will come on the trail.

Retired High School Principal Jim Ellis, a member of ARPS and long-time train supporter, said in 1982 the high school graduated here over 150 students. “Last year we graduated 48!”

“Where did they all go? People of child-bearing age are leaving here because there is no place for them to earn a living.

He asked the state officials to enter an editorial from the Utica Observer Dispatch, advocating for the revival of train service on the Adirondack Railroad.

“There are three kinds of truth. There's your truth, there's my truth and then there's The Truth.”

Mr. Ellis said in 1974 the Governor's office- Governor Malcolm Wilson- condemned the Adirondack division of the New York Central Railroad. “Of all the people there, the key person was the former chairman of the Adirondack Park Agency, Richard Lawrence. He said Mr. Lawrence saw the chance for a group “given surrogate stance over the Adirondacks” to work with local people to continue some development of their economy.

“Forty-five years later you have a trail of broken promises, false starts, missed opportunities for economic development in the Adirondacks.”

He said there were “small glimmers” of hope at the 1980 Winter Olympics and after that “nothing until 1996.”

That year, he said Governor Mario Cuomo appointed a study commission to recommend changes to the state land use master plan about the Adirondack Railroad corridor.

“The result of that was the choice of option No. 6 for a multi-use corridor for hiking, railroad travel, snowmobiling. Even then the Adirondack Scenic Railroad agreed we'd leave the tracks on December 1 and not be back on them again until May 1.”

“Later on a group named ARTA began its campaign to change the game by moving the goal posts.”

He said the group of trail advocates “was aided and abetted by the snowmobile lobby,” which is one of the largest contributors to political campaigns in this state.

Mr. Ellis, the former GOP county chairman, said about 2014 “loose-lipped” state officials laid “out the exact parameters of what we are talking about today. So what we are arguing about today had already been settled in 2014.”

“The rail removal and cutting out the legs of businesses in Saranac Lake began!”

“Lake Placid had already cast its lot with the rip 'em up crowd.”

Mr. Ellis said in 2016 the Governor announced plans for the rail trail and a new UMP “which redefined the corridor as a travel corridor.”

He said a new UMP for the newly minted Option No. 7 “was trashed in New York State Supreme Court by Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert Main. Three more years were wasted!”

“Did New York State, and particularly the DEC, follow the prescriptions of the law that I would be expected to do? I don't think so!”

“So why is the DEC the boss of this economic development project? What happened to Empire State Development? Did it give up its economic development role in this section of New York State just to satisfy the big money interests of Lake Placid?”

“-And why is the APA crippled by so many non-confirmed members?”

“Who will stick up for businesses and tourism in Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake?”

He said that the state's ORDA is so far in debt “it would be foreclosed upon if it was in private business.”

Mr. Ellis said it's time for the state to treat Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake as equals in developing a combined rail and trail!”

The last speaker was Pat Mccluskey of Conifer, who he said lives next to the rail corridor.

He said he was a snowmobiler who belong to the Tupper Lake and St. Lawrence County snowmobile clubs and with the rail gone more snowmobilers will come to this area.

With the rails gone too the summer season will see many visitors on their bicycles from the southern Adirondacks.

“There will be a lot more tourists coming to our towns” if the tracks are gone.

Mr. Mccluskey said while train rides are “nice,” the investment of $30 million or more to rehabilitate the tracks and investing another $5 million a year to maintain them does not justify restoring the train service. “Trains are not going to bring that much money in!”

“We're spending a lot of money that's not going to bring money here. Let's get rid of the rails and go to trails and improve our economies!”

He said the people who will come on foot or by bike will often stop at the historic sites along the corridor. “By contrast, the riders on the trains will just fly right by!”