The Peru Gazette

Campus Notebook: ‘Developing’ label disheartens teacher – Times Union.

NanoCollege ups the chip fab ante – Times Union.

By John T. Ryan

Livingood’s Restaurant, one of the City of Plattsburgh’s most popular downtown eateries, plans to open its doors in Peru. The Town of Peru Planning Board approved the site plan filed by Jessica and Matthew Ray at its Wednesday, September 11, 2013 meeting. The Rays plan to open Livingoods’s Restaurant and Brewery by late November in the 697 Bear Swamp Rd. building once occupied by Cricket’s Restaurant. Their Plattsburgh restaurant will remain open until the transition to Peru is complete.

Interviewed following the Planning Board’s unanimous and enthusiastic approval, the Rays said their new restaurant would have a brewpub atmosphere in contrast to their current restaurant, which Matt Ray described as upscale casual. Ray explained, “We need room to grow and our current location doesn’t lend itself to brewing beer.” Matt Ray is especially enthusiastic about opening a brewery. Prior to opening the Plattsburgh restaurant in 2005, he was Head Brewer at the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery and Head of Brewery Operations for a Colorado brewer.

The plans submitted to the Planning Board included provision for a pool table, televisions, couches, a recreation room and live music. Matt Ray explained, ” Music will be incorporated into the brewpub. We will not be open late. We want the restaurant to be family and kid friendly. We want to make it more than a restaurant. We want to make it a spot for everyone to go at all times of the year.”

Livingoods’s should also bring additional employment opportunities to Peru. The Plattsburgh restaurant currently has a 20-person full and parttime staff. The Rays hope to grow that to at least 40 in Peru.  Building renovations have begun and the pace of the work will pick up next week.

Jessica and Matt Ray have two children ages seven and three and reside in Peru. They look forward to bringing a new business and employment opportunities to Peru.

Watertown Daily Times | Watertown First Amendment flap ends with a compromise and a staring contest.

Brown’s Raid At Fort Ticonderoga This Weekend – The Adirondack Almanack – The Adirondack Almanack.

A Founding Moment of the Adirondack Park:The 1894 Constitutional Convention – The Adirondack Almanack – The Adirondack Almanack.

A New Rail Trail? The Plattsburgh to Saranac Lake RR By Bike – The Adirondack Almanack 

Kregg Bruno (Peru Gazette file photo)

By John T. Ryan

Following the Monday, July 9, 2013 Town Board meeting The Peru Gazette asked Town Counselor Kregg Bruno if he was going to run for the office of Peru Town Supervisor in the November elections. Bruno responded, “I am not running for the office of Peru Town Supervisor. The current supervisor is doing an excellent job.”  Brandy McDonald, Town of Peru Democratic Party Chairman, had earlier told the Gazette that Bruno was not running. Bruno has until September 20th to formally decline his party’s nomination at the Clinton County Board of Elections.  Peru Democrats nominated Bruno at their July 11th caucus. 

Republican Peter Glushko is seeking reelection as Town Supervisor.

By John T. Ryan

The Peru Town Board had some good news at its Monday, September 9, 2013 meeting. Highway Superintendent Michael Farrell, who often has to deliver bad news about expensive equipment/road repairs, informed the Board that repairs to the highway department’s garage roof would be significantly reduced. The cost could be as low as $100,000, not the previously estimated $300,000. Town engineer Peter Gibbs initially stated that NYS Building Codes required that steel beams would have to be incorporated into the roof.  When Gibbs further researched the codes he found that steel beams are only required when an existing building is being enlarged by more than 10%. Since this is not happening, wood beams can be used thereby significantly reducing the cost. Counselor Kregg Bruno, who is a building contractor by profession, had often questioned the use of steel beams. He believed that wood beams would be more than sufficient.

In other actions the Board:

• Voted to hire Kayla Martin as Code Enforcement Office Secretary. She will start at $10.79 an hour and work a minimum of 30 hours weekly.  There will be a 6-month probationary period.
• Reappointed Jane Brelia to a 5-year term on the Board of Assessment Review.
• Held off signing a contract for work at the Laphams Mills Recreation Park. The contractor did not include required workman’s compensation and liability insurance provisions in the draft contract.
• Decided to draw up specifications for the new town hall entrance stairs. Contractors have presented proposals for both small and significant changes. The Board must decide what it wants to do. Any work costing over $30,000 will go out to bid.

The meeting adjourned at 8:03 PM.

Enrollment  declines present financial challenges for most Upstate New York School Districts

Ticonderoga School District Audit

North Country Prisons: Hard Times in ‘Siberia’ – The Adirondack Almanack – The Adirondack Almanack.

Study: Wetlands Key to Revitalizing Acid Streams – The Adirondack Almanack – The Adirondack Almanack.

Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Associations of Northern New York will hold free workshops on the new federal healthcare insurance options at six regional sites starting September 24 sessions in Plattsburgh and Westport. Sessions will be offered September 25 in Malone and Canton and on September 26 in Watertown and Lowville.

Specially trained Extension Educators Kirk Shoen, Sandra Buxton, and Ashley Pierce will address a wide range of questions including those about the Individual Exchange for sole proprietors and individuals and the Small Business Health Options Exchange.

The Northern New York regional Affordable Care Act Workshops will be held:
Tuesday, September 24, 1-3pm, CCE office, Plattsburgh, Peter Hager, 518- 561-7450
Tuesday, September 24, 7-9pm, CCE office, Westport, Anita Deming, 518-962-4810

Wednesday, September 25, 1-3pm, 911 Building, Malone, Harry Fefee, 518-483-7403
Wednesday, September 25, 7-9pm, CCE office, Canton, Anita Figueras, 315-379-9192

Thursday, September 26, 1-3pm, CCE office, Watertown, Peggy Murray, 315-376-5270
Thursday, September 26, 7-9pm, CCE office, Lowville, Peggy Murray, 315-376-5270.

A small taste of Arches National Park, Utah

Part II of III:  A 3,300 mile journey of discovery through Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah

Click here for Part II photos. Click here for Part I photos.

By John & Jean Ryan

Utah’s capitol Salt Lake City, founded by Mormons who still have a strong presence there, was our next stop. We toured Temple Square, site of the Mormon temple, the Salt Lake tabernacle, the Mormon museums and other historical buildings. We also traveled to the State Capitol Building and Olympic Cauldron Park, site of the Olympic torch which was lit during the 2002 winter Olympics held there.

We continued on to Arches National Park, a park with natural formations of sandstone. As we entered the park, we passed the petrified dunes area and continued on to the red sandstone arches, spires and balanced rocks formed by years of weathering and erosion. How interesting it was to actually be in this park from which so many “calendar photos” of the beautiful sandstone arches originated.

Not far from Arches National Park is Canyonlands National Park. This park features deeply eroded canyons, created by the flow of the Colorado and Green Rivers,  interspersed with sheer-sided mesas and other unusual rock formations. We were especially impressed as we viewed the “Island in the Sky” section, a mesa area of flat land miles long and miles wide where the surrounding terrain has been eroded leaving it “high in the sky.” Though not as vast as the Grand Canyon, the canyons here are still magnificent to behold!

Enroute to Capitol Reef National Park, we stopped in Hanksville, UT at Hollow Mountain, a real convenience store carved into a cave in the side of a big rock. Capitol Reef NP is so named for the reef-like cliffs rising 1000 feet above the Fremont River which are capped with white Navajo sandstone formations that have eroded and now resemble the dome of the U.S. Capitol. This park also contains remnants of a Mormon community which existed from 1888 until 1943. Here the Mormons farmed the valley fields and their apple trees remain today.

1 Clinton County primary race Tuesday » Local News » Press-Republican.

Correction officer charged » Breaking News » Press-Republican.

Story Corrected 7:35 AM – Monday 9, 2013. Neither Kimberly Davis nor Susan Polhemus have the Conservative Party endorsement.

By John T. Ryan

Peru’s registered Independence and Conservative Party voters will have a chance to express their preferences for candidates on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 in Clinton County’s primary elections. Balloting will take place at the St. Augustine’s Parish Center from noon until 9 PM. Voters can either vote for the already endorsed candidate or make a write-in choice.

Given widespread dissatisfaction with the two largest national political parties, nominees for office often spend considerable time and money gaining third party support. Clinton County Democrats have historically been successful in acquiring the Working Families Party ballot line while Republicans have been equally successful in garnering Independence Party and Conservative Party support.

The primary election vote for Clinton County Treasurer has the most potential to impact the November elections. Republican Party nominee Susan Polhemus currently has the Independence Party ballot lines; however, Democratic Party nominee Kimberly Davis has mounted a write-in vote effort to replace Polhemus on the Independence Party line. Peru is important because 313 of the Independence Party’s 3,244 Clinton County party members reside in the community.

Three residences are competing for two open seats on the Peru Town Council. The Peru Democratic Party nominated Lana Knight and incumbent Jim Douglas. Peru Republicans nominated Donald McBrayer. McBrayer was also successful in being placed on the Independence Party and Conservative Party lines and will stay on those lines if he wins Tuesday’s vote.  Douglass is seeking write-in votes to replace McBrayer on both party lines while Lana Knight hopes to receive enough write-in ballots to replace McBrayer on the Conservative Party line.

Incumbent Republican Town Clerk-Tax Collector Kathy Flynn currently has the Conservative and Independence Party lines. Democratic Party nominee John Facteau is seeking write-in votes to replace Flynn on both those lines.

Chipotle confirms Plattsburgh Consumer Square location » Local News » Press-Republican.

To help the Northern New York apple industry with a farm gate value of $16 million, the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is funding orchard improvement research and grower education focused on improving fruit quality through systems management, precision orchard thinning, and precision irrigation techniques. 
 
“Controlling the final fruit number on an apple tree is a critical process for profitable fruit growers,” says Cornell University Horticulture Professor Terence Robinson. “Only 3 to 10 percent of the initial flowers and fruitlets should be carried to harvest for the best economic value.”
 
Robinson and his research team have developed a precision thinning technique that helps growers prevent too many fruits from reducing apple size and yield. 
 
This summer the research team demonstrated the use of motorized platforms for hand thinning orchards as well as use of mechanized sidewall shearing at Everett Orchards in Peru, NY. Read more »

Regular Mtg Agenda Sept92013

Video: Cuomo lays down law to sheriffs on gun control « The In Box.

PLATTSBURGH, NY— Today, Congressman Bill Owens congratulated Clinton Community College and SUNY Plattsburgh for earning national recognition from Washington Monthly.

The publication ranked Clinton Community College 49^th on its Best Community Colleges List. SUNY Plattsburgh ranked as the 10^th “Best Bang for the Buck” for Master’s Universities and 30^th under the All Schools list in the same category.

“I congratulate the students, faculty, staff, administrators and trustees at Clinton Community College and SUNY Plattsburgh for earning this well-deserved recognition,” Congressman Bill Owens said. “Today’s announcement from Washington Monthly confirms what we’ve known for a long time: our region’s institutions of higher education belong among the nation’s best. As lawmakers seek ways to help students access and pay for higher education, I will point to Clinton Community College and SUNY Plattsburgh as two examples of institutions that are leading the way to a better higher-education system.”

First-graders and Mesopotamia? New York’s model lesson plan asks too much, critics say | syracuse.com.

Court supports couple in sign display clash – Times Union.

File to keep STAR active – Times Union.