Records request turned down twice as state agency plans a move to Saranac Lake
By Gwendolyn Craig
The Adirondack Park Agency is refusing to release a feasibility study on a proposed move of its headquarters.
The Explorer requested the feasibility study in an April 18 Freedom of Information Law letter to the agency.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
At the agency’s May meeting, Communications Director Keith McKeever told the Explorer there was no update on the headquarters.
On May 16, the agency acknowledged a record existed, but denied its release, citing a Freedom of Information Law exemption for intra-agency materials.
The Explorer appealed, citing the state Committee on Open Government opinion language that “a categorical denial of access to records is inconsistent with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Law.” The law also states that any factual data does not fall under the exemption.
APA Counsel Damion Stodola denied the appeal on Wednesday. Stodola said the record is “exempt from disclosure … because a final determination has not been made” and “constitutes an inter-agency document that is not (i) statistical or factual tabulations of data; not (ii) instructions to staff that affect the public; not (ii) final agency policy or determinations; and not (iv) an external audit.”
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
Kristin O’Neill, assistant director of the state Committee on Open Government, said she did not know the contents of the report, but she thought it “unusual that there was no factual information.”
The Explorer asked O’Neill whether a study done by an outside consultant and paid for with public funds is considered inter-agency material. She said it could be considered inter-agency records.
APA Executive Director Barbara Rice told the Explorer a year ago that the agency had hired Bergmann and Associates to conduct a feasibility study on moving to 1-3 Main Street in the village from its existing log cabin building in Ray Brook. At that time, the agency had spent about $60,000 on the study. The APA has $29 million allocated for its headquarters plans.
Bob Glennon, the agency’s former executive director and lawyer, has asked Rice for updates on the headquarters and feasibility study at multiple APA meetings.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
In November 2023, Rice said she hoped a feasibility study would be completed by March. At the APA’s March meeting, she said it would be complete in April.
The Explorer asked the agency why it chose not to share the feasibility study now that it appears complete. The agency said it could not provide a response at this time.
The APA’s log building headquarters built in the 1950s has had mold and pest issues, Rice has said. The logs are also decaying.
Rice called the former Paul Smith’s Power and Light building in Saranac Lake the “preferred site” for a new headquarters and showed renderings of a new 19,000 square-foot building the agency would erect on the hillside behind it in a virtual meeting with the Explorer last June.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
The move would rely on the village building a public safety complex because the Saranac Lake Police Department currently operates out of the Main Street building.
Many Saranac Lake village officials have supported the proposed relocation. Multiple APA alumni have been against it.
The agency cannot own property and thus would lease the buildings from the village.
It’s unclear what would happen to the log cabin building in Ray Brook. The land is zoned state administrative, meaning it could not be used for anything other than state purposes and no private development could happen there without a constitutional amendment.
Top photo: The sign outside the Adirondack Park Agency headquarters in Ray Brook. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig
“Kristin O’Neill, assistant director of the state Committee on Open Government, said she did not know the contents of the report, but she thought it “unusual that there was no factual information.” ”
So no factual information? What is it, Grimms’ Fairy Tales? When these agencies won’t release information and circle the wagons, I’m immediately suspicious. Just talk to the public, will you please?!
Does APA actually believe witholding information on a controversial move is good for public relations?
The current APA building is junk. It should be torn down. Everyone saw the pictures of the logs falling apart. It clearly had bugs and other rot going on.
This article says they need to build a new safety building for the police. I though they (along with the fire department) are moving to the old pius school property? I think both departments said they like the idea. Why do they need a new building? I am not sure this is accurate, although is has been stated in several Explorer articles?
Never mind I stand corrected. I guess they do need to build something, which they (like the APA) apparently have money for.
https://www.wcax.com/2024/03/22/saranac-lake-looking-options-new-public-safety-building/
Many years ago I persuaded the Village of Saranac Lake to get rid of the 150 lb cylinders of liquid chlorine under pressure used for drinking water disinfection (that were kept in the basement and injected into the water main there) and use sodium hypochlorite instead. The Village made the switch and I thank the good folks in the Village government who listened to me and became a good customer for the next few years. If I’d known the APA would be moving into the building some thirty years later I would have left things alone. Naaah, just kidding.