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Saturday,ÊO ctoberÊ15,Ê2016
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In SPORTS | pg. 18-19
Lady Cougars win three times
Northeastern Clinton triumphs over Lake Placid
www.SunCommunityNews.com
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In POLITICS | pg. 3
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In NEWS | pg. 10
Debate one down Sears appliances two more to go coming back Candidates discuss trade, economy
New showroom to be placed in Choice Furniture
Rouses Point enters contract with Champlain-Mooers EMS Village officials allocates $10,000 toward shared services agreement for remainder of the year By Teah Dowling
teah@suncommunitynews.com
ROUSES POINT — Village officials signed off on entering a contract with Champlain-Mooers EMS until the end of the year. Last week, the board voted 3-2 to take $10,000 out of the fire department’s budget to pay the department for supplemental coverage. Champlain-Mooers EMS took over the village’s EMS service last Sunday. The contact calls for 10 hours of evening cov-
erage five days per week. Trustee Avril Moore said the agreement will act as trail to see whether the village will switch over next year to full coverage. “We don’t have many other options at this point,” Moore said. “The residents of Rouses Point need to have emergency services available.” Rouses Point EMS, which is currently run by the Rouses Point Volunteer Fire Department, has about 10 volunteers, including four critical care techs. But like other squads across the region, their numbers are ailing. “This is not a new issue,” Clinton County Emergency Services Director Eric Day said. “And it expands way beyond
Photo by Teah Dowling
>> See EMS | pg. 5
LocalÊ library
Public input wanted for proposed regional trail network
seeksÊ help
Adirondack Community-based Trails and Lodging System aims to broaden hiking experience, revitalize communities
Champlain Library to host open house Oct. 22 to gather public input on potential improvements
CHAMPLAIN — Facing sagging attendance, the Champlain Memorial Library is seeking public input on how the facility can better serve the public. “People used to come to the library all the time,” said Library Director Alison Teah Mandeville, who has been working at the Dowling Elm Street facility since 2003. “Ever since Writer then, the amount of families coming in have dropped significantly.” About 10 to 20 visitors visit the one-room structure daily. Potential ideas include a building club for children where kids would construct a variety of different structures using building blocks or legos. Mandeville’s said her ultimate dream is to convert the basement, which is currently used for storage, into some type of community room with possibly a pool table and ping pong table. In order to make this possible, Mandeville said a second entrance would have to be added in order to be up to fire code. But funding poses a possible roadblock. Right now, the public library doesn’t have nonprofit status,
Rouses Point village officials signed off on entering a contract with Champlain-Mooers EMS until the end of the year. The ambulance squad took over last Sunday, in which the contract calls for 10 hours of evening coverage five days per week.
The Champlain Memorial Library is located at 148 Elm Street. The library offers story hour for the first Saturday of each month and GED teaching program every other Friday. Starting next year, the history club will be up and running again through local resident Rob Clarke for kids to learn both global and local happenings.
By Pete DeMola
pete@suncommunitynews.com
meaning fundraising is a difficult task, said Mandeville, since any large amount needs to be claimed on taxes. Discussions are currently taking place for the village to take over the library to gain that status. The library is also currently seeking grant funding for lighting updates. To look better on grant applications, Mandeville said the library needs more patrons. “I hope to bring the community in,” she said. “I want this library to live forever and never have to close its doors.” Previous offerings like the Summer Reading Program failed over time due to the lack of interest, she said. The library offers story hour for the first Saturday of each
SARANAC — Are you into nature but are clueless on how to pitch a tent or build a campfire? Do you have inexperienced guests in town? Getting older? Or are you still hardcore, but want a few luxuries waiting for you at the end of your journey? An ambitious new project aims to broaden the hiking experience for everyone, and give local towns an economic jump start in the process. The Adirondack Community-based Trails and Lodging System (ACTLS) project seeks to develop a series of trail networks across the region. Key locations will include lodging facilities at the end of a day-long trek, each containing varying amenities. Hatched by a pair of local educators with years of wilderness experience, the project is now only in its conceptual stages, and was formally rolled out earlier this year at the Adirondack Research Consortium’s annual conference in Lake Placid. After experiencing a hut-to-hut system in New Zealand,
>> See Champlain Memorial Library | pg. 5
>> See Trail Network | pg. 11
Photo provided