News stories tagged with "lyon-mountain"

(12/27/10) As we make our way through this final week of the year, Brian Mann will be checking in with his top-five picks for the most important stories of 2010.

In a year when state budget deficits drove the debate in Albany, Brian's looks back first at the renewed debate over the future of the region's prison industry.

(06/21/10) New York's state Senate is expected to vote on Gov. David Paterson's latest budget bill today. It includes controversial revenue-raiser: an increase in the sales tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products that would make New York's tax rate the highest in the country, and action to collect taxes on Native cigarette sales (see related story). State Budget Director Robert Megna expects the bill to pass, despite the failure of earlier proposals to tax Native cigarette sales.
That would be a relief to two North Country communities -- it would save the Ogdensburg Correctional facility, and the Moriah Shock Camp, saving hundreds of jobs in the North Country. Martha Foley has more.

(03/19/10) On the heels of a massive, 2,000 person rally last week, those trying to keep Ogdensburg's state prison open are getting ready to make their case in Albany. Closing the prison would eliminate 287 jobs, an annual payroll of some $22 million. According to the Ogdensburg Journal, a local task force is sending two buses next Tuesday to Albany to lobby lawmakers and rally on the capital steps. B

ut people who want to see the prisons close held rallies of their own this week. The Corrections Association of New York, a prison reform group, brought 400 people to the state capital on Wednesday.

Director Robert Gangi says the current budget deficit makes contracting the prison system a must. "The state's inmate population has dropped by nearly 14,000 inmates," Gangi says. "There are either 6,000 empty beds or 5,000 empty beds in the state's prison system. Given that it costs the department of correctional services $55,000 a year to maintain a bed whether it's occupied or whether it's empty, we think that it's the moment when the state should move forward very aggressively to downsize the prison system." Gangi says New York's economic development agency should help communities like Ogdensburg find a new use for closing prisons.

A 2004 study by another reform group, the Sentencing Project, compared rural towns in New York where prisons were built to non-prison ones. Executive director Marc Mauer told David Sommerstein it found prisons had little effect on the overall rural economy and may even have hurt it.

(02/25/10) This March, the 2010 Census count begins, a process required by the Constitution every 10 years, which helps, primarily, in determining the number of seats each state gets in Congress. But what happens if someone is in a prison far from home? How should he be counted by the state? The controversial prisoner census issue splits largely along an urban and rural divide. New York City politicians are pushing to end the practice of counting prisoners where they're jailed. But upstate, where the majority of prisons are located, politicians think they deserve the boost in political power that comes with counting prisoners. Lawmakers need to settle the issue before political redistricting efforts get underway next year. In a collaboration between North Country Public Radio and WNYC, David Sommerstein reports on the view from the North Country. more

(02/05/10) More than 200 people rallied yesterday in the American Legion hall in Lyon Mountain. The Clinton County community is fighting to save its state prison, which anchors the local economy. Lyon Mountain Correctional Facility is one of three prisons in the North Country slated for closure next year. As Brian Mann reports, prison guards are hoping to form a united front across the region.

Assemblywoman Addie Russell from Theresa also sent a letter to Governor Paterson this week, urging him to keep the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility open. In her letter, she accused the state Department of Correctional Facility of using "false" claims to justify the closure. According to Russell, maximum security prisons in the state are still overcrowded and too many inmates are being "double-bunked." Russell also argued that Ogendesburg's economy "will be devastated" if the correctional facility closes.

(01/06/06) America has watched over the last week as the coal mine disaster unfolded in West Virginia. Twelve men died after an explosion rocked the underground works. Mine tragedies were once an everyday part of life here in the North Country. Iron works in the Champlain Valley and the northern Adirondacks contributed some of the highest grade ore in the country. Adirondack iron helped build the George Washington Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. But men died every year in tunnel cave-ins and accidental explosions. Brian Mann spoke with Lawrence Gooley. He's author of two books about the iron mine at Lyon Mountain in Clinton County. The latest is called "Out of the Darkness". It chronicles the story of the miners killed in Lyon Mountain over its century-long history.

(07/25/05) Every summer, birders across the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains climb high looking for alpine songbirds. The annual census helps researchers to track the health and population of rare and endangered birds. Brian Mann joined a group on Lyon Mountain last month searching for the Bicknell's thrush. He sent this audio postcard.

(07/23/01) Dave Sommerstein talks with baseball historian Robert McGrath. He researches and writes on the history of baseball in the North Country, especially the teams from Lyon Mountain in Clinton County.