A Smart Growth Sustainable Economic Development Study being funded by a $46,400 state grant is moving ahead in the North Country town of Brighton in Franklin County. The project includes a land-use analysis, an environmental risk assessment, a town-wide business and property owner's survey, development of a tourism brochure, and energy efficiency workshops. The public sessions were scheduled March 21 at the Adirondack Visitor Interpretive Center in Paul Smiths, according to a story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
"The project's purpose is to try and make Brighton a place where people can live and work and stay, and when their kids grow up and go to college, they can still have jobs around here," said Rebecca Buerkett, project scientist with F.X. Browne, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based civil and environmental consulting firm with offices in Saranac Lake, hired to assist the town with the project. "We're trying to keep our town economically viable," she added.
The effort is proceeding against the back drop of budget actions in Albany that environmentalists say have drained the state conservation fund that's dedicated to preserving open space and keeping water clean, according to the Associated Press. A representative of Environmental Advocates of Albany is quoted as saying nearly $500 million has been "swept" from the fund since it was established in 1993, including $125 million in this fiscal year, with removal of another $50 million authorized.
The stories appear on the paper's Web site at:
http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/504798.html
http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/505316.html
