NCPR Regional News Archives

Movement—possibly—in Albany to finish the four-month-late state budget... Old-time baseball comes back to life on the St Lawrence River... And deep-fried Oreo cookies.

A $12 million dispute over the former General Motors engine plant in Massena may soon end up in court.

The plant shut down permanently last year. When GM declared bankruptcy it spun off a holding company to handle its shuttered properties. This includes the site on the St Lawrence River in Massena.

Motors Liquidation Corp. is suing the town for a re-assessment of the property. Executives say it should have a value of $2,000 dollars. Town officials say the 224-acre waterfront property, with its 890,000 square foot building, is worth $12 million. More...

A second day of a special legislative session in Albany produced nothing, and lawmakers are heading home. As Karen DeWitt reports, differences over a bill to give public universities more financial autonomy continues to hold up final passage of the budget. More...

It’s county fair season in the North Country. And that means it’s also fried food season. Fried dough, French fries, funnel cakes. At the Lewis County fair last week in Lowville, David Sommerstein bumped into some “X-treme” frying: fried oreo cookies. He sent this Heard Up North.

War of Independence and war of 1812 aside, there’s always been more to bring residents on either side of the St. Lawrence River together than to keep them apart. Canadians and Americans have used the waterway for trade, prohibition-era rum-running, and family visits for more than 300 years. In mid to late 1800s, even before the first hockey games, bands of men were boating across the water - and the border - to play baseball in Sackets Harbor and Ogdensburg and Watertown and Kingston, Ontario. Today, baseball enthusiasts relive the old-time games with old-fashioned rules, snappy nicknames, and dapper uniforms. David Sommerstein went to a game in Kingston last year for our story.
(Kingston team captain Alan McLeod is looking for vintage baseball teams to form in Ogdensburg and Watertown. E-mail david@ncpr.org if you’re interested.)

Saranac Lake's year-round theater company is celebrating its 30th repertory season this years. Pendragon Theatre began in 1980. Co-founders Susan Neal and Bob Pettee, also husband and wife, are performing in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf this summer. They told Todd Moe that what began with a few performances of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1980 has grown to several thousand performances, new plays, experimental theater, a traveling company and expanded space. Susan and Bob reflected on their early years in theater. They met while Susan was acting in New York City.

North Country Public Radio is holding a planning meeting next week to chart out improvements in our online news service. One top goal is to make ncpr.org a daily news destination for more of our audience. We are asking visitors to answer a few questions to aid us in the process:

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"Master Harold"... & the Boys is running in the Firehall at the 1000 Islands Playhouse through August 21. Resident theatre critic Connie Meng was at a recent performance and has this review. More...

Summer is a busy season in the Adirondacks and we've asked John Warren, of the Adirondack Almanac, to help us with ideas and tips about where to go, and what to avoid, in the Adirondacks this weekend.