NCPR News Staff: Jacob Resneck, Reporter

Top officials with three state agencies met at a rest stop along the Adirondack Northway yesterday. They announced that New York's Department of Transportation has agreed to a new set of guidelines for projects inside the Adirondack Park. As Jacob Resneck reports, the new agreement follows years of tension between the DOT, the Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Adirondack Park Agency.

Closed-door talks over the Adirondack Club and Resort project in Tupper Lake have been postponed again by more than seven weeks. Developer Michael Foxman says he's refining parts of the proposal, which includes a resort and condo development near the Big Tupper ski area. Parties to the controversial talks have met three times since April, when mediation first began. As Jacob Resneck reports, negotiations seem to be focusing on the plan for "great camp" mansions which environmental groups have opposed.

Local leaders working keep the Camp Gabriels prison viable are pushing proposals to add educational opportunities and expand addiction treatment at the prison. The state corrections commissioner was on site to hear how the minimum security prison could tap into community resources. Jacob Resneck reports.

More than 160 people, from government officials to special interest groups from all spectrums, gathered in Long Lake yesterday. They set aside their differences to talk about the challenges that Adirondack communities are facing and to look for common ground. It was the second annual meeting of the Common Ground Alliance, a group that hopes to find opportunities to replace conflict with cooperation. Jacob Resneck reports.

More than a year after Wal-Mart withdrew its plan for a SuperCenter, the community of Saranac Lake continues to be divided over the issue of big box stores. Last night the village board held a public hearing over whether to adopt a law that would limit the size of retail developments. Jacob Resneck reports.

The doctor shortage in the Adirondacks has become so acute that Adirondack Medical Center it may not be able to keep its emergency room in Lake Placid open every night this summer. Volunteer ambulance services that serve rural northwestern Essex County may be asked to reroute patients to hospitals in Saranac Lake, Elizabethtown or Plattsburgh. Jacob Resneck reports.

Wilmington, home to the Whiteface Mountain ski area, is looking increasingly attractive to developers. There are at least three subdivision plans to build second homes in an area long overshadowed by neighboring Lake Placid. Local officials say they welcome the increased tax base but are also concerned about the changing character of their community. Jacob Resneck reports.

A group of nurses and other unionized workers rallied yesterday for more staff at Sunmount Developmental Center in Tupper Lake. The state-run facility is home to more than 200 residents with mental and physical disabilities. Nurses say a staff shortage is hurting patients and straining staff. Jacob Resneck reports.

The district attorney in Franklin County says a Grand Jury will investigate the shooting of a Franklin County man by two U.S. Border Patrol agents earlier this month. Timothy Fleury, age 25, was critically wounded on May 5 and remains in the hospital. Jacob Resneck has details.

A plan to expand Franklin County’s landfill by 630 acres has drawn concern from neighbors from both sides of the northern border. The landfill, about one mile from the international boundary near Malone, has been controversial since it opened in 1994. It’s one of 27 regional landfills in the state built to accept waste from the thousands of dumps closed across the state in past decades. A meeting in Malone last week drew about 50 people – nearly all of them opposed to the landfill expansion. Jacob Resneck was there.