Oct. 12--ELIZABETHTOWN -- The Adirondack Council's annual State of the Park report weighs in on some 90 Adirondack preservation issues.

Some of the sharpest criticism in the report went to State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis for ruling that Old Mountain Road belongs to the towns of North Elba and Keene.

Adirondack Council's report says he "relied upon bad advice and incorrect information. His own regional staff has filed a formal request for a 'clarification,' hoping to avoid opening this road to motorized traffic."

The council gives DEC staff kudos for challenging the commissioner's judgment.

19-YEAR EFFORT

The recently released is the expressly non-partisan stance of the Adirondack Council staff and Board of Directors, spokesman John Sheehan said.

"For the last 19 years, it has worked thusly: I draft a list of items I think we should cover in the report and circulate to all staff for additions and deletions. I then draft the text, and we put together a staff team to review each of the articles and the overall tone.

"The chairman of our board of trustees then gets to look over the final draft and make recommendations."

Most of the "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" snapshots rate policy actions from local, state and national leaders.

ESSEX SEWER

Kudos went to Town of Essex Supervisor Ronald Jackson for his success in obtaining federal funds to build a wastewater treatment plant.

Essex is the last town left on Lake Champlain without a sewer plant.

"I do appreciate the support the council provided in writing letters in support for funding of our sewer system," Jackson said.

OUTDOOR BOILERS

The council also nodded to town officials in Wilmington, Jay, Elizabethtown and Moriah for taking action to ban or limit outdoor wood-burning furnaces.

"I'm glad they've acknowledged us for that," said Wilmington Supervisor Randy Preston. "I've felt all along if we worked together more we would find common ground.

"Because of the state's inaction on wood boilers, our board felt we had to do something.

"I am deeply saddened, however, by the state's lack of logic in their new outdoor-burning (of trash) regulations. What they have done by stopping towns from obtaining permits to burn at town sites is create a fire hazard."

"We appreciate the acknowledgment of all the hard work and recognition for trying to do the right thing," Elizabethtown Supervisor Noel Merrihew said about his community's outdoor-boiler restrictions.