Next stop, Saranac Inn?

New plan is to upgrade rails halfway to Tupper Lake — for now, anyway

By NATHAN BROWN, Enterprise Staff Writer
TUPPER LAKE — The Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society is applying for state funds to extend the Adirondack Scenic Railroad toward Tupper Lake in both directions, but people who want to see the train come to Tupper Lake itself will have to wait.

One funding application to the state Department of Transportation, for $2.4 million, is to upgrade the tracks from Thendara (near Old Forge) to Big Moose. Another, for $2.3 million, is to upgrade them from Saranac Lake to the old Saranac Inn station, near the state fish hatchery between Saranac Inn and Lake Clear.

Marti Mozdzier, executive director of the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce, attended a meeting May 12 in state Sen. Betty Little’s office in Albany with Plattsburgh/North Country Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Garry Douglas, former ARPS President Gene Falvo and several DOT representatives. Mozdzier said the DOT officials present suggested applications for funding be broken into smaller sections to give them more of a chance of success.

“(The DOT isn’t) looking at large projects, and they consider Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake a large project,” she said at a village board meeting last week.

Former Gov. George Pataki pledged $5 million in late 2006 to make the 26 miles of track from Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake passable at more than 5 mph. Since then, ARPS and Next Stop! Tupper Lake officials have made repeated inquiries to state officials about the money.

“My committee and I were upset about it,” said Dan McClelland, chairman of Next Stop! Tupper Lake and owner/editor of the Tupper Lake Free Press newspaper. “That’s what we were told, and people should honor their promises. One governor should honor the other governor’s pledges.”

“I know there has been a lot of disappointment that the money didn’t come,” Little said. “But it’s a new administration, and they’re looking at everything a little differently. There was no application on file; it was just a verbal application.”

The DOT has already given out $20 million in grants this year. Applications for funding in the current, second $20 million round are due the end of this month, and a third round of $20 million will be held before the end of the year. The grant recipients in the second round will be announced in late summer or early fall. Mozdzier said the application for the extension from Saranac Inn to Tupper Lake could be made in the third round of funding.

“We are in support of (the current) application, because it is the only means that appears to be available to get the railroad closer to Tupper Lake,” Mozdzier said in a telephone interview last week. “But I think that it will need to come directly into Tupper Lake for it to have any effect. Tupper Lake, through Next Stop! Tupper Lake, has gone ahead and built that beautiful train station. I am not aware that Saranac Inn has any preparations as of this point. We have a real vested interest in the train coming here.”

McClelland said he felt the news that the funding is not going to be made available should have come from Gov. David Paterson’s office

“with some appropriate explanation,” not from the DOT.

“We can’t help but feel Tupper Lake is getting the short end of the stick,” he wrote in a Free Press editorial last week. “After all, is there any state assurance the second phase of the restoration work to Tupper Lake will ever occur? Or will the riders on the summer-time Adirondack Scenic Railroad, based in Lake Placid, be satisfied with the extension in mileage to Lake Clear?”

Little said that, at the meeting, they discussed the points to stress in the application to make it more likely to succeed. She said extending the railroad, with the ultimate goal of having a continuous line from Utica to Lake Placid, would have many economic benefits and would encourage tourism. She said emphasizing this in the application will help its chances of success.

“Fixing the tracks to Lake Clear, while a start, is only that,” McClelland said. “Unless the tracks are fixed all the way to Tupper Lake, the economic development that will be fostered through increased tourism by connecting the three Tri-Lakes villages won’t happen, and the money will have been wasted.”

Contact Nathan Brown at 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com'>nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.