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Little: Transfer Camp Santanoni from DEC to Parks

From left, Steven Engelhart, executive director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage, talks about the history of Great Camp Santanoni while standing on its main lodge front porch in February 2012 with Joe Martens, then commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Schenectady Daily Gazette reporter Stephen Williams and Mike Carr, then executive director of The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack Chapter. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

A bill introduced by state Sen. Betty Little would transfer management of Great Camp Santanoni from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The bill, one of a dozen or so introduced by Little since the new year that would affect the Adirondacks, would have the parks department take over management of the camp in Newcomb immediately. Little’s spokesman, Dan MacEntee, said the parks department would be a natural fit for the great camp.

“OPHRP currently manages the John Brown Historical Site (in Lake Placid) and the Crown Point Historic Site (in Crown Point). Given their mission of historic preservation and experience operating historic sites in the Adirondacks, it is the senator’s belief OPRHP is very well-suited to manage Camp Santanoni, a state and national historic landmark,” MacEntee wrote in an email Tuesday.

“A lot of work has been accomplished to preserve the historic site. Senator Little would like to see it utilized to its fullest tourism potential. Recent State budgets have included significant increases in funds for OPRHP, so the senator feels that agency’s mission not only aligns well with the property but they also are better positioned to allocate some financial resources as needed.”

MacEntee said that Little originally introduced the bill in 2015 at the request of the town of Newcomb and Adirondack Architectural Heritage.

Robert Pruyn (1847-1934), an Albany-based banker, politician and inventor of toys and puzzles, and his wife Anna built Santanoni more than 110 years ago on a 13,000-acre preserve. It was a self-sustaining summer residential compound with a working farm among its three complexes. Pruyn had traveled to Japan at a young age with his father, and the Main Lodge Complex’s layout was inspired by the design of Japanese temples.

Camp Santanoni’s buildings had been crumbling for years as part of the state Forest Preserve, but in 2000, the state Adirondack Park Agency established a 32-acre historic area including the three complexes connected by an old carriage road, which also functions as a ski or hiking trail. Many of the buildings have been restored, and in February 2016 the APA approved upgrades that include building a large milking barn that burned in 2004.

Ski area tax exemption

Little has also introduced a bill that would grant a tax exemption for certain property that is used in the operation of a ski area. She said that because the three state-owned ski areas — Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, Gore Mountain in North Creek and Belleayre Mountain in the Catskills — are already exempt from certain taxes, this creates an unfair business environment in the state.

“This bill would provide that all ski areas that purchase energy efficient snow making equipment and make snow shall be exempt from this tax,” the justification for the bill says. “The fuel, gas, electricity, and refrigeration, and gas, electric, and refrigeration services used directly for the production of snow would now be exempt from the state sales tax as will the energy efficient equipment.”

Snowmobile racing age limit

A third bill introduced by the senator would let children under the age of 18 participate in certain snowmobile races and competitions.

“This bill will bring New York’s Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation law up to date with current practices for competitive events where many youth less than 14 years of age professionally compete in snocross and similar events,” the bill justification says.

“Current law has acted as an impediment for national organizations to hold such events in New York.”

Other bills

Little has introduced nine other Adirondack-related bills this month. One would let owners of leased hunting and fishing camps prevent the state from buying the land they sit on. Another would remove state Forest Preserve land from school district property valuations for purposes of state aid. Others would help train search-and-rescue volunteers, raise standards for guides, help private campground owners, establish a tax credit for forest conservation and let state contracts of less than $50,000 bypass comptroller’s office review.

To read the bills: www.nysenate.gov/senators/betty-little

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