Cuomo congratulated Fred Roedel III and his family business for buying and reopening the historic hotel, praised the North Country as one of the most “special places on the globe” and reiterated some proposals from his recent state budget.

The governor’s speech ended with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Hotel Saranac, reopened last month by Roedel Companies, which bought it in 2013 and spent years restoring it to its original 1927 glamor. Then Cuomo and his daughter Mariah went snowmobiling at Camp Gabriels in Paul Smiths with state troopers and forest rangers.

—

Cuomo’s message

Gov. Andrew Cuomo fastens his helmet’s chinstrap Saturday at Camp Gabriels where he, with his daughter Mariah Kennedy Cuomo riding behind him, left for a snowmobile ride with a contingent of state troopers and forest rangers. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

Cuomo’s speech was largely a run-through of things in his state budget proposal that pertain to the North Country, plus a recap of a theme he has repeated many times: that New York state had neglected the region for a long time before he became governor, but that he reversed that trend.

He said the Adirondacks’ natural beauty had been kept secret, but he started promoting it to attract tourists.

“There is a reason why generations of Americans have been attracted to the Adirondacks and the North Country,” Cuomo said. “There’s a reason why Teddy Roosevelt had the vision to say we’re going to create the largest state park in the United States of America. There’s a reason why the Mark Twains and the Einsteins were drawn to the North Country. There’s a natural beauty that is indescribable.”

He spoke briefly about a proposed $13 million to stimulate lodging throughout the North County. Cuomo admitted Lake Placid does pretty well in terms of hotels, motels and other places to stay, but he said the rest of the North Country doesn’t.

The budget says, “Empire State Development will commission a study to identify lodging development opportunities in the Adirondacks and Thousand Island regions and provide $13 million in capital funding through the REDCs [Regional Economic Development Councils] and Upstate Revitalization Initiative to spur development activity.”

From left, Hamilton County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Farber, Saranac Lake Mayor Clyde Rabideau, Hotel Saranac co-owner Fred Roedel III, Mariah Kennedy Cuomo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Clarkson University President Tony Collins, North Country Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Garry Douglas, Franklin County Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Dabiew and others cut a ribbon for the Hotel Saranac in its Ballroom Saturday in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

The study Cuomo mentioned, both in his budget and Saturday’s speech, will be conducted over the course of eight weeks by Ernst and Young, a multinational professional services and accounting firm. The study starts this week.

He went on to say that some of the 50 million tourists who come to New York City each year are potential North Country tourists. Things like the recent I Love NY campaigns for the Adirondacks and updates to state Olympic Regional Development Authorities venues such as the Gore and Whiteface ski centers would draw those tourists to the Adirondacks, according to Cuomo.

—

Broadband

He also spoke about a third round of broadband internet investments throughout the state.

An appreciative crowd applauds Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he speaks Saturday in the Hotel Saranac’s Ballroom in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

“We made the single smartest investment that is going to pay dividends for generations, and will be finished by the end of this year, which is the first state in the country to have 100 percent broadband coverage,” he said.

His budget proposed a $360 million investment in broadband for the state, $225 million of which would be state funded.

—

Biggest investment ever?

At one point, Cuomo said, “I’m proud to be the governor who’s invested more in upstate New York than any governor in the history of the state of New York.”

About 200 people listen to Gov. Andrew Cuomo speak Saturday in the Hotel Saranac’s Ballroom in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

North Country Public Radio reporter Brian Mann disagrees with that statement. In an April 2017 article titled “Fact checking Governor Cuomo on the North Country economy,” Mann said Cuomo has invested heavily in the North Country, especially in 2017’s state budget, “But the big game-changers for the region were Governor Mario Cuomo, this governor’s father, and Governor George Pataki. In the 1980s and 1990s they spent hundreds of millions of dollars building more than a dozen state prisons across the region from Watertown and Ogdensburg to Malone and Ray Brook. That investment fundamentally redefined the North Country’s economy.”

—

Turnout

Cuomo’s speech was met overall with applause and positivity from the crowded ballroom at the Hotel Saranac, which included multiple news outlets, local business owners and municipal officials. Lake Placid village Mayor Craig Randall and Trustee Art Devlin said they always enjoy listening to the governor speak.

Devlin said Cuomo tends to follow through on his proposals.

A large crowd of people talk in the Hotel Saranac's Great Hall as they wait to let into the Ballroom to hear a speech by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Saturday. (Enterprise photo - Peter Crowley)

“If he says something,” Devlin said, “he does it.”

—

State aid for hotel

In the early days of the Hotel Saranac renovation planning, when the project was expected to cost $17 million, the state pledged to pay $5 million of that through the REDC process. But REDC grant recipients can’t get the money until after the project is done and the job-creation goals are met and even then there’s a bureaucratic process to follow. Meanwhile, as the scope and length of the project increased, the cost more than doubled to more than $36 million, according to Roedel.

After the event, Roedel said it would have been great if the governor had presented the $5 million check that day, but instead he said his company won’t get the money until at least September.

“There’s a process with Empire State Development, and you’ve got to follow it, and it just takes time,” he said. “We’ve fulfilled all our obligations.”

Roedel and his father have said many times that they treat the hotel as belonging to the people of Saranac Lake.

“We talk about the goals, but I always said, I have a lot of very good friends in this town,” he said afterward. A lot of those friends can travel; they have the wherewithal to travel – for instance, the John Morgans of the world who do his bobsledding in Europe all winter, right? And I want ’em to walk in here and go, ‘They got it right.’ And then I’ve got an equal number of friends who just don’t have the wherewithal, and I want ’em to walk in here and go, ‘I can’t believe this is in our town.’ And I think based on the reaction we’ve seen so far, we’ve hit both those marks.

“That’s good. Now what we’ve got to do it run it well, operate it well. We’ve got a great operating team, and now, as my good friend Bill Belichick says, you’ve got to do your job.”

—

Managing Editor Peter Crowley contributed to this report.