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Wrong side of the tracks

Saranac Lake residents make cleanup their responsibility

People use the decommissioned train tracks in Saranac Lake either as a shortcut or for a scenic walk.

SARANAC LAKE — Mini-bar bottles of Fleischmann’s vodka, curtains, a jug of motor oil and too many cigarette butts to count are just a few of the pieces of garbage Mary Bartel finds along the decommissioned train tracks when she goes for walks.

Bartel said garbage has always been an issue, and this wasn’t the first time she’s cleaned up. However, after seeing the destroyed bench surrounded by empty beer bottles at the Union Depot train station this past Saturday, she decided to take bigger action.

On Sunday, Bartel and her husband Kevin, who run Inner Quest Yoga on Broadway, spent a total of eight hours picking up trash along the state-owned railroad corridor that runs through Saranac Lake. They filled eight garbage bags and two contractor bags. Their efforts made a good dent in the litter in the area, but Bartel said more needs to be done. She’ll pick up something one day, and find another piece of garbage in its place the next.

“This is bigger than me and my wheelbarrow full of garbage,” she said Thursday while walking along the tracks.

Bartel said she wrote a letter to the Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees, asking if there’s anything the local government can do to help the trash situation. She suggested putting up “no littering” signs, setting up garbage cans in areas where the tracks cross roads, police patrolling and maybe installing a security camera system.

Some of the trash that was picked up.

Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau said he hasn’t seen the letter yet, but said he understands Bartel’s concerns.

“We’re always interested in the quality of life,” Rabideau said in a phone interview Thursday. “I sympathize with Mary and Kevin, and I appreciate the work they’ve done. My wife and I recently filled up four or five large contractor bags of trash we found on Old Lake Colby Road.”

However, there are some obstacles with the tracks being maintained by the state Department of Transportation, Rabideau said.

“The tracks run through the village, but we don’t own the land,” he said. “We’d have to get the permission to maintain it.”

Rabideau said, to the village’s understanding, the tracks are supposed to come up next year and make way for Adirondack Rail Trail, a public walking and biking trail from Lake Placid to Tupper Lake maintained by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Rabideau said the village may help maintain Saranac Lake’s section of the trail, but that agreement with the state hasn’t be finalized.

Bags and bags of trash.

DOT Region 7 Public Information Officer Michael Flick said the DOT maintains the tracks to an extent.

“In terms of the (Union Depot), every two weeks or so we pick up the garbage and mow the lawn,” he said, “other than that, there’s limited involvement with the track.”

Village Police Chief Charles Potthast said officers will investigate potential problem areas if someone reports them.

“We cleaned up a lot of areas in the past,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “We used to have some problems down on the River Walk. If we have a problem area we can identify, we look into it.”

Bartel said she’s been walking along the tracks for years.

A random beer can lies along the train tracks.

“I walk it a couple of times a week,” she said. “I like to go down to Moody Pond, and do the loop and come back. It’s about an hour and ten minutes.”

Among all the garbage, Bartel found empty cans of dust remover spray, alcohol swabs and a few syringes.

Bartel would say she doesn’t want to pick up any more garbage, but occasionally she would see a candy wrapper or a beer can and say, “I haven’t gotten to this area yet.

“We want to enjoy our town and make it look clean,” Bartel said. “We don’t want to leave people with the impression that ‘that was such a dirty town.’ When you go on vacation, you remember that type of stuff. If we’re welcoming people, I think we need to consider that, especially with all the funding we’ve been getting from the state and the millions of dollars of work they’re doing at the Olympic facilities. We’re promoting the area more to bring people in and experience the beauty.”

Bartel is an Airbnb and vacation rental host. She used to recommend her guests to walk along the tracks to get to the downtown. She stopped doing that this year.

“I was embarrassed,” she said.

As Bartel walked the tracks back to her house Thursday, she ran into her neighbor Michael Glass, walking his dog. After hearing about Bartel’s clean up, he said he’d like to follow her lead and do the same.

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