LAKE PLACID — It's out.

The Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project, with information compiled from 103 towns and villages all or partially inside the Blue Line, was released Monday at the annual Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages meeting here.

Vast in scope and measure, the report provides a sweeping look at infrastructure, community, general government, emergency services and land use.

"Well, you have it in your hands," Brian Towers, president of the Association of Towns and Villages, told local officials. "It is the foundation for a conversation about long-term sustainability in the Adirondack Park."

AGING WATER SYSTEMS
Infrastructure data in the printed report is covered in about 30 of the total 120 pages.

It does not draw formal conclusions. But it does underscore the facts.

One-third of Adirondack municipalities have wastewater treatment plants.

"An additional community concern is the age and condition of existing wastewater systems in the park," the report says.

"Only 17 of the 31 reported treatment plants (were) built since 1978. In addition, 14 communities report percentages of their collection systems are over 60 years old."

Cost estimates for towns that requested Clean Water funding this year break out the expenses per connection.

In Dannemora, for example, $2.7 million in municipal funding for 395 sewer connections breaks out to $6,835 each.

In Newcomb, a $1.8 million project for 20 connections breaks into $20,000 each.

Requests in the queue for municipal Clean Water revolving loans this year alone total $62 million.

Other infrastructure data shows only seven park communities have complete cell-phone coverage, and 13 communities have no coverage.

Some 35 percent of survey respondents identified lack of telecommunications service as a negative influence on attracting business and development to their towns.

Only 5 percent of towns reported broadband Internet is available everywhere in their community.

"This is something that came from your data," Towers said. "It does not come to any conclusions other than the obvious."

'USE IT'
Towers urged local leaders at towns, schools and state agencies to not let the document — part bound booklet, a CD of town profiles and a searchable CD of raw data — collect dust.

"This is a planning device for your community."

Community profiles will be sent in the coming days to every town in the Adirondack Park.

Each eight-page synopsis has a parcel map showing land use, with light green parcels indicating how much land in every town is wild, forested in conservation and state park.

Jim Martin, a land-use engineer at the LA Group who helped compile the report, said the final searchable database will be available on CD by July 1. It will include several primary search functions.

But researchers can create and explore the information with queries.

MORE COMING
Assessment Project specialist Brad Dake, a Town of Arietta planner who developed the idea to conduct the survey nearly three years ago, said the maps will grow over time to include Adirondack Park Agency zoning layers and Department of Environmental Conservation Unit Management Plan details, likely within five years.

The Siena Research Institute, the Center for Government Research and the Technical Assistance Center at Plattsburgh State aided in the study, along with county, state and federal agencies.



E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com