Newsletter, Adirondack North Country Association

In support of North Country towns, villages and cities ANCA has prepared and submitted 5 grant applications to the NYS Department of Transportation for a variety of byway community projects. If funded, the projects will support the local and regional economies by increasing visitation and tourism spending in communities along the thirteen Byway routes in ANCA’s fourteen country service area; contribute to community development; and help to steward the natural, recreational, historical and cultural resources that draw people to the North Country Region.

The projects put forth in the grant applications were selected as presented in the Corridor Management Plans that ANCA developed with local and regional input over the past several years. All applications will go through a competitive review process under Federal Highway Associations’ National Scenic Byways Program through the New York State Department of Transportation. Project awards will be announced sometime in 2007.

Funding has been requested for interpretation of a variety of wildlife species, birds, rivers and waters along byways in the Adirondack Region. Another project seeks financial support to address the safety of visitors and residents both in and out of their vehicles. An additional project would help communities evaluate how to make their byway community “more walkable” to better meet the needs of pedestrians and encourage bicyclists and other recreationalists to exit their cars and spend time in the area. This project grew out of Star Lake’s and Cranberry Lake’s ongoing concerns about the potential for accidents as cars, trucks, snowmobiles, bicycles, and foot traffic try to share their Main Street during the four seasons.

Based on popular request, ANCA also prepared an application to update and re-print an earlier Bicycle Map of the North Country Region to show touring and mountain biking routes in the area extending from the Erie Canal to the Canadian border and from Lake Ontario to Lake Champlain. To learn more about ANCA’s ongoing work with NYS Scenic Byways, visit our website at www.adirondack.org.

Sharon O'Brien can be reached at anca-obrieno@northnet.org.