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By KIM SMITH DEDAM
RAY BROOK — As Adirondack Park Agency commissioners convene Thursday, a rally outside is set to draw support for keeping the Visitors Interpretive Centers at Newcomb and Paul Smiths in the state budget.
The two-hour rally will be held at APA headquarters in Ray Brook starting at 9 a.m.
PEACEFUL PLANS
Andy Flynn, a local publisher and former senior communications specialist for the Paul Smiths VIC, said the event is not an anti-APA gathering.
"On the contrary, this event is being held to support the APA's excellent job of providing environmental education at both VICs. We want to celebrate the VICs' existence and role in offering interpretive trails, programs, exhibits and special events to residents and visitors of the Adirondack Park.
"We want this event to be peaceful and joyous, and, while we want to be visible, we don't want to impede on the APA's monthly business," Flynn said.
APA proposed closure of both its interpretive centers by late this year in an effort to trim $129,000 from its budget in 2010-11 and $583,000 thereafter, saying the VICs are not part of its core regulatory mission.
GAG ORDER
Despite several inquiries by the Press-Republican, VIC employees would not discuss pending layoffs or talk on the record about what they've been told about closure dates.
State employees were told expressly not to speak to the media until after the state budget is final.
Flynn intends the rally to bring their concerns forward in much the same spirit as other rallies held around the region have urged support for state parks and prisons flagged for closure.
"I am fully aware of the media gag order put on APA employees about the VIC closures," Flynn said in an e-mail.
"Since I no longer work there, I am hoping to speak for the staffers, who overwhelmingly want the state to keep operating the VICs.
"I worked at the VICs for eight years. If I didn't quit last June to pursue my publishing business, I'd be right there with them today, waiting to be canned at the end of the year with my mouth gagged.
"People should stand up for what they believe in and be heard."
TASK FORCE WORK
The rally was organized aside from the community-wide effort to develop a VIC transition plan, which is being coordinated by the Adirondack Park Institute, a nonprofit group established in 1989 to underwrite VIC educational programs.
"This rally is not related to the (Adirondack Park Institute) or the VIC Transition Task Force," Flynn advised.
"I don't work for them, and they did not sanction this event. In my own opinion, I think it is necessary to lobby the state to keep operating the VICs.
"At the same time, I fully support the mission of the Task Force because — if the state does indeed close the VICs as planned — there needs to be a transition to the private sector, and this work cannot wait. There is too much to be done in such little time."
Dr. Martha E. Van der Voort, Adirondack Park Institute director, said Flynn is not serving on the Transition Task Force.
"The Adirondack Park Institute is the friends group to the VICs; we cannot engage in advocacy work," Van der Voort said in an e-mail.
The Task Force Executive Committee is scheduled to meet officially for the first time later this week.
JOBS IN LIMBO
The future of eight full-time and two part-time state jobs at the VICs remain uncertain.
"At this point, I think all possibilities need to be considered (regarding) the future of the (VICs)," Van der Voort said.
"The Adirondack Park Institute, the organization that I work with, has a limited budget at this time. We have a single employee. As a nonprofit 501 C3, we are not in a position to match state salaries."
The VICs opened in 1989 and 1990 to introduce visitors, children and families to aspects of Adirondack Park wilderness and APA's role in land-use management.
Both have extensive interpretive trail systems open free of charge year-round.
The Paul Smith's VIC leases property owned by Paul Smith's College.
The Newcomb VIC was built on property owned by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which is state insured. The Town of Newcomb has expressed interest in helping operate that VIC.
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
