By KIM SMITH DEDAM
RAY BROOK — Rallying to save the two Adirondack Park Visitors Interpretive Centers, protesters arrived with hearts and crafts.
Adirondack Park Agency commissioners convened inside for the March meeting, while about 25 people of all ages mustered in a cone-marked section of the APA headquarters parking lot.
Behind them, two State Police looked on.
Thursday’s gathering of mostly Visitors Center volunteers, friends and family, including children, was peaceful if not downright entertaining in making its point.
SAVINGS PLAN
Looming state budget cuts look to shutter both APA-managed wilderness educational centers: in Newcomb and Paul Smith’s.
Closure would save about $583,000 after next year.
Each facility provides an extensive system of interpretive trails; indoor teaching, craft and theater space; and exploratory programs that introduce visitors, many of them children, to aspects of Adirondack Park wilderness.
CRAFTS FOR KIDS
Unfolding a craft table, Lois Stunzi set out coloring pages and unpacked materials to make birdfeeders.
Stunzi took over the preschool program Nature for the Very Young six years ago after funding was cut in 2003 and has volunteered to run it ever since.
The weekly adventure combines nature, activities and education on Thursday mornings.
“We going to make birdhouses and keep the kids busy,” Stunzi said of her part in the rally.
By midmorning about five birdfeeders hung from a tree outside APA headquarters.
SIGNS OF DISSENSION
Wearing red hearts on their heads, Al and Hilda Lewis of Paul Smiths carried signs saying “I (heart) the VIC.”
Yvona Fast of Lake Clear toted around a painted crate that read: “Think outside the Box.”
“We have to find other ways to keep the VIC open,” said the young woman, whose mother has volunteered at the Paul Smiths center since 1991.
“It’s important for kids and visitors to be able to learn about the Adirondacks.”
Raising a protest sign reading “Keep the VICs open,” Dana Fast said education is key to APA’s work, rebutting the idea that wilderness interpretation is not part of APA’s core mission.
“If people understood, for example, the importance of wetlands through education, there might be more appreciation of wetlands review process,” Dana said.
She spent years helping coordinate programs at the Butterfly House at the Paul Smiths VIC, the first nature center of its kind dedicated to metamorphosis.
‘GREAT LOSS’
Alicia Farrell of Lake Clear brought her children to have fun, but they helped make the point by crafting birdfeeders.
“We go to the children’s nature program,” Alicia said, hoisting 3-year-old Allison high enough to hang the project in a tree outside APA.
“It would be a great loss if the VICs close. These children are our future, and we would miss the opportunity to teach them about the unique combination of public and private lands in the Adirondack Park.”
BUDGET DECISION
The rally was organized by former Paul Smiths VIC communications specialist Andy Flynn and drew a diverse crowd.
The 10 paid employees are under strict orders to not speak publicly about pending job cuts.
During a break in the APA meeting inside, Chairman Curt Stiles said it is important that people have a chance to express their concerns.
“But the APA Board doesn’t really vote on the budget,” he said, adding that the Park Agency is sensitive to the pending loss of jobs and educational support.
“We care about our employees. We care about our mission. But the budget is in the hands of the legislature.”
He has heard nothing from ongoing budget negotiations of any plan to keep the Adirondack’s primary interpretive centers in place.
“Will they horse trade? Who knows.”
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at:
kdedam@pressrepublican.com
