The Franklin County Democratic Committee has reorganized and elected the following officers: Joe Pickreign, chairman, Saranac Lake; Kathy Fleury, first vice chairman, Westville; D. Billy Jones, second vice chairman, Chateaugay; Dean Lefebvre, third vice chairman, Tupper Lake; Tammy Francis, secretary, Fort Covington; Cheryl Douglas, assistant secretary, Malone; Karen Edwards, treasurer, Malone; and Paul Lauzon, sergeant-at-arms, Fort Covington. This is the first time a representative from Tupper Lake has been elected as an officer of the county committee.
New officers for the 2009-2011 term at the Essex/Willsboro Kiwanis Club are Douglas R. Young, president, and Robin A. Pierce, vice president. John Manning, secretary, and Christine Marsha, treasurer, are continuing in their office.
Young is the vice president of the Champlain National Bank. Pierce is executive director of the Smith House Health Care Center.
Jefferson Community College in Watertown has chosen the creative works of three local writers as recipients of North Country Writers Awards. They are Katharine O'Flynn and Margaret Bartley, both of Elizabethtown, for short fiction, and Charles Watts of Keene Valley for his poetry.
The contest receives more than 100 entries annually and gives out only six awards. All three of the recipients belong to the North Country Writers and Strictly Fiction groups that meet monthly in Elizabethtown.
Robert Willette and Mike Perrin tied for first place in the 2009 JCEO Golf Ball Drop, held at the Barrack's Golf Course. Joint Council for Economic Opportunity CEO Bruce Garcia and Community Outreach Director Sally Soucia presented them each with a check for $2,750.
Julie A. Davies has been re-elected to the board of the New York State Dispute Resolution Association for another two-year term.
Davies presently serves as the director of North Country Conflict Resolution Services, serving St. Lawrence, Clinton, Franklin, Essex and Hamilton counties, a program of the Rural Law Center of New York. She previously served as development director/paralegal for the Rural Law Center and is an adjunct instructor at SUNY Plattsburgh. She is trained as an arbitrator for the New York State Attorney Fee Arbitration Program and the New York State Lemon Law Program, a special-education mediator and a family court mediator.
Davies is a member of the American Bar Association, National Association of Community Mediators, the Rural Sociological Society, National Society of Pro Bono Coordinators and the National Women's Studies Association, among other organizations.
Dr. David G. Welch of Lake Placid has been elected to the board of governors of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. As one of 12 members, Dr. Welch will help lead the academy over the next two years.
Dr. Welch has been a physiatrist and a member of the AAPMR since 1975. He was in private practice in Glens Falls from 1975 to 2005 and has practiced in Saranac Lake as part of the Adirondack Internal Medicine and Pediatrics since 2005. He has also been active in the Medical Society of New York State and the Medical Society of both Warren County and Essex County, where he has served as president.
He is a member of the active medical staff of Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake on which he serves as secretary-treasurer. He lives in Lake Placid with his wife, Mary.
Professor Catherine Eloranto and Assistant Professor Diana Wardell, both of Clinton Community College's criminal justice program, gave presentations at the Criminal Justice Educator's Association of New York State recently.
Eloranto's presentation was entitled "Active Learning in the Criminal Justice Classroom: Helping Students Use Their Minds Without Losing Yours." Wardell was co-presenter on a panel discussion entitled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Inside Story of Women in the Criminal Justice System," drawing on her experiences as a New York State trooper for more than 20 years.
Nathan and Sarah Garden have been recognized by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the granting body for teaching's gold standard credentials, as National Board Certified Teachers. The Gardens studied Intensive Special Needs Education in Boston, Mass., each earning a M.S. in education from Simmons College. The couple resides in Santa Monica, Calif., where they serve as special educators for the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District.
Nathan graduated from Beekmantown Central School in 1994 and earned a B.A. in political science and elementary education from SUNY Potsdam in 1999. He is the son of James and Sharon Garden of Beekmantown.
