Education and Training
$1.2 million saved if Fort Edward and South Glens Falls merged school districts. Even though the money comes from teacher salaries and benefits, the consultant who crunched the numbers said he would be surprised if anyone lost a job, a story in the Post-Star says.
Environment, Energy and Sustainability
Bats in the Adirondacks' Barton Hill mine may be threatened by a clean energy project, the Adirondack Explorer is reporting. 50,000 bats live in the shuttered mine, but a developer wants to flood the mine and create, basically, a huge battery for electricity that does not use fossil fuels. Construction of the $300 million project in Moriah could threaten the safe hibernation area for six species of bats, most on the endangered species list.
The Reynolds Road solar array in the Town of Moreau that came to light last week has already garnered at least one person in opposition, the Post-Star is reporting. The solar array--a 10-megawatt endeavor proposed for the site of the former Tee Bird South golf course on Route 197--comes with a railroad spur that has Jim Hooper pushing back. The site is zoned R-3, meaning it’s a residential area on larger lots.
Human Resources, Employees and Management
The reported COVID numbers in a federal prison in Ray Brook, N.Y., have been underreported, a union official says in an Adirondack Daily Enterprise story. The representative said the numbers at the Federal Corrections Institute at Ray Brook are correct now, but a spike last month was never reported properly. The story reports that 86 inmates and 17 staff are sick with COVID currently, but that two weeks ago the numbers were 130 and 25 respectively, the story reports.