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Community Groups Name Award Recipients tZBB Northern New York's Greatest Weekly A Town & Country Newspaper Vol. 102 No. 32 — Gouverneur, N.Y. Copyright c 1989 MRS Printing Inc. Wednesday, March 29, 19S9 TWO SECTIONS — 22 Pages — 35 Cents THE 1989 MAPLE SYRUP SEASON has gotten off to a slow start, but finally local producers are collecting sap. At left, Joe Yancey, Belfort, leans back on the evaporator he's worked for 50 years at the Yancey family sugarbush. At right, Roy Nuffer pours syrup through a filter before canning. For story and additional photos of maple syrup production in the north country, turn to page 13. Tribune Photos/Jan Phillips Village, Town Officials Poised for Prison Vote By Lisa L. Reape Some 500 area residents have signed petitions in support of a correctional facility beinglocated in the Town of Gouverneur, as town and village officials vote on whether to submit Gouverneurs name on the list of communities seek- ing a prison bid. Petitions have been cir- culating in the community for more than two weeks now. They first appeared at the Town Board's regu- lar meeting March 14. The Gouverneur Town Board scheduled a special meeting for last night, where it was expected that a resolution in support of submitting Gouverneur's name for a correctional facility would pass. A special meeting of the Village Board is slated for 7 this evening, where trus- tees will be asked to con- sider a similar resolution. The village's resolution would also commit the village to providing water and sewer services, if such a facility were sited in the town. If both resolutions are ratified, town and village officials expect to deliver an informational packet about Gouverneur to Al- bany, perhaps as early as next week. Some 100 residents turned out at an informa- tional meeting last week on the topic of what a cor- rectional facility could mean to Gouverneur The session was held at Gou- verneur High School and featured Wayne Barkley, superintendent of the Riverview Correctional Facility at Ogdensburp; Charles Kelly, chairman of the Riverview Correc- tional Facility Advisory Board, and male and fe- TtctionaJ officers at the two correctional fa- cilities at Ogdensburg. Village and town officials were also on hand for the informational meeting. The guests were treated to a cordial reception from members of the audience, who listened with interest to remarks by Mr. Bar- kley and Mr. Kelly. The floor was then opened to questions from the audi- ence. Although both Mr. Bar- kley and Mr. Kelly said they were not trying to sell Gouverneur on a cor- rectional facility, some members of the audience appeared ready to buy, as the economic impact of a correctional facility was described. Mr. Barkley related that the 750-bed medium secu- rity Riverview facility has an annual operating budget of $16 million, $12 million of which goes to pay employe salaries. Roughly 400-450 staff people are required for a facility of that size. Of those, about 150-170 jobs are classified as non-secu- rity positions, such as teachers, counselors, cooks, clerical, and so forth. The average salary is about$30,000 annually. Only about 10-15 of those jobs, however, are non- competitive, meaning the rest are civil service jobs. Besides payroll, Mr. Kelly described the bene- fits the community derives from hosting a correctional facility. \People buy homes in the community, rents are up— it all helps the economy;\ Ibe said. In Ogdensburg, the payroll from the two fa- cilities is over $20 milbon annually. In addition, he said, each facility spends about $250,000 in the cost $50 million to con- struct,\ he said. \That helps your economy.\ In addition, he said, the prison employes are also very active in the commu- nity, whether it be sports programs, charities—even the recent Ogdensburg Expo. \Many of the booths were built by correctional officers,\ he said. Mr. Kelly also described the benefits the commu- nity derives from projects completed by work crews from the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility. They work in churches • and for other not-for-profit organizations,\ he said. \They don't take the place of local contractors, but where people wouldn't have the budget to pay for the work. It's worked out very well—there's always a waiting list for their services\ Mr. Kelly said he's never had a day go by when he regrets the correctional facilities in Ogdensburg. \We'd all like to see industry come into St. Lawrence County, but that's not in the cards,\ he said. \We have to take what's out there, and Tm not apologizing for one minute that we have a correctional facility. •It's something we (Ogdensburg) should have started before,\ he said. \It's too bad we have to have prisons, but if we can take the benefits from them, we should because underemployment is a serious thing in St Law- rence County.\ There was a great deal of interest expressed by members of the audience about the job opportune First in St. Lawrence Countx Adult Day Care Center Opens Saturday in Village HELEN LOVE warms up on the kazoo during a practice session of theGouvsrneur Senior Citizens Kitchen Band at Cambray Court Community Center. For other photos, turn to page 17. Tribune Photo/Jan Phillips Welding Supply Co. Opens in Gouverneur Both Mr. Berkley and Mr. Kelly encouraged Tfce Rrrerview facility See Prison Pa** 6 Merriam-Graves Corpo- ration, described as the largest independently owned and operated weld- ing supply distributor on the East Coast, has opened its newest branch in Gou- verneur at the Trackside Plaza. The Gouverneur branch represents the 23rd loca- tion of a 22-year-old cor poration owned and oper- ated by Henry Wake man of Woodstock, Vt Two of Mr Wakeman*i sons are involved in the family business ScottWakeman serves as executive vice president, while Kit is f***t operations manager Tbe newest showroom is the third branch of the New York corporal; on (There is also a Massa- chusetts corporation, a Vermont corporation, and a New Hampshire corpo- ration.) Merriam-Graves came into New York three and one-half years ago with a branch office in Platts Iburgh. Tike corporation then expanded into Brush- ton a year ago. Merriam-Graves serv- ices and sells the Lincoln Electric, Miller Electric, Hobart, L-Tec, Pow-Con, and Thermal Dynamics welding machine lines ~We also handle atmos- pheric gase*, such as oxy- gen, acetylene and argon. as well as specialty gases,* See Welding Pajre 6 By Lisa L. Reape The first Adult Social Day Care Center in St. Lawrence County will make its debut in Gou- verneur on Saturday. It's been a year since organizers began working on the project, but the center will be open to clients on weekends be- ginning April 1 st, at Cam- bray Courts. Betsy Kirby, supervisor of Medical Services for the County Department of Social Services, and an organizer of the center, said one of the objectives of the Adult Social Day Care Center will be to provide respite for family care givers, who give round-the-clock care for a loved one with Alzheimer's Disease or other debilitat- ing ailments. *Our family care givers are our most precious com- modity,\ Mrs. Kirby said. She noted family care givers often have jobs, then come home and provide supervision to their spouse or parent When it in- volves an Alzheimer's patient, it's particularly stressful on the care giver, she added. The center will allow family care givers a much- meeded break, allowing them to rest or do things for themselves. Mean- while, nurses and personal care aides on duty will pro- vide functionally impaired •dults clients with super- vision and or assistance with the activities of daily Irving Another objective of the center is to help delay costly institutional care and preserve the ability of the family care givers to continue canng for their loved one in the home The effort to open an Adult Social Day Care Center in Gouverneur began a year ago, when Mrs. Kirby asked Bruce Thomas, then long-term care coordinator for St. Lawrence County, to look into the need for such a program. A questionnaire was distributed in the commu- nity, to gauge the need for such a center. Eight people responded, Mrs. Kirby said. She then petitioned the Long-Term Care Advisory Committee of St. Law- rence County, which com- prises department heads of the Department of So- cial Services, Public Health Nursing and the Office for the Aging, as well as county legislators, for permission to continue working towards the proj- ect. Mark Stoddart, director of County Health/Public Health, and Byron Quin- ton, administrator of EJ Noble Hospital, Gou- verneur, have been in- volved in the effort, as have local clergymen. *St Lawrence Psychiat- ric Center has also been helpful in allowing us to use their Geriatric Day Care Center on the week- ends,\ Mrs. Kirby said. Staff time is being do- nated by Public Health Nursing, Community De- velopment Program <CDP;, Office for the Ag- ing, and Department of Social Services, while meals will be provided by EJ Noble Hospital. The center will operate on a trial basis from April to June, at which time the program will be evaluated. \Well be looking at the need for such a service, and whether there is a greater need for services during the week,\ Mrs. Kirby said. The commit- tee will also Jook at whether the program should be continued and/ expanded. If successful, the Adult Social Day Care Center in Gouverneur could serve as a model for the rest of the county. The program not only is a first for St. Lawrence County, it is new to the north country in general. Mrs. Kirby said the clos- est such center she knows of is located in Onondaga County, where the service is provided by the Alz- heimer's and Related Dis- orders Association. That program has been pro- vides services Monday through Friday for some 25-30 clients and has been successfully run for the past four years. The Gouverneur Com- munity Adult Social Day Care Center will operate every Saturday and Sun- day from 9 am to 5 p.m. in the Cambray Courts Geriatric Day Care Cen- ter in the ground floor level of the community build- ing. Cost of the program is $2.50 per hour Transpor- tation must be provided to and from the center To apply, contact Betsy Kirby at 287 2412 after 6 p.m or weekends, or through the Gouverneui Public Health Nursing Of- fice at the Mater Dei Col- lege at 287-0920. Anyone interested in volunteering his time to help maintain these indi- vidual s is also encouraged to call one of the above numbers x
