Like a slow-moving homecoming parade, the process begun three years ago to relocate the Adirondack Park Agency’s headquarters from Ray Brook four miles west to the Village of Saranac Lake is approaching a critical juncture.
The agency’s final destination will depend largely on choices made in New York’s FY 2026 budget, due April first.
If successful, the vision of Executive Director Barb Rice to move her agency to Saranac Lake’s historic Paul Smith’s Electric Power & Light building at the foot of Main Street will close a loop for the native Saranac Laker.
Rice’s career in public service began in 2012 when she was elected village trustee. She subsequently won election to the Franklin County Legislature in Malone before moving to the Governor’s Office in Albany. Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Rice to run the Park Agency in February 2022.
Preparations for a new headquarters predate Rice’s tenure at the Park Agency. Her predecessor Terry Martino mapped out a plan with New York’s Division of the Budget for a new $15-20 million structure at the state government’s Ray Brook campus.
Governor Hochul however, sent Rice to Ray Brook with a promise of $29 million for a new headquarters in New York’s FY 2023 budget.
The state Legislature approved the funding in April 2022. Within months Adirondack Park Agency staff approached Saranac Lake’s newly-elected mayor, James Williams, to discuss the Power & Light property, considered the preferred option.
In 1986, the village had purchased the 1920s office building and the integrated 1830s powerhouse which abuts the dam on Lake Flower and controls the level of three lakes above the Saranac River. Saranac Lake’s village offices occupied the front of the structure until 2012. The village police department moved into the rear of the building in 1991, remaining there until earlier this year.
Park Agency staff offered to lease the property from the village — the agency’s charter bars it from owning property — restore the historic 9,237-square-foot building and erect a 19,000-square-foot companion structure on the same parcel.
From Saranac Lake’s perspective, urgently needed repairs to the Power & Light Building’s foundation would have been an unaffordable expense. Mayor Jimmy Williams had his own plan to build a combined police, fire and rescue complex elsewhere in the village, which would clear the way for the Park Agency’s construction and occupancy downtown. Closed-door negotiations to hammer out a deal followed.
One year later in June 2023, after Director Rice made her agency’s relocation plans public, Saranac Lake’s Chamber of Commerce and its historic preservation association, joined the bandwagon. The village board passed a resolution endorsing the idea.
Nevertheless, any expectation of a smooth march west ran into potholes and detours: the site chosen by the village for its emergency services complex would need a freshwater wetlands permit for direct fire and rescue access to a state highway, presenting the Park Agency with a potentially deal-breaking conflict; the projected cost of shoring up the Power & Light building delayed release of a feasibility study for the project and forced the Park Agency to request an additional $10 million from Albany.
Other state authorities were drawn into the broader scheme providing temporary headquarters for village police in a vacant National Guard armory outside the village.
The parade has been disruptive on both ends of the route. Park Agency staff is divided over the relocation plan, seen by many as a distraction from the agency’s mission. The move would separate the APA from DEC’s Region 5 headquarters, its neighbor and co-regulatory body.
Leaving Ray Brook would also mean abandoning the agency’s Forest of Heroes, a stand of trees dedicated to individuals like Clarence Petty, Barbara McMartin and Fred Monroe who have made significant contributions to the Adirondack Park.
On Saranac Lake’s end, the village’s failure to raise $24 million from the federal government for the emergency services complex now threatens to saddle the village with the maximum debt load permitted under New York’s Constitution.
Mayor Williams’ concession to the Park Agency, committing to a project designed to avoid Park Agency jurisdiction, will end up sending emergency vehicles through residential streets and increasing response times for most village neighborhoods and residents.
Fork in the road
The conjoined capital projects of the Adirondack Park Agency and the Village of Saranac Lake, begun at a moment of fiscal abundance, have arrived at a moment of deep economic uncertainty.
Anticipated cutbacks to the $96 billion in federal funds that are currently provided to New York State have drastically altered budget priorities in Albany. The new reality may eliminate some or all of the extra money earmarked for the Park Agency’s relocation.
Executive Director Rice’s original impulse in deciding to move Park Agency headquarters to Saranac Lake was to provide a transformational project for her agency and her hometown.
Three years later, through no fault of her own, that move is more and more likely to end with her agency divided and her hometown in fiscal peril, with public safety services left in limbo.
As the state budget deadline approaches, perhaps the more responsible route to follow for the Adirondack Park’s regional planning agency, would be to circle back to Ray Brook where the Park Agency could build a less ambitious headquarters.
If Executive Director Rice is still inclined to help her hometown, she could ask the Governor and the Budget Division to reallocate any remaining money from the original $29 million headquarters appropriation to repairing the historic Power & Light Building for the village’s use. That would certainly be welcomed.
Stephen Erman is a regional development consultant in Saranac Lake. He served as special assistant for economic affairs at the Adirondack Park Agency for 28 years.
Mark Wilson is a freelance cartoonist, illustrator and political observer from Saranac Lake. He provided the illustration for this essay.
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