Cathead Mountain amendment pulled
Would have allowed access to maintain emergency tower
The state Assembly pulled a constitutional amendment that would have closed an emergency communications gap in Hamilton County after the attorney for a private hunting club said members were stunned and shocked over the legislation, which included swapping their own land.
Glens Falls attorney Dennis Phillips said the Hatchbrook Sportsmen’s Club “considered this unauthorized action as indicative of a lack of respect for its property rights and, therefore, came to the conclusion that the continuation of the land swap initiative of the county was not in their best interest.”
The club had also wanted Hamilton County to pay it $10,000 a year for three years in return for its permission to present a land swap and to cover the club’s legal fees.
The amendment, which stalled in the state Legislature for years, would allow a road to the top of Cathead Mountain in the town of Benson. A power line would service an emergency services radio communications tower.
Phillip Snyder, Benson town supervisor, said the area has popular hiking trails like Auger Falls, where there have been rescues. Better communications, he said, is crucial: “It could save somebody’s life.”
But the amendment has stalled again, and it likely won’t be reintroduced this year. The state Senate’s version of the bill was referred to the judiciary committee, but after the Assembly pulled its version, the amendment appears back in limbo.
“We’re too late in the session now to address them,” state Sen. Dan Stec, R-queensbury, said about the club’s concerns.
There is plenty of fingerpointing as to why the amendment failed. State legislators pointed to Hamilton County officials and environmental groups. County officials pointed to the Adirondack Council. The hunting club pointed to them all. In the end it means police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and volunteers will continue to do their jobs without basic radio service in some of the most rural areas of the state.
Motor vehicle use is not allowed on the state’s land surrounding Cathead Mountain. In order to build a road and power line to the privately owned mountaintop, county officials needed a constitutional amendment. To amend the state constitution, a proposal must pass two successive state Legislatures before getting on the ballot for state voters.
Environmental groups including Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve have supported the amendment and have been against the council’s idea of maintenance by helicopter. State Police told the Adirondack Explorer it would be much easier to access the tower if there was a road.
The Adirondack Council also offered a different constitutional amendment this legislative session that would have the hunting club turn over 480 acres in exchange for use of one previously closed access road. The acreage would become a part of the Silver Lake Wilderness and provide public access to Grant Lake and the summit of Cathead.
The club did not agree with that proposal either.
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-round Lake, sponsored the latest legislation even though her district does not cover Hamilton County. Some club members live in Saratoga County, she said, and as a member of the majority, she felt it made sense for her to propose it.
Woerner said she thought all the parties were on board. Shortly after the legislation was introduced, she heard from Phillips and the environmental groups.
The club said “any further involvement in the constitutional amendment process would be unduly expensive and an exercise in futility,” in its statement.
Woerner pulled the legislation.
“I decided, OK, we needed to take a step back,” Woerner said. “I think the reality is these land swaps are complex, and there’s a lot of interests at play, and a lot of ways that it can go wrong. Many of the stakeholders in various ways had been through bad land swap deals . ... The path to progress is never a straight one, it seems.”