Governor Kathy Hochul paid her first official visit to the Adirondacks since taking office. The Governor wrapped up Climate Week by taking part in a demonstration in a newly paved municipal parking lot along Main Street in Lake Placid that’s part of a 15-and-a-half-million-dollar water infrastructure project in the village, replacing water and sewer lines, and using a new type of asphalt on sidewalks and parking lots that rainwater runs right through, capturing and filtering stormwater runoff and preventing it from flowing into near-by Mirror Lake.
It was just one of several major announcements from Hochul during Climate Week, including two new transmission lines that will carry power to more than two and a half million customers in metropolitan New York. One of those projects, the Champlain Hudson Power Express line, would run power from Canada under Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to New York City. If it wins approval, it would be the largest contract in Hydro-Quebec’s history.
Governor Hochul talked about moving ahead on that project when she met with reporters during her stop in Lake Placid.
We also asked the Governor about the Federal Infrastructure Bill working its way through Congress, and calls for her to reach out to the Biden Administration to get the Northern Border reopened to Canadians.
Hochul also told our colleagues at North Country Public Radio that she will name a new chairperson for the Adirondack Park Agency, although she wouldn’t say who it will be, or how soon that announcement may come. The APA has been without a chair for more than two years.
Before heading to Lake Placid last week, Hochul stopped by the Business Council’s annual meeting in Bolton Landing where she said she plans to continue with ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Councils, and yearly competitions, although she says she is open to new ideas including boosting the amount of money for Downtown Revitalization projects.
Tupper Lake and the Town of Plattsburgh are two communities here in the North Country that are hoping to tap into the latest round of DRI funding.