The Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, the Adirondack North Country Association, and the Towns of Chester and Arietta partnered in securing funding for this project through the NYS Department of State Quality Communities Grant Program. Matching funds were provided by the park communities. Donations from Stewart’s Shops and the Arrow Financial Corporation made it possible to extend research in certain critical areas. The project was managed by the partner organizations sharing a common interest in “fact-based” analysis as a foundation for all future policy discussions.
The LA Group was responsible for an extensive study of secondary data sources. They produced the Community Survey, a Final Report, the community profiles and appendices. Their skills were evident throughout the charting, mapping and analysis of enormous amounts of data. Outreach and interviews were conducted with town and village officials, school superintendents, and emergency service coordinators. Eighty-five communities completed the Community Survey, while several state agencies contributed valuable information, including the Adirondack Park Agency, the Office of Real Property Services, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education and the Department of Correctional Services. The Siena Research Institute, the Center for Government Research, and the Technical Assistance Center at SUNY-Plattsburgh also played important roles in providing and analyzing data. Due to the fact that a third of the towns and most of the counties of the park are divided by the park boundary, data related to those communities partially within the park was especially difficult to collect and assess. All efforts were made to aggregate data specific to the towns and villages of the park.
Extensive demographic, finance and socio-economic data for every community in the park is presented in 103 individual municipal profiles. Printed and digital copies of the profiles, project report and appendices, including a digital database, are available at the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, at www.aatvny.org.
~The APRAP Steering Committee
