Former Tavern Arms, also known as Nikki’s Place, will be sold at a separate auction from the typical Franklin County land sale
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Site of building collapse for sale
DENISE A. RAYMO Press-Republican The Press Republican Sat May 19, 2012, 04:26 PM EDT
MALONE — Nikki’s Place, a former downtown bar with rented rooms upstairs, is still controversial 10 months after it collapsed and was dumped in a landfill.
Franklin County was given the 0.17-acre vacant property by its owner, Michael Rushford of Chateaugay, and will hold a special auction shortly to sell it.
A minimum bid of $10,000 will be required, since that is what is owed in taxes.
Records with the County Treasurer’s Office state the taxes were not paid on the property in 2010, 2011 or 2012 and total $9,445.37.
A few legislators questioned why this parcel is being treated separately from the stack of others that will go up for auction later this year, after County, Surrogate and Supreme Court Judge Robert G. Main Jr. finishes his review of the documents to transfer titles to the county.
“I don’t want this to be one of those shabby deals,” said Legislator Guy “Tim” Smith (D-Fort Covington).
County Attorney Jonathan Miller said the acquisition didn’t go through the regular foreclosure process for unpaid taxes that Main reviews. Rushford turned the vacant lot over to the county instead, which frees the county to dispose of it any way it sees fit.
“It’s not a typical proceeding,” Miller said. “We took title and are trying to sell it to keep it on the tax rolls.
“The tax meter keeps running,” he said, adding that after discussing it with County Treasurer Bryon Varin, they decided the best plan was to hold a separate auction.
Complete story in Press Republican May 19, 2012
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amaze35708 @ May 19, 2012
Hotel Flanagan project revived
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DENISE A. RAYMO Press-Republican The Press Republican Thu May 10, 2012, 10:21 AM EDT
PAUL SMITHS — The Hotel Flanagan may have new life again under a plan presented to the Franklin County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday.
Frank Cositore, the president of UICC Holding LLC, which owned the property at the corner of Main and Elm streets until it was lost to foreclosure in 2009, said he’s been working since January to bring together stakeholders to get behind a scaled-down version of a concept he first brought to Malone in 2004.
And a $2.1 million grant awarded in 2009 to the village for the project is still out there, waiting to spent, he said.
But first, he needs the results of two independent studies that are under way — one is a property appraisal and the other an economic-feasibility review, Cositore said.
The reports should be ready in 45 days, and once he has those in hand, the design and architecture work can begin.
That is when, Cositore said, he will get back to the IDA more detailed plans and a specific funding request.
NO TENANTS, NO DESIGN
The three-phase project would first create retail and commercial space on the ground floor, beginning this fall. The completion date would be spring 2013.
“In five or six months, we can start swinging hammers,” Cositore said. “But unless we have tenants, we’re not going to design.”
Phase II would follow from there into the fall of 2013, with construction of the main lobby and the first-floor guest rooms, he said. The top three floors of the hotel would see rooms completed by the second quarter of 2014.
Cositore told the IDA Board of Directors at Paul Smith’s College that he was there representing the interests of UICC, the bank that holds title and the newest network of financial backers. He said the first 18 months of Phase I would cost about $4.5 million.
COMPLETE STORY IN TODAY’S PRESS REPUBLICAN
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amaze35708 @ May 10, 2012
Teen charged friend’s death
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DENISE RAYMO Press-Republican The Press RepublicanMon May 07, 2012, 04:50 PM EDT
Brushton, New York (Photo credit: Dougtone)
MOIRA — A Brushton teen was charged with criminally negligent homicide Monday in connection with a Dec. 7 car crash that killed student athlete Brooke Lyon.
Tanya Menke, 16, was arrested, when she turned herself in to State Police Monday, on that charge, as well as second-degree vehicular assault, driving with ability impaired by drugs, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop at a stop sign, failure to reduce speed for special hazards, operating a motor vehicle with a front-seat passenger other than a supervising driver and operating a motor vehicle with a learner’s permit without every member of the vehicle restrained by a safety belt.
The teen is to reappear in Brandon Town Court at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, to answer the two most serious charges, both felonies, and at 6 p.m. Monday, May 21, in Bangor Court on the traffic tickets, police said.
Menke, Lyon and Alexis Collette, 17, of Brushton were traveling on McGowan Road in Bangor at about 3:30 p.m. that day in heavy fog when the 1999 Volkswagon Beetle Menke was driving went off the road near the intersection with Eddy Road and struck a tree.
Grief counselors and members of the clergy converged on Brushton-Moira Central School, where the teens were enrolled, to help students, faculty and staff deal with the tragedy.
Investigators had said at the time that the weather and fog may had played a role in the crash.
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amaze35708 @ May 7, 2012
Area men sentenced in deadly robbery
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REBECCA WEBSTER Press-Republican The Press Republican Fri May 04, 2012, 09:25 AM EDT
UTICA — Two local men were sentenced to prison Thursday for their roles in the attempted robbery and killing of a St. Lawrence County man in 2008.
In U.S. District Court in Utica, Brian J. Latulipe, 28, of Bombay was given 14 years in prison and Bryan Herne, also known as Wildcat, 31, of Hogansburg was sentenced to 11 years and three months, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A third man, Kaientanoron L. Swamp, 29, of Snye, Quebec, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison.
The three men admitted that in the early morning of May 13, 2008, they and four other men planned to rob Daniel Simonds of a large amount of Canadian-grown marijuana and money that he had stored at his residence on Porter Lunch Road in the Town of Stockholm.
Some of the men went to Simonds’s residence, where they engaged in a physical confrontation with him. Simonds was shot once by one of the assailants during the confrontation. He died later that day at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.
Co-defendants Alan Jacobs, 36, of Hogansburg and Derek Cooke, 31, of Snye, Quebec, were previously sentenced to time in prison.
The remaining co-defendants, Chad Edwards, 22, and Anson Edwards, 24, both of Cornwall, Ontario, will be sentenced in September.
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amaze35708 @ May 4, 2012
Malone Court addition still stalled
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DENISE RAYMO Press-Republican The Press Republican Wed May 02, 2012, 03:01 PM EDT
MALONE — And, because that work is not done, the state rejected a request for another $20,000 to buy new furnishings for the facility.
The problem could be with the original application because it may not have included money to cover insulation for the addition or building materials to finish the ceiling.
Town Justice Frank Cositore said he hopes to get answers from town officials this week to determine what happened and what the next step might be to get the work done.
“I don’t understand it. This has been going on for a year,” he said.
INCREASED VOLUME
Town Justice Michael Lamitie, who is on vacation out of the area until mid May, applied for a $30,000 grant from the State Office of Court Administration, which was awarded in March 2011. The funding was to expand the courtroom to accommodate the growing number of cases before the bench.
The volume increased when the Village of Malone dissolved its court on Dec. 1, 2010, and the town took over its operation.
The $20,760 grant was to pay for a 20-by-40-foot addition on the north-facing side of the Town Office at the Malone Dufort Airport.
The added space would expand the office for the two court clerks and two judges and provide a larger attorney-client conference room, in addition to enlarging the courtroom.
At the same time, the parking lot was to be reconfigured and expanded to accommodate the more vehicles.
Town Highway Department employees started the cement work, did some initial construction and were to have the parking-lot paving done during the summer of 2011 in between other paving projects.
In December, an independent annual audit the town commissioned criticized the courts for improperly filing certain paperwork, making late bank deposits and for having a large backlog of parking violations inherited from Village Court.
The judges said the issues were not of concern to the state, which oversees court operations, and that delays and missed filings were just part of the 18-month transition period it typically takes to go from two courts to one.
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amaze35708 @ May 2, 2012
Two Malone men face charges after auto-shop burglary
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REBECCA WEBSTER
Press-Republican
NORTH BANGOR — Burglars crashed a truck through an overhead door of an auto-sales shop here, and two Malone men face charges.
The break-in was called in around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 21, at Tony’s Auto Sales on Route 11, New York State Police said Friday in a press release.
After the pickup truck was used to gain entrance to the pre-owned-auto sales establishment, two engines and other auto parts were stolen, police said.
Most of the pilfered parts were recovered from an area scrap yard.
On Thursday morning, police arrested Christopher W. Tuper, 31, in the Village of Malone and, later in the day, Adam F. Gervais, 25, in Plattsburgh.
Tuper is charged with third-degree burglary, a felony, and was arraigned in Bangor Town Court. He was committed to Franklin County Jail in lieu of $25,000 cash bail.
Gervais is charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a felony, and was arraigned in Ellenburg Town Court. He was committed to Clinton County Jail in lieu of $15,000 cash bail.
Both men remained incarcerated Friday afternoon.
The investigation was ongoing, police said, and further arrests were pending.
Store owner Tony LaPage did not want to comment on the burglary.
Both Gervais and Tuper have tangled with the law before.
In 2005, Gervais was charged with arson and the following year was charged with violating probation. He faced charges of burglary and criminal possession of stolen property in 2007 and driving while intoxicated and aggravated unlicensed operation in late 2011.
Tuper was charged with forgery, grand larceny, possession of a forgery device and falsifying business records in 2004 and possession of a forged instrument in 2009.
The Press-Republican did not have resolutions on these cases, but Gervais did serve time in state prison from 2006 to 2009 on two attempted-burglary charges.
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amaze35708 @ April 27, 2012
McCann sentencing put off
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DENISE A. RAYMO Press-Republican The Press Republican Mon Apr 23, 2012, 10:40 AM EDT
MALONE — Robert J. McCann’s sentencing for attempted murder and other crimes was pushed back Monday by an unexpected trip out of town by Franklin County Court Judge Robert G. Main Jr.
McCann, 28, of Brushton was convicted in February of six of the nine counts against him, also including kidnapping, first-degree assault and criminal use of a firearm, as well as attempted assault and stalking.
The crimes could carry a combined sentence of 47 years in state prison.
Sentencing was changed by the judge to 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 14, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
McCann abducted her, secreting her in the trunk of the car he drove to Plattsburgh, where he forced her to stay overnight. Her injuries prevented her from holding her head up, and she feared she might never wake up.
He released her the next day.
The jury deliberated 10 hours before reaching its verdict, which included not-guilty findings on three counts of first-degree rape.
The Press-Republican did not reveal the name of the victim because of the sexual nature of the charges.
Email Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepubliucan.com
Complete Story in April 24 Press Republican
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amaze35708 @ April 23, 2012
Storm fells trees, power lines
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Storm fells trees, power lines
DENISE RAYMO, and SUZANNE MOORE Press-Republican, News Editor The Press Republican Mon Apr 23, 2012, 11:40 AM EDT
An atypical Nor’easter brought snow, rain and strong winds to parts of the region overnight.
Monday morning, emergency crews, including from New York State Electric and Gas converged on the Smith and Trombley roads in the Town of Ellenburg, where trees and power lines were down.
Electric lines were also down in the Town of Mooers.
Northern Franklin County saw storm damage and interrupted power, as well.
Heavy snow knocked limbs down onto lines, interrupting service. Winds gusts reached between 20, 30 and, at Plattsburgh International Airport, 35 mph, said according to the National Weather Service in Burlington, and a wind advisory for the region is in place until 8 tonight.
POWER OUT
There were 1,952 customers without power across on the National Grid system as of Monday morning, but fewer than 15 of them were in Franklin and Essex counties, according to the company website.
A pocket of homes on the Malone/Westville line along Route 37 and fewer than five homes in Black Brook near Turnpike road had no service as of 9 a.m.
But repairs crews were expected to bring them back online quickly.
NOT TYPICAL
Snow totals also included an inch in Tupper Lake and 3 inches in Onchiota, said Weather Service meteorologist Mike Muccilli.
Franklin County so far received about an inch of rain in some areas; some spots in Clinton County got as much as 1.5 inches.
Muccilli said wind, rain and snow traveled into the North Country ahead of the storm, which formed over the eastern North Carolina, collecting moisture from the Atlantic Ocean before moving through northern Pennsylvania and through New York state.
For the rest of the day, he said, expect breezy, cloudy weather with some showers.
Complete story in April 24 Press Republican
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amaze35708 @ April 23, 2012
Teen admits to mom’s murder
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DENISE A. RAYMO Press-Republican The Press Republican Thu Apr 19, 2012, 05:55 PM EDT
MALONE — Dilan E. Clark admitted Thursday that he killed his mother, Karen Bourdon-Clark, a popular counselor in the Malone Central School District.
The 14-year-old, who was an eighth-grader at Holy Family School in Malone when the crime occured, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
He is expected to be sentenced to nine years to life in state prison when he reappears before Judge Robert G. Main Jr. at 8:30 a.m. July 9 in Franklin County Court.
Bourdon-Clark, 45, was stabbed to death about 2:15 a.m. on May 1 at the family home at 15465 Route 30 in the Town of Constable.
Dilan was arrested at about 6:30 a.m. that day, after he was found sitting on the porch of a house about a mile from home.
The boy, who was adopted by the family from Guatemala at age 5 or 6, accepted a plea agreement because did not want to put his family — especially his sister, Jamel — through the ordeal of a trial, said defense attorney Steve Vanier.
Jamel, who is also 14 and was adopted as a baby from Guatemala, was home at the time of the murder, but unhurt.
She called 911 to report the attack and summon help for their mother.
A CLEAR VOICE
About 3:20 p.m. Thursday, the teen, who wore a two-piece orange County Jail outfit and blue canvas shoes, slowly shuffled into the courtroom, handcuffed about the waist and in ankle chains, accompanied by two sheriff’s deputies.
Seated at the defense table, he hung his head for the first few minutes in court then stood next to his attorney and replied to the judge’s questions in a clear voice.
A half-dozen family members and friends sat behind him, including his father, Ronald Clark.
Mr. Clark, a volunteer firefighter, was not at home the night of the murder because he was helping flooding victims in the southern end of the county.
See the complete Story in tomorrow’s Press Republican
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amaze35708 @ April 19, 2012
Malone Mother of 2 sent to prison
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DENISE A. RAYMO Press-Republican The Press Republican Tue Apr 17, 2012, 02:19 PM EDT Complete Story in Wednesday’s Press Republican
MALONE — A Malone woman who was pregnant when arrested for drug dealing in November has been sentenced to two years in state prison.
Lori Muller, 23, of Bruso Road pleaded guilty to third-degree attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance after indictment by a Franklin County grand jury on third-degree criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
She was one of nine arrested during a raid Nov. 10, 2011, by the County Narcotics and Border Task Force. The drug involved in her case was cocaine.
Muller sobbed, her voice wavered, and she looked down at a color photograph of her children Monday as she told County Court Judge Robert G. Main Jr., “I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I know I hurt people.”
She asked that he be lenient in sentencing because she has a baby and 2-year-old at home, “and I don’t want to be taken away from them.”
The District Attorney’s Office had agreed to a plea with a prison term not harsher than three years plus two years of post-release supervision, and Public Defender Thomas Soucia asked the judge that his client be sent to County Jail for one year “to allow her to be close to her family.”
He said Muller reminds him of what could have happened in his life if he hadn’t had two parents for support, direction and love.
“The prospect of sending a 22-year-old mother of two young children to state prison is a daunting prospect,” the judge said.
But, at the same time, “there is extraordinary regret and sadness” that, by looking at Muller’s gradually escalating criminal history since 2001, she “had been proceeding almost deliberately on a path that could’ve been predicted to take her to the counsel table to be sentenced for some type of criminal behavior.”
POOR TRACK RECORD
The judge said Muller was on probation twice before and violated the terms. And she did not complete drug-abuse rehabilitation or other programs offered to her.
And, the judge said, she was smoking marijuana right up to the time of her arrest, even though she was six months pregnant.
Main said “there is a considerable difference” between Muller and Soucia, in that Soucia was dedicated and worked hard to create opportunities for himself to become successful.
“The defendant has done none of that,” the judge said.
Instead of the plea agreement of three years in prison, Main sentenced her to two years, plus three years of post-release supervision.
Muller was also ordered to supply a DNA sample and pay about $500 in assorted fines and surcharges.
The judge said he would not make a recommendation to the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, but was not opposed to it either.
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amaze35708 @ April 17, 2012
