Politicians need to address `graying of Warren County’
Lake George quietly changes sports nickname to Lakers
By Ken Tingley
The Lake George Mirror called it “the graying of Warren County.”
It was written earlier this month by editor and publisher Anthony Hall and highlights the dramatic aging that has taken place not only in Warren County but in rural communities throughout the Adirondacks.
The story highlights an analysis done by Sara Frankenfeld at Warren County’s Department of Planning and Community. Frankenfeld is the Geographic information System (GIS) administrator at the county. GIS is a computer system that analyzes and displays geographically referenced information to analyze what is happening in a specific place. This report looked at age trends in the county.
Consider these statistics:
- The median age in Warren County in 1980 was 30.9. Today is it is 47.5
- Half the people in the town of Hague are over the age of 60.
- Bolton, Chester, Johnsburg, Lake George, Lake Luzerne and Stony Creek all have a median age past 50.
- In 2000, there was 9,518 people over the age of 65 in the county. Today there are 15,255.
It’s a trend we are seeing nationwide as the Baby Boomer generation ages and retires and fewer people are having children and larger families.
“The percentage of the population in the U.S. aged 65 and over is increasing at the fastest rate in over a century,” Frankenfeld told Warren County supervisors earlier this year.
Then she said this, “We are really old.”
That’s not good for business. That is not good for the community.
The Mirror reported that the median age in Warren County was the second highest in the Adirondack Park, second in the Capital District and fourth in the state. For those of you who have lived here for sometime, that should not be surprising. The quality of life here is outstanding and more and more people from downstate are heading north to take advantage of cheaper real estate. Not everyone loves the heat in Florida.
Considering the county increasingly relies on a service-based economy catering to the tourist industry, this trend is not beneficial.
I will make an even larger pronouncement: The graying of the North Country may be the most significant problem facing us over the next 10 years.
As someone who just turned 66 and is in good health, I’m already wondering who will take care of us old codgers.
Who is going to mow our lawns, shovel our driveways, work in doctor offices and rehab centers?
So where is Sen. Dan Stec and Assemblyman Matt Simpson on these issues? What can the state do to help?
If Rep. Elise Stefanik could take a few moments from her fundraising and attacking the current president, she might find this is an incredible pressing problem facing the communities she represents all across the North Country.
But is she looking for solutions?
How do we get younger?
How do we get families to settle here?
How do we survive our golden years?
“We now have more people over the age of 65 than we do kids,” Frankenfeld said in The Mirror article. In Horicon and Lake George that is less than 15 percent of the population.
“I cannot overstate how important this issue is,” Jim Siplon, Warren County’s Economic Development Corporation president said in The Mirror article.
The questions are limitless.
Who is going to volunteer to fight our fires and man ambulance crews?
Who is going to sit on school boards and help other people in the community?
Without a vibrant workforce, it will be difficult to have vibrant businesses.
There are no easy answers here.
Siplon told The Mirror his organization has been trying to stay ahead of the trend so the economy will be not only healthy today, but 20 years from now.
Stefanik, Stec and Simpson could make a difference for the local people they represent if they addressed this issue.
They just have to stop playing politics and do some real work.
Another nickname
It probably flew under the radar for most of you, but Lake George Central School changed its nickname from the Warriors to the Lakers last week.
A student advisory committee announced the change.
Glens Falls had previously changed its Indian nickname without much fanfare.
The schools are two examples of districts doing the responsible and mature thing without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits and dividing the community.
After all, it’s just a mascot.
No newspaper
As a former editor of the newspaper, I received my share of calls about delivery problems over the years. Unfortunately, I have not received a printed newspaper since Saturday, Aug. 19.
The big problem is that since the newspaper is now delivered with the mail, I don’t know whether the problem is with newspaper production of with the U.S. Postal Service and I don’t know who I should complain to.
Scheduling a trial
The best analogy I heard about the controversy over when Trump should be tried in court was the comparison to a professional athlete.
If an NFL quarterback were arrested on felony charges would a judge postpone his trial until after the Super Bowl. I don’t think that would be appropriate, but that is the argument for holding Trump’s trail after the presidential election.
Judges should apply the same logic to politicians.
Trailer for new book
My next book - The Last American Editor, Vol. 2 - will be coming out in October with 90 more columns about the people and events in Glens Falls over the past three decades.
Something or Other Publishing released the book trailer this week. Hope you get a chance to check it out and preorder the book.
I have two solutions. One is a high speed rail from NYC to Canada and the second is fixing the internet access in the north country. That would give access to jobs and invite more folks to move north. No one lives without internet/cell phone access any more and young folks won’t even consider moving north without it. I would LOVE my children to move back and they would love to come back. The jobs aren’t here to support their student loans and a mortgage.
The aging of our county was entirely predictable and as you noted people have been predicting it for decades, a result of Baby Boomer aging. What’s more, we are a very attractive area for many people who have had 2nd homes to retire - because (here’s the good news) NY state has the highest per capita GDP of any state! We have good quality of life here and fairly low cost of living. It is a balance between expenses and amenities, and smart people are finding that the benefits far outweigh the negatives - if we discount the constant negative attitude of many locals.
What we suffer most is not from physical aging of our population, but from the old and tired ideas of our elected leaders - the GOP old guard follow people like Stec, Stefanik, and Trump who embrace the message that people should leave NY. Read this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/nyregion/trump-new-york.html
I meet a lot of people who move here for opportunity and for quality of life. We have good schools, friendly and safe communities, and lots of recreation and cultural assets. A couple of examples? Claudia Braymer and Dr Diana Palmer and their families.
I’m sick of hearing elected leaders complain about what they can’t do, what can’t be done, people who complain about ‘Albany,’ or ‘downstate,’ or ‘New York City,’ ‘Cuomo’ or ‘Hochul,’ and never talk about what they can get done. We need new leadership. We need people who will help expand opportunity not just go through the motions and collect their government paycheck like Dan Stec and his ilk.
Change can’t wait.