Group calls for hearing in reaction to proposed cannon range in Lewis
By Gwendolyn Craig
In light of an application to test the ballistics of military cannons in the Town of Lewis, the Adirondack Council is calling on the Adirondack Park Agency to hold a hearing and create a policy against private party military weapons testing in the park.
“A new policy would protect birds and wildlife in the Champlain Valley, prevent a degradation of property values for people living near the proposed test site and save the quiet enjoyment of the Adirondacks for the people of Lewis,” wrote Willie Janeway, executive director of the council, to APA Executive Director Barbara Rice on Sept. 1.
Michael Hopmeier, president and principal investigator for Florida-based Unconventional Concepts Inc., said his plan is to test the internal ballistics of military cannons made at Benet Laboratories in Watervliet. Hopmeier owns the former Atlas F nuclear missile silo in Lewis and is currently conducting small firearms testing indoors there.
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Hopmeier called the council’s letter “a bunch of emotional and random statements not based on reality in any way shape or form.” No one from the council has contacted him for more information, he said, and he did not think the organization had read his application to the APA.
The project, should it get approved, would be on a former cleared woodlot owned by James Pulsifer. Pulsifer is in support of the proposal, as is Lewis Town Supervisor James Monty. They believe the testing range could bring jobs and families to the community. Five groups of neighbors wrote the APA against the proposal and no comments were submitted in support.
Among those letter writers, Daniel and Lanita Canavan also wrote to the Adirondack Explorer about potential water quality impacts, noise and other disturbances.
“(T)here is the potential for negative change whittling away at the reason the Adirondack Park was established,” the Canavans wrote. “Unless we can be convinced otherwise, we do not believe this is the right business for this community located within the Blue Line.”
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The APA has said it has never reviewed such an application, and Hopmeier’s is still considered incomplete.
In his letter to Rice, Janeway asked that if the application does get completed that the agency hold an adjudicatory hearing. That is a fact-finding hearing before a judge, and it is the only way commissioners may deny a permit. The APA board has not held such a hearing in over a decade.
Hopmeier said he expected a hearing to be part of the process for approving his application, and thought the council’s request was irrelevant.
John Sheehan, communications director for the council, said in an interview that he was concerned by the proposal and had never seen anything like it. Sheehan has served on military panels focused on training in the Adirondack Park for the past three decades. He believes there is “no location in the Adirondacks that could be sacrificed for firing cannons into it.”
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Janeway suggested in the letter that the established artillery range at Fort Drum would be a more suitable location for Hopmeier’s project. Fort Drum is about 174 miles from Benet’s Watervliet arsenal compared to the 120 miles to Lewis. Janeway suggested wildlife might make a home of the sand mound used as a backstop and questioned how plants and animals may be impacted.
“At the proposed test site in Lewis and nearby, we have grave concerns about the collateral damage that could occur from cannon shell firings, flights and impacts,” Janeway wrote. “The nature of the application seems to presume that there are wastelands within the Adirondack Park where nothing lives or can live. Such places do not exist.”
Hopmeier called the council’s concerns about overfiring projectiles “totally irrelevant” because his research and development project fires a blank, inert steel round. He was also not worried about wildlife moving into anything he might install on the project site, and was miffed by the “wastelands” comment.
Hopmeier said he is in the process of addressing the APA’s lingering questions to his incomplete application.
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This project certainly doesn’t seem likely to generate many jobs…
… the construction jobs are temporary.
I have a better suggestion. Enough weapons manufacturing and use. Demobililize the 10th Mountain Division, re-wild the base after remediation and convert Watervliet to produce renewable energy equipment.
The more I read about the project, the shadier it sounds. I feel the proposed increase in jobs and housing in Lewis is overstated, if not imaginary. Fort Drum would be a better option.
We praise the efforts of the Adirondack Council and encourage anyone who feels that this privatized military cannon testing facility has no place in the Adirondack Mountains of NY; to call, email and write letters to the Adirondack Park Agency and all other organizations and agencies charged with protecting the Park for the future generations of residents and outdoor enthusiasts. We are even now less convinced that this is good for Lewis and the Adirondack Park and hope the APA will not allow this proposal to move forward. This proposal is an example of the type of so called business that will erode the peace and tranquility of the Park and permanently alter Lewis for future generations to come. As mentioned there is already an established firing range at Fort Drum, as there is also the Ethan Allan range near Jericho Vermont. There is no need for a new cannon testing facility in Lewis. Again this benefits very few and certainly not the majority of the residents of Lewis now or in the future. Lewis has great potential with it’s proximity to the Adirondack High Peaks, Lake Placid, Whiteface, Lake Champlain etc. When people are priced out of the more exclusive zip codes in the Park, they can probably find a piece of land or a home for a fraction of the price here. It is truly a sleeper community with great promise. If a military testing facility is established it would no doubt temper a prospective homeowner from living near the cannon testing facility. Do the surrounding homes and properties increase in value with this facility expanding? Highly unlikely, more than likely our property values will go down. Again, are there guarantees that the wells in the area will not be contaminated in the future? Of course not. Again tell me what part of this proposal benefits the Town of Lewis and the families that live here? Please protect Lewis and the Adirondack Park from this precedent setting proposal.
Well said
I’m in total agreement with The Adirondack Council, Boreas and the Canavans on not allowing a proposed cannon range in Lewis.
It is also important to follow their lead and write or call the Adirondack Park Agency to express our concerns about the harmful impact such a project would have on the land, water, air and natural beauty of the Adirondack Park. A military cannon range would do nothing but create a permanent ugly scar on the Park. Surely the Adirondack Park Agency would not want that outcome.
I wonder if the projectiles will include loud reports. In other words, explosions not required, just crash dummy ordinance.
Helicopters flying overhead, jet planes slamming through the sound barrier, now cannon booming in the woods? Enough. No. Such testing belongs at Fort Drum’s range not in protected wilderness, even on a private carveout.
We sent letters to the Lewis town board, requesting additional information and an open forum where residents could share their concerns. No one has responded to us. This idea is very frightening to my family, who have lived here for 4 generations. I applaud anyone who will look into this. What a terrible fate for this outstanding place in which we live. No, hell no!
“A bunch of emotional and random statements”
Seriously……
Why wouldn’t locals be emotional about this? People choose to live in the Adirondacks not to have to experience this.
We are definitely not in support of this. I am uncertain how this has made it as far as it has with lack of local supports.
Shame on you Michael Hopmeier for thinking you could just move into our community and because you have money start to experiment with it.
Shame on you James P for lining your pockets from an experimental purchase risking the very community you were raised in.
Shame on you James M. For not being supportive to this community your job as a supervisor is to represent the people and you obviously have not done that.
What an unfortunate and misaligned proposal for the Adirondack Park. Peace, tranquility, and respite, fundamental attributes of our great NY park, at risk of degradation from possible weapons testing, just seems utterly inconceivable. We must rally for the people of NYS to prevent this type of proposal from moving forward. Please join me in writing to the APA.