LABAFF: ACRES IS “FULL OF MANURE,” THAT I-98 WON'T HELP FARMERS-Ernie LaBaff of Potsdam, a board member of the St. Lawrence County IDA, and the chair of a working group that resumed efforts in the late 1990's to bring a four-lane, interstate highway to the North Country; says county Farm Bureau Board Member Kevin Acres is wrong when saying farmers would benefit more from an enhanced US Route 11. LaBaff says all industries, including agriculture, would benefit more from a four-lane. He says Acres's assertion that high-tech, knowledge-based jobs are the North Country's future, is also off-base because those jobs only go to the elite, not the everyday working-class folks who need the manufacturing-type jobs “I-98” would bring. The Farm Bureau came out in opposition to “I-98” recently. Bureau President Jon Greenwood of Canton was, at one time the county legislator representing the same district Acres now covers.

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TWO MASSENA RESIDENTS PART OF TWO-COUNTY DRUG SWEEP...39-YEAR-OLD TIMOTHY TRIMM AND 36-YEAR-OLD REBECCA COONEY BOTH ARRAIGNED AND JAILED. THE SWEEP NETTED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, HEROIN, AND COCAINE.

SUSPECTED POTSDAM PURSE THIEF CAUGHT WITH HELP OF SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS...36-YEAR-OLD TINA LEE MATTHEWS OF HERMON CHARGED WITH PETIT LARCENY AND RELEASED ON A COURT TICKET

POTSDAM POLICE ARRESTED 22-YEAR-OLD SPENCER DAVIS OF POTSDAM WEDENSDAY ON A FELONY COUNT ALLEGING HE BURGLARIZED ONE OF THE MIDTOWN APARTMENTS AND TOOK A BASKET OF CHANGE. DAVIS ARRAIGNED AND RELEASED TO PROBATION

NORTH COUNTRY REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL CO-CHAIR TONY COLLINS SAID YESTERDAY ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF 90-PLUS MILLION DOLLARS, THAT THE NORTH COUNTRY IS “NO LONGER THE UNDERDOG”.