News that the remote stretches of Interstate 87 — the Northway — will be without reliable emergency-phone service through this winter is disturbing.

The 20-year-old phone system, now antiquated, is being replaced. Naturally, this being New York state — and, particularly, the Adirondack Park — serious red tape is preceding the installation of the modern life-savers.

The phones number 64 and are placed every two miles, north and south, along the Northway between Pottersville, about halfway up the highway, and Plattsburgh. It is that stretch where exits are the most infrequent. In case of a breakdown, especially in frigid weather, a motorist waiting for a passerby to help — assuming a passerby would even stop — could be stranded for hours.

Of course, we know that the phones are used for less pressing business. State Police have told us that many of the callers simply want directions, gas-station locations or other routine information. Nevertheless, providing that information has become a State Police function that the public wants, appreciates and apparently is willing to pay for.

The history of the phones hasn’t been one happy chapter after another. They broke down in the summer of 1999, and repairs were difficult and parts elusive. But repaired they were, only to collapse again as one of the rare victims of the dreaded Y2K computer changeover.

Now, all agree that the phones need to be replaced. This time, cell phones will be installed. But, as with any large-scale project in the Adirondacks, an environmental-impact statement must be completed first.

The fear is that the cell-phone towers won’t be consistent with the rural décor. Three towers are being installed but not yet activated so experts will be able to evaluate the appearance.

Assuming they give the OK, all the phones will be erected in earnest. Unfortunately, that will now take us into next spring. So it will be another winter of promised increased highway patrols by the State Police while engineers get the phones working.

This is bad news, not only because the emergency service will be missing, but because the sparse police presence will be stretched even thinner.

There appears to be nothing anybody can do about this predicament beyond waiting it out and hoping we’re not visited by disaster in the meantime.

This is one of the liabilities of living in the North Country. It’s hard to imagine such a gap in public safety being abided in New York City.

Press Republican Online

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2002