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for decades neighbors who live here on
mccomb street in plattsburgh knew about

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george barber's project the 40-foot fire
tower that sat on its side here in his

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backyard
george who was a land surveyor had

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dreams of reassembling the tower on a
hill just north of plattsburgh where

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visitors would be able to see across
lake champlain to the mountains in

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vermont and north across the border to
see the skyline of montreal

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george barber sadly though passed away
three years ago before that had ever

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happened
so the family was quite pleasantly

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surprised when they were invited to the
village of speculator in the adirondacks

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this past week to see their father's
tower standing tall once again at a new

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home with a new purpose

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the mayor jeannette barrett has spent
the past couple of weeks capturing it

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all on her phone as the historic mccomas
fire tower that had sat in george

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barbour's backyard for more than 40
years was being reassembled piece by

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piece just across route 30 from lake
pleasant in the village of speculator

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when i became mayor one of my goals was
to help improve the economy we are a

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tourist-based economy and we got in
touch with laurie rankin from the new

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york state uh forest fire lookout
association she put me in touch with

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mike valegi and he says i've got a tower
full of adirondack history and the rest

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is history and
there it is the mccomas tower first

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steel tower set in the adirondacks in
1916 and now here

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and so with the help of a hundred
thousand dollar grant through new york's

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department of environmental conservation
10 000 from the adirondack foundation

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and a fun drive to raise another 50 000
the village bought the tower laid the

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foundation and hired the former dec
ranger who remembered seeing the tower

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in george barbour's backyard
mike valegi tracked it down to some

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woods in redford and went to work
reassembling it here near the ball field

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in speculator
and george was so passionate about this

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i became obsessed with this tower what
happened to it and so we

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picked it up and we restored it and uh
lori rankin put us in touch with the

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mayor of speculator and
uh three years later here it is we're

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lucky that this one is local and we're
able to keep it local that was very

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important because of the history of this
tower it could have

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you know it could have wound up in a
private estate somewhere and it's just

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in part of george barber's legacy he
wanted everybody to enjoy this so and

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open to the public so it's kind of
flattering to uh in a way to be able to

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uh you know honor his legacy
i think the the most gratifying thing is

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for me is honoring george barber
that that is

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that's probably the most important thing
to me

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and gratifying to lori rankin who heads
up the forest fire lookout association

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in new york state
so this must do your heart good to see

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you
this fire tower going up this is

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fabulous
not only are we preserving the history

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of the mccomas fire tower but it's going
back into an adirondack community so on

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on all counts i think it's fabulous
you love it because

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people will be able to come see this and
learn about the history of the fire

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absolutely yes and the mission of the
forest fire lookout association is to

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preserve not just the structures
themselves but also to preserve the

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history and this tower has significant
history

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the mccomas fire tower was the first of
ten steel towers that went up in 1916 at

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the underwood club in north hudson the
towers and fire watchers worked to

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protect the adirondacks for more than
half a century until they were

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decommissioned in the 1970s
it was very important to the adirondack

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communities that that they had somebody
up there protecting them and watching

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them by 1970 with a telephone you could
pick up and make a call and say hey i

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have a problem
it wasn't as necessary anymore so they

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were decommissioned
so they were decommissioned but i know

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through the years
many folks have felt that

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they should remain in the adirondacks
that they are landmarks that should stay

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where they were yes so from the period
of the early 70s when decommissioning

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happened until the late 90s there did
begin to be a lot of local small

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grassroots organizations
that said what can we do to save this

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fire tower we see a restoration as not
only saving a historical item but we

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also see it as a great opportunity to
provide education to the hiking public

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people happy to have this yes
they are very happy to have it here how

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has it gone reassembling this it's been
amazing uh it's been just such a fun

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process you know because it's been in
pieces for 44 years were you lucky were

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most all the pieces still together
everything that tower is all original

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you know there's just a couple tiny
pieces that had to be refabricated but

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the rest of it is is is fully

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oh this is original
so wonderful and this past week george

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barbour's family his kids made a trip to
speculator to see their father's tower

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standing tall
well thanks to him and your family for

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preserving it so that we can have it
here it's just so wonderful it is

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exciting
[Music]

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that was something special to him and he
always wanted to put it up and the idea

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of a fire tower in our backyard in
plattsburgh was kind of cool

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but seeing it here it's it's in a proper
setting this is where it belongs so

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we're really excited about that he would
be so pleased

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so pleased with this so many more people
will enjoy it here and that's what dad

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wanted he wanted it to be accessible to
everybody yes and he realized how rare

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fire tarots are and many of them were
just being scrapped and he felt this

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needs to be something that the public
has access to so this couldn't be a

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better spot for it it's just the most
perfect thing that could happen with

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this fire tower
it's

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it's a gift
to be able to see it up here

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it's like george barbour's dream come
true it's our hope that this will be a

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draw year round
for speculator for lake pleasant for

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hamilton county

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there will be a ribbon cutting for the
new historic fire tower next month

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the mccomas tower is in the community
park near the entrance to the sagandaga

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pathways trail the village of speculator
is getting help getting the word out

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about the new fire tower with the help
of the folks at roost in lake placid we

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try to ensure that local communities
have access to

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grant materials funding letters of
support that type of thing to make

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projects like this happen the
adirondacks has a ton of history

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fire towers are just the tip of the
iceberg but the more that we can share

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information about things like that and
about the history and the lore of the

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adirondacks
it just encourages more people to come