A hard people to count

Moriah Town Board Member Matt Brassard spent much of the late spring and early summer knocking on doors in the blue-collar communities of Mineville and Witherbee in the eastern Adirondacks, trying his best to save residents millions of dollars.

It was a surprisingly hard sell, and his struggles foreshadow a challenge next year when Adirondack communities will need an accurate head count to get their share of government help and representation for the coming decade.

The federal government had offered Moriah some $8 million in the form of federal grants and no-interest loans for an upgraded public sewer system that is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The town must do the work whether it receives financial assistance or not, and if it doesn’t, the residents will be forced to pick up the tab themselves. If that happens, their bills could double or triple, Brassard said.

The money is dangling out there for the taking—the only