Adirondack Council Names Thompson Legislator Of The Year

Albany, NY-  On May 4, 2009, NYS Senator, Antoine M. Thompson (D-Parts of Erie & Niagara Counties) and Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, was chosen as Legislator of the Year from the Adirondack Council along with Robert Sweeney, Chair of the Assembly EnCon Committee.  Both Legislators stood their ground when a cost-cutting measure was proposed in the budget that would have drastically hindered the state of the Adirondacks and the Catskills along with many environmental initiatives.  The result of their hard work was an Environmental Protection Fund with rock-solid funding behind it.

"As Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, the EPF is a line to community, water, land, and air preservation and environmental restoration. Protecting it is a responsibility that I take very seriously," said Senator Thompson.  "I am honored to have been chosen as Legislator of the Year for the Senate."

The Adirondack Council was founded in 1975 by a coalition of national, regional and local environmental organizations.  The Council is a privately funded  not-for-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting the environment and ensuring the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park.  The Council has members in all fifty states and across four continents.  It carries out its mission through research, education, advocacy and legal action.  As part of the Council’s mission to encourage public officials to protect the Adirondack Park, awards are presented annually to a select group of individuals and/or organizations who made major contributions to the health and beauty of the park.

“For public officials, protecting the environment is usually a matter of making sure there are adequate funds to protect our water, our air and our open spaces,” said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal.  “That is precisely what these two lawmakers have done for us this year.  We owe them both our deepest gratitude.”