St Lawrence County (New York, Syracuse, Watertown: home, employment, school district)

[bpoerio]

We are relocating to St Lawrence County from Long Island. Which school are the best in this county. I can not find a site that shares their regents and state test scores. Which town has the closest proximity to great hospitals and stores etc. The area is very rural. I havent found a area that has many advantages over another.
If you the area in this county, can you suggest your top town or two and why. We would appreciate all comments and advice.
Thank you.

[nomoresnow]

Oh, gosh. That's a hard one. I'm a native of St. Lawrence County; lived there for 45 years.

You hit the nail right on the head - it is VERY rural.

IMO, the places with the most to offer would be the two college communities - Canton (St. Lawrence University and Canton SUNY) and Potsdam (Potsdam State and Clarkson). Lots of programs, classes, etc. going on over there. Consequently, you'll find more boutique type shops and restaurants that cater to the college crowd.

Ogdensburg is my home town and, to be honest, it's gone downhill very badly over the last 20-25 years. It, along with Massena, is a mainly blue collar town - light to heavy industry, correctional facilities, etc. A number of industries have closed, which is sad, so the employment outlook hasn't been good. I don't know what they're trying to do to improve that, since I've been away 12 years now. I do go back to visit family on an annual basis, but it's not long enough to see what's happening there. There's a fairly nice but very small mall in Massena which has Penneys, Sears for anchor stores. I hear it's lost a lot of stores, tho. Oh, and there's a BJ's right next to the mall.

As far as schools, I'm hearing that the Ogd. school district is on the decline and, like most of the country, has its drug issues. Heuvelton area, again from what I hear, is a better bet - smaller, better teacher/student ratio, fewer problems. It also has an Amish community that is fairly active selling hand made products (furniture, quilts, baked goods) and produce. It's a daily occurrence to see a buggy plodding alongside the road.

As far as "great" hospitals, I hesitate to recommend one over another, altho Hepburn/Claxton in Ogdensburg has really come up in the last 15 years or so. They now have a dialysis center and a cancer treatment center on their campus. For really major things, tho, a lot of folks travel to Syracuse, which is about 2-1/2 hours from Ogd.

Gosh, I wish I could help more. Park Newspapers (now owned by Johnson Communications - Watertown Daily Times) may be of interest to you. There's the Ogdensburg Journal, Canton Plaindealer, Potsdam/Massena Courier-Observer. The regional Sunday paper, the Advance News, may be most helpful as that one pretty much summarizes what goes on in the County throughout the week.

Ogdensburg and Massena are also right on the St. Lawrence River, which is a gorgeous area. Check out the Thousand Islands area. Quite beautiful. Potsdam is a bit closer to the Adirondack area, which is also gorgeous.

The real great thing about SLC is that you're never very far from anything. Ottawa, Canada's capitol, is about 1 hour north of Ogdensburg; Montreal and Syracuse are about 2.5 hours away. So if you crave some city life, it's not that far. Oh, and Watertown has some better shopping, and that's a little over an hour away.

Best of luck to you.

[ckhthankgod]

Personally, look into Potsdam, Canton and maybe Gouverneur. Here's websites with school information: New York schools - NY elementary, middle and high school information

https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb/County.do?year=2010&county=Saint%20Lawrence (broken link)

I believe that Heuvelton and Norwood-Norfolk are good small districts.

[nomoresnow]

Good info. I'd totally forgotten about Gouverneur being in St. Lawrence County and N-N was never a biggy when I was in school, I didn't mention it. Things do change, don't they?