By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- There was a lot of talk at Wednesday’s Town Council meeting about ways to market Massena to sportspeople, which included the board passing a resolution to seek a grant to establish a fishing school.

The board also talked about developments at a hunting dog training course and easier ways for anglers to clear customs when coming from Canada.

The board passed a resolution to submit a state consolidated funding application for the fishing school, which could land them cash through the North Country Regional Economic Development Council.

Councilor Tom Miller, who as an elected official has made local fishing and outdoor sports marketing a priority, said how the fishing school would shape up depends on them getting funding.

"There’s multiple ways that could work. We could possibly partner with the Nicandri Center or if we were fortunate enough to get funding ... set up our own building-type area,” Miller said.

Don Meissner, with whom the town contracts to market the town as a fishing destination, said the fishing school has been in the works for some time.

"It’s something we've been working on for some time. This is not a new idea,” Meissner said, adding that in the past he worked with Cornell Cooperative Extension on a similar program for kids. "It was so successful it became almost a driving desire with me to expand that, and bring this type of thing to more and more of the kids.

"There are still the remnants of that program this weekend in Canton, a bunch of kids from some of the schools are coming to fish … It shows the effect one day, the impact on them from morning to evening is amazing."

In addition to fishing promotion, Miller reported to the board that a technical dog-training course on state Route 131 near the Intake is coming along. He said volunteers traveled from the south to help dig training ponds, and Pat Curran, who owns Curran Renewable energy, lent a piece of heavy equipment for no charge.

The ponds are being dug “extra deep” to potentially be used if the town is able to establish the fishing school.

Miller said the dog course could attract major nationwide dog events, along with trainers from the south in the summer months.

"If we can grab one or two field trials, we can bring a lot of people in,” Miller said. "There's a lot of field trials out there.”

He said there are sportspeople here who could also benefit from using the course to train their dogs.

"People from the North Country go ... south to train their dogs in the wintertime, and in the summer people from the south go north," according to Miller.

In addition that, Town Supervisor Steve O’Shaughnessy said the New York Power Authority and Customs and Border Protection are installing a videophone at Barnhart Marina.

“It’s so Canadian fishermen can come into the United States and clear customs there. It would also help with the regular tourism trade where people can go by boat into Canada and clear coming back," he said. "We have always suffered from the fact that we have 180-degree tourism reach in the United States and being on the border ... we have to encourage the Canadians to come over and fish as well."