Harvesting Wonderful Partnerships!

At this time of year there's so much to be grateful for in our homes and communities. I would like to thank the many individuals and agencies that helped support the Montezuma Heritage Park project.  First of all I'd like to extend a very warm thanks to the Park Design Committee. This group has remained committed spending hours of their time in multiple ways. Also, thank you to the many residents and businesses that have supported our fundraising efforts. Then, there are so many wonderful agencies that helped support the park project  including Cornell Cooperative Extension, Cayuga Community College, Cayuga County Planning, SUNY-ESF  Center of Community Design Research,  NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work & Play Grant (funded by the NYSDOH), Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, The Pomeroy Foundation, Cayuga Community Foundation, Mural Mania and Forever Wild for Everyone Programs.
Now we can add to our list the assistance awarded from Parks and Trails, New York and again this year, the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) Program for their support.  PTNY Healthy Trails, Healthy People program will be helping us to enrich the quality of life by connecting to multi-use trails in a natural, cultural and historical park setting.  RTCA shares the benefits of the National Park System to help us further identify and accomplish our goals.

Through collaboratively working with these agencies, we will look forward to the coming year strengthening our vision, building constituencies and local support critical to long term success for the park. Easily accessible, close to home, multi-use trails will enhance opportunities for recreation, health and fitness, education and economic improvement, while focusing on areas of natural beauty and historic significance.

We hope you can join us this weekend for the Zumba-thon to benefit the Mural fund for the park. Many thanks to Kristen Decker and teachers from  Stepping Stone Fitness Center and Roy Wilson and his DJ Service for hosting this event.  Area businesses have been generous, and we have some great raffle donations waiting to be claimed if you're the lucky one! Come Zumba, or just watch and enjoy the music! We appreciate your support! It's being held Sunday, November 27, 2011, at the Town Hall, 8102 Dock Street off Route 90 in Montezuma from 1 PM - 4 PM. 

With partners like this, I'm confident the end result will be a park that enriches our lives with recreation, health, fitness, education and economic improvement!

HPDC Meeting

The Heritage Park Design Committee is scheduled for tomorrow night (Thursday, November 17th) at 7 PM at the Town Hall. The meeting is open to anyone who would like to attend. It was scheduled early this month because of the holiday next week.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Which Way to the Park?

Much of the focus for  Montezuma Heritage Park Design Committee this past year has been planning for signage so that people can find the park. So many people have said to me, "I've heard of that Richmond Aqueduct, but where is it?" or "Montezuma? Is that where that Wildlife Refuge is?" This year we've made great progress to be able to help people find the park, trails and historic sites within it. Most of the trails are roughly formed, in good shape, and can be used now, but finding them can be challenging.

Which way to Montezuma Heritage Park?

That's all about to change with the help of the Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work, and Play grant program. This organization's objectives  include establishing walking and recreation trails that focus on walking and biking funded by the state health department. Their mission seeks to bring government, the business community and the nonprofit world together to improve transportation, recreation and nutrition options in Cayuga County. The program encourages healthier choices to improve our lifestyles and creates a new context for physical activity by aiming to re-position it in our parks in terms of well-being, fun, stress reduction, and connections to other people and the natural world.

Through a generous grant received from the program, this winter volunteers will be busy building two new kiosks for the park entrances, benches, and designing signage for the park and along the trails.  With the help of Cayuga Community College and Professor Walter Aikman's Geography class and County Planning, we will have well designed maps to put on our new signage to locate the sites and trails of interest within the park.

My thanks to Sabrina Hesford, of the Creating Healthy Places program for helping us obtain this funding that will  improve our site -- one people will be able to find, and enjoy the many benefits it has to offer. 

Fall at the Richmond Aqueduct

A beautiful Fall photo of the Richmond Aqueduct taken by Jean Mackay, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, on her visit to Montezuma last week.

SUPPORT HISTORIC PRESERVATION

I enjoyed reading Mike Riley's Citizen column today urging support of local historic societies. Many groups are struggling to survive because the public just does not understand their importance. Like Mike says, we are far from a group that just sits around and talks about the "good ole days."  I have to say that some of the most rewarding experiences I have had in life have come from working with people that care about their communities. They understand the importance of our history, and spend long dedicated hours volunteering their time to make sure it is preserved.  Often history is seen as having little relevance to what is happening in today's society. But history is made up of people and their experiences that shapes the future. So, it behooves us to learn from it to make informed choices for future generations. 

The Montezuma Historical Society was formed in 2006,  and has accomplished a lot of in our first five years to make sure our town's history is preserved for future generations.  Contrary to what may be assumed, the Society does not receive any state, local government taxpayer support or outside help. We are self-sustaining through membership, donations, and fundraising activities.  That means baking and selling a lot of pies & cookies, selling raffle tickets, continually seeking new members, and asking for renewals in order to continue our work. This is all in addition to the programs we plan and hold throughout the year!

Please support two upcoming fundraisers for our operating expenses and closing the gap for funding a historic mural in Montezuma:

ANNUAL HARVEST BAKE SALE 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH -- 8 AM - ?

AT THE TOWN HALL -- DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

Join the Party -- Help Close the Gap & Ditch the Workout!

ZUMBATHON

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27TH -- 1 - 4 PM

AT THE TOWN HALL

COURTESY OF 

STEPPING STONE FITNESS LOFT, WEEDSPORT

AND THE SENSATIONAL SOUND ENTERTAINMENT OF

WILSON & COMPANY DJ SERVICE, MONTEZUMA

DONATION-$10/PERSON -- REFRESHMENTS -- RAFFLES

Join the millions of people that have decided having fun and working out are

not mutually exclusive.  No experience, age limit or fitness level

needed....just a desire to have fun, get some exercise 

and help us bring a mural to Montezuma!

VOLUNTEER TRAIL WORK COMPLETED

Today's warm sunshine was quite a contrast to last weekend when twenty-four Cayuga Community College students, professors and Montezuma volunteers walked on several trails in the rain to GPS trail locations and sites in the park.  It didn't dampen any one's enthusiasm, and we appreciate everyone hanging in there to get the job done! We divided students and volunteers into three groups. I went with the group on the Reservoir and Paper Mill Trail. We started at Chapman Road and walked south entering the trail in the woods that borders National Wildlife Refuge property. Climbing to the top of the drumlin students equipped with high powered GPS units to record the coordinates through the dense woods marked the site of the reservoir that fed water to what was once a papermill plant. 

We came back down the hill and proceeded down the berm side of the Enlarged Erie to to the ruins of the  Montezuma Fibre Company (1906-1916).The  20,000 acres of Montezuma Swamp produced a natural resource that was harvested to make a heavy-weight paper. Flag, better known as cattails was a raw material harvested and being shipped on the Canal to distance cities for making chair seats and caulking barrels.  The "Montezuma Wheat" as it was called provided raw pulp to make the paper. The price of an acre of swamp land went from seven to sixty dollars. The business failed in 1916 and what remains today are the concrete basement walls and floors.

After leaving the papermill site we returned to the berm side of the canal and walked west toward the Seneca River. Here we came out on the South side of the Richmond Aqueduct, which is a view visitors don't usually get to see. Climbing the banks near the aqueduct, students got a a view of this magnificent structure from the top of it. From here we walked back to the parking lot to join the others waiting to board the bus back to Auburn.

Today a group of eleven local volunteers  came out to work on the trails. Armed with chain saws and loppers we headed into the park again to do some clearing of trees and shrubs that were obstructing views and walking trails. Again, we divided up into three groups to accomplish the goals we decided to first work on. John Malenick, Dan Randolph and John Potter tackled the twisted brush and trees that was hiding the full view of the crossover abutment at the High Street Byron Lapp Memorial Trailhead.

Tom Fitzsimmons and Stan Longyear headed down to the aqueduct to where a tree had fallen against the wall of the aqueduct obstructing the view from the Seneca River bank. From there they went on a trail entering near Lock 62 and cut up several large branches blocking the trail.

Mike and Mary Riley, Paul and Bunny Baker, Mellony Carner and myself headed back to the Reservoir trail were we spotted a few tree and branches needing removal. Paul and Mike tackled the bigger jobs, while us girls cut smaller brush along the way. Having finished what we set out to do, we headed to the Town Hall where we had homemade chili and johnny cake made by Bunny Baker. 

THANKS EVERYONE!    AND OF COURSE WE CAN'T FORGET THE CLERK OF THE WORKS!    LIZZIE





VOLUNTEER TRAIL WORK DAYS SCHEDULED

The Heritage Park Design Committee (HPDC) has scheduled two upcoming fall trail workdays. On Saturday, October 1, we are very pleased to partner with Cayuga Community College and Professors Walter Aikman and Ronald Grube to work with US Geography students and volunteers to do field work gathering data for beginning a mapping project for the park. 

This data will then be used to begin creating maps for kiosk signs, brochures, and the website. We also would like to create a map showing the relationship of the park to the great marsh area to give people an understanding where Montezuma is in relation to the Montezuma Wildlife marshes. A visioning map could also be created that would include insets building layers featuring trails, soils, historic sites, viewsheds, topography, flood plains, and natural areas. We plan to pair up in three teams with students and volunteers familiar with the trail areas to gather the data.  

On Saturday October 8th we have another day scheduled to begin work on trails. Volunteers are needed to help out. This would be a great opportunity for students or youth groups to complete their community service credit  and a chance to learn about local canal history. We will meet at 9:30 AM at the trailhead near the firehouse off Route 90 in Montezuma, and divide up into groups to begin work. Email me at cml115@tds.net if you would like to help us out. 

Volunteers are the life blood for a project like this. But it's not only about giving...it's about the  rewards of making a difference in our community, enjoying the experience of the great outdoors and our wonderful local natural and historic resources we can easily take for granted.