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.