EMBARKING ON THE NEXT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT

The Town of Montezuma has entered into a contract with the Office of State, Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for an EPF  planning and development grant. We are happy to announce the acceptance of EDR Companies proposal to assist in the preparation of a master plan for the Montezuma Heritage Park.  Douglas Gerber, RLA, registered Landscape Architect with more than 13 years of professional experience, will be responsible for the project management and design.

We welcome the opportunity for EDR and Doug Gerber to support the Town in discovering the unique potential the park holds for our community. EDR is highly qualified for this type of work having planned and designed dozens of parks and hundreds of miles of multi-use trail environments in their 32-year history. Their multi-disciplinary, research based approach to these types of projects integrates landscape architecture, community planning, site/civil engineering, archeology, environmental and visual assessment. We look forward to involving the community in applying this very holistic approach to our project that will result in cultural, social, economic, ecological and aesthetic impacts.

It's exciting that EDR will be teaming with the Center for Community Design & Research (CCDR), and students from the State University College of Environmental Science & Forestry School of Landscape Architecture. CCDR's mission is to educate students, community leaders and citizens about the value of place and, through the shared practices of planning and design empower them to manage and direct change that will lead to sustainable communities. CCDR will be assisting EDR in continuing in the process of the community visioning started in Montezuma in 2010. This partnership will help continue the positive momentum, community involvement and fresh ideas for our community.

EDR in concert with CCDR will provide consulting services to perform an inventory and analysis, develop project goals, and program options, develop alternative conceptual approaches, prepare a conceptual master plan and prepare a schematic design with a cost estimate for a preferred first phase project area.

Now that's a recipe for success!

CELEBRATING: ART = TRAILS = PARK

Dawn Jordan put the finishing touches on our mural today! What a fantastic job she did, and what a pleasure it was to work with her on this project.  She worked under some pretty difficult weather conditions with the extreme heat we had this summer, but we both were smiling as you put her name and the year on the bottom right corner.

Look for an announcement in the spring for a special dedication and celebration of closing the gap of murals along the Erie Canalway. This completes Phase I of this project....now on to the next. Anyone know where we can find craftsmen boat builders? We're looking for volunteers who will help us build the boat deck that the mural will set on. Below is a model made by Design Committee member, Dan Randolph from plans designed by Town Supervisor John Malenick.

CELEBRATING PROGRESS!!!!

I started this blog over three years ago when the Montezuma Historical Society began making plans for an archaeological dig near the Lock 62 site on Clinton's Ditch. I remember the walk back from the site when Dave Babson, archaeologist and my friend, Margaret Sullivan, suggested a blog could be started to document the dig. "Hum, a blog?" I said. "I guess I better find out what one is." This marks my 100th post, and we now have had over 10,800 views. I've enjoyed keeping readers up-to-date on the progress that has been made over that time. Like any development of this scope, there have been plenty of ups and downs, and what at times seems like slow progress, or even no progress.  Looking back, I can see how far we've come. I've been privileged to work with wonderful dedicated volunteers, and the Highway Department that have made the difference in what you see here, and that's what keeps me motivated and inspired to carry on. There has also been wonderful support from Parks and Trails, New York;  the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor;  Mural Mania; Cayuga Community College; SUNY, ESF; and the County Planning Department. With the financial help of the Montezuma VFW,  Cayuga Community Foundation, A-Verdi Containers, Cayuga County Creating Healthy Places Grant, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and Parks and Trails, New York, we've come a long way.

WOW -- what progress! THANKS EVERYONE!

March 2011

Last weekend was one of our  scheduled Fall trail work days in the park. Heavy winds and rain were predicted. A handful of workers came out to help: Mike Riley, Town Councilman Tom Fitzsimmons, Jim Decker, Stan and myself. With the sky threatening to open up any time, we decided to stay close to our cars in case we needed to take shelter quickly. Mike suggested we work on clearing in the Enlarged Erie Canal site on High Street next to the fire house. So off the guys went with chain saws and weed wackers into the canal bed. We ended up with a huge pile of brush, garbage, and stacked wood. It was amazing what a small group can do in a short time. It started raining late morning, but they made great progress in clearing the area. Denny and Dustin from the Highway Department brought the chipper down and cleared the pile of brush on Monday. We put a "free" sign on the stacked wood, which someone claimed this week.

April 2011

The "before" and "after" photos show how much this site has changed in a year and a half. Gone are the two old trailers, old shed, and piles of junk, since the Town Board voted to buy this historic site. Now we have a nearly completed mural, kiosk, memorial marker for the Byron Lapp Memorial Trail, and a historic roadside marker that honors this very important historic site in our community.

March 2011

Clean Sweep 2011

Our next scheduled Fall Trail Work Date:

Saturday, October 13th, starting at 9 AM 

at this High Street Trailhead near the firehouse.

August 2012

September 2012

September 8, 2012

September 2012

September 2012

Assemblyman Oaks Visits Montezuma

NYS Assemblyman Robert Oaks visited the Montezuma Heritage Park for a walk on the Richmond Aqueduct Trail yesterday. He recently took on Montezuma, Aurelius and Sennett from Cayuga County as part of the state redistricting.

Mike Riley, Canal Historian and Trail Boss for the Heritage Park, explained the importance of the historic sites in Montezuma that tell the dynamic story of the evolution of the New York State Canal System.

Along for the walk were  Park Design Committee members Paul Baker, Dan Randolph, and Stan Longyear, Town Board member, Tom Fitzsimmons, the Assemblyman's  Communications Coordinator, Louise Hoffman Broach, and myself.

3 EX-MARINES AND 2 HIGHWAYMEN HARD AT WORK

Fifty years after the Viet Nam War started, three former Montezuma Ex-Marines who served in the war.  Rich Vanderwalker,  now living in Texas, Dan Randolph and Stan Longyear work together to install the posts for the park's new kiosks. For these guys, service work has gone on to help out their communities. Denny and Dustin, highway department employees, worked with them to install the posts at the two trailhead entrances at High Street and Chapman Road yesterday.

THANKS, GUYS!

The kiosks are being funded by the Cayuga County Creating Healthy Places program.

Tour explores canal's relationship with town

Mike Riley explains how the Richmond Aqueduct carried the Erie Canal waters over the Seneca River at the August 11th Canal Splash Tour in Montezuma

Tour explores canal's relationship with town

Thanks to Mike Riley for leading another successful Canal Splash event and to everyone that came out for the tour!

MURAL MANIA COMES TO MONTEZUMA

Exchange Hotel at the  junction of the Erie and Cayuga-Seneca Canals is subject of a new mural in Montezuma being painted by Muralist Dawn Jordan.

The Town of Montezuma will soon receive the gift of a historic mural that will highlight the Town’s historic canal heritage. The Montezuma Historical Society has initiated the project on behalf of the Town for a new mural, and is being helped with a donation from A-Verdi Storage Containers and a grant from the Cayuga Community Foundation. A-Verdi is an owned & operated business in Montezuma for over 30 years and is the premier provider of Storage & office solutions throughout New York State. The Cayuga Community Foundation is a component fund of the Central New York Community Foundation that assists non-profit organizations with vital programs in education, health, social services, the arts, civic,  environmental concerns, and the preservation of historic resources in Cayuga County.

Mark DeCracker of Lyons, and creator of Mural Mania encouraged Montezuma to join with other communities along the Erie Canal to share the visual story of New York State Erie Canal history.  Today it is hard to visualize what Montezuma looked like during the early Erie Canal era.  MHS is providing the town with the mural to reconnect with its sense of heritage and place, and to share its important story with others. The original Erie Canal that joined with the Cayuga/Seneca Canal in 1828, and flowed through Montezuma have long been filled in. Gone are many the businesses that lined the canal streets. Since almost all of the original buildings with businesses that served the canal and community no longer exist, there wasn’t even a place to paint the mural. When Joe Verdi, owner of A-Verdi Containers learned of the dilemma, he generously donated a 8’ x 20 ‘ container to paint the mural on. 

Dawn painting the mural under her homemade awning.

Dawn Jordan, muralist, is painting the mural in A-Verdi’s parking lot on Route 31. Dawn, a talented artist has painted several local Erie Canal murals including Port Byron, Weedsport, Jordan and Lyons depicting Erie Canal history.  To help fund the project, the historical society has held several fundraisers.  The mural is based on a historic photo of the Erie Canal, the Cayuga/Seneca Canal, the crossover bridge, and the Exchange Hotel that burned in 1918. Comfort Tyler, early settler and visionary, who built of one of the first boats on the Erie Canal named for its namesake, “The Montezuma,” will be painted into the picture.  The mural’s permanent location will be at the site where the Exchange was built in the 1830's located at the trailhead entrance of the Montezuma Heritage Park on High Street.  Future plans include the mural becoming part of a replica boat façade of “The Montezuma.”