There is a group planning fundraising for park improvements. They want to draw up some final plans and that will cost $10K. They asked that the Park Corporation pay half. They also wanted approval of a five-person committee that could make decision. Both of these proposals were met with hostility by the Park Board. The feeling was that adequate plans could be obtained locally for much less and that the special committee was meant to bypass the Park Board.
A lot of the tension between the fundraising people and the Park Board people is over the issue of whether it is better to do a limited number of things but do them really well or to spread funds around to do more things, but settle for good-enough. The focus of the people spearheading the fundraising seems to be to do ball fields that will be the envy of other communities. The criticism of that is other projects will be unfunded.
It seems that the current plan still calls for the demolition of the JC Cruisers shelter to make room for ball field parking. All members of the Park Board think this is totally unacceptable and were concerned that it had not yet been removed from the plan. (The ball fields are planned for the area west of the tennis courts, land that currently has not special use.)
With the death of Tom Effinger, there is an opening on the board of the Park Corporation. I think the current members will fill it with someone they know, but if you are interested, now is the time to lobby them.
A fallen tree damaged the fence around the tennis court at Brookside and the Board approved spending to repair the fence.
On Friday the Tourism Commission met. It approved some funds to put a marker on the grave of Eleanor Atkinson and discussed a proposal from the Little Cousin Jasper Festival to fund the 9/11 Never Forget exhibit for 2018. A decision was postponed to the next meeting. They then had a long discussion on their budget, I think to prepare for the budget hearings of the County Council.
There was an auction for the remaining Strack and Van Til stores on the 6th but a Strack employee said that the results will not be revealed until the 10th.
The White House on Park Avenue will soon have a new coat of paint. It remains for sale.
The house was owned by the late Floyd and Gwendolyn Meyers. Floyd was a Rensselaer businessman. I remember it having a beautiful Victorian era interior when I visited Floyd and Gwendolyn in the late 1960s.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the Eleanor Atkinson Project. She deserves a fine memorial as a famous Rensselaerean.
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