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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: Angola Road Park Plans Face Hurdle
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| The view from the picnic pavilion at Angola Road Park. |
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| The park shares an entry way with the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum. |
May 05, 2009
Plans for the town’s Angola Road Park hit a snag recently when town board members balked at the conditions imposed on the park’s development by the Scenic Hudson environmental organization.
The dissention arose at a special meeting on April 29 when councilwoman Greene-Krafft asked the board to approve getting bids a project to build a pergola on one of the trails to specifications from Scenic Hudson. The environmental organization has required the town to use locally harvested lumber for any structures built on the land, raising up the cost.
Councilwoman Mary Beth Greene-Krafft, who serves as the liaison with the town’s recreation department, has been working with the Cornwall Conservation Advisory Committee and Scenic Hudson to develop a series of trails in the 40-acre parcel that abuts the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum. The town and Scenic Hudson split the $300,000 cost of buying the land from the Cornwall Central School District several years ago and, as part of the deal, the town agreed to an easement with Scenic Hudson, which works to preserve open space throughout the region. The town, with 50-50 grant money from Orange County, has already built a picnic pavilion on the site, using local lumber.
Town board members Randy Clark was critical of several of the plans, saying a passive recreational park for hikers falls short of meeting the recreational needs of the Cornwall community. He favors including a dog run in the park and wants to know why the nature museum has yet to build the soccer fields it agreed to years ago.
Councilman Al Mazzocca said the restrictions imposed by Scenic Hudson created too many problems. “We should sell the ** thing back for half what we paid for it and we wouldn’t have all these problems,” Mazzocca told his fellow councilmen. Councilman Clark jumped in to agreed with him, suggesting the town could just give the park back.
Supervisor Kevin Quigley pointed out that the park projects seems like a waste of money when the town is faced with other spending demands, like those for new equipment in the highway department.
Greene-Krafft, however, says she is still a proponent of the park, which, as planned, will provide trails and an area for volleyball or croquet, as well as the picnic area with panoramic views of the mountains in Black Rock Forest.
Before any action is taken, the board agreed to set up a meeting with Scenic Hudson, the museum, and Cornwall United Soccer to see if they could agree on the best way to satisfy everyone’s concerns.
Comments:
An anonymous comment was removed from this space. Editor
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Umm - yeah, what "blank" above said. My kids were all active in soccer here in Cornwall. There are a LOT of fields in town (All the schools: Lee Rd, COH, Willow, Middle School, HS, NYMA, Storm King; then there are the fields off of Laurel. There are probably others I am missing. I know with so many teams and sports there seems like there is never enough space, but it CAN be done with what we have. Do we REALLY need more?
Why can't we just leave some open space for EVERYONE to enjoy and not just sports teams?
I don't understand why we would need to sell the land back to Scenic Hudson and why having picnicing and hiking in this area DOESN'T meed the town's recreational needs?
posted by Chuck Trella on 05/05/09 at 4:06 PM |
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keep the land, dont build a thing and let people do as they wish there, dogs, running, hiking. Freedom, what a concept. as for the scenic nazis tell em to build with native BS.
posted by Walter Dorritie on 05/05/09 at 4:10 PM |
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would someone please 'splain to me please, why does it cost more to use local materials? As for the soccer fields, please could we have a labyrinth instead? or a meditation garden? (where's that 30 ft. Buddha when you need one?) or a plain old picnic table? or a horseshoe pit? (BYO) What is this compulsion to fill space with stuff?
posted by Kate Benson on 05/05/09 at 11:29 PM |
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