Village park installation moving forward behind the library
BY Jason Emerson
Editor
On Wednesday, Aug. 9, the municipal lot between the Cazenovia Public Library parking lot and Chittenango Creek was paved by village work crews. While the final lot lines will not be painted until next spring — to avoid being scraped off by winter plowing — signs are up designating paid overnight parking and public parking, and there is now a clear delineation between the new municipal parking lot, the incoming Creekside Park and the land owned by Boy Scout Troop 18.
“Once we get it all lined and organized, that’s going to be nice,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “I think it will enhance people’s desire to use it.”
The redevelopment plans for the land on Riverside Drive have been in the works since 2015, and include new municipal parking in the lot — both free daytime and paid overnight parking — and a village park and playground on the land along Chittenango Creek. Grading and drainage improvements have been made to the site during the past year, and the final design for the park is complete.
The work was anticipated to be completed earlier this year, but the grading and drainage issues made it more complicated than initially expected, Wheeler said.
While the parking lot aspect of the plan has been paved, the park land still needs to be landscaped and is currently covered in layer of stone to help drainage, Wheeler said. There will also be a wooden fence erected between the newly paved parking lot and the park area. It is hoped the first elements of the park and playground will be installed soon, if the weather cooperates, Wheeler said.
“We hope to make substantial progress this fall,” he said.
