Two-tiered waterfall in town of Cazenovia to be open to public

By Jason Emerson

Editor

A 60-acre property containing a two-tiered waterfall and vast natural beauty that lies within the town of Cazenovia will become Madison County’s newest park, thanks to the hard work of county officials and the generosity of a local philanthropist.

The Madison County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 2 voted to accept ownership of the property off Cardner Road from Harold Jones, a retired Syracuse University professor who lives in Manlius, who is purchasing the property from the current owner, Doreen Allen.

Jones will buy the property for approximately $900,000. Madison County will pay him $150,000, but the rest of the purchase Jones is funding himself.

“When the house went on the market publicly for sale we at the county never felt we’d have the financial means to make the purchase,” said Scott Ingmire, director of county planning department. “For a time, we thought there was slim to no way we could make this happen. … We tried coming up with grant applications, land trusts, but certainly didn’t feel the county would be willing to pay that asking price [$925,000], so it as almost a dead issue. The, seemingly out of nowhere, comes Harold with this amazing offer.”

Jones said after his retirement from SU he wanted to give back to the community. Last year, he donated a 130-piece Audubon gallery collection to the Manlius Library, and also purchased 120 acres of land at Three Falls Woods in Manlius and donated it to the CNY Land Trust to be made into a public use area (click here for the story).

“This property is worth a lot more than the county is able to pay, but by the wonderful donation of Mr. Jones we were able to purchase it,” said Brookfield Supervisor John Salka, who is chair of the county board’s Planning, Economic Development, Environmental and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

“I think it’s a great asset for Madison County,” said Cazenovia Supervisor Bill Zupan. “The purchase is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When you see the property you just say, ‘Wow;’ It’s unbelievable with the falls.”

The road to get from the property going up for sale to ultimate ownership by Madison County was anything but straight or simple, Ingmire said.

The land, owned by the Allen family since the 1960s, contains 60 acres, the waterfall, a house and a barn. The falls, two-tiered with a higher and a lower falls, is accessible on foot right up to the base of the lower falls.

About one year ago, Doreen Allen decided to sell and, feeling she and her family had a great life there, thought it could become a “place for the public to enjoy,” Ingmire said. So Allen contacted the New York State department of parks to see if they would be interested in acquiring it, but they said it was too small and not something under the state park purview. “And that’s when things started at the county,” he said.

County officials and members of the board of supervisors then spent about six months working on this.

“We had lot of discussions, 19 supervisors to get on board, but by the vote at the end of December there was a lot of excitement about it,” Ingmire said.

Salka said he has never worked so hard to get a project approved. “We had to present our case to board, we had a lot of debate, and when most of the board members checked it out in person they were sold on its potential for a park,” Salka said. “We have plans to make it one of the best tourist attractions in Madison County, if not Upstate New York.”

“It easily rivals Chittenango Falls,” Salka added. “We expect tens of thousands of people to enjoy this.”

Zupan agreed, and said that for Cazenovia the new park will bring in tourism, help promote local businesses and just put Cazenovia even more on the map as a place to visit. “I just think it’s a win-win all the way around,” he said.

But while the deal has been agreed to, it will still be months before the paperwork is done, and probably years before the park itself is completed, Zupan and Ingmire said.

“Certainly, the county has a lot of work to do to get the property up to the status of a park,” Ingmire said. “We’ll be patient with the project … we’re going to take it slow.”