TOWN OF DEWITT – At its Nov. 2 meeting, the DeWitt Advisory Conservation Commission (DACC) discussed goals to stick to and accomplish going forward into 2023.
With DeWitt Town Councilor Joe Chiarenza and Deputy Supervisor Kerry Mannion in attendance, the environmental group brought up the idea of having the town designate Joe Leonard Park as an official park.
David Mitchell, who chairs the DACC subcommittee for trees, said the piece of town-owned land near Drumlins Country Club has already functioned for several years as a gathering spot where neighborhood kids run around and other people walk their dogs. Though the highway department has been in charge of mowing the property, Mitchell said the act of putting the corner lot into the parks system would attach a heightened amount of attention to its caretaking.
Located by the intersection of Waldorf Parkway and East Colvin Street, the unofficial park contains a maze-like rock garden as well as native perennials and trees planted by the tree committee. Mitchell said it used to be a housing lot, but with it being at the bottom of a hill, it was discovered that the hydrology would not work in the favor of a homeowner because of how easily it floods.
The land was posthumously named after one of the original members of the tree committee, Joe Leonard, who passed away in 2015. Leonard’s family also donated money to place a bench on the land after his death.
Another tree committee member, Ann Stevens, said during last week’s meeting that Leonard would routinely advocate for the lot to be recognized as an official park back when it was known as a litter-strewn site.
“Now it’s a nice place for the neighbors to go instead of a junky place,” Stevens said.
According to Mitchell, a petition with over 40 signatures from neighbors has been circulated seeking to make the park official.
Leonard was also a board member for the Central New York chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, a road manager for the local band Jam Factory, and a teacher of mathematics at the high school and college levels. He and DACC Chair Dennis Payne taught together at Bishop Ludden Junior-Senior High School in the 1980s.
The members of DACC said they additionally hope to get involved with the rollout of District East, the proposed five-district redevelopment project for the ShoppingTown Mall property.
Payne said his group can lend their knowledge of sustainability practices for the developers’ plans to incorporate open green space into the project. Mannion said it would be helpful for the developers to be informed on what trees will stay alive the longest, but he said the OHB Redev team at the helm is not yet at the point of making such decisions.
“They’re a long ways from figuring out exactly how it’s gonna be situated,” Mannion said.
DACC typically meets the first Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. in Meeting Room B of the DeWitt Town Hall on Butternut Drive.