New Woodstock Heritage Park remodeling taking shape
By Jason Emerson
editor
Two ongoing town projects have made important headway in recent days, with decisions having been made on the future of the Gothic Cottage and the remodeling of Heritage Park in New Woodstock.
The Cazenovia Town Hall Task Force met last week and decided to suspend its work on whether to remodel the historic Gothic Cottage to make it suitable as a modern town office building or seek a new town hall location until a decision on potential town/village consolidation has been made.
Task Force Chair and Town Councilor Jimmy Golub said the potential consolidation puts a decision about the Gothic Cottage’s future “up in the air” and really leaves the task force “nothing to discuss” at meetings until that bigger issue is decided.
“We’re going to disband for now until there is something to meet about,” Golub said.
Town Supervisor Bill Zupan, who was at the task force meeting last week, said he feels it is smart to wait for a consolidation decision. “If we do decide to consolidate, we’ll need a lot more space than the Gothic Cottage can provide,” he said.
Zupan said it will probably be “a couple of years” before any decisions on the future of the Gothic Cottage as the town office is decided since the consolidation discussion process will probably take more than a year.
The Gothic Cottage shortly will undergo some exterior renovation work, which was approved by the town board earlier this year, for the structural maintenance of the building.
Progress is also being made on the town’s work to upgrade Heritage Park in New Woodstock, which is located adjacent to the recently completed state police substation.
In March, the town board presented the plans for remodeling the park, including a paved pathway, open seating, a gazebo/bandstand, possibly a level spot for a skating rink and a new location for a new Christmas tree. The plan is part of the overall renovation of the Heritage Park area and the construction of the new police barracks.
According to Cazenovia Town Highway Superintendent Tim Hunt, who supervised the work, the park land has been re-graded and hydroseeded, and the old New Woodstock Christmas tree has been removed. A 14-foot Norway spruce tree has been donated by Matt and Juanita Critz, owners of Critz Farms, to replace the old tree, and Joe Weinheimer, of Windsong Farm Landscape Services, has donated his time to plant the new tree.
“It’s a nice size. It’s not as big as the old one [but] we have to think of the future. We can’t put a huge tree in at the get-go,” said Golub, who is the town board liaison to the Heritage Park citizens committee.
Golub said the committee, which met last week, also decided that the gazebo to be erected in Heritage Park would measure 24-by-24 feet and be made mainly of cedar wood. Members of the New Woodstock community have volunteered to build and erect the gazebo themselves, with the town of Cazenovia paying for the lumber, Golub said.
Overall, the park project will not cost the town of Cazenovia much money, since town employees have done much of the work, and other aspects, such as the Christmas tree, have been donated services, Zupan said. The funding that is used for the park comes out of a budget line that contains money that must be used only for town park improvement projects, he said.
“I think it is money well spent to help the hamlet and make it look better,” Zupan said. “It will be a big improvement for the hamlet.”