By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

The Lysander Town Board unanimously voted at its March 15 meeting to apply for $50,000 in grant money for the proposed spray park.

The town’s Community Development Block Grant application estimates the total cost of the spray park at $481,500. As for existing funds for the project, the application lists a Dormitory Authority of the State of New York State and Municipal Facilities Program (DASNY SAM) grant of $100,000 and a bond amount of $331,500.

During the public hearing preceding the vote, residents Fred Burtch and Jim Stirushnik voiced their opposition to the CDBG application.

“As a taxpayer, I would not ask for these things. We are relatively well-heeled for a town compared to the city, compared to some of the rural communities,” Stirushnik said.

CDBG funds are directed toward projects that benefit people with low to moderate incomes.

“I think there are places where it could be much better spent than in this town,” Stirushnik said. “These are nice projects, but I think we ought to be able to fund them ourselves and have the pride to do it ourselves rather than always asking somebody else to do it.”

Stirushnik suggested the town pool funding with neighboring municipalities and ask Onondaga County to build a spray park centrally located near Onondaga Lake.

“Approach the county and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got $500,000 or $750,000. We’ll donate that to the county if the county will build the park, say in Long Branch Park,” he said. “Let the county come up with a chunk of money also.”

Burtch suggested that the town look to its relatively new incentive zoning program to fund the spray park project. In exchange for being allowed to build more densely, developers can pay toward utility improvements or provide the town with a cash amount.

“Maybe we ought to think about using the incentive zoning [money] to build the spray park, if we’re going to have four, five, six, 700 new houses come here, and 2.4 cars per house,” Burtch said. “It seems to me like we could get some money from some of that so it wouldn’t be a tax increase.”

Also on the spray park front, Recreation Supervisor Tony Burkinshaw said the spray park committee recently met with the Elden Elementary PTA and other local organizations.

“It brings fresh air, knowing that we are doing it for the right reasons and that we have family support, community support, behind the project,” he said.

Burkinshaw said the committee is looking to fundraise to offset the project’s costs.

“We’re putting the ball in motion,” he said. “Once this goes to vote … and hopefully it does get passed, we can start with the ground running to help bring that cost down.”

Burkinshaw also warned residents about getting information from Facebook pages that do not represent the parks department or the spray park committee.

He said the official Facebook page managed by the committee is facebook.com/LysanderParkSprayPark.