An accomplishment that ranks second only to building four swimming pools is the acquisition and development of Sehr Park in Lyncourt. It was a 10-acre parcel adjacent to and owned by Syracuse China. Even at the ripe old age of 28, I had never sat in a boardroom let alone across the table from the president of a successful company. I taught school and coached as usual that day, changed into my only suit and by meeting’s end Salina had another site on which to a build park.
Just prior to the Syracuse China acquisition, there were two major federal sources for which a municipality could apply for funding Bureau of Outdoor Recreation (BOR) and Federal Revenue Sharing. Federal Revenue Sharing was an outright grant, if you will, based upon population. On the other hand, to receive BOR money, a municipality had to come up with a 50 percent match. The fly in the ointment was that a municipality could not use fed money as a match to get fed money.
Then it happened right out of the blue. Rules were relaxed whereby Federal Revenue Sharing could be used as the local match to apply for BOR money. I pounced post-haste!
In less than two years a field of weeds had been transformed into a beautiful park offering something for everybody, built with no local tax dollars! A state-of-the-art swimming pool, sports fields, tennis courts and much more provided an excellent venue for area residents to enjoy leisure time activities.
One item left unattended was an old stone farmhouse once owned by the Alvord family that stood in the middle of the property. Application was made to restore it and once done it had a kitchen, bathrooms and several rooms used for staff and senior citizen meetings. I donated a couch and chairs and when the call went out to the community for more of the same, their generosity was overwhelming. Just as I was in awe at the initial meeting with the president of Syracuse China I was, as well, when he invited me back to the factory to sit with his design department to choose a pattern and color combination for a donation of a 16-piece place setting for the Alvord House. It is also noteworthy of the tireless efforts of Fred Sehr, who was able to get the Alvord House on the National Registry of Historic Places; most importantly the house could never be altered structurally.
There was one final issue: to wit, an overgrown ditch dotted with 100-year-old willow trees leading from the house to the fence near the railroad tracks. A NYS trooper once told me even with his service revolver he would not walk that ditch alone after dark. Since all funding was expended, imagination was the last and only alternative. The highway department came to the rescue once again. With a surplus of drainage pipe, crushed stone and topsoil, corrective action was swift and professionally accomplished. An eyesore and dangerous ditch that once separated the softball field from the soccer field became a green area.
Acquisition from one park to eight parks was as varied as snowflakes, and so it was with the 17-acres across from General Electric on Electronics Parkway. GE deeded the property to Onondaga County and it became surplus when they chose Hopkins Field for their softball complex on or about 1970. The land was as barren as a hayfield in Iowa, but possibilities were endless in terms of location, size and terrain.
Before all was said and done, the park featured everything from a swimming pool to four girls’ softball fields. Softball, soccer and tennis tourneys brought in teams from Albany to Buffalo and Binghamton to Watertown.
The soccer field was dedicated to Mario Linares, a town resident who was named the MVP in Italy at the world cup games in 1917. Mario was also president of the massive and well-established Syracuse-Onondaga Soccer League. I was honored to be his vice president and doubly so when he named me president upon his retirement.
Primrose Park was a small piece of land in the second ward landlocked by virtue of being surrounded by houses; therefore, playground equipment was consistent with the neighborhood concept. An ice rink was attempted, but unsuccessful in spite of an extraordinary effort by the Liverpool firemen. The fickle CNY weather and a brigade of vandals armed with cinderblocks precluded any meaningful skating.
Next week: acquisition and development of the other four parks.
