By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

As work on the spray park is underway in Lysander Park, the town board accepted two donations to the parks and recreation department at the June 6 town board meeting.

Word of Life Assembly of God, located in the village of Baldwinsville, has donated $500 for a park bench and the Female Charitable Society made a $1,000 donation toward the purchase of two PVC-pipe wheelchairs to be used in the spray park by people with mobility issues so they don’t have to risk water damage to electric wheelchairs and other expensive mobility equipment. The PVC chairs can hold up to 350 pounds.

Word of Life Pastor Randy Czyz said Word of Life Christian Academy’s 160 students frequent Lysander Park and are looking forward to the spray park.

“Right now as school is ending … the teachers bring their students to the park and we’re really excited about that,” Czyz said.

Town Supervisor Joe Saraceni thanked Czyz for the donation and said Czyz and Word of Life have often donated their time and funds to projects in B’ville, such as helping maintain Sergei Yevich Trail in the village.

“We appreciate this. We appreciate this church,” Saraceni said. “Pastor Czyz is always coming up to me and asking, ‘What does the town need?’”

Bonnie Kisselstein, president of the Female Charitable Society and Lysander town historian, presented briefly on the mission of FCS, which has a collection of mobility and medical equipment available for people in the Baldwinsville Central School District to borrow. FCS covered most of the cost of the waterproof PVC wheelchairs for the park out of a bequest from the late Janice Bitz.

“We do it because we love our village,” Kisselstein said.

Kisselstein said FCS, which was founded in 1817, has about 400 members and 4,000 pieces of equipment in its medical “library.” She said FCS is open to all B’ville residents and annual dues are $5. For more information, visit femalecharitablesociety.com or contact 315-638-6277 or [email protected].

Spray park update

At the work session preceding the June 6 meeting, Town Engineer Al Yager offered an update on the spray park’s construction. He said drainage infrastructure and plumbing fixtures for the individual spray features has been installed and sand is in place in preparation for the concrete pad. Yager said rainy weather has delayed the pouring of the concrete pad.

Yager said the town is working to comply with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s request for disinfection of the outfall water.

“I don’t anticipate it causing huge cost overruns. Right now we’re on budget and on schedule,” Yager said, but he added, “Our biggest holdup right now is going to be the delivery of the above-grade spray features. Our ship date right now is the last day of July. They’re working hard to try to move us up.”

Yager suggested the town assemble a team of park staff and volunteers to assemble the features when they do arrive. Despite the delays, Yager said the spray park “has been a fun project so far” and is going better than he expected it would.